Forenote
This role play guide is a guide to the basics, which some of the server has seem to forgotten. These are the basics that I believe all good role players should do, there is more extensive guides on a majority of these, yet I believe that they should all be compiled into a nice little guide. I do not plan this guide to be too terribly long, but I will continue writing until I see that I have covered what I plan to cover. Everything within this guide will be things that are simple, and should be fairly well known. I am not going to go into an extensive guide about how to do a particular thing, because there are other guides for that.
Grammar
Good grammar is an essential to role play. With good grammar you can convey your messages and emotes efficiently and effectively. Now, do not believe you have to be an English Professor, or a master writer to convey these messages out. I for one am not, you must simply have a knowledge of simple things. Capitalize names of places, the beginnings of your sentences, and the beginnings of quote. Correct punctuation lets you look more professional, and using commas can greatly change what a sentence means. For example, look at the sentence below.
lets eat halfling
Or, does this look better?
Let's eat, Halfling.
Changes a lot, doesn't it?
See, a simple grammar change has saved a poor halflings life. Small grammar changes like that can greatly change what the outcome of the message is.
Don't be you, be your character.
A problem that occurs on a large scale is the separation between player and character. The character that you are controlling is not you. There is a distinct separation between a player and a character. When making an important decision, look at what your character would do, not what you would do. Now, if you are having the problem, “I do not know what my character would do.” You are in trouble. I will explain later within the guide, yet for now, let us stick to the topic at hand.
Lets say, for example, you are playing the character of a pacifist, a peace loving elf that has nothing to do with war or anything of the like. Now, let us say, you have the opportunity to acquire a rare sword, this sword can harness worlds, and allows you to become a force of awe-astonishing amounts of power. So, your hippie elf is skipping through the woods, and sees this weapon. Now, your character would be appalled by the sight of the weapon, and would want to burn it within the fires of Mount Doom. Yet, you, the player, may want to have this sword, even though it would be breaking your well-established character to do so.
You should walk away from said sword, and not try to take it.
You should NOT take sword, this would be a terrible break in character. What if you suddenly became a master at war because of this weapon? How would that look on your character?
Playing to win.
Another problem that I see often that falls under the category of division from the character is playing to win. Actually, the example above was a play to win scenario, even though your character would not win, you made him win. There are many other examples of this, that I am sure a majority of you have seen.
A very prominent example is in swordsmen, I am not picking on anyone in particular, for there is many excellent swordsman. Yet, something I see all too often, is some farmer managing to rival a three hundred year old elven swordsman, and the farmer has no skill in fighting. When a farmer is able to do this, you can tell that the player is blinded by the urge to win.
Losing is fun.
The above words can be very true in Lord of the Craft. You are playing around in the sandbox of your mind, why not use that to your advantage? When you lose, you experience fun, new roleplay and open up more for you to experience in the future. Will your character seek revenge on the person that has just shamed your character? Will he forgive him and later become his ally? The possibilities are endless.
Making your character unique.
Nobody wants to have a bland character, so spice yours up a bit. Look at your character, and see what makes them basic and what makes them interesting. Perhaps you should spice your character up a little bit by adding interesting quirks or phobias. These things may not be prominent at first, yet one day, your character with claustrophobia could end up in a situation where he has to climb through a tight spot. There is all sorts of unique things you could add to your character. Something I sometimes do when looking for traits a new character may have, is simply looking up a list of phobias or character traits on the internet. These lists can have hundreds of traits that one could use to add a bit of extra fluff to an already great character.
Know your character.
As I mentioned before, “I do not know what my character would do.” is bad. This says that you have not flushed out your character as well as you need to be able to. You should know your character like you may know yourself, you should know how you are going to react in a situation. If your character has claustrophobia he is not going to climb through the tight space. Your character may walk around or over, but more than likely he will not go through. Decisions like this really show the knowledge of your character, and they help make for fun roleplay as well.
Play for fun.
This is by-far the most important step to roleplay. You are playing a game, a place to come and relax with friends and take a small break from the troubles of the world around you. You should try to avoid arguing other players, and starting pointless fights, because we are all here for the same reason, to create a unique roleplay enviroment.
Now, get out there and make me proud.
TL;DR: Augor hits the community with a guide, dealing 9,001 damage!
Excuse any derps, I am tired, will revise later.
