UESP Forums

If you're new to RPing, but find the concept interesting, here's a basic set of guidelines I've constructed to help you on the path to being fluent in this lovely art!

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a strict set of rules. You're free to RP however you like, within the rules of the DM of the RP you've joined. This is just a basic set of guidelines, for basic RPs.

Introduction:

RPing is very much like writing a story, except with several co-authors. You're free to post your character doing whatever they like, within reason. A good roleplay will likely last for many pages and have several participants.

Just like a co-authored story, you must work with the other players. There's nothing wrong with playing the mean guy or the incredibly smart nerd, but make sure to add some realism to your character, even if it is a fantasy RP.

Many good RPs don't wind up finishing, but don't let this discourage you from starting a RP of your own. See examples here, here, and here.

If there are several RPs going on at once in the forum, it may be wise to wait to start a new one. Try making a poll to see what kind of RP people may be interested in at the moment.

And always, always remember to have fun!

1. Detailed Posts

I recommend to not post something if it's only one sentence, or just a few words of dialogue. Not only is this annoying, but it doesn't really serve any purpose. You don't have to post everytime someone else does, only when it's relevant to the plot. This is annoying to the other players and the DM, because it's really not fun to sign on the UESP and see six pages of one-word sentences to read through.

Examples:

DO NOT:

John looked up and said "Hi."

DO:

John looked around the room, sneering distastefully. He sat down in a chair and crossed his arms. As the girl next to him waved timidly at him, he growled. "Hi," the grumpy man said with an annoyed eyebrow raise.

This doesn't mean you have to write mile-long posts, either. As long as you paint a clear picture in your fellow RPers' minds of what your character is doing, your mission is accomplished.

2. God-RPing

God-RPing/modding is when you control the plot, NPCs, or other characters' actions without the DM's/other player's consent. This can make tensions arise OOC and is pretty much annoying for everyone. This is one of the most frequently encountered problems, and is a major no-no.

DO NOT:

John pinned down Jack and held a knife to his throat, after quickly shooting the two policemen nearby.

DO:

John leapt at Jack with his knife, attempting to push the other man down.

The exception to this is when the DM says it's ok, This can also hold true for describing areas, new NPCs, etc. If it's a matter of skills vs. skills, you can roll an online die. For example, if John wants to pin down Jack and this is a combat oriented RP, you can roll John's strength vs. Jack's dexterity. That way, it's not only more realistic, but it can solve any problems.

3. Mary Sues/Gary Sues

A Mary Sue/Gary Sue is a character with practically no monumental flaws. They are also physically perfect and have extremely well-rounded skills, and can almost never fail or do anything wrong. This is annoying and unrealistic, and generally arises from the player's own fantasies. An example of this is could be Edward from Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight." He's perfect in pretty much every way, as is his werewolf counterpart. Perfect things have a knack for getting on one's nerves.


DO NOT:

Name: Andrea Colombo

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Brown

Height: 5’11

Weight: Hmm…….I’m not sure how much her real-life counterpart weighs. Put it this way, this looks great in a bikini.

Physical Appearance: Long, straightened black hair. She is fair skinned, but gains a tan very easily during the summer time. A virtually ideal body. She is very good-looking, and she damn well knows it.

Uniform: Short sleeved shirt with a short skirt

Badges: Badge of Athletics

Stars: 31

Bio: Her parents have always spoiled her since birth, but they never really paid attention to her. She has attended summer camps since she was a toddler, and has been attending Camp Elk since she was fourteen. She is in no way arrogant, however. She has been part of many romantic relationships. Her two best friends, Sarah Pilscenski and Ali Warren, had gone to Camp Elk up until last year. The three were known as the Angel Faces. But, Sarah and Ali both moved the previous year, leaving Andrea without her two closest friends at Camp Elk. She hates the Camp and can’t wait until the summer is over so that she can go home.

Personality: Smart, sarcastic, athletic, boy-loving, and popular. She knows very well that she is good looking, and she often teases unattractive boys with her looks. She is often very moody. She is by no a means a girly girl, and often hung out with guys instead of girls because of the fact that she found girls to be annoying.

DO:

Name: Suzie Ashton

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Hair Color: Brunette

Eye Color: Green

Height: 5'9''

Weight: 49kg

Physical Appearance: Extremely good looking Light build, but not weak. Shoulder length hair. Never wears makeup (she doesn't need it)

Uniform: Short sleeved shirt and short shorts.

Badges: Umm... None.

Stars: Also none.

Bio: Growing up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Suzie learned from a very early age how boring life could be. Her mother was a librarian and her father a box inspector, and they were too busy with their jobs to do anything with her. She spent most of her time poitering in the shopping centre, so her parents finally looked up from their thick rimmed glasses and drafted her into the scouts. She hates it there, and makes a point of never making a positive contribution to the group. She was sent to the camp in the hope that she would shape up and change her attitude.

Personality: Lively and highly strung. She is quite intelligent, but too rebellious to put it to good use. She mostly does not get along with the scout leaders.

Even though this character is attractive and intelligent, she has a distinguishable personality and biography.

Make sure to avoid creating an Anti-Sue as well. An Anti-Sue is the opposite of a Mary-Sue and is basically imperfect in every way, with way more weaknesses than strengths. Find a balance.

Example of an Anti-Sue:

name:bob

gender:male

weight:250 lb

hair:blue(died)

age:14

eyes:green

height:4 foot 5

looks:extremely fat:bright blue hair(died):shorts and t-shirt:ugly

personalty: he is a big spoiled jerk, his parents are really rich so he eats and plays video games all day and gets pretty much whatever he wants,he was forced to come here because his parents said that "you need to leave that couch" so he is bragging to the other campers pretty much all the time and if they are doing a activity like going swimming he will ask stupid questions like "is there sharks in that pond?" he treats every one like "lesser beings" because they don't have as much money as him. he also believes in things like Santa, the tooth fairy, etc.

badges:fishing, to fat to complete any others

4. Realism

Aiming for realism in RPing should be one of the main things to focus on. The main idea is of course, to always have fun, but realistic characters and actions add to fun. Just because you may RP in a world with magic, fantasy, etc., doesn't mean you can sacrifice all realism. So don't do things that most likely wouldn't be able to happen in the world of your RP, even if your character is very powerful.


DO NOT:

John leapt over the city's wall with a single bound, leaving the perusing hounds behind. He ran and was several miles away from the city within a few moments.

DO:

John hurriedly planted a bomb at the bottom of the city's gate and ran as fast as he could back into the city. It exploded within a few moments, blowing back the pursuing hounds and bursting the wall. He ran past, slightly singed, but mostly unharmed.

5. General RPing Terms, DM Tips and Helpful Sites

RP Glossary:

-Anti-Sue: The opposite of a Mary Sue, e.g., unperfect in every way.

-DM: Dungeons and Dragons term meaning Dungeon Master, but used in RPs to describe the person who started the roleplay and/or runs the plot.

-Godmodding: Taking control of the plot/other characters without consent from the DM/other player.

-GM: General Master/manager, same thing as DM. Coined by King Acunasti.

-Gary Sue: Male character who is basically perfect in all ways.

-IC: In character, which means posting/talking from your character's viewpoint.

-Mary Sue: Female character who is basically perfect in all ways.

-NPC: Non-playable character. The people the DM makes in the RP who guide the story along, sell the PCs stuff, etc.

-OOC: Out of character. This is when you're talking as yourself and not as your character.

-PC: Player character. The characters the participants of the RP control.

-Role-Playing: The concept where one plays games with others by assuming a 'role'.

-Ubering: Making insanely skilled characters that can basically never lose a fight.


Helpful Websites:

Medieval Name Generator

Elder Scrolls Name Generator

Is Your Character A Mary-Sue?

Elder Scrolls RP Tips

Battle RP Tips

Tips for Aspiring DMs:

Be creative when you're making an RP. Think of an idea that will appeal to the people you're targeting. Don't make it too hard or too easy. Use plot twists and new NPCs to add interest to the RP. And remember, the goal is always to have fun!

If anyone has comments/feedback to add, please do so. If you need any more help feel free to PM me.

Good guide. It'll let me cut of a lot of the explanations next time I make an RP. It's good to see you like my character as well. I'd just like to add two more points:

Übering: Similar to Mary-Sues, it's a character with ridiculously good stats and skills. Think of it as a making a level 50 character while everybody else is level 5. Basically, they do everything perfectly and nobody has a chance of beating them in a fight.

An example of an Anti-Sue:

name:bob

gender:male

weight:250 lb

hair:blue(died)

age:14

eyes:green

height:4 foot 5

looks:extremely fat:bright blue hair(died):shorts and t-shirt:ugly

personalty: he is a big spoiled jerk, his parents are really rich so he eats and plays video games all day and gets pretty much whatever he wants,he was forced to come here because his parents said that "you need to leave that couch" so he is bragging to the other campers pretty much all the time and if they are doing a activity like going swimming he will ask stupid questions like "is there sharks in that pond?" he treats every one like "lesser beings" because they don't have as much money as him. he also believes in things like Santa, the tooth fairy, etc.

badges:fishing, to fat to complete any others

and i think that's it

Also, this and this
TV Tropes article on Mary Sue/Marty Stu

Thread has been given a sticky, and also cleaned to make it nice and fresh. Only posts left on where ones that helped the topic progress.

This is a guide that helped me out a lot when I first started a few years back:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... ou-can-rp/

And this is good for military:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... attle-rps/

Links added to OP, thanks

(Or the UORCMBG)

Hello, all! After a short discussion and approval from everyone's favourite Arch-Mage, I am here putting up a unified rule set for the Molag Bal Game, in the "Official" status. People who don't want to follow can still make their own, but cannot add the prefix "Official" to the games. This prefix can be a sort of endorsement.

The following rules are made in the interest of making the game as good as possible, and not to impede anyone's fun. All have been added after suggestion from forum RPers.

The Rules

Paragraph 1: Set up

1. To be able to DM the Molag Bal Game, one must have followed at least two Molag Bal Games beforehand, preferably more.
2. The DM will be voted on from a list of candidates.
3. The MBG is recommended to be held with breaks between the official games, but this is not strictly necessary. It just prevents them from getting old.
4. The DM decides who can be in the game. If the DM does not believe a player can uphold the rules, he/she is allowed to deny the player admittance.
5. Recommended maximum of players is 10.

Paragraph 2: Game rules

1. Any variations from the base rules are chosen solely by the DM, and he/she does not have to take suggestions from anyone. It is however recommended that he/she does.
2. The base game is made up of 2 worshippers and 1 seer. No other character types. The number of worshippers and seers can vary with the number of players.

Paragraph 3: The game

1. Character names should be avoided, to lessen confusion among the players.
2. The game starts with a day shift WITHOUT voting for a lynching. This is purely to get acquainted with each others characters. The first move is always the worhsippers'.
3. After this it follows with Night, then day and so on.
4. No OOC posts. All comments related to characters must be made in the General Roleplay Discussion Thread. They will be deleted, but don't clutter the game with them anyway.
5. Do not make pointless in-character discussions. You don't have to only vote, but keep it to the game. To not do so annoys the DM and make his/her work difficult.

Paragraph 4: Special rules (Requested by Arch-Mage Matt)

1. Revealing of a card is grounds for getting kicked.
2. Discussing any part of the game OOC (Be it player, non-player, dead player or host) will have their post deleted by Arch-Mage Matt.

Paragraph 5: Voting

1. After the first player has cast a vote, all other players have a 48 hour window to vote in (Time can vary by the DM, but 48 is recommended). Depending on the DM, the missing players will either be booted or default to a blank vote.
2. Trust that the DM can handle the counting of votes and time, and respect that he/she may be asleep when the time runs out. DO NOT PESTER HIM/HER.
3. The player with the most votes against him/her will get lynched.
4. In the event of a tie, both top players will be lynched. Unless all players have a low number of votes, say, one or two.


Changes:

24/3-12: §1.1: Changed from "Participated in" to "followed".
24/3-12: Pronouns changed to unisex on request from female RPers.

REMEMBER: This is not a final set of rules, and suggestions are welcome. Please post objections and feedback in the General Thread, not here.

I would add that anyone who is a DM/GM should send out PMs to participants to let them know when the game has started.

If you are a part of an RP that has just started, expect for it to go 20 pages in the first day. Everyone wants to introduce themselves and show off their character, so if you get in late be prepared to read a lot.

Musicman247 wrote:If you are a part of an RP that has just started, expect for it to go 20 pages in the first day. Everyone wants to introduce themselves and show off their character, so if you get in late be prepared to read a lot.

This is so very true.

Should you be allowed to hijack an RP and elect a new DM even without the DM's consent?

POMC S117 wrote:Should you be allowed to hijack an RP and elect a new DM even without the DM's consent?

No, but you could start your own RP where the previous one died off (but only do it if the DM has quit the forums or something drastic like that).

This was in response to some people of a certain RP trying to elect a DM without getting a reply from the DM. Should it be a fixed rule?

POMC S117 wrote:This was in response to some people of a certain RP trying to elect a DM without getting a reply from the DM. Should it be a fixed rule?

Dude, rules vary with each RP. Each RP has different rules (though they're all similar).

The Raven wrote:

POMC S117 wrote:This was in response to some people of a certain RP trying to elect a DM without getting a reply from the DM. Should it be a fixed rule?

Dude, rules vary with each RP. Each RP has different rules (though they're all similar).

Except POMC isn't talking about the "no godmodding!" type of rules set by the DM at the start of the RP, he's talking about the bigger set of rules such as how is a DM even defined--can the DM change without the previous DM's consent?

I say no. GM might come back and want to pick up the story where it left off. They might have a full story planned out and then somebody takes over their RP and messes that up for them.

Could you take this to General RP Discussion?

For TES RPs, the topic has long been debated as to the ages of elves. Here is an official estimate, based on in-game books and lore, for use by RPers in any Elder Scrolls roleplays:

The various races of Mer normally have the longest lifespans of all Tamriel's inhabitants, usually around 200. Until roughly eighteen, elves age at the same speed as men. However, after maturity, Mer begin to gradually slow down their aging process, appearing at that point to weather the years at half the pace of humans. By 150, an elf is considered to be nearing old age, and by 200 has lived a good life, Altmer living slightly longer and Bosmer slightly less. Some sorcerers and alchemists, however, often discover methods of prolonging their existence, and therefore many Altmer are found to remain vigorous well after five centuries of existence. The oldest known elf is the Dunmer Divayth Fyr, a brilliant sorcerer who is believed to have been born at least four millenia prior to the events of Morrowind, though he would be considered an extremely special case. There are rumors of older wizards secluded within the Summerset Isles, but such tales have not been confirmed.

I thought the Altmer naturally lived to about 1000.

I'll discuss it with you in the GRPD.

So would it be outrageous for Arquen to be alive 150+ years after the events of Oblivion?

There's no concrete evidence that suggests that Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer and Orcsimer live only for this long. Only for the Dunmer.

I think this should include more DM tips Some people might find them useful

I think the biggest help for a would-be DM is to participate in several roleplays themselves so they can see what works and what doesn't. It's never the best practice to try and jump into something new without watching a veteran(s) do it a few times.

Barring that a DM should read everything their players write, have a plan about where they are going, and fill in the blanks for their players about what is happening around them.

Yes experience in Roleplaying seems to be key, but a short guide would still be rather useful imo.