Guide: Atlanta Celestial's RolePlaying Guide

Please note that some information may be outdated. Formatting for the guide has been changed to accomodate new coding. Due to how old this guide is, contact information has been removed.

How to make a role-play character for Shimlar
You first must begin with the history of your character, everything begins somewhere. You have had experiences before this moment and so has your character if it is to be believable. Think of this, try to make the background fit the character or vice versa. It's unlikely a child in a loving family, well educated and adored, would grow up to be evil.

There's no need to be complicated and detailed. Anything from a list to a fleshed out story will work. A list will do nicely when first starting out, but for the long term, a story may help you keep in touch with your character's most important traits and behaviors.

It is also a good idea to have a good idea of what your character looks like. Eye colour, hair colour, height, weight, skin colour, and attire. An easy way to do this is to find a picture that suits your character, or just know what your character looks like, and remember it.

Character abilities
Your characters abilities are very important element in the role-playing world. When a character is born, yes there are certain things they are drawn to from infancy, but there is no way the skills needed merely entered his/her mind. Training can be the most important feature of character history, since it affects nearly everything they become. How they were trained, what the circumstances around their training were. Where were they trained? Who trained them? Was it a secret? Things like these must be considered when dealing with history.

Everything about your character can be determined by lack of training, or how deeply they were trained. Gods and Masters are not made in a few years; it takes nearly a lifetime to create. A god character or a master may seem easy to create and is very tempting, but it won't go very well in your role-playing career. A well-made character has flaws, weaknesses, which make them more interesting and easier to relate to.

That covers physical abilities and items. Now what of Magic? Magic is limited. No Sorcerer or Witch would ever be able to continuous fire spells at an individual; they would get tired, just like anyone else. As well, Enchanted items are almost impossible to find within the fantasy world. All magical items must have an explanation as to the items own personal history, as well as how the hero obtained such an item. As for knowledge of spells, no mage or wizard would be able to master all classes of magical incantations. Or else, they would be ancient. Now this is not to say a powerful character can not be played, but all characters have weakness, and lack full knowledge of areas.

If you are bringing a character in from another game, that is acceptable as well, but realize, that people in this realm, will not be familiar with your character. To avoid being labeled an "autoer" or a "godmod", it would be smart to start off slow, mono RP for a while, so the other people can get a history of your character.

Description...description...description...
Description is a key element. The more you describe a single action, the better a reader or your RP partner can understand exactly what you are doing. Always keep in mind, the race of your character, body type, abilities, mind set, and environment.

Body: An Elf, whose body type is slender and thin, would not have the physical strength in a hand to hand combat with an Ogre. But the Elf being quicker would be able to dodge some attacks and be able to strike in surprise.

Mind: Does your character handle stress? Is he/she able to think fast in tight situations, or do they draw a blank? Are they resourceful in figuring out ideas?

Environment: What is around your character? Is the wind blowing through the trees? One action leads to another. Any action a character makes in an environment has a reaction within the environment. If a person steps on leaves, the leaves will make a crunching sound beneath their feet.

Terms role-players use
Every character has a weakness, and no one can ALWAYS avoid being struck.
 * The /e command
 * Example: /e wants to play. On your screen, after striking "Enter" or clicking "Send", your post will appear with your name in white, followed by the text in tan/gold. Yourname wants to play.
 * RP = role-play
 * -c-, ~c~, /c/, ... = continued
 * Shimlar's max post length is about two lines. Frequently, a post can't be confined to this limit, and there's no reason to hold yourself to it. There are many styles of the -c- abbreviation, but they all mean the writer has not finished.
 * NPC = non-player character
 * An NPC is a character a player controls that is not the character you normally write about. They can be any necessary being, but are usually found as servants, students/teachers, peasants, innkeeper's etc.
 * OOC = Out of character
 * Talking as yourself, not your character. In Shimlar, most often indicated as /e ((OOCmessagehere)).
 * IC = In character
 * Self-explanatory and the bulk of role-playing. Anything your character does.
 * AFK = away from keyboard
 * BRB = be right back
 * GTG = got to go
 * Bookmark/pause
 * Since role-playing can consume a lot of time, whether soloing or with other players, you may occasionally need to pause events and resume them some other time.
 * :: :: = NPC actions
 * These are often used to separate the NPC from the player character.
 * Autoer/GodMod
 * This is a player who commands an unbeatable character, or a very strong character. They can not be hit; they are resistant to every type of magic. They have superior skills compared to everyone. It is very boring and frustrating trying to role-play with a person such as this, and the person behind the character is usually not liked. Try to avoid this.

Well, that basically finishes the starters Role-playing guide.

[Thanks for reading!]

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