Okay, Crystal, I understand that you don't know all the rules of RP-ing yet, and that's ok! I mean, nobody does, really, until somebody tells them, or they figure it out by trial-and-error. They aren't that hard to learn, though they are a bit complicated. Here are the basic rules of RP-ing, as far as I know. If anyone sees that I'm missing something, please feel free to speak up and tell Crystal.
1)
No Powerplaying~ Powerplaying can be many things, all of which are very bad to do while RP-ing, because it makes you look like a jerk as well as somebody who doesn't know how to RP. (I'm not saying you're a jerk) Powerplaying is, basically, taking control of another's character in your post. A powerplayer might tell what someone else's character thinks, does, or says.
I.E. "I looked at Whats-His-Face, who walked away."
While this may not seem so bad, You're telling what a character that is
not under your control is doing.
The more common form of powerplaying is when your character is fighting someone else's character. You must remember to ALWAYS leave the other character a way out (a way to dodge/escape your attacks).
Just saying, "I gripped her by the throat, strangling her, there was no way to escape, and within moments she was dead..."
THAT is an example of using powerplaying while fighting.
This would be better: "My hands reached out for her throat, attempting to strangle her."
This leaves her a way out by letting her do something like pushing the hands away or something.
This is better, too: "I attempted to strangle her, but if she rolled to the side, she could break free."
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that this is far too obvious, and if you do this all the time, they'll dodge all your attacks and you won't win. BUT in reality, you're showing what a good, considerate RP-er you are, and if they're half as good or considerate as you are, they'll only dodge a few attacks, letting the minor ones hit them or something.
Another good way to avoid powerplaying is to NEVER EVER USE FATAL ATTACKS. The ONLY person who can kill a character is that character's owner. And believe me when I say, no RP-er wants to kill off their character. KEEP IN MIND: Most RPGs BAN people for powerplaying, so watch yourself.
2)
Keep OOC in OOC, and IC in IC~ We've been through this before, yes? Two people can be best friends, and still have characters that want to kill each other. And if another person's char calls your char "a @#boop$%# #$beepity#$% #$#$@beep$@$@!!!", then it by no means means that the player thinks that you're one, too.
Also, I noticed that you don't really RP in a lot of differing personalities- most of your chars seem to act similarily in a situation, or just agree with your other chars. Try to expand! For example, I am a young, intelligent, slightly geeky girl. Do I have any young, intelligent, slightly geeky characters? NO!! That would be too easy! I have: a psychopathic mare who is currently baring a child of rape; a panther Queen who is noble and kind, but slowly falling apart inside due to the death of her mate; an exotic Arabian stallion who acts exactly the opposite of what you'd expect him to, and is slightly perverted; an albino gryphon who used to be a misborn and who frequently breaks down into babbling in an ancient language, and who has writing magic; A young stallion who is constantly bored; an Immortal Dragoness who is sort of kind, in her own twisted way, and an extremely powerful granter of powers; and a wolf who is a loving father. And that's just for the ones that aren't on the Orchard. EXPAND! ^.^ It's fun to expand! XD Have one of your chars disagree with one another or something, maybe. Whatever you want, the world is your backyard! -_-"
3)
Your Character doesn't know everything you do~ Just because you know that ahead of your character is a trap, doesn't mean that your character knows. If the realistic thing is to have your char walk right into it, then so be it. Don't be afraid to do the realistic thing! That's what good RP-manship is all about! And, if the would-be trappers are any good at RP-ing, they'll give you a way out, and not hurt you too badly, just like we discussed in the Powerplaying section. ^.^
Also, while your chars can REALISTICALLY pick up on some things, a char cannot read each other's minds. And, by "read each other's minds", I don't mean literally using mind reading powers. I mean, if a handsome panther male is THINKING about how beautiful your girl panther is, it doesn't mean that you can be flattered, or worse, reply to their thoughts. ^.^
Those are just the basic rules, ALWAYS be sure to check the other ules THOUROUGHLY before rping at a new RPG. For example, Beqanna allows rape, while CM does not. And some places even hide secret passcodes in the rules that, if you don't put in your joining post, you won't be allowed to join because you look like you didn't read the rules...
Yah. Rp-ing is a tricky, tricky buisiness...
Can I give you some friendly, non-rule advice? You need to start using punctuation. Its very annoying to have to sift through a whole paragraph with almost no periods or anything. You may not think of it as a very big deal, but imagine reading Sith's or my above post without ANY punctuation. It'd be like a big mush of words and you probably wouldn't get half of what I was trying to say. ^^; So please, for the love of Davy Jones' Locker, use punctuation. ESPECIALLY quotation marks and italics around dialouge, and only italics around thoughts. It's really, really hard to tell what people are just doing vs. what they're saying without those things... -_- ...yeah. Ok. I'm done. Whew.
