Here's mine:
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- Roleplaying is about weaving a story alongside other people. It's not about leveling, stats, or the concept of defined "quests" like in MMORPGs. You try to influence the collective story by controlling your own characters.
- Try to make your character interesting, and not just powerful. There may be a draw to create an indomitable character due to that being the focus of many PC and console RPGs, but that defeats the purpose of an actual roleplaying game. Of course you could make a character just for fighting in the Colosseum, but if you choose your main characters' race, classes, factions, or anything else based entirely on stats, then try to reconsider what you're doing. If that's what you want to do, then it's up to you, but I'd recommend otherwise.
- Since roleplaying is about writing a story, you should describe what your characters are doing, and not just abilities and numbers like in other RPGs. Try to make it interesting and creative, because if you don't, any roleplaying game will probably become stale from your perspective after a short while.
- On the subject of describing your characters' actions, try to be concise and to the point. You should include details which benefit your story, but shouldn't go crazy with it when your characters are doing something rather simple. Think of how it would appear in a book. Paragraphs of descriptions don't usually appear between every line in a conversation, swinging a weapon doesn't usually require a big explanation unless your characters are doing something complicated, and flashbacks don't need to be described everywhere. If you take things too far, you run the risk of boring others into not reading it. This is just my suggestion, but the length of a post should depend on how much is actually happening. Go ahead and write a long post if it makes sense, but don't feel obligated to do it every time.
- You can introduce your characters multiple times if it makes sense, as if the reader has never seen them before. My recommendation is to introduce a character every time a new player first encounters him/her, so the person's own story seems more seamless. I wouldn't recommend too many re-introductions for the same player, however, just so you don't make things boring for others.
- Use quotation marks to show what a character is saying, even if your post just includes your character's words. Anything else that is in-character, such as actions, can be written like normal.
- Use "OOC: " or parentheses when talking out of character. If you use parentheses, put it at the top or bottom of your post, separated from the rest of your text by a blank line(s).
- Feel free to name your weapons if you see them as strong or important to your characters' stories. I would not recommend re-naming weapons that already have unique names, but anything else is fair game.
- Try to make your characters interesting. Absolute overlords are unfortunately common in these types of games, and it's not usually interesting to have a battle between two of them who refuse to be defeated ("You hit me with the moon? Well then I will throw you into the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy!"
![bluetongue.gif](http://www.cspacezone.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/bluetongue.gif)
- In DarkStorm, your characters won't be forced to actually die in battle. The concept of "resurrection" is being removed from the game because it doesn't fit the story, as death is permanent on Earthia (it's always funny in games with resurrection, how anyone fears battle at all). When your characters "fall", they retreat from the battle. That's how you should roleplay it if you're defeated. I'm even thinking of changing the names of "Vitality" and "Health" to reflect this. You can roleplay your characters as wanting to kill their enemies, but they won't actually die if they are controlled by other players. Only GM-controlled NPCs can die in battle. If you want to roleplay your own character's demise, then you can do that, but just not to other players' characters.
- Try to give your characters some sort of goal, instead of just making them wander from event to event.
- If someone provides no name, and has not been seen by your characters yet, then they should not call him/her by name. Also, it's an easy and harmless mistake, but remember not to call other characters by the username of whoever is controlling them.
![bluetongue.gif](http://www.cspacezone.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/bluetongue.gif)
- This is just me, but I think it's best to speak in the present tense.
- Feel free to create your own situations, even if you're not a GM.
![thumb.gif](http://www.cspacezone.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/thumb.gif)