Chatroom Role Playing Worlds

Games of pretend have come along way from the childish versions they once were. Now there are several ways in which you can pretend to be someone or something else and interact with other who do the same, battle dragons, or live in a different time period, or delve into the realms of myth and legend. The most common form of this is in video games, but we all can agree that a video game has a preset personality for its characters, and while you act with them, they are not truly of your making and they only have so many programmed responses to events that happen in the game. Internet games such as MUDD's like Achaea and CD ROM games like Everquest and more, give a player more free reign but still there are only so many races, maps, personalities, and features programmed into it. There is always the long-lived live RPG's with either dice or full dress and acting such as there is with Renaissance fairs and the like; these allow for the personal creation of almost every aspect of the character and the personality of the player to come through more than it would on a game. Yet, live RPG's have the difficulty of each player's distance from the other and the major effort put in to organizing every player involved to meet at a specific place at a specific time. And, with conflicts in work schedules and school schedules and all the other nuances of life that waylay our plans and produce new ones, such meetings are few and far between and perhaps once or twice a year all members will be present. The RPG least likely to run into these problems, though it has drawbacks like the others as well, is role playing in Internet chat rooms.

Chat room role playing allows for original creation of characters; is commonly accessible from a player's home, school, or workplace; and is less affected by changing and full schedules because of its accessibility. However, if a player cannot have access to the Internet, then there is no way for them to log on and play, and the lack of graphics sometimes is unappealing to those who are used to video games and on-line CD ROM RPG's. To college students and others with busy lives and little free time, the chat room option is the most probable type of RPG to pursue besides private computer games and video games. Yet there are trick of the trade as there are with any gaming format, no matter what it is, and there is a certain etiquette as well.

Basic chat room role playing etiquette:

1. A player must have at least an intermediate command of language and writing. Writing in broken sentences such as, "he sits," "glances to the floor," "draws, slashes, connects," are quite annoying and unacceptable for most long-time role players in chat rooms.

2. Also, misspelled words, though they commonly pop up in long posts or when the action is quick and the player is having to type rather quickly, are an eye sore and interrupt the flow of the other players as they are reading the post. The whole point of posting is to paint a picture in the other players' minds of the thoughts, appearance, and actions of your character, and if your spelling errors are distracting, then the other players will not be able to form a good image of what your posts are supposed to convey.

3. This might seem obvious but players in chat room role playing games need to have a vivid imagination in order to picture in their minds the images that the words convey to make up for the lack of any pictures or graphics. Though it goes without saying that most role players get into role playing because they have an insatiable imagination, and often have no problem imagining all sorts of odd twists and turns in plot and in the scenes described in the chat window.

4. And, if a player strives to be a good at chat room role playing, then he or she will probably develop and long and descriptive language style that, because of chat post length limits, will most likely be more than one post long. Other players in the room should try their best to allow the posting person to finish the post no matter how many chat room posts it takes to finish it. Interrupting a post is like interrupting a storyteller, and it is even more disrupting than spelling errors and broken sentences in some crucial instances. A knowledgeable player should not mind waiting so much for another player to finish these longs posts, for it means that they are playing with a good role player and the quality of their game will be sufficiently higher than if they were writing short, stilted posts, and the wait will be well worth it.

5. Lastly, there is a gigantic rule that a player must NOT god-mode. God-moding is when a character gets into a fight, is taking hits, but acts as if the hits do nothing, though the opponent should be having a significant impact or at least some small impact. God-moding is annoying and unrealistic to almost all characters unless they really are gods, and in that case the actions of others should create some reaction even if there is no damage. Good role players avoid god-moding, allowing their characters to take damage and make mistakes because they want to remain true to their character's natures.

6. And this brings me to one more final, basic rule: staying true to the character. Once a character is made and played it has its own personality, history, and set of character quirks that make it unique and also cause the character to act in certain ways in certain situations. To deviate from this is to allow your own personal feelings to infiltrate the character's personality and actions. Good role players try to avoid this at all costs, improving the playing experience because they remain in character, allowing the character to play and act rather than meddling in ways that are opposite to that character's nature.

With these basic rules, any player can have an enjoyable chat room role playing experience, and knowing them before jumping into a chat RP can help you have good relations with other role players.

Creating characters uniquely and from scratch might seem like a task, but for those that have a good imagination, all it takes is a little thinking and no little daydreaming. First thing's first: what does the character look like physically? Ask yourself how tall they are, the shape of their face, hair length, hair style, hair color, eye color, eye shape, the character's body shape, their weight, skin tone, race (if applicable), clothing style, clothing type, clothing color, do they have any weapons and what are they, and if they are male, female, both, or neither.

Second is to describe all the non-concrete attributes of the character. Know the answers to questions like what does the character think about life, do they belong to a class or profession and if so what is that profession or class, what is the character's basic personality (ie. are they normally happy, stoic, sad, angry, hyper, etc.), and what is the character's background history to support these feelings and attitudes? These questions determine the vast majority of the ways in which your character will react to a given situation or event.

Any minute details can be added, changed, and grow with the character if need be. This is what makes the characters unique, interesting, and dynamic because they resemble real people when small things about their features and attitudes change depending on their surroundings and the experiences they go through; they grow just like real people (if played and created right).

Now you are ready to insert your character into a world of typed posts that write out whole worlds, taverns, great battles, and the complex lives of RP characters. And the most important part of all is that your character's life and yours are separate, or should be, and to not take personally what happens to your character at the hands of another player's character. And with all these things in mind, anyone with imagination enough can have fun chat room role playing.

::She bows low to you from across the gently swaying field of grass in the late afternoon sunlight, as you begin your creation and subsequent journey, a woman wrapped in light and kissed by the sun. She waves and smiles knowing you will be well prepared for what lies ahead. Soon the field and the grass and even the late evening sun are out of sight, and all is night. The stars hang as if placed their by a god's hand, hung in the midnight blue-black cloak of some sleeping goddess. Each is a new world to explore. Each is a new adventure lying in wait for you to experience. You hear a voice say, "Go. Go, and pick up your sword, staff, bow, lute, harp, hammer, axe, or tool of choice and head for the nearest star."::