CHECK YOUR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR: Incorrect spelling is annoying and can really ruin the flow of the RP. Run your post through spell check or just copy/paste it into Microsoft Word. It’s not hard to fix bad spelling. This also means using proper punctuation and quotes to show speech. Occasional mistakes are ok, but if it makes reading or understanding your post difficult, then there’s a problem. God I hope I didn’t spell anything wrong in this.

BE ORIGINAL: You might think it's incredibly original and unique to have a character who happens to be skilled with every weapon known to man kind and is a fallen angel seeking vengeance, etc, etc. Or an orphan who seeks revenge because his parents were murdered. Or someone who lived on the streets and soon became the toughest street fighter/gang leader who can beat anyone. ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE BAD. If you can do something like this in a TOTALLY new and unique way, go for it, but 9 times out of 10, it just winds up being a played out, done to death character, so don’t even try. Using other characters as a base or starting point is not a bad idea, but develop your new character into something no one has ever seen or heard of before.

BE DESCRIPTIVE: This will nearly always help you improve your role-playing skills. Just say exactly what you imagine in your mind about your character and or the things around the other players. Just like drawing a picture of a person, a stick figure does not always look good. Just say everything you imagine, and then you can paint the same picture for others to see, that is good role-playing. Role-playing has two main parts to it: Speech and Action. (Sometimes you need to describe a third part, Emotion, but usually you only need to do that once and your following posts stay in the same mood, if they don’t however, describe it again. And even if your character’s emotions remain the same, it’s still good to continually express it through either Action or Speech.) In your description, be as detailed as you can in both areas, this is especially true when you write your first post (intro) in a thread. And yes, you must have both in every post (unless you’re a mime). This also comes into play when you talk about things like spells. Naming the spell is not enough; not everyone knows what you’re talking about, so describe what the spell does.

WORK WITH OTHER PLAYERS: This means work with what the other people say. As long as they’re not breaking the rules, go with what they say. Play a long, go with the flow, roll with the punches, whatever you want to call it, it’s the same. Agree with them. I don’t mean let someone else control/run your character, I just mean work together to build the story and keep it moving.

SPEAK IN THIRD PERSON: This means don’t speak in first person. Simple. Say “he” instead of “I”. The person reading your post isn’t the one doing the action, so when they read what you wrote, it shouldn’t seem like it. Read this out loud: I kicked the box. Who kicked the box? You did. This is what I (talking about me now, the author, keep up) mean. Also, speak in the past tense. This isn't really a strict rule but it helps. First of all, it's better to have everyone writing in the same tense, just for basic the basic flow of the thing. And why past tense instead of present tense? Because being part of an RPG means you're basically writing a story, and stories are (for the most part) written in past tense. It's just common practice.

FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS: Any rules that the creator (of the RP, duh) says, follow them. And don’t act in a way that doesn’t fit the general world/tone/atmosphere/mood of the thread. This includes things like not pulling out a laser in a medieval themed RP, not cursing or describing “adult” situations if there is no reason to (or are asked not to), and generally playing in a way that helps maintain the world of the RP.

KEEP THE PLACE CLEAN: Keep OOC posts to a minimum and never post spam. This is just for cleanliness and order. If you can, PM someone if you need to talk to them and don’t have OOC fights.

DON’T

GODMOD: I will go more into two main kinds of godmodding later, but basically it’s this: Don’t be God. You can’t do anything and everything. There are areas where your character is strong, and other areas where he/she/it is weak. DON’T have a character without weaknesses (physical, mental, emotional) that can be exploited. Don’t make an all-powerful character; it really kills the RP if no one can possibly beat you.

DOUBLE POST: Double posting is a distraction and a waste of space, simple as that. If you make a mistake, just delete the extra post, easy.

WRITE CONFLICTING MESSAGES: This includes conflicting with yourself AND others. The first part is simple, don’t do something or act one way in one post, then do the polar opposite in the next. (There are certain situations that this doesn’t apply to, but for the most part, DON’T DO IT!) The second part is simple also. If someone writes something that doesn’t break any rules, don’t disregard it or defy it. Most of the time this is done on accident and can be prevented by refreshing the page before you post in case someone has done something while you were typing.

CONTROL OTHERS: Don’t make someone else do something, simple. This includes, moving, behaving, talking, attacking and (really important) dying. You don’t have any power over anyone’s character but your own, don’t act like it. You can’t hurt someone without his or her permission (auto-hitting) or affect anything that belongs to them. This isn’t necessarily a rule, but it’s good advice to follow. Most people don’t like it when others take liberties with their characters. This is sometimes called leaving a statement “open”. When a statement is open, it lets the other person choose the way they react. (This is covered more in the auto-hitting and no-selling sections below.)

MAKE SHORT POSTS: Really easy to understand. Short posts add nothing and shouldn’t be in an RP. There’s no real minimum of words, but as a general rule, stay over 3 lines. If you don’t know what to do, add details or dialogue. Maybe write what your character is thinking. It helps the story along, makes it more interesting, and avoids pages upon pages of small, meaningless posts. Don’t just write one line of dialogue and nothing else, even if you’re talking with someone and don’t want to write an answer for them, you can always add something else to your post other than just speech.

ABANDON THE RP: If you can’t be there for a while, tell someone or make an excuse in character. If you want to leave, make your character leave, don’t just leave him there not responding. If you want to end the RP, close it up in character, don’t just leave it standing. This all goes double, hell, quad-triple if it’s YOUR RP since you’re the one who is most likely leading the action.

EDIT YOUR CHARACTER WHILE PLAYING: Don't edit your character in the middle of an RP. Changing your strengths and weaknesses (or just as bad, your history) as you go so you can deal with whatever is happening at the time is unfair. Not only that, but it defeats the purpose of what you are (or should be) trying to do. The fun of the RP is dealing with conflicts in unique and interesting ways and creating a story. Just changing what your character can do gets rid of any effort and requires no thought at all. And even if you don't care about how the story is for you, it ruins it for everyone else. Changing your strengths so you can do anything or changing your weaknesses so nothing can hurt you basically get into Godmodding, which is covered below.

GODMODDING: There are really (in my eyes) two kinds of godmodding. Auto-hitting and No-Selling. Here’s information I copied (from people who copied it from somewhere else) about them.

Autohits are BAD

You know what I'm talking about here. Hitting a person without giving them a chance to respond. Let's take Bob and George. George is your character and he's fighting Bob. George is prone to autohits. Here are some of his actions during his latest fight.

George kicks Bob's sword out of his hand, then swings, cutting off his foot.

George slams an energy bolt point blank into Bob's stomach.

George swings around, hitting Bob in the solar plexus and throwing him across the bar.

George snaps his whip along Bob's eyes, blinding him.

George jump kicks Bob, snapping his head back.

George uses his AMAZING CHI POWERS to burn Bob into a pile of ashes.

These actions are wrong for obvious reasons, and if George even thought of using the last one ANYWHERE, he should have someone come over and put his genitals in one paper shredder and I MEAN IT, GEORGE YOU STUPID BASTARD! Now...let's do these actions a little bit better ...without that stupid bastard George autohitting.

George uses his dagger to slash along Bob's sword hand, while the other takes a lower arcing loop, aimed at his foot.

George places his hand fractions of an inch from Bob's stomach and charges up an energy bolt.

George swings around, aiming a backhand into Bob's solar plexus.

George snaps his whip in front of Bob's face, the tip missing his eyes by only a centimeter.

George aims a rather beautiful jumpkick at Bob's head that, if landed, would make Bruce Lee proud. (and if Bob is in a sardonic mood, he can respond with "Bob dodges as George disgraces Bruce Lee's memory."

George uses his AMAZING CHI POWERS to run like hell away from Bob who is going to kick his stupid ass.

Now keep in mind actions like, say, grabbing Bob, pushing Bob back, or tackling Bob as both of you roll on the ground may be considered autohits if abused too much, but so far, there are no probs with that from what I've seen. But if in doubt...don't do it.

No-selling is BAD

The polar opposite of auto-hitting is the lesser topic of no-selling. Basically, it's deflecting or blocking every single move your opponent makes while you smile evilly and mock the person or something. It didn't work for Goldberg, it didn't work for The Undertaker, and it sure as hell doesn't look good on you. Let's put this in simple words. You are not Goldberg. You are not the Undertaker. You must take blows if you wish to dish them out. It looks significantly worse if you are a newb character who's no-selling against a character such as...say...McClaud. G-Crusher and Necrobile, in the cases when they have fought, suffer about two or three minor wounds in a fight ranging from say a stab wound to a broken rib. That doesn't mean they're bad fighters. It means they're fair ones. Well...okay, maybe Necrobile's not totally FAIR, but...you know what I mean. Above all and foremost, as in with every aspect of role playing, use your Goddamn head.

Know your limits, respect others, play your character, work out gaps and problems in a civilized manner in messaging before-hand. Simple as that.

Acronym Key

RP – Rping - RolePlaying: Playing a different role/simulation.

OOC - OutofCharacter: Things that are not said by the character but instead by yourself.

IC – In Character: Things that are said or done by your character.

This last little bit is something I found concerning human characters. I though it was interesting so I’m including it.

Now believe it or not, playing a simple "human" is NOT boring. That is a MAJOR misconception that many role-players seem to have. Why? Because humans are honestly what the role-play world needs more of, in my opinion. There are so many different "non-human" characters out there, that it's almost as if humans do not even exist. One reason is because with all the different powers that non-human characters have, most are afraid to play a simple human character, in fear of never being able to stand against other beings that are so powerful. I think it takes someone brave and intelligent, to play a simple human character. Not only is it harder to play, because so many other beings have all these powerful abilities, but being able to keep your character alive in this vast fantasy world of powerful creatures, is an accomplishment of its own. And take it from me, it's not as hard to keep a human character alive as most would think.