Basics Of Role Playing

What Is Role Playing?

Have you ever played Final Fantasy? Have you ever pretended to be someone you're not? Ever played Cops and Robbers as a kid? If you said yes to any of these, then you have already role played before.

In basic terms, role playing is acting like someone you are not. But there can be so much more to that.

In the case of this website it is the act of joining a rp and acting out a role as your character. It can be in various places from The Dark Age to the Apocalypse and everything in-between.

Character?

In each role play here you must create a character. How much and what kind of information you give depends on the rp. Think of it like creating a character for a book or a game, and then entering them into that game or book and have them act out their role with several other characters. Your character can be a knight, refugee, a different verison of yourself...well, they can be just about anything!

So How Do I Make One?

Well, with each rp it varies on what genre of rp it is and the thread creator. But there's normally the same basics in every sign-up form.

Username - Basically you put your username here. Simple enough, right?
Name - This will be the name of your character. You can use whatever name you want!
Age - This is the age of your character. Sometimes there will be a limit on how old or young your character can be. Per example if you are entering a High School rp it'd be unlikely that you'd put a six-year-old or a thirty-year-old into the rp. Unless they were a teacher or a super smart kid, but it may be best to stay on the safe side and just enter an average age for High School.
Gender - The gender of your character. You can be a boy and rp as a female and vice versa, however if you are new then it may be easier just to stick to your own gender.
History - It can be short or very long, whichever you perfer so long as the thread creator doesn't speificy a required length. This will be the history of your character. You can put how their family treats him or her, what was life for them growing up, any major events that happened to them, etc. If it was important in shaping them into who they are in the rp then it is best to put it here. However, you may want to restrain yourself from putting an entire auto-biography here. Leave out details that have no major impact on their life. So, something to add will be an accident they might of been in. Something to leave out will be when they lost their first tooth.
Personality - How does your character act in day to day life? Are they pretty laid back in most situations, or do they freak out easily? Are they open-minded and nice to others, or do they tend to perfer being alone or sometimes acts mean? And remember, if you put one thing down at the start than don't change it randomly later on. They can grow and change, but not be loving one second and then kick a puppy the next. (If you want someone to be bipolar or crazy then put that and explain their mood swings.)
Apperance - You may use a picture you found off of somewhere like photobucket.com or something your drew, or just words descriping how they look. Just avoid using pictures off of places like deviantart where other people drew the picture and have claims on it without first getting their permission.
Other - Anything else you wish to add about your character that you were unable to do so in any of the other fields.

Please don't fret if it seems like a lot; one day it'd all become pretty standard. Just go by each thing one by one and it'll be easy to understand.

Role Play Heaven is a site which allows its members to create a rp of their own. They get an idea, find the right board to post it in, and create a thread within that board that explains their idea. They are now a thread creator, and so long as they do not go against the site's rules, they are the boss of their thread. Their thread is now opened for the other members to post their characters in and join in on the rp, unless stated that it is a private rp. You, too, can become a thread creator.

I Can? But What Types Of RPs Can I make?

As stated before, RP Heaven has many genres of rps. In case you're confused as to which ones we have and what types of rps are allowed in each I'll break it down for you.

Elite - An area for advance RPers and RPs. It can be any genre here, but with stricter rules and longer, more detailed posts.
Anime - Do you like anime? Well, you can make rps base off of any anime you know of here. This inculdes manga as well.
Crossover - Crossover RPs are RPs that mix two different things together. An example would be having game characters go to a world that is from another game or maybe even in a book. One RP that we have is where all Final Fantasy characters are on the same world.
Fantasy - Any organial, as it doesn't follow a storyline of an anime or tv show, idea that would be considered fictional.
Media - Any RPs based off of a TV show or movie.
Games - Any RPs based off of a game.
Real Life- Any RP that does not follow a storyline of a book or show, but is non-fictional. Such as High School life and the like.

If you didn't see a genre which you were expecting and wish it were there, go to the suggestions page (https://rpheaven.forumotion.net/f6-suggestions) and tell us about it!

Great! I Want To Create A RP Now. But...What Do I Need To Have To Do That?

You only need three things to create a RP Thread.

The first, and most important, is a storyline. It can be anything you want it to be, just make sure that it matches the section you're posting it in. Meaning if it is based off of an anime then it goes in the anime section. People perfer if it were detailed, but it could be short as well. Just make sure everyone can understand the main points and it has some direction as to where it'd lead. (If you want help on how to make a nice plot, there's a help thread on that coming soon.)

Secondly, a sign-up form. You may edit it however you like. A basic one looks like this:

Username:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Appearance:
Personality:
History:
Other:

And lastly, rules. If you like the site's general rp rules (https://rpheaven.forumotion.net/t2-rp-rules) and have no extra rules to add, then you may state that people must follow those. However if you have an extra rule, such as only three characters per person, then you must list it. Otherwise no one will know it, and thus you cannot blame them if they make a fourth character. You may say you want only three, edit in the rule, and then disallow the fourth character, but I do suggest listing all of the rules to start with and in a clear fashion.

Open RPs: Open for anyone to join. If you do not state if a RP is privte or not then you cannot disallow anyone to join so long as they are not breaking any rules.

Private RPs: It's best if you state this where everyone will see it. Perhaps in the title or at the very start of the thread. If the RP is privte it may be open to only the creator and their friends. If you wish to join you may ask them to join through PMs, but do not harass them by asking every five minutes or send more than one message. And do not take it was a personal blow if they say no, it could just be that it was meant to be something special with their close friends only.

Also, I might as well explain it here.

OnexOne RPs: RPs with only two people in them. It's a back and forth RP that focuses mainly on two characters only.

So I Made My RP And Someone Broke The Rules But They Won't Leave! What Do I Do? / Someone Is Telling Me To Leave Their RP When I've Done Nothing Wrong! What Should I Do?

In both of these situations you avoid conflict as much as possible. As the other RPers their opinions on what happened and try to reach an agreement. If no agreement can be made and a rule breaker keeps posting in your thread or a creator refuses to let you join then you should contact a staff member and allow them to settle the matter. Punishments that can be given if they are found guilty ranges from a warning to being locked out from the section to a ban. Just remember that you should not try to back-seat mod and ignore the opposing party completely if they still wish to argure and you're waiting for the staff's deciession.

For a list of RP terms you can look here: https://rpheaven.forumotion.net/t185-rp-terms

If you see a word you do not know and it's not listed there and then post on that thread saying so and it will be added to the list.

Please check out our other help threads and guides, and remember to be respectful and follow the rules. Hope this was helpful and that you enjoy the site!