A General Guide to Roleplaying

So you're a newbie to roleplaying and you don't quite know exactly what to do? You've come to the right place! Even if you're not so new, it's recommended you at least peruse this guide. Who knows? You may learn something new!

What is Roleplaying - The Extreme Basics

Roleplaying is when several people get together to write a story with each other via posts. They take on the roles of characters and play out various scenarios. They write out that character's actions, thoughts, and speech, and then others react to them.

If you honestly don't know what roleplaying is or how it is executed, it is recommended that you look at some existing threads to see how others do it.

Formatting Speech, Thoughts, and Actions

So perhaps you are already aware of the above. But there is a certain etiquette behind roleplaying. When a character speaks, their text should have quotes around it. Here is an example of the proper way to do it:

Example:

"Um, well... I'm not sure." Artsy furrowed her brow contemplatively at being asked this piercing question.

As you may have noticed, any feelings or actions should be placed outside of the quotation marks.

There are several different ways of showing thoughts and it is not wrong to do any of them, but I personally recommend that you italicize thoughts.

Example:

"I'm not sure about this pony... he's kind of weird," thought Artsy anxiously.

Grammar, Spelling, Tense, and Spacing

If you want to ensure your posts have maximum readability, you should use as much proper grammar and spelling as you can muster. Capitalize the beginning of each sentence, proper nouns, names, and leave a period at the end. The key to good roleplaying is to write as if you were writing an assignment for school. You wouldn't want your teacher to give you bad marks, would you?

Another mistake many beginning roleplayers tend to make is tense. If you are roleplaying, choose a tense (usually past or present) and use it consistently. Switching between tenses can become confusing and overall messy.

Past Tense:

Rainbow Dash glided past the cloud.

Present Tense:

Rainbow Dash glides past the cloud.

Then there is spacing. Spacing your posts out correctly is also key to proper roleplaying. If you have a long wall of text, please please please split it up into paragraphs or people will be more likely to skip over your post! But do not make a new line break for every sentence, either, as this creates an unnecessarily long post and negatively affects readability.

Common Spelling Mistakes

There, They're, Their: "There" is a place, "they're" is short for "they are," and "their" is something that belongs to someone.
Examples:

"There's Ponyville!"
"They're being really jealous."
"I don't think you should take their pie.

Your, You're: "Your" refers to something that belongs to you, "you're" is short for "you are."
Examples:

"Your tea, madam?"
"You're ridiculous."

It's, Its: "It's" is short for "it is," "its" refers to something that belongs to something.
Examples:

"It's quiet in here..."
"The dragon flexed its claws."

Then, Than: "Then" refers to a time when something happened, "than" is used to compare things.
Examples:

"Then a giant cupcake crushed the ponies!"
"I'm 20% cooler than Rainbow Dash.

Who's, Whose: "Who's" is short for "who is," and "whose" refers to something that belongs to someone.
Examples:

"Who's there?!"
"Whose blanket is this?"

Roleplay Terminology

OOC - Out of Character
DM - stands for Dungeon Master, but refers to the original creator of the thread and roleplay. They are usually allowed to use god-like characters and are sort of like the moderators of their roleplay.
Godmodding - refers to when a person takes control of a character that isn't theirs or in general tries to control things they are not supposed to.
Spoiler
There are subtle forms of godmodding. For instance, if you shoot a burst of magic at someone's pony... saying "the burst of magic hits the pony" is godmodding because you are not allowing the other person a chance to dodge or react, which is a form of control. Rather, it is recommended that you say that your character "aimed the burst of magic and hoped that it hit." In some roleplays, as well, controlling what time of day it is when it is only the job of the DM is also considered a form of godmodding.
Mary Sue/Gary Sue/Marty Sue - The most commonly used term is "Mary Sue". A Mary Sue is a character that is overly perfect and appears to have no flaws. This is not a type of character you want to use, as it annoys many roleplayers.
Spoiler
The typical symptoms of a Mary Sue include everyone loving them for some reason, the ability to do no wrong, some kind of overly dramatic and tragic backstory, being extremely beautiful or good-looking, having unique/special powers that are usually considered rare, and generally taking over the story and trying to be involved with everything.
Overpowered - A character or an object that is significantly more powerful than other characters, often to the point of being ridiculous and god-like. Heavily related to godmodding.