How to Create a Roleplay

[RpNation]

Creating a Roleplay​

You've created your account, perhaps posted an introduction, and you are now ready to take the plunge into creating a roleplay. This is a guide to help direct you in this process.

First Things First

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Before you post any content on RPNation, it is highly suggested that you review the site rules.

I know, it's long and you may ask yourself "why bother?" The reason you should bother is that without knowing these rules you put yourself at risk of posting rule-breaking content. Content that violates the site's rules will result in consequences.

Interest Checks

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Before creating your actual roleplay, you may wish to consider creating what is called an interest check. The purpose of an interest check is promote and gather interest from other members. There isn't any special format or formula that will guarantee your interest check will draw people in, but patience goes a long way.

Here are some things to consider when creating an interest check:

• How many other participants do you want for this RP?
• What genre or setting is this RP?
• Do you have any preferences or requirements?
  • Writing style?
  • Pairings?
  • Genres?
  • Post length?
  • Fandoms?
  • + etc
• Do you have any specific plots or settings?

You can take a look at the interest checks of other members here in the Recruitment section. This is also where you should post your own interest checks.

You'll notice that these interest checks all have a colorful prefix which gives it a setting. If you need help to determine what setting your roleplay falls under, further down there is a section called Genres/Settings/Types that can help you with this. You can also add custom tags to help other members search for or determine what your roleplay is about. So if your setting is modern, but you have a supernatural element, you can add a custom tag with "supernatural."

Roleplay Advice & Discussion

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The Roleplay Advice & Discussion Forum is a place where you can go if you want some feedback on your roleplay idea. Helpful feedback and questions here can help you better develop and plan your roleplay. Just remember that you may face some constructive criticisms here and that once you post your interest check you can no longer discuss the RP in this forum.

Genres/Settings/Types

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One of the most common questions regarding interest checks and roleplay creation is determining what genre/setting/type it falls under. Below you will find a section from the FAQ regarding expanded information on these settings.

Where does my roleplay go?
Our Roleplays are categorized by their setting. For example: Your roleplay contains elves, but it is set within today’s setting. It should be placed into Modern/Realistic.

Fandom
is just what you think it is. If it contains characters or story from a movie, book, tv-show, etc., it belongs to Fandom.

Fantasy
is a reality that is more fantastic, more whimsical and has the more traditional elements within it that you know you are not grounded in anything that is like our reality and world at its core.

Modern or Realistic
is a reality that is similar to our own. It might have some minor magic or creatures in it or even zombies trying to eat us, but the technology and the way of life we experience in this game is similar to the reality we all face in our real lives.

Futuristic
is a reality that is far more advanced technologically (typically) and possesses characteristics that we would associate with the future of our reality.

Some roleplays also contain a unique format.

One on One (1x1)
are private roleplays meant only to be between two or three people..

Dice
roleplays are based on a dice system for the game to run. Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder are a couple of examples for dice formats.

Nation Building
roleplays focus on world building across two or more nations. Common themes in these roleplays are military strategy and politics.

The Colosseum
is for roleplays that are exclusively combat-focused. These roleplays are generally not plot-intensive.

The Quest Log
is for roleplays where a single person writes a story and other people post votes to influence the events of the roleplay.

Planning

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While this isn't a requirement, it is advised that you should plan out your roleplay beforehand. If you are creating a group roleplay, perhaps you would like to set some rules. If you have a custom world, you should probably write out the lore first so that later on you won't have to rush it. If you have a character sheet you want used, perhaps even using some BBCode to make it fancy, this would be part of the planning process.

Creating Your Threads

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Previously RPNation had offered tabs to help member's centrally locate all information regarding a roleplay. This mean you could just click a tab and instantly have access to the OOC (out of character) thread. However, tabs are currently not available at this time, though they may be re-introduced in xenForo 2.0.

So, where do all your threads actually go now? Here is a screenshot of the One on One roleplay forum.

​

At the top you will see the main forum for where One on One IC (in character) posts should go. Basically, this is the main roleplay thread.

Extra Pages: Any lore, Character sheets, Out of Character discussions or additional roleplay information would go here.

When participants create new characters, they would simply post a reply to the main character thread you have set up for your RP.

So, the result of creating a thread in all these areas would result in only four threads specifically for your RP. If you are worried about information being buried within these threads, there is a wonderful feature known as "Threadmarks."

Still Have Questions?

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If you still have questions, please first check out the FAQ. If you question is still not answered there, feel free to post a thread in the Site Questions & Information Forum.

 

[stepherz345]

Every site works differently so I appreciate all the tutorials and details!

 

[Jack Lick]

So...what if I want to use the Colosseum? Can this still work?

 

[Sibelle Grey]

Thank you very much

 

[Joonster]

This is so helpful thanks so much! lol

 

[Pine]

[QUOTE="Jack Lick]So...what if I want to use the Colosseum? Can this still work?

[/QUOTE]
Hey there! Sorry for the super late reply. I believe you've figured this out now, but this tutorial is a little out of date. We're hoping to get this, as well as other tutorials, up to speed in the near future. In the mean time, if ever you want to create a roleplay or any other type of thread someone, simply visit the individual forum and you should see a button that says "post new thread." This behaves the same way as any other method of creating a thread/roleplay would and you'll still get the same tabs for your roleplay as you would otherwise. But again lmao I think you already figured that all out oops.

 

[Elizabeth Schuyler]

When I go to Post a new thread, I never get more than the one tab. How do I change this?

 

[Pine]

Hey @Elizabeth Schuyler! The only threads you'll find that get extra tabs are just those that are roleplays. Anything else, such as an introduction thread or an interest check thread, will not come with tabs.

 

[Kyona Rei]

What's Dice rp?


That's still a question I don't know the answer to, maybe I missed it.


Thank you for these wonderful explenations!

 

[Darkmaster006]

[QUOTE="Kyona Rei]What's Dice rp?
That's still a question I don't know the answer to, maybe I missed it.


Thank you for these wonderful explenations!

[/QUOTE]
Oh, it's just a roleplay that has dices in it. Mostly, you have Dungeons and Dragons RPs, or some kind of fight system RP, like maybe in a Naruto RP you'd use that. I have also seen it used on Pokemon RPs.

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Most of the links don't direct to the right page or simply show "Error"

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

Most of the links don't direct to the right page or simply show "Error"

Not sure when this was last updated. I think before the site went through a change.

 

[d1uni5ys24si3o]

Not sure when this was last updated. I think before the site went through a change.

okok

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

okok

There is this one you can try. https://www.rpnation.com/threads/how-to-roleplay.71176/

And of course, you can ask me if you have any questions. And anybody else would also be happy to help, I'm sure.

 

[Fable]

Most of the links don't direct to the right page or simply show "Error"

With the switch from xF to IPS and then back to xF some links were broken. We're slowly going through and updating tutorials and guides or just completely re-writing them. It just takes time. X3

 

[xConstincex]

Thanks so much for the wonderful explanation Hun!

 

[CaptivatingMc14]

This was helpful, thank you! C:

 

[CaptivatingMc14]

Nice profile pic!

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

Nice profile pic!

Hey friend. Welcome to the site. If you'd like the person you are directing the comment towards to know that you are speaking to them, you can tag them.

You type @ and then the users name.

 

[CaptivatingMc14]

Cold Ramen Noodles Like that? And thanks.

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

Cold Ramen Noodles Like that? And thanks.

Yup. You can also quote someone like I'm doing if you want to respond to a specific thing they said. Just click quote underneath the post and then click insert quote when typing your own post and click the quote you want.

 

[CaptivatingMc14]

Yup. You can also quote someone like I'm doing if you want to respond to a specific thing they said. Just click quote underneath the post and then click insert quote when typing your own post and click the quote you want.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

Thanks for the help.

No problem. Enjoy the site!

 

[hiding_in_yourcloset]

Thanks for the info

 

[Satanic Nightjar]

Thanks! I have one additional question, though (and maybe I'm just stupid xD). Do I just give a title for the sub-forums that you mentioned, or what is necessary to create them?
Thanks for all the help!