Introduction: What is Roleplaying?

[Erin]

I feel like Mister Sharp in one of his satire videos...
But anyhow.
I thought that, in case anybody was curious, I should set up an introduction/ instruction manual to roleplaying. Here, if you had any, you could post questions about rping or things to add on to my explanation, you could post it here.
Essentially, a roleplay is a story that is collaborative with other people. One person would set a thread up, and from there, other people could join in. Each participant would have to post something for a fictional character or set of characters that would go into each story.

For example: Let's say Joe-Schmoe wants to set up a Harry Potter roleplay. He would start out by listing rules or guidelines that would apply to whatever twist he'd have on the plot (if any) and then post for his character. Let's call his character....Dedric Ciggory, the Ravenclaw. He would post something like this;
"Dedric stretched his arms, having fallen asleep in charms class. He hearing his stomach grumble, he decided to head to the Great Hall for lunch"

Let's say then that Jane wants to join in as well, so she posts something for her character, Grermione Hanger, the Slytherin:

"Grermione stomped angrily into the Great Hall. 'Ulgh', she thought with disgust, "What a horrid day I am having today!" She could not help but notice that prat, Ciggory, and trudged passed him.
"Move, filthy mudblood!" She snarled, hostily sitting at the Slytherin table."

These were not very exciting examples of course, but hopefully enough to give you the basic understanding. If you become a good roleplayer, the hobby becomes very addicting over time.
It does not, of course, have to be just Harry Potter. You could even make up an entire world of your own, if you wanted to, or take something not-so-original and add your own little twist on it.
So, that's that.

[Erin]

Here are some terms that are also essential for understanding roleplays:
RP-Roleplay, derp.
OOC: Literally stands for "Out of Character". This is when you are not posting for your characters, but are saying something relevant for a roleplay. If you say something OOC in the roleplaying thread, then you should say what you have to say in (parantheses);

"Ventus, horrified at seeing his friend taken by the unversed, charged after the demons in rage" (By the way, is Terra awake, or did he get knocked out by the heartless? I'm really confused.)

The phrase in parantheses would be the OOC. Normally, however, an OOC thread is reserved for a place to set up profiles or brainstorm about a roleplay.

Character Profile/Bio: Basically, this is a form of easy identification of your character, and often provides background information, particularly if it applies to specifics in an rp. Here, for example, would be Lyra Silvertongue's profile for a make-believe "His Dark Materials" roleplay;

Name: Lyra Silvertongue
Age:13
Gender:Female
Personality: Inquisitive, Tom-boyish, and cunning, Lyra is a relatively bright child. She is also, however, loyal to her loved ones.
Daemon: Pantalaimon, a small red martin.
Biography: :Lyra was at first born as an orphan in Oxford, and raised by the college servants...

In the biography, you would basically summarize your character's life story up to the point of their present situation. There also may be other things to fill out depending on the given profile skeleton of the rp. Some veteran roleplayers (or at least, people who know their character well enough) may choose to write their character(s)'s profiles in first person, while beginners often write it in third person. However, it's completely personal preference.

Self-Insert: Basically, a character who is (or represents) the person of the creator. So basically, it would be if I made a profile for Erin McCarthy, or someone very similar to me.

God-Mod: A character who kills or knocks out another person's character without permission of the thread's creator or creator of the character(s) in question. Let's say, for example, that Joe is playing Smeagle, while Jane is playing Frodo in a Lord of the Rings role play:

Joe: "Out of maniacal rage, Smeagle smashed the back of Frodo's head with a rock, watching the eyes of his adversary roll back into their sockets, and the hobbit lose conciousness as he fell to the ground."

If Joe did not have Jane's permission to do this, then this would be god-moding. Often, this is not allowed in roleplays.

PowerPlaying- A person who begins taking over someone else's character. Say, for example, that Jane is playing Candy Quackenbush, while Joe is playing Malingo in an Abarat roleplay;

"Candy watched the starry night sky, when Malingo suddenly whisked her into his arms, pressing his lips against hers, telling her that he loved her and wanted them both to be wed."

If Jane did not have Joe's permission to play Malingo, this would be powerplaying. This could also be powerplaying if, for example, Joe was going to be away for a while and asked Jane to substitute for playing Malingo in his absence, and did not ask her to post this particular action. (Personally I'd love Malingo and Candy to be together, but that's completely irrelevant).

Mary-Sue/ Gary-Stew- Often the bane of the role-playing/ fanfiction/ writing world. A Mary-sue/ Gary Stew (depending on their gender) is a perfect character. Often, this is present in fanfictions where writers insert themselves into a work and try to have the main cast fall in love with them. That, or they make their character all-powerful. Sometimes a Mary-Sue isn't a self-insert, and sometimes a self-insert is not a Mary-Sue. I'll post examples for this later.

[Luke]

i like your fandom choices

[Erin]

Why thank ye, sir