Message Board RPing Guide

[Lost Digi Girl]

Although this guide is aimed directly at message board RPing, it can be helpful for normal writing and other RPing. I will usually use Hidimon/DF characters and copied posts as examples, but other cases may occur.

I've divided it up into four main parts. Suggestions to help your main person, the general situation, added details, and expections to everything.

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1. Rendering---(Show, not tell)

Basicly, giving detailed details and explaining every action and event. Making it clear to anyone who reads it, so they can have a completely clear picture of exactly what is going on.

EX-(bad rendering) Brian hunts for a stick

(good rendering) Brian walked away from the group, staring at the ground. He walk to the closest tree, and circled it, first looking at the ground, then the branches. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something. He walked over to another tree, and found a 2 foot long branch, with small twigs. He pulled them off, until he had a relatively smooth and straight stick. Then he walked back to the group, smirking over his current favorite stick.


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2.Emotions---(What in the world are you up to?)

Now technically, this isn't necessary but is extremly helpful. It helps to see the reasoning and motivation behind peoples' actions, and can help make up if other information is not said, such as some actions.

It helps if there is a real reason behind an emotion, to make it seem realistic. People don't go from happy to sad in a snap with nothing different besides the words "now I'm sad". Even if a person isn't aware of why they feel that way, at least say there is a reason, if only for the benefit of the readers.

EX(Copied from "Confusion on Mayanne Street" at Acamina, DF RPG)
""Kenny bent down, worried. Another digimon as a human? First Wazumi, then Hidimon, and he'd heard of another one, but never knew that one. And Realemon probably could. But Wazumi was the closest he had to guessing how to help this guy, but Wazumi never got hurt. He didn't exactly trust all of Wazumi's ideas and logic lately anyway. Like the 'Cake' signs that kept popping up. Once again, he saw himself thinking of asking Jenni, but how could she help. When Digimon were human, were they totally human, or still part digimon?

Kenny bent down next to him. "I'm not Wedge, but I'll help you. But, what should we do? Get you to a hospital, or something for digimon?" Kenny whispered. ""

This shows both his emotions, and his thoughts to his emotions, which explains his actions and dialogue, which is something the other people can respond it.


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3. Dialogue--(Please explain)

Dialogue is talking, so in theory you can't have rules for it. You may know that standard english says that it's "My sister and I went to the store", but people would commonly say "Me and my sister." In normal dialogue, it doesn't matter, as long as the dialogue is something that person would really say. Like no typical 8 year old would say 'My sister and I'.

However, you can do more when talking than just saying what you say. You can use actions and facial expressions to show how the person feels when saying that. People can lie, maybe their face shows it. Someone may say they will help, but you can see that they don't feel that way.

Also, showing what someone is thinking can help also. Thought can be like a dialogue at times, especially if talking with yourself in your head. But if you show thought, then don't put it in the same format as dialogue, by using italics or something else. If a person's actions are very intertwined with the thoughts, then it could make sense to write them together with no difference to show which is which.

Finally, be sure that the dialogue and thoughts are realistic. Unless you know exactly what is going on, not everyone can figure out a whole situation in 3 sentences. Usually there is some thought or dialogue to show the person working out the problem. This can also help to show what the person is like, how they handle and work out the problem.

EX(Copied from 'Reunion', at Lulu Tower, Hidimon's Game)

"You're right" Brian said. "You were in that stinking coma. So you don't know everything. When we were ditching Realemon, we weren't going to save Jenni and Ken. We had already gotten them out of the illusions. We were going to stinking save your and AJ's dumb butt. But you wouldn't know that. But I was there. So why do you think you know more than me? And I do care about the others. It's just that there is no point to letting danger walk right up to us before we say 'hey, this is kinda serious' That's just plain dumb. But that is what you seem to be doing. And guess what? I don't think I like you. But that's no big surprise. The others are fine. ANd I have bickered with Cake since day 1. I've teased him about that since day 1."

"No you didn't" Wizardmon interupted. "I teased you since Day 1, as Gateau Wazumi that is."

Brian smiled. "Yeah but we always thought you were weird. Especially when Jenni and Ken said your name meant Cake."

"Well, it would have been a highly suspecious name." Ken added.

"I've told you the story why. For friends. So why are we fighting?" Wizardmon asked.

Brian turned to Brandy. "Because she is an idiot that is willing to put all of us at risk for a danger that she thinks we can handle but we need to be prepared and not let things get to our head. I don't get why you became the unoffical leader of the group. You stink."

"Hmmm. Maybe her experience in JROTC helps make her a better leader than you?" Wizardmon asked.

"SHUT UP CAKE!" Brian yelled. He stomped up to Brandy. "You may be older than me. And...most of us. Okay. You may be older than all of us humans except AJ. But that doesn't make you better. Or gie you the right to let stinking illusions trample us until we are dead, because you think that one illusion is okay and think that we can trust it. I may not know how she helped, because some idiot won't tell me. So why should we listen to you?"

"Because she tried to save me why I almost got us in danger and Brandy is a good person?" Jenni said, crying.

Brian shot a mean look at Jenni. "Okay, someone hit her because this is getting annoying. Bring back Hidimon and stinking make her shut up and grow up."


Brian's yelling shows part of the reasons why he hates Brandy, but even in his anger, still gets along with some of his friends. But sometimes things still annoy him. It's not shown why Jenni annoyed him though, but his anger isn't as harsh as it is for Brandy.

[Lost Digi Girl]

4. Other characters you may play---(Digimon are people too)

Basicly, apply anything you may do to show your main person to all characters you play. Just because one is more important or more noticible doesn't mean the others deserve less attention. This may be other humans, digimon, or a pet cat. Even minor NPCs you may use just for a battle or a brief coversation at the local store deserve some thought. No one in life is one sided, so to add to the realism, show that. You don't have to show everything for a NPC, but your real characters are just as detailed as your main one. Show it. Sometimes this can be done much more easily if one plays fewer characters, or have them at different locations.

EX(Copied from "Return Anew", Lulu Tower, Hidimon's Game)

Canamon smiled, despite the bump on her head(caused by Brian, who still stood over Brandy.) "You good boy."

Lunamon walked over to Canamon. "But she brought in ANOTHER illusion. Why do you have to do that?!" She picked up Canamon, carried her to one of the rooms, and closes the door behind her. She took Canamon to the window, and threw her out. Then she threw a ball of dark energy at her, causing her to faint.

Wazumi goes to another room, closing the door behind him.

Brian watches him leave, then kicks Brandy. "Stupid beep beep beep, beeping beep beep beep..."

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" N'amie asked on the other side of the door. "Or at least take the crying girl in there?"

Brian walked over to the door, and stuck his head through. "No." And he went back inside, stomping off into the room with Wazumi.

Even with so many characters, the only one who barely does anything is Wazumi, but he's leaving for a different reason-he can't be near illusions, which Canamon had teleported into the room. Everyone is shown for their normal and typical way of being.



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5. Other PCs---(You're not in this alone)

If the point of the RPG is to meet people and do things together, then do things together. Talk to people, interact. Try not to leave anyone out. If a person hasn't been playing for a while, then it's okay to ignore them, just assume they are busy or something. But when they are back, talk and stuff, but not as if you just heard that person for the first time. Time doesn't freeze, it moves on. Say you didn't hear them, or create a new conversation. Don't act as if you just heard something said an hour ago. Also, if a person has said they are busy, then let them be. A person may just be showing their character's typical style.

EX. Jasmine and Deragon on the bus to CSUA. Jasmine was busy writing, and Deragon would speak with her.

EX. At Wedge's base, Pirelli and Wedge had been talking to each other late at night, until Kyriimon came. I wasn't able to post for a while, so it would be okay to assume Pirelli fell asleep, being as it was very late at night.


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6. PC vs Personal Knowledge---(You are NOT your Character)

You know more than your person does. You know that the worlds are known as 'season1/2' and 'Season 3'. But your person doesn't. They would just know it as their dimension. Or maybe some know the coding for it on the D-Porter, but that is just a combination of letters and numbers(I think I had once written it as algebraic equations). Be sure not to show the reality of what you know.

Likewise, your person knows more than you do. I don't know anything about real other dimension theories, Jasmine does. She probably understands quantum physics a lot better than I do. When you post, you can imply this knowledge, but not really have to act it out.

There have been real times when this type of situation has lead to trouble. In one DnD campaign, all my friends knew that three NPCs liked one guy and him back, but our characters had no clue. But we acted as if we did. Something similar happens if DF, where people refer to the groups as 'factions' or 'factors', but not all the characters would know that as those terms. Jasmine didn't think of herself as a real group until people started to join her, and with them came the assumtion of it being her 'faction'.

Sometimes you can't change what has happened, but you can try to let mistakes fade into the background, and always keep other PC and personal knowledge separate.


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7. Battle---(It's not just naming an attack)

Everything may have a name, but they are more than that. If your digimon(or yourself maybe) use an attack, what is it like? Is it magical or physical? What does it look like? How does it hit the opponate, or does it? If magical or such, what type of attack is it? Fire? Ice? In order to best understand the situation, it helps to describe what is going on, and that includes what attacks are like. This gives your opponate and other people in the area a clear understanding of what happens, so they can react in the proper way.

Part of this can include using the surroundings to help the picture, and help locate where you are compared to everyone else.

[Lost Digi Girl]

8. Timing---(1 year real time =/= 1 day game time.)

How in the world is it that at Hidimon's Game, we started on March 3, 2003, saying that it was about noonish, Nov. 30, 2003, and it's Sept. 17, 2004, and in the game, it's night, Nov. 30, 2003. It's because timing was left out. If people noticed it, they didn't react to it. People didn't think about how long actions took. Part of this was the admin's fault(okay, mine), but it helps to look at mistakes to understand how to prevent other ones.

One solution can be to always try to use any knowledge about the timing in your post. What is the weather and temperature like? How dark or not dark is it? By doing things like this, it can help make it easier to keep track of what time it is.

Also, related to timing and problems at Hidimon, are you human? Are you mortal? If yes, then when was the last time you ate or slept? Real people do that, and you should too. Even if you can make up a fancy story on why you don't eat in 3 days, or can last on 30 minutes of sleep for a week, don't. Be human, and eat. And sleep. If you do it at the right time, when everyone else is, then you won't miss much.

9. Setting---(Is there a clairvoyant in the house?)

Okay, you know the name of your location. If you're lucky, it's some generic place so the real details don't matter, right? No. If you want people to understand everything, show them everything. Act as if this is a place that they need to remember. If it's a place you will come back to, make sure they can't forget the place and how to get there.

Sometimes, this can be made easy for you. Some places are already well known, some were described in other posts. Yo don't have to recreate every place you go to. If at Lulu Tower, just act as if you know what it's like, and describe where you are. If if a mysterious forest, show why it's so mysterious, even if it's just so foggy you can't see until you trip on a log. That's more than just saying 'at the forest'.

10. Grammer--(Eng 16 anyone?)

Now, like said before, grammer doesn't mean anything in dialogue. You can be a perfectionist, you can use slang. You can even hypercorrect everything. (The 'my sister and I' rule doesn't mean "He gave that to my sister and I") You can talk any way you feel suits your character.

Now in everything else, grammer helps. It helps make sure everyone knows what is going on. You can go as far as using standard english in everything said, or you can just make sure everything is in a proper sentence. I'm not sure how much of this guide is in 'standard' english or in 'vernacular' english, but as my Eng 16 teacher says, it doesn't exactly matter. Making sure everyone understands is the main goal.


11. Paragraphs---(Because one block of writing of 10,000 letters is scary)

Honestly, if you can write that much, it'd have to be in paragraphs or no one would read it. But, smaller paragraphs can seem just as boring. Sometimes, breaking things up into more managable portions is the best way to get your point accross. It can also make it easier to find things posted in the future.

Paragraphs don't have to just divides between different characters, although that helps a lot. They can be used to show different points to show, even if the same person is doing it. They can show different emotions, purposes, locations, or actions. It's mostly up to the writer's judgement to make sure that things are shown in the easiest and best light.

EX. The 'Lost Factor' story is mainly one character, Jasmine. She may have Alimon, but she rarely speaks. If not for showing different actions, emotions, and places in separate paragraphs, each chapter would look long and intimidating.

[Lost Digi Girl]

12. Exceptions---(This IS just a guide)

Sometimes, you have to go against what is commonly accepted as a 'rule' to show a point or something. Maybe more than two people speak in a paragraph, but perhaps because they said it at the exact same time.

Sometimes a post can be one line, but that's all a person can do; adding more would lessen the effect. You don't have to talk forever if all the person would do is say 'i love you'.

Occationally, a setting is so well known, or so generic that there's no point in pointing it out. There's a map of exactly what Lulu Tower is like. Another example-everyone knows what a room in a mental hospital looks like, a white padded room. That's all that you may need to say, OR you may need to show more details than needed, if a person reacts that way, like tracing their finger along every line of every brick that makes the tower.

Sometimes, dialogue may need to be edited, or have a translation posted. Anyone who puts Alimon, Canamon, and Hidimon in a room together will get lost in Alimon's 'yoda' speech, Canamon's singular syllable words with bad verb usage, and Hidimon's comments that have no relevence to anything in existance.

Sometimes, people and digimon may seem one sided, boring basic cut out copies. Canamon rarely shows emotions, but perhapse it's just her simplisity. Or a lack of planning. Or her young age. Even if a person seems flat, maybe there's a reason behind it, something that if said, can show that they aren't flat.

Sometimes, things can happen out of nowhere. With no reason. DF Jenni is the best example. She is insane. She will talk about yugioh one minute, think she's a DnD character the next, and think her best friend wants to date her little brother because the names are similar. Such unpredicablity is typical of Jenni. If someone else did that, it'd seem out of place. If Jenni started being sane, she's be out of character. If you have a way to play a character, play them consistantly, even if they themselves are unpredictable.

Overall, it always depends on the situation. Use the rules, ignore the rules, modify the rules. But really, this is just a guide to help you, it's not the real rules. It's just here to help you find the best way to get your point across, in the most effective manner.