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[sign-ups for anyone still interested!] Chapter 1: Deja Vu “Are we really at the point where we’re sending out a doctor to the front lines?” - Lieutenant Jacob Snider, Field Commander of the Warriors of Light. Disney Castle, General Quarters “This is General Jason Schindler, Leader of what remains of the Warriors of Light, signing out for what may be the last time.” With a click and a sigh, Schindler ended his personal diary to an electronic recorder that was in his hand. A red light blinked three times on the small handheld instrument before going dark, signalling the instrument’s offline status. Not a moment too soon, the war weary leader heard a knock on the bedroom door. “General?” the muffled voice informed, “You’re needed in the throne room.” “I’ll be there, Snider.” He coolly replied back. Looking out beyond his rather cozy and luxurious bedroom through the ornate window, the general couldn’t help but feel conflicted at the sight of the azure blue sky. It looked comforting, but he knew better; beyond the sea of tranquil blue was a hostile place, and the thought of the ever encroaching darkness only made his heart sink just a little more. His anxiousness was reinforced as he witnessed a squadron of aircraft fly past, marking the end of one watch shift and the beginning of the next. It’s as if… I felt this way before? Shaking off the oddly negative feelings, Schindler took a deep breath and parted the doors that isolated him from the cruel reality that he now faces. I wonder what His Majesty has in mind to turn this tide of war? Disney Castle, Courtyard The large passenger doors of the angular transport ship hissed open as the craft made a gentle touchdown in the rather beautiful garden. The warm, bright sunlight flooded the compartment, illuminating the valuable cargo inside: People. But not just any people. No, this transport was special. Within the metallic walls of the ship were the finest that the Warriors of Light still have. They had stayed back at the front lines, fighting tooth and nail to buy their comrades the time they needed to evacuate the desperate civilians off the falling worlds of Traverse Town and Radiant Garden. These people witnessed the atrocities of the darkness first hand; some were powerless to stop innocent lives being taken away in front of their eyes, others were simply too late. Whether the sights had affected these people remained to be seen, but it was clear that many would never be the same after the traumatic events that had transpired within the past three days. It is here that we find Lieutenant Mors, Lieutenant Armis, Keyblade Wielders Rei and Reiner, and Technician “Niner” skirting the edge of the passenger compartment. Behind them were a platoon of soldiers. Every single one of them had a blank expression; none bothered talking to each other during their transit from the fallen worlds to the safe haven of the castle. The engines quieted into an a low, idling drone. A tall, well built man in what looked to be like keyblade armor approached the ship. His short, blonde hair glowed in the sunlight as the short blue cape that was attached to his left armored pauldron fluttered in the downdraft of the ship. “Welcome to the Castle!” the man saluted to the newcomers. His piercing green eyes were quietly assessing the veterans, checking for the tell-tale signs of lingering distress. “There are specific individuals here that command has taken interest in. If there is a Captain O’Malley, Lieutenant Mors, Lieutenant Armis, Keybladers Rei de Wynter and Reiner Anthem in this transport, please proceed towards the briefing room immediately. It’s down the hall over there, directly across the door that leads into the throne room.” "O'Malley is MIA, sir." One of the soldiers responded. "W-... What?" "You... weren't updated, sir?" The man balled his fists, but kept a straight demeanor. "No. I was not informed. Thank you for the information, soldier." Disney Castle, Infirmary “More wounded incoming!” A royal nurse announced to the staff that was currently on shift, “everyone to stations!” Amidst the chaos of triage and preparing the area for new patients, it is here that we find Alexiei Valkire in his natural habitat. Gurneys started coming through the double doors that isolated the room from curious eyes. As the initial patients rolled in, the staff jumped into action. It was just another average day after all, and most of the nurses and doctors have gotten enough on site training since the war began to start specializing in certain types of wounds. “7 burn patients!” “2 frosties with 1 criti-” "Set them over here! I need 4 bags of-" “ICU we got a thunder patient!” “Can we really save her like this?” “4 slashed. 2 critical, 1 mortal and 1 minor.” “Damned heartless…” As the doctors and nurses scurried about, a member of the elite guards entered the facility. Carefully staying out of the way of the medical staff, he made a beeline to Alexiei and tapped him on the shoulder when the time seemed appropriate. “Alexiei Valkire?” the man asked, “I apologize for interrupting, but you are needed in the throne room immediately, by order of command.”

Update Log: >>>As of 1/6/15 at 1:40am Central US Time, this page has surpassed 1,500 views!!! But I'm pretty sure 1,499 of those are from me Thank you for the views!<<< >>>As of 2/5/15, the view counter was reset! On the bright side, at least now it gives a realistic view of how many people frequent this page. -This RP Guide has been mentioned on the Timeline! Yay! -Fast Link to Roleplay Character Repository Thread here If you want to see the basic rules for forum interactions/Roleplaying, click here! Need to rant and want your voice to be heard? Or, want to find out how not to RP? Want to find out why this guide is here in the first place? Head on over to this other guide to find out!!!! This post‘s intention is to serve as a very generic and basic assisting reference guide to text-based roleplays [Whether or not this will be on the same level as GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System), well I hope it doesn't reach that level...] and is not, by any means, a hard-line 'rule book' that should be followed to a tee... With this in mind however, this post does intend to address many common issues found in text based, online roleplaying in a manner so as to not piss off both established and new-coming roleplayers here on the site [otherwise, I would have done this in that other thread...] Text-based online roleplays can be a fun and exciting way to not only burn time [anything to take your mind of that math homework right in front of you, amirite?], but also make new friends, develop your writing techniques [by being critical of your own handiwork and/or analyzing other people’s writing style] and gives you an opportunity to add your own twists and plot-points into an ever expanding story. This guide is not just about giving new roleplayers an idea on how RPs work, but can also be used by veteran roleplayers to help refine their techniques and can also give everyone involved new ideas and facets for RP development that will help contribute to the overall story. Now I know what you’re all thinking: Who the kupo does this guy think he is for making a guide for roleplaying? I can roleplay better than this nutjob! Well… Hear me out on this. I've been involved with several roleplays here on this site and in reality. Yes, I’m talking Dungeons and Dragons, and I've been playing many different types of it, including: Star Wars RPG [Pilot; Edge of the Empire], a classic medieval RPG [Paladin; Dungeon World], and Warhammer 40k [Heavy Gunner, Only War] just to name a few. Mind you, this user doesn't necessarily have that vaunted ‘holier than thou’ mindset [ok maybe a little...], but rather wanted to share the knowledge of basic RPing that isn't covered by THE grand-mack-daddy-master site administrator DChiuch, former roleplayer Kaiso, and veteran roleplayer Silver Kuroi, and wants a little more direction on how to roleplay without having to pay like $59.99 for a general rule book and needing several 20 sided dices to determine what happens next. This guide can be relevant only if the community [you] contributes to it and actually reads it lolwut. If you have a bone to pick with this guide, have any suggestions on how to improve this guide, have a great example to replace the ones that are used to demonstrate some RP concepts, or have general pointers/questions/personal methods that you wouldn't mind sharing with the community, please post on this thread! I'll be sure to credit/respond to you and/or the references suggested if it ends up being used within this guide. General Rules for Online, text-based Forum Thread Roleplays: Subscribe to the thread. This allows everyone to be notified when there’s a new post in the RP, and reminds players that they’re involved in that roleplay to begin with. Not a hard rule, but really handy: Have the initial sign-ups thread also be the out-of-character/roleplay thread [OOC Thread]. This prevents players from filling up the main roleplay with garbage posts and allows discussions of the RP in another dedicated thread instead of within the main one. Create the actual RP as a separate, new thread. Not exactly a rule but a suggestion: Type out your posts in third person. Afterall, an RP is like weaving a story, but with more people involved. Always be involved within the roleplay! A surefire way to sink a good roleplay is by having either the players or the host not post within the RP. If some players are no longer interested in participating or cannot post for any variety of circumstances, kindly let everyone in the RP know so the creator of the RP can off the characters and continue the story. If the creator no longer wishes to participate in their own roleplay say what now?, then sorry to say but the RP is as good as dead. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do You Want to Make A Roleplay? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RolePlay Mechanics (I know what you're thinking... No, not those hot hunks with monkey wrenches and blue overalls that's looking at you seductively. Sorry to disappoint you.) [Please note that you don't have to read it all. It's divided into sub-sections for a raison. Stop yelling at me! (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ ] The Fundamentals: Character Creation: Heroes and Villains Character Creation: Characteristics, Skill Statistics, Specializations, and Morality [The Nitty-Gritty Stuff...] Assembling and Maintaining the Storyline Using Character Descriptors to Influence the Plot World Building Getting to Know Your NPCs Getting to Know Your NPCs: The Shopkeepers: Acquiring Items and Other Stuff Within an RP Making Enemies/Random Encounters ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roleplaying Making a Good Roleplay Post: Length vs Quality and Character Immersion Player Interactions: Dialogue and Control Adding Character Depth through Actions or Thoughts Character Development Arc: General Character Development Arc: Relationships Character Development Arc: Death lolwut? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battles For Text-based, online roleplays, the focus should be more on the story-telling aspect of it, like painting the scenery, and hearing about the player character's struggles and triumphs over their challenges within the RP. But lets face it: Fights and all out battles are gonna happen sooner or later (it wouldn't be fun without it). Special Note for RP Hosts Against Players Combat: The Basics Combat: Advanced Combat: Etiquette Combat: Damage Combat Scenario: Player vs. Player/Host Combat Scenario: Player NPCs vs. Host/Player NPCs Remember, roleplaying is more than just about how descriptively awesome someone can destroy their enemy. It's about interacting with others in a fun, exciting way on a familiar realm as everyone involved weaves their own story into a much greater one. If pulled off correctly, the results is nothing short of spectacular, where everyone involved will walk away awestruck at the thought that they were involved, and participated in, a fantastical tale of possibly epic proportions. Or not, depending on how good of a story-writer the Host is… Hope this guide helps!!! Again, if you have any ideas/suggestion to help improve this guide, or would like to suggest example posts by roleplayers here that would perfectly showcase some concepts, post on this thread and I’ll see what I can do! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “I’ll see you on the other side.” ~ Roleplay Character: Zero-Four. Kairi's Nocturnal Guardian.

Stupid things people do with characters 1) Give them swords in a modern or futuristic setting while being unable to justify the use of the use of them Whenever you are put in a setting, you have to make sure you can work around it. The reason why I highlight "modern or futuristic setting" is because there is literally no reason why your character is going to make any use out of some ancient sword passed along in the bloodline for 321 generations. You want to know why? It's primitive. When you have guns, something much more precise in a short range or a long range, just defeats the purpose. Let's say your character is some sort of LUL NINJAA XDDD character. Having a stylish weapon that just draws attention to yourself (seeing as it is hard to conceal) is going to make your character a prime target. Also note: ineffective. Where are you even supposed to get one in the first place? Some guys yard sell? 2) If your character uses a weapon expertly, not mentioning their training. Self explanatory. Your character is either full of bullshit and or full on Gary Stu if you decide to have them LUL MASTERSSS and not give even a notion towards any professional training. Not to mention if they're incredibly young, and are somehow experts at what they do. The general rule is 10,000 hours to master a skill, and if your character is off and living in the streets, (which is a favorite of yours, players) where are they going to get the time and money to even to begin to master a skill? 3) Using the light/darkness as a literal power/element. Listen, I know this is a Kingdom Hearts forum. It's just that it's really stupid. I'm mostly talking about the whole SUMMON BEINGS OUT OF SHADOWS / LIGHT HEALING kind of thing. Look, when you're out in the sun and you start being superpowered, you might as well just make your character a plant. I mean, how are shadows supposed to suddenly come to life? What, can you make The Blob out of a pitch dark room, too? Also, when they have a priest use a light-based power to heal, it's generally holy power. Not solar power. 4) Describe your character as "handsome" You may be asking me: "Protoman, what do you have against beautiful people!" Well, nothing. When you describe your character as handsome, it just means you're a lazy writer. Not to mention that when someone think's "handsome" they think of different things entirely. For me, it's a young Clint Eastwood. For someone else, it might be Benedict Cumberbatch. So unless your character is some sort of crazy psychic who keeps their face different for each person they encounter, you should probably stop taking shortcuts in describing facial features. 5) One line personalities. "Cold, but with a heart," doesn't say much about the character. For example, it doesn't tell us what relation the character has with his family or anyone he interacts with. It doesn't tell us what the characters alignment is, or anything about what he believes in. It doesn't tell us if the guy has a heart for the supervillans, or orphans. The only thing you can assume from that personality is that he is a douche most of the time unless you bring him a puppy calendar. 6) Making a personality that is practically a carbon copy of your other character / someone else's character. On the subject of personalities, I have a story for you. The other day, I waltzed onto a thread and read a personality that boiled down to "Sometimes sarcastic, loyal, and caring" around 3 different times in the same exact thread. I wouldn't mind nearly as much if there was a larger playerbase, but when everyone wants to play their character as a good guy Greg, then that just ruins the surprise. Not to mention that their personality was a pretty big chunk of their very small and vague character sheet. Someone might think you're stealing!!!!!!!!!!!!! 7) An unknown back story. You are the most unoriginal and the laziest writer on the board. Here's your prize. Your character being a lad suffering with amnesia while their parents dead, making them live on the street (and somehow surviving) is bad enough. When you make that the back story for almost every single one of your characters, you have a problem. Of course, this happens to each and every chosen one, right? Points for if it's a modern setting and nobody bothers to put the character through any sort of therapy to help them remember something. Even more if 2+ people on the same board have the same back story as you. It's an infestation of lazy writing. Bring up rebuttals plz, I didn't make this thread for no reason, gotta strengthen my reasoning.