Back for more? Excellent! You're coming right along.

​

Wait....you didn't skip Part 1 did you? For shame! 

​

Seriously, I strongly strongly strongly recommend going back to Part 1 if you haven't already done it. That laid the foundations for much of what you'll learn now, so you don't want to miss it. Even if you've been roleplaying for a while, there may be bits and pieces you missed through other training or your swiss cheese memory. Just kidding. Move along, move along.

​

Because you've already learned the basics, Part 2 is going to teach you how to be a better roleplayer. That being said, Part 2 is largely subjective. What is contained in this lesson are guidelines to writing better posts, and so this section of training is more like a discussion than a bullet list of rules. That being said, let's begin. A short table of contents of Part 2 follows:

​

• Next Level Posting (this page)

• Character Development

• Special Note: Infallibility

• Final Remarks

 

 

NEXT LEVEL POSTING

​

Assuming you already have proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation, the next is sentence structure. Consider this passage:

​

"John shifted his feet. He saw the assassin approaching. He hid in the shadows next to his ship. He reached for his blaster and took it out of its holster quietly."

​

As far as basic roleplaying mechanics, there's nothing wrong with this post. HOWEVER, I know you can do a lot better. To show you how to write better, I'm going to do something I like to call "layering," which just means improving a post by changing one aspect at a time. The first layer is adding more detail. Compare the above passage to the one below:

​

"John shifted his feet. The gravel under his boots made noise. He saw the assassin approaching. The assassin was approaching quietly. John hid in the shadows next to his Corellian ship. The shadows weren't enough to cover his position. But, he was trying. John squeezed himself as far as he could towards his ship. The heat from the ship stung his skin. He remained silent. Quietly, he reached for his blaster. The blaster scraped against the buckle on his holster. He cringed. John tried to keep it as quiet as possible."

​

So, that passage had a lot more detail. Not only did it make for a longer post, but also a better post. Still, the post is very rigid, so I suggest the second layer be combined sentences. Consider below:

​

"John shifted his feet, and the gravel made noise beneath his feet. He saw the assassin approaching quietly. John hid in the shadows, but they weren't enough to cover his position. The heat from the ship stung his arm, but he remained silent. Quietly, he reached for his blaster, but it scraped against the buckle on his holster. John cringed, trying to keep it as quiet as possible." 

​

This is getting better, but you can do even more. Make varied sentence structure your third layer. 

​

"The gravel made noise as John shifted his head. He could see the assassin approaching him quietly. Even though the shadows weren't enough to cover his position, John squeezed himself in between the wall and his ship. His arm stung from the heat of the ship, but he remained silent. His blaster scraped against the buckle on his holster as he reached for it, causing him to cringe at the noise. He was trying to keep it as quiet as possible."

​

That made it a bit better. One more step can make it even better: vocabulary and phrases, the fourth layer. 

​

"The coarse gravel scraped against John's boots as he shifted his feet. He was watching the assassin approach him as quiet as a cat stalking its prey. The shadows weren't enough to cover him, but John edged towards them anyways, inadvertently burning his arm on the ship's still-hot hull. He clenched his teeth in pain, but remained silent despite the burn. His fingers reached for the blaster on his hip holster, but he cringed silently as it scraped against the holster buckle. He was doing the best he could to remain as silent as possible. 

​

To be completely honest, it's entirely up to you what you change. These are just some general guidelines about how to make posts "better," in the sense that they are more varied and detailed. Depending on your writing ability and personal preferences, your posts will vary. And, you don't necessarily have to use the layering method. It helps when you're just starting out, but eventually it will become automatic. What I'm mainly trying to do here is give you a sense of what is possible in a post. It's up to you how far you take it. I'm going to write the passage again.

​

"Loose gravel scraped against the concrete landing pad as John shifted his boot-clad feet to stay out of the assassin's sight. The shadows barely cloaked his large form, but desperation was stronger. He clenched his teeth, muffling a sharp gasp as the ship's still-hot hull burned his arm. This wouldn't do, he knew, but his options were limited. Tentatively, he extended his shooting arm down to the blaster in its holster on his hip. If he could just reach it... He slid his fingers around the grip, pulling slowly and quietly. But the blaster scrapped against the claps on its holster, making a sound that seemed louder than it should have been. John cringed. He was running out of luck."

​

I want to make a note about that last sentence -- "He was running out of luck." While this may seem like godmodding, luck is something perceived by the character, and thus it is permissible that John feel his luck is running out. To be absolutely safe, you could write "His luck, he felt, was running out" or something similar. 

​

Again, I mainly rewrote the passage to emphasize how far you can go with a simple post. How you do it is ultimately up to you, but you can rarely be faulted for being too detailed. As long as you don't progress the story further than the GM has allowed, you're good. 

​

Finally, for this part, I want to discuss one more layer -- thoughts. Though arguably part of the first layer, detail, adding thoughts is slightly different and requires you to Writing what your character is thinking not only develops your character, but also ads value, so to speak, to your posts. Let's consider the previous paragraph, adding in John's thoughts.

​

"Loose gravel scraped against the concrete landing pad as John shifted his boot-clad feet to stay out of the assassin's sight. "Damn damn damn damn damn," he thought to himself, inwardly panicking but outwardly keeping his cool. The shadows barely cloaked his large form, but desperation was stronger. He clenched his teeth, muffling a sharp gasp as the ship's still-hot hull burned his arm. This wouldn't do, he knew, but his options were limited. In his panic, his breathing seemed to become obnoxiously loud, but he knew that holding it in would only cause him to let out one larger and louder breath. Tentatively, he extended his shooting arm down to the blaster in its holster on his hip. If he could just reach it... He slid his fingers around the rough grip, pulling slowly and quietly. But the blaster scrapped against the claps on its holster, making a sound that seemed louder than it should have been. John cringed. He was running out of luck."

 

So, thoughts aren't necessarily going to be in quotes. Put another way, adding thoughts is like adding detail, but framed differently. Interestingly enough, it also allows more freedom. Compare the sentence "He saw the assassin pull out his blaster" to "He could have sworn he saw the assassin pull out his blaster." In other words, one is godmodding and one is not. As I mentioned in Part 1, speculation is allowable, within reason. That is, essentially, what adding character thoughts allows you to do. 

​

Finally, just to see the full beauty of what you can accomplish:

​

"John shifted his feet. He saw the assassin approaching. He hid in the shadows next to his ship. He reached for his blaster and took it out of its holster quietly."

​

Versus...

​

"Loose gravel scraped against the concrete landing pad as John shifted his boot-clad feet to stay out of the assassin's sight. "Damn damn damn damn damn," he thought to himself, inwardly panicking but outwardly keeping his cool. The shadows barely cloaked his large form, but desperation was stronger. He clenched his teeth, muffling a sharp gasp as the ship's still-hot hull burned his arm. This wouldn't do, he knew, but his options were limited. In his panic, his breathing seemed to become obnoxiously loud, but he knew that holding it in would only cause him to let out one larger and louder breath. Tentatively, he extended his shooting arm down to the blaster in its holster on his hip. If he could just reach it... He slid his fingers around the rough grip, pulling slowly and quietly. But the blaster scrapped against the clasp on its holster, making a sound that seemed louder than it should have been. John cringed. He was running out of luck."

​

Tedious? Yes, at times. Worth it? Heckins yeah. 

​

Now, on to the next, and possibly best, section -- Character Development! 

​

​

​

​