So you wanna start a roleplay blog?
I’ve been asked twice now how to start a roleplay blog, so I am just going to post this here for future reference. I will be explaining this all as if you are starting with zero experience. I hope I don’t come off condescending because that’s not my intention at all!
I suppose the process is different for everyone, but here is how I personally make a roleplay account. First thing is first-- start a new blog. You can make a side blog of course, but consider this first: If you send any memes to people it will have to be from your main or anonymously and you’ll have to specify each time who the meme is from. It’s a bit more difficult to see your notes, who’s tried contacting you, etc. I’ve seen people start a side blog just to get frustrated and move to a main blog which means extra work in the long run. It’s simple enough, gmail is free. But in the end it is your choice, so side blog or main-- make a blog. That’s step one.
Then I find a theme and customize it, put up my rules page, go to my settings and open my inbox to allow for messages and submissions, etc. Your rules page should have things like what you’re willing to RP, your stance on shipping, things like that. I include my name, age and time zone but that’s optional. I personally include it just so people know when to expect me to be awake/asleep, and my age so people know I am of age to potentially smut. It’s very important not to RP sexual things with even 17 year olds. If you’re over age, you can get in serious legal trouble. Here is one of my rule pages so you have an example of what you might want to include.
https://tenniissee.tumblr.com/ooc
You can explore that blog all you want as a guideline. Though I’m far from perfect it’s at least a jumping off point.
So then after you get your blog together and have your theme worked out, follow people. You already know where the masterlist is, so it’ll be easy to find people to interact with! You can make a promo for yourself, it doesn’t have to be fancy. I’ll reblog it here if you contact me again, and I’ll add you to the masterlist too! Then it can be a little scary-- approaching people to roleplay. What I like to do first is reblog a few memes for people to send me, and I also send out memes to other people. This is a very easy going fandom. I’ve roleplayed at least a dozen characters on tumblr over five years and I’ve seen all sorts of fandoms. Some can be very hard to get into, but this is not one of them. After that, you’re pretty much on your feet and ready to go!
A few personal tips, totally optional but use them if you like:
Follow Meme/Prompt blogs. Just one or two active ones to get fresh memes on your dash to reblog.
Queue things. I like to queue memes so they spill out automatically during the day so if I am out, or asleep, people still have the opportunity to send me something to answer when I get back online. You can also queue pictures and things that would be relevant to the character you are playing, also commonly known as your muse. You, yourself, behind the screen-- you are known as the mun.
I like to tag my writing with people (also known as threads) and then link to that tag so people can see all of your responses in one place. That makes it easy for people to get a sample of your writing, as well as for people to look for a response from you. It’s as simple as tagging it ‘rp’ but you can get fancier than that if you like. I’ve tagged it under interactions, response, correspondence, etc.
If there is anything else you want to know, please don’t hesitate to ask me! I hope to see you on my dashboard soon. ❤︎