Fuck Yeah, Roleplaying Advice!

Where roleplayers come for advice from other roleplayers. To ask FYRA a question about roleplaying, please click here (or the Ask link in the sidebar, whichever you prefer)! For longer questions, the submissions box is also open (and can also be accessed from the sidebar). For a collection of previously answered questions, FYRA's previous incarnation's archive can be found here. Be sure to check out our affiliates as well!: RP Buddy Search Roleplayers' Coffee Shop Roleplay Dictionary RPer's Anon Friend

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

Hi, I have kind of an unusual question. I rp a sort of popular, but hard to find canon-character here on tumblr. Another rper made an OC who's backstory involves my character do ooc things, and their oc is also my character's child. How do I handle this situation? It's kind of awkward and all very strange, I'm not sure what to do.

Yikes!  That’s never fun.  OCs are great mediums for interacting with our favourite canon characters, and I am a great advocate for them myself, but sometimes people can get a little over eager in their attempts to mesh their characters into the exiting world!  They likely were not trying to make you, or anyone else playing said character, uncomfortable on purpose - if their character was created independently from a group or duo, they probably simply did not think to ask a roleplayer of that particular character for reference before creating their own character.  As it is a canon character they are embodying the child of, they likely believed it to be up for personal interpretation - as most canon characters are! - but did not take into consideration the interaction aspect of springing something like that on someone actually embodying the character, which could get to be immensely awkward, considering it’s the child of said canon character.  Surprise, you’re a parent!

My best recommendation for the situation is this: unless this person has specifically requested to roleplay with you, don’t worry yourself about their character or anything they’ve put in their history.  If they do ask to roleplay with you, all that you have to do (if you wouldn’t mind roleplaying with an OC child of your character, which is important - you aren’t obligated to bend over backwards for things that make you uncomfortable, even for politeness’ sake!) is politely inform them that certain aspects of their backstory make you uncomfortable with regards to how you imagine your character to be embodied and act.  If they are amenable to changing their character’s backstory so as to avoid making you uncomfortable, then perhaps the two of you can reach a happy medium on which to roleplay!  If they are not amenable to changing anything about their backstory, however (again, they are not obligated to do anything that makes them uncomfortable, either - it goes both ways!), then you are perfectly within your rights to decline on the grounds that you would not be comfortable roleplaying with their character on the basis that certain elements of their backstory are not compatible with your idea of how your character would act.  You are also welcome to skip straight to this if you are not comfortable roleplaying with an OC character that is a “child” of your character - you make the rules about who you want to roleplay with, nobody else can take that right from you!

If you like, you could also try to suggest other roleplay accounts of the same character you embody as possible alternatives for them to request to roleplay with their character (both so they’ll have someone to roleplay with, and so it will cut down on the possibility of them trying to convince you to change your mind).  If they can find another version of your character to roleplay with that allows for that sort of OOC backstory bending, then neither you nor the person playing the child has to worry!  They get their roleplay, and you get yours, separate from them.

Hope this helps! <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

I want to roleplay an OC but I can't draw their faceclaim and I don't know any friends that can draw,what should I do?

In instances like these, a written description should suffice as well as anything else!  Clearly not everyone who writes can draw, and vice-versa, not everyone who draws can write - everyone has individual talents!  As long as your text description includes everything you believe to be relevant to your character’s appearance, you should be good to go!  (It’s also important, when writing text descriptions, not to leave details out your partner may find relevant or important for playing with your character - for example, if you say your character is mixed ethnicity with green eyes but forget to mention she’s a centaur, that could prove problematic!)  Another option you could do would be to try to find a model who fits your character’s description on one of several model/actor sites (one of my favourites, though it’s not by any chance completely all-encompassing, is Hollow-Art’s search function which allows you to put in the basics for your character and see if anything in their database matches)!

Alternatively, there are also a few talented artists here on Tumblr (I think there might even be a few here in the FYRA community, though I’m not sure - I know we had some on the last incarnation, some may have hopefully followed us over when we moved) who might be willing to barter out some sort of deal with you in regards to drawing your character the way you imagined (for example, trading writing for art, or beta’ing for art, or something to that degree).  If you can find someone willing to do that, that might be an awesome alternative also! :)

Hope this helps! <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

What should I do if two people who follow me have the same muses? After I meet one muse do I act like I know the other?

Nope!  Generally speaking, it would be best to greet each different muse/player like an entirely new experience, like each muse’s interaction with yours exists in a completely different timeline that is unaware of the other timeline/version of your character(s)’ existence.  Your character might already know one muse in one universe, but the universe where the other person’s muse exists is entirely separate (unless the point of the RP is to have two of the same character in the same universe, i.e., something to do with clones/alternate universes colliding, though I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about).  Apart from universe-breaking, having your character tell someone “oh, I’m already interacting with your character, but how are you doing?” will more than likely make them feel like a second-tier character/RP experience, like they’re not as important as the other version of this character you’re interacting with.  It might get a little confusing at times to keep the two separate, but it helps keep roleplay experiences exciting and unique, while making every experience feel special and singular!

If your characters are meant to have history going in, however, it’s perfectly fine to act like you already know them when they start freshly following you (like IC siblings or lovers, etc.)!

Hope this helps! <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

Thank you so much! :3 I was hoping to keep everything on one account, but it sounds like functionality wise separate accounts will be much better. x3

Not a problem!  I’m so glad I could help! :) <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

What is the norm to do when you roleplay on Tumblr? Would you use a main blog or a side one? I'd like to keep everything on one email if possible so I can get my phone notifications for that account, but I don't want to be hurt if the social functions like following people or liking posts are that important.

As far as I know from roleplaying on Tumblr, there isn’t really any definitive “norm”.  There are several different ways to roleplay on Tumblr, but from my experience the easiest (and most convenient for yourself and others) way is to make an entirely new blog with an entirely new e-mail so you can follow back other roleplay blogs that follow you.  I know that a lot of people like to be followed back if they follow a roleplay blog that they’re meant to be actively roleplaying/interacting with, and there are some roleplay groups here on Tumblr that require you to make a new account to be able to follow the main hub and the other roleplayers in the community.  Having a separate roleplaying account that can follow back also helps people keep track of who they’re actively roleplaying with versus who is following them/who they follow just to read/until they get the gumption to ask for an active roleplay, and it’s a good way to keep track of your current roleplays on your dash instead of having to worry about potentially losing responses to your posts in a constant stream of activity from other blogs you’re following on your main!

However, if you’re not that worried about losing posts, I’ve never run into a situation where “liking” posts was considered all that important, and I can definitely understand wanting to keep everything attached to one e-mail.  If simply being informed of incoming messages is your primary concern (like for example if your roleplaying format is mostly ask-and-answer based, rather than paragraph/reblogging, then this is probably your best bet), then you could definitely make a side blog attached to your main so you can keep track of everything going on while on the go.  However, I would be sure to inform your partner/group that your account is a side blog ahead of time, just to be safe, so nobody gets confused if they’re expecting you to follow back and then you don’t!

If you’re not so much concerned about keeping everything in one place, and more just not keen on having to log out and back in every time you want to switch over, I’ve found that one thing that helps me is keeping my roleplay blog logged in on one internet provider and my main logged in on another (for example, Firefox for main + Chrome for roleplay, or Chrome + Safari, or Firefox + Safari, etc.).  This allows me to have two separate accounts without the hassle of having to log out of one to access the other (though I know this doesn’t work for mobile, where you can only have one Tumblr service up at a time, so that might should be taken into consideration as well).

Overall - what you decide to do concerning your roleplay account depends on your biggest concerns about convenience/type of roleplaying vs. neatness/accessibility for yourself and others!

Hope this helps! <3

[untilhan-blog]

Character/OC Building Workshop?

Last night notastoryaboutbaseball suggested I run a Character/OC Building “Summer Camp” Workshop type thing for artists and non-artists, which seemed to me like a REALLY good idea and like something that could be a lot of fun to do - would any of you be interested in participating if I were to run something like that (under the tag #Iron Han Character Workshop)?

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

When you use a PB, do you need GIFs if you're roleplaying on Tumblr? Say you don't make GIFs of the PB and thus decide not to use GIFs at all, would people still want to roleplay with you? Also, is there some sort of unwritten rule about what kinds of pictures of the PB are appropriate to use?

Good question!  In all honesty, you don't need anything for roleplay (especially if it's something that specifically inconveniences you, like learning to make .gifs just for the sake of using them for a character) - it all depends on what you want, and what is most convenient and useful for you.  If people won't roleplay with you on the basis that you don't use reaction .gifs of your character (which seems strange, but to each their own, I suppose), then it might just be that their comfortable format for roleplaying might not mesh well with yours.  And that's okay!

Some people prefer to roleplay primarily using reaction .gifs of their playby back and forth, while others will use icons interspersed with text, and still others won't use any media at all, only text to convey their characters' feelings, actions, etc.  What kind of roleplayer you want to be is dependent entirely on you, and what makes you most comfortable!  Also, more often than not, if the person with the character you want to roleplay with is someone who has a different roleplaying format than you and the two of you just can't seem to make your roleplay work, you can (almost) always (unless you're dealing with a one-of-a-kind OC blog) find somebody else who plays the same or a similar character who can and will roleplay with a character who does not use reaction .gifs as part of their posts.

As for what pictures of your playby are good to use, I'd recommend anything that looks like it could possibly be something happening in-character for your character (for example, if your character is living in a snowy climate, beach snapshots are probably not a good idea unless they're visiting a warm climate IC for some reason).  Also, while it's not necessarily taboo to use pictures of them from award events, release events, or what have you, it might have the propensity to jar the character out of context by showing the actor out of a character (unless your character is some sort of celebrity who might attend those sort of functions, in which case go for it!).

Though, it's worth noting that it's always fun to find event photos with your playby interacting with someone else's playby, so not everything has to be taken seriously in context for it to be a good photo.

Mostly, just use whatever photos you personally find to be reminiscent of your character (so long as they are not OC-specific edits somebody else has made for their personal character/blog, or if they are, make sure you have gotten permission from the person before using them for your character), and you can't really go wrong!

Hope this helps! :) <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

How does one roleplay a funny character without looking like they're trying too hard to be funny?

So you want your character to be casually funny, rather than a comedian who doesn’t always hit their mark?  First, you should ask the people in your roleplay what they think is really, really funny, and then play off of that (unless it’s something that you, yourself don’t find to be funny at all or can’t relate to, in which case, you are not obligated to be unfunny to yourself for the sake of being funny for other people).  A couple of suggestions for things that have the propensity to make a character funny are:

Clever puns!  Clever puns are always funny (sometimes they’re terrible, but they always garner a reaction, either way), so any time you get the chance to make a pun, go for it!

Shocking people every once in a while with a risque (not harmful, though - there is a big difference) joke can be funny, but don’t overdo it, otherwise you might just come off as offensive.  If this is out of character for your character, though, you shouldn’t feel obligated to include it.

Hyperboles can be funny.  Pop culture references can be funny.  Don’t abuse either, though.  You don’t want to turn your character into a hyperactive pop blogger (unless they are actually a hyperactive pop blogger, in which case, go ahead).

Occasional slapstick involving your character, or, alternatively, making your character the butt end of a running slapstick joke.  Not an EVER-running joke - he’s not going to be slipping on banana peels and tumbling over his own feet at every opportunity, or else he becomes cliche, repetitive, and obnoxious - but if every once in a while the same thing happens to him (at random or seemingly at random), that can be funny (think about how in The Emperor’s New Groove they used the gag about the lever twice - same joke, but funny both times).

As mentioned before, making your character the butt end of the joke (slapstick or verbal jokes) can be funny in itself.  Best of all, it only targets one person - the person making the joke in the first place - so it’s non-offensive!

These are just a couple of suggestions - like I said before, the best way to determine what will be a big hit, joke-wise, is to ask for a point of reference.  Don’t forget, not everything that is funny onscreen is funny in text, so it’s possible a few jokes that seem like they would be really funny in your head may fall flat on paper - and that’s okay!  Roleplay is a learning process, and humour is a tough mark to hit, especially consistently.

Hope this helps! :) <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

Hi, I'm the motormouth character anon. The advice you gave me was helpful, and I wanted to thank you for that.

I'm glad I was able to help you, Anon!  Good luck with your character and your roleplay! C: <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

How can a mun that is quiet and reserved in nature, and frequently has trouble coming up with a lot to say, RP a character that is loud, talkative, and outgoing? I can't keep up a conversation, I can't talk much, but I want to play what people would describe as a "motormouth", basically the polar opposite of what I am. What strategies do you have?

Good question!  Divorcing yourself from your characters can be tough, and generally when beginning to play a new character, regardless of roleplaying experience, we all run the risk of encountering something akin to same voice syndrome, wherein all our characters sound similar or even identical because we’re so used to writing one sort of speech pattern (probably one similar to our own).  Before you can write your character’s voice, you first have to find your character’s voice (not necessarily literally - e.g., a voice cast rather than or in addition to a facecast - though if that helps you can definitely do that, too!).  Your character is not you; they’re their own individual person, and as such they have their own characteristics that are completely independent from your own.

First of all, you need to decide what sort of character you are making in the first place (are you making a motormouth who talks because he enjoys talking, one who talks because he doesn’t know any better, one who talks too much when he gets nervous…?).  Once you decide that, another important thing that may help develop your character’s unique way of speaking/communicating is to first decide on a few basic facts about them: what unique speech patterns they have, if any (does the character stutter or falter when they speak?  Do they use run-on sentences?  Do they mix up their words or phrases sometimes?  Do they talk so much so as to not give the other person time to think, thereby giving themselves an advantage in the conversation? etc.); and what unique phrases or words they might use (for example, do they sometimes get flustered and sub in words from his native language?  Does he casually drop profanity without even realizing it?  Does he sometimes accidentally use the wrong word when he’s speaking quickly, and if so, will he go back and correct it, or keep powering forward?)

Other fun exercises that may help even more can be to decide exactly how your character’s voice would sound (is it deep, nasally, breathy, etc.?), and how their laugh would sound (silvery?  Robust?  Hissing? etc.)  Whenever you start to have trouble thinking in your character’s voice, you can always talk to yourself out loud as your character (I know this sounds strange, but trust me, it’s fun and it works!) to get back the feeling for their speech pattern(s).  If you want, since you say you are shy, you can do this somewhere private where you know people won’t listen in on you - while driving, in the shower, anywhere you feel comfortable making noise.

Another thing you can do, when it comes to conversation (I’m a terrible conversationalist, myself, so I feel your pain) is to have your character be the person to drive the conversation forward.  The entire dialogue doesn’t necessarily have to be about the issue at hand, as long as it eventually comes back to what’s being talked about, for example:

Partner: “Are you doing all right?” Liz asked.

You: “I’m excellent,” Abe answered.  “Couldn’t be better.  Had a bit of a rough time the last couple of days... don’t really want to talk about it, though.  We could, if you really wanted to; but I’d rather not.  It’s not important currently.  Either way, I’m fine now.  Better than fine.  Good.  Excellent, as I said before.  And yourself, Liz?  How are you?”

You can impart as much information as you want while your character is talking, and if it helps, dwell as long on one thing as you want, as long as what you’re having the character say has some relevance, importance, or weight.  Don’t spend six paragraphs talking about the weather, of course (unless the weather is VERY important at present), but if you want to keep the conversation moving and you see an opportunity to impart some information relevant to your character and the situation at hand (as long as it doesn’t harm the story in some way, i.e., give away or blow someone else’s plot), don’t hesitate to do so!

Some people might question why characters would spill a plethora of information without being specifically asked about it (because we muns don’t generally like to share information unless specifically asked, I guess?), but that’s the fun of characters.  They’re not us.  They get to do stuff we would never believably do, or say things we would never actually have the nerve to say.  And also unlike us, they generally have larger-than-life places to go, or things to do, and they often need a little push in helping them to get there, which can more often than not be helped along in the form of a relevant dialogue.

So to sparknotes this long answer:

Find your character’s unique individual voice

Don’t be afraid to let him use it as much as he wants!

Hope this helps! :) <3

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

What do you do when someone starts following your RP blog? Is making a welcome post necessary?

It's entirely up to the discretion of the player!  Some people like to greet every new person who follows their blog, and some of them will sometimes even manage to double the greeting as an introductory post if the new person following is also a roleplayer/roleplaying blog, i.e.:

strikereurekachuckhansen started following you

"Chuck!  Long time no see, buddy!"

However, if you don't want to greet every new player who follows you or automatically start roleplaying with someone who has started following you as soon as they follow you, you don't have to - that's your prerogative.  Sometimes we simply just don't know what to say, or don't have anything relevant to plot with the person who just followed us at the moment, and that's okay!  All in good time.

Hope this helps! :) <3

[herhmione]

masterpost for writers creating their own worlds, or even just characters

names that have specific meanings

meanings of any names

popular baby names

upper class names

common last names

fancy last names

aristocratic/royal names

random name generator

random place name generator

list of latin words

english to latin translator

english to greek translat

or

greek mythology database

the culture of ancient rome

list of legendary creatures

fantasy name generator

feel free to add in any links!

[star-spangled-jackass]

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

Are there any browser (Chrome or Firefox) add-ons, apps, or extensions that you recommend for a roleplayer on Tumblr?

I would definitely recommend getting xKit!  Not only does it have a bunch of great extensions for regular Tumblr, it's available on both Firefox and Chrome and it has some fantastic functions that will quickly become your best friend in roleplay, not the least of which are Read More Now (which allows you to expand "read mores" on your dashboard, in case your roleplay gets a little steamy and has to be put below a cut) and Wrap Tags, which lets you see all of your partner's tags in a conveniently arranged manner (in case you're one of those roleplayers who puts OOC chatter or additional notes or comments about the current roleplay in the tags of your posts). C:

Does anyone else have any other suggestions for Anon, as to add-ons that are beneficial for roleplaying on Tumblr?

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

How can I roleplay a character that doesn't speak English when I, the other characters, and their muns are English speakers and don't speak my character's native language?

Oh, I love this question!  I play multi-lingual characters myself frequently, and I’ve come to realize that generally (unless there’s a native speaker in your group who can translate accurately for you), if you and your other group members don’t speak the language the character is speaking in, it’s usually okay to go with a generic internet translator, like Stars21, Babelfish, or Google Translate.  That way you get to have the character speaking their native language IC as well as a basic feel for exactly what they are saying (and since it’s just roleplay, it doesn’t really matter that the autotranslated bits be painstakingly accurate, grammatically).

If you want, you can format your posts to put the dialogue from another language in their normal line of dialogue in italics with an asterisk (i.e., “Het enige een gesien my vader?”*) and then put the translation at the bottom of the post as an addendum, in smaller text if you so choose, like a footnote (i.e., *”Has anybody seen my father?”).  Or, if you wanted to, you could just write the dialogue in English with specification that it’s in a different language in the non-dialogue parts of the post (i.e.,”How are you?” he asked in Arabic), or use different punctuation around your “non-English” English (i.e., “I am fine” for English versus for Russian).

Hope this helps! :) <3

[goddessofsax]

Blue, brown, and green eye colors

[arcticsmnkey-deactivated2014030]

dONT LET THE FIC WRITERS SEE THIS

[razputinapuato]

and she blinked her chartreuse eyes at him getting lost in the sea of his gunmental blue orbs

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

I'm stuck on ways to get my character from the future to the past when she has no motivation to time travel. However, I don't like the idea of the character getting sucked into some randomly appearing time portal unless she or another character does something to make it appear. Any ideas? My character is a celebrity in the future, if that helps.

I’m not sure whether your time-travel story is meant to be more fantasy or science fiction, but some cause and effect methods for time travel I can think of off the top of my head would be:

Following someone else through a time rip (natural or artificial) in order to retrieve something, in an attempt to question them, or by accident (see: Kate & Leopold).

Exploring, utilizing, or even accidentally finding her way through one (possibly of several) naturally-occurring rips in time (like a wormhole) that only a few people know the location of or how to properly use them (see: THOR: The Dark World).

An enchanted, cursed, or otherwise otherworldly-type object (an amulet, a book, etc.) that, once picked up (and opened, if it’s a book), transports the person who found it back to the time period/place wherein the object was cursed or enchanted to try to resolve the issue tied to its enchantment (see: John Carter of Mars).

An object like the aforementioned, but one that’s specifically meant to transport someone to a different time/place if picked up and chanted to/used a certain way (see: Harry Potter or MIB3).

A naturally-occurring phenomenon (i.e., a comet) that causes an inexplicable connection between the last time it occurred and the current time of its occurrence, allowing communication or even travel between those two given points in time (see: Frequency).

She participates in an experiment having to do with FTL travel (currently deemed impossible, but this is roleplay, maybe it works there!).

I don’t know how common time-travel is in your roleplay, but here are some if there is such thing as casual time-travel:

For sport (see: A Sound of Thunder).  Something could go wrong with the contraption and it could leave her stranded in a different time period, though, completely unprepared, if you want to go that route.

As part of a larger investigative project (see: Timeline).  She could be there for a purely press-related reason (“the first celebrity to time travel” or something to that effect) and then something goes wrong with the machine and she ends up stranded back in time.

A copy of her from the future (distant or not so distant) comes to tell her that unless she changes something at a set time in the past, something horrible will happen in the future (to just her or to a larger group, depending on your preference).

These are just a couple of ideas (since I’m not sure of the whole story behind her time travel adventure), but if there is another member of your group whose character seems to be more inclined towards time travel than yours (or at least the science or study of it) perhaps they will be more able to help you to figure out what would be viable for your current roleplay setting depending on their character’s current level of skill?  Who knows, with luck, maybe they’ll even be able to help her get back to her current time in one piece!

I hope this helps! :) <3

[fearcomeswithimagination-deacti]

Headcanons

[fuckyeahroleplayingadvice-blog]

Send ✚ for a HEALTH headcanon. Send ♕ for a CHILDHOOD headcanon. Send ✿ for a HAPPINESS headcanon. Send ␛ for an ANGER headcanon. Send ♆ for a BODY headcanon. Send ϡ for a MENTAL STATE headcanon. Send ღ for a LOVE/SEXUALITY headcanon. Send † for a RELIGION headcanon. Send ✄ for a PET PEEVE headcanon. Send ☂ for a FOOD headcanon.