hii! i found your blog by accident and i'm mesmerized. i used to play rp on twitter and i really wanted to start doing the same here but idk where to start. could you please give me some tips?
oh hey, thank you so much for reaching out! :D i'll admit i'm not as active on this blog as on others, but it makes me happy to have reached you nonetheless. <3
i'd be delighted to give you some tips to start out! it's definitely a process that feels a bit alien at first, but over time you get a feel for it. :>
i am soooo sorry in advance, this is going to be super long — you picked a wordy bitch to ask 😂 but i'll try to format this in a way that's easier to read!
take your time to go through stuff & no need to read or absorb it all right away. feel free to keep this post bookmarked to look back on whenever you need it as well.
💖 welcome to raine's stupidly-long guide to starting tumblr rp! 💖
qualification: i've had this blog for 11 years. fml
disclaimer: still all just from my perspective, i'm just one gal with opinions hehe
start out by making a new blog for your character. (i wouldn't recommend starting out with a sideblog personally, since you can't send asks from them). choose a url that feels relevant. i'm always a fan of the ol "smush two words together that sound nice" technique — ie, my other blogs are huntershowl and icarusplunged — which never seems to fully go out of style. really you can do whatever feels right to you :)
the most important part of setting up an rp blog is creating a rules page and, if you're writing an OC, an about page. the rules set up your boundaries, your wants and don't wants, anything you want someone to know before they follow you. the about page should give new partners everything they need to know about your character — personality, appearance, setting/lore, any backstory you want to display publicly.
feel free to look around at different rpers' rules pages and use them as inspiration! as long as nothing is copypasted and everything is your own original content, which brings me to etiquette.
etiquette!
'tis largely an Unspoken Thing in the rpc (rp community), and breaching it can def make people feel uncomfortable (even though that's something that Should be in rules pages, most of us forget haha). here are the things i can think of off the top of my head:
the way to reach out to new people is simply to follow them. that's all you gotta do! if they don't follow back, don't push, just unfollow them after a few weeks and move on. it's almost never personal!
in that vein, if someone's blog is private/selective/mutuals-only, wait to interact until they follow back.
once they do, it's up to you how you want to move forward — usually i'll wait until they post some sort of interaction call for you to like. a starter call, a plotting call, orrrr if they reblog an ask meme (which is like a list of sentence prompts! you can choose one from the list and send it as an ask, which they can use as an rp starter.) you can also just IM them though :)
don't reblog non-rp content (ask memes, quotes/imagery, etc) directly from another rp blog, it clogs up their notifications! just reblog from the original post instead.
don't interact with other people's threads (liking or reblogging, but feel free to read them and talk about them ooc!), and only respond to a starter if it's labeled as open — otherwise it was probably written for another rper specifically.
try not to prod people too hard if they haven't responded in a while. some folks are okay with being reminded about a forgotten thread a few weeks after replies stall out.
always tag nsft (not safe for tumblr, the other acronym gets flagged/hidden) and very upsetting content — gore, SA or abuse mentions, etc. i've seen some people starting to use "dead dove do not eat" as a catch-all for super dark content, but honestly that phrase gives me the heebiest of jeebies so i prefer to go with individual tags
general platformless rp etiquette rules apply: don't steal other people's content, don't assume or control the other character's actions/thoughts/etc.
be kind to each other, most of all. communicate when you have a problem with someone, rather than making a vague/callout post about them. that being said, i'm a proponent of the block button — blocking people is okay! it's not a big deal. this is a hobby space and no one is entitled to you. advocate for yourself!!
okay that was a long section, whew! lil break. take a sip of water. have a snack mayhaps.
now: RP STRUCTURE (the fun part)
we don't really do "script" style rp on tumblr — it'll usually, if not always, be in prose/paragraph form. formatting is a fun touch, but not necessary. as you can see, i'm using small text here with some little chunks of text in bold/italic or regular size text to add some visual interest. again, not necessary! experiment, figure out what you like!
lots of people will use icons of different sizes — 100x100 is the most common, but they really do vary. i would suggest going smaller rather than bigger (like don't use full post-width gifs or icons, try to keep them under half the size of the post? that's the most common vibe at least.)
icons can be used to "illustrate" your character's expression among a bunch of text, if you want Visual Spice. but they are soooo not necessary! totally up to you.
here are some examples of my icon styling!
there are lots of rp resources out here for cool coloring psd's and graphic templates for ya blog. create something fun and pretty that you like! <3
to reply to a thread, reblog it and add your post.
important: i highly recommend downloading and installing XKIT in your browser. it's an extension that lets you trim posts to the last two reblogs (common around here), customize your blog experience, and just makes it a lot easier to exist on tumblr haha.
ummmm i think that's it actually! you're finally free of my rambling. i really hope this helped!! please let me know if you have any questions, and gimme a follow when you start up a blog — i'd be happy to help you out however i can.
whoo this is exciting! okay so basically, i’ve been back on this blog for long enough that i feel like i can balance it with work and other things going on in my life, for Once. and so i’d like to really foster meaningful in-character dynamics along with making friends ooc! because those go hand in hand to me – if i’m not super comfortable divebombing into someone’s dms at any hour of the day, we’re probably not going to get super deep with our characters’ plotline and dynamic.
and that is totally fine! good, in fact. i think it’s 100% normal on an rp blog to have some mains and some mutuals you interact with casually. there are a good number of folks i’ve been mutuals with for years, and we haven’t even written, i just like vibing and sometimes replying to their ooc posts?
but anyway RAMBLING ASIDE (see this is what you get if you choose this path.)
give this post a LIKE if you’re interested in becoming mains. aka, you’re actively interested in developing an interesting ongoing dynamic and/or plotline with my version of elizabeth, and you’re chill with me hurtling towards you at the speed of excitement to chat about our characters. this is largely about my fear of double-texting/messaging; this post is a way to cope with, and mitigate, that particular aspect of my brainworkings.
notes:
this doesn’t mean exclusives! i’m super chill if you also interact with others who write elizabeth. that being said, if you’re more comfortable with exclusives, come talk to me and i’m happy to do so!
you can absolutely like this post even if we haven’t interacted yet.
based on response, i might not get to everyone! i apologize! my brain can only actively engage with so much at once, so just give me some time <3
it’s also okay if we try an it doesn’t work out. sometimes characters don’t gel, sometimes muns don’t gel. at least we gave it a shot!
just a reminder, i’m in COLLEGE HELL right now so the usual SCHOOL YEAR SEMI HIATUS applies. i’ll do my best to get on here on my off days, of course! we’ll see how it goes this time around!
hi all!! just a reminder that i have an interest tracker available for mutuals who haven’t interacted yet. gimme an idea of your preferences and i’m a lot more comfy reaching out to plot or write!
hi all!! i’m a little late to the party on this, but i’ve drafted up an INTEREST TRACKER which should make it a lot easier for me to approach people to plot, tailor memes to send, or write them starters. <3
gonna be outtie again for a bit pals! apartment hunting + new work responsibilities + going home to visit soon + low mental energy and high stress. rest assured, i wrote down what i owe people here haha
