HOW TO ROLEPLAY USING GOOGLE HANGOUTS
In honor of the birth of @angelsonfirehq I figured itâs time I teach some of you guys how to roleplay the way that group is expecting you to: in bandom-style.
Spoiler: throw out your gifs and say goodbye to having everyone and their moms reading your smut on the dash!! You can even reply on mobile without any hassle.
Letâs jump right on in.
Part One: The Account Itself
If youâre doing a private line or 1x1, deciding whether or not your account is in character is entirely your prerogative. Some people like to write all of their ships on a single account, and others like to split it over different accounts. Luckily, the app lets you log into as many accounts as you want should you decide to go down that route.
If youâre doing a 1x1 mumu, you can make one account and start as many chats as youâd like with the same person so all the connections are separate. Just go to a chat with the person of your choosing, press the menu button in the top right corner, click âcreate new groupâ and follow the instructions. Hereâs a neat little diagram.
If youâre in a group, youâre almost always going to be expected to have an account specifically dedicated to your character, and it should be made in character, as if your muse was the one who went onto gmail.com and signed up themself.
Figure A: On the left: my rp account, with my name and my mascot. On the right: one of my charactersâ accounts, with her name and her faceclaim.
Part Two: Chats & Paras & Talking OOC
Remember when I said to throw out your gifs? Thatâs because you wonât be using them at all. Gif chats have been replaced by messages, which are pretty much the same thing. Whether your characters are talking face-to-face or theyâre actually messaging each other is up to you and your partner, but it will go down the same.
Paras go kind of the same way. You and your partner decide that youâre going to para, and you do it right there in the chat.
OOC discussions happen, again, in that same chat. You usually use little slashes to denote that youâre going out of character.
Figure B: My character texting her husband updates on one of their dogs while he is out of town.
Figure C: On the left: me and Lila singing Escape OOC. On the right: the first two sentences of one of my para replies.
Part Three: Groups
As far as I know, bandom is the only type of tumblr roleplay that has adopted this way of writing, except for @angelsonfirehq (which is OC/Greek mythology.)
But in case you want to join bandom or AOF, or make your own group like this, here is how it generally goes:
You have your gmail, as weâve already discussed, and it is in character.
You also have a blog, which is to be run as if itâs your characterâs personal blog. Interact with other characters, send ask memes, post selfies, reblog things that relate to your character. Just try to keep it IC. This is your characterâs blog. Hereâs an example of one of mine!
Many groups also ask for a sideblog, This is a secret venting place for your character. Post their hidden thoughts, diary entries, things that want to scream at people but canât, or reblog posts that apply to them that they wouldnât want others to see. Itâs for OOC eyes only, which means if you happen to stumble upon someone elseâs, keep all that knowledge OOC. Using anything you see on one of those blogs is meta-gaming douchebaggery. Donât. Games tend to use these for their gossip blogs if they have one. Hereâs another example!
And thatâs about it. If anything was unclear, or you have any questions, I have an askbox and Iâm more than happy to help out.
