Hello! My name is Sana Sheikh, a Junior in English and Information Technology at NC State University. While I have many hobbies including writing and art, my first passion has always been roleplaying. (A.K.A 'RP'.) I have been roleplaying since I was 8 years old and met some of my most dear friends through this hobby of mine.
While roleplaying is often considered embarassing and juvenile, I am here to teach you about the nuance and genuinely amazing storytelling habits about this pasttime. If I haven't nerded you out yet, read on to learn more!
Roleplay is both a social exercise and collaborative storytelling. Essentially, a group of two or more people take on the role of fictional characters -- either original or from fictional media -- and act out their interactions. This is usually done with some sort of setting or premise. Perhaps the characters have been stuck in an arranged marriage, or they're detectives trying to solve a mystery. With roleplaying, the imagination of the players is truly the limit.
There are several types of roleplaying, including live action (or LARPing) and roleplaying during board games like DnD. For the sake of this website we are going to focus on my favorite kind of roleplay; text based!
Traditional roleplay is the most common style of roleplaying and also arguably the oldest kind. This style of roleplaying was the star child of 2000s-era forum websites and now exists in google docs, Reddit, and discord. This style is more passage based, meaning players will write out a paragraph or more of text regarding their character's thoughts, replies to other characters, and actions. Speed is abandoned for the sake of depth.
Rapid roleplay (a term coined by myself and a few friends) is the kind of roleplay that is more notorious for having a reputation of being juvenile. In this type of roleplay, the basic elements of traditional roleplay are boiled down into flavor text and dialogue. Usually RRP is broken down into sessions due to its higher requirement for responsiveness. RRP can be more difficult to have going on semi-permanently in the background. Instead of that, RRP allows for more character development and progress, more ease with setting tone and narrating fun events, and a higher connection of responsiveness between characters.
Whether you draw, write, play music, or anything else, roleplay is a great way to exercise any of those creative muscles! It is a form of content creation that encourages a group of people to branch out into all different kinds of mediums of art. If I didn't have characters to draw, I wouldn't have kept up with my involvement in art. On top of this, the art of storytelling is one that keeps us human and encourages our compassion as people. Roleplay doesn't have to involve a lot of writing, which makes it a great medium for everyone to learn how to tell a story.
Roleplaying gives you a chance to be a part of a community! In larger groups, sharing a hobby like this allows you to meet new people and bond together on an automatically closer level because you're socially engaging with them in a fictional, lower-stakes medium. It also encourages a group of people to keep being friends! Roleplaying is an ongoing habit, which means that interaction is also always naturally ongoing.
If you're a social minority and its difficult to find yourself in mainstream media, roleplay offers you an easy medium to see characters that represent whatever diverse array of sexuality and race that you've always wanted to see.
Not only does roleplay give you the opportunity to pretend to be somebody else for a little while, it offers you the chance to explore more serious topics in a safe space. Playing a character going through similar frustrations as you are allows you to deal with that issue in a space that you have a higher sense of control over and can even help you come to terms with the issue. These can be explorations of whatever topics you want: gender identity, trauma, relationships, and more.
"But Sana!" You may ask. "How on God's sweet earth do I make the coolest character ever?!" Have no worries, friend. The expert is here to help.
While you may want to believe that the cool magical powers and hot appearance of a character is what differentiates a good character from a just-okay one, the exact opposite is true. The most important part of a character is their personality.
The easiest way to figure out your character's personality is to break them down from vague concepts to more specific ones. Here is a set of questions to get you started!
It is important to note here that fears and flaws are different. Fears are what your character worries about, while flaws are what hinder them from a perfect human experience. Also, to be afraid of something isn't a flaw.
This last bullet point is definitely the most important one, if not the most difficult one to figure out. A character shouldn't be without flaws, and a more human character is bound to be more popular with your friends than a cool one who seems unmarried from the petty realities of social interaction. People are full of nuance, which means that characters should be, too. Oftentimes a character's flaws won't be obvious to you until you're roleplaying them. If you find that your characters is shortsighted in some way that you didn't anticipate in the middle of a roleplay, don't be afraid! Instead of trying to twist the narrative around your character's actions, play it straight! Accept this and don't over-justify it. In fact, the willingness to acknowledge that your character has done something negative that you hadn't intentionally planned for them to do is what distinguishes a good writer from a garbage one. (I can also personally assure you that your peers will find you all the more refreshing and fun to play with because of it.)
An important thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to have an intimate knowledge of what your character's personality is like before trying to roleplay them. Most of the time a character's personality is only set into stone as you get more used to actually acting them out, and as your roleplay progresses, you will want your character to develop as a person as well. Personality changes! Stagnant characters are boring ones.
Now for the fun stuff! "This is the part where Sana tells me how to not write an embarrassing backstory so my friends don't think I'm lame for being edgy or too earnest!" Actually, no. There wouldn't be any fun in roleplaying if you couldn't give your character a super awesome backstory! I am giving you personal permission to be as earnest and serious with your character's backstory as you want it to be. Are they being chased by a killer? Cool! Are they secretly royalty? Awesome! The only real important thing for a backstory is to...
Every roleplay that you enter has a specific premise. Is it about dragonriders in a fantasy kingdom? Is it about the mafia during the 1920s? Be aware of the setting of the roleplay as you create your character's backstory and try to incorporate it into who the character is. This will help you from making choices that might not make sense; if your character is a teenager from a small town in Europe, for example, it might not make sense for them to be a decorated war hero who has fought entire squadrons with only their sword in hand. Don't be afraid to ask for help or bounce ideas off of other participants in the roleplay, either! If there is a figure of authority or leader of the roleplay, ask them to help you figure things out! If the roleplay is just you and your friend, then the world is your oyster. Feel free to do collaborate and do whatever you want together!
Back in the early 2000s, people used to use anime photos they found on the internet as a depiction of their character without sourcing the artist. I am here to tell you that not only is this an expired practice, but a very insensitive one. It is never okay to steal somebody's art or use it without their permission. Luckily in this day and age, you have a few options on how to figure out your character's appearance.
What is more awesome than getting your own character drawn by your favorite artist? Supporting that artist while doing so! If you have the money to do so and you're in love with an artist that you follow on social media, commissioning them is a great way to get your exact fantasy of your character into the world! Be the digital-age Medici that everyone you love wants to see you be.
Picrew is the hottest thing on the internet right now: a custom doll-maker that artists from all around the globe have used to make their own custom dress-up doll games. Not only is there a ton of options to choose from, it's an easy, fast and free way to get the custom character look you want. Be aware that there is a long-running issue with Picrews not having a lot of skintone options for characters who aren't white, and many will be limited in terms of options for clothing styles or colors.
Here are a few of my favorite picrews! I have not included an explicitly 'nonbinary' picrew because gender presentation is a joke and nonbinary people (and characters) can look however you want them to!
Improve your art AND figure out the exact outfit and design you want your character has! While this takes time, there is no better feeling than getting to decide the exact nose shape your character has. It takes a bit of time but it is definitely one of the most rewarding things ever. It is also the best option other than paying an artist yourself if you have specific ideas on what body-type your character has or if they have unique appendages like monster claws and big teeth. Down below is an example of one of my own OCs.
I hope you've enjoyed this guide to roleplay! Stay in tuned for my next website about the art of writing RP events! Go out there and have fun!