Advice/Help Questions about terminology

[shellsharbor]

Hi! I'm not new to roleplay in general but I am very new to doing it in a more "formal" setting? Everything I've done in the past besides D&D has been me and my partner making our own stories on Discord or other sites with no knowledge of any terminology or influence from any online roleplay culture, so there's a lot of things I'm trying to learn!

First thing that's weird about me and I need some clarification on: what's doubling? What I did a lot in past rps is create a whole cast of characters with interlocking backstories, both of us with 10+ characters to manage. They weren't all in the same place at the same time, but everything they did impacted the story in some way and we'd jump perspectives between scenes. That's just the way I was used to doing things for online roleplay. AND THEN I came on here and explored some threads to find out that a lot of people just have one character per roleplay, and hate "doubling." Further exploration and I found out that it usually refers to a sort of agreement where it's like "if you make a love interest for my oc I'll make one for yours" which isn't what I was doing but it still makes me worry. I can absolutely bring down my list of characters but I struggle a little to play just one, I like having multiple options and expansive storylines, anything I can do? Is there anyone else out there who likes to do what I do? Should I just learn to adapt?

Second thing: After exploring around a bit, I've found that a lot of roleplays have these really fancy displays with pictures and different fonts and mood/location/etc. indicators, which I'm pretty sure that dazzling up your displays is done with coding, what's that all about? How do you do that? If I can't do that, will people still want to rp with me?

Third thing: I don't know the name for the style of rp I like to do. I don't use the little ** or script where it's like (Character name): (the thing happening/being said), so I think it's literature, but I'm not 100% sure because I don't feel like every response needs a full paragraph of text each time, sometimes less is more?? I don't know, if someone could give me a crash-course on roleplay styles that'd be great

 

[nerdy tangents]

So the fun thing about this website is there is no one answer to any of your questions.

The best thing you can do is actually just post a thread saying

“hey I’m new to the website and I’m looking for someone to help show me the ropes. I am looking for X plot and would love some help fleshing it out to work with this website.”

Also you can look at the off site version of the interest check which is where everyone posts their discord specific interest checks. That might also help. Although I believe your account has to be a few days old and you have to post a certain number of replies before that unlocks.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Also to clarify I would post in the 1x1 interest check ::: 1x1 Interest Checks

Or if you see someone who has an idea you vibe with you can also message them and ask your questions directly.

 

[shellsharbor]

Also to clarify I would post in the 1x1 interest check ::: 1x1 Interest Checks

Or if you see someone who has an idea you vibe with you can also message them and ask your questions directly.

Thank you!!

 

[cinnamonlaced]

Hello, I use to struggle with all of the terminology too, so I figured I'll help you out!

Doubling: is typically used in Fandom roleplay where you play your partners oc's love interest, and they play your oc's love interest! In original roleplay, it's usually just the same but everyone's character in non fandom (so essentially two separate or occasionally intertwining roleplays). At least in my experience this is how it is!

Coding: it's difficult but simple. You can go to BBCode Center and find freebie codes that you have to read through and insert information to! Or you could learn BBCode and make your own templates. As someone who does use code I don't care if my partner doesn't use code as it's very time consuming and just for aesthetic purposes!

Style: just say no asterisks, and no script form. It seems like you're referring to 3rd person roleplay!! (i.e Sam walked down the road.)

Hope this wasn't confusing and that it helped a little bit!!