Advice/Help Site Starting Tips For A Newbie

[Epik_Berm]

Greetings, and happy new years, world!!!
My name is Epik: I am a "new" user to the website; new in the sense that although this account remains rather antique, my multiple attempts to integrate into this site have been thwarted by a fun mix of cowardice, ego death, and crisis.
Today is a new day, and it is a new year, thus I finally shatter the glass to ask: How do I get started around here?

I have perused to see how things work, and was amazed not only at what people were capable of doing with HTML, but also just, the general buzz around here; but there's a lot of information floating around, so I was wondering what are the most delicate, important, up-to-date things I should know from user to user as a roleplayer and a director? I don't want to stump anybody's toes, lol...
Also, if anybody has any templates of all of those really cool sheets and other things people make to help me get started on being uniform, I was contemplating starting something myself? I have a lot of ideas, and an urge to break an anxiety of the vast digital abyss despite a long history of failure, credited mostly to starving myself from ever asking anyone for a drop of help. (Changing that as I type, lol..)

Finally on that last note, I am surprised how the site roleplay format works: for on-site, you make a recruitment page, then an OOC page, and then.. the actual roleplay, interlinked into each other? Let me know if I'm getting somewhere, and thank you for your attention and advice, I hope to learn something from all of you! :-)

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

Today is a new day, and it is a new year, thus I finally shatter the glass to ask: How do I get started around here?

Find an interest check that interests you and speak to the op about what both of you want and expect from eachother. Communication, consideration of other people's circumstances, and being assertive enough to ask for what you want, but also flexible enough to compromise. If you do most of this, you'll be welcome anywhere on the site.

 

[Darling_Canines]

Hit there! I think the best way for you to really start feeling like you are part of this site is finding your niche! I'm still sort of new but I really feel like I'm figuring it out as I go and I'm actually making some friends! I'm going to talk about what I did on here so far and it has really helped me feel more comfortable navigating these waters. Maybe it'll help you!

First I did like you and lurked, tried to figure out if there was any new linguo and terms compared to the last time I roleplayed online (in the 2010s). For example I learned that OC means "original character" and CC is for "canon characters" and shit like that. And then I asked questions! Sometimes I'd reach out to someone via DM to ask what a specific abreviation it is they used means or ask my question in thread! I posted a thread asking RP veterans what were the changes and differences they've seen in this scene over time and that kinda helped me familiarize a bit with both a little history on this website as well as the general written RP scene. That helped me get comfortable in actually trying to dip my toes in roleplaying with others on here.

I joined a couple group roleplays, and then quickly figured out that it was a bit too overwhelming for me. But no harm no foul! I told the groups I was in that I can't do it and left with a few friendly aquaintances and even a few tid bits of RP advice! Yay

Then I started lurking the 1x1 interest checks, see how they are formatted, what are the different things people look for in a RP partner, all that jazz. I then wrote down the things I related to, my strenghts and weaknesses and wrote them in an about me (you can go to it in my signature if you're curious). And I used it to reach out to people I was interested in RPing with. A lot of people fall out of interest really fast when you're not a super regular replier like I am so not all of the ideas we were writing got off the ground. A lot of people ghost and fall out of interest but you find people that stick eventually. Just a lot of trial and error and comunication and asking questions no matter how stupid they make you feel to ask. And honestly, that's all it takes. You do as you're doing now, you keep asking questions. And if people don't understand your questions, try again diffrently, go at it in a different angle until you feel like you get it.

For example: What do you mean with this question?

what are the most delicate, important, up-to-date things I should know from user to user as a roleplayer and a director?

What does "as a director" mean to you, what is the contexte you have in mind that the rest of us are supposed to understand from you being a director affecting the way you go about navigating this site? Be more specific on the "things" you're trying to understand. Do you mean to ask if there is some kind of hidden roleplay etiquette you should know about? Do you mean you want to better understand if there are things you should never mention to another user? Get more specific, this is too vague fopr anyone to figure what it is you're asking for.

 

[Nullkross]

Find an interest check that interests you and speak to the op about what both of you want and expect from eachother. Communication, consideration of other people's circumstances, and being assertive enough to ask for what you want, but also flexible enough to compromise. If you do most of this, you'll be welcome anywhere on the site.

Well to be honest.. its easier said than done for me. Im 26 and not only new to this site but im new to rp in general. I cant find the courage to speak with someone, because i dont want them to waste their time with a newbie like me.. or take away their chance to find themselves someone way better with more expierience than me. Im highly interested in rp but i just cant do the first step.. maybe im just overdramatic but.. that's how i see it.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

Well to be honest.. its easier said than done for me. Im 26 and not only new to this site but im new to rp in general. I cant find the courage to speak with someone, because i dont want them to waste their time with a newbie like me.. or take away their chance to find themselves someone way better with more expierience than me. Im highly interested in rp but i just cant do the first step.. maybe im just overdramatic but.. that's how i see it.

Cant be afraid of not vibing with someone. The worst that can happen is you talk and don't agree with eachother. Has nothing to do with age or experience. People will participate if they are interest or will walk away if not. It's just a part of rp life.

You can't take things too seriously when you rp play by post. If you wanna rp as an elf archer protecting a sacred mangrove, it's up to the gm and other players if they are interested. There's no wasting time except if they flat out reject your idea but you still end up participating despite wanting to do your original idea. :3

 

[Epik_Berm]

Hey, wow, I was not expecting this outflow of information so soon!

Thank you all already for the tidbits pouring out here, for me it's strange to just see people, help out; it's pretty cool to see. Let me pop back a few responses here, hnn..
Bacon is fluffy thanks for the tip! I believe I can do all of that pretty well; in-fact my only concern is that I will overshare or overexplain people to death over things, so I find it actually ironic that Darling_Canines has asked me to elaborate more. We'll find out what is true on the frontline! XD

Thank you for that in-depth explanation Canine, I think I can get started pretty quickly, and I know enough to avoid instantly burning myself out joining a dozen groups off the bat, and likewise hope to be the best communicator I can, and find solace in dismissing those that disappear, fall out, and burn out without dramatic ends whether I'm a player or, I should replace the term "director" with game master here. As a GM, I have a long 7ish year history of making campaigns that would never get far with the majority, though thankfully I had a few friends that'd stretch their stories pretty far sometimes. I'm also hoping to practice my time management, communication and organization, and writing intrigue while I'm here, to try and make things more fun for my audiences if I get one.

To conclude, my initial inquiry is essentially the same task as sliding towards the bar-tender and asking for local rumors, or where the best burger joint is. I am in-fact looking to see if there's some unsaid roleplay salon with subconscious rules and regulations I wouldn't know from my many years of cave delving in my own worlds so that I can stay better aligned as to not confuse people like, for instance how I insinuated the "game master" role as a "director". And then, yes I think my only other concern is the structure people use for actually posting roleplaying threads, I didn't see a specific structure anywhere but I assume it's Recruitment > OOC post in it > all other posts in that post from what I saw around here.
Let me know if I'm hitting it somewhere, haha, and thanks again!!! :-)

Oh and, Nullkross well you're here now aren't'cha? Perhaps you and I or some of the good folk here can partner up and make our way through these first waves, get you somewhere nice, ah? Take good care all three of you! :-)

 

[nerdy tangents]

If it helps I also started roleplaying in my twenties (early twenties late teens) on a site that was geared towards 10 year olds.

The way I got started was someone saw the work I did in world building for a pixel shop I was running and was like “oh hey this roleplay thing is right up your alley”.

I think the big mistake a lot of people make at the beginning is thinking they need to know everything at once. Especially those of us that are naturally lore oriented, I thrive when it comes to world building and I always have.

But it does mean I can be someone who takes a long time to get started cuz I want to have all my ducks in a row before jumping in.

But the best way to learn is by doing. The people of this site love to chat and they love to make friends.

They aren’t going to be frustrated or annoyed if you ask them questions they’re gonna see it as a positive sign that you can communicate and aren’t an amateur psychic whose going to assume you can just read people’s minds and figure things out on your own.

Especially since there isn’t really a unified vocabulary or way of doing things.

If you do things differently than what people are used to they’re very happy to just ask clarifying questions.

 

[Daisie]

I think the biggest thing I've seen new people find confusing is the concept of interest checks. If you don't know what those are, it's pretty simple: they check for interest in a RP. It's threads made to advertise and recruit for your RPs.
I've also seen a lot of people join who refuse to ask for help, get overwhelmed, and just leave. The fact that you're asking for help this time kind of leads me to believe that you'll be alright here. As far as I know, there isn't some secret code everyone here is following, though since I've been here since I could first get online, there's every chance there are some habits baked into my brain now that I don't even notice

I'm not open for RPs, but if you just want someone to talk your ear off to, I do really like chatting. Always a pleasure to make new friends! Send a DM if you like, feel free to overshare, I've also been known to go on a tad too long, so no judgment here.

 

[BuggaBoo]

How do I get started around here?

I have perused to see how things work,

Hi!

K sooooo First thing is to look at RPNs TOS pages and see what is No! Bad!
They have a general overview of expectations there and what's gunna get you kicked.

For on-site, you make a recruitment page, then an OOC page, and then.. the actual roleplay, interlinked into each other?

Interest Check, OOC, Charrie Sheets, Approve, IC

K so like I suggest you lurk and follow an Int CHK from inception to IC. Here's an example. Pls follow and read how King went about at each stage

so I was wondering what are the most delicate, important, up-to-date things I should know from user to user as a roleplayer and a director

Lol by 'director' I think you mean GM or back in the day they were Mods but that got confusing so I guess it became Game Mod then evolved to Game Master? Idk really.

Anywhooooo the role for RPer greatly differs from like being gm and running the RP. And like bruh these are vast topics that you could basically get a textbooks worth of writing lol

Best advice I have is to jumpin, join a RP and learn for yourself. THEN come up with specific questions to ask here.

Dude you will pick up the basic formula and formats in no time. But k like as a baseline this is what I think are good RPers and GMs traits.

if anybody has any templates of all of those really cool sheets and other things people make to help me get started on being uniform, I was contemplating starting something myself?

Lol don't worry about all the fancy coding stuffs. It's actually nicer to have it as readable as possible.

You'll see basic outline for CS. Just lurk the ones you have an interest in running like a similar concept and copy their CS as you see fit.

But k like basically keep it digestible. Here's what i think basic CS needs.

K so like hope this helps!

 

[Nullkross]

Cant be afraid of not vibing with someone. The worst that can happen is you talk and don't agree with eachother. Has nothing to do with age or experience. People will participate if they are interest or will walk away if not. It's just a part of rp life.

Yes. I thought about it that way too, maybe im just beeing too introverted again >_< I just dont want to bother people.

But it does mean I can be someone who takes a long time to get started cuz I want to have all my ducks in a row before jumping in.

But the best way to learn is by doing. The people of this site love to chat and they love to make friends.

They aren’t going to be frustrated or annoyed if you ask them questions they’re gonna see it as a positive sign that you can communicate and aren’t an amateur psychic whose going to assume you can just read people’s minds and figure things out on your own.

Well.. I am willing to learn, i just dont want to bother others by doing so, thats why I started with character.ai where i practised.. if that makes sense. But you guys really helped me. Maybe I just needed a push in the right direction and stop overthinking every possible outcome. I will give my best!

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

Yes. I thought about it that way too, maybe im just beeing too introverted again >_< I just dont want to bother people.

Well.. I am willing to learn, i just dont want to bother others by doing so, thats why I started with character.ai where i practised.. if that makes sense. But you guys really helped me. Maybe I just needed a push in the right direction and stop overthinking every possible outcome. I will give my best!

I hope the push helped, but in the meantime I suggest making a 1 x 1 interest check. If you convey to people you are new and learning, people who are interested in teaching a noob or the fandoms/concepts you have will come. :3

also I would seriously consider reading a few pages worth of replies. and practicing writing in the third person

 

[Epik_Berm]

Good evening; here atleast- all!
Thank you again for all of the responses and inquiries back, I really appreciate it. nerdy tangents Daisie BuggaBoo (Thanks for the gab offer Daisie I'll keep you in mind!! )

Just to kind of sum up some responses, I would like to preface that I do (believe I) have a lot of experience with the craft itself; roleplaying has always been my thing since I was a wee lass, so I hope to have all the other etiquettes down, just not in a forum format with an open door to basically anybody on the planet! I've already begun perusing and approaching a few simple projects to get myself started, and already am conceptualizing some sort of progressive 1x1 casual experience to open a simple alley for basic roleplaying both to get myself accustomed and some folks like Nullkross initiated for both our sakes (I'll message you when I get there, Null! Good luck otherwise)!

With all that said, I read what else I could find and guess the most hands on learning will be crafting the actual posts and the aesthetic/organization work, which should be fun.
Thank you all again for the kind boost, and I hope to see you somewhere out there soon!