Post by lyusani on Aug 28, 2015 22:53:10 GMT
The General Semi-Lit Role-Playing Guidelines! (Our Expectations!)
Who is considered a "semi-literate" role-player?
Semi-literate role-playing is a very vague and broad term used in the world of role-playing. It is in between illiterate and literate.
A role-player who is considered semi-literate could be one of the following writers:
- Someone who finds grammar challenging but is extremely capable of presenting very original characters, plot lines and engages the reader.
- Someone who possesses exceptional grammar skills and creates thoroughly developed characters but is unable to create interesting, attention-grabbing phrases.
- Someone who is skilled at engaging the reader with their words, is able to use appropriate grammar but lacks in character and plot development.
- Someone who feels they are too advanced for illiterate role-playing but not advanced enough to move into literate role-playing.
Semi-literate role-playing is for those who are trying to transition from illiterate to literate slowly to get used to building bigger, better and more detailed paragraphs, characters and story lines as well as fine-tuning their grammatical skills along the way.
That being said, everyone should be lenient with each other but also try and help each other improve your skills in a nice and respectful way. Detailed and beneficial critique is fine, criticism without a basis is not. (Basically, don't be a full-out grammar Nazi but be open to helping your peers improve and being guided as to how to improve your own skills too!)
What is expected of a semi-literate role-player?
- At least a paragraph per character's response. We understand writer's block, it happens to the best of us but it'd be appreciated if you could write as much as you can. It's not fair on your partner if they're writing you two paragraphs every single time but you barely reciprocate with a two-liner. If you're going to role-play, you should try and put effort into your response. Writer's block won't work as an excuse time after time again. This'll cause people to get fed-up with you and move on to someone else who can match their standards.
If you do feel that they're a little too-fast paced and advanced for your level of skill, don't be afraid to ask them to tone it down bit! Perhaps you're only breaking into semi-literate and need a little bit of lenience and patience. That's fine! Don't be afraid to make your partner aware.
- Try being as grammatically correct as possible. As it's the semi-lit board, we don't expect you to be completely perfect. However, we do want you to put effort into your piece of writing! It will be plainly obvious when you haven't bothered to use basic grammar and spell-check your response and if anything that's the bare minimum of what you should be doing regardless of what category you fall into. You don't need to use fancy punctuation, words or phrases but it definitely does enhance the flow of your piece and it's capability to engage your partner.
- Be as descriptive as you can! Role-playing isn't just about what your character is doing or is feeling. It's about what it can see, what it can hear, what it can smell, what it can feel and what it can taste. Try and use your five senses to your advantage. Put yourself in your character's shoes and think about these five key things, (sight, smell, hear, touch, taste).It's also important to keep in mind the scenario your character is in. What has just happened/what is going on/what are you thinking about doing next? Who is there/who are they? Where are you/where are they? When did this happen/what time is it? Why did it happen/why are you here/why are they here?Adding on to that, try and use more complex and interesting adjectives, phrases, alliteration, short sentences, similes and metaphors. Use a dictionary to look up synonyms or antonyms if you have to. Search for interesting similes and metaphors to perfectly describe the situation. Use short sentence to create tension and drama!Example:"I can see the lake glistening in the distance. It's so close! I can almost feel the water engulfing my entire body already. I can't help myself but walk closer, hypnotized by the soft ripples. Softly fading out until they disappear entirely. Only for the pattern to repeat itself again. How beautiful.GAH. Suddenly, a rich garlic odour invaded my nostrils. So strong it must have made me walk back half a dozen feet. It had came without warning, like a snake's zealous bite. As if I had invaded it's territory. No wonder the lake hadn't been visited before.The scent of the garlic among the other herbs was relentless and unforgiving. Feeling defeated, I decided the best option was to retreat home. I suppose a scalding hot bath would suffice for my wasted trip."
The Do's and Do Not's of Semi-Lit Role-playing.
Do- Ask for descriptive and beneficial critique. ✔
- Be thankful for the critique! ✔
- Give critique when asked for it. ✔
- Let your partner know when you are suffering from writer's block. ✔
- Let your partner be aware if you'll be absent from the role-play for a while! ✔
Don't- Give criticism when it is not asked for and when it's not necessary. Especially not with the intent to hurt someone's feelings. ✖
- Be rude or engage in any sort of bullying in anyway. ✖
- Force the role-plot your way the whole time. Everyone should have an opportunity to say what happens next. ✖
- Create Mary-Sues or Gary-sues! This is the semi-literate board, you should be driving away from simplistic, all-around perfect characters and leaning towards characters with their positives and negatives! ✖
When using these boards keep in mind that bullying, vulgar language and role-playing content that is not considered PG13 is not allowed and won't be tolerated. Please respect the fact that there is a possibility younger children could stumble across the board and read everything you're saying. You should also respect that your partner perhaps does not want to role-play vulgar, lewd or gorey themes with you.
Anything on this thread could be due to change at any moment in time so please re-read this topic regularly to keep yourself refreshed with this information. You should also watch out for new additions or changes!
Thank you!
