Guide: Storytelling 101: A Barebones Guide to Roleplay

This guide is intended to provide very basic information and tips on roleplay. It is geared towards collaborative efforts, such as online forums and tabletop events, rather than stand-along efforts such as novels. This is not a perfect guide, written from a single perspective and experience. Each writer is encouraged to research the many points of view and to find their own voice.

This page is a work in progress.

What is Roleplaying?
Fundamentally, roleplaying is exactly what it says: the idea of playing a role not yourself. Mental acting. We do this every day when we answer any question involving "what if"? What if you get that raise you've been after? What if the power goes out? What if you get sick? Whether we realize it or not, we roleplay every day in preparation for a future that hasn't happened yet. Roleplaying is usually applied to non-real settings, such as fantasy or science fiction. It is this specific act that this guide is written from.

When you roleplay, you assume the mindset of a character similar to that of one in a story. Perhaps you are the dashing hero, the sly villain, a peddler making their way, or a sailor on the high seas. As you build the story of your character, you will use them to interact with the world they find themselves in and overcome the challenges that they face. In every scenario, you will have to ask yourself "If I were this person, how would I handle this situation?"

Backstory: Knowing Your Character
It sounds a lot easier that it is, especially if you're new to roleplaying. At first, many of us will react to fictional situations as we would in reality. Other times, we will react in a vastly-different manner that is far outside our character because we consider roleplaying to be a game without consequence. In a collaborative effort, each style will affect the outcome of the narrative. A balance must be maintained while staying true to the character's nature, and this isn't always easy.

To know how your character would move and act in a given scenario, you first need to understand where they come from (generally known as a backstory). A good story rarely starts when the protagonist is a newborn babe, unless it has direct bearing on a later story arc. By and large, a story will pick up when the conditions are just right for an exciting narrative.

You don't need to come up with an entire library of details (unless you want to) to build your backstory. Broad strokes are generally what you need, the bare bones upon which to build your character moving forward. How old is your character? Who are/were your character's parents? Where did your character grow up? Were there any events in their life that affected them deeply? Does your character have any distinguishing skills, training, features, or goals? As you build on these ideas, you may find that other details come to you. Get to know your character in this way. The better you know them, the better you'll be able to roleplay from their perspective.

Flaws: Life's Greatest Challenges
Think of your favorite character. It could be from a mystery novel you read, or the new action movie that just came out. It probably pops readily to mind their strengths, how smart or badass they were. Man, wouldn't it be awesome to be like that? Wouldn't it be fun to play a character like that who, against all odds, pulls the world from the fire and saves the day?

But hold up! What happened in the beginning? What trials did they overcome? What puzzles thwarted their brilliant mind? How many beatings did they take? Surely it wasn't all blazing guns and unearthed relics, right? Arguably, the most notable characters across all genres are the ones that overcome great adversity through trial and effort. They sacrificed. They trained. They suffered loss. Triumph was forged in the fires of opposition, hammered into shape by conflict.

We are none of us perfect. Most of us never will be. We all have our vices, made our mistakes, missed our opportunities. Even the most wealthy and powerful men and women of our time have blemishes. Your character should have flaws, weaknesses in the beginning. The best flaws are they ones they cannot remove themselves. Even Superman had his kryptonite. It is through these challenges that they will improve to become the hero (or villain) you want them to be.

"But why," you say. "I don't want my character to have flaws! I want them to be amazing!" First, it is hard to build a narrative with a perfect character. Nothing challenges them. They can't be beaten, routed, subdued, or defeated. Second, it is hard to relate to them. Again, the best stories are the ones we can see ourselves in, that engage a part of us, pull us in, make us believe. Lastly, it makes collaboration impossible. If you're working on a roleplay with other people, their characters will have goals, too. If your character is perfect, they won't need those other characters to succeed. There's no point, no team, no collaboration. It'll just be your show, and that's no fun for anyone else.

Storytelling: From Horizon to Horizon
Okay, so you've got your character thought out. You know their backstory, their goals, and their flaws. You know what you want them to look like, sound like, and act like. How do you translate that into words? Telling a good story is as much in the delivery as the journey itself. And it should be a journey, one that leaves you anxious to see what is around the next bend, in awe as you behold the world beyond the horizon. In a collaborative work, there isn't a set end but the one you make for it. Everything your character does will affect the world around them, much like life. And, like life, things that happen in the world around them will affect your character.

The biggest challenge will be in interacting with other player-characters. Everyone will have an idea on how they want the scenario to play out, but each will not have sole control over the outcome. And, depending on the situation, there may be nothing they can do. Sometimes you and your fellow players will be vastly outmatched with no real hope of success. It happens. Use it as an opportunity to grow your character, to see what is beyond that bitter twist in the story. Build their narrative! Are they broken? Resolved? Conflicted? Do they give up? Push on? Reconsider? Every choice made sets that character moving forward to the next horizon in a journey that could amaze even you... if you let it.

Details: Painting Your Perspective
The Devil, they say, is in the details. This is especially true for storytelling. To help get across your character's role in the narrative, you'll need to use words to do it. The first consideration should be the mood of the narrative. What is happening to your character at the moment you are writing? Are they happy? Sad? Confused? Afraid? Different words can paint different moods, and the way you use those words can make them as clear as mud or as crystal, depending.

Pacing is just as important, the amount of words you use in a given stretch. It is very much an artform to use the right amount of words to set a narrative's pace, but it's possible with practice. Want to set a frenzied action scene? Use short sentences. Setting the tone for a laid-back, relaxing afternoon? Use longer sentences. The longer or shorter it takes the reader to finish each thought, the more quickly or slowly the pace.

There is a balance in detail that every writer needs to maintain. On the one hand, you should only provide the details that matter to the scene. Flowing descriptions are nice once in a while at a particularly-pivotal moment, but too much detail can drag the pace of your narrative down. Unless a detail absolutely needs to be included, cut it. "The red car sped by" is fine, giving us just enough detail that such a quick-paced scenario might normally give us. "The fire engine red 1955 Ford Thunderbird with whitewall tires and fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror sped by" is detailed, but not at all quick-paced. Unless your character is taking a long and detailed look at the automobile for reasons important to your narrative, such details can (and usually will) do more harm than good.

On the other hand, there's the scenario of too-little detail. Remember, while you may know everything there is to know about your character, your reader may not. "She went to the store" is a good start, but is not enough in itself to provide a good narrative. If that's all the detail you give, consider revising it to be part of something else (especially if you're passing time between scenes). "She went to the store, met Megan for lunch, then came home. That's when she saw it." Glossing over unimportant moments is fine if it fits the pace or leads up to other things.

Descriptors, too, can have a deep impact on how your narrative comes across. "The juicy apple" conjures a different image than "the moldy apple," and can change the tone of the mood. If the gentleman at the department store spritzes your character with "a cloying stench," it will come across in a vastly different tone than "a breezy scent." Same scenario, same action, distinctly different perceptions. Descriptors help immerse your reader in your narrative, but they have to fit the mood. No one is going to buy into your character's desperate escape from the Gloomy Wood if "the sun is shining brightly and fluffy rabbits rollick along the gentle path."

Worldview: First-and-Third Person
Most stories are written in one of two perspectives: first-person or third-person. Each has their own merit depending on the type of story desired. They also have their own drawbacks.

A first-person story is told purely from the perspective of your character, using "I/We" statements. This is a great place to tell an in-depth, personal story from. You can express your character's thoughts and feelings in a more fleshed-out form, usually because their internal scenarios (feelings, memories, etc.) can sort of pause the narrative more understandably. The downside of first-person writing is that you can only tell the story from your character's point of view, based on where they are and what they know.

A third-person story is told from a wider scope, though it tends to follow one character at a time. It's the outside view, the eagle eye, done in "He/She/They" statements. Here, you can paint a broader canvas of the world your character is moving about in, but you are often limited to what the reader could see or infer from the outside. Internal positing is sometimes minimal to keep pace depending on setting. Third-person writing also allows for foreshadowing by cutting to other events that your character may be a part in, sweeping the reader along for the ride.

Which to choose? That's up to you and the story you want to tell. If you want to get deep into your character's head, to explore what they think and feel, then first-person is probably for you. If you want to explore the world around your character and the interplay of events they take part in, then third-person is probably your style. Once you make a decision, though, stick with it. Switching from first- to third-person, unless it is integral to the story, will more often confuse the reader, especially if it is done within the same stretch of narrative.

Perspective: Past or Present Tense
When creating a narrative, tense is just as important as description and pacing. It is the manner in which you will present the events of your story. You can tell a story as it is happening ("Bob opens the door.") in the present tense, giving a more progressive and here-and-now feel to your story. You can also tell a story as if recounting a great tale ("Bob opened the door.") in the past tense, allowing for an epic, set-in-stone feel. Neither is wrong, but once you choose your tense you should commit to it as to not confuse the reader.