Roleplay Guide
The first key to roleplaying is quality. Here in XWC, and in
other federations, quality of the roleplays is the number one factor in
judgement. By quality, we mean something that could grab our attention and
continue to hold it. This is most likely done by being unique. Nobody really
wants to see WWF storylines rehashed online. Once you learn how to write a high
quality roleplay, next move onto quantity.
Probably the second key is roleplay length. It is true that just
about anybody can write a long roleplay, but the problem is that many people get
lost in the quantity part and forget the number one factor, quality. In XWC we
have set up roleplay limits to help control this problem that many feds face.
Once you can get quantity down it is back to quality.
Now that we have the two
main factors, let's look at how to achieve these standards.
Over the past few years of roleplaying, I have found that the
best way to roleplay for your character is to know your character. It is
important that you know an extensive background on your wrestler. This can help
you to know how your wrestler would act in every situation. Once you pin point
and perfect your character's attitude and style, writing as him or her will
become much easier. Try to coin a few catch phrases for your wrestler also.
Another key to development in roleplays is to read each roleplay
written. I know that this takes time, but reading each other's work gives many
ideas and can build many storylines. You can come up with a nice long roleplay
built off of just one other wrestler's roleplay. Interaction with other
roleplayer's also helps in determining who wins the match. We want to see
meaning to roleplays, and not just a match to match basis roleplay.
As said before, originality is the key. Now this may take some
more time, but being original makes everything more interesting. As a roleplayer
you must tell a story, and nobody really wants to read the same story over and
over again. So broaden your horizons with roleplaying. Don't stick to in ring
interviews or even just interviews in general. You don't see this on WWF, they
don't have interview after interview from wrestlers. Backstage actions are the
key to building storylines. There are no limits to what you can do with writing.
Hell, you can have your wrestler go to a midget cloning factory if you want.
Just make things original and fun to read.
Next let's look at the
formating and such of a roleplay
To be known as a good wrestler you have to know how to spell and
generally know how to make sense. Over the years I have seen some roleplayers
with extremely bad spelling. This will get you ridiculed by practically everyone
in the fed. But then you have roleplayers that roleplay in advance for a match
and then try to fix it later by changing things around because of what happened
on other cards before this match. The problem is that most people won't catch
every single thing in the roleplay and it won't make sense, and once again you
are ridiculed. To solve this problem there are a couple easy solutions. First
off, do your roleplay with enough time so that you can examine it before you
post it. But the main key that I have found is that you should do your roleplays
on a word processor. Microsoft Word seems to be the best one for this, because
it also has an autosave function which is very helpful so that you don't lose a
roleplay if your computer resets on you.
Some of the more experienced roleplayers are probably wondering
why HTML was not talked about yet, but I'm finally to it. HTML can be a blessing
or a nightmare depending on how you use it. The key to HTML is knowing how and
when to use it. Some roleplayers go overboard and change the color every single
paragraph or line. This is absolutely uncalled for. Other roleplayers tend to
stick to alternating colors between the paragraphs or lines. This is also not
using color like it is intended. Try to stick a color for your description and
one color per person in your roleplay. This will make your roleplay much easier
to read. A picture or two also helps, but overdoing picutres looks
unprofessional, and it makes loading that much longer. Another good thing to add
is background music, but realize that this also makes loading longer. A lot of
people will tell you that tables are a must, but they really aren't. Yes they
are good, but some people just get too out of hand with them. If you need any
help with HTML, a fairly decent site is posted above this link on the main page,
and it gives you all the codes you will ever need.
Lastly in formatting a roleplay, the structure of a roleplay is a key. Everyone should know the basics of a story right now. You should have an introduction, which is typically a setting. Tell who is there, what is going on, the reactions, just generally be descriptive. Next is the body of your roleplay. Here you should have all the talking between characters and the moving from place to place. It is usually good to end the body of your roleplay with a finalizing quote from your wrestler. You guessed it, the ending is a short conclusion. You have to have some description at the end, don't just write something like scene ends, get into a good ending. Now that you have the basic formatting down, let's get a little more into it. Make sure your paragraphs are spaced out. Put a space between every change in character or description, but no more than one space. Try to avoid continuous short responses also.
