Hello everybody. This is DWF's official Roleplaying Guide. The federation that brought you the entertainment of The Legendary Bob! and Jack "The Poser" Harding, along with the intensity of SuperStar Steve Studlee and Aleister Crowley, even going as far as showing you the bizarre and twisted roleplays of Oddball and Wolf. This guide will possibly help you develop into roleplayers greater than these legends. However, you shouldn't use this as a lifeline for every situation. In order to be a good roleplayer you need to think for yourself mainly. These are just some friendly guidelines. Read on, I'll try and make it as entertaining and understandable as possible. I'm assuming you already know what a roleplay is but if you don't I'll take this brief second to explain it. A roleplay is a situation or statement that you make as your character.
Step One: I don't meen too bee rude. Butt U shood have correct spelleeng and grammer when ever possible. Sorry about that. Here's how it's supposed to go: I don't mean to be rude, but you should have correct spelling and grammar whenever possible. You'd be surprised how often I see that... mostly in Powerplant federations, but it does occur in high quality feds as well. The number one thing to any roleplay is not grammar and spelling but it definately helps. There's nothing more aggravating for a grader than to have to sit down and read a roleplay that confuses them. While it is good to use proper grammar. Don't be afraid to use slang or certain types of dialect if your character or an extra calls for it. An example is if your character talks like a "Funked Out G-Dawg Freaky Momma!" Then use words like "YO YO YO!!" or whatever. That's not my thing, so I'm not familiar with current extreme slang. Sorry. Use the proper synonyms as well. This next section is NOT meant to insult your intelligence! I can't stress that enough. Here are the definitions to several misused synonyms:Hear: To listen to one speaking or the sounds of a surrounding area. "He could hear through the doorway."
Here: A location usually in reference to ones current where abouts. "He's coming over here."
Their: Possessive Pronoun for multiple people. "Their clothes were strewn across the lawn."
There: One's location, usually in reference to a destination rather than a current area. "He moved over there."
Threw: To have thrown. "He threw the cat out the window."
Through: to go from one end to another. "He read through the book."
There are many, many others that I didn't mention. Those that were mentioned are some of the most misused, that's probably why I remembered them.
Step Two: Think of a gimmick. Don't know what a gimmick is? Quite frankly a gimmick is the persona a wrestler takes on. Undertaker has a "Deadman" gimmick, SSS has a "Best of the Best" gimmick, Bob.... well nobody has figured out his gimmick exactly. But think of a gimmick before you even send in the form. It's good to have your character developed and you being able to perform with him well. By performing well I mean, if you can't do comedic roleplays... don't create a character that makes situations funny. By funny, I don't mean Rodney Dangerfield funny... Rodney Dangerfield as a wrestler is scary! Not funny. I mean funny as in; spoofs, witty responses, Dueling Banjo syndrome {where the wrestlers trades witty jabs at one another in the roleplay}. Ahh, that brings up another point. If your going to join a federation... Use one wrestler and one wrestler only. Perhaps two at most but one is recommended. If you bring nine different wrestlers into the fed for the soul purpose of using them in your roleplays then your only crowding the roster. Sometimes a secondary character is nessessary for a great roleplay but you don't have to use other wrestlers. Use people. Fans, celebrities, announcers, etc.Now think of your wrestler's past. Where did he grow up? What causes him to be the way he is? Did he suffer abuse as a child? These are all serious questions that could mean a great angle or character flaw you could use to the largest advantage. Did your wrestler get held over a high place as a child and therefore has an unbelievable sense of vertigo? What does your wrestler look like? Don't just say he looks like Steve Austin... unless that's exactly what you want. We're going for originality here. Here's a good technique I found out in my later years of e-wrestling. Take your favorite attributes of the wrestlers you like and combine them.
Example:
Name: Gimmick Boy!
Height: 7'2" {Big Show's height}
Weight: 255 lbs. {Benoit's weight, not really but it's an example}
Hair-Style: Old HHH Braid.
See what I mean? The same thing goes for personality traits.
Step Three: Scan for things you like. You might want to read the other wrestler's roleplays and find what they do right and wrong. Know your competition. Find a character flaw and exploit it. For example. Jack Harding was about as vain a person as they come. At least that's what I remember about him. Use something like vanity against them.Example:
"Jack Harding... can you possibly get through a day without looking in a mirror? After I'm done with you tonight, you'll break every mirror you gaze into!"
Or in the case of Jack Harding. "Boy, you think you can challenge me? Your not even worth my time! I've seen boils on your face with more potential."
Do NOT digress into simple insults like "You Suck!" or "Yo Mama!" No offense but they just look stupid and a grader will likely minus points for things like that. Another thing, unless it is in your character to do so, keep swear words to a minimum whenever possible. If every other word out of your wrestler's mouth is "F*CK!" then you might want to sit back and develop him a little more before continueing.
Another VERY important thing. If somebody insults you in a roleplay or on the OOC board. Don't take it personally. At least try not to. I know, I know, you've been told this for BILLION times but e-fedding is a game. That's all it is, A GAME! But another word of advice for that. BEFORE you go and insult somebody on the OOC board, realize that these are REAL people your talking to. Not the wrestlers of the roleplaying board. A lot of people can and will take offense if you do. Insulting and the such make the game less desirable to play and people dwindle from roleplaying and who looks like the ass? You do! Now, if somebody insults you in a roleplay. Don't piss and moan about it in your next roleplay or on the OOC board. USE IT! Take the roleplay apart and find things you can use. Roleplaying duels are a clash of wits. If you can blow them away with an insult {in character not out of character} or a retort then you'll likely win your match with them.
Example:
Wrestler #1: You Suck!
Wrestler #2: Yeah? Well your a blatant bag of bag of blanch-inducing bung substance!
Wrestler #1: Yeah well... uuhhh... What the hell is bung substance?
There you go... you won the argument right there. Not many people can retort to something as bad as a being called a blatant bag of blanch-inducing bung substance. But roleplaying is not all insults.
Step Four: No roleplaying is NOT all insults. In fact in most cases you don't even have to mention your opponent in your roleplay. This, you can work to your advantage as well. The good part about this is that it opens you up to a whole new area of things to talk about. You DO NOT by any circumstances have to limit your roleplays to an arena area. Although some of the best I've read have been done in such a way. GO PLACES! There's a gigantic world out there and your only one small person. This is fantasy, go jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge and get arrested! You'll get bailed out before your match, unless you want to work that angle to its fullest. Go to the top of the Empire State Building and toss silver dollars off! Say something like: "SSS, this silver dollar is you. This is what will happen when you and I go at it." And drop the dollar off the building. Create chaos as the dollar rockets toward the ground and slams into something! You can kill people if you want... just as long as it's not in real life and only in your roleplays. Don't kill the other wrestlers though. It would be dumb if you killed your opponent then he roleplays living and breathing quite healthily! It doesn't make sense!
Step Five: Here's a useful tip. GET TO KNOW THE STAFF!!! Nine times out of ten the staff of a good federation is using AOL Instant Messager as a means of communication. Now come on. We all know AOL sucks {Sorry AOL users but that's my opinion} and your probably thinking that AOL Instant Messager is no better. Just try it out. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. Back to the point though. Try and contanct the President or the Owner. Get to know him or her. It will give you a much more prosperous time in the fed. A good President listens to new angle ideas, your feelings on the condition of the fed, and will help you out at times. No this isn't slyly cheating your way to the top, though it has been known to happen, don't take advantage of a friendship unless you deserve it {wait, I didn't word that right... well you know what I mean!} If the staff knows what your planning, then your going to get a lot more leeway than normal. The matches will be written with a better idea of what your wanting to happen. Believe me, there have been screw-ups and there will always be screw-ups. But at least they'll be less common than otherwise.While all of what I said about the staff is true, most of the time the staff members are really nice people and can develop into great friendships. I know because I'm friends with almost everybody on the DWF staff and they are all quite enjoyable to talk with.
Step Six: Use HTML for style. You don't have to use it but it's useful for good appearence. If you use HTML, create your roleplays with a general color scheme. Your character has a certain colored text at all times, the actions have their own color as well. Example: Whenever your character speaks have the text be yellow. Whenever an action takes place have the text be blue. Also use various text altercations. Like italics, underlining, and bolding. Let's take this to a more visual level so you understand what I'm talking about.
Gimmick Boy is sitting in a chair reading a book. He looks up at the camera.Gimmick Boy: BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!
Gimmick Boy resumes reading his book. The camera fades to black.
There are also tables but that's a little more advanced than I'd like to explain here. You can also import images into your roleplays. I'll list some of the commands below for your use. All the commands below require that you take the space out from the front of the command. Also the < /command> is a tag that will end the use of the command.Bold: < b>Bold< /b>
Italic: < i>Italic< /i>
Underline: < u>Underline< /u>
Font colors:
Blue: < font color=blue>BLAH< /font>
Green: < font color=green>BLAH< /font>
You can also experiment with 0 C and F for your colors. Use only six characters in this way though.
< font color=00ccff>BLAH< /font>
To put a picture in your roleplay use this tag. < img src="www.yourpic.com"> You must use the quotations or the address won't work.
There are many other colors. Use any combination. A good way to view how your roleplay is progressing is to write it out on your NotePad program and saving the file as something like Roleplay.txt or whatever. From there you rename the file Roleplay.html and reopen it. That will show your roleplay in an Explorer or Netscape format. I, myself use Notepad when I do this because for some reason when you use Wordpad you get ASCII symbols and part of the roleplay is lost. I probably didn't explain that well enough but trust me. Use Notepad instead of Wordpad.
One useful hint that I learned from my friend is that in the case of HTML you see many intersting things that you might like to use. Whenever you view a roleplay and you want to see how they accomplished what they did, right click on the screen and view the source; which is basically the typed out "rough draft" of the roleplay. It displays all the HTML coding along with any other language used. I can't help you with JAVA because I don't know the first thing about it. These are the basics of HTML and all I'm willing to tell you at the moment about it.
Thanks for listening. Hey guys, if you want to give me your comments or anything like that. I would appreciate. The Owner,Ricky
