NOTICE: I did not write this, all credit goes to Slade of Otakuzone.
Fantastic. Now first of let me, explain this guide and the reason behind it. I used to be an Avid Rper. Three years in game on wow and aoc forums. What this guide is based on is what I have learned from those years, so these are pointers how you can create a better rp and create a character that is interesting and fun to roleplay, so let's get started!
How to Create a World
This is the most important part of everything. All role-plays are based on a world, be it your own world, an alternative world or another world entirely. Here only your imagination sets the limit.
The more you can visualize "your" world the better it is. The reason I say it's "your" world is because as the creator of an rp, you will be the one who sets the limits of others. I will explain more about that later.
The introduction is the key here, the more you can set up about your world (time, place, gods, demons, etc) the better because this gives the role-players a frame to work within and thus creating the base for a better and more rewarding roleplay experience.
An example Plot:
Riverport town is a small town clung between the ocean and the mountain, it is a thriving town of 20,000 inhabitants. On the east side of Riverport lies the harbor and factories, since the middle ages production and ship building has been a important asset of Riverport. Citizens on the east are poor but they are proud to carry on the heritage that Riverport was build on. To the west lies the modern heart of Riverport. From old, it was common courtesies that the factory owners and the leaders lived here. Today it's a buzzing part of the town still inhabited by the rich and powerful hardly having to work for their paycheck.
In the north the Riverport the science facility lies, it's renowned for creating the cutting edge sciences and it's said to expand in vast caverns inside the mountain. Creating lucrative places for scientist and their families to live. The Riverport forest in the south has been long known for it's beauty and supposedly inspired world famous artist of all kinds. Also in the south lies the Riverport cultural center surrounded by up and coming artist novelists and others who come to Riverport to learn the beauty of its forest. In the very center lies the newly opened Riverport High school, it facilitates all from economy classes to workshops and chemistry. Its five giant buildings are split between sciences, trades, arts, gymnastics, and economics. Capable of housing up to 2,500 students. The first semester starts today.
Plot
Now as a creator of an Rp you need to set up a plot. The plot can be a very straightforward thing as getting a certain item or it can be an underlying plot were they are more free to act out their characters. The example above has an underlying plot.
As I mentioned before in the example there are four different "areas" with vastly different folk types and when all these "different people" meet in the same school conflicts are bound to happen. The important thing is you do not have to create the entire plot.
Before the roleplay begins it's actually a smart idea to leave the plot open and just set in pointers in how it starts. Some of my best role playing events ever have been when the plot I planned went astray because something I didn't think would happen actually happened and thus changing my planned plot line entirely. Meaning setting up a vague plot can be very helpful when creating an RP.
Set a goal.
When creating an RP you want to set goals. The reason for this is simple, if there is a goal to be reached people will try to reach it by driving the story forward. An RP without any goals will often get dull pretty fast. When setting a goal you need to think of a few things.
1. Is the goal achievable? If it's not then don't use it.
2. Why this particularly goal? The more reason you can incorporate into your intro (or character) the better
3. Is it a personal goal or a plot wide goal? Let's say your character wants something that's a personal goal, by declaring what your character wants you open up for other role players to join in easier and draw more people to the RP itself. It's the same with a common wide goal like: All the five different school classes each want to be the ruling class of the school.
How to keep a rp alive.
Now this is the hardest part. We have already established how to build up a roleplay story and now we need to make sure it stays alive. In a forum it takes time so be patient. Many times the problem is often that people forget to post or grow tired of it. To keep it alive you, as its creator sometimes must make decisions of others.
Though it may be called godmodding sometimes you the creator might have to do it to drive the RP forward. Now let's say the RP is stuck cause the "role player"stopped posting. Wait for a week or so before moving on to the important part, this is so that you don't forget about the role player but leave it open so he or she can return. Now here is another piece of advice. Try to keep the RP open for people to join in at all time. The more interesting your RP gets it is very likely that people will want to join so it is important to let them while the RP is ongoing. For example, Person A talks to Person B in an open environment, the discussion is heated and a few passing by onlookers watch as they argue.
Though this might seem like a Closed roleplay it's not there is the possibility for role players to step in and stop the argument and thus introducing themselves into the roleplay. Unless of course the two were arguing in a closed room and it was meant to be private.
In the end keeping the RP alive is as much up to the creator as to the role players and sometimes it's hard to keep it alive. (I've been there many many times) but if you think about it and make some hard decisions once in a while it can be saved even if it does require the creator to make some judgement calls for others to keep the story going.
