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divincr-arch-blog · 7 years

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steph’s guide to roleplaying

Heyo! Bare with me, for this is a long post.

So, within various fandoms, I have seen a common trend that rubs me the wrong way. People asking, either their followers or blogs they follow, why they aren’t popular/roleplayed with. Or, they ask for advice and do not apply it, for one reason or another.

I have been in the indie Tumblr roleplaying community for over three years now, across three big fandoms (Marvel, Harry Potter, and Fire Emblem) as well as smaller fandoms. I have seen many trends come and go, many popular roleplayers come and go, and more.

It’s hard to get your foot in the RP door on Tumblr. I was there. Your favorite blog that you cry about being so good was there. Everyone was there. It’s a BIG pond, with many fish. Things are ever changing on Tumblr, so this will be reference guide to what you need to get started on your RP blog!

When it comes to edits, whether they are icons, themes, or promos, they are very important to RP blogs. Icons are a staple within the RP community, across fandoms, indie, and group. It may seem hard to get and make graphics without Photoshop, a very expensive program, but there are ways around it. Your graphics do not have to be fancy or hand drawn, but cleanly sized and cropped. There are many image editors out there, but these are my personal favorites.

GIMP- a free and downloadable image editor. it works very similarly to Photoshop, and will work for basic things like cropping, coloring, and resizing images. It does not have all the features of Photoshop, but will work fine for simple things.

Pixlr- a free image editing site that requires no download. Again, it works similarly to Photoshop and Gimp, but more on the basic side. I recommend this if your version of GIMP or Photoshop is acting wonky or broken. If you are iffy about downloading programs, this will be perfect for you.

Photoshop Torrents- While stealing, pirating, and torrenting is wrong and illegal, Photoshop is expensive. You can get older versions of Photoshop through various torrents on the internet (I found mine through tumblr). I like using CS5 because it is a well known version with plenty of tutorials online. I recommend downloading Photoshop Portable, as it can easily be stored on your flash drive.

As for what is actually on the blog and what people like to see on a roleplay blog, there is a few things that people prefer not to see. The number one thing most followers want from a roleplay blog is writing. They may want that through interaction with you as a partner, or they just like reading it as a personal or follower. As for the things that people do not like to see, there are the top few things.

6 Pages of Memes- It is okay to reblog memes. It is how interactions between partners start, and can serve as good ice breakers between new mutuals. However, as someone who has gone through many blogs, six pages of memes with a few RP post in between is not appealing. Just because you may not be getting responses right away, does not mean you should spam your blog and the dash with memes every half hour. People may not be online or interested in that meme. If you like all these memes, queue or schedule them for when people are online more. Also, send some to the people on your dash and focus on making new threads from them.

Short Replies- Before I start, yes, one liners are fun. They are quick, easy, and light, but they should not be the only thing on your blog. Many people like to expand to paragraphs because they are writers. Paragraph responses also show potential followers how you write and if it will click with their style. They may seem intimidating, but take your time on them. Save part of your responses to the drafts and come back to it later. Roleplaying is not about how fast you can respond, but the quality of your writing. This is especially true when you do not use icons. If a blog doesn’t use icons, I look for description in shorter replies rather than dialogue.

Negativity- This monster comes in many shapes or forms. Negativity/guilt tripping, drama with other blogs, and personal posts do not belong on a roleplay blog, though. Instead of guilt tripping and vague posting, talk it out with a friend for a confidence booster or take a tiny 1-hour break from blogging. Keep whatever beef you have with someone private, as well as your personal/political beliefs about an issue. That’s why personal blogs are things.

Lack of Pages- Pages about your blog are very important! It serves as your personal anchor on your blog, as well as people’s knowledge to your and your character prior to following and interacting. If someone does not see pages about your blog on it, they are more than likely to brush your blog aside. A rules page is the first thing people look for. They want to know how you are as a person, and how to interact with you. Besides the general “do not be a jerk” rule that everyone has, many people elaborate on how interaction with them work. An about page also helps people know your character. Do not just link a wiki page, especially if play as a canon divergent canon character. A well thought out about page helps both OCs and canon characters. It gives a personality and base for your muse and sets it apart from others.

Make it this far? Hella! You are almost through that metaphorical door! Now that the basic and bare bones of your blog is out of the way, let’s talk about trends, or what it is more commonly called aesthetics. They constantly change in the rp community. GIFs used to be the common thing, now it is still icons. While the trends may change, the basics of tumblr rp stays the same.

Themes- Right now, as I write this long essay of a post, container themes are all the rage. They were not always, nor are they required of an RP blog. As long as a blog does not have the basic preloaded themes that tumblr offers, most people don’t care too much about what it looks like. A few good theme blogs for RPers are soldierholiic, theme-hunter, and octomoosey. Don’t like any of those? Look at someone’s blog. There is usually a small icon in the bottom corner that links to the theme maker’s blog. My personal favorite is soldierholiic’s sora theme.

Formatting- You do not have to format your post to be considered quality! You do not have to hate formatting to be considered quality! As long as you can use basic grammar and spelling, you are good. Many people use small text because it looks a bit cleaner. The shortcut for small text is ctrl+shift+ -, if that helps. Also, many people expect your posts to be cut, meaning the latest two replies on a post. If you do not want or cannot download x-kit or other extensions, just politely ask your partners either through talking OOC or in your rules, to cut your post for you.

Function>Aesthetics- While having a nice looking blog is...well, nice, if someone can’t read or navigate through it, then they most likely will avoid you. Many experienced blogs are guilty of this too, not just over zealous newer blogs. Make your posts readable, both on the dash and the blog. Make your pages easy and accessible to find, especially for mobile users. Use colors that won’t kill my eyes because I’m reading your reply on your blog.

Graphics pt 2- While many blogs have personalized or hand drawn icons and promos, it’s not a requirement. You can use the icons you find in the tags. You can have icons that don’t match your theme. As long as they are sized correctly (100x100px is the norm), they do not have to be super edited. For promos, many fandoms accept the casual promo, containing an icon and a bit of info about your blog. It’s easy to spread around and learn a bit about the mun/muse. A fancy photoshopped graphic designed promo is not 100% necessary in most fandoms right now.

I know this post is getting very long and boring, but I swear I am almost done. Your blog is set up. You know the basics of roleplaying on tumblr. But everyone seems so scary with their rules, friends, and mains, etc. Many people on here are shy when it comes to new people. You probably are too. This is how you talk to people who seem intimidating.

Be Casual- There is no need to call everyone senpai or quality or perf. That just makes things awkward. Just be casual with people you want to interact with. Talk about your fandom, scream headcanons with them, ask for their name. You do not have to go in with ‘HI DO YOU WANT TO RP WITH ME, [muse name here]-MUN-SENPAI?!!’ That comes off a bit strong and off-putting.

Be Respectful- First off, don’t be a jerk to people. Secondly, just read someone’s rules before messaging them with questions about something. While many are open to answering any questions a follower may have about them, if it something already stated in the rules of that blog, just save you all some trouble by reading them. Also, do not hate on their interpretation of a character. Each blog is different, even if there are 100 duplicates for that character.

Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For Help- Is there something in the reply you don’t understand? Something about their character you don’t understand? Questions about the universe? Feel free to ask a partner for help! They won’t bite if you are respectful about it. Also, if you are close to your partners, they will often be open to help you with graphics if they have experience/time. Just don’t strut into their IMs expecting a theme done before you get there. Ask first! Be okay with their answer, even if you do not like it.

Lastly, roleplaying is a hobby. Do not let it consume your life or stress you out. If that does happen, it is okay to take a break and come back. It is okay to restart your blog from scratch. It is okay to follow new and different people. Just have fun and be yourself.

#long post #reblog okay #tumblr rp #tumblr rp help #indie rp #rp meme #reference #rp reference #make me tumblr famous

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