The Art of Forum Roleplay
Ever wanted to be someone else? Of course you have; everyone has wanted to put on someone else‘s face at some time or another. There are many ways to assume another identity, even for a time. Some people dress up in costumes on Halloween. Some people read books or tell stories. And some people play role-playing games.
A role-playing game is “a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters and collaboratively create or follow stories.” (Role-playing games). A particular type of popular role-playing game is the forum role-play. This type of text-based roleplay is done on message boards available for free on the internet.
Forum roleplaying games can take any shape, really. They come in all forms and flavors, from games based on popular media like Harry Potter and Star Wars, to games with original plots developed by the board’s owners. In a forum roleplay, the board’s owners use different boards to create a world. For example, below is a picture of a forum’s use of category and board organization to create a model of Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
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Users of the forum create characters and submit them through an application process. The administrators accept the characters based on certain criteria (usually a loose set of rules that include decent grammar and characterization) and after being accepted, the user is free to post in any forum within the board, simulating their characters’ presence in a particular area of the “world”.
For example, in the message post below, the user who played James Potter wanted to initiate a storyline between himself and the character Sirius Black. The user went to the forum “The Three Broomsticks” and posted the following in a new thread.
The character who played Sirius Black logged on some time after James, saw the post and that it was addressed to him. In order for his character to respond, he types up Sirius’ reply and posts it as a response in the same thread, as pictured below:
These threads continue on until the current scene is finished. In this method, users can carry out elaborate storylines and character interaction. (Pritchard) There are no winners in a role-playing game; the object is just to have fun. To pretend to be someone else for a while.
Both running and participating a forum roleplay takes a lot of hard work. The administration of a board in particular requires a unique combination of creative energy and technical know-how. It’s relatively easy to procure a free message board; the most common providers are Invisionfree and Proboards. A blank message board, however, must go through several phases before it is ready to be opened as a forum for roleplay.
When a board is created, it has no categories, forums, or subforums. It is the responsibility of the administrators to use these methods of organization to create:
- A section of the board for announcements and administrative work
- An application and character development center
- A community for users to interact out of character
- The world itself
The administrator must familiarize him or herself with the administrative control panel of the individual board system, where he or she will learn how to create forums and sub forums. Once that is done, the next step is to make the board appealing to look at.
A newly created board usually has a default color scheme, or “skin” that is very basic and not at all suited to the feel of the roleplay. It’s the administrator’s responsibility to acquire or create a new “skin”, one that is more aesthetically appealing to the users and that fits more with the theme of the board. The easiest way to do this is to visit sites with free skin directories, such as www.rpg-directory.com.
This also requires a bit of coding knowledge, mostly of the common BBC, or Bulletin Board Code. A basic knowledge of Javascript and simple HTML also helps.
A board does not gain members unless it is advertised. The most common types of advertising are word of mouth, board-to-board ad-posting, and submissions to directory sites like RPG-Directory. Once a board starts to gain members, a community usually starts to form. Friendships are usually formed in the Out of Character forum, where users are free to post as themselves, and not as their characters.
The literary value of forum roleplay is high; it provides frequent practice for writing skills. Roleplay also provides a deep sense of community for the player if he or she finds the right board. There are forum roleplays to fit any interest or inclination, so anyone can play, regardless of skill. The art of forum roleplay is a valuable one, and there is one out there on the internet just for you.
Works Cited
Pritchard, Emily N. and Sarah Wilkinson. Bello Estremita. 23 April 2008. <http://z6.invisionfree.com/bello_estremita>
Roleplaying games. 1 May 2008. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/role_playing_games>
Wilkinson, Sarah M. Personal interview. 1 May 2008.