Some consider RP to be an art form. A fortune of beauty, waiting to unfold. Something fun, something exciting, something always new, and inspirational.

Let's face it, a lot of people are really bad at RP. Maybe some of those people who are bad, just don't know it. Maybe if they did know, they could do things to make themselves better. But how do you know you suck? Sure, people yell it blindly at you all the time, but maybe that's just not enough to get the message accross. That's why I've made this easy to follow guide, to help you figure out if you do suck, and also give you some tips to help. Just ask yourself these following questions:

Do People Refuse to Be in the Same Room With You?
Have You Ever Died ICly?
Do You Always Fight?
Are the Majority of Your Replies One or Two Words?
Are You an Idiot Over Gossip?
Do You Always Ask 'Wanna RP?' Over Gossip?
Do You Try to Get Back at People in RP for Something Done OOC?
Do You Whine When Things Don't Go As Planned?
Have You Ever Tried to Injure Someone Without Discussing it First?
Do You Make Yourself the Center of Attention?
Do You Demand Points for Logs?
Do You Only RP For the Points?
Have You Ever Had the Staff Refuse to Code Your RP Reward?
Do You Always Stand in One Room?
Do You Enjoy Pissing Off the Staff and Players?
Do You Look at RP as Sessions?

If people avoid you, it may be a sign that you suck. People don't want to play with someone who RPs badly. Maybe it's the way you act, maybe you try to be the big bully all the time, maybe you never make any sence when you try to RP. Whatever the case, if you suck, people will avoid you.

To get people to like you again, try to find out what you're doing wrong, and change.

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I know IC Death is a great thing. Killing off a character can lead to some great RP. However, you have to consider why you were killed. Was it your idea? Part of a plot, that you wanted to die? Or did they just not like you? If you piss off enough people with your suck job RP style, they will get fed up, and kill you. Some players never get the message, and have had several characters get killed. Let's take Dagg as an example:

Dagg is a good guy, he can RP good on occasion. But, you can't deny that sometimes Dagg is a power player. One day, the players got tired of him, and gave him a severe, and fatal, beating. This isn't the first time Dagg has died either. Many times he's died, and many times he's been cloned. He just dosen't get the message tho. Glenn, Gokuh, and Meis. Volkovski, Bronson, and others. It's like watching lemmings walk off a cliff.

If you have ever been killed, or attempted to be killed, consider why. Maybe they're trying to give you a hint, that you suck. Shape up, or get shot at.

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Even if you're a Pit fighter, there's no way you can fight all the time. There has to be one day, when you're too tired to fight. Yet it seems, there are some people who, every time they RP, they'll fight. They'll pull a gun, they'll wield a large blunt object, or they'll just lunge into the fray with fists clenched. To these people, fighting is the only way to RP. And sadly, these same people who fight, have probably never seen the inside of The Pit. The one place where we encourage violent behavior, and it's never used.

Don't get me wrong, this is the wastes, and everything isn't going to be happy and sunshine. However, fighting every day, it's just getting old. If you do it, I'm sorry, but you suck.

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Let's say you're RPing, and someone says this:

Bitterman spits on the ground, and shrugs, "I don't know Paco, what do you think?"

Do you reply with:
   A) Paco says: I think shit's about to get a little hectic.
   B) Paco glares, and yells, "FUCK YOU POSER!" He shoots Bitterman in the face.
   C) Paco glares vindictively at the surrounding opposition, as he lowers his shouldered weapon from its respected prop, "I think shit's about to get a little hectic, ol' boy."

If you answered A, you suck. If you answered B, you really do suck.

The mark of a good RPer is detail. A short, simple reply won't cut it. To enhance your character, to make it come alive, you need to add detail. A method of speaking, accents, slurs, slang, ect. Do you speak very well, or do you talk like you're 5 seconds out of the ghetto? Making actions while you talk, moving arround, hand motions, slamming your hand against the table/wall, whatever. While they are mostly small details, they put incredible depth on your character, and can lead to other interesting RP situations. Plain and normal sucks, add some flavor.

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Yes, Gossip is OOC, but if you act like an idiot over gossip, you will be treated like one. Mindlessly blathering on about one thing, or another. Spamming mindless crap over and over. Saying things just to piss off other people.

If you're an ass on gossip, people will avoid you, because you suck.

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'Wanna RP?'

The mindless battle cry of the lame RPer.

RP is not something that just happens every now and then. It's not something that you have to set up an appointment for, or get people organized for.. If you're going to RP, then you should be In Character. All the time. Not just In Character when you want to be, and Out of Character when you want to kill juvies. Every time you see another player, you should be In Character. They may want to RP, but if you're too busy HnSing, they won't give you the time of day. Then later when you ask 'Wanna RP?', they won't pay you no mind then either.

Besides that. Gossip is OOC. Sure, they may want to RP, but how do they know you're at the Ranger Center? Sure you told them over gossip, but how does their character know? How does Bitterman know there's a fight in The Pit. Sure you can yell at him over gossip that you need a ref, but how is it that he happens to walk into the Pit, the exact time, every time, before a fight starts? Just make more effort to be In Character more often, and try harder to find people in the world, you'd never need to ask again.

If you need to ask, you suck.

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Remember, Gossip is OOC. Sure, some guy might have called you an ass for thinking the Spice Girls movie was good, but that dosen't mean you should find him In Character, and break his jaw off, and wear it as a necklace. Holding a grudge sucks.

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"Yes! Do it! Because I said so! .. Fine, I'm telling!" children cry on the playground, when things don't go their way. Sometimes in RP, the players can turn into whiney little brats.

"You're not the boss of me!" is the reply from the children, when the other kids don't get their way. You know, they're right. You're not the boss. You don't control anything. When things in RP take a different route then you pictured, don't let it upset you. So what if you had a Golden Plan™? Half the fun in RP, is making stuff up. Having a set game plan, from start to end, you should be writing a story, not RPing. Get it published, make some money.

Remember when you were a kid, and made up the rules as you went along? It was fun wasn't it? Plans suck, so stop being a whiney little bitch.

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So you didn't get your way. You're mad at them, they didn't do what you want. They ruined the plan. Or maybe they pissed you off, something OOC, they were an idiot. Or maybe their RP sucks. You want to hurt them. So you try to, but he dosen't take the blow. So you try again, and you keep trying until he's hurt.

Bad move.

If you're going to fight in RP, talk it out. Use the ooc command, send tells, just keep the lines of communication open. Your body is your own, and if you don't want to get hurt, break a bone, or die, you don't have to. They can't make you die. On the other hand, maybe they keep trying to hurt you, because you never take an injurry. You can't win them all, and you're going to get shot some time. Just use some common sence, and keep talking. Don't be a bully, that sucks.

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Did your parents or friends never hug you? Did the teacher never call you when you raised your hand? Did the mailman always skip your house? Do you crave attention?

If yes, I got a news flash: The MUD does not revolve arround you. We won't love you either. You are not important. You suck.

So you're in a room, and some guys are RPing, doing their thing. Just some calm, cool, RP. You try to inject yourself. You shout, you cough, you stamp your feet, you do cartwheels down the hallway. Everytime you talk about something, it's always about you. I can do this, I can do that, I am the greatest, you should pay attention to me. The hell with everyone else, talk to me, and talk about me.

Get over yourself already. Why not just sit back, and watch the guys in the room do their thing. You might learn something. If you want to be involved, try to be, but don't try too hard. If they ignore you, that's cool, no big deal. Don't try to hog the spotlight. This is the desert, there is no spotlight to stand under.

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Points are not instantly handed out to every log we get. First we read it. If the log is slow, and boring, we won't even bother to finish it. If it's good, then maybe those involved will get a point. And not everyone involved in a log may get a point. Maybe Rynthas sends me a log of him, Spike, and Patrick chatting in GZ. Rynthas and Spike played well, and deserve a point; but Patrick done a lame job, and gets nothing. So what if your log was 5 pages, 8 pages, or 10. We look for quality, not quantity.

If your log sucks, you get nothing. If you make demands, you suck too.

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You know. If you're a religious person, there's a name for what you're doing: Greed.

I hate to break it to you, but if you only RP for the points, you're going to Hell. Don't argue with me, God made the rules, take the matter up with him.

If you're not religious, there's still another term for what you're doing: Whoring.

RP is suppost to be fun. You're suppost to have fun. The points are there to reward those that do good, to let them know they're doing good. Also so they may buy items, to enhance their character even more. If you do just enough to get a few points, so you can get this Mega Slash 800 Powered Chainsaw, with dual exhaust pipes, and nitro over-drive blade action you've been thinking about so you can kill everything in Quartz faster, then you're RPing for the wrong reason.

Call it greed, call it whoring, it still sucks either way.

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Yes, we're lazy, but we do code RP rewards. Lets talk some more about that Mega Slash 800 Powered Chainsaw (read above). How, in the slightest will a chainsaw that deals 120 damage a swing help your character? RP items are ment to enhance RP, to add more to your character. Same deal goes with armor, sure it's got 12 AC, but what does that have to do with your character? If your item is a pointless hack and slash toy, we won't code it.

Most items, that we refuse to code, are so far out of theme, it makes us sick. We've heard it all, and turned it all down. MP5K's that shoot gummy bears? Golden staffs that shoot lasers? Swords made from pure red crystal, and decorated with diamonds? Sound stupid? Well it's all been requested at one point or another.

Think about your item, before you open your mouth, and say you want it. Think about what the item is. About where you got it, and what it has to do with your character. Just think about your item. If it sucks, don't request it.

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When you go to a party, do you stand in one place? When you go shopping, is it only out of one isle? No? Then why, when you RP, do you stay in one room? You can move arround, while you're RPing. Infact, it's an interesting twist, using shout or areaecho to communicate, tracking each other down, stalking people, or just plain moving to different parts of a building. You are encouraged to get up off your ass, explore, and use your surroundings to your advantage in RP. Always standing in one place sucks.

There's more to the game then the Ground Zero bar.

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There's a few names for people like you: Troll. Spoiler. Lamer. Llama. Whatever you call yourself, you're one who starts a fight, and takes pleasure from watching it, or participating in it. There really is nothing that can be done to help you, because you are a sick, sick person, and you suck.

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I hear this term thrown arround a lot, 'Great RP session', and so forth. RP shouldn't be a session tho. It's not something you turn on and off. That just starts and stops. RP is all the time, In Character all the time, continous. You don't have a session, play a bit, stop, and then never RP over that ever again. Everything should carry on. Nothing should stop. Things that happened yesterday or the day before should be brought up again. Even the small things. Like if Rynthas had a bad batch of Nuka Cola, and he threw up all over me. Even tho that wasn't something important, the next few days, I'd be bringing it up, and giving him hell over it.

Don't look at it as sessions. Don't forget things, let them carry on. Stop and go RP sucks.

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All jokes, and outright slams aside. I wrote this guide, meaning to help. No harm, or ill feeling was ment, and I hope you learned something. Now go out there, and be the best RPer that you can be.

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