I made this a few years ago and found it when trying to dig up an old battle guide. I couldn't find that one, but maybe this one will be helpful too!

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Some people had been asking for an RP guide of sorts, so I decided to throw together my version of one. I want to be clear that I by no means am an expert, a teacher, or much more than very bored right now. Please be aware this is Blu’s version, and not the input or voice of anyone else. If you disagree with any of it, or all of it, just be aware this is only my opinion. Even so, I hope what I have to say might be of some use to someone!

Feel free to ask questions or offer up your own opinions!


Role Playing can be broken broken down into two main parts: Character Development & Post Writing.


Time means nothing. I have created fantastic and lasting characters in under an hour, and over a year of development. It all depends on them.

One of the easiest ways to really ‘make’ a character, is to have a theme that shows in all or many parts of this character. Common themes can be: Elements, Alignment, Occupation, Religion, Emotion…

With themes, it’s important to take just one thing, and figure out how that can apply to many things. It’s all about relating different things into something similar. Themes are clichés, they’re stereotypes, they’re everyday.

For instance, let’s consider a fire-themed horse. When you think of fire, you think of the coloration of flames (oranges, yellows, reds), the heat of flames (fiery temperature) and probably how fire typically is viewed as destructive.
So a pretty common themed fire horse is: a chestnut with a hot-headed attitude that likely has a love for battle.

Take into consideration other themes that fire can provide however. For instance, what about the charcoals that feed fire? A black horse with a less-obvious anger, that might be more submissive or at least less prone to leadership. Or how about the ashes left behind the fire? A white/gray horse with a cool, calculated attitude that might be prone to peace.

There are so many ways you can tweak just one basic theme, but it will give a good sense of completeness to your character, and is a great way to help fill in areas of a character that you may not have known how to design. It also makes it a little bit easier to manip/draw/tablefy/playlist your character because you have something to work from. If you take a look around, most things in life will have a theme, some more obvious than others so it’s up to you how prominent you want to make your character’s theme.

You may not even realize your character has a theme! It’s pretty common though, since themes can be born among any of the following parts below :)

In the RP world names can be pretty important. We have a certain luxury that our parents didn't when they named us – we can actually control how our creation ends up.

Names are a great way to help incorporate your theme even further. For instance, a water theme horse would go well with a water-related name. Maybe something that sounds waterish, maybe something that means water, maybe something that just uses similar letters.

Sometimes though a name can be all you need to start a character. There have been a lot of time where I've heard a word and liked it, and decided to make a character of it. I particularly like names to have a meaning to them, and especially like foreign-language meanings to names. For me a name has to flow, but most importantly, I want it to mean something so that I feel a better sense of closeness between my character and the name.

For instance, Oblivion – A word that means: the state of being forgotten. In this particular case, I like what the word meant, but also how it sounded. It helped produce a character that was hell-bent on world domination because he feared the idea of being forgotten.

Or take, Voltaic – A word I learned in my chemistry class. It’s related to electricity, so I really wanted to make an electric-magic character. Even so, electricity didn’t end up being his theme, but is still closely tied in to parts of his design.

Also when choosing names, it’s helpful to remember that overly long or complicated names can be difficult for other players to remember and spell properly. I like to keep it simple, but still be exotic. Just practice saying them out loud and typing them, to see if you like them.

It’s pretty common for me to begin to create a character around the idea of a personality. It doesn't have to be an in-depth personality yet, just this notion that maybe, I want a really sad character.

So beginning with a personality, you can build your character around that and begin to make it more complex as you go. Just remember, even if you start with a very basic core, to really flesh a character out you need to have more than just the basic, and it’s a good idea to let that personality grow through RPing.

So taking our sad personality character, we can consider names related to sadness, or coloration (generally pale colors), or even magic. Probably the most important thing to keep in mind with personality however, is your character’s history.

Personality doesn't really just come out of thin air, it’s going to be motivated by events that the character encountered. Consider yourself, or anyone, and you’ll begin to see there’s an action reaction relationship between almost everything. Why we do things, is usually for a reason. To design a character’s personality, you’ve got to become a little bit of a psychologist!

History is generally going to be one of the last things you fill it, be it a character you created or one that was born. Yet sometimes you might get your whole character idea from their history. Especially with how hand in hand history and personality go.

You can really make up anything here, but there are definitely some common histories out there. Warriors who’s villages were murdered, orphans whose parents were murdered/left, the restless heart set to wandering all his/her life. These are of course very general, but a lot of time they’re at the core of most histories. It’s because they work though. But all things in moderation.

You character should not have had a perfect life, nor should it have been only mayhem and depression. There’s needs to be a degree of balance, although the scales can be heavily tipped to one side. Just make sure, that you personality will reflect the past you write for your character.

Something like: Dead parents - will usually create a character that has insecurities, issues finding/believing in love, and/or be either cautious to start a family or very enthusiastic to be the best parent in the world.
How about: Trained to be a warrior since foal-hood – typically a very stoic, unemotional fighter that likely has some mental issues from horrible memories. Or, rebels against the past and becomes a warrior of peace.

It doesn't have to be something huge though, even little things can make your character feel more real.
Home was flooded once, killing a sibling – scared of rain/water
Beat up by a pegasus – hates all pegasus

Typically things that happened in youth are more likely to create huge shifts or structures for the character’s personality, because just like we were more prone to changing when younger, a character will be more ‘complete’ by adulthood.

If you’re ever unsure how one event would cause a ripple, just put yourself in that place, consider what you would do, and then try to consider what a person with your character’s personality would do.

Some random weirdo threatens to kill you.
Me: nervous laughter, hides behind boyfriend, maybe calls cops.
Gunslinger: kills him first
Ink: pretty accustomed to death threats, keeps grazing
Voltaic: Takes it as a joke and makes some offhand comment

It’s a good idea to think about what each one of your characters would do when faced with the same event. It’s a way to explore them and see how different even your own creations can be.

This section mainly includes things like species, breed, gender, markings and magic. All of these play a part of your character as well, but generally a lesser one, or at least ones that you think about near the end of character creation.

Choosing species can depend on what you just prefer to play, how you generally type the species (pegasus are goofballs to me, unicorns the intelligent fighters, and equines sort of everything else for me). Sometimes, you just know a certain species fits a certain character. Sometimes, it’s not that important character wise, but maybe you personally have a preference.

The breed of your character can play a part. Consider the stereotypes and truths of breeds. You see this in movies and books too. Big, drafty types are usually not the smartest crayon in the box, and they can be a fortitude of a soldier or the gentle giant. Smaller, quick breeds are usually the loud-mouthed, fiery temperaments. Or sometimes, you just like a certain breed.

More often than not you won’t be tossing and turning over what gender your character should be. Most of us have a go to gender as it is, but sometimes a certain profile will fit a certain gender a little bit better. If all else fails, flip a coin.

Coat color can definitely play a role with theming among other things, but markings can tie the whole thing together. I have once made a character based on markings alone. I do not actually recommend this because more often than not when you make a character based on looks, you don’t connect as much with them so they can prove to be difficult to write for, but sometimes beauty is worth it. Even something as simple as a sock, can make a difference. Play around with ideas, see what strikes you the most.

Finally we have, magic. I love magic, I won’t lie, and sometimes I make a character based on a magic idea. More often than not though, magic falls into place in the middle of making a character, and it usually applies to their character somehow. Because you can do so much with magic, there’s endless opportunities, but it can really be a great way to tie everything together.



Your character will be created with a big picture. Yet, it’s all the little details that bring that character to life and make it unique to you even if there are some common aspects to it. Most importantly though, don’t think too hard about trying to be different or trying to be unique. Do what makes you happy, because I can promise you, even if you make the exact same character, they’ll end up being different when you play them. That’s how they work, that’s how we work, and that’s how Role Playing works. They’re more alive than it may seem.




You can start a post with any of the ways below or even not listed. The most important thing though, is that you start.

I don’t have one. Each post is different for each character, for each day, for each time. I definitely have a style, we all do, but it’s not an intentional one. It’s just, me.

However, for certain characters I will try to write differently. Mainly this will be deciding on first or third person. First person will have a more personal feel, and I end up using it with very introverted characters. Third person is the most basic, and probably easier one to write with, but you can play around with this too and make it different.

I've also seen some people write posts like: letters, journals, plays, movies, narration.
Then of course you have tense: past, present (so hard for me) and future (I guess….).

It is important to follow a little bit of a formula though. By that I mean, proper grammar, punctuation, language etc. Try not to abuse caps (it’s annoying), vulgarity (it’s annoying), or thesauruses (you will make them go extinct).

And, trying not to be your English teacher, having good transitions will help the flow and readability of your post. Things should lead into each other, either with those special words transition words and phrases or shifts in your character’s mentality or actions that relate separate things (can you relate chocolate with baseball players smoothly? The answer is yes.)

Of course, some people like to plan out posts, have an outline or the typical intro, middle conclusion. It all depends on how you write best, and there really is no wrong or write way, as long as it makes sense to people besides you (sometimes the hardest part)!

One of the strongest things in posts is the emotion that a character can display. This is how you can connect the reader to your post and character. The best part is, mood can be anything! It’s in the weather, the way your character speaks, the movement of your character, the thoughts tumbling unspoken.

One of the best things to remember is that you don’t want to tell readers the mood. You want to show them.
Instead of saying: Bruce was really sad.
Start out like: The skies were dismal and dark on this summer evening. Beneath them, Bruce crawled with his head hung low and his mind spinning on the memory of her face.

See, the difference is I set up the mood so that the reader feels sad with Bruce.
This is themes in writing ;D
Books and movies do this all the time as well, see if you can spot when they try to make you feel a certain way! (Music in movies, weather, unrelated shots or descriptions before zooming in on the main characters…)

Music is also great for helping set a mood in you. I always make a playlist for each character, and will usually play this when I write them. I choose songs based on lyrics and/or the sound of the music. Don’t underestimate the power of music to inspire you, or that of movies, books, games or random events in your life. Inspiration is out there, waiting to move your mood.

There is always going to be action in your posts, and sometimes it will be the focal point. You need to make sure that the action your character is doing is clear enough that it will be understood, but also that it has motive and meaning.

Do you just sigh for no reason? How about calling Igor? I’m gonna guess you sigh because of exhaustion, boredom, or for the sake of making noise. As far as calling Igor, maybe that’s your go to bud during boredom, maybe it’s your significant other so when you feel all lovey dovey you pick up the phone, or maybe it’s your father and you’re avoiding the call at all costs.

Actions happen for a reason.

A horse flicks it tail, what does it mean? Put purpose behind your actions, and you create mood, personality and motion. Body language plays a huge role in everything. Just consider how much you can learn about someone just by looking at them.

So much can be said, without being said.

Eventually your character will be speaking, so it’s important to brush on the proper way to include speech in writing. Mostly, remember to use quotation marks, and that punctuation goes within the quotation marks, not after. Most of the time, you want to include ‘he/she said’ or some variation before, middle, or after speech.

Also important though is the way you describe the voice sounding. Tone is a great way to further include mood, and is something that is always there without your character always meaning for it to be. Again, consider in your own everyday life, how words can mean different things, depending on how they’re said.

As far as the actual dialogue, I’m afraid I don’t have any tips on writing king speeches, creepy threats, or seductive murmurs. This is really where you and your character’s personality and experience will shine through. Sometimes it helps to try saying what you wrote aloud (in the proper tone!) and seeing if it feels like you want it to. Really though, words are hollow, it’s the tone, the body and the mood that makes it something worthwhile.

There are so many different ways I could categorize and talk about posts.

I don’t really have any ‘others’ to bring up, except maybe a few final words.

Although I don’t follow a formula, it’s a good idea to have a good ‘conclusion’. You want to leave a lasting impression, so I like to make sure the end of my post finishes strongly in some way. Not always, but especially if it’s something emotional, it helps bring a sense of finality.

Avoid fluff. This is again using fancy words just for using them, but also being overly descriptive. You certainly want to be in depth, but if you’re constantly doing detail, then the post never moves forward. Length is not important, and usually, once you start writing and bringing in everything above, you have some meat to your post already. One intention can be billions of little facets waiting for you to describe them.

It’s okay for threads to end. Sometimes, for the sake of story, closing/finishing a thread and actually having your characters leave is beneficial. Too many times I see that threads only end because people just eventually stop replying to them. If you’re done, have your characters wrap it up and go their separate ways.

A huge thing with role playing I've noticed: jump into open threads. It’s great if you have muse or an idea and want to start your own open thread, but one of the best things you can do, is jump into the open ones of other people. You can’t take it personal if no one ever replies to your open threads. More likely than not, it has nothing to do with no one liking your post, it’s simply because there’s always so many open threads just waiting for replies. If we could take all that muse to make new threads, and redirect it into answering new threads, we’d suddenly have a lot more rping and a lot more happy people.

Plotting is fun, but don’t be afraid to keep things spontaneous and unknown. Most of my character’s relations were never planned out, they just happened. Not to mention, characters don’t always cooperate with plots. Things happen when you post that you weren't always expecting. That’s why the best thing to do is, post.




Try to avoid remarking that your post sucks. We all have good days and bad days, and we all start somewhere. Only through time, practice, and variety will your skills begin to grow. This is true with all things, not just Role Playing. So don’t let yourself get down and stuck in the intent to post. Just sit down and do it. You’ll be surprised what can happen once you start.

:D ilu blu

-gives a little bump-
so disappointed I didn't see this earlier! Thanks Blu for all the tips :D I know I've definitely been guilty a few times for abusing the thesaurus- something to work on! ^^