Post by President Bao on Nov 23, 2014 12:16:21 GMT
The way grades are calculated here involves three components -
Word count - pretty simple, how much you have written
Quality (PLPW) rating - how well written and interesting your content was
Additional modifiers - what extra factors influence your overall grade
To get the best out of your grades, you are going to want to maximise all three of these factors.
---------
Word Count:
Not much to say here, people who are more dedicated to this place, either writing more lengthy pieces or just doing a lot of roleplay are going to be getting more pl in general than those who do less. This doesn't mean you should try artificially inflating your word count, it's pretty obvious when this is being done and tends to involve a drop in the overall quality of the piece. Which brings us too our second component;
---------
Quality:
We encourage quality here, meaning a shorter piece that is well written will get you more than a massive piece that is a train wreck.
The most obvious element of this is to follow the pricipals of proper writing in general - You should proof read and spell check all pieces before submission, as such errors are the quickest way to negatively impact your quality score. Proper punctuation and paragraphing are also included in this.
Fellow member Milac gave an excellent piece of advice here on an important process of creating good roleplay posts - planning: wodsouls.freeforums.net/thread/1072/milacs-outlining-paragraph-planning-victory
And another excellent piece of advice comes from our founder in his friendly guide from off site:
Finally, something which I personally found to be an excellent way of refining my posts was Synonyms... synonyms aregood great marvellous (just make sure you don't change your meaning unintentionally) Personally I find it useful sometimes to write out my post, and then begin picking out key words to search synonyms for. Especially handy if you find repeated words or 'boring' descriptions. (pssst: www.thesaurus.com/)
---------
Additional modifiers:
Finally, additional multipliers are used as the icing on our RP cake. Currently they come in the form of thread-wide modifiers and bought modifiers.
Thread-wide modifiers include a bonus for doing Group threads (interacting with others instead of solo), and a larger version of this bonus for being involved in 'Saga' threads - which are death-enabled interactions and the 'main storyline' of this player driven site;
Canon examples of a 'saga' event include Raditz arriving and kidnapping Gohan, Frieza's attack on Namek to get the dragon balls, Garlic Jr's attack on the lookout, or the androids battle with the Z fighters in South City.
Daring plays, interesting conflicts and dramatic turns of events - This bonus is specifically to encourage such things, as they keep this place interesting and fun to be a part of .
Bought modifiers are given during trainings sessions where you use weights, a gravity chamber, or a 'house' (refer to the item shop).
It should be clarified that weights and gravity do not stack with each other, and must be role-played as part of an applicable training thread to receive their benefit (doesn't exactly make sense to request weighted training or a gravity bonus if all you were doing was chatting over a milkshake in the park for example ).
Weights;
- low cost
- second best max mutiplier, (75%)
- Reduces battle power when in use, completely portable
- loses effectiveness over time
- More suited to early game
Canon example includes Goku's training under Roshi as a child, or when Piccolo and Goku ditched their weights in the Raditz battle.
Gravity;
- medium cost (but requires prerequisite ship/building)
- best max mutiplier, (150%)
- but must be worked towards, is limited to two sessions per week, stationary location
- More suited to late game (but you'll want to start training up in it earlier to work up your gravity tolerance)
Canon example includes Vegeta's intense gravity room training at capsule corp, or Goku's training on the way to Namek.
House;
- higher relative cost
- lowest max mutiplier, (50%)
- No use limit like gravity or pl reduction like weights, but is stationary location
- More suitable for mid game, when you're looking to set up in a particular location
Canon examples include Goku Piccolo and Gohans training around Goku's house in the lead up to the androids, or Krillin's training around Kame house.
Word count - pretty simple, how much you have written
Quality (PLPW) rating - how well written and interesting your content was
Additional modifiers - what extra factors influence your overall grade
To get the best out of your grades, you are going to want to maximise all three of these factors.
---------
Word Count:
Not much to say here, people who are more dedicated to this place, either writing more lengthy pieces or just doing a lot of roleplay are going to be getting more pl in general than those who do less. This doesn't mean you should try artificially inflating your word count, it's pretty obvious when this is being done and tends to involve a drop in the overall quality of the piece. Which brings us too our second component;
---------
Quality:
We encourage quality here, meaning a shorter piece that is well written will get you more than a massive piece that is a train wreck.
The most obvious element of this is to follow the pricipals of proper writing in general - You should proof read and spell check all pieces before submission, as such errors are the quickest way to negatively impact your quality score. Proper punctuation and paragraphing are also included in this.
Fellow member Milac gave an excellent piece of advice here on an important process of creating good roleplay posts - planning: wodsouls.freeforums.net/thread/1072/milacs-outlining-paragraph-planning-victory
And another excellent piece of advice comes from our founder in his friendly guide from off site:
Boliko's Brief Guide, on How To Dun RP Gud
I'm going to ignore all the crap about how to write sentences and paragraphs. That stuff isn't really specifically aimed at roleplaying, just at writing -anything-, and you WILL get better at such writing elements just by practising often.
As for writing something fictional? Haha, my element, my shining! That's where my Dun RP Gud guide will help you out(and you only have to pay a friendly rate).
1) Stay in character. Seriously. Roleplaying is not simply slapping words onto a screen. Do not ever do anything out of character, it wrecks any credibility you have as a roleplayer - you destroy the role you are trying to play. A simple way to avoid this is to allow your character to guide your hand; don't over-think anything. Think of the responsibilities your character has, what drives your character forward - remembering the motivation is essential. If your character hates saiyans, don't have him pal up with a saiyan without any interaction justifying such a character change, and so on. Character evolution isn't spontaneous, and can take many threads to show significant change in character - see 'nature versus nurture'. Anything and everything your character does has to be justified by his motivation, which leads me on to...
2) Reflecting your character's history. This will, initially, be the driving force behind everything your character does. Reflect it in your posts, directly reference in when applicable! Don't just loosely refer to in your dialogue, make reference to it in your descriptions, in what your character feels, their entire personality. Even if you manage to resolve the loose threads your history might entitle you to, it is still the bottom pillar your character will build up from.
3) Motifs. A simple way to make your writing better, your posts more descriptive and relevant - stick to a theme or motif. Not always, of course, only when it can be relevantly applied. Again, this can relate back to your character's history, but more often it can relate to their personalities. Perhaps something metaphoric to your character - a prisoner, for instance, obsessed with birds due to their ability to fly free of the earth. A man with the mind of a child obsessed with the dual nature of light and dark (like my own character, for instance).
4) Reaction. You must ensure that your character responds realistically to other people, events etc. Within the boundaries of the roleplaying world your character exists in, he is a real person - and hence must respond realistically. This does not mean he must react mundanely. Even if someone posts in a thread and doesn't directly address you, still pay attention to it - the events that that place within that post may hold some sway over your course of action - as, like in real life, you would (for the most part anyway) be aware of your surroundings.
5) Remember, there are no winners or losers in a roleplaying game. This is muddied slightly by the existence of 'power level' on this site, but that doesn't mean your character has any less relevance or weight to the plot - it simply determines the power of your attacks against other people with differing levels of power level. There is no ending in a happily ever after sense - a roleplay simply continues until either your character dies, or the roleplay itself dies. Following on,
6) There is no point to having an omni-potent character. The rules bar this from happening, however it should be noted that omni-potent characters are very little fun to roleplay - winning everything simply becomes routine, your roleplaying skill won't be stretched. You roleplay to play, and play does not mean victory. Remember your character has limitations, and due to these limitations should respond to an interaction accordingly. Some creatures can have great abilities but even these are not infinite. Don't suddenly give them an out of character advantage just to feel superior (basically, don't do what you couldn't do in real life, within reason (excluding massive planet-busting attacks and martial arts mastery, of course)).
7) Description. This is essential to a fluid roleplaying experience, and allows people to react to you accordingly - the details of what your character is currently doing. Describe your entrance to a thread, describe your interactions with the surroundings and other characters, your attacks, the details of an ability you were using. Ask yourself, 'how hard is my character hitting, what does he feel right now, where are they positioned?' Don't leave anything for other people to guess, as this is sure to both confuse and annoy them. Remember, not everyone is a mind-reader.
This is all, for now. If anything more pops up, I'll add it on. Thank you for reading.
I'm going to ignore all the crap about how to write sentences and paragraphs. That stuff isn't really specifically aimed at roleplaying, just at writing -anything-, and you WILL get better at such writing elements just by practising often.
As for writing something fictional? Haha, my element, my shining! That's where my Dun RP Gud guide will help you out
1) Stay in character. Seriously. Roleplaying is not simply slapping words onto a screen. Do not ever do anything out of character, it wrecks any credibility you have as a roleplayer - you destroy the role you are trying to play. A simple way to avoid this is to allow your character to guide your hand; don't over-think anything. Think of the responsibilities your character has, what drives your character forward - remembering the motivation is essential. If your character hates saiyans, don't have him pal up with a saiyan without any interaction justifying such a character change, and so on. Character evolution isn't spontaneous, and can take many threads to show significant change in character - see 'nature versus nurture'. Anything and everything your character does has to be justified by his motivation, which leads me on to...
2) Reflecting your character's history. This will, initially, be the driving force behind everything your character does. Reflect it in your posts, directly reference in when applicable! Don't just loosely refer to in your dialogue, make reference to it in your descriptions, in what your character feels, their entire personality. Even if you manage to resolve the loose threads your history might entitle you to, it is still the bottom pillar your character will build up from.
3) Motifs. A simple way to make your writing better, your posts more descriptive and relevant - stick to a theme or motif. Not always, of course, only when it can be relevantly applied. Again, this can relate back to your character's history, but more often it can relate to their personalities. Perhaps something metaphoric to your character - a prisoner, for instance, obsessed with birds due to their ability to fly free of the earth. A man with the mind of a child obsessed with the dual nature of light and dark (like my own character, for instance).
4) Reaction. You must ensure that your character responds realistically to other people, events etc. Within the boundaries of the roleplaying world your character exists in, he is a real person - and hence must respond realistically. This does not mean he must react mundanely. Even if someone posts in a thread and doesn't directly address you, still pay attention to it - the events that that place within that post may hold some sway over your course of action - as, like in real life, you would (for the most part anyway) be aware of your surroundings.
5) Remember, there are no winners or losers in a roleplaying game. This is muddied slightly by the existence of 'power level' on this site, but that doesn't mean your character has any less relevance or weight to the plot - it simply determines the power of your attacks against other people with differing levels of power level. There is no ending in a happily ever after sense - a roleplay simply continues until either your character dies, or the roleplay itself dies. Following on,
6) There is no point to having an omni-potent character. The rules bar this from happening, however it should be noted that omni-potent characters are very little fun to roleplay - winning everything simply becomes routine, your roleplaying skill won't be stretched. You roleplay to play, and play does not mean victory. Remember your character has limitations, and due to these limitations should respond to an interaction accordingly. Some creatures can have great abilities but even these are not infinite. Don't suddenly give them an out of character advantage just to feel superior (basically, don't do what you couldn't do in real life, within reason (excluding massive planet-busting attacks and martial arts mastery, of course)).
7) Description. This is essential to a fluid roleplaying experience, and allows people to react to you accordingly - the details of what your character is currently doing. Describe your entrance to a thread, describe your interactions with the surroundings and other characters, your attacks, the details of an ability you were using. Ask yourself, 'how hard is my character hitting, what does he feel right now, where are they positioned?' Don't leave anything for other people to guess, as this is sure to both confuse and annoy them. Remember, not everyone is a mind-reader.
This is all, for now. If anything more pops up, I'll add it on. Thank you for reading.
Finally, something which I personally found to be an excellent way of refining my posts was Synonyms... synonyms are
---------
Additional modifiers:
Finally, additional multipliers are used as the icing on our RP cake. Currently they come in the form of thread-wide modifiers and bought modifiers.
Thread-wide modifiers include a bonus for doing Group threads (interacting with others instead of solo), and a larger version of this bonus for being involved in 'Saga' threads - which are death-enabled interactions and the 'main storyline' of this player driven site;
Canon examples of a 'saga' event include Raditz arriving and kidnapping Gohan, Frieza's attack on Namek to get the dragon balls, Garlic Jr's attack on the lookout, or the androids battle with the Z fighters in South City.
Daring plays, interesting conflicts and dramatic turns of events - This bonus is specifically to encourage such things, as they keep this place interesting and fun to be a part of .
Bought modifiers are given during trainings sessions where you use weights, a gravity chamber, or a 'house' (refer to the item shop).
It should be clarified that weights and gravity do not stack with each other, and must be role-played as part of an applicable training thread to receive their benefit (doesn't exactly make sense to request weighted training or a gravity bonus if all you were doing was chatting over a milkshake in the park for example ).
Weights;
- low cost
- second best max mutiplier, (75%)
- Reduces battle power when in use, completely portable
- loses effectiveness over time
- More suited to early game
Canon example includes Goku's training under Roshi as a child, or when Piccolo and Goku ditched their weights in the Raditz battle.
Gravity;
- medium cost (but requires prerequisite ship/building)
- best max mutiplier, (150%)
- but must be worked towards, is limited to two sessions per week, stationary location
- More suited to late game (but you'll want to start training up in it earlier to work up your gravity tolerance)
Canon example includes Vegeta's intense gravity room training at capsule corp, or Goku's training on the way to Namek.
House;
- higher relative cost
- lowest max mutiplier, (50%)
- No use limit like gravity or pl reduction like weights, but is stationary location
- More suitable for mid game, when you're looking to set up in a particular location
Canon examples include Goku Piccolo and Gohans training around Goku's house in the lead up to the androids, or Krillin's training around Kame house.