ROMANVM

What is roleplaying?

You can probably find as many definitions on roleplaying than there are players, so let's try those hints that will help us:
 

- Roleplaying is a game.
- This game can be :
 ** Pen & paper (D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire, Shadow-run, etc.) [This is from where I'm coming]
 ** Video games (The Witcher, Dragon Age, Knight of the Old Republic, etc.)
 ** Text based, as in SL (Romanum...)
- Roleplaying is centered on creating a story.
- This story is built in a universe (general like sword and sorcery, historical period, like in Romanum, space opera or specific as the Lord of the Ring,  Star Wars, Anne Rice's Vampire cycle, Steampunk, or Cyberpunk).
- You are involved by acting as one of the character in the story.
- As you are playing with other people your character is reacting with the other players.
- The main purpose of roleplaying is having fun with other people (aka socialize). 
 

Thus roleplaying is not like traditional games like chess, cards, video games, board games. There is no winner, there is no loser. Never, ever. 
 

Even when you are playing the "loser". Simply think about "sub" in BDSM. Subs are not "losers", they are subs!
 

Noticed that this no winner no loser is certainly questionable in video games. 
A certainly in MMPORG or MOBA.

 

Said differently, roleplay is a game where you are acting as a character (you often have chosen), interacting with other players in order to develop a story.

 

What is sexual roleplaying 

Commonly known as Cybersex, Cybering, Erotic roleplay (ERP), etc. This is a roleplay similar to the one we saw until now, but centered on the description of "adult material". I mean by that mostly with a certain sexual orientation.

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This material can cover different things, from softer to harder:
- a tender kiss with your partner (this was sexuality in movies some decades ago, the final kiss on the beach)
- some dirty talking, during a dirty dancing, or not
- a deep blow job, or not that deep blow job, that is also OK
- a whipping session, or a paddling session
- a Gorean ceremony
- some Dulcet stuff, don't Google that if you don't know what it is... don't...
- and so on.

 

In fact you can almost do anything you would like as long as it is Linden Lab TOS compliant and obviously Sim compliant as well.

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It is a general good way to explore things we could not be incline to do in real life.

 
Should this be:  
- anal sex, 
- the bite of a whip
- sex with multiple partners (this one is quite hard to reproduce in SL)
- anything else you could have in mind (aka insert your favorite perversions here).

 

Obviously cue-cards are main weapons here! Let see some examples.

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This is a simplified cue-card I use for "penis":
phallus, virile member, cock, dick, knob, love muscle, male rod, manhood, man-meat, member, wang

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You can have some for sexual practices, like for example a "tit job":
French roll, Russian, breast job, tit job, tit/titty-fucking, boob sex, boob fucking, Dutch fuck, titillation mammarum (Latin)

 

And keeping up exploring cue-cards, you can perfectly build one with some example sentences.

Let's give some example with "soft" BDSM:
- titillating her bare flesh with the tip of the whip
- striking her foot with his cane
- passing the rope under his arms, forcing them on his back

 

Now, let's give a batch of nice examples :
- dancing:
/me twisting her hips, spins on herself, laying her body on the one of the seated man. 
- teasing:
/me's lips are softly opening, barely touching the neck of her lover, outlining it with a slow motion.
- sexual action:
/me gently lets the tip of hard member of her lover sliding between the valley of her breasts, blinking to tease him more.

 

Don't hesitate to build cue-cards about your favorite sexual interests. It is mostly very rewarding, fun and motivating. And will surely help you understand the true power of well used cue-cards.

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Cyber-sex is with RP combat one of the great feature of RP. Well done it can be fantastic both to participate or to watch..

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Typing and cybering 
 

While cybering, be really aware of your typing (even more than usual). No one want to read:
- Oh without this bra your beasts are so beautiful. (Good in Yiff sim)
- MY GOD ! What a big clock ! (Swiss model)
- Yeah show me that beautiful clit (and make my day).
- Oh let me lick your wonderful boots (well at least some people will like that)

Creating a character

Roleplay is formed by the addition and role + play. So any time you want to play, you need: a role to play. Picking a good character is a central skill to any roleplayer.

Your character is the interface with whom you will act and react in the world. So that you play ONE character ONLY or 245,749 characters is always the same: 

Chose your character WISELY because you need fun when you are playing it, and you need people loving playing with you.

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Let's take a look at various concept you could like to play: 

- A skillful (and big breasted) Twi'Lek Jedi fencing with her blue light saber.
- A dwarf with a double axe in his hand squishing those damn greenskinned orcs.
- An hard-boiled detective in his trench coat with his cigarette and his hat mumbling in a bar.
- A senator in the Roman Empire wearing his white toga surrounded by muscular young men.

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Those can be summarized by those simple questions : 
- Which race do you want to play : Human being, Dwarf, furry, Twi'lek.
- What will be your gender : Male, female, she male... freak full of tentacles.
- What is your profession/class : Bounty hunter, miners, Jedi, senator.
- What are you wearing : A trenchcoat, a keg full of beer, a lightsaber.
- Who you are related to : Family, clan, tribe, house.
- What is is your alignment : Good, evil, neutral ?
- In a sex sim : what your sexual preferences are, are you a dom, a sub.

By any means try to avoid playing boringly overseen characters (avoid the dwarf with an axe syndrome). 

 

Alignment

Let's do a short discussion on alignments. Alignments are coming directly from the big ancestor of roleplaying games (RPG) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). Alignment is based since further edition of D&D (AD&D) in two sections.
 

The overall type of character : Good, neutral and Evil
And view toward law : Lawful, neutral and chaotic.
You put the type on the X axis.
The law on the Y axis, and here you go.
You can be neutral good or Chaotic evil.
While primitive, alignment is a good tool to help you see where you character is.
Example of Lawful good: Luke Skywalker.
Chaotic Good: Han Solo
Lawul Evil: Darth Vader
Neutral evil: The Emperor Palpatine
Notice: D&D kind of presupposes you are playing much more on the good side  (presuppose not mandatory obliged).
If there is a paladin in the team and a chaotic evil member I wish good luck to that team...

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IC & OOC 

IC and OOC are common shortcuts you will VERY often see while roleplaying.

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IC means "In Character".
Every emotes you are doing are by definition In Character, so IC. By emotes, I mean every /me you are doing.

 

OOC means "Out Of Character".
Whenever you are using an OOC communication you are stopping the play to exchange something:
- additional information
- you pressed enter too early
- a clarification on a point
- your house is on fire
It is a common practice to put OOC communications in double parenthesis ((this is ooc)) or rarely in brackets [[this is ooc]]. For example:
/me is talking as the teacher Perceline.
((While right now i am oocing as Perceline, which is not the teacher))

 

On Second Life, a general rule is:
- IM is considered as OOC
- Local is considered IC

Always check the local rules to see if a specific rule is applying. Sometimes it is forbidden to have cybersex in local. So check the rules. ALWAYS.

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Interacting with other players

Any roleplay has to be made with other people. And you need to learn to play well with them. Here are some simple advice.
- Be aware of your scripting (Plain English)
- Try to stick yourself to ONE significant action per turn.
- Do not play for the others, your emote should concern your action only.
- Play with quality, not quantity (a big emote is not always the best emote possible)
- React to your partner, nothing is worst than typing something yourself and have a long text obviously pasted answering you...
- Remember that, mark it on a several post it and surround your screen with this: Your partner is playing a character. 
And this one can be a racist, can be arrogant, can be bad. But remember that: It is a character.

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White knighting

One special feature, and one you certainly do not want to see happening in any BDSM themed sim is : White knighting.
White knighting appears during RP when someone is coming during your play and involves himself/herself without being invited. In BDSM sims, hunting, verbal abuse, sexual assault can be taken as non-wanted from the "victim".

If, I say, "IF", you think something is going wrong in a scene in front of you, contact an officer and or/IM first, and then act OOC if necessary, but avoid mixing yourself like plague. And if ever you want to join, then ask first in IM in a very polite way.

Roleplaying styles
 

Previously, we saw various ways to build emotes. Let's go deeper into those way.

 

- One liner RP.
Typical example is :
/me is happy.
Oh yes baby !
/me is stronger than u.

Avoid that style as plague. In fact prefer plague.

 

- Short sentences. 
This style reduces the description to the essential, trying to grab the best of the action in as few words as possible. Short sentences are very useful for fast paced stories, or very crowded areas. 

/me runs toward the senator, quickly crossing the street, jumping over a puddle, bowing in front of him "Ho senator!".
/me's hands runs over the naked arm of her love while a little smile is running on her face "it's nice to see you, love" she whispers in his ear.

Contrary to popular beliefs, well mastered this style is not only pretty efficient, but also incredibly good.

 

- semi-para, para-RP. Those styles are covering the same areas, as it is difficult to put a limit between semi-para and para-RP.
This style is offering you much more giving you the opportunity to tune your descriptions the way you want them to be, leading obviously to better roleplay, with expended descriptions. The drawback is it needs more time to type. So do you want to wait 20 minutes for an emote? 

Do you want to know your partner's hairs are flowing over his shoulders like the dark waves of the gleaming moonlight? 

That his sword is encrusted with an emerald coming from hidden treasure of King John the Brave taken from the ring at his index?
That he is remembering the first time he saw the emperor, who was coming out of the Via Apia with the sun shining behind him, his long hairs floating around him and his perfect complexion.
Do you?
Another drawback is the more text you are typing the more you can become prone to act for your partner.
 

Those are two examples of semi-para RP:

/me is seeing the senator, Circero, on the other side of the road, listening only to her courage, she jumps across the street, jumping over a couple of water puddles, and avoiding a chariot just a the last moment, almost yelling "He Senator", flailing in his direction while still pursuing him "Cicero!!"

/me's hands are slowly running on the side of the arm of her love, her index sliding along his muscles, taking time to feel the hairs covering it sliding on the tip of her finger, making her shivers as her lips are opening a little bit shaping into a little shy smile, while she is sighting.

 

And here is an example of para-rp.
/me half bends her body, sliding her thin frame along the wall, feeling its texture ripping on her back, and as she is watching the sentinel, smoking a cigarette, a little breeze is bringing to her the scent of the burning tobacco, making her lick her lips very quickly inhaling some of the smoke, taking care at each of her steps, watching there is not a branch, some broken things, or a small animal hidden on the ground that could alert the guard and as she is reaching a small distance, she suddenly dash in his back, striking the base of his neck with her open palm, as if she was wanting to kill a rabbit, a soft sound of a broken bone feeling the atmosphere as the guard is falling on the ground.

 

A common good emote should have:
- A descriptive part, reacting to what your partner(s) did/say.
- A spoken part, where you character is expressing something.
- A conclusion part, which main purpose is to close your turn and hand the role to your partner.

 

But remember that it is only a "common good emote", feel free to experiment.

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Using the turn base system while playing

If you want to become fluent with roleplay, you have to use 'rules' to avoid chaos. A very common rule is the turn base system. Playing with 2 peoples require you to play like a chess game (P1, P2, P1, P2, etc). At each turn you can post ONE emote preferably containing ONE major action. 

 

Once there is more than two players extend the rule like in the monopoly.. Each player has a defined place where he can emote. He can only emote at that moment. A turn will so be a complete cycle when each player in the room will have emoted, and the order they are emoting is becoming the final order where they will emote in the next cycle.

 

Let's give an example.

There is 4 players : King, Prince, Baron and Squire. Obviously King is the first to play. Then the Prince. Then the Baron and the Squire. And for the upcoming turn, King will always start the turn. And Squire finish it. 

 

Whatever, it is pretty important to avoid emoting out of your turn. Or double emote.

 

Another point regarding para RP. Just imagine each players are para-RPing, and each one needs 15 minutes to type an emote. King's next turn will so be in an hour... I repeat, King will not play before an hour. Don't think so that para-RP is the best style on Earth. it is a good style provided the circumstances. Or if you fancy the idea to do something else during an hour.

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Limits

Whenever you are playing, it is possible you find yourself in a situation you are not liking. Either you TP in a same sex bar, or in front of a nasty monster.

Limits can be defined as those moments when you cannot wrap your mind around what is happening. Most often, you can find on profiles a pick mentioning the limits. 

Always check those limits before starting to play with people (especially in BDSM themed sims!). On the same level, respect others limits. Just because something is fun for you does not mean it is fun for someone else.

Keep in mind to check your partner profile. Or simply ask, if you feel like that.
 
Safewords

A safeword is a feature commonly used in the BDSM subculture. When we are playing, we need to be able to differentiate a "no" meaning : everything is ok. From a "no" meaning: But right now, I don't want to go in that direction.

It consists of a 'word", 'group of word', 'sentence' which has very few chances to be pronounced during a play.

A safeword commonly used is... "safeword". Try to use something simple to remind and say. "I think William Shakespeare is a decisive writer in the whole literature" is probably a very poor safeword !

 

Also avoid : 
no.
Stop.

Those are the NUMBER 1 worst safeword.

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In BDSM it is also classical to use a gesture, or a ball to indicate when things are going badly. The reason is sometimes, not always, someone is gagged. And good luck ttalking while being gagged.

 

Some people in BDSM are using traffic light system. They are using 3 colors (green, yellow/orange, red).
- Green means : everything is OK
- Yellow/orange (depending country) means : Ok but slow down
- red means : Stop right now

 

Here in SL, most of the time, you can resolve things using OOC communications, if needed. Some devices like collars or RLV are provided with a safeword, learn to use them. Sometimes you just want things to stop, so really learn to use them.

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Bleeding/Marie Suing

Let's talk a little bit of roleplay, now. When we are playing, we are embodying a different person that what we are. For example, a dwarf with an axe. We are neither a dwarf, nor an axe wielder. 

Some people are keeping what they are in real life very close to the character they are playing. This lack of difference between character and true player is blurring the fact a character is a character. And also lead players to take things a little bit more personally. This phenomenon is called "bleeding"..

Bleeding is neither good nor bad. Just remember that roleplay isn't about truth or lies. It is about playing well or not!
Bleeding isn't bad. Be aware some people are not natural born actors. And actors are very proud people. So bleeding is natural. Don't be upset because someone is taking something personally.

 

But. Because there is a but. Marie Suing is a form of deep bleeding. It is a term issuing from the fan fiction world, precisely Star Trek. In 1973 Paula Smith mocked a trope of some Trekkies by creating Captain Marie Sue. A young girl coming aboard the Enterprise and everyone was so in love with her charm and intelligence. And by everyone you can precisely aim at Spock or McCoy. Not a guy in a red shirt. A modern rendition is an old good looking vampire falling for a clumsy student. Or Rey of the new Star Wars trilogy. Notice in the case of Rey, that the Last Jedi is written by a different person and in that movie Rey isn't a Marie Sue... The Last Jedi spends a lot of his time ridiculing the old characters and making them total morons.

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Advanced OOC using

It is possible to add some form of OOC communication during IC communication.

 

Let's take an example :
Don't say in a crowded area: ((brb))
but more :
/me is sitting in a corner, seeming to be totally absent. ((brb))

 

You can blend OOC communication with security : 
Remember that no means yes, but ((no)) means NO!

 

So if I say: /me seeing the hot iron approaching her body screams : NOOOOO !
Everything is OK. 

 

But if the scene is going like that: /me approaches with a sadistic face the hot iron from the body of her tied victim
and the victim just say: ((no))

 

Then it means the victim is not agreeing with the idea of a branding.

 

You can blend the traffic light system pretty easily by adding a ((green)) ((yellow), ((red)) at the end of each emotes, especially when you are exploring things you are not too sure with.