Greg,
In truth many are still trying to see and get the feel about what is goin on (the rp aspect of such).
Perhaps it will help if you give a few examples (a post then a counter post as if it was written by another then another one by you.
I am well advised on rp, I use to own an aduly chat site that was rp. But many are not too sure, I believe.
I know what I am trying to see more of is the actual rp here, the actual theme and the limits it is taken to, so I can then actually be more active and feel comfortable doing such.
There are severe differences between chat roleplay and forum roleplay. Chat roleplay is plagued by a style of roleplayer that call themselves 'fighters', whom you'll know play for speed to prove superiority over other fighters. Generally speaking, they're always assholes.
Forum roleplay is slower paced, and because of that (and the medium), posts are more involved and in-depth than they would be in chat. The best style I know of for forum roleplay is bunnying, where roleplayers write out actions and dialogue for all the characters at their location instead of just from their characters' perspective. This is more akin to fanfiction writers taking turns writing parts of the same story than chat roleplay. The style calls for a well-planned set of rules and careful moderation to work correctly, but I'll try to illustrate the major differences for you here:
Lesse... a non bunnying RP would mean a player could only control their own character, performing an action and then waiting for the other player's response:
Red throws a blindingly fast snap kick towards Blue's chin.
Blue leans back out of the way, back-handspringing and landing in a crouch.
In a bunnying-style RP, both players would write for both characters.
Red draws his katana and advances on blue, who had drawn his own sword. The distance between them shrank and their was a flash of light as blade met blade. Red landed in a crouch, grinning, his sword-arm held ready, and behind him, a small gout of blood spurted from Blue's shoulder. Before Red could turn and smirk, however, a line of his own flesh along his arm erupted in blood. "So," Red called back, "You're a worthy opponent after all."
"Not too shabby yourself, Red," Blue replied, turning and flicking his katana to a ready position.
Blue knew his enemy would no longer hold back, and this time as he rushed forward a grim determination took root deep in his gut. Almost before his own blade was cutting through the air towards Red, his enemy was slicing his sword forward, and both hissing silvery arcs met with a shriek of sparks. "In fact, I'm beginning to think I've seen your style of fighting before," Red said with gritted teeth.
"It's simple Wyu Ru swordplay," Blue lied as the swords trembled against each other.
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That was sort of simple and anime-cliched but it should serve as a fair example of showing the differences in style. The first thing most roleplayers (and 'fighters') notice about this style is the potential for abuse.
Wyverian: *types you die*
Wyverian: you counldnt prevent that now could you?
ForumWarDestiny: I already did.
ForumWarDestiny: Your character wasn't accepted.
Mandatory character reviews (Kurai's 'Judgement') are the first step for preventing God-moders and power-players who will abuse a bunnying system and make the game suck for everyone involved. In-depth character profiles are a necessity as well because other players will be writing for your character and will need pertinent information so as to correctly portray how someone else's character will react.
The most commonly criticized aspect of that is the "No one understand my character but me," which can mean several things. First, that the complainer has a poorly written or poorly established character, and it is difficult or unclear to get a fix on their character's personality to portray well, or Second, the user likes to Mary Sue, which in the context of roleplaying means an in-game device for letting the user do whatever the hell they want, whether it would be in-character for their in-game persona or not.
The key to having a good roleplaying game isn't so much in the story set-up or the skill of the players involved, it's the trust and enthusiasm players have for the game and each other. In short - try to make the game interesting, and when you're writing for a character that isn't your own, make their actions intelligent and their dialogue witty. Making opponents seem inferior to you in your own posts undermines any victory you could make over them, lowers the quality of the game, and is generally rude.
I know this forum's roleplay setting extremely well, since, basically, I've already spent over a year roleplaying on it. This forum's setting is based off the Dante's Inferno personality test, and has the same levels of Hell that my forum has, though my forum was based off the book 'Dantes Inferno' (that the quiz was based off of.) This was more because most of my RPers had read the book, and they began to incorporate aspects such as Plutus and the demons of the Malebranche.