Roleplaying Genres

Go to any resource site, and you will see a grand listing of roleplaying genres.  But what do those genres typically entail?  Read on to find out!  

Everyone has at least one genre that they stick to, and most have several.  If you're a fan of soap operas, dramas, and fiction in general, you'll be right at home with Real Life.  Real life is just that - roleplays set in a realistic setting (sometimes in actual, real places) where characters are created to live out an alternative live to your own (though they can reflect your life, if you so choose).  These never have elements science fiction or fantasy.  

Under Real Life, you have several subgenres to choose from: 

• City/Town.  These sites are typically geared either for big cities like New York, L.A., Las Vegas, London, etc. where characters deal with all things city-related.  Some may have opportunities for acting, gambling, and other career opportunities, while others focus on criminal activity and thug life.  Still others are a mod-podge, or focus on one aspect within the big city - like an apartment in Seoul, for example.  When it comes to the small town side of things, it's just as you assume - it's a small town where everyone typically knows everyone else, and you deal with small-town drama, like dating your sister's best friend, getting a job locally where you have to see your ex all the time, and meeting the new residential bad boy that just blew into town on a Harley with a bad attitude.  Another popular option is to treat the location as a tourist attraction, where you get all sorts of temporary characters, only staying for a short period of time, but are free to wreak havoc, fall in love, and make dastardly life-altering decisions that affect everyone else (like impregnating a local and abandoning her).  City/Town roleplays usually have member groups that are based on the side of town you grew up on, whether you were born in the place of the roleplay or elsewhere, or otherwise how your character is affiliated to the crime, political, or career areas within the board.  

• College/School/Boarding School.  These RPs have a main setting within some form of school - whether college, boarding school, public school, private school, whatever is completely up to the creators.  The focus of these RPs is to live out life as a member of the school, as one of the staff who works there, and sometimes as side-characters who can interact with these individuals - like the owner of a popular coffee shop.  Their lives are usually consumed with studying, partying, dealing with grades, having relationships with other students (and sometimes staff), and generally growing up.  You may even find sites that are similar to the popular book series (and not-so-popular movie franchise) Mean Girls here, RPs like Glee, or other boards that are based on cliques within high school.  

• Band/Tours/Celeb/Record Label.  Ever wanted to roleplay what it would be like to reach superstardom through music, modeling, acting, or other means to being a celebrity?  This would be the genre to look into.  You can join a band as a member of support staff while touring, break away and become a solo artist, mingle with other celebrities in famous places, deal with papparazzi, rumors, and general glitzy drama.  Musical/celebrity rivalry is a common theme, with ambitious characters competing for the top of... well, everything, as a central theme.  You may find that RPs based on the TV show Nashville could be categorized here, rather than in the TV genre, since it does fit so very well.  

• Historical.  Anything that is set in the past is labeled as historical.  By "past" I would assume pre-1950s, but a growing trend is to loop anything from before the early 2000s as "historical."  I don't necessary agree with it, but that's pretty much how this genre runs.  Here, you can find boards that allow you to live within just about any era in the past - going all the way back to prehistory.  You can find boards that focus on vikings, Robin Hood, politics in the middle ages, even sites with settings for lovers of Jane Austen (i.e. the Regency era), the American Revolution, the Victorian era, Edwardian era, the roaring 20s, the 50s - it's all game.  The communities in this subgenre tend to be a little on the small side, since there are less historical lovers than modern (or even futuristic) fans.  

• Rehab/Asylum/Hospital.  This was a genre I never really tampered in, because it happened to combine a few things that I've never been drawn toward to RPing - drug abuse (or rather, the getting sober part of that), mental institutions, and medical situations in hospitals.  You could very well find Grey's Anatomy or even House-like boards here, or it could be something more sinister and dark.  

Because Science Fiction and Fantasy are so closely related - there are many boards that have aspects of both - they are usually looped together.  This is where you can find boards that deal with zombies, superpowers, magic, alternate realities, and space exploration.  They can be based or inspired by an existing tv, book, movie or game, but usually, they're high creative original RPs with custom settings, world lore, and information.  You may need to invest in quite a bit of time just reading through the lore associated with these sort of RPs before creating your character, or before actually RPing.  

• Vampires/Angels/Demons.  Several years ago, the angel vs demons dynamic was highly popular, and while it generally fell out of popularity, a few of them do still exist.  You get all varieties here - Japanese type of demons, more Christian-based (sometimes without the religious aspect, dealing with creatures that are simply good vs evil rather than God vs Satan), and even some that gear toward the Buffy and Angel series.  There are, of course, plenty of original types.  This is also where you can find vampire RPs, sometimes even those based off Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel, Dracula, True Blood/Southern Vampire Mysteries, etc, but, like with the Angels/Demons RPs, many are original.  The one thing both have in common?  There's typically a dark, grunge type of feel with a lot of good vs evil elements that has a tendency to explore the darker side of human beings (and supernatural creatures) in general, as well as acknowledging that not every situation (or being) is exactly black or white.  

• Futuristic.  Typically set in the future - as in, more than a 100 years or so, but not necessarily - this is a good one for exploring dystopian RPs, or playing out how you would think life would be on Earth in the future.  This subgenre can be heavily political and involve uprisings, rebellions, and dark themes; it's not too often that a futuristic RP is actually what you would consider a "happy" place.  You can also find boards that deal with apocalyptic themes, viruses that destroyed most of Earth's population, zombies in all their various forms, the fall of governments, futuristic robots, gorey survival RPs, ravages of war, and even sites involving the aftermath of nuclear war.  

• Fantasy School.  This is very similar to the College/School/Boarding School genre under real life, but has a definite fantasy element to it, usually involving super powers, magic, alternate dimensions, etc.  Common themes include all of the above Real Life: College/School/Boarding School themes in addition to the specific fantasy elements that the board incorporates.  

• Medievalesque Fantasy/Steampunk.  Similar to the Historical sub-genre of Real Life, these boards are usually based on real life but with fantasy elements, allowing the board to explore the past as it could have been, or even creating entire new universes with elements of our history interwoven with fantasy.  Medievalesque Fantasy usually has a medieval-type of setting that can involve elements of magic, but not necessarily, while steampunk usually involves futuristic mechanics into a Victorian setting (and may even include elements of magic, but again, not necessarily).  This is a more vague sub-genre that allows you to epxlore anything from an alternate Europe with the presence of magic, to entirely new worlds in a new universe where the clothing and living is Victorian but has elements of futuristic machinery.   

The fandom genre covers anything and everything you can generally find through tv, books, movies, and games.  Because of this, you can find tons of different subgrenes - anything from DC/Marvel (super-hero and superpowers) to Sherlock (detective mysteries) to Game of Thrones (fantasy politics and war).  You can even find RPs dedicated to professional wrestling, or set up very much like reality tv shows, such as Utopia or even the Housewives of (Wherever).  Following are some of the more popular subgenres.  

• Harry Potter.  Considered a classic sub-genre, HP sites have been around for a LONG time.  They typically come in three flavors: alternate history, replaying the Second War/lives of the main characters (Harry, Ron, Hermione, etc), or post-war/future generation.  There are others that fall outside of this category, such as foreign magical schools, or RPs focused on the Ministry alone, or Quidditch alone, etc, but for the most part, they tend to fall into the initial three categories.  For alternate history sites, it usually goes back to the days of James and Lily Potter as they fight the First War back in the 70s against Lord Voldemort, usually shipping unlikely and uncanon relationships.  This creates an alternate timeline and history that may or may not be played out later.  The sites that focus on playing the Second War or focus on when the trio were in school all tend to take place in the 90s (though some boards never put an actual date on it) and can vary greatly - some focus on the resurrection of the Dark Lord and the ensuing Second War, while others focus more on life at Hogwarts as a student or in the magical world during the trio's school years.  They may or may not allow canons, and can go off into alternate history territory with alternate timelines.  Post-war boards can focus more on the politics and wizarding world side of things, but usually lean more toward Hogwarts with the next generation of witches and wizards in attendance.  

• Vampire Diaries.  A series written by the YA author of L.J. Smith which was adapted into a popular series, the Vampire Diaries, with a spin-off, the Originals, combines small town with supernatural elements.  There are vampires, immortals, witches, werewolves, and all manner of drama within this series, making it highly popular for lovers of the genre.  The TV series, of course, varies greatly from the books, but most are set in the TV universe.  For the most part, this genre is focused toward teenagers, and explores the lives of teens as they deal with normal growing pains in addition to knowledge and experience with supernatural elements, powers, abilities, species, etc.  

• Supernatural.  I don't have much experience with Supernatural boards, but they are definitely in vogue.  This is a TV series based on two brothers searching for their father (though this changes) and deals heavily with a more gritty form of supernatural elements than the above Vampire Diaries.  These RPs tend to be of a darker nature that deals with survival mode, ethics, unraveling mysteries, and general exploration of supernatural elements.  

• Star Trek.  Since the movies came out a few years ago, interest in Star Trek increased, as well as boards focused on the franchise.  Star Trek typically focuses on life within a space exploration vessel, and can deal with space politics, ethics, exploration, and can have action-oriented scenes while using futuristic weapons and tools.  

• Glee.  Based on the high school club TV series, Glee RPs tend to be more along the lines of College/School/Boarding School type of RPs, consisted of cliques, groups, and typical growing pains, but has a unique feature of breaking those boundaries.   

• DC/Marvel.  This subgenre deals with primarily superhero universes stemming from comic books.  They can include, but are not limited to, the Avengers, Agents of SHIELD, Spiderman, X-Men, and boards where specific universes collide.  

The above is, by far, not the end of the genres and sub-genres!  They are the more popular, however.  There's a roleplay for everyone out there, from master/slave, arranged marriages, dystopian fantasy, original out-there creations, slash - if you can dream it up, there's probably a roleplay out there for you.  And if you can't find one, then you are encouraged to make one.  Original roleplays are fewer than there should be, with most falling into fandom categories or one of the above genres - don't be afraid to break the rules!  Blend genres!  Try out different things!  

And always remember, resource and topsites are your friend.  There, you can find numerous listings of roleplays looking for staff members, roleplay members, and requests for general feedback.  Check them out!  You never know - you just might find the roleplay you've been dreaming about, just waiting for you.  

What Is Roleplaying?

Roleplaying is, essentially, collaborative writing.

A group of people (two or more) all come together with the intention of writing out a plot together.  Each person has a character that they have created for that plot.  They all take turns submitting their writing from that character's point of view, until their plot has been achieved, usually going in a uniform order (though the exact order should be discussed beforehand).  This is continued, with each person acting and reacting to what is written, exchanging dialogue and actions, until the plot is completed.

The word "plot" itself can be confusing in the roleplaying world.  Personal plots are typically geared toward several characters, and doesn't really affect anyone outside those characters.  Site-wide plots usually set the genre and theme of the board, and typically has a challenge, issue, or goal to deal with or achieve; those who participate in the roleplay will work toward resolving the main conflict within a site-wide plot.  Sub-plots usually affect groups of characters, but may or may not affect the site-wide plot as a whole.  The above description of what roleplaying is could be any one of these uses of a plot.

There are rules, of course, and a typical order of operations that everyone must go through before they are eligible to roleplay.  These rules vary depending upon the genre, plot, and preference of those who run the roleplay, but there are some that don't typically change, which will be covered in another topic.  Not all roleplays are run the same, or even use the same software; some are based on places like LiveJournal, or Myspace; others are done through an instant-messaging system; many are done through forums or other software.  In addition to that, there are varying levels of skill/difficulty, in which a certain code of behavior and style of writing is expected.  A roleplay taking place on a forum that has declared itself an advanced roleplay (this would be the skill/difficulty) would typically expect near flawless grammar, fluid writing, and a lot more content per contribution, and would be more reminiscent of the style used in writing books.  The member would be expected to use all five of their senses, to take in minute details, and to not only reply to the person before them (or set the scene up if they're the first), but to leave adequate  information for someone else to reply.  A beginner roleplay would not have their standards raised as high.

Once you start roleplaying, you will quickly find that not all roleplayers work out plots the same way, nor do they post their characters the same.  Some will prefer to sit and write out all the things that are to happen in the plot before it's written, while others like to go about roleplaying in a more freeform way.  Some will prefer shorter, more frequent posts (called rapid-fire posting), usually posted extremely quickly within a short time period, such as over the span of a few hours; others prefer longer, more detailed posts ranging from one post a week up to several a day.

The best thing about roleplaying, in my opinion, is that you have a chance to explore a world, a situation, a state of being through writing that you normally would not be able to in real life.  You could become a witch or wizard in the universe of Harry Potter, or try out being a werewolf in a brooding pack, or the prince of an impoverished nation, or a pauper on the streets that steals for a living.  You have the ability to aid organizations to bring down governments, or help scheming corporations intending to take over the world.  You could be a mother, a grandparent, a model, a superhero.  Anything you want to experience - anything - can be done through roleplaying.  all you need is the determination to write, the time to devote to seeing a plot through, and the right resources.

Blog Purpose

This blog was created with a sole purpose in mind: to spread the word about what roleplaying is, how to join in the fun, and more specifically, to share my own personal experience as both a member and an admin of roleplays.

All the information discussed are common topics and issues that one who joins the roleplaying community may come across.  The majority of what is posted is my opinion; where there is proof, I will submit it, otherwise the reasons and responses are primarily from my own experience and the experiences of others who have shared their woes and successes with me.