Conf's Roleplay Guide

Hello and welcome! To start this off, I want to state this is just what I have picked up from Roleplaying mostly outside of VRChat. As such, most of this isn't specifically related to VRChat Roleplay, but rather Roleplaying in general, things that can improve quality, generate more RP, and keep things running smoothly.
My experience comes from 8+ years of Roleplay in various communities, with overlap as I was active in several at the same time. 6-ish years in a serious medieval fantasy Minecraft RP called Massivecraft. 3 years as a Dev for Ascension Academy, including being Showrunner of Cari Town- a canon spinoff in the same setting- for a whole year. And various other experience in Text RP on Tumblr and Runescape, Voice RP on Swarm SMP in Minecraft, etc.
I detail all of this not to brag, but to clearly lay out exactly how long I've roleplayed and where. Nobody is perfect when they start, and in my experience you tend to have waves of thinking you're good at RP, and thinking you're trash at RP, as your knowledge grows your confidence fluctuates until it stabalizes at about the 6 year mark. Keep at it, try to stick in communities that will tell you- politely- when you're in the wrong, and you will grow into a fantastic Roleplayer!
For a more general overview of Roleplaying, be sure to check the Roleplaying page.
== Chapter One: Basics ==
=== Cliques and Closed Circles ===
Generally speaking, Cliques and Closed Circles would be defined as small groups that don't frequently interact with people beyond their group, and rarely invite others in. There's nothing innately wrong with this, it happens for good reasons. However, specifically with Roleplay, unless your goal is to just create a story, and not mainly to engage in roleplay for roleplay's sake, closing your group off and rarely interacting isn't going to get you far. Nobody will know who you are or acknowledge your grand actions that you have nested behind walls, self gratifying within your circle.
Closed Circles- referring to Closed Circles and Cliques both from now on- have a tendency to echo box, where views expressed by those within get echoed by the rest, creating an environment where everyone in the group agrees with everyone else, and validates each other's opinions without real consideration. With no contrary views being presented, they devolve into what most would call 'circle jerks' to put it crudely. Both with opinions, and with events in Roleplay. "I've got a kill count of thirty seven and killed a god once." everyone else in the group acknowledges this, then anyone outside the group who finds this to be extreme, or feel it leans God RP ways, is vilified by those within and the echobox turns them into assholes in the eyes of the Closed Circle.
If my point isn't obvious yet- Closed Circles are bad for Roleplay. And life in general. They make you lesser, and breaking out of the echobox and engaging with more people is always to your benefit, as a person and a roleplayer. Your roleplay will have more meaning because of it, because you won't be an obscure unknown in a corner ranting about your extraordinary accomplishments to a few others. People will have experienced your character. Show, don't tell.
=== Take it Private ===
Not an ERP thing. While echo boxes mainly form within Closed Groups, the same sentiment can grow in more open groups if you raise issues with other Roleplayers- or people- openly. As an example, if I feel David Roleplayington was acting like a power gamer during the last session, and I gripe about him privately to those I ordinarily hang out with, the sentiment will be echo boxed and spread, until many people might see him as a Power Gamer- over what might have genuinely just been a slip up. And those people will be less accepting of his mistakes in the future, and won't give him a chance to prove himself better.
Because of this, almost universally, issues should be taken up privately, with only the involved party, and politely. This seems like common sense, and it should be really, but it isn't. The only excuse for bringing something public is if they respond rudely and refuse to hear your side out in private, otherwise, you yourself are a power gamer and are acting toxically, because the only outcome is hate and drama around the player. Don't be a dick- Take it Private, and be polite. And if someone raises a complaint against you, consider their points, refute or explain what you think you are justified on, and come to an agreement. Drama only serves to make Roleplay worse for everyone involved.
=== Conflict is Good, Communication is Better ===
As contrary as it might seem to the above: Conflict is actually good for Roleplay. As long as it is kept in-character. The heart of every story is conflict. A goal, and something in the way of the goal. Harry Potter: The goal is to become a Wizard, the obstacle is usually a bad teacher like Umbridge, or literal Wizard Hitler. But what you have to remember is in Roleplay, You and the Obstacle are both players, and you both have a goal and want to enjoy yourselves. I may play Wizard Hitler, and my goal is to establish dominance and secure my power base. As 'Harry', your goal is to keep the world free, and destroy me. This isn't exactly 'good' conflict because the end result will naturally go Nuclear- or climax dramatically to a conclusion where one must die or be indefinitely defeated. But it illustrates the point.
Nuclear options must always be avoided as a goal. Its unrealistic for Roleplay, because it forces one side to lose permanently, which is unfun. To avoid this, plan with your rival! Find someone you enjoy, approach them with an idea for a plot, work together to engineer a story that puts both players (and hopefully the groups around them) against each other, with goals that run contrary. Without conflict, everything stews in an endless purgatory of calm social RP, with mild development at best. Social RP has a place, and it great for relaxing, but breaking it up with good conflict spices things up and leads to more rapid character development. So plan conflict- Do not fear it! Communicate, and work together to create an engaging Roleplay!
I would point to the Crossover Chronicles as a decent example of this. it was a little rough, due to Nagz being new to Roleplaying, and his community not grasping the concept instantly, but with an introduction, and a little more planning, it would have been a perfect example of this concept.
== Chapter Two: Working Together ==
=== Cooperative Storytelling ===
Roleplay is, at its core, a form of cooperative storytelling. There is no main character, only a sea of protagonists who sometimes act as antagonists to one another. And it is vital for you as a roleplayer to come to enjoy this. You must learn to take pleasure in the role you play in other people's stories above even your own. I'm going to do a line break and repeat that bolded to emphasize my point.
You must learn to take pleasure in the role you play in other people's stories.
If everyone only cares about their story, and is only excited for their narrative, nobody is helping anyone else actually develop cool moments. If everyone is self-serving, nobody gets anywhere for long. You will be shackled to a desire to stand out, to gain attention, and that pushes you further and further down the wrong path. You'll burn out and get bored and give up one day. But if you can focus instead on the impact you had on other people's stories, the role you played and seeing how that role affected how they act months or even years down the line, to see the butterfly effect and take pleasure from that, you can roleplay damn near forever off that feeling.
An excellent example of this is found in Ascension Academy. During Year One, Chipz slowly got Vevina to open up about herself, and worked to convince her she was not in fact a monster like people said. She slowly overcame her doubts and accepted herself more and more as time went on because of this initial push. And then she helped a new student, Stark, who was a mild sociopath who resented himself and humanity as a whole. Made him accept he could be a good person and got him to open up. And in turn he ended up doing the same to Flora, a Plantskin student the next year. A long butterfly effect chain started in the early days of Year One and still has a huge impact on several characters nearly TWO real life years later.
=== Make others feel cool, even in defeat ===
This is loosely related to the above point but it's worth distinguishing and giving its own section because of how important it can be. Defeat inherently is a bummer. Even someone who is an experienced and skilled roleplayer will often feel beaten down if their character is defeated too often or too soundly. All their ideas and day dreams of what could be cut abruptly short. It can hurt and if one is not careful it can build into a resentment that breeds powergaming. But there is something very easy that every Roleplayer can do to stem this at the source and make everyone feel better about their roleplay, even as they are defeated. Make them feel cool.
This is a bit nebulous so let's give an example:
Sethiro and Jacob get into a duel over a slight Jacob dealt to Sethiro at the bar in front of his companions. Sethiro is obviously weaker, but has a sense of honor and refuses to decline the duel. So when their blades clash, Sethiro is trounced. Not only has this character been insulted, but he subsequently had his rear handed to him in the ring. This can leave the Roleplayer feeling down about the entire scene. But there is a better way to do this.
Say instead, during the duel, the match is actually much closer. Jacob is overconfident and makes a couple mistakes, so Sethiro is able to land a couple good hits before being defeated. And the Roleplayer behind Jacob plays the injury up a little. Despite being beaten, Sethiro's player still feels like his character fought well and as a result he feels better about the scene than in the first scenario.
This can also be extrapolated to more broad non-combat scenarios. When a you see a character do something unusual or surprising, play it up a little. If someone unleashes their ultimate move, or just does something badass, acknowledge it and play it up in character. This is easier to do in Text Roleplay with lines like "Cael blocked the blow but just barely- it took the man by surprise, Faen was clearly better with her blade than he had initially given her credit for." But your character can verbalize these thoughts after the fight as well, acting sportsmanly and going "You held your own pretty well there, you're better than I anticipated. I won't underestimate you a second time though." It will go a long way to making them feel better- and if everyone does this, then everyone feels a little bit cooler.
== Chapter Three: Life and Death ==
=== When to kill ===
Player vs player is a tricky conversation in the roleplay community. Depending on the community and group you are roleplaying with, the rules can vary wildly with some outright banning PVP altogether. However I believe there is a place of it, so long as both parties handle it appropriately. However as I touched on in Chapter One, conflict that will inevitably go Nuclear is bad. The exception being if Death has already been agreed to by both parties or is communicated as part of the Roleplay like in Callous Row. Paramount to everything is the fact that you must obey the Rules established by the DMs of the roleplay you are in at the time. This is nonnegotiable obviously. Beyond that, let's get into some qualifiers.
Motive is vital in PVP, especially if death is on the table. A character's motivation to attempt to kill another must be strong. Simply disliking them isn't enough, even if your character is murderous or psychopathic, for a genuine murder attempt. They can 'attempt to murder' the target of their ire, but typically this attempt should be intended to fail out of character. After an encounter or two like this, when a proper rivalry/antagonistic relationship is formed between both parties, genuine murder attempt may become an option if both players agree- or depending on the rules of the Roleplay if consent is not required then simply do so. This ties back into the above pointing Chapter One, "Conflict is good, Communication is better."
Building tension is also important for PVP. Escalating at a reasonable rate is one of the strongest reasons to not go for actual character death in the first encounter. Both parties should have a feeling of escalation of threat and tension until the final climactic fight. This means even for secretive attempts like assassinations, there should be some foreshadowing and indication that the target is being targeted. 
It goes back to Hitchcock's "Bomb under the table". If you show the audience a 10 minute conversation and at the end of the 10 minutes a bomb goes off and kills everyone, you shock the audience for a few moments and that is all. However if you take the same scene but show the audience the bomb near the start of the conversation, you give the audience 10 minutes of tension and dread. There should be no concerns about metagaming with this, you don't have to disclose the source of the danger or the method that it will come in, simply letting the target know there is danger is enough for this effect, and the methodology of the attack can still be a surprise.
And as a final note, typically character death should be the result of the character's own actions. What this means is it should be motivated by what the character actually did. If Rimmy kills Bobberto because Rimmy is mad that his car ran out of gas, this is not only a flimsy motive but a bad death. This outcome had nothing to do with anything Bobberto did. Further, if Rimmy kills Bobberto because he thinks he pickpocketed him, when Bobberto did not in fact commit this crime, this also feels like a poor end because again, Bobberto's actions did not cause his own death, someone else's assumptions did. However, if there is an extended plot where Bobberto is accused of a crime and is being hunted for it, which in itself develops into a compelling conflict, and Bobberto's Player is agreeable to a death if he can not resolve the accusations or escape, this is much more interesting and feels earned on both sides because it creates an interesting story for both parties. Communication. Is. Key.
=== New Life and all it entails ===
The New Life rule is a long standing near universal rule in the Roleplay community across every medium, and relates strongly to the concept of metagaming. The New Life rule put simply is: "If your character dies, you can not carry their knowledge or motives into your next character." Now, this might seem incredibly simple on the surface, but there are many implications beyond the obvious of what it says that should be understood.
To start with, generally this rule means that your character should have no relation to your previous character whatsoever. If your character is investigating the death of your previous character, is family with your previous character, or has the same goal as your previous character, you are violating the New Life rule. Investigating your own death when you know what happened, motivated to capture whoever killed your previous character, is heavily meta and will result in you being ejected from most roleplays. Being related to your previous character is less egregious, however if your goal is to seek revenge for their death you have once again broken the New Life rule. And finally, sharing the same goal as your previous character is again, while still less heinous, breaking the new life rule. It is you, the player, not wanting to lose progress so you are enforcing a motive onto a new character for meta out of character desires.
Expect more "Chapters" in the future to appear on this page to elaborate on more topics as they come to mind!
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