Roleplay Guides

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These free forum roleplaying guides offer information for both beginners and seasoned roleplayers. Learn what forum roleplay is and how to start roleplaying on a forum — or improve the craft you already love.

RPG administrators, you’ve got a section all to yourselves! Read the RPG administration guides and learn how to enforce your RPG rules and how to add staff to your RPG. It’s a tough job — so make it a little easier on yourself!

Why Read the Forum Roleplaying Guides

Online forum RPG games seem easy at first. They’re free and cater to many interests. Many games have little or no barrier to entry. Easy, right?

It can get pretty complicated, actually. Writing on an online roleplaying forum is subtly different from other kinds of writing. When you’re writing a novel, you only have to think about your perspective. Involving others is the fun of forum roleplaying, of course! It also introduces some of the tough stuff, though. For example — you can easily write bad roleplay by simply insinuating a reaction!

Use These Guides

RPG admins — feel free to link to these guides. Forum Roleplay strongly recommends using a direct link to the guides. This ensures the most updated version is made available to your roleplayers. You can find some (though not all) guides available for download on the Downloads page.

Resources in Roleplay Guides

  • Forum Roleplaying Basics

    Forum roleplaying is a great hobby. It’s free, it’s creative, and it’s a highly social activity. If you’re interested, read on for examples of forum roleplay and some essential starter’s information. What is Roleplaying? Roleplay is assuming the role of a character and writing, acting, or playing as that character would. There are many forms […]

  • Bad Roleplay

    There are several bad roleplay behaviors common to many RPGs. They are often employed by those new to forum roleplaying games. This is because these things are specific to roleplay, some to forum roleplay. It’s no wonder newcomers don’t know all the ropes yet. However, bad roleplay also may come from experienced players. While bad […]

  • Intermediate Roleplaying

    These roleplay resources provide a little bit more than the basics. It may take some time for newcomers to adjust to these intermediate ideas in roleplaying.

  • Fight Roleplay

    Bad Roleplay If you’re seriously new to forum roleplaying, see the Bad Roleplay Guide. They are very important aspects of roleplaying and are especially important in roleplay fights. There are too many aspects and they are too nuanced to elaborate upon here, sorry! Roleplay Fight Styles There are a few different roleplay fight styles. Some […]

  • RPG Admin Guides

    Being a roleplaying game admin — sometimes called a game master or GM — isn’t the easiest job in the world. Crafting an online community is really hard work, no matter whether you’re trying to start a social network or an RPG forum. Forum Roleplay offers a wealth of guides useful to the newbie and […]