Most of this can be found in the rules topics, but this is a quick guide for newcomers who seem to be having trouble in here. Or people that don't like to follow rules.

1. Listen to the admins! They're here to help you, not hurt you. If they tell you to redo your application, it's for a reason. Even if what they say sounds stupid, trust me, it's for a very good reason. Without admins, this site would be chaos.

2. Submit a good app! Sucky apps mean a lot of waiting before you enter the RPG. If your first one is up to par, chances are you'll be accepted in only a day or two. And try to stay away from the white-haired angsty™ characters, because the admins hate those, and they are way too cliché. And no babelfish!

3. Don't spam! Spamming (i.e. : double and triple posting, posting useless and completely unrelated material) causes the topics to fill up with annoying posts that just get in the way. If you are going to post random stuff, do it in the General Chat topic, and stay on topic in the other ones.

4. No one-liners in the RPG! One liners are RP posts that have single phrases that express a character action, like, "Man1 walked to the Forest Temple. Man one entered the Forest Temple." NO! Do not post one-liners. Post paragraph in paragraph format, like you are writing a story, which you are. If you like graphics-based RPG's, go join Everquest or something.

5. Post in the right topic! This one is generally not a problem, except for several incidences where people would RP in a discussion topic. Trust me, you will get laughed at.

6. Don't badmouth people! Especially the admins! People will hate you for it. And If you do it to the admins, they will suspend or ban you!

7. This is an English board! This one's pretty self explanatory. So don't post in another language. And don't type what you want to say in a different language and put it into a translator. This generates what we call "babelfish," and it doesn't look nice.

8. Don't be impatient with people. This is a forum, not Instant Messenger. People aren't going to be posting constantly. Wait for them, or find something else to do.

9. Godmoding/autoing: Godmoding is when people make their RP characters way too powerful. Because this isn't a game, but text based, you can write anything, so this can be easy to do. But anyway, don't do it. It isn't fair to others. Autoing is when you control other RPers' characters. You should only do this with permission from them. You can do simple things like make them say hello, but remember, an angsty™ white-haired™ person isn't going to cheerfully say "HI!" to a complete stranger.

10. This is Zelda! Not Final Fantasy/LOTR/other medieval game or movie. So RP accordingly. You can't have things like trolls or mermaids, because they don't exist in Hyrule.

Some things Arsenic left out:

1. Keep the RP forums clean. This is an all ages board, so I'd imagine you'd have a very mad admin chewing you out if your character was "doing the deed." a.k.a. XXX

2. Puh-leeze use some originality. Not only will people like your character more, but you'll have a better chance of having your app approved.

3. A certain admin *Cough*Aure*Cough* likes good spelling and grammer. If he tells you that you need to fix some sentences, he's not teasing you about it. You'd know if he was.
(Don't be mad, Aure)

That's all for now.

Some tips of my own:

1. Don't overplay your character! If he's serious, fine. But SOMETIMES he has to crack a joke, or make a dry observation or even just be the fall guy, willing or no. If he's funny, don't have him joke ALL the time, because nobody has a joke for every occasion who people will willingly spend time with. Example: Nibaw, the wisecracking mercenary who's exceptionally graceful, just ran head-first into a wall.

2. Do keep a record of what happens to your character, either in your notes or on your profile, so you can recall any info you need. Example: Nibaw's weapons are called Alantil and Aramil, Alantil holding his father's soul and the elements Lightning and Air, Aramil holding his mother's soul and the elements Water and Ice. That could be tricky to remember sometimes.

3. THINGS DON'T ALWAYS HAPPEN TO YOU!

It's not every day you're going to be suddenly attacked by a malevolent group of Wolfos, crawl through a dungeon, beat up a big boss, get his treasure, and walk out. There are going to be days where nothing much is happening, where you're just relaxing, walking around town, taking in the sights.

That's more RPing though, not just surviving in Zeldafront, but oh well.

I have one thing as well!

Don't steal others creative ideas. If you see someone that has something cool, don't make your character get that too. Think of something better than that! (without godmoding or being angsty).

Example of what not to do!: Person notices I have a cat and I'm a kokiri. Person posts that they have a cat and that they are a kokiri.

Got some more:

1. There will be some things your character can't do or puzzles they can't solve. When this happens, try it with someone else helping out. My companion's abilities are especially useful for the temple we're in, and I had no idea it'd be like that. Teamwork pays off, believe me.

2. I'll make this official if the admins haven't already. Link and Ganon were never born in this RPG. I just thought that should get out there.

3. If you have a question, ask the other members. For more advanced questions, use the help section or ask the admins. They're here to help if you need it. Also, WILL PEOPLE STOP ASKING ME TO EXPLAIN THE RULES AND SHOW YOU HOW TO MAKE AN APP!? There have been at least five people who have asked me to do that. Read the rules and the app guide.

4. In the RP, do not try to kill off another members character without permission. You can kill NPCs that you made up. Don't off someone like Cremia because not only will you make it so people can't interact with her, which people do to open up sidequests or other stuff, but Nibaw would also probably beat the hell out of you.

5. Keep on everyone's good side OOC. If you don't, it may cause problems IC.

I'll add one, in commemoration of me coming back.

1. Don't be afraid to come back after an absence! I struggled all last night about wether to come back or not, and look what happened. I'm back! Breaks are great, but in moderation!

This is good.... instead of having one list we can have a whole topic full!

Aye, another point for RPing: Actions have reactions. You can't go kill the King of Hyrule, then complain that most of Hyrule is baying for your blood. Just like you couldn't kill Cremia and complain that I'm baying for your blood for killing my adopted mother. If I killed your mother, you'd fight back. So would anyone. RP that.

By the way, thanks Lana! ^^

I'm very angry with you, Lana [/joke] No, you're right, I'm picky about spelling and grammAr. But sometimes it gets pretty bad! And most of the time people listen, so then it's OK.

Anyway, I'll bombard this topic to general tips, as you've all been giving general tips. From now on, just list whatever your tips/tricks/hints are, using the number format people've been using. Please refrain from posting reactions on other people's tips - just let me know if you don't agree, or think they post something weird/incorrect. I'll be looking here myself too.

And now for a tip of my own:

1) Just don't kill NPCs, unless they are insignificant and made up by you. Killing any named NPC that originally existed in the Zelda games (especially people like the King of Hyrule, of Zoras or of Dekus, Cremia, Malon, the Mayor etc.) will get you a warning.

2) Restrict the use of large fonts. *cough Lana ;P* And don't overdo colours either.

3) If you have large patches of copied text (MSN convos, song lyrics, book chapters, whatever) try to either shorten them to the punchline, or provide a link to a place where you can find the entire text. Large patches of text only make a topic harder to scroll through. This doesn't go, of course, for things you've written yourself in reply to someone or as RP posts.

Well, guess I have to add some to...


1. People around here REALLY, REALLY, hate angsty (no tm) people around here. But I survived the hard judgement of Aure, wich is a good thing because I'm angsty ^^. If you want to be an angsty, make an ORIGINAL story. Not that your parents were killed/abducted and you're seeking for revenge.

2. Angsty people do not kill everyone. You can be friends with others. If you're being the angsty loner, the fun will decrease. This game is cool, but only if you play with others.

3. When in a fight, you can't just beat the shit out of your enemy in one post and then leave. Don't make your posts to long, your enemy must strike back.

4 Don't hate me if i kick your ass ^^

So this is the general tips, huh? Alright, some from the wild Kokiri:

1. Don't try to pass off a Video Game character as your own. It won't work.

2. Use the notes section of your profile to help keep track of little things in the RP such as items you've bought and stuff you've found.

I'd also use it to note any skills you know, for other people to check. For instance, I can reference Nibaw's Mind Expansion ability, and all someone has to do is go check my profile and they know instantly what I'm talking about.

I scrounged up a couple more tips from the puddle of ooze I call my brain:

This one's for apps. If your character is a fighter, they can't just learn to fight in no time. It takes years to become a good fighter.

Give a logical and creative explanation for how you learn different things. In real life, you can't just grab a book and learn to cast spells. Even though that's exactly what I did.

Also, when you enter and exit an area, have something like what I've bolded in the following, so people who read your posts can read them in the correct order:

<<<South Clock Town<<<
Coming from Clock Town, Lana did this, Lana did that, Lana went to the swamp.
>>>Southern Swamp>>>

That can also be an example of one God-awful post.

I haven't found a rule about this, but I've been in "all ages" RPGs were it wasn't really an issue if characters had sex. I'd imagine the admins being okay with it as long as it's apropriate to your story, you don't make it really vulgar or go into detail about it. It's not like 12 year olds don't know what sex is.

Bask mentioned something about it in the old RPG.

Anyway, one more.

If your character is reading a book and you show the page, it's easier for others to understand if you "quote" it.

Dont Auto charecters that arn't yours without permission. It will probobly end up making that person pissed off. Especially when they do it horribly. I dont know if this was mentioned or not yet.

Try and stay away from that lone-wolf stuff. It only makes the rp less fun for everyone. Their never fun to communicate to and they never communicate. very simple.

Bella struck gold on the last one. Two many times have I had great response to be ruined by autoing. Not to mention fighting!

1. Never, ever, auto another character in a fight, especially if you're fighting them. The exception to this, but still slimly, is if you say the other person blocks. (Keep it mind they must be capable of blocking.) I'm not saying you can't kill a character, and I'm definitely not saying people should God-Mode to stay alive, *Looks at Calean on Snowhead slyly*, but restrict your actions to you during a fight. You wouldn't like it if someone forced you to take a hit, would you? This can ruin an RP, and kill characters. Since Caelan is gone, I know this for sure, since I speak to him daily, read Snowhead for great example of what NOT to do.

Agree with Korji and Collin

If you have to leave this site for a long period of time, it's best if you alert us about it. That way, any current companions or other people you are or may be interacting with can have a back-up plan.

Don't chat in forums other than the General chat. That's what Hen-err, Beltingson made it for.

Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not make your character huge. Realism is another thing people want to see in someone's character, Nobody can be 8 feet tall. Also no one wants to see someone that looks like Broly. No one would want to interact with you in fear that you might try to flatten them.

Reply to Lana's last post:

A tall adult male human has reached 6'5", it isn't recomended that you go farther than that unless your character is stupid (I believe the gaintism disease thing, something on the Discovery Channel a long time ago.)


1. Take your time on applications. Most ZF vetrans already had a long time to think about their characters, so you should to. Do something in real life or on a game, you'll be surprise when an idea slaps you across the face. But still, don't even stop at your draft.

2. Think of something cool about your character. If you have to, throw something about your life (but don't get crazy about it in what they look like.) I always find a character who acts like you tends to be a good person to roleplay. Here are some examples of some ideas but others:

Roy: Son of a guard who has a strange weapon with five blades and refuses to get even a crush on a girl.

Cadmus: A kid who is always hyper and loves sugar, but is polite around certain people (like the King or Mayor.)

Kraes: A Subrosian who is on a quest to free himself of a curse, also a noble.

Kira: A cat loving Kokiri with magical cats.

These are just a few examples of something unique.

3. Unless it is an event held by an admin (currently the Majora's Mask plot,) avoid messing with other's plots. You should probably ask if you may (using the PM system) or they ask you to join. But don't worry about temples.

4. Angsty is something you want to avoid, unless you are super positive it is good. Even the video game angsties have a story behind them, be love, dream, or hope. Not everyone is depressed!

5. Welcome to Hyrule, no humans or anything else not on Legend of Zelda is allowed.

Well, actually, since we are an all ages board, we don't want it. This has been discussed before already. You can refer to it, as in, let people know it's happening but don't actually describe the actions.

This would be bad (white text for uninterested people ):



This would be better:





I know, lousy examples, but I'm not in a great rp'ing mood today.

Edit:

-Soro

Damn, I gotta log out one of these days. >_>"

That's kind of what I meant actually.

I know. But you gotta talk things reaaallly slooowwlly on the internet, or people will "misunderstand" it. Believe me.

edit: DAMN! I'm logging out now. >_>"

Volvagia talking about approapiate protocol on an "all-ages" site. I've seen it all now.

Yeah.

Anyway, Soro is right, but the youngest person is like 12. I don't think that really young people (like 8 years) would decide to go and RPG just someday.

I know ten year olds who RP, and I started RPing at the age of six actually Cruor.

I was one myself.
So that was a stupid reaction of myself.

Lol, so you argued about something you were an exception on. Never seen that before...

You become such an experienced RPer that you eventually look down on the younger less experienced types, only to realize that you, hard as it is to believe, were one as well.

Personally I love the young inexperienced RPers, because they remind me of me.

they're nice except when they assume too much and auto like crazy with their one-liners. It drives me crazy.

Arsenic Posted Today, 03:18 PM

I am still new at this type of RPing and I don't do that.

And here is a tip.

Don't assume stuff at first impression.

Everyone has to learn; and we're here to help each other.

young rpers remind me of how much I still have to learn myself

I'm not saying you do that, I said they're nice EXCEPT when they do that.

Here's one.

Don't just write something like this.



It's better than one liner posts, but put some information about the area or what people or animals are doing or even just the wind. Just remember this is an RPG not script writing. So put something like this.


Notice the diference?

EDIT: I looked through the old site and found something Ranuu suggested that may help with any posting.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/officialrpguide/

And none of this:



Apart from being short (not the point I'm making), Man1 makes his character seriously injure Man2. Unless you have permission to do this, don't. It will result in the other person warning you not to do it again and/or demanding that you edit your post.

Another note to think on is this.

Nibaw - <posts start of a plot>
Rin - <continues plot>
Veronica - <continues plot>
Lana - <ignores running plot and advances time>
Nibaw, Rin, Veronica - <no more RPing plot>

You should check what's happening, and check with the people RPing, before you do anything like advancing time. If the people RPing are in the middle of a plot, then they don't have anything to do anymore.

I made that mistake too, and i got scolded big time......

So believe Rin.

Yeah, I'm just going to pretend that—that—oh I give up. I'll just assume it was the same night, otherwise mine as well as other people's continuitys are messed up.

continuity ALWAYS gets messed up in freestyle RPGs. Heck, I've been in an RPG where my character met someone twice on one day ingame while the guy I was RPing with had forwarded an entire week ingame. It doesn't matter that much most of the time, unless you're involved in the same plot.

Rin/Nibaw, you could just have waited before getting that letter from cremia and finish RPing in the bar before you went after Lana.

I personally never fast-forward my character's time. I like to keep a single flowing timeline. Raeden, if one character plays without FFing, and another skips days at a time, the first character would perhaps eventually advance over several weeks while another advances by a year.

Yes, that would be much better, but impossible on a freestyle RPG of this size. Are you keepin track of the night/day progression in hyrule for instance?
even without fast forwarding people will play at different speeds. If I go solo for a while, there's a lot less roleplaying involved so I could handle each day ingame in two days in reality, while we just spend several weeks dwelling on a single day. And which side would be right? should we go back to a time system or should everyone closely follow the slowest group and addapt their RPing to it?

I see your point. A time system would give order to such things, but would have its downs as well.

We had a time system in the last RP. It was inconvenient though, and that's why I think Atake nixed it.

The slowest group yet active would be Zalrin and Aq sadly. Great posters though. One of Zeldafront's best. But, as for the system thing, we didn't really follow it in the old site anyway did we? Or ar you talking about a different timeing system?

"I run through the world thinkin' 'bout tomorrow! Thinkin' 'bout tomorrow!"

I guess it's convenient to post at whatever speed you wish, unless you are involved with another's plot (>.> <.<).

My suggestion would be to read any old posts of characters in the field. If there are none, then just continue but if there are, make sure that you are in their time line (at least the weather and day time part.)

Clocktown's posters (including me) have gotten a pretty good day-night rhythm down. I guess eventually everything evens out when you're with the same people for an extended amount of time.

Yeah, either that or people will kill eachother off until only a group of people that agree with each other survive. But then again, that's also a way of evening out.