I'm probably bound to expect, "What gives you the right to tell us how to do this?" being a question you're asking. Well, nothing gives me the right. But I have experiences quite a few RPs and come from a site that was uber serious about RPing. So I can easily explain better ways to present your RPs for those who are lost or just want to try harder.
Now, let's start with what is an RP?
RP stands for Role-Play, not to be confused with RPG (Role Playing Game). You can look at it like a game, but that isn't exactly respectful to you idea An RP, as explained by Moonsoul, is:
This is pretty simple. If you don't understand, I can attempt to make it more simple. You are basically writing a story with other people. Each person posts from the POV(Point of View). So, you are not playing a game when you are RPing. You are writing a story. Some users on Chao Island love read good RPs. That is why some RPs have a lot of views. (Either that or a page loading error made someone view it way too many time. XD)moonsoul wrote:Role-playing is an interactive story between players.
Next, let's see some things that you need. The first and most obvious thing you need is a Plot. If you start an RP without telling anyone where they are, when it is, and what they are supposed to do, then your RP isn't a good one. You want to make sure people can answer the following questions.
-Who?
-What?
-When?
-Where?
-Why?
-How?
If you can read the plot of your RP and answer all of those questions, you know your plot will work. But it may not be finished. Always make sure the plot is explained perfectly so people understand exactly what you're looking for them to do. This way no one can do something you didn't want.
The second most important part of an RP is the characters. Before anyone else creates a character, you'll want to create your character and any characters in the RP. You're making a new world. You'll want to make sure that if there is a person that someone will need to talk to, it better exist. Once you have your characters for this new world within your RP, you are ready to start accepting people to join.
No matter what your RP is about, you will need a Character Sheet. A character sheet is filled out with information about the people. You can get really descriptive and actually talk about deeper things about your character, or just keep it simple. Either way, you'll need it. Here is an example.
Character's Name:
Character's Height:
Character's Childhood:
Character's Goal:
I think you get the point. Just include what details you think will need to be pre-planned.
Now, the last thing you need is a list of RP specific rules. I assume one of them is to be not to have your character be perfect in every way. Just make sure you have written rules that control what the people can and can't do. It helps a lot and you won't have to worry about if you remove someone from the RP or not.
Anything after this are less required by are always fun to include in an RP depending on how your RP works.
An Index can be very helpful if your first post is big. It will help people know where to find specific parts of the RP so they can find the rules specifically instead of re-reading the topic again. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS READ A TOPIC BEFORE POSTING IN IT!
Another fun tool is making a point system that the RP's Creator will control. Such as if your characters have a kind of power that will grow. The Creator will choose a way to have the power grow. It can be set to a number of posts, or something silly like having a hat with paper in it and choosing one. I'd also recommend trying to use dice to decide things. It can help it keep the random nature. It is all for the fun of the RP.
Hope this all helps. If you see any problems or have any questions, post them.