Basics : First Posts

Now, let's say you've found a partner and have decided to start a roleplay after defining a plot and setting. There still is one problem you have to solve. You have to make a first post.

Every roleplay begins with this. It's inevitable. It's what sets the mood, and what defines everything about what takes place in the roleplay. Your first post in a roleplay will usually be your longest. It's your one and only chance to give the setting once and for all. The more you describe, the more effective the "pre-emptive strike post" will be; it leaves less room for the other player to post conflicting information in their first post. HOWEVER! A roleplay is supposed to be a collective story; it's only normal that some parts of the universe the characters are developing in wouldn't have been thought by you. You can define a world well, but you should usually not restrain your partner from adding their two cents to it.

If you are the first to post a first post (redundancy?), you will have to answer to these questions in your post: Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?

Who? Who is your character? Usually, your character will appear as soon as your first post; describe them! You didn't make a character sheet just to let it go to waste by not describing anything about your character from the first post.

What? What is your character doing, or what is going on around them? Your character might be sitting idly on a park bench somewhere, but unless you mention that, the other people won't know what they are doing, and they would just be wondering, "is the character just being there, existing?" Characters are always doing SOMETHING. Describe what that is. (waiting for the other character to appear is usually not a valid thing to be doing unless the two know each other in some way.)

Where? Where is the action taking place? This is very important, because the other character(s) will have to find itself (themselves) close to where your character is. This question has a two-part answer; you should answer it with the general location (in New York City? In a forest? Up on Mt. Everest?) as well as the specific location (just outside from a book store? Sitting under a large tree? Hidden in a cave?). Characters are technically "nowhere" until they come into play; once they do, their whole background story explaining how come they came to arrive where they are kicks in. Until your character arrives, where they were before isn't set.

When? When is the action taking place? This isn't the date or era at which the roleplay is happening; it's actually the time of day. It would be useless to mention the era, since it would just be awkward, and anyways, the other person or people you're roleplaying with will usually know as well, since you'd probably discussed that with them before starting, or it's just that obvious. However, several things change depending on whether it's day or night, or morning, or evening. Not just the fact that it's harder to see/scarier at night, but also some things about a character may even be completely different when it's day or night.

How? How is your character doing what they are doing? Is it looking like it's in a hurry? Does it adopt a nonchalant attitude about what it has to do? When you're just saying "Character did X", it basically just seems This shouldn't take too long for each action, maybe a sentence or two, or even just one word or phrase in most cases, but there will be several instances in one post where you might have to include a "How?" It's also sometimes a necessary detail; that detail might just be what another character remarks to begin interaction with yours.

Why? Why is your character doing what it is doing? It might be anything; your character might be roaming in a forest looking for a hidden fairy city, or maybe it could be hurrying along its way to arrive somewhere on time. It can be as important or as mundane as necessary. This can be implied,  or it can be explained fully and wholly. HOWEVER!  You should always make sure a reason is given or implied for your character's actions, even if insignificant, other than "because it wanted to". Random characters and their "realistic" behaviours consisting of doing things without reason (or with badly constructed thought processes) are extremely hard to use constructively in a roleplay, especially if you use the character as a catalyst for your own desire to be random (which a lot of people seem to be doing; if it's your case, you should maybe think about hooking up a casual roleplay).

Also, make sure that those details aren't just an excuse to make characters find themselves in the same setting; if your character has no reason to be somewhere, then it shouldn't be there. Find a reason to have them be there, as insignificant or as important as you want (I myself sometimes use the "I got lost" excuse). No reason to be talking to the other? Then it shouldn't be talking with it. In that case, strike up a situation that would make them talk to each other; an NPC makes your character trip over your partner's, for example, and your character fumbles an apology, thus calling attention to itself for the other character. If something doesn't seem to WANT to fit still, you should discuss with your partner(s) to try to find a better setting or to suggest a reset and a change of characters.

Additionally, if there's something your character has to do, it shouldn't forget about it once the other character comes up, and what your character was supposed to do should usually be brought up again soon, or at least at some point in the roleplay; the arrival of a character should usually be far from enough to distract someone from their objective in most circumstances.

Here is an example of what a completed first post should be like. I'll highlight the answers to the essential questions of Who, What, Where, When</i>, How</u> and Why</u>:

Daylight</i> in the tutorial world always seemed so awkward to those not of that world; the sky could change colour at any given second, clouds would come and go like thoughts in a troubled man's head, and the number of suns might even change from time to time. A young woman lying in a field seemingly in the middle of nowhere, however, didn't seem to be bothered by the apparent strangeness of the sky, nor even the unusual colour of everything around her. This was Kara Chter, most likely the single person to call this place home, and maybe the only one who could. Being a shapeshifter, she could take on any form she liked, but had currently adopted the appearance of a dark-skinned woman with black hair and orange eyes. Relaxing in the middle of nowhere, she was moving her hands playfully towards the sky</u>, which in turn seemed to respond to those movements by changing colour and cloud density. This was the only place where such a thing was possible; anyone in this world could change nearly anything about the world around them. Kara sighed, lost in thought</u>, almost expecting a rookie's character to appear nearby at any given second</u>. It would have been called for.

In case you're wondering... yes, I did have a lot of fun writing this up. [insert happy face here]
As you can see, each question has been answered adequately and more; we know who my character is, what she is doing, where she is, the time of day during which this is happening, how she is doing what she is doing, and why she is doing what she is doing.

The questions don't have to be answered in any particular order; any order that sounds right can do.

The questions don't have to be answered directly, either; for example, I answered very indirectly to the "Why?" by implying that she was awaiting just about anyone to come by. Basically, she knows she's waiting for something, but isn't sure it'll come nor what it'll be like. By doing this, I'm throwing a rope to the other player on what their character could be doing to start up interaction.

Some questions might not have to be perfectly answered from the first post, especially "Who?"; for example, I could have chosen not to mention Kara's name before my next post when she would potentially introduce herself to a character that would have been passing by, and might even have overlooked most of her appearance until my next post, had there been a next post. That works well when you want to have a sort of "like in a book" feeling to your posts; the first thing mentioned in a
book isn't necessarily going to be how a character looks.

It's important to give a lot of information in your first post; certain information, when given at the wrong time, can be devastating to the mood of a roleplay. For example, if I hadn't mentioned that nearly anything could be changed in the tutorial world, it would have seemed weird and anticlimatic for Kara to be changing the colour of the sky or even the land itself later on. A detail you want the other character or player to notice almost immediately would have to be placed in your first post, since this is pretty much your one and only opportunity to impose the exact setting and what can be done, as well as what's going on close to your character.

Remember that each post after the first three rounds should answer those questions as well. HOWEVER! If nothing has changed about the answer to one of the questions in your post or your partner's (such as Where? or When?), then it's no use mentioning it again. Who? should always be mentioned, though; since you and your partner will be using two different characters, your posts will feature your own character's actions, and your partner's will feature his or her character's actions. The answer to Who? usually needs to be refreshed every post, although after the character introduction has been completed, only the name will suffice in letting the other know that you are speaking about your own character.

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Hopefully, this tutorial has made the mysterious subject of good first posts easier to understand; first posts need to be explicit, since they set the mood of a whole roleplay. The first three or four rounds of posts in a roleplay are arguably the most important, because they set the way the whole roleplay will take place. Two or three lines is far from enough to make a detailed first post answering every question and give a mood; you should always put more than necessary, if not to get you engaged into the roleplay, at least to make your partner feel like you are. Good-sized posts are a real morale booster, more than you might think.