RP Guide

Proper Chatting Etiquette
Pay attention to this, as it makes or breaks good role-players. The below examples are guidelines, but you're not required to follow 'em. Doing anything different is likely to confuse players.

Speech
If your character is speaking, it's bookended by quotation marks.

"I need water."

Actions
If your character is performing an action, it's bookended by asterisks...

* I reach for and grab the water bottle.* appears as I reach for and grab the water bottle.

One thing I'll say about marking actions, be brief, but don't be too brief. I like to indicate that it's my character performing the action by stating it in first or third person, in the present or past tense.

Out-Of-Character
The last thing is out-of-character chat, or chat which isn't part of the role-play itself. This is bookended either by parentheses...

(What's your character's name?)

Or by square brackets.

[John.]

Generally some people will double up their brackets, others won't. Either way is acceptable, as are curly brackets. As long as it's clearly marked in a recognisable way, almost anything can mark OOC chat.

{Oh, Nice. My Character's name is Jake.}

Character Building
Now, when you first come into the RP, it really helps to have a character sort-of thought out that you can play with. This can be a digital representation of you, or whoever. Be creative. But keep the following factors in mind: self factor, player concentration, and role characteristics. It'll help create a better character.

Self Factor:

The first thing to talk about is self factor, which is how your character's presence affects the immediate vicinity. Are you a creepy and powerful crime lord who makes everyone shrink away and obey him with his mere presence, or are you an outgoing person that just seems to lighten the mood wherever you go? That is your self factor shining through.

Player Concentration:

Another thing you need to know about is player concentration. This simply refers to the areas of a map which are hot zones for players.

Role Characteristics

Last but not least you need to take into account the types of characters your fellow players are currently being. They may be playing as a Neko for example, and their role characteristics would reflect this. That player can be reasoned to be playing as a friendly lizan, who even hisses sometimes. Those are all characteristics of that player's role.

If you've played for a while you'll likely know your character better, and how other people respond. You'll become aware of your self factor for that particular character, allowing you to play to his or her strengths or weaknesses.

Acronyms & Terms
There's a few acronyms and terms you'll need to know, as they're used fairly often for RP. These are all considered OOC, and must be bracketed.

PTK
Firstly is PTK, or Permission to Kill. This rule is in place to prevent outright banditry. Once you give this to a certain player, they can kill off your character. RTK, or Reason to kill. Is the only way to bypass PTK. It is granted by mods and admins only, and is only used when some other player ICly does something that would be reacted to with killing the char. Please note: And Admin does not need to have PTK when GM'ing, if you feel an Admin unjustly killed off a character, DM another admin with your reasoning.

Void
Next thing you'll encounter is Void, which players will say if they consider a previous action null or void. I personally find it helpful to quickly describe the action, but if you don't, void always voids the most recent action you took as a player. If you disagree with an action another player took against you, you can ask them to void that action. Work it out OOC, void as required, and get on with the RP. Don't make a fuss about it, or people will be telling you to Get Back To Roleplay (BTRP).

BTRP
Next is BTRP or Back To Role-Play, which may be asked of you if you're overusing OOC chat too much. People don't like it when other people fill the chat with their latest adventures and stories, or anything else. If someone asks this of you, please be courteous and leave your tall tales quiet for now.

Things not to do during RP

 * Meta Gaming is the act in which someone gives their character information that they shouldn't be aware of. For example, you know about someone's weakness by reading their character template, however your character shouldn't be aware of his/her weakness, and would be considered meta gaming.
 * Power Gaming is the act in which you force an action onto another role-player, an example of power gaming would be doing something similar to "John punched Jason, making him bleed." Doing something like that would be considered as power gaming, say something similar to "Attempted to punch Jake." Doing something like that won't be considered as power gaming, what happens after is up to the opposing person, however you are welcome to talk to them if they do something which doesn't make sense.
 * God Modding is the act in which you take a large amount of damage, consistently dodging or doing anything else which is far above your character's capabilities. For example, let's say Azara is far stronger than Kaoru, for Kaoru to outlast Azara for a large amount of time for no valid reason will count as God Modding.

Additional
If you've read through everything and wish to look further into RP Etiquette, this document is pretty handy.