Types of Roleplay | projectstrife

Common Types of Roleplay

Crack

Simply put, "crack" is light-hearted, often out of character (OOC) roleplay.

When someone implies their roleplay is "crack," that often means it's intended to be silly, fun, and completely out of character (as in, something that specific character would never do, such as a villain skipping through a field of flowers and petting puppies). It's often meant for fun and can be a good stress relief after a very serious or emotion-heavy roleplay.

Some people don't like a lot of crack roleplays on their dashboards/blogs and won't take blogs serious if they have too much of it. It all depends on the individual.

Fluff

Fluff often refers to gentler emotional roleplays, such as couples cuddling or friends hanging out/playing/relaxing.

Fluff, somewhat like crack, is meant to bring a more happy tone to balance out any sort of serious or emotional thread going on at the time. Unlike crack, however, it's completely in character. It may be a group of friends hanging out and playing pranks on each other, lovers cuddling or going on a romantic date, or a character being given and playing with a new pet.

Fluff is a good way to unwind and relax as well as build up IC and OOC relationships.

Smut

Smut refers to sexual (NSFW) roleplay and may include anything from light foreplay to hardcore sexual scenes.

Smut is often used between shipping partners (if both partners consent and are of legal age) to explore their character's sexual identities as well as their personalities in the bedroom. It can be anything, but is often explicitly sexual.

The RP community tends to frown upon blogs who are smut/ship-driven (only seek sexual/romantic relaitonships IC). It all depends on what RP means to you, what your characters are like, and how you handle it that really makes-or-breaks the deal. Always read people's rules about shipping and smutting before asking for any kind of thread, and never pressure them into it!

Angst

Angst often refers to emotion-heavy (often negative) roleplays that may or may not include triggering topics.

Angst roleplays are pretty common among the community, if only because most people enjoy forcing their characters into terrible situations to watch what they'd do and how they'd grow. Angst can be pretty much anything, from gore to controversial topics that need to be tagged and warned about.

Sometimes these roleplays are also called "serious" threads and may be written more realistically (as in, actually appropriate in character responses to the happenings) or fantastically (out-of-proportion in character responses to the happenings) depending on what the purpose of the thread is.

One-liner/Script

One-liner roleplays are roleplays that often imply extremely short (mostly one sentence or "line") responses.

One-liners are made to be simple, quick, yet effective in being both active and expressive of a character's mood. These are fairly common and are typically not kept for on-going purposes unless they lengthen out into threads.

Responding to a large thread (paragraphs) with a one-liner is considered rude and uninspiring, and most roleplayers will drop (or fail to continue) the thread. They may also ignore/unfollow you if this type of behavior is persistent.

Para(graph)

Para roleplays are comprised of one-to-three paragraphs and are fairly common.

Typically when someone mentions roleplay, they're talking about para roleplays. These include simple yet effective descriptions of the world around them, from a character's mannerisms to their thoughts, and are more in-depth than a one-liner or script roleplay.

Some roleplayers have the habit of turning every roleplay they're in into a para/novella, no matter what type of roleplay they do. It's always good to ask what your partner wants before jumping in cold turkey.

Novella

Novella roleplays are the longest form of roleplays and are often seven or more paragraphs.

Novellas live up to their name in that they are almost like short novels with highly-detailed descriptions of the environment, the character's thoughts, their mannerisms, and even their speech patterns. Often times they take the longest to write, and have a lot more effort put into them than any of the other roleplay types.

Novellas are pretty intimidating for most people to reply to, which is why they tend to be rarer/reserved for special threads. Often times people will use a "Read More" cut to avoid stretching out their follower's dashboards.