#randomclaw

[wc-confessions]

As a general rule, i honestly dont like when ppl rename cats in AUs. Besides like ableist ones tho. It's an entirely personal and petty dislike, but i think it's super unnecessary.

If you have like, the whole cast renamed, i just can't keep track of who's who. Yeah randomclaw and backgroundfurs tends to have boring names, but they suffice.

.

[ravenclaw-regular]

Dear ravenclaw~

Don’t be stressed. Even though that feels like what we do best sometimes. Take a bubble bath, relax, forget about those deadlines for a moment. Don’t worry about stereotypes, don’t bother wondering if your smart enough to be here. You are. Period. Just be yourself, that’s the thing, ravenclaw represents your mind, but also your heart. The way you think matters just as how as what you think about. Love your passions, be eccentric. Never apologize for being yourself.

Sincerely, someone who understands.

[sketchyclaws]

Hi! I was looking to get into Rp but... I really have no idea where to start. Do you have any tips? Or explanations on etiquette?

Hey friend! Thanks so much for the ask! :) I've been roleplaying since I was nine years old, so while I am by no means an expert or anything, I've been doing it long enough that I'm happy to give you some tips as they come to mind. <3 First: if you are unsure where to start, my best advice would be to think about what you're interested in! Video games, book series, even tabletop games (like Dungeons&Dragons) are great places to start. Since you are following my blog, I'm assuming you're into warrior cats, but you can search up on Google for a roleplay for just about anything nowadays it seems, and there are plenty of places that can suit your lifestyle. Forum roleplays, for example, offer you more time in your day to day to respond, usually, and don't require you to be actively online for the duration of the roleplay, and may take place over many days or even weeks. However, they personally don't feel as "social" for me. Chat-based roleplays, such as the ones found on Discord, offer a faster way to interact and talk with others, and feel much more social - but they are also usually in real-time, so take a bit more time to commit to if you want to finish an entire thread (imo). Not all chat-based servers are like that, but many of the ones I've been a part of have been! As for etiquette, there are a couple tips that come to mind that I'm happy to share! 1) Communication is key! If you aren't able to finish a roleplay, or even if you need to step away for some time, let your friends and roleplay partners know! It's never fun waiting around for someone to respond, either in real-time or in a forum thread, only for them to "drop" the roleplay entirely, or take weeks to respond. Nobody should be upset with you for being honest, and if you have things come up in your life, people are usually super understanding and supportive! 2) Let everyone get to be the hero. What I mean is, everyone wants their character to have a story and do cool things - that's what makes roleplaying fun! So, how would you feel if only one person's OC in your Dungeons & Dragons party ever got to find the cool items, be the best fighter, take down the big bad boss, ect? It's great to plan for your OC to do cool things, and be a part of a bigger story - but it's also nice to make space for others to do those things, too! Maybe in one session your warrior takes down a giant troll-demon-boss-guy, and in another your friend gets to unlock some secret encounter. Balance it out! :) 3) God-mode. This is a big one that even I struggled with when I started as a kid. Were you ever playing outside with a group of kids, and one of them, no matter what you did, always either "dodged" the attack, or had some "magical power" that made it impossible to be hurt or gave them other abilities? I know I did. Basically, don't be that kid. Don't speak for someone else's OC, don't take control of the entire situation, and don't make your OC invincible. Everyone has weaknesses and flaws, it's what makes your characters fun and interesting to play! It's how they grow! For example, if you have two cats fighting, it is fair and realistic that in that fight, someone is going to land a blow to your OC. It would be "God-moding" if you were to say, "RandomClaw actually wasn't hit by that, and avoided the attack completely. RandomClaw then grabs WhatshisFace and slams him into the ground, killing him instantly." This gives absolutely no give-and-take, back-and-forth, it doesn't give the other character a chance to react or have feelings or anything, and in the end it probably isn't any fun at all for the other person. Which leads me to my next tip... 4) You can't kill or harm another character without speaking to their player first. This is pretty self-explanatory, but it has been a rule in every group I've been in, so I feel like it's necessary to have. 100% you can hurt someone else's character, but you must always discuss that with the person first, and often times it's a lot of fun coming up with ideas and stories for how, say, RandomClaw got that scar on his

face. 5) Start simple. This is the last one that comes to mind for me, and it's helped me a lot - I even have to remind myself of this one today! If you start a character off with a very large, very elaborate backstory, it is often difficult to keep track of and doesn't always allow for a lot of growth and development later on down the line. It may even make the character overwhelming for you to play if you have to constantly try to remember that their second-uncle-twice-removed-is-actually-a-serial-killer. It might be fun to make an OC with a super tragic backstory, a past full of royal families and magic and death, but it can also make that character hard to relate to for some, and difficult to play without being over the top. It's fun to grow with your character, and to allow the current events of the story to develop them alongside others -- and you can always add details later on! Find that balance between giving your character a unique story of their own, and writing a novel about them before their story with you has even begun. Most of my tips are pretty generic and though they may seem like common sense to someone who has been doing this forever, I know these were things I struggled with when I was new. It may seem like a lot to take in at first, but honestly, roleplaying is so much fun. You develop your literary skills, you get to meet new friends with common interests, and you get to participate in a grand story together! Which is essentially the most important thing I can say: everyone wants to be a part of a story, and you're all creating it together. Have fun with it, let other people's characters shine in ways your's don't. Let your characters be flawed and clumsy and wrong, sometimes. Let them make mistakes, and let them grow from them too! I hope these tips and tricks helped you, and if you have any questions, feel free to DM me again! :3