Click here to follow a January 2005 thread regarding RP styles. Please keep in mind that in the end this is wrestling. The AWA will not hire murderers, for example.

Click here to read Adam C's commentary on e-wrestling etiquette, which applies to the AWA as well.

Rping Guide

Rule 1: Be original.
This is, and by far, the most important point you must acheive. Too many e-wrestlers look and think alike those days. There are, in my opinion, way too much Steve Austin and Undertaker look-alikes. I have nothing wrong with that, as characters can share some points with real wrestlers, but the key to be original is to find something that will make your character UNIQUE. He must have something in his way of reacting, in his gimmick, that will set him apart from the pack. This applies not only in the character, but in the way he talks, acts, dresses, etc... Try to find some cool quotes that only your guy will say. No matter if your wrestler is inspired from a real one or if he's purely created, make sure he does have that touch of originality, something that only him will have, that will make him special.

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Rule 2: Be honest.
Too many people want their guys to be perfect, almost like they were invincible demigods. The problem is those people never want to admit they can have flaws. The truth is, nobody's perfect, even though everybody would want to be. This is one way to be original and unique, as well. You must look at your characters' personalities from both sides. Of course, a wrestler's weakness can be used against him, but the simple fact you do admit your weaknesses also gives you an extra push with the fed head (hehe that's me), as that's the essence of roleplaying. Don't fear to admit your character's flaws, because it will make him only more interesting and it will also highlight his strengths.

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A few other tips.

• Put important words in bold, italic, or color (don't abuse the color, though)
• Don't put the names of who you're talking to in big letters.
• Don't use huge characters (H1) or capital letters. Actually, you can use (H1) for an end quote, but please don't put the whole text in that format. Huge and capital letters should be used to indicate your character screams (example: "you're my favorite wrestler. NOT!!!", here you notice the "NOT!!!" was the character screaming.
• Hey, "TT" tags aren't too good looking for interviews.
• Imagine how would your wrestler actually talk, and write it like you see it.
• Try to put some emotion in there, exclamation points and the like. A bad example would be: "Hey. You're one big piece of trash. I'll kick your ass." That sounded like the guy actually read the sentence on a piece of paper - not very life-like.
• Try to be innovative, and start trends. I know that's a lot of stuff and regulations, but many of those things come naturally, while others just help make your RPs better.

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What is a roleplay?
First of all, let us discuss what a roleplay is. A roleplay is NOT just an interview or a flash. In a roleplay, you take on a ROLE! Just like in a play. Every flash or interview is not a roleplay. If you aren't playing a role that stays consistent throughout that wrestler's career, then you are not roleplaying. You are flashing or you are just interviewing. They aren't the same. True, a wrestler can change their "gimmick." But even then, he must stay consistent within whatever new role he is playing to be considered a true roleplay.For example, a wrestler who is one time outspoken and another time very withdrawn is not truly a proper roleplay -- unless inconsistency is part of his role.

For example, if you were to go to the Fredricksburg Civil War battle site, you would see people hired by the park who are playing roles as Civil War soldiers. You can sit down with them and talk to them and they will respond to you just as a real CW soldier would if they were back in the 1860s. Their roles include a fake name, a fakeplace of residence, etc. They play it to the hilt. And they stay very consistent within their roles. They don't say they came from Indiana and then the next sentence say they were born in Alabama.

This is why many people are not truly roleplaying. They don't have any idea of who there characters are, or else they have not fully developed them in their minds. As a result, too often the so-called roleplays come out contradictory or in just one big mishmosh of who knows what and you never really get a good idea of just who these characters are.

I personally roleplay people I have known in the past. It's fun for me to respond to people and situations according to how I believe they would respond in the given predicaments they find themselves in. Would they run, or would they fight? Would they laugh, would they cry, would they .. swear?

I have one wrestler modeled after someone who did a lot of swearing. If I were to be true to how this person acted, I have to place profanity in their roleplays (although it doesn't do anything for your rp itself). It is part of their personna. Part of their character. Could I get around it? Not if I wanted to capture the essence of that person.

For example, if you were to roleplay Reggie Lewis, could you roleplay him in a New York Knicks uinform, and comment how great Starks is? If you did, you wouldn't be capturing the essence of the man. It would be like roleplaying Madonna as the girl-next-door.

If I were roleplaying me, I would never swear or use profanity. But if I am roleplaying a particular person who used profanity a lot, it wouldn't be true to the role being played if there wasn't profanity somehow indicated, even if it's "sh*t" or something like that. It would be like roleplaying Scott Hall without his toothpick. Or Steve Austin without him talking about kicking someone's ass.

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Great tips on roleplaying.
Okay... Here are some tips on how to be a successful roleplayer. These are general, if you have any more specific questions, mail me with them and I'll try to answer them for you.

1. SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION. Make sure you spell all of the words you use right. Go back and double check if needed, but just try to catch the spelling errors and typos as you write. Make sure you leave spaces between words, so DON'T write like these examples.

Bad Examples.

1. "youre dead!ill bete you in the ring!big dammy!"
2. "Your dead, I'll beat you in the ring on monday"

In (1), the main problem was it was written by someone who is obviously illiterate. No capital letters, no spaces, it was pathetic. That person would NEVER win a match, unless they were against someone that died and was unable to roleplay.

In (2), it was good except for two things. They spelled "Your" wrong, it should've been "You're" in that use of it. And at the end, there was no period. It's still possible to win like that... But you better have some good stuff in there if you spell your words wrong frequently.

2. DON'T MAKE YOUR WRESTLER SOUND LIKE A KID. If your wrestler sounds like a 13 year old, he'll have as much of a chance of winning as a 13 year old. Watch the WWE sometime, the wrestlers don't swear and if they do, it's edited out. Also, how many 25 year old wrestlers say "pussy" or "dick?" Not too many.

Bad Examples.

1. "Hey shitface pussy breath!"

That just sounded stupid. It, quite frankly, sucked. Grown ups don't talk like that, so your wrestlers shouldn't either. If it was up to me, I'd probably kick someone like that out of the fed for being a moron.

3. DON'T TALK LIKE A SMART. If you watch the WWE, have you EVER heard them say "jobber" or "JTTS?" In all my years, I have never heard that come from a wrestler, announcer, or commentators mouth.

Bad Examples.

1. "I'm going to kick your ass, you jobber!"

He insulted someone by calling them a "jobber," a word that wrestlers shouldn't know and have no business saying. I don't do that, some others do, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's not as important as that spelling thing or sounding like a kid thing, but it could make your roleplays sound better.

4. WRITE IN PARAGRAPHS. Don't jumble everything together in one big 5K paragraph. It's a little bit harder to read and doesn't look very good. Write in mulitple paragraphs, it will definately help you out.

Bad Examples.

1. Bad Roleplayer Man: Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah.

Everything was jumbled together and it was all crammed. It's easier to read if you write in paragraphs and it looks much better.

5. DON'T PUSH THE LENGTH. Don't feel like you need to write an 11K roleplay every time. It will get boring for you and the reader and it will be obvious that you were just trying to get it to be really long. Just make your roleplays interesting and make sure they have quality, that's more important. But don't write 1K flashes either, because those are about 3 sentences and you can't get anything good done in three sentences. The average flash is about 3-5K with good quality. Don't make 11K or 1K flashes that are boring or pointless, it's just a waste of time. If you write the flash and it ends up to be 11K in the end, then it's okay because you weren't just trying to make it really long.

6. BE DESCRIPTIVE. Describe what your wrestler is wearing, how he is acting, what he is doing. Be very descriptive so the reader can picture it in their head.

Good Examples.

1. ["Idolizer" Trace Michaels sits back on a black chair, reclining. He's wearing all green and red today. Some of the clothes he's featuring are a green t-shirt that says "Moo Krew" on it, green sweat pants with a red bandanna tied loosely around the left knee, and a red bandanna on his head, covering his long blonde hair. He looks towards the camera, stares at it for a second, then begins speaking.]

It told what he was wearing, where he was, and what he was looking at. So the reader knows that he's sitting in a chair and can picture it in their head. You don't have to be THAT descriptive, but at least give the reader an idea of what's going on.

7. DON'T BEG TO WIN. This has nothing to do with roleplaing, but... Don't e-mail the President of the Fed begging to win a match because it would really help you out and you need a win. It just gets the President mad and they will, most likely, job you in that match just because you asked to win. Instead of spending your time begging, write a good roleplay, you'll be more likely to win that way.

Bad Examples.

1. Please let me win, it could really help my wrestler out and give him the push I need.

That's just obvious that your begging and it means the same as "Please let me win! I don't want to lose!" It's just pointless and will get you absolutely nowhere.

8. DON'T USE ENDLESS PERIODS

Don't use a ton of ..........ing just to make your RP longer.

Bad Examples.

1. I....................am.....................coming.........................for...............you.

Five words that took up two lines and looked really stupid. I always use 3 periods when indicating a pause.

Swearing in roleplays.
Did you ever notice how many guys today use the word, "f*ck"? It's just a common word now. They don't bother to put in a [BLEEP], they don't make any big deal at all. One question... how do we know when your character is really mad? Swearing has become too common in roleplays, and has lost its effectiveness when wrestlers let themselves "slip" in anger.

Don't get me wrong, words like ass, bitch, and bastard are fine. No bleeps, nothing. But when you step into the range of the f*cks and shits and sexual references, try to use some control. Ask yourself,"If this were a real federation, would my promoter FIRE me over this interview?" Yes, I believe so. The fact of the matter is, you do NOT need swearing in roleplays to get heat. You could put an assorted [BLEEP] in an interview which is much much more effective than the actual word. At least it keeps the opponent guessing as to what you called them. :)

Just the plain fact is, a page of swearing is not a good roleplay. Not even a fairly good roleplay. Just control the mouth. It isn't appreciated.

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My Personal Footnotes.
What you just read was a very helpful guide to roleplaying effectively. Now, here are a few extra goodies that we added to teach you how we evaluate your roleplays. Your roleplays will be scored along the following categories.

Length: How long was your roleplay? That's pretty much it. One thing you should be aware of when your roleplaying, is not to make sure you don't push the length just for the sake of making it longer. If you do this, the quality of your rp will diminish, resulting in an overall lower score; since length is only a mere portion of your score.

Grammar: This is a category that a lot of people debate over whether or not it is relevant. Well, it is. Grammar is extremely important in the developement of a perfect roleplay. Grammar consists of spelling, punctuation, vocabulary (however along the lines of your character's gimmick. If he's dumb as a brick and starts using SAT quality words, then it will hurt you in character points). Another factor is looks. How does your roleplay look?

Originality/Scene: These two categories are different, however they do somewhat intertwine. With originality you have to ask yourself, "Do I use original lines, stuff that I have not seen on television"? With scene, it's pretty simple. How did I like your scene? It's almost like an rp score, inside an rp score.

Heat: Will your rp draw heat, or reactions? Will it anger your opponent? Or in the case of extreme baby faces, will it appeal to the fans? These are the questions I ask myself when scoring heat.

Character: Does your wrestler stay in character throughout your rp? Does your wrestler sound like a wrestler? Somethings that might hurt you in this category would be to use excessive cursing, or if you were to sound like a smart fan. Another thing that would hinder your score in this category would be to drift out of character. If you have an Undertaker-esque gimmick, then you go out and say, "you have no penis", that would definately hurt you. In fact, using stupid phrases like "you have no penis" in general will hurt you too. You have to make sure that your character actually sounds like a wrestler.

Entertainment: This category definately carries more weight on your overall score than the aforementioned categories. It is basically a category that consists of a mixture of all the categories I mentioned before. Basically I ask myself, Did I like your rp? Was it comical, or was it scary? Did it draw me in? It's as simple as that.