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This is not a guide on how to roleplay! This is a guide to the usual structure and assumptions in a dreamwidth roleplay community. If that's what you're looking for, you're in the right place!
Roleplay Account
In general, you have a dreamwidth account that is exclusively for your character. If you (want to) play the character in several RP communities, then you'll most likely use the same account for all of those communities. However, you won't be using your normal personal journal account.
The non-community posts on your character's journal and your character's bio will generally include specific information about the character you're playing. If you're in multiple RPs, you might want to have one for each community, to keep track of the differences.
Character Icons
The icons on your character's account are usually of your character - either cropped screenshots, for canon characters of visual media, or (fan)art, or references like what are known as "face characters" - named such because traditionally, it's when you find an actor or celebrity or model who is the "face" for your character. Since this is an anthro-furry RP, you might wind up using photos of an animal instead of a person.
Each icon will generally have its on particular expression or attitude, and the choice of icon that you attach to your IC post or comment is supposed to represent the mood or attitude of your character at the time.
e.g. you're playing an OC named Tom and you're making a post about how he's just found an adorable stray kitten and brought it home. You have an icon of Tom looking excited, which fits how he feels about this kitten perfectly, so you choose that icon when posting it. Your friend Jen tell you that you can't keep it, using an icon of Jen looking unamused.
There's no rules about what icons to use when, but that's the usual approach!
Lastly, the general structure of a roleplay "exchange" works like this:
Roleplay Account
In general, you have a dreamwidth account that is exclusively for your character. If you (want to) play the character in several RP communities, then you'll most likely use the same account for all of those communities. However, you won't be using your normal personal journal account.
The non-community posts on your character's journal and your character's bio will generally include specific information about the character you're playing. If you're in multiple RPs, you might want to have one for each community, to keep track of the differences.
Character Icons
The icons on your character's account are usually of your character - either cropped screenshots, for canon characters of visual media, or (fan)art, or references like what are known as "face characters" - named such because traditionally, it's when you find an actor or celebrity or model who is the "face" for your character. Since this is an anthro-furry RP, you might wind up using photos of an animal instead of a person.
Each icon will generally have its on particular expression or attitude, and the choice of icon that you attach to your IC post or comment is supposed to represent the mood or attitude of your character at the time.
e.g. you're playing an OC named Tom and you're making a post about how he's just found an adorable stray kitten and brought it home. You have an icon of Tom looking excited, which fits how he feels about this kitten perfectly, so you choose that icon when posting it. Your friend Jen tell you that you can't keep it, using an icon of Jen looking unamused.
There's no rules about what icons to use when, but that's the usual approach!
Lastly, the general structure of a roleplay "exchange" works like this:
- Someone writes a post to the roleplay community, setting up the scene.
- People comment in reply to the post to start a roleplay thread from the initial scene
- Each reply thread happens independently of the others; you can't reference one thread from another unless everyone involved in both threads agrees to merge them.
- A single comment thread is usually a back and forth between the original poster and the thread parent commenter. A third person can join - but check OOC with the people already in the thread before interrupting.
