Special thanks to Venn for making the original guide. :D

Note from Venn: These are my unofficial noob RP characters.

Power Play

This is known as taking over your RP partners character.

Who would be the character at fault in the example below?

Snowy: *tries to claw sparky's neck.*

Sparky: *dodges the attack, clamps his jaws down on Snowy's neck, and hurls her towards a tree, breaking her back.*

If you answered Sparky, you are correct! Sparky was the one that power played. Why? Well... Sparky played out Snowy accepting the attack. Snowy did not get the chance to respond to being grabbed.

A better way to write Sparky's move would be like this:

Sparky: *dodges the attack, attempts to grab snowy by her neck and hurl her at a tree, hoping to injure her back*

With that, at least Snowy has the chance to dodge the attack. Of course, she doesn't have to dodge.

Snowy could then answer with one of the following options.

Snowy: *feels sparky grab her neck and hurl her towards a tree. Snowy hits the tree and a shooting pain is sent down her back.*

Snowy: *Feels sparky grab her neck, but bends down so she can't be thrown. Stumbles instead.*

Snowy: *Dodges his bite and attempts to take him out by his legs*

I strongly recommend only using 1-2 dodges per battle, otherwise, you are making him/her seem too overpowered.

Mary/Garys

These are the "best at everything" kind of people. Often the "smartest, fastest, most beautiful/handsome". Basically, they're drop-dead gorgeous, know over 9000 languages (even those that don't exist), and... all that sugar, spice, everything nice. In all essence... they're perfect. They might also be the ones that have the drastic past, with parents murdered in their sleep, or being abandoned because of X defective genes, etc.

Here's an example, using the name Moony:

"Moony is a great wolf. His fur is just the perfect length where he won't overheat, but won't freeze from the cold either. His pelt's pure white and hardly attracts dirt. All ladies love him. He's super fast and super strong, and beats everyone who tries to fight him. He can speak the Wolf language, Owl language, bear, snake, fish, and many more. He seems a bit prickly, but is actually very, very nice."

So basically Moony doesn't overheat ever. He's never been rolled into a pile of fox leavings. Apparently everyone loves him and wants to be his mate. He can't lose. And he's mean but he's nice. What's that supposed to mean?

In any case, make sure your character has a reasonable flaw. Don't be the guy who's only allergic to rocks.