> min [he/they]

sentences.

“hey. are you okay?”

“what’s up, kiddo?”

“what are you doing?”

“hey, uh, things got tough back there… wanna go get some dessert or somethin’?”

“can you… nevermind, it’s probably stupid.”

“what do you think about being… my kid. like, officially.”

“it’s nice that you care so much.”

“you keep glancing at me. what’s your deal?”

“i’m curious, what kinda things are you into nowadays?”

“well, when i was a kid…”

“where’s your parents?”

“come here. we have to talk.”

“you’re a huge nerd, you know that?”

“hey, pack your stuff. we’ve gotta go.”

“why do we have to be at [place]?”

“i’ve got adoption papers lined up. your approval is all that’s left.”

“how long ‘till we go home?”

“hey, maybe after all this… i could visit your place sometimes?”

“look! a dog!”

“did you just call me your… [parent/mother/father]?”

“i’m worried i won’t be able to keep you safe.”

“it’s not your job to protect me. i can take care of myself.”

“you look like you need a hug.”

“pff. what are you, my [dad/mom/parent]?”

“i know what you’re trying to do. it’s not gonna work on me.”

actions.

[ tousle ] sender ruffles receiver’s hair.

[ guide ] sender gently grabs receiver’s hand, making sure they won’t get separated.

[ plead ] sender looks at receiver with puppy-dog eyes.

[ drive ] sender motions to a vehicle, which has a few bags of supplies on it, sender evidently prepared to go somewhere with receiver.

[ nudge ] sender tries to discreetly jab receiver with their elbow.

[ lift ] sender hooks their arms under receiver’s arms and lifts them up.

[ raise ] sender motions for receiver to climb on their outstretched hands so sender can boost receiver up.

[ guard ] sender moves in front of receiver, putting receiver between sender and a possible threat.

[ show ] sender motions to receiver for receiver to come over and see (something that sender finds interesting).

[ wipe ] sender wipes off a smudge on receiver’s face.

[ notice ] sender notices receiver looking at something, and makes an expression of curiosity towards receiver.

[ embrace ] sender hugs receiver tightly.

[ huddle ] sender inches closer to receiver, pressing against receiver’s side.

[ hiccup ] sender notices receiver with watery eyes, and gently sets a hand on receiver’s shoulder.

[ got you ] sender embraces receiver, nestling receiver against their chest with sender’s back to a threat so they protect receiver.

[ sleepy ] sender slumps against receiver a bit, evidently tired.

How do you worldbuild for your TSP blog? Remember that these are all just guidelines NOT rules. You can change anything, twist things around, delete or add stuff to your heart's content!

Important Note: You do not have to know all of these things immediately. Take your time discovering who your muse is and the world around them, answers might come to you hours, days, weeks or months after you started roleplaying!

Let's start with the basics. There's

The Protagonist (usually but not always Stanley)

The Narrator

The Story (add/change it as you wish, more endings, less endings, make it spooky, silly, romantic, weird)

The Office (feel free to add, delete or change as many rooms as you like)

Who is your protagonist? If it's not Stanley, did they replace him or has Stanley ever existed to begin with? How did they end up here? How much do they know?

Who is your Narrator? Why do they narrate? Do they have a choice? Did they write the Parable? Are they the only Narrator? What is their relationship to the Protagonist?

What is your Story like? Is it the same Story as the Game? Is it a Game, a Story, a TV Show, a dream, a pocket reality? Does it have more or less endings than the original? Is it about Stanley? Is there a Story at all or did the Narrator stop telling it?

What is your Office like? Is it a normal Office? Does it restart people who have died? Does it wipe memories from its inhabitants? Does it have a Line™? Is it sentient? Does it open doors on its own or does the Narrator control everything? Is it like a video game or like a haunted house? Does the exit work? Can people leave whenever they want?

If you want, you can also go into more details such as

Do you have a second Narrator (female or otherwise)?

Is there someone controlling the Parable and the Narrator(s)?

If it's a game, are there developers? Players? An audience?

What happened to Employee 432?

What happened to the Protagonist's coworkers?

What is the driving force behind the Parable, if there is one at all? Does it demand to be told?

Does your world crossover with any other fandoms or ocs?

Don't control other people's characters without permission. If your partner reveals things that only you, as the writer should know, don't make your character magically know them unless your partner said it was alright. .

Your character might have powers that interfere with others directly, or you might interact with characters who are supernatural or powerful. You should discuss things with your partner before you harm, kill or alter their muse - however keep in mind that if you don't want powerful muses to affect yours, then you should reconsider interacting with them. It's also not okay to demand someone else change their muse for your sake if you know beforehand that they're powerful or evil. .

Please read everyone's rules before you interact. Some people don't like roleplaying with non mutuals (terminology below), others are selective, etc. It's common courtesy to check first. .

Tag your triggers or state on your blogs that you don't tag them so others can decide whether or not to follow. However, it's polite to tag flashing images, irl blood/gore, nsfw posts, insects and body horror. . DON'T censor the word! It does not help and only fucks up people's blacklists. Writing tr*gger or tri//gg//er or other variants will show your posts to everyone anyway, so please write the entire word NORMALLY for the blacklist. .

Consider sending an ask before you reblog an ask meme from someone. Some people prefer you reblog memes from the source (the blog who posted it) instead of from them. .

Mun =/= Muse. Don't get angry at people for what their characters write. If you feel uncomfortable with how a character is treating yours, you can change your interaction or bring it up, but don't take it as a sign that your partner secretly hates you and is trying to hurt you through their writing. .

If you can, cut your posts to reduce dashboard spam. This only works on desktop, you can use XKit or XKit Rewritten .

Don't start drama. Don't vague people, send hateful or impolite anons, don't pass around call outs or feel like you have to make a statement or pick sides if you see arguing on your dash. Roleplaying is not activism. If someone is trying to get you to turn on a partner or side with them, it's better to just step away. .

Don't pester people for replies. You can send a follow up message asking if someone's still interested in continuing a reply, but if you harass someone to answer you by repeatedly spamming them with questions or making them feel guilty for not replying immediately, they will likely not want to write with you anymore. RPing is a hobby, not a job, and your partners probably have lives outside of writing.

Terminology:

OOC - out of character

IC - in character

Mun - the writer

Muse - the characters

Starters - a drabble or a sentence that invites interaction

Ask memes / inbox memes - prompts you can send people via asks

Magic Anons (also spelled m!a or magic!anons) - Anonymous asks that put a "curse" on your character (i.e: muse turns into a cat for 3 days) You can ignore it if you don't want to do it

Mutuals - people you follow who follow you back

Selective - Mun will only write with people they select

Semi Selective - same as above but more lax

Private - Mun writes with only very specific people

Reblog karma - you are expected to send an ask if you reblog an ask meme

Passwords - some people ask you to send a specific word or phrase into their inbox to prove you read their rules

OP (ie this muse is too OP) - over powered

Fade to black - suggestive roleplay that doesn't involve any sex scenes and instead skips to the next scene

Exclusive shipping - you only ship this character with another character and don't allow any other ships for that muse

Dropping threads - ending a thread without continuing it

Soft block - when you block someone and then unblock them, which unfollows them from your blog

There's a post going around about how text-based, freeform roleplay is dead, and I was typing up a huge response to this, with an accompanying guide on how to find roleplayer in 2024, when I realized it might have a bigger reach if I made it its own post. So here's that guide.

I hesitate to say that there isn't a problem with the new format of social media making roleplay more difficult to find, but in the desire to make that point, the OP of the original post has left people with the idea that there's no way for them to get into freeform text roleplay in 2024. Which just isn't true! Here, look at all the ways.

Forums

The link to RPG-Directory to find roleplaying forums is a good start. Once you've found a forum RPG, even if you don't join, there's usually an 'advertising' section on that forum where other forum RPGs post their ads - this may help you to find forums that don't advertise on RPG-D.

Another really good forum to find roleplay on is Barbermonger. Barbermonger is focused on connecting people for one-on-one roleplays.

This last one's going to be weird, but it turns out that there are still people seeking roleplay on the Gaia Online forums after all these years. I think this is delightfully retro and then crowd there seems a little older than average. No pre-existing knowledge of Gaia required.

Tumblr

You can also find forum roleplay groups (as well as tumblr and Discord groups) right here on Tumblr. Usually, the thing to do is to use the search function - search for "[genre] rp" or "[fandom] rp" and sort by "latest." (If you sort by Top, you are likely to find dead RPs.) For example, here's fantasy rp, historical rp, and marvel rp. You can also try jcink rp, as most roleplay forums are hosted on Jcink these days, or discord rp, depending on your favored platform.

There are also tumblr blogs specifically dedicated to advertising roleplays. I'm not super familiar with these nowadays, but just in the process of searching those tags above, I found these:

Jcink Tinder

RPG Adverts

RPings

There are more, I just don't know them off the top of my head.

Reddit

Listen, don't run away, I swear it's good now - I swear Reddit is good now -

Reddit is a good place to find Discord roleplays. It's a little heavier on smut-only roleplays than other platforms mentioned here, but it's not impossible to find sexless, plot-based roleplay here either. Most ads are for one on one RP, but you can find groups mixed in here too. The big subreddits for text-based freeform RP seem to be:

r/DiscordRP

r/RoleplayPartnerSearch

r/roleplaying

r/Roleplay

Some of these have weird rules about what you can put in your ad, and I don't remember which ones, so read carefully and don't get discouraged if your ad is initially removed.

Discord

In 2024, Discord is by far the biggest and most popular platform for roleplay, and it has its own native roleplay advertising hubs. Here are a bunch:

roleplay partner hub

Rockin Roleplay

The Roleplay Garden

roleplay help

the roleplay connection

RP Central

Roleplay Central

Roleplay Hub

Barbermonger also has a Discord server

Roleplay Meets: Reborn

RP Hub

The Scribes Guild

DM Rp Village

cherry blossom! roleplay hub

DM-RP

Roleplay Round Table (21+)

The Historical Syndicate (specifically for historical roleplay)

The Roleplayer's Directory

If you can't find the Discord roleplay you want on here, you can also try Discord hub websites, like Disboard. These work similar to tumblr tags - search for [genre] rp or [fandom] rp.

Other

The original post specifically mentions that 'all the old "omegle but for role play" type websites died out ages ago'. This is mostly true, but not quite! There's still Rolechat. It's a little janky, but what it needs more than anything is a bigger user base. Their Discord server is also a good place to find one on one discord roleplay. It is, of course, free, but if you want to support its development, they have a patreon.

It's not cringe anymore (it SHOULDN'T be cringe anymore), just do it. You're doing something you enjoy, who cares what anybody else says! So spread the words my fellow internet brethren.