#misc guides

No two situations are exactly alike, but I’ve done my best to make my advice universal. If you'd like specific advice, shoot me a message; I can look privately at your roleplay and the other roleplay and explain the best way for you to go about dealing with the issue without causing drama. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee that all of this advice will work for you…

Assess the damage. Read/look over everything on their blog and try to answer the questions: “to what extent did they copy me? Did they even copy me at all?” Keep yourself open to the possibility that they may have simply come up with the same idea as you independently - it happens.

Use your judgement. Is it worth the risk of starting drama? Sometimes the roleplay is just different enough that it won’t affect yours anyways. For example, I recently talked to another roleplay admin whose ideas were copied by another roleplay, but the other roleplay had changed the plot enough that it was an entirely different genre (as different as a love rpg would be from a horror rpg), so the admin decided to do nothing about it. If you’re not going to be attracting the same crowd anyway, why bother? 

Make sure you’re not angry. If you’ve decided they have outright stolen your idea and you are fuming in fury, now would not be the time to do anything about it. Take as long as you need - even up to a day or two - to make sure you’re not going to let your emotions get in the way. If the admins of the other game think you’re angry and accusative, they’re not going to be compliant and agreeable; they’re gonna get angry and accuse you right back!

Send them a polite message. When you’ve completely calmed down, take the time to word out a kind, polite message to the administrator(s) of the other roleplay. Even if you’re sure they’ve copied you directly, ask them if they were aware that your roleplay was so similar. Point out any specific instances of copying that you’ve noticed, and ask them if they’d be willing to talk with you about reaching a compromise so that your roleplays aren’t the same. Make sure you tell them that part of the reason is that you’re afraid that in having such similar plots you could both be lowering the amount of roleplayers you both receive (people like unique roleplays), so changing things would benefit them as well. Reread it, edit it several times to make sure it sounds polite enough, or maybe even get someone like me or someone else you trust to look over it to make sure it doesn't sound too angry. Then, send it and cross your fingers (also, take a screenshot of the message before sending it, in case you need it later).

If they get angry and start accusing you or doing the online equivalent of yelling at you, stay calm. Take screenshots of the messages you send and receive. Don’t reply immediately, or don’t even reply at all, if you can help it. Sometimes replying will only make it worse. If you can possibly avoid drama, do it. (Refer to #2)

Things that count as copying/stealing a plot:

A plot that is word-for-word the same as yours.

A plot that is almost word-for-word the same as yours, but with little things changed.

A plot that says almost exactly the same thing as yours, in the same order, but has been completely reworded.

A plot that uses the same proper nouns as yours (dead giveaway). For example, if the name of the locations mentioned are exactly the same as yours, or if there is a central character who has the same name as the character in yours, or a specific name of something like a disease or a company that you 100% made up with your own brain.

Things that don’t necessarily mean they have copied your plot:

The same general idea, e.g. two roleplays focusing on vampires in a small town.

The same fandom, even an obscure one like one based off of a book that is not extremely popular. Someone else could have easily read that book or seen that show and decided to convert it into roleplay form at the same time as you did. In fact, this happened to me only last month!

The same setting. As long as it’s a real place, it’s fair game, and anyone might have thought to use that place as the setting for their roleplay. If it’s a place you made up in your own head, however, that’s a different story.

TAKE HEED! If you listen to only one thing from this guide, hear this:

Do not, and I mean do NOT go around telling the whole roleplay community that you’ve been copied, except as a last resort. People will simply start flooding the other roleplay, and maybe even YOUR roleplay, with hate, and you’ll get nothing but bad publicity.

I totally understand wanting to get the word out if the other admin starts freaking out and accusing YOU of stealing or something else that’s obviously not true. If that is the case, and the other admin has been nothing but horrible to you, they’ve handled it badly and they truly don’t deserve to run a roleplay. In that case, even though it may cause some drama, I believe the community really needs to know to avoid them. Go ahead and write up a post. But don’t do it without:

First asking someone else, like me or someone you trust, to make a second judgement on whether writing a post like this is the right thing to do. Remember step #2 up there? Don't cause drama if you don't have to!

Making sure that you aren’t angry when you write it (as I said earlier, give yourself some time to cool down so you don’t sound like an idiot).

Making it clear in the post that you don’t want any hate messages sent to their roleplay.

Making it clear in the post that you are only posting about it because you don’t want people to get caught up in the drama, and you hope people will avoid them.

Using concrete evidence through the form of the screenshots I told you to take. Yes, if you want to link to some of their posts, that’s fine, but have screenshots of everything as back up in case they delete things. Take screenshots of every answer you get back from them as soon as they start to get hostile. People will begin to accuse YOU if you have no evidence.

BEING CAREFUL. Proofread it a million times. Submit it to someone like me who will check it over and make sure it doesn’t sound too condemning. If you do things in the wrong way, you’ll ruin things for your own roleplay as well, and start a whole lot of drama that this community never has and never will need. asdgfhgjkl be careful, please.

I hope this helped, but once again, I really encourage you to come talk to me if this happens to you so that we can discuss a solution privately. I would love nothing more than to help you resolve the issue with as little drama as possible, so that you don't even need to write up one of those posts. If nothing else, I can at least help you to make sure the wordings of your messages or posts are as polite as possible, and maybe that will help. Anything I can do to help you eliminate the drama, I want to do. This community needs no more of that.

1. Consider the personalities of both characters carefully. You'll want to truly understand both characters in order to foresee the directions the relationship may take. Your initial hypothesis may be incorrect; however, you will have considered each direction carefully and decided which are the most plausible. There are an infinite number of ways the two characters' personalities might work with each other, but here are just two paths the relationship could follow:

Assume your character is a very strong, opinionated individual who sticks by his beliefs, right or wrong. Your character holds a strong opinion on an issue dear to him, and the angry character holds the opposite opinion. If a heated argument over this particular issue is to arise, and both characters are equally as steadfast on their position, your character is likely to develop a strong hatred for the other character.

Now your character is a compassionate, kindhearted individual who tries her hardest to find the good in everyone. The angry character might be misunderstood, possibly with a dark past, and your character makes it her mission to uncover the secrets and get through the anger. In this way, your character would be likely to develop a love for the angry character.

2. Basically, the rest of the relationship is all up to the way your character reacts to the angry character. Now that you've considered both characters carefully, you'll be able to better understand the anger of the angry character, and better write each reaction of your own character in your paras. What if the angry character yells at your character for something he's done? Does your character get angry and yell back, or try to calm him down? Does your character try reasoning with him, or blame someone else? What your own character does will define the direction the relationship takes.

One of the first characters I ever played had a relationship with a somewhat angry character. In fact, here is the very moment in which my roleplay partner and I first knew that they were going to fall in love. Adrian is beyond angry, angry at something he believes another person has done to him, and Adryn's reaction is to simply wait as he yells his frustration out. Then, she says four quiet words, and in the very next paragraph you can see the calming effect those words have on Adrian. This is one way that a character's reaction to anger can turn into a more powerful relationship.

Two of my friends roleplayed together and their characters are the perfect examples of a great and interesting relationship built on hatred. Victoria is the type of character who hates the world, and has a bone to pick with nearly everyone. Billie has an extremely short fuse, and Victoria's negative attitude really sets Billie off. Here, Billie has just returned from a weekend trip to Chicago alone with her History teacher, and Victoria begins taunting her about it. Billie reacts in extreme anger, and here it gets to a point where they are using their superpowers to nearly tear each other apart.

3. There will be some characters who will simply be completely closed off and will act like they don't want to talk to anyone. This can be frustrating, as it gives you little to no material to work with. My only advice in a situation like this is that if you really want a relationship with that character, keep at it. Don't give up. Try to find something your characters have in common with one another, or something they have to argue about; both of these things will give you fresh material to write about!

4. Make friends with the angry character's roleplayer. Talk to that person and come up with headcanons about your characters. Plot storylines! Discuss the direction you want your characters' relationship to take! This is the best way to ensure that you will have lots of ideas to work with, and you won't have a reason to give up.

5. Don't be afraid to give up if absolutely nothing has worked. It is true that some of the best and most interesting relationships can come from polar opposites, but if the relationship is going nowhere, there are other characters to roleplay with. Promise to try the relationship again later, and then forget about it for now. Maybe later on, when you have a fresh perspective and both characters have developed more as individuals, the relationship will fall into place much more easily (who knows, they might find more things they have in common during this time!).