How to Roleplay One-on-One

If some of the terms here are unfamiliar to you, please visit the terminology page.

Think of it as a shared notebook

Picture you and a friend passing a notebook back and forth. Before you write anything, you both agree on what kind of story this is, where it takes place, and who your characters will be. You will each play as one character, and each time you write in the notebook, you will be writing as that character. You choose what that character does, what they say, and what they think and feel. When you have finished writing you pass the notebook to your friend, and they do the same with their character.

As the two of you pass the notebook back and forth, you don’t simply consider yourself. A good reply will leave something for your partner to react to. It might be something your character said to theirs, or a strange noise in the hallway, or your character going quiet at a moment that would invite a response. Sharing these small openings is a big part of what makes roleplaying feel collaborative and fun.

Find a partner

To find a roleplay partner, you can browse the ads on our website or check out the ads posted on the Roleplay Central Discord server. Whether you’re responding to an existing ad or writing your own, our guide to writing a roleplay ad can help you get started!

Decide what to write

Before you begin a roleplay, you will likely have a conversation with your prospective partner about the theme and genre, the characters you will each play, worldbuilding, and the initial plot. You also may discuss availability and style preferences such as how often you will each respond, posting length, point of view, and tense. Deciding these things early can prevent confusion later on, and if anything changes you need only communicate with your partner.

One important conversation you should have is about boundaries. You should discuss triggers and limits before your story reaches them. For example, some people are okay with adult content while others want to either fade-to-black or avoid any implication of sexual behavior altogether. There are hard limits and soft limits. A hard limit should be left out of posts entirely, no exceptions, while a soft limit is something that can be allowed under certain circumstances once discussed with your partner. Triggers and limits should always be respected and they should never be treated as something to try and work around.

Choose a fandom or an original world

A fandom roleplay uses an existing fictional universe to roleplay in. It is a lot of fun for two partners who are both excited to play in a particular, pre-established setting. An original roleplay exists in a world you and your partner define yourselves. This is great for people who want to worldbuild together, or conversely, for those who want to focus on a fictional story that takes place in an agreed-upon realistic setting.

In a fandom, canon is what has been defined in the original fiction. A canon character (CC) is a character who was a part of the original story, while an original character (OC) is one created by a writer. The term OC is often used in both fandom and original roleplays. You will often see pairings such as OC x CC, CC x CC. These indicate whether one or both of the partners will be using a canonical character.

Before starting a fandom story, you may want to come to agreement on how closely you want to follow canon. You may want to pick up where the source material left off, choose a different point in the timeline, or an alternate universe (AU) where the story follows canon but differs in some distinctive way.

Share a story without taking over a character

As you begin posting with your partner, the most important rule is to respect the autonomy you each have over your characters. You control your character’s actions, thoughts, feelings and dialogue, and they control their character’s in the same way. Following this rule with your partner makes roleplaying more immersive, allowing you to step into the shoes of your character and participate in their world.

When one of the participants in a roleplay behaves as another person’s character in any of the above ways, it is called godmodding, and it is one of the most frowned-upon behaviors in the roleplay community. One form that is easy to fall into is when your character, or an event you wrote into the story, causes something to happen to your partner’s character. In these cases, you should either discuss it with your partner first or describe the action without defining the result. For example, instead of writing that the villain punches their character and knocks them out, you could write that the villain swings at them with solid aim.

Another related term is powergaming, which is when a roleplayer’s character is unbeatable, all-knowing or consequence-proof. Having a strong character is perfectly fine, but powergaming steals the show and reduces the other player’s chance to participate equally in the story.

Decide who plays side characters

An NPC (non-player character) is anyone in the story besides the player characters. A minor NPC can usually be given a line or simple reaction on your turn, but as more notable NPCs are introduced you should come to an understanding with your partner about how these will be shared amongst you. The two of you may decide to each play certain NPCs yourselves, jointly control them, or some combination of both.

Write each turn with your partner in mind

A good reply shows that you read what your partner wrote while giving the scene somewhere to go. You should push the story forward, leaving space for your partner to react to and steer what happens next. It helps to think about your partner’s upcoming turn so that you know how to pace yourself. You want to avoid a reply that leaves nothing for your partner to build on. When this happens it can feel less like being a co-writer and more like being an audience.

Overall, you should try to match your partner’s effort and not dwell on counting paragraphs. There will be times that this is hard; it is not uncommon to find moments when your character feels like they don’t have much to do, or that a scene hangs on a single question your character asks. You can deepen these moments with inner monologue and self-reflection, but there will be times when you should talk about pacing. Sometimes a time skip, change of scene, or summarization of uneventful travel can keep a story moving, but it is considerate to ask before skipping over a moment your partner may have wanted to play.

Talk with your partner outside the story

Good out-of-character (OOC) communication is one of the most important skills for a strong roleplay. You should reach out to your partner if you need to change direction, rewrite an uncomfortable detail, or stop the roleplay. For many roleplayers, the most exciting part is plotting and worldbuilding things together in between posts.

Sometimes real life can pull you away. If this happens, take the time to leave your partner a short message, otherwise you may leave them guessing whether or not you will come back. The goal is not perfect consistency. It is to give each other the space and freedom needed to stay motivated to write.

If you don’t hear from your partner for a while, try not to take it personally or assume that they ghosted. While that is sometimes the case, oftentimes something came up and your partner will come back to you. You can always reach out to them and ask if they are still interested once it has been a long while, but avoid repeatedly messaging if you don’t get a response as this will likely do more harm than good.