I am still brand new around here, so needless to say I'm a little unfamiliar with you all. This is the first fed I've been actively participating in since around '04, so I'm partial to character background and match building, but I've seen a lot of RPs here that don't really discuss wrestling at all. That's not a knock on anyone, just something I'm not too used to. So with that said, what do you all strive for with yours? Comedy? Wrestling build? Over arching story lines for your characters in chapters? I'd be interested to hear feedback on this.

A lot of people do it a lot of different ways.

For my character, Theo Pryce, I general strive for comedy and story, with a little bit of trash talk sprinkled in. I generally try and discuss the upcoming match at least once during my RP's for said match. I think the people that do the best around here are able to find a good balance of all the different factors. That's not to say you can't win if you focus on just story or just trash talk but being one dimensional can hurt you in terms of how your work stacks up to your opponent. Again, I said it can, not that it will. If you and your opponent just put up story driven RP's than it will come down to who did a better job. But if your opponent is all story and you do some story, some trash talk, talk about the match etc, than that can only help you.

It's all about finding that balance. I think the more you are around here and the more you write as well as the more you read from your peers you will find out very quickly what works and what doesn't.

Good luck.

I hope that was helpful.

Yeah, it's a pretty good mix of anything. We've got people who are strong in all different areas.

There used to be a rule that stated if you supplied ZERO relevance to the XWF and/or your upcoming match that week, then you'd lose that match if your opponent had ANY relevant material at all in their work. This actually can still come into play and hurt a person depending on which judge is working on their match and how much that judge feels like relevance should be employed in a week's worth of effort from any RPer. While it's possible to tell an amazing story and do VERY well here just based off of your stories, you still want to make sure you remember you're in an e-fed and e-feds are based around the world of pro wrestling.

We also have some people who excel at talking "trash" and enjoy doing it very much, which if done right can really help you out. Also with trash talk, the relevance is already in play because of the fact that you're trashing your opponent and brining up points and such that an XWF audience would be able to relate to. Just keep in mind, if you go this route and your opponent is able to make YOU sound stupid for the things you said about them, it's YOU who may end up suffering at the end of the week. When people argue/banter back and forth in their RPs we actually take note of that and we think in our minds "which person won that argument?" and that definitely comes into play when we weigh the other aspects such as story, character dev, or any other categories that a writer might bring into play that week simply by executing those styles; humor, horror, suspense, whatever else, etc...

When it comes to TEAM situations, there's a lot to be said about those who work together and make it show in their RPing that week. If you and your partner are appearing in each other's RPs and are writing some co-op pieces, that's going to help boost you somewhat. So for example if you already had amazing trash talk that week but your story/other areas were weak, the fact that you put in some effort to do some collaborative work will boost those other areas in most judges eyes. (do not write collabs with other people for a singles match though as it may have the opposite effect)

Lastly, if somebody isn't that great of a story teller or they aren't that good at trash talking, there's always the option of going back to basics and shooting classic wrestling style promos and vignettes. An RP doesn't have to be huge to entertain us. Even a simple old school wrestling promo, if done right, can really score high in our eyes. A simple setting... some basic insight on that character's thoughts and experiences that week... maybe a sit down interview that you spice up with your own flavor to really give us a good feel for if we were watching your character talk and getting to know/love/fear/hate them.

Those are just things off the top of my head. Hope they help!

Yeah , thanks for the responses guys.
For me, I find it hard to have any ammo to RP against an opponent who has a story going on in their write ups that doesn't discuss XWF related things.
My RP skills just may need to sharpen back up, but thanks again, helps to see what other people look for entertainment wise.

"As Swagmire I try not to much trash talk, I did it for two matches and lost, so I felt Swaggy wasn't good at it. I try and do some good stories, which worked out a little better for me. As Frodo I love doing stories with fun little jabs thrown in. Although I was told my best was when I do stop action ones with the ridiculous thrown in. I guess it depends on who I'm facing, but I really love mocking my opponent's role plays. Truth, my favourite opponent so far has been Titan, him and I pushed each other to 7 RPs and we just fed off each other so well. Hank Lane was also really fun."

If you have read any of my rps, you would see that Mandii is mostly off doing her own thing (Saveing the world yes yes I know exciting) but after feed back from people I started to, at the very least, mention my match in my rp. I enjoy the the fact that most rps I see here are not all about trash talk and a lot about stories that I actually want to read. I know in some cases that makes it harder to trash talk when it is you only trash talking the other person and the other person is off, say I don't know, fighting one of the three original Sirens? (Yes I did that and I am pushing my rps in this )

My advice when it does come to people who are building up a story that can be used little for trash talk/Match rps is remember that if it is in a rp, someone has seen it at some point. In other words, you could make fun of something someone said in their story. Not sure if that made sense but hey I tried.

I think comedy is good as long as you don't go in expecting to make people laugh their asses off. Too many times have I met people who message me saying, "oh my god dude, this shit im writing is HILARIOUS lolollook what i did!" and it just flops because of all the self-hype.

Same for any other type of writing. If you put a note at the top of the RP that says "warning very graphic material" then you pretty much just spoiled your own shit and I've already lost interest.

Seriously, just don't put any OOC notes in your RPs. I don't give a fuck about how you felt when you wrote it or what type of story I should be expecting. Let ME decide instead of you telling me how it should be.

Like Shane said, I think the RPs (meaning at least one RP out of the batch of RPs that you post) should have some kind of material related to the XWF. Otherwise, why even call this e-wrestling?

I don't think I have a favorite style. Just favorite RPers of certain styles I guess.

(03-28-2014, 01:27 PM)John Madison Said: Like Shane said, I think the RPs (meaning at least one RP out of the batch of RPs that you post) should have some kind of material related to the XWF. Otherwise, why even call this e-wrestling?

Totally agree. Without mentioning XWF, it comes off to me as is creative writing assignment more than e-wrestling. Maybe I'll somehow work that into my characters gimmick lol

Since the moment I arrived here, I've always wrote whatever I felt like writing. With both of my wrestler characters I employ a first person style narrative. It makes it easy for me to get into the head of that character. Both characters are primarily story based because I just love writing. However in most cases, I'm able to keep up with XWF relevance while utilizing a limited amount of trash talk and I have been fairly successful. This week though, I kinda missed the boat on relevance and it cost me, no matter how much I or others enjoyed what I wrote.

BUT, wins and losses be damned. I'll always write what I enjoy. Your main focus should always be to just enjoy yourself. It's a game first and foremost. Wins don't matter. Losses don't matter. Titles don't matter. It's the fun of enjoying what you write, the fun of getting involved in different show and fed-wide story lines. It's also the fun of competing against other writers you have a huge amount of respect for.

Also, if you feel you need help or advice, I run a 'development' show known as RTX. Sign up for it. Myself, and others that may work alongside me can give you different opinions and critiques as to how to hone your own writing style.