Umbra Roleplaying Starting Guide

  • Welcome to Umbra Roleplaying! We are an 18+ multi-genre roleplaying and writing community open to writers of all types. Sign up today to have access to our forums and join our other talented members!

    After signing up, be sure to check your spam folder for our confirmation email. Due to the nature of most email servers' filters, emails from Umbra are often incorrectly marked as spam. Don't forget to check your spam folder and mark our emails as safe so you can continue to receive emails and notifications from your new roleplaying home!
  • Hi there Guest! It looks like you haven't verified your email just yet - you should receive a notification from umbraroleplaying@gmail.com (it may go to your spam) with a link to click. Once you do that, this notice will disappear!
  • Hi there Guest. As a reminder - when you are updating/editing your threads in the Requests areas - it is sent to our approval queue to be checked against our site rules. It will take about 24 max to approve and post. Questions can be sent to Auntie Angel!
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Welcome to Umbra Roleplaying!
We are an 18+ multi-genre roleplaying and writing community open to writers of all types.
Click to sign up!
WELCOME TO UMBRA

We're happy to welcome you to our little corner of the RP world.

First and foremost, the intent of this guideIs to help newcomers learn about the different ways to make the most of Umbra Roleplaying and its systems. While plenty of people have experience with forum RPs, a significant number of writers are transitioning from places like Twitter, Discord, Tumblr, even Facebook. Make sure you read through our Rules forum before you do anything else to ensure you fully understand the basics of forum etiquette.

Any questions that the Rules or this post doesn't answer can be directed to a member of our staff, members of which who are online are always listed on the site (to the right on Desktop, and below the forums on Mobile).

On Umbra site roles are designated by coloration. Blue for admin, red for mods, and purple for helpers. Here's what each role is capable of doing*:

Administrators can do pretty much anything, from changing display names to adjusting personal details like e-mails and birthdays;
Moderators can move posts from forum to forum as needed, as well as help process onsite reports;
Helpers/Assistants can answer any questions you may have, or notify mods/admin as needed.
* Users with golden names are Supporters and not on the Umbra staff

Don't hesitate to reach out if you need help, or use the 'Report' button on individual posts to bring something to immediate attention. The Umbra team is here to help.

This guide was written by site founder. Nyctibius.
 
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FORUM LAYOUT

Let's go over the way we've laid out Umbra. From the top:
  • Site Information
    • Site Rules - you should read these. This is how we run the site, and anything you definitely shouldn't do is in here.
    • General Information - Umbra's mission statement is here, along with a breakdown of the site costs and other necessary disclosures about owning and running a website like ours
    • Announcements - where we, well, announce stuff. Anything current in here should definitely be read to keep up on site news.
    • Member Resources - where things like this guide live. Anything we think could help your RP experience should end up here.
    • Questions and Suggestions - Use this to ask any questions about the site, or submit suggestions to staff.
    • Advertisement - where affiliates post links to their own RP spaces.
  • Roleplaying
    • Roleplay Haven - where all of our RPs live. Can you get a thread into the hall of completion?
    • Request Threads - where you post your RT–we'll get into that shortly.
    • OOC Discussion and Planning - used to organize and plan out your bigger plots with collaborators.
  • Character Nebula
    • Character Marketplace - to advertise your OCs for adventure. A good place to find someone with an idea that they want to expand.
    • Character Catalogs - a place to organize your characters in your own thread
  • Community
    • Introductions & Goodbyes - say hello! Or goodbye.
    • General Chat - To discuss pretty much anything and everything, within reason
    • Forum Games - Better seen than explained.
    • Photo Album - To post photos en masse. Pet pictures are popular choices.
  • Creative Center
    • Events & Challenges - self-explanatory
    • Art Sharing - post your art!
    • Writing Sharing - post your non-RP writing!
    • Writing Advice - need grammar advice? Want to learn how to be a better writer? Ask in here
    • Journals - personal journals. These can be used however you want to use yours.
    • Code Playground & Testing Center - to test and experiment with the available BBCode commands
 
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GETTING STARTED

So you're all signed up. You've verified your e-mail address, maybe picked out an avatar for yourself, and you're ready to get started looking for someone to write with. There's a couple of ways to get this done. Here on Umbra we use RTs, or Request Threads.
  1. Head to the Roleplay subforum of the site.
  2. Go to the Request Threads section. These are divided into three subforums; Plot-oriented, Smut-oriented, and Group.
  3. Select the subforum you want to post in, and click the 'Post New Thread' button near the top.
  4. Read the RT Rules. There's some helpful info in here.
  5. Write your RT!
RTs have some common etiquette you can follow. Your typical RT includes:
  • Prefixes (more on that in a bit)
  • The user's usual reply timetable
  • A small portion of personal info about the user (preferred pronouns, acceptable nicknames, age information, RP history)
  • Preferred style and method of RP (i.e., multi-paragraph/DM only, one-line thread-only, etc.)
  • Preferred means of contact (whether or not they're open to being DMed for interest checks)
  • A list of plots or writing ideas they'd like to do
Of course, your RT can be whatever you want it to be. There are no hard and fast rules for writing an RT, and if you want to do it all in Greek-style prose then go for it. I, for one, would be tremendously curious to read through something like that.

Anyway, I mentioned Prefixes before. Let's dive into those now.

Prefixes are meant to be used to help organize your post, and allow for potential partners to gauge your RT at a glance. We organize prefixes by;
  • Preferred pairings
  • Genre
  • Preferred means of RP
  • Seeking ____
You can click on the prefix of any post to see all the others with that prefix, which makes it easier to potentially find a matching partner. Note, however, that this system is not as robust as the onsite tagging system, and you can only filter with one Prefix at a time.

With the Prefixes sorted, let's talk about the RTE (or Rich Text Editor) we use on Umbra.

Umbra-Tutorial.png


  1. Format - For options like Bold, Italic, and more. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to write these.
  2. Edit - Undo, Redo, Copy/Paste. Keyboard shortcuts also work for these!
  3. Insert - To insert images, links, and more into your post. Images must be hosted online, as Umbra doesn't support native image hosting
  4. Table - Insert and edit tables. Tables are organizational tools to hold and cross-reference information.
  5. Tools - The Save Draft button is the only thing in here. Use this to help protect yourself from the page reloading and wiping out your post.
  6. View - Switch to the BBCode editor, make the editor fullscreen, or hide the bottom bar.
  7. Font options - Change your displayed font and how big it is.
  8. Font Colors and Format - Letter color, background color, and automatic font sizes and options to add some design flair to your post.
  9. Paragraph alignment - Left, Center, Right, Justified
  10. Bulleted/Numbered lists/indents
  11. Post body
  12. Word counter
If you've ever used MS Word or Google Docs, then this probably looks pretty familiar. Your text goes in the body, and you can use the editing options to style your post however you like.

Below the writing area we also have a section for adding Tags (which will always post in alphabetical order) and Polls (which can be fun in the General chat area). SInce this is about getting started on Umbra, I won't be delving into those topics.
 
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USING BBCODE

Umbra uses a form of coding called BBCode. Using the rich text editor, or RTE, you can easily apply basic code to your posts, like bold, italics, and bullet points. If you prefer to be more hands-on with your code you can switch to the code editor (click on View, then Use Bb Code Editor). This allows you to input coding directly.

For a list of all the code that we use, refer to this page: https://umbraroleplaying.com/index.php?help/bb-codes

At the bottom of the forums we have a coding playground specifically designed for users to experiment with the available commands. If you're having issue with a particular bit of code it's very encouraged to take it into the playground and tinker until you get it. If it's still too much you can ask in our Questions and Suggestions subforum, through the General Questions section.
 
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COMMON ETIQUETTE
These are less hard rules, and more things that just are good to keep in mind when entering the RP space. Keeping this stuff in mind can help minimize misunderstandings and clear up communication overall!
  • Communicate often and directly. Good communication is key to making plots manageable and enjoyable for both parties. Be honest, too–tell someone if and when you lose interest.
  • Check someone's profile if you want to RP with them, as sometimes they put information there that isn't in their RT.
  • Always check if someone has an RT before reaching out. Not everyone does, but if they do that's where you'd want to begin.
  • Make sure you have an idea of what you'd like to write when you do reach out. It can be awkward for a lot of people if your entire message is "do you want to RP?" Not everyone, but some.
  • Don't take anything personally. Never conflate in character actions to out of character ones.
  • Never godmode. It's one of the more annoying things you can do.
Have a suggestion? DM Nyctibius with it!