Welcome Hummingbird! FYI: if you see anyone on the CB referring to me as spiffycat or spiffy, or spiffjith, that's me. Before I took a month-long break my name was spiffycat, and before that Spiffycat/Jithkeeper.

roleplaying threads, or RPs, are where CBers all write a story together. How it usually works here is: one CBer makes a thread with kind of the beginning or idea for the story along with a "charrie (character) sheet", like this:

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Personality:

Appearance:

Other:

plus whatever categories might be relevant to the setting, like "ethnicity" or "occupation". Then the CBers write it in installments from the perspective of their characters.

In a solo write CBers still submit charrie sheets but only one person is writing the story.

Some terminology: shipping is when you make a couple of two characters (you probably already know that) and OP means over powering, which is what you don't want your charries to be.

For more info on this you can go to the Ultimate Guide (please link this admins):

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/204967

If you need help with anything else let us know!! 

Empyreal says dimwd. Dimwit? No, they're just new, Empyreal!!! 

Hi Hummingbird! Welcome.

An RP (Role Play) is a thread someone begins with a scenario (e.g. apocalyptic mutants on a quest for an ancient artifact) and lays out a charrie (character) sheet, which is a fill-in about the character they are playing as. Everyone who joins submits a copy of this sheet, filled in. When the desired amount of characters are present, or when the owner of the RP says so, it starts, and the RPers begin writing installments as they go, progressing the story with their points of view.

A Solo Write is a thread in which the author begins with the start of a story (much like a RP), and then proceeds to write it themselves in progressing installments. Often they will have a charrie sheet as well, and others will create some of the characters (like a RP), but the main difference is that it is all written by one person (the author/creator).

A more popular sub-category of a Solo Write is a Ski Lodge. A Ski Lodge is a murder-mystery-themed Solo Write in which the author conducts an (often suspicious) invitation to some (usually vacation) place (e.g. Victorian mansion, hotel, farm, resort, ryokan, or, as the original were, a ski lodge, hence the name). The participants post their packing lists (and occasionally, if the author specifies, a charrie sheet of themselves), and the author determines which will be the murderer. They start (the author), writing about them, how they get there, what they do there, etc. They post in installments, one day (in the vacation) each, sometime several for one day, and each day someone dies. The participants, in turn, while the author posts the bits of the story, try to guess who the murderer is. The guessing and comments have no effect whatsoever on the actual story, and the writer doesn’t reveal the murderer until the very end. Many have been started, but only about one or two have finished in the time of some of the oldest CBers still active. These are generally on Puddings Place, but there’s is an active one on Chirp at Cricket.

Another type of writing thread is called a Round Robin. I’m not sure where the name came from, but the principle is simple: The creator of the thread writes the first few lines, or maybe a paragraph of a story, and then others pitch in, adding the next few lines, and the next. It doesn’t really end. I generally just dies out, but it’s really fun to participate in. 

Whew! That was a lot. I could’ve just asked the Admins to link the Ultimate Guide to the CB (which I wouldn’t mind, by the way), but I wanted to say it all myself for once.

I hope that helps! If you have any further questions, I’d suggest checking out the guide, (Admins, please link!) or you can simply ask questions here. That works too.

Awesome to meet you, and I hope to see you around!

- Jwyn <3 

Here it is:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/chirpatcricket/node/204967

Admin

Well hello! Cerinthe's summed up your questions pretty well, so welcome aboard ;D

Thanks everyone!
One more question. In charrie descriptions there is sometimes a shipping catagory. What does this mean?

Usually this category refers to whether the charrie is 'open' for shipping (whether they are allowed to be shipped with other charries) and what gender they can be shipped with.