Everything
@redblood said!
Condensed Version:
How do I make my own RP?
1) advertise your idea to get players! You can post a thread in
Roleplay Talk (Use the 'Interest Check' prefix), or a signup in the OOC subforum for the genre you want. In an interest check/advertisement, what you want to do is describe the roleplay you want to make, and ask if anyone would like to participate. You may set requirements for players to join if you want.
How do I take a character spot in an RP?
You can find signups and recruitment threads in the forums I mentioned before, so click around there and find people who are looking for more players. From there, you contact the Game Master and ask to join. Make sure you read their post carefully first. Roleplays that have already started sometimes accept new players, too, but remember to always ask permission before starting to roleplay (Unless it's in
Jump Ins in which case you don't need permission.)
How do I use my character?
You post an In Character (IC) post in the roleplay thread! In an IC post, you write about what your character is doing, saying, thinking, and the things that are happening in the scene. Three basics of writing a post are:
1) Forum Roleplays usually prefer you write in third person ("He jumped/Jack jumped", not "I jumped") and past tense ("Jumped/ran", not "Jumps/runs")
2) Pay attention to other people's posts, and try not to contradict them (eg: saying that Mary was standing when Mary slipped and fell last post). Deciding what the other characters are doing/saying instead of leaving it to their players is also a big no-no
3) The best posts are the ones that give people something to react to. Don't just reiterate what other people are saying; add your own contributions! You should ask the GM before having something major happen though, as it may mess up their plans for the plot. (big things being stuff like 'a character who everyone thought was dead was in hiding this entire time!' 'The building everyone is standing in becomes the target of a terrorist bomb threat!' etc. Smaller things would be a mugger approaching someone, the weather changing and forcing people indoors, a stray, injured animal coming along, etc)
Like redblood said; we separate OOC and IC on Iwaku, so make sure you only put character posts in the roleplay threads, and do Out of Character (OOC) in the OOC/Signup/Discussion/Interest check thread. To clarify; an OOC post is anything that is NOT a part of the roleplay