So what is Nintendask? Well, it’s a community of role playing and ask blogs here on Tumblr pertaining to characters from Nintendo games! Of course it’s not a purely homogenous community, and everyone has a different style of story telling and interacting with other blogs, but here’s a general guide for all of you fresh faced blogs out there.
Glossary
- Muse is the generally preferred term for characters here on
Tumblr, as they are the characters who inspire us to create! They can be original characters or preexisting characters from any given franchise, and their behavior is up to the Mun’s interpretation.
- Muns are the people who run the blogs! The origin of the term is
up for debate, but the general consensus is that it is either an abbreviation of the spanish word “mundo” or the English world “mundane”, which mean “world” or “of the world” respectively (since we the writers exist here in this world, and not the worlds of our characters :p ). However, some people prefer to be known as Mods (moderators) instead.
- Munday (or Moday) is every Monday, and it is a day for muns to
post selfies of themselves and answers questions about their lives rather than their character’s lives! Of course everyone is free to post their own personal answers and photos all week long, but Munday is the day the community as a whole gets together and does it.
- Ask Blogs are blogs that respond to asks and answer them in character (as far as their interpretation of the character goes).
- Role Playing Blogs are blogs that actively interact with other
characters via chats and reblogs. Of course most blogs are a mix of the ask and rp format. However, please respect the wishes of blogs that insist they are Ask or RP only.
- Art Blogs are blogs that interact via drawn responses rather than
written ones. Some people have pre-made reaction images that they use to respond to situations quickly. Others draw original comics and things of that ilk in response. Regardless the format, all are a valid form of response.
- Tags (I shouldn’t need to explain this, but just in case here
goes) tags are those little grey words at the bottom of Tumblr posts that follow a hashtag. They enable people to search content on your blog and to filter out things they do not want to see. If you want people to search your work effectively, the first 5 tags in your tag line are the ones that will appear in Tumblr searches. It is a good idea to create a tag for your character and to tag other blogs involved in said post. Additionally, it is critical to tag things that others may deem upsetting or inappropriate, the quintessential tag being NSFW
- NSFW (or
Not Safe for Work) is content that would be unacceptable for someone to browse at work or school. This includes, but is not limited to: Nudity, Adult Content, Graphic Violence, Substance Abuse, etc etc. Even if you are joking or being playful about it, it is best to tag anything which would be uncomfortable to explain to your parents as NSFW or NSFW-ish (i.e. implied violence/sexual content/etc)
- Cuts (Read More) Notice how this post was getting kind of
lengthy? I just put the rest of my post under something that is known as a “cut“. The “Keep Reading” button will link people directly to your blog to read the rest of the post rather than forcing them to read the whole thing on their dash board. Cutting long posts up and putting them under a “read more“ is a common courtesy many tumblr users respect, as it makes browsing ones dash less of a hassle. The read more is also a good way of letting the viewer decide if they want to see certain content or not. Check out this link to learn how to insert Read Mores into your posts.
- Threads are long chains of conversations. (I.E.
Person A answered Person B’s ask, Person B responded to Person A’s
answer, Person A reacted to Person B’s response which lead to Person C
jumping in with their own anecdote, and yada yada yada). Responding
to people’s posts via reblog is fine but blogger beware. Try and limit
threads to 4 or 5 reblogs at the most. Why? Because after that point the
chain of conversation becomes very long and unwieldy. This is
especially a problem for Tumblr Mobile users as scrolling through long
chats on a phone is both cumbersome and tends to make the app crash.
Additionally, since chances are someone is following all three people in
the conversation, they will be seeing the same conversation reposted
again. And again. And again. After the 4th reblog, consider starting a
new chain of conversation or taking the rp somewhere private.
- God Modding Look,
this should be obvious. If you are going to interact with other characters then that means you can’t take control of that person’s character without express permission. Don’t assume what their response or action is going to be. Also, try not to make your own muse completely infallible and omnipotent. That makes them hard to interact with and it is boring story telling at best.
General Advice
- First thing’s first. If you want to make a character that people
want to interact with, you are going to need to make a reference sheet for them. Even if you can’t draw or commission an artist, try to write out some sort of description on your blog of what your character looks like and what they are about.
- DO NOT ASSUME ANYONE KNOWS WHO YOUR CHARACTER IS. Even
if your character is the most famous character ever, we don’t know who your version of them is. Are you playing Ash Ketchum straight out the anime or are you playing post-coma Ash Ketchum from a Rockabilly Sci Fi AU? No one knows, and making people assume who your character is will only make you and your intended rp partners confused.
- Adding pages
to your blog is a great way to organize information about your
characters and previous stories/events/conversations you have been part
of. I would recommend adding a page to your blog for References/Bio
information, and a FAQ for frequently asked questions you may receive.
You can also make pages dedicated to specific tags you use frequently!
- READ PEOPLE’S FAQs.
For the love of god. You don’t want to be the umpteenth person to ask
“how do goomba’s function without arms” because (A. It will irritate the
mun. (B. You don’t want to ask a question that has already been asked a
million times before. Additionally, some muns might be triggered by
certain subjects, so check the FAQ to make sure your ask will not
negatively affect them.
- If you want people to interact with
you then you will need to interact with them first. Typically people won’t discover your blog over night. Try sending out asks to your favorite blogs and see where it goes from there. Additionally, having a good introductory image of your character for people to reblog is a great way to get publicity. After all, a picture’s worth a thousand reblogs… (Ok it’s not, but trust me, images typically do better than text posts alone).
- If you are mainly an ask blog you can make
side rp blogs if you don’t want to clutter up your main blog with long chats and things of that nature! Still try to keep your conversations down to 4 posts or so before starting a new chain, but at least people following side blogs know what they are getting into when they click the follow button.
- Try to keep your reblogs relevant to your blog.
Of course this is flexible (I mean lord knows I reblog Princess Peach art just as much as I reblog Goomba stuff), but try to keep posts related to politics, religion and other matters like that on your personal blog, not your Ask/RP blog.
- Don’t force yourself into a
conversation. Ask other muns privately if it is alright if your character participates in the chat before hand. Additionally, try to get permission from other muns before you include their characters in your stories. If they ask you to remove a character from a situation, please respect their wishes.
- Ships are fun and great. However, DO NOT FORCE PAIRINGS. This
goes for your characters and/or the characters of others. Relationships
are a two way street, both in the real world and in RP. If a mun is
uncomfortable with a pairing and/or wants to end it for personal
reasons, please respect their wishes.
- Do not confuse the actions and opinions of a character for the actions and opinions of a mun.
- I REPEAT. Do not confuse the actions and opinions of a character for the actions and opinions of a mun. Role
Playing and ask blogging are avenues for creative individuals to
embrace the roles of their favorite characters and to escape reality for
a bit. That does not mean they are said character. Other wise I would
be a grumpy soldier with a terrible under bite.
- If someone
or their muse does something that offends you, ask them about it privately. Do not passive aggressively blog about it or make a public witch hunt out of it. Most people do not want to upset others and they will check their actions and language once they are made aware of the problem.
- You are not entitled to any one else’s muse other than
your own. Even if your characters are the most inseparable OTP ever, you
are not in control of what the other mun’s muse does and who they
interact with. This falls under the category of god modding.
- Look,
what it all comes down to is COMMUNICATION. Communicate with other muns. I can be bad about this myself, but really it makes things so much better when you talk things out first rather then making your own assumptions.
- Have fun with it all! This community is about
having fun and sharing your interests with other. Try hopping in during streams, sending out asks, and participating in events/memes! Remember, if you’re not having fun with it, don’t sweat it. This is a hobby not an obligation. Take some time off, and take care of yourself.