Off-site role play

Just remove the aspect of "there are dolls involved" and the answer becomes easier to understand.

A lot of doll owners have OCs (original characters), and sometimes they decide to make them in doll form too.
Or they buy dolls to give them a character, because they enjoy creating stories and characters and having those in physical form (i.e. a doll).

So when people role play online, they usually just write as their character. When other people are involved it's like writing a collaborative story together where you write the part of your character. Similar to how people play DND and other tabletop role plays. Some of these role-playing individuals just happen to have their characters as dolls too.
I have friends who also do LARP (live action role play), so they meet up for a weekend in costumes and pretend to be in a specific setting (fantasy, apocalyptic etc.) and play out a story. Funny enough, a lot of them have the character they play also as doll
However, no matter the form of role play, the actual physical doll is not involved. It's just the character it also happens to represent.

Honestly, dolls with OC backgrounds are nothing different than self-made merchandise for your own work.

 

I just wanna add onto this that some people do involve their dolls more! Personally I sometimes take pictures of my OC dolls in a specific setting if it's something the character had been in in one of my roleplays. I primarily only roleplay with others who also have dolls though and they've done the same. Or my doll that is my dnd character shelled I take with me for in person groups.

And there's photostories! I know many who make what are like comic stories but they take pictures of their dolls in big setups and edit the pictures together into panels with sound effects and text. Many have been posted here on doa too. Some will even do this based off their roleplays if it's a local friend. Always wanted to venture into this but it requires a bit of room to set up doll rooms.

 

Here’s a link of one of my comics here on DoA, if you’r wanting an example. I don’t have much experience with roleplay other than a short time doing so in World of Warcraft. Rp-ing with a doll does sound fun though.

 

I mean people who DnD often use "minis" or regular tabletop figures to represent their character. Bringing a doll is just the big version of that
And taking photos of them is just telling a story in a different visual medium. Some artists draw, some use figures and photography. Doesn't matter though that the character is represented in doll form, as in, the shell is not what's important there but the character it represents. It's just a tool.
You could do it all without the doll as well, i.e. the role-play aspect is not connected to the physical doll.

What I'm saying is, people most likely don't do what OP implied, namely sitting there with the dolls and clanking their faces together with a "mwah mwah look they are kissing". And I've seen several times now that the inclusion/involvement/existence of dolls somehow makes people have a knot in their head, even though they understand role play as a concept just fine. Once you explain to them though it's not about the physical thing (doll) but what it represents (character) it makes more sense.

 

I wonder if you are referring to what you see in doll profiles here on DoA. I think when they say not available for off-site roleplay, it means you can't take their original character and play with them. Or they aren't looking for new roleplay partner?

I like all the other answers too!

 

If you mean on profiles, I believe it was originally meant that if you were interested in roleplaying your doll with that doll, you could contact the owner and set up a roleplay time and place to do it.

As for roleplay, I do it with my sister and a friend, almost nightly! We do it over Skype, and take turns writing a paragraph of what our characters are saying and doing. So it's very similar to writing a story in real time with a group. All of our dolls have very deeply developed characters who have everything from personalities to families (not always shelled as dolls as they're mostly NPC or minor side characters), backstories, birthdays, careers/jobs, relationships, and yes, even pronouns and sexualities. It's all part of creating a strong character you know as well as you know a friend--sometimes more, since you know all of their secrets and struggles too! Roleplaying is such an important part of the hobby for me. Without an interesting character and active roleplay, I never bond to a doll.

Feel free to ask me any other info about how I play or what other info I keep for my dolls!

 

We have a Discord server for doll RPs!

Join the Dolly roleplays Discord Server!

 

I’m curious about the Discord server, but the link doesn’t seem to be working. Could you post another or DM me one?

 

Join the Dolly roleplays Discord Server!

 

So I'm rather late to this thread, buuut as someone who's probably done roleplaying online for easily 15 years, I have some really great tips and thoughts about it.

I've always viewed rping as kind of a collaborative writing effort. Think about that old English class writing assignment where the teacher tells you to write a paragraph and pass it to the person next to you. Half the fun of that assignment is getting it back to see what people wrote.

I've found that the best roleplay partners are ones that you both can collaborate well and enjoy passing a story back and forth. Everyone has different limits on what they enjoy writing and creating and sometimes you may have to do a little trial and error to find the right rp partner. To be a good rp partner, the number one thing is to be a contributor. Don't just "hog" the story or "move" the character without previously talking about it, enjoy plotting and talking about the story with the partner.

Also, I would say there's three different types of more written roleplays: The short hand, the POV chapter, and the co-author:

• "Short hand" would be anything from a sentence or two to a couple paragraphs. Usually Discord or chat groups are the best place for ones like these. These are the best for stories where you want more interaction between characters. Just a preference but please don't do the one sentence *action* type of short hand. It can get kind of weird. (Example: Hey *looks around awkwardly* how's it going. => "Hey," Joe says looking around awkwardly, "how's it going?")
  
• "The POV chapter" would be anything from a couple paragraphs to a full on three page chapter in a book. These are just more novel based, semi-lit to lit stories. Usually the partner may then in their post pull out some parts of your post to "respond" to. Number one thing about these kind of posts is that you still really don't move your partner's character. It's just kind of proper manners. You can still move the story along, but you can really only drag the other character or set up the scene.
• "The Co-Author" are for the true collaborators at heart. If you see any books out there written by two people, they two probably have some roleplay experience. Co-Authors though may swap off every chapter, but when it's your chapter, you have full control of what's going on. These require extremely good communication. Most likely, you're both creating the characters and story together. Not a "this is my character and this is your character" mindset, but a "these are our characters". I only had one friend in the past that was a good enough co-author, but only because we both created the characters to write about and OOC (out of character) chatted a lot too.

If you want any other thoughts or advice on the hobby let me know! Thank you for listening to my ted talk

 

Totally second what you say. I totally feel old saying I've done online roleplays for at least how long you have. feel free to join the roleplay discord server!

 

Ooh! There's a discord? :O
And dang... you would think 15 years isn't a long time, but then again it is!

 

I used to roleplay on sites like Neopets and the like a decade or so ago, but I fell out of it a bit once school and such picked up. I'd love to get started again but it seems a lot of prospective RP partners now prefer very long term commitments with people who have had a significant amount of (recent) experience. It feels a bit intimidating and hard to get started, and in some cases (tumblr in particular lol) it has almost seemed a bit elitist(bad word, I know) or at least less forgiving to newbies. I'm incredibly rusty and can't commit to SUPER regimented reply schedules, but I want in on the fun. Is there somewhere out there suited to more casual roleplaying or is it still as impenetrable as it seemed back when I first looked into the tumblr scene in 2015 or so? ^w^;

 

Join the Dolly roleplays Discord Server!

Here is an updated link! Please come join us, we're a super friendly group!

 

Excuse me for jumping in so late. I had the same question and I found this thread on search!

I have no idea so I gave an Instagram account to my Yvonne. So far that’s only place where she gets to use her voice.

 

You can also join our discord server if you haven't yet

 

I know I'm not the one this is directed to but I would love to join the Discord server if you can handle a bit of rusty-ness on my end! I just recently started roleplaying again after many years by joining a few ARPG groups based off DeviantArt and the like, and I would love the chance to develop my doll characters more. The current link on this thread doesn't seem to be working, alas- would you be willing to share a new one?

 

You are definitely welcome!!
Here is a new link that shouldn't expire.
Join the Dolly roleplays Discord Server!