Getting Started

Dreamwidth RP is known as journal-based RP because when you make an account on Dreamwidth the account is called a journal. Making a character journal is as simple as going to the Dreamwidth homepage and choosing the Create link, and then Create Account from the drop-down menu.

Each time you create a journal it's the account for a different character. People choose user names that reflect something about the character, often in a funny or snarky way. Puns, direct character quotes, and shitpost names are also common.

Please note, for those who like to play multiple characters, Dreamwidth allows more than one account to share the same email address.

Journal and Site Features

After you've created your journal, you'll see a dialog like this at the upper right corner of the page:

The links are as follows:

The journal name (in my case, in_sufficientdata), will take you to your journal, which will have the default theme on it to start.
Post: this will allow you to make a new post on your journal. I would recommend visiting the beta features page and selecting to test the new Create Entries Page as the new composer is much better than the old one.
Reading Page: this will allow you to subscribe to journals and read all their posts on your reading page. This is not really used much for anything but subscribing to posts from games if you prefer this to tracking the game posts.
Inbox: All the PMs you are sent, and all comments you get in response to your comments, will go here, duplicating any emails you receive. This is useful because occasionally DW has problems with the email servers. Also, occasionally email providers will decide emails from DW are spam.
Help/Support: Self-explanatory.
Account Settings: This is the page where you'll probably want to head right away to change some things. Explanations will be under the next heading.

Account Settings Features

This is where your account details are listed. Direct your attention to the tabs at the top of this dialog. You'll want to click on Display.

Here the following details can be changed:

Your time zone and whether you want to display the time in 12-hour or 24-hour format.
Image and Video Placeholders: For use if you have a slow connection or low RAM on your computer.
Cut Tag Behavior: A cut is a tag used on DW in entries to allow portions of the post to be hidden on the front page of the journal or reading page. If you'd like cut tags to be ignored, select the relevant option from the drop-down.
Cut Tag In Inbox: Check this box if you'd like cut tags to be honored in your inbox.
Email Format: Select the Plain Text radio button if your email provider doesn't handle HTML-based emails well, or if you would simply prefer tags to be displayed as plain text in emails.
Entry Editor Default: This is not relevant if you choose to use the beta composer, because if you switch before posting it'll ask you if you want the new method to be the default.
Entry Page Default: I would highly recommend unchecking this box. Entry pages are much easier to read in the Site Skin than Journal Styles.
For first two Shown To You options (Entry Pages and Icon Pages), I would also highly recommends switching to the Site Skin option in the drop-down.
Navigation Strip: I would leave this checked.
New Comment Link Indicator: This is useful for if you want to see when new comments are added to entries you've checked before.
Comment Pages: If you find you don't like the Site Skin and would prefer things to be shown to you in your own chosen Journal Style, check this box.
Comment Hierarchy: Use if you need to avoid NSFW content for whatever reason.
Hover Menu: This is relevant if you have a tendency to misclick. There's a context menu that pops up on desktop when hovering over icons or journal names. Most people don't subscribe to RP character journals.
Adult Content menu options: It's best to mark your RP account as explicit if you intend to play out smut in your open post on your journal.
URLs of Sticky Entries: This is for if you want to make a Navigation post or other similar post that you want to remain at the top of your journal. You’ll need to make the post and then copy its URL to put in this box. Make sure to scroll to the bottom and hit save after you paste it in!
Mobile View: For use if you browse DW on your phone but don’t like the default mobile view.
Roleplaying Account? Do be sure to check this box for any RP accounts you might make on the site. They added this box for statistical reasons.
Site Skin: Here is where you choose which skin you prefer to view DW in on comment pages, icon pages, and the Account Settings and similar pages. There are four options, one of them being a light mode and another being a dark mode. Choose which ever you like best.

Now make sure to scroll to the very bottom and hit Save.

Profile

The link to edit your Profile is just above the tabs on the Account Settings page. The Profile is located at https://[journalname].dreamwidth.com/profile and contains any information you'll want people to know about your character.

Journal Styles

Just like the Profile link, this is just above the tabs on the Account Settings page. There are many styles you can choose from; if you don't like anything that's available by default, there are several communities where coders offer journal styles for use, for example

dreamcodes and

killthecake. Scroll down below the dialog to change the journal title and subtitle and the dialog for switching the journal style will show many previews of styles you can use. Clicking on the magnifying glass at the upper right corner of these previews will open a snapshot of your journal shown in that style.

After changing the journal style, you may want to visit the Customize your theme link in the dialog at the upper right:

The following options are available on this page:

There are a lot of options here, so I'm not going to go through and list all of them, but I will note that the Custom CSS option, which is at the bottom here, is the option you'll need if you choose to get a journal style from another coder.

Using the site to RP

People RP in open posts in their character journals, in memes, and other places listed on the RP Terminology page. If you'd like to make your own musebox, go to the Create link again, this time while logged in, and choose Create Community:

(For the most part Communities are referred to the shorthand 'comms' by people on the site.)

To make a post on your journal or your new comm, visit the journal or comm and look at the very top. You will see a Navigation Strip:

As you can see, I can post from here to my journal if I click the Post link on the left, and to this comm if I choose the link on the right.

To make a top-level to a post anywhere in a journal or comm, click on the Post a New Comment link that will be just below the content of the post or at the bottom of the page.

Now each time your character responds to another, you click on the "Reply to this" link and add a new comment below it.

The chain continues until the thread is done being played out. Each comment in a thread can be linked to individually with the link labeled link to the right of the timestamp.

Site Conventions

There are two styles that people will use in their tags, either plain prose, like you would read in a book, or in the following style:

[ Character A was thinking about stuff and put all their thoughts in small brackets. ]

Then character A decided to say something and their words appeared outside the small brackets.

Character B decided to text their comments instead.

This style is often called by the names smalltext, actionspam, or bracket text.

Writing these posts takes some rudimentary knowledge of html. All you need to know is the following:

Small text appears inside these tags

Texting font appears inside these tags

You can also make your font bold, italic, or underlined with simple html:

bold

italic

underline

It's usually customary to continue a thread in whatever style it was started in.

For consistency in presentation and for ease of understanding, most people's posts are written in present tense and in third person. Sometimes the person you're playing off of will post in past tense; in this case following suit is the best policy.

Icons

You're allowed 15 icons on a free account on DW. It might seem like a lot to people used to RP elsewhere, but people use them to convey different attitudes or emotions in their posts. Plus they're fun to play around with. Some people pay extra to get 100 or even 500 icons!

Icons look best at the maximum allowed 100x100 pixels. It's best to avoid crazy edits or text unless it's meant to be a gag icon (like your character in a flower crown).

Linking Journals & Comms

This is simple! All you have to do is type the handle after an @ symbol.

@in-sufficientdata
@rp-help

For linking to individual posts and comments, you'll have to copy and link the URL. HTML is used in posting links in Dreamwidth comments. This is the code for making a link:

Plurk

Plurk is a social networking platform. It's kind of like twitter, but people can comment on your posts directly. Lots of RPers communicate using plurk to plot things in game and stuff. You don't have to join if you don't want, but lots of DW RPers are already there.

Linking to a plurk account works just like linking a journal here, but you append .plurk to the end:

@insufficientdata.plurk.com

This show up like this:

insufficientdata

Use of subject lines

Subject lines are versatile and are used in a myriad of ways, especially in games. More about their use in games will be posted in the posts about gameplay, but here are some examples:

On memes and museboxes, the subject line is used to list the name of the character and canon.

Subject lines are also used for communication between players.

Also, they are used to give pertinent information to readers, such as trigger warnings:

tutorial:Dreamwidth