Text based roleplay is collaborative storytelling in writing: you control one character, someone else controls another (or the rest of the world), and you take turns writing what happens next. It runs on forums, Discord servers, private messages and, more and more, AI chat. This guide covers the formats, the etiquette that keeps partners coming back, how to open a scene (with original openers you can copy), how to find partners safely, and when roleplaying with an AI makes more sense.
What is text based roleplay?
At its core, text RP is improv with a keyboard. Nobody has the full plot in advance. Each reply reacts to the last one and adds something new: a line of dialogue, an action, a complication. The story is whatever the two of you (or the whole group) build together.
It shows up in a few main places:
- Forums and play-by-post. The oldest form still in wide use. Players post turns in threads, often days apart, and many games ask for a writing sample before you can join. Rules are usually looser than a tabletop game: moderators or players decide outcomes instead of software.
- Discord servers. A lot of group RP lives here now. Servers split stories into channels (one per location or plot), keep character sheets in a dedicated channel and run a separate chat for out-of-character talk.
- One-on-one (1×1) in DMs. Two writers, one story, usually arranged through a partner-search channel or forum board.
- AI roleplay. You write your character, and an AI plays everyone else. No scheduling, no waiting, and nobody new to vet.
It is related to, but not the same as, text-based games. A text adventure (interactive fiction) is software that reads commands like “go north” or “open the red box”. A MUD (multi-user dungeon) is a shared, real-time text world with rooms, objects and other players. In roleplay, the humans (or the AI) decide what happens, not a game engine.
Roleplay formats: one-liner to literate
Communities sort RP by how much each reply is expected to contain. The labels are informal and vary between groups, but these are the common ones:
| Style | Typical reply | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| One-liner / script | One or two sentences, often dialogue with a short action | Fast banter, busy group chats |
| Semi-literate (semi-lit) | One or two paragraphs with dialogue, action and a bit of thought | Most 1×1 and Discord RP |
| Literate | Three or more paragraphs, full prose, setting and inner life | Slower, story-driven RP |
| Advanced / novella | Long posts, sometimes 1,000+ words, written like book chapters | Forums and play-by-post with long reply windows |
None of these is “better”. What matters is that partners match. A literate writer paired with a one-liner partner ends up doing all the work, and the one-liner partner feels buried. State your style in any partner ad, and ask for theirs.
Text RP is usually written in third person, past tense (“She pushed the door open”). Some groups use first person or present tense. Pick one with your partner and stick to it, since switching mid-scene reads as a mistake.
Formatting conventions: asterisks, quotes and OOC brackets
Casual RP often marks actions with asterisks, which Discord renders as italics: *leans against the railing* “You’re late.” Literate RP drops the asterisks and writes actions as normal prose, with dialogue in quotation marks.
Here is the same moment in three styles:
- One-liner: *slides the map across the table* “Two days through the pass. You in?”
- Semi-lit: Rook slid the map across the table and tapped a thin line of ink between two peaks. “Two days through the pass, if the snow holds.” He didn’t look up. He’d already decided he couldn’t do it alone. “You in?”
- Literate: the same beat, plus the smoky tavern, the rain against the shutters, Rook’s split knuckles and the reason he can’t hire anyone else, spread across two or three paragraphs that end on the question.
OOC means “out of character”: anything you, the writer, say rather than your character. Mark it clearly so nobody mistakes it for story. Common forms are double parentheses ((brb, dinner)), square brackets [OOC: want a time skip to morning?] or a leading //. Many servers keep OOC talk in its own channel entirely.
A few other terms you will see: IC (in character), muse (your motivation to write, as in “my muse for this is gone”) and starter (the opening post of a thread).
Roleplay etiquette: the rules that keep partners around
- Don’t control someone else’s character. Called godmodding or powerplaying. Write what your character attempts, not what happens to theirs: “Rook swung at the guard’s jaw” leaves room for a reply; “Rook knocked the guard out” doesn’t.
- Leave a hook. End your reply with something the other writer can respond to: a question, a choice, a noise in the dark. A reply that closes every door stalls the scene.
- Match length, roughly. Close enough that neither side is carrying the story.
- Keep IC and OOC apart. Characters can hate each other. Writers shouldn’t take it personally, and shouldn’t use a character to snipe at a real person.
- No metagaming. Your character only knows what they have seen or been told in the story, not what you read in someone’s character sheet or OOC chat.
- Agree on limits and warnings before you start. Swap a short list of hard limits (never) and soft limits (only with a check-in). Put content warnings on dark threads. “Fade to black” is a normal, respected way to skip anything someone would rather not write out.
- Say when you’re slow or done. A one-line “I’m busy this week” or “I’ve lost muse for this one, thanks for writing with me” beats ghosting every time.
How to start a text roleplay scene
Plenty of roleplays stall in the first two posts, usually because nobody set up a situation worth reacting to. Before anyone writes a word, settle four things OOC:
- Premise and genre. One or two sentences: “Heist on a sky-ship, adventure with some banter.”
- Characters. Name, age, role and one thing they want. Both characters are adults; say their ages in the setup so nobody has to guess.
- Limits and tone. Hard and soft limits, how dark it can get, whether romance is on the table.
- Who writes the starter. Usually whoever pitched the idea.
A good starter puts both characters in the same place, gives your partner something to do, and ends on a hook. Don’t open with your character alone for three paragraphs, and don’t write your partner’s character’s arrival for them.
Example openers you can use
All original, each character with an age, written semi-lit so you can trim or expand them. Swap the names for your own.
Fantasy: the reluctant hire. Captain Idris Vale, 38, hadn’t slept since the harbor fire. He dropped a purse of silver on the tavern table without sitting down. “The last guide I paid is at the bottom of the river,” he said. “I’m told you know the marsh roads. Name a price, and tell me why you’re still in this town if you’re any good.”
Sci-fi: the wrong cargo. The crate in bay four was humming. Engineer Tamsin Roe, 31, pressed her palm against it and felt something shift inside. “Hey,” she called over her shoulder, keeping her voice low. “You signed for this load. Want to tell me what we’re actually carrying before I open it?”
Mystery: the late client. Rain drummed on the office window at 2 a.m. when the knock came. Private investigator Noor Haddad, 44, didn’t get up. “Door’s open,” she said. “Nobody comes here at this hour with good news, so skip the small talk. Who’s missing?”
Horror: the last train. The 11:52 stopped between stations and the lights went out. When they flickered back on, the only other passenger in the carriage, a man in his thirties in a soaked overcoat, was standing much closer than before. “Don’t look at the windows,” he whispered. “Whatever you do, don’t let it see you looking.”
Slice of life: the shared apartment. Jonah Park, 27, stood in the kitchen doorway holding two mugs. His new flatmate’s boxes still covered half the living room. “Peace offering,” he said, holding one out. “Also, I’m legally required to warn you the radiator screams at 6 a.m. Nobody knows why.”
Romance: the rival bakery. Celeste Moreau, 33, had put up a sign across the street that read “Better croissants than THAT place.” Now she was standing at your counter, arms folded, in a flour-dusted apron. “My oven died,” she said, clearly hating every word. “I have a wedding order at nine. I need to borrow yours.”
Romance: second chance. Ten years after they’d last spoken, Daniel Okafor, 35, found himself seated next to his ex at a friend’s wedding. He studied the place card, then her. “They did this on purpose,” he said. “We can be adults about it. Or we can finally argue about Lisbon.”
For scenario ideas aimed at couples acting things out in person, see our list of roleplay ideas for couples.
How to find roleplay partners safely
The safest partners come from moderated, organized communities: established Discord RP servers with clear rules, forums with an application process, and partner-search boards run by those communities. Avoid random stranger-chat sites and apps. They pair you with anyone, check nothing, and have no moderators to report to.
For adult or mature RP, use 18+ spaces only. Discord’s Community Guidelines require anyone viewing or taking part in sexual content to be 18 or older, and require server owners to put an age-restricted label on any channel that hosts sexually explicit content. Its sexual content policy explainer adds that the server owner and all moderators must be over 18. Since late September 2026, Discord places every account in an age group (adult, 13-17 or unconfirmed), mostly from account signals such as account age, and only accounts in the adult group can enter age-restricted servers and channels. If your account shows as unconfirmed, you can confirm in User Settings > Account Status. A server that hosts explicit RP without age-restricted channels is ignoring the platform’s rules, and that tells you how it treats everything else.
Good communities also verify age themselves, ask new members to read the rules before posting, and keep a limits list or content-warning system. If a server has none of this, keep looking.
Red flags in a roleplay partner
- They dodge the question when you ask whether they are 18+, or their profile or writing suggests they are under 18. End it immediately; for adult RP, age isn’t a detail to take on faith.
- They want to move off the server to another app quickly. The FBI’s advice is to be suspicious when someone you met on one platform asks to switch to another.
- They ask for photos, your real name, your city, your workplace or your other social accounts. Text RP never needs any of it.
- They push past a limit you stated, or treat “fade to black” as a negotiation.
- They bring up money, gift cards, crypto or a “verification fee”.
- They insist on an age-ambiguous character or keep steering the story somewhere the server rules forbid.
Keep RP separate from your real identity: a username you use nowhere else, no face photos, no location details. If something goes wrong, block, report the account to the server’s mods and the platform, and keep screenshots. If anyone threatens to share images of you or demands money, the FBI’s guidance is to stop contact, block and report the account, save everything, don’t send money (it notes paying rarely stops the threats) and report it at tips.fbi.gov.
AI roleplay: the solo option
Human partners are the heart of text RP, but they come with waiting, scheduling and the partner search above. AI roleplay fills the gaps: you can write at 3 a.m., drop a story that isn’t working without hurting anyone’s feelings, practice a new style (try going literate for the first time) or test a premise before pitching it to a human partner.
The same craft applies. Give the AI a clear premise, a character with an age, a role and a goal, and a first message with a hook. Write actions, not outcomes, and use OOC brackets to steer when the story drifts. Our guide to how to AI roleplay walks through setup, and what a lorebook is explains how bigger platforms keep world details consistent. On platforms that support it, a persona tells the AI who you are playing.
On Cherrypop.ai, an 18+ site for uncensored AI chat and roleplay, you can pick a ready-made partner from a large catalog (female, male and trans characters, realistic or anime, across many personality types) or write your own in the create wizard. The starter checklist above maps onto it: your premise goes in the Scenario field, your opener in First Message, and extra traits in Additional Personality Details. You can also generate images of your character. Starting is free, with limits; paid plans add more messages, images and features (see pricing on the site). No app to install: it runs in a mobile browser.
FAQ
What is a text-based roleplay?
A story written together in turns, where each person writes for their own character. It happens on forums, Discord, private messages and AI chat platforms, in styles from quick one-liners to long literate posts.
What are some ideas for text roleplay?
Start from a situation with built-in tension: a job that needs two people, a mystery with a deadline, rivals forced to work together, strangers stuck somewhere, a second chance after years apart. The openers above cover fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, horror, slice of life and romance. Genre matters less than giving both characters a reason to act.
What is a text-based RPG called?
It depends on the kind. Single-player games you type commands into are called text adventures or interactive fiction. Multiplayer text worlds are called MUDs (multi-user dungeons). Roleplay run by writers in threads, with no game engine, is called play-by-post or forum roleplay.
What is the best text-based RPG?
There’s no single answer. Colossal Cave Adventure (1975-76), the first text adventure, and Zork, one of the most famous, are the classics. For shared worlds, MUDs are still running, many of them free and hobby-run. If you want open-ended story rather than puzzles or combat, freeform roleplay with a human partner or an AI gives you the most control over what happens.
What does OOC mean in roleplay?
Out of character: anything said by you as the writer rather than by your character, usually written in ((double parentheses)), [square brackets] or after //.
What is literate roleplay?
RP written in full prose, usually three or more paragraphs per reply, with description, action, dialogue and inner thoughts, and without asterisk actions. Semi-literate is the shorter middle ground of one or two paragraphs.