Roleplay

It's exactly as it sounds: you pick a role and you play it. For example, say that you wanted to start up a role playing thread for a clan of dragons traveling the desert-wasteland planet Austar V (totally stolen from dragon pit trilogies) and so you would make up a description of your character, like so:

Name: Hearts Blood
Race: Pit Dragon
Gender: female
Personality: +Clever +Tactical +Defensive -Hard headed -Stern
Description/background: Was born a mute and was exiled from her clan for it. Met up with a group of other exiles.

It can be as bland as that or as in-depth as you wish. After a few characters are introduced you then proceed to act out your roles like so:

It would be Second Day soon and still no food has been spotted...the hunger was starting to boil in all of them and Hearts Blood could tell it wouldn't be long before they started to turn on each other. I know who I'm eating first, she thought to herself while shooting a glare towards [insert character's name here]

It's basically like writing a short (or sometimes very long) story.

@DeadlySins

So RP is when you have a gather of people who decide to roleplay their characters according to a plot (or then it is made up). It's easier to give an example, so here we go:

There's a RP centered around Flight Rising, and the GM (game master; usually the one who has created the roleplay) has stated that you shall RP as a dragon of yours. In this situation, you will pick a dragon you like, and imagine what is this dragon's personality? How would they react to XYZ?
Okay, the GM usually requires a CS (chracter sheet) of some sort, where you write about your character; usually includes stuff like name, gender, age, personality, appearance, backstory... Just be creative and try to make your character 'alive'.

In the RP the characters of different players interact with each other. E.g:
Person A (game master): 'The day was windy and Fang watched the new sun rise. It was going to be a beautiful day.'
Person B (someone else): 'Claw had just awoken, when they noticed Fang watching the sunrise. Joining them, Claw asked cheerfully: "How's it going, old lizard?"
Person A: 'Chuckling, Fang replied: "You are as mean as always, Claw."
Person C (you): Spike had been hunting, when he heard the voices of Claw and Fang. Joining them, the young dragon asked carefully how was their morning going.

And so on.
Quite often there will be more people and the replies longer, but this was just a brief example. The GM has often a plot in mind and the RP will go along with it; more or less. The most important part is to READ very carefully what others have replied, so that your character won't be out of place or speaking with the wrong person. Anyways, the best way to learn how to RP is to go and do it! :D
And ask, ask, ask! GMs usually are more than ready to help you with questions ^^ If you are very shy, you can try a 1x1 RP with me (only you and me and others cannot RP with us) for practice.

Best wishes,
~Gilly

@DeadlySins

Haha, no problem :D Send a message if there's anything else!
~Gilly

@DeadlySins

Another thing that you will see in alot or rps are Gary Stues and Mary Sues. A Gary Stue or Mary sue is a person that is good at everything, they are perfect, and get everything right etc., etc., etc.,

Also Godmodding is when you are all powerful.