1, What is Roleplaying?
Roleplaying is taking on the role of a character in your day to day playing. It's a very broad question but roleplaying at its core, is experiencing something through the eyes of an alter ego and reacting to it as that character, not yourself.
1a, Why Roleplay?
It brings your character to life and adds an extra layer of depth and interaction to an otherwise predictable world.
When you find the right group of friends or enemies that suit your playing style, there is nothing more immersive or more entertaining than having a living, breathing character, with real friends, enemies and true meaning behind them. You'll connect with the gameworld and those around you in often unexpected and entertaining ways, which can leave a lasting and meaningful impression on those you roleplay with.
2, Common Roleplaying concepts.
2a, Emoting, in our case using * * to indicate what your character is doing.
For instance:
*bends down to examine the blade*
*roars and charges at his enemy, bloodlust raging in his eyes*
*brushes her hair behind her ear, glancing slowly at him*
This helps to convey actions and feelings as well as words during your playing, there is a danger in over emoting and taking too much of the attention in a scene but that's your balance to find over time. Using emotes will add an extra layer to your interaction and immersion into the world, it's one of the cornerstones of roleplaying.
2b, OOC and IC
OOC is the acronym representing Out of Character and IC is the acronym for In Character.
When someone is speaking or acting OOC, they are acting as themselves, the person behind the screen.
When someone is speaking or acting IC, they are playing as their characters would and speaking to you from that perspective.
This is a crucial and often difficult concept for people new to roleplay to grasp but take your time and you'll slowly pick up whats obviously OOC, movies, technical questions, real life news stories etc. IC is equally as apparent, someones hatred of picts, someones worship of an in game god, someone playing a thief stealing your gold etc.
The main thing is to separate someones love, friendship or hatred of you IC from OOC. You can be great friends OOC with your worst enemy IC and I would encourage thanking people OOC for the roleplay, to avoid any OOC misunderstanding.
2c, Roleplaying scenes or plots.
A roleplaying scene can be chanced upon, whereby your character interacts with another for a period of time, other times they are prearranged to develop a character or relationship between players.
A plot is usually a more long running story of scenes, which ultimately allow characters to shape and contribute to the end of that story. If done right, the plot contributes to the development of a character as well.
3, How do I Roleplay.
There are many ways to roleplay and indeed degree's at which you'll feel comfortable. I will eventually have a tips section near the end of this guide to give you some more specific pointers, for now lets focus on some very general concepts.
3a, Choose a type of character you want to roleplay.
The depth to which you pick and flesh out your character, depends on how much roleplaying you'll be doing. Some basic ways to get started roleplaying, are to choose some flaws or handicaps your character has and use those in your day to day playing, equally choose some unobvious strengths, this helps you to appear more human and less of a blank slate.
For a slightly more in depth experience, you might choose where your character was born, what his family were called, what religion they follow, some childhood friends that you knew.
To go into even more detail, you would pick out events that shaped your character and made them who they are today, subtle things are usually best for this, the more the better!
The more depth you go into for your character, the more you'll have to talk about or draw on when you slowly become more and more involved in roleplaying. Try to pick up things that you experience in the game and slowly build them into your character, there is nothing like recounting real in game experiences that have shaped your character, it makes you much easier to connect with to those around you and builds common ground.
You'll find it a gradual experience, as you need to get to know the people your roleplaying with and develop some sort of common ground, no matter what that commonality is, just like day to day social life.
3b, Find a guild, group of friends or like minded people
This will open up many more options for roleplaying, help you become introduced to the concepts and get involved. You'll find guild organized plots and events some of the real gravy in any roleplaying community, there is nothing like being part of a twisting and often dynamic story with real people as participants rather than NPC's.
Even if your playing as a loner or evil character, joining a guild or community which supports that will offer numerous chances to get involved in roleplaying scenes or plots.
3c, Just get out there and roleplay lines of text or actions
You'll find people will be attracted to your character if he or she is openly able to appear in character in public. The easiest things to do, even without a good knowledge of the world or lore, are to pick things at face value and speak about them or emote about them.
Being of a mercenary nature, my character is often moaning about how much i'm getting paid, its a very simple concept and easy to work into gameplay. Yours might be about the weather or lack of protection for nobles, searching for your long lost love, ordering mead at inns or the armor your forced to wear etc.
Take something at face value in the game and just speak about it openly, at worst you'll find nobody takes notice, at best you'll start making the friends you need to make.
4, Things to avoid.
4a, Godmoding, also called bunnying.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Urban dictonary
Bunnying is taking control of characters other than your own in order to make the storyline go the way you want it to.
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It's an often fallen into trap, whereby you'll play and slowly develop your character to the point of being all powerful, after all you've been in thousands of battles, your level 80 and in a big guild right?
There are many reasons why godmoding is bad for roleplay, firstly it takes away from others contributing to it, secondly many people want' to be able to 'win' a situation or scene but its not about winning its about shaping and developing a story, as soon as you realize that, you'll want others to become more and more involved in a scene.
The main tip to avoid godmoding is to attempt to do something in character, don't assume you have. The worst godmoding line ever written would be something like:
*Kills Kvan with an Axe*
Its up to the player your attacking to decide if you've hit let alone killed them, for the best form I would be put something like.
*Swings his axe, aiming low and rushing forward to try and knock his opponent off balance*
If you must think of a story or character in terms of power, you'll always find the less you assume and the more you leave up to other people to get them involved, the more people will want to roleplay with you, as your giving them more influence in the scenes outcome.
Another tip would be, to go into any scene or plot and react as if your character really was just struck with an axe or hammer and you will not only encourage people to do the same but they may actually feel guilty for godmoding in the first place *winks*.
4b, Godmoding, mixing OOC and IC information.
In some roleplaying circles, its considered godmoding to use knowledge gained OOC in your IC actions, depending on the roleplaying etiquette of the particular people you roleplay with, you might be able to explain this through stating it was a rumour, common knowledge or you were told from your sources' etc.
I tend to take my lead from others, I am happy to be followed and surprised IC by an assassin I knew about OOC, so as not to break the flow of things, this doesn't mean I won't act IC to make gradual emotes indicating my suspicion, my preparing myself and then going to investigate.
Its really down to who your in a scene with but I would always avoid things that will completely ruin the potential plot, for instance:
*Weeks of planning*
Guild Character, I know that mans a spy!
Spy, How?
Guild Character, Erm, well, I saw you with another guild tag on yesterday.
Spy, Whats a guild tag?
Its an extreme example but I think it illustrates the point.
4c, Disruption
If a scene is ongoing, especially a roleplayed event, try to get a feel of what its all about and the direction the people are trying to take it before doing something diametrically opposed to whats going on. This is controversial, I realize but the best bet is to try and message someone in charge and say if I keep this to a minimum, is it acceptable?
Lets say the king is holding a feast but your group wants to kill the king and often roleplays to that effect, you could just charge in to this organized feast and completely ruin it for everyone involved or you could interact with the guards there, have a scuffle or shout a few obscenities and then be thrown/driven out
You've had some roleplay, the guard who's stationed there had something to do so he's happy and the event carries on with no real disruption. All too often such events are attacked by wandering bandits over and over again, which does nothing to encourage people to set up the events trust me *grins*.
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