Lelling 402 Report post Posted June 1, 2016 Hello! If you're reading this, you're likely interested in roleplaying, but don't know where to start. Here's some quick info courtesy of my WoW roleplaying to get you started, with terms adjusted for GW2! What is roleplaying? In games, roleplaying (or "RP") means giving your character a name, personality and background of their own, and responding to things as your character would. Why roleplay? Well, if you like acting, improvising, socializing or writing stories then you will probably find roleplaying very enjoyable. You'll also probably like it if you are interested in the backstory (or "lore") of Tyria. Are there roleplaying servers? No. *looks at Anet sternly* But there are roleplaying guilds! Most of the time you can spot them quite easily as they usually go for the [RP] guild tag, regardless of their name. How does roleplaying affect my experience Most roleplayers usually do not roleplay full time, and do break immersion whenever playing alone or with non-roleplayers (i.e., most of the time). Some use specific characters for PvE/PvP and specific characters for RP. But, there are a few things roleplayers try to stick to all the time. Naming rules Characters and pets need to have suitable roleplaying names. They cannot contain: Partial/complete sentences (e.g. Ilikecheese or Lets Kill Kralk) Real world references (McDonalds, iPods, etc.) Nonsensical parts or phrases ("lol", "wtf", "X", etc.) Anything that isn't a name (e.g. Deldrimor Ingot, Glints Other Egg) Common chat useThe /say chat is for roleplaying in. That means using other chats for out-of-character ("OOC") things. Generally, while roleplaying, try to avoid the following in say chat: Smilies (such as or :P) Abbreviations/leetspeak (such as 'lol' or 'noob') Real life/the modern world (e.g. 'My cat just jumped on the keyboard!') Game mechanics (such as levels, DPS, chat channels, etc.) Creating a character Character creation varies from person to person. Some people plan everything about their characters at the start - they know their character's family, birthday and even favourite food before they've even logged in for the first time. Others only decide a couple of details at first, then log in and start roleplaying, developing the character as they go. It's up to you how detailed you want to be, but there are a few details every character needs: Name Your name is important - once you've chosen it, you're pretty much stuck with it unless you want to start all over again or pay for a name change. With an RP character, you also need to find a name that suits your race. If you're unfamiliar with the naming conventions of Tyria, they're quickly explained here. If you need more ideas, we would suggest looking at NPC names and trying to follow their pattern. Whatever name you choose, don't just copy the name of a famous fictional character! It's not very imaginative.Personality Try to pick some key traits for your character, both negative and positive. Is your character nosy, shy, flirtatious, greedy, generous? Is there a reason why they are the way they are?Backstory Think about your character's age, birthplace, upbringing and experiences. This may be difficult if you are new to Tyrian lore, but you can find a nice, short outline of your race's past at character creation. Remember, your backstory is your creation and no one else's - no one can tell you what to put in it, including us! However, there are a couple of things experienced roleplayers will suggest avoiding - things such as Avoid relations to known / epic characters in the game (e.g. Logan's child, Zojja's long lost brohter, Caithe's secret lover) Avoid race-bending or shapeshifting (e.g. "half-charr, half-asura", "I use a human model but actually I'm a grawl", "poses as a Norn, is secretly a shapeshifting skelk"). The idea might be cool, but it will break immersion for most players. Avoid demonic/vampiric possession - especially when it's lorebreaking. Avoid personal story-related backgrounds. When it comes to the "Pact Commander" - i.e. the personal story we play as GW2 players, it's customary to speak of them as a legendary hero, and since all players have equal claim to the title, it's customary to avoid using it, otherwise there would be 5 million heroes who had slain Scarlet out there. Don't worry if you mess up. Everyone's first roleplaying character was Logan's half-norn child who was secretly possessed by a demon. But we learn, improve, and retcon! Starting out When you first create your new RP character, you may not know how to begin RPing. You can just start levelling if you want, and most people do, because starting zones are quiet. Once you've reached a busier area, like a city for example, try some of the following things to start roleplaying: Walking instead of running. This sounds insignificant, but it gives off a signal that you're a roleplayer, so others know they can RP with you if they can find a reason to (most of us don't just strike up a conversation with any random person in the street, after all). Emoting things, e.g. looking in your bag, or checking your mail. You can create custom emotes like this by typing /e into the chatlog. For example, if your character's called Malena and you type /e searches through her mailbox, it will appear in the chatlog as Malena searches through her mailbox. Visiting a RP 'hotspot'. In general it's best to roleplay as much as possible wherever you go, rather than rely on one place to find RP - but if you're a beginner it's a good idea to find a gathering of roleplayers and see them in action. The Grove is one such spot. Another place to also start roleplaying is looking at the calendar on this website and looking for Roleplaying events. Most of these are open to the public, so you should be able to just hop in and join! Finding friends to RP with. Since we don't have roleplaying servers, roleplay isn't everywhere, and because there are few in-game events attracting roleplayers, we're pretty scattered - sometimes you need to go looking for RP, or create it yourself and wait for people to join in. It's also nice to have a group of friends to roleplay with when the RP scene is quiet. You can make yourself known on the forums, join a good RP guild, or try the old map chat, although that might produce varying results. Things to avoid You will become better at RP as you keep doing it, so don't worry too much about making mistakes, but we'll point out a couple of common ones you can try to avoid. "Godmoding" Taking control of someone's character, for example /e pushes Harry into the lake. It would be better to write /e tries to push Harry into the lake. "Poweremoting" Acting as if your character is invincible. We're all human(oid), and no character is immune to everything. If someone unexpectedly throws their drink in your direction, try being drenched and confused rather than just magically dodging the drink. If someone tries to throw you in the lake, you don't have to let them succeed but you should consider it. Roleplaying is about cooperation; let others win once in a while. This rule goes hand-in-hand with the rule above. Think of roleplaying like improv, and you can find it's way more fun to roll with someone else's idea than going with what you originally planned. "Metagaming" Acting like your character knows everything you know. For example, you may be able to see on a stranger's tooltip that they are a thief. But if you approach him saying 'Hey, thief!' you're metagaming. Your character probably wouldn't know the stranger was a thief, after all. Another example is letting your character know too much lore; everything experienced by the "Pact Commander" isn't common knowledge, for example, and most regular inhabitants of Tyria aren't aware of everything players are. Use your judgement when deciding how much your character knows. Other advice Not everyone roleplays Most people running around Tyria aren't interested in RP. A lot of them don't even know what RP is! You'll see a lot of people breaking the "rules" we described above, because there are no roleplaying servers (*cough*). However, if someone is roleplaying, just be considerate and don't jump around like crazy between them and the person they are talking to, and treat everyone with respect.Maybe avoid The Busted Flagon For some reason, the place is crazy. It's full of ERP, OOC, and people doing the most ridiculous, unrealistic, over-the-top RP you will ever see. Sylvari prostitutes, asura pretending to be the children of humans, people claiming to be Trahearne's daughter... It may have its good days, but overall, it's the worst place to learn anything about roleplaying.RP-related abbreviations/phrases RP Roleplaying IC In character OOC Out of character RPer Roleplayer Lore The backstory of the world you're roleplaying in Godmoding Taking control of someone else's character without their permission Power-emoting Trying to make your character flawless and invincible Metagaming Treating OOC info as IC info 1 Share this post Link to post
