I normally just run up to people and boop their noses in cat form. Somehow though that turned into Mersea being catmom and adopting half the server.
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If there was someone I desperately wanted to interact with, I start off by giving them a hello, wave, or greet. Not a general one, but directed at that person. This is next to no effort and gives you a chance to test the waters without looking foolish.
The next step would be to gauge their response. If they return the emote, they’re inviting you to converse with them. If they do something rude like shoo or glare then turn around and walk away (if this response is in character, a good RPer will always follow it up with an OOC whisper to explain themselves).
If you don’t get a response, you have a few options. But never assume that the lack of response is because they don’t like you. 99% of the time it’s because they’re AFK or distracted with other conversations. Listen to other RP in the room. Are they already conversing with someone else? It’s almost always better to approach someone when they’re not busy!
If you think it’s because they might be AFK, try waiting a few minutes and/or sending them a whisper, something like “Hey, did you catch my emote?”
I have met far too many people in game that take things personally instead of considering other factors at play. Keep a positive mindset. There are lots of people out there that would love to meet you. Keep telling yourself that and don’t sit there for hours fretting. Accept the worst that can happen and have a plan for each outcome.
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With you being a hunter, I have the perfect scheme for you. I use this tactic all the time and it works. Pull out your pet (my preference is Snowmane, my snow leopard) and begin interacting with it, especially near others who are ‘watching’ the RP scene. Play fetch, or begin grooming the thing. Anything that one might normally do in real life with their pet.
You can use the pet tools, the relocation one works great. Send your pet scampering off, or swimming in the canals, or sleeping in bushes. Hunter pets are the perfect ice breaker. And don’t make it mean. If someone wants t scratch its ears, let them and use your emotes for the pet. ||Snowmane purrs, as if the ear scratch was the best thing that ever happened to him. “You lazy lug. You’ll do anything for an ear scratch.”
Voila! You RP’d with your pet, which in turn caught the attention of a living being who probably was in the same boat as you: unsure how to begin a conversation. The pet is the bridge.
Then you can use their TRP to notice something about the other player and mention it via conversation. It won’t seem out of the blue, because the pet broke the ice.
Good luck!
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stop spamming rp related threads, then.
Just hey is enough. Ask them what theyre doing. If they just got back from an adventure.
Peoples fear of talking infront of people in this game doesnt make sense. Theres no one to be afraid of here.
Sometimes people have anxiety, and anxiety tells you to be worried about/afraid of things, even if it doesn’t make sense to be. Not exactly something that is easy to overcome.
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Type in /yell “The Dark Lord is coming!” and see if anyone walks up to respond to that outburst.
Speaking as someone with anxiety, it doesn’t always make sense. Even if you logically know its not actually a big deal. 
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Yeah, that’s basically what anxiety means lol. Being afraid of something even if you logically know it isn’t something to be afraid of.
Like a boss.
Edit: Was originally just responding to Tirnol since there were so many other helpful responses already here but decided I’d throw a bit of advice in myself as well after some thought.
The best way is to have a hook of some sort to draw folks in to your character , I generally use the events I plan as a hook for my own walk ups or I look around in people’s mrps for those that I feel would be be great company for conversation. All you can do is try. At the end of the day roleplay is just writing a story within a bigger story , the bigger story being wow lore in general and the story within the story being your own character as you have written them and continue to act them out. Look for other characters you feel would help continue your story as you would like to see it happen or whom’s own stories you feel your character could help further 
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So personal note
I used to be extremely stage shy and hate public speaking
I have found that both a) just doing it gives you experience and just know it’s okay to mess up the first few times because who really cares and b) wear closed toed shoes. Wriggling your toes let’s you have an anxious tick that most people won’t notice if you are speaking in public.
Not sure if it will help, but it helped me! There’s hope for you OP and anyone else who suffers anxiety/being shy!
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If you’ll be my bodyguard, I can be your long lost pal!
They don’t wanna come here. Over here, instead of a whole city to find corners and afk in, we have one bar.
That’s it. Ten steps off the patio of said bar and you’re in OOC territory.
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I played WRA for a while and yeah, it’s only the Wyvern’s Tail. I was surprised when I moved to MG and played on Alliance and saw RP kind of everywhere
this is categorically wrong on every level
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The most important thing when overcoming walk-up anxiety is to realize that everybody is just playing a game and trying to have fun. There aren’t any real stakes involved. If you open up an RP and the person you approached seems disinterested, then oh well.
Try again. There are tons and tons of people on this server. Not everybody will like you. Goodness knows plenty of them don’t like me, haha, but I walk up on them anyway.
Just gotta train yourself not to care if you get brushed off. Easier said than done, maybe, but it’s gonna happen, and you’re gonna be fine afterward.
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The worst thing for me is that I roleplay a character who doesn’t like to be bothered, but I as a player want to be approached and interacted with. However, the few times I am approached while reading a book or tending to my pet fox, I have to tell the other player to leave, because it’s part of the character I roleplay… Then I feel sad knowing that I scared off the only chance to roleplay.
I think I responded to a similar thread a few weeks ago.
I bring that up to let you know that you are far from alone in this. Just because someone says “Walk-up welcome!” doesn’t mean that you feel like you’re welcome.
I’m going to assume you feel like you’d be intruding, yes? Like, if you see people actually RPing, there’s this thought in your mind “Oh, I don’t want to bother them”.
It’s a thought I have.
Touching on what I said on the other thread, I think this boils down to a minor lack of preparation on your part. Please don’t misconstrue that. I don’t mean you’re not prepared to RP. I mean you’re not necessarily prepared with what your character is thinking.
Role play is quite literally stepping into the shoes of someone else. It’s not at all an easy thing to do. Even the most similar of people are worlds different, at the core. It’s common to not really consider that when you’re role playing someone else. The person you’re being has values, ethics, morals, a sense of humor, all of that.
It might help to give that a bit of thought. I’m not necessarily talking about a long, drawn out backstory. But having a few major and minor things in the bag can help. People are going to catch you off guard. That’s the nature of role-play. That’s the nature of people. Because you may not have given a whole lot of thought to who your character is, it’s easy to get caught off guard and think “…crap.” The fear of that can be paralyzing, and can lead you to not want to approach other people.
To help, I’d suggest, as I said, having a better understanding of the person your death knight is. His long term and short term goals.
Long term: Coming to terms with the whole smart-zombie thing. Or, to not be flip, finding your place in a world where you remind people of one of the worst things to ever happen to the planet. Do you have family? Do you hope to reconnect with them? Do you want to go back to your old life? Do you want to start a new one? How do you deal with the desire to destroy everything?
Short term: …so, there’s this giant hole in the sky in Northrend. Or, right, to not be flip? Do you want to help this current situation? Does it remind you of something? Do you still want to go to war with the Horde/Alliance? What are your plans for today?
This doesn’t have to be, like, super involved. But it will help you have a purpose, and that can help with breaking the ice with new people.
- “I heard you talking about death magic. That interests me.”
- “Do you know where the paladins are meeting to discuss strategy? They’re too short-sighted, and they could use some realism.”
- “I have lost a puppy. The name of the puppy is Mittens. Have you seen it?”
Start doing things like this enough, and it will end up becoming second nature. Practice, practice, practice.
What the goblin said.
If someone is in a public place, for example? Like a tavern? It’s fine to respond to a public action done publicly, or said out loud.
Vanaelia has had effective RP by hearing someone say something about elves, then /eyebrow.