RP 101 / RP for dummies?

Emerald Dream
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Soo… I’ve never RP’d before and have several toons on this server (only from within the last month). I came from a dead server (non RP server) and am wanting to try to spice things up a bit, but… well… I’m not sure how RP works. Well, I know what it’s all about, but I guess the rules and regulations, so to speak.

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Hello and welcome to RP.

If I was home I could share some links to old forums and some posts we had stickied to help newcomers, but I will do my best.

There is one add-on that you will find a little daunting at first but is really awesome. So pick up TRP3 extended.

Next, there is a post not too far down called Horde Events PSA, and even if not a horde toon, it has some cross faction events listed as well as the alliance and horde discord information and the ingame community information for both.

And if you havent done so, give just a little thought to your characters story… why are they a monk or a warrior, do they have a reason they wanted to join the Horde or Alliance, or has something changed recently for them.

It doesn’t have to be much, as a lot of times once you say hi or hello to another role player, their next questions will help you start to shape your character.

But once you get in the discord(s) you will more information about events that are posted and probably more people with access to aid and guides.

Oh, and look up wow and rp and you will find some advice and a lot of good history and background info on wowpedia.

I was really new a short time ago and this is an awesome community to start this adventure in.

Have fun and I will see you around!

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Roleplaying is “acting”.

Come up with some characteristics that define your character.

  • Are you a druid that cares nothing for people and only the plants and animals of the natural world?
  • Do you have a fear of being underground?
  • Are you super friendly, the “never met a stranger” sort?
  • Are you a mage who’s only reason for adventuring to discover teleportation magic to some undiscovered realm? Perhaps only you know what is there and how to do it. Befuddle folks with your stories of this realm.

Don’t go too crazy just pick a few strong characteristics to play up. Next step is to “speak” and literally “act” as if you are this person you’ve imagined.

Not sure how Emerald Dream is these days, but you definitely need to find others to roleplay with you. Doing it alone will feel awkward. If you can find others, its the best part of playing MMOs.

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RP-PvP FAQ's (Maralah) May help ya.

Id suggest joining the emerald dream discord

Rules and regulations change with each player but main ones are “no god moding” and “stay away from lore characters as best you can”

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Well if you want the bare bones basics it generally goes like this (Keep in mind this is all IMO - others may have different advice):

  • Come up with a simple character backstory that fits your race and class. Many people like to RP professions and races that aren’t a part of the basic game but I would caution against doing that the first time you try it out.
  • Think about what brought your character to the place they are now. What events have they experienced from the campaign of the game? What differentiates them from every other Draenei Warrior for example?
  • When thinking about a “hook” or bit of personality flair be aware to stay away from making a “Mary Sue” character that SUPER special at ALL things. Things like being Velens other son, or claiming to be the true ruler of Silvermoon should be avoided. Basically anything that would cause someone hearing your backstory to say “whatever nerd” should probably be avoided.
  • Think about some goals for your character. Try to have at least one short term and one long term goal in mind. Perhaps your end goal is to just stop fighting now that the Burning Legion is gone and start farming somewhere for the simple life, but your current goal could be ending the piracy going on around Kul Tiras to make the area safer for innocent shipping
  • Make sure however when thinking about your character and your goals not to plan too much, the thing that differentiates RP from writing fiction is the interaction with other player characters. You may originally plan to do something but end up going down an entirely different path - this is a good thing! Try to stay open when possible.

Once you have a character you can see if you can find some people to RP at. As mentioned there is the Discord and numerous events and sometimes you can even find it out in the world (though occasionally that will just summon people to start tea-bagging you). When actually RPing with people the basics are generally:

  • Anything you say in /say or /yell is IC (“In-Character”) while anything you say in zone chat or (usually) guild chat is OOC (“Out of Character”). Some guilds have IC guild chat, but I dunno how much that still happens.
  • Overuse of /yell can be really annoying for people
  • You can use /emote or /e to make the game describe you’re doing something (ie /e eats sushi would show as “Lightwook eats sushi”) and this can make things more immersive.
  • But again don’t keep spamming emotes because it can fill up the chat during a busy event
  • When interacting with other players say what your character feels, says and attempts to do, but don’t try to force other peoples characters into specific actions. This is known as Godmoding/Godmodding and is very frowned upon (the difference between “I pull my sword and stab at OrcBoi” vs “I pull my sword and stab OrcBoi through the heart dead”\
  • Give people time to respond. Some people are slower reader/typers than others and I know I kinda rage out while waiting for slow people to respond - but remember some people just take a while. Resist the urge to start answering for people to fill up dead space.
  • Most importantly, don’t be a dick. Real Life comes first, if someone has to go to feed a kid or attend to an emergency it can suck, but don’t take it personally. I’ve seen way too many RP grudges start in too many games over too many stupid things.

But yeah, what everyone else said. :slight_smile:

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Be sure to spread the word of the Mighty T’paartos!

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Roleplay usually works off of your imagination and what you want your character to be. What do you see your character as ingame and build off of that. It also needs to take some inspiration from the class and spec lore, it’s a combination of both really. There isn’t very many rules, it’s what you and the people you are roleplaying make of it.