RP Struggles

Moon Guard
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In regards to the topic, I’ve been on a three month hiatus away from RP and recently I’ve been trying to come back. I have multiple toons that I’ve rped throughout my time, but every time I try to get back into it, it just feels like something is missing. I guess I can’t place my finger onto it in all honesty.
I do know that burnout does happen to people and that taking a break generally is the best way to deal with it, though I feel like I’ve done my time. I’ve already took time off away from it so I guess what it all comes down to is that I don’t understand the cause of such feelings in regards to rp.
Part of me really wants to get involved again but the other half struggles getting back in. I know I’m sort of rambling at this point, but I’m wondering if anyone has suggestions in possibly making the experience better or combating such feelings of fatigue. I’d appreciate it very much.

Thank you if you’ve managed to read this far. It means a lot.

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Feels, honestly. If I didn’t have a few friends left who still role-played, I don’t know if I’d bother since making new friends is almost not worth the effort of being flaked on by every other person that was only trying to get in my character’s pants. Making friends in real life is… a lot easier. XD

I wish you the best of luck, and hope you find the tether that you need to keep you engaged and happy. :slight_smile:

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I do appreciate the kind words. When looking at things, a lot of my friends sadly have dropped off in recent times to focus on other things. I still have some who are with me thankfully, but for the most part I do have to start from scratch. On top of that, it’s not easy to do at all in regards to finding people who share similar interests. It’s…difficult to say the least.

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Welp, at the very least if you want a dungeon buddy I’m always around for that. Don’t know if I’ve got any toon that a draenei would enjoy a conversation with. xD

Dacey#11298 is my btag

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Well, I think the first thing is to identify what exactly you’re looking for. You say that you’re looking to get involved in the RP community again while also saying that you can’t exactly put your finger on what your issue with it is. Identifying exactly what is wearing on you is an important first step to figuring out what would ultimately scratch that itch and alleviate your pain point.

Once you’ve done that, if continuing with RP is what you really want to do, figuring out what kind of RP you’re looking for will be paramount. Then you can determine what kind of people or group to become involved with. And at that point, who knows? You may find a guild or group that totally reignites your love for RP and puts to rest all your apprehensions about getting back into it.

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I definitely think that you make a good point there. Identification will go a very long way in regards to actually making things better, though I’m definitely going to need to deep-dive a bit. Self-reflection can definitely be a bit of a task, though I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out.

I do very much appreciate your contribution to the topic as it’s definitely something that I think will go a long way in the end. Now I have some figuring out to do!

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Have to know what type of bait you’re going to use before you go fishing.

It might be you just haven’t found a concept of a character you enjoy, or maybe even the type of rp itself.

Could be that you don’t wanna try and build back up what you had before because seeing all that effort from the past go to waste can be disheartening.

I say just keep your line in the water and reel it in every now and again to see what gets your interest biting.

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What type of bait I’m looking for is something I’ve been looking a lot recently. It’s something that I’ve even been trying to understand myself in order to get a better understand of what to aim for in RP. I’d say in the past couple days I’ve been getting a better understanding for sure, though I don’t want to reel in just yet.

As far as characters go, I’ve tried some of my older and even newer characters out a bit and I think it’s more having them fit within a specific group. It’s one thing that I’ve admit I’ve struggled with is finding a group in general. The more I ponder upon it, it’s probably one of the main reasons that rp has been difficult, so it’s something I’m trying to look into.

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You’re correct; roleplaying within a group - or with a concentrated but small gaggle of friends - is one of the biggest contributors to enjoying RP anywhere.

Hopefully you do find out what you’re seeking. I’ve been on the tail-end of what you’re describing as well and shared many thoughts and overall mood with what you’re currently experiencing.

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It definitely is a rather tough position to be in, though I’ve been trying to look around. There are a lot of groups, though they’re definitely not easy to enter. It’s something that’ll require patience to acquire one and even more time to fit right in.

As mentioned before, I need to keep throwing in the line when I can and see what pops up. I might just get lucky.

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I feel exactly the same. My main guild went inactive and now plays FFXIV. Nowadays, I see how difficult it is to find a nice group. Most of them seem too “close” to allow new people in, so you just kinda don’t feel part of it. It’s the same struggle… Part of me feels like I should probably try out lots of guilds until I fit in somewhere, but I’m not sure that’s the way to go.

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This has been my experience in BFA as well, the guild I was in since WoD is dead in the water and every guild I’ve joined over the past 2-3 months has been very clicky and gave off a “sure you can join our guild, also no, no one will run m+, pvp, or rp with you.” vibe ._.

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I’ve had a couple situations where a former group has fallen apart and it has definitely been a bummer to find another group. So far I’ve been trying to look for a guild myself, but I do get the same vibes. Like obviously you can’t brute-force your way into a circle, but it’s nice to just have some people to be around and have a good time with.
Currently I’ve been trying to do walk-up rp and hoping to meet some people who want to rp more later. The downside of this is that it requires multiple attempts and finding the right people. Not everyone wants to do something for the long run and I completely understand that, though I know that there might be some who do. It’s something where you just have to keep on trying.

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Same. Finding a way to get back into RP has been way more of a hurdle than I thought it was going to be. Though like Rokkol said above, I think for me at least, some of it is from not really enjoying my character. I quit RPing back in WoD because of a deployment, so I figured, “Heck, I’ll be away for a while… Might as well kill my character off?” After that WoW just became something I’d casually play with my brother and goof around with. During Legion, I was medically retired and decided since I have a LOT of spare time on my hands I’d get back into RP. But, I haven’t managed to do much more than wander around Stormwind. Part of me wants to just go back to the character that I killed off, but I like that chapter being closed.

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Oh man. This so much. I had an alliance character as my main and due to unfortunate events (but natural consequences for all the nonsense she got into lol) , she died and I retired her from the RP scene. It was a tough decision to make but I don’t regret it as I think that was the only realistic way out for her, and it taught me a lot as a role player. My issue is that since her death, I have been flopping between alts, trying to get into something I like. I have tried different races, factions, concepts… I just can’t find “it”.

As far as a guild is concerned, I have made a couple of attempts to join some but despite efforts of breaking through and being active, the “inner circles” were just too hard to interact with and they were pretty closed off beyond the initial recruitment. Go figure? The last guild I tried out was friendly enough IC but OOC was an entirely different thing. For me OOC is so much more important since I can try to work with most concepts if the guild has a good OOC atmosphere. I was never personally wronged but man did I see some people treated poorly in there and/or horrid general statements. Which I guess is an entirely different can of worms. So much to consider and work through when trying to get settled into RP. At least I have a couple of friends who I can consistently roleplay with but it would be nice to be part of a larger-ish group too.

Edit for typos. Thanks autocorrect!

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Definitely making a character that really interests oneself is difficult and it requires a lot of self-reflection to figure out what one likes and dislikes. I’ve been doing that a lot recently and I’ve figured a few things out. I don’t know if it might be of much help to anyone, but here’s my thought-process and what I’ve been doing:

-Lawful or chaotic: This is basically is indicating whether you want to play a lawful or chaotic character. Are you the one that abides by the law or are you willing to break it and cause some trouble? I noticed for myself I like to play rather chaotic characters as lawful characters don’t seem that exciting to me personally. Obviously that is all preference and can vary.

-Rp ‘genre’: Basically what type of rp are you into and what themes do you like? I realized that I do like a variety of things, but what I noticed I like the most for myself is comedy, adventure and even horror.

-Theme: This is a difficult one especially for me since sometimes the theme is picked for you with your race and class. It also involves the other two things I just mentioned as well, though specifically this is the theme of the character and who your character is. Are they a Void priest? The warrior that rushes in to protect the weak?

-Interaction: How do you like to interact with people? This to me involves two things: the way one speaks and the way it is written OOCly. Does your character have an accent? A stutter maybe? Also do you like paragraphs or just small sentences?

Obviously this is just what I’ve been going through myself as I try to figure out my own dilemma and I’m sure there is ten-thousand other ways to go about it. Also I’m sure there are many more points that could be added, so feel free to add and even critique if you guys want!

In regards to “inner circles”, I do agree that they are very hard to become part of and it does suck when you feel left out. I’ve seen this both ICly and OOCly actually, though it’s more thought as an OOC thing. I used to know someone who couldn’t change their character because when they did, they were left out ICly. It’s definitely a tough position to be in.

Also finding a guild that is awesome ICly and OOCly is even more difficult, since both are crucial for making good RP. The one thing that anyone doesn’t want to suffer from is OOC drama, as it’s a game for us to all enjoy and have fun with. If we’re not having fun, then what’s the point? It should be fun and it should be fun with the people you’re with. RP is nothing with one another as it’s a team effort where we are able to create the awesome stories together.

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I can’t agree more with this. It’s difficult to find this. I once did during WoD but unfortunately the guild fell apart a year later. The guild had vastly different characters; most of them my character got along with really well, a couple she didn’t. However, even those players were super nice OOC and we actually had pretty fun with it all, especially when they had to agree to disagree during events where they needed to work together to solve things. Outside of those moments, they pretty much went back to their mutual dislike. I learned that with the right people and good communication OOC, IC conflict can be pretty interesting.

I have since been looking for something with a similar community but have not really found it. Perhaps one day? I will remain hopeful =)

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One thing I think that’s been neglected in terms of RP-finding is also weather or not the character is “RP-friendly”. Not all ideas, no matter how “fun” they may seem to yourself, are fun for others. Not all characters work in a group setting. Heck, not all characters work in RP. At least not with strangers who have to make a judgement call in the span of 20 minutes over whether or not to trust that character enough to continue a story with them.

Was talking to a friend the other day about this wild phenomenon I keep seeing more and more of, where people create characters so obnoxious that not a person alive would want to be their friend IRL, and yet they’re shocked pikachu face when nobody wants to RP with them in-game. :thinking:

I mean I understand the point of comedy and slice of life characters but at some point you gotta ask yourself: Is anybody else having fun with this?

(Edit: I suppose I should mention that this is a generalized “you” and not aimed towards anyone in particular.)

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I’m sure that there is something out there that is like the community you once had. It might take some time and searching, but once you meet the right people, you basically hit gold. The hard part though is the journey and that journey determines who you’ll find on the way. Thankfully since I’ve wrote the initial post, I’ve actually met some awesome people and have had some of the best RP in awhile. I was initially burnt but because of the people I met throughout the journey, I’ve gained some of my passion back for RPing. I’m still not in a guild yet but because of the people I’ve met, it almost feels like I am. I admit, I probably will still look for one (the more the merrier) but I can say with confidence that I’ve been happy with what I’ve encountered since coming back. I hope that you too find some great people who share your passion for rp and that meeting these people gives you a even more rich and fulfilling experience!

I do get where you’re coming from in regards to this point. I think in my opinion that it really depends on the people you’re with, since in regards to such characters it depends on the group setting itself and the dynamic in which it takes place. There is, however, definitely the rare but potential outcome where a character might just not fit into anything, or at least seem like it doesn’t. On the other side, I’ve also seen in the past where characters that aren’t obnoxious at all and work well with certain groups get stagnant with other groups. Some characters also might work well in walk-up scenarios while guild scenarios might be completely different. Same goes vice versa.

When it comes down to it, it’s really has to do with what I’ll call ‘The Audience’. In regards to a specific character, you really need to know who your audience is. In regards to obnoxious characters, there might be specific audience that caters to them, but it might be limited or harder to find compared to a more reserved character. Generally guilds or even groups also have ‘themes’ to them, which indicates that they’re looking for specific characters within their social dynamic. In other words, a character must meet a specific requirement ICly that would suit ‘the audience’ (those running the guild/group in this case) in order to fit in. On top of that, there is as mentioned by others, a potential of an inner circle OOCly, so it adds and extra layer even if a character does fit the criteria.

I know I might be rambling off at this point, but what I’m getting at is that in reality, RP is a complex social dynamic with many factors involved in it since there isn’t an ‘absolute’ definite answer on how to RP. There might be a common thought-process among people of what be considered ‘fun’ or ‘enjoyable’ and even commonplace rules to benefit the overall community (e.g. no godmodding), but there isn’t anything outside of that in regards to how a character’s personality has to be. Definitely I’m not saying that you should be forced to like something that you don’t, as that would be unfair for sure. Basically people have different tastes and it’s those tastes which put people in specific areas. Some people might dark themes. Some like social events over combats events. Some people might just want to be obnoxious with one another. It all comes down to finding like-minded people in the end to have a good time with one another. Besides, it is all about fun in the end. It just requires finding people with the same type of fun.

Edits: For typos and better grammar.

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