Faye's Revised Roleplaying Guide

Greetings all. Some of you might remember my old roleplaying guide the former WoW Europe forums, stickied and posted under the name Faye. For the sake of recognisability I kept the same name on this guide but as you can see from my left avatar, my ingame name has changed since then :)

So, here's the new revised roleplaying guide for this forum, hoping this too gets stickied, because I like to think that with one and a half year of playing on RP servers, I know how things go down there ;)

Right, so here goes!

Roleplaying. What is it?
Simple; you're an actor, WoW is your setting. That's the basic setup for RP. Forget the stereotype that everyone talks in Ye Olde English, forget the stereotype that says that roleplayers cannot do endgame because the bosses kill them before they finished their sentence. Roleplaying has nothing to do with any of that. Wanna know more? Read on:

Where to start?
So you want to roll a character on an RP server. There's two types of RP servers in World of Warcraft, the first being the "RP" server and the other being the "RP PvP server". The names and categories of the server are:

RP:
Earthen Ring
Argent Dawn
Moonglade
Steamwheedle Cartel
Darkmoon Faire
The Sha'tar

RP PvP:
Defias Brotherhood
The Venture Co
Scarshield Legion
Ravenholdt
Sporeggar

Let it be perfectly clear that there is no difference in roleplaying between RP and RP PvP servers. A common misconception is that that "RP PvP server is a server that is both an RP, and a PvP server (ie a server where roleplaying is not required and where you can play it as if you were on a normal PvP server). This is wrong, entirely wrong. Both the "RP PvP" and the "RP" server are roleplaying servers with a roleplaying ruleset that must be followed. The only difference between RP PvP and RP is that RP PvP, obviously, has a PvP ruleset, and RP servers have a PvE (normal) ruleset where you don't have contested areas and where you are not flagged for PvP unless you choose to flag yourself.

What now? Chose my server, I wanna roll a character. But I'm new to this.
First off you have to consider what you're comfortable playing with. On a roleplaying server you can imagine that your character's gender has a lot more influence on how you play when compared to other servers (though this doesn't necessarily need to be the case, I am male IRL and play mostly female chars, all on RP servers, without having to seriously alter my RP style). Some people are more comfortable playing something that's close to home (some even taking it as far as just rolling a human and RP'ing their RL personality), while others really love to get into something that's strange to them, be this an Orc, a Tauren, an Elf or what have you.

Then again, you can also just pick a race based on what racials you like and a class based on what class suits those racials best, that's just as fine. But keep in mind, you'll end up roleplaying one way or the other.

Right, done. I've rolled a male tauren hunter. Where to start now? *clicks login*
Simple. You log in, you start to quest. Nobody obliges you to start a rant about the meaning of life against the first player you run in to. Just start whacking those plainstriders, yeap. However, as you take the time to stroll through the lowbie area and complete some quests and get some levels, you can ask yourself several questions about your roleplaying future:
- Who is your character? What is his name?
- Why is he a hunter? What made your Tauren more of a hunter than say a warrior or a shaman?
- If that question brings you to his background, then start adding some detail into it. For example, your character was always sent out to scavenge the barrens for food and supplies back when the Tauren didn't live in Mulgore yet, and this made him a hunter.

Slowly you start to get a complete image of who the character you play is.

Amagads! Someone's talking to me! He RP's!
Ohnoes! Sound the alarm! No, really. It's alright, just play along. However, don't go over the top. Don't take every chance you get to relay your lifestory to this person. Keep it easy keep it simple. Even Taurens talk about simple things like the shining of the sun or the wind through the grass. Or stomping gnomes for that matter. Most races are relatively "human" in that you can just talk about birds and the bees like you sometimes do with people you meet in real life. 

Ok, so I'm getting to feel comfortable with this. How about that person? Could RP with him! But wait, he doesn't RP back at all... I guess I don't have to either, then?
Wrong! Just because this person doesn't roleplay back doesn't mean it's ok. Tell him he's on a roleplaying server and that he should roleplay here and that if he's not into that he could either pay 20 euros for a server transfer, or reroll elsewhere. Or start roleplaying of course. You'd be surprised how many people actually are willing to learn RP once you point them to the type of server they play on.

Right. I've now levelled to 70 and I want to get into some endgame. But when I post on the forums asking for an endgame guild I get lots of flames from people telling me to get my non RP'ing sorry self off this server. What the hell?
Don't worry, even RP'ers can be idiots. Endgame and roleplaying are not at all mutually exclusive. Sure, running instances more than once is rather odd and extremely illogical to roleplay (in fact, 99% of the RP'ers don't RP raid instances at all) but that doesn't mean you're not allowed to go in there and have fun with a good guild of people, gear your character up a bit, and RP during the time you -don't- spend in instances.

However there's one other thing to look out for, and that's that some endgame guilds -do indeed- recruit non-roleplayers just because they think they can't get enough people for a full raid by recruiting roleplayers only. These guilds are naturally wrong, because if you look at the different RP servers you'll see there's plenty RP-only endgame guilds with a really good endgame progression. Main rule? Having epics is not wrong, and it does not make you any less of an RP'er. Anyone who says this is most likely bitter about not having any themselves.

I have to say, these RP servers are quite unlike anything I thought they'd be. I was expecting things to be a lot worse.
There's a lot of misconceptions about RP'ers. Just because we roleplay we supposedly:
- cannot PvP
- cannot do any good at endgame
- do not know how to play the game

Etc, etc. Of course it's wrong and RP'ers are just as capable (if not more) at WoW than anyone else. Secondly, it's also because roleplaying is hardly as hardcore as other people think it is.

What is it that other people think then?
You'd be surprised how many questions RP forums recieve daily about people being intimidated by having to roleplaying all the time, everywhere. When we inform these people that it's not the case, they're naturally relieved. The truth is actually that we don't expect you to roleplay all the time, everywhere, UNLESS it's in certain channels. Confusing you much? Let me put it simple:

/s is an in-character (IC) channel. Whenever you speak in this channel, make sure you are speaking as your character, and not as you the player.
/y is the same thing as /s. Always roleplay in this channel.

Keep in mind, this doesn't mean that you can only speak in /s when you have something really elaborate to say. An RP'ed conversation can be really simple:
"Like the food?"
"It's great! Thanks a lot."
"No problem, if you need any more, you know who to ask."
"Hehe, I will. See you later."

That already is roleplay. Anyhow, to continue:

/p is often OOC, but it depends on the party. In 99% of the cases will you find that /p is indeed used as an OOC channel. The RP policy states that /p must at all times be IC but pretty much all roleplayers agree this is a rather silly rule simply because it makes no sense to be in-character in a channel that nobody else can hear. Saying words that aren't really being said? See, doesn't make sense.
/raid is the same as /p. Especially in endgame and battlegrounds will you find that it's next to impossible to actively roleplay in this channel. People will keep whatever RP takes place to /s.
/guild depends on the guild you're in. 95% of the guilds have OOC guildchats, some have IC guildchats with an OOC channel. However often this leads to the OOC channel being used in abundance and the IC guildchat only rarely.  

Any general pointers for RP that might help me in the future?
Sure thing! Here's a few to keep in mind:
- RP can be as deep or as light-hearted as you want. I really enjoy simple RP about the weather or the Alliance when sitting at the Orgrimmar zeppelin tower with my rogue, talking to other people who also wait for the Zepp. Then again, I've also been part of insanely cool RP plots that had the depth of a movie.

- If someone doesn't roleplay back, this doesn't mean you have to stop roleplaying aswell.

- Have mercy on RP beginners. I once RP'ed with someone who used more smilies than I could count, but he was STILL RP'ing. It was probably his first real RP experience too. If I had told him to gtfo and stfu instead, just for using smilies, then I probably would've scared him off RP servers forever.

- Keep your RP original. Not everyone has to be the mighty shining hero or the insanely evil villain of engulfing darkness, etc etc. Sometimes its fun to just RP a simple guy. A soldier in the army? A freelancing bountyhunter? Anything goes!

- Employ initiative. Every RP community has people that go just that extra inch, be it by dedicating time to running their virtual tavern in the alleys of stormwind or hosting a fighting competition in the gurubashi arena for members of the Horde, guards included, etc etc. RP events, both small and large, are what make your server come to life.

- Always try to have a reason for the things your character does. This is sometimes hard, but it makes things that much better, really. Want to kill Jaina Proudmoore that badly? Try to think of why your character would want to do this. Think of a backstory that would want to make your character betray the relative peace between Orgrimmar and Theramore. Is he just an evil bastard? This is the most simple excuse of course, but maybe there's a lot more to it! Maybe several theramorian soldiers have commited war crimes to close friends or relatives that you feel Theramore as a citystate doesn't admit to enough, making you want revenge. It can be as complicated or as simple as you wish, but the important part is that if it generates RP, it's generally good enough.

This is pretty much concludes the RP guide! Feel you have something to add? Go right ahead. If it's really good stuff, I might even update the original post with it :)

Enjoy roleplaying!
- Faye