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This guide was written for the benefit of those who are new to Roleplay in World of Warcraft, for general pointers and advice on Roleplaying and information on the RP rules of conduct and the various social norms that are common on RP servers. It was made with the intention of being as objective as possible and keeping in mind that there are as many approaches to Roleplay as there are roleplayers.
Feel free to use and distribute this as you see fit, we would like it to reach as many people as possible!
Character Creation
Concept - Consider what draws you. What would get your imagination going? A misanthropic mage? An insane alchemist? A common seamstress? A power mad blood elf? a snobbish noble? Put together a simple concept you think would be fun to play. Note: There's no need to go overboard to be special. Trust me when I say everything, including everything, has been done before. You'll make yourself stand out with your actions.
The World - Your options are only limited by the world you play in. Mermaids, for example, do not exist in Warcraft (at least not in the classic sense) and therefore you would have a very tough time getting people to take your mermaid seriously. Take your time to study the lore and history relevant to your character and adapt your concept accordingly. Your Night Elf cannot possibly have been born in Ironforge, for example, unless he's 7 years old.
Personality - This is where you take your (now loreful) basic concept and flesh it out - give the character personal traits, mannerisms, principles, beliefs, loyalties, allergies, phobias. It's important to give your character negative traits as well as positive ones to make it believable.
Note: You don't actually have to do this before you start playing. Some people like to let the character flesh out itself, so to speak, and let the nuances come to them as they play.
Background - Now, you take the fleshed out concept, and give it a background. Why is your character who they are? What happened to them in their lifetime? This can
be as detailed as you like, and again, you can let it come to you as you play.
Name - I'm putting this here rather then in the rules section as this is the first mistake one can make and it is not easily undone. In RP realms, there are certain rules one must follow. The first one is to avoid unloreful, OOC or offensive names. Generally, think of what your character's parents would choose as a name - It would likely not be LOLPWN or Dumbass, and if it is, the name will likely be reported (to social services).
Getting Started
Where to find RP? - The easiest way would be to find an RP guild or organisation. Have a look at the guild adverts in the various forums and in the guild recruitment channels, and choose one that would suit your character and their background. Other ways would be to join the LFRP channel and keep checking the forums regularly for new events and projects, but the best way would be taking the initiative to just strike up conversation with someone at the pub.
Interaction - This is where the action really starts! Get into your character's shoes. Speak as it would, loud or quiet, if it has an accent or tends to swear a lot. Behave as it does, be the womanising rogue and hit on every female in sight, or be the snooty socialite and talk down to people. Use the /emote system to act out their body language and actions in as much detail as you like (though try to be considerate and not take a drag off your cigarette every other second in a crowded and spam-filled area).
Note: If you want to be interacted with, play a likeable character. Many people complain that they don't get to RP, but play a shy or obnoxious character. Be realistic about your expectations of people.
Realism - It's important to be consistent. What would you think if your favourite TV character would suddenly and with no apparent reason behave completely different from one episode to another? If you want your character to change, it's important to do it gradually and provide a decent explanation. Also, be realistic. Cause and effect work in RP as they do in real life. If you commit a crime, the Guards will chase you. If you insult someone, you can't expect them to be your best friend. If you just gave birth, you won't be as slim as a 17 years old model three days later.
RP add-ons - Many RPers use add-ons to enrich their RP experience. The most popular types of mods are:
* Description mods, which usually allow you to set a title, last name and physical description of your character and view other people's descriptions. [Immersion RP, FlagRSP2, MyRolePlay]
* Item mods, which allow you to create and trade custom made RP items for various purposes. [Gryphonheart Items]
* Chat mods, such as mods that allow you to filter OOC, automatically use an accent, make random emotes, speak in different languages (such as Draconic) [RP Helper, Lore]. My advice is to use chat mods sparingly, as they can sometimes cause problems such as incorrect filtering or emote spam.
RP Rules & Norms
OOC - The rules of the RP server forbid any OOC (Out of character) talking in public channels, which are commonly /say, /yell and /emote, in order not to break Immersion.
Immersion is the ability to immerse oneself into the game completely, to play your character as if it and the world were real. Imagine you're daydreaming about being an elven hunter in the woods, imagining the birds chirping, the smell of the moss on the trees, stalking a skittish deer, and suddenly you hear your wife in the other room screaming "Bob, you let the toilet seat up again!!". That's what one calls immersion breaking, and that is why it is important to not behave in an OOC manner. We know the game isn't real, but we still don't want it shoved in our faces.
OOC consists of the following:
* References to the real world ("Can't raid tonight, going out to the movies").
* References to game mechanics ("I did 3k DPS on Patchwerk").
* "Leet Speak" and Abbreviations ("CAN U INV TO WG PLZ!!!").
* Smilies ("OMG O_o").
It is sometimes customary to mark OOC in double brackets ((like this)) when one uses OOC in a public channel, but the use of double brackets as an excuse for OOC comments or conversations in /s does not make it okay, and it is still immersion breaking. OOC in a public channel should always be your utmost last resort, such as announcing AFK to a large group of people who are not in a party, and should not be used otherwise (even if you do have an extremely witty OOC comment to make). Always try to keep OOC to a private channel, like /whisper, /guild, /party or /raid. Even announcing AFK can be done in a more subtle and less immersion breaking way, such as:
/s Excuse me, I must go powder my nose.
/e walks off to the Lady's Room.
God-Modding - The definition of God Modding is acting in a manner overstepping your boundaries and acting as if you were God, so to speak. It can manifest in things such as breaking the pre-set rules of the world, ignoring or changing lore, or taking control of another person's character. Examples:
* Your character having knowledge beyond what would be realistic or loreful. For example, the player can see names floating over character's heads, but the character itself cannot possibly know other people's names without hearing them first. The same goes the other way - you should not give information another character should not know in an inappropriate manner, such as your character's thoughts in an emote or it's personality in a physical description add-on.
* Your character having physical or magical prowess beyond what is realistic or loreful. One unarmed man cannot possibly single-handedly defeat a platoon of royal guards armed to the teeth, and a 10 years old girl does not have the education needed to become an archmage.
* Your character having a background beyond what is realistic or loreful. You cannot decide that you are, for example, the Princess of Exodar, as lorefully there is no such thing, and if there was, then someone else would be filling the role. The same goes with having major lore characters as family members, being a vampire, having an arcanite ribcage or anything else that blatantly breaks the lore.
Power Emoting - A type of God-Modding that deserves a section of it's own, Power Emoting involves one player taking control of another player's character. This can be as blatant as "/e kills Bob", an emote which clearly takes away Bob's player's right to decide what happens to his character. This can also manifest as more subtle things such as a character description reading "This is the most beautiful woman you have ever seen". Now, who is the player to decide what the other character seeing this woman has seen in his life or what they might consider beautiful?
The customary way to go about emotes is to relate to yourself only or leave it open ended, such as "/e swings at Bob" or "/e attempts to kill Bob". In a description, describe what the person actually looks like and try to avoid subjective terminology. Always leave room for the other person to decide how they will react.
Fights - This is where power emoting is most common. In addition to avoiding that, it's important to make sure all players involved are using the same system to try and ensure an enjoyable outcome. Some players like to use a rolling system to determine the outcome of emoted actions, some like to just go outside the city and duel it out, some think that the character's level or gear should make a difference while others would rather treat all characters as equal in strength regardless of game mechanics. Regardless of what approach you adopt, remember that you should know when and how to lose if you choose to get involved in a fight.
Separating IC and OOC - Remember, what happens in character should be kept separate from out of character. Someone can be your enemy IC and still be your friend OOC, you can have an IC romantic evening with a charming young lady who OOC happens to be played by a man, and that should not matter. If you find that IC things affect you OOC and vice versa, my advice is to avoid them in the future.
Descriptions - When writing a description, again keep in mind and stay true to the lore and the power emoting norms. Along with that, keep in mind that shorter descriptions are easier to read, and very long or very flowery descriptions can make the reader give up in the middle. Try to keep to general things that another character would notice and do not appear on your character model. For example, another character might notice your character's smell, or it's uniquely shaped nose. What they might not notice is small details such as intricate jewellery or the shape of your sword pommel.
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