Roleplay Guides

Guide to RP

1. Introduction
2. What is Role Playing?
3. How to start; History and motives for your character
4. Conversing with others
5. Peices of Advice
6. Terminology

1.) INTRODUCTION:
This guide is not mine, I did not fully create it, I went and searched several guides and found these bits of information the most important for new members on SC. If you want a comprehensive Guide, Catwoman, on a site know as the RIFT was my main guide search as hers was the most comprehensive I could find. Find her Guide HERE. You will find this Guide is largely based of hers.

2.) WHAT IS ROLE PLAY?
"The acting out or performance of a particular role" in the case of SC in the role of a wolf in a pack. Roleplaying means that you’re staying in character; responding and behaving the way your character would when interacting with other people/characters.
Remember that it is always up to you, the creator of a certain character to come up with a back story, what they act like, what they do, and the type of behavior they exhibit away or apart of the pack.

3.) HOW TO START; History and motives for your character
I think Catwoman from RIFT wrote it best.
"Creating a character's background, something that usually comes without any trouble at all to an experienced role-player is often an impossible obstacle for a beginner. ‘A life story for my character? Why is that? I have no idea what to do.’

You can get inspiration from so many things: Characters are, along with settings and plots, integral to fiction. The world of fiction is indebted to the champions of books, poems, films, and games who populate worlds and drive plots. They’re the agents of conflict, romance, drama and humour, and many have left great impressions on our minds.
Think about your favourite characters and ‘borrow’ some of their characteristics or background stories for your own character. Mixing is also a good idea.

When first creating a character for RP, I’d say this: try and imagine them being the main protagonist of a novel. And by that I don’t mean that they’ll take centre-stage with their world-saving actions and god-like portfolio of achievements (definitely not), but what I mean is try and give them the motives, behaviour, and inner dialogue of someone who can carry a book or plot along. Because they are the main character of their own personal story, and there shouldn’t be a stigma attached to that.

Above all, be sure to give your character a full pallet of opinions, emotions, and goals. Perhaps they have a central quirk that serves as the impetus, but they also need other traits orbiting around that."

There are always different roles you can cast your character, whether as a leader, a betrayer, a follower, a friend, an enemy, a lover, and many more. Choose the type of character you want to be, the one you are most comfortable playing.

4.) CONVERSING WITH OTHERS
When you first join, always assume when entering that no one knows you, and don't expect them to. Sometimes, you'll encounter someone who knows very little of everything; their character might be an illiterate, uneducated son of a retired traveller who lived in the jungle for most of his life, or the player might simply be new to the server. Introduce yourself or ask them to introduce themselves; just do it naturally as you would during any day in the real world.
There is one golden rule that is important to follow here: Always try to be polite, to a moderate extent (as much as your character lets you, that is; everyone's different). If you boast about your merits or act all superior on them, they will be largely discouraged to talk. And that's no way to make conversation at all!
Also don’t expect people to always talk to you. The doesn’t always have to come to you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t roleplay. Go out there, take initiative and have fun!


Listening
Your character is not the main role or protagonist of your roleplay. It can never be that way, unless you have arranged with everyone involved that your character is the primary center of attention - but that will never happen. Each character is as important as the other. It doesn't matter if the difference between them is five ranks in the military or fifty years of age - all characters involved in roleplay are of equal importance.

This is why listening is important. You won't get anywhere in a conversation if you don't listen - and listening isn't only looking attentive. Remember what the other character says, and make conversation based on that. That way, you might find very curious quirks in the other character that your character might feel startled, disturbed, encouraged or even excited by! There are lots of sides to a personality, and know that no matter how hard you try, it's nearly impossible to see them all.

Be an active listener. Make eye contact, voice your opinions and offer advice if advice is what's needed.

Depending on how your character reacts to what the other part of the conversation is saying, there is always a way to further enhance the chit-chat through responding; if someone tells a story, don't just sit there like a speechless cow and remain silent even after the story, and if someone says something that interests your character, react on it and you could potentially create an entirely new branch of talking on that sole piece of interest!

Questions
Questions are actually far more important than many people think. They're not too creepy, most of the time, unless they are very personal, and they will in fact often lead to the better path of the conversation. I have always played very inquisitive characters myself, but that's majorly because I'm a genuinely curious guy. Some people might not be of the same curiosity, but questions are of great importance and practicing interest is never a bad thing.

You can always find something to ask about. For introductions, we have:

What's your name? (Everyone seems so uninterested in other people's names. Why is that?)
What are you doing here?
Are you from around these parts?
What do you like to do?
What do you do?

They are simple, short, and often don't require a lot of effort to answer, but they can be magnificent icebreakers. There's not much more to this section; people who have already met once, twice or more often find it easy to keep talking and the questions come automatically.

5.) PIECES OF ADVICE
Again I think Catwoman said it best.
Don't be too argumentative. Arguments can make a conversation run fluently, but they are usually massive mood-destroyers.

Try not to be too flirtatious, even if you've got a libido of infernal proportion - at least not from the start.

Avoid OOC communication as much as possible during roleplay. If you feel the absolute need to bring up something, use parenthesizes, or just tell someone on the chat/skype.

Always remember that IC is IC, and OOC is OOC. IC actions do not necessarily reflect one's OOC opinions, and vice versa.

Be patient! Not everyone will be an rp veteran. Encourage people to start rp-ing and don’t bash them into the ground if they do something ‘wrong’, eg. Talking in L33T-speak or using smilies in /say. Everyone can make mistakes. We want to encourage people to RP, not scare them away.
Have fun! That’s the main reason for Roleplaying! It might be scary and new, but this Shard is giving you the opportunity to realy get into the role of your character and experience the game on a whole different level!
Join a roleplaying guild and ask them to ‘help’ you getting into some rp-action. Join in their events (or shard-events for that matter) and soon enough you’ll be a rp-veteran.


I want to thank Catwoman on the RIFT for writing such a wonderfully comprehensive guide, and all credit goes to her. Hope this helps in some way to new members.