DISCLAIMER: This is just an introductory post about role-playing in World of Warcraft. It is not meant to tell you HOW to role-play or change your current role-playing method. This is really just an unofficial look into the various types of role-playing you might see or experience in the game. ^_^

Lets start RP’ing!

If you’re new to RP, don’t be frightened. RP’ing doesn’t make you a nerd, a dork, a geek or a loser. RP’ing is for any player who wants to interract with other players in character. That means you drop the pretense of being the average human and pick up the facade of being a Night Elf, Dwarf, Orc, or Troll etc. The aim of RP, above making yourself unique in a world filled with “the most beautiful” and “the famous”, is to have fun and convince others to have fun as well. In fact, lets keep that as a mantra for my posts: “Have fun above all else.”

The best place to start is on a Role-playing Realm. I play on numerous RP Realms: Farstriders, Kirin Tor, Sentinels, and The Scryers. If you’re feeling adventurous, try an RP-PVP server: a Realm that allows you to both kick ass and RP at the same time. At one time, there were strict rules about role-playing on RP Realms: strict adherence to RP-names, not breaking character, and more. But RP Realms are a little more — shall we say — relaxed these days. Still, they’re called RP Realms for a reason.

How to Initiate RP

There are many ways to engage in good, clean, role-playing fun. The easiest way to initiate RP is to ask for help with a quest or in the chat channels. Let’s take everyone’s favorite level 11 elite mob, Hogger: Say you’re a squishy little Mage who just can’t seem to cast Fireball fast enough to take the porker down. You need some help — don’t be afraid to admit it.

Here is the wrong way to ask for help:

Magealot: lfg hogger omfg plzzz!!! need halp now!!!!

Not only is this an abomination of the English language, but it’s not in the least bit role-playing! If I see this in a chat channel, I will do my best to ignore it. Unfortunately, if multiple spams in the General channel go unanswered, chances are Magealot will start whispering people around the area for help.

Here is an example of the right way to RP for help:

Magealot: Would any brave soul out there care to assist me in a small matter? That fiend, Hogger, needs to be taken down, once and for all!

You don’t have to pepper your request with fancy words like “thou” and “art” to get your point across. Hell, you don’t have to sound like you have a British accent (if you’re American) either. Plain, sensible English will do just fine. Something like this small but meaningful attempt will get notice MUCH more than the former attempt.

Asking for help doesn’t have to be your only method of initiating RP. Say you want to take a break from the drudgery of the game to just make simple RP contact with another player or a group of players. How can you do so in hopes of finding another soul willing to participate?

Here’s a quick story that happened to me recently. In my spare time, I like to stand next to people in the bank or at the Auction House and inspect them. Yes, that sounds very creepy and I’m almost ashamed to be typing that. -_-’ I don’t do this to be weird, I just like looking at the gear people wear. Occasionally I’ll get “caught” and someone will turn around and target me. Before WoW implemented the target-of-target trick, I could run through life inspecting as many people as I wanted in reckless abandon. (Thanks for ruining it for me, Blizz. XP)

Well, this time I got caught inspecting a level 70 Mage. I love looking at the stuff Mages wear, but I think peaking at this one particular Mage pissed her off. As soon as she selected me, I froze. To my horror, she /frowned at me! Eek! How do I get out of this??

Answer: role-play my way out of it.

Iriannis: I beg your pardon ma’am — I was just admiring your gown. How lovely!

A few seconds passed before the Mage smiled at me. She didn’t say anything in reply but she de-selected me and turned back to face the Auctioneer.

My point here: not only can RP’ing initiate contact with another player, but it can also get you out of sticky situations.

How to Keep RP Lively

You’ve managed to get into some heavy role-playing goodness at the Scarlet Raven in Darkshire. Like all relationships, things begin to cool and after awhile you and your fellow RP’ers are sitting around going “Indeed” and “Aye” ad nauseum. You want to continue, but you could have run from Expedition Point to Booty Bay on foot five times and this conversation still wouldn’t have changed its tune. What do you do?

Here are my two methods of getting out of stale RP: Number one is ask another player something about himself or herself. Everyone’s favorite topic, without fail, is themselves. Ask them about any recent trials or tribulations. Ask if they’ve been down to the Stockades yet and how they feel about the treatment of prisoners versus the treatment of beggars. Bring in celebrity gossip and ask if they think Jaina Proudmoore and Thrall are “more than just good friends.” If you pride yourself on your knowledge of WoW lore, don’t be afraid to involve it here, either.

Number two is to talk about yourself. Make up some elaborate story about how you braved the waste lands of Desolace but found the beasts of Feralas much more intense than you thought. Discuss how you spent days in bed, delirious and vomiting, because of a disease you acquired in the Hinterlands. Whatever you do, make it interesting. For example:

Magealot: Ten days! Ten days, they promised us. It would only take ten days to sail from Ratchet to Booty Bay. But I had no idea that the storms would come and nearly capsize us! For eight of those ten days, I clung to the mast and prayed to the Goddess I would survive to see Stranglethorn…

Here, you’re taking a common incident (traveling from Ratchet to Booty Bay) and turning it into an adventure. It’s fine that you took the boat from one continent to the next, but what happened along the way?

How to Affectively End RP

Sometimes that RP well just runs dry. It’s ok, it happens to everyone and there is nothing to be ashamed about. It is time now to make a graceful exit without breaking the fine RP you’ve established and kept going.

You’ve got to help grandpa or you want to answer the dungeon run request in the LFG channel. Whatever your reasons for leaving your RP, you’ve got to make your exit polite and in character. This is hard to do when you’re the one coaxing people to RP with you in the first place. But it can be done.

I have three steps of leaving an RP conversation. First, always apologize for “leaving so soon,” even if you’ve been going strong for twenty minutes. My apologies are usually very contrite with a lot of /sighing and /frowing, but it gets the point across. I don’t want my new RP friends to think I’m abandoning them and if we happen to run into each other in the future, I might like to RP with them again. Therefore, I try my best to let them know (in character) that I’m not trying to ruin the RP but I have other priorities.

Second, give an honest explanation of why you have to leave. Nobody likes a liar — don’t tell them you’re going to run Heroic Mech with a few friends because you promised you’d help them earlier and then go straight to Nagrand and farm elementals for those Motes of Water. If they’ve already added you to their friends list, they KNOW where you are. If you lie and say you’re going off where you are not, then it looks like you were “too good” for them and just wanted to rid yourself of their presence.

Being honest doesn’t mean being hurtful. If your RP friends are boring you and you want to leave, don’t /yawn and make a big deal about finding something more interesting to do. A simple “Pardon me for my abrupt exit, friends, but I have an errand I must run in the Blasted Lands,” will do just fine. If you have to logoff because your mom needs to check her email and refuses to understand why you CANNOT POSSIBLY PAUSE THE GAME, add something metaphysical to your goodbye. Say, “I must go for now, friends — for as much as I enjoy my time with you, otherworldly beings call to me.” (If it’s something as simple as a bathroom break, an out-of-character explaination will do: “((brb: bio.))”) Keep it brief, keep it simple, keep it polite.

Finally, wish them luck in questing. This can be a cute “Happy questing,” or “Good luck to all of you,” or even “See you around someday.” If you have no intentions of seeing them again, that’s fine too. Leave a good impression and you’ll be remembered.

That wraps up my introduction to role-playing. In my next post, I’ll talk about the different types of RP out there.