A Guide To Making Believable WoW Roleplay
How To Create A Realistic And Fun RP Character For Warcraft
The key to enjoyable role play is to make it believable and to really get into character. While a player may not have much in common with an orc or an elf it is still fairly easy to create an interesting character that's easy to stick to with just a few tips.
Choose A Race
The race the player chooses for their character will influence the actions of that character a great deal. A Blood Elf will have a deep connection to magic, a Tauren will have a respect for the world around, and an Undead may well be quite bitter and/or sad, having been recently killed and brought back to life.
Beginners may want to create a human to start with, while they get the feel of role play, or may want to jump straight in to a more foreign character. Whichever character they choose there are a few things to bear in mind.
Dos and Don'ts
There are some basic dos and don'ts to bear in mind when role playing which will both make the game more interesting and avoid annoying other players.
- Remember the basic racial traits.
It is highly unlikely that a Night Elf or a Tauren would have no religious beliefs, or a Draenei would have been born on Azeroth. A good grounding for each race is given in the introduction when the character first enters the game, and is repeated on the race information page on the official World of Warcraft site.
- Stick to the rules of the server the character is playing on.
Usually this means using the General, /s and /y channels for in-character chat only. Role play servers usually have the rule that a name should be realistic, even if it is completely made up, so names such as 'Mytroll', 'Killergnome' or 'Blink182rocks' are best saved for none-RP servers.
- Don't 'Godmod'.
This is when a player starts to dictate how other characters will react, for example, "Ziah walks into the room and everyone turns to look at the stunningly beautiful elf". There may well be players in the room who are doing other things and so wouldn't notice the elf come in, or they may not think she is beautiful. Better to leave it at "Ziah walks into the room and looks around" and then see what happens next.
- Try to find a good RP guild which organises events and spontaneous RP.
Many guilds will advertise events taking place around Azeroth, and these can be good places to strike up conversations with guild members and find a guild to join which will give a player more opportunities to role play.
- Don't be afraid to use emotes.
A character can be made interesting even if they're not doing anything by simply typing /e and a description. For example "/e looks up at the stars and smiles" or "/e looks lost in thought". The /e will be replaced with the character name when it is posted.
- Don't use smileys or text speak in in character conversation.
Use /smile or /frown and try to use proper English (or whichever language the realm is in). Role players generally don't mind bad spelling as long as an effort is being made to stay in character.
Add Ons
There are plenty of add-ons available to enhance a role play experience.
Gryphonheart Items is used by many RP-ers to create extra items, from food and drink to games and 'illegal' drugs. Some servers have a thriving 'black market' based on GHI items, which provides a very interesting setting for role playing.
Flag RSP and MyRolePlay are also popular as they give players the ability to fill in more information about their character, including a last name, a title and some additional information about the character.
However, this isn't a place to fill out the character's life history - that should only come out to close acquaintances - but it can be use to fill in things that people would see when they look at the character, for example how tall he or she is, whether they have blue stripes in their hair, or an unusual scar, walk with a limp, or keep scratching their knee.
Keep It Simple
Role playing can be an exciting and fun way to play WoW if it is done well. The best way to build up a good character that will be fun to play with is to start small, keep it simple, and gradually build up from there. Players shouldn't worry if they don't have a full back story prepared before starting out - often the most interesting characters start with very little history.
Finally, most experienced role players will be happy to offer advice if players send them a whisper. New role players should be willing to learn, mix with other role players, and most of all, have fun!
Interacting With Other Players Makes Gameplay Fun
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