trying to understand RP

[Twoflower]

well, i have 2 chars on a RP-PvP server. I wanted to play some horde, and i chose a rp server because i heared that there are mature people playing on such servers :)

but i have a bit of a problem.

I dont realy like all that fancy talk. I dont want to be reduced to "you heal me smash" style of communication just because i play a ork. I dont want to write half a novel either just because i am a blood elf. And to be honest, every time i see someone walking instead of running it sets off my geek alert.

I know it is RP, but cant i just play some normal guy, with a normal level of education, doing his everyday stuff ?

I feel like i can, but every time i am in a group with someone who is more serious about RP, i get a feeling that i am not realy right for this server.

What is your opinion on this ? Can you accept someone not so serious about RP if he keeps behaving maturely ?

[GameyHarp]

If i was on an RP server I would totally get in character and do the whole nine. If I met someone like you I probably wouldn't get angry i would just ask "From which parts of Azeroth do you hail from, I have never seen that dialect before."

[Herald of Doom]

RP =/= Old English

Basically, a good roleplayer thinks of a story for his character. He can be a peasant, a warrior, a duke (but try to avoid stuff that doesn't fit in, eg King of Orcs, or HalfdemonHalfvampireQueenoftheUndead <-- true story :p ). Think of a nice background with intresting original twists, doesnt have to be much though, and stick to it. You can make up new backgrounds everytime, but it'll be less fun in the long run and it tends to be a more dull and shallow roleplay.

Good ways to start:

First name + Last name
Birthplace (country, city or general region, you can stay vague)
trade (baker, warrior, seamstress.. anything goes! )
hobby(ies)

If you do that nobody will care if you talk Ye Olde English or use Shakespearian sentencestructures or not. In fact, best RP I ever did was using american slang (foreign accent! :) )

HoD

[snowieken]

Good post, HoD. In addition to that, it's also the little details that make it fun. My girlfriend has a human priest who looks kind of elderly (grey hair, balding hairstyle, full beard, ...) so she also acts as if he is an old man by using words like "son" or "dear" and when randomly challenged to duel "no, thank you, I have grown too old for these silly games"

To me, roleplaying gets awkward a lot if too much attention and care is put into the way your character should speak. Just let it come to you naturally. Of course, in that aspect, a human is a lot easier to roleplay... But still, it's much more fun if you don't focus too much on the aspect of how you should talk.

[Shanda]

Actually there are no set rules on how you have to roleplay a specific race, class, gender and what not. There will surely be blood elves that do not speak like high aristocrats and orcs that try to avoid the "burn smash kill" stuff. You make your own character and roleplay him as you see fit. Others can have opinions or they might tell you what to do. There is no reason for you to listen though.
And if anything.. you only need to be careful of a few things. Mainly, never use smileys in /say.. dont use shorter versions of words like "lol" "brb" etc etc. And that's about it.. just respect others and the way they roleplay, as long as they keep to the simple and very much "common sense" way of doing it.

So to your question, of course.. any decent roleplayer with his brain still intact would accept you as long as you dont fool around and do annoying/stupid things while in character. You can play a lunatic of course, but using smileys and "lololol" is not an excuse for that.

[theshard]

Why do orcs have to be stupid? Maybe not the most intelligent on average but look at Thrall, with the right upbringing (or in his case, the wrong upbringing) they are very intelligent. Also the orcs have a very strong culture that tends to get overshadowed because everyone seems to associate tauren with nature, leaving orcs as (very untrue) misgotten savages.

[Mincemaker]

I don't like all the fancy talking, so I usually just have my undead speak regularly, all in full sentences. However, I also inject a very healthy dose of good manners just to come off as a very pleasant undead to talk to.

And when asked why, I just say it's for business reasons. Can't do business if every single client hates your guts, see? Who says all undead must be bitter, vengeful souls?

How you wish your character to speak is really dependent on what kind of personality your character has. If you envisions your character to be a scholar of some sort, he will be expected to speak with a refined manner. If your character is supposed to be a brute, then he is going to sound brutish.

[Uruzz]

If you play a rogue you don't even need too much of a backstory, just be evasive and ambiguous about your past. You're a sneaky assasin so it makes sense and saves you the trouble of thinking up something.

[Mincemaker]

Well, actually, that is how I play my rogue. However, my rogue does have a clear backstory, only that it is full of murder, bloody murder, more bloody murder, neglect, even more murder, blah blah murder blah blah. And, oh yeah, poisoned wine. And more murder. I kinda made the backstory sound like something from Macbeth. However, my rogue never ever divulge his past to anyone, and he lies alot, so nobody really knows what to make out of him other than the guy is suspicious as hell.

However, the one thing I always bestow upon my RP characters is a clear personality. Once, I rolled an orc shaman, and I made him look old. I always thought of him as a kind of a grouch, so each time I see some other shaman whine, he will always go, "You kids these days are really lucky and you didn't even know it! Why, back in my days, we don't get free totems! Back then, we have to carve those totems...with a spoon! And sometimes, we have to share the spoon!" and also, "You little whippersnappers do not know the true meaning of hardship! Back in those days, we don't have mail armor dropping on our feet! No sir, we have to go and hunt a damned dragon just so that we can skin him for our armor! And not those little pathetic dragons you kill, those that flies, belch elemental breath and can easily swallow you with a gulp! And we have to take down that dragon with nothing but lightning, a loincloth and our bare hands!" Yes, I know back then there are no dragons in Draenor, but I still do say it for amusement.

Fun times. As for my rogue, he is your typical sociopath who scores really really high on the Machiavelli scale. Never ever tell the full truth, lies through his teeth, kill without remorse for as long as it benefits him, and always wear a pleasant smile so nobody knew what the heck he is thinking.

[caldepen]

I think it is less the language use and more the style in which you play. I never got into all the "Forsooth! Hark! Thee shall strike at the dude with the skull atop its pate!" but on a rp server I talked as if I was the character and did not respond to questions about reality. If someone asked where I was from I would say Ironforge for example. I used regular english holding back on slang and modern euphemisms ("Don't have a cow buddy!").

I also used it as a shameless tool with which to gank and camp, due to the tough upbringing in the dark alleys of Ironforge!

[elsegundo]

you need a backstory to your character? say you fell through a portal when running around in the woods behind your grandma's house in ohio. where in azeroth is ohio? its not. what kind of mount do you have in your old world? Dodge Charger. Strange name for a mount. Yes but it beats all mounts in Azeroth. etc etc.