Scared to make a toon on a rp sever...

[Qinni]

Yea, I'm a bit hesitant to make one for maybe several reasons....

One of them is being embarrassed, the second one is lack or role playing experience and third is the role playing snobs. Any tips or just talking about this would help. bleh...I'm such a worrie wart.

[Acherontia]

My strong suggestion is to ask around on the realm of your choice and find a guild or community willing to help you learn. Ask them for roleplaying guides and hints. You can try realm forums, or just dragging a lowbie toon into /2 to ask around.

I started out on Defias Brotherhood and got a guild that was more than willing to teach me the ways of the roleplay I stopped a bit after, so I'm STILL a little nervous if I go into an RP scenario, but they were really good in explaining things and helping me relax.

I think my most embarrassing moment was when I hit a macro that had an emote in it, and it SPAMMED it--literally called my wolf 30 times in the space of a second. They were enormously amused, but not at my expense, which really helped me out! So tl;dr, find a good, noob-friendly RP guild to help you get your foot in the door!

[Chimera]

RP servers arent much different anymore then Normal servers. Ive spent all of WoW's lifespan on RP servers 'cept a few months here and there on Nesingwary which i started in just last year. There are a few snobs yes, but you wont encounter really any of them at all if you dont scout out any RPers or try to RP in a populated area. If you are looking to RP, a little research for the right group is definitely a plus so you dont find yourself high lvled on a crap server that you hate. But really, they arent scary at all once you find one that you like ^-^

[Kayb]

RP servers = normal servers. I've been on a decent number of rp servers and very rarely do I ever see any form of RP

[Niabi]

I am pretty much the same way Qinni.

I have a very specific idea of who my characters are and how they interact with the world around them. Still, I don't see myself actively participating in any of the RP realms mostly because I'm afraid my views and style may contradict the norms practiced by seasoned role players.

I also personally like the idea of not having to be in "rp mode" every second I spend inside of the game. I pretty much develop some sort of backstory, followed by a personality profile for each of my characters and then just leave it at that. Conversing as one of my characters and pretending to be them for any duration isn't really my cup of tea.

Kayb's statement pretty much sums up what I've come to learn about RP realms, unless one is initiated into a respectable and active rping guild. My advice wouldn't be all that much different from what Acherontia suggested either. Start up a toon on each of the realms and chat with the natives. It's the only way you can know for sure whether it's something you'll want to invest into long-term.

[Worba]

RP servers = normal servers. I've been on a decent number of rp servers and very rarely do I ever see any form of RP

Depends on personal experience - I've found that RP servers are 1) generally quieter, more mature and better behaved, and 2) if you want to actually RP, you generally have to go looking for it, e.g. it's not usually going to happen on /trade, /general or etc, and even 1:1 RP'ers are often slow to approach those they don't know.

But again, that's what I've found in my own travels, YMMV.

[Lupis]

RP servers = normal servers. I've been on a decent number of rp servers and very rarely do I ever see any form of RP

Definitely depends on the server you pick. There are a few servers with very active RP communities. WrA and Moon Guard are the two that I remember off the top of my head, but I think… Earthen Ring is good too?

Many RP servers are dead RP wise, though. And playing on an RP server doesn't exactly mean you must RP- some people play on them for the community, which *tends* to be a little quieter and more fun-based instead of hardcore. From what I've seen, you will not find the bigtime raid guilds on RP servers. There are raid guilds, obviously, but it tends to not be as big a priority.

And Qinni- read some guides and dive in. I was super scared of RP until I was suddenly scooped up by a heavy RP guild… the first time I'd ever roleplayed in game. xD They were very helpful people too. But there ARE snobs, you just need to choose your RP location.

[Qinni]

Thanks for all the tips/post guys, I think I'm going to try out some severs today. I always wanted to rp as a worgen that is more on the feral side. (being a beast > humanity)

[Nachtwulf]

WRA and MG are indeed the two most active servers. Stormwind is the RP hub for Alliance (mostly in the Cath and Mage districts, but a bit in Old Town). No one RPs in Trade or Dwarven much due to non-RPer spam, people talking OOCly, and general hubbub.

I don't know about MG, but WRA has an unofficial RPer resource at http://wyrmrestaccord.org where people can network, find guilds, share art and stories, keep journals, and all that stuff.

A few important tips about RP though.

1) Don't claim you're awesome just because you're 85. While a lot of people may use level as a ruler of amazingness, remember it's just an artificial game mechanic. A person could still be a Silver Hand veteran or Dalaran magus even if they aren't at level cap. (Also if someone snubs you or picks on you because you AREN'T 85... just walk away, they're probably jerks and you don't want to RP with them anyway.)

2) Don't use text speak. PLEASE PLEASE GOD PLEASE. Your posts here seem all right, but if there's one thing that will immediately get you the snub, it's using 'u' for 'you', using 'lol', 'k', 'omg', or anything else like that while trying to roleplay. You will be labeled a 'txtkiddy' and no one but other txtkiddies will talk to you. It's not being a grammar nazi, since this isn't a matter of 'grammar'... it's being able to type a whole word without having a spazfit. No one likes txtkiddies. (also, no emoticons in IC speech.)

3) Be polite. Not in the sense of your character being polite, because that's a matter of RP, but take into account the other people you're RPing with. Don't powergame, don't assume their actions for them (I punch you and break your teeth! <-- big no-no), just let them respond to your posts whatever they are on their own power.

4) Make sure your character isn't going to get ridiculed for being the child/sibling/parent/lover of a major lore character, a class that isn't in game, a race that isn't playable, a dragon, or not based in some grounding of lore. Yes, you'll see DKs calling themselves 'Dark Shamans', paladins claiming they're 'Eredar', and who knows what else, but 95% of them are bads, and you don't want to be associated with them. Especially when you're first starting out RPing, stick to the normal. A really good ruler for your character if there /is/ something special about them, is to think about them and if you stripped away all their shiny snowflakeness, would they still be an engaging character with a backstory you want to play. The real "Mary Sues" are the ones that are nothing but floppy cardboard when you take away all their special story toys.

And 5) Don't be too self conscious. No one's going to be grading you on any of this stuff. Just get out there and do it, and you'll eventually find a niche for yourself.

Good luck!

[Acherontia]

Good luck, Qinni!

Amazingly enough I managed to reserve the name Feral on a major RP-PvP realm on EU side about a year ago, and happen to have started my own "on the feral side" Worgen rogue earlier this week. I won't be seriously RPing with it, not for now anyway, but the coincidence is nice

(Have just had to fend off one fool so far mocking me for naming a non-druid "Feral" >.>)

[Boven]

RP servers = normal servers. I've been on a decent number of rp servers and very rarely do I ever see any form of RP

It depends upon the server. All my really active characters are on Argent Dawn, which was one of the original servers when WoW was first released. It always seemed to be the 'recommended' server when one chose the RP option, even when there were newer, lower population ones.

At one time AD did have a large and even thriving RP community in both factions. Over time, the community weakened and now you'd be hard pressed to tell any difference from a regular PvE server. There are those of us who still RP. Much of it is fairly casual and often inside guild chat. At present, I'd say the Alliance has a more active RP community on AD than the Horde does.


Adding to what others have already said in this thread, I'd point out that your character doesn't have to be anybody particularly amazing. My main (I still consider him my main even though I don't play him nearly as much as I used to) is just an old Tauren who grew up in the Barrens and tries to keep up with all the changes to the world in the recent past. Sometimes he misses the 'old days,' not because they were necessarily simpler or better, but because they were easier for him to understand.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I also personally like the idea of not having to be in "rp mode" every second I spend inside of the game. I pretty much develop some sort of backstory, followed by a personality profile for each of my characters and then just leave it at that. Conversing as one of my characters and pretending to be them for any duration isn't really my cup of tea.

This is a common misconception about RP servers. I think I spend most of my time on WrA listed as OOC (out of character) unless I really feel like RPing and interacting with the people around me. There's no rule that says just because you're online that means you have to be IC all the time.

Sometimes some of the funnest RP is just having someone walk up to you and something random happens out of it.

The others all touched on the other, really good stuff so I won't go there; I just wanted to clear up that misconception up there. Good luck, Qinni and anyone else looking to try RPing.

[Niabi]

I also personally like the idea of not having to be in "rp mode" every second I spend inside of the game. I pretty much develop some sort of backstory, followed by a personality profile for each of my characters and then just leave it at that. Conversing as one of my characters and pretending to be them for any duration isn't really my cup of tea.

This is a common misconception about RP servers. I think I spend most of my time on WrA listed as OOC (out of character) unless I really feel like RPing and interacting with the people around me. There's no rule that says just because you're online that means you have to be IC all the time.

Ah! That's good to know. Thanks TD

[Worba]

Personally I've always operated under the assumption that you don't have to RP on RP servers, just so long as you don't do anything that's obviously contrary to the environment, like having a stupid name (as in ikillforfun, orcsrokk, etc), spamming /general with RL topics, using (as someone else noted) lolspeak, or otherwise dissing on the RP experience. But if you just want a place that's quieter and less d00d-infested, RP servers can be a relatively safe haven.

[Azunara]

RP servers = normal servers. I've been on a decent number of rp servers and very rarely do I ever see any form of RP

It depends upon the server. All my really active characters are on Argent Dawn, which was one of the original servers when WoW was first released. It always seemed to be the 'recommended' server when one chose the RP option, even when there were newer, lower population ones.

At one time AD did have a large and even thriving RP community in both factions. Over time, the community weakened and now you'd be hard pressed to tell any difference from a regular PvE server. There are those of us who still RP. Much of it is fairly casual and often inside guild chat. At present, I'd say the Alliance has a more active RP community on AD than the Horde does.


Adding to what others have already said in this thread, I'd point out that your character doesn't have to be anybody particularly amazing. My main (I still consider him my main even though I don't play him nearly as much as I used to) is just an old Tauren who grew up in the Barrens and tries to keep up with all the changes to the world in the recent past. Sometimes he misses the 'old days,' not because they were necessarily simpler or better, but because they were easier for him to understand.

This is also the same story here for Cenarion Circle. We had a great RP community. We set up an in-game server chat for both factions. There were a few really good RP guilds that if you joined, you'd get all the delishush stories. And then it sort of faded away and became extremely inclusive. I haven't actually checked up on it in months, I've been on a different server.

I know Horde side CC is usually far better off than Ally side, if again, you can get in the right guilds. Essentially, do research. A lot of it.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Personally I've always operated under the assumption that you don't have to RP on RP servers, just so long as you don't do anything that's obviously contrary to the environment, like having a stupid name (as in ikillforfun, orcsrokk, etc), spamming /general with RL topics, using (as someone else noted) lolspeak, or otherwise dissing on the RP experience. But if you just want a place that's quieter and less d00d-infested, RP servers can be a relatively safe haven.

Maybe on some of the smaller servers, but I know when I'm on horde side WrA when it comes to general channel and trade chat, it's just like being on a regular server. There's still a ton of garbage spamming and people being stupid and asinine and there's definitely still a ton of really stupid names. The rules on RP servers, from what I've seen anyway, aren't actually regulated all that strictly and I know there's quite a few people there that aren't into RP at all but play on RP servers because their friends are there. There's also the occasional jerk that feels the need to roll a toon on the RP servers and pop into trade just to say stuff like "lol RP is for noobs."

To me and my experience on WrA, it's exactly like playing on a normal server except that if I so choose I can go find a couple of hot spots or join a guild and find both random and structured RP.

Also, there's no reason to limit RPing just to RP servers! I know a small group of my friends and I have a specific channel set up on the server most of us frequent just for RPing and if you choose to run addons such as MRP you'd be surprised to find others on normal servers running the addon with RP info actually set up in it.

[Melentari]

Personally I've always operated under the assumption that you don't have to RP on RP servers, just so long as you don't do anything that's obviously contrary to the environment, like having a stupid name (as in ikillforfun, orcsrokk, etc), spamming /general with RL topics, using (as someone else noted) lolspeak, or otherwise dissing on the RP experience. But if you just want a place that's quieter and less d00d-infested, RP servers can be a relatively safe haven.

Maybe on some of the smaller servers, but I know when I'm on horde side WrA when it comes to general channel and trade chat, it's just like being on a regular server. There's still a ton of garbage spamming and people being stupid and asinine and there's definitely still a ton of really stupid names. The rules on RP servers, from what I've seen anyway, aren't actually regulated all that strictly and I know there's quite a few people there that aren't into RP at all but play on RP servers because their friends are there. There's also the occasional jerk that feels the need to roll a toon on the RP servers and pop into trade just to say stuff like "lol RP is for noobs."

To me and my experience on WrA, it's exactly like playing on a normal server except that if I so choose I can go find a couple of hot spots or join a guild and find both random and structured RP.

Also, there's no reason to limit RPing just to RP servers! I know a small group of my friends and I have a specific channel set up on the server most of us frequent just for RPing and if you choose to run addons such as MRP you'd be surprised to find others on normal servers running the addon with RP info actually set up in it.

I play on Moon Guard and WRA almost exclusively, so let me put in some notes here.

I've not RPed on there, besides with close friends, in years, so no, it's not fully required. However, if anyone is doing anything against the RP guidelines, you can report them and action will be taken as long as you mention in the ticket that the server is an RP server and they are breaking RP guidelines with what they're doing. I've gotten people's names changed like that before.

The real thing with the RP rules is that Blizz is counting on the community on RP servers to be self-policing. You can't wait for them to notice something and fix it - you have to be proactive in your reporting and documentation. That's how you "fix" an RP server. You get out there and report the violations and eventually, if the people keep getting reported, they will be banned. But you can't just assume something will be done. You have to do it.

[Galaxy]

All the above, and you're more than welcome on Venture Co! We have a seriously active RP community (even quarterly writing contests) but it's pretty invisible if you don't have someone to guide you into the RP world! (We, as an RP community, don't have a high tolerance for public ERP, so Goldshire is still a safe place to be if Alliance) Look me up! Send me a PM and I'll tell ya' how to find all the RP if you decide to come out to Veco