Roleplaying Basics

Last week we talked about time investment in RP – exactly how much time is required for “effective” RP.

This week’s column addresses a question from a commenter who wonders just how much of a time investment is involved with roleplaying.

Last week, we talked about what makes a Mary Sue character -- a character so perfect that they always do everything right, have no weaknesses, and never lose a battle.

You may have heard of her, if you're a roleplayer; her name is usually invoked when people are criticizing characters.

If you've been roleplaying for years, chances are you've encountered new roleplayers before -- people who have obviously not tried to roleplay before, whether they didn't have the chance to, or if they're new to the game.

Usually when you're creating a character, you want to make something unique, distinctive -- something nobody's really ever seen before.

Roleplaying is one of those activities that not everyone actually participates in -- in fact, the majority of people playing World of Warcraft are simply playing to do PVE or PVP content. Roleplaying is kind of niche content in that way, and although it isn't actively promoted by Blizzard, they do have realms available for roleplayers. While there's nothing stopping you from roleplaying on a PVE or PVP server, you're apt to find a lot more roleplayers on the realms that have been specifically designated for that purpose.

So you've gotten a character together, figured out who you want that character to be, maybe even installed and filled out one of those roleplaying addons while you were at it. You're all set to start roleplaying ... so now what?