Serious Help with roleplaying

Alankiller

Alankiller

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So back in day I found myself kinda nervous around people and right now I don’t know hot roleplay. Could anyone help like how to talk with others or what should my characters be like?

thank you
 
- Read a room. Props, scenery, item descriptions. Talk about what you see. Talk about what has happened recently. Half of the time passive roleplay is just talking about recent events and branching off from that.
- Read a description on a character, comment on it, start a conversation based on that. People put that stuff there for a reason, but it's not often jumped on.
- Want a quick way to have something to do, and how to play it? Have a basic character gimmick, it can easily carry you the first few days of a new character. A heavy smoker, a nervous stutterer, a physical attribute worth mentioning, a heavy accent, a particular interest in a certain field, an occupation that is always on their mind, and so on.

Talking to others doesn't need to be complex, and doesn't need to have a specific agenda. Stick to something basic, talk about what looks obvious, and take a moment to read up the descriptions of who you are talking to and they'll probably be happy enough to open up if you take the time to actually read into them enough to bother to do that, because nobody else does it.

Still having trouble? Join a faction. Any faction. Or just get a job. Bam, instantly you get something in-common to talk to with your character's colleagues and it's easily passed off as training, or swapping work stories. One reason the CCA does so well is that as soon as you join it you immediately have an established set of lads with the exact same things in common to talk to, who all adhere to the same rulebook right there. Every faction has their own internal little culture which can get things rolling for you.

Most importantly though, you need to be the one to go out there and make it happen. You go up to them and speak first, and you can make it work.
 
I would have to say if you want to talk get rid of your nervousness try just heading to a bar. They are a great and robust place to talk in character and present yourself to others.
 
Alankiller Alankiller no one really has put it into words better than an old member of TnB that was long-since gone before I even arrived.

How to make a barebones character and not wander in circles bored out of your mind.

Take my snark with a pinch of salt. I’m going to start this by asking a question then answering it. Why did every Rocky movie past the first blow? The character, that’s why. First movie, we get this underdog character, total bum, not the sort of guy you’d expect to win a heavyweight...
www.taconbanana.com www.taconbanana.com

Above is the link to his guide. If you'd like to see more, I'd go to "General Chat" under the general forums, and read through the guides there.
It's a bit of a word vomit and pretty lengthy, but you'd be glad you'd read it afterwards - because it'll help your writing and character development tenfold.
Definitely did for me.

Hope this helps!
 
Foxicus said:
Alankiller Alankiller no one really has put it into words better than an old member of TnB that was long-since gone before I even arrived.

How to make a barebones character and not wander in circles bored out of your mind.

Take my snark with a pinch of salt. I’m going to start this by asking a question then answering it. Why did every Rocky movie past the first blow? The character, that’s why. First movie, we get this underdog character, total bum, not the sort of guy you’d expect to win a heavyweight...
www.taconbanana.com www.taconbanana.com

Above is the link to his guide. If you'd like to see more, I'd go to "General Chat" under the general forums, and read through the guides there.
It's a bit of a word vomit and pretty lengthy, but you'd be glad you'd read it afterwards - because it'll help your writing and character development tenfold.
Definitely did for me.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...
lmao tami
 
Scone really knocked it out of the park, but here's my take on it.

You shouldn't be nervous dude, but I do know where you are coming from. I personally feel as if I'm not up to par with a lot of people in this community when it comes to storytelling, emoting, punctuation, etc. But at the end of the day you have to remember that we are all here to have fun.

Create the character that YOU want to create, be adventurous, and try new things!

Remember, RP is a way to escape reality. You shouldn't care about what others think of you.
 
I think the best thing you can do is take a concept, no matter how vague, and try to think of how that concept might work. It'll seem like a lot of work at first, but trying to stick to that concept rather than 'what would I do' can be pretty interesting. I wouldn't read head-long towards gunfire because someone might be hurt, but my character might. What are they thinking when they do? Say they run into a Vortigaunt, when's the last time they actually saw one? What were they doing at the time? Does your character even know why? Not saying anything and just doing a simple /me of some idle actions or clearly looking at someone and not saying anything can prompt a scene.

Little details can matter too, and maybe don't plan out everything about your past, but have an idea. Better yet, have flaws. Not just simple clumsiness that goes away conveniently, but things like cowardice. Think about things your character is bad at. Can they improve these things? Do they want to? An unrepentant coward might reason away their fear by saying "It's natural to want to survive," or "Why is it my business?". It'll be best to stick to things that are only really a detriment to yourself until later, as the character who is petty and cruel is harder to play well than the guy who is really concerned about his own skin.

Always ask 'why', to yourself. Not just once either, 'I will watch this officer bleed out and not help', (why?) 'Actually I'll cave a brief moment later because they're still human'. This'll cut down on some aimlessness. Why did I go into the cafe? Am I bored? Hungry? Am I hiding(even if I don't actually need to)? The biggest thing is when you step away and relax, you'll find you're much more willing to push on some of those comfort zones.
 
Thank you very much for answers: these days I felt I did the worst possible job in role play and has been pain in the ass for others who I rp with. I am now very appreciate for help and hopefully it will help.
Thanks
 
I encountered your character Carl a couple of times back in the day and I must say that I never had the impression of you being a "bad" roleplayer or some kind of social burden. Despite english not being your first language, your writing was always great and the direction you took your character in seemed to be appropriate for the theme of this server. There's a lot of strong advice in this thread, but Dinky's note about loosening up and rolling with any small blunders you may make is very crucial. This isn't your job, nor a chore.
 
Dont worry about jack shit if you cant predict your own moves the others cant for shure go wild or go home
 
It really depends on how you want to approach roleplaying in general- short spurts between action, long-form narratives, acting with less steps, etc. As someone who has come to find RP not the healthiest hobby long-term, start out by understanding your comfort level and what you want to get out of the RP.

It also definitely depends on what server you're playing. You may simply find you just don't "click" with the premise or setting, and this in turn may restrict your immersion. I know that personally, I had no problem actually roleplaying after a while or making a fleshed out, believable HL2 character, but I found that I didn't really have the energy for spending a lot of time in HL2's dystopian setting, especially between university and working. This is why TRP was my baby for many years, but as I got older I found that what I wanted out of RP changed significantly.

Over the course of my time, I started out just sort of winging it, which then led to me spending too much time in-game because I didn't really have a lot else to do- as I eventually became faction leader on TRP, this came with a lot of additional baggage and actually took me away from RP, because in the end it becomes your job to be community leader, admin, etc managing other people's fun. After a ton of life experience away from the computer, I did eventually come back to TNB and definitely put up several barriers to getting too attached to the RP - time limits, guaranteed unavailability to focus on other hobbies, investing more wholesale in worldbuilding which didn't require me to be on server as much, and choosing to interact with (but not directly participate in) the main faction events. My character creation became much more deliberate and themed, and I focused much more on just having fun with writing and simply telling a story to other players.

So in your case, find how much time you want to spend on the RP, understand what you like and do not like in the setting/premise, evaluate if there's a specific thing you'd really like to dive into, leave some room if you don't like it, and then try to go with it. All of this can make you much more confident, because it keeps the ball in your court regarding creativity and when you are and aren't feeling it.

All of the advice from the posts above applies, but keep this in mind before diving headfirst into RP. It should never cause you anxiety, or ever remotely feel like a job or a chore.
 
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realize what a lot of other ppl still haven't after years of doing this shit:

your character is not an extension of you
your character is not YOU put into the game

your character is their own walking talking person who
  • thinks
  • acts
  • feels
in ways that should be separate of your own opinions/instincts

you roleplay to write an interesting STORY

like reading a BOOK

the amount of people that ive seen "roleplay" for ungodly amounts of time without even understanding these fundamentals is unnerving
 
rp is pretty much acting, so make sure you act like your character instead of yourself.

raklo basically said it before me mother frickr
 

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