Guild Wars 2

I love to roleplay, but not the kind of hardcore "/em looks at NPC1 with lust in his heart and asks, “Can you polish my spear, love?” sort of thing – too much of that craziness going on in Rata Sum! What I’m talking about is getting really into the design of your character, their history, getting into their mindset, and playing the game accordingly as far as decisions go – choosing relevant quests/zones, etc. Using available emotes, and maybe taunting your enemies in /s chat are about as far as I go with imposing my RP on other players.

That being said, let’s hear everyone’s ideas on how to continue to roleplay after reaching level 80. For example, I have a Charr warrior – Blood Legion all the way, gruff and impatient, who hates rabbits. Trying to find things to do that aren’t mindlessly repetitive, but still stay true to the rest of his personality and history, is a challenge! I’ve spent hours and hours combing through Fireheart Rise to help keep the Flame Legion at bay, made regular patrols of the Brand to help other Legion soldiers and helpless humans in the area, and even visited bloody vengeance on the traitorous louts who are trying to scuttle the treaty with those Krytan mice. Now I find myself running short on ideas for what this character can do, when he’s not helping guild members achieve their own goals. Map is 100% complete.

Any advice for my Charr would be appreciated, but I really want to hear what all of you do for your own toons after completing all the relevant hearts and stuff!

Relic.2136:

I love to roleplay, but not the kind of hardcore "/em looks at NPC1 with lust in his heart and asks, “Can you polish my spear, love?” sort of thing – too much of that craziness going on in Rata Sum! What I’m talking about is getting really into the design of your character, their history, getting into their mindset, and playing the game accordingly as far as decisions go – choosing relevant quests/zones, etc. Using available emotes, and maybe taunting your enemies in /s chat are about as far as I go with imposing my RP on other players.

That being said, let’s hear everyone’s ideas on how to continue to roleplay after reaching level 80. For example, I have a Charr warrior – Blood Legion all the way, gruff and impatient, who hates rabbits. Trying to find things to do that aren’t mindlessly repetitive, but still stay true to the rest of his personality and history, is a challenge! I’ve spent hours and hours combing through Fireheart Rise to help keep the Flame Legion at bay, made regular patrols of the Brand to help other Legion soldiers and helpless humans in the area, and even visited bloody vengeance on the traitorous louts who are trying to scuttle the treaty with those Krytan mice. Now I find myself running short on ideas for what this character can do, when he’s not helping guild members achieve their own goals. Map is 100% complete.

Any advice for my Charr would be appreciated, but I really want to hear what all of you do for your own toons after completing all the relevant hearts and stuff!

I enjoy hearing the story behind players’ characters, their likes/dislikes, motivations, goals and histories. I’m not particularly into live-rp but definitely like to make some sort of structured goals/pasts for my characters.

The idea to making more for your character to do is to change your character! What I mean is, some kind of catalyst event in the character’s history (past, present or future) could motivate them to change. It’s thus up to you to decide how to change your character. You can incorporate parts of the game that is then whatever in-game goal you feel interested in. Be that a personal goal to obtain a certain skin or legendary, the skill of a certain ascended crafting skill, or a social/political title/position , etc.

Wouldn’t mind seeing a pic of your character along with some more about him. It might give people an idea of other suggestions for you.

Are you blaming him for being enthusiastic about taking care of his weapons? Who goes into battle without polishing their spear? Have you no pride?

@Leo G – I hear you. That’s what I’ve been doing for a while now, but I’m approaching the end of what normal game content I had goals to accomplish. I’m hoping to find something that doesn’t require solely the use of my imagination, for while that can be (and has been) fun, interacting with the game world directly is preferable of course. I’m currently caught up in Living Story chapters, and have spent more time than I care to admit running the Vinewrath event in SW, though that is not noted below:

My Charr is Faznar Painmaker, Centurion of the Blood Legion. At the request of Rytlock Brimstone he joined the Vigil to help fight the Elder Dragons, and after defeating Zhaitan he was given a rare opportunity to stand down from active duty for a brief while. He used his time to explore the uttermost boundaries of Legion territory, put down the renegade Charr in Fields of Ruin, and push back the Flame Legion in Fireheart Rise. He’s travelled far and wide since helping Rytlock and Logan Thackeray defeat Gaheron Baelfire in the Citadel of Flame, even venturing into the Mists on occasion to sate his thirst for bloodshed. Proudly adorned in crimson and steel, he spends most of his time stalking the hills of ancient Ascalon like a hungry lion.

Relic.2136:

I love to roleplay, but not the kind of hardcore "/em looks at NPC1 with lust in his heart and asks, “Can you polish my spear, love?”

I’m sorry to say that this is a pretty ignorant view of roleplayers.

@penelopehannibal – it’s not an ignorant view, and it’s also not intended to be an all-inclusive view of all forms of live-RP in-game. I’m just specifying that in this particular case I’m not wanting to talk about that kind of RP. My apologies if it seemed otherwise.

Hi,

I agree with Leo G. Get some kind of catalyst for your character. Something that has happened that makes him want to be more active in things. Then you can follow that RP string along to where it takes you.

It is funny. I joined Tarnished Coast thinking it was RP, but then RP servers died. I have a character who is human and resentful of Charr. It is hard to RP the character in events because I don’t want any particular Charr character to think it is something against them. Moral: Rping in hard…lol…

Relic.2136:

@penelopehannibal – it’s not an ignorant view, and it’s also not intended to be an all-inclusive view of all forms of live-RP in-game. I’m just specifying that in this particular case I’m not wanting to talk about that kind of RP. My apologies if it seemed otherwise.

Then you can just say not erp= erotic roleplay

What you’re talking about is called “passive role play”, as opposed to “lore play”. The form you do not want to partake in is called “Active roleplay.”

Just a FYI for future reference.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Relic.2136:

I love to roleplay, but not the kind of hardcore "/em looks at NPC1 with lust in his heart and asks, “Can you polish my spear, love?”

I’m sorry to say that this is a pretty ignorant view of roleplayers.

not really, in MMORPG, most rpg happens on the level of a Twilight novel, on a good day. Fun roleplaying happens at tabletop where your characters´ environment interacts with you in form of the gamemaster, your actions, ideas and acting make the story. Most MMORPG roleplay has all the makings of a very sad pretend tea party usually.

@Linken – now that I’ve learned the term “erp”, I can certainly say that instead. Thank you.

@DietPepsi – good information, thank you.

I’d love to hear from other folks what they do for their own characters after reaching the apparent end of existing content to keep things fresh! Please feel free to post any of your fun stories from the gameworld here!

I actually saw a group of Charr in Iron Marches recently walking around and occasionally talking to each other in /s chat as though they were all in a warband together. While the dialogue from player to player felt a bit awkward, their goals seemed fun – they were basically helping a lower level guildie do reknown hearts and personal story section, but as a warband instead of random friends. This would be a great way to experience the other cultural story sections, so I may do that. :-)

This is part of why my main character loves to travel. She won’t admit it, even to herself, but she’s actually relieved, even pleased, that the elder dragons appeared and gave her a reason to leave home and travel the world instead of being expected to take over her families holdings.

Also after being re-used in over 10 different RPGs she’s kind of resigned to the fact that sooner or later she’s going to responsible for the fate of the world.

An axiom of advice on character development:

Trauma breeds drama.

Throw your character into something of conflict, and see how he emerges from it. How much you can do that will depend on how much you can interact with your surroundings and extend your imagination.

Though, doing it by yourself might not yield much. Having another player along for the ride can add a fresh element to otherwise unchanging or repetitive scripted events.

have you helped all the NPCs you can in the dungeons? plenty of LP opportunities in those not to mention the story mode in of themselves

or you could think of some reason your character needs to help explore the fractals

Relic.2136:

I’d love to hear from other folks what they do for their own characters after reaching the apparent end of existing content to keep things fresh! Please feel free to post any of your fun stories from the gameworld here!

Not quite made it to map completion, but I’m close. When I’m done, I plan on re-exploring the maps, completely in character. Walking from village to village, helping out passerby’s in any way possible, and just being in character. Along the way I’ll slowly flesh out his back-story.

Relic.2136:

I actually saw a group of Charr in Iron Marches recently walking around and occasionally talking to each other in /s chat as though they were all in a warband together. While the dialogue from player to player felt a bit awkward, their goals seemed fun – they were basically helping a lower level guildie do reknown hearts and personal story section, but as a warband instead of random friends. This would be a great way to experience the other cultural story sections, so I may do that. :-)

I see small groups walking around every now and then, speaking in character about their latest achievements/fights. Always found this intriguing and find myself wanting to tag along.

Atlas Tsahalla.2456:

I see small groups walking around every now and then, speaking in character about their latest achievements/fights. Always found this intriguing and find myself wanting to tag along.

We dont mind you watching! Lamping(What we call it i guess?) is how i got into RP heck, could even come join us if you see some people from AUX running around RPing, we are quite friendly and open!

Rauderi.8706:

An axiom of advice on character development:

Trauma breeds drama.

Throw your character into something of conflict, and see how he emerges from it. How much you can do that will depend on how much you can interact with your surroundings and extend your imagination.

Though, doing it by yourself might not yield much. Having another player along for the ride can add a fresh element to otherwise unchanging or repetitive scripted events.

Good advice, to which I’ll add a bit more:

You can’t win every fight. Think about what’s really happening that the game’s not showing you. Yes, you may have driven the Flame Legion from an area, but what did they do while they were there? Who died, or suffered? Who has your character not saved, even if he tried to? If you’ve ever been forced to retreat, who would have been left behind on the battle field?

Don’t base it all on just the NPCs you see in the game, either. Just as the maps cutting out the unimportant “dull” parts doesn’t mean your character can really run across the Shiverpeaks in just a couple of hours, the shown NPCs are not supposed to be the only ones there. They’re just the important ones needed to make the game function. Invent minor ones as (reasonably) needed.

Relic.2136:

@Leo G – I hear you. That’s what I’ve been doing for a while now, but I’m approaching the end of what normal game content I had goals to accomplish. I’m hoping to find something that doesn’t require solely the use of my imagination, for while that can be (and has been) fun, interacting with the game world directly is preferable of course. I’m currently caught up in Living Story chapters, and have spent more time than I care to admit running the Vinewrath event in SW, though that is not noted below:

My Charr is Faznar Painmaker, Centurion of the Blood Legion. At the request of Rytlock Brimstone he joined the Vigil to help fight the Elder Dragons, and after defeating Zhaitan he was given a rare opportunity to stand down from active duty for a brief while. He used his time to explore the uttermost boundaries of Legion territory, put down the renegade Charr in Fields of Ruin, and push back the Flame Legion in Fireheart Rise. He’s travelled far and wide since helping Rytlock and Logan Thackeray defeat Gaheron Baelfire in the Citadel of Flame, even venturing into the Mists on occasion to sate his thirst for bloodshed. Proudly adorned in crimson and steel, he spends most of his time stalking the hills of ancient Ascalon like a hungry lion.

Not to sound kitteny or mushy but your character needs more “special snowflake”! There’s other aspects to a character other than the stuff you’ve killed and even the stuff you killed seems kind of “generic”. And when I say generic, I’m not picking on your originality to pen a story for your character, I mean Rytlock asked many Charr to join the Vigil (and the Order and Priory) to fight elder dragons, many were there to aid in the defeat of Zhaitan, many aid in the fight against the Renegades and travel around, you weren’t the only one that helped take down Baelfire (unless you soloed that dungeon, to which I retract that statement!), ect.

I mean, how far in the ranks of the Vigil have you gotten? Taken any students? You’ve had to made enemies of the Renegades so perhaps there is a certain someone out for your head? You helped take down Baelfire but how have the Flame Legion retaliated against you? What of your warband? Your past warband? Your new posse?

There’s a lot that one can “role-play” without actually roleplaying and there’s a lot of “lore-play” one can do with what we have access to.

That said, your quoted post actually made me understand your intent better. I agree!! There should definitely be more instances of stuff one can play around with regarding lore, stories, interaction with the world, etc. More could definitely be done with stuff in the world. It could be reflected somewhat in your home instance (hah, perhaps those enemies you made of the Renegades have them coming for you and your friends!).

I was definitely feeling another post on the forums about how certain story threads not being followed up on is a waste. To me, it makes the world feel smaller, even if the main threat is a world threat, the smaller things make the bigger things seem much bigger