Guild Wars 2

The potential of Roleplaying in this game is seemingly boundless compared to other games that I’ve played. Plenty of possibilities, plenty of social hubs, and most importantly, the environment to endowing your character with a unique personality.

First, I’ll start off with some questions that are usually asked!

Q: What does it mean to “Roleplay?”
A: “Roleplaying” is where you essentially get into character, and act out your character. Everything from their dialect to their behavior, but there are do’s and dont’s in Roleplaying

Q: What are the benifits to Roleplaying?
A: Roleplaying is a great way to ensure that any game you play is more than grinding, questing, etc. Roleplaying is a great way to make friends and/or rivals, inspiration for artwork and stories, and most importantly, Immersion!

Now the big question is “Where do I begin” right?

You begin the instant you create your character! From their appearance, their size, their origins, to the very little details such as facial features, you’ve already taken the first step into roleplaying! Even if one makes dramatic features on their character for the purpose of looking goofy, you’ve half-intentionally created a character that would fall into a Comic Relief category. However, before you start going off imitating Jar Jar Binks, it’s important that we cover the Do’s and Don’ts.

Developing your character is important, but keep in mind that it’s a multiplayer game. Other people will be interacting with you, and if the characters name, backstory, or canonical presence doesn’t make sense, it will not only confuse those that you interact with, but also offset any roleplaying potential that could have been had.

http://pasteboard.co/5bMU953Nx.png

This is a quickly-thrown together example of a Charr Elementalist. He has a backstory that validates his chosen profession, he sticks to the tradition of charr being a military culture, and his traits are realistic.

http://pasteboard.co/PTUqsUhTK.png

This is a quickly-thrown together example of a poor RP character. Notice the name. The name is the first thing people see when they interact with you. The character’s age is unrealistic, the bio isn’t kept in the Guild Wars 2 universe, the charr worships a god irrelevant to the GW2 universe, ridiculous size and description, and most importantly, is “Immortal.” These are examples of Lore Breaking.

Lore Breaking is essentially disregarding the boundaries, lore, culture, and base of which your character passively inherits. For example, it’s possible for a charr to worship a god, but they would likely show as a sign of weakness within the charr culture and result in them either becoming a Gladium or being stricken from Charr history. No player, by any means, no matter how much you respawn, can be considered “Immortal.” It’s also lore breaking (Or more appropriately referred to as Fail RP in this case) to enter a room and attempt to “Dominate the minds” of other players.

It’s also important to remember that you cannot kill/permakill/permainjure another player in RP.

Communicating during RP events can get complicated sometimes without indicators of OOC talking (Out of character) and IC talking (In Character). To indicate this, most people use brackets to speak Out of Character.

Me: I killed that basilisk along with two others. They put up a pretty heavy fight, but I came through!
You: They can definitely come out of nowhere, I’ve seen it happen before!
Me: ((BRB, phone’s ringing))
You: ((Alright))

Another way of communication and expression is through the Custom Emote function, which consists of /me, /emote, /em, or /e followed by the text you wish to enter of what you’re doing, however, it’s extremely important that it be noted that the range of emotes extend a MASSIVE distance as well as chatting. This is something that needs to be kept in mind if you’re in cities or instanced locations, because sometimes it can be frustrating to other players. I’m not saying don’t emote or chat, but be very mindful of your location.

If you plan on making a character with a hostile personality, it’s important to keep in mind that other players can’t tell if you’re in character or out of character, so before you walk up to a Human Engineer and make various insults about his mother, it’s best to alert them that you’re in character. I’ve seen rumors spread like weeds in games because people didn’t think to alert the person in question to their characters behavior, but keep in mind, it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card to act like a jerk!

To make your character canonical to the Guild Wars 2 universe, there’s plenty of work-arounds and loopholes that can be used. One example is the “Amnesia Approach.” The Charr that I made an example of earlier, Balfol, could wake up with Amnesia, and depending on the severity of the amnesia, could negate social and cultural guidelines from the Charr. It’s encouraged to find an alternative due to the fact that the Amnesia Approach is used quite often. Alternatively, if you don’t mind a good read and learning about the lore, history, and culture of your characters race, you can refer to the official guild wars race page for the basics, or look at external sources for more in depth explanations.

Asura:
Official – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/asura/
External – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Asura

Sylvari:
Official – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/sylvari/
External – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sylvari

Charr:
Official – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/charr/
External – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Charr

Human:
Official – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/human/
External – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Human

Norn:
Official – https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/races/norn/
External – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Norn

Another golden rule about Roleplaying, and this is an important one that ShinjoNaomi brought up.

This is pretty good! Definite +1 from me.

One thing that might be good to add though…
Never, ever, ever while you are role playing should you feel unnecessarily compelled or forced into something you are not comfortable with.
This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people… especially those that are just starting to try and roleplay… feel like they are obligated to go along with things, even if they don’t feel comfortable with it.

This is something very important to remember and it’s good that they mentioned it. You are not, by any means, obligated to partake in Roleplaying if you don’t want to. Sometimes people try to pressure others into ERP (A topic that I refuse to go into).

Your character isn’t just another number or head among a crowd, it’s your vessel! Your conduit to the world which they reside, the world which they fight in, defend, make friends, make enemies. Experiment, and imagine your character being in a book. What life will you give them? What’s the next chapter? Give it a try, share your thoughts, and you’ll find yourself immersed in the world of Tyria!

This is pretty good! Definite +1 from me.

One thing that might be good to add though…
Never, ever, ever while you are role playing should you feel unnecessarily compelled or forced into something you are not comfortable with.
This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people… especially those that are just starting to try and roleplay… feel like they are obligated to go along with things, even if they don’t feel comfortable with it.

As a random example, lets say someone emoted that they suddenly grab you and drag you into a nearby alleyway…
You are under no obligation to follow through with that unless you want to. Nobody is allowed to do anything to your character unless you allow them to.

Which leads to another very important part of roleplaying… attempting to do something, rather then just doing it.
What this means is, simply put, you can attempt to try and do things to another player, but that doesn’t mean it will succeed…
Lets use the above example in two different emitted posts…

Player 1 reaches out and grabs Player 2, instantly wrapping his hands around their neck and covering there mouth before dragging them into the shadows of the nearby alleyway.

Player 1 quietly slips out of the shadows, attempting to get behind Player 2 and reaching to try and slip an arm around their neck and cover their mouth! If successful, he then tries to pull them back into the shadows of the alleyway before anyone else notices…

Notice the difference?
In the first one, Player 1 doesn’t give Player 2 any chance to react, and acts like his actions are just going to automatically succeed.
And that’s really not good roleplaying and in truth, not a lot of people enjoy having someone else try and take control of their character taken away from them.
The second pose was better, showing Player 1 /attempting/ to try and grab Player 2, and not just assuming they are going to succeed. This gives Player 2 a chance to react or go along with it as they want.

In short, be courteous and respectful to your fellow RPers out there.

My number 1 tip for new role-players (in any setting) would be to take note of how the NPCs speak. “Whereth does thou findeth yon weapon merchant?” would be incomprehensible nonsense to the NPCs in-game (as would actual middle English), so there’s no reason for players to speak like that just because they’re wearing tights and holding a sword.

Also personally I’d advocate avoiding both amnesia and ‘orphan adopted by another culture’ as backstories unless you’re really attached to the idea (and ideally can put your own twist on it). Tyria is a pretty cosmopolitan place, especially with all the asura gates. It’s not unusual to find members of other races in the cities and even our in smaller settlements, so there are lots of ways your character could have come into contact with other cultures and adopted their habits or modified their own, even if they themselves haven’t travelled much.

Also I agree completely about making sure it’s clear when you’re in character, and I’d say also consider whether the person you’re talking to is in character. Since there are no RP servers or even a dedicated RP channel you’re going to be sharing chat channels with non-RPers most of the time. Constantly interrupting someone who is trying to give a newbie instructions on fixing their graphics with “What is this menu you speak of?” “Sounds like asura nonsense to me.” “Why would anyone want to change how the world works?” etc. is likely to at best get you totally ignored and at worst annoy everyone involved.

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

This is pretty good! Definite +1 from me.

One thing that might be good to add though…
Never, ever, ever while you are role playing should you feel unnecessarily compelled or forced into something you are not comfortable with.
This might sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people… especially those that are just starting to try and roleplay… feel like they are obligated to go along with things, even if they don’t feel comfortable with it.

As a random example, lets say someone emoted that they suddenly grab you and drag you into a nearby alleyway…
You are under no obligation to follow through with that unless you want to. Nobody is allowed to do anything to your character unless you allow them to.

Which leads to another very important part of roleplaying… attempting to do something, rather then just doing it.
What this means is, simply put, you can attempt to try and do things to another player, but that doesn’t mean it will succeed…
Lets use the above example in two different emitted posts…

Player 1 reaches out and grabs Player 2, instantly wrapping his hands around their neck and covering there mouth before dragging them into the shadows of the nearby alleyway.

Player 1 quietly slips out of the shadows, attempting to get behind Player 2 and reaching to try and slip an arm around their neck and cover their mouth! If successful, he then tries to pull them back into the shadows of the alleyway before anyone else notices…

Notice the difference?
In the first one, Player 1 doesn’t give Player 2 any chance to react, and acts like his actions are just going to automatically succeed.
And that’s really not good roleplaying and in truth, not a lot of people enjoy having someone else try and take control of their character taken away from them.
The second pose was better, showing Player 1 /attempting/ to try and grab Player 2, and not just assuming they are going to succeed. This gives Player 2 a chance to react or go along with it as they want.

In short, be courteous and respectful to your fellow RPers out there.

I’ll definately include that! I’ve seen some people in previous games get forced into situations that they felt… obligated to partake in. I’ll add it to the list later on. I currently only have enough time to leave a response and run off! O_O

Thank you for the +, I did the same for you since you caught something I missed (a very important part too)!

Also personally I’d advocate avoiding both amnesia and ‘orphan adopted by another culture’ as backstories unless you’re really attached to the idea (and ideally can put your own twist on it). Tyria is a pretty cosmopolitan place, especially with all the asura gates. It’s not unusual to find members of other races in the cities and even our in smaller settlements, so there are lots of ways your character could have come into contact with other cultures and adopted their habits or modified their own, even if they themselves haven’t travelled much.

I think this can be done, but there has to be a very heavy elaboration in the backstory. That along with the forced story lines, it seems a tad bit difficult to get immersed outside of the racial customs, traditions, and spirituality.