I’ve started playing WoW late last year and I’ve been dipping my toes into Roleplay on a couple of characters but I am having incredible difficulty just getting people to interact with my characters, and I am wondering if my characters are boring or if I’m doing something wrong?
I usually use mapscan to check where people are in Elwynn Forest, Westfall, Duskwood and Redridge Mountains as I was told this was where I’d find the best openworld RP. So far I’ve come into contact with a bunch of small groups but whenever I try to interact I find that it’s super difficult to have any conversation, and that people end up just walking away from my character.
It leaves me thinking I’m probably super bad at roleplay or my characters are seen as obnoxious or annoying, which makes me feel kinda sad. Does anyone have any pointers on how to thrive and get into Roleplay properly? I’ve whispered a couple of people about guilds but I either got told they aren’t recruiting or received no replies.
I really love the world and fantasy of this game and I really wanna learn how to roleplay well and make a character that I enjoy and that people enjoy interacting with but so far I feel like I’m failing that and it’s draining my confidence to interact.
A small bio to my character:
Young adult from Outland’s Honor Hold, half-elven Fighter-type. She’s approachable and curious, I’m trying to explain my lack of understanding of deeper lore by having her only be on Azeroth for a year so she’s exploring and learning.
Thanks for reading, any and all comments are super welcome.
The character concept sounds decent, and a good point for ‘I’m new to the game lore, so don’t need to make this harder for me OOC’ (still prefer that on some of my characters even having been around a while, tbh!)
I know it’s easier said than done, but try not be disheartened! People will accuse Guilds of being clique-y or ‘bubble rp’, but even openworld RP can be like that with ‘regulars’ of an area.
I’m gonna be a little bit snobby and say I wouldn’t rate Duskwood and certainly not Elwynn (sadly) for quality. Outside of guilds Im more familiar with Horde walk-up RP sadly, so hopefully some others can chime in with advice!
Hi there! Sorry to hear you’ve been having difficulties with your character interactions—don’t worry, we’ve all been there! Hopefully, we can spark some ideas to help you turn things around.
Would you like to share a bit more about how you’ve been approaching other characters? What’s your character’s vibe—what motivates them to engage with others, what’s their personality like in conversation? These details can be help figuring out how to make those connections click.
For what it’s worth, here are some tricks I’ve used to break the ice with strangers (without smashing it over their heads, I hope):
Ask for directions. Especially in big hubs like Stormwind, or Gilneas during events! Playing lost, sometimes other characters even offer to act as a guide with a bit of chit-chat on the way!
Stage small scenes that invite help. Maybe your character’s carrying too much and—oops!—everything crashes to the ground. Or they trip headlong into a puddle (grace is overrated). I’d just avoid being too severe about it—fainting into someone’s arms with a dagger in your back might come across as less “help me” and more “guilt trip me.” Especially if they were planning to log off in the next five minutes to hit the bed. (That said, I personally do love when I see other players using comical melodrama to connect, such as a thief pulling off hapless beggar theatrics while secretly trying to rob you…)
Help others. Helping other people with their roleplay initiatives, such as public events, can bring your character into a position where it’s natural for others to socialize with them.
Give other characters a reason to discover yours. Perhaps your character has some materials unique to Outland that they’re trying to sell in order to get by? Or offering their potential crafting skill (e.g. fletching, blacksmithing, woodcarving) in a heartfelt announcement? Just ideas to intrigue others to come over.
Fortunately, you don’t need Tolkien-level storytelling, or a gallery of commissioned art, or a decade of experience. Roleplay thrives on curiosity about other people’s characters and how you make both them and their players feel. A friendly, steady OOC presence goes a long way, and IC, think of ways to create interesting encounters.
“Hi! Come here often?” might get you somewhere, but what if we used…
“Hi! Sorry to bother you, but could I trouble you for a little help with…” “Excuse me—do you happen to know where I can find a mender? My [pet] hurt its leg!” “Whoa! Sorry—got a bit of a pile here—watch out!!”
These sorts of openings invite interaction through words and actions, giving others something (hopefully fun) to latch onto.
I wish you best of luck in your roleplay adventures!
A good way to get involved in roleplay is to attend open events such as the tournament in Lakeshire that was held last weekend. Such events are often posted on this forum, or on the site www.argentarchives org. – add the dot for the link to work.
There are several discords that cover the RP community that exists in a single area. Hubs that use such a discord can be found in Gilneas, Stromgarde and Stormwind. These discords are open for all roleplayers to join.
Another way to get involved is joining one of the many RP guilds that exist.
Keep in mind that a lot of roleplayers do not “just” initiate RP with people they do not know. You will have to approach them. And do not feel disheartened by people who turn you away. It’ll happen, and it is not the norm.
I want to take a moment to invite you to the Curious Octopus. We’re running a beginner RPer friendly bar there
No expectations on “skill” or anything, and while you’re there you are more than welcome to whisper the staff for advice and with any questions you might have OOC.
Open every wednesday 8pm - 10pm RT, hope to see you there ^^
Asking for advice is a great start if you don’t feel quite sure what you’re doing, so I commend you for making the thread! However,
As someone who’s been a loner on this server for 10+ years I do think this happens a lot in recent times, compared to the past. Struggling to hold a conversation for long because everyone always seems to be on the way somewhere, or people stopping just to tell you a sentence and then zooming off before you can format a reply. Although I can’t tell you why it happens to any of us, just know it happens and it’s likely not your fault <3
Sorry for going off topic but is it going well for you? I’m curious, it’s super cool and I’m thinking of dropping by!
Reasonably We’ve been open more or less every wednesday throughout 2024, there’s always people stopping by. We’re not the most crowded venue, but that is good for new people finding their feet.
I’m really sorry to hear this has been your experience in your first year of RP. Have you thought of maybe joining a guild? I can’t say I know what is available on Alliance side to make suggestions, but when I was new in WoW RP, having a hub of guildies that I could rely on really helped.
Openworld RP as you call it can be fun, sure, but honestly the best RP you’ll ever have is being part of an active guild that does events and interacts with other guilds that also do events in the opeworld. So I’d say you have a look around and see if you can find a guild that fits your character and give it a try. Get a feel for the vibes then hop around until you find something that really fits. Good luck gamer!
Morning, I love to see new enthusiasm for the hobby but unfortunately currently with the poor state of the game and it’s lore the whole RP ordeal had a nose dive in quality and in playerbase after Shadowlands
Currently Argent Dawn is stagnated into a mediocrity state where all you have is Year 2000’s RP with pop bands and tedious markets 10 times a week.
Currently if you want to find anything of interesting I suggest searching for campaigns on Epsilon because at least you’ll have an inkling of fun RP, the rest is kind of passable unless the idea of AFKing in a corner talking about something dull but “In character” then go ahead, AD is for you, if you want adventuring and something minimally interesting, I’m sure you’ll be able to find it in AD albeit it’s very VERY rare.
Also most communities in AD are very toxic so… take care of yourself, don’t interact much OOCly because that’s the death of the artist.
You mean the place that was destroyed over 12 years ago in the lore and as such, your experiences there are 12+ years old?
And by Plaguelands, which part do you mean? Because it´s a wide area, over time encompassing RP hubs such as Uther´s Tomb (a place often used for RP-PvP in the past, or for people RPing out pilgrimages), Hearthglen (used historically by many Argent guilds, their allies and, in case of its surroundings, hostile factions attacking Argents) or recent hub in Light´s Hope (which I guess you can talk about extensively to support your claims about state of RP on AD).
And, maybe you could also share the guilds you were part of, after all, with dozens of RP guilds across Alliance, Horde and neutral spaces, you obviously have experience with this style of RP to make an educated statement about the server and how it doesn´t provide any RP besides “AFKing in a corner talking about something dull but “In character”” or “Year 200´s RP with pop bands and tedious markets 10 times a week”.
Yeap, I’m that old, hence I have enough experience to speak.
The plaguelands are two zones, paladin RPers hang out up there… on both zones… If you can’t find the plaguelands open the map and go north (up) on the eastern kingdoms map
Now I see you’re with the KTI, which makes it obvious why you don’t know quality RP with their whole invented lore ordeal but that’s a topic for another time
Tedious markets, started with Dalaran now there’s one in every major city, Kul’tiras, Gilneas, Duskwood, Stormwind… We’ve done this for like 3-4 years aren’t you getting tired of this? It wasn’t fun the 10th time it won’t be fun the 500th
2000’s pop groups the best example is AKA, I won’t talk about them because… well… I’d ruin their reputation so I’ll just name drop 'em and move on.
The AFKing in a corner and talking about something dull was an Hyperbole, but RP has devolved into sitting in a bar and talking about… idk backstories? I have no idea what y’all do for 2-4 hours just standing there talking about… I don’t know, the adventures they didn’t have ICly.
Uther’s tomb is more like a tourist place for Paladins to pray at and stuff, RP-PVP in there would be interesting… (If there was any) something around Scarlets and Silver Hands / Argents… I’d be down for that. Hearthglenn was the biggest hub back in my days, unfortunately I didn’t play Paladins back in the day, Light’s hope has potential, that’s all I can say about them.
Now don’t feel my name drops are personal attacks, they’re examples.
Alright, you’ve got my fingers itching up a storm so lemme try and take you seriously for a hot second.
Here we go:
You claim to love seeing new enthusiasm for the hobby but then go straight on to -ing on initiatives that are keeping the realm alive and vibrant.
You then go on to claim the realm has stagnated into mediocrity only to then recommend a place famous for fascist incels and ERP. Solid, truly.
And we finish off with yet another bold claim.
The realm is noticeably friendlier than it has been in a long time and with plenty of happenings for people to attend. Heck, even the Valley of Honor is back in action.
So in conclusion I’d love to hop on your 2000s pop group analogy but instead make it an artist because sweaty, Britney Spears must’ve dropped you in 2003 'cus you’re Toxic with a capital T.
(That said, I personally do love when I see other players using comical melodrama to connect, such as a thief pulling off hapless beggar theatrics while secretly trying to rob you…)
We’ve been open more or less every wednesday throughout 2024, there’s always people stopping by. We’re not the most crowded venue, but that is good for new people finding their feet.
-ing on initiatives that are keeping the realm alive and vibrant.