How do I get into Roleplay?

[Urrus-argent-dawn]

@Alexiaslvr-argent-dawn

Also what stories can you tell on a market setting? The amazing story of how you got a discount on comfy socks? Back in my days we’d fight the horde and cultists, awful races like the Vulpera and the Dracthyr weren’t even in people’s minds and we had a great time making stories and having fun, now all the fun ic drama was replaced by whole guilds who’s sole purpose is to create ooc drama for funzies, just hang out in Duskwood for half a day.

To specifically address this point. - As it’s a point I come across a lot that markets are ‘low effort’. And yeah, sure, they certainly can be if that’s what you make them out to be.

Firstly you should never approach a situation such as a market or any other RP scenario without the smallest bit of direction for your character. - Because as much we like to boast of our creativity, approaching anything aimlessly runs the risk of you just standing around with your hands in your pocket and it is an easy trap to fall in.

Secondly, you gotta put weight into your character’s economy, as boring as it may sound. - If you approach a market with a neigh endless sum of coin, you gonna burn through a lot of what is on offer and it’s frankly just boring.

That alone sets you on a trajectory to involve yourself with others a little deeper than “I want X. Here have Z for it. Thanks bye.”

You are in charge of creating the Roleplay around you, the idea you can just show up at a place with minimal effort and get served the best experience is, unfortunately, one of those lies that keeps being perpetuated and has never been true.

The ‘back in your day’ era is still ongoing around you, you can still fight the Horde, and you can still fight the cultists. - Markets are not taking away from this, if anything, it’s just another battleground for you to fight it out on. - You just gotta think of the scenario and actually ‘do’ something about it rather than wait for someone else to pick up the ball for you.

You can both hunt and be cultists at markets, trying to sell dangerous wares or otherwise serve some nefarious plot. - I recommend approaching the creators of said events and they might be willing to play ball with such a plot.

Likewise, you can still hate the horde at a market, you can jack up the prices, and refuse to sell to them and otherwise be antagonistic.

If you are looking for criminal / Antagonistic situations, a marketplace is ripe with opportunities, big and small. - From robbing people to being a snake oil salesman.

But all of it requires a constant effort, as does all Roleplay.

Also just as P.S. Neither the existence of Dracthyr or Vulpera detracts from your roleplay, they are just living rent-free in your head and you should let it go. - And Epsilon does have a sea of mediocrity, difference is that it’s hidden behind a various amount of Public and Private phases.

[Sylvare-argent-dawn (Sylvare)]

@Alexiaslvr-argent-dawn

Back in my days we’d fight the horde and cultists

Faction conflict and cultist shenanigans still happen, so the issue isn’t that this no longer happens, its just that you are unable to find it, create it or join it (the latter because maybe people aren’t inviting you)

As someone who is part of a community that spans several guilds who work on a overlapping narrative where conflict is still a large factor of our interactions, RP doesn’t write itself, if you can’t find it, create it, if you don’t want to create it, get out of the kitchen and make room for those that will rather then making demoralizing nonsense claims like;

@Alexiaslvr-argent-dawn

It’s an ugly truth but no one has fun with RP anymore

[Obahar-argent-dawn]

@Urrus-argent-dawn

And Epsilon does have a sea of mediocrity

Not only mediocrity (which is fine honestly, if the worst thing someone can say about someone else’s creative expression is that it’s “mediocre”) but sometimes outright malicious behaviours.

For all the faults that Argent Dawn has, we should be extremely thankful that no player or group of players has any actual administrative authority on the server, because the alternative is some of the dictatorships that are private Epsi phases/guilds.

@Alexiaslvr-argent-dawn

It’s an ugly truth but no one has fun with RP anymore

To address this - the reason this person doesn’t have fun with roleplay anymore is because they’re extremely antagonistic. I know who they are and what they’ve done in the past, and I won’t delve into specifics, but in short - if you’re going to take a community-driven medium such as online roleplaying and be hostile to many communities, talk negatively about said communities publically on multiple platforms, and even use alts to comment negatively on roleplay you don’t like - people aren’t going to enjoy having you around, and you’re going to find that with enough bridges burned that people aren’t going to want to be around you.

Take this as a cautionary tale - Argent Dawn often goes beyond character-to-character interaction, and generally that’s a great thing! I’ve met a lot of wonderful people through their characters. But it goes both ways - you can’t be hostile to other players and antagonistic of their roleplay, and then walk up to those same players as if you didn’t just insult them. And if you’re gonna insult everyone, well… yeah, roleplay isn’t going to seem as fun anymore.

[Zakariye-argent-dawn]

I would suggest you bring up a separate thread for discussing quality of RP, and whether or not it exists on AD

If anyone has any questions that pertains people new to RP or anything like that, don’t hesitate to poke me!

[Kaytlinne-argent-dawn (Kaytlinne)]

@Keldarion-argent-dawn

Back to the OP who I’m sure after all this lovely back and forth has a much more positive opinion about AD role-play (The term “Feed the trolls” meaning anything to you guys?).

Positive: Argent Dawners are pretty earnest and will engage fully with people on any range of topics, so long as it pertains to AD/RP/Creative stuff.

Negative: They are super vulnerable to rage-bait from people who have no intention of a two-way discussion or any chance of earnestness/changing their mind.

[Obilot-argent-dawn (Obilot)]

This is not at all true. Take it from a player who was around during the “golden era.”

It’s an ugly truth but no one has fun with RP anymore, everything you do in RP you can do in real life with real people, because RP devolved into no adventures, no rp pvp, no campaigns (unless you ignore the Acheleus one that kicks people from the campaign for no reason) and no stories left to tell.

You’re projecting quite heavily here.

[Ynloeth-argent-dawn]

Hello! I joined very recently myself and I’m having a lot of fun! You’ll be fine.

Like the others have likely recommended, I’d advise checking out Argent Archives for upcoming roleplay events out in the world. Markets are honestly a great way to build rapport and find IC connections, since you have a lot of people within one place, with plenty of RP hooks to latch onto. The Curious Octopus is also another wonderful little spot- I’d highly recommend it.

I’ll be certain to say hello if I see you out and about!

[Iszy-argent-dawn]

@Elyssiane-argent-dawn

I’ve whispered a couple of people about guilds but I either got told they aren’t recruiting or received no replies.

You can always try checking out the forum threads here to see how guilds are getting on, or check argent archives here: https://www.argentarchives.org/ - a lot of guilds still recruit via that. You’ll quite possibly find a guild that tickles your fancy.

@Elyssiane-argent-dawn

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.

As others have echoed in the thread, this happens even to the most veteran of us all. I took a ~7-8 year break from RPing and only recently started RPing again (last year in fact!) and thought it best to get into practice again with a random character in Stormwind. Suffice to say, there are of course people who are open to interactions, but some also do just ignore you, it’s just an inevitability.

If you have TRP3, there’s now a little icon on the bottom of the tooltip - it shows 3 people in yellow! If someone has that, that means they’re approachable, and absolutely should try and look out for that! Some people do also put in their OOC information that they can be approachable too/to whisper them if they don’t respond. Keep an eye out for little things like that, and eventually you’ll find some RP and hopefully make a storyline for your characters!

RP and AD are absolutely popping off in 2025, and hopefully you’ll find a storyline that works well for your character! We’ve all been there at the beginning, just have to keep trying!

I wish you the best, and keep an eye out for events that might pop up which could be an avenue for your character to attend too!

[Speedwagone-argent-dawn]

Not gonna lie, going on the AD realm forums to sour a new player’s first steps into the hobby and promote a private server is some real scorned ex girlfriend behavior

[Kelduril-argent-dawn (Kelduril)]

@Alexiaslvr-argent-dawn

Also what stories can you tell on a market setting?

Quite… a lot? Most guilds roleplay in their own little corner of the universe, so all these little worlds coming together can create something magic. And if your character is like mine and not great with people, you can still get roleplay out of watching your regular RP buddies interact with others.