Hi there AD, I’ve been really struggling to pick and choose an RP main.
I look at the list of races and I honestly don’t know what, or how even, to pick.
How do you guys pick out your mains? Is it based on their lore, their appearance, the culture of the race?
Anything like that would help! I’m interested to know how you all do it.
Any and all of the above, really! If you find yourself connecting to the backstory of a particular race or think that history would make for a fun or interesting character, then go for that. Conversely, if you feel a character’s look or aesthetic with a certain transmog can tell it’s own story and build up off of that then that’s also a viable way to go about things.
Ultimately however it’s not the initial picking and choosing that creates a main, but how it feels once you have it. Make a character, give it a try, and if it’s not something you feel like you’re having fun with then you can always tweak the way that character acts, behaves, their backstory and so on further down the line or even reroll to something else entirely!
All three really…At first I always enjoyed the concept and thought of playing a Elven Ranger mostly an original inspiration would be that I used to always play Bosmer Stealth Archer in Skyrim, Legolas in LOTR and Elves in general I always found to be interesting and more interesting to play.
When it came to making Felentrick as a Blood Elf originally he was started out as a Ranger because I could play out that ideal but, as you can see he’s now a Warrior and that’s just through running storylines and overtime changing from that original concept and taking inspiration from more current pieces of media (Movies, Series, etc) and the story for the Horde.
Felentrick went from being some obnoxious / arrogant elf to a more Humbled and multi-cultured and layered character.
So I think for yourself run with something you have a general idea about. What kind of char would you look for? (Class) - What kind of race is more fitting for something like that? - What faction would it work more in?
These questions will help you create a rough basis and template for you to start your adventures off into. You can draw inspiration from the world and RP around you to build up to something that you can identify and enjoy more with as time progresses onwards.
I hope this helped a bit!
I’m afraid I can’t be too much help, as with myself the answer was pretty much “That’s the cool thing; you don’t!”
i.e. I have too many characters for a ‘main’ 
The way I would do it, is try out a bunch of different characters that seem somewhat interesting for a little while until one of them truly ‘clicks’ with me and I come to the realisation that I want to main this. This advice can apply both to maining a class in-game and to RP characters, although I’ve mostly used it for the former.
As the others said: all the above.
For me the character I am creating is a mixture of classes actually… still in work, but her beginning life was as a devoted priestess of the Naaru, then she was abandoned by the light along with her brother during the Shattrath invasion, was saved by exiles in Nagrand. From there I’m still fabricating, but all in all she’s a warrior (from her father’s side) and a priestess (from her mother’s side) 
Might be a bit MS which is my main issue with characters in this fantasy 
These are all great, but what do I do when I’ve played for 12+ years lol
How do I find what makes a race, or concept unique?
The spark really can come from anything. Maybe you are really excited at being part of guild X and ponder what kind of character might best fit in. Perhaps you saw a really cool artwork and said to yourself “This is amazing. I want that.” Maybe there was some kind of idea that resonated with you, like… i dont know “What if i was born in Honor Hold and now experience the world my parents told me about for the very first time”. Or maybe “what would the love-child of Yennefer of Vengerberg and Daenerys Targaryen look like?” catches your imagination.
The only real thing you can do is just pick out a character slap it all together and then just go IC and go from there. You may find certain things like Grambol says that will spark your curiosity and passion. Groups, guilds, a random interaction in Stormwind.
I had the opportunity and fun to run a side story in Old Town with a couple of the more Church-inspired characters on my big Kul’tiran Mercenary who is involved in web against a death cult that’s running rampant in Stormwind currently! I’ve really enjoyed playing him and look forward to seeing how that story progresses over the next few days / weeks.
It’s anything as simple as just that one interaction with another character and all of a sudden your whole concept and passion for the character comes alive. (Atleast that’s what occurred for me!)
He’s right! Originally I wanted my Draenei to be a BDK: same concept, was a priest, saved by exiled orcs, the shaman wanted to introduce her to the elements, but only the blood of a sacrifice (don’t ask me why did I put a sacrifice in there) answered hence she used blood magic from there 
I like far out of the way concepts or character concepts that aren’t rp’d often but I also like lawful characters that aren’t city guards.
An exiled Priestess turned Paladin, an Orc Paladin, Gnomish Priestess etc.
I have a type and I figure out what I want from there.
It’s going to sound cliché, but simply play what you like! Roleplay mains come and go, and for me, it’s usually a mixture of what lore I enjoy, the roleplay it would provide me with others, and my enjoyment of the story arcs I could get out of them.
For example, I started playing the character I am posting this from as an NPC which I would surely kill off after a few weeks to see how forsaken roleplay was like a few weeks after 8.2.5.
As I roleplayed him, I found out that I could have a very interesting story beat about my character feeling manipulated, betrayed, abandoned, and feeling guilty of many things even if he did not do them personally,; and I did many storylines and roleplay sessions on him about finding who he really is after all those years, finding some kind of redemption and purpose (be it a new one or a forgotten one) which were then backed up by canon with the creation of the new Desolate Council this last year - all over the course of three years, out of a character which I thought would not have lasted beyond a bit over seven days.
The secret to roleplay mains is actually pretty simple; just play something, and before you’ll realise it, you’ve been roleplaying that “alt you tried out because you thought something was cool who is definitely not going to make it beyond a week of interest” for about a year and a half.
Explore, act up in your interest in new things, try out everything that’s there in your mind. Either you’ll eventually find a new main, or you will have a fun time roleplaying something, as short-lived as it might be.
Many people already gave some advice on how to start a character.
It’s mostly trail and error. You make a character, try it out, it it still doesn’t click after a while you can just try a new one. Also note that the response people have to your character is a big part of having an engaging and fun to roleplay character.
To make an “unique character”, I’ll advice you just to read into the lore of the race you want to play, but also look at the historic cultures they are based upon.
If you want to roleplay a Pandaren for example, it will give you some extra inspiration to listen to podcasts about Daoist philosophy. Or if you would like to roleplay a merchant, read some short history about classical or medieval merchants and how they traveled the world. It may give you some extra ideas to do something that isn’t done before in the Warcraft setting, but still fits.
A good idea is also to focus on what your unique character may offer other roleplayers. It’s cool that you have some snowflake character who has this really cool background, but it isn’t as engaging for casual roleplayers as say, a simple street performer.
Also the characteristics of the race isn’t set in stone.
Draenei for instance, are mostly light-fearing and righteous characters. But they don’t need to be. Your Draenei can also be somewhat of a moral criminal. Someone who frauds and steals, however avoids violence, doesnt steal from the poor, and never forgets to pay some extra tribute to the church of the light. Sometimes it’s fun to have a character with a twist.
I had multiple characters who failed before I created my RP main Blondie. I had no idea what to do with the character at first, but just went for an undead rogue girl with blonde hair namned Blondie. As I updated myself of the 10 years of missed out lore I decided to do something with the idea she was both a fresh undead and a Horde Refugee settled in Ogrimmar. I kinda mixed the typical Undead Nihilism together with the straight-forwards brutality of the Kalimdor Horde. Eventually it made a chaotic-neutral character which was not only fun for me to roleplay, but also for others to react on, as it could both serve as an ally or as an antagonistic force.
I think most is already been said here, so I’ll just advice you to stop pondering and just do it. Try it, roll with it, if it doesn’t work just try something new. The best thing about a failed RP character is that you feel free to kill it off if you want, adding some response for other characters to react on. So nothing is lost. Good luck!
Yeah, this reminds me to change my race on TRP from Lightforged 
but this is a good advice as well! You can be literally anything!
I haven’t read the other replies so forgive me if it’s been said already.
From what I’ve experienced in AD, and seeing everyone reroll to the point Stormwind or Duskwood populations change every six months while my character is the same since I started…
The main advice is to have a character with a broad range of morality. You need to be able to do adventuring, social RP, lawful RP and villain RP. If your character can’t do all of them, at some point you’ll get bored and will want to try new things and will be locked out, forcing you to create a new character.
That’s it, that’s the secret.
People keeping their character for longer than average are playing characters fitting a lot of scenarios.
I bounce around my characters constantly depending on how I feel/what’s going on.
Sometimes it’s nice to see the world from another point of view.
In all honesty I struggle to answer that question even today.
For me I try out different characters and see which one I’m more comfy roleplaying. Which one gives me more joy to Roleplay.
It might be something that is completely opposite to my personality, or something similar. I usually make my characters unique as I don’t want them to be a reflection of myself, if that makes sense.
I take the following into consideration:
These are kinda important in creating a character for me.
And to make the character feel more “alive” I like to create a fictional family tree. Every character in fiction has a brother or father or something. I just like to do something similar.
For example, my character Anizah has a wife and daughter. He also has family but 60% of them died during the Invastion, so there is a sad backstory too.
Anizah is now female simply because I stopped roleplaying for a while. But once I go back to roleplaying I’ll change him into male again.
Good luck
That’s my method as well. Every single one of my mains through the years, be it on WoW or elsewhere, have been “I have crafted this character to ne my main, I’ll just quickly try that side one to check an aspect I’m curious of aaaaand it’s been 2 years, I’ve written only for them. Oops.”
Every single one
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