Nervous about roleplaying?

[Liadan]

Ok, I'm sick of this...

You're all a bunch of pansies and should be nervous, 'cause your RP is similar to the RP performed by a child in a halloween costume.

(That may not be true, but it needed to be said. This thread was getting too nice.)

then don't be nice and give her some real advice from a master of RP.  Stop whining and giving your opinion on what others do, and give some advice.  At least we try to help.

[Phinehas]

Read the fourth post in the thread. That's my advice.

I have to be honest, the advice you people are giving is all good and nice, and I'm sure it's supportive to admit that you get nervous when you RP, but in my opinion you just have to decide whether RPing in-game is something you really want to do, or not. If it's not, problem solved. If it is, suck it up and get to it. You'll make mistakes, people might laugh at you for a little while. Oh well, it's a game, get over it. I'm sure we all felt intimidated by "better RPers" to an extent at some point in our existences. It's life as an RPer. Again, if it's worth it, do it. If not, then don't bother.

[Kerol]

Keldrena:
I suggest you go with Jekkars advise (the second post of the thread), as well as looking for patient people. Just leave people who you don't feel comfortable with when you look for RP.
And I also completely agree with Rayken and his advise to try simple things first. Try to RP all-day situations from your characters viewpoint.
When I want to get back into RP with one of my main character I just walk or sit about and do a lot of /me actions as a starter. Eventually someone gets curious and joins in. That may be the beginning of an epic story or just a one-night stand (figuratively).

I also admit that I'm extremely nervous when I'm expecting myself to make no mistakes - which just asks for making mistakes. But the trick there is to just continue and not to give up. You may have a red head, sweaty fingers or even yell and swear behind your screen. Noone will know as long as you don't do it ingame. Keep going, make a witty comment (don't forget the brackets when it's OOC) and you'll be forgiven. But remember that the worst thing you can do when you are in RP is to just leave for OOC reasons - which include you thinking that you screwed up. Most things can be fixed.

[Izzabella]

Keldrena, you are more than welcome to contact me in game, just send me a tell, (Izzabella) and we can get together and do some role play, just about whatever, we will strike up a conversation and go from there, you would be surprised what role play can come out of standing near a semi crowded place such as Kada's or Harns and just saying hello and asking a few basic questions. The best way to get over your fear is to just do it, and the more you do it, the easier it becomes. But again if you just want to practice some with me, I don't mind, I don't consider myself  a great role player or anything but I've been around a while and I can certainly give you a few pointers as we go.

Just remember: :) and =)  or LOL and other such things are NOT okay in main during role play. and if you want to talk ooc in main thats okay too, just remember to use [these handy little things] so long as you remember that alone, you will be way ahead of many in game already and will do great. I look forward to meeting you in game...and don't worry..I promise not to rob you.

[LigH]

Ay ay ay... roleplaying together with Izzy? That could mean to learn how to play being the victim and enjoying it...

Take your time to listen. A little crowd is likely busy talking together, and you might catch some hints about a plot being played there.

And don't be afraid of "royalty", even a queen can be a nice surprise! 

[Izzabella]

hey I promised to be nice! and I am nice ooc...and honestly Izzy can be very nice too..just don't double cross her...

[Maulus Octir]

I can see why you're nervous, most of us started out RPing as nervous wrecks as well! But the fact is, you can't just sit by and watch, you've got to GET IN THERE! You have to converse with characters, get involved in Gm events, and sometimes you'll be yelled at and called a n00b, or a GodModder, but BAH! What are the other players going to do? Smack you via chat bubble? I think not. If you don't throw your character into the world, you're not going to be able to mold them. Get involved, be an ass, be a wuss, be whatever! It's YOUR character, and only yours! Like Phineas said, you have to decide whether or not you're an RPer, or sit on the fence until the game bores you to death.

[zorbels]

I also admit that I'm extremely nervous when I'm expecting myself to make no mistakes - which just asks for making mistakes.

* zorbels chuckles

You see even if you are branded a great roleplayer it doesn't get any easier. I can relate to Kerol on this one, people tend to have high expectations of how my roleplay will be and I fear that I just can't meet those unrealistic standards at times. This makes me nervous and I feel like I must do good or people will be disappionted, and I will be letting down my character and my fellow roleplayers. This in a way gives me a drive to do better and work harder. I make this work to my advantage, rather than let it scare me away.

The best advice when it comes to Rping in this thread has been given, take it slow. I found what helped me learn was to picture myself in the situation in real life and how I would react. Then I would put those reactions into words. For example, if you enter the Kada's tavern in Hydlaa. What would you do first? Would you greet the bar keep? Would you ignore her and head down stairs and sit by the fire, waiting for someone to approach you? Would you greet those in the tavern or play the strong silent type? As you answer these questions and roleplay them out you begin to create your character through those actions. You start to learn what your characters limits are, and what type of personallity your character is. Also discribing what you are doing in words also helps those take an interest in who you are. A simple action like *Zorbels sighs in frustration and throws her bag into the fire. This may prompt people to ask what is wrong and can they be of assistance?

I think it is ridiculous that people expect you to create your character before entering game. The character creation happens while you play. You may have the option at the begining to pick certain skills, the way you look, and background, but we all start out as babies in a sense. Babies grow into their personalities. That is essentially what you will be doing as you slowly learn to roleplay. Don't be afraid to try new things. It will only stunt the growth of your character if you don't take risks. Take up the offers in this thread and in game to join up with roleplayers and learn from them but get involved and don't ever worry about what other people think. If you do that, you may not grow as much as you can as a character. Most of my experience came from other roleplayers. I would involve myself in big roleplays but take small parts in those roleplays. Eventually I learned my place in the world and when I felt comfortable enough I began to take on bigger roles in roleplays and even started some myself. Good luck! 

[veinslayer]

i think most of the ppl who are good at rp'ing get a good chuckle when someone who is not walks up to them and puts there foot in their mouth...heh heh...i know i do...i include "is frequently lost and occasionally says bizarre and outlandish things, but that's because my dudes family was killed en -masse when he was younger...and he cut his brother in half....heh heh...

[emeraldfool]

I'm never nervous. I'm a genius - an artistic savant - what do I have to be nervous about?

[Amiraa]

Yea, all the above is great advice.  Just do stuff in game and if it fails miserably it is something to laugh about over a drink in Kada-El's.  I have had some stupid mistakes in RP, talking to someone who I thought was something else, giving them a hard time about it.  Opps.  You can look me up in game (Amiraa) I'm happy to RP and my character is looking for others to talk to.  I'm stuck in Kada-El's for now due to computer issues (stupid bad graphics card on this loaner) so feel free to look me up sometime there.

The best way to get good RPing in is to go and do stuff.  Find something you like and go with it.  The more you do it the better you will get.  Practice makes Perfect, right?

[bilbous]

Just accept that you will never measure up to some peoples expectations but that it is their problem not yours. If you want to play with the "Cool Kids" you will need to twist yourself into a pretzel to fit into any given situation you come across. Conform Mightily! and you might get accepted but you will live on the razor's edge the while. One mistake and you will be shunned more surely than a Duras  at a Klingon convention, at least until your puppet is back in power.

People will always misunderstand part of what you try and do. You can try to explain it if you want but it is better after the fact rather than during. Do not worry too much about typos they come with the territory and I find it most annoying to have people repeating themselves with corrections all the time. What are we supposed to think your character has a speech impediment and stutters or something? I mean, really, if I type "he wad not nice to me" it is pretty obvious I meant "was" not "wad." Corrections just interrupt the flow. Some people will insist on them, though, but if I don't understand your meaning I'll ask; and preferably in character.

The view from someone not likely known for great role play and known for incomprehensible behavior at times.

[Cyl]

I'm sure we all felt intimidated by "better RPers" to an extent at some point in our existences. It's life as an RPer. Again, if it's worth it, do it. If not, then don't bother.

Well that's not quite true. I was too obnoxious to be intimidated by "better RPers" when I was new, and when I stopped being obnoxious I already was an elitist.

Okay. Now for my piece of advice: Realize that this is just a game, and games are supposed to be fun. You'll most likely mess up sooner or later, you'll make craploads of mistakes and there's no way to around it anyways, so just relax and take it easy. After all we are on teh intraweb and everyone's anonymous, so should you really ever screw things over so that nothing can be fixed anymore, well you can still delete your character and start anew.

[Kaerli]

Just remember, everyone has an RP bloopers bin, even me

[Phinehas]

I'm sure we all felt intimidated by "better RPers" to an extent at some point in our existences. It's life as an RPer. Again, if it's worth it, do it. If not, then don't bother.

Well that's not quite true. I was too obnoxious to be intimidated by "better RPers" when I was new, and when I stopped being obnoxious I already was an elitist.

Oh don't make me go dig up logs from when you wanted to join Ashes...

For the rest, I find it highly amusing about all the people who are saying "Even I get nervous." As though they're a big somebody...