So, TES:O is coming up, and as many, the major reason behind me getting this is so that I can roleplay with a mature community. Looking forward to creating a roleplaying network with http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1374510-the-marukhati-collected-whirling-scrolls-online-pt-v/. Being a veteran roleplayer, there's many things I'd like to see expressed in TES:O - even if I am sure most of you already know them, but hey - it doesn't hurt just to have a little guide here. I hope this can be of help to some.

Two quick terms:

OOC: Out of character - acting beyond the fourth wall.
IC: In character - roleplaying your character.



Background

So, as we all know; our characters need a background story. What -is- important is that this background story will be affecting how our characters act, think and feel in certain instances. This is the core foundation of a character concept - for them to have a personality shaped upon their experiences.

It's important to make a believable story, and some times the "simple" story might actually be the best. It might be tempting for some to speak to a Bosmer who has been raised by Khajiit (yeah yeah I know, Dunmer by Argonians - see Brand-Shei), but the vast majority of roleplayers prefer a down-to-earth approach such as; Bosmer hunter started to wander the borders of Valenwood, fell into fighting with the necromancy-assisted imperials. Now, this allows for two set ups: A possible negative encounter with the imperials (could be a -very- big motivation behind his personal war) as well as a poor view on necromancy - depending on the imperials.

TL:DR:

Keep it simple - don't try to overdo it when a simple story can be the most interesting for yourself and the people around you.


Feelings:

So now that we got a character, now we need to take a look at his desires / motivations / situation. This is alpha-omega in roleplay. Portraying and -actual- character. Far too many times, people do not wish their characters to lose, for the simple reason of it making their characters look bad - even if feelings and circumstances go against them.

Feelings, as stated in the background, need to be based on experience in past events. As we all know; magic is distrusted by certain people (for example the nords) - HOWEVER: Keep in mind that it was not in the same degree during the Second Era as it is around Skyrim's time (the Oblivion Crisis, Great Collsapse, Great War, etc.)

Depending on your character's motivations, think on how he would achieve these goals. Is he a nord barbarian with little expertise in advanced warfare and strategy? Would he then go about planning the rescue of his loved ones from a great castle? No he wouldn't; he would seek help - like the NPCS (we'll get back to this), for example for a strategist from House Redoran. -THIS- creates roleplay, both for the barbarian, as well as the Redoran strategist - it's about being open.

TL:DR: Let circumstances and feelings guide your character, even if it makes them look bad - characters can actually be "good" in an OOC way by appearing bad IC.


The "Hero" and the Character's (Social) Power

If there is a way we're -not- supposed to go, it's to assign ourselves to the role of the "hero" of the game. This isn't a singleplayer game like Morrowind or Skyrim; and it would look stupid if every man and his cat went around saying he stopped Mannimarco and Molag Bal. Raids will surely be up for that, but here's the point - it's not classy, and raids should be considered purely OOC.

Here it's important to take on the roles of "NPCs" for ourselves. Does this mean we stand around all day, giving out quests? No - we simply roleplay as, for example, a city guard of Whiterun would. Here arises a problem, however - the scope of power: If there already is a -REAL- NPC who takes care of a specific task in game; for example the mayor of Camlorn - DO. NOT. assign this position to yourself. It is taken, we do not need players to fill this out - same with roleplaying famous characters from the lore. Sure, they may be around this period, and they may not be present in-game, but that doesn't mean we can actually ROLEPLAY them in their potential - as everyone view them.

As for the scope of power, remember that it is classy to keep your characters' powers "down" - depending on his role, experience and such. If you go into a confrontation with another player, his roleplay session can be -very- short if your character is a super saiyan (by the way, I hate anime and manga, you've been warned)

TL:DR:

Don't play the "real" hero of the story - take on reasonable "NPC" roles and don't force social power onto your character when it clearly isn't yours to take - be considerate of others, and do not roleplay famous people from lore.


Quick runup on Magic:

Keep in mind, however, that magic is -powerful-. One of the reasons people "hate" it is because magic is -unfair- and -powerful-. If we look at any high fantasy universe, we can easily conclude that, yeah, a group of soldiers < an experienced wizard. It's important to realise that magic might make your character scared, and is thus also a mental block. One of the few things I find interesting about, for instance, the Thalmor and House Telvanni, is also the -mental- pressure on their subjects. How would it feel if you had some cruel overlord above you, ready to smite you with a snap of his fingers if you didn't do what he says? Yeah, that'd be horrible.

TL:DR:

Magic is powerful; make it have consequences; and control yourself for the sake of others.


Actions have consequences:

If you think your character can walk into a bar, start a fight, kill a man and then stroll out like it was nothing - please don't play the Elder Scrolls Online, for the love of mankind.

A typical, yet stupid roleplaying flaw if for people to evade consequences from their actions - even those who roleplay people with political power. No matter what you do, there will ALWAYS be consequences for your actions - both positive and negative - no matter in what size and scope they appear.

This could also affect your character IC. If you killed a man's father - if drunk or something - your character might be able to evade jail - but he will OF COURSE have to leave down, as to not pay for his crimes. Even then, he will live with the knowledge that there's a chance his victim's son might hire people to track him down.

TL:DR:

Don't ignore the conequences that might arise from your character's actions - it can actually be fun to roleplay out.


Roleplay within the lore - don't gather "influence"

Yes, we get it - everyone loves Game of Thrones and everyone loves ninjas. Yeah well, here's the deal - I hate Game of Thrones, and I hate ninjas, and I don't want to see it in my roleplay. It's FINE that it exists, all power to the respective artworks - but it is NOT. PART. OF. ELDER. SCROLLS. LORE. The Elder Scrolls is NOT a grimdark setting - the closest thing you come close to grimdark is Skyrim, and that's nowhere near Game of Thrones.

As for ninjas... Whoever says that they want to see darkly-clad Assassin's Creed kind of fools roll and jump around on rooftops with katanas. Get out of my thread...

TL:DR:

Stick to the Elder Scrolls universe - don't gather influence from other works that can break the immersion.

More will come...

I'll be role playing a mad Dunmer wizard that thinks he's a Khajiit slave who has to do every menial task requested of him. This way I can justify taking all of the inevitable "collect 10 Sload tongue" quests.

Hey i don't mind roleplaying in an MMO, but so far i have yet to see anyone who do Roleplay, even on specific Roleplay servers.
I do want to try it sometime but how do i go about roleplaying, when theres actual game mechanic i need to experience such as (lvling to max lvl)
or doing an instance for loot, or gathering people for a raid?

Do roleplayers only start Roleplaying only once they reach Max Lvl and already on farming mode on all raids?
Or does it start from Level 1? How would you go about starting to roleplay in an MMO?

Do i start saying something like "Ho brave adventurer, would thou wish to accompany me on tis fine day?"
How do you start roleplaying in an MMO?

It all comes down to you, really. If you want to roleplay in an instance, and other people do too as well - it's well and good; but in most cases, people do not. Approach people in the world as your character naturally would; perhaps join a guild and get a social network by that.You CAN start from level 1 with roleplaying; it again depends on you - but some might not take you that serious.

Hmm quite hard then if you are really serious in RP and other people only just look at you funny.

I think perhaps it would be good if we can gather names here on people who are REALLY into
roleplaying and get together in the same server. At least it'll make sense to roleplay i think.

Oh, there's bound to be a roleplay server, don't worry about it. Besides, even on RP servers, there'll always be people who don't roleplay. Live and let live.

Bravo. Very well written, and useful too. One thing I would like to add, and this is a problem prevalent among roleplayers as well as casuals:
You don't have to win.
You might expect the point of a game is to win. It isn't. The essence of roleplaying is telling stories, and every story has a loser. Like most humans, you probably hate losing. Don't. Losing is fun, and you should do it whenever you think it helps the story.

Okay, anecdote time: I used to play an excellent mod for Mount and Blade: Warband that none of you have ever heard of. It was called Persistent World, and it was made for roleplaying. One day, as I was guarding the town gate as a Watchman, I see a commotion. A nasty looking brigand had stopped a serf with a cart full of ore (both, of course, were other players.) Having stopped the brigand, ascertained what was going on, and called in the Captain for a makeshift trial, the brigand (who went by the name of Apollo Brown) was found guilty of attempted robbery and taken to the jail cells to serve his sentence. After serving his time (with much insults and bribe attempts) he was given back his confiscated weapons, he took a shot at me, ran to my horse (stabled just outide the gaol,) and rode away with it. I (quite understandably) was somewhat irritated, and had to spend some time tolling the town gate before I could afford another horse. Nethertheless, I did so, and begun to track my escaped criminal down. I found him hiding in a shack in the middle of a wood, and dismounted my horse to get him - whereupon he ran past me through the doorway and immediately rode off on my horse - again.

It was then that I realised how hilarious the situation was, and when I met him for a next, I made sure to dismount and give him a chance to take my horse for a third time. That was a turning point in how I thought of the game: I lost on purpose just to sustain a running gag. And it was fun. I did eventually bring my arch enemy to justice, and it was an extremely satisfying moment, but losing was just as fun, if not more, than being the hero. It made for a much better story, and that is the most important thing.

I cast magic missile at the darkness!

Rofl! Epic.

I want some Mountain Dew!

I'll roleplay a rouge (yes rouge) that likes to backstab everyone and scream lol noob.

I am Gulstaff sorcerer of light!
So how come you have to cast Magic Missile?

Lol epic!!
For anyone who doesn't know what we're referencing, this is the video. Epic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zng5kRle4FA

I was cheerfully agreeing with everything in that post up until this. Hmph!

(Seriously, though, anything in that post that's not the poster's personal opinion about media? Read that and follow it, you'll find it's not difficult at all. So long as you like telling stories you should be quite fine, it should come fairly naturally. )

Interestingly enough, most Dunmeri subjects of the Telvanni are fine with their rule, at least in the Third Era. If you talk to the rank-and-file members of House Telvanni and the people in Telvanni towns, they say that the wizard lords leave them well enough alone for the most part, and their power dissuades the Empire from prying too much into their personal business. 'course, given the semifeudal nature of the organization, different towns have different ruling styles and affect their citizens in different ways. Therana's subjects would probably be a lot more fearful than Neloth's, for instance, given how notoriously unstable the former is. But, for the most part, the Telvanni are too busy with their studies and experiments to bother putting fear into the peasants. It's mostly other Dunmer outside Telvanni lands who hate and fear their evil, immortal sorcerer-lords. But the residents seem to actually rather like them, because they don't bug their subjects and keep those damn dirty foreigners out. The exception are the particularly pious or religious Dunmer, of course, who'd hate living under the Telvanni, but I imagine that there aren't all that many of 'em.

It's kind of an interesting relationship. You'd expect them to be rather tyrannical, because, c'mon, they're honest-to-goodness evil Witch Kings for goodness' sake, but it actually makes a fair amount of internal sense. The Telvanni just don't give a damn about you so they don't bother oppressing you all that much. The Thalmor, on the other hand, are a cross between a magocracy and a theocracy, and keep tight control of their subjects, even down to who they can breed with and what children they can keep. The main difference is the Telvanni just don't care. Like, at all. They'd be the undisputed world champions at not-giving-a-damn if they bothered to show up at the contest.

I do sincerely hope people actually read through the opener post of this thread before beginning to role play in TESO. It's a year away, indeed, but the earlier you assimilate these basic principles of "good RP", the better for all.
All and all, good points there. Looking forward to the harvest of the thread.

Guess I should add something actually constructive here... However, can't think of anything actually supportive right now.

Maybe some other time I will reveal your future, dear.
Enough talk, time to bash.

Pretty good advice! Mind if I throw in a few tidbits of my own?

In regards to character background, I have honestly found that for newer role-players it is better to not worry about your background all that much from the get-go. This may seem counter-intuitive, but I think personality, IE how your character acts in the here and now, is far more important, and people can get too hung up on their past that it binds their hands. Think about the character you want to play, first and foremost - will they be wise-cracking and humorous? Dark and gloomy? Sadistic and brutal? Heroic and selfless? Fine-tune the attitude you want them to have, imagine how they'd behave in a conversation, what mannerisms and ticks they'd have. Then, once you've thought to yourself, "okay, I could talk through this character for a good long while," you can reverse engineer and start hammering out the details of why they act that way and what has happened to them in the past.

What you don't want is to come up with an epic backstory that forces your character to behave in a way that you hate. Arclath's advice of keeping it simple is always a good thing, and it helps in this case. It may seem like a neat idea to have your character's parents brutally murdered and fill his past with rage and vengeance, but after a few RP sessions you may find yourself wishing your character would lighten up a bit. Personality is always more important than backstory.

Another thing to keep in mind that even the most experienced of roleplayers often forget is: roleplaying can happen ANYWHERE. Far too many people keep their mind shut-off to roleplay potential until they're done questing and back at an inn, ready to talk with their friends, often making personal relationship drama the crux of their roleplay. Now, nothing wrong with that, I think it can be plenty fun, but we live in a world of adventure. Go exploring in character! Come up with your own story for why you want to explore that Dwemer ruin! Make a narrative and help guide folks through an epic journey. That's what these elder scrolls games are all about, and roleplaying can add on infinite layers of replayability, so long as you use your imagination.

Im not worried, about role play-ability

Its my specialty