Getting Involved

There’s no one way to get yourself involved in role playing, especially since each character is unique. Sometimes you have to work to get your character engaged in what’s going on despite their tendencies, while other times they’ll naturally fall in line with what’s happening. Don’t rely on the latter happening, then be disappointed if it doesn’t! It can help immensely to set up points of interest and launch pads for interaction and plotlines beforehand. This is where character hooks come in.

Character Hooks
It may be that your character travels a lot and just happen to be around where other characters are, but you can only rely on happenstance for so long before it begins to wear thin. A ‘hook’ is something that other characters or plotlines can latch onto so that yours has a reason to be there and interact. It can help to look at the setting, characters, and plot lines going on to generate hooks, but it’s always possible to come up with things interesting in their own right.

Is your character a Bastokan? Perhaps they served in the military for a while, if so it’s possible they were in training together with another Bastokan current or ex military character, shared a post at some point, or simply have many similar experiences to share. If they’re more civic minded, they may have been a page to a senator and know about some governmental inner workings if another character would be interested in such things.

Alternately, they may have points of interest in their own right. Perhaps they are an extremely philosophical sort with well-developed and thought-through views of justice and morality and never turn down a good jawing session. They may be an accomplished weapon smith with an intimate working knowledge of blades, their history, and their usage. Maybe they’re simply loud-mouthed and looking for an audience.

Other possibilities include membership in guilds, shared interests, pre-arranged relationships with other characters (family, old friend, etc) or prominent NPCs. You may wish to be a little careful when tying your character to NPCs as you may not know everything relevant to that NPC, but if in doubt there is likely someone who can clear matters up for you. This is far from a comprehensive list. If you have a better idea than what you see here, be creative!

Never be afraid to approach other people and ask what might make good hooks if you’d like to get involved in plots or with other characters. Generally speaking, people like to role play and they love other role players to be interested in their characters and their plots; it’s nearly guaranteed they’ll be willing to help or point you to someone who can if you ask.

Joining RP Sessions
Is a session already going? Interested in joining? Ask! It may be closed, if it is don’t be discouraged. Ask if it will be open soon, or if people involved in the closed RP would want to RP with you later. If it’s open, it can help to spend a few moments planning how to approach it before diving right in.

Look at what’s going on. Where is it taking place? Who is involved? What time is it? Once you have general information on what’s going on, piece together why your character would be there and what they would be doing. It’s always awkward to be asked “What brings you here?” only to realize your character has absolutely no reason to be there.

It may be as easy as getting on the pearl ICly and saying “Hey, anyone around?” if you know that your character would be invited along. Or, it may take a little more thought to get your character where the RP is happening for their own reasons. Don’t let indecision paralyze you – If you can’t come up with something and those involved in the RP don’t mind you joining, go ahead and ask them for ideas.

Potential Pitfalls
Unique is good. Be unique. However, keep in mind that this is an MMORPG. Nobody gets to be any more ‘special’ than anyone else. Things that go against the world setting and things that are flat out improbable usually aren’t legitimate points of interest for your character. Being able to psychically create and control flame doesn’t make a lot of sense in Vana’Diel – Nobody else has pyrokinesis, they have to cast a Fire spell. Being four hundred years old due to arcane sorceries is pretty iffy also.

Try to stick with the normal complement of traits and history your average, mortal adventurer could have. Stretching believability can be a double edged sword; not only does it make fitting your character into what’s going on harder, but it can make other people hesitant to role play with you as they try to sort out how to have their character should react to things that don’t fit in Vana’Diel. This rule, as all others, isn’t iron-clad but it is a pretty good idea to stick close to plausibility.