You may or may not have heard that role-play is available in Second Life. For those that already into role-play elsewhere, Second Life opens up a whole new experience. For those who don't know about role-play read on. Often people jump to the conclusion that role-play is about sex. This is NOT the case and while some sims and some forms of role-play do have that element most do not.
Role-play to put it simply is not unlike children's imaginative play in that you construct your own character, your race, your motivations, but your character is driven by an adult mind. It's not unlike being in a stage play but you provide your own lines; both leading and reacting to the other characters involved. Most stories are organic in that they develop as they go along. Occasionally if someone has a major storyline they might ask other players to get involved, although they shouldn't tell other characters how to 'play' the story. Dictating to other players in this way is called ‘God Modding’ because it takes away their freedom to act how they see fit and can inhibit the flow of the unfolding story.
Within Second Life there are sims dedicated to many different genres. If you are interested in fantasy, urban, city, war, combat, science fiction, wild west, mostly anything else you can think of, there is a good chance you can be involved in role play within your chosen genre. Remember to check whether your chosen sim is PG or Mature. It's no good thinking you will fit in a Mature role-play sim if at heart you are a PG player. Decide if you are easily offended, or prefer not to be involved in more adult themes, and if so stick to PG sims. To check this is look on the tool bar at the top of your screen and it will show the name of the sim and what the rating is. If it doesn't show on the toolbar right click on the ground in the box that opens look at the General tab, look down the list and you will see Rating.
Sill interested? The first step is to look in Search; for example type in 'Elves, role play'; a large selection of sims will come up. Go to the sims and a have good look around, it could take a while to choose. Quite often as you arrive at a sim you will be in the welcome area. In general, although not always, there will be information in that area that pertains both to the sim, style of role-play, dress code, and usually offers free items such as male/female clothing and weapons.
For this article we chose to visit Valahari; The welcome area was slightly confusing as there were no directions, but in just a short walk we found all the information we needed to join the group, plus clothing and weapons.
When filling in your application you are asked for a backstory. This is your character's personal history up to present day. The more depth you can give to your character the easier it is to play it believably.
If you are interested in role play its worth thinking about this aspect before you apply. You will be asked to submit this information to the admin in charge of role-play on the sim. This person is usually identified in the welcome notecards. Hopefully your application will be approved quickly, and once approved you are then free to join in.
A word of caution - don't just leap into an obvious on-going story, its the best way to get off on the wrong foot! Most Rp'ers are very helpful and welcoming to newcomers; if you ask, someone will help.
"Hang on!" I can hear you saying, "I don't feel ready to just jump in.". Quite understandable - when DeeDee and I first started it was a bit hit and miss, the funniest episode I remember as Deadwood newbies was when DeeDee had got slightly lost somewhere in the worst part of town and I got an IM from her saying " I am being held at knife point and mugged!". DeeDee had accidentally wandered into some ongoing roleplay but had no idea how to deal with it., but she improvised fast and said, "I have no purse young man, I have lost my way to the boarding house, would you be a dear and show me the way ", I still giggle reading that! Luckily a handsome outlaw rescued her and pointed her to home! The other difficulty was most of the other women were playing 'goodtime girls' in the saloon, whilst Dee and I were running a boarding house. We had far less opportunity to role-play than the saloon girls.
There are two ways to learn how to participate in role-play, one is literally to just jump right in and try out your character; do gentle role-play, establish some interaction with other players but not deliberately trying to start a story, this way other players become used to your character and will gradually interact with you. The other is to loiter on the edge of others who are role-playing, observing rather than attempting to take part. Try to take on board the way character's greet each other, what the etiquette is, what mode of dress seems the most popular and ask about training classes. Most RP sims hold classes and they can be really enjoyable in themselves. I personally have learnt a great deal about herbalism from Gianfar. Many role play sims also hold role play classes.
If anyone wants any further information or help with a character back story, please feel free to contact me: tm3382@student.open.ac.uk or contact us inworld by sending a notecard to either Aseret Quintessa or DeeDee Bookmite as IM's tend to get capped. If we don't know the answer to a question we will either find out for you or will put you in touch with someone who can. All enquiries with be treated confidentially.
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