Here's a technique I started doing with C'kayah (who's hugely social). When I created Setoh (who mainly speaks to strangers only when he wants to mock them), the technique enabled me to get a lot of RP with him, despite how antisocial he is.
Here's my technique: Find people who are roleplayers and send them tells.
That's it, really. If I'm bored, I'll hang out somewhere where there are a lot of roleplayers. The Quicksand is good, because so many people are there looking for RP. I'll examine people and look for some sort of search text that confirms that they are, indeed, roleplayers and that they're open to meeting other roleplayers. When I find someone, I'll send them a tell, usually "Hi! I saw your search text. What sort of RP are you looking for?" About half the time they won't respond. Maybe they're afk, or they have tells turned off. About half of the ones that respond assume that I'm looking for erotic roleplay - it is the Quicksand, after all. But that last quarter of them will tell you something back, and you can start seeing if you can develop a hook, like desmond28 said.
Over the years, I've gotten a lot of interesting RP out of this, and I've met a lot of interesting RPers. But I've also met a lot of people that I never ended up even RPing with. Or RPing more than once. It's a shotgun approach, and it takes some time, but it does work.
One piece of advice I will give, though, is this: Be specific. When I send someone a tell asking what sort of RP they like, and they say "anything", it tells me nothing. There's no material for a hook there, and chances are they really don't mean "anything", so I'll have to either press them for more specifics or simply drop it. But at the same time, when I send someone that tell, I make sure I have at least something in mind that I'd like to do. That doesn't mean that you should fixate on your character only doing one thing ("My character is a member of the Ul'dahn Dental Hygiene Lobby, and wants to spread the good word about flossing"). You want to be flexible, so that you can work out a hook with someone else who also wants RP. But you do want to have something as a starting point.
Here's my technique: Find people who are roleplayers and send them tells.
That's it, really. If I'm bored, I'll hang out somewhere where there are a lot of roleplayers. The Quicksand is good, because so many people are there looking for RP. I'll examine people and look for some sort of search text that confirms that they are, indeed, roleplayers and that they're open to meeting other roleplayers. When I find someone, I'll send them a tell, usually "Hi! I saw your search text. What sort of RP are you looking for?" About half the time they won't respond. Maybe they're afk, or they have tells turned off. About half of the ones that respond assume that I'm looking for erotic roleplay - it is the Quicksand, after all. But that last quarter of them will tell you something back, and you can start seeing if you can develop a hook, like desmond28 said.
Over the years, I've gotten a lot of interesting RP out of this, and I've met a lot of interesting RPers. But I've also met a lot of people that I never ended up even RPing with. Or RPing more than once. It's a shotgun approach, and it takes some time, but it does work.
One piece of advice I will give, though, is this: Be specific. When I send someone a tell asking what sort of RP they like, and they say "anything", it tells me nothing. There's no material for a hook there, and chances are they really don't mean "anything", so I'll have to either press them for more specifics or simply drop it. But at the same time, when I send someone that tell, I make sure I have at least something in mind that I'd like to do. That doesn't mean that you should fixate on your character only doing one thing ("My character is a member of the Ul'dahn Dental Hygiene Lobby, and wants to spread the good word about flossing"). You want to be flexible, so that you can work out a hook with someone else who also wants RP. But you do want to have something as a starting point.
