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Hello ... I'm new to rp but i watched people  rp and it looks fun. I'm having a problem i'm a shy person but I want my character to be the opposite of that if there's someone had or have similar  problem and got a solution a guide or something to help me that would be much appreciated . 

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Hello there and welcome, good luck getting started on your RP! Playing an outgoing character can be difficult as a shy person, but playing a shy character as a shy person makes it even more difficult to find RP and make connections, so your choice will pay off in the long run! My advice is just to focus on the RP and have your character act however they would act, doing things like approaching others and striking up conversations. Don't second guess your role-play. Just focus on the characters like you would watching a TV show and try to tune out the thought that there are real people on the opposite side of each screen. Try to put yourself in the headspace of your character, so you are thinking as an "outgoing person" and not a "shy person." :) 

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Keep in mind also that people can only see your character, and however you want to present them. Whatever you're shy about in real life, you don't have to show to anyone during RP, and they can't even guess it about you unless you make it known. Getting into your character's point of view is almost like a sort of mental armor that way. I'm very introverted in person but I play at least two characters who are extroverts, and honestly it's all down to just giving it a try. Fake it 'til you make it, basically. A lot of what I do is like Faye said, put myself in my characters' shoes and think about what they would do, not what I would do, and trust that I can at least fake their confidence. After doing it enough times and seeing that it really does work, it gets much easier to trust my own writing.

 

If you take some time and think about how your character would react to different situations, and work out some backstory so that you have a feel for who they are and where they're coming from, that'll definitely give you more confidence at writing as them, too. It doesn't have to be anything super elaborate, but it can help a lot. There are a ton of RP character development guides you can Google to give you a starting point. Even if you're just watching other people RP without doing it yourself, you can analyze it and decide how your character would react at different times in the RP if they were present and involved.

 

The better a grasp you have of how they act, and maybe why they act that way, the easier it gets to get into their headspace. But characters can grow in unexpected ways once you get out and start playing them and that's fun too, so don't worry if you haven't written more than a few sentences in your head. A little can go a really long way, and the best way to get good at RPing any kind of character whether similar or drastically different from you is to get out and give it a shot.

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On 3/4/2018 at 7:45 AM, Aicha11 said:

Hello ... I'm new to rp but i watched people  rp and it looks fun. I'm having a problem i'm a shy person but I want my character to be the opposite of that if there's someone had or have similar  problem and got a solution a guide or something to help me that would be much appreciated . 

 

As someone who had a lot of social anxiety issues when he started with RP, it is a bit of a challenge.  The old adage here of 'practice, practice, practice' holds true.

 

Generally start slow, and if you have a friend you can lean on and bring with you it makes things a whole lot easier.  Think of them as your anchor or training wheels.  RP with them since they're a known quality.  Work with them, and hit up some of the smaller events.  Eventually it'll start to flow a bit better and you can take the training wheels off and go at it alone or go with them to larger and larger events.

 

As above a good way to 'shield' yourself from normal social anxieties is to create a character that would be a bit less anxious then you are.  Work through the character on getting them into situations where they have to deal with others.  Just take it slow, take it one step at a time.  You may never end up someone coordinating dozens of plot-lines and that's all right.  Eventually with enough practice, however, you may find that anxiety starting to go away even out of game.   Role-play is great therapy for this.

 

One suggestion though, give your character a profession that can call on them at any point in time.  This allows you to have an escape or an out from nearly any situation you find yourself in.  Just emote lifting a hand to your link-pearl and say "Dammit, that's work, I've got to go.." and walk away.

 

Good luck with whatever you end up doing with the character and in RP. I hope you find something that suits you.

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To add to what has already been said...

 

RP is essentially a big game of 'let's pretend.'  We all did it as children. We're bigger now, and our toys are more sophisticated, and with the internet we can play with more people, but it still comes down to 'let's pretend'. In this particular case, we're pretending to be people living in and around Eorzea.

 

It can be fun to pretend to be someone very different from the way you normally are. In RP you can be a heroic, swashbuckling hero... or a sly and sinister villain... or anything else you can think of. And most of us are quite willing to pretend along with you.  In fact, a lot of us want to.

 

And if you're worried about people not liking your character...  well, our characters don't have to like each other. They can even outright hate each other. But that doesn't mean we have the same feelings about the people behind the keyboards. In fact, some of the best people I've known OOCly have been either enemies or total a-holes IC. A little OOC communication goes a long way to making sure people can keep perspective between IC and OOC.

 

So get into the mindset of your character, take some chances in meeting people. You may be pleasantly surprised what happens.

Edited by Tregarde
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  • 1 year later...
2 hours ago, Sirenia said:

I'm kinda in the same boat I want to start RPing but I feel like I have to have my character's story all planned out first.

 

No, you don't need that.

Some kind of backstory is nice to have, but it doesn't have to be more than a paragraph of text - and it can be a very short paragraph at that.

As for the character's future story, there is absolutely no need to have any of that planned out at all - and if you do make any plans, be prepared to revise them continously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Skae said:

 

No, you don't need that.

Some kind of backstory is nice to have, but it doesn't have to be more than a paragraph of text - and it can be a very short paragraph at that.

As for the character's future story, there is absolutely no need to have any of that planned out at all - and if you do make any plans, be prepared to revise them continously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks! That's good to know!

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Having a bit of rough backstory is always good but I feel like a lot of RPer focus too much on that when they should really focus on fleshing out their character concept first. Define their personality and what they are, what you want them to feel like. Use character archetypes, mix them together, keep what you like and toss what you don't want. Don't hesitate to challenge said archetypes with different takes. If you (and after, the people you RP with) can describe your character in one sentence, and find like 5 key words / adjectives that absolutely define your character, then the base is already solid. If you can't, then it means that your character is still unclear and vague in your mind, and that they won't stand out.

 

The character backstory is a red herring. You create it to support your character concept and explains how they got their, and then anchor them into the lore with it. It's a cement, but not the foundation. It serves the character, and not the other way around.

Edited by Valence
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On 3/4/2018 at 2:45 PM, Aicha11 said:

Hello ... I'm new to rp but i watched people  rp and it looks fun. I'm having a problem i'm a shy person but I want my character to be the opposite of that if there's someone had or have similar  problem and got a solution a guide or something to help me that would be much appreciated . 

Great advice has already been given, so what I want to add is that after over a decade and a half of RP experience I can assure you most people RPing are on your same boat, or have been at some point. I myself used to be very shy and introvert, and still am to a degree. Getting out there and trying things actually helped me to open up a lot and feel more comfortable around people.

As Tregarde put it, it's all a big game of "let's pretend" after all. And honestly, I find it the best way to keep in touch with the kid within ourselves. ;)

 

On 8/23/2019 at 11:22 PM, Sirenia said:

I'm kinda in the same boat I want to start RPing but I feel like I have to have my character's story all planned out first.

As others have pointed out, you don't have to. Actually, I personally find that fleshing out a character's background too much ends up complicating things when you start actively RPing, 'cause it can happen that too many situations won't fit with how you have written your character already.

Same thing goes with planning ahead. RPing is a cooperative writing effort and you never know in which direction other's characters will pull or push yours (which is the beauty in it).

What I usually do is define a character personality and have a very rough idea of how they got to the point where they enter the RP scene, leaving big loopholes on purpose so I have room to add things (or even connections with other characters) during the character's RP lifetime.

Unless what you do is sit in a tavern all the time and tell stories left and right (which I'm not saying is bad, I've met a lot of great storytellers during the years), RP is not about the past of your character, but about present actions and adapting to what happens around them. ;) 

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