How to Roleplay

Roleplaying is something we do in our everyday lives, whether we know it or not. Anytime you step outside yourself and pretend you are someone or something else, you are roleplaying. Roleplaying comes into focus when you decide to play any number of games, ranging from computer roleplaying games to the venerable paper-and-pencil RPGs. If you’re interested in refining your roleplaying, here are some tips to get your creative side going:

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Choose a game. Before you begin making a character, you must first choose a game world in which you will immerse yourself. Popular choices that allow a good deal of roleplaying freedom are tabletop games, online games and live-action games. For those looking for a scale of roleplaying, you could consider online games to be more for the casual player, tabletop games for the moderate gamer and live-action games for the hard-core roleplayer. Online games require a minimum of roleplaying interactions while tabletop requires a fair amount and live-action requires you to literally become your character (costume, voice, actions, the whole nine yards.)
2. Create a character. Now that you’ve got a world or framework in which you can create your proxy persona, you can begin to craft your character. This process will be unique, since most games have a different method for character creation, but the idea remains the same: to create a persona that serves as your avatar in the world of the game. They will do what you want them to do, say what you want them to say and go where you want them to go. They are an extension of you. Mind you, they need not resemble you in any way, shape or form! You can play a character of a different race, gender, build, temperament; the possibilities are limited only by your own imagination.
3. Flesh out your character. Once you’ve got the basics down (physical appearance, general personality and career) it is time to start getting more in-depth with your character. After all, how well can you play someone you don’t really know? Think about all the small details that shape who we are as people. Those same things shape your character. Who were their parents? Where were they born? What did their parents do for a living? Where did they go to school? Did they go to college? What were they like in their youth? What was their first kiss like? Did they ever have their heart broken? Did they ever break someone else’s heart? No question is irrelevant!
4. Become your character. After you have a good idea of who your character is, where they’ve been, where they are and where they’re going, you can drop yourself into the game and act in-character! In-character means that you speak and behave as your character would. While this doesn’t mean that your fantasy character needs to speak Shakespearean English all the time, it does mean that modern words should be left out of your vocabulary whenever possible.
5. Be mindful of others. There are as many different degrees of roleplaying as there are people. Some people choose to become totally immersed in their characters, and that’s ok! Others choose to roleplay only casually, or not at all. That’s ok too. Be mindful of how far others are willing to go and respect their wishes. While a little gentle prodding to stay in character may be necessary from time to time, shouting at someone for not speaking in-character to the letter is excessive and rude.
6. Take some acting or improv classes. If you are serious about roleplaying, acting and/or improv classes will aid you in thinking on your feet with your character. Roleplaying is essentially all improv; you think of things on the spot that your character would say or do, then play them out. If you feel awkward roleplaying, think of it as an improvised play that you take part in for a few hours each week (or however often you game.)
7. Be aware of yourself. While it is fun to roleplay and become someone else for a while, it is important to remember that you still have a life back here on good ol’ planet earth in whatever year this happens to be, that you still have friends, family, obligations and things that need to be attended to in real life. If you find yourself spending more time in-character than you do in real life, you are probably roleplaying a bit too much and should step back, have your character go on holiday and be yourself for a while.
8. Have fun! Roleplaying is all about becoming someone else for a little while and living a life that is not possible otherwise. Enjoy it!