Role Play Guide

This page may be referenced if you are unsure of how to RP by explaining the concepts, exploring different tips and tricks, as well as some personal advice from Rayahk. This page is open for others to edit, if anything is missed, feel free to add to it.

## **Where to start**

### ***What is RP?***

The basic idea of RP (Role Play) is to portray a character created in game and tell their story. While in RP, you would act as your character would and do things they would do.

When you role play, you are considered to be *IC* (In Character), and when you speak freely as you would in real life you are considered *OOC*. (Out Of Character).

### **Creating a Character**:

The first part of RP is to create your character and their back stories. Try to avoid cliché backstories as they are overused and not special to your character specifically. Once you create your characters backstory, you can decide specific traits they have. This includes personality, mental/health issues, etc...

For example: If your character was a slave, he would most likely hate slavery. He may also have a scar or some type of symbol to depict his past.

Once you decide your characters backstory and traits, you should give them a name. Remember that SWTOR RP is serious role-play, so give your characters names that fit RP. Refrain from using names that are unrealistic as it is highly frowned upon by most role players. People with unrealistic names will not be taken seriously as others who do. (Example of an unrealistic name: Justiniscool)

(Once you have your character’s name and backstory decided, feel free to create a biography page here on our wiki!)

## **The Basics of SWTOR Role-play**

In the game of SWTOR, there are specific guidelines you should follow when role-playing.

**Communicate clearly:** Many times our ideas do not come out the way we thought they would, and this can confuse the people your role-playing with and even yourself. Try and practice typing and grammatical skills. Refrain from using “Text Chat” such as 'Lol' or 'Lmao' when in character.

**Do research:** Get information on your character before role-playing, as it will make things much easier. Do research on the species your character is, that species set of beliefs and culture, the languages that species talks, their government system, etc…

**Do not God Mod:** *Godmodding* is to make your character godlike, perfect and unstoppable. Try and stop yourself from making an immortal character or a character that is completely over powered. If your character is godlike, it will annoy many people.

**Refrain copying another person’s ideas:** Do not take the creative ideas others produce, as it will annoy many people as well. People create their characters and ideas specific to them, and when they are copied it is simply aggravating. Be creative, and if you need help ask any members in the guild for their advice, we are willing to help!

**Keep RP safe:** Remember that you play an online game with many minors. Do not participate in any form of ERP (Erotic Role-Play) with any members in the Imperium. This is to prevent our younger members from seeing mature content. It is a bannable offense in the Imperium.

### **Chat Usage**:

***/say:*** /say chat is the universal chat used for RP. When in /say, all text will be restricted by a small area. This prevents others from either joining in uninvited, or for when discussing private matters in character. When up close, it is customary to use this chat.

***/general:*** /general chat is NOT USED FOR ROLE-PLAY AT ALL. General chat is used to announce things to pretty much the entire game population. Please do not use this chat for any type of role-play.

***/whisper:*** /whisper is used for private in character messages, and is usually used when holocalling someone. To use /whisper, you would type the following:  */whisper [Character name you wish to contact]:*

 OR

***/w*** [Insert Character name]:

***/yell:*** /yell chat is used when your character yells. This amplifies  all text sent so that a higher amount of people will be able to hear what your character is saying. It is used usually when your character is mad or trying to get a point across.

***/guild:*** guild chat is a chat you use when trying to communicate to all members of your guild. The Order of Kalaan's guild chat is considered OOC,, so if you wish to type something IN CHARACTER, it would be appreciated to use quotation marks to differentiate it from OOC conversation. Additionally, the use of <COMM>" is also recommended, as use of the guild chat for IC purposes would likely be over global holocall.

*EXAMPLE: <COMM> "Hail the Empress!"*

## **Emotes**

Emotes are used to make your character perform specific actions. For example, the /bow emote would make your character bow.

Here are some of the basic emotes used in SWTOR Role-play:

*/kneel (Subscriber Exclusive) | /sit is a F2P alternative*

*/bow*

*/chair*

*/welcome (Subscriber Exclusive)*

*/wave*

*/hello*

*/thank*

*/introduce (Subscriber Exclusive)*

*/apologize (Subscriber Exclusive)*

Etc…

In addition, you can use /me or /e followed by whatever action you wish your character to perform. Make note, however, that your character will not physically perform the motion, but it will still come across as an emote. For example, typing "/me sits down and takes a sip of her drink." will come across as "Rayahk sits down and takes a sip of her drink."

## **Advanced**

* Languages: At times, it may add interest to your character if they spoke their species language from time to time. For exmaple, a Cathar may utter things in Catharese when disturbed. This is made easy by following this link.