Interested in R.P.

I've been playing CoX nearly since release. Before I-1, before capes. Yeat I have never RP'ed. Not even in other RPG's. I just did the missions, or quests, or killed the boss at the end of the map.

Well, now I am interested in it. So, what do I do? How do I start? Is there anyone willing to help a new PR'er?

There's not really any hard and fast rules to RPing, but people do have their preferences.

Sometimes the best way is to jump in. Find someone that has the (RP) tag in their description and make conversation. Of course, it can be hit or miss, but it's a question of effort. You can't just expect it to come to you, even though sometimes it does.

Another way is to look into supergroups that roleplay by looking at the Supergroup Directory thread and/or going through GuildPortal sites, reading up on their themes, guidelines and activity levels.

Also, character is everything. Even if you don't have a full-out origin of a toon to start off with, at the very least plan out how you think the character would act and feel, and find the character's voice.

Very much what Ep said in the previous post. If you'd like, come over to our SG website (in my .sig) and check us out. At the very least, make a few friends and maybe run some missions IC. Just remember that you're wanting to react and talk through your character, as if you are actually that character in that setting. As long as you do that, you should be fine. You'd be surprised how characters sometims develop lives of their own, and you find them going places you never intended. Usually, it's great fun to just go with it and let the story write itself, when that happens.

If you need to say something OOC, you can preface it with <OOC> before the line or put the line in ((brackets)) to indicate an OOC comment.

There are a number of global channels you could join to help connect you up with roleplayers; such as joining roleplay pick-up teams and getting to know some of the players behind the characters. Here's a short list of the ones I'm aware of:

RP Virtue -- General RP discussion, teaming, and social chat. The talk there can wander widely. It's active and has a large population, and did I mention the talk there can wander? Yeah.

Virtue RP Revival -- More focused on organizing open RP. It's newer and has a lower population, but the chat can be more focused and purposeful. I'm one of the organizers on this channel (though not a mod) and we're working to develop more open RP on Virtue by running larger meet-ups, zone events, and themed stories.

Roleplayers -- a large channel I'm not a member of. Its description reads: "RP plots/storylines, discussions about characters etc. RP teams and players events "

Roleplayers LFT -- another fairly large one. "A channel for Virtue RP'ers to put together teams/TFs/SFs/events."

Joining global channels is easy (though you must be a VIP or a Tier-3 Premium player or above), just type in /chan_join "name of channel" into your chat bar. If you don't like the style or way a channel is run, just leave it and try another. It's a wide community and you'll find a way into it that works for you.

It's showing its age a little now but I still heartily recommend fellow Unionite Zortel's sticky on Hints, Tips and Tricks for New Roleplayers found here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=164362