What is roleplaying? Well, roleplaying is assuming the part of some ficticious character and impersonating this character to the best of your ability. Roleplaying is an art that must be mastered. To master roleplaying one must practice it. This allows a person to fully assume the mood and feelings of the character they are portraying. Roleplaying is much like acting, but in a game such as Ultima Online one must learn to act through words. The most important thing to remember while roleplaying is that there is not set style or method to roleplaying. The only requirements are that you are believable and that your character contributes to making the roleplaying experience more enjoyable for all.

Roleplaying is not merely following a set guideline, role-playing is about creating a separate life that you can jump into. This tutorial is not meant to be a set guide to roleplaying, and it is by no means complete. It is merely a guide for those who want to roleplay but do not know eactly how to start. There are a few aspects of roleplaying that are vital to creating a character that can roleplay effectively and can be believable. The following tutorial will briefly look at each aspect. In addition, this tutorial has many references to the online game Ulima Online so a breif knowledge of how this game works would be helpful. Also, don't try to tackle this in one day. Don't or you will fall asleep at the computerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

In my opinion, the most important aspect of role-playing is creating a history for your character. Histories can range from an extremley detailed history of childhood experiences and growing up, or they can simply be that you wash up on shore in this new world and remember only bits and pieces of your previous life. No matter how complete your history is you must always keep it in mind when communicating and deciding on what decisions your character should make in life, from profession to the social class your character fits into. A background will give you a structure to build your character off of. Creating a background you can live with is also something to take into consideration, and many create a character and then decide what their characters history is based on the actions there they make as there character. The best approach is to get a general idea of the type of character you want to have and make a basic history of the character, then add details later as the need arises.

The following is a very basic template for one style of character background framework:

Your Name grew up in the town of a town. His/her childhood was decribe childhood- rough, perillous, complex, involved rigorous studying, etc.. As he/she grew older he took and interest in the types of skills and activities you enjoy- fighting, working with wood, etc. and this led to an eventual apprenticeship as a a profession. As the days grew long he/she decided it was time to what your goal in life is- adventure, open a shop, see the world, etc. In his/her life he/she has been molded by many events, some even describe him/her as some personality traits- a rough edge, a hermit, a man full of loyalty, etc.. When he was only an age he an event which shaped your personality. Also, describe at least two more events . It is also interesting to note that he/she list other events, people, places, or items that have shaped your characters personality, history, an life purpose. Today, he/she lead a life of describe your life and goals today.

Again I cannot stress enough that this template is not the only way to design your history, be flexible and don't be afraid to experiment. Some of the best characters I have met go beyond this simple template and have a truly unique history. Also, it is not necesary to openly publish or share your history with anyone, it is more for yourself than anyone else, after all how many people give a person an autobiography everytime they meet. Bits and pieces of you life should be revealed as you meet and interect with people. As you get to know people you can share stories of you life and through these relate the trials which you have had to overcome. This may be going over some peoples heads especially if you are a beginner so it is best to simply say don't preach your history.

To be good or not to be good, that is the question. It is also the question of many roleplayers. There are basically two types of characters which people try to create. The first is The Avatar, or some saintly person who can do no wrong and fights for freedom, eqaulity, and against the forces of evil. Then there are The Shadowlords, these are the people who want to be a culmination of everything bad. They want to become warlords with supreme power of the lives of others...Okay, so maybe that is a little too far, but you see the point. Well, the moral to this is that everyone has these grand ideas of being good or evil and when they finally get into the role, they stride away from there character and become just like every other person out there. Where did this roleplaying spirit go? Well, it is still there but the context of the game does not allow this to culminate and the characters become a washed out mess, which soon degrades into a loss of roleplaying. The trick is know what you are getting into before hand. Take Ultima Online for example. In the case of our Avatar, he begins the game and immediately upon reaching the bank all of his items are stolen from right under his nose. He says, "okay, well I had a unlucky break." So he finds someone who decides to give him some armor and weapons and he has regained some confidence in good. Then as soon as he steps three feet out of two, the world turns dark and our Avatar has died. He spends the next three hours trying to get resurrected and decided to give up on the Avatar role. Now let us look at the evil side of the story. They enter the game thinking that the forces of darkness will be waiting for him to take command. They assume their role as a pompous world-dominating leader and head to the bank. They arrive at the bank and are greeted by...a theif. They get their items stolen and think, "how dare he steal from the master of evil!?" Now, it wouldn't look too good if the lord of all evil was walking around the bank asking for donations. Eventually, the character gets back enough stuff to go out of town. He immediately runs into an unsuspecting lumberjack and decided that it is time to become true evil. He attacks the lumberjack and dies at the hand of a practice hatchet. By the time he is finally ressurected he is so discouraged that he is content to not be the Harbinger of Evil. Thus both characters become the common Ultima player. They pick up anything and everything that moves, they keep a tight fist on their wallet at all times and they won't give a person the time of day, fearing that they have some evil intentions on their mind. Even worse, some decide to take the easy way out and become a petty theif or join a Pkers guild.

ZZZzzZz! ZzZ! Wake Up!

So now that I have bored you it is time to point out how many of these problems can be overcome. The first step is to stick with it, but don't be fooled by the smae trick twice, many of the people in Ultima Online are not very creative and have only a small set of tricks to throw at you. Once you have found them all out you are ready to do what you wanted with your character. If you are good, act that way. Give gold to people that are in need of it (I never give it to those who are begging for it though or those who have clearly been in the game a long time). Also, fight monsters and respond to threats of Pks. Follow the virtues in Ultima and act as if you where a knight of the round table, in King Arthurs court! If you are evil act that way as well, just be sure not to blatently insult people. Be sure not to confuse evil with troublemaker as there are many troublemakers in Ultima and few evil roleplayers. Evil roleplayers, use the context of the game to support evil groups such as Orc clans and to use devious tactics to gain power (assassination, sneakiness, etc.). When you have become comfortable in your role of good or evil be sure to stay there and play it to the fullest extent.

You mus be aspeakin properly if ya wan' ta roleplay susfully (Southern). Cus ye cannae do't less ye hav't de proper accen't(Scotish). Aye, tis right good sire, tis nay possible to speak respectfully as yer character lest ye have the correct dictation (Olde English). Ugbah, grug arugub braghub!(Orcish). As you can see, speaking correctly can influence how your character's personality and history is interpretted. It is extremely difficult to keep the charade up all the time as, even I find it difficult to format my word correctly. Basically if you give the idea of what type of accent you are attempting you will be alright. One thing to remember though is to try not to swith halfway through. Do speak one sentence in Olde English and the the next in Scotish. This will confuse the listener and will make your character less respectable. There are many resources available on how to speak in an accent correctly, so if you want to find out more about his it would be best the check there. But one other important point to bring up is, that even if you are not comfortable speaking in Olde English, be sure not to use Kewl Dood language. This is fine for when you are with a friend, but it detrects from other when it is used in a public place, so to respect the wishes of other roleplayers around you do not use this type of language excesively (The two exceptions are when discussing business or OOC topics).