Role-playing
Role-playing, sometimes referred to as RP, is when players assume the identity of their RuneScape account as if it were real life. Rather than using the character as a tool, they become the character. Players who role-play often develop non-canonical back-stories and histories for their characters. Many times they assign their character a home town and even an actual home, such as a mostly empty building. They may also assign their character a job whilst in game, dressing and acting as one would act if they really had such a job, sometimes by running personal shops.
Another common staple of role-playing is outfitting. Players can make equipment, base clothing, and other cosmetic appearance changes to suit whatever role they are playing. Even many NPC appearances can be mimicked, such as Guards and Black Knights (BKs).
Players who role-play do not acknowledge that they are in a game and will speak as their role would. Some will also choose to adopt an medieval accent, since much of RuneScape draws from middle age culture, and because of this many role-players act as if they too are in the Middle Ages. When players need to break character, they often indicate this, such as by saying "ooc" (an acronym for "out of character") or by encasing the parts which break character in parentheses.
The current role-playing themed world on RuneScape is 42 (with an exception of world 41, as the unofficial role-playing world for F2P's), however many players who log into that world have no interest in role-playing, and there are other reasons such as less lag or a friend who is on. However, in a patch note a notice was added telling people that they are on a role-play world. Role-players can ignore players who do not role-play, or take the more humorous route of refusing to break character and insisting that the non-role-players do not make sense. Players can limit the effect that non-roleplayers have on their gameplay by choosing a low-population area such as Gnome Stronghold, Tirannwn and Dragontooth island, and avoiding heavily populated areas such as Varrock or Falador though Falador is the most common place to find a freelancing roleplayer. Clan Chats are commonly used to gather roleplayers into a certain area and be able to keep in touch, both in roleplay and ooc. One of the largest problems role-players face are trolls. If a non-role-playing player logs on, they will often troll a role-player by doing such things as putting down multi-cannons, performing emotes, or burning logs wherever the role-play is happening.
Currently, the most popular areas to roleplay are in Falador (The Rising Sun Inn) and in the Hair of the Dog Inn located in Canifis, Morytania. Some towns and/or cities in the world 42 roleplay "universe" even have specific rulers, along with systems of government and laws for each town or "hold".
Players may often use their houses to make the game more interesting. Most of the houses that will be used, the users construction level may usually be above level 50 or more. It is another way to show off how high-class their house is. Most of the time the other playing users will leave during game because of lack of interest, they don't know what Role-Playing is and they leave when they learn or because when the host starts the game it is too late for the other users. (The users may be from another country or state which means that the time may be different)
RuneScape encourages users to use their creativity to have more fun and enjoy playing on RuneScape. RuneScape offers a quick guide in their forums. Occasionally while Role-Playing, the host will require the players to have a certain costume. This host may not give the costumes away for free, therefore the players will have to pay.
Chat types
There are different ways to represent things the character does or things happening around you.
- "Enter talking here" indicates what your character is saying in that land's language or common language. However the use of quotation marks is often dependant on the preference of the Role-Player.
- "*Enter action here*" or "-Enter action here-" indicates an action your character does, or something that happens. The second one is slightly more common for role-players as they do not need to use the shift key.
- "~Enter thought here~" indicates what your character is thinking, only psychic and specific race characters can hear and respond to this.
- "Language:[enter talking here]" or "[Language]: Enter talking here" indicates you are talking in a different language specified by the word before the [ ].
- " ((Enter ooc message))" is used when you want to talk to someone but not your character such as "((I have to get off Runescape soon.))"
- "<Enter talking here>" indicates the character shouting or yelling in common language.
- ">Enter talking here<" indicates the character whispering or muttering in common language.
- "=Enter thought here=" is used to show a characters telepathic message. Only psychic, semi-psychic, and specific race characters can send and receive them.
- "{Enter talking here}" indicates the character talking into a commorb, which only another commorb could pick up.
- "/Enter word(s) here/" indicates emphasis on a word or words being said by a character.
Forum roleplaying
There is also a board for role-playing under "Community" section of the RuneScape Official Forums. There, players create role-playing threads. They are similar to role-playing in-game, except they use words to describe action and tell a story, like a text-based adventure game. Given that the only limitation is what players can write, forum-based role playing has more variety than in-game role playing, where players may find it slightly hard to convey any concepts not already found in the game. On the forums , Role-playing clans may oftentimes advertise their clan or their role-play idea.
Role-playing terms
- God-moding: God-moding is to take on an omnipotent role for a short while and describe a scenario which is unlikely or impossible, often to the god-moding player's advantage. "God-modding" is a very common misspelling of the term.
- Overpowering: Also known as OP, it is to create a character that is inhumanly powerful or skilled so as to make him invincible, undefeatable, or surviving irrefutable events of death.
- Metagaming: Metagaming is to use aspects of the gameplay and interface to learn things that a player should not know if they are role-playing properly. A common example of this is using the minimap to locate another player, using the camera angle to look through walls, reading something on the forums and making your character know something they didn't learn in character or knowing someone's name by their username.
- Auto-Hit: Auto-hitting is when someone attacks another roleplayer without giving the other player a say in what happens. ( Example: *Cuts off head* instead of *He attempts to swing his sword at your neck*)
- Powerplaying: Powerplaying is when a player assumes control of something which is out of their control, such as deciding another character's actions or deciding the weather (unless stated Game Master).
- Game Master: Also known as GM, it is a title for those whom assume an omniscient control of the scenario and roleplay. Often roles include defining the scene, weather, NPCs etc. While uncommon, Game Masters can still be found in group or clan Role-Plays.
- Lorebreak: Lorebreaking is when a character goes against something which is solid and concrete in RuneScape which defines their race or character background, such as a vampyre character being outside of Morytania; due to known lore that vampyres are unable to cross the River Salve because of its holy barrrier. This is the most common case of lorebreak in Role-Play history. This particular example is debatable as being a lorebreak as it occurs in the RuneScape-based novel Return to Canifis. However, the novels are considered as fanon as opposed to being canon. Most often in vampyre role-plays , if a vampyre gets across the River Salve, they are not as powerful as they were in Mortyania.
- Mary-sue: A Mary-sue (or its male relative, the Gary-stu) is any character without conspicuous faults, and/or any character with trite characteristics. These are often examples of wish-fulfillment, meaning that the author is playing an idealized version of himself by modelling a "perfect" character after himself. Mary-sues often have strange eye or hair colors, an unusually tragic past, or superpowers; though these are not necessary traits. This is often the most disregarded rule and often not used for blacklisting. You would find that the term "mary-sue" or "gary-stu" is practically not in use anymore.
- IC: This stands for In character, which is when role-players are currently role-playing, and also is the type of text used when talking which is just normal such as "Hello there."
- OOC: This stands for Out Of Character, which is when role-players are not currently acting in their role. Being out of character is often represented by (( )) before and after text while still roleplaying, or by saying *ooc* to be fully out of character.
- CS: This stands for Character Swap, or when a Person would change Characters. It is similliar to OOC, but instead you use it to change characters. Much like the Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu, this is also hardly used.
- Blacklisting: Blacklisting is when a player, or a group of players, ignore another player's role-play or actions because of breaking role-playing rules by doing things such as: God-moding, Auto-Hitting, or Metagaming.
