What is Role-play (RP)?

I am so glad you asked me that. I will answer you the best I can by first telling you what Webster's says it is and then breaking it down to what it is in our little world.

                 _   _
role-play (rol'pla')
v. role-played, role-playing, role-plays
v. tr.
        To assume deliberately the part or role of; act out:

Ok with that done, let me tell you what I think it is and how it pertains to DSL.

Role-play, to me, is the ability to switch into and maintain a fictional life in all of its aspects. In other words, when you are role-playing, you are no longer thinking as yourself the player would think, you are no longer acting as yourself the player would act. You are the character as defined by your characters background and description. You are not influenced by your real beliefs and environment, you're character is influenced by his or her beliefs and environments. In order to effectively role-play, you must first be able to separate yourself from your character. Just because you know something does not automatically mean your character would know it. You must distinguish between out of character (ooc) and in character (ic). There are several influences to role-playing but the most common are as follows:

Your character's background.
Your character's appearance.
Your character's race.
Your character's class.
Your character's religion and his/her dedication to it.
Your character's desires.
And yes, even your players desires for your character.

Not one is more important than the others. They all combine to define who your character is. To much emphasis on one may take from another and make your Role-play more convenient than effective and believable. Convenient RP is the bane of any good Role-player's existence. By convenient RP, I mean, manipulating your role-play and the role-play of others to reach some normally unreachable goal for your character. Hmm, I killed off my half-elf character, but want to recreate him as a human for better stats, but I want him to be the same character so I do not have to redevelop his role-play, so I will just say he was reincarnated but remembers his past life completely. That is not only convenient RP, it is somewhat twinkish.

If you are uncertain as to whether the RP path you wish to pursue is appropriate for DSL and/or your race or class, ensure you have a good description written and a good background written and send a note to the RP department imms stating your question and we will be glad to get with you and discuss it. After all, it is what we are here for. Same with writing descriptions and backgrounds and whatever else that effects your character's role-play.

If you have any questions regarding this definition or Role-play, do not hesitate to contact any of the RP imms and let us know what your question is. If you do not want to send it to all imms, just the RP imms click here to see who the RP IMMs are at this time or from DSL type wizlist. I am not certain as to how current either are, but it will give you a good idea.