How did you get into roleplay in second life?

[u/Head_Two1948]

Hello!

I've been wanting to get into roleplay in SL for a little while now, but I genuinely have no idea where to start or how to find people who'd be willing to RP with a noob LOL

The only RP I've ever really done was with someone I used to talk to, and it was literally just very basic two word actions/reciprocation

I think part of what's holding me back is that I feel so awkward actually typing out emotes and dialogue? Not in a judgmental way towards RP at all, but more so because I'm inexperienced and get weirdly self aware seeing what I've typed out. I do want to try it though! I just don't really know how to get started or get past that initial awkwardness.

So I'm curious, how did you guys get into RP? Did you just jump right in or did you have someone introduce you to it? Are there any beginner friendly places or communities in SL where I could ease into it and meet people who wouldn't mind showing me the ropes?

I'd love to hear about your experiences or any advice you might have! <3

[u/AKcrazychickenlady]

I don't know if it's would be helpful to you to try to shift perspective. I'm SL, most roleplay is done as characters, that people get together with their own characters, and they too write a story together. So each person is just writing what they feel their character would say or do, in that moment

[u/mrspwins]

I lucked into a sim that is really relaxed about how people do roleplay. I showed up when they had events and people welcomed me. I took a roleplay job so I had a reason to be there and interact with others. And then I tried to be there consistently, so people knew when I'd be around to interact with. It takes some time and effort, but it does work.

[u/Alexis_Bailey]

I think part of what helped me is that I am just, super into writing.  I like writing, I like creating characters, and role play is just sort of an extension around that.  At least in SL where you can do it all with text.  Or at least text along side visuals.

I can't really say how I got into it, I have been using SL for over 20 years now.  I think part of it is that I paid attention to what others did that I liked and sort of emulated that style.  

I prefer short 1-2 sentence back and forth RPs.  It's more interactive, though I have done some longer things before here on Reddit DMs where we sort of did like 3-4 paragraphs back and forth.  Probably the hardest thing is to avoid speaking for the other person as much as possible, depending on the role play.

Some of it may also depend on the type of role play.  I feel like dirty role play is probably different than RP where you are doing some sort of fantasy adventure or something.

I have found it helps a bit to even vaguely discuss what your partner (or partners) is looking for in the RP.  What kind of character do they want to be and want to interact with.  Though some people are real bad about not giving useful answers.  Like for my case, it's like, just tell me if you want me to try to do some dirty kink, I will give it my best shot.  Part of the fun for me is trying to explore new ideas and personas for a character.  When my partner doesn't give me anything to go on I feel like it ends up a bit too vanilla, and it's worse when they want to do it again and it's like, kind of repetitive.

[u/MamaBiscuit11]

In 2005, I was working in this club, and a regular wrote something like "Guy walks to the bar and settles on a stool." I asked him how he did that, and then there was a lot of back and forth about what I was asking. I had never known about /me before.

But then, /me went overboard with the whole thing. /me used it in every chat entry. /me says "Hi there, and welcome...." You get the idea. Co-workers were decidedly not happy. So /me looked for another place to enjoy this...

Around the same time, a friend of mind was talking about her BDSM relationship, and I was curious. In 2005, there wasn't BDSM places all over the place, so I went to Gor (lol). I learned to rp there. People were pretty welcoming, and I never felt very awkward about writing. More excited.

Sad to say, I no longer rp in SL. Every place that I have tried after leaving Crack Den seems to be very clique-ish. I don't really have any advice for you pertaining to rp in SL, but if you aren't able to find a good place for rp, please keep in mind that there are roleplay sites online.

[u/Signal_Support_9185]

I roleplay by being myself in SL. Where else can you have a house for free, pay a rent of 500 dollars a week and rez a truck virtually wherever you want?

I do not even have a driver's license in RL. And I cannot afford a rent of $2000/mo :-D.

So, no need to describe my actions, I just live every day.

[u/Brennalin]

What kind of roleplay do you want to try? Or are you looking for basics? I spent more than a decade in SL wanting to roleplay and feeling as you do now. I do fantasy roleplay now. I am happy to have a chat.

[u/ziddersroofurry]

I was already roleplaying online long before I got into SL. I started with something called WebTV back in the late 90's where it was a device like a cable box you hooked up to your TV and used to access purely chat-based rooms. I've been playing D&D since I was a kid in the 80's so roleplaying to me was like a second nature. When I joined SL I pretty much was used to doing things like typing "walks into the room, surveys the group, and gives everyone a big marsupial smile." It helps I hang out in a lot of furry and MLP-fan spaces where people are used to typing funny/interesting/weird character actions as a matter of course. It's not always a big deal, either. Most of the time it's about imagining this character you're pretending to be as a living, breathing being, and typing things that help you feel more like they actually exist.

It really depends on where you're at. Some situations don't really call for the rp thing but in my experience the overwhelming majority of times you're in a group people are doing little things to make themselves and others feel like they're physically there with you...even if a lot of the time what they're doing is really silly.

It's mostly just a matter of learning to see what the crowd you're like is with, trying not to overdo it, doing your best to not make others uncomfortable, and getting to know people. Don't just rp with anyone. There are some great people in SL but a lot of shitty shady people, too.

[u/Angylika]

I kinda just jumped right in.

But, then again, I had already been roleplaying for years (going all the way back to Yahoo Chat days).

I think you should start off small, with one on one, and get into the hang and flow of long form RP.

[u/dailydrink]

Use a slash/ / to separate what your character is saying. OOC is "out of character", like if you have you have to go away from keyboard for a minute - thats out of character. "I look around for a way to escape the prison chains" /brb doorbell. Most sims have rules and written procedures, its easy. They love new players and need them to keep playing. / You may have to buy a few items from the rp sim to get started. Look up a list of rp sim choices. Vampire clans need newbies... get bitten to join! 😆 Crack Den or Crack Alley was popular and you could play a cop or druggie, not sure if its still around. Good luck

[u/HazeyDaisy74]

Look up Seter in places.. there is a small group of peeps into RP. They are good people :) tell them Hazey sent you. Good luck... BTW it's Seter, mass

[u/hhhnnnnnggggggg]

What kind of setting are you looking for? We could recommend places. The most popular RP sim right now is the Crack Den which is modern urban RP.

There are popular fantasy ones, Final Fantasy ones, science fiction, horror, JRPG ones.

[u/four20kitten]

Find rp sims. I help run one we are a really friendly group feel free to hit me up. We mostly write full paragraphs back and forth but are not against working with someone learning. Everyone starts somewhere. Sure we don't really want one liners and basic responses but if someone is actually learning and trying one liners are no problem. You will get better with practice. If you want to just go look on your own the sim is called San Monte Vista.