You’ve finally logged into Nexus and have your character . Now it’s finally time to settle down and start figuring out what you want to do on Nexus. Do you want to progression raid and pray you get an artifact weapon? Will you want to focus more on PvP and be the ruler of Warplots? Perhaps mastering a tradeskill and ruling the economy with some of the best crafted items this side of Nexus. Or maybe, just maybe, you want to join an RP guild and interact with other players on an entirely different level.
So you want to RP in Wildstar? Good for you! Wildstar in and of itself is a literal playground built for MMO-RPers. With the vast possibilities of customization options, to housing that you can use to create your very own public bar or guild base, Wildstar has opened a thousand doors for RPers to go through and the opportunities are practically endless.
If you are a seasoned MMO-RPer, then you already know the drill. You have probably already taken the dive head-first into lore to figure out specifically how you want your characters to be. You may be like me and already have a list of character outlines for all 6 classes (and maybe a back up list for alternative ideas. I’m just really excited you guys). For those of you that are new to Roleplay, lets go into the do’s for creating a roleplay character.
Do: Build meaningful and realistic character backstory
If you want your roleplay and your character to mean something, it’s important to build on a strong but realistic (by the terms of the Wildstar Universe) history.
An example would be: Every Aurin in this game has been affected by the siege of Arboria. From what we know, almost all Aurin were there when the planet reapers arrived and Queen Mayla Everstar ordered the mass evacuation. While the Aurin are obviously a very optimistic and happy race, it’s clear that their past still affects them greatly. Most everyone lost someone in the fight or has family and friends that are still on Arboria (presumably).
Don’t let your Aurin sit on these facts, but don’t let them ignore it either. It’s been almost a decade since this happened. Naturally they are a very perky people, giving out free hugs at every stop of the road. But if you want to build important in-game relationships, when your character is close enough to another, that their Consort or their Mother was left behind on Arboria. Don’t be afraid to make your character vulnerable, even if they do wield claws bigger than their body.
Do: Look at every facet of your race and faction
Not all Cassians are high-born pompous jerks. There is a reason that the Humans of the Exiles rebelled against the Dominion and not all of those people were able to leave. This is obvious while questing through specific Dominion zones. Cassian politics are complicated and exciting. Keep in mind that not the entire Dominion moved to Nexus. This is only a small fraction of their vast empire and it’s important to figure out why specifically your character has come here.
For the Exiles, it’s obvious. They need a new home and Nexus is their last hope. It’s the one place the Dominion won’t set on fire. But for the Dominion it’s a matter of birthright, at least for the Cassians. Try to figure out what your character’s motivation is for coming to Nexus and what their end-game goal is. This will help give you great motivation and reasoning behind your actions.
Do: Understand how your character will respond
We have a long road ahead of us. Carbine has said that there will be frequent content updates and additions throughout the game. This means that lore and world story will be, presumably, moving quickly. With this increased frequency, a lot of guilds will be attempting to keep up with their own plot to match that of the game. Which is great. I have seen many guilds fall apart because the community was bored with content and had nothing exciting to do in relation to the overall world story.
Some guilds in the game (especially if you are on a RP-PvP server) are going to be militant or mercenary styled groups. Exiles fighting for a foothold on Nexus and the Dominion trying to protect what they claim is theirs. You will be moving where the fight is.
This is not always true for every guild, but more often than not, the real action will be in the fray of gunfire. If you want to stay in your capital city, then have a purpose there. Do they have a job? If so, who do the work for and what is their purpose in the faction capital? How would your character respond if your enemy faction raids the city (and this will happen, often). Will you remain a fighter or will your cower and hide and hope that someone else will protect you? Make every moment in game is a moment for development. Sedentary characters can easily become lackluster and boring to interact with.
Do: Yes! And….
One of the worst things you can do in roleplaying is to PM someone and guide them through character interaction, “Now you say this and I say this. Then we can do that”. No one likes a God-mod. Let conversation flow. “Yes! And…” is a fundamental part of theatrical improvisation. You accept the reality that your partner has created and continue on. This doesn’t mean your character should say, “Look! The Exiles are coming!” when there is literally no one behind you. It means that you need to accept whomever you are RPing with’s reaction and situational suggestions. If you plan an RP session or randomly have a character come up to you, you should react to it in a realistic manner. While, as we said, faction city raids will happen, if you want to be in that atmosphere, go to a contested area where the enemy faction will have players around. Don’t be afraid to move your roleplay to different locations to make it both believable and exciting.
Do: Have fun!
We have entered into a world that is not an established IP. WoW had games before hand, SWToR had the entire Star Wars universe behind it and GW2 had its predecessor GW. Wildstar is figuratively and literally an unexplored world. There is plenty of lore that we do not know yet. While Nexus remains mostly a mystery to us, so do the worlds that our beloved races and factions came from. If anything, do what it is that makes you happy and gets you the most out of the game. I am in no way telling you how to play the game or build your characters but I do want this community to thrive and grow and become more fun than any of us could have imagined.
Don’t forget that there is an RP-PvE server, Evindra, where most RPers will be rolling. As of current, there is no RP-PvP server, but don’t fret PvP lovers! You can still flag yourself for PvP. But we’ll discuss RP and PvP’s rocky relationship at a later time.
Next time we’ll be discussing the “Do Not’s” of building a character. Until then!
