I don't think clicking on dialogue tree options is roleplaying at least in a meaningful sense unless you're in a singleplayer game where that's the only option available.

I see RP everywhere. Then again, I'm not really dependent on chat bubbles! Only ever toggle 'em on in very crowded settings. I don't want to miss text emotes, which is where your good roleplayers really shine with subtle work, and they tend not to get picked up in bubbles. On Lord Adraas I've seen RP every time I've gone into the Republic Fleet's central cantina. Randomly around the grid in different spots there have been groups talking. Usually at the entrances to flashpoints or cab stops. I'm getting guilt tripped on Coruscant by the occasional individual or group of RPers strolling casually along the main strip using "/" walk. (I'm sorry guys, I respect the hell out of you, but I got places to go and things to do!). I know the main RP scene is Nar Shaddaa but I haven't even gotten there yet. There are also IC RP channels on Lord Adraas where I assume RP is going on. They're faction affiliated though and my character is currently an independent so I don't listen in.

The very, very, first roleplaying game was PvP. http://www.robmacdougall.org/blog/2007/05/dungeon-master-zero/ However the form did evolve over time, on paper at first to the point that open interparty fighting was usually discouraged in favor of narrative (and tactical) cohesion, and then online with MUDs and MUSHes where the idea of consent was born to keep violent and disruptive players from ruining the experience for roleplayers interested more in story and character than whacking each other over the head with sticks. Obviously the smart thing to say that will bring golf claps from all around is that all roleplaying is great and however anyone wants to approach it is superawesome. However, my experience with PvP is that it tends to turn what I'd consider serious roleplayers off (people who focus on creative skills over eye-hand ones) because your "story" will only ever be told as the results of a fight somewhere. Great roleplayers don't rise in ranking or get better gear for all the effort they put into storytelling or community building. So they'll always be second fiddle to those that can just come along and eat their lunch. Most of us just don't have the patience for that and find a better place to do our thing.

Very slick site. Good folks. Nice forums and articles. Wiki for characters and guilds. I'd say this is a pretty good template for any RP hub site for any MMO in the future.

Superserver is just a term of art. What do we call the server we're trying to pack with roleplayers? The mega-combo-deluxe server? The Joe Cool server? The Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson memorial server? The Free Beer server? Oh...Ganden. We blew it. Should have called it the Free Beer server! And as others have said this isn't anything official. In many games there are no RP servers and roleplayers as an organized community have to call one server the Unofficial RP Server. What do you call the Unofficial RP Server when there are RP servers everywhere? And the only organized, open, hub for RP in general (that's not tied to a specific guild) I'm aware of is swtor-rp.com. So that's where I went to hang out. Swtor-rp.com does have forums on-site for every RP server though. It's not all Lord Adraas (or Progenitor for the EU folks) all the time. It's a place everyone can go to meet other roleplayers. Check out the kickin' wiki while you're at it.

Honestly? Too soon to say. I will say this: on Lord Adraas I've seen RP, by folks that are decent writers, just about everywhere I've been and the game hasn't even officially launched yet. That's a very good sign. Most of us aren't that different from regular MMO players. Right now we're running around and playing, experimenting. It's later on we slow down and start looking for other stuff (roleplaying) to do. RP communities are long term prospects. They start slow and build over time. When everyone else leaves to find new games we're still there and usually our servers (at least the Unofficial or Super servers) end up being the most populated and active in the game. It's the opposite of PvP servers that usually start out huge but over time depopulate.

I'm here to support the RP tag. Very basic, helpful and easy stuff to do. And I also endorse most of the other ideas here. Speech bubbles, sitting in chairs (everywhere), an appearance/cosmetic tab and in-game character biography space that's visible to other players. I would get huffy about it and call it all non-negotiable but then I'd be lying because I'm still playing the hell out of this game anyhow. Who needs sleep? But seriously, this stuff is top of the list for relatively simple short-term fixes that would radically improve the quality of life for roleplayers. Long term? In most games I clamor for a player generated content engine. This especially lets roleplayers be creative in coming up with customized adventures and story arcs that suit their own characters and associates. Any experienced roleplayer is essentially a creative and the more tools they have the better. Look at you, Bioware, you started off as roleplayers and you've got the biggest and best content generation tools at your own fingertips! But in this one case I think it can wait a while. You've shipped with so very much content out of the box that my usual argument, it will generate content and engage players, isn't quite as convincing. Still, the real reason I ask for it exists. We need our tools to build our own little worlds within your big one. Where our characters have their own meaning and identities. We can do this without PGC but in not nearly as convincing or creative a fashion.

As a jaded old roleplayer that saw Star Wars: Episode IV in the theaters and played the original Dungeons and Dragons and was amazed by Pong... ...this is my advice....just look around at what you see roleplayers doing before you jump on in. If you have any questions just send a private /tell to a roleplayer, let 'em know you're new, and ask for help. Guides can be handy but as you can see from this thread everyone has their own opinions about everything! The absolute best resource for roleplaying in SWTOR is http://www.swtor-rp.com. This isn't a guild but an open hub for roleplayers new and old. It's full of useful articles but more importantly it's got great forums for asking questions about RP and an experienced and patient population of (depending on your definition) mature roleplayers to help.

I'm so far busy with the game itself. I wasn't in beta so this is a big ol' toy I need to get bored of before I slow down enough to smell the roses and roleplayers. Wait. That came out wrong. Can I start over?

Hiyya Yogol, this is Hagall from Landroval! We only talked briefly once about our times over on Starsider but that was fun. I'm over with some of the swtor-rp.com folks in Lord Adraas.

General is always OOC. Has been on every MMO server I've been on. There's one little exception, The Shire on Landroval (LoTRO-US), where the Hobbits have completely taken over. But they're so cute and fuzzy...we indulge 'em. Say works fine for RP. On LoTRO it's great to just turn off all your channels. Suddenly all there is is /say. And it belongs to roleplayers. Nobody else uses it for anything. We talk in it, we /emote in it, we dance and sing and threaten each other with pointy objects in it. Always seems to have worked out fine. I'm not even sure if there are speech bubbles in LoTRO... Though I would like to see them eventually. Going to big social events can be spammy as hell. The problem with speech bubbles is, though, if they only take things you /Say then they miss /emotes and many characters aren't as ICly verbal as they are physically expressive.

Let's start by not calling nonroleplayers "unwashed masses." That's a big part of the problem the rep roleplayers have. PvPers carry around their bad apples, the trashtalkers and griefers, around their necks like an albatross. RPers have a problem with elitism, or elitists among them, who make 'em all look kinda like jerks. In general the best way to get nonroleplayers involved is simply by roleplaying in public. Let's face it much of the commonly seen public RP isn't always the best face we could put on what we do. I'm not going to put down other roleplayers, it's a free country and nobody can pretend to tell anyone else how to roleplay, but most experienced roleplayers know what I'm talking about. It's the old hands who have some skills that should be out there doing their thing. Really brewing up stuff that feels like Star Wars and out in public where casual players can see them at work. You can't teach someone how to roleplay before they want to roleplay. That desire is created by having a ball yourself and letting folks see how much fun you're having and how interesting it can be. Formal events can help but these tend to be chatty/social things and not conducive to strong themes or interactions. I'd suggest vets focus more on impromptu public RP that illustrates colorful aspects of their character. Even if that's just a passing interaction with NPCs. Talk back to a quest giver or chat, in Say, with your group mates about a quest. Or, if you treat in-game quests as OOC, maybe plan for part of some in-house storyarc to take place in a public area. But we need to deploy honey in this endeavor. We won't get far telling perfectly smart and capable people that they're "unwashed masses" because they don't cater to our every whim. We need them, in the long run, more than they need us. This is where new roleplayers come from.

As far as the quality of the experience on Lord Adraas goes I've actually seen the vast, and I mean vast, majority of characters with setting appropriate names who strike me as actual live RPers to judge from General chat in most regions. People may be silly or happy and excited and so on but they're doing it in complete sentences. Usually a dead giveaway of a roleplayer. Well, at least that's all I've got to work with for now since we don't have character biography tabs or an RP flag we can use yet...

Yup. I wuz there from the beginning for Starsider. From the vote on the old prelaunch RP site and down to earlier this year. Compared to all the other servers I visited (which wasn't all of them) Starsider was always rich with RP opportunities. I'm not going to say it was always paradise. People are people. But what I did take away is that having a critical mass of people is important to have a thriving, broad based, roleplaying community. The more creatives you've got around the more people there are being, well, interesting! And that takes the pressure off of any individual person. Sometimes in a small community, say a single guild, one or two people can feel pressured to entertain other folks. With a whole community out there everyone's entertaining each other. A big community also means more different varieties and flavors of RP to chose from. People might badmouth cliques but that's really only just people who RP the same way choosing to associate with each other and creating content around favorite themes. Not everyone is going to have the time, energy or creativity to create their own circle of RPers so having a big variety of social networks to mingle with is important. Gives folks options.

Mandash Grim of Starsider here. I'm on the Lord Adraas RP superserver. Does that mean I get large fries and a large drink with my RP? Many Starsiderans and, many more, others are hanging out at the http://www.swtor-rp.com site. It's not a guild but a hub for roleplayers to get in touch with each other and to track IC events on various servers. Includes a character and guild wiki made just for TOR.