I usually do not post classes anywhere, or distribute the NC with the text, as I believe then attending serves no purpose. Indeed, I would be one of those annoying professors! However, I thought it would be fun, and hopefully inspirational to share. I really don't know it all either though!

When roleplay is not interesting, or even boring, it is easy to blame others! The others are not fun to interact with, the time period is not fun enough, or we dont have anything to do. I dont believe in this. We can make our roleplay as fun as we want to make it ourselves. So .. making RP more interesting and fun. Mmmm, how does one do that? Well, as most of you know, I do have a tendency to scandals.. with murder. However, that should not be the way to go! I had to think about it quite a while myself, because where do you begin? It is rather broad. So I decided to use a rather common approach when trying to explain or research something, namely by looking at the five W's. These are: What, where, why, what, and when. So, these aspects of your character we will now take a look at!

WHO
Roleplaying is of course not going to be fun if you can not enjoy your character. But how do you enjoy your character?You enjoy your character by making it as close to a real person as possible. Your character must have some level of depth, it should not be a 'flat character' so to speak.You can begin by working out a biography. When working out a biography, it would be specifically interesting to look at things that happened to your character in the past that have contributed to the shaping of their current personality. For instance, the early loss of a mother, could for example be a reason why your character desperately seeks female attention. Great poverty in the past, resulted in your character having great ambition. Having such details, and making your character slightly more deeper will make it much more interesting. Of course most of us do all have a general outline of our character's life till this day. For instance, with a lot of noble characters, something like.. 1. Born. 2. Went to a convent. 2 Event (marriage, anything) X 3. Went to court. However, like with any real person.. They had things happen to them, and you must try and think of those things. When you are a historical character, this is of course a bit easier, as you do not have to think of it yourself. However, you *do* have to incorporate it in the way you portray your character. You must not just look upon it as merely a fact, something in the past, but as something that still plays a role in the way your character acts.

It is also important to make sure your character has flaws. However, do be careful with this. As is really the case with flaws, they can really get annoying to others! You need to find a way for you to give your character flaws, and make use of them to make it more interesting for you to roleplay. Therefore, if you for instance choose to make your character, say, slightly aggressive, it would be easy to just to go punch a few people! However, it would for instance be much more interesting to see how your character deals with this aggression, by for example breathing heavier, scratching him- or herself, sitting on his or her hands, just to name a few example! Or perhaps your character is shy! Now in stead of not talking to anyone, you could also show how nervous your character gets from interacting with others. These kind of things would be very interesting to see! If your character is superior to everyone, in every situation, never made a mistake, then that would be no fun at all. Perfection is boring. Now don't push it of course! Don't make your character nothing but one big failure, haha, I am just saying, for your character to be interesting to yourself and to others, you must make him or her imperfect. Such flaws can come from the past, as we have discussed earlier with regards to working out your character.

The thing is to make your character diverse, your character has different sides, your character isn't perfect, it has flaws, it has emotions. Especially with historical characters, but also certainly with fictional characters, it is important not to make a stereotype out of your character. I also think especially when playing a historical character, it would be highly disrespectful to do that, as we are playing dead people after all. Your character is not merely a bitch, your character is not nothing but pureness and innocence. You must aspire your character to be a real person, one with hopes, dreams and fears.

Also be sure to prevent your character from becoming a wall flower to speak. Even if your character is intended to be shy, that does not mean you should not interact with others. Please try to show your shyness through conversation when doing so with others, we will discuss this later.

WHERE
It is important to take in consideration WHERE your character is! In stead of complaining that it is not interesting or pretty enough, you need to try and use it to your advantage! In many ways, SL gives us a great opportunity, because we get to have a 'setting' for our roleplay, rather than that we only have words. However, it should not stop there. By roleplaying or just writing in general, we can create a whole world that isn't necessarily there.So make sure you make your character part of the environment, otherwise we could just be rolepaying in a wooden box. In your location, there are smells, there is a certain.. feeling to it.Perhaps the room is very dark, or perhaps you sense a lot of tension between other characters in the room. Incorporate these kind of things in your roleplay. Does your character feel comfortable where he or she is? Is it a new location, has he or she been there before? Make sure your character notices these kind of things, the way things look.

If you do not think those things into consideration, we do not need all these enormous sims as a roleplay setting! You might as well roleplay in one big, black box. However, I think a good roleplayer, could still set something amazing down in one big, black box! The idea is you create something that isn't there. Four people having tea in a room is hardly a court, you can say to be a realistic court. You have to use imagination.. You are a painter. Someone already made a little sketch for you with the basics, and now you have to color it in, paint.. smells, people, atmosphere etc.

Moreover, also important with regards to the where, is that often the roleplay is set in a particular context or decor. It could for instance be a space ship, or the court of the Pope. Use this! How would your character respond to these settings? Perhaps your character is afraid to crash on a planet (fo the space ship one then), or that the pope might come through the door any moment. Perhaps the roleplay is set in a very warm climate, does this make your character overheated or happy?

WHY
The why is very important, and also the who and where play a big role in this.Why is my character where he his? I think it is important you try and figure this out.In fact, if you do not figure this out.. I really doubt you will really be able to roleplay to your maximum capabilities. Like with characters in movies, plays, books.. They all have a goal, there is something they want to achieve. You must wish the same kind of thing for your own character. This of course also very much depends on the where. But you must think, WHY am I there? And also, as we discussed earlier, WHY am I the way I am? You need to give your character dreams, wishes, and ambitions, just like any other person does. But most importantly, you must argue why your character is where he or she is. Why would your character for instance be in a spaceship? Is it because he wants to meet aliens, because he aspires to become a captain? Just to name a few examples. When historical rp at a court.. Why is your character at court? It could for instance be because you hold a position, for financial reasons, to show your loyalty. Now these might be hard questions to answer, they might even require some research, but it is important to find out why. Moreover, I can not stress enough how important it is for your character to have a goal. If you do not give your character a goal it wishes to achieve, then it will serve no purpose. Your character will stand around, have emotions, have a wonderful biography, but your character is not going anywhere. Is this realistic? Does not every human being aspire to something, have dreams? I think so, it really makes or breaks your roleplay. Except for the really old characters, possibly. When trying to find out your goal, try and see if you can find a goal that would clash with goals of other characters as that would give interesting RP, when we would all have the same interests, care for other things. Who would watch the news if eveyone agreed with one another, and we all lived happily in peace? No one, it would be terribly boring! You need to dare to oppose, to have your character fight fo what he or she wants even if not everyone will ICly support you in that. Or perhaps you can create a dilemma for your own character. It wants this, and it wants that, but can not have both as one thing would go at the expense of the other. For example, having a nice family life, at the expense of a career. When thinking of why your character is where he or she is, or when thinking of what the character's goal is, try to think at least a little out of the box.. I know it is easy to make your character's goal to obtain a career, to get rich or to marry, but this class is about making the roleplay more interesting after all. Think a bit out of the box!

WHAT
Now I thought a bit about what.. Because, what.. what? I think it comes down to, what is your character doing, and why? Hence, with regards to the why .. why is your character there, and what are his or her goals? What is your character feeling? Feeling is very important to roleplay. As I have once said in another class, I gave two very simple examples about a banana.
For example, you could say.. /me tries to hold back her tears and speaks. Oh, I just love banana.'
However, you could also say 'Oh, I just love banana,
Obviously there is a big difference between these two, as the latter has no emotion at all, whereas the first one does. Which one would be more interesting for you to respond to? Imagine you are roleplaying with someone, which one would make it easier and more fun for you to converse with them? I think it would be the version where emotion is added, because having emotion in your roleplay simply makes it more interesting. It just gives more space for interaction, how would your character respond? Perhaps your character would try to cheer the other up, perhaps your character dislikes the other and can secretly enjoy it, who knows! In order to know how your character would respond to other's emotions, it is of course important to first really figure out your character, as we have discussed earlier. You really do have to really 'explore' the personality of your character.

Now I am not saying you need to constantly cry, as there are of course a lot of different emotions. Nervosity, happiness, love, jealousy .. just to name a few examples. If you can manage to incorporate such emotions into your roleplay. Just as with conversations in reality, what matters is not so much what you say, but the way you say it. So you could say something seductively, or sarcastically etc. This of course gives a twist to what you are saying, on which other characters can respond and interact with your character. Although don't go overboard with your emotions, that would be annoying. Just like in RL, one does not like to be around someone who is too much of anything. The thing for making interesting RP really is to give each other 'something to work with', if you see what I mean. There needs to be something going on, something you can reply to, something that other characters can have opinions and feelings about.

I would also look at roles. What is my character and how does he or she do that, feel about that? It is like in RL, we all have various roles. One can for example be a mother, a customer, a teacher and a wife, all at the same day, just to name a few examples. I would try and look at, what are the roles my character has to play, and how does he act within these roles so to speak? We carry a mask in RL sometimes according to the role we play, how is this with your character? For example, how is the prince at state occasions, and is he different in private?

And aside from what your character is feeling, there are of course so many other things you character can be doing for it to be interesting. What is your character thinking, for instance? Thoughts at first do not seem too relevant in ways of communicating, as other characters can not respond to your thoughts, as they can not be heard, unless people are mind-readers (don't ever do that in RP, please!). However, this is not entirely true. By using your thoughts other people will be able to understand your character a lot more, since it will show their true intentions, feelings and what makes them drive. Through thoughts people will be able to understand
Furthermore, what is your character doing? How does your character move?The same goes for movements as for thoughts, although you can not directly respond to them, it would be a pity to forget them. In reality almost all communication is body language. In SL this is not the case, but it should still not be forgotten. With describing movements, such as nervously ticking your foot up and down, taking the sweat of your forehead, crossing your arms etc, you will be able to communicate with others, while your not even doing so 'verbally.' Of course movement is not necessarily body language. You could also for instance describe how you walk into a room, or sit down, or whatever it is that all of you do!

WHEN
And at last, there is when, which mainly applies to historical roleplays I suppose. In historical roleplays, you are given a time, be it medieval, renaissance, 18th century, regency etc. You must wish to use this.You are not a modern someone in a historical time setting, you are someone of the time! Therefore, you must wish to make yourself be part of the historical context.Otherwise it is no fun at all. Sometimes, in historical movies, such as in Coppola's Marie-Antoinette they try look at history from a modern perspective. You however, need to look at it from your character's perspective. You need to try and figure out how someone in that period behaved, what they did and didn't do, what they did for fun, what kind of believes and thoughts they had. Once you know this, you can apply this to your character. Take for example the Renaissance, when there are so many different views on Catholicism and the papacy. Or how about the period of the French Revolution, when society is split up in various groups of people, all with different views on what would be the best way of governing. Being part of a historical RP is so much more than putting on a costume, and then playing around! You must really try and create a new mindset, to look at things from a historical perspective. Without some research, or without attending some classes, this is nearly impossible to achieve. It is really fun to imagine how the character you have created would be in a historical environment.

Of course, this sounds and seems like a lot of work. You have to figure out what your character is like, you need to place your character in a historical setting, you need a goal.. aaagh! But imagine we all did this, imagine what interesting characters we would all have. And if we did, would it not be terribly fun to interact with one another? I would think it would be. Key to a really good and interesting roleplay, is to think of how it would be fun and interesting for others to see you roleplay, to make them want to have interesting interaction with you. And I think that if we all pay attention to this to a certain degree, we would have a very fun roleplay, as we would all really enjoy learning about one another's characters, because they would make really interesting interactions and confrontations.