Guide to Roleplaying. Page 2.

Roleplaying? I don't understand.

  I will attempt to go more in depth as to how to roleplay.  You have already done part of the job and you may not even known it.  You created a character, ie, the mage/warrior/poet/rogue that you are already playing.  You may already have begun to define the personality of this person as well. He/she lives in Buya/Kugnae, you may have already chosen a father, mother, sisters, brothers, children, etc.. Other people playing the game. 

  You hunt, you wish to become mighty, this is a form of roleplaying, since you can't actually do these things in real life.  Role playing is adding yet more to what you are already doing.  Does your character have an accent?  If so, do you use it?  Is your character good, neutral, or evil?  Why does your character hunt in the first place?  Is it for riches and fame, to get to higher levels, or perhaps your character is hunting just for the purpose of wiping out all the evil monsters in the kingdom?

  Do you take part in the various events the gods put on?  Are you a miner, jeweler, tailor?  Each of these details helps develop your character further.

  Now, you have noticed that there are subpaths out there, something to be other than a simple mage/poet/fighter/rogue.  WHY do you want to be one?  Does Diviner attract your mage because you want to know what it would be like to tell the future, and being it is a game, the future you fortell may even be right?  Or maybe shaman, because they deal with spirits.  Perhaps you are a poet, and the Druidic life appeals to you because you are a nature freak in real life anyway.

  So, now comes the fun part.  Start ACTING like what you want to be, and learning everything about how they act that you can find out.  Develop your characters personality so that it fits the precepts of the subpath you want to join, until you have refined so far that you literally are of that subpath.  Now you have a choice to make, you have learned the feel of being in that subpath through acting as if you were part of it for so long and learning all there is to know about it.  Do you apply to the subpath, or were you wrong, it is actually another subpath, or maybe none at all, that appeals to you.  Perhaps, in acting as if you were a Diviner, you realized that you don't LIKE the I-Ching, their favorite form of divination, however, you find the Tarot cards quite appealing.  Therefore, you develop a personality as a wandering mystic from another land that uses the Tarot for divination, but at the same time you become proficient enough with the I-Ching to enter the Diviners path.

  Or perhaps in an even stranger twist of fate, you find that dealing with spirits as the shaman's do is partially your niche, but the spirits that appeal to you are those of trees, rocks, mountains, rivers, nature itself.  You are not a poet, you cannot become a Druit, so you become the first of a new line of Shaman's of Natures Delight. It is not of course an official sub path, but who knows, if you roleplay it enough to gather a following of others also playing it, it may either become an official subpath or perhaps be drawn into the Shaman subpath as an sub-subpath of shamanism.

  As you can see, roleplaying is just plain deciding your characters nature, characteristics, hopes, dreams, past, and hoped for future, and ACTING in a manner that lets others see you are a unique and fully developed personality.  Before I became a Diviner, I roleplayed a Diviner for 6 months, until I became in all ways a Diviner.  I was so much a Diviner that I was the Mystic to the Peace Ministry of the Royal Court of Kugnae, even though I was not yet officially a Diviner.  Roleplaying is simply setting a role for yourself, like an actor or actress in the movies, and then playing that role to the point that everyone believes you are what you say you are.

DDarkstorm
Grey Diviner Guide in the way of the Balance of the Tao
Sunmoon Celestial