While in actual gameplay everyone's character of the same class has the same backstory, those sorts of rules do not exist when it comes to the realm of role-play. However, some elements—perhaps its entirety—of certain character classes' backstories may be very appealing to some. So does your character have a completely original backstory that you thought up yourself, or do you follow the one that was laid out by the original game?

While creating a deeper character than you can have just through regular gameplay is encouraged in role-play, at the same time not everyone has the same level of creativity, imagination, or time to devote to creating an entire story for their character. And admittedly, it is easy to be influenced by what you see playing out in the canon story of the game, especially when some parts are so intriguing. Do you let your character's story be influenced by what happens in the gameplay story, or are you careful to keep everything separate and original?

Do not feel guilty if some parts of your character's role-play backstory have been influenced by, or taken directly, from the canon story. Has anyone kept any pieces, or even entire plot lines? Or is the gameplay story just there for you to enjoy, and when it comes to role-playing, are you doing something entirely different where only your character's class and species (if even that) reflects the canon?

Sometimes things don't just go your way. Plots fail, threads get cut and things genuinely suck. But what is that old idiom, "Fall down once, get back up twice?" Or something equally uplifting. So it's easy, isn't it? Just dust off your shoulders, salvage what you can and move on. But sometimes, it isn't that easy, even when it should be. Sometimes it just digs so deep down in your ego or whatever you have and it bugs you. So some people fight back, try and bring back what is gone. It is an admirable quality, but is it the right one?

It can be anything from an inconvenience to an outright rage-inducing moment when something you invest time and effort into. It is even worse when the people on the other side who seemingly caused the failure are flippant about it or standoffish. How we compose ourselves and handle the situation is important to RP. Roleplaying is half IC and half OOC. It doesn't matter how wonderful you are of an RPer, if you are a genuinely ugly person outside of RP, full of bitterness when something doesn't go your way, it is a turn off.

With the recent disintegrations of the Voss-Ka RP plot on Lord Adrass, this question has come to the forefront of the community. What do we do when something falls apart like this? Even if you are not a part of the Adrass community or the Voss Project, no doubt you have been in the same position. So tell us in the comments what you do. Keep moving onward? Blow up and drop whatever plot it is? Or something else? We want to know!

Hello again everyone. It's time for another Guild Spotlight! This month I sat down with Lord Adraas' Hydian Expedition Outfit (HEO) and their leader Ringo Orlan. The HEO is a semi-independent Republic organization that does the Republic's dirty work while allowing it to officially have deniability. It almost sounds like Mission: Impossible's IMF to me. 

"Dear Elza,

My first boyfriend got bit by a rakghoul and died. I loved him dearly and was devastated when he passed away. His death was very traumatic; a trooper had to shoot him before he turned and I was holding his hand, looking into his eyes as it happened. A mutual friend of ours, who has never hidden his feelings for me, helped me get through the difficult time after my boyfriend's death. He has always been there for me, even in the times I didn't want him to be. We even got involved together, but I had to break it off as it was too soon after my first's death. I wasn't sure then that I loved him, but I am now and for now we are together and happy. So why am I writing to you, you ask?

The person I am now involved with is a force-user. I do love him, though differently than my first boyfriend. I won't call him a Jedi, though he was trained to be one. He has promised me not to become Sith, though more and more he seems to want to go down that path, thinks he can destroy the Sith from the inside. He was even taken by a Darth at one point after he killed his apprentice, becoming an apprentice in place of the one he killed. I and a fellow managed to rescue him, but I get the feeling he wants to go back and finish his training. He's said as much. It feels as if I will lose him unless I let him go, but if I let him go, I'm sure I will lose him to the Sith. He tells me he loves me and that I'm the most important thing to him in the galaxy and he will come back to me. But he really wants to be this Sith’s apprentice, learn to use the Dark side of the force so he can destroy the sith from the inside.

What should I do?

Rakgirl"

III. Getting Deeper

This next section is for those who have the basics down and are looking to move forward with their RP experience. There are many ways to begin a new RP story, and I'll go through them here.

1. Walk-up RP/Random RP

This one is pretty simple. You see several people chatting over drinks in the cantina, their conversation seems interesting enough, yet you do not know them and they do not know you. How do you go about this? Easy! The same way you would in real life!

/say *Boomer glances over his shoulder at the three men to his left speaking of a new posted bounty at the Imperial Fleet.* "Fella's," *He grumbles in their direction.* "I already took that job, so you can stop running your mouths about it. Though, I could use an extra hand taking in the target. Any of you interested?"

As the three men's attention turn to Boomer, he steps nearer to them and engages in the conversation. Hank, Bow, and Jack all target him (Yes, I mean actually click on Boomer and target him directly. I'll explain this more in a later section.). Jack tells Boomer that he is interested in helping him out with taking the target, but he wants a fifty percent cut of the reward. Boomer in turn targets Jack and tells him that isn't going to happen if he is the one taking on most of the risk, using his ship and his equipment. Hank then asks Boomer his name, and Boomer targets Hank and responds sharply.