Role-Playing

Role-playing, sometimes referred to as RP, is when players assume the identity of their RuneScape account as if it were real life. Players who role-play often develop non-canonical back-stories and histories for their characters. Many times they assign their character a home town and even an actual home, such as a mostly empty building. They may also assign their character a job whilst in game, dressing and acting as one would act if they really had such a job, sometimes by running personal shops.

Another common staple of role-playing is outfitting. Players can make equipment, base clothing, and other cosmetic appearance changes to suit whatever role they are playing. Even many NPC appearances can be mimicked, such as Guards and Black Knights. Players who chose to role play a warrior often choose to use steel equipment since it is widely considered more realistic than other RuneScape-specific materials.

Players who role-play do not acknowledge that they are in a game and will speak as their role would. Some will also choose to adopt an medieval accent, since much of RuneScape draws from middle age culture, and because of this many role-players act as if they too are in the middle ages. When players need to break character, they often indicate this, such as by saying "ooc" (an acronym for "out of character") or by encasing the parts which break character in parentheses.

The current role-playing themed world on RuneScape is 42, however many players who log into that world have no interest in role playing, and are there for other reasons such as less lag or a friend who is on. Role-players can ignore players who do not role-play, or take the more humourous route of refusing to break character and insisting that the non-role-players do not make sense. Players can limit the effect that non-roleplayers have on their gameplay by choosing a low-population area such as Gnome Stronghold or Tirannwn, and avoiding heavily populated areas such as Varrock or Falador. Clan Chats are commonly used to gather roleplayers into a certain area and be able to keep in touch, both in roleplay and Ooc.

Examples of Role-playing Clans

 * Black Knights of World 31,
 * White Knights of World 31,
 * Art of Skilling of World 100,
 * Pirate Inn of World 42
 * The Explorers Guild of World 42
 * And others...

Forum Role-playing
There is also a board for role-playing under "Community" section of the RuneScape Official Forums. There, players create role-playing threads. They are similar to role-playing in-game, except they use words to describe action and tell a story, like a text-based adventure game. Given that the only limitation is what players can write, forum-based role playing has more variety than in-game role playing, where players will find it very difficult to convey any concepts not already found in the game.