How to RP?

[Eldan]

I'll just mention a few things that help me.

I often take a long time to get a feeling for my own character: they often start out as rather vague outlines and develop a personality and goals as I actually play them.

What helps, however:
Sit down and write, or act, on your own. After you've written a character, take his sheet home. Write yourself a short backstory. It doesn't have to be prose, even. Just a list of bullet points helps. At this point, if you can, write up a few personality traits, but you don't have to.

Then, think of simple situations and how your character would react. Noncombat situations, or at least situations that don't have to be resolved that way. "A fanatic is burning books in the street. What would the character think?" "The last surving orc threw down his sword and is pleading for mercy. Kill or let live?" "The kingdom just declared all summoning illegal. Is that a good idea?"

After a while, you'll hopefully get to some principle your character has, something they wouldn't do, even if it helped the adventure. Say, torturing a prisoner is abhorrent to them, even if it gives valuable information for later in the story. At that point, you have something to roleplay with.

You can also do this while just walking around, at work, on the bus, watching the news, etc. "Would Halgar give money to this busker?" "This co-worker is quite passive-aggressive. How would Melegor react?" "In this political debate, what would be Krell's opinion?"

At this stage, it helps to think "the character" and not "I".

For a beginner, I also recommend making a character that has something in common with yourself. It's almost a bit like cheating, but it helps if your character is passionate about something you yourself are also passionate about. Give them a hobby that you love talking about. Or make them care about similar political issues, adjusted for a fantasy world. It helps. Though try not getting too much into it, it will annoy other players.