RP Guilds can be a fickle thing, sometimes your concepts of character don't quite match up as well as you'd like, but when it works it's great. It's finding them that's the tricky part.

When you desire to get into an RP guild, how do you personally go about it? Do you negotiate OOC and try to fit your character into the guild's 'story', or do you perhaps prefer to wander about sans guild until the rare opportunity of IC interaction leading your character into a community organically?

I tend to prefer the latter, but sometimes that's a lonely route. Surely there are many other ways that I am not thinking of though!

I've never been in an RP guild so I wouldn't know.

Im running an RP guild! I would encourage OOC first, because I like to RP with friends from the get-go. Best way to do that is with a guild with multiple people on to RP with at any given time.

Well, for starts, I make sure that my character's story is not too improbable, does not follow the main story and does not impacts any important npc in any meaningful way. That's to avoid that my story clashes with someone else's story. I am aware that not every role player does that, I just try to avoid conflicts.

Then, I openly RP around the world and wait for someone to ask me to join their guild. Once they ask me to join, I let them know that I do not ERP, that English is not my first language and if any of my characters have an unpleasant personality. If the guild is OK with it, I accept the invite.

I'm not picky. If for some reason I do not like the guild, I just thank them and leave. No hard feelings.

Idk RP guild will be strange with the whole account joins guild not character

Never liked RP guilds. They tend to talk overly about everything. You ask help to kill a certain mini boss, and a whole wall of text is coming your way. Way to much typing involved.

I did not know that! O.o Yeah that's kind of a pisser, isn't it?

All very great guidelines. I remember in WoW there were two I knew that could have benefited from this. They both played orcs and both claimed to be the eldest son of Thrall. It was funny in a cringing way.

I would rather get slapped with a wall of overly text as opposed to discussing what the Kardashians did yesterday or what Justin Bieber got busted for this week.

I shop and it's all ooc to find the right guild from the get go and not waste your time and theirs.

I have found and applied to a light roleplay guild that is Ork only and will focus on pvp.

I haven't yet, but I am looking into whether or not I should. I am looking through various guilds until there is one that suits my fancy or is on a forum I dont mind joining or have already joined. I'm too lazy to join a lot of forums. I'm not to picky about actual guilds though.

I always prefer to remain IC at all times. Joining a roleplay guild for me is better when it comes naturally - without invites through the chat, but randomly walking into a situation and getting my character invited "in person". It usually takes more than one rendez vous for me before deciding to join.

Questions about my personal life i tend to avoid. I never participate in guild char either, as anti-social as that might appear. If they want to talk to me they can do so IC, and "in person".

This is just my way of handling roleplaying. Im sure some or many disagree with this approach. It gets harder at later hours once i get tired of translating everything from Dutch to English. It requires me to focus, which is the challenging part.

Have fun roleplaying if you manage to find a good guild! - and if not, just start your own like i did, and "recruit" IC. Its alot of fun.

We share similar views. I flat out disable the chat window. I don't want anything to do with it. In fact, I am all for an in-game supported voice chat. That way you can walk up to some and engage them directly. I would much rather talk for my character(s) all the while remaining IC.

I have looked through miles of guild listings and I found one that was perfect. Then again, that was before the preorder. Since it seems my guild has dissolved.

Voice chat - that requires a whole new level of roleplay. Its basically acting, and not being a voice actor myself, that would be quite challenging. I like it.

Kind of weeds out the men who play female characters too, which makes it even better in my opinion.

I have had several bad experiences with drama llamas and petty dictators in guilds, so I stay out of anyone else's guilds. I started making my own private guilds for my characters, which was kinda hard to do unless I could get a friend to help out and invite all my alts.

Oh...and Jesuis...what do you do with your voice chat when a female character walks up to you and asks you to buy her a drink with a 40 year old smoker's cough dockworker voice? (Although for some strange reason, Dr. Girlfriend is kinda hot. >_>)

I'll keep my illusions and my "antiquated text based communication", thankew. And as far as that statement goes...if you're so against text communication, why do you post on forums? Do you use Facebook? Twitter? Text? Email? All that is "antiquated text communication", good sir.

To be as immersive as possible; if I set-up a guild in ESO it will be handled like an existing NPC guild; such as the Mages Guild or Fighters Guild. We'll have a code, rules, an ideology and a certain agenda. Instead of inviting anyone and everyone, we'll only invite those who are deemed worthy; favouring quality over quantity.

"If you wish to hunt with me, your feet need to be quick, and your eyes quicker."

- Aela the Huntress

I actually do it OOC, but also IC. I absolutely hate thinking of clever things before an IC interview.

I prefer to be spontaneous. I'll survey different guilds OOC by observing the quality of the RP. Then, when I find a suitable one, I make my own meeting by bumping into them IC, and starting a spontaneous conversation. I'll follow them around a while and RP with them, and if I'm a decent fit they'll usually ask me to join. It has worked so far

I usually play a trickster, unique in that I'll go up to everyone and RP /e and do something ridiculous (like setting their shirt on fire from the back)

If they RP, I found someone. If they don't I'm just a lunatic. It's really a gamble, as I'll approach up to a dozen strangers a day with something weird like that.

I know if they RP because they will usually hit me really hard afterwards; and, they will.

I normally don't play these games in having the character as an extension of myself nor do I try to live vicariously through them. They are their own entity and I'm a third party member that travels along for the ride and I let them tell me their story. Kind of like a spiritual advisor. I often find myself talking to the screen and having dialog with them.

I have pondered the aspects of talking for a female character. While I have a deep and scratchy voice, the only way to pull it of, within reason is to speak for them like they are being possessed for the sheer means of translation. Thus talking for them in third person. Then again, Khajiit do that anyway.

That's.... interesting.

I did this a fair bit myself in the past, though my OOC relationship with the members of the guild was sort of conflicting with my IC views. Since then I've tried a new approach when roleplaying in games; to take the extreme hardcoe route and not break character, ever. Obviously this has it's draw-backs, but for the sake of roleplaying I found it incredibly immersive. If or not I want to take this approach in ESO, I'm yet to decide.. though the thought of creating a character in this world who could just as well be an NPC living there - does excite me somewhat.

This forum and all of the other things you list are not part of the game.

... good sir.

How is it even possible to not self insert and be totally detached from something you created?

You talk to your characters/screen? That's also... very interesting (and slightly scary).

I feel like you think I'm attacking you. I'm not. Honestly, I'm curious as to how you came to your viewpoint. It also seems to me like you conveniently ignored the part of my post where I asked you about the female character interaction with a male voice. You stated your take on how you'd do it to someone else, but I'm still curious as to how you'd react. Good sir is me being polite, not snarky. I'm trying to avoid further infractions for my abrasive manner.

That makes sense to me. You guide your character, instead of being it.

Im guessing you're a very creative person. And even though the challenge of the voice acting appeals to me, i would still prefer the typing, as creating written emotes proves challenging enough for me. In fact... on some occasions i really do need to check the dictionary, as some roleplayers are just very intelligent.

I actually did that a few times in a game. A guild called "Beggar" or "Civilian" just to justify my attempt at being an NPC, so i can spectate instead of participate.

I'll usually check out guilds before launch in the guild recruitment forum, maybe with a bit in a storytelling/RP forum. It seems ZOS doesn't like forums though so I'm going to have to try a different way this time. To be honest that's kinda left me a little lost and isolated so far. I don't feel like there's a community to be had yet.

While you can't totally detach yourself from your own creation, you can create something wildly different from yourself. How do you think authors creating books like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones or Harry Potter, with hundreds of different and unique characters? It's their outstanding ability to put themselves into another persons shoes, so to speak.