What does it mean to role-play? Someone help me here because I basically create a black African American female character and play the story
Is there something to it? Like are you supposed to give your character a back story?

Help me out here and I think I might of seen a thread about this before but not sure so I apologize.

A number of things

backstory, doing things in the game as if in real life (Dont run as much, take a walk through town, dont fast travel as much, etc)

Basically: pretend

as opposed to a white african american?

Well thats the only thing I pretend is my ethnicity

Role-playing is about taking on the role of a specific character.
Usually it involves creating that character (their motivation, back story, mannerisms and faults quirks) yourself and then acting according to the character.

A few questions that would help you shape your character are:
Who is she going to support?
What made her become a courier?
What are some of her primary motivators (Is she selfish, curious, naive, indifferent, does she hate a specific type of person/faction)?

Creating a back story can help with how you play your character in the game and you can change her views and how she acts throughout her journey through the Mojave.
But the most important part is that while doing a proper role-playing run through you play the character as she would act (i.e. you have clear idea how she will react to situations).

I'm a poor one to describe role-playing I guess, because I don't do a whole lot of it myself- but I understand the concepts. Like someone said, it's just 'pretend'. Like pretending you're one or the other when you played cowboys and indians as a kid. Or whatever kids pretend nowadays (do kids even go outdoors and play pretend like that anymore? Or would their parents run outside screaming at them for not being politically correct?) You make up a backstory for your character that seems interesting to you, plan your character's stats and perks and gear to fit within that story and your character's 'personna', and then only do things ingame that your character would naturally do, if they really existed. That kinda crap :hubbahubba:

Pretending that you're a winner/hero when in reality you're a a typical nobody who won't achieve greatness in this life time. :sadvaultboy:

I don't know, it worked out pretty good for .

-gunny

"Role-playing" is when you don't do what you would do, but what your character would do. For instance, if you're a staunch pacifist IRL, but you're playing an NCR soldier, your character is going to kill lots of people whereas you personally wouldn't.

The question to constantly ask yourself when roleplaying is Why. Why does her heart beat, why does she help NCR, why doesn't she help Caesar's Legion? Why does she use a pistol instead of a rifle? Why does she absolutely refuse to beat somebody to death with a Baseball Bat? And so forth.

Back in F3 when I was roleplaying the omnipotent jerkish America-obsessed badass Rachael, she wound up restoring power to the Point Lookout Lighthouse. Why? Turned out she wanted to heal something for once, just to know what it felt like. She went right back to stealing and murdering immediately afterward, of course, but it surprised me who was theoretically controlling her.

Anyway, the point of role-playing is to become the character instead of yourself.

-Nukeknockout

Role playing involves getting in your role as the character of the game you're playing. There is no one set rule to roleplaying, merely what you imagine as rules. Here is a comprehensive guide to roleplaying!

Character Creation
1. If you want to roleplay, it is very good to create a personality for your character so he/she can actually be a real person and not just an avatar in the Matrix. So to craft a personality, you're going to have to do a few things.

- Create a backstory that fits your Courier. Who was the Courier before he/she got shot in the head? What was their occupation before they became a courier, or did they even have an occupation before taking the job. If you have Lonesome Road, what was your role in the Divide? What do you think about the other factions, if you even care about them at all? What experiences did he/she have as a child, teen, and after that?

- Based on that backstory, construct a sort of rough version of a personality. Then fill in the gaps with questions like, What would the Courier do if he/she was given [insert tough moral choice]? Is the Courier bad or good? What exact alignment would my Courier be? Why is he/she bad or good? Does he/she truly want to be bad/good or do they feel compelled to do it?

2. Now you got your personality and backstory! Then it's time to decide what faction to support. That really is based on your personal preference. My character, Antony, is a neutral person and cares about his friends/allies but still joined up with Caesar's Legion. Really, you're making the character and backstory so you're in charge of what faction to pick. Heck, you can go a route where you don't pick until at the last moment. I didn't pick Caesar until I finished Lonesome Road!

3. Finally, pick your play style. Based on your backstory, this can be easy or hard. For example, if you were a Followers of the Apocalypse, you'd know one of your tag skills would be science or medicine. But obviously, you'd need a combat skill and since Antony's backstory was that he was a Followers of the Apocalypse who was kicked out by a false accusation, Antony just good with normal guns and gets better at unarmed combat and melee combat during his time in Caesar's Legion.

4. As an addition to #3, your SPECIAL stats also follow this pattern. Yes, you can set Charisma to 1 like all of the other guys but I didn't and rather, set my intelligence to 9 and agility to 6, then took the small frame trait. Oh and remember, traits define your character, so choose wisely. Although, I find it mandatory to use Wild Wasteland.

Gameplay

Just one rule here. Act like how your character would. Even in the heat of combat, what would your character do? Is he a Rambo or Snake? Before combat, does he charge in or sneak around with a silenced Sniper Rifle?

In dialogue, is your Courier a total Richard, a nice man, or just a situational person? Really, for dialogue is to react to a character's response based on your character's personality. If a person insults you, a hot headed person would immediately become mean but a very patient and nice person would still stay nice, if not drop down to neutral.