Roleplaying - Where is it?

When i first heard about Second Life, and saw the screenshots, and read what you could do in it, my first thought was that it would be a role player's dream. Immediatly I signed up, and handed over my hard earned cash for some in-game money to build my character. Once I was satisfied with how I looked, I made a profile, and a small backstory for my character.

With everything in place, I set out to find a Role-Playing area... and found... well... not that much.

I've been searching for 3 days now... and so far i've found

- A full blown RP forest with lots of people roleplaying!... All in french...

- A star wars RP where everyone hangs out in the OOC section\

- A fantasy RP that... starts you out in a gigantic mall...

My point is, it seems that the potential for great RP in severly lacking in Second Life, or i'm just not looking in the right places. Can anyone reccomend some places that are active? Or is SL just one gigantic Mall / Sex Market?

What kind of RP are you looking for? Fantasy? Space? Sex? Super Hero?

Isn't flying and teleporting RP enough?

What kind of RPing are you looking for?
keep looking there are lots out there

Yeah seriously, there are all sorts of areas, and people to RP at and with. You just need to look harder, even though I found a lot of it extremely easily. Even start an individual one with a stranger, friend, lover, etc. Or get the money, and a team, and start up your own. ;D

Keep in mind that "formal RP" is only a part of what SL is. You won't find it everywhere. But there is plenty of it available if you look well enough for it. It widely ranges from formal fantasy RP, to sci fi, to combat related, to sex related etc. All kinds out there.

But don't expect SL to be chock full of formal RPers. It isn't. It's a virtual world that people do a huge variety of different things in.

in addition to formal RP areas, there's just RP'ing anywhere you are.

Put on an outlandish avatar. Dragon, Furry, giant mech, tiny puppydog, or just a costumed human character...priest or whore, gangster or Mad Scientist...and go about playing your part to the hilt.

How have you been searching? If I type "roleplay" into either Search places or groups (oh my god the roleplay groups!!) I see a whole lot of formal roleplaying.

Maybe the problem is that there is too much? Pure roleplay in SL is segmented into separate Sims or sets of sims (where a sim is a region). So there is medieval at Avillion and many other sims, many Gorean sims with different degrees of rigor, many combat sims of different flavors, CARP and other sexual roleplay sims, many furry sims, star wars, Dune, etc.. As a noob i visited a combat sim that had a war room you entered before going ingame, wish I could find that again, it was very cool.

If you want western/cowboy try Deadwood

I RP no mather where i am second life gives you no restrictons yust when you in themed RP you must adopt their story line clothes wepons etc........yust today been in crack den got muged 2 times and ended up arested as i walked in building wich was minutes before police raid

There is a pretty good list here:

http://www.sltree.com/roleplaying-combat/

The Realm of Everwind is good. They are loosely based on/influenced by Lord of the Rings, and Dungeons and Dragons. You can choose what kind of character you will be - I think there are eight. Human, faery, Orc, Dragon, Drow, etc. The sims are beautifully made, and there is a fairly formal set of rules of behavior.

My husband has been playing, and he really likes it there. I just created my fairy, but I have yet to spend much time there myself.

Princess Ivory

For someone who has not been involved in RP previously, what is a good way to get introduced to it? Websites? Classes? Suggestions?

1) Know the mechanics of SL well enough to sit/stand, change clothes/attachments and use either "/me" or an emoter tool to deliver in-character information. Pretty basic stuff, I know, but I'm constantly amazed by people in RP areas holding things up by needing it explained to them.

(Not suggesting for a minute that ArchTx, a resident for much longer than I, can't do these things already)

2) Read the intro materials that any responsible RP area provides. Politely IM a group officer or an OOC* group member if there's a glaring issue you don't understand. Some group officers are inundated with IMs, so be patient, polite and thankful for advice. It might be better in some cases to send a notecard with your questions.

3) Hang about discreetly OOC if possible and pick up on the flavour, depth and style of RP in the location you want to visit. Dress to fit the theme as much as possible, even if OOC.

4) Dive in and have fun. If the worst happens and you are flamed, ridiculed and orbitted out of existence (unlikely!) you can go somewhere else. Or make an alt and come back to try again.

*OOC = Out Of Character

Do a search for Tirian Falls under "places", and select the second return. It will TP you directly to a cool Orientation Station, which will walk you through all the steps you need to begin roleplaying in that "firefly"-esque sf sim. It's a cool introduction to practically every aspect of RPing - from outfitting your avatar, using a combat meter, and building a backstory for your character.
Kenn Nillson, the designer of the Blackflag and Jezebel RPS system has developed a shared metering system that spans several different RP sims, and is looking to continue its expansion. One of its major benefits is that it allows players to leave "impressions" on one another after an RP session - meaning that characters grow in influence and skill based on the quality of their roleplaying, rather than their skills and point-and-clicking.
I've worn practically every single combat meter out there, and visited a majority of the rp sims in SL...and there are a LOT of them. One of the greatest pleasures as a newcomer to SL was the exploration of all those different universes. Finding the ones with a combination of good story and good players, is an even greater challenge.
Good luck and happy hunting.

Try Tombstone Arizona , under search for roleplay. It is a wildwest sim with relatively strict roleplaying guide.

Combat meters are to roleplay what Xcite parts are to eroticism: crutches for the creativity impaired.

I like Realm of Everwind. Realm is totally full RP.

A few I've been to...

Halo Community College - Wanna come to college, only to skip classes and have crazy sexual adventures with a great group of wacky beautiful people instead? Look for me there.

Dark City - werewolves, vampires, neko's, etc... A really beautifully designed sim too.

Midian - Dark urban / cyberpunkish sex fantasy place. Gang warfare a plenty. Another really nice looking sim.

Toxian City - Same as Midian and Dark City basically.

Caledon - late 19th century America. amazing sim, and really good rp.

Samurai Island - Katana fighting + clans = kinda role playish