Roleplay/Lore I
Character creation tips.
The best way to start out roleplaying is just general conversation.
Come up with a backstory for the character you are playing.
I'll give Merlet as an example.
Merlet was born before the sundering of Azeroth, she's over 10,000 years old. She saw the Burning Legion attcking Azeroth when Azshara and her Highborne minions nearly brought Sargaras through the Well of Eternity. She was sent from her village by her mother to make a trip with other refuge's from her home, but she stopped to look at her village one last time. She saw the broken destroyed body of her father, and then watched as her mother was ripped apart by the demons. This of course will scar a child for life. The result of this is an undying hatred for the Highborn and anything or anyone associated with them. She also has a compulsion to stamp out all corruption within Azeroth.
These are her motivations...
Her basic personality is made up from aspects of these incidents, the fact that she was born to be a hunter, has spent so much time out in the wilds on her own, yet is still a Night Elf. So she's going to be very formal in her speaking to all but those she is close friends with, but she's a country elf. Think Kaganesti of the D&D world.
Once you have a basic idea of the character, their motivations, age, where they come from and who they are you have a basis for roleplay.
One of the coolest scene's I've had happened at the Story Night one evening. A dwarf engineer with a serious itch to get his hands on Highborne relics and information showed up one night. The second he mentioned what he wanted, and the quests he was on, Mer exploded at him, shocking all of her friends there. She litterally blew a fuse on the dwarf telling him what a fool he was, why he was such a fool, etc. I had a nice OOC chat with the player to make sure he understood it was all IC, and we had a giggle on the idea of people playing a Night Elf and a Dwarf as their own races.
It is perfectly fine to play the race you play, you don't have to make something totally unique, but at the same time you can make the unique personality/motivation/angst issue.
Some ideas on how to make your character sheet on the ER Wiki.
http://earthenring.wikia.com/wiki/Characters
There are a number of character profiles there. I've posted a ton of lore info in the roleplay forums. Those are good places to start for getting a feel of your character.
http://earthenring.wikia.com/wiki/Tyyrlym is a pretty cool example of a "character sheet". Tyyr is a friend of mine OOC, though Mer has met her IC. Very interesting and fun character to meet.
It's a pretty cool resource with lots of info and links.
Kudo's to Shaw from Tears of Draenor for the Site.
