Online:Roleplaying

Roleplaying is an optional way to play Elder Scrolls Online. It involves playing the role of a character you create and interacting in-universe with the characters of other players. Usually this involves giving your character a lore-friendly name, appearance, and background.

There are active player guilds and other groups of roleplayers in ESO, and it is possible to filter for roleplaying guilds via the Guild Finder.

The main two abbreviations used by roleplayers are "IC" (in-character) and "OOC" (out of character). Generally local chat commands such as /say, /emote, and /yell are used for IC communication, while other channels are restricted to OOC. Roleplayers often encourage the use of the speech bubble feature when using text chat.

Abbreviations and Terms

This is a list of some common abbreviations and terms used specifically in the roleplay context.

Bleed

Bleed describes a situation where the character's situation influences its player's emotions, for example, a player getting angry at the mistreatment of their character. This is considered a failure to separate IC and OOC and is undesired.

Alt

An alternative character on a player's account. Compare Main.

Char, Toon

A player character.

DM, GM

Dungeon Master / Game Master, a person who leads a roleplay event, setting the scene and the rules and providing reactions to the actions of the player characters. Not to be confused with Gamemasters, who are ZeniMax Online Studios employees moderating the game.

Emote

Can either refer to a short text describing a character's action (usually written with the /emote or /e commands) or to the chat commands that cause characters to perform an animation (see Emotes).

ERP

Erotic Roleplay.

IC

In-character. Refers to anything that happens in the characters' world. See OOC.

Main

A player's main character. Compare Alt.

Metagaming, Meta

Using knowledge that the player possesses but their character doesn't in an IC context. Undesired.

NPC

Originally standing for "non-player character", in the roleplay context the term is often used to describe background characters who only appear briefly in relation to a story or plot. Not to be confused with actual NPCs.

OOC

Out of character. Refers to anything that happens outside of the characters' world. See IC.

Poweremoting, Godmoding

Forcing a character's action upon others, often by using unrealistic or excessive power in-character. Undesired.

Proxy

Refers to using an in-game location as a substitute for another location, which may be outside of the game world or simply fan-made.

RP

Roleplay.

Trolls

Players who disturb the roleplay sessions by deliberately getting between characters, using emotes, sending inappropriate messages through the chat, using mementos, etc.

See Also

• Community Spotlight—Roleplaying in ESO!

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