This is for all you new players, any of the veterans should already have experience with roleplaying

So you've decided to try Distant Lands and you're looking for an experience beyond the hack and slash thing you've seen over and over again... welcome to roleplaying land!

The first thing you need to do before you can start roleplaying, is to make a description and a background for your character.

Just a few pointers, for a description, try to avoid action commands, remember that your description should be as PC neutral as possible, meaning that you should just try to describe yourself and not the emotions which players around you should feel. I mean sure you might be a 12 foot giant, and you might want to put that you're a scary intimidating individual... but what happens when a dragon as big as a street named Lofwyr comes to Turien, will he really be scared of you or intimidated? Probably not. Best to just describe your features, writing how other players feel doesn't really have a place in a description. A great way to get a feel for how to write descriptions is to look at other players and NPC descriptions. "help roleplay" is also an EXCELLENT resource which describes everything in this post in much more detail than I wish to write.

It's great to write a description and background for your characters early on! That way you can roleplay their growth, and you can also have some fun on those tasks for little people that won't be available if you roleplay at a much higher level. So what makes a good background for your character?

I think the best backgrounds in my opinion are good short stories, maybe the staff disagrees with me here, but I feel it's the best way to tell the history of the characters in the most creative way. Make sure you try to answer the five W's, who, what, where, why, when, and maybe how. Try to include things such as religion, education, family, and weaknesses in your background. Again, help roleplay is one of the best assets to answer questions Asking players is also a great way to get tips.

Don't forget to hit roleplay request when you're finished! After a staff member gets to you, you'll either be approved to roleplay, or they'll provide some feedback on things you can do to fix up your background/description. Generally the most issues are with player descriptions having too many actions, or words that state reactions of other players around them which is a nono. Good luck!