So, how do you get geared up to roleplay? Do you turn on a certain kind of music? Grab a snack and a drink? Turn off all the lights? Open all the windows? Or does it vary, depending on the type of activity?

Share how you get in the mood for roleplaying!

Depends on the character. If I'm playing a rough mercenary type I listen to certain music, read certain books to get the feel for the role. If I'm playing a more refined character or a poor, dirt-bag coward/cut-throat, it all varies with the type of role I am playing at that moment, but music is a must for every role, and I always read George Martin before a certain role.

-D

What type of music is good for getting in the mood as a mercenary? Be as specific as possible. And what sort of role do you prep for by reading George Martin? A noble of some kind?

Well I read a lot of George Martin's books over and over anyway because he's a great writer, but some of his chapters really get me in the mood to play a selfish, greedy sellsword, and some make me want to play a noble (which I havn't tackled yet) but as far as music goes, I listen to a lot of John Williams and various other classical composers for good reason, for a mercenary here's what I would be listening to regularly.

Boston Pops - Last of the Mohiccans
Gladiator Score
Origa - Inner Universe and Rise
Trigun Themes - Blue Funk
Kimiko Itoh - Follow Me
Other japanese composers..

those are just to name a few off the top of my head, but throw in some Yani, and older classical like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart are good for any role.

Speaking of songs to inspire while playing, our players have recently launched something they call , where they sign up to be DJ, take requests, make announcements, etc. Apparently, it’s quite a hit among some of them. Hmm... I’ll be curious to find out what they play during our next big event…

Tchaikovsky seems to be of particular help in getting the creative juices flowing. The transition from player to character is generally a seamless one for me without any aides, but when I'm sitting down to write holy texts or design events and the like, classical scores are where it's at. Obviously out of respect for my roots, Handel shows up a lot on my Creation playlist.

Very interesting. So, classical and/or instrumental music is the more popular musical choice?

Well if you trust in the Mozart Effect, listening to classical music can theoretically improve your spatial intelligence. As concerns the correlary with MUDding, your spatial intelligence is a large part of artistic ability, which is probably why it helps me when I'm writing or building. Sonata for two pianos in D-major is the prototypical standard for this sort of thing, so try that.

Well, I listen to instrumental music too, oddly enough. But, sometimes, I turn my computer jukebox on shuffle and just let it ride.

well, not quite a getting in the mood thing, but kids are the ultimate moodbuster

"Mum I'm hungry"

"Not now dear, mummy's trying to orchestrate a hostile take over of the merchants guild"

music helps at times, but there is nothing like three children tucked up and fast asleep in bed to bring on a good rp mood. Silence clears the slate for me and allows me to stop and focus on a character for a while until.......

"Muuuuuuuum, my legs are aching"

I often find, especially when I'm playing multiple characters at once, that it helps me to turn the music -off-. If the scene is complex and I need to concentrate, I find it's either distracting or that the music changes mood just when I dont want it to.

OTOH, my angsty teenage characters get angsty rock/alternative music, my refined sad noblewomen get the same, my guys are better with the music off, Canon in D is for when I need to be happier or more upbeat, and the soundtrack from Kung Fu Hustle when I need high-energy.

I listen to a lot of oldies, just in general.

As for other mood-setters, a little trick is to match the password to the character, so I might have a charatcer with the password: arrogantbitch, or sweetinnocent. Just typing it in reminds me of something very core to the character.

Reading the room descriptions helps to get me in the mood, I know you're supposed to do it anyhow, but even if it's a room I'm familiar with it helps. Chia has a weather and time system, so I look those up and try and add an audio track in my head. In fact, I concentrate on any any visual or auditory stuff when I can't quite grasp my character.

I usually forget to eat during roleplay, so eating before's always a good idea for me.

I like to compose theme songs for my characters, convert them to mp3 and play them just before getting involved in the game or just after joining.  It's easy to convey the person in ten minutes worth of theme, and it helps me keep the character grounded and focused.  If necessary, I loop it in background (they're always instrumentals).

So I typed this before work, and got to work, and thought: duh! I have theme songs for many characters, and theme movies (the movie which inspired the character, or the book which did same) as well. Teenage Wasteland is Volaya's, my angstmeister teenager of supreme alienation. Love her Madly is Volaustrae's, my 'dahlink'ing alien who's never far from her stilettoes. I don't always play these songs to get in character, but they're generally running in my head in some form or another when I play those chars.

I'll chime in with Greenstorm on that--  theme songs definitely help me get in the mood for the character.  I don't always play them either--  but if I'm having trouble thinking of how my character should react or act, I find it helps tremendously.  Music always seems to be able to get to the core of a character I'm playing.  And if something major shifts for the character, their theme song shifts too--  which sort of gives me benchmarks for the character's history.  The more volatile the character, the more theme song changes they will go through.  I never feel like a character is quite complete, until I know what their music is.