Roleplaying takes many forms for many individuals and serves various different purposes in our lives. Choosing wolves as our characters, it brings with it an added set of things to consider as we write and interact. As non-human animals, wolves do not interact the ways that humans do, nor do humans act the way that wolves do.
Within the WolfSpirits Pack, our characters conform to natural wolven appearances and have similarly natural backstories, largely separate from the human world (with a few exceptions). Time passes IC just as it does OOC, and our wolves age just as real wolves do. Most real wolf packs are family units, composed of parents and pups of different years but wolves have been known to join packs that are not their natal pack. WolfSpirits is a combination of both, newcomers are welcome but pups are also born within the territory. Our characters express emotion and status like real wolves do, through their body language, but our wolves also speak to each other.
Wolf Behavior Basics
The best way to get the hang of how to roleplay as a wolf is to look at how wolves act and behave. Below you will find some helpful videos that can help give you an idea of different scenarios which you can apply to your own roleplay posts and style. On top of watching wolf-related documentaries, we also recommend hanging out in our IC channel to get an idea of how others roleplay. This is a great way to observe how it works and gain ideas!
Wolf Body Language
Real wolves don’t have voices to speak with and, as a result, they rely on body language displays in order to communicate between one another. IC, in addition to language and spoken words, our characters use body language to describe our character’s movements but also to display their standing in relation to other wolves in the pack.
How to Introduce your Wolf into Roleplay
Entering the Territory
Once you figure out your character’s details and back story it’s time to introduce them to the channel! There really is only one way to go about this, and that’s to have your wolf find and enter our Territory. Multiple entry points into the WolfSprits’ Territory exist. Some of the most common entry sites are the Great Crossing, the Widow’s Creep, and through the Territory’s open southern border. Find these entry points on the Wolfspirits’ Territory map! Depending on which direction your wolf has traveled from, one entry point may make more sense than the others. Keep in mind how long it takes a wolf to travel a certain distance and check the map for specific travel times and distances (ex – 30 minutes from the Great Crossing to the Clearing).
Your First Posts
After you’ve chosen where your wolf is entering the Territory from you can start to write your firsts posts within the WolfSpirits’ IC channel! Introduce your wolf, describe their journey from the Territory’s outskirts, and encounter pack members and other visitors.
Typical posts can look like this:
Through the Great Crossing…
WolfName: After traveling for many hours along a solitary path, he would find himself at the border of two large mountain’s that forged a mountain pass. He found the scent of other wolves and after traveling for so long without any sign of a wolf, this intrigued him. He’d been a lone wolf for many years and to stumble upon the scent of others, he would venture to investigate. He would follow after the tracks that led this wolf into another pack’s territory.
From the South, across the Scouting Trail…
WolfName: With weary paws and growling stomach, she had been traveling north for many weeks and was about to give up on her search for a new pack and home. Just before turning around, a well-worn path catches her eye, peeking out from between the trees. She could not believe her eyes and trots forward to investigate. Many paws had traveled this trail, which stretched from west to east, and the scent of other wolves was heavy. With courage, she steps over the dusty path and into the pack’s territory.
Introducing your character through their entrance into the Territory, like the examples above, allows other wolves to discover your scent and be able to roleplay according to where your character enters. This is far more desired than simply posting something like “WolfName walks into the clearing and barks.“
Now what?
After your character starts to interact with other wolves, you’ll want to make sure that you are greeted by a member of the pack who can then introduce you to the Alphas and Betas. Stay a while! Get to know our pack and our members and decide if the WolfSpirits is right for you!
WolfSpirits Dictionary
Both in and out of character our roleplayers and their characters may use specific language or words that can be unusual or foreign to someone new to playing a wolf. Below are some of these words. Players may use other words as well, but these are some of the common words used in our in-character channels. We ask that you please do not use excessive “wolfspeak”.
- IC – acronym, In Character
- OOC – acronym, Out Of Character
- Fae – noun, a female wolf
- Brute – noun, a male wolf
- Banner – noun, a wolf’s tail
- Pillar(s) – noun, a wolf’s leg(s)
- Orb(s) – noun, a wolf’s eye(s)
- Crown – noun, a wolf’s forehead
