Months ago, I joined the Rosewood RP on VRChat as a supporting cast member to try and dip my toes into VR Role-Play. I was hooked on the VR Role-Play experience immediately.
It was like I was playing Skyrim, but every character was a real person that I could fully interact with. People were laughing, fighting, caught in serious emotional conversations, or relaxing on a bench watching the world pass by. Their avatars varied from 2-foot tall catlike creatures called Furali, to 8-foot tall dragon folk. I felt transported into an experience where many of the limits of modern RPGs were swept aside.
"It was like I was playing Skyrim, but every character was a real person that I could fully interact with." - Zoey, Community Manager
I was a Furali, new in town after arriving by ship. My story was that I’d hidden in a barrel to escape the authorities and by happenstance been loaded onto a ship bound for the Rosewood Institute: A very cold place where special students were training to be heroes. By the good heart of the captain of the ship, I was spared and offered a job performing menial tasks at the institute in exchange for food and shelter.
When I walked through the cobblestone halls of the Rosewood Institute for the first time I spotted another Furali who was sweeping the floor inch by inch. I was impressed by his dedication, knowing full well that an actual person was behind the avatar who was finding satisfaction from their experience.
Someone thought it would be fun to teach my Furali to smash kneecaps with a hammer. You know, just in case I ever get caught up in a fight. We even got several Furali into a fighting ring with one of the much larger draconic-looking student heroes and together managed to defeat him! All in good fun, of course. All part of role-play, he could have easily overwhelmed us, but it's so much more fun to let the underdogs win. A concept I later learned is called "play to uplift", one that reflects the VR Role-Play communities' desire to create compelling narratives and good fun for everyone.
There’s a special feeling captured in the experience of VR Role-Play that I feel driven to spread to others. I've since branched out to other VRChat RPs, and run a couple of one-off RPs myself in Aexia, but I still play in Rosewood and I'm soon to introduce a much more serious character: A librarian who's inspired by the magic of storytelling. A fitting theme that reflects the passion of mine that Rosewood expanded to new horizons. A feeling I want to capture, hold onto, and express through my character and writing, hopefully inspiring others to try VR Role-Play for themselves.
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