The Shadow Council role-playing guild Pox, a Horde fixture since 2007, is bringing back its wildly popular role-playing workshop series Role-playing 101. Geared toward the new role-player, the shy role-player and the curious, the series tackles topics such as emoting, character backstory, popular role-playing add-ons, and IC/OOC conflict. Popularized due to coverage from mainstream World of Warcraft blogging website WoW Insider, these workshops see up to nearly 100 people per publicized events.

“I felt it important to reach out to the role-playing community,” Pox leader Shryn’Dael stated. “The communities on Role-Play servers diminish over time, as players quit or trade factions, or even switch servers. My officers and I thought it would be a great way to encourage more role-playing among both factions and throughout Shadow Council, not just in Pox.”

The series returns in November 2012, with the first date being set for Monday, November 5 at 7 p.m. MST (GMT-7). The events are held at the bonfire in Thunder Bluff. Those not from Shadow Council are encouraged to create a character to attend. Pox will even arrange for pick-up if they are contacted before the event. (Latecomer pick-ups during the event can sometimes be arranged, but not guaranteed).

An impulse decision to write to WoW Insider resulted in feature posts by WoW Insider contributor Michael Grey on both the days before and of the event of the event.

“I was so nervous before the first workshop,” Shryn’Dael remembered. “There were so many people there to watch me fall on my face.”

However, she didn’t and the rest is history. With the workshops available for reading on the Pox Website, role-playing servers around WoW have started linking to the Pox website to share the feature resource.

“These events are a ton of fun,” Snuzzle, a commenter on WoW Insider, wrote on one of the Pox-related workshop posts. “The last one was fun with the little “ad lib mingling” bit. If you’re thinking about coming, I highly suggest you just roll a level one cow and stay for a few minutes to see what all the fuss is about. You won’t regret it.” Snuzzle wasn’t the only one to provide feedback.

“This is definitely a step in the right direction as far as making RP more attractive to newer players, and I am thrilled to see it,” Iirdan said, also on WoW Insider.

Though Pox originally intended to simply reach out to Shadow Council, the officers thought that other servers might be having the same problems, so we decided to reach out to them through the forums and through WoW Insider.

Pox takes special care to not recruit through the workshops or during the workshops, instead deferring curious inquiries to a later date. This means that the people don’t always come back, but it’s important that the reason behind the workshops remains pure, the Pox guild leader noted.

A real-life journalist in Canada, Shryn’Dael composed the workshops with input from her officers, guild and server friends. The series tries to stay true to its hour-long, new-player friendly format. Later in 2012 Pox is intending to release Role-Playing:201, a series of more advanced workshops tackling racial and lore issues.