Advice for Rookie Roleplayer

Argent Dawn
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Hello fellow players!

I am new to RP and the Argent Dawn realm even though I’ve been in the game since TBC.

As a new roleplayer I’ve been reading/watching guides left and right and I’ve been also trying to familiarise myself with the Argent Dawn community though this fora and the Argent Dawn Archives (I was very impressed with the work people have put into establishing these groups).

I’m starting out with (what I think is) a simple character. A former farmboy/forager (I’m set on having him as a Survival Hunter) who decides to move to the big city to learn new skills and look for work opportunities (and why not, adventure!).

Even though I have a really good grasp of his background, personality and motivations, I have deliberately left his goals a bit vague because I would like to see where the existing community can take him and how he can grow as a character through those interactions and experiences as I, the player, learn to navigate the world of RP.

I’ve looked up the different guilds and communities on AD and the number and variety is quite overwhelming. There are merchant/trade guilds, military guilds, corporate guilds, class specific guilds and so on.

As experienced players, where do you think a character like mine would fit? If you’ve tried different types of groups and communities, do you have favorites? Also, would you recommend I go for a larger guild or a smaller one?

I’m mostly looking for your personal experiences/opinions on the matter as I try to make sense of the landscape and start my RP journey.

Thank you in advance.

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You could join one of the RP communities which tend to specialise in RPing in certain locations or do certain types of RP (these are normally via battlenet communities or discord groups) , Or you can look for a guild. Guild RP gives you more chance of character development and more chance to find some goals for your character. I would personally look to join a guild which you think you would enjoy some aspect of roleplaying out (I.e Military, merchant) , and as you want to look at character development I personally would say a smaller guild would be better for you than a larger one where you may feel overwhelmed and your character would get more lost in the crowd, where as in a smaller guild you will likely get to interact far more easily with the members and its less overwhelming to be with a smaller group than thrown into a very large group of characters that already have connections to each other.

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Hello there and welcome to Argent Dawn and Roleplaying. :slight_smile:

It’s really good that you did so, and i like that Backstory. From simple backgrounds, sometimes cool and deep characters can rise. :blush:

First note, your IC and OOC class or spec doesn’t have to be same. You might like to play BM Hunter more as in gameplay, but Eurig doesn’t use ranged weapons, but a sword. You can simply equip a sword when RPing. The place which it matters most is RP PvP campaigns, which wouldn’t be that hard to be handled. :slight_smile:

Exactly as you say, RPing him makes it easier and better to build your character over time. Through that you get more ideas, find what you like and other things which leads to fleshing out your character even more.

As you mentioned above, i think the most fitting type of guild for your character would be:

And for that, i got some good guilds in mind for your character:
Heart of Oak, they are Naval themed.
Crowsgarde, they have a noble background, mostly consists of Humans.
WEIRD Company, Mostly Kalimdor/night elf centered.
The Adventurous Journey, although doesn’t exist as a guild OOC, but a good IC community.
Cerulean Aegis, Military but has expeditionary type and adventure in it’s flavor.
Kestrel Company, answering call to arms to fight for Alliance, being a bit merc style.

And some others which i cannot remember at the moment. Sorry if i missed!

If you had any further questions or wanted me to invite you to some public communities of AD, feel free to add me on Discord, I’ll be more than happy to help. :blush:
Lightbearer#8393

Tl;dr, i suggest to find a guild you fit in and like, which helps you establish better, and get in easier.

Good luck!

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Welcome to AD my friend.

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Know who you just described? Only one of the greatest heroes of our modern age.

Luke Skywalker.

Be like Luke. Crazy things happen to him, maybe he finds an older character to take him under their wing as a mentor, finds a dodgy yet loveable rogue, much more worldly wise.

You get the picture…

I mean how rubbish would Star Wars have been, if Luke Skywalker was as skilled as he was at the end of Return of the Jedi?

So start that way, what you have there is perfect. A Farmboy venturing out to make his place in the world. (Oddly that was the basic character concept of Fintan Samuels my Alliance human character on Sha’tar)
I do play Alliance, but I’m not guilded or au fait enough to recommend guilds/communities, however I do know from when I have played on Alliance, that as concepts go, you will not be short of interaction to help shape your character. Whether veteran soldiers wanting to impart their wisdom, city-wise hucksters looking to part a naïve country boy from their few coin, Femme fatales, or Homme fatales depending on his orientation, looking to embroil the new talent in the city into their schemes, Semi-legitimate businessfolk, who could ‘always use a spare pair of hands’ Recruitment Officers “Stormwind Needs YOU! What are you doing as the Red Menace sweeps across Kalimdor? Do your Part, Enlist Today!”

Basically you don’t -need- to belong to a community, that will come organically as you drift into certain circles. What you’ve got is good enough. You don’t -have- to have an aim. “I came to the big city to try and make a living somehow” is good enough. Where that takes you is down to the next five or so people you interact with!" Let it be shaped that way.

If you have the idea of who your character is, and what they are about up to this day, then, at the risk of sounding like Pol Pot, This is ‘Day Zero’ Let everything else be shaped by your adventures.

Honestly? Play the character for a week, without worrying about communities or Guilds (Unless you find something you really like the look of!) After that, then not only will -you- have a much better idea of what is out there, but also, you’ll have grown into the character’s shoes, and so therefore -you- will seem like a more attractive proposition to a Guild as a member. Works for everyone.

Two other pieces of advice, that actually come from LARP, but kind of apply.

  1. Always say ‘Yes’ Now let me put a caveat on that, I mean to anything legal.
    “Shall we investigate this Lich’s crypt where hideous danger but riches may await us?”
    “YES!”
    “Shall we go to Pandaria just because we have never been there before, and we can trade upon our exoticness as foreigners, and try to find adventure?”
    “YES!”
    “Shall we try to absorb a mystical power source that we have no idea what it does, that is bigger than our head, and quite possibly very dangerous?”
    “YES, YES! ALL OF THE YES!”

It will get you adventures. They may be messed up and dangerous ones, but I tell you this, they won’t be boring ones.

  1. Life is too short for boring meetings. We’ve all been there, or people who have done LARP or Tabletop have, “We must all unite together, against the common Evil” “Yes, I agree stalwart ally, we must unite together, against this Evil, which is by the way, something we have in Common” “Aye, I pledge my people, to Commonly Unite against this Evil uhh, Enemy” “Then what call we this pact? The Fellowship of Unity against the Common Evil and Grr, Down with this sort of thing?”
    “AYE! HURRAH!”

That kind of meeting is boring, and can get in the sea.

Life’s too short. Make it interesting.
(Note this is not a rule for Real life, doing this will get your backside fired.)

Your Faction is being all touchy feely with a race you really hate, in RP? Don’t stand for it. Go over and try to plant a Glasgow Kiss on the enemy leader.

Your Faction is committing War Crimes in RP, just don’t stand for it “I’m not fookin’ having this!” and kick off.

There’s a Murloc wanting to talk? instead of being butchered as generic piranha-man number 24. It doesn’t need a boring meeting of a committee going “Well, should we actually talk with Murlocs?”
Just talk to the bloody Murloc.

“Hmm, there is merit in what the Demon says…”
“No there isn’t, its a freakin’ Demon! Kill it! Stamp on it’s eyes! Burn its fookin’ record collection”

My personal favourite (And I really do not advise this as a method towards employment success) is when sat around a table, and the same conversation is going on and on, and on, and you’re like ‘The Point was made an hour ago’, the legitimately correct response is to just erupt from your seat, grab the table, flip it over with a bellow of “You People Disgust Me!” Then storm out.

I guarantee you Roleplay will ensue from that.

(Never listen to Brigante advice at Blood Elf Conclave)

Its kind of like the over-used advice of ‘Be the change you want to see’ Nah, hells with that. Hells with that. -'Be the crazy story you read in the papers the next day and go ‘Someone did/said that?’

That’s your story. As long as it makes game sense, and isn’t taking the mickey, go with it.

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Hello, welcome to Argent Dawn!

If you want to roleplay being a former farmer moving to the big city, your options are practically endless. You can join the Infantry, some mercenary group-…etc etc. So what I’d do is continue scouting for guilds on the Argent Archives, until you find something that interests you!

If you want to explore light roleplay, The Church of Holy Light is recruiting, you may find us in the Cathedral of Light in Stormwind - And on the Argent Archives! You may join our discord if you want to meet the people before you decide, link on the AA site.

Light bless, and good luck!

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Anyone knows what that means?

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Apparently a headbutt. I thought it meant giving them a Joker smile but that’s a Glasgow smile.

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Heh, Yes, a Glasgow Kiss is headbutting someone, a Glasgow Smile is even less pleasant, and generally involves a Stanley Knife and leaving someone looking like Heath Ledger’s depiction of ‘The Joker’.

People from Glasgow have a (surely unwarranted) reputation for extreme violence as their ‘go-to’ response to situations. In fairness I am a born Geordie, so Northern rules apply. I have heard it referred to as a ‘Geordie Kiss’ ‘Scouse kiss’ ‘Manc Kiss’ and also have heard of a ‘Cockney smile’

Seems everywhere in the UK likes to attribute acts of rather horrific violence to other cities/locales. Anywhere they aren’t from, basically. Apart from the Midlands, Wales and the South West, which seem to get a free pass in such terms.

But yes, it refers to an unprovoked and severely aggressive Head Butt.

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You’ve had mountains of text already so I’ll keep this one short. Go at your own pace, look around a bit. Casually chat, get a good grip on your character as a individual. Then look around for a guild if you wish so. I myself been away from alliance so i dont think I can point you to Alliance guild unfortunately. But just do what you’ll find fun, small steps if need be, if you feel like being in a guild straight away then fair enough of course. I’m mostly saying how I started RPing.

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Thanks to everyone for replying (and even just taking the time to read the post).

You’ve given me quite a few things ot think about. The main reason I was thinking of diving into a group head first was to circumvent my nervousness about initiating RP around the city (“back in the day” the printed guide described RP realms as if eveyone is IC 100% of the time and if you make a mistake in the way you speak you might as well delete your character) . But you all do have a point when saying I should look around and interact a bit more. I mean, who gets a job the moment they arrive in the city?

Maybe I will take a bit of a middle ground for now: I’ll still look into different groups and maybe see if I can find them around the city, try to initiate some RP, see where it goes. Just test the waters a bit before I dive.

Thank you again :slight_smile:

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Yeah, let´s just say that half of the things that are written on the internet (let´s not even get to what´s in old printed guides) about RP servers are totally wrong.
Don´t be afraid, it´s nothing like that, even if you interract with decent roleplayers, people won´t be elitist like that.

Don´t do stupid things, respect the lore, don´t mix IC with OOC and you are fine.

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Also make it clear you are new and most will be very happy to help out

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#1. Have fun. There’s no point playing it if you’re not having fun.
#2. Pick something that interests you, do a bit of research. Your lore doesn’t have to be perfect but it just helps avoid someone pissing all over your parade.
#3. Have fun.
#4. Be happy, be friendly (OOC) and you’ll build friendships and fruitful RP in no time.
#5. Did I mention that it’s all about having fun?

We all do it differently, we all find fun different but ultimately it comes down to entertainment and enjoyment, you pay to play this game so you have the right to have a good time. Be prepared for not everyone to think the same way, I personally really enjoy military RP but it’s not for everyone. Some people love criminal RP, it’s not for me. Swings and roundabouts. Don’t feel like you have to flesh out your character 100% from the get-go. I like to keep it quite loose and let the RP develop the character, i’ll define a few traits and basic information about the character before hand and then build upon it and let it grow into something interesting!

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Oh heck no. We’re not that precious, Nor should we be. I say ‘Should we be’ because a lot of people have this mistaken idea that WoW is ‘Ye Olde Medieval Worlde’
Now, a few things about that.

  1. It is not, and will never be, ‘Ye Olde Medieval Worlde’
    2.There never -was- a Ye Olde Medieval Worlde, People never talked that way!"
  2. Whilst people romanticise medieval language (I blame Shakespeare as much as I absolutely adore his exquisite turns of phrase) It just didn’t work that way, as much as we all know “Once more unto the Breach dear Friends, once More, or let us close the wall up, with our English Dead” The reported actual words King Henry V said before Agincourt were the much more pragmatic “Alright Fella’s, Lets Go” -Medieval- people didn’t speak like Medieval people, so why should we in a pretend game?

I’ll admit, I use a lot of archaic language, Brigante will use ‘Swive’ instead of the ‘F’ Bomb, because it actually meant the same thing, hundreds of years back. He’ll use ‘Caitiff’ instead of a certain other word beginning with ‘B’ meaning the same thing, (A man of uncertain parentage) that a certain baldy playwright may have made famous. But that’s just foibles. That’s to make him sound -old-, because he’s an elf, he -is- old. I mean, I wouldn’t have understood someone talking in my own mother tongue from 1,500 years ago, This said a lot of words, including, in fact especially swear words, like the ‘C’ bomb, actually date back more that 800 years. Fun fact, many Towns or cities in England had streets that even on official maps were listed as ‘Grope**** Lane’ because, well, they were the Red Light District. They were the Red Light District before we even had Red Lights, or Lights of any type. For a good few hundred years before Thomas Edison had his smarty pants Idea.

What I’m trying to get at is that, what a lot of people think of, as Medieval speech, was not in fact, anything like medieval speech, but was some hotpotch creation invented by the by-blow offspring of the King James Bible, and Hollywood Nostalgia.

I don’t know why Hollywood is like that. For a Nation so keen to leave the British Empire, they sure don’t seem to want to let it go, like a weird stalker Ex who phones you up every Saturday night after being out at a club going “I Still Love you! You Know that, Right?”
Its just weird.

But yeah, Nobody ever talked like that. “Thou didst not do X in Ye English County”

“You did the thing in X place”

Formal writing, and a certain nostalgia for the Old days, by which people meant the Bible, were chiefly responsible for these odd speech habits (as recorded but never used)

Just talk the way your character would, I mean obviously not referencing things like DVD’s and shiz, but the essence of Roleplay is playing a Role in a Setting. Well there’s your setting, a weird mix of proto-Christian transatlantic feudal tyrannical democracy of nature worship where there might be ‘God’ and there might be a ‘Devil’ Where the bad guys have a bunch of people who worship ‘God’ and the good Guys have a bunch of people who worship the ‘Devil’ and nobody really knows anymore, who is on the right side. Where wars are fought with swords and magic, but also with tanks, mechanical air support and spaceships.

I’m not even gonna try and explain that one…

BUt yeah, so there isn’t really a ‘right’ way to have your character speak. I mean I’d avoid obvious new phrases like “Famalam” “Lit” “Innit” “Bodacious” (Alright, I’m reaching there, but most modern slang is actually old slang, but you get the idea)

Just don’t ‘corpse’ and you’ll be fine. or ‘Lit’… :smiley:

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I’m learning SO much more than I expected! :star_struck:

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I wish people would flat out stop this. WoW has minimal amounts of swearing in the first place and blasting swearwords out of your a$$ is generally just very low-brow level of RP.

I admit that I used to do it aswell, but since then I’ve realised how swearing, using f-s, c-s and other words has no place in WoW. Replacing it with a synonym has the same effect, it only makes you sound more pretentious.

What I suggest, to OP, is that if your character is absolutely the type to swear or curse, try to come up with creative in-universe curses. “By Magni’s Diamond Jewels” or whatever. It’s a lot immersive to RP like that, and in addition, it also plays more into the Warcraft universe where we, much like Brigante pointed out, don’t use archaic language. Most of it is modern, in terms of turn of phrases, and it also is a lot more friendly to most people who are not primarily English speakers.

Disclaimer - This is not a personal attack at anyone.

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Advice I cannot offer to the fullest, other than explore. There is many creations of communities, big and small.

I bid you welcome to Argent Dawn.

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Well to be honest…

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I won’t reiterate the good advice everyone else has given, so welcome!

One thing you should do is download your rp add on of choice. Eg Trp3, or mrp. You don’t need to fill it in at all yet, but reading other people’s will give you ideas about them. Eg if their profile says they have a terrible gnarly scar, you can ask them how they got it, and bam conversation starter.
It also means that you are ‘flagged’ as a roleplayer when someone mouses over your character, so they are encouraged to interact with you.

Re. Ic swearing. The orcish /blown away is ‘Thrall’s balls!’ just saying…

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