Intro
Tales of the Past, previous idea as Old School Dawn, is a revivalist initiative dedicated to creating a vibrant community for players seeking a more grounded and nostalgic roleplay experience. By drawing inspiration from the best aspects of Argent Dawn’s earlier years, we aim to foster a scene that values lore-friendliness, in-character interactions over out-of-character organisation. Catering Old Town to a more mercantile setting. The belief is that roleplay can flourish with a refined vision which values openness and community, rather than insularism and gatekeeping. It’s important to note that this project is currently work in progress.
Centred in Old Town, Tales of the Past will focus on immersive, civilian-driven roleplay, inviting players to embrace roles such as shopkeepers, mercenaries, guards, and craftsmen etc. Our goal is to revive the charm of Old Town and explore the everyday life of Stormwind from a smaller perspective. Instead of grand heroic quests, we emphasise small-scale, engaging storytelling—like delivering goods, resolving local disputes, or handling bounties that might lead to adventures across Westfall, Duskwood, or Redridge. Even a casual tavern chat could spark exciting future quests. This is not a human-esque community, the classic scene after all was filled with different races and cultures.
Out of Character
Tales of the Past, are committed to fostering a relaxed, immersive, and lore-friendly roleplay environment. We do not promote the ‘ownership’ of properties or businesses as personal domains, keeping all spaces accessible for the entire community.
Maintaining in-character focus is essential to the vision. Breaking character disrupts immersion, and we strive to keep our roleplay experience as authentic as possible. We also encourage a collaborative mindset rather than a competitive one, avoiding tools like Buzzboxes and Lawbooks that may be used to control or dominate roleplay. Instead, we prioritise storytelling and the enjoyable, relaxed style of roleplay that can be considered “spice of life” on Argent Dawn.
This isn’t to say that conflicts and gritty narratives will not naturally arise in stories. Furthermore, we advocate for facing OOC challenges and boundaries with a clear, rational mindset rather than heightened emotional reactions. Our emphasis is on fun, quality interactions, and immersion so that everyone can enjoy and contribute to. A sort of Roleplay Etiquette will be considered as a guide, similar to the classic rules of ‘No God-Emoting’ etc.
Hopefully this hub can be seen as a place for learning RPers or people seeking a different niche and style, and seeing RP through a different lens than perhaps they’re used to. In this mindset, we actively encourage characters that are lore-friendly.
Example of Events:
Tavern Nights: Experience the heart of Old Town and warm by the hearth, with Tavern Nights, where characters come together to relax, share stories, and build connections. Enjoy informal storytelling, music performances, drinking contests, dice games, and more.
‘War’games: Friendly competitions with various objectives, such as King of the Hill, Melee, or Capture the Flag. These events are open to all locals and guilds, fostering camaraderie and excitement.
Storylines, RP-PVE and DMed Events: Participate in dynamic plotlines and events that build toward greater narratives. Themes may include encounters with gnolls, outlaws, fire elementals, Blackrock orcs, or political intrigue. These efforts are designed to be accessible to all from different perspectives, and rewarding or punishing for all characters involved.
Trading: Stormwind has always been home to many races since roleplays inception, whilst many themes may seem human-centric, it’s not the aim to diminish the other races of Azeroth and their importance. Aiming for inclusivity, there will be thematic events like going to Darnassus (gotcha) ahem, Ironforge and picking up a shipment of Dwarven Brew to restock the tavern.
Market Days: A designated Market Day, where characters can showcase and sell their wares in a hopefully bustling marketplace.
Events will take place over a structured timeline, similar to a content patch. So for example, a couple of months the talk of the month might be a rising tide of gnolls causing havoc to traders and merchants, whilst another it might be rogue Fire Elementals in Redridge. Reward is going to be a theme for completing these feats, and we hope to espouse challenges.
Reviving Iconic RP Zones and Thematic Guilds
A significant aspect of Tales of the Past will be bringing life back to zones and locations that were once central to roleplaying activities. Areas such as Ironforge, Redridge, Loch Modan and Hillsbrad, which once bustled with roleplay events and gatherings, will be revitalised and relevant during our narratives. World building is going to be a massive part of this project, and building up immersive hooks which roleplayers can freely use for plots, events or otherwise to their own degree. Again, this stems around a mantra of not “owning” ideas, narratives or otherwise, but rather immersing in and appreciating what is around. This I personally believe will be beneficial towards the world-building aspect that I feel has slowly waned on Argent Dawn.
The Initiative really aims to inspire for the creation and return of Thematic Guilds, like racial-themed guilds such as Dwarven, Gnomish or otherwise, as a harkening back to a more traditional style of RP. A way to encourage this would be through the events and threads we RP, acknowledging the significance of places like Ironforge or elsewhere.
Tales of the Past: Roleplay Etiquette and Guidelines
To ensure an enjoyable, immersive experience for all, Tales of the Past encourages participants to follow these guidelines:
- Stay In-Character: When roleplaying in designated zones or during events, strive to remain in-character to maintain immersion. Not hopping on roofs or appearing on flying mounts. This applies to taking In-Character - Out of Character.
- Respect Lore and Others’ Stories: Ground your character in World of Warcraft lore, and respect the stories and playstyles of other participants.
- Collaboration Over Competition: Tales of the Past emphasises cooperation and shared storytelling, rather than individual competition or control over events.
- Balanced Characters: Characters are defined by their flaws and personal struggles. We encourage realistic portrayals focused on development and depth. (So perhaps a gunslinging Vrykul on a motorbike may not be a right fit.)
- Respect All Players: Out-of-character (OOC), interactions should be respectful and considerate of others. Handle disagreements privately, maturely and don’t spread gossip. If an OOC disagreement cannot be solved, make sure it’s raised to a storyteller of the community.
- Event Participation: Everyone is welcome to participate, regardless of role. Each player’s contributions, whether big or small, will help shape the overall story.
- Conflict: Emote fights often lead to disputes because they rely on subjective interpretations of power and ability, making it hard to reach a fair outcome. Roll battles, on the other hand, introduce an element of chance and impartiality, ensuring that combat is resolved fairly and without bias, keeping the focus on storytelling rather than winning. In this way, should conflict arise, we encourage roll-battles between conflicting parties.
- Metagaming, God-Emoting etc… - Doesn’t need much introduction.
- Bullying, harassment, or otherwise anti-social behaviour is not tolerated in this community.
We’ll be using Argent Archives quite abit, as it’s a rich tapestry of documents, diaries, stories, letters and much more. Argent Archives is a powerful tool for expanding the world-building aspects of the scene without fear of getting stories and threads being lost overtime… And discord will be used as a loose place for communication.
Thanks for reading, the future developments will be marked down here such as the discord when it’s released to the open.
