Just godemote the bullrusher. The power of DMs
I think this is the biggest thing. -Show me- why I have to be afraid, and remember that not everything is universally scary for a particular character.
Basically in the first post OP talked about small vulpera getting threatened by a big tauren. It’s perfectly understandable that big vs. small could potentially be a situation were the smaller one is intimidated, but then again, what isn’t bigger than a vulpera, really? Most of them have lived their life in the harsh Vol’dun desert, are excellent survivalists with skills that have got them by among (often poisonous) beasts, exiled Zandalari, Farraki and sethrak. A big bull on two legs alone might not be enough.
I understand that it’s annoying if a character doesn’t show fear, but a lot of people don’t see a character outside of certain situations. Perhaps fights are situations that get a character’s blood pumping, they feel -alive-, every threat is a new, wonderful challenge! - …and then they go home and find a spider on their bed and the whole house is burned down in a completely natural reaction to such an occurance - err, I mean, in pure panic.
Different types of fears for different types of characters.
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Am I a joke to you?
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Oh, sorry, didn’t see you over there. Don’t often have to look down, heh… heh-heh!
…sorry. Midgets don’t get stitches?
I like playing a character that’s afraid. Malthir’s primary drive is fear in many ways. But that also comes with the flip side that he’s so used to being afraid, it almost sinks into the background. While he is initially scared of things, if he is kept in a situation where the fear never relents, he eventually “recalibrates” to that being the new norm. Over prolonged periods of time, this can result in what looks like fearlessness. It’s not that - it’s just he’s become so terrified he’s now become numb to it.
He fears death. But he fears powerlessness more. So if it’s a choice in a situation of “die by your own choice or be forced powerless and screaming into it”, he… he thinks he’ll go by his own choice. But in reality, the will to survive will kick in hard, and he’ll beg and grovel every inch of the way to try to stay alive once his initial ‘burst of fire and defiance’ wears off.
So. Characters that fear death? I very much dig that. I dig fears in general.
And when I’m DMing, fears give me things I can play with. >:D
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As most your thoughts and posts Wudmaer, you bring up a excellent point. I think the fact that “noone can actually touch my char” vibe is all to often seen in IC characters behavior. This absolutley disrupts the immersion. However as many others have written, it does also go beyond just fear, and sometimes fear is very diffrent for diffrent people/races.
Sometimes however it is a matter of bad RP due to not fully realising or haven´t been told about it that makes a player RP such manners. Sometimes its just silly behaviour and bad characterbuilding beacuse they don´t want to be “weak”. Totally failing the beautiful concept of a characterdevelopment.
I have however also seen alot, ALOT, of people Rping both fear, anxiety etc in excellent ways. But around Orgrimmar/Stormwind city core, those emotes are usually pretty scarce 
Jokes aside. It is a good reminder. All character should have some sort of flaw according to me. When they become unbeatable warmachines that go bananas over nothing, it A- provides very little to the surroundings. And B- becomes pretty dull characters.
I do hope more will think about their characters abit before they create them, or atleast as they progress them. Good thread mate, keep the good thoughts bursting 
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yeah this hits the nail on the head. Especially during BfA I saw a ton of characters act in ways that basically screamed “I have full awareness that only my player can actually allow me to be punished 
” so they kept doing rlly reckless/suicidal stuff but then taking 0 hits and smirking really epicly about it.
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I always ensure Sax gets beaten up in any emote fight I go into with him. And he’s got fears.
Do I get a cookie for being a good RP’er?
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Jenit has left almost every emote fight she’s been in that wasn’t explicitly someone “training” her to fight running away with a broken nose.
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Well I guess You played with some 14 yo.
Kids tend to make self-insert Mary Sue characters.
honestly more often than not it’s adults that have the confidence to act like that.
A lot of my characters who have faced a lot of war in their time tend to be desensitized to many of the aspects you’d face in war, including the fear of death – my Knight of Theramore who survived the blast almost has a death wish, hoping to one day meet his end in combat to redeem his survivor’s guilt over Theramore. He’s afraid of living as a failure, not dying. Not to mention my orc who thinks a good death in battle would in fact be a highly desirable thing; what they’re afraid of is peacefully dying of old age without glory like her father who passed of illness.
Instead their fears are things that usually hit closer to home and are highly personal; my mage who has highly apathetic tendencies was crippled by fear just by the sight of a tree in Drustvar that was the site of a past trauma.
Characters can be afraid of a lot of things that don’t need to revolve around death alone. Finding those alternate ways to get under the character’s skin feels a lot more unique than threatening them with comical levels of violence.
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This is why I love DnD 5e, I always try to have the 4 elements from the Backgrounds: Trait, Ideal, Bond and Flaw. It really helps you make your character feel more real. and less Mary sue.
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I too think that sometimes the notion of ‘my char can’t get hurt unless I will it so’ is too prevalent with some players, resulting in utterly fearless characters to the point it becomes silly. They should atleast be scared of -something-.
Now in Desartin’s case, you could probably call him fearless in most situations, since he’s seen quite a bit of war and if he does despair, he draws upon his faith to see him through the battle.
He does fear goblins though to the point of actively avoiding their territory if he can help it ever since he got shot, robbed, beat up and twice-captured by them. It’s become a bit of a paranoia of his, and it has been incredibly hilarious to roleplay that out.
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Augh! My insurance premium! That’s a wonderful phobia & I reckon all the gobbo players you run into appreciate the ego rush, it’s hard for the short races to be taken seriously OOC-wise sometimes. A gun is a gun, be it in the hands of Gnome or Gnoll or Vrykul.
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smiles with all the innocence of a shark
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The only character who’s allowed to be without fear in RP is no one else than Fearless-Argent Dawn.
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Years ago i rped a Troll and i got into a fight with a couple of Forsaken. For some reason they were not a fan of an ice troll in their lands. Which made me come to the conclusion that Forsaken are incredibly racist.(JK)
During the rp i agreed to the fight and therefore i should also agree to the consequences of that fight, it started with 1 on 1 and ended up with maybe 5 to 1. To me it felt unrealistic for my char to just wipe out 4/5 forsaken soldiers and walk away without a scratch. So my char died during that battle. My point is actions have consequences and rp should be no different.
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Always been a fan of saying your gun misses when somebody shoots at my character, considering how fatal a stomach full of lead can be.
I’m afraid my boy fears Eternity
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Considering the Vulpera are a scavenger race who survive the wastes of Vol’dun by literally avoiding, taking down, and warding off giant dinosaurs, house sized serpents, and literal zombie t-rexes. I’m not so sure.
Fear is subjective. And I’ve often found that people who complain that people aren’t afraid of their characters, are the ones trying a ‘bit’ too hard to read as scary and end up coming off comical or campy by mistake.
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