How close to D&D is RP in WoW?

Lore Role-playing
1

Hi folks!

I’d like to experience WoW from a new angle, and I’ve alwsys been interested in RP but didn’t ever move past solo stuff, like writing backstories for my characters.

I’ve recently started to really enjoy tabletop D&D and was wondering if the RP experience in WoW is similar to this? Do you meet up in discord and act out your character for example, or how does it work?

Thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

  1. Google search for an rp guild in your realm/take a walk around Org to see if someone is walking together.

  2. Say hi and introduce yourself as some generic guard to seem humble.

  3. Deal with 14 year old (character) right hand of Saurfangs armys mary sues with rape trauma and disapointed fathers.

  4. Quit the game.

Jk btw look around and im sure you can find someone to rp on Discord with, gl ^^

3

I’m not the best candidate to answer your question, because I haven’t played D&D, and I have done very little combative RP (only started a few weeks ago on various characters in both factions).

For the purely RP aspect, I just greet and interact with people in character - if they have an RP add-on or otherwise come across as RPers.

In RP combat (and sparring) I have experienced two different systems:

In sparring, we rolled 100, and we both rolled for initiative first (to see who gets “first strike”), and then both rolled to see who succeeded; the attacker or the defender. Then we emote our actions; the attacker emotes first, so the defender knows what to emote a reaction to (Morfinn parries/Morfinn falls flat on his bony behind). 3 health points were common in most sparrings I’ve seen, but some opt for more. (Depends on how long you want the spar to last, and perhaps how tough the characters are.)

In RP combat, I really can’t explain it better than the Safeguarding Azeroth thread in the Moonglade/ Steamwheedle Cartel /The Sha’tar forum, so check that out if you want :slight_smile:

I’ll try to link it anyway:

4

I suppose it could work that way, via discord, and most Guilds do have discord groups of their own, but to be honest, why socialise and RP on a Discord channel, when you can just do so in game, using /say, and /emote or even /yell if your character is absolutely furious. That way you get the visuals as well as RP. Do you mean in terms of whether it is similar to D&D in terms of ‘are there people who run regular adventures using the game world features?’ Then the answer is an emphatic yes. These range from a Guild doing their own personal missions, to cross Guild and Cross -Faction- Campaigns, which can be an excellent way to get the ball rolling in terms of getting involved in your server’s RP scene. Check out your realm subforum and see if there are any campaigns up and coming that grab your fancy. Even if unguilded, most of these campaigns allow individual sign ups…

5

Edited away

6

It’s quite like a role-play heavy D&D group - with less maths!

You’ll find different guilds do things like combat differently.
Some use rolls, some use simple stat sheets, some just use raid warnings for emotes, some (like us) have friends come and play the enemies/people we’re fighting so it feels more real!

Best way to check it out is to give it a go. Have a look on the Argent Dawn forums, wander down to the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar, and take a look at people.

Then try out some guilds and see what you like. Most guilds are helpful and friendly to new people too.

1 Like
7

Being a fan of both WoW RP and D&D Tabletop, I can say they both have their pros and cons.

While D&D is more like a mathematical wargame of chance, WoW RP is more like a dance. The lack of dice and rules generally means you have to instead play off of each other more in RP, anticipating and leading each other, and you can’t really do something another person really wouldn’t want to happen; like locking their character in an indestructible magic sphere and sending them rolling down a hill.

It has its pros and cons.

Although with a few exceptions, I do find WoW’s RP tends to lack the wild, absurd or zany aspects of D&D that can come from 3-5 human goofballs trying to come up with a perfect plan that inevitably fails when someone messes up a crucial dice roll and sends them on a wild, unintended chase because your rogue got caught trying to steal the royal crown because they are a hopeless kleptomaniac, and now you have to join up with the story’s main villain just to save yourself from an overzealous & overfunded town guard.

By contrast, WoW’s RP is a lot more planned, and its lack of mechanics & DC leaves less room to be surprised.

8

WoW RP is a lot closer to how my local tabletop group play any of the Storyteller RP systems (Vampire: The Masquerade, etc). D&D is designed around dungeon crawling combat and interactions with monsters. It’s not very well suited to player on player discussion and investigation really which is a huge amount of what RP is on WoW. However, if you want to play D&D but in a WoW like setting, I can highly recommend the old WoWRPG books for 3.5 Edition or the fan made update for 5th edition.

9

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.