So, I’ve just started trying to RP my first character. This is my first time RPing in WoW, however this isn’t my first time RPing period. I played in two tabletop campaigns with friends as (what amounts to) a Skaven Paladin and a Kobold(the lizardy ones from DND) Survival hunter and most everyone had a lot of fun.
I have some questions when it comes to RPing in WoW specifically, mostly trying to reconcile game mechanics with RP. To set expectations, my character Goilinar is a former criminal trying to reintegrate into society, so by the standards of the game world he isn’t anyone special.
Based on this:
I’ve filled out IC, OOC and At a glance of my character(along with some basic info)'s page in TRP. Should I fill out the About page with a full/short backstory and/or a bunch of hooks for interactions? I personally prefer a more emergent style of storytelling, but if this is considered good practice I will.
Death and resurrection. If I die in RP, does my character(assuming no other players RPd resurrecting him and I’m okay with the event causing his death) die for good, or are Spirit Healers canon for our characters?
RP seems very “clique-y” in that quite a few players will straight up ignore any outside attempts at interaction. Additionally, since I come from tabletop, I like my character actually doing stuff while RPing, not just conversing in a town. Based on this, should I join a guild, and so, how would I go about finding a guild IC?
I’ve thumbed through more than a few “RP guides” for classes and races and a lot of them seem to come down to “play into the stereotype” to one degree or another. Goilinar doesn’t drink religiously, doesn’t care about his “honour” and speaks Common without it devolving into “DINNAE AYE LAD DER HAGGIS?”. Based on this, he is a very bad dwarf. For me, this means I can flesh the character and his inner conflicts the way I want them to be. For others, this might look like I’m making a special snowflake who isn’t like all those other dwarves. Am I overthinking this?
I’m currently fairly low level. I regularly mog my levelling greens to fit my character, but should I perhaps postpone RP until higher levels so I could be taken more seriously?
Hey! And welcome to WoW Roleplaying! I hope you don’t get disheartened by the sights, and that you obtain a pleasant experience within and outside the game and community. I should point out that my answers listed below are by no means the definitive understanding of WoW Roleplay, or on Argent Dawn, and are thus entirely subjective to my own point of view.
Wiiith that out of the way, allow me to try to shed Light (Heh, puns.) on your questions!
I’ve filled out IC, OOC and At a glance of my character(along with some basic info)'s page in TRP. Should I fill out the About page with a full/short backstory and/or a bunch of hooks for interactions? I personally prefer a more emergent style of storytelling, but if this is considered good practice I will.
I would highly recommend that you do not disclose any minute background detail in your About page. A common “problem” is that people, sometimes myself included, will not read too long, overly dramatic profiles, especially if they are background fluff text. Anything that isn’t supposed to be immediately obvious to the character’s appearance can often-times be unwritten.
On a side note, I do recommend writing down the background somewhere, in case you ever forget it, or if someone is curious about your character.
Death and resurrection. If I die in RP, does my character(assuming no other players RPd resurrecting him and I’m okay with the event causing his death) die for good, or are Spirit Healers canon for our characters?
It is my understanding that Spirit Healers are canon, but only to certain individuals of greater importance and power. So, not us RP’ers. I’ve often seen cases of people dying and then later get resurrected through numerous means, and the almost-universal response has been a scalding frown. So if you do die (Willingly and with consent!A forced character death is also something that is frowned upon!) Don’t cheapen the impact by coming back to life.
RP seems very “clique-y” in that quite a few players will straight up ignore any outside attempts at interaction. Additionally, since I come from tabletop, I like my character actually doing stuff while RPing, not just conversing in a town. Based on this, should I join a guild, and so, how would I go about finding a guild IC?
… Yeah, that is a bit of a problem. Cliques and Bubble-RP have been a growing concern to people in WoW for a while now, and there’s very little incentive to… Well. Not roleplay in a bubble. But finding a good guild is often a arduous task to accomplish as those that you are most likely looking for are guilds that don’t actively recruit in commonly-traversed areas. The best I can suggest is simply keeping your ears open and hearing suggestions from word-of-mouth, or simply being active in looking for a guild in either the Trade Chat, or these forums. There’s also several communities and Discord servers that you can connect to in order to increase your awareness.
I’ve thumbed through more than a few “RP guides” for classes and races and a lot of them seem to come down to “play into the stereotype” to one degree or another. Goilinar doesn’t drink religiously, doesn’t care about his “honour” and speaks Common without it devolving into “DINNAE AYE LAD DER HAGGIS?”. Based on this, he is a very bad dwarf. For me, this means I can flesh the character and his inner conflicts the way I want them to be. For others, this might look like I’m making a special snowflake who isn’t like all those other dwarves. Am I overthinking this?
A little, yes! You might get a few heated debates over whisper, but I say that you have permission, at least mine, to Roleplay whatever character concept you want. I will however give you advance notice that non-playable races, such as Nagas, Kobolds, Ogres, and others are often ignored and/or frowned upon, based on the area you find yourself located in. A trogg would never find itself accepted inside of Ironforge, for example.
I’m currently fairly low level. I regularly mog my levelling greens to fit my character, but should I perhaps postpone RP until higher levels so I could be taken more seriously?
You can Roleplay at any level you want! Being a criminal gives you plenty of leeway in terms of cosmetic appearance, and I do recommend finding a certain outfit that you can fall back to. In terms of character progression, you don’t really advance as fast as you level.
I hope these answers shed some Light (Heh, puns again.) On your plight. If there are any questions, or further clarifications you need, I’ll happily answer them to the best of my ability.
Roleplay is just like any other hobby in this regard, you just need to find a good group of people you have fun with. Sections of the roleplay community are quite insular whereas others are very much open. It’s very touch and go depending on where you’re going.
This is something that varies, arguably level doesn’t matter. But you do get people that tend to disregard low levels as trolls or low-effort.
TRP is a great way to signal that you are, in fact, a roleplayer sincerely interested in roleplaying. What your profile contains will help people determine if you’re just a troll, or an alt, or whatever else. As long as you have a proper name, and a quick glance/status, you’re set to go!
Short answer: No.
Spirit healers are generally not a thing. Even if there are lore tidbits about them, you’d have a hard time getting people to take you seriously if you claim you died and were resurrected by one. Still, you can always give it a shot and let people treat you as an IC liar / madman, rather than an OOC one!
Still, folks are brought back from the dead IC all the time, and experience tells me people have an easier time accepting something like a warlock’s soulstone, over the intervention of a benevolent spirit healer. (even if any kind of death-dodging IC tends to be frowned upon)
There’s always someone out there who wants to RP with you, no matter what. Joining a guild is a good idea if you like to be out and about doing things though. Still, a good way to find a guild might simply be to wander around towns and hubs, asking if someone knows where you might find the kind of work you’re looking for? - This way you get to meet new people, make new friends, and maybe get to hear a bit about the different guilds you might end up with? You know, see which of them have a good or a bad reputation IC (or OOC…)
“RP-Guides” tend to be auto-fellating ego boosters written for e-fame and other internet points. Ignore them. You absolutely don’t need to be an ACH ME HAGGIS dwarf.
Higher level certainly helps, but it isn’t necessary in order to get started. Good luck
Many people use this for the detailed character profiles. TRP is primarily reserved for quick and obvious information, such as a current status or quirks in appearance. Everyone has their own style of course, and some people do put full stories in TRP. I know I don’t read anything beyond the name, though.
There are many discussions currently running about on this forum regarding our interpretation of game and lore, and what could/should be canon and not. I believe that you should do what you think is right, however resurrection gets people’s panties in a twist very quickly. Personally? Wouldn’t mind if you did. The story that comes out of it is important.
Big problem in AD at the moment, you will find interactive RP in big server campaigns that are announced months in advance either here or on the Argent Archives (or both). Everyday RP can be a hassle, but Aerilen puts it well: like with everything, you need a group. It’ll take time, but interact with people and stick with the ones you get along and have fun.
What you need is lore. If a guide contains none of it, consider it personal interpretation and thus merely advise given from one player’s perspective, to another. You can play a sophisticated dwarf and be normal, or an obnoxiously accented one. How you will be seen varies from player to player, more than character to character, sometimes.
When it comes down to ‘snowflakes’, the term used to hold meaning a few years back. Nowadays, it’s flung about by people who do even more obnoxiously Mary-Sue RP than you in that instant. If someone calls you that, chances are its because they didn’t get the full spotlight. Approach with an open mind, but don’t take any random bloke calling you bad to heart. Everyone is, to someone.
Keep that in mind.
For many reasons, people take higher levels more seriously. Dedication to the character? I disagree, but you will definitely find more interaction and opportunity the higher you go.
Welcome to AD, all in all! Good luck in your adventures.
Many good replies in this thread so I won’t respond to your questions specifically.
I recommend not writing an excessive background story but have like a basic sense of direction. As you meet and RP with people, you’ll soon get a feel on how your character is. That way, his past will be easier to flesh out to match his current status.
It can be hard doing walk-up RP, and in my opinion, the one who have “Feel free to approach for RP” can be the hardest to begin a conversation with. Visit the various taverns in Stormwind during evenings and try getting something started over an ale, coffee or even without partaking in drinking activity! Taverns are a great place to meet people and mostly it’s more welcoming than people being statues around cathedral square or lion’s rest.
Honestly, despite my complaints about cliques, Argent Dawn is great and the world actually feels alive. I leveled a Draenei Surv Hunter on Defias Brotherhood to Outland and I think I’ve met legitimately less than ten other players outside of Stormwind.
“Doesn’t anyone stay dead anymore?!” -Arthas as he is confronted by muradin’s dwarves.
If i may add my 2 copper, if you want to for example feign death or your character is either a shaman with an ankh, a lich, a warlock with a soulstone hidden in the dark corners of the shadow cleft in orgrimmar, you might want to inform and make good agreements on the event with all parties.
Mind you that there is a clear distinction between the two.
Cliques can also be attributed to the fact of what they roleplay.
For example a town guard or battalion is more likely to stick to their own then to
the locals since you wouldn’t let a peasant that comes to pay his tithe eavesdrop on important military operations etc etc.
Bubble-RP, thats just rubbish unless you walk into an event that is meant or set to have a certain scenario, A stray magister is strolling the barrens right into an rabid army of quilboar from the left that try to reclaim chips of durotar, that can be off.
TL:DR, Communicate and make agreements, rather then ignoring and being a something that the filters won’t allow me to say anymore, because that won’t do RP good in general… Unless its Omegarthas4000 Dualwielding 8 fully automated-shotguns.
Heya! Welcome to Argent Dawn. I suppose it goes without saying (not sure if others has already said it, I just skimmed through some of the other’s topics) DON’T GO TO GOLDSHIRE it’s very bad there and most guilds outside of Thotshire will most likely not take you seriously IC if they know you frequent that place.
As many of the others here have told you it can be a bit off and on with how people treat you. As Sindrí above me here mentioned you might end up running into people that is currently in a set scenario for an event. Most guilds I have crossed do have the tendency however to whisper people that approach them IC when they are in an event, to inform they are in an event. I do however encourage you to reply to them if they are at that location IC. (quite often people use OOC locations for events to either:
Get away from areas with many players in it
Avoid lollers)
If they however are at your location IC, ask them who is DM’ing the event, and then ask the DM if you can join in as you both are IC at the same place, and if they for example are battling, your char could see this and try to aid them!
As for your question about joining guilds. You mentioned that you don’t like to just hang out and converse in a city. That is completely fine! I do suggest that you find a guild to join. Sure, there will be down hours when the guild just casual RPs in a city or their base, but most RP guilds I have crossed tend to host quite a share of RP events.
I hope that my answers satisfied you at least a tiny bit, and once more, welcome to the RP!
A lot of good things have already been mentioned. If you are not in a hurry to look for a guild you could also see about joining one or more communities that are there. They tend to focus more on RP in a certain area or a certain type of roleplay.
Communities often have an in game community and/or discord.
I know it sometimes is hard to get into RP, but with a little patience you will make meaningful contacts and when the ball is rolling things will move a lot faster.
I don’t like the fact that people tend to see lower level characters as ‘less’ then high level ones and I think it’s nonsense because char level has nothing to do with RP skills. But I do know that sometimes it’s more restricting when you are lower level because you are confined to area’s within your level range.
You don’t necessarily need a hugely complicated TRP, often less is more I’d say! I’ve never written any background stories in my profiles, as I assume people wouldn’t have time to read that while roleplaying with me anyways. Just note things like ‘this character walks with a limp’ or such and you’ll be fine.
I’d be careful with this, and advise to not bring back a character you killed. I think it’s generally considered bad practice, though that may vary depending on who you play with.
Again I think that also depends on who you play with, but also note that it could be accidental! Sometimes when it becomes busy in a populated place it’s hard to keep track of all the chat, especially when some players are already conversing in a group. I’ve definitely missed people’s sentences more than once, so I know how easy it can happen. There’s lots (and lots) of guilds on the server, I’d say take your time to find one that matches your preferences. Usually there’s guilds recruiting right in Stormwind, but checking these forums, Argent Archives or word of mouth would also help you in the right direction.
I think you’re overthinking it, if you’re already self-conscious about not making a ‘special snowflake’ character, you likely won’t end up with one! Also IMO accents are overrated. I’d much rather be reading normal (or lightly accented) sentences, knowing in the back of my mind that the character speaks with a dwarven accent, then decypher someone’s apostrophe barrage.
It’s a good idea to level your character, since it will expand your fashion choices and places you can go, but it shouldn’t matter for RP. People who don’t take low-level characters seriously… well those are weird. All you need to RP IMO is the ability to type, respect for the setting you play in, imagination and a good attitude!
I usually fill out my about with appearances. I don’t see the point in putting in backstory. That’s for RP with others to uncover, and it’d be boring and be pointless if everyone knew your backstory.
Death is a tricky one. Some players accept it, some don’t. If you don’t want your character to die, don’t put them in situations in which they can be killable (i.e. high conflict scenarios). Spirit healers aren’t typically considered to be there at all, but the shadowlands definitely exist, and some characters do choose to ressurect, though it’s not typically well received.
Players who’ll ignore interaction from others generally aren’t worth your time, unless they’ve good reason for ignoring (i.e. the player is known to not take consequences, is a troll or has very very different standards of RP that verge upon being borderline silly). You can find RP by not just AFKing in a town. In fact, I’ve found RP in shops, travelling through to other places, and even in big server wide campaigns. You’ll find RP anywhere, and you don’t have to be in a guild for it. But for new characters, it might be slow to find.
Stereotypes are the ‘safe’ way to RP if you aren’t fully coherent on your lore and want to be decent without straying away or being confident enough to do otherwise. If you feel confident in your RP style, your lore knowledge and in the community, feel free to stray from the stereotypes. Else, stereotypes are your safest way to play.
Your level doesn’t generally matter unless you want to RP in high level zones or wear cool mogs. I RP’d Chiel from level 20 onwards. In fact, some ‘hardcore RPers’ deliberately cap their level so that they can’t gain experience and are always a low level. For the immershun.
With that being said: welcome to Argent Dawn! Feel free to ask around in game for more help and if you’ve any other questions.
As a person who does a lot of RP in the holy Light scene, I can say that we (alliance side paladins atleast) seem to be fairly open and welcoming to newer role players. I encourage you to check out Tyr’s Hand on the 9th of December.
Resurrection is a part of the lore with which I have become familiar. As a paladin, coming up from Warcraft 3, Resurrect is a big part of the fantasy. Factor in the TBC and BFA cinematics, a few mentions of it in novels and, my personal favourite example, this one priestess in karasang wilds and I think it’s folly to say that resurrection isn’t a part of the setting. Note however; resurrection sickness. To die, go to the shadowlands, and be brought back is a harrowing experience and probably not something you’d ever seek to go through multiple times.
My personal head cannon on the topic to find an in-between for those who are fully against resurrection and those who are fully behind it uses the 6 minute release spirit time out. If you’re recently dead, then resurrection is fair game.
You mentioned worries about your level. Although I didn’t start RPing while I was leveling, the character I’m probably most well known for is Galdrick who I started RPing as a level 10 paladin and that was before all the t-mog help you get nower days. So if you’ve got some alts who are a higher level so you have a bit of gold and unlocked appearances then you’re definately sussed for the quality of life bits and pieces that will make RPing easier as a lower level.
Coming to WoW RP from a TRPG background is a deceptively different beast. Welcome to the world where nearly everything happens in real time. As such RP on WoW falls onto a scale from ‘basically a chat room’ to ‘basically a TRPG’.
The folk you see hanging around stormwind who go there to socialise and do not much else, WoW RP is basically an advanced RP chat room however others seek out guilds and only really log on for the adventures and events that those guilds hold, for them wow is basically a TRPG simulator.
Most guilds and groups fall somewhere in between, taking the time to both socialise around in character and go on epic adventures.
My TRP is woefully blank. Mostly just at first glance info.
Dropping the accent on a dwarf is perfectly fine. Most dwarves are pefectly easy to understand and even just a currently of ‘speaks in a dwarven accent’ covers that. I play into my accent because I want to stress that it’s thick.
I do advise playing into the steriotypes to some amount because it offers a way to be obviously not just a small human with a beard.
Lot of good advice here already, but I’ll chuck some more in.
A lot of people come at RP that way, having done tabletop or LARP, though I have to say the idea of a Skaven Paladin sounds delicious.
Good start. Whilst the ‘character’ is obviously the lynchpin the world revolves around, your RP character shouldn’t be. I mean there is nothing wrong with them being arrogant enough to think that the world -does- revolve around them, but generally speaking, them being ‘not anyone special’ can be a good start.
Nah, I’d go with your initial instinct of emergent RP, as the LARP axiom goes “Don’t play a ‘Mighty Warrior’, play a Warrior and -Be- Mighty” or to put it simpler “Show, don’t Tell”. Nobody would know Brigante’s full history just by a chance encounter on the street, they can’t tell by looking at him that he has two young children and a wife in a wheelchair, these are all things that come out through interaction. That’s one of the aspects I love about random RP with strangers, its all the fascinating little stories that come out. I tend to stick with what people see is what they get, with my TRP. People can tell, by looking at Brigante that he is likely the sort of person they can approach, he’s quite short for a male elf, and he usually has a smile on his face. He’s clearly done himself a mischief at some point, as he now walks with a cane. Those are all things you can see by looking. I haven’t got a shred of his backstory on my TRP, as, well, like I say, a person couldn’t see it by looking.
For a start remember that death is always your choice, people trying to force-kill other characters are bad form. We can’t ignore the presence of Spirit Healers entirely, especially as we now know there is some tenuous link between them and Val’kyr, which we obviously know exist. I like to think of it as “They save the Hero of Azeroth when they die, but Johnny Random just has to stay dead unless someone intercedes”. I mean consider people like Varian, like Tyrion, Terenas II and other great heroes of Lore. If -they- couldn’t get rezzed by a Spirit Healer, then why would you? I personally reckon that whilst it is within the capacity of player characters to resurrect someone, it is not an easy process and not a casual thing that happens. If it was all that easy then no one would die on Azeroth. Unless your character has made some prior preparations like a Soulstone, I would think -very- carefully before letting them get killed, just randomly coming back from the dead because you corpse ran is not how folk do it…
As long as you’re approaching in an IC manner, then frankly anyone who refuses to interact is probably not worth roleplaying with anyway in my experience. There are rare exceptions to that, I was recently running an event for my guild using a location to represent a midnight commando raid, and I saw members of another Guild, the Sisterhood of the Serpent, (Its not naming and shaming if you’re not saying anything nasty!) were in the vicinity and I remember thinking “Crumbs, this is going to be embarrassing if they suddenly come over and start talking like everything is normal”, but thankfully they seemed to realise we were obviously doing -something- and so we both just carried on and did our thing. Sometimes a whisper of “Hi, we’re using this location to represent X, so just ignore us!” is fine. Now if I was lounging in Orgrimmar or Silvermoon and Johnny Random walks up and strikes up a conversation, I wouldn’t dream of refusing to engage, why would I? They are there, I am there, our characters could interact. If it was a more open mission and using the above example the Sisters had come up and said “What you doing? Can we help?” Then I’d be like “Sure, right, this is the situation…” Some people ignore level 1 characters or trial accounts. That’s ridiculous, everybody starts somewhere, none of us spring from the womb as an experienced level 120 RP’er. Guilds can be a useful gateway to some RP, but are not essential, this is especially the case if they are wearing their tabards, if I see a member of Gearfist IBS I can wander over and say “Excellent work with the latest batch of ‘Wyrmbreakers’ your people made for us, not a single dud, we’ll be putting in another order next month” or if I see a Forsaken wearing the tabard with the Rotgarde symbol, “Ahh, one of the Queensguard…How is Phillip? How is Master Buckles? How are you all holding up after the loss of Undercity?”
As to how to join a Guild in an IC fashion, as someone who runs a Guild I can only really comment from my own personal experience; We don’t recruit in Trade chat, people tend to approach -us-, Maybe they have seen our Guild Forum thread here, which is mostly stories, fiction written by members, and went “Ooh, I want in on that” But we are -fairly- famous IC, we’re essentially part of the Thalassian Air Forces, So we do get people coming up and going “Are you one of the Sun Hawks? I always dreamed of flying…” and away we go. Basically think what Guild you like the look of, then maybe message their recruiting officers to make sure they are still open to recruitment (Some Guilds like to have a number cap), then fabricate the reason you approach them IC. Unless they’re mid campaign, most Guilds will be happy to have some members -somewhere- that you can interact with them and get involved. Its not compulsory to be in a Guild, but I would be lying if I said that sometimes it doesn’t help.
I think you may be overthinking it a little. Stereotypes are a thing, but they’re equally a binding thing, and not always helpful. I mean not all Frenchmen wear berets, stripey jumpers and ride a bicycle with a string of onions around their neck. Not all Englishmen wear Bowler Hats and carry umbrellas. I mean…I don’t even own a Bowler Hat…I’m a rubbish Englishman.
You don’t have to be constrained by a racial depiction. Its a good starting ground, but its not a straitjacket. Why is Goilinar a Bad Dwarf because he isn’t a heavy drinker, doesn’t conform to stereotypical morality and have a heavy accent? Maybe he went too far and had a serious Alcohol problem and now drinks sparingly, as for Honour, well, Dark Iron, need I say more, and as for accent, Dear Gods that can change, 44 year old me would have had trouble understanding 10 year old me, and that’s the same country. Heavily enunciated accents can actually be a problem, when people try to do the over pronounced Draenei accent for example, and yes, Dwarven ‘Scottish’, or the Troll Accent (Especially when people still do the Troll accent whilst speaking Zandali! I can understand it when speaking Orcish, but in Zandali you would have normal diction for your species, you might have an accent, but not the one you have when you speak Orcish!)
There is absolutely nothing wrong with bucking the stereotype.
No. I think I touched on this earlier, but in my opinion level has nothing to do with whether someone should be taken seriously in RP. On my alts I tend to go with “Once I have a Transmog I am happy with, I will RP” and then level as and when I feel like it. If I have a defined ‘look’ I am going for, as I did with my G.C.O Gnome, then I will wait until I have got that before RPing, but level is absolutely no barrier, or should not be.
Hope some of that helped, and welcome to the whacky world of Argent Dawn RP!
![:slight_smile:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
(especially when trying to catch guildies 
)