Things That You Think Are Really Important For Quality RP, That Most People Get Wrong

Argent Dawn
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Or at least I hope it is a good one. Mine has been perfectly passable so far, thank you for asking. The weather here in Scotland continues insisting on being very Scottish, and I can’t really hold that against it. The Beatles lyric “Sitting in an English garden, waiting for the sun” sums it up really well.

Anywho! Welcome to THINGS THAT YOU THINK ARE REALLY IMPORTANT FOR QUALITY RP, THAT MOST PEOPLE GET WRONG! explosions paired with sick industrial heavy metal riffs

I was inspired to make this thread, by another thread. In particular, a fresh one about the use of stealth to spy on people IC, without their knowledge. It got me thinking about the NATURE OF THE MODERN ROLE-PLAYER, and similar stuff. In particular, it got me thinking about things that constitute quality RP, beyond the basics the likes of “don’t metagame, powergame, or be an <snip> in general.” By the way, just in case you’re wondering, I typed <snip> like this, because the word is FORBIDDEN. <Please don’t bypass the word filter on the forums - Blizzard>

So, what do you folks think are key aspects of quality role-play, that most people seem to miss, or be oblivious about? From your experience, of course.
For my part, it would be the rising trend of needing to issue OOC control over one’s RP environment. From bubble RP, to arranged scenarios, to general jumping of the gun and being quick on the /w trigger, if you get me. There’s been an exponential growth in the “consent culture,” as I call it. Now, of course, consent is a perfectly valid thing to keep in mind, but I fear that it’s a step towards this sort of tyrannical control that drains the fun out of RP, at least for me. I like the unexpected. It’s always been the unexpected RP engagements that have been the most fun for me. Whatever random thing happens, I try to justify it IC and go along with it, unless it’s absolutely ridiculous to the point of breaking my immersion, etc. I understand this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s fine.

So, can you think of any THINGS THAT YOU THINK ARE REALLY IMPORTANT FOR RP, THAT MOST PEOPLE GET WRONG? more explosions

Do tell.

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I feel like IC friendliness based on the wish for OOC inclusion is something a little more widespread nowadays. I mean this particularly in regards to death knights, demon hunters, void elves and (obvious) warlocks in places or public events they don’t really fit in. Many RPers either prefer to ignore their presence, pretending they aren’t there, or actively encourage their presence to not exclude the person from RP on an OOC level.

I believe it ruins the RP for the outcast (because suddenly they aren’t RPing an outcast anymore) and the atmosphere for the people around, as it can just feel awkward and out of place.

I’d prefer if people dealt with them as they believe their char would deal with them, instead of shying away from IC conflict or simply ignoring it to not “ruin RP” for the outcast RPer.

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This is a big one for me too. It really takes away from RPing something that should (realistically) get some odd looks if everyone’s always being nice anyway. In part, I guess it stems from the fact these concepts are sometimes played by people that really shouldn’t play them. If you don’t want to deal with negative comments against your character, it might be best to RP something that hasn’t historically been the centre of people’s trauma and controversy.

I can also echo the point about lack of spontaneity in RP, because by god am I sick of feeling forced to plan every single encounter, discussion or RP interaction as if it were a full-blown event. I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but we don’t need to plan everything OOC.

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Less. Is. More.

Seriously, there’s only so many times you can have to deal with a 3 paragraph wall of text, whether it be speaking or an emote, chained together by an addon, before you (I mean, I, really) think “Good grief, was all that really necessary?”

I realise it’s possibly a kind of reverse snobbiness, but I spent a LOT of time reading Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, and he truly was a master of balancing description and depth where needed with brevity when it fitted better.
Purple prose is alive and ‘well’ in WoW still, and I honestly don’t think it adds anything to RP. I can’t speak for anyone else, of course, but I personally don’t find much fun in waiting five minutes for someone to type up a wall-of-text emote that could just have easily been summed up in half a paragraph that would take a fraction of the time.

Edit: The same goes for TRPs and ‘first glances’. If it’s more than a paragraph, odds on if I’m trying to engage in RP I will simply not have the time to read it. “X has a scar over their right eye that doesn’t look entirely natural” is a great RP hook! Going into intricate detail with the shape, the colour and then explaining how they got it is, frankly (and only IMO) not.

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That’s what my druid does, act with extreme prejudice against anything fel/death/anything anti nature really.

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Being able to separate IC from OOC.

That is the most important rule of RP, I think.

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if you don’t need to bubble rp, don’t.

if a random roleplayer ever stumbles across an event, don’t instinctively whisper something like ‘in an event, sorry’ unless there’s no conceivable way a random person could show up in character - in which case you’re probably better off using an instanced dungeon or an area you’re extremely unlikely to encounter players.

even if you’re fighting raid markers, a little dialogue about how ‘we’re just preoccupied trying to rid the cave of these cursed bandits’ or whatever else is fine for establishing context and setting.

i can tell that some of the people who try and interact with events are very new to roleplay and probably had to overcome nervousness to attempt their interaction - and shutting them down pointlessly is just lame. include people if you can, or at least acknowledge them in character before asking them to move along, because not every single utterance in your event needs to be tightly scripted beforehand.

i’ve even been whispered ‘event, sorry’ when i haven’t even tried interacting with the people in the event, which shows how instinctive this attitude is.

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Admittedly I feel this quite a lot. Happy social demon hunters, void elves, death knights, naga/satyr in disguise attending casual events in places like Feathermoon Stronghold does take something away from the atmosphere for me too. When hosting events I find it sometimes a little difficult to balance the amount of prejudice towards them because so many other characters seem okay with such characters hanging around as if they were normal people.

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RP is collaborative storytelling, not a competitive exercise.

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RP is not a video game/board game/pen and paper RPG.

So many people seem almost desperate to turn RP into some version of DnD with complex systems, traits, ability points that you distribute and fights with enemies who have assigned hit points, damage and all sorts of stuff that people know either from personally playing the game or watching one of many DnD streams/videos.
What this creates are often boring events where people fight markers while DM takes 5 minutes to process things every round and players rely on pure luck to determine whether their character is capable of doing things, all the while having miniscule chance of dying.
And on top of that, it can be really daunting task for new DMs, trying to control multiple characters, watching all the emotes and in case of guilds with complex systems, also probably doing all the math.

It´s as if there´s this mentality where people would rather spend hours upon hours working on what will inevitably be inferior experience compared to your ordinary DnD game than teaching players how to be sensible when it comes to how their characters work and to be willing to fail sometimes not because RNGesus decided so, but because they as an RPer looked at the scenario and came to the conclusion that failing/getting injured/not finding important piece of information was in line with their character´s ability and for the benefit of the story.

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Not sure if it should be said here but
manage expectations.

the other day I did my shtick, sitting just off the road by a campfire and players doing normal game quests decided to sit down by my fire, normally you would expect them to be ooc’ing or something of the like, but by breaking the ice and act in-character I conversed with them and they told me how they were looking for X place, which I gave directions to.
now I may have lowered my immersion, normally Thuzar have a very noticeable speech Patten, I opted not to use it, in the off chance they were new and testing out the waters.
so I managed my expectations and lowered my standards to match what I felt appropriate and engaged in conversation.

I have done similar before, sometimes its worth acknowledging the level 15 in random quest gear who stops and looks at you.
allow yourself for a moment to step out of your very serious rp and do some casual rp, you can write the encounter off as non-canon if it helps you sleep at night, but at least indulge the newbes, even if their behaviour is not up to your minimal standards.

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Be proactive!
I can’t count the number of people who have “approachable” in their TRP, but never engage in walk up RP, expecting others to come to them. Being proactive and creating RP yourself leads to an awesome experience for all!

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The most important thing for me is something that people often forget: the objective is to have fun. There’s always been a culture of unsolicited, highly negative feedback, with the justification being that it’s “good for them and good for the community”. It’s not.

Argent Dawn is a big place with more than enough space for everyone to enjoy whatever it is they want to roleplay, regardless of how rigid or loose its adherence is to the lore. Sometimes people just need to let others have fun, without needing to offer (force) critique, unless and until they specifically request it.

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The more complex your personalised guild RP system is, the further we stray from God. God, in this instance, is a collaborative, server-wide, living, breathing environment.

These systems, as you well put, were created to mitigate “foul RP,” powergaming, and offer some manner of “working to obtain power.” This is all well and good, but getting too wrapped up in these systems not only segregates RP and forges BUBBLING, but also guides us away from the universal truth of RP: You don’t need these systems. Education will set us free. Free-form RP is the best sort, in my mind. When executed well, of course.

As for the matter of ODDITIES out there, trying to fit in. On one hand, demon hunters and death knights have been around long enough now, that they have justifiably become a common sight on Azeroth. The more they’re around, working alongside US REGULAR FOLK, the more they become part of what is considered the new norm. However, there is a great difference before portraying assimilation or integration, and simply doing away with all the resentment for the sake of OOC inclusion. As is the case in most things, the best way to go about it is a healthy balance. Even if you’re a cheerful, friendly DH/DK/fel-riddled warlock/void elf, you can’t be surprised that folk aren’t as receptive as you might imagine. In turn, you should consider your character’s motives and experiences for being cheerful and friendly. When you give your concepts a lot of thought, you’ll inevitably become more adept at fleshing them out and portraying them more convincingly.

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Don’t be OP.
I was going to post this on my pickpocket urchin, but she’s not a high enough level for the forums. It’s kinda disheartening playing a character like that, when all you want to do is nab a couple of copper, and as soon as you try and sneak up on someone, you have a gun pointed in your face because they have a sixth sense and can see you coming.
If you don’t want to engage with crime RP, that’s just fine! But please don’t whisper me saying I’m welcome to try if you’re just going to do the citizen version of lol-dodging.

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Following The Lore (But Not Quite) is a phrase I’d use. Obviously, roleplay is an exercise in fantasy and anything derived is fanfiction.

In fact, I believe sometimes incorporating the NPCs / lore figures isn’t terrible so long as it’s done tastefully, in the background and isn’t a “my character asks his uncle to petition Anduin to execute you easily :crazy_face: ”.

However, that doesn’t mean you get to throw away common sense for the sake of being a special snowflake. The amount of “quel’dorei” / “ren’dorei” / … that you can see casually walking around Orgrimmar is staggering. Some of them use the pretense of being members of the Argent Crusade to be allowed in the Horde’s capital. And they get angry both IC or OOC when they’re told to get out of Horde territory.

Do you really think that the Argent Crusade wouldn’t send Horde races to Orgrimmar, which would clearly be easier?

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It boils down to a sense of entitlement, I think. That, and a blatant lack of consideration as to the motives of other people. A similar thing happened with various “neutrals” in Duskwood. Needless to say, a good portion of the local population was reasonably upset.

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Oh boy, there’s a few things for me. Here we go:

  1. Event bubble roleplay

The most annoying thing when coming across a group that is currently roleplaying and they are in some form of huge event where nobody else can participate in. Usually in the open world. I get planning and such is a thing, but if your event is -THIS HIGH- on the bubble-rp-o-meter, consider going into a raid or dungeon.

  1. Personality of their characters

So you’re saying you are a san’layn that runs around Stormwind? Surely you have some form of deceiving personality to lure people in right?

Haha, no. Turns out that san’layn is the most boring, flat and bland character you’ve ever seen. Their only interesting thing being “I am a san’layn” and it doesn’t reach farther than that. The same goes for other powerful characters too.

Give your character some personality! No matter if it’s some unique race, lowly or highly powerful character.

  1. F words and C words everywhere.

I wanna read creative insults, not real life insults. Takes me heavily out of my immersion each time someone writes the C word.

  1. The :100:% self insert

This might be more of a problem of “when you know the other person behind the character”, but I’ve noticed a lot of peoples character are just complete self inserts. They act and talk / write exactly like the player behind that character. This isn’t just a “I play human in a fantasy game harhar” issue either. Elf characters are used for this purpose with the intention of “It’s me but pretty lol”. It’s becoming very quickly apparent when it’s supposed to be some 10k year old elf acting like some 15 year old that it is a self insert.

  1. Invincible characters

Nothing more to add, right? Wrong. I don’t mean physically, I mean emotionally. Sure the whole “haha I don’t take damage from anything!” exists, obviously. But people seemingly like to leave out any psychological damage you might have. “Veteran of the second/third/fourth war” is a good example. Like bruh, have you seen what happened to Saurfang? You would be a PTSD ridden pile of nothing. Even the most battle hardened will have SOME form of PTSD.

I am happy you (and others) noticed that too!

They walk around in Silvermoon too. Which I can sort-of accept as a pilgrimage to the Sunwell. But other than that? No way. I’ve seen so many quel’dorei in the past weeks in OG that the next one I see is getting a choke IC.

Although I also believe these are legit snowflakes.

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A lot of things. Unfortunately.
A homeless person, decided to Roleplay someone in low standing, with no amount of power or the likes that gets them improved. Don’t just hand them gold coins and get them a job on a whim. Would you hire a homeless person and hand them gold on a platter? It just stops them from RPing out what they decided to have the disadvantage on, and the storyline vanishes within an instance.

Gold coins, for the love of God, it makes copper worthless. I like my copper, make copper great again.

DH’s, Kaldorei Refuges, Ren’dorei, DK’s… Lightforged… Come on people. DH’s, go hunt down the last remaining demons on the planet, cause believe me, they are very much still about despite you don’t have direct interaction with them in quests. AND STOP TENDING BARS. You were basically immortalised, and had your eyes burned out of your eyesockets to see demons, and you need to eat them to sustain yourself, act like it.
Kaldorei Refuges, read your damn lore, and go to Mount Hyjal where Tyrande is and specificially mentioned she was gonna bring the Kaldoreis there. Ren’dorei. You are a limited source of Void power, with tortured minds, act like it, and do something about it without coming in riding on your void unicorn and doing drugs. This game is still PG 12.
DK’s… Tsk, tsk, tsk, havent we learnt anything from when WOTLK was about? I don’t wanna see a member of the dead, chatting up a storm in the middle of the Cathedral square or tending a bloody bar… Go do what you were created to do, kill big bad stuff.
And Lightforged… You’re more important than this, come on, you were on bloody Argus for I dont know how many years, I dont think you could handle a vacation in Lions Rest cause it would be unnatural for you… Join a cause, and fight for the rest of the preservation…
I’m a bloody stereotypical person, and I think background, and reason and shiet like that matters of why the races or classes were even accepted, and on what grounds.

Also, dear Titans… Stop YELLING your bloody advertisements past 21 RT, when clearly, there are children in the entire city, who probably has, and should have bedtimes, and dont ask me why children are allowed to walk freely without supervision at night/evening when they clearly are well taken care off considering their clothing options, and if they dont, Bloody Orphanage, with all the RPed donations being distributed, it’s probably wealthier than most nobles.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Toodles.

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I’m not sure I agree with this. I think this stance itself seems a little bit entitled. Just because you bumped into them, doesn’t mean the DM should be forced to accomodate you or several other people. Sometimes it’s hard enough to DM for your existing members, than to also have to bring a random person up to speed and include them.

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