Useful Threads Archive 1

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

A MORE UP TO DATE VERSION OF THIS THREAD IS HOSTED HERE

[Murkresh-argent-dawn (Murkresh)]

How can we get this stickied? I feel this consolidation of tools would benefit everyone if they were easily accessable instead of being lost to the back pages and eventually locked.

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

I’m not certain if there’s a means to request stickies in the new Discourse layout, regardless I’ll be posting some of the old threads as posts here once or twice a week to ensure it stays open (and so they don’t get lost if the old forums eventually are lost).

[Marlight-argent-dawn (Marlight)]

This is actually VERY helpful! Gonna recommend this to new RPers who often whisper me. HOWEVER!

You can’t tell me how to RP Sena as Forsaken, that is a massive crime!!!

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

Guide to Why RP?: or Why we talk funny

By Adnaw

[Ok I have been thinking, as I constantly see posts both on my realm forum and on the Role playing forums saying well “what is RP? " " How do you RP?” “Why do you RP?”, and I thought well we have lots of guides…but none of them ever fully explain RP and why we do it, just give tips and hints as to how. There is no real reason or initiative given though for those confused by or unsure completely where to start.

I am not sure if this is needed, but by the billions of times I see the question I begin to think perhaps a rather than “how to”, but instead a “why and how to begin sort of guide” would be more helpful. So I have collected in one spot some of the answers I have given over time to just those before mentioned questions.

I figured we can have a post as someplace we can send people to that perpetually ask the question of Why? and How to start?

A Brief History of RP in Gaming

Roleplaying games which originally where published as books from which to make characters such as Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulu, and Cyberpunk; and then with a person often labeled a GM (Game master) or Dm (Dungeon Master) leading you through quests you spoke out loud what you where doing and going to say.

This also eventually led to something known as LARP or Live Action Role Play taking the table top games one step further by having you rather than sit and say what you would do and say but dressing up as your character and fully acting out the world in which it is supposed to be taking part in.

Then there is MMORPG’s, this can be played in the generic style console game style which is you don’t really have much say over the storyline you simply follow the character and with some well timed button pushes continue him or her on her journey. Good examples of this style of RP would be the Final fantasy series. Lunar series, and almost anything published by the company Working Designs.

This is Technically an Rpg style game as it is character sheet based with statistics but is limiting in that you unlike in the table top games have no true control over the type of characters you play other than occasionally class and armor. You don’t get to pick his story and how he reacts to the world around you the story is already written and waiting for you to unlock it.

This style of RPG is like a book more than a role playing game as although it requires leveling and skill based stats to achieve your goals the rewards are just new chapters of the already written story.

In MMORPG’s that are on RP realms they are very similar to this style of RPG but they add one further detail to create the story. That is that not through a function of the game but from your own imagination you are to come up with the pre-story or background story of the person that you are about to control.

That besides the class, and outfit that they are going to wear and what quests they will or will not accept you must also decide what was their childhood like, do they like jam or butter on their toast, do they have a favorite color, do they prefer coffee or booze? these are all questions that you have the ability to answer of your own volition.

You do not have to have a hugely in depth character background but it is good to have some grounding of what you want to portray or present as you begin play.

Then once you are in the game you can allow the events, other people, and quests you go on change and effect the personality and goals of said character as they emerge and develop with time.

How does one interact in this world?

It is also important as it is part of the rules of the server but also the rules of RP that the things your character says or does in this world are the things it would do based on your concept of what this character would be doing.

You must think of your character as a separate entity from yourself like a character in a play you are acting or a story you are writing. You have control over what it says and does but you as the author or actor do not want to suddenly burst forth before your audience and say something that is your own.

Think of how this would appear if your watching a Shakespeare play and suddenly Hamlet says oh “oh brb gotta walk the dog, LOL” Not a very good play and is annoying to those watching. So try to avoid having anything like this in what I like to call visible chat. Which is the Say ( /s) the Yell ( /y) or emote ( /e) abilities of the chat menu.

This kind of stuff is fine most often to get the info across though in things such as General ( /1) party ( /P) unless told party is in character, Whisper ( /tell ) or Guild Chat ( /g) unless your a member of a guild that prohibits out of character stuff in guild chat as well but these often have ooc channels to fulfill the need for guild communication on an out of character level.

You then treat your character from the moment you are playing as your little character in a play or book. You get to write what he says, does, likes, hates everything! It is important if possible to verify the concept you want to portray is fitting to the race and genre that the game is set in but even this is not totally necessary.

If you can’t find the info your second best source of info on the race your playing will be given to you by the opening intro movie as you first log in as that character. Don’t skip it as it will give you some of the most valuable clues as to what the race your trying to portray actually is like.

Where can I learn about creating a background?

If your interested as well in a certain race ask around on the forums here or on the RP forum there will always be plenty of people ready to share the lore and ideas for making a complete and well rounded character. Also you can look at Blizzards background info on the main web page they give stories as well as detailed lore info for each race.

What not to do

Also there will be others that you will see that will say things that are against the rules in say such as you Noob and i went to see spider Man 3 in the cinema. This is not the majority of the server but sadly is a loud minority which sometimes is frustrating to others and sets a bad example to those just coming and are new to RP.

Avoid doing these things, it will add you to these groups which are generally disliked on the server and in the end cut you off from the RP you actually seek.

Also when you do meet another Role player until you are confident that you are an ace at it feel free to whisper the person that you are speaking with let them know you are a beginner and to be patient with any mistakes you might make. This will make them more tolerant for one and two will also often have people help you along the way and offer advice for when you do go wrong.

One thing to remember is that although names float above peoples head in the game screen to make them distinguishable this is invisible to your character and that you should never automatically know someones name.

The other advice is to get an RP add-on called Immersion RP or Flag RSP [these days TotalRP is more widespread], these add-ons allow you to add last names to your character. A visible written description that others can see and also allows you to see which other players are visible flagged as role players and if they are looking for contact, which means they are more than happy to have random people walk up to them and chat away.

Now getting back to the story part of the game, how do you do that?

Now as far as storyline, No one is not necessary, this is something that often comes in time and with advanced understanding of how to RP, not all beginners need to have some dramatic and elaborate tale of daring and chivalry.

In fact I will let you know that even as your skills advance , and if you try it out they will do so quite quickly, it is still good to live by the scenario of keep it simple.

Make your character something small but interesting this allows you instead of having all your great and wonderful accomplishments done for you already it means you get to create a more detailed, more complex story, and greater achievements as you go along in the game.

A two part story? Please explain

Now your still probably a bit confused by this whole story thing so let me explain that as I don’t think I explained it quite well really. Now the story that people talk about is a two part thing.

The first part is your characters background, it is the story of what your character did before the moment you stepped into controlling him in the game.

As I said keep it simple, he could be an ordinary townsfolk who has decided to take up arms against the horde/alliance menace. Simple as that.

Or can be elaborate, although again I would avoid too much elaboration to start because you don’t want your story to be greater than the second part you actually create while in the game, I mean if your greatest adventures are over, then what is the point of your character bothering any more? He could just sit back and tell the tales of old in some pub someplace…which would get pretty boring, it would be that old man that tells the same tales over and over again in the back of the pub…we all know one of those…nothing exciting or new about these types. So just make up where you were from and why your where you are now.

Now the second part of the “Story”?

After this comes the second part of the story, this is the part you create as you go along in the game. What this part of the story is, is simply the adventures, and fun times you have while playing the game.

You now play your character; rather than you just controlling a mass of pixels; as if it is a character in a book your writing. When you see something you react to it the way your character in this particular story would.

An example might be that although you personally might really like chickens, perhaps your character has some horrible fear of the poultry but tries to always act brave and manly.

Let me set an example scene. You are in a town telling some tale about having slain some great menace by the name of Hogger when a chicken suddenly crosses your path giving you one of those knowing chickeny looks…you freeze and react, you can use emotes and such for this - so it could be something like /e stops trying to keep composure his story lost as he tries to regain his thoughts and break his gaze with the foul fowl. Or /e breaks into a cold sweat and fumbles for the words of his story… or even one more /e looks at the chicken , screams like a little girl, and tears out of the town.

Now yes most of those are comic but they are just examples of a situation of how your character might act differently from you. You personally might find chickens smelly but I am sure you have no deeply embedded fear of them, while you as the person in control of your character can easily make this or 8 billion other things something that your character might have feelings about or towards. >
Perhaps your dwarf has a fetish for trolls, or maybe his favorite food is Dalaran cheese. These things can be developed in the game as they are presented to you and will begin to flesh your character out more.

Also treat the quests, party groups, and rp events you attend as flavorful chapters in the story of your character. It is much more fun to chat with a group of fellow adventurers reminiscing over this time you all as a brave and mighty group tried to take on the evil troll Zalazane and how your buddy stumpy got his nickname that day, when he got hexed with being short; than it would be, had your original background story said you where coming into the game as a Shadowhunter troll as the right hand of Vol’jin, fighting Zalazane with a group of mercenaries would have little meaning then. But instead you now have a colorful story to add to the ever growing one that is your character.

Just remember, that is is like a story and in these types of things stuff from the real wold does not intervene. It would be odd to read Alice in Wonderland and suddenly have Alice pause to watch as your Dad comes into the world and tells you its time to walk the dog.

How do you ask Alice to stop what she is doing? How would she understand? This is the same way…of course the real world is there but the characters around you don’t see it, they live in their own storybook sort of world, where you and your dad, and the dog don’t exist.

So rather than disrupting the story and characters put your bookmark in place, and log out but don’t inform the world it is because of your need to pee, your thirsty, or you need to walk the dog. Instead find an excuse like your character needs to bathroom, is tired, has other things to do, walk away even if it is just a moment, and then come back ready.

99.9% of RP’ers have no issues with being able to tell the difference of reality and the game, but no one wants to have their story interrupted by some guy !@@@@ing about his parents, how many epixx you hope to get, or how much homework you have. They want to have fun with the story they are making instead.

So the second part of your story in short is that it is an unending sequence of events that you yourself experience in the game as you interact with other role players.

Conclusion

It is basically a new twist on how to play the game, rather than skipping the quest text actually read why they want you to kill those 20 bears, quite often there is a nice little story behind it one you can tell about how you helped this dwarf one time whose family was being terrorized by the local wildlife and you single-handedly saved them.

Or you escorted this prisoner through ambush upon ambush so he could deliver his message and save the rebel camp.

Or how the friends your character makes in game, all of you got together one night and bloodied the noses of all those trolls in Stranglethorn Vale making the roads safe for travelers, and how foolish those goblins are for the large sum of money they paid you for the venture.

[Halthrakk-argent-dawn]

RP Tips by Dwoozle, posted again (again) by Tardon

The beautiful WoW environment and the excellent RPing on AD are what keeps me coming back for more. While the world Blizz designed is 99.99% static it can still be used to add flavour and depth to RP. Here’s another series of tips by yours truely about how I use the world around Dwoozle for inspiration.

The first two wise monkeys

Looking at and hearing what’s going on is easy. The graphics and ambiant sound effects give a superb feel for Blizz’s vision of Azeroth. It’s easy to forget how beautiful a place is when you spend a lot of time there, familiarity breeds comtempt. A lot of the time Stormwind just washes over me and I don’t realise how special the place is. It only hits me how beautiful the world is when I go somehwere I haven’t been for a while. Take a look around now and then when it’s quiet, with a fresh eye, and feel inspired.

Instead of just “pointing yonder” with the built in emote, try pointing at something and add a little something, “Dwoozle points down the street towards the towering entrance gate”.

• Dwoozle kicks some snow off his boots.

• Dwoozle looks bored and tries to lift one of the heavy cannonballs.

• Dwoozle warms his hands by the roaring hearth.

• Dwoozle brushes some burning embers from his armour.

Something Dwoozle does almost every hour when he’s in a town is check his pocket watch.

It’s a bit of a wake up for some people. I’ve had people comment that they didn’t even realise that there was a town bell. It might be to do with the music, I wouldn’t know myself though, I rarely play games with the in game music on. I prefer the amibiant sounds effects in games to inspire me.

• Dwoozle covers his ears to block out the loud chirping from the marsh.

• Dwoozle starts to shout over the roaring waterfall.

• Dwoozle looks nervous as the howling of the wolves gets closer.

The monkey that got left out

Smells are going to be introduced in the eight generation MMORPGs … Or are they!?

Here’s something that needs inspiration from the player. It’s not something that Blizz are able to provide. Again though the environment can give you a helping hand. What does that Murloc camp smell like? I often complain when I’m standing waiting for a boat in Menethil that the wind off the mountain blows the smell of the Murloc camps right over the bay.

It’s a tricky one but I imagine they simply smell fishy. We know what the vast majority of things in Azeroth smell like though; Freshly cut tress, cooking meat, salty sea air, sulphurous fumes and wet wool. I could go on for ever. The trick is though to take a few seconds and remember that smell. When the moods takes you, make a comment about it or emote something about the smell of where you are.

• Dwoozle gags at the rotten smell of the ghoul.

• Dwoozle stands still for a few seconds and takes in the earthy scent of the piles of herbs.

• “Yee smells reeeeeeal nice t’day, sweetness”

• “Bleedin’ ‘ell cookin’ boar meat dunne 'alf make me 'ungry eh!”

A character experiment

On day one Dwoozle wasn’t the complicated of characters. The only concept I had was that he was street thug. I grabbed him and starting running from there.

It was when I suddenly dropped in his ungnomish way of speaking that he started to come alive. He’s become quite a complicated little thing now though but I started to wonder what it would be like if he couldn’t use his distinctive accent and what people would make of him.

While I was in Winterspring I thought to myself. What if he caught a bad cold and lost his voice?

Step one - How to let people know

The first thing that happened was being approached by Hamfist. After some clumby attempts to communicate by pointing at his throat and shaking his head, Dwooz and Hamfist headed to the inn to find a piece of paper so he could write things down.

I realised that if I used this idea as a logical way to communicate then I might as well not bother. I’d just be writing down everything I wanted to say in emote form. I came up with one macro where I point to the piece of paper to tell people I’ve lost my voice. That’s the hook and interaction can move on from there.

Step two - What -is- wrong with Dwoozle

The next thing that happens is everyone wants to start pokeing around in your throat to find the problem.

The solution seems to be to find a priest. It’s always tricky to fight your way out of instant solutions to problems. When near fatal wounds can be instantly healed by a priest, why should a sore throat be a problem. I wanted to keep this up for a few days so thankfully the priest solution wasn’t brought up.

How would I have handled it? I think the simplest thing would be thank the priest for easing the pain and look a bit more cheerful but still have the problem.

Step three - The solution

After pokeing around in Dwooz’s throat and an unorthadox solution by Carale of bashing Dwooz on the head to remove anything that might be stuck in his throat, it was clear that Dwooz’s tonsils had become infected.

If it doesn’t clear up by Sunday then what better way to use an epic sword that for Carale to remove Dwooz’s tonsils with it.

All in all a very enjoyable little episode in Dwooz’s life. It goes to show that sometimes it’s worth stripping the core of your character away just to see if they’re as much fun to play in a different light. I’ve learned that Dwoozle -is- a lot of fun in more ways than one.

Just thought I’d jot down some notes about emotes and how I think they can be used to greater effect. Some of you might find some of these tips useful. I sure hope so.

Emotes, adjectives and emphasis

Try to spice up emotes with adjectives and emphesis. Aiding another players imagination is important. If your character just “pick up a barrel” there’s no indication of how much of a struggle it might be. “Dwoozle struggles to to lift the enormous barrel” sends out a signal to other players and provides a hook for interaction. Could Dwoozle do with a hand?

Keep the situation alive

Don’t just stand there and assume that everyone’s remembered what happened five minutes ago. Dwoozle still hasn’t managed to put the barrel where he wanted yet. “Dwoozle struggles to hold onto the barrel and groans under the weight”.

Sigmote!

Something I mentioned in a thread I wrote a while ago. Write a macro that’s a “signature” emote. Dwoozle used to chew Silverleaf. Things came to a head with that though when he collasped and passed out. His bad teeth are no longer a problem. Now he checks his pocket watch everytime the town bell chimes. I don’t think it’s quite as memorable though. Dwoozle got a certain amount of fame for his previous sigmote! Maybe it’s time to think of something else.

Mindreaders of Azeroth … Dispurse!

Try not to put your character’s thoughts into emotes. Let people know they’ve got something on their mind and they might enquire about it. “Dwoozle narrows his eyes at CharacterX and strokes his chin, nodding slowly”. Again, more hooks for interaction.

Booooring

Don’t just stand there like a lemon. If there’s nothing happening then do something. Adjust clothing, blow your nose, run your fingers through your hair, kick a stone, stroke your pet, pick paint off the lamppost, sniff, clean your nails …

Spice up mechanics

If there’s time make a song and dance about something your character does alot. Dwoozle will sometimes take a great deal of time to open a lockbox. He takes pride in what he does and likes to let other people know how good he is at it. Break down the process into a series of tasks and remember not everything goes right all the time.

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

Felt this one was fairly important to get migrated, what with recent events.

[Essay] On the Application of Power (in roleplay) by Dampierre

I’ve decided to post this because I am not playing so much anymore, but people tell me it’s an informative read. Below you’ll find a document I wrote some time ago, after trying to make some sense of why people tend to clash so often in roleplay.

Power is a very confusing thing, but I hope this helps some people. You’re free to discuss it, criticize me or even say I am outright wrong: I have no intention of editing this of anything but the odd typo, nor do I intend to defend it much. These are mainly personal observations, treat them as such!

On the Application of Power

In this document I hope to briefly describe the way power in roleplay works and why some forms of it are accepted and why others aren’t. Keep in mind that the tips given in this document are merely guidelines, and that all opinions expressed are my own and you needn’t share them per se.

I actively encourage any debate on the matter, but at the same time it’s important to remember that if you discuss the matter of power and influence in roleplay with other players, or discuss anything with anyone, it’s important to respect their opinion. Changing someone’s opinion needn’t be the aim of the debate either, but rather to get closer together in some form of cooperation.

Index

1. Introduction: What is power?
2. How does power work?

2.1. Physical power
2.2. Magical power
2.3. Social power

3. Boundaries: What is acceptable and what isn’t?
4. Final thoughts

1. Introduction: What is power?

Power is a funny little ‘mechanic’ in roleplay. The captain of an army guild might easily have more power than the Highlord of the Royal Court, in spite of the fact that the setting (and potential sets of laws) set the rank of the Highlord of the Royal Court far above that of the captain.

So what is power exactly? For the point of this document we will be using the following definition of power: Power is the ability to influence or control other player characters to an extent. This can range from characters who can influence other characters to be a little nicer (social influence) to a juggernaught in full plate who can overpower half the City Watch with his small pinky.

Obviously the two are different sorts of power, physical and influential, but they come down to the same thing. The character has the ability and the means to change the behaviour of another character.

2. How does power work?

An important thing when it comes to power is best captured in a quote from everyone and their mum’s favourite television show, Game of Thrones. In one episode Lord Varys and Tyrion are discussing the nature of power, and Varys makes the very apt remark:

“Power resides only where men believe it resides.”

What this effectively means for a roleplayer like you or I, is that you can only roleplay a powerful character if others believe that your character is powerful. In essence, how many fireballs or dragons you can summon is irrelevant, as long as you can make other people and their characters believe that you could shoot fireballs and summon dragons.

You could effectively play one of the most powerful characters anyone has ever met without ever getting into a fight or having to demonstrate it, because that’s how power works, even in this game. Just as being confident in real life is all about projecting confidence, playing a powerful character is about projecting that power.

Keep in mind that the descriptions below often include the implication of an argument or a disagreement between two parties, after which power is exerted. This is mainly because power that is exerted between friends (i.e. one friend who asks another to do something for him is also power) is rather irrelevant, because the main conflict and confusion about power in roleplay comes from power being used in a context of conflict.

No one is eager to let another character overpower him, just as no one in real life is fond of having their own power to decide their own fate taken away from them.

2.1. Physical power

Physical power is appliccable when a character has the physical prowess to beat another character in one way or another. The means are many and varied: a character might be sly and quick and well trained, or he (or she) might be a giant juggernaut of raw strength.

The means however, aren’t really necessary. What is important is the way physical power works - and possibly even more important, how it should work. The latter of this will be discussed under the boundaries section.

The way physical power works is normally through the threat of force. When two characters face off in an argument or a fight, the threat of losing a fight to the character that is more physically powerful is what exerts this power over another character.

After all, if the other character - and player - accepts and believes that yours could beat him to a bloody pulp, he will be far less likely to engage in that confrontation. You will be able to dissuade him from things by suggesting or threatening that, if he doesn’t do things your way (be that step aside or kill someone or something else), then there will be a violent retribution.

Physical power is a fairly complex matter in roleplaying, because like any other form of power, it can not be quantified. Though we’ve all seen or at least heard of the infamous power levels from Dragon Ball Z, that’s not the way things work in real life and often-times not in game.

Character levels are no fair indicator, and beyond that what other roleplayers know about your character’s strength or speed is only what you tell them.

2.2. Magical power

The other side of the coin of power, if you will, is magical power. This includes all kinds of magic - from being able to move a pencil with your mind to being able to nuke half a city by tearing ley-lines out of their natural order.

Magical power often relies on intelligence because it is almost a given that studying spells is something of a science, and requires a great deal of (obviously!) studying.

Magic exerts its power in much the same way that physical power does. In a fight or an argument, the threat of being toasted by the mere flick of a wrist, or being thrown across a room are often enough to deter a character from engaging yours.

If your character is believed to be strong enough, this is even enough to coerce people into doing your bidding one way or another. However, magic also has the added potential for more direct power over others, in the form of mind-control or magical suggestion.

The details on this sort of magic are vague at best - in game we have the Mind Control spell for priests for example - but while roleplaying, players will often take a more creative approach, especially in the case of magic.

For instance, a character’s will might be weakened without him noticing, which makes him more open to suggestions that he would otherwise not respond to. Or a character might have his hand literally forced while mind controlled.

These types of powers are often an even bigger bump in the road between two hostile characters, because their players often aren’t interested in losing any degree of control over their characters. More on this in the boundaries section.

2.3. Social power

Social power is rather a whole different cup of tea from the two above. Both physical and magical power relies on the ability to potentially threaten or overpower another character’s physical capacities. Disabling their movement and literally establishing another character’s dominance.

Social power is more subtle, and often the more elusive kind. Court guilds and more established/longer-running guilds are more likely to have some form of social power(-play) present because they’ve had more time to establish their characters’ relationships.

Social power works through persuasion and possibly blackmail. This is the power that most often clashes with the other two, because they are derived from different sources. Social power comes from social standing.

While this is also governed by those who support it (and thus give you or your character a certain standing, which in turn affords them a certain amount of influence), social power utterly fades when those who support it fall away, even more so than those with physical power.

After all, bossing people around is completely reliant on someone doing as you wish, whereas walking around being strong or a powerful wizard you can do and potentially enjoy without many people acknowledging your strengths. In the end, what is the most important to social power is to be even more cooperative than you might already be.

It requires agreements and a good standing on an out-of-character level to be trusted enough to exert any sort of social power over a character, and it is often the most difficult to compromise on once an OOC-argument has begun. “Why should you be able to send me out of the room?!” has never ended well for anyone, really, so be delicate and think things through well.

3. Boundaries: What is acceptable and what isn’t?

Now that’s all fine and dandy you might say, and you might even have known a lot of that. However it is still important to define the words that we use so often in these debates while not everyone has a clear picture of how power works. In any case, we move on to boundaries, because that’s what this is really about.

In roleplaying a conflict there is always the matter of power that is too often left untouched, and thus creates out-of-character conflict instead. This is obviously the last thing you want to happen. This document wasn’t written to outright prevent this conflict - as some debates can indeed be fairly useful on this matter and shouldn’t be put to rest - but it is my hope that reading through this you, the reader, might have a better view of how things can or could work in roleplay.

As I touched upon in the opening statement of the “What is power?” section, power must be projected in a certain way in roleplay to be accepted and liked.

You can easily rush into situations screaming that you’re a high general of Stormwind and fought in every war since the Burning Legion first invaded, but this accomplishes nothing. The reason this accomplishes nothing is simply because:

A) you are asserting your dominance and power over other characters through mere claim. Not a person in the world would accept another saying “I am now your boss” because there is a complete lack of trust. Without winning anyone’s trust you will never be seen as this general person, and no one will be following your orders.

B) The following reason this accomplishes absolutely nothing is because you most likely have no one to back you up. Standing around with one or two of your friends who say “yes sir, he’s a general sir!” when there are half a dozen Stormwind soldiers from another guild in your way who won’t listen doesn’t project power. It projects the image of someone who has not yet been succesful enough in gathering others to his banner - and has rushed ahead in claiming what he hasn’t, by all standards, earned yet.

The fairly simple advice that is to be given on this matter is to be patient and be reasonable. A character won’t be bowing down to shine your shoes because you’re a rank above him, unless that happens to be the dynamic of your particular guild, because it’s demeaning.

However, if you take the time to build up a relationship (however formal or informal, in character, as you like) with those over whom you intend to exert your power, you will have more success. They key is to make the difference in power - be that magical, physical or social - a part of the foundation of the relationship.

You might start off asking him to get tea for you and end up being able to command him in battle. Obviously some people are more trusting in these matters than others, so it’s still up to your personal judgment to decide which characters require you to spend more effort projecting your power than others.

A second and arguably even more important thing to remember is that who people’s characters are and who people are are very distinct things. I don’t mean to talk about the infamous OOC/IC line here, but rather that it’s important to remember that behind a character there is also a player who you need to respect, rather than only his or her character.

You aren’t just building a relationship in character but you are also making a connection with that player out of character, whether it is vocalized or not. And if that player feels uncomfortable or unwilling to participate and acknowledge your power - because possibly you haven’t acknowledged him or her the way he or she wanted to - then you won’t manage to exert your power over them, however reasonable it might be that you really should.

You might argue that this is crossing the OOC/IC line, but it is the fact of the matter that people’s personal feelings can only be removed from roleplay to a certain extent - And really, if you’re not personally involved you’re not really enjoying it either, and it’s more like a chore.

I mentioned in brief that it’s also important to acknowledge another character the way his or her player wants the character to be acknowledged. This, again, is essential when projecting power.

If someone is playing a respected soldier (which in itself creates a certain aura of influence, through social respect) and you, as a captain of another military company, treats the character like a common recruit who needs to kiss your boots, then obviously your own authority will be ignored, because you don’t respect the impression -they- are trying to make either.

While mutual respect might seem like a no-brainer, this is actually a point that is easily overlooked in the heat of the moment, where it is easier to go on the offense than on the defense. Another character is told to “take it down a notch” and be less authorative, while you might both have had more fun and satisfaction if you simply both acknowledged each other, rather than compromising and saying that neither is as powerful as you say.

4. Final thoughts

Well obviously what this comes down to are a few key values that are more important to keep in mind than comparing whether one person’s Mountain King could beat another person’s Pit Lord form. It really, just, isn’t that simple.

That isn’t to say that if someone’s outrageous claim of power is supported and well done, that you should still dismiss it because you don’t support it. In this document I’ve referenced you, the reader, more than once but it’s important to note that you (or I for that matter) simply aren’t all that important.

I’m not saying it’s a democracy out there, but if you don’t like something and it doesn’t work out - try to look at things from a more distant perspective. Is that death knight that you’re trying to attack really supposed to give you a fair chance, or does he actually have a fair reason that he flung you aside like a rag doll?

In any case, I implore you to keep the values that I’ve mentioned here at heart, and to keep in mind that cooperation is the best medicine. Not compromise, cooperation.

Work hard on creating that trust and respect between you and those you might one day project power on (or alternatively, be projected power on by), and most of all try to make decisions that further the story, rather than what (arguably misplaced) out-of-character sense of pride you might have that could get hurt. You can have a lot of fun with a character that’s told what to do, as long as the orders are given by a well played character.

[Halthrakk-argent-dawn]

Guide to Roleplay by Lirena of Earthen Ring

Introduction

Hello there! We’re Ariyel and Lirena, the authors of this guide and head coordinator-people of a little RP guild called Seneschal. We’ve been playing and roleplaying in WoW for a long time now, and one thing that frequently crops up for us as a topic of discussion is the eternal question of “what makes for good RP”.

Traditionally most RP guides that tend to get posted here or on similar forums try to summarise some key points in various areas, and cover some general Dos and Don’ts for new roleplayers.

A lot of the time however we find these guides usually leave some contentious issues up in the air, and invariably there’s always a “but” to come in the comments that follow. We’ve always felt that this is down to most guides taking the form of a list of rules and pointers, rather than a discussion of the underlying intentions and motivations involved in most roleplay.

As a result, what we want to attempt in this guide is not to provide a list of bullet points that you should take into consideration when roleplaying, but rather discuss the attitudes, approaches, and decision making involved in RP. We don’t want to list whether a certain type of character or situation makes for “good” or “bad” RP, but rather go into the reasons for why people can think of it in those terms, and what you as a roleplayer can do to broaden your horizons and gain a deeper understanding of these issues.

We’ll be getting quite critical and in-depth with these things, and we recognise that we’re treading the line of turning something fun and silly into a serious analytical topic, but for those interested and passionate about RP we think it’ll be worth it!

At the very least we’d like this guide to be food for thought, touching on things you can take into consideration when you approach topics related to roleplay in a more meta sense.

Social Awareness

In our experience, the most critical skill involved in good roleplaying is an incredibly simple one, one that everyone is familiar with, but that’s often overlooked or taken for granted when people are grasping for more tangible reasons as to why roleplay is successful or unsuccessful: Social Awareness!

The simple skills of interacting with other people (ones which unfortunately tend to be forgotten online more often than not due to the internet’s disconnection from reality) are the most important part of a successful, enjoyable roleplaying experience, and an absence of them is generally what leads to many of the problems associated with our pastime that get discussed frequently on this very forum.

Now when we talk about social awareness we’re primarily referring to it in an OOC sense. Certainly a degree of it goes a long way to being able to tailor a character’s behaviour effectively, but a far more important skill is to be able to assess and adapt the way you’re interacting with the people behind the avatars you’re seeing on your screen.

It requires a degree of objectivity that can sometimes be hard to come by, but the key ingredient to determining whether an RP encounter will be an enjoyable one or not is often to take a step back, consider what you’re doing, where, how, and most importantly with whom.

We’ll go into this in more detail in the Compromise and Cooperation section, but it’s essentially the idea of wearing different social masks for different occasions. You don’t behave the same way around your grandparents as you do amongst a group of your close friends, and you don’t go to a fancy restaurant dressed like you just got out of bed.

The same is true of the variety of RP situations we come across, and this in particular is why we’re not fond of creating guides that list specific Dos and Don’ts; almost any RP possibility you can think of can be appropriate and engaging (or inappropriate and tiresome) within a certain context, and we’ll explore this specific idea more in the Keeping RP in its own Context section later on.

The overall point here however is a very simple one: roleplay is a social activity, one that’s enjoyable less because of what we’re doing and more because of the people we’re doing it with.

The better you’re able get on with others and hone your interpersonal skills the more enjoyable and less frustrating RP is likely to be for you. From deciding on a fun event with your guild to handling the succubus daughter of Sargeras at a Stormwind bar, all of your interactions within roleplay and the roleplaying community are regulated far more by your social awareness of the situation than your affinity for the lore or your dedication to crafting a quality character.

Compromise and Cooperation

Now this is a difficult one for a lot of people, but it permeates almost every aspect of roleplay to some degree. One of the most difficult concepts about this medium (especially for newer roleplayers) is the idea that our character is not the hero, but that they’re a smaller part of a greater whole.

Once again, this isn’t just applicable to your IC actions but also your OOC attitudes to others as well. One thing that we see coming up again and again on the RP forums is how different players have different views of how certain aspects of the game “should” be. This can range from specific interpretations of the vague source material to sweeping generalisations on the nature and purpose of roleplaying as a whole.

One of the most important things to recognise within roleplay is that most people will think of it in a different way to you. The very things that you consider to be correct and integral to enjoyable roleplaying will be nothing more than footnotes on another person’s list of RP rules.

This is just a natural part of finding your own niche and settling on what you enjoy – and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that at all. We ourselves have plenty of preferences and biases.

The important thing however is how you choose to respond to those preferences coming into conflict with someone else’s. There will never, ever be a roleplaying Bible that we can hold up as a definitive standard for how all roleplaying should be conducted (which I think many would agree is a good thing, for a casual enjoyable pastime like ours), so all we have to work with is how we reconcile our own RP with that of others.

Generally this sort of thing tends to go one of two ways; either players compromise and cooperate, allowing their preferences to slip a little for the sake of smooth and mutually enjoyable roleplay, or they outright reject one another.

Of course there are times where outright rejecting another player’s type of roleplay can certainly be justified; some people might from time to time play out something so absurd and immersion shattering that you just can’t respond to it in an enjoyable manner, but these cases should be very few and far between.

On the other hand, the benefits of compromising your standards a little should be fairly self-evident, but I think it’s important to touch on the alternative and the negative impacts it can have on an RP community in a little more depth.

While on the surface ignoring and segregating yourself from “bad” roleplayers might seem totally fine, one of the knock on effects it tends to have is that it splits a community. In a world where there is no RP police, there’s really nothing you can do against people who play differently than you other than to segregate yourself off from them.

What this tends to result in over time is the formation of cliques and, in extremis, groups of roleplayers who have large blacklists and whitelists of other players and guilds hanging over their RP.

Furthermore, and in accordance with this being an RP “guide” of sorts, ignoring other players is not something that’s going to help you improve your roleplay.

Nothing is learned from avoiding a challenging situation, and very often it can result in players separating themselves from types of roleplay or roleplayers that they might end up enjoying a lot if they made the effort.

When you challenge your comfort zone, force yourself to think a little outside the box, make your character interact with things that might seem strange or unusual, you find yourself expanding your skillset for handling different IC situations, and learning how to turn an uncomfortable experience into an enjoyable one. Even if it’s something as simple as your character assuming another player’s insane because they claim to be the son of Illidan, that in itself can make for a surprisingly enjoyable experience, and might teach you something about how to better play your character in the process.

Of course, we don’t want to come off as preachy about this – we’re not saying it’s wrong to separate yourself from other areas of the RP community if you really can’t handle them (after all, this is a video game about having fun, it shouldn’t become a chore), but in our experience people are often far more ready to dismiss others than they are to compromise a little and indulge an alternative style of RP every once in a while.

When you run into someone who’s too silly, too serious, too lore-bending, or too inarticulate, always try to compromise and get along before you pass too hefty a judgement. In accordance with our central point in this guide, remember that roleplaying is a social group activity, and always bear in mind what’ll be best not just for yourself, but for the group experience as a whole.

Putting up walls between sections of the community very seriously impacts the roleplaying within your social circle at large, and it should only ever be a last resort. The more you help out your server, the more it’ll help you!

Context and Internal Logic

So this is where we might move into more controversial territory. I think we can all agree that there are certain roleplaying choices a lot of players consider taboo, which can often lead to the sort of situations mentioned above.

There have been countless discussions about whether it’s all right to roleplay as, for example, high elves, dragons, demonic half-breeds, and so on. And throughout these discussions, there is one phrase that tends to crop up every time: “I guess it can be good, if it’s done right.”

Let’s take a moment to carefully examine what that means.
Anything can be pulled off in the right context. This applies to all of the RP you engage in, not just the controversial kind. Considering the circumstances of our situation, as well as asking ourselves if our behaviour would be appropriate or inappropriate, is key to successfully managing any social scene.

For example, Merry and Pippin’s jokey shenanigans are appropriate for the comic relief scenes in Lord of the Rings, but they’d have been horribly inappropriate if they cropped up during Gandalf’s death.

It doesn’t make those characters wrong or bad for the movie at all, but they have to be placed within their own context and not shoved into a situation that isn’t fitting for them.

A band of thieves’ dramatic hijinks might be better suited for an event filled with danger and excitement, whereas a tavern-based event meant to ease roleplayers into some casual and relaxing RP might turn out badly if they showed up demanding everyone’s money or their life.

It all depends on who you’re playing with, the scenery, the tone of the event, and so forth. No RP concept is inherently wrong or bad, but some have to be kept within the appropriate context.

This ties in with the idea of certain types of RP being ‘unrealistic’, a common criticism of the types of taboo roleplaying we’ve mentioned above.

In order to define what’s unrealistic in a setting like WoW, we must first determine what’s actually considered realistic and logical. But in a fantasy setting like this one we’ve already broken the standard rules of logic by, well, making it a swords and sorcery fantasy in the first place. Instead, it uses something we call internal logic.

For those not familiar with the term, internal logic is more or less the method to the madness, the governing rules of a situation that has already broken the basic boundaries of logic by being set in a sci-fi, fantasy or supernatural genre. It usually exists for the purpose of servicing the story being told, to ground things in something relatable and give us a baseline for what to expect.

A perfect example would be a universe like that of The Matrix – it’s a world where incredible things can happen, but it’s important that we be told how the rules are bent, but not broken. This gives us a basic framework of what we can expect, and allows us to extrapolate what’s “realistic” in a world where people can dodge bullets and run up walls.

One of the problems we encounter with WoW however is that it doesn’t have much internal logic. Not a lot of stuff has one definitive answer or a general consensus, and it’s because there’s so much information out there on what theoretically can and can’t be done that we end up with such varied views on how to RP ‘realistically’.

Just as an example, say you have a player who’s played Warcraft 3, leveled as a human through Elwynn and Westfall and the Plaguelands in Vanilla, and generally tends to RP in and around Stormwind. Their perspective is likely to be rooted in a more Tolkien-esque vision of the fantasy world, so it’s understandable that they might find things like high technology and the latest range of artificial goblin vibro-breasts a little jarring.

Then on the flipside imagine you have a player who rolled a goblin as their first character, running through all sorts of crazy wacky adventures from Kezan to Azshara, and likes to spend their RP time hanging out around the Pleasure Palace. Their perspective of the game is going to be anything but a Tolkien-esque world of swords and sorcery.

Neither of those players are any more right about what makes their RP “good” or “realistic” than the other, but it’s easy to see how the context of their roleplaying can create two distinct styles that aren’t necessarily compatible with one another, due to their broadly differing contexts based on different interpretations of Azeroth’s internal logic. You can refer back to the section on Compromise and Cooperation for more on this!

The overall point to take away here is that nothing is inherently right or wrong in a broad sense within WoW RP. We aren’t roleplaying in a world with a definitive tone and strict rules on what can and can’t be done, and the source material is so vague that it’s hard to say with any real authority what is or isn’t “realistic” within the internal logic of a world like Azeroth.

Diverse roleplay in both tone and purpose is something that all of us can and will run into at one point or another, and none of it should ever be dismissed out of hand as being wrong or bad without giving careful consideration to the context in which its taking place. Any story can be good, it just depends on the way in which it’s being told.

“Good” Roleplaying

One other thing we’d like to touch on in more depth is the idea of there being a quantitative measure of “good” roleplaying. Generally in most entertainment mediums there exists a critical, academic body of individuals who’ve studied the area in depth, noted successes and failures, analysed how and why these work, and reached a general consensus on what aspects of medium can be qualified as “good” or “bad”.

Because roleplaying is such a comparatively unique and niche pastime however (and one with no major financial industry tied into it), we don’t have this kind of academic rigour involved in understanding the medium. All we have to go on are relatively narrow guides, like this one, about the experiences of specific individuals, often without a lot of study or hard evidence to back up our claims.

You can’t quantify successful roleplaying in terms of sales figures or critical response, because they just don’t exist.

With this in mind, it’s difficult, even for roleplaying guides, to provide an informed and definitive consensus on what constitutes quality roleplay. What we can do however is direct ourselves to similar mediums that do have a history of study and critical analysis.

As students of literature, film, game design, and storytelling in general, the authors of this guide can definitely say that our education in these areas has proved incredibly helpful with our roleplay in WoW. Things like character creation, constructing storylines, engaging players with events, and even typing out dialogue are all areas you can improve on by looking into areas of study related to them.

If you have the opportunity to study these things in school or college: take notes. If that area of education isn’t a realistic option for you, look around on the internet, there are plenty of resources available for learning about storytelling and characterisation 101.

Roleplaying guides like this one can only tell you so much when it comes to honing your skills at creating a good character or an interesting backstory. Academic studies into similar subjects will give you the kind of critical understanding to be able to accurately judge whether an idea will work or not, what context it might be appropriate in, and how engaging it’ll be to yourself and others.

That might seem like a lot of work, and we’re certainly not suggesting that roleplay has to become this serious, academic subject where we all sit in leather chairs and twiddle our monocles deciding on how best to go about it, but it’s a useful thing to bear in mind if you have an interest in these areas, or if you ever end up touching upon them in your everyday life.

If the Arts pique your curiosity, it certainly won’t hurt to incorporate anything you learn about them into your RP, and doing so will often allow you to ground your RP in something more concrete than the opinions of others on a forum somewhere.

Conclusion

In closing, we think it’s important to note that ultimately it’s not about good storytelling or how to correctly play with dolls in a virtual world. It’s about the people you’re doing it with!

Most of all this is a social activity where we mingle with others whose opinions and priorities can vastly differ from our own. It’s about tolerance, communication, and most importantly of all having a good time!

Always be ready to take a step back from your RP, think about what you’re doing, why, who you’re doing it with, and how you can make it fun for everyone involved! An open mind will allow you to broaden your horizons, improving not only your own RP but also helping others to enjoy theirs!

So that’s that! We hope you enjoyed our little “guide”, and whether you agree or disagree with the sort of ideas we’ve discussed here at the very least we hope it’s given you something to think about the next time you hop into RP!
If you found our post helpful or interesting, please do click the like and request sticky buttons at the top so that we can help share it with other roleplayers on this forum!

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

Now that I’ve (finally) unlocked trust level 3, I’ll get to putting those external links back as they should be - this post has been made into a wiki article as well, and I’ll be tracking edits in case people have particular guides they want to add!

[Halthrakk-argent-dawn]

[Guide] Wargames. A Roleplaying tool. By Tsathoggua

With the advent of Arena Season 9, we roleplayers have had an interesting and potentially useful tool added to our “toolbox” of game mechanics that can be used to enhance and support roleplay.

I refer, here, to /wargames.

The Wargames option seems intended for PvP players first and foremost, with little consideration as such to roleplay, however , like many other game mechanics, it can be a powerful utility for our story-crafting.

The /wargame command takes two groups, be they parties, raids, or one of each, and pits them against each other in an unrated, un-ranked, no-honor-gained match set in one of the Battleground [or arena, but more on that later] maps.

This holds many possibilities for RPPvP.

This thread will look at:

What are /wargames for in RP?
How do I start a /wargame?
What battleground map should I use?

What could I use /wargames for?

Any time when two groups of players would be in large-scale physical conflict. These groups could be as small as 2 characters on a side, though typically will need to be 5 or higher , or as large as 40 on a side.

The groups do not need to be in opposing factions.

Two Alliance-faction groups [such as a city guard group and a criminals group] could elect to have a /wargame to represent the scene in their ongoing storyline where the guards have finally tracked the criminals down to their hideout. Two Horde-faction goblin guilds could have a “rumble” to settle which group gets to shake down the tourists in town.

The event cannot be joined by outsiders.

For more organized RPPvP events of the sort often favoured by military-themed RP guilds, outsiders stumbling upon a long-planned battle with a nemesis might not be something desired. Instead, a planned /wargame challenge, meeting their “opposing” number on the battlefield of choice, can be a highly immersive experience. No non-roleplayers involved in your battleground gives a chance to roleplay the lead-up to an engagement, the shouting of commands, the broad-scale tactics, and the time involved in such a conflict, without annoying the non-RP-server characters in your normal battleground play. It allows for rivalries to grow between familiar faces, akin to the first server-specific battlegrounds.

Outsiders and observers can be invited.

As long as you don’t exceed the per-side capacity of your chosen location and you meet the minimum per-side required for your chosen location, you can invite other characters to attend, even if they do not plan to engage directly in combat. Running and hiding can work quite well, even in such an environment. Whilst none can stay un-flagged and neutral, a small amount of player etiquette and communication can let both sides know that some characters are non-combatants - 'though non-combatants on a battlefield take some risks.

Sadly, level DOES matter. All participants must be within the same 5-level-battleground-bracket. Whilst this limits the use of /wargames to some degree, it has proven thus far to be less of an impediment than one might initially think.

It can represent almost [but not quite] anywhere.

There are a limited number of battleground and arena environments, true. That said, each battleground map can potentially represent a good number of locations elsewhere in the game world. If you choose a map which matches [to some degree] your two groups’ current location, and you have an appropriate number of participants for your chosen map, the story can continue seamlessly.

You can take time to set the stage.

Sections of the maps might be what you are looking for. Tracked the cultists to their cave? There is an excellent cave in Alterac Valley. Once arriving in the instance, being “out of character” for a few minutes whilst both sides run to take their places in the cave in question will not disrupt the roleplay of other players, because you are in an instance, and not in the larger game world.

All well and good, but how do we actually get this to happen? It’s a simple process.

Step one: Form up into groups. Each side of two-or-more characters needs to form either a Party or a Raid. They need not both be parties, they need not both be raids - there could be one of each. All participants on both sides need to be within one normal “battleground level” - that is, say, levels 10-14, or levels 75-79.

Step two: Choose a location. The various Battlegrounds are the simplest option. Each of the battlegrounds has a maximum number of player characters per side. you can have fewer [with a minimum set by each map], but you cannot have more. The list below [part 4] includes the minimum numbers per side for each map, and the maximum sizes of each battleground, as well as a listing of some of the places that battleground is best suited to represent. You need each side separately to have between the minimum and maximum participants of the map. Arenas allow for the smallest matches, with only two per side needed, but in turn need equal sides, where the battleground maps require only each side to be within a given range.

Arenas are a special case. You can choose an arena, BUT if you do so the sides must be of an equal number [and of course, must fit within the maximum number of characters for that map]. Arenas might be appropriate for small-group roleplay for training soldiers, gladiators, or mercenaries.

Step three: Challenge. The Party or Raid Leader of one group needs to type the following into their chat interface:

/wg groupleadername mapname

Obviously, rather than typing groupleadername , you should type the name of the character this is the Party or Raid Leader of the other group. Instead of mapname , you should type the full name [including spaces] of the battleground you have chosen. Type Arathi Basin , not ArathiBasin . As of patch 4.2 in late June or early July 2011, there is additionally a tab in the PvP panel which makes initiating a /wargame [and remembering battleground maximums and minimums] easier:

After you’ve formed your group (a minimum number of party members is needed depending on the Battleground or Arena chosen), open the Player vs. Player window (H), and select the War Games tab. To start a War Game you must be the party leader, select a Battleground or Arena, target an opposing party leader, and click the Start War Game button.

The other party leader will receive a pop-up notice.

The challenged party leader then has a little over a minute to accept the challenge. Once he or she accepts, each group will be placed in the queue and will receive a pop-up window prompting them to enter the skirmish once it’s ready.

Step four: Accept the challenge. The leader of the receiving group will get a small window, open for about a minute, asking him to accept the challenge. Accept the challenge.

Step five: Wait just a moment. Blizzard have said queue times for /wargames should be around a minute or less, since no time will need to be spent finding team members for either side in the battleground.

Step six: When you enter the battleground, take up appropriate positions [if desired, and as appropriate], and start to roleplay your fight, your training, your encounter, your whatever.

It is that simple. Yes, you could set arbitrary rules to enhance the scene, or to limit the conflict [“level 60 PvP uniforms” or “once killed, don’t leave the graveyard area”].

When the scene is finished, you should have the option on each character to leave the battleground, just as if you were in a normal battleground. You need not wait until the battleground match would end normally.

In addition to formal roleplay, these instanced servers also allow many possibilities for getting combat screenshots of your guild in action, or filming recruitment videos, or, yes, actually training or testing the PvP skills of potential recruits.

But their roleplaying potential is quite large.

So what map should I choose?

Each battelground and arena map is restricted by number of participants, so that limit is listed immediately after the map name in the list below. If either side has more than this number, you cannot successfully choose that map . Even if some of that number are non-combatants or observers. Everyone going, counts. Each map also has a minimum number of participants , also listed below. Each side separately needs at least this number to successfully launch that wargame.

Each battleground and arena map can be used to represent a number of game-world environments and locations, whether entirely or in part. I’ll be including suggestions and descriptions in this list, and ask for people to post further notes and ideas in this regard in the thread.

List of battlegrounds

Warsong Gulch - minimum 5 and maximum 10 per side - A mix of Ashenvale and Barrens terrain, with both night elf and orc architecture. Can represent: Warsong Gulch battleground, the Barrens, Ashenvale, Silverwing outpost.

Arathi Basin - minimum 8 and maximum 15 per side - Generic human architecture with typical deciduous forest and field. Can represent: Arathi Basin battleground, Lordaeron, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, Elywnn Forest, edge of Lakeshire.

Eye of the Storm - minimum 8 and maximum 15 per side - Blood Elf and Draenei architecture amongst the shattered ruin of Netherstorm. Can represent: Netherstorm.

Alterac Valley - minimum 10 maximum 40 per side - Orc and Dwarf architecture, mountains, hills, snow, caves, sprawling battleground with many active NPCs. Huge. Can represent: Alterac valley battleground, Dun Morogh, caves, mines, parts of Borean Tundra, Alterac Mountains, Winterspring.

Strand of the Ancients - minimum 8 maximum 15 per side - Titan Architecture resembling that of Wintergrasp, goblin workshops. Can represent: Strand of the Ancients battleground, Wintergrasp, Uldum.

Island of Conquest - minimum 10 maximum 40 per side - Northrend geography and orc, human, and mostly goblin architecture. Can represent: Island of Conquest battleground, Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Kezan.

Battle for Gilneas - minimum 5 maximum 10 per side - Gilneas zone representation. Can represent: Gilneas, silverpine.

Twin Peaks - minimum 5 maximum 10 per side - Twilight Highlands with Wildhammer dwarf and orc architecture. Can represent: Twin Peaks battleground, Twilight Highlands, Arathi Highlands.

Silvershard Mines - underground tunnel fight [an environment similar to the Deadmines] over Venture Company mining resources. Can represent: any mine or caves or underground dig-site.

Temple of Kotmogu - Pandiarian temple complex in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Can represent: Pandaria; training area [akin to some of the arena locations] for monks, gladiators, duellists etc.

As mentioned, the Arenas are a special case. Not only must each side be no higher than the maximum per side, they must also be equal sides in number - two and two, three and three.

Ring of Valor Arena - 2, 3, 5 per side - This represents the interior of the Ring of Valor in Orgrimmar. Gladiatorial combat, but perhaps even more military training and duels of honour.

Ruins of Lordaeron Arena - 2, 3, 5 per side - This represents the outer courtyard of the ruins of Lordaeron City above the Undercity, filled with the ghosts of the dead. Shady dealings, warlock covens, strikes by and against Scarlets and the Forsaken, and assassinations seem more appropriate here than gladiatorial fights.

Ring of Trials Arena - 2, 3, 5 per side - Located in Nagrand, this may be the least useful of the /wargames maps, since traveling to that location in Nagrand will also flag members for all-comers PvP, just as in the Gurubashi Arena. In a pinch, perhaps it could also represent a goblin-run arena in Dire Maul or Tanaris.

Circle of Blood Arena - 2, 3, 5 per side - Located very visibly in Blade’s Edge Mountains, this arena cannot easily stand in for anywhere else.

Dalaran Arena - 2, 3, 5 per side - Set in the sewers of Dalaran, the environment could also stand in for sewers in the Undercity area, and at a stretch sewers in Undermine.

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

OOC in Say and the Dreaded (( )) by Adnaw

Hello all,

I am presenting an issue that rather than plaguing us RP’ers from the outside it is an issue that plagues us instead from our own community. Therefore making this a delicate subject but one that needs to be addressed none the less.

The problem is present on both Horde and Alliance factions, so we do not need to start pointing fingers. The problem is the vast amount of Out of Character that gets said in the say and yell channels not by the dreaded OOC players but by Role players themselves.

So In order to try and help and cope with a growing problem I wanted to create a post to help those breaching this etiquette, and despite believing they are RP’ers adding to the community how they are actually being detrimental.

First I think it is very clear that people that do this need to understand, putting ((brackets)) around something in say still makes it OOC in Say.

Yes your acknowledging what your saying is out of character, now as a role player that is annoyed by the idea of LOL or gold plx in say, why would you do the same thing, breaking the same rules, by doing it yourself?

There have been many times I have watched someone break from their RP to do this ((hey go to a pve realm this is an RP realm where your supposed to RP in say)) or other such things.

I am not sure if people realize that one you just broke the rule your complaining about and can be reported much the same way you just reported them, two that is is just as annoying or immersion breaking as the Lol, and three there are built in game functions to allow you to communicate to a large group of people simple things like BRB.

Players who choose to play in an RP realm should abide by the Role-Playing realm policies and remain in-character at all times.

Absolutely no out of character (OOC) or Non-Fantasy related dialogue should take place in the /Say, /Yell, or Party Chat Channels

This is a Quote from Blizz them selves in regards to appropriate behavior on an RP realm and is in fact the banner that RP’ers raise every time we seek to get rid of anyone with a name we don’t find appropriate, a guild tag that is an eye sore, or the spam and loling we hate.

So what can be done?

First and foremost stop using (( )) around ooc things in say. It is hypocritical, immersive breaking, annoying, and realm policy breaking.

You do it front of ooc’ers and your just reinforcing their own beliefs it is OK to OOC in say as you just did yourself. It is not RP and as much as I attempt to avoid labeling anything as bad RP behavior this will often get you labeled as a bad RP’er by many people.

There is no excuse as below I will give you examples of ways to simply avoid using ooc in say and therefore not break policy and not have to worry about being reported.

How can I get my message across without using (( ))?

1 You can use a main channel to do so if you are in a large group sort of situation or large event. Simply by putting the information in things like /1 General. If you are on a secondary list like /LFRP you can do the same as this is an ooc channel. This would allow for many of the vast majority of the people at said grouping to be aware of what ever ooc message you need to get across to them.

2 If your in a more intimate RP session with on 1 to 3 players you can easily whisper them and give them your ooc info.

3 If it is a guild meet up use what ever function the guild gives you for ooc info transfer whether it be your guild chat function or a separate ooc chat.

4 Find an IC way of emoting or IC say excuse for whatever ooc info you might need to get across. Such as needing to go? Simply find an IC excuse why your character suddenly might have to go and express that to the other characters. Going AFK? Emote perhaps that Molly the elf turns and looks into the fire and her gaze seems to become unfocused and lost for a few minutes and her eyes slowly glaze over.

5 The quickest and easiest way to avoid using brackets in a quick emergency situation such as a phone call or something much more drastic. That is /afk. people will see this over your head and realize that you currently had to take a moment to go afk. I have personally had to use this myself.

Although one warning if this is a true emergency situation and you are in the middle of RP and a true emergency happen please either immediately exit or even better just walk away and allow for disconnect. A real emergency is more important than informing Bob and Sue of anything and they will understand later when you tell them I am sure. Priorities should still be RL.

6 Here is a few macros to choose from that others have created and used that will automatically whisper your target to let them know you are going afk. these just need to be copy and pasted into your macro and that is pretty much it. This can make it very quick and simple to even whisper multiple people as it is simply click then macro.

/script n=UnitName(“target”);if n~=nil and UnitIsPlayer(“target”) then SendChatMessage(“I’m going AFK for a sec”,“WHISPER”,nil,n); end

To change the message to something more personal simply change the message between " and " where it says I’m going AFK for a sec.

7. Type /brb this give an emote that even those that have turned off overhead names and guild tags will see. It simply informs those around you that you will BRB. <I am not personally as fond of this one but it is quick, simple, and gives no reason what so ever to type ((brb cat)) it even uses less typing.

All of these are appropriate ways to handle a situation which allows for you to continue following realm policy, not annoy or disturb other RP’ers, and continue to create a better gaming environment and immersion for others. Just remember there is no true excuse for this behavior, and just because you see others doing it does not make it ok. In fact some people just don’t know any better.

The reason I am posting this came after a weekend spent in sifting through (( )) in and around Stormwind. Now as I said this happens on both sides, my breaking point just came then. The final straw was an elf that seemed to not understand that not only was this inappropriate behavior, but used the excuse that others do it. So here is a simple guide.

Thank you for those that take the time to read it. <shrugs> Maybe we should start reporting (( )) speak too as ooc in say, maybe some people will get it then. Anyways I usually ignore it but I know how much it annoys many of you out there so well here is a simple solution to this annoyance.
Thanks.

[Tazkram-argent-dawn (Tazkram)]

I particularly like the old and very outdated orc roleplaying guide by Tazkram.

Guess the rest might be useful too.

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

Violence is dangerous, a roleplaying resource

by Gahalla

I will try to keep it a bit simplified and will try to avoid medical jargon where unneccesary. Remember, this is just a resource. If you want to use it or not is up to you. Also, it will be described primarly on how things are or were IRL (but in a simplified form, it’s much more complex).

Injury

I think everyone of us realise that with violence comes injury. It’s more or less the definition: Violence is the attempt of causing injury to another. What kind of injury that is caused vary based on how good the hit is, what one hits with and if the hits is cushioned by something.

In general every hit one takes will have four effects:
• Pain
• Bleeding
• Exhaustion
• Tissue damage

This isn’t much of a surprise to anyone I think. Fairly straighforward and obvious. What most people seem to think however, is that it’s the tissue damage that determines wether you can continue the fight or not.

This is not entirely incorrect, as if you recieve enough tissue damage you simply cannot continue to fight. Most likely however, you’re also dead. If not now, then very soon (alternatively you’ll live but never fight again).

Instead it’s the pain, the exhaustion and the bleeding that will determine your capability to fight. Everyone of us have at some point felt that numbing pain, that makes one unwilling to move and slows all reactions.

The same thing applies in combat. Pain makes you slower and incapable of positioning yourself correctly and in combat that is everything that matters. Even a single bruise on the arm can make you that split-second too slow that allows your foe to plant a axe in your face.

Bleeding is what kills. Virtually all deaths from violence are due to bleeding, even if one is shot through the brain it’s the bleeding that kills (there’s so many bloodvessels in the head that it happens within seconds though).

Furthermore, bloodloss directly affects your ability to continue fighting. Just losing about 1 L of blood (out of 4-5 L) decreases your mental and physical ability with about 75%. After that you can do little more than sit or stumble around.

With a open wound and a elevated pulse due to fighting… that does not take very long. One can go down as little as 10 seconds after being cut.

The exhaustion is also a determining factor. We all know how it feels when lactic acid hit a body part. It becomes slow and dulls reflexes. This is directly lethal in a fight. Furthermore, both pain and bloodloss makes you more exhausted.

What this means is that every hit you take, even that little graze in your arm or the bruise on your shoulder will directly affect your ability to survive the melee.

Every hit will make you a little more tired, a little more sore and cause a little more bloodloss (remember, a bruise means it’s bleeding under the skin. These can be just as lethal as an open wound). It adds up and gives your enemy a little easier to score a good hit. A good hit will always end the fight.

The only tissue damage that is likely to affect the fight and not kill, is broken bones. Partly because it robs the injured of the ability to use that bone (unable to stand, unable to use an arm or having difficulty breathing)

No such thing as instant death

That’s right. There is no such thing as instant death. With two exceptions:

1. decapitation.
2. Blown to bits.

In all other cases it’s the bloodloss that kills you. If you’re lucky, it’s an artery and you’re unconcious. But chances are you’ll be aware that you’re dying and slowly die as you lay there helpless. The pain crippling you to the point where you cannot move. It’s slow, it’s agonizing and it’s scary.

After battles in past ages, the victors would send out soldiers out on the battlefield to collect one ear from each enemy fallen and mercy-kill those that were still alive. It has not been unheard of that there have been survivors of a fight that have been lying unaccesible on the battlefield for days before finally succumbing to their wounds.

However, there’s a flipside: It’s not unheard of that men who have recieved a fatal wound to keep on fighting until they fall over dead. Men who’ve been impaled on spears that attacks their killer. This is a very common thing with firearms, crossbows and bows. Often men would take fatal wounds, but if they weren’t knocked over they’d keep on going. Potentionally taking
their killer with them to the realm of the dead.

Armour = lifesaver

Violence is extremely lethal. Particularly armed combat. This is the very reason that armour was invented in the first place. It allows the wearer a sporting chance, by turning a fatal wound into a bruise. By turning a amputated arm into a broken arm instead. Deflecting both blade and arrow.

A sword (as an example) generally have the ability to cut through all human tissues with ease. It cannot however, pass through metal. Which is the very reason people started wearing maille. Maille provides the advantage that it is impossible to cut through the ring-weave. Thus allowing you to avoid the fate of having the arm severed and you bleeding to death.

Maille has a great weakness though… pointed weapons can easily pierce the weave (by splitting the rings). Particularly arrows (but also spears). The counter this people generaly used various combination of cloth armour.

The most common kind, the gambeson (or jack, padded jack or a multitude of other names) consisted of about 20-30 layers of linen. Which was not only capable of stopping and absorbing an arrow but also quite useful against bladed weapons.

It was often combined with maille for knights, particularly during the crusades IRL. There’s plenty of records of how knights would ride looking like pin-cushions due to all the arrows that sat in their cloth armour but had failed to injure them. Later, during the renaissance the maille+cloth was changed for the plate-harness.

It is much stronger and durable and even less likely to cut through that the other armour. Like clotharmour it’s also very resistant to weapons such as bows and firearms. Even today we wear armour, namely: Kevlar body-armour. Nowadays they also include maille or plate into these body armours, to help protect the body.

However, armour doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to live. Not even if you face someone unarmoured. It’s also not guaranteed to protect against a good hit. Generally, they also have weak spots and the face is always a weakspot.

Similarly, firearms can penetrate even plate-harnesses if they get a perfect hit (but they are not guaranteed to do so if they don’t).

Also, the impulse (change in momentum, a physics-term) will not be stopped by armour (it might be deflected away however, which is why armour relies on many angles and sharp edges) and a strike that would cut you in two might not cut you in two, but the impulse will still move through the armour and break the bones underneath.

Similarly, armour can be circumvented. When fighting against someone armour, one generally directs all strikes towards the unarmoured areas. You don’t have to impale their chest to kill. Severing a unprotected hand works just as well.

One can also use something that can punch through armour, this is why all those maces/warhammers/healberds and such have a spike on their back. To be able to punch through armour. Pikes are good at this too.

A common thing many roleplaying games have going is that if you’re swift and agile, you’re better off with light or no armour. This is a myth. Armour is generally made to suit it’s wearer like a glove and is suprisingly light. All it does however, is prevent the armoured part of the body of taking a worse injury. Yes, it’s heavier and more exhaustive to wear. But it will save your life if you are a split-second too slow or unlucky enough to get hit by a missile-weapon.

Basically:

Armour isn’t made to keep you in the fight. It’s made to allow you to survive the fight. If you get hit you’ll still have to pull back and recover as soon as you can.

Multiple adversaries = suicide

This is also very important to note. Multiple adversaries are much much more dangerous than a single skilled one is. Even multiple unarmed enemies are more dangerous than a single unarmed opponent.

The reason is that combat is generally a shift between the offensive and the defensive. When the enemy attacks you, you go defensive and focus on dodging, blocking parrying or steeling yourself against the blow. Then you’ll go offensive and try to hit him and he’ll be forced to defend himself.

However, if you face multiple opponents then they can essentially rotate being offensive. Constantly attacking and forcing you to constantly defend yourself. Never giving you a moment to strike back.

Also, I’m sure some of you have seen a fist fight broken up before? On tv if nothing else. As you might notice, it’s very common for the ones breaking up the fight to grab hold of the fighter’s arms. Redering incapable of hitting each others. That’s a tactic that works just as well if the fist-fighters had held weapons.

So, if you face multiple enemies they can encircle you and grab your arms. Allowing one of them to approach without risk of being hit with your weapon to say… lift your visor and stab your face.

Several opponents can also rush forward against riders and overwhelm their ability to strike at them and pull the riders off the horse. This is the fate of the knight who can’t ride at full speed.

There is a way to survive multiple enemies though and that is too keep moving backwards, forcing them only to engage you one at a time. It’s not easy though.

As a rule of thumb:
1 opponent = dangerous
2 opponents = survival unlikely
3 opponents = probably suicide
4 opponents = limit of how many you can physically fight at the same time. Death more or less guaranteed. Likelyhood of even harming them very low.

Veterancy and experience

The age old expectation that experienced soldiers are better at killing. It’s both true and false at the same time.

Generally, experienced soldiers are very good at surviving. Not neccesarily killing the enemy. They have learned what is a smart idea, what is not a smart idea. What the sound of incoming arrows sounds like. How to brace themselves against the charge. When to run. How to spot the unit banner. How to hide among the dead. Things like that is what they pick up through experience. Some will also become a bit better with weapons, yes.

In addition they will have become steeled. They will not hesitate before killing. They will be more difficult to scare and less likely to paralyse in fear. This too gives them a better chance at surviving.

The reason most mediveal (or semi-mediveal) soldiers won’t become better at fighting as such is because they grow up fighting. Most melee soldiers spend their teenages training to use weapons. They generally specialise in a specific type. It takes years to learn to fight by reflexe (which is needed, anything else is too slow). It isn’t conscripts that take a few months to learn how to point a rifle and shoot.

It takes years because they need to build the strength and the stamina needed to fight for hours unhindered. That means that most veterans aren’t much better at fighting than when they were deployed, because they fought both now and then by reflexe. As long as they kept in shape they’re just as good now as they were then.

In fact, most veterans will probably be worse due to the injures they’ve taken throughout the years and the toll of age. Weapon-masters are generally veterans too old and injured for the battlefield but still in good enough shape that they can train the young ones at fighting. Generally between 40 and 50 years old. They are the ones that lived through campaigns and realised: “Now is the time to stop, or else I’ll get myself killed”.

Basically… it’s very unlikely that you become better and better at fighting. There is a peak after a few years of fighting, before age and injures start to pile up.

Recovery and old injuries

Recovery from wounds of violence takes time. A long time. The deeper the wound the longer the time it takes to recover. We are talking months but it can easily take years. During this time you have to rest and allow the body a chance to mend itself. It’s a slow and boring time.

Not only can you not fight, but you can’t practise, you can’t stay in shape and not even help with physical labour. So not only are you weakened because of the injury.

You body will also weaken due to not using it and not keeping in shape (it also gets some help form the hormones tasked with recovery. It boosts muscle-degeneration to get materials for the recovery) There is also plenty of wounds that you’ll never recover from fully or at all.

First of all are the organs, this is fairly straight forward. If you take organ damage you won’t ever fully recover due to that it’s function will be disrupted a bit. This is if you survive it. You’ll survive losing a single lung (you’ll run out of breath a bit faster) or a single kidney no problem, but the others aren’t that good to hurt. Not only is it extremely cripplingly painful, but you’ll feel bad for weeks as the body adjusts to the change in functionality.

All the body’s tissues are a bit like elastic ribbons too, particularly muscles and tendons. That means that if they’re cut straight through, they’ll snap back. So if the tendons in the elbow or the biceps is injured it can snap back and end up inside the chest. If a tendon or muscle is severed it is extremely unlikely or even impossible to recover from that.

Bones will almost always recover and be stronger afterwards, they are really the exception to the rule. Bones will almost always regrow as stronger. Unless the bone is shattered. Then it won’t be able to regrow at all.

The other part is that one never really recovers from really bad injuries. Not fully. You can go back to living like you used to, but the old wound will be there. They might even burst open if they are in body parts that are used often. Even years after having recieved them. If nothing else, it will always be painful at night or when moving reminding you constantly of it. As a soldier of the melee, this is a hazard.

The body will more or less mend around the wound, leaving a tiny fraction of scar tissue where the injury occured. This will eventually add up and make you weaker and weaker. All those flesh-wounds will perhaps not kill you, but in a few years they’ll directly impair your ability to move.

Old injuries also have a nasty habit of becoming infected time and time again. Long after you’d think they’d healed. This worsens with age.

Magical healing

Yes, this is a setting of magical healing. You can recieve healing that will help you recover faster and better than in real life. You can even be ressurected.

However, this should not be a guarantee. You shouldn’t count on that healing can save you anymore than you can count on modern medicine to save you. Even with priests you can still die by being stabbed on the steps of the cathedral. Even with healing, there’s no guarantee that the wound won’t affect you afterwards. Just look at Aedis Brom and Christoph Faral in Stormwind. Two old veterans constantly complaining about their old injuries that to this day haunts and torments them. Zul’jin lost and arm and a eye. There are many more examples.

Even if you can count on the local priest to save you, remember that getting beat up is extremely painful.

There’s also one thing magical healing will never bring back… your friends that did not make it. The horrors you’ve seen cannot be reased from your mind. The mental scars of years from fighting will never heal.

Few veterans relish the idea of returning to war.

There is a reason why most cultures cheer and celebrate war-veterans and why armies celebrate victories. It’s to take the veterans minds off these kinds of things. It’s to make them feel better. Because war and violence is not fun. Not by any stretch of imagination.

Like the old saying goes: “War is hell”

Magical violence

Violence caused by magic is a tricky things to define. It is simple to think of it as insanely, supernaturally dangerous or not very dangerous at all. But what I think is important is to deconstruct every spell a little.

First. What is the power source. Fire, Cold, Nature, Fel, Shadow, Light, Earth, Air, Arcane or something else?

Second, is it a physical object (like a ball of ice), a physical effect (like fire) or a mental effect (like a mindspike).

Third, is it prolonged or immediate.

The powersource will define what kind of injury it will cause. Fire, lightning and acids will cause burns. Water and ice will chill. Fel will corrupt. Earth will probably hit you like an object. Shadow and Light (or other holy magic) will probably cause less physical injury but more burn at your soul.

The second helps us define the injury more. Physical objects, like the ice-lance, will hit you like just that: a physical object. The injury caused less by what it is, as much as how it hits you. The Ice lance for instance, is just like an arrow and will cause the same sort of injury.

Physical effects, like fire, won’t hit you with a force. But they can still be cripplingly painful and could, for instance, put your gear on fire. Mental effects, only affect your mind or soul and leave little to no physical injuries. But they are no less dangerous.

Wether the effect is immediate or prolonged finalises the picture. Immediate effects are when magical projectiles hit you, whereas prolonged are things like dots, flamethrowers, cone of cold and such. Something you get caught in.

All spells will cause injury. But just like weapons, the effect of injury falls into the categories of pain, exhaustion, bleeding and tissue damage. Most spells will cause a lot of the first two. Fire hurts. Being pummeled by sheets of ice hurts.

However only physical trauma can actually cause a bleeding (possibly some shadow spells too).

As for tissue damage. It is important to remember the law of energy transfer: specifically that it is not instant but based on exposure. Most spells only affect you for a split second and are thus very unlikely to cause any significant change in temperature.

That means that most firespells, for instance, is unlikely to put you or your gear on fire. They are still painful, dangerous and not to mess around with. But it is unlikely that you’ll light up like a candle. Similarily, a ice spell is very unlikely to freeze you solid. Electricity is more likely to disrupt the heart if it exposure is constant, rather than temporary. Most electrical injuries is caused by the build up of heat.

Mind, many spells consist of a physical aspect like a block of ice, a rock or some other physical projectile… or a shockwave… and these works exactly like weapons do on the body. They can break bones and cause blood vessels to rupture and cause internal bleeding. This is certainly a great danger, much more so than the heat/cold aspect.

Prolonged spells on the other hand, cause a greater energy transfer at the expense of kinetic force. They’re more likely to put you on fire, less likely to knock you off your feet.

Right. So now we’ve discussed what dangers spells cause. How can I protect myself? The answer is quite simply: the same way you protect yourselves from other violence. Dodge it or use armour.

The spells that shoot projectiles can still be blocked with shields and deflected by armour. It’ll hurt for sure, but won’t hurt you much… unless it hits a weak spot. >>
Physical effects can also be shielded against… a shield could easily be used to protect the face against a flamethrowerspell or a cone of cold. It is sturdy wood, and even if those spells are prolonged it is unlikely to catch fire. If you look away, a helmet could to protect your head from fire or cold.

Leather is almost impossible to burn and even clothes need to reach a certain temperature to catch fire. These are natural cloth-types and they tend to be more resistant than synthetic cloth.

Metal armour cannot stop lightning, but will carry it along itself towards the ground. It won’t go as much through as along, heating it in the process. It’ll take more than one to make it so hot it starts frying the inhabitant. Same with fire on metal. If you do catch fire. Drop and roll.

Magic can however be protected against with mundane means. It need not be an instant succes. That said… it is very dangerous. Definantely not less than other form of violence. But neither is it more dangerous. It is about equal. Painful. Scary. Lethal. Like all violence.

Roleplaying potential

How can this be used in roleplaying?

Well, one thing I find makes most roleplaying that involves any kind of violence is to treat it as something to fear. If you’re attacking mobs, clearing an instance, participating in w-pvp or face cultists in an alley. Treat it Ic as if it is really dangerous. Every fight risks being the last one you’ll ever fight. There is no such thing as a trivial fight.

Allowing yourself to get injured or just suffering from an old wound can be used nicely as a roleplay hook. Imagine for example the old veteran that trips on the cathedral steps because his leg locked itself again due to that wound two years ago? That dwarf that visits a priest complaining that his back hurts when it’s cold because of the arrow he took in the war of three hammers? The wound needing surgery?

For w-pvp participants it could work nicely to say your good byes to your friends before each battle. Perhaps entrusting them with something for your old man should you die? To work up a atmosphere of genuine dread and nervous jokes before the battle? Trying to help raw recruits who genuinely fear for their lives? The hours before a battle are generally very nervous and pessimistic.

For w-pvp organisers perhaps you could organise toasts to the dead and digging of graves after the battle? Genuinely showing remorse over the losses. Perhaps making up a number of how many that died or became crippled and informing people of that when reporting about the victory or loss.

Guards in cities should ensure that they always outnumber the enemy before they try to capture anyone and always accept surrenders (people who fight to the death is the last thing you want… they generally take someone with them) and try to break up all fights. Even if it is between another guard and a foe. Fights can not only end up with the fighters dead, they might also kill innocent bystanders! Keeping the peace is very important.

If you’re outnumbered, running away is always the best idea. Regardless who you are. Even if you’re the best warrior in the world… an untrained peasant can still kill you if you’re unlucky. This is something every experienced soldier knows. Skill does not make you safer. Ultmately… it’s good to keep in mind: All fights are dangerous. All violence can kill you.

Violence is dangerous

Thank you.

[Halthrakk-argent-dawn]

The Conversationalist’s Handbook by Azhaan

(First off, let me give a special thanks to Jhared/Eyildr and whatever other characters he might be playing, simply for writing a guide on forum etiquette long ago which initially inspired me to write this guide. Also, let me just say that this is by no means a “You should do this and nothing else”-guide. It’s meant to give beginners some basic insight, not lecture people who have already roleplayed for years.)

How to hold a conversation in roleplay!

Foreword

During my relatively short period of roleplaying in the glorious World of Warcraft (1-2 years), one issue that has been almost overwhelming time and time again is that of continuously seeing people with a complete lack of social ability and charisma - that’s not to say that everyone’s meant to be a people magnet, but there are so many people who just don’t talk. The kind that you eventually grow frustrated with.

However, this guide is not intended to thrash these players, but to aid them in improving their social roleplay. While I might not always be much of a talker in the offline world, I consider myself at least averagely socially trained - that is, trained in the knowledge of etiquette, consideration of other people and the importance of interest.

Conversation is the bread and butter of character progression. Pre-scripted events don’t bring life to your character nearly as much as normal talking does. Sometimes you will meet people who are all action and no talk, of course. They might seem awesome with their cold, dark gaze and clean, flawless skill in battle, but ask yourself this: “Will they ever become someone of significance? Will they ever have anyone to rely on?”

You’ll find that the answer is usually, “No, these are characters that fit well as support characters in single-player games, movies and books; not in roleplay environments.”

I wrote this guide in an attempt to potentially teach the less talkative people of our local roleplaying servers how to hold a rich, light conversation without the stern tension of awkward silence and superiority. That’s just no fun, is it?

Introductions - “First impressions are everything.”

When you meet someone new, never expect them to know who you are - no matter if you are the infamous beggar of the Old Town or the Grand Marshal of Stromgarde.

Sometimes, you’ll encounter someone who knows very little of everything; their character might be an illiterate, uneducated son of a retired traveler who lived in the jungle for most of his life, or the player might simply be new to the server. Introduce yourself or ask them to introduce themselves; just do it naturally as you would during any day in the real world.

There is one golden rule that is important to follow here: Always try to be polite, to a moderate extent (as much as your character lets you, that is; everyone’s different). If you boast about your merits or act all superior on them, they will be largely discouraged to talk. And that’s no way to make conversation at all!

There are specific things that are often good to avoid when introducing oneself or talking to someone for the first time, of course. Examples:

When you spot a damsel, it’s generally inadvisable to approach them with a pick-up line. It often backfires entirely and makes you look bad. Even the most charming of gentlemen know not to make a lady blush at once!

If you approach someone with a direct, admirable compliment, the effect is often that of making your character look like an inexperienced child. It’s understandable that characters are different from character to character, but there are certain limits to politeness.

Rude language. When you walk up to someone, you’d never say “What the **** are you wearing?”, would you? No. I’m pretty sure that not one single person on these servers would ever do that with serious intent in real life; it’s just one of those logical things born from common sense that many characters seem to lack.

Don’t just sit there like some sort of Ranger of the North with romance issues - go out there, take initiative and have fun! Just don’t be a creep. Personal questions are not to recommend for starters. Social discretion and integrity are the safety nets of a conversation.

Observation - “Is that real gold on your sword hilt? Wow!”

When talking to someone, new acquaintance or and old friend, there will always be something that makes them different from the last person you met. Maybe their hair is unnaturally contrasting to their skin colour, or maybe they carry something that wouldn’t normally be carried by them? Focus on the details! Express interest and tell them about similarities in your own equipment if there are any.

Additionally, perhaps there is something in the surrounding area that might catch your attention. Is it raining heavily? Thundering? What makes this person be outside in weather like this, or what makes this person stay inside when the weather is nice and sunny? What is a [race] doing in this [location]?

Some of these observations might come off as rude, of course. That’s where common sense comes into the picture. If you think hard enough, it’s easy to guess what’s appropriate and what isn’t.

Listening - “Mhm? Oh? Really? I agree completely.”

Your character is not the main role or protagonist of your roleplay. It can never be that way, unless you have arranged with everyone involved that your character is the primary center of attention - but that will never happen. Each character is as important as the other.

It doesn’t matter if the difference between them is five ranks in the military or fifty years of age - all characters involved in roleplay are of equal importance.

This is why listening is important. You won’t get anywhere in a conversation if you don’t listen - and listening isn’t only looking attentive. Remember what the other character says, and make conversation based on that. That way, you might find very curious quirks in the other character that your character might feel startled, disturbed, encouraged or even excited by!

There are lots of sides to a personality, and know that no matter how hard you try, it’s nearly impossible to see them all.

Be an active listener. Make eye contact, voice your opinions and offer advice if advice is what’s needed.

Depending on how your character reacts to what the other part of the conversation is saying, there is always a way to further enhance the chit-chat through responding; if someone tells a story, don’t just sit there like a speechless cow and remain silent even after the story, and if someone says something that interests your character, react on it and you could potentially create an entirely new branch of talking on that sole piece of interest!

Questions - “So, how did you end up here?”

Questions are actually far more important than many people think. They’re not too creepy, most of the time, unless they are very personal, and they will in fact often lead to the better path of the conversation.

I have always played very inquisitive characters myself, but that’s majorly because I’m a genuinely curious guy. Some people might not be of the same curiousity, but questions are of great importance and practicing interest is never a bad thing.

You can always find something to ask about. For introductions, we have:

• What’s your name? (Everyone seems so uninterested in other people’s names. Why is that?)
• What are you doing here?
• Are you from around these parts?
• What do you like to do?
• What do you do?

They are simple, short, and often don’t require a lot of effort to answer, but they can be magnificent icebreakers. There’s not much more to this section; people who have already met once, twice or more often find it easy to keep talking and the questions come automatically.

Interests - “Fishing? I love fishing! When I was a young boy, my pa’ used to…”

This was mentioned above, but I will bring it up again here because of its importance. The very foundation of this section is the interests of your own character; things that you should never ever miss when creating a character. If he has no interests or hobbies, then people will quickly find him uninteresting and bland. This is what often creates silence; lack of interest.

In fact, I will flick in a little additional, somewhat related sub-section of this one. When you make a character, what’s important is not knowing his/her history or his/her profession. There are millions and millions of people in the real world who loathe their jobs and would rather not talk about it on their free time.

This is what interests are for. Everyone has interests. I will make a little list of things to fill out here before creating your character - things that will help you loads in social roleplay:

Your character…
Likes:
Dislikes:
Loves:
Hates:

It’s very simple, takes next to no time to fill in if you know your character right, and will make things far more clear to you in the future.

A unique character isn’t unique through her unnaturally green eyes or half-elven heritage; characters are made unique through the art of individual interests and the way with which they wield them in a conversation - and practice, of course.

Backgrounds - “You’re from Duskwood, eh? Haven’t heard from that place for months.”

Backgrounds are the history of your character. They are the events that have formed your character and they are full of the little incidents that make your character just a little bit less in favour of certain things.

You might not need to know what happened with your or someone else’s character twenty years ago. A month ago, however, is very sufficient. Try to find out things about your partner in conversation, but do not be overly inquisitive; that might come off as nosey or creepy.

Let’s just take Orcs as an example. You are an orc warrior speaking to an Orcish hunter, or perhaps an Orcish female that you are interested in. Some things you may want to know are:

• What clan do they belong to?
• Did they always belong to that clan?
• What experiences they have had with other clans?
• How their clan used to do things in comparison to recent years and other clans before that?

These are just examples, of course. They can also be used for Tauren, but that might take some knowledge beforehand as Tauren tribes usually have specific traits and qualities.

Then there is the magic of locations. Locations could mean everything or absolutely nothing. Find out where your conversational partner comes from and decide how much your own character knows about that zone.

Is this exotic, brown-skinned, curvy woman hailing from the South Seas? Your character might have heard stories of piracy, crime, scoundrels and prostitution from there - or he might have heard that it is a sunny paradise where everyone regard eachother as equals.

More obvious locations are kingdoms, especially when we’re talking humans. I know for a fact that the majority of roleplayed humans come from Lordaeron, and while it’s such a generic decision, it’s a fantastic thing to talk about.

The Kingdom of Lordaeron was huge; massive, gigantic, enormous, titanic. It was larger than any other kingdom in its prime, which was shortly before its fall. Ask a bit about the culture of the kingdom the character comes from!

For example, Stromgardians are known to be fierce warriors in battle and can on some occasions be regarded as barbarians. This hints at that they follow a strict and blunt way of life. Think Spartans, but without the whole “mandatory military” aspect.

Then we have Lordaeron. It was obviously a very sophisticated kingdom, with lots of knights, glorious cities and a fair, just ruler. Additionally, there are many references to the drinking of wine in the Arthas: Rise of the Lich King book.

Kul Tiras is a nation heavily based on the naval life, fishing and everything that has to do with the sea. Stormwind is a kingdom with noble houses full of corruption, but with a land so diverse and changing you can hardly tell it’s the same kingdom. Dalaran is a magocracy - it speaks for itself.

The list goes on. You can include many other different nations, clans, tribes and areas in this as well. You’d be surprised at how much talk you can get out of a simple matter as cultural habits and food. Remember: imagination is the key element.

Other people - “What his right name is I’ve never heard, but he’s known around here as Strider.”

The reason why some people simply log in and sit down being silent, doing nothing and not even emoting anything is usually because they feel largely unmotivated to interact with someone socially. Sometimes they just don’t feel up to much, and sometimes they just don’t know what to say. It’s a common problem.

You, the reader of this guide, might be that other person across the room holding a conversation with a friend or a strange. It’s your responsibility as a roleplayer to include others, so why not invite the silent guy to join the conversation?

Ask him of his name, what he’s doing where you are and if he likes [something]. Again, these are just examples. As much as people are different from character to character, remember that roleplay is all about giving and taking in equal amounts. You’re there to entertain as much as others are there to entertain you.

If the person is one of those moody stereotypes who refuse to even say their name, it’s not even worth the effort, in my personal opinion. These characters are usually the ones to start an argument where an argument isn’t needed, and might break the mood rather than lightening it.

The bottom line is that if there is someone in the same room as you are who doesn’t seem to do much, it might prove both entertaining and beneficial for you and others to invite them over to talk with you.

We, the roleplayers, are automatically a community just by playing with eachother on the same server. Everyone is in the same boat, so make them feel welcome. You don’t help anyone or make anyone’s roleplaying experience better by shutting people out just because you haven’t seen them before. Welcoming and invitation. Those are two very important words.

Final brief words

Pieces of advice:

• Don’t be too argumentative. Arguments can make a conversation run fluently, but they are usually massive mood-destroyers.
• Try not to be too flirtatious, even if you’ve got a libido of infernal proportion - at least not from the start.
• Avoid OOC communication as much as possible during roleplay. If you feel the absolute need to bring up something, take it to whisper.
• Always remember that IC is IC, and OOC is OOC. IC actions do not necessarily reflect one’s OOC opinions, and vice versa.

Hopefully this will help people in their way towards reaching a good social ability when playing their characters. This is all written purely off the top of my head, so please, please add whatever additions you might have. Posting them here will do. It’s only better that things of importance are added so that players are more prepared to hold a conversation in all its forms.

Finally, here is a little quote that carries much more value than anything I could come up with:

“It’s much easier to become interested in others than it is to convince them to be interested in you.” - Dale Carnegie.

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

This one required minor edits due to a dead link, but should be servicable now!

Sue Me? Avoiding Mary Sue Tendencies in RP by Danellos

Hello all,

Welcome to the new and improved version of my guide to avoiding Mary Sue tendencies in roleplay!

First of all, it goes without say that everyone has a different opinion of this subject. As such, you are more than welcome to disagree with some of the information that I have put here, as long as you remain constructive and back your arguments up as well as you can. Everyone’s style of roleplay is different, and this is part of what makes playing on roleplaying realms quite thrilling!

The purpose of this guide is to help those who are new to roleplay strike a balance between the good qualities and bad qualities of their characters in their character concepts.

When one starts roleplaying a character and attempts to make it stand out from the rest, it is quite easy to deviate towards themes that may otherwise make the character seem rather unbelievable, like a “special snowflake”, or too heroic. In fanfiction writing, characters such as these are commonly referred to as Mary Sues , and the concepts that apply to this word in fanfiction writing could very well apply to roleplaying as well.

What is a Mary-Sue Character?

Taken from Engadget , here is the definition in terms of roleplaying:

A Mary Sue is a character who essentially is an idealized projection of the author’s self, serving as a sort of fictional wish fulfillment. Mary Sues run rampant in roleplay and are nearly universally hated. They’re not great characters, and they tend to disrupt other people’s fun.

So in essence, these are the “too-good-to-be-true” type characters that more often than not causes one’s eyes to roll during roleplay. In some cases, if you have a Mary Sue, then you may even be flat out ignored by other roleplayers. I’ve seen this happen, and its not fun for either side.

Below I have outlined some guidelines taken from the old version of my guide, and also newer parts added in from the helpful feedback of the players who commented there. I have also done some additional reading, and found some more pointers that could be added in.

Please note: Not all of the below-mentioned parts may apply to your character. Remember, an anti-Sue is just as bad as a Mary Sue. The whole idea is that you need to strike a balance between the good and the bad in your character… to make him/her seem more believable, more interesting, and fun to roleplay with from the perspective of other roleplayers!

It is also important to remember that character development is essential in roleplay. Over time, your character should improve on its bad qualities or even regress on some of its good.

Outlined below are various tips you can follow in order to make sure that your character does not deviate towards Sue tendencies. Some of this was copied from the old thread (maybe rephrased a little), and others come from the helpful pointers provided by fellow roleplayers in that thread.

1. Give your character flaws. Balance it with his/her strengths.

As has been proven many times in the designing of character concepts in a universe that is not your own, this is the most problematic part.

I know it is sometimes tempting when you are, for example, playing a paladin of the holy light who is to set an example for the rest of the world to follow, but don’t go over the top with this.

Give your character some flaws which makes them imperfect, and make sure that those flaws are as obvious (if not more obvious) than his/her good traits. This way, your character would seem more believable, and your fellow RP’ers (or audience if you are writing a fanfic) can relate with them in some way or another.

It’s okay for your character to be good at something, or to be a hero for that matter (as being a hero is exactly what Blizzard’s quests call you), but do your best to balance out the strengths of your character with the flaws.

It is very easy for a heroic character to deviate towards Sue tendencies, but if done tastefully, I am sure there’ll be many who’ll be pleased to roleplay with you.

Do not over-describe your character either, especially in an overly-poetic manner.

Examples of very real flaws are: impatience, impetuousness, unfriendliness, phobia, etc. This DOES NOT include stereotypical flaws such as a sin’dorei being addicted to magic. Those don’t count!

2. Avoid making your character related to a canon character in WoW Lore.

This is best explained with an example. If I create a blood elf mage, and I call him “Fandore Sunstrider” (fictional) and make it so that he is some long-lost brother of Kael’thas Sunstrider, then I am basically saying that my beloved character is related to one of the main characters in this game’s lore.

What makes me so special that I can relate myself to a core character within the Warcraft universe? Do you get my drift?

I don’t see this very often myself, but I have seen it before. This is definitely something to avoid.

3. Avoid creating pity-beggar characters.

The pity-beggar Mary Sue is a common one, often leading a painful life with hateful parents, perfect siblings/friends or no friends at all, no lover, no man or woman taking a fancy to them, and the list could go on. The worst part of this is that the character who has suffered these injustices would have little or no reaction towards these experiences.

Pity-begging characters tend to spend a great deal of time talking about their awful pasts as well, and this is not something that people really always enjoy in roleplay. Don’t dwell too much on these things.

I am not saying that giving your character a horrible past is necessarily a bad thing, but I am saying that basing your entire character concept around it would be dangerous.

In real life, we’ve all suffered some degree of injustices. Its just the reality of life. Over-emphasizing it on your character is more often than not going to cause eye-rolling.

4. Make it difficult for your character sometimes.

It is very easy for players to make their characters out to be this individual that “just seems to get everything right the first time". Like a druid mastering his flight form on the first try, for example.

Fighting skills, special talents, strong relationships, and any special powers of some sort should not have come easily to your character in the beginning.

For example, this current character I am posting with struggles endlessly understanding the branch of druidism related to curing land corruption. In fact, he may never fully grasp the concept at all, and this may in turn prove to be a disadvantage to him!

5. Bad Habits.

Give your character some weird habits, like nail-biting or drinking.

6. Avoid God-mode

The God-Mode Mary Sue is rarely found alone. Oftentimes they can be located within the mind of a “perfect” Mary Sue or a Plot-Stealer Mary Sue.

These creations are usually ultra-powerful, often not even knowing they have the powers that they use up until the first time. The powers themselves are generally numerous, or strong enough to chase away the worst of the villains out there.

7. Avoid Plot-Stealing

You are not a canon character, no matter how much you may want to be. Plot-stealing Mary Sues tend to come about when the player or writer is unhappy with how a specific character in lore is being portrayed. And as such, they’ll put their own characters in that place.

For example, I may be unhappy with Maieve Shadowsong’s lack of appearance in the game since TBC. So as such, I will create a night elf rogue called Máieve and add Shadowsong to the end with an RP addon plus a normal “a” letter. Then I’d get some gear that looks somewhat similar, and roleplay as her.

Please don’t do this! You’ll very quickly find yourself being ignored.

8. Avoid unexplained abilities (thanks to Revuu from the previous thread)

Could in fact be summarised as ‘Avoid special abilities’ full stop. If you must have them, at least explain them. Special abilities would be sensing auras around other players (not including sensing undeath as a druid / shaman / paladin or sensing demons as a druid / shaman / paladin / warlock), or being instinctively able to sense if someone is lying or not.

In fact, such ‘senses’ are often used to make metagaming legit. “Yeah, I can sense you’re a warlock” or, “Yeah, I can sense you’re a warrior” (to a warrior wearing day-to-day cloth clothes in a bar). Don’t ever say anything about being able to read minds!

9. Avoid Auras (thanks to Revuu from the previous thread)

It should be noted that this does not always apply to characters adept in the arts of magic, as someone has quite rightly pointed out in this thread.

However, similar to avoid unexplained abilities, avoid giving off ‘auras’. For example, “Sephirof gives off an aura of power”. What, can you smell it like you can smell when someone hasn’t washed? Can my half brainded forsaken rogue sense it?

Auras can be pulled off pretty well if done tastefully, but generally, it should be avoided.

10. Avoid Special Looks (thanks to Revuu from the previous thread)

Avoid being unusual for your species. This means anything other than fel-green eyes [now also golden] on a Blood Elf, silver/amber eyes [now also black] on a Night Elf, white eyes on a Draenei, or natural human eye shades on a human, etcetera.

(Just a note regarding the example with the eye colours - this does not apply to all races. Dogs can have heterochromatic eyes, and so can humans at times. If done tastefully, a worgen or human roleplayer can pull this off pretty well. Maybe even other races!)

11. Special class (thanks to Joilie from the previous thread)

This is a classic. Demon hunters, Death knights (before WotLK), Apothecaries, etc. Classes that you cannot choose when you create your character.

It can be done and it can be done well, but it takes practice and a lot of reading. It is not to recommend. Give your rogue demon hunter some pretty heavy flaws and you might get away with it if you are friendly enough to ask for advice.

12. Feedback (thanks to Joilie from the previous thread)

Always be open for feedback. If someone tells you that your character is questionable, it probably is and you should be ready to listen closely to tips and tricks from other people, it can help you a lot. And if you are unsure, don’t be afraid to ask someone for directions.

A character flaw is only a real flaw when it has lasting consequences and isn’t conveniently contrived or brushed aside as if it never happened when and where it is convenient.

Roleplay is teamwork!
Always remember that.

[Halthrakk-argent-dawn]

The Three Great I’s in Shaping a Great Community - by Tazkram

Interact, include and integrate.

To be a great community, it must feel inclusive. While not something an officer or leader should aggressively attempt to achieve, keeping it in mind will help establish a community that will create friendships. When the three great I’s go without saying, the community has ascended from a group of friends to just what you seek, a community.

The first step on the road is interaction. When a new member approaches your community, they will be an outsider. Isolation is a barrier one must overcome, but not all people are extremely extrovert, and even those who are, may struggle to initially step through the door.

It is not uncommon, I am sure you’ve faced this issue yourself sometime in life. You start a new education, enter a sport’s team or start a new job. It is a daunting task to seek out new people. We do not know them or how and what they think.

Perhaps they think you look stupid, your opinions are wrong, your articulation annoying. They may hate us. You may feel lonesome until someone reaches a hand out to you.

Though the fewest practice hate toward those they have hardly greeted, it is not uncommon that we judge others, and they know this as well. To overcome this obstacle on the road, it is important to remind yourself and your peers to interact with newcomers. Even more so, if the community is already well-established and content.

Interact, but be weary not to become artificial. Tell them something so banal as “Hello” or “How are you today?”. Perhaps even compliment them. Interaction is the first step toward a great community.

The next step on the road is inclusion. Going from simple social remarks to actively including others, will not only be the seeds of friendship, but also let the newcomer let their guard down. Feel welcome, be happy to participate.

When you started education sometime in your life, you were forced to first interact with someone. You may have found a specific person, whose opinions coincided much with your own.

At one point, you began to care for their opinion on these topics. “What do you think of my new dress” or “How would you solve this math issue?”. You validated their opinion, and by extension, validated them.

Including others goes beyond small-talk, this is the step where you show your affection and interest. While this statement may sound like romantic dating advice, it will very much help you in your social community life as well. Care to ask, and care for what the newcomers say. This is the second step toward a great
community.

The third and final step in this short guide is integration.

You may practice interaction as well as including, but sometimes something’s amiss still. While you sit in a specific social context, may it be your work, school or sport’s team, you may be approached by others. They ask your advice and validate you, perhaps they even greet you down the hallway, but that is it. When they leave, they don’t return.

The interaction or inclusion does not feel genuine and may even leave you with a hollow feeling of sadness. While the last step, it is also the hardest to achieve. How do you go from the previous scenario into a scenario, where you want to be part of a community? Anecdotally, I can say that I like to both give and receive appreciation beyond a simple ‘thanks’. Don’t you?

Integration is when the two first steps are achieved, but in a broader sense, it is also when it’s no longer up to you alone, but the group as a whole.

I was once part of a community, where I practiced these three steps as the community’s instigator. Yet to this day, despite my efforts, I cannot claim it was an inclusive and integrated community. While I spoke with all and grew friendships, not all in the community shared the integration. Several social groups sprung up within the community, and to this date, those two social groups stick, while the community suffered. Few tried to actively integrate, and when they did, it would more often fail than succeed.

Integration was never achieved, and why was that? Because integration is a mindset, that need be shared by all. It must become an explicit vision, that all want to take part in. It will be crucial to motivate yourself and other community members, and you may not always want to, but to create a truly great community, you must remember integration. When first you achieve integration, your community will grow from simply that to a group of friends, but with more. It will truly be a great community.

While you’ve read this small guide, I have refrained from giving examples as to how you practically can integrate, but you need not be more than aware. As I said, it is a mindset rather than a simple activity such as the first two steps.

In a coined phrase, it could sound something like “I want us to succeed together”.

So when making your community great remember the three great I’s, interact, include and integration.

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

Leading Management and Managing Leadership - by Tazkram

Knowledge is the first step to success.

Have you ever wondered about the role of a guild leader and that of an officer? You’ve likely been in a plethora of guilds, each having their own way of dealing with leadership and management.

One of the first guilds you’ve likely set your foot in, not much unlike myself, was the guild where an officer role was granted those who showed loyalty. You were active, became a friend of the guild master and was promoted. If not, you may have seen this occur.

Or what about the guild that worked like a hierarchy? The guild leader and officers’ word being law. There are many ways to set up a guild, but in the end, but in the end many of these will suffer from a downfall, once the leadership vanishes. Understanding the role of leadership and management can be crucial, to see a guild succeed on the long run, and that understanding is what this text aims to further.

Leading and managing are qualities all can learn to possess. Plenty educations exist, which will attempt to better either of the two for real work purposes. Thus, it is important to emphasize, that while I will talk about each separately, the two are not exclusive for you nor me.

The role of leadership is to set a vision. Before someone made a guild, they had an idea of what they wanted. A military guild, an adventure guild or something different. Most go further than that and will also consider what makes their guild unique. You may even ask yourself, what will my guild do, and how will it differ from others? That is the vision.

You’ll think of different ways to achieve your goal, set up guild systems, like a D&D-esque rolling system, or a rank and progression system for which members pass through. When the guild is established, you will continue to introduce your unique systems to the guild members that join. You communicate, align and direct them. In other words, you make them understand the systems. This both through talking to them and experimenting with the systems.

The last important thing a leader does is inspire and motivate. For anything to work, it requires that someone does it. In a guild, you’re all there together as a hobby, nobody is paying you, and so motivation can be a key factor for a lasting guild. You may be able to motivate yourself to create complex RPG systems, but if you cannot motivate anyone else to do it, that system will likely end up failing, dramatically. Leadership in its essence is about establishing a vision, communicating it and motivating others to achieve it.

Management on the other hand, is what makes the wheels turn correctly. It is when you add an event in the calendar, when you lay out the rules of your /roll-system and when you speak with a member, who seem not to follow the procedures set in place.

The management role is the bread-and-butter of any guild and will ensure that it stays true to the goals and vision set by the leadership. It creates routines for everyone, predictability in how things are handled. Take a moment to think about that, as it is usually very much in the background of guild management.

What does the guild you are part of do, that you simply have come to expect from it? Does it have certain days with activities in a specific timeframe, or is it loose form where you simply join in at any time? Perhaps raid markers are used for DMing, or you have players who control NPCs of the story? Simple things like this is part of management, but this also includes OOC management.

If someone does or says something inappropriate, what do you expect the officers to do about it? Something, nothing?

Now, back to the meat of the question. The role of guild leaders and officers. Quite simply the role is as those mentioned above. The guild leader often takes the role of leadership, as they are most often the person who made the guild. Officers end up in managing roles, where they help the leader in achieving the vision of the guild. This either through OOC management or IC management (which can be DMing an event).

All this may appear self-evident to you, but I’ll press on and challenge this setup. If you want your guild to succeed, you will have to pick people who possess both leading and managing capabilities. Why? Should either the leadership or management vanish for one reason or another, the guild will end up collapsing. All my former guilds have collapsed, as I have always been a key factor in it.

Had I been successful in finding good officers, who both possessed leadership and management abilities, and been able to cultivate that, it would have turned out differently. Other guilds have succeeded in this aspect, where some have had a dozen different leaders, and that was because, they cultivated an atmosphere where both the guild leader and officer staff had the necessary capabilities. A well-run guild should strive for this or expect not to be well-run in the long-term. As key members drop out, so will the activity of the guild, until it is dormant and gone.

[Vraxxar-argent-dawn (Vraxxar)]

Le bump of le thread!
Awesome and helpful thread with more helpful threads in it! What’s not to like!

[Ábél-argent-dawn]

Thanks to Rogmasha for adding my meager guide to this great thread. Here is to many more!

[Rogmasha-argent-dawn (Rogmasha)]

Added Seryddol’s updated tauren RP guide (2016 but at least it’s not nearly 10 years old!!) to the list above.