I thought this might make for an interesting discussion!
Do you lean towards a certain type of roleplay? For example combat, adventure, guard, military, mercenary, church, tavern/bar, government, bandit, pirate/sailor, noble houses, high fantasy, low fantasy…
I personally have always been drawn to market roleplay for some reason. It gives me a good reason to interact with people if I have something to offer- otherwise I find myself feeling quite shy. On the occassion I do enjoy adventuring with some combat thrown in.
I can see the appeal of low fantasy knight roleplay, where things are more grounded. I haven’t really given it a go given what I play, but maybe one day I’ll roll a human to check it out.
Combat is fun, social hangouts are fun. Those have to be my faves.
In terms of tone, more lighthearted funny stuff is just as good as serious / horroresque events, so I’m a fan of either.
Combat is fun, social hangouts are fun. Those have to be my faves.
In terms of tone, more lighthearted funny stuff is just as good as serious / horroresque events, so I’m a fan of either.
I feel similar! I do prefer more lighthearted stuff to counteract dark/horror themes, otherwise I lose steam and feel a little overwhelmed. Balance is nice.
I like both high fantasy capital Adventurer stuff AND low fantasy ‘We’re in Duskwood and our last torch went out, we can’t see and OH GOD IS THAT A SKELETON’ but the latter doesn’t really fit retail anymore since every mystery of the universe has been solved and everyone plays very powerful characters nowadays. But around 2010 and especially on private servers that stuff was booming ( mostly due to Game of Thrones )
I prefer using D&D 5E or something close to that. Combat, investigation, magic/research, campfire, social all work for me.
mainly Adventure/combat RP with my Guild. but Social/casual rp is neat too. just not as accessible on Horde.
Dmed events is what i personally enjoy the most, be it with my own guild or server PVE campaigns.
I personally enjoy being the DM the most, Creating my own RP.
I like to tap into the full High fantasy that Warcraft provides in my RP, to a certain degree. We’re still not the PC so there are some things we cannot do in RP we can do in game.
The free form nature of Casual RP has its charms. but i don’t feel comfortable to create large narratives with it. As it will almost always involve people who have not consented with your RP narrative.
And that will almost always create unwanted tension.
Dmed events are like instanced content. contained and curated. like a DnD session.
Lower fantasy characters embracing the high fantasy setting has always been my bread and butter. I enjoy the perspective of a mundane sort of character living in a chaotic world of monsters, magic and aliens. Maybe a curse or two, I love some good curse tropes.
I tend to find that for me personally, it helps to keep the world fresh and often opens the door for dialogues and exploration. An aged old man, nearing the end of his lifetime, with very little worldly experience, speaking with a practically immortal space-ship faring Draenei for instance can present an interesting dynamic to a conversation.
Especially given I’ve never really taken an interest in combat RP, I do tend to underpower my characters just to always have an excuse not to really engage in it.
I’m dreadfully boring.
I would say that my favourite roleplay has to be social – by which I don’t mean casual chatter on Stormwind street corners. I mean delving into situations on my characters where their characterisation is explored. Their views, motivations, backgrounds.
For me, combat and events primarily serve the purpose of being conducive to more interaction and character progression before and after them.
As a certified edgelord, I also prefer to play on darker themes. Loss, trauma, everything monstrous that can happen in the setting. My OCs rarely have a good time.
Mostly I like very campy, over-the-top action sequences. I like dramatic duels and things like that. But I also like taking the fantastical aspects of the setting and using them to construct dialogues around philosophical questions, which I think fantasy lends itself well to generally.
Nothing brings me more joy than seeing a massive group of Dark Iron Dwarves deploy from three Mole Machines to wreak havoc in an enemy formation.
It takes great amounts of coordination, Invisibility Potions and a little bit of choreography, but the result speaks for itself. I think quite a few people can attest to that, if they’ve encountered the Imperial Flame in the past or more recently.
Open world role-play. By that I mean anything that takes my character outside of settlements. I prefer to avoid portals for the most part when I am role-playing in favour of physically travelling to the destination in question.
I prefer smaller scale interactions. I don’t like just being another face in a big crowd and the chat being flooded with emotes or it taking half an hour before it’s my turn to write something again.
Darker themes are preferred. Zones like Drustvar, Duskwood and the Ghostlands are of great interest to me. I prefer fighting cultists, demons and the undead. Though simple bandits, gnolls and other pests suffice well enough.
Most of my characters have grudges towards the opposite faction based on key events in their lives, so I do like leaning into distrust and wariness there despite the setting desperately trying to have everybody be friends now.
Humans, Night Elves, Blood Elves, Nightborne. They’re my favourite playable races and what interest me the most.
RP-PvP Campaign: A clash of RPers poop-talking and hitting one another in /em until a goal is achieved through mutual decision. We then retreat back to camp to lick wounds, heal friends, discuss tactics and share thoughts of it all.
Tournaments: There is nothing quite like the thrill of RNG-based competition and skill-based competition wrapped up in the medieval thematics of a tournament. Complete with bards and vendors selling all sorts. You never know who you will meet and the joy of cheering on your chosen champion is forever a hoot!
Enemies to lovers RP: One thing my IRL partner and I have frequently done is create our toons specifically to be enemies, only to fall in love over time. They’re often forced to fight side by side in battles, berating one another mid-combat while silently fearing for each other’s life. Then after battle, they tend to one another’s wounds and admit things in the darkness of the night.
and OH GOD IS THAT A SKELETON’ but the latter doesn’t really fit retail anymore since every mystery of the universe has been solved and everyone plays very powerful characters nowadays. But around 2010 and especially on private servers that stuff was booming ( mostly due to Game of Thrones )