The Daily Quest: Setting the stage for RP
by Anne Stickney 
Sep 13th 2010 at 7:00PM
We're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
Sometimes you want to raid. Sometimes you want to PvP. Sometimes you want to do dailies, and sometimes you just want to forget about everything and roleplay. This is, after all, an RPG -- and the blogosphere has plenty of blogs out there with words of advice for roleplayers:
- WTT: [RP] has some suggestions on using professions to embellish RP.
- Too Many Annas gives us some advice on roleplaying as a gnome.
- I Like Bubbles has some thoughts about finding RP.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. Filed under: The Daily Quest
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Persephanie Sep 13th 2010 8:41PM
RP is great an all but they really screwed the goblin starting area for RP. I mean, Everyone is going to have the same history of how they got off the island. I wanted my goblin to be one of the common goblins not a possible future trade princess. Maybe i didn't want my goblin to steal money from a bank to barter passage to the lost isles. It kinda sucks. Either when you play your goblin you work the story into it or you completely ignore the starting area and stick to your own story of how you got off the island. IMO they killed it.
Eddy Sep 14th 2010 12:50AM
Okay. To some degree, I see where you're coming from. But most good roleplayers ignore most of that stuff.
I've never had a good roleplay session with someone who only talked about their literal experience in game. A lot of my best RP was with low-ish level Blood Elves in some themed guilds, which, granted, not the best. But if all any of them could talk about was the quests in the Blood Elf starting areas, we would have been bored to tears. Instead, they opened up their experiences a little broader- sure, my character had done the Durotar stuff instead because of his background, but I didn't roleplay him as having done the Vally of Trials. Instead, he was recovering from the weakness of the loss of the Sunwell like the rest of his people, and once he had been part of the campaign in the Hinterlands. It was a long story.
But basically, the best roleplay is when you use the lore as revealed through the quests as an undercarriage for the roleplay, not as the be all and end all of it. A lot of bad goblin roleplayers will take that experience, sure. And a lot of them will argue about who actually had the experience. A good roleplayer will laugh at all the goblins fighting over the credit for something probably none of them did- and a good goblin roleplayer may take elements from the experience, adapt his or her own story, and maybe even elbow into the masses arguing about who was the hero of the Goblins, even though he or she knows what "really" happened.
Resident Horrible Sep 14th 2010 1:08AM
Everyone starts off the same in-game, no matter the class. RP allows fan-fiction background and start-ups. Just pretend (thats what rp is, playing "pretend") that it didn't happen to your character. When I'm rp'ing on Emerald Dream and a Tauren named GoodBurger says "wtf r u do n??/" I just pretend that didn't happen and he doesn't exist.
Lanuria Sep 14th 2010 7:23AM
I wonder if shameless advertising is okay on WoW.com, none the less, The Roleplayer's Lament is a humorous site that deals with terrible RSPs (And character concepts), breaks them down MST3K style to give you a few jokes and offers advice to fix the mistakes present in the RSP/Character etc.
I'm sure if it's not okay to post here, someone will delete it, but it's worth a shot to bring the blog to those who would maybe like a little humor (and spite, according to my co-writer) with their discussion of RP.
http://www.RoleplayersLament.com
Koriya Sep 21st 2010 12:33PM
I'd take even what little RP was found in the goblin and worgen area vs the stuff I've found recently. Everyone seems to be on this HUGE jive to KNOW that Deathwing is coming, that they're cultists and can freely sit in a alliance/horde tavern and casually yell out "Hey! The end is near! Join us!". What recently bit my nerves real bad, though I'm sure this is old news by now for a lot of people, is the whole "I'm a Death Knight who still serves Arthas and I'm openly recruiting" all the while, once again, sitting in the open and in a faction's area that would not hesitate to rip them to bits. And yet.....
Rant aside, Goblins have facinated me the most so far. If I were to RP something in the starting zone (IMO, mind you) I'd want to be a mechanic on the island who just happen to get stuck in the flow of things. Maybe even stowed away on the ship when all went to hell. -shrugs- Iunno. Just would be a good pace to go by. In advice, look at the island itself. If you don't want to (and don't have to) have your character follow the quests ICly, look at what might be available. Maybe they were a bodyguard for some rich goblin, maybe they're a shop owner of some sort, an informative, spy, weapons dealer, mechanic, engineerer, travel agent even. A facination to the seas and sailing, so they could build boats or try? Just throwing things out there.
Sadrach Sep 15th 2010 11:59PM
Recently posted a blog about my experiences on the PTR regarding the Unholy Death Knight changes. Might want to take a look at it for tomorrow's TDQ.
http://modernnerddom.blogspot.com/2010/09/impressions-of-ptr-death-knights.html
Aedilhild Sep 16th 2010 11:37AM
I wrote an article on Cataclysm mechanics in their current form, arguing that Blizzard doesn't need to weaken tank threat to reintroduce discipline and cooperation to the game.
http://www.gameandplayer.net/articles/2010/09/cataclysm_beta_existential_thr.html