Breakfast Topic: How do you handle game mechanics when RPing?
by Andrew Ross 
Oct 12th 2011 at 8:00AM
I'm going to be honest: I could never get into Warcraft roleplaying. RP can be hard enough with the different approaches people have (accents, interpretation of lore, Pollyannas), but in-game mechanics can often make things incredibly difficult. For example, in past games, I knew people who refused to RP in any channel other than /say. Why? Because they felt that only psychic characters would be able to communicate across mountains without cell phones or other modern-day conveniences. It's a bit picky, but I get it.
What about other things, though? Our players constantly come back from the dead without an explanation. From Asheron's Call to Rift, other games have made the death situation take a front and center position in lore. AC characters are magically bonded to lifestones for a seedy purpose unknown to them for several years; Rift players have spirits anchored to the world via technology or divine intervention; and WoW players ... have more resilient ghosts than most NPCs? Or at least, most of the time, since Cairne was ganked a lot prior to Cataclysm and always came back until someone gave Garrosh a poisoned blade.
How do you deal with game mechanics when RPing? Are levels "birthdays"? Is earning an achievement an epiphany? Maybe cross-faction dungeons with instant transportation are similar to finding Dr. Who's telephone booth?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Proph Oct 12th 2011 8:07AM
Its nearly impossible in wow to role play without an event. Even on RP servers people are constantly breaking role play by using smileys in say. People you don't know who tend to role play are 90% Mary Sue's. For the game mechanics I just ignore them. Levels are just there, annoying but the truth. Raids and dungeons and especially wit the finder are impossible to role play. I tend to get my role play in dungeons also for special events.
MattKrotzer Oct 12th 2011 8:35AM
Event RP is pretty restrictive, generally. Either it's a big, open event where everyone gathers and engages in in-character small talk, or it's a storyline-based event, in which case it's generally built around several characters taking a lead role, and anyone else involved is just an observer.
It's very rare to see a storyline-based event that can support RP from more than a few people without people just getting frustrated with the direction it goes.
LynMars Oct 12th 2011 8:55AM
WMattKrotzer: That's RP in a lot of places I've seen. Either a storyteller creates an event that's open to the public for social RP, or they create a storyline event, and depending on that storyline, it's as open or closed as the plot can handle--we have an epidemic storyline on our server right now that's fairly open, but even then, people mostly engage in smalltalk when the storyteller isn't around to answer questions so the plot can move forward.
People also like playing in plotlines with their friends, or at least people they know and can mostly trust to go with the story and work together.
I've seen it in LARPS and in various online venues, and tabletop is made for a small group run by a GM, so I don't think it's a purely WoW phenomenon, but how most people are familiar with RP and the way it works--which grows out of how storytelling for a group of people works, mostly.
cloudhopper013 Oct 12th 2011 10:53AM
Are you kidding? Grabbing 0 to 2 friends, hopping in a dungeon group, and RPing the hell out of it is always fun. Sometimes it gets the more intolerant people to rage, which is fun to watch, but more often it totally brightens people's day. Especially if you make up your own temporary characters that have some wacky, situation comedy-esque vibe to them and get in to light-hearted antics.
Tri Oct 12th 2011 8:13AM
I dunno.. I think it's not really that difficult. You just have to differentiate between LORE and GAME MECHANICS.
IMO there's no such thing as levels, instance runs etc. when I'm playing IC (In Character). Of course my character can only communicate in /say and /yell (guild chat or other is done by ME, the player, not the character).
Death (in duels for example) isn't death, but defeat (a reason why I favor emote duelling over actually fighting) - in RP-PvP you lie down on your corpse if you "die" to signal that you're injured. Death is something you -choose- for your character when you RP.
Although I do try to incorperate magic losely - it is a fantasy world after all, so it IS possible - but I try to keep it down on a "believeable" level. I once RPed a warlock, and it was a huge challenge to incorperate the various spells I had, but it was great fun. The summon portal graphic could be used as a way to magically bind someone, the teleport circle (I forgot the name of the skill) I used as a sort of "power up" etc.
Really, the trick is to keep imagining that you ARE your character. In a given situation, just think "would this make sense within the boundaries of the given world?"
eirinefrostblade Oct 12th 2011 8:15AM
Mostly, we ignore them in my guild. Some of barely acknowledge the holidays. Of course, we also rp in /guild, /officer, and two other custom channels, to keep separate story lines from getting confused. We concentrate on characters and their stories, rather than dungeons, events, and those simple things like easy transportation. The only exceptions are major events, like patches and expansions. The rps that took their cues from the release of Cata were awesomely fun.
MusedMoose Oct 12th 2011 8:18AM
I don't RP in WoW, but I'd have to say, gnomish technology makes a convenient excuse for just about anything.
Dungeon finder? Personal portal device. Person from DF drops group or doesn't show up? Malfunctioning personal portal device. Summonable mounts? Gnomish technology at its finest.
MattKrotzer Oct 12th 2011 8:31AM
This reminds me of an event I hosted years ago, the Exposition for Excellence in Engineering (E3, heh). You basically would use in-game items and effects to RP a sales pitch and/or demonstration of your amazing new invention.
It went over fairly well, though not as well as it would have in my server's RP heyday.
durandal Oct 12th 2011 8:57AM
Either gnomish technology - or trollish voodoo. It really depends on the direction of your RP setting.
Jamie Oct 12th 2011 9:51AM
My gnome's mechanostrider would fold out of a suitcase much like Iron Man's portable armor suit.
MattKrotzer Oct 12th 2011 8:24AM
As a roleplayer of many years, I've learned this:
Explain away what you can, ignore what you can't.
On my server, channel RP is generally explained as communication via enchanted hearthstones, or sometimes there's a specific setting applied to a channel, like a tavern or guild hall.
Levels, achievements, quest progression... all of these can be referenced as much as you like, though I find it best to imply that your character was a PART of events, rather than the sole contributor to an event, just to not screw too heavily with the immersion of others, or the level of involvement they might want THEIR characters to have.
Just remember that everyone has access to the same content, so monopolizing it for your story is rude. Twisting and manipulating it AROUND your story is good. The key to good roleplay is to make room for others to have a role as well. Everyone can't be the star, but they should all get the opportunity to shine.
BadAndyMk3 Oct 12th 2011 10:13AM
I ignore them.
Jay Oct 12th 2011 8:31AM
I have been RPing quite alot in my wow career on a few different servers, some characters I just abandon when they get boring or their story feels like it's done. But once I was a brief time in a RP guild that had in it's guild rules that once your character died, it stayed dead.
You could ofcourse take it out of guild and have a good time with it anyways but as far as the guild was concerned they were dead and not coming back. That was a bit to hardcore for me and I didn't end up staying with them.
MattKrotzer Oct 12th 2011 8:32AM
Muradin's a perfect example of explaining away that you were just "knocked out." I'd abuse the heck out of that, or just make sure to never run anything with my guildmates, so that I had plausible deniability on any deaths.
Jay Oct 12th 2011 8:49AM
Well I have to give them some credit for making it more interesting to do some dungeons, because now it was for real, you came as prepared as you possibly could even for lowlevel dungeons, because if you died in the dungeon or the heavens forbid your tank or healer died you'd all be buried there like some troll dude once said.
It felt kinda like playing a survival horror game. But in the long run it was just not my cup of tea but it was atleast interesting to have tried.
Alrendar Oct 12th 2011 8:39AM
Dr Who's Telephone booth?
It's not a telephone booth, it's a 1960's police box.
Sleutel Oct 12th 2011 9:17AM
A police box IS a telephone booth--just a specialized one. So, you're both right.
wow Oct 12th 2011 9:38AM
"Unlike an ordinary callbox, its telephone is located behind a hinged door so it can be used from the outside, and the interior of the box is, in effect, a miniature police station for use by police officers."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_box
mem0ryburn Oct 12th 2011 9:52AM
It may not be technically incorrect but calling the TARDIS a telephone booth is akin to the guy from the comments section the other day who referred to ninjas as "loot pirates". Nobody does it and it sounds mental.
Now had you said Bill and Ted's telephone booth...
Drakkenfyre Oct 12th 2011 8:44AM
If you resurrect at the graveyard, and you pay attention to the Spirit Healers, they tell you how you can come back to life.
They tell you it's not yet your time, and they will bring you back.
It's not "you're binded to this object, blah blah blah", or "your great diety won't let you die", but it's not "click button to come back to life" (when you are talking to the Spirit Healer.)
While there isn't lore about them in-game so far, the Spirit Healers are angels. How they are connected to anything else isn't explained, but it's them who tell you that it "wasn't your time", and they who bring you back to life.
It's not explained how you can res at your body, but since the Spirit Healers tell you you can res without penalty if you find it, it could be explained that they are still res'ing you, they are simply wanting you to find your body first.