Posts with tag rp

Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.

This week's is a long one, so let's get right to it.

Dear Drama Mamas,

I belong to a small roleplaying guild on a fairly heavily populated server. Two of our guild leaders have recently retired, and the discussion that followed seems to have opened up a particularly ugly can of worms. There are a lot of complicated drama subsets that are going on at the moment, but I fear I may have started the one that's now bothering me the most.

Previous to our guild leaders retiring, we had a few incidents of members who had been very active suddenly disappear with no word of why or when/if to expect them back. (We have a forum for the guild, so the means of communication are readily available). We have a very strong policy of RL > the game; but as a small, close-knit guild, I feel that someone disappearing impacts guild members both in story lines and in the way they feel OOCly.

In addition to being the author of Wednesday's shadow priest edition of Spiritual Guidance, Fox Van Allen is an accomplished songwriter. After Dawn Moore refused to use Power Infusion on him during a lengthy raid encounter, Fox wrote the song In the Air Tonight. He mailed Dawn front-row tickets to his first concert performance, and as he reached the chorus, a bright spotlight engulfed Dawn. She cried in shame. It was awesome.

Regular readers of Spiritual Guidance know that over the last month, I've been putting together a leveling guide for aspiring shadow priests. In the last installment, I made a seemingly innocuous comment about shadow priests' being able to take the talent Shadowform at level 40:

We're able to make that fateful decision to forsake the light in exchange for causing more destruction more effectively.

I was literally describing the game mechanics; staying in Shadowform requires you to give up the spells in the holy tab. One of our commenters, aramis, used the line as a launching pad for an interesting comment that addressed a very basic question for us shadow priests: What the heck are shadow priests supposed to be, anyway?

I won't reprint the entire comment here, but it's definitely worth reading. The gist of it can be understood by reading just the first few sentences:

Mr. V-A, we don't FORSAKE the light as Shadow Priests. On the contrary, we embrace it ... We accept the light as the balance of ourselves. Life is about balance: pleasure and pain; good and evil; life and death; light and shadow.

Is aramis right? Follow me past the break as we explore a little bit of shadow priest lore, dip our toes into the cold waters of shadow priest roleplay, and try to solve an identity crisis that most of you probably don't even realize exists.

For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) roleplay guild meetings as part of an in-blog and in-game RP campaign. The rules for this campaign are: no ERP (Erotic RolePlay) and no vampires (though death knights are welcome). Everyone is invited to participate. Assume that to get into the guild, you at least pretended to be in full use of your faculties and are willing to fight for the cause. You are all welcome to join us here in the comments and those who wish to play with us in-game should friend Peenk and ask for an invite on Shadow Council (US-RP-A).

Hello! Peenk Sparklebolt here. In order to efficiently lead tonight's Refugee Party, the Operation Gnomeregan engineers have provided me with this gadget thingee. I'm not sure how it works, but it seems that people outside of our guild can actually hear me and see what we are doing tonight. Fascinating. I will be dismantling it to see how it works after this shindig is over.

Anyway, you can hear and see what is happening on my gadget thingee right now, or you can join us at the Refugee Party in Coldridge Pass. But hurry! We're starting immediately.

(( Watch the stream above or at WoW.com's Justin.tv channel. If you wish to join us on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) for tonight's RP event, please read the details and rules for the Refugee Party. ))

Here at WoW.com, 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.

While we're all skulking about waiting for our servers to come up -- or skulking about on Shadow Council waiting for tonight's RP event -- it seems as good a time as any to talk about pretending to be people we aren't in places we aren't. (Secret: I'm not actually a troll shaman. But do keep it quiet.)

• Some oldies but goodies from Too Many Annas, covering being left out of RP and the many places RP can go.
• The Lazy Sniper talks about choosing names for characters.
• It may not be WoW-centric, but the latest issue of The Escapist is all about roleplaying.

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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.

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World of Warcraft is an online role-playing experience set in the award-winning Warcraft universe.

• LOLRP The LOLRP gang, particularly those who join RP realms only to grief, think RP is LOLworthy and not the "right" way to play WoW.
• Bad experiences Whether you were yelled at for doing it wrong, got griefed or whatever, a bad RP experience can make you not want to go back.

For Gnomeregan! is where the members of <B.L.O.G.> on Shadow Council (US-RP-A) roleplay guild meetings as part of an in-blog and in-game RP campaign. The rules for this campaign are: no ERP (Erotic RolePlay) and no vampires (though death knights are welcome). Everyone is invited to participate. Assume that to get into the guild, you at least pretended to be in full use of your faculties and are willing to fight for the cause. You are all welcome to join us here in the comments and those who wish to play with us in game should friend Peenk and ask for an invite on Shadow Council (US-RP-A).

I am Peenk the Scorchling! Flame on! It's like magic! I love this holiday! Woohoo! I will admit, however, that I am squeamish about all of that fiery torch tossing and what have you. But those bonfires make me feel like I am magic or a fire elemental or both!

My cousin Kixi was right about this holiday. I feel so wise and more experienced when I participate in some of these rituals. It's like things just come more easily to me. The enchantments are so strong! It seems an invaluable way to speed up our training.

As I write this, I am dreading the week to come. After many months of going back and forth on the matter, I have decided to leave my guild for greener pastures. I'm reluctant to leave, though, since I do like my current guild; the people are nice, the raids are fun and we have a raiding philosophy of "work with what you've got" that I have always enjoyed. Still, for everything that I love, there are shortcomings and I am willing to risk losing what I have to see if my perfect guild exists somewhere out there.

So off I go to a new guild and server where I know no one. I'm scared -- scared I won't be good enough, scared they won't like me even if I am and scared I might be making a huge mistake in leaving my friends. You just have to swallow those kinds of thoughts, though. As a raider, I'm no stranger to moving around, and I've come up with many ways to deal with it.

One thing I do to cope is heading up to the spot you see in the picture before I transfer. This is my favorite hiding spot in the game, only accessible by players meticulous enough to complete the Higher Learning achievement. Up here, I will sit and eat some cake, then after I've had my fill, set out my little green rag doll on the bed and /sleep. The reason for this is so that when I log back in after my transfer has gone through, I know exactly where I'll be and I can pretend I'm waking up from a dream (or nightmare) to a new, promising day. I'm not sure why I do this; maybe the familiarity? It's really all quite silly, but I've been doing it for well over a year now and it seems natural.

Do you have any strange habits or rituals you do in game?

Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H.

Oh my. With Foxlight on the scene now, the CMA adventures have become far more fabulous. Have you voted on his spec and professions yet? The polls are still open. Here is the remaining schedule for the week:

• Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Wednesday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT.
• Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: some time Saturday.
• Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Saturday, 8 p.m. EDT.
• Michael Sacco as Sahko, the orc warlock: Wednesday, 7 p.m. EDT.
• Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue, Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, and Gregg Reece, the orc warlock, will be making appearances as they can.

Turn the page for the stories from last week and some advice.

Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on US Zangarmarsh-H.

We have recaps from last week after the break and personalized leveling advice on page 2. But first, here is the schedule for the rest of the week:

• Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Wednesday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT
• Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, will be making appearances as he can this week.
• Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue will also be making appearances as she can.
• Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, his new troll mage: some time Saturday.
• Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can.
• Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT.

Anna writes about roleplaying, healing, raiding and creative writing over at her blog, Too Many Annas.

One of the most frequent criticisms leveled at any kind of roleplay or fan-written fiction is the presence of the dreaded Mary Sue.

If you're not familiar with the term, a Mary Sue is a character who is overly idealized, has few or no actual flaws and functions as a wish-fulfillment or fantasy for the author. In WoW, this type of character is also frequently tied to major lore figures – the stereotypical lovechild of Thrall and Jaina (or some other such invented tie to a major character).

Unfortunately, sometimes this turns into an avoidance of all lore information in an attempt to not make the character Sue-ish. In a world like Azeroth that has a lot of really well developed lore, that can result in characters who are dangerously ambiguous and don't have any connection or history.

So how do you write a lore-based character without toeing the Mary Sue line?

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

I'm letting you into my thought process again this week, because I think I'm one of many players with limited playtime asking themselves if they are still having fun in WoW.

Me: I hate that video. Stormtroopers are cold, impersonal evil -- they don't dance!

Myself: I love it! Yay!

I: I don't know. I just don't know.

Me: So here we are again.

I: Yep. The List is pretty obsolete right now until I do more playtesting and research.

Myself: Playing WoW is fun!

Me: Is it? Still?

I: I don't know.

Myself: Yes it is!

Me: Prove it.

We found out on Tuesday of the new ability to toggle customized overcloaks that replace the look of your cloak (but leaves the stats intact). As a dwarf priest, I would proudly wear the Ironforge colours of gold and red. But I wouldn't have a problem wearing something else that looks as slick as say the insignias of the Argent Crusade. From a guild perspective, I think the guild tabards in game are okay. The problem with tabards? My beard covers it up. I know for other classes and races, the tabard has that "tucked in" look. Many comments from the overcloak post mentioned overcloaks with guild tabard designs on them. Not a bad idea and that is something I hope we'll get to see.

Now I have to ask, what cloak designs are you looking forward to wearing?

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Is it possible to turn a roleplaying guild into a casual raiding guild? Can the two groups mingle in the same community, or is it like mixing oil and water? This week, one guild leader has tried to do just that. Read on to find out how it has worked so far!

Hey Scott,

My boyfriend, and I recently made a guild. He's more into the RP aspect of the game, and mainly focuses on recruiting RPers. Most of these individuals are nice people, but are usually under level 40, and don't play or care enough to do anything serious end game when they get there. I was set on making it more of a raiding guild. Nothing too hardcore, but enough progression to be able to down most bosses in current raids. Before it was all put into practice it seemed like a good idea.

All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

Roleplaying is a journey of trust you take with strangers. You may now and then start out with a group of people you know in real life, but for the most part, the people you roleplay with have no idea who you really are, or why you are sitting here at the computer. You can tell them if you want to, but most people don't ask. Roleplayers tend to keep personal details private, and don't intrude on one another's space.

Besides, other roleplayers don't necessarily care that much about who you "really are" either. They're there to get to know your character, not you as a person, unless your character first makes a very good impression and they decide that they actually want to be friends as real people. Even though you respect each other as people who share the same interest, there's still a distance between you which either (or both) of you may wish to maintain.

And yet, the relationship you have is one of trust. It's not at all at the same level as a best friend of course, but you still have to trust one another in a very creative sense -- you rely on each other to create interesting things for your characters to share with one another. You're not just buying a shirt from a salesperson or holding the door for a passerby -- you're exchanging behavior and language in an unpredictable and totally interconnected way. Any little surprise a stranger brings to an interaction may completely alter the whole game session and stick in your mind as one of your most memorable gaming experiences. Roleplayers have to trust other roleplayers to help make those experiences positive, even without knowing anything at all about one another. Sometimes two characters can even become very close friends, even though the real people behind them do not.

All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

Playing Warhammer recently has made me think of more features that WoW could add in order to create a better roleplaying experience. Far and away the most important one, to my mind, was the Tome of Knowledge. WoW players really need an in-game resource they can refer to as a standard for information about the Warcraft universe, and having this at hand, roleplayers could do a lot better than they can today.

Knowledge is the most important thing, of course, but there are other features Blizzard could add to the game that would help roleplayers too. I'd like to address a few of these things, and see how much they could really do for us. Player housing is a possible feature that gets talked about a lot, but I have my doubts as to whether or not it would really help roleplayers all that much. Another issue is one that is more important to me personally, and is another feature inspired by my trial with Warhammer Online: looking at interactivity between characters.