I have a couple of questions as a rookie WoW RPer and this seemed like it may be a good place to ask. As an altoholic, I have multiple characters on both WrA and MG that I’d really like to explore more RP with. I’m not really much into the “walkup” RP, though I would absolutely engage with someone who walked up to me gladly. I’m looking more for story-arc based RP, if that makes sense? Being part of a good story. I’m not looking to be the center of attention or even necessarily a primary protagonist. I’d love playing a player-controlled NPC for events as antagonist, a friendly bystander, or simply a device to further the story, for example.
Also, concerning server lore. The concept sounds interesting to me, but it sounds like a lot of people have had bad experiences with it. Is it something that has a centralized consensus or the like? Is it something that people can opt in or out of and still participate in when it works out to do so?
I’ve looked into RP guides for both servers and for RP in general, but it seems like there is a lot of more inside info that those guides (as helpful as they are) doesn’t cover.
Any tips?
(Also, full disclosure: made the same post on the MG subforum)
The best way for altoholics like us is to keep a keen eye open on guild story events / threads. If you want to be a PC-NPC, I’d reach out to guilds asking if they wanted any sort of that at their events.
Server lore on WrA = bad, according to many threads and many years of being here. Recognizing another guild as the guards and saying it’s server lore gives them power over players, which no one likes. If you would like to find people looking to establish server lore, I advise the following:
Be careful whom you build that server lore with, as many use it for a chance at power, ego stroking, or to troll with.
Do not expect, demand, or otherwise tell people to participate in your server lore. You can put in ten years of work, but it will not be accepted as Gospel by people who simply do not wish to accept it as it alters their $15/mo.
Lastly, you ask for tips / inside info. That is a broad question. Are there tips / inside trader information info that you’re looking to gain specifically?
I can only really echo what Thokk has said already.
WrA largely avoids server lore for the reasons they listed, as it’s been tried here or there and historically done poorly, so most long-term Accordians (myself included) will avoid it. I believe, but am not 100% sure, that MG does do some amount of server lore, but I do not play there so I cannot be more specific on that.
As for long-term story-based RP:
You’ll want to browse the forums for that, as typically they’ll make advertisements or recruitments. You do not necessarily need to join a guild for that, but if you want to be more involved in some way (i.e. antagonist or a story device) I would strongly suggest a guild, as the public campaigns most likely will not have a spot for you with regard to anything more than a participant. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, of course! Things are just planned in advance.
You mention not being hugely into walk-up RP, but I will say that all of the long-term RP I have found over the past 10 years first started through walk-ups. If you seek out people with TRP profiles that interest you and have a special note like “LF long-term” or something similar, that may be a worthwhile avenue too if you desire something long-term with fewer players than the public storylines often get.
I’m not sure what other tips you’d like, but you mention “inside info” and WrA and MG in the same sentence, so I’ll try to go over some general things I know about WrA (I do not play on MG, so my apologies):
WrA focuses a lot of guild RP. It always has, but especially so in a post-BfA and post-SL world. Walk-ups are to be found (late US-time) in Duskwood for Alliance and… not sure where for Horde since I don’t play Horde, my apologies.
If you are a discord user, you can find a WrA community project discord and other information about it at this link. You can find all sorts of RP, guilds, and events there and also here, on the forums.
WrA has a very large RP project called Y40 that has started again for DF. You can find more information, including access to their discord, at this link.
And finally, as a general statement (likely for both servers):
There is a heavy reliance on discord servers for events, plots, and guilds. While you can often find enough information to get you started elsewhere, any linked discords are typically bound to get you much more information, for better or for worse.
One thing I would initially say would be that no matter what server you’re on, the RP community generally doesn’t have a centralized consensus about anything. It’s very likely that you’ll eventually run into people who assert to you that everyone does X, nobody does Y, and Z character concept/RP style/whatever is objectively good or, conversely, decried by everyone, and those assertions will not be true.
Following are disorganized thoughts that I’ve tried to make coherent; hopefully they’re helpful and not chaos.
‘Server lore’ is a category of fanlore – fanlore being an umbrella term for stories and worldbuilding elements that are made up by players (with a lot of variation regarding whether those elements build upon canon/official lore, contradict it, try to reconcile contradictions within it, etc.). It’s my impression that when people refer to something as ‘server lore,’ they are stating or implying that the people who organize or take part in the fanlore in question expect everyone who plays on their server to accept it as being authoritatively true and construct their own characters and RP accordingly.
Sometimes, people who opt into a particular piece of fan/server lore do try to force others to also opt into it via various forms of coercive or manipulative behavior. Many people who have had bad experiences with server lore have specifically had experiences like this. It can also happen that if any piece of fanlore both becomes widely accepted and creates continuity conflicts between people who do opt in and people who don’t, people who opt out can end up feeling like they’re being ‘forced’ to accept it simply because, even if nobody is directly bullying them over the issue, people who have accepted it reference it in RP or choose not to RP with people who don’t.
Server lore also frequently involves one group of players being put – or placing themselves – in a position of authority over many others. It may take the form of a story that’s being written and moderated by a particular guild or project team; in that case, those players have a lot of influence – if not outright control – over what happens in that story and thus what continuity those who opt in must accept. It may take the form of an agreement that a particular player-run group fulfills a particular role in a particular place, and thus that other players must submit to their IC authority.
Many people on WrA have historically been suspicious of RP projects that step outside of guild boundaries, associating such things with past experiences (or stories they’ve heard from others) of being coerced into accepting server lore in which they were not interested. This has been loosening in the last few years, and there have been several well-received open campaigns, including the Y40 one linked by Maxi. MG seems to have a long tradition of large campaigns and fanlore projects that are public or multi-guild, along with a complicated history around how voluntary those have been (or been perceived to be) and many people who don’t care for them for one reason or another.
Big campaigns and fanlore-incorporating RP communities can be really cool, even though they don’t suit everyone. If you’re interested in player-run stories and the incorporation of player-developed lore into RP, my personal suggestion would be to look into public campaign communities like Y40 and/or story-rich guilds, many of which can be found via forum threads and/or in the guild-listing section of the Wyrmrest Community Project discord linked by Maxi above. There is no such thing as universally accepted server lore anywhere, and no player or group of players has the authority to say there is.
Good posts ahead of me. I don’t have much to add besides that I’ve found great friends and rp friends especially by random walk up, sitting in sw with a tongues potion on as horde, and meeting people/guilds via events on and off server. You can meet a lot of nice people at events very quickly either by being a customer for a booth or trying out boothing rp, just be prepared for the latter to be social battery taxing if it’s a big one!
I’ve done this before, too, and met some nice folks here and there for a passing story, but if you’re not the type to get exhausted or anxious from social situations, you can also reach out to people idling in an area and ask them about their hooks or strike up a bit of convo in regards to their character and interests in rp etc. Some people will tell you right away what they’re all about (in a good or bad way, it’s been 50/50 for me in the past), some people will disengage, and some will take an interest back in your character. This is very trial and error, though, so as I said it can be a bit taxing if you’re regularly finding people you don’t mesh with or don’t have as much investment/alignment with what you’re looking for.
… Or end up showing their whole disgusting personality later on, but anyway.
WrA has a variety of recurring open RP events - weekly and monthly. IMHO going to some of these will be a lot more effective for finding RPers than just standing on the sidewalk waiting for someone to pass by. My experience - from the other side of the counter - has been watching strangers build relationships over weeks and months that have lasted years. As far as guilds go - I’d far rather see them in action than jump on board based solely on a forum post. Go to a variety of events, you’ll start to see which guilds & individuals are your cup of tea.