Stormwind. Idk if there’s RP elsewhere but I’ve just been prowling through mage district / park and marveling at the sights. Mind, those types I mentioned are largely a minority, but they -do- tend to stand out in a crowd.
If I had ten gold for every vampire Void Elf female, I would’ve had the auction house mount before prepatch.
I had a gig at an Inn once between the events of Legion and BFA… well, more specifically, multiple gigs! Nowadays, I’m more of a traveling saleswoman with “an assortment of services”…
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Everyone can RP whatever they want and be as powerful or underwhelming as they so choose.
The ‘friend circle’ / ‘guild circle’ issue isn’t so much that you aren’t allowed to RP a super powerful/noble character, it’s just that said group of friends, guild, community etc. won’t acknowledge it. This is their choice, the same as it’s yours to try and RP X powerful character with others.
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I think ultimately the issue of ‘character power’ comes with this question: “For what purpose?”
If the character is powerful but INTERESTING, leaving a lot of doors open to be interacted with by the general public, that’s a ‘good’ powerful character.
However, if it’s just a dumb power fantasy where the character can bend steel beams, shoot lazers from its eyes and lift an entire building with one hand, but has nothing at all interesting about them beyond how powerful there are, that is where there might be a problem.
I think in D&D they call this a ‘murderhobo’, basically a character who’s plopped into this rich RP world with story-hooks and RP opportunity, but all they want to do is kill and loot, disregarding anything that isn’t ‘killing’ or ‘looting’, and often resorting to killing NPCs that had entire arcs written for them just because arcs are not ‘killing and looting’.
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Why is someone’s character dark and broody and otherwise unapproachable?
Maybe because they didn’t make their character to play with you specifically. Maybe because that’s how they wanted them to be. Maybe it’s a semi-NPC in a guild storyline. Maybe the player wanted to explore what it would be like to be a broody jerk, fully aware that the consequence (and perhaps the benefit) would be that every flower-scattering nymph wouldn’t walk up to them and ask them about their day. Maybe they just like to watch other people RP. Maybe people generally came to realize that there’s no reason to be so judgey about what other people wanted to play and found the slinging about of terms like “edgelords” to be unnecessary in your absence.
Not everyone needs to play bland nice Peasant #24 for fear that others will disapprove of what they’re doing. As long as they’re having fun with what they’re doing and they can find people to play off of, does it matter what they’re doing? I’m sure the ones that want more interaction will figure it out and find a way to get it.
I think that a question that needs to be asked is, who is the arbiter of what a “good” character is aside from the person playing it, and why? If the character accomplishes the player’s purpose for playing them, then they’re a good character. Different people look for different things out of RP. If the character that someone plays excludes them from the kind of RP they want, then they’ll work it out and take a different approach, you can rest assured. But “I don’t want to play with that other person’s character” doesn’t make a character objectively “bad”. It just makes the character not the kind of character that you personally prefer to interact with.
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I rp my grotesque death knight because I like my character. You can walk-up if you want, or don’t. I don’t care. I have people I can rp with, I just welcome walk-ups because I’m a nice guy.
Tarquin is an extremely well mannered dk, but he’s also horrifying in appearance and completely devoid of compassion. So he’s very polite and disarmingly easy to talk to, but he’s also very off putting because he’s too far removed from being alive to connect with others on an emotional level.
If you can’t engage with that, that’s on you. You’re not gonna hurt my feelings.
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There are only two goals someone has when they ask “Why is X activity fun?”
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They want to know why it’s fun because they’re genuinely curious about the activity, and are open to participating themselves to find out if it’s fun for them too.
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They already know that it’s not fun for them and want to use a rhetorical device in bad faith to sh*t on people having fun that isn’t “proper”.
If the OP falls into category (1), my advice is just to try it yourself. Treat it like a sport you’ve never heard of before: surround yourself with entertaining people who are REALLY into it and give it a shot.
If the OP falls into category (2), then OP belongs to a long and storied lineage of dumb-dumbs who post about “edgelords” and doing the “bad RP” but then immediately trip over their clownshoes when explaining why their form of RP is superior because the reasoning is always and entirely arbitrary.
I hope OP is in the first category. The second category is just so exhausting.
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I’d like to think I am #1 because while I don’t ‘get’ it I’m not here to tell anyone what’s good and what’s bad. “You do you”, “Live and let Live”. I mentioned before how ‘edge’ is nowhere near necessarily a bad thing and it depends on how you use it. The same way a lot of us make fun of ‘HMP’ but there’s clearly a large market for that sort of thing, so-… Hey, if they enjoy it?
I mostly stick to RP that balances somewhere between ‘immersive’ and ‘adventurer’, with a few deviations; This doesn’t really leave a lot of room for interacting with the types of characters I described as ‘edgelords’ (Mostly because I can’t think of a reason my chars would want anything to do with them), hence wanting to hear some thoughts on the subject. The thread’s been quite an interesting read!
Interactions do not have to be something that your character actively seeks out, or something that your character wants to do. They can be unpleasant for your character. They can be awkward or confusing for your character. They do not have to benefit your character at all. They can be comedic and ironic, or they can be serious. The problem is that your characters don’t choose with whom they interact - you do.
If you only find enjoyment in RP interactions where your character wants to be there, that’s fine and totally valid too and it’s not really anyone’s place to question why you only find enjoyment in those RP interactions. It just seems like you’ve imposed an unnecessary barrier around your imagination for the purposes of only RPing things that you know you like instead of deviating creatively from time to time.
You do not need to actually play those classes or characters to be an HMP/OMW. Those categories describe the players themselves - picking a specific class and race combination is just something that those types of people commonly do.
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This thread needs some more Human Male Paladin action in it.
I put my pants on one sword at a time. Don’t tell me you don’t.
I was disappointed this wasn’t legit about ugly, rotting, smelly DKs that are friendly as all getout and just want to give you hugs.
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I raise you someone RPing “young Illidan Stormrage” himself as a Druid in Stormwind
My Forsaken DK is mostly skeletal, dripping in viscous goo, and skips and hops about giggling like a school girl while singing creepified versions of nursery rhymes. XD Gotta go ALL in on the gallows humor and preaching the benefits of undeath! Never understood being all edgy and brooding when you can play a much deeper character using that bit of cheerful insanity to mask their deeper pains, and be much more sociable while doing so.
That said, I knew a WONDERFUL Forsaken assassin once who would kiss people every chance she got. Just cause she couldn’t die from all the diseases she’d caught down in Goldshire, didn’t mean she couldn’t kindly kill others with em!!!
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Honestly I rp Etrick as an unholy one slight aura but nothing crazy and friendly but like said above not really concerned with living things or their oh woe is me my grandma fell down the stairs. Though I have been thinking about making a change and see how people react to a Death Knight going out of his way to do mundane tasks and adventures not kill so and so old god or known serial killer.
As someone who also recently returned, albeit hasn’t rejoined the public RP scene yet…
I want you to struggle. I want you to challenge both me, and yourself. I want you to flex your creative noodle and come up with a reason to walk up to [my character]. I want you to stop ignoring me because I don’t fit your local social norm and formalities. I want… …Hey, is this thing even on?
Anyways, chances are we’re just looking for something specific. Personally, as a twilight dragon that utilizes spellfire in order to impersonate a paladin, this character thrives in conflict scenarios… Because that’s what he was made to do. You may have your day-to-day, your chores, your hunts, your friendships… But I’m looking for something else. I’m looking for a would-be nemesis. I’m looking for someone who can see past my dark visage and consider the benefits of allying with such a dark power (or at least, a dark-looking lad, secrets and all). I’m looking for hostages, innocents, henchmen, and tools for my own story. My own narrative.
Because that’s the story -I- want.
And walking around PMing people on a fondue artist alt, isn’t my style.
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Humans are insignificant where The Light is concerned.
Kiur is incredibly approachable. But she’s also insane so your mileage may vary. She’s incredibly friendly, but I originally modelled her speech patterns after Malkavians from Vampire the Masquerade. So her coherency is… variable.
…Now I really want to walk up to all the venthyr vampire RPers and probably confuse the red outta them by telling them ‘don’t open it’.
It sounds like an amusing character though.
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