Unusual and Exotic Role Playing
Preface
Now. I am not writing this to tell you how to roleplay, or to tell you that what you are doing is wrong. I am writing this to offer pointers. Suggestions. I’ve been doing dragons for a long while, and I know there are those with other off the wall or “taboo” characters. I welcome the challenge in writing these sorts of characters, and encourage others to do so if they feel up to it. I get asked; both on the forums and off; for advice when it comes to making these characters. So, I thought to meself: “Amber, why not write a little guidey that goes over the way you design your characters and how you approach making your dragons?” “Why! Amber! That sounds like a fine idea! What is the worst that could happen?”So… here you have it…
- Before You Get Started
- Conceptualizing the Character
- Abilities
- Wrap Up
- How I Would Approach Certain Cases
Before you get started:
Before you even sit down and try to think of a name, a personality, or anything else; ask yourself a simple question. “Why do I want to do this?” It is a question you better have a decent answer to, because everyone and their mother is going to ask you: “Why make it a ____ when you could just do ____?”
Example: A friend of mine, while I was conceptualizing my undead bronze dragon, posed this question. “Why make her a dragon? Why not just make her an elf?” My answer is actually somewhat simple. I love dragon lore, I love the concepts with dragons, I love the possibilities. I enjoy spending hours on the wiki’s, the wowheads, reading the books, researching the dragon race… and they race they are taking form as. Could I write a similar character? Could I drop the dragon aspect and tweak the story to accommodate that? Probably. Do I want to? No. This is what I enjoy doing, so it is what I shall do. Often times, when I conceptualize a character, what they are becomes integral to them. To take such away changes the whole idea.
Next: Ask yourself: “Is this feasible?” How many rules do you have to bend to make the character viable? Do you want to keep the character strictly forum role-playing? If so, you can get away with a little more. However, if you want to venture in game; possibly do some walk up roleplaying in a city, you need to be aware of what is ‘kill on sight’ and what laws there are. You can still get away with roleplaying whatever, due to the wonders of magic; but you need to be aware of how secretive you identity needs to be. One of my favorite parts is figuring out how to entwine subtle clues into the character. Word choice, garments, preferred color; it can be fun by itself.
Conceptualizing the Character:
These characters need a lot more work than your average Azeroth races. You have so many questions you need to go through, and some need more attention than your average race. I am just going to list off questions I ask myself (going to use Mortre as an example). I like to use these to flesh out all of my characters, not just the dragons and exotics; though I came up with the list for them.
What race? Black Dragon
What Sub-race/Disguised Race? Worgen-Human
What Class or Ability Type? Warlock based, using fel inscribed runes to cast their magic, with some black dragon abilities. Eventually starts to drop the warlock and transition into a more Bard like class.
What Gender? Female
What Age? Old (recently settled on 23,562)
What important events have they been around for?War of the Ancients, Sundering, Opening of the Dark Portal, Shattering of Draenor, Fall of Gilneas, Fall of Deathwing, Events on Pandaria, Events on AU Draenor. All other “historic” events occurred whilst character was in hiding, or did nothing significant during them.
What did they do during said events? Here is where I build the character backstory.
Does the race/class have a leader? Neltharion/Deathwing
What does your character feel about said leader? She loved him, he was kind and vigilant. But then, when the old gods took their root, she despised him. Though a lot of anger and rage she felt towards him was actually displaced rage that she felt about herself.
Are they defying that leader and why? Well, leader turned on the world and tried to destroy it. She did defy him in that regard, because she was not corrupted like he was.
Are they on the run from said leader? Not from him anymore, as he is dead. But his son is a problem.
Why would they visit capital cities? Trying to survive in the world, would have offed herself had Sterixia not hatched, keeping an eye on Wrathion and the Black Guard, keeping ears open for tales of other black dragons. Violinist, Songstress, Mercenary/Assassin for hire
Why would they visit an inn? Play music, relax
Why would they team up with heroes/bad guys? Heroes: She is being paid, she is being guilt tripped, it is advantageous, her allies need her. Bad Guys: It pays even better, advantageous.
Feasibility adjustments (What do I need address to make character feasible): Old god corruption; dealt with by using a mental shield enchantment made by a powerful blue dragon enchantress. Wrathion; necklace enchantment that hide draconic aura, entire worgen cover story.
Typically by this point, I can get their entire history going. And I have a good idea of who the character is and how she’ll be in the world. I pour over the details and really hammer stuff out. But, by writing this sort of detailed history, I can reference it for important questions. People ask how I dealt with certain situations.
Abilities:
This could go under concept, but I like to give it its own section. Typically exotic races have abilities beyond that of a normal race. Dragons often have their flight abilities, for example. I’ll continue to use Mortre as example.
Does your race have specific abilities? Black Dragonflight has control over the earth and stone. I broaden this to include lava as well, as it is molten stone.
Does your race have a specific goal? (dragonflights often do) Black dragonflight is the guardian of the earth and the reaches below.
Does your race use the class abilities of the class you picked? Not anymore. Originally she used runes to cast fel spells, to look like a warlock. Now she uses a system she and her allies made to cast spells stored in crystals.
Do you have to find a loophole or magical reason for your race to use class abilities? Her ally Kersia created a system in which others can store spells into a crystal that Kersia etches a song into. Mortre can slot the crystal into her violin or necklace and play/sing the song to cast the spell. These crystals have to be recharged after three uses.
Is there a situation where your character would use their exotic abilities in the full? This wouldn’t necessarily apply to a character who lives as their race out in the open. Mortre will if her very life is on the line, and she doesn’t think she’ll survive without them. She does use stone and lava routinely, but not to the extent of her full ability. She also uses her draconic wings at times, because she usually can convince others that they are part of her warlock abilities, as warlocks are known to occasionally have fel based demon wings. If cornered with no way out but to change, Mortre will shift into her dragon form.
Having the above question answered gives you guide lines to how to tap into exotic power. As a dragon, you cannot go into every situation thinking it would be advantageous to shift and just do it. I believe some of my success with my dragons stems from the fact I’ve had them for years; yet the closest they have gotten to their dragon forms was Mortre’s wings. Other than my own personal writing of course or roleplaying threads. You need to understand that the potential and temptation to go over the top is there with these characters, and you need to recognize how best to avoid such a thing. I am not saying you can’t ever entwine your abilities together, just be mindful of how powerful you are.
I personally try to match the course of the thread with my power level. In my own writings, when the characters are the stars, they are often times far greater than in other people’s threads. Remember, when you sign up to join an RP on the forums, often times you are not the star of the show. Keep your power level in check. Be adaptable to situations. Be willing to have your character get into situations they may not normally get into. Most likely, the thread is not all about you.A bronze dragon might be able to see every move their opponent is going to make, before they make it; but you need to get hit sometime or you are not being very fair.
What you should expect from others?
~ You are NOT roleplaying your run of the mill priestess of elune. You WILL be held at a higher level of judgement and scrutiny.
~ Some are very steadfast in their beliefs. You are NOT going to win over everyone off the bat. It will take time and patience. There are those who will never accept you, there are those who will come around.
~ You are going to be quizzed, you are going to be questioned, and you are going to need answers.
~ Most likely, more doors of RP will close than open if you go this route, but the community is improving. When I wrote Kersia 3?ish years ago, dragons were so frowned upon that I almost had a mini panic attack waiting for hatred and judgement when she first came out of the ‘I am not really a pandaren’ closet. Mortre is somewhere between two and three years old, and when I started posting the story that would reveal her black dragon-ness, I definitely felt some anxiety. Fortunately, the only negativity I ever encountered was in game. Now it is a little more accepted to be a dragon. And now a few other exotic races are coming around as well.
What will be Expected from You
~ Failure. People will expect you to fail the character. They are going to expect you to do poorly, to be in it for the power. Especially if you are unknown to them as a writer. Don’t prove them right, you are far more awesome than some stigma from those that came before. Show you are sincere and you will go far.
~ Over Powered Characters. See statement above.
~ In depth characters. More than most, who will just accept a priest human. You are expected to know your stuff. You are expected to be a little bit lore nutty. But it is okay, because deep down you are 
~ Decent writing. If you write well, and with decent grammaticals, people often let strange concepts slide by.
~ Have fun. You are doing this because such a character intrigues you. Don’t let others ever get you down.
Tid bits and wrap up
People can be very judgmental of other people’s role playing. You need a little bit of a thick skin when you think outside the box. There are those that will thrash you for what you think you can do. There are those that happily live chained to what lore we have, and don’t want to take any creative liberty with the vast amount of gray area WoW lore has. There are some that view that creativity as an attack on their own characters. I get bashed and hear claims that it isn’t lore friendly, that I don’t know lore. Well, I would argue that I know it better than most of those making such claims.
My personal belief is that a creative writer can make anything, with the right level of creativity and out of the box thinking. I do not judge the concept, only the execution. That means that if you have a really cool concept, and find a way to execute it in a way that makes sense and seems legit, I give you kudos. But if you come up with this cool concept and execute it in a way that makes you seem like you aren’t in it for the character, but for the attention it’ll bring or the power; I have little interest in you.
Let us be creative for the love of the lore, not for the love of power.
How I Would Approach Certain Cases
Note
The classes I list are not some “You must use this.” They are just ones I feel fit like a glove. The “duh” ones. Honestly, any race/class combo could work with good enough research and writing. Also: I've really only delved deep into dragons. I've got a mini 'other' section for a few common ones I have seen, but I've never don't them personally.- Dragons
- Red Dragons: These are beings of life. Before the Cataclysm, this flight of dragons protected the cycle of life. They did kill and fight, when it came to preserving the greater life cycle. So if one person wanted to murder everyone, these dragons had little issue with killing the one to save the all. They have healing fires, as well as fires that burn their enemies. The Blizzard Reds tend to be elves. Tricky events: The corruption of Deathwing, the capture of Alexstraza, the imprisonment into Grim Batol. Classes I think fit well: Paladin, Priest, Shaman. Race/Class combo of my own red dragons: Lightforged Draenei Holy/Protection Paladin, Void Elf Holy/Shadow Priest.
- Blue Dragons: These are beings of arcane and magic. Before the sundering, they protected and monitored the life blood of Azeroth; the leylines. They have frost and arcane breaths, and specialize in arcane magics. After the Cataclysm, Kalecgos pretty much disbanded the flight. Blizzard has them human and elf. Tricky events: The corruption of Deathwing, the reclusion and madness of Malygos, the fall of Malygos and ascension of Kalecgos, the betrayal of Arygos. Classes I think fit well: Mage, Shaman. Race/Class combo of my own blue dragon: Pandaren Arcane Mage.
- Green Dragons: These are beings that protect the nature of the dream, Azeroth’s primordial blueprint. They guard over it and nature. They have a more creative breathstyle, poison and acid. You could probably get creative with other things as well. After the Cataclysm, they still appear to be protecting the dream. Blizzard has them as elves mostly. Tricky events: The corruption of Deathwing, the nightmare’s spread in the dream, the fall of Ysera. Classes I think fit well: Druid, Hunter, Shaman. Race/Class combo of my own green dragons: Night Elf Demon Hunter, Void Elf Survival Hunter.
- Bronze Dragons: These are brings of temporal magic. They safeguard the timelines of Azeroth. After the Cataclysm, they still appear to be doing as such, as many are in multiple timelines at once. The infinite flight is their antagonist. These are dragons that were corrupted to rewrite the timelines. They breathe a breath of lightning and sand. Tricky events: The corruption of Deathwing, the appearance of the infinite flight, the reality that they know all that was and to be before it happens and cannot act directly to stop it. Classes I think fit well: Mage, Shaman, Warrior. Race/Class combo of my own bronze dragon: Blood Elf Blood/Frost Death Knight.
- Black Dragons: These were the beings of the earth and below. They breathe fire and magma breath. Many were corrupted by the old gods and followed Deathwing down a dark path. Blizzard has them as humans. Tricky events: Corruption of the flight, Corruption of Deathwing, view as traitors regardless, pact with the orcs, draenor and its shattering, the events of the Cataclysm. Classes I think fit well: Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Hunter. Race/Class combo of my own black dragon: Worgen/Human Bard.
- Others
- Half Blood: Blizzard has stated that half blood combinations can exist due to magic. Some are more welcomed than others, like human/elf, elf/elf. However you can do tauren/goblin or whatever. Class combos with them I would stick with what is available for the races and know the lore of the classes. Really, like I said before, you can do anything with the right effort and time.
- Demons: Another big catagory I am putting into one. After the Legion expansion, demons are left without their leader. What this means, I do not know. There are fewer demons about now and demon hunters makes this a very tricky race to play on live. It’ll take a lot of creative writing and you may close some RP doors, but if you enjoy it, then do it. Warlock is probably your easiest class.
- Arakkoa: There are a few types of these bird people. You have the high born, able to fly, pretty birds, and the cursed. High born arakkoa were aggressive towards the alliance and horde, but like before, you could get away with it. The cursed are a little more willing to work with us. The high born would do well with light based classes, warrior, and mage. The cursed would do well with shadow based classes, warrior, mage. Open, though, to interpretation.
- Nether Dragon: Not in the dragons section because these are a little different. Nether dragons are black dragon eggs that were infused with high amounts of the nether when Draenor shattered. They can phase into the nether and out, and have been shown to shift. I believe there is one in an elf form in Outlands. This race is easiest to pair with shadow and nether based races and classes. Mine is stunted, and had a lot of adverse effects from the mutation. Her “shifted” form looks more alien than Azerothian. Interesting link you can do with this flight, like I have done, is link them with the black flight. My netherdrake is the last child of my black dragon
- Darkfallen: I see a lot of these despite how much hate I see towards them. These are elves that joined the Lich King for power. Typically they fit villain, evil roles the best. They were supposedly eradicated. Warlock, Death Knight, priest would be the easiest classes.
I originally did more in my first iteration of this guide, but to format it all is very consuming. If you follow the logic throughout, you can apply it to about any race.