Hello all, I’m looking to get into the RP scene and join alliance side WrA (hopefully it’s not dead) and I understand the addons that help start but what is really stopping me from starting is creating a character. How do i create a backstory for a character? Does it have to be relevant to my race and class? Does it have to be accurate with warcraft lore? Do I need a purpose? Can I use current/previous lore to build my character? (I.E. I come from a bloodline of (insert random real NPC) How do people make their characters?
I suggest looking at this thread: Compendium of Roleplay Guides - #46 by Feyawen-wyrmrest-accord to get yourself situated with some of the ins and outs of RP. There’s lots of info there that can answer a lot of your questions. I’m sure there will be a few community members that may be able to help out too.
I think one thing worth pointing out is it’s your $15/month and that you can RP what makes you happy. You should be aware though non lore abiding characters might have a tougher time finding public RP and a guild. I also think a character being part of an NPC’s bloodline might be frowned upon by some, but again you can RP anything that makes you happy.
Maybe you want to play a gnome from any of the ethos that have them, Okay so a good counter part motivation, why did he/she get up off her ever widening backside and go adventuring?
I bet it was those pesky goblins and them damdable airships floating about dropping all kinds of “Ka BLAMY” and next thing you know I have shredded cabbage! One can not make a proper kraut with cabbage shredded across the grain, Who does that? and why? Probably the same folks who try and make a sweet pickle kraut, I mean the nerve have a party and here comes Caren with her kraut and something extra in it that Nobody wants, needs or asked for…
~in a huff continues to get dressed marching from the village towards the near guar outpost~
You know there are things I will not stand for ~speaking to the guard, clearly the general of the entire alliance army~
And that is people who do not make a proper Kraut!
~Pvt joe schmoe the ragman on duty that day~
Uhh excuse me?
Oh right, I was attacked ~again~ more goblins…
“Oh and I care how?, you know I might care if I had my lunch…”
Thank you so much everyone, I will start reading some of these guides and also start thinking of ideas. Also I understand it’s my $15 a month and I can do what I want but RP is much better when everyone is on the same page and I would not want to ruin my own experience or others because of improper RP and being shunned in events or not be able to get into guilds.
So long as you are putting in an honest effort, people will respect that. Telling people you’re new goes a long way to tolerating any little mistakes you might make. WoW lore is massive and convoluted, you’re not gonna master it in a day. Focus on the race and class you like the most, browse the history for that race and class on the WoW wiki, and get inspired by what you personally enjoy!
This only applies to critical, major, or influential characters who’s lore would easily conflict with someone role playing as some family member. But with NPCs in the game with absolutely no story behind them is free territory to claim lineage.
I’ve made relatives of classic NPCs who were killed. Or chose obscure npcs to be related to.
You’ve uncovered my secret lineage, Bates is related to the fungus vendor in Undercity. Now no one will want to rp with me again. Curses, I have been foiled!
Anybody that tells you RP is dead is sitting in their closet hungry wishing for hot dogs. There’s more opportunities than time, once you start to explore.
Trying to create a full-blown biography for your character is a hindrance. It’s much more fun to leave yourself room to discover your character as you play.
Start by working out the basics. The kind of things you’d learn about someone the first time you met them. Not just the facts - like where they’re from - but the impression you’d get of them as a person.
Remember that you want people to enjoy your character enough to RP with you again, to get to know them better. So you don’t want to reveal everything all at once. And that gives you the chance to slowly add more branches and leaves to the tree, if you see what I mean.
The number one RP character design mistake (imho) that people make is creating a “sad/angry sullen loner” type. Then they wonder why no one wants to RP with them.
Not sure exactly what you mean by “relevant to my race”. If you are making a Gnome character it’s probably because you enjoy something about Gnomes. That doesn’t mean your Gnome has to come from Gnomeragan, live in Gnomeragan and only do things the Gnomeragan way.
Not every RP character is identical to their in-game class. I’ve met plenty of farmers, amongst other types of RP characters. What class is a farmer? TBH, these days I tend to choose a new character’s class based more on mog possibilities, than raid-team roles.
The healthiest attitude toward lore is to keep in mind that we only know what we’re told. Your character doesn’t really need to know anymore about lore than you do about the history of the Earth. And they can respond the same way you would irl to learning more about the world, or finding out that maybe something happened differently than they thought.
I prefer not to RP with people who treat me like I’m undergoing a PhD dissertation defense, or are more interested in telling me my character is tying their shoelaces wrong than in adding to the mutual fun.
Only enough of a purpose to have some reason to be where they are, and to go where they’re going.
“types rather than titles” would be my suggestion. For example, make your character a farmer that yearns for the wider world. Don’t try to decide ahead of time if they’re Clark Kent, Luke Skywalker or Huck Finn. tvtropes.org is a good place to explore character types. Then you can start to ask yourself how that character type would fit in to Azeroth.
This can be very very tricky. If someone puts in their TRP that they’re Jaina’s long lost sister, I’m probably not gonna be interested in RPing with them. OTOH, irl if we trace it back far enough, we’re all descended from royalty.
The most important thing for you to ask yourself is why you want your character to be descended from some famous character. If it’s to have been in certain situations or have access to certain places, keep in mind that many many more people can tell you who Jeeves is than remember the name of Bertie’s ancestral home.
I have a character whose family have been huntmasters for nobility - for centuries. Makes it reasonable for that character to have heard “palace gossip” history, or maybe have a way into some palaces. Getting through the servants’ entrance isn’t the same as dining with the king. Much more interesting, and presents more opportunities for RP fun tbh.
I get a basic concept. That comes a lot of different ways. Knowing some tropes, knowing some lore, thinking about what could add to the repetoire of all the characters in the little circle of RP friends and acquaintances.
One I’m working on now is a character I created basically so I could have a certain look. tinyurl.com/55olf37t Still working on his personality details and background, which will develop as I play him.
All I know about him so far - he fights like a fury warrior, wielding his shield aggressively. He wanders around Pandaria working on his unusual “Turtle in the Bamboo Forest” martial arts style. He’s very Huojin, but like a lot of Pandaren doesn’t align himself with either major faction. Closest I’ve come so far to a character who directly embodies the “wandering knight” wuxia trope.
Once again - welcome to the RP community. Take it slow. Have fun with your character. Let them develop as you go.
think of the basic idea as the foundation and the rest as the bricks. so with kai my basic idea was “childhood friend of my paladin, was a part of the trip to Outland, didn’t return to Azeroth for some reason” and rebuilt the idea several times. the original draft of this character was that she was a scryer’s warlock who didn’t return to Azeroth because it held too many bad memories for her. Then Blizzard made demon hunters playable, and I thought it’d be cool if the reason she didn’t rejoin everyone was because she was arrested by the Wardens. So with that new idea in mind, I built her from there using demon hunter lore and the original ideas I had for her backstory before coming to Outland.
all us RPers are in good company. Professional fiction writers often say the same thing - they reach a point where they don’t know what the characters are going to do until they do it.