Lore-abiding RP?

Moon Guard
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So, let me try to get right to the point.

I’ve been roleplaying in WoW since 2006. Over the course of my time in this game, I have RP’d with some pretty amazing people on various characters on both factions. I have always tried my best to adhere to Warcraft lore with my characters, as I found the need to color within the lines an opportunity to learn about this wonderful and fantastical universe that Blizzard has been expanding on for almost two decades now; more if you include the original RTS games. I’ve never really been bothered or felt the desire to break lore - in fact, I’ve changed character traits and backstories to better adhere to it. The guilds I’ve been in over the years have also (mostly) stuck to lore aside from lifting worldbuilding details from the now non-canon Warcraft RPG.

I guess I’m writing this because I’ve been struggling to find RP along these lines lately. I see more people who are perfectly fine with breaking lore and RPing non-canon things in public spaces. I want to clarify that this post isn’t intended to shame people who play this way. As much as some people may claim otherwise, it is your subscription and you should be able to RP as whatever you’d like. It just seems like most people who RP these types of things are either focused on content right now or have quit the game. Several such people were friends of mine.

I know this might be a long shot, but I figured I’d at least ask if anyone here feels the same way and is looking for more RP contacts. I would ideally like a guild, but any like-minded RP connections would be awesome. Feel free to give Leto here a nudge if you see him around in game; I’m sure he could use the conversation!

Anyway, I hope to get some good conversation going and hopefully find a few people to make some cool stories with :}. Thanks for reading!

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I have a Kul Tiran Son of Lothar over on WRA I’m always happy to RP on! I love the old lore of early Warcraft and the Warcraft strategy games. I also have a Kirin Tor Gnome Mage on this server to RP with.

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A lot has changed since 2006, and the mentality you just described (mine as well) isn’t exactly in style anymore. Breaking lore is often seen as virtuous even with how much of the community has come to loathe Blizzard and everything it has created for the past few expansions. Good luck finding what you’re looking for. I’m not entirely sure it truly still exists.

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I’ve had similar conflicts as well. One common example I can give is I’ll see elf profiles claiming to be blood knights since before the Scourge Invasion of Quel’thalas which, alone, goes against canon. The Blood Knights didn’t exist until 5 years after that when Lady Liadrin founded the organization.

On the other hand, I’ve also seen people who go back too far in time with people acting like we have any territory at all in Tirisfal Glades. :joy:

I’m all for being creative, like I know Darkfallen alliance have had to be, but there’s ways to do it without breaking the game’s story. -nod-

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I play Warcraft because I want to play Warcraft.
There’s being creative within the confines of the lore, I was playing Darkfallen as allies to Void Elves well before they became canon to the Alliance as an example, but when people just seem to hate the actual setting and treat it like another IP entirely, I don’t bother. And it’s exceptionally grating when people act like they’re somehow “better” for doing so too.

People use the outlets they have for the RP they want to do, but in some cases, they’re wanting DnD inside of Warcraft. Getting lectured about how my Alliance characters need to be “nice” to “ambassadors” or whatever, and how being into the actual war and conflict is “problematic” while this is the game we’re playing just feels downright stupid at this point.

I feel the same way as OP, but even more grated because I just want to enjoy Warcraft as the fantasy war IP it’s been for the last 20+ years.

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There is definitely a lot of lore-breaking lately, and Blizzard’s own lackadaisical approach to their lore hasn’t really been helping it.

That said, some people’s grasp over the lore is so bad you have to wonder what game they’ve been playing all this time - and yet those same people attempt to lore-police others both IC and OOC. Saw a funny incident of that yesterday at the Slaughtered Lamb, so seeing this post pop up is a little odd with its timing! (Though I don’t think you’re the same person as yesterday who got laughed out of the bar on two different characters, just to be clear. For one thing, you type properly. :dracthyr_crylaugh: )

That said, the best advice that can be given is try to find a like-minded RP guild, which you mentioned you were looking for. Sadly, I can’t provide any specific ones to recommend. :dracthyr_cry_animated: But definitely keep looking, and hopefully others can help out! It will certainly provide a pool of people who you are assured treat the lore the same way you do, or close enough so that there are no issues. Otherwise, all I can recommend is putting that you’re lore-stringent in your TRP somewhere - whether or not people read it, is its own problem (as I’ve been noticing people have a lot of trouble apparently just… reading things), but it will at least be there so that you can make it clear there’s been an effort to communicate your RP desires.

On my end, I’m semi-lore strict in that I respect lore as its given… except when it’s clear no care or thought went into the lore (or they didn’t bother trying to make lore at all). So basically, ignoring the entirety of the Shadowlands story. :dracthyr_crylaugh: But I simply note that in my TRPs, and avoid interacting with people who I feel don’t… follow the lore in the same way I do. Realistically, that’s all anyone can do - avoid RPing with or ignore the presence of people who approach the lore in ways you personally can’t abide.

For me, I’ve always approached RP in any fantasy setting - game, book, etc - as working within the bounds of a world. I find RP much more satisfying and interesting when one tries to keep to the laws set forth for the setting, pushing things as far as they can realistically go or digging to find some unique things within the world to expand on. The need to be ‘special’ somehow or ‘the exception to the rule’ has always just kind of rubbed me wrong, tbh; it oftentimes feels like someone just has little to no respect for a world’s setting, lore, or history. This isn’t always true, of course, but it’s what I most often see.

People are fine to RP stuff like that amongst others who do the same, or don’t care - but at least for me, I find it distasteful at times, so I just avoid it!

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Hello! I very much understand where you’re coming from and additionally do I feel your struggle. I actually just paused listening Rise of the Horde to respond to this! I’ve always been inclined towards lore myself, although recently I am reading as many of the written books as possible to ensure I’m fully adhering.

Shadowlands was a really rough blow to the community because many people shrugged their shoulders at lore and went haywire with their own headcanon. For people heavily invested in Warcraft lore, it has made roleplay for better words, lackluster and sometimes even frustrating. There is nothing wrong with people using headcanon, but it absolutely is a different experience to someone who can pinpoint inaccuracies, it becomes disheartening.

I, and several of my friends are currently working on a long-term guild project, one that will not be live for sometime yet however. If you’d ever like lore-heavy roleplay and adventures which mesh in those themes, I have several characters, none of which have active storylines on. Feel free to add me on discord, maybe we can set up some adventures in game! Basic Glitch#5666

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For the OP, I’m very much in the same boat as you with multiple characters that I haven’t really been able to play for a while. I prefer a fairly low-fantasy approach to storytelling and would love to get an opportunity to get back into RP someday. ^^

As for Voguish, I’m going to add you to discord myself because I’m interested in hearing about this project of yours. You’ll be getting an add from deltaco soonish.

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Lore is in something of a fluid state, at the moment, so the term ‘lore abiding’ doesn’t mean much when the current canon is “anything goes, anytime you want it.”

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How do you handle a lack of lore for when there would logically be plenty of it? For example, we play pirates. There are over 20 pirate crews mentioned in canon lore. But other than a blurb here or there or an Island Adventure showing them, there isn’t much. So my guild does have to make up very logical things to compensate for it. But we always stick to what would be plausible.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRQ9MG7mZ7o

Allow us to introduce ourselves :seedling: :seedling: :seedling:

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That’s it. That’s the thing.

I’ve roleplayed in Stormwind for the past decade. I’m tired of it. Gone are the days of something new and interesting happening in the streets. The leftovers are just that. Leftovers. Slice of life is huge now.

The blame is on Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. Battle for Azeroth for making the War in Warcraft flat out B O R I N G and tired. I’m tired of fighting the Horde. Furthermore, why should my Dracthyr even care about the faction conflict? She wouldn’t. She’d see it as stupid.

Shadowlands robbed A LOT of community good will. Legit sent what I’d wager as 50% of the RP community away. Yeah, some went to Final Fantasy XIV, but I refuse to blame another MMO for being good when people will cling to the IP they know and cherish through hurricanes.

But I’m mostly into content now. I just can’t RP in Stormwind anymore, and it’s not just because the Flavor of the Expac is Slice of Life.

It’s sitting in Stormwind, watching people RP, and there’s fully geared out Horde PvP characters just WALKING through the city. Not just one, several. No one bothers to stop them. They’re fully aware they’re a distraction and relish it. It annoys the hell out of me, so I don’t do it anymore. I just do content. I don’t want to roleplay in an immersion-less city where elves and humans chat happily with one another while a Tauren and their Horde Goon Squad just dunk on casual fun all day.

I loved WoW RP. I don’t anymore for entirely personal reasons. Now I just have fun tackling the content the game provides. Now the story is my guild bashing our faces against the final boss of a tier and getting the achievement at the end. It’s watching my gear score and IO score gradually climb up. It’s getting better at my class. I don’t have to ignore the Vulpera Rogue or Tauren Shaman doing everything in their power to be noticed so they can giggle at the casual roleplayers.

I don’t have to stand idle at a bar and wait for some small talk in-character… I can just play the video game.

Dragonflight’s been fun. It’s just a shame the fun left the RP scene for me.

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It’s refreshing to know I’m not the only person who feels this way and has taken this route, but it’s also like… I don’t know the word for it. A bittersweet ending, I guess.

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I used to be that person who very much enjoyed writing within the lore boundaries created by Blizzard as best I could, while still bringing compelling characters to the table. The issue was or is that Blizzard doesn’t even stick to their own lore anymore, what isn’t ignored is rewritten, and it just became so entirely exhausting to keep up with the ever growing dumpster fire that is blizzard writing. Couple that with the increasing number of people who don’t really adhere to the lore like they used to and it just became not very fun to deal with. Eventually I got to the point where I said I’m going to do what I enjoy and if people are cool with it, great. If they aren’t plenty of room in the sandbox.

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I really does feel like the ending, doesn’t it?

:frowning:

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I’m hearting that, but I feel like it’s wrong to heart it. looool

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I think I understand where you’re all coming from.

I suppose the lore changes haven’t exactly caused me to have to overhaul my characters because most of it has been ‘evidence popping up that things were once different.’

For example IRL, it’s been noted that the Egyptians might have been in Ireland long before anyone. It didn’t change my family history (Gma is from Ireland), but it made me go “Oh how intriguing, that changes what we once thought!”

That’s what’s happened with my characters once they find out said new information. Since it isn’t MY universe I’m writing in, I’ve always left room for flexibility because I recognize this isn’t MY game or MY lore. Just my characters. But I understand it’s not always that easy for others, depending on how your character was written.

I stick to Lore the best I can. If I cross someone who clearly isn’t, I don’t ignore them, I let the walk-up happen, but my characters generally don’t take them very seriously when they’re walking away if said lore-breaking is obvious. All of my TRPs have a warning somewhere in the about stating that I do this so that anybody looking for long-term lore-bending RP can walk away.

A ‘Worldbuilding’ example of how I’ve treated that is all the sudden Scarlet/Scourge attacks on Stormwind recently. Since canon states that they’ve been in the background quietly building their strength (or fighting for leadership in the case of the scourge), my characters assume it was staged and ignore it since it’s not their concern. When asked why a while back IC one character said "Maybe it’s been so quiet since the Shadowlands that they did it to make the citizens feel like threats are being taken care of. :person_shrugging: "

Little things like ‘Oh a man was attacked in Westfall today’ I tend to go with unless it’s clearly breaking lore (Like if they were to say Vanessa is murdering people left and right). Some of it is kind of fun and they haven’t broken lore, just built on what they were given without breaking the universe.

My all-time favorite so far was ‘Undead can’t go near light EVER, the Cathedral will kill you!’ (Meanwhile, Alonsus Faol is sitting in the Ruins of Lordaeron with the Forsaken and is exceptionally powerful with the Light…).

Edit: WOW NOVELLA! If you got through all that, Kudos. :joy:

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Seconding this.

The lore was in a nebulous state even as far back as MoP when I first started roleplaying. I had my die hard lore abiding phase but I find myself enjoying almost everything with a more flexible viewpoint in regards to lore. Don’t like it? Don’t interact with it, simple as.

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Interesting enough it’s now the Lore-benders who have whispered me on more than one character attempting to gatekeep how I play.

Gatekeepers are universal. :confused:

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Personally, I’ve always seen abiding by established franchise lore as playing on a level playing field. In other words, I’d confidently submit that the franchise’s lore is the objective rule we ought to keep to, because it’s the best chance we all have at being on the same page. We’re in a community, after all; so I think it’s important to have some things as “sacred”–as the common.

I also think it’s just more pragmatic–practical–to go via the objective for your stories than the subjective.

Now, to clarify, IF you wish to role-play something that is lore-conflicting, no problem–it’s you’re sub fee. All I’d ask is that you let people know so they can choose to opt in or out.

Blizzard may be pretty poor at keeping to their own lore–especially of late (just read Exploring Kalimdor)–however, despite this, it’s still the prime foundation. If contraditions arise, my personal rule is that the new lore trumps the old; unless it’s an obvious oversight of some kind (again, just read Exploring Kalimdor).

I also think it’s good–in many ways–to take the good with the bad. For example, a majority of people I interact with hate Shadowlands content. Due to this, they don’t acknowledge anything to do with that expansion; including it’s lore. I’m just not a fan of this approach. Sure, discard that for your own creations, but declining interaction with a character that may have a Maldraxxi flavor, for example, it, to be frank, a pain. I’d say it is better to just accept the game lore as is, and stop the cherry picking. Sure, again, it’s your sub., but, it makes it harder for the health of the overall scene, imo.

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