Questions for RP-server veterans

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
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tl;dr - Drood seeks friends(?)/allies in Classic. Considering RP.

Experience: Grew up playing DnD (THAC0), have always loved roleplaying but all in 3rd person, we never did the voices. Not ever interested in LARP or Cosplay but I’m fine around those who partake. In Vanilla I was super solo oriented, got my gear through PvP (rank 10) and played the AH.

Goals: Drood main. I want to branch out into PvE this time, really experience dungeons all the way through, as well as group questing. I realize I loved Vanilla because of its immersion, considering trying a RP realm to potentially double down on immersion. Playing a Drood to be able to tank, heal, or DPS. A happy hippie Night Elf who wants to help everyone… and likes killing Undead.

My challenge is sporadic play times due to adulting and general introversion, especially online. I play WoW to chill and escape for a bit, maintaining my happy vibe > all has led me to build a “bubble” of sorts when online to keep the peace. I don’t have anxiety about meeting people, I have anxiety about not being able to commit to regular playtimes and letting friends down.

All that aside I do hope to find some people to group with, a chill guild to perhaps raid with if the stars align (lol), or maybe group PvP with.

Questions: (mainly looking for 30k feet summaries, but share whatever)

  1. How much prep goes into RP? Is a 20 page backstory necessary, or too much? What’s the general rule of thumb here?
  2. Names, how important are they?
  3. Lore knowledge? I’m okay on WoW lore but consider a lot of it fanfic level writing and I generally skip that.
  4. Min/Max? I’m definitely not a min/maxer but I do like to have nice things. How big a deal?
  5. Progression? How “serious” do guilds typically get?
  6. PvP? How was that on RP servers? Not a huge WPvP fan, LOVE Battlegrounds! Getting an organized pre-made together would be ideal.
  7. Out of Character? Or, how often am I expected to be “in” character? That type of interaction wears me out after a bit and I’m not always in the mood for people. Can I be that Drood who runs off to Moonglade (metaphotically) for some recharge time without offending people?

That’s all I can think of right now.

Thanks in advance for replies!

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you can roleplay how ever you want bro, just have fun.

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This is probably the best answer I could have asked for, actually. :smile:

Thank you!

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As Gangsta said, Just have fun, but there are likely going to be a lot of things going on at once, and the RP community is abuzz with how they want to approach Classic.

That said however, from “current” RP, you may want to consider this when going into Classic RP:

  1. 20 pages is a lot. Especially for someone just getting into RP. Keep it simple and you’re not going to shoot yourself in the foot.
  2. Names aren’t super important, just bear in mind that something based on modern day slang or memes can make you be thought of poorly. Of course, RP servers typically enforce name rules a bit more than others (though, YMMV)
  3. Lore knowledge. If you at least understand WoW lore, you should get by. Some roleplayers are going to be deep into their fanon, but it should be compatible with general WoW lore.
  4. Min/Max shouldn’t be an issue. Your in-game mechanics typically have little to do with how you roleplay. In fact, a lot of people won’t roleplay their in-game class as representative of their abilities in roleplay. My Warlock isn’t a warlock, he’s a fire mage! My Mage isn’t Frost, he’s a firefighter who uses a frost elemental to hose down fires!
  5. When you say Progression, do you mean Raid Progression? Different guilds will have different rules.
  6. Some PvP can occur. In Vanilla, there were PvPErs who PVP’d as any other PVP group would, but it wouldn’t affect RP much. My favorite WPvP activity is organized RP-PvP with storyline goals. I’ve seen some groups use BGs and skirmishes to play out PVP for RP purposes. But considering how Classic treats BGs, I don’t think there’s a good chance of RP-PVP in terms of group versus group.
  7. There are very few guilds that I’m aware of that require you to be IC all the time. Most groups I’ve seen are relatively casual about being OOC. Some may require attendance to guild events, but you’re typically allowed to loiter OOC. Of course, each guild may have different rules.

There are Addons you may want to consider. MyRolePlay is a “profile” addon that uses the MarySueProtocol (which has been in WoW since Vanilla), and allows you to share your character’s profile and backstory and description. It will certainly allow you to at least read other people’s profiles (and more than one RP server activity is to chill out and read people’s profiles for fun or critique).

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Thank you for the great reply, very helpful!

What were Battlegrounds like on RP servers? Q times? Honor farming scene?

Cheers,

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battlegrounds were pretty much the same on rp as non rp servers, people running them for honor, not much rping in the bgs themselves and nowadays rp servers bg with normie servers.

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Every RP server, and every subcommunity within RP servers, has had their own standards for how RP should go. My recommendation is to just find a group of people that you like and can have fun with.

I can only speak for Earthen Ring on the more specific questions.

Battlegrounds were fine, I never noticed any difference in skill or coordination or anything when we went cross-realm.

ER was extremely imbalanced (3 Alliance: 1 Horde), so Horde had instant BG queues and Alliance had 30 mins-1 hour.

The honor farming scene (on Horde on Earthen Ring) had three major big groups (two of which I was a member of). The groups would arrange an honor cap between them and take turns letting someone be first until they were HWL, after which it would be someone else’s turn. The cap had to be set high enough to prevent solos from getting it, but low enough to let people not die. As far as I know, the community was never once a problem about it on Horde; everyone worked together and took their turn.

(Alliance was another story, where getting GM meant out-farming Longarms, a retired 80-something who did nothing but PVP 16 hours a day. He played exclusively solo, so this was possible, but not easy by any means. Despite being outnumbered, we had more HWLs than they had GMs, because Longarms was personally GM for over six months.)

And now back to the OP questions. I’m out of order.

Personally, I think names are unimportant except for a minimum threshold. Have a name that sounds sort of like it might be a Warcraft character and it’s fine, it doesn’t need to be perfectly precise as long as it’s not just absolutely wrong.

Lore knowledge does not matter at all. Maybe your character doesn’t know it, or believes something different. As long as you communicate properly (if someone seems frustrated in reality, just let them know that it’s not a big deal), it shouldn’t ever be a problem.

Min/max and progression - Guilds range on these just like they do on non-RP servers. Super ultra hardcore guilds are less common on RP servers than on PVE/PVP servers, which personally I consider a good thing, but any healthy server will have plenty of casual guilds and some hardcore guilds.

PVP - Shouldn’t have any problem, as mentioned above. World PVP on RP servers is more common than PVE servers, but less common than PVP servers. Most of it is of the ‘city raids’ and ‘organized large combat’ styles than random ganking.

OOC - No one expects you to be in character at all times. Most servers and communities will expect you to be IC only during explicit RP events. Some guilds will have IC guild chat or dungeon runs, but those are the more hardcore RP guilds.

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Battlegrounds were pretty much like other realms - it tended to be based aroujnd population. Argent Dawn, for instance, was heavy Alliance, so queue times were longer for WSG and AB than for Horde. Of course, Alliance dominated AV for the most part. I never noticed anyone roleplaying the results of Battlegrounds, myself.

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  1. Not too much, generally. Some don’t even create a backstory initially and just wing it and try to sync it with their guild’s RP theme.

  2. Names are important. There are higher naming convention standards for RP servers.

  3. Not important.

  4. Not important.

  5. Generally, more casual in terms of progression.

  6. Depends on the server and guild you join. For RP-PvP servers, WPvP is huge. For instanced content, yeah…it definitely happens in larger guilds.

  7. Depends how hard core the guild is. Most RP guilds are not hard core and you can generally be OOC most of the time. Scheduled events, you would obviously be IC.

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My experiences are from RP-PVP, which is essentially the same thing RP-wise.

1 - No, but at the same time role playing an Orc Peon who decided to join the Horde isn’t super interesting. Somewhere in between.

2 - Your name you posted with should be fine. It is just common sense. “dudecoolxxx” is not really an RP name, most others get a pass.

3 - This one is debatable. No reason to fear not being into the fanfic stuff. I think many, myself included, ignore it.

4 - If you want to do serious raiding, even on RP-PVP, expect it to be a thing. Really all people are asking is that you have a decent spec for your role and the right consumables if required. It is far easier than people make it seem.

5 - There will be a few guilds that are actually trying to clear things, most will not have any aspiration beyond getting a little gear, goofing off and enjoying the game.

6 - On RP-PVP, WPvP is the main reason to be there. PVP varies. We’ve had R1 Gladiators and people who still click and keyboard turn. Organized PvP should be relatively easy to find on RP-PVP.

7 - This one always kinda tripped me up too. I consider myself OOC (out of character) when doing anything else, but RP. If someone is doing RP, or I want to join in, then I am ICC (In character).

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Thank you for the responses, making me realize a RP server ia actually what I am looking for.

This sounds really awesome. Love the thought of WPvP actually “meaning” something.

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  1. As long or short as you want, but IMO, it’s more useful to you/your character than anyone else. It helps decide what your character would do in the current situation given their past experiences.
  2. Depends on those you play with. The Warcraft universe doesn’t have a particularly solid naming convention, but groups of RPers with their own storylines might. If you are not of a certain night elf family, it’s best not to use that surname.
  3. In Classic, only things pertaining to Classic and previous Warcraft games will be necessary, and not all of it at that. It depends on your character, what they were doing at the time of these events(if they were present at all.) General understanding of key, world-effecting events and racial cultures will do well enough.
  4. On RP servers, there will be a few raiding and PvP guilds, but not many. Progression isn’t very important, with its greatest value for RP being how the gear looks. The risk here is if you want a cool raid set, you may not find means to get it. How far along your character is in game generally has no influence on your character progression in RP, unless the people you RP with mix things that way(Classic actually lends itself well to mixing of RP and game mechanics, unlike modern WoW.)
  5. See above
  6. BG’s in Classic will be cross-realm. You should not have to worry about getting into BG’s.
  7. There are RP addons that help with this, often allowing others with them to see you as OOC or IC depending on what you set it as. If you are speaking OOC, it’s common practice to close your statement with double-parenthesis to indicate as such. You don’t have to do it all the time if it’s implied you’re OOC.

Example of OOC typing: Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah.))

This is all from what I’ve observed, and sometimes experienced, on Moonguard since 2012. I don’t really RP anymore, as a lot of it is acting out personal fanfiction more than a traditional RPG.

One of the draws of Classic for an RPer is that you can actually mesh gameplay and RP together a whole lot easier than modern WoW, since you aren’t railroaded as much into a specific world-saving champion, and rare/powerful items don’t just rain from the sky. Getting that powerful epic can actually feel justified. Classes are also much more unique. All of this means you could play Classic like a more traditional RPG rather than severing the RP from the G, if that makes any sense.

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Dude you summed it up perfectly, that’s exactly why I am stoked about Classic and looking foward to RP servers!

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Note that the syntax for this varies in different communities.

In some, you preface with ((; in others, you close with )); and in some, you do both.

Personally I’m most used to the “do both” option, that’s what we did on ER back in the day, so an OOC statement would look like this:

((afk brb wtf bbq))

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Your way will work, but only within the context of a small group.

The problem with this is that working the in-game quests and lore only works with a smaller group - maybe a handful of guilds at most? In an open community, such as Moon Guard, in which dozens of guilds are interwoven into a shared fiction, using the in-game quests and rewards is far less “accepted” as many disagree over who should be able to claim they’ve done what.

The more players, the less hold the in-game quests work within that shared narrative. “I killed Hogger.” “No, I killed Hogger. I have ten of my friends with me who know I killed Hogger.” “Well, we killed Hogger, and my guild didn’t see you or your friends when we did it.”

How can a hundred people have Archeus, Mor’ladim’s greatsword? Thunderfury? What will happen when a dozen people all have Quel’serrar?

We don’t yet know what Classic RP’s community will look like, but that’s one of the caveats we should have going into Classic.

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I’ved often wondered how that was handled.

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That’s the way I’d prefer to do things if I did. Having to walk on eggshells/live in a world of dissonance for the ifs and maybes of others isn’t very enjoyable, and can lead to world where nobody has anything interesting about their character. A plague of “anti-sues” so to say. Nobody cares about a mary-sue because they’re never challenged, and nobody cares about an anti-sue because there’s no reason to care about them. It’s something I learned over my 10 years of fiction-writing experience.

It’s like having your own DnD campaign with a group of friends; you don’t change what happened because some strangers did the same campaign earlier. They may as well not exist.

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It depends on the community. Small groups or guilds can take the in-game quests at face value and can even claim within their guild narratives that they are the heroes of the stories in-game.

Large groups of interconnected characters, however, fight over lore, and it’s really anti-community for anyone to claim to be someone who did something in the in-game quests. Moon Guard, for instance, takes the idea that someone else (never named or expanded upon, merely the unmentioned Player character ‘hero’) did the deed. That way, we can talk about the quests and storylines, but those large communities never have the “Player Character” be one of them.

We have this sort of thing actually happen in-game. While a player may ring the AQ gong, even getting the Scarab Lord title in TBC, there is an actual canon Scarab Lord who isn’t a PC. It’s the female night elf next to the gong who gets lore credit for ringing the gong and is the Scarab Lord.

The roleplaying communities disagree. Unfortunately, the quests and lore, in WoW don’t lend very well to thousands of different stories all in a single community.

And isn’t Classic supposed to be all about community?

In order to have that “community” on an RP server, a concession has to be made in order for all of these individuals to share that world, otherwise, you have dozens of fractured small guilds who ignore each other and don’t really interact.

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Classic being about the community is that the gameplay itself fosters building connections with others. There are no LFG tools, and you will often find yourself needing the help of others. None of this has any impact on RP that ignores the game mechanics.

What it does not meant is that everyone’s arm-in-arm with each other, chatting each other up every moment they can get. You form communities with people who are like-minded; those outside of it don’t, and never really did, matter in all of WoW’s history. Common courtesy is one thing, but expecting everyone to know each other is unfeasible, and incredibly exclusive to anyone new to it who doesn’t understand established conventions in place, leading to a rather abrasive and discouraging environment.

Guilds or small groups having their own stories, their own canon, is something I’d encourage much more over restrictive conventions decided by people you don’t even know. Otherwise its a medium with too many rules, when the whole purpose of creativity is to break the rules and make your own.

It’s why my advice to anyone going to an RP realm has always been to find a guild or do it with your own group of people.

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On ER, traditionally, it was “I was there/part of the group when Hogger was killed”.

The idea is that you contributed, but didn’t do it all yourself.