Is it incorrect to bring up things such as end game content while participating in casual role play? an example would be if you are hanging out in the VoH IC and someone asks about your day, would responding by saying that you have spent the day gearing up your character and running keys be an out of context comment, something that is more meant for OOC chat or does it really even matter.
Semi new to RP so I ask because I understand that in an RP aspect certain things like knowing someones name because you read their nameplate or bio wouldnt make sense, you would only know their name if they or someone else told you⌠So iâm curious as to if running dungeons and raid falls into a similar spectrum like this. Would telling someone IC that you have been running dungeons, would they know what that means??
Things like M+ keys, the concept of different difficulty levels in instanced content, and gearscores are mechanical, out-of-character gameplay elements, and bringing them up in RP would be an immersion-breaker for most people. Instances and gearing can be framed differently, though; the key is largely to think about how your character as a person on Azeroth experiences dangerous areas held by enemy forces and the powerful artifacts they might find there, separate from how you as a player interact with repeatable game scenarios intended to challenge you, score your performance, and reward you with items that increase your power within a standardized mechanical system.
In the specific case youâre asking about here, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind when figuring out what you and others might or might not consider realistic, including your characterâs stamina and resilience (multiple dungeon-scale combat sprees in a row would probably be too much for most people, even Azerothian people) and travel time (which is something that different players approach in very different ways, with some taking portals and flight at more or less face value and others preferring to assume that continents are large and that fast-travel methods arenât always available). In general, Iâd say that âIâve just returned from [zone], where Iâve been [searching for powerful relics/combatting enemy forces]â is a better bet than âIâve been running dungeons to gear up.â
You didnât ask for this, but here are some thoughts about things to keep in mind about instances in particular that arenât necessarily obvious right away when youâre getting into RP for the first time:
First, we as players get to play through any given dungeon or raid over and over and over again, and it never changes no matter how many times we kill the bosses there; however, from the standpoint of the world and its timeline, (almost?) all dungeons and raids tell the story of a specific battle or other event that happened one time. There isnât really a standard, universal metric for deciding how long the events of a raid go on for, and not all dungeons are equally definitive about how thoroughly weâve âwonâ at the end (and in some cases we even donât âwin,â such as in Halls of Reflection), but the specific events played out in the instance only happen one time, and often the overall situation is more or less resolved. The Ruby Lifepools are probably not being fully invaded by Primalists over and over again.
Second, some events that play out in dungeons and raids involve not a large number of regular soldiers, adventurers, etc., but rather a finite handful of really bigshot heroes. It depends on who youâre RPing with and whether itâs guild/stable-group RP or public casual RP, but usually, one of the major points of RP etiquette is not claiming to be one of those very few bigshot heroes. Itâs not feasible to decide, in a way thatâs fair to and equally enjoyable for everybody, which 25 player characters on the server are the ones who, say, killed the Lich King â so when interacting with the general public of the community, the best way to handle it is to have no player characters be among the 25 who killed the Lich King.
A general rule of thumb that might be helpful is to look at what kinds of NPCs are present alongside the players at any given point. The encounter with Arthas at the Frozen Throne only shows us Arthas, Tirion, and the 25 bigshot heroes, so a lot of players will look askance if you claim your character was there. On the other hand, much of the rest of Icecrown Citadel shows us scores of Argent Crusaders, Ebon Blade death knights, and Horde and Alliance soldiers engaged in battle against the Scourge, and many of them donât even have names, indicating that lots of mostly non-specified people were involved in other parts of the battle, and itâs unlikely to ruffle feathers if you make your character one of them.
I want to say thank you both so much for a response, things like this are exactly the answers I was looking for!! Adding in the stuff I didnât ask for was a perfect addition too, so thank you again for this write up.
I think I understand what you are saying here, and in no way would I want to try to tell someone that my character defeated a raid boss or big name feat. I think based on your write up here I could safely have an interaction in the following wayâŚ
Lets say I spent the day doing keys and such, and I decide to do a bit of IC play in Org. During the conversation Iâm asked⌠âhow I have been and what I have been up toâ
⌠I could safely respond by something along the lines of âI had taken a job in the Dragon Isles to slay some formidable enemies for a bit of coin, not only was the job itself tiresome but taking the portal here in Orgimmar to Valdraken always leaves me feeling a bit light headed. Glad to be back here to set up camp for the night and have an ale.â
Essentially something like this I hope would be okay to do instead of trying to make up how I spent the day⌠Tells the tale of the day but in a very realistic manner I think. I wouldnt try to ever say âohh I pushed 8 keys to fill out my vault for tuesdays resetâ
