Everyone seems to have a different idea of what it means to RP/PVP.
How would you define RP/PVP?
What are some examples you have of it at its best?
What would encourage you to engage more in these types of things?
How would you define RP/PVP?
PVP reinforced with player made storylines, or PVP encounters that lead to RP responses.
What are some examples you have of it at its best?
AEC coalition of Alliance guilds during Cataclysm. The forums were filled with RP posts about their characters/guilds point of view around the fighting that was about to happen or had already happened.
Defending your base, or attacking another guilds base would always lead to retaliation. Then you and the guild would meet at your base and decide your next plan of action.
I didn’t take part in the Raven’s War over the summer due to work schedule, but from what I read of my guildie’s post in discord it sounded like a great time of RPPVP.
What would encourage you to engage more in these types of things?
Some things Blizzard has implemented has hurt RPPVP indirectly and nothing can really be done by the players to fix it. Losing the WorldDefense channel was a huge blow, and so is sharding with other realms now.
Less negativity and toxicity would be ideal. Feels like RP takes a backseat to the WPVP Bro mentality. When folks moved from these forums to posting on Twitter that’s when the toxic stuff seems to have kicked into high gear. The forums would get bad at times too, but at least it was moderated by Blizz.
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People should be more willing to base their stories on what happens, rather than what they wish happened/planned to happen. Build a scenario for whether you win or lose the fight, and pick what really happened.
That being said, I hate having to turn off warmode to participate in certain events. The world has more than enough little corners to hold any sort of event with minimal to no disruption, but that danger should always be there. Maybe if you get wiped out by so and so guild, don’t play it off as that guild if you don’t want to, just say you were chased off by local bandits/assassins/life insurance salesmen/ninjas/etc.
Also on that note, don’t be afraid to lose in your story sometimes. When all your stories end with “and we killed 500 orcs and nobody on our side was hurt or killed” , that gets really boring. Sometimes its fun to play the underdog, and not constantly being showered with triumph.
I’m half asleep so idk how much sense this will make bye 
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this ^^^^^^
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It’s a tricky tight rope to walk which is why I’ve only really seen it done well a few times. The Ravens war went really well (and admittedly I was skeptical from the beginning). However it did require heavy moderation to keep the factions in check. PvP ego often creeps in which leads to folks trying to bend or break the set rules for set up encounters. Also pair this with the inherent issues of game balance and gear disparity and it can lead to more people feeling frustrated and dropping the encounter all together.
Basic point is, people need to be on the same page and there should be some form of moderation, as many times a good DM can really make ot break the groups enjoyment of a rp campaign. There needs to be someone (or group of people) to step in when needed. Otherwise you get calvin ball with people running around trying to God mode their own narrative.
It’s my experience that many of the folks who push for “open season” rp-wpvp where you are always in character and everything goes towards the story are also the first to drop out when things don’t go their way. They want to influence the story but don’t want to be on the receiving end of it.
And don’t get me wrong. I love people starting beefs and putting bounties on people’s heads in wpvp. And by all means if you catch someone afk sitting in a city with wm on, gank away. And if that person had consented to an rp campaign where they knew they had a target on their head at any and all times, great. But the sort of thing that gets annoying is when you randomly encounter someone who hasn’t opted into any campaigns and you gank them and try to force that narrative onto them. That’s just annoying. Wpvp is opt in with war mode. Rp requires communication and consent.
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RP - role play
PVP - Player vs player it is that simple without any further essay definition.
It’s hell.
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Ravens War was a huge lesson in just how varied peoples expectations were. Tried my best to accommodate everyone, think I did… ok.
Probably wont ever do anything that large again though.
Open to trying and create more events that are more Open/Just WPVP, without setting rules etc.
Was thinking fighting around Icecrown/Northrend could be fun leading up to Shadowlands.
But the claiming a base thing, is kind of impossible atm, with World Defense not existing. You kind of ALWAYS have to have someone just sitting there to ever know if its being attacked. (and not many people drift away from current zones on ED.)
Tried setting some objectives that were always up, at the end of Ravens War, to drive people to certain zones to check and fight when they were free, but largely it was ignored.
Could have just been the game not being fun for folks, lull hit, but that didnt pan out too well.
Open to ideas/help. Im not giving up completely on trying to bring this sort of stuff back.
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I think for very large scale events, keep it to wpvp. There are so many stories, guild or personal, that when you put everyone together it’s hard to not step on toes.
Smaller scale events I think are better suited for rppvp.
The Ravens war was an accomplishment that you should be proud of. But it was a lot of responsibility and stress to take on.
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A soap opera on Emerald Dream.
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It’s when you rp as being good at pvp on the forums.
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Since we can make characters on both factions maybe we could make alts , create and join guilds called "Stormwind Guard/ Redridge Guard/Crossroad Grunts/Silvermoon Guard| etc and level up to just 10. Have one person in the guild about to attack a base jump on their above alt and then either ping specific guilds or a custom RP-PVP channel. They could say things along the lines of “scouts have seen movement in the outskirts” for a 15 minute warning or what not.
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Not a bad idea, easy enough to make some version of this…
RP but instead of rolling to decide the outcome, you deck it out at the parking lot and that determines progression.
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This server changed the moment BFA killed PvP gear and left the mythic players with a taste for blood.
Now it’s fully geared proc sets with max vers doing all the heavy lifting. As long as that’s the case Emerald Dream is a meme of it’s former self.
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The gearing def makes it challenging to balance out.
But I dont like leaving people out for having too much, or too little, gear. Hopefully Shadowlands is a bit better on that front…
BFA was reasonable until the Corruptions came.
This.
I am not, nor will I consider myself a native to WoW. It is because of this that my viewpoints can seem quite unorthodox or even unpopular within this community. In regards to role play, I believe that true RPers would never admit to the fact that they are RPing in order to preserve their immersion. I myself would never want to be forced to admit that others don’t see the reality that I perceive. Due to this, my conclusion on the matter is that RP is a state of mind rather than an activity.
In regards’s to RP/PvP, I believe that it would be best defined as PvP with an overarching agenda or purpose that supersedes the general motivations provided by the game model such as tangible rewards (namely gear, honor, currency). In my experience, these motivations are often related to politics and interpersonal relations between players and groups of players. Exacting retribution on players or guilds that have wronged you in the past, getting rid of another guild’s enemies to solidify an alliance between two states, and sending over spies to a rival guild to stage false flag attacks and stir up conflict from behind the scenes are just some examples of enriching RP/PvP experiences. This differs greatly from the Esport PvP experience and the make-believe fantasy driven PvP of my contemporaries. In short, the best RP/PvP stems from player drama and results in an unforgettable experience in the end much like actual warfare.
An example that I have that best illustrates this is an experience my guild and I had in Black Desert Online. Story Time Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
I would be encouraged to engage in this type of PvP more if I were to meet other ambitious leaders on my faction with an appetite for conquest and similar ideologies. Together we could reshape this land enveloping it in the dark cloak of fascism and gain mastery over the sheep-like people that inhabit it.
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PvP, RP walking and a series of well placed emotes. I keep it spontaneous.
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I honestly wish we could still only choose one faction on each server that we play on. Unpopular opinion but there is cross realm grouping now, elixir of tongues, btag so you can still hang with friends.
One faction per server!
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