There are certain types of characters that just naturally seem to get a good reception–you can hang out in any RP hotspot and people will quickly want to walk up and interact with you.
And then there are others which just get ignored, or might even be actively excluded.
What characters have you played that people seemed eager to interact with? Which ideas were shunned?
My older Blademaster got a decent reception when I first started rping him. Xiano here also got a decent reception as well, however I rarely rp him in cities
My current alt Yav’gar also seems to get plenty of walk ups and interaction, which i’ve oddly fallen in love with him as a character given he was a background toon for the previous two I mentioned.
Actually had to think about this one since I had to figure which would count as a bad reception, and which counts as best.
I’d actually say the one which was recieved best was my female orc mage Roldaqa for a handful of reasons. First bit, she was an orc in MoP/WoD who did not adhere to random racism, was respectful of more than orcs and tauren and was more often than not rather well spoken with her major flaws being that she was a tad confrontational and grudgeful and did rub the ‘old school’ orcs the wrong way.
While I don’t have issues getting RP, my DH Gilliniar occassionally gets random asshats chiding him for being a belf, a DH or both. The most noteable one was a when a -Tauren- had the gall to berrate him for his people doing nothing for the horde, when Tauren are basically the horde participation trophy collectors. Their only response was “We’re part of the original Kalimdor horde.”
I played a Blood Elf Rogue on Moon Guard once and wore a white linen robe and walked around pretending to be a priest soliciting donations, while OOCly informing people that this was an IC scam and they didn’t have to participate.
I got a few good experiences before one of the more prominent Horde RPers embarked on a misogynistic rant toward me. Which I guess wasn’t so much a response to the idea as a jerk being a jerk.
Altielle is easily my best received character. Her backstory is simple and relatable, she’s easy to get along with, and she’s pretty good at generating conflict/action. Interacting with her is great because she’s so easy to tease due to her fragile ego and desperate need for everyone to love her, and I often find myself surrounded while playing her.
Then there’s my last night elf I made. She used to be a satyr and got cleansed through a miracle. Now she tends to misfortunate animals, the ones no one likes. She was supposed to comically hang out with all these gross things like bugs and diseased animals and treat them like adorable puppies. Well, I guess I laid it on a bit thick because the first person I interacted with outright logged after I mentioned her bear’s pus getting on her face after a hug. Haven’t role played her since.
I’d say my best was my first and simplest: my dwarf hunter. Dumb comic relief with a serious plotline behind the scenes.
Least well received? I mean, I’ve got a handful of bad eggs from when I first started RPing, but I don’t think any stand out as no one wants to RP with. Maybe I lucked out in that respect.
My first was a young Forsaken warlock who, while alive was only schooled by his father who was a tailor. He’d only learned the basics for working as a tailor which was reading and math and Stormwind was the only major place he’d ever visited.
After being risen people liked to tell him of all these other locations he could visit, but the poor guy could never fully wrap his head around the idea of Outland. He wasn’t well versed in history either, fortunately others were there to help him out.
I’ve also found that people react very positively toward dwarves, especially goofy dwarves. Taller folk are often hungry to obtain a Gimli-esque sidekick, and dwarves seek each other out too. I’d agree that my dwarf characters have been my best-received.
Most of my characters, as far as I can tell, have been received about the same more often than not. The worst I can think of didn’t even involve any actual interaction.
In my earlier days of roleplaying in WoW, when I didn’t know a lot of the lore and was mostly winging it, I was experimenting with character ideas and created one for a Night Elf Mage I made; got a rude and somewhat condescending whisper about a detail in her profile. That was also perhaps the first, and as far as I can remember last, time I was confronted by an elitist crap stain. The character itself didn’t last long regardless; I had very few ideas to contribute to her beyond aesthetics and anecdotal information. I think I eventually deleted her in favor of focusing on my older characters at the time; not a lot of opportunities to develop in Ravenholt at the time, at least outside of guilds.
Best reception might be tied between my Worgen Mage or my second Orc Mage character. I think of these two as my best as they are so far the only two characters of mine to be involved in ongoing rp outside of guild events. The latter was in fact one of my best experiences roleplaying a Mage, one my best experiences with open rp, and my absolute best experience rping in Silvermoon.
To give a bit of a more detailed summary on that, I was playing a young daughter of some sort of trader (I don’t remember what in). She had an interest in magic and so decided to move to Silvermoon to study the arcane arts. I eventually met a Blood Elf who was also an aspiring Mage and I ended up joining her in receiving lessons from her mentor. I’m quite nostalgic about the experience.
Agreed. Dwarves are honestly pretty rad, and the Gimli thing is what inspired him to start with. I was able to get lots of good RP simply by starting with “and then the drunk dwarf arrived”.
I haven’t RP’d in a while, but if I didn’t have so many friends and everything Horde side, I’d consider coming back as a dwarf hunter. Maybe for Classic I’ll give it a whirl.
I’ve always been treated decently as Borgg. His personality is more reserved and observant in social situations so mostly I am left alone, but when I do engage people generally seem nice. I like going to social events like debates and festivals but he isn’t really a celebratory type, so mostly I just hang back and watch. It’s always nice to see how creative people on our server can be. There are a lot of events I have to jump mental hoops to justify to myself his presence, and there are a lot that I can’t, like dances or date auctions or stuff. But mostly people are friendly, and it always feels good that when he does have reason to speak, people generally listen.
Or maybe I am naive and people are avoiding me because I sass off on the forums too much.
Ironically, my mage Isalenna was my best -and- worst received character. - people seemed to love her back during her Blood Elf days. She still gets plenty of love now, in her void elf days, but people are understandably much more harsh towards her.
Demon Hunters and Void Elves get it pretty bad in the Alliance, at times. I’ve had people who were looking for walk-ups take one look at me when I say something, say ‘No.’ then just… keep walking.
My Void Elves tend to get more straight up abuse, too, whereas people just avoid my Demon Hunters.
It’s a little disheartening, but I suppose that’s part of the race.
Tamani is easily my most well received character, but mostly because I designed her to be a gregarious character that has no practical skills. She’s very reliant on other people to get what she wants, requiring her to constantly seek them out and be pleasant, if not endearing while doing so.
I will openly admit to employing methods from How to Win Friends and Influence People, as well as other techniques of persuasion drawn from from other sources.
You’d be surprised how well they work.
So my first ever roleplay character was a Scarlet priest during late Cata until mid MoP. Nobody really bothered me too much about it OOC, but I did get flak IC because 14-year-old me liked to flaunt the tabard in Stormwind. Makes me feel a bit embarrassed looking back on it, but I learned a lot and I’d say it was a positive experience.
Admittedly I’ve never had a character I can remember being lauded for its backstory/development/etc. I did like my one rogue who was in Rilgan’s dirt worshiping cult. That’s a fond memory.
I’d say that time may change me, but I can’t race change.
I like to change my persona now and then. For a while I was the Skinny Ashen Dominus but despite that being some of my most creative stuff, it never seemed to impress all the young dudes. Iggy Scardust has been my most popular face so far, and the kids really loved it when I sang Traitor, Traitor with my signature look. Punters still come up for autographs, or they’re just on the pull and want to chat up. In that case we all get starkers back at the inn.
… what? ![:neutral_face:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/neutral_face.png?v=6" ":neutral_face:")
I remember smoking Bloodthistle at one of your concerts.
Last paragraph is why I Don’t RP even if I’d love to.
The characters I enjoy tend to be dark, teasing, ,machiavellic types of humor so I am sure I will end up offending everyone.
And the fact that I’ve seen so many times people taking it personal.
Korr gets either really positively or really negatively received, depending on who I’m RPing with.
He’s very against the typical skull-and-spikes antics of “GORTOK THE MANSLAYER” and will challenge orcs who think honor is equal to kill count. As you can imagine, some do not care for this.
Vey is really my only character. The only character I give a crap about. She was my best and worst received character. Worst back in WoD, when for some reason entire night elf guilds thought that night elves crap their diapers into their thirties and don’t look like adults until about 300. Her character wasn’t finished, she didn’t have traits that would provide real longevity to her, up until Legion dropped.
InLegion, I never felt like Vey was a personality everyone was aware of or was super excited to walk up to, but that’s because I never really received walk up. I have had walk up come to me maybe seven times in four years. I’m the one who walks up. Hell, sometimes I don’t even walk up. Sometimes I act like I was definitely always there and participating in something, and 80% of the time… none of the involved roleplayers seem to bat an eyelash at it. I can barely remember most of it anymore, but I do remember it going well more often than not.