Yet another post with beginner RP questions

Lore World's End Tavern: Role-play and Fan Fiction
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Heya folks,

So I haven’t played WoW in quite a long time, but this time I wanna dip my toes into this wonderful RP community that I’ve always watched from afar. I’ve made sure to scour the main FAQ pages and watch a few videos on the basics so I’m not bombarding you with things you’ve all heard a zillion times. Just a few of my weirder questions first:

  1. Is it kosher to RP a different class from your actual character’s in-game class? I wanna play my warlock (I just love destro locks thematically) but most of these “how to RP a warlock” things suggest they are largely untrusted within the fiction. Makes sense, but I’m curious if I could slap “Mage” into TRP3 and start from there. Do fire things, minor RP magicks, etc. so I don’t have to be some loner edgelord. I know there’s the old “do what you want” or “there’s a crowd for every style” adages but I’m just curious if that would be extremely outside of the norm.

  2. Is character level usually addressed in-fiction by the RP community? I’m still churning through Legion content (what a cool expansion!) and leveling but I don’t know if I should expect to be treated as relatively weaker than the majority of characters. It’s totally fine if that’s commonly done, just wanna prepare for it and spin it in my head.

  3. Are most characters considered to be “up to speed” on full Azeroth lore? I personally don’t even know what happens in Legion and BFA (excited to find out, despite the general exasperation!) so I don’t want to look like a total fish out of water if somebody offhandedly mentions “Sylvanas, amirite?”

  4. Are the in-game languages used a lot? I’m a fan of IRL linguistics and etymology so the concept of language barriers or differences in language skills are very interesting to me when considering character tropes. Would a character that dislikes the Orcish language be too snowflakey? Or a character that has a noticeable difference in mastery of one language vs. another?

  5. Cussin’. I know there’s an in-game language filter and general guidelines for particular inflammatory language especially regarding the wider code of conduct. I’m not looking to skirt the line on that stuff, nor do I have the intent to offend just for the hell heck of it. Would a character that is a pottymouth be too over the line? What if it was just in a particular language (see #4)? Would some self-censorship be in order, like literally typing out “!@#$” instead of real cussing? Do we have community curse words in fiction? (Frak, Mudblood, Gorram, etc.) I’m not attached at the hip to those ideas but figured I’d ask while I’m writing this mini-dissertation.

I’m sure I’ll think of more questions over time, but I’d really appreciate if anybody could give me the inside scoop on any or all of these :smiley: Thanks so much!

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1:
yes you can, i once saw a dh rp as a gnome warlock who was mutated into a demon (dont ask…) but it he was accepted.
2:
No not usually, i just keep em high lvl because the wardrobe options, and i see a lot of people mixed lvls rp together.
3:
Not always, i seen a few people questioned what happened and be notified by other people while in character, like before bfa came out, i was curious why so many people were outside in stormwind and homeless.

so they told me and is surprised me icly.

4: Yes actually, i know a few people who spoke in different languages and not even common, like a night elf speaking in her language and she had a translator translate what she said.

5: Yes, but you cant on the forums, though might i suggest the fantasy colorful versions? they are nice to say.

like how orcs usually talk about the privates of there chieftain for cussing…

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Wonderful, thanks so much for the input! Your answer to #4 is exactly what I was expecting to happen lol, good to know that it is done sometimes.

Do you know of any in-fiction swear words? I am looking forward to the first time I can shout “Son of a Lich!” but it would probably be better if it’s established stuff :slight_smile:

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“What the fel” is a really popular one and has even made it into some quests.

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I’ll come up with some, but like what jaquell said.

but it usually depends on how ya prefer yer character to speak.
like if i see a insane individual, i just call em a crazy nutter.

or i call undead “Deadies”, a human paladin thought it was lowly of me for doing that (so i told em off :D)
or you can try speaking phrases in certain languages like speaking orcish/common and say in another language you go (something something) that translates Too
“i hope you track :poop: on yer boots.”

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I don’t know what qualifies as the norm, but the fact is that is it more important to do what you want or to appease people who want to control you?

I don’t have data on it, but many people will accept your if you want to RP whatever. A good attitude does a lot more than any RP choices you make in creating your character, honestly. Do what you think is fun, seek out like-minded people, and don’t get bogged down in negativity.

I have nearly never seen this. I would say that it is nearly universal that character level is irrelevant to RP. It depends on the person. Personally, my character is in fact a nigh invincible warrior of titanic power who is straight up a Champion of Odyn and doesn’t afraid of anything. Many other RP their characters as relatively normal but might actually beat me in PvP.

It doesn’t matter in RP.

It’s okay to ask people for context OOC if you don’t understand OOC what is happening IC. It’s unfair to expect you to learn all the lore for homework just to play.

Your mileage may vary, however. I simply cannot explain the urge of some people to make such unreasonable demands.

Most language RP I have seen is just having horrible unreadable accents.

I don’t usually see much of it otherwise, nor at all.

I would just avoid doing anything reportable, regardless of what people say they are fine with.

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I have a thought… an idea really. With so much lore and story out there and now Classic alongside WoW proper, I am thinking… would anyone be interested in reading the story of an Alliance or Horde toon as they go through the game? As they learn, as they grow from where they start to where they stand? No metagaming knowledge, just… their World (as they know it) of Warcraft?

And hopefully, be forgiven as they kill their 217th bear for a turn in, wondering aloud if other places in Azeroth are in as sore need of pest control.

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For number one, there isnt that much difference between a warlock and a mage, and PLENTY of warlocks have kept their fel use a secret for YEARS (Heck Guldan did it at first until Nerzhul was ready.)

So why not rp a spellcaster that keeps their fel use on the down low, for the exact reason you stated above? The truth shall set you free.

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@Orgatsa

Read A Gnotebook in this forum. It’s what I’m doing.

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I’ll try to cover your responses point by point.

  1. Up to a point.there isnt’ that much of a difference between Warlock and Mage, and if you don’t have your demon out all the time, that would make it even easier.

  2. I’ve never had nor seen a reason to talk about character level… but then again I wouldn’t be expecting anyone who’d just come out of Northshire to cut it in Northrend. But if you’re expecting to come into a scene to throw weight around, you’d better do a good job of it. Come in as Lord High Poohbah isn’t going to win you an audience unless youv’e got major performing chops… which are not easy to express in text.

3.Most locals generally are not. How far you are up to speed depends on the character you’re portraying. The much bigger issue is claiming a singular relationship with major events and NPC’s… The game tends t o treat you as if you are the sole hero of the story… that doesn’t gell well with a rp community.

4.You’re going to find for the most part that people will simply default to Common and Orcish as the game has no real language cipher, it just puts out gibberish for language.

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  1. Of course. I’m a Death Knight.
  2. No but a lvl 10 RPing as a badass will look silly.
  3. Most NPCs seem to know so it’s reasonable to assume you would too. It’s like you read it in the paper.
  4. Not usually. The only language I’ve RPers use frequently besides Orcish is Thalassian and frankly those people are buttheads.
  5. Use normal cusswords and feel free to self-censor. There are race specific insults though.
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i wish i had more opportunities to rp, but friends leaving the game or migrating to other servers has me all sad panda.

here’s my take:

i don’t see why you can’t rp a different class, as long as you can back it up. i am absolutely ok with creative minds, and rping something original. if you wanna portray yourself as a mage, i can see that working. having a demon or imp lurking around might lead to some skepticism, however. for example, before becoming a rogue, deft spent some time being a novice priest before the scourge invasion of quel’thelas, so having alchemy and some knowledge of the light allows me to portray her in a more noble path, than your typical deviant stabby-stab. and i haven’t had to deal with any nay-sayers yet, and if i do, well, i will just choose not to interact with them in the future.

as a few others have commented, that is also entirely up to you. i will need serious convincing to take a lvl 25 character seriously if they wanna be this all-around invulnerable, do-no-wrong, will not die/age, no weakness, being. believable story-telling needs to have imperfect beings. all my toons have at least one ‘character’ flaw that, if others know of it, could be exploited or make for some awkward situations. i play a gnome rogue that is mute, her warrior sister wants to be a dwarf when she grows up, and the same warrior has a hard time pronouncing words that are more than three syllables. her in-game letters are so much fun to write for me as they are all phonetic and miss-spelled atrocities. i can vividly remember rping once with a friend, and he was talking about a holy ceremony he took part in and little dora was all, “who’s sarah money?” quite a funny moment that i still think of fondly, years later.

i typically only resort to a character’s racial language to purposely exclude other races (haughty belves, for example), to keep a conversation more private, or to stress complications with being bi-lingual. i recently decided to rp my troll priest on my classic server to struggle speaking orcish. so not only am I trying to get used to the typical troll accent, i also have her get frustrated with the language barrier and enjoy her ‘broken’ speech. and she will speak in troll and grumble about things, then switch back. her tank buddy will switch to gutterspeak to further infuriate her, and it’s great to have that understanding in place and play off it. i would also be open to say, a gnome and dwarf, due to their close proximity and sharing a starting zone, to understand each other’s languages more than they would a nelf using darnassian. if one spent time on the seas as a pirate or sailor, with all the different port cities, they might even know some basic phrases in the different languages, even of the opposing faction.

speaking of, cuss words would absolutely be something that would be understood in other languages/factions, i would imagine, esp with what I’ve already touched upon–pirates/travel. what the fel and son of a lich i have heard and i always lol irl when i hear them. creative ways to express oneself without using more ‘graphic’ language. if you want, you can ask your fellow rpers what they feel comfortable using: some want to be more pg, others are ok with nc17 content. as long as you respect another’s boundaries, the sky is the limit.

sorry for the long post–you asked a LOT of great questions and i like to give examples to give more color and context to my answers. i hope that helps!

and welcome to wow-rp! :~D

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For your first question, it’s definitely allowed. I had my Gnome Warlock turn her green fire off and put the Heroic BFR set on with the red sawblade staff from SoO and RPed her as a fire mage who couldn’t control how powerful her spells were.