All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.WoW Insider is not Mount Sinai, and I am certainly not the Burning Bush, but there is a need for a clear, concise list of "do's and don'ts" which new and experienced roleplayers can refer to in times of need. I therefore submit the following commandments as a guide and a reference to roleplayers throughout the World of Warcraft.
Obviously the list of essential rules I lay out here will be different from a list you might make, but hopefully the basic ideas remain the same. In addition, being as I am hardly a prophet of the Almighty, I reserve the right to edit these commandments over time as times change and new insights emerge.
1. Thou shalt not play God.
You only have control over the actions of your own character. When roleplaying with others, you must never ever use an emote or action which denies others the right to choose their own actions in response to yours. For example: "Moosis glares with white hot anger at Faro" is acceptable; "Moosis glares so intensely that Faro's face melts" is not. Whether or not two people's characters are fighting with each other, their act of roleplaying itself is essentially cooperative -- even in a battle of emotes, both players must work together to tell the story in an interesting way, neither one presuming what the other will do.
2. Thou shalt not lay claim to spurious connections.
Your character is relatively far removed from the main characters of the official Warcraft games and novels. Although some degree of loose connection is permissible, any sort of close relationship is highly unlikely and unbelievable. Your character should stand on his or her own as an individual with his or her own story to tell -- relying too much on previously existing characters will make you look like a Mary Sue.
3. Thou shalt not strive to be the constant center of attention.
Everyone, including you, deserves his or her turn in the spotlight. Different people prefer different levels of participation of course, but as a rule, if you find yourself striding straight into center stage whenever you log on, chances are that some will start to resent you for interrupting their stories in progress. As in real life, listen before speaking, and speak only to those who are listening.
4. Thou shalt not strive to be the center of the universe.
We all long to save the world from the forces of evil, and to a certain extent there is room for that in WoW, through participation in quests, battles, and dungeon adventures. But the fact is that this still doesn't make your character more important -- many others are participating in these activities too. Let your roleplaying be about who your character is, who his or her friends are, and how they all interact with one another; not about who's got the longest title or most impressive storyline. Don't try to compete with Mary Sue.
5. Thou shalt overlook the inconsistencies of in-game reality.
When you kill monsters, they don't die forever. After some time, they come back to life, ready for you to come and kill them again. Likewise, if the monsters kill you, you don't really die either -- after just a few minutes, you raise from the dead, heal up, rebuff, and try killing them again. This and other problems require us to think differently about time and causality in WoW: you may invent story-driven means by which such game mechanics can be explained, or you may conveniently ignore such inconsistencies and impossibilities. Either way, focus on the relationships between you and other players, and don't sweat the small stuff.
6. Thou shalt remain consistent with the Warcraft lore.
Your character was born and raised in a fantasy world you did not create. Blizzard's Warcraft lore is explained at length in their Warcraft encyclopedia, timeline, and explored at even greater depth in fan-sites like WoWWiki and Dramatis-Personae. Take the time to read a little about the background behind whatever elements you wish to use in your character's story, from basics like race and class to complexities like his or her birthplace and specific events of importance in his or her life. Be sure to consult with a wise and experienced roleplayer about your ideas to help make them as good as possible.
7. Thou shalt make thy character memorable.
As important as it is to stay true to the Warcraft lore and avoid excessive melodrama and attention-grabbing, it is equally important to avoid blandness and trite imitation. Do not merely fulfill people's expectations for your race and class -- think of some interesting qualities and traits based on real human behavior, which make your character as entertaining or thought-provoking as he or she can be.
8. Thou shalt not impose thy style on others.
Your character traits may be designed for humor, or for drama, for casual fun, or serious storytelling. Roleplaying styles vary widely from player, even as each person's motivation to roleplay in the first place may be different. No matter how good your roleplaying is, there are bound to be some who do not enjoy it. Do not blame yourself, or them, but tactfully allow each person to do his or her thing. If no one seems to like your ideas, or if something becomes a cause of disunity in your group, seek the counsel of the wisest and most knowledgeable roleplayers you can find.
9. Thou shalt preserve the roleplaying server atmosphere.
Not everyone on an RP server likes to roleplay, but at the very least, everyone appreciates an atmosphere of respect. Roleplayers come to these servers for a certain purpose, and it is the duty of everyone there to respect that purpose. Therefore, the public /say channel on an RP server is not the place to discuss "phat lewts" or "relogging" or "dude did you see that movie lol." /Say is for in-character dialogue only -- all out-of-character conversations should take place in one of the other channels (such as /party or /whisper) which are more suited for it in any case.
10. Thou shalt strive to be inclusive.
There are few enough roleplayers in WoW that we must work hard to stick together, and make special efforts to be open and welcoming to newcomers. One of the things roleplayers love most about RP servers is a a special atmosphere that can arise when as many people as possible respect one another, behave with maturity, and help newcomers get involved and develop their roleplaying potential. Not every RP server has this atmosphere, but for those that do, it is because there try hard to create it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-16-2008 @ 10:19PM
Jp said...
#2 needs more enforcement. You are not Tyrande's right hand. You are not Tyrande's niece. Deal with it.
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3-16-2008 @ 10:55PM
Sean Riley said...
How flexible do you think #4 is? Let's say I make a Night Elf who has a birth-mark in the shape of the crescent moon, with a story behind it that has her prophecied to play some major, undefined role in Azeroth. Certainly, this makes her important to the world, but does it overpower the other characters?
I say no. You could play it to _make_ her overpower other characters, but if she's still vulnerable and human (well, elvish) then others have a chance to shine too.
You can be epic, while still playing well.
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3-17-2008 @ 3:07AM
David Bowers said...
I think the crux of it is that nothing you or your character does can have an actual effect on the Warcraft universe as it is. Whatever happens, at the end of the adventure, everything has to be put back exactly the way it was when it started.
This is true with all fan fiction -- the very nicely done machinima story, "Tales of the Past 3" is a good example. The main character of that story ends up taking on the Lich King himself and winning. But just when you think the story is over, here comes the epilogue...
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=53953
Model viewers and special effects programs make stories like Tales of the Past work out okay. But for roleplayers to try and get away with something like that, they'd have to create (and level -- ick!) a paladin named "Arthass" or something, who was supposed to represent the villain in this story.
Not only is this an example of unwitting Mary Sueing for a roleplayer, but these player-character controlled badguys simply don't work. Leveling up a character simply takes too much time for him to be ever be "defeated" and either reformed or cast aside. It could only work in a scenario like a children's TV cartoon program, where Dr. Claw keeps on coming back in every single episode, and where he never truly gets defeated. Again, nothing really changes in the world, and the true emphasis is on the characters' interpersonal relationships.
3-17-2008 @ 6:52AM
TomWolf said...
[with a story behind it that has her prophecied to play some major, undefined role in Azeroth]
Is the prophecy something everyone in the world is supposed to know about? No? Good. Then we don't even know if the prophecy is true. In real world Bush said he was put to the precidency by god for a purpouse. There are prophecies that said the world was coming to an end 1994.
So, you can always play a character with a prophecy, the important part is not to implement it so that the king himself thinks that it's the true prophecy and that the city of StormWind was designed to help her fullfill it.
Personally I find a greater joy in playing the small stories and having a character that takes pride in taking part in and improving other players personal stories as well. Rather be part of several small stories where someone is searching for their father who got lost during the war (he deserted and is in hiding) or where a gnome is looking to avange his best friends death by killing a certain Horde Warlock player then having that grand epic tale on my shoulders.
3-16-2008 @ 11:13PM
Pål said...
About rule 5 up there, about how you react to the game's inconsistencies with logic, the alternatives mentioned are either ignoring them or making up an explanation to them. Isn't it also possible to play as if they were completely natural? If a respawn is what your character is expecting, you don't have to act surprised when the mob respawns, you don't have to pretend like it was there all the time, and you don't have to make up an explanation for just what a respawn is. It's a respawn, a natural part of life.
Similarly, mounts are used to being stuffed inside little bags and think nothing of it, some species simply don't usually have the body parts that in the real world are considered vital, and a meeting stone outside your house is a sure sign your life's coming to an end, not just something to be used and then pretended to not exist.
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3-17-2008 @ 6:58AM
TomWolf said...
Personally I don't think it's a good idea to treat it like it's natural. The reason is that if you expect to be respawned no matter what then you have nothing to truly be afraid of. (besides, how did the undead become undead? ;)
For me it's just that we don't see everything that is going on. What happens on screen isn't exactly what happens. I guess that comes easier when you've played a lot of pen and paper RPGs. When I get ganked by a lvl 70 tauren warrior, in my mind he hit my helmet with the broad side of his sword, knocking me to the ground where he left me for dead.
When I open my bag and bring out my trusty steed...well trusty oversized goat anyway...in my head I had him with me by my side all the time and I simply mounted him.
It might just be me but I don't find it enjoying if I'm supposed to pretend that somehow my gnome can carry five backpacks filled with swords, horses, big boxes of supply and that big high tech gun he found off a...bear (don't know what the bear did with it but it smells funny). I rather work around the game mechanics in my head.
3-17-2008 @ 8:21AM
Cynra said...
If you're willing to accept that being an orc, or a gnome, or a tauren, or a night elf is a valid part of the universe and that we're all wielding magic or riding flying creatures, why is it so hard to accept the other aspects of World of Warcraft? Those are just as unfeasible in our world as the things that you've pointed out. We're constrained by the mechanics of the game, but we don't need to find real life justification or explaination for everything. Go with the flow! Accept things the way they are!
3-17-2008 @ 8:58AM
TomWolf said...
Well actually the game mechanics are not part of "World of Warcraft". If you read the lore there doesn't happen once that someone dies and then respawns at the nearest graveyard. What I'm saying is that this is a fantasy game and the game mechanics are not meant to "be" what happens but rather to represent what happens.
I don't think there are many people who enjoys thinking that there is a guy somewhere doing nothing all day but telling adventurer after adventurer to go out and find his lost brother and when he is found and helped to return he goes out there and gets lost again, and again, and again.
Just use your imagination a bit and it'll be all the more fun =)
3-16-2008 @ 11:15PM
Sean Riley said...
Randomly, dying and reviving is the hardest part of rule #5 to manage. You could do a whole column on explanations for player death.
This is one of the great boons of playing the Undead, of course -- They've died once already. Why not a second time?
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3-17-2008 @ 8:39AM
Angus said...
So explain why resurrection won't bring them back as a normal living person.
;)
I mean, when a Human male dies and is rezzed, they come back as a human male. So wouldn't it fix the undead?
3-17-2008 @ 9:32AM
Calybos said...
My best guess is that death via Burning Plague is somehow "different," resulting in a form of undeath that normal priest/paladin/druid spells can't fix.
3-17-2008 @ 10:10AM
Chris Anthony said...
The Spirit Healer, as has been mentioned before, hands you a reason for this one: "It is not yet your time." For a living character who dies, the rationale is that the world will allow them to be resurrected because there's still more for them to do before they go on to their eternal reward. (For an undead, I suppose the rationale is that they were *supposed* to go on to their eternal reward and sidestepped it somehow, so the world doesn't quite know how to deal with them. :)
Special deaths, by contrast, like the Plague, or Arthas killing Terenas, have the force of Plot behind them. To someone killed by the Plague, this is the end of their story; there's no more for them to do in the world of the living. Anything left unfinished is meant to be that way, at least as far as they're concerned. (It might be someone else's task to finish it...) And that explains why so many NPCs fear death - for them, any death could be the final death that takes them out of the world permanently. A PC could react the same way - or could assume that there's some guiding force that will keep them going. ;)
3-17-2008 @ 1:47AM
Finnegan said...
Thanks for mentioning Dramatis Personae! :) We strive to provide a good springboard for roleplaying in WoW, and it's very flattering to be listed as a lore resource.
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3-17-2008 @ 3:10AM
David Bowers said...
No problem! I love Dramatis Personae lots; it has my favoritest lore intro for making a new WoW character of any place on the internet. I should like join the forum community or something!
3-17-2008 @ 3:16AM
ErsatzPotato said...
Good stuff, nicely laid out. Useful list for those who can't figure out RP.
(I'd replace "7. Thou shalt make thy character memorable." with "7. Thou shalt not pretend a gimmick is roleplaying." but I've made that case here before.)
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3-17-2008 @ 8:32AM
Cynra said...
I'd like to add further comment to number six: thou shalt be consistent with lore. When creating a character, your character's history should be aligned with what is known about the universe. The reason for this is twofold. One, it keeps you from looking like an idiot; lore elitists will jump on your character and parade him around as being yet another example of a poor roleplayer. Two, it allows for a level playing field between characters. If you accept the world's history as it is and weave it into your character's history, it gives you a common ground with other individuals. Ever stayed up late sharing war stories with a fellow roleplayer? Or met a character that grew up in the same town as your own around the same exact time? I've used that opportunity to build on my characters' histories, letting them admit that, yes, maybe that guy I just met was the one that my dear sister had a crush on before he left to begin his training. That's awesome AND inclusive.
However, as much as you personally know as a player the lore, it's important to recognize that your character probably doesn't have the same depth of knowledge. Despite having magic to teleport and magical mounts that can take us from one side of the continent to the other in a matter of moments, Warcraft doesn't have any form of almost instantaneous communication that we might have in the internet. Don't be afraid to have your CHARCTER possess false assumptions or even incorrect knowledge. My dear perky priestess - while pretty smart - was a poor student. She found learning dull and didn't pay attention to most of her intruction. So she's got a lot of misconceptions about the world, doesn't know anything about politics, and will gleefully tell you her opinion on matters that she clearly doesn't understand. In this case, she doesn't know the lore though I can cringe, hem, and haw as much as I want in the background, laughing as people try to correct her without realizing that their characters probably shouldn't know either!
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3-17-2008 @ 8:45AM
Mabon said...
Cyrna, your attitude is wonderful! RPers like you make a server's RP atmosphere better. And as David said in his article, it does take work to make a server fun for all. Taking the MMO part of this RPG into account can be very fun. I'd much rather RP with someone than on my own.
Perhaps a commandment to be added would be: Thou shalt relax and have fun! While I enjoy playing with people who take RP seriously, it's still fun to do. This isn't my work; it's my play.
3-17-2008 @ 7:46PM
Sean Riley said...
Completely agreed. Ligradi took this to extremes with his firm belief that the Blood Elves were to be referred to as "Sinful Door Eyes".
He never worked out what was so sinful about the door.
Finally, someone corrected him. He still pronounces it "Sin Door Eye."
3-17-2008 @ 11:28AM
Michel said...
about respawn, death and others game mechanics
wow, is in the end, a software. so we have to accept its limits and the fact we can play it again and again.
so, yes, _our_ character can't die, we can found guns on a bear and so on.
but if you read the lore, books, and so on , no one come back from the grave to be nice and fresh, never Thrall did killed every bear in the forest.
to avoid to lose our dear character, we can resurrect him/her, but it's because it's a game, a little punishment. nothing more. it's not in the story.
in the story, you were vanquished by Ragnaros and left for dead, or everyone ran away, or you're stalled in the lair.
-
in the lore, when you die, you are dead. or you need a serious power soon to be resurrected.
common people dies, and sometimes evil plague made them into zombies. Even heroes dies, they did not comeback from the grave.
just think of that like infinite life in an action videogame.
-
My gnome never died , else my character would be in a grave and maybe some friends would come to visit sometimes .
I could do that if I stop to play that character (and one day to play it again because : "he was my dark nemesis brother / I was cloned / I falsified my death, you moron / It was a dream .. hu no :) )
no, seriously, my character never died, it is not a god, just a mortal. I play it to avoid stupid death, and assume when I'm stomped by Maghteridon I succeed to be alive in the end. beaten but alive.
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about boss. In fact, mostly all boss never died. Ragnaros can come back from Sulfuron.
Onyxia lost, her plan foiled. but she can be still alive. (and Dame Katrinos is no more here for me, or just for people who have not do the quest)
Nefarian, maybe I killed it, for people who have done raids and quests, I consider he is dead. or deeply beaten. the master's offspring failed... but Neltharion is still alive, somewhere.
but well, I have to adapt. for newcomers playing the game, I can't say Nefarian is dead, he is right before them :)
I play with that my quests, npc and others players around me tells.
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3-17-2008 @ 12:09PM
Kieran said...
I keep wanting to log onto a RP server just to wander around asking where the nearest bathroom is, but I guess that falls under (5)?
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