In my own time as a roleplayer, I’ve had the good fortune to LARP in vampire games, changeling games, steampunk games, fantasy games and even cyberpunk games. I think I’ve LARPed just about everything you can LARP. And with relatively few exceptions, I’ve loved it all. If you want to have a good time, there’s nothing like standing around in the woods pretending to be a sparkly vampire or an elf.

So, if you’re like me, you’d be interested in playing a World of Warcraft LARP. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve written game rules out of virtually nothing, so I spent some time wondering about the challenges we’d have to overcome to successfully run this game. I saw four main issues. I should say that I don’t consider any of these problems insurmountable, but they are issues any gamemaster would need to address.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Would a WoW LARP work?

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All the World’s a Stage: Would a WoW LARP work? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a single primary fundamental to roleplay. It’s a dynamic that is so innate and implicit about the act of roleplaying that most roleplayers never give it any thought. Why would they? It’s as universal and binding a dynamic as could possibly exist in an activity. This dynamic is not only the building block of roleplaying, it’s also the very point and end-goal of most roleplaying. I want to throw in some kind of yin and yang analogy, also, but I’ll get to my point.

All of roleplay is based on the idea of being “In Character” instead of “Out of Character.”

I know that will seem so simple to most of you that the statement seems puerile. But I think both brand new players and experienced roleplays would be well served to take some time examining the dynamic. What drives in character actions? Where does the out of character begin? At which point does out of character affecting in character stop being “just the way things are” and become metagaming? It can be some pretty deep stuff.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Cheating and the IC versus OOC divide

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All the World’s a Stage: Cheating and the IC versus OOC divide originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The nice thing about roleplaying in Cataclysm is that the starting experiences for goblin and worgen really guide you to the roleplay. This week, we’re going to be focused on the dozen or so character hooks presented in the goblin starting area. and next week we’ll examine the worgen starting area. Obviously, since this information is based on the beta, things could change at any time. Additionally, if you don’t want spoilers, you might want to skip this article. Lastly, this is based on a surface reading of the events in the starting area. Later lore will lead to different interpretations of events, I’m sure.

You begin life as a goblin searching out your own fame and fortune. You’ve recently been granted a promotion in the Bilgewater Cartel, and now work with an executive assistant named Sassy Hardwrench. There’s even a pair of hardbodied “assistants” who’re eager to help out named Candy Cane and Chip Endale. Considering how Candy and Chip are dressed, though, I suspect they’re mostly lingering around as decoration.

With three characters inimately involved with your character from the word “go,” your goblin will have dozens of valuable conflicts available for regular roleplay. What was your experience with Sassy really like? (Obviously, there’s as in-game answer to that question, but you should take liberties to represent your unique character.) Were you a bigger fan of Candy or Chip? We can presume the average goblin at your middle-management level all have similar assistants, so it’s not like you’re building a Mary Sue empire by writing out your own tea of assistants.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Starting roleplay as a goblin in Cataclysm

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All the World’s a Stage: Starting roleplay as a goblin in Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve never been able to completely walk away from any of my characters. Everyone of my WoW characters are indexed in my heart and soul. I played City of Heroes before WoW, and I recently went back around to Paragon City to check in on those kids. (They’re fine, thanks.) Previous to City of Heroes, I was an Albion in Dark Age of Camelot, and I recently spent some time with a fan-fic (character fic?) of that character. I still have all the character sheets for every tabletop character I’ve ever played.

I bring this back because I spent last night at a LARP. Yes, yes, a vampire LARP. There was just as many Linkin Park lyrics and awkward Livejournal posts as you might imagine. I spent a good hour talking about Edward and Jacob. (I wish I were kidding.) But, I’d been having this urge to revisit the old character, so I figured one evening didn’t hurt.

And it didn’t. It didn’t hurt at all. It was actually a relatively decent time. But it did inspire me to get home and quickly login to WoW so that I could roll around on my favorite roleplay server. It’s admittedly been a little while since I’ve truly gotten my roleplay on, and I dove in last night with a ferocity I’ve not experienced for a while.

I don’t know. No matter how many times I’ve walked away from roleplay for a little while, I always come back around to it. Never been able to shake it.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: You keep me coming back

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All the World’s a Stage: You keep me coming back originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You hear that a lot. “It was a good story.” It’s usually in conjunction with screwing someone over. It’s like the period at the end of a sentence that really, really sucked, but it’s totally okay because “it was a good story.” And while it might sound like I’m being a little sarcastic, isn’t it the whole point of roleplaying? We’re trying to create and share good stories. The problem is, it’s all relative. It’s up to your personal tastes and styles to determine what’s a good story, and what’s not. But, let’s frame this up a bit more, to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Let’s say you’re playing with a moderated troupe. They’re rare nowadays, but I do see them from time to time. A moderated troupe is when you trust one or more players to be Gamemasters, basically guiding the story along, portraying NPCs, and helping to decide what happens in the game. In the old pen-and-paper days, this person would have been called a game master.

During the course of your gnome’s busy career, he found himself forced to help an undead warrior cross a river. Nothing big or fancy, but it was still something the gnome had to do. (I don’t know how this situation could come about, but stay with me here.) Later, the gnome finds himself summoned before Varian Wrynn. Of course, the new king of Stormwind has more than a little angst about the horde, and decides your gnome should be executed. Is that a good story? Let’s set up some criteria to determine it.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: What’s a good story?

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All the World’s a Stage: What’s a good story? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ve never been convinced that roleplay is actually dying. Sure, you can go to any of the official forums for roleplay realms and find at least three threads about how roleplaying is dead as a doornail and that server sucks. (That thread is only slightly less common than complaint threads about how Blizzard doesn’t support their naming policy.) Even here at WoW.com, you’ll see the occasional commenter lament the untimely death of escapism and roleplay.

But all that being said, I’m still pretty sure there are people out there strapping on their in character personas, and doing their very best to spin some fun story lines. They’re getting their creative juices and taking on the roles of their characters. I couldn’t tell you how many people are still out there, but I can say I’ve never been unable to find some kind of RP.

But I will admit: it’s getting a bit more sparse. Of course, raiders and guilds have the same problem. We’re between expansions. The burnout blues are setting in. We’re struggling to keep the game fun and fresh. We’re trying to stay engaged. But, still. It feels like there’s fewer roleplayers out there, and thus, story lines are getting harder to find.

I hold out hope. Cataclysm can help us. And here’s how.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: How Cataclysm will help roleplaying

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All the World’s a Stage: How Cataclysm will help roleplaying originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I recently revisited an old roleplay stomping ground. It’s a vampire game, so it’s not the kind of thing in which one expects high fiction. The vampire genre tends to be good gothic goofy fun. It’s a “darker” kind of roleplay, which generally just means that people keep straight faces and focus on telling stories of personal angst and misery. I won’t go so far as to say it’s serious business, but it’s pretty close to it. Which is why I was totally shocked to find out that the collected vampire organization was getting ready for its big national pajama party. No, really.

Now, I’m not quite saying that Nero’s playing his fiddle, but that struck me as pretty silly. Folks took this big pajama party pretty seriously, though. Ancient, elder vampires were seriously discussing footies. Now, I’m pretty sure it was all in the pursuit of fun, but it sounded to me like Fonzie was starting his engine, and getting ready to jump that shark. This kind of thing isn’t unusual. Another roleplay game — a standard sword and magic game — went belly up when Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise showed up.

Sometimes, roleplaying campaigns just run out of steam. It’s not anyone’s fault, really. The best ideas have been used, the characters have grown up, and the stories have run their course. And then, after the best part of the campaign has been achieved, things start getting a little silly. Here’s how to tell you may be jumping the shark.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: 4 ways you know you’ve jumped the shark

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All the World’s a Stage: 4 ways you know you’ve jumped the shark originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 20 Jun 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the hardest lessons for any roleplayer is understanding when the story is finished. The tale’s been told, the game is over, and it’s time to quietly move forward. Maybe you’re just tired of the character, or maybe you’ve achieved ultimate power, been reunited with your lover, found the secret of your father’s death, and had scores of babies. Whatever the circumstances, you’re basically getting the hint that it’s time to move on from a character.

Not every roleplay style encourages a character to end. If you’re in a troupe who practices immersion roleplay, using your character as an escapist release, then you may never need to walk away from your character. For that matter, it’s fair to say that World of Warcraft itself discourages rerolling — after all, there’s always more levels, more gear, more adventures. If you are a raider, then your character may play a vital role in your guild’s raid composition. That certainly gives you a pretty good reason to not drop the character story.

But, in terms of pure roleplay, there are some pretty clear and obvious signs that it’s time for you to put down the character. If you find yourself getting emotionally invested in the character, to such a degree that you’re losing sleep or that your health is being affected, then it’s clearly time for you to start a new character. If you are having trouble finding new story ideas and new directions, then maybe a change of pace is just what the doctor ordered.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Ending your character

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All the World’s a Stage: Ending your character originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 30 May 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t have any real idea when Cataclysm is going to be hitting the shelves. That being said, we’ve already seen the previews for the expansion’s class changes, and we talked last week about some of the roleplay impacts of those new mechanics. While we might feel like it’s a little early to start getting ramped up for Cataclysm roleplay, I’m betting we see the expansion by the end of this year at the latest. And that’s a mere nine months away.

But, really, we’re already seeing the storyline effects of Deathwing’s revenge starting in game. If you’ve been watching your screen carefully, the world has already started suffering a series of small earthquakes all over Azeroth. We’re even seeing the ground shake up in Dalaran, and our friendly neighborhood blues have had a bit of fun with the notion. We’ve seen hints of the new race/class combinations, and we obviously know the story is shortly going to move forward with Echo Isles and Gnomeregan. Heck, we’re definitely going to be seeing the Ruby Sanctum stuff some time in the summer. So for all that it feels like Cataclysm is an eternity away, chances are that’s not too soon to start building the lore into your story lines.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Getting ready for Cataclysm

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All the World’s a Stage: Getting ready for Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the last week, the WoW community has been keeping a close eye on the ongoing Blizzard announcements about class changes in Cataclysm. Some of the changes are relatively minor, but some changes are so huge that they might radically alter the way you play your character. So far, your intrepid WoW.com team has been keeping up with these announcements in order to bring you the latest in analysis about changing tactics, playstyles and mechanics. What we haven’t talked about yet, though, is how the new Cataclysm announcements are going to affect your roleplay.

Not everyone bases their roleplay on character mechanics. But most people who play their character on an escapist level or with an eye to genre do tend to care about things like spec and powers. We talked a long time ago about folks who don’t even learn core class spells for the sake of their characterization. Still, the impact of character mechanics doesn’t have to be that specific. The choice to be a protection warrior instead of a fury warrior, for example, can be indicative about a person’s behavior. Fury warriors are generally portrayed as a little berzerker-like and angry, while tanks are usually more controlled and noble.

All this being said, some of these Cataclysm changes will certainly affect our roleplay. Let’s take a look behind the jump and get a little deeper into it.

Continue reading All the World’s a Stage: Cataclysm class changes and their impact on roleplay

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All the World’s a Stage: Cataclysm class changes and their impact on roleplay originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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