Hey, these are just a few questions to help guide me in RolePlaying my character. I also hope this might guide a few other players who are lost in some of the matters I am raising. I appreciate anyone replying to this, even if they only answer one question, or give their opinion on a matter. I really appreciate all replies. I also apologise if some of these questions have already been answered and am grateful for your tolerance.
1. The Mailing System - Can this be used IC? Is it plausible for letters to travel around the world to any mailbox at instant speeds? Perhaps it is with the help of magic, or is this typically for OOC use?
2. Travelling Times - If a group of characters go on a voyage that would take a day or more, do they RP this among themselves and pretend it has taken a day while the rest of society moves on? Also, when they return to the rest of society and mention events that to them happened a week ago (due to their travelling), but to the person they are speaking with only a day ago, how do they work around this ICly? Or is this irrelevant, and should we just OOC apologize for any time misunderstandings?
3. Shapeshifting and Wounds - If a druid, or a particular individual who shapeshifts (can't think of any good RPable examples), gets war wounds in a fight, such as scars, or a toe chopped off, while in their other form, does this wound carry on to their natural (humanoid) form and other forms? And also, if it does not, is that wound always there when the druid returns to the particular form that was injured?
4. Scars and Time - To do with races that live for long periods of time, such as Night Elves and Dranei, is it plausible for scars that were created thousands of years ago to still be in tact, or would they have faded with time?
5. Boats - Are boats a common form of transport around Azeroth? By that, I am referring to the boats that come into Ratchet and Booty Bay every two minutes. Can we assume that these only come once every day or so? Also, how long would a boat voyage from Kalimdor to the Eastern Kingdoms take (estimate)? Would the more typical form of travel be portals, or ICly do these not exist in major cities, or are they simply too expensive for most people to afford?
6. Hearthstones - Are these real, or would they be so rare that it is unplausible for your average Joe to be walking around with a hearthstone on him?
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Sorry if some of these questions seem a bit irrelevant, but I have been avoiding these matters ICly to prevent problems occuring and was wondering if anyone could give me some guidance. Thank you.
1. I treat the mailing system like a PO Box. What I mean is, I expect to receive my mail from one mailbox and one mailbox only. So if I have mail, but I'm not in Stormwind, I simply don't go to the mailbox because the letters would have been addressed to that city. While I may answer it as soon as it arrives, whatever information it contains I pretend I never read until a reasonable amount of time has passed since ICly there's no way I'd have been able to read it so soon.
2. Sadly yes. I wish more of us found joy in taking several days/weeks to get somewhere. QQ The second part is difficult to answer, but I have had people treat my characters as if it's been months since they've spoken to me when OOCly it was only a week or less. What I see a lot of us doing in these situations is just going along with it (to a reasonable degree). Makes it simple.
3. I would say yes, but I'm not entirely sure on that. For instance, Night Elves have five fingers, but cats have four... so if the Elf were to lose a finger in Elf form, it may not necessarily be missing while in cat form.
4. IRL, scars that aren't treated properly shortly after they've been received last the rest of the person's life. I would say yes, that scars received thousands of years ago would still be present today. Especially if the scar was made by some magical attack!
5. I prefer to see boats as making port every few days or so. Assuming I'm IC, I'll RP being at the port town for a few days before actually setting sail for wherever it is I'm going. A boat voyage from EK to Kalimdor would take... well, if we assume the Great Sea to be about the same width as the Atlantic Ocean... and since the boats in question look like the ships used back in the colonial period... about 2-3 months!
6. Hearthstones aren't treated as existing IC. I know this from experience... got made fun of for it once.
Thanks for the great reply Nexussphere, you answered most of my questions really well there. That should clear a few things up, RP-wise, also I should edit this into the boats question. Would the more typical form of travel be portals, or ICly do these not exist in major cities, or are they simply too expensive for most people to afford?
Well asked, sir! I applaud! I have theories, especially around the time issue. As far as I know its like Fable 2. We are each around in little bubbles of our own, unless there is a server wide event. Then when we RP with someone, we join their bubble, or they join ours. And one person or the other's time relation takes over. Then when you finish RPing with them, providing no one else has joined the bubble, you go back to your own bubble again. If that makes any sense. Because the world is static one way or another :P So the only relevance time has, is dictated by the server. That if its night on the server, it should be night in your RP as well.
The most typical form of travel I would say is on foot, horseback, boats, zeppelins, etc. Portals and teleporting on the other hand, besides being incredibly difficult to do, can be quite unsafe sometimes ICly. You may want to port to Stormwind, but end up in Felwood if you're not careful! I had a lot of fun with that not long ago, except I did it on purpose ICly and acted like it was an accident! *grins ebily*
The portals that you may find in the major cities don't exist ICly. The GMs put them there to make it easier for us to get around OOCly.
Hmmmm. I am pretty sure there are some IC portals about the place, the Silvermoon to Shattown portal is IC I am pretty sure. But yeah. Portals require a lot of effort to make and maintain, and are expensive ICly, so stick to ponies, feet, and boats and sky ships!
There's a somewhat silly excerpt from a Mage's handbook ingame about the dangers and laws surrounding portal-making. Here's the transcription.
Spoiler:
Page 1
It is not our intention to replace popular transportation methods such as ships, zeppelins, and flightmasters. These are cheap, practical, and safe methods of transportation. Portals, when used properly, are just as safe and certainly faster. HOWEVER, in practice portals have a history of being a burden on any society in which it is offered to the general public. Of all the major spells developed and maintained by the Kirin Tor (including polymorph), portal technology is the closest to becoming banished from anything but emergency usage.
Page 2
Why all the trouble? First, Ley Lines don't grow on trees. Massive traffic through a Line from all over Azeroth wears down the infrastructure and must be periodically replaced. We charge the mage for every portal via reagent taxes, and encourage mages to pass off these charges to those using the portal. But these taxes don't even begin to cover the time cost of replacing a Line, only the materials.
Page 3
Remember that a portal most used is a portal most efficient: More persons using a single portal causes no further stress to the Ley Lines, and is encouraged. A "Portalpooling" program is in the works that will give tax breaks to mages who create portals for no less than (5) persons. Read your latest issue of "Kirin Tor Monthly" to see the progress of the Portalpooling program.
Page 4
Second, while a properly used portal is just as safe as your average zeppelin trip (maybe more so considering the engineering practices of goblins), an improperly used portal can potentially yield dire results. Here is a list of immutable regulations for appropriate portal usage:
Page 5
Rule #1: Do not create a portal to anywhere but the designated Kirin Tor portal drop-off zones. The most dangerous aspect of the portal spell is its vast potential. We realize it's easy for a mage to create a door to anywhere, so our only way to combat such potentially deadly acts is to make it punishable by death.
Special Issue License D-6 permits open portal usage, but is rarely issued. Speak with your local Portal Trainer about qualifying for this license.
Page 6
Rule #2: Create a portal in the proper place, and use it in the proper way. Do not create a portal beneath the feet of someone. Do not linger halfway in and out of a portal. The portal is not a garbage disposal. The portal is not a shield. Do not use a portal like an umbrella, or any kind of shelter from the elements.
Page 7
Do not back out of a portal after partially entering it. Do not try and "grab" the edges of the portal, either from the inside or the outside. A portal does not create "handlebars" to assist usage, and disruption of its boundaries is dangerous.
Page 8
Rule #3: Never force or trick anyone to go through a portal. Not only is this a great way to lose repeat customers, it's also incredibly dangerous (See Rule #2).
Page 9
Rule #4: Do not have someone who is polymorphed enter a portal. This has yet to not cause an explosion. This is also covered in "Polymorphic Rules & Regulations."
Page 10
Rule #5: Do not remove the liquid filter from a portal spell. Portals innately prevent large amounts of flowing water through them so that they can be cast underwater. To allow for water elementals to use a portal, this filter can be omitted when casting. Do not omit this when underwater! We feel obligated to mention Moderately Severe Claims Disaster Case 34-zz: "The Great Lakeshire Drought & The Great Ironforge Flood of 24 A.D."
Page 11
Rule #6: Standard Portal dimensions are 3 yards, 1 foot, 3 and 3/4 inches tall, 2 yards, 8 feet, 9 and 15/16 inches wide. Double-wide portal creation requires Special Issue License G-16, and is commonly issued to mages with a clean portal record of 8 years or more. Speak with your local Portal Trainer about qualifying for this license.
Do not back out of a portal after partially entering it. Do not try and "grab" the edges of the portal, either from the inside or the outside. A portal does not create "handlebars" to assist usage, and disruption of its boundaries is dangerous.
Page 8
Rule #3: Never force or trick anyone to go through a portal. Not only is this a great way to lose repeat customers, it's also incredibly dangerous (See Rule #2).
Haha, the above really cleared quite a few things up. xD Thanks for everyone's different theories and answers. I liked Valasco's time theory, so I'll probably be using that one. Cheers
Velasco actually put it very well! It's generally the same way I've regarded 'time' like that. An example of a situation where time should be more relevant is when your character is -supposed- to be in a certain place for an ongoing RP. For instance, let's say you have a BElf, and if your elf was participating in the reclamation of Silvermoon and they were planning with rebels out in Eversong, then your character should not be traveling to other places (like Booty Bay or Ratchet) simply because there's unrelated RP going on there. Try to maintain -some- realism, in that regard.
That said, if you happened to come across another elf randomly in Eversong as you were passing through, had some brief RP and then you parted ways, I'd see no issues suddenly porting to Ratchet/Booty Bay for some RP that was going on there.
When it comes to time in this game, you have to make some lenient decisions as far as whether or not it affects others, and whether or not it'll make any difference at all. I'm not going to yell at anyone that wants to jump to different locations for RP as long as those RPs aren't related. If they are, then all participants should either regard time with common sense (ie, not insta-port across the world when traveling) OR everyone should agree to some time acceleration when it comes to traveling (ie, if you're RPing with a group for, let's say, exploration), like taking a boat. You may want to RP for a bit on the boat, but you're not forced to wait a day until you can continue on your way.
Does that make sense? I hope I didn't confuse myself in all that. >.<
Thanks for expanding on Valsco's time theory, Kret. I am trying to keep my character IC in one place (Barrens) at the moment, but in the future I will be careful not to have conflicting timelines. I also like the idea of exploration guilds or groups advancing time at their own pace. Regardless of whether or not you confused yourself, it sure made sense to me. xD
Great questions! I've actually learned a lot from the answers.
Regarding the whole time thing... My guild has done events where traveling actually took a few days. IRL days. It made it a whole lot realistic, but I've also been in RPs where a whole week of camping took a few hours. So it depends on the guild, or the people you are playing with!
Hope this helps!
Thanks, MrCandleJack. I can see advantages and disadvantages to both approaches in your example, but it seems that everybody has their own preference, and the group goes along with one person's preference. I appreciate all the feedback and am glad it managed to help someone other than just myself.
Edit: Anyone got a definite answer for question 3 yet? This also applies to how cats have tails and Night Elves do not. :S
I am not 100% sure, but from all the fantasy books I have read, when you get an injury while in another shape, you should have the same injury on all of your shapes. Harry Potter for example with the rat guy from the third book. I belive there was also a case with a werewolf in The Witcher, that was missing a finger or it was somewhere else... anyway, I don't know about the WarCraft universe for sure, but considering the other fantasy universe, I believe the shapeshifter should be carrying his injuries in all of his shapes.
Ah, that is what I suspected, I was just a bit unsure about all the specifics. I suppose there is no specific law anywhere on it and I suppose we just improvise how it affects our Night Elven form if our cat loses a tail. Thanks for the help anyway.
