<![CDATA[Conquest of the Horde - Character-related]]>

<![CDATA[Conquest of the Horde - Character-related]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/ Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:26:18 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[The Old Ways: An Analysis and Summary]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-36875.html Wed, 27 Nov 2013 23:59:42 -0800 c0rzilla]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-36875.html [Image: Title_zps3cf88837.png]

As the title above says, this is my attempt to write a guide pertaining to the Old Ways; humanity's proto-druidism. There is a lot of speculation here, as Blizzard didn't provide much other than HAY WORGANS NEED DRUIDS WHEE MCGUFFIN TIME.

Be that is it may, I hope I organized, and elaborated this clearly and concisely.

And I hope it provides material for other RPers!

For the history section, I quoted material from WoWPedia and a very extensive guide to Gilneas and its culture. The citations therein are all links to source material.

Spoiler:

Gilneas Compendium Wrote: Gilnean culture has preserved a traditional form of naturalistic beliefs and magic referred to as “the Old Ways”¹. While the magical effects of the Old Ways are superficially similar to the druidism of the night elves, the Old Ways does not involve any actual druidism ². The Old Ways date to at least far back as early tribal human civilization, predating even the ancient human empire of Arathor ³. The holiday of Noblegarden, which has been historically celebrated among the human kingdoms, has its origins “steeped in druidic festivals from times long past,” which may corroborate this idea ⁴. The full nature and furthest origins of the Old Ways, however, still remains unclear and hotly debated among scholarly circles. Both the spread of the teachings of the Church of the Holy Light and arcane magic contributed to the rapid decline of followers of the Old Ways ⁵.

In the face of external cultural pressures, Gilneas managed to retain religious followers of the Old Ways. Gilneas’s relative cultural isolation contributed to the perserverence of the Old Ways among its people. Gilneas remains the only known human nation with followers of the Old Ways. Gilnean followers of the Old Ways form the religious membership of the Order of the Harvest (Quest: Moonfire). The Order of the Harvest consider themselves as “keepers of the old ways” (Quest:Moonfire). Religious leaders within the Order of the Harvest are referred to as ‘harvest-witches’ ⁶; (Quest: The Winds Know Your Name...Apparently). At some time around the Third War, off-hand reports of night elf druidism reached the fascinated ears of Gilnean citizens, who associated the name of ‘druids’ with their native ‘harvest-witches’ ⁷. Followers of the Old Ways were nevertheless not widespread in Gilneas, but apparently existed on the fringes of “civilized” society. Celestine of the Harvest claims that her order of harvest-witches “were driven to the edge of extinction once before”(Quest: Moonfire). The extinction of the Order of the Harvest was ironically prevented, however, by a Gilnean famine that struck the nation after the construction of the Greymane Wall when their crops failed. Celestine claims it was their order “who called upon the earth’s blessing and restored the harvest,” (Quest: Moonfire). The Order was also rare enough that King Genn Greymane “had heard that druidism was practiced among some of Gilneas’s agrarian folk, but he hadn’t been exposed to it until recently” (LoHP). It’s not clear how recently Greymane learned the Order of the Harvest, though it may have been during the crop failures of the Gilnean Famine (Quest: Moonfire). Gwen Armstead’s skepticism of Celestine’s beliefs and powers hints at urban or Light-following skepticism towards the Order of the Harvest (Quest: The Winds Know Your Name...Apparently).

The religious followers of the Order of the Harvest revere nature. Celestine told Gwen Armstead “the winds spoke your name,” which gives Gwen the impression that the Order spends their time “conversing with nature” (Quest: The Winds Know Your Name...Apparently). Celestine speaks of their practices in entirely spiritual terms, having not only “called upon the earth’s blessing,” but also placing their “fate in the hands of a higher power” in which they “learn what the wild has to teach [them]” (Quest: Moonfire). The Order of the Harvest, and Gilneas by extension, also preserved the older traditions surrounding the festival of Hallow’s End and the Wickerman. The Order may have been capable of shapeshifting even prior to contact with the night elves. It’s when King Greymane sees a night elf shapeshift out of flight form that it reminds him of Gilnean ‘druids’ (LoHP), and Gilnean druids disguised in bear form are part of the Gilneas Liberation Front (Quest: A Wolf in Bear’s Clothing). It’s also possible that shapeshifting for the Order only became possible when the worgen curse amplified their druidic powers ⁸.

Here, I just copy-pasted a discovery I elaborated upon in the Lore subforum. There is some repetition from the History section.

Spoiler:

NOTE: This section contains almost entirely my own speculation, though it is based on the history presented in Warcraft lore, and the comparison of that history of humanity to real-world events.

Spoiler:

Based on the descriptions above, and comparison with real-world paganism, I have come up with the following:

Spoiler:

The Old Ways seem to be run by women. Not that men are barred from rising in its unstructured ranks. It just seems to be they think women match the powers of the natural world better. As they are run by women, meekness, shyness, and most anything we deem as "lady-like" would be met with confusion and mockery. This, coupled with Gilnean independence and pride would render an Old Ways woman as quite outspoken.

While they are not savage, perse, they are not quite on the same level of "civilized" as the normal city-dweller. These people likely grew up on the edges of society. In the woods and fields.

They likely revere their ancestors, and are more concerned with the natural cycle of things than their souls going to a pretty place in the clouds. It is unknown, or unclear what they think the afterlife is.

Holidays! They have those. Today, they likely celebrate any holiday any other human does, but with their own historical twist. Do some research on the old meanings of European holidays, and you'll find neat notes to use in RP. Also the use of holidays like Beltane and Samhain (respectfully).

They likely view aging differently than most city-folk. Whereas most people would view aging with trepidation, I imagine the Old Ways welcome it as a new stage in life, a new level of wisdom to share with the new generation. They aren't very concerned with physical beauty, at least not as much as a city-dweller.

Ancestral reverence is present, though likely not to the degree of the orcs' faith. Gilnean grave markers possess candles, and often empty bottles of some alcoholic drink or another. In a number of quests, spirits and a worry about upsetting the restful dead are mentioned.

Reverence for Elune and Goldrinn has likely started to catch on with Gilneans being introduced to Darnassus.

These are just some basic notes! You will likely find and develop your own, as you should.

The Old Ways practitioners and Harvest Witches rely on natural magics. Simple sounding stuff, right?

Since I've been RPing an Old Ways follower, I've seen people take many paths in RPing their powers. I'll try to break it down here with some examples.

Do note that you don't even have to have fancy nature powers to follow the Old Ways! Just like Light priests and the congregation. You also don't have to be a worgen.

Spoiler:

Sources:
Gilneas Compendium
Wowpedia
Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts
Ogham Alphabet
Futhark Runes]]> [Image: Title_zps3cf88837.png]

For the history section, I quoted material from WoWPedia and a very extensive guide to Gilneas and its culture. The citations therein are all links to source material.

Spoiler:

Gilneas Compendium Wrote: Gilnean culture has preserved a traditional form of naturalistic beliefs and magic referred to as “the Old Ways”¹. While the magical effects of the Old Ways are superficially similar to the druidism of the night elves, the Old Ways does not involve any actual druidism ². The Old Ways date to at least far back as early tribal human civilization, predating even the ancient human empire of Arathor ³. The holiday of Noblegarden, which has been historically celebrated among the human kingdoms, has its origins “steeped in druidic festivals from times long past,” which may corroborate this idea ⁴. The full nature and furthest origins of the Old Ways, however, still remains unclear and hotly debated among scholarly circles. Both the spread of the teachings of the Church of the Holy Light and arcane magic contributed to the rapid decline of followers of the Old Ways ⁵.

In the face of external cultural pressures, Gilneas managed to retain religious followers of the Old Ways. Gilneas’s relative cultural isolation contributed to the perserverence of the Old Ways among its people. Gilneas remains the only known human nation with followers of the Old Ways. Gilnean followers of the Old Ways form the religious membership of the Order of the Harvest (Quest: Moonfire). The Order of the Harvest consider themselves as “keepers of the old ways” (Quest:Moonfire). Religious leaders within the Order of the Harvest are referred to as ‘harvest-witches’ ⁶; (Quest: The Winds Know Your Name...Apparently). At some time around the Third War, off-hand reports of night elf druidism reached the fascinated ears of Gilnean citizens, who associated the name of ‘druids’ with their native ‘harvest-witches’ ⁷. Followers of the Old Ways were nevertheless not widespread in Gilneas, but apparently existed on the fringes of “civilized” society. Celestine of the Harvest claims that her order of harvest-witches “were driven to the edge of extinction once before”(Quest: Moonfire). The extinction of the Order of the Harvest was ironically prevented, however, by a Gilnean famine that struck the nation after the construction of the Greymane Wall when their crops failed. Celestine claims it was their order “who called upon the earth’s blessing and restored the harvest,” (Quest: Moonfire). The Order was also rare enough that King Genn Greymane “had heard that druidism was practiced among some of Gilneas’s agrarian folk, but he hadn’t been exposed to it until recently” (LoHP). It’s not clear how recently Greymane learned the Order of the Harvest, though it may have been during the crop failures of the Gilnean Famine (Quest: Moonfire). Gwen Armstead’s skepticism of Celestine’s beliefs and powers hints at urban or Light-following skepticism towards the Order of the Harvest (Quest: The Winds Know Your Name...Apparently).

The religious followers of the Order of the Harvest revere nature. Celestine told Gwen Armstead “the winds spoke your name,” which gives Gwen the impression that the Order spends their time “conversing with nature” (Quest: The Winds Know Your Name...Apparently). Celestine speaks of their practices in entirely spiritual terms, having not only “called upon the earth’s blessing,” but also placing their “fate in the hands of a higher power” in which they “learn what the wild has to teach [them]” (Quest: Moonfire). The Order of the Harvest, and Gilneas by extension, also preserved the older traditions surrounding the festival of Hallow’s End and the Wickerman. The Order may have been capable of shapeshifting even prior to contact with the night elves. It’s when King Greymane sees a night elf shapeshift out of flight form that it reminds him of Gilnean ‘druids’ (LoHP), and Gilnean druids disguised in bear form are part of the Gilneas Liberation Front (Quest: A Wolf in Bear’s Clothing). It’s also possible that shapeshifting for the Order only became possible when the worgen curse amplified their druidic powers ⁸.

Here, I just copy-pasted a discovery I elaborated upon in the Lore subforum. There is some repetition from the History section.

Spoiler:

NOTE: This section contains almost entirely my own speculation, though it is based on the history presented in Warcraft lore, and the comparison of that history of humanity to real-world events.

Spoiler:

Based on the descriptions above, and comparison with real-world paganism, I have come up with the following:

Spoiler:

Sources:
Gilneas Compendium
Wowpedia
Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts
Ogham Alphabet
Futhark Runes]]> <![CDATA[Belief, Instinct, Goals, Traits]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-30005.html Wed, 25 Apr 2012 07:09:14 -0700 Xigo]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-30005.html

[Image: images?q=tbn:ANd9GcScM847uHX4OC1lyoCuLDN...15SfJQlXbg]

Regardless. Enough gushing.

Four things were brought up in this book that really called out to me as a roleplayer. The things in the title of this thread. Thus, I'll simply attempt to convert them to work in CotH's setting, and maybe they'll help you guys out with making characters. All credit to Mouse Guard for this.

Belief

Quite simply, your belief is what your characters believes in. It should be simple, something that can be applied to various situations. And when your character is in a situation where he or she must take action, have the person fall back on a belief! Here's some examples.

The solution can often be found at the tip of a blade!
This simple belief adds so much character to situations. It commands the character in a lot of them too. The character is prone to relying on brute force, threats, duels, or simply killing people, rather than straight negotiation. He feels confident with his blade. This would also make some awkward situations, as the character would likely draw his sword in an improper situation, like when a bar brawl is about to happen! A flaw!

Only a fool doesn't consider his actions.
This gives me reason to believe that the character is a ponderer, someone who contemplates almost every major decision he or she makes. It gives me the impression that the character is educated, though it could just as easily apply to anyone else. It also gives me the impression that the character would be slow to react in a situation where instinct is necessary. He needs to fall back, think, before properly reacting to anything. Or at least he would prefer to do such. Once more, a potential flaw.

Think with your head and act with your heart!
A more neutral belief than the others. Quite simply it means to keep your wits about you, but follow your emotions as well. Not much flaw to this one, is there? But wait, consider this. A situation where a character's mind and heart conflict in what they want to do. Perhaps a friend is about to sacrifice himself so that this individual can complete a mission. The mind would say 'complete the task', the heart would say 'help him'. Which one would the individual follow? Would this change his or her belief? Beliefs can help bring about tough decisions.

Beliefs are not set in stone. Granted, they're hard to change, but they can change. Perhaps the yellow individual chose to complete the mission instead of aid the friend. Maybe something like this would cause her belief to change. Maybe she regrets what she did, and now follows her heart more? Or maybe the red one did something he considers repulsive such as kill an innocent, and is now more careful about using his blade! This would call for a change of belief!

Instinct

Instinct is what a character does in a stressful situation. A snap-second thing that the character does whenever he or she does not have time to consider possible actions. What the individual is most comfortable doing. It's easy to figure out the consequences of all of these listed instincts, so I'll put down a few.

Imagine your character being ambushed on the road. How would he -immediately- react?

Fight or die! Only one walks away!
Draw my blade at the first sign of danger.
Protect my fellows, no matter the risk to myself.
Talk my way out of things.
Run! And don't stop running!
Flee until I find a place to hide.
Fall back, assess the situation, act accordingly.

Try and come up with an instinct for your character, and adhere to it.

Goals

Goals are the most flexible of these things. They'll often change from situation to situation. However, whenever you do something with a character, you should have this character's goal in mind.

I want to get the jar of cookies.
I need to get help to save my grandmother's rocking chair from the fire.
I want him to marry me.

And as stated, they often change from situation to situation. Sometimes in rapid succession.

I want to do a random good deed today.
I want to talk to this man to see if I can help with anything.
I want to speak with his wife to discover if she's really been cheating on him.
I must decide whether I should tell the man the truth, or just walk away.
I... bla bla bla.

Things like that. While not always so cut and dry, a character should just generally have a goal in mind.

Traits

Traits are simply things that define your character's personality, yet are lenient enough to allow for some creative interpretation every now and then. They can change, though to alter one is generally difficult and the moment of change would likely be for important reasons. People don't just change on a whim.

So what I would suggest is figure out three traits about a character when you make him or her. Is he brave? Cowardly? Is she truthful or a liar?

Only tell me the things that are most important. Maybe your character is brave, thoughtful, flirty, and a liar. Figure out which of these is the least important and get rid of it. Just three will suffice.

You could also think of a physical trait or two, but try to only put down one. When your character begins to rely too much on how his or her body is, or the powers at one's control, it dulls the character. Would you be more interested in a character that is defined by being big brave and generous, or one with the defining traits of being small quick and a fast talker?

The Template

So when you make a character, I challenge you to consider what the belief, instinct, and traits of this individual would be. To aid with such, here's an easy template to follow. Maybe it'll help you get a better grip on an existing character after considering these things, even. Goals will come later during roleplay, though they're often influenced by the BITs.

... I like that acronym.

Quote:Character Name:

Belief:
Instinct:
Three Traits:

Pretty simple, takes less than five minutes. Might help you define your character better. Give it a whirl! Heck, post it here if you want to.]]>

Regardless. Enough gushing.

Quote:Character Name:

Belief:
Instinct:
Three Traits:

Pretty simple, takes less than five minutes. Might help you define your character better. Give it a whirl! Heck, post it here if you want to.]]> <![CDATA[Hero Guide!]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-28474.html Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:48:54 -0800 c0rzilla]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-28474.html

The Hero

What is it?

her·o·ism
[her-oh-iz-uhm]
noun
1. the qualities or attributes of a hero or heroine: He showed great heroism in battle.
2. heroic conduct; courageous action: Pat's returning into the burning building was true heroism.

The protagonist, the hero, the savior, the messiah. What is the hero, and his or her heroism? Here I hope to break down a few tropes of the Hero, and suggest ways for you, the player, to better participate in the grand fight of Good versus Evil in our little RP corner of the internet.

At its most basic, heroism is doing good. Whether through the most grand of battles, or the most humble of offerings, the hero can span many types. They usually serve as examples of a culture's higher morals, someone a person wishes to be. Hey, at one point in history they were demigods! Talk about achievement.

Note: Do NOT make your character to be a hero from the start. I know it sounds weird, but making your character whose sole purpose is to be the savior will most likely end you in a rut. Let your character develop and blossom, and keep these notes below in mind while that happens.

What is Good?

Heroism and Goodness: one Act of Random Kindness at a Time

Good, and goodness. So subjective, yes? Here, I won't get too into meandering philosophical arguments about “good” just being what is most useful for a person's well-being.

That's for the villain articles!

Good is what drives a hero to action, though their methods may be less than golden. It is always at the center of what they do, who they are. Indeed, as mentioned at the start of this section, what is good may likely differ from hero to hero. Just look at the Scarlet Crusade! Or Batman compared to Superman! Whether they're torturing hapless wanderers, beating the Joker's face in, or rescuing Lois Lane for the millionth time, their belief in good is at the center of it all.

Remember, heroes. You do your thing, whatever it is, for the world, not just you. Remember the ramifications of the actions that drive you, so your divine self isn't just stomping mindlessly through the world.

Types of Heroes

There's More than the Golden Boy...?

There are as many heroes as there are stars in the sky. The wondrous TVTropes will help me out here, as I list a few well known ones, and a couple of my favorites off.

Anti-Hero: This guy is popular in our cynical, grimy, industrial modern day. He fights the good fight, but boy does he get dirty doing it. However, despite his dark appearance and outlook, there is usually at least one important moral or memory that keeps up from falling over the edge into the abyss he stares into daily. Or nightly.

Badass Bookworm: This one is your quiet little nerd. But hidden underneath those glasses, is a vast array of skill and smarts. Very fun to play to catch people off guard.

Barbarian Hero: Conan the Barbarian, and Guts from Berserk fit this type. Not the nicest guy, but he'll save the day in battle, and usually become king in the process.

The Cape: Aptly named, this summarizes the Superman type. An ideally good person, the classic (super)hero. Very hard to corrupt, these are the guys Little Timmy wants to be when he's running around the backyard with a towel on his shoulders. Can come across as very corny if overplayed.

The Cowl: The darker version of the cape, usually an anti-hero. Wit and mind play are this one's ally, whereas brute strength might be The Cape's tools.

The Gunslinger: The name speaks it all. This hero is all about the style with which they use their firearms. You'll see these in Westerns, Film Noir. They can get away with silly hand positions that won't work at all In Real Life.

Hero with an F in Good: These guys want to be heroes, so badly. They have redeeming qualities, but they just don't get how to act good in the day to day life. Or, their end goal is good, but their methods are way too extreme. Redeemed villains usually fall under this type.

Intrepid Reporter: Lois Lane, Vicki Vale, or Jade of Beyond Good and Evil. These ones (usually female) will go out of their way to investigate the bigger story, only armed with their camera and wit.

Knight in Shining Armor: An ideal hero. The hero lots of people love to hate. The golden boy, on his white steed. This is a very classic, outdated type, though it can fit in WoW's world. Just be wary of turning it into a dreaded Golden Boy. You know the type. Always trying to save everyone, but he just ends up irritatingly in everyone's business.

Lady of Adventure: A higher class lady that seeks out adventure for the sake of it. You'll see her in Film Noir, or stories out of the Jazz Age, or stories involving British colonialism. Mina Murray of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen fits this type.

There are so many more, and so many subtypes, fitting either sex or gender despite what is listed. These here are just a few of my favorites. Peruse at your leisure, find your niche! And, please remember. Flaws are your friend.

Goals

As stated earlier, good is at the center of the hero. But, that's quite vague, yes? Let's see if I can break it down a bit into specifics:

Saving the World: This is well...the hero goal. The big bad is on the rise, and only you and your lance are the last hope. But is it worth it? Is this broken world worth saving? It is up to you and your hero to decide during your character's development.

Saving a Loved One: This might usually be connected with the rise of a Big Bad. The hero's love has been captured, and he must do all he can to save her! Good friends can be in this predicament as well.

A Calling: No matter what your hero tries, something always draws them back to heroism, no matter the suffering, no matter their own personal goals. This can provide good development as your hero wonders the great question of “Why?”. Will they drop it all? Will they keep trudging on?

Day to Day Good: This is often over looked in favor of shiny armor, lances, and fancy holy fire. Have a sit-down with the villain! Offer them tea! You never know what development might occur. And even better than the villain, the random passer by in Booty Bay. The common man often feels stepped on by the hero's big golden sabatons.

How to Deal With Your Villain

Heroes - You -can- RP Without Killing Every Villain in Sight

Indeed.

Heroes, your villains are people too. While the Monster of the Day might be fun to swat at with your hammer, there is no long term fun in trying to end your baddie in the quickest way possible. As stated before, a whole world of development can arise if you just talk to them. Find out their idiosyncrasies, their likes, dislikes, their past. Perhaps the goal of redemption will provide a good story, even if it fails utterly in the end.

As well, remember consent. You can do nothing to the villain character without its player's consent. This also ties in with the server's rule of Respect. While they may fall in the end, they are not your ego punching bag. They serve the story, not you, grand hero. In that same vein, know that you, shiny hero, will lose on the way to your grand goals. Just remember: this is character development!

OOCly work out a larger storyline with the Villain! This is a good way to avoid drama, and work out kinks.

-----

...And that's that! I believe this is my first guide, at least in a long while. I hope it provided a new view, and a bit of opportunity for polish on all that golden armor out there.]]>

The Hero

What is it?

What is Good?

Heroism and Goodness: one Act of Random Kindness at a Time

Types of Heroes

There's More than the Golden Boy...?

Goals

How to Deal With Your Villain

Heroes - You -can- RP Without Killing Every Villain in Sight

Preface

We have so many wonderful guides on the forums that could help with many questions when making a new character profile. I've made this small guide in order to try and better organize these all into one document for easy finding and surfing when you make a character. I do not claim to have written any of these guides, but I really do hope that this compilation of guides helps answer concerns when making your characters.

Contents

Spoiler:

[1.0] - Races

[1.1] - Alliance Races
- [1.1.1] - Humans
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 72-110
  - Average Weight - Male: 160 - 280 (73-127kg) - Female: 125 - 245 (57-111kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6' (1,83m) - Female:5'5" (1,65m)
  - Humans
  - The Human Nations
- [1.1.2] - Dwarves
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 252-450
  - Average Weight - Male: 154 - 226 (70-103kg) - Female: 124 - 193 (56-88kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 4'11" (1,50m) - Female: 4'7" (1,40m)
  - Dwarves
  - Ale, Hammer, Beards! by Djura
  - Wildhammer Relationships by Dafusimba (Note: This guide is about Wildhammer Dwarves and not Bronzebeard Dwarves)
  - Earthborn by CappnRob
- [1.1.3] - Gnomes
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 203-500
  - Average Weight - Male: 42 - 45 (19-20kg) - Female: 37 - 39 (17-18kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 3' (91cm) - Female: 2'10" (86cm)
  - Gnomes
  - Off and Away! by Secrettom
  - "Hey, Nice Apparatus!" and Other Ramblings by Kiffles
  [1.1.4] - Night Elves
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 2,000
  - Average Weight - Male: 216 - 324 (98-147kg) - Female: 206 - 314 (93-142kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 7' (2,13m) - Female: 6'8" (2,03m)
  - Night Elves
  - Of Night and Stars by Dilly
  - Kaldorei by Maeven
  - A Cosmic Duality; Sin'dorei and Kaldorei by Flammos200 (Note: This guide compares Night Elves and Blood Elves)
- [1.1.5] - Draenei
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of "Unknown"
  - Average Weight - Male: 118 - 175 (54-80kg) - Female: 100 - 165 (46-75kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 7'5" (2,26m) - Female: 7' (2,13m)
  - Draenei
  - So you want to play a Draenei? by Hawk
- [1.1.6] - Worgen
  - Average Weight - Male: 175 - 350 (79-158kg) - Female: 200 - 275 (90-124kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6'8" (2,07m) - Female: 7" (2,13m)
  - Worgen
  - The Kingdom of Gilneas
  - Gilneas and You! Observations On The Peninsula Nation by Xigo
[1.2] - Horde Races
- [1.2.1] - Orcs
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 82-100
  - Average Weight - Male: 292 - 508 (132-230kg) - Female: 252 - 468 (114-212kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6'6" (1,98m) - Female: 6' (1,83m)
  - Orcs
  - Zug Zug and More! by Theik
  - Strength and Honor by Kaghuros (Note: This guide is not explicitly about Orcs in general, but it explains on values Orc culture holds close.)
- [1.2.2] - Trolls
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 70-79
  - Average Weight - Male: 216 - 324 (98-147kg) - Female: 201 - 309 (91-140kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 7'5" (2,26m) - Female: 7' (2,13m)
  - Trolls (Note: This link tells about Trolls in general. For the tribe that is allied with Horde, see the next link.)
  - Darkspear Trolls
  - Feed the Troll by Walrus
  - You Come Get da Voodoo by Theik
  - The Loa by Walrus
- [1.2.3] - Tauren
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 114-150
  - Average Weight - Male: 375 - 664 (170-391kg) - Female: 346 - 634 (157-288kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 8' (2,44m) - Female: 7'8" (2,34m)
  - Tauren
  - Tuaren. You Know You Want One... by Harmonic
  - Since the Mists of Dawn by Beltharean
- [1.2.4] - Forsaken
  - Forsaken are actually Humans that were killed in the fall of Lordaeron in the Third War and came back as the "Living Dead" under service of the Lich King. Since then, they've declared independence and have joined the Horde. For information on the Forsaken before the fall of Lordaeron, please see the Human section.
  - Age - Forsaken Ages Explained
  - Average Weight - Male: 150 - 270 (68-122kg) - Female: 95 - 235 (43-107kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 5'11" (1,80m) - Female: 5'4" (1,63m)
  - Forsaken
  - The Undead by Nostra
- [1.2.5] - Blood Elves
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 2,000
  - Average Weight - Male: 118 - 175 (54-80kg) - Female: 100 - 165 (46-75kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6'1" (1,85m) - Female: 5'9" (1,75m)
  - Blood Elves
  - So you want to be a Blood Elf? by HelveteSong
  - A Cosmic Duality; Sin'dorei and Kaldorei by Flammos200 (Note: This guide compares Night Elves and Blood Elves)
- [1.2.6] - Goblins
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 75-93
  - Average Weight - Male: 55 - 110 (24-49kg) - Female: 75 - 85 (34-38kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 3'7" (1,13m) - Female: 4'2" (1,28m)
  - General Goblins
  - Bilgewater Cartel (Horde) Goblins
  - The Golden Boys: A Guide to Goblin by Geoni

[2.0] - Classes

[2.1] - Warrior
- Warriors
- Warriors by Touchseed
[2.2] - Paladin
- Paladins
- So you want to be a Paladin? by Tales23
[2.3] - Hunter
- Hunters
[2.4] - Rogue
- Rogues
- Honor Among Thieves by Kiffles
[2.5] - Priest
- Priests
- Shadow and Light by Scout
[2.6] - Druid
- Druids
- A Humble Guide to Druids by Delta
[2.7] - Warlock
[2.8] - Mage
- Mages
- Dummy's Guide to the Arcane by Theik
- Magic and You by Vorce
[2.9] - Shaman
- Shamans
- All About Shamanism by Khashgrokk
- Understanding Shamanism by Grakor456
[2.10] - Death Knight

[3.0] - Miscellaneous Guides

Height to Scale Convertor by Errata
- This guide helps with scaling your characters to give off a precise height display in-game.
Significant Racial Event Timeline by BountyHunter
- This guide can help with understanding the general idea of time flow and chronology when making your character!
Racial Predjudice in WoW by Thoradin
- This guide can help when trying to understand your character's possible relations with other races and sub-groups!

Closing
All guides without a stated author are written by other contributors on wowpedia.org.

As I'd like to keep this up for the players who need help creating profiles, please do help and make suggestions in this thread as to what should be added. I really do hope this helps.~

]]> Guide to Guides on Making Characters

Preface

Spoiler:

[1.0] - Races

[1.1] - Alliance Races
- [1.1.1] - Humans
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 72-110
  - Average Weight - Male: 160 - 280 (73-127kg) - Female: 125 - 245 (57-111kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6' (1,83m) - Female:5'5" (1,65m)
  - Humans
  - The Human Nations
- [1.1.2] - Dwarves
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 252-450
  - Average Weight - Male: 154 - 226 (70-103kg) - Female: 124 - 193 (56-88kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 4'11" (1,50m) - Female: 4'7" (1,40m)
  - Dwarves
  - Ale, Hammer, Beards! by Djura
  - Wildhammer Relationships by Dafusimba (Note: This guide is about Wildhammer Dwarves and not Bronzebeard Dwarves)
  - Earthborn by CappnRob
- [1.1.3] - Gnomes
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 203-500
  - Average Weight - Male: 42 - 45 (19-20kg) - Female: 37 - 39 (17-18kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 3' (91cm) - Female: 2'10" (86cm)
  - Gnomes
  - Off and Away! by Secrettom
  - "Hey, Nice Apparatus!" and Other Ramblings by Kiffles
  [1.1.4] - Night Elves
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 2,000
  - Average Weight - Male: 216 - 324 (98-147kg) - Female: 206 - 314 (93-142kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 7' (2,13m) - Female: 6'8" (2,03m)
  - Night Elves
  - Of Night and Stars by Dilly
  - Kaldorei by Maeven
  - A Cosmic Duality; Sin'dorei and Kaldorei by Flammos200 (Note: This guide compares Night Elves and Blood Elves)
- [1.1.5] - Draenei
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of "Unknown"
  - Average Weight - Male: 118 - 175 (54-80kg) - Female: 100 - 165 (46-75kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 7'5" (2,26m) - Female: 7' (2,13m)
  - Draenei
  - So you want to play a Draenei? by Hawk
- [1.1.6] - Worgen
  - Average Weight - Male: 175 - 350 (79-158kg) - Female: 200 - 275 (90-124kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6'8" (2,07m) - Female: 7" (2,13m)
  - Worgen
  - The Kingdom of Gilneas
  - Gilneas and You! Observations On The Peninsula Nation by Xigo
[1.2] - Horde Races
- [1.2.1] - Orcs
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 82-100
  - Average Weight - Male: 292 - 508 (132-230kg) - Female: 252 - 468 (114-212kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6'6" (1,98m) - Female: 6' (1,83m)
  - Orcs
  - Zug Zug and More! by Theik
  - Strength and Honor by Kaghuros (Note: This guide is not explicitly about Orcs in general, but it explains on values Orc culture holds close.)
- [1.2.2] - Trolls
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 70-79
  - Average Weight - Male: 216 - 324 (98-147kg) - Female: 201 - 309 (91-140kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 7'5" (2,26m) - Female: 7' (2,13m)
  - Trolls (Note: This link tells about Trolls in general. For the tribe that is allied with Horde, see the next link.)
  - Darkspear Trolls
  - Feed the Troll by Walrus
  - You Come Get da Voodoo by Theik
  - The Loa by Walrus
- [1.2.3] - Tauren
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 114-150
  - Average Weight - Male: 375 - 664 (170-391kg) - Female: 346 - 634 (157-288kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 8' (2,44m) - Female: 7'8" (2,34m)
  - Tauren
  - Tuaren. You Know You Want One... by Harmonic
  - Since the Mists of Dawn by Beltharean
- [1.2.4] - Forsaken
  - Forsaken are actually Humans that were killed in the fall of Lordaeron in the Third War and came back as the "Living Dead" under service of the Lich King. Since then, they've declared independence and have joined the Horde. For information on the Forsaken before the fall of Lordaeron, please see the Human section.
  - Age - Forsaken Ages Explained
  - Average Weight - Male: 150 - 270 (68-122kg) - Female: 95 - 235 (43-107kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 5'11" (1,80m) - Female: 5'4" (1,63m)
  - Forsaken
  - The Undead by Nostra
- [1.2.5] - Blood Elves
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 2,000
  - Average Weight - Male: 118 - 175 (54-80kg) - Female: 100 - 165 (46-75kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 6'1" (1,85m) - Female: 5'9" (1,75m)
  - Blood Elves
  - So you want to be a Blood Elf? by HelveteSong
  - A Cosmic Duality; Sin'dorei and Kaldorei by Flammos200 (Note: This guide compares Night Elves and Blood Elves)
- [1.2.6] - Goblins
  - Age - Adulthood at 18 - Lifespan of 75-93
  - Average Weight - Male: 55 - 110 (24-49kg) - Female: 75 - 85 (34-38kg)
  - Average Height - Male: 3'7" (1,13m) - Female: 4'2" (1,28m)
  - General Goblins
  - Bilgewater Cartel (Horde) Goblins
  - The Golden Boys: A Guide to Goblin by Geoni

[2.0] - Classes

[2.1] - Warrior
- Warriors
- Warriors by Touchseed
[2.2] - Paladin
- Paladins
- So you want to be a Paladin? by Tales23
[2.3] - Hunter
- Hunters
[2.4] - Rogue
- Rogues
- Honor Among Thieves by Kiffles
[2.5] - Priest
- Priests
- Shadow and Light by Scout
[2.6] - Druid
- Druids
- A Humble Guide to Druids by Delta
[2.7] - Warlock
[2.8] - Mage
- Mages
- Dummy's Guide to the Arcane by Theik
- Magic and You by Vorce
[2.9] - Shaman
- Shamans
- All About Shamanism by Khashgrokk
- Understanding Shamanism by Grakor456
[2.10] - Death Knight

[3.0] - Miscellaneous Guides

Height to Scale Convertor by Errata
- This guide helps with scaling your characters to give off a precise height display in-game.
Significant Racial Event Timeline by BountyHunter
- This guide can help with understanding the general idea of time flow and chronology when making your character!
Racial Predjudice in WoW by Thoradin
- This guide can help when trying to understand your character's possible relations with other races and sub-groups!

]]> <![CDATA[The Stages of Grief: A Guide on Being Able to Let Go]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-25719.html Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:33:55 -0700 Anski]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-25719.html The Stages of Grief
A Guide on Being Able to Let Go
Brought to you in Palatino Linotype

So you've made an adventurer.

[Image: Guide01.png]

Man, that's a sweet adventurer.
You already like your adventurer. Like, immediately. You can tell she's gonna be a good one.
Adventurers come in all different shapes and size, some tall, some short, some built, some skinny, some dumb, some brilliant, some endowed, some flat. This list goes on. Either way, it's an adventurer alright and she's now yours!
But here's the catch, nobody roleplays alone, or often at least. At least not for long. You're obviously going to run into people who want to hurt you (but we'll get to that later) and people who want to be your friend. This is where your adventurer comes from being a silly little drawing Anski made to being an actual character. People inherently develop their characters without often thinking about it through social interaction, just as people define themselves and shape who they are by who they are often around. So, your little adventurer girl is going to need some friends.
[Image: Guide02.png]

Here's a cool orc who's tough on the outside and nice on the inside, like a klondike bar or stale melted cheese.

[Image: Guide03.png]

And here's a badass looking dwarf (who kind of looks like a wizard in a baseball jersey but that's not the point) who'll be there with your adventurer and orc-friend through thick and thin.
Either way, we have our two friends (People usually don't have more than two.. right?) and the adventuring begins! Whether it's sitting in a bar together and getting hammered to saving each other's life on the edge of the maelstrom holding on for dear life on the railing of a falling airship, each person's favorite adventurer goes through some pretty awesome adventures, and they stick around for a while.
Well, after a while, orc-friend stops logging in. That's ok, there's always dwarf-wizard-friend, and maybe you've made some new friends along the way! That's always neat. Especially when you make an enemy alongside dwarf-wizard-friend and new-elf-friend. Maybe your enemy looks like this:

[Image: Guide04.png]

This is really just a picture of Marianna.

Enemies aren't usually nice to your character and want to slay them. Fortunately, as a bastion of good/evil, you wish to destroy your nemesis as much as they want to destroy you. This makes for some great RP, and can stand as great turning points in your adventurers life. Some cause you to cut out your eyes and swear your life to killing them, some cause you to train to become a better adventurer to defend yourself from good/evil. As you do, you either engage in a locked battle of alignment versus alignment for eons or one of you succeeds in killing the other. Especially if you're the defeated, the rest of this guide centers on you.

You may be asking yourself a question so important to you that your answer could make or break a good character's longevity within the current status of the social hierarchy and continuance on the server world.

Now what?

This question has been asked by many men and women, such as Lincoln on winning the Civil War, the US eradicating smallpox and many people after completing college. For some people, this question is irrelevant, their adventurer's longevity will never be struck down by seven letters and a question mark. These people are typically forward thinkers and may have some involvement with applying their characters to this guide. We have reached the core beginning of this guide: Now what?

Your tiny adventurer has become a big adventurer and an old adventurer. They have made, and specifically lost, many friends along the way. You continue to use them forwardly as they grow in understanding and capability. Normally, this is where people usually forward their characters into Prestige titles so that they can gain even more development, but this system has become moot so your characters must come to a conclusion somewhere. But this is not the case with many people. Characters continue as far as their creator is willing to run with them, but this is for people who have stopped in the dust, looking at their old and beaten kite with a bunch of holes in it and glancing over at the cool kids with their new kites that don't have holes in them, and asking themselves the same question that has baffled mankind since the dawn of reason: Now what?

Some people leap at the opportune to remake them. Brand new adventurers at heart, they know nobody and haven't seen the trials of war and friendship. But, here lies an underlying concept, what halts the creator from simply guiding them in the same direction they were before because they're used to their character being the same way? They'll make a new dwarf-wizard-friend and fall in love with nice-human-friend and have a villain and they'll act the same in some aspects and different in others. Nobody travels down the same path twice, right? This is true, but when you're looking at the paths from a seat amongst the gods and pushing your little tiny-minions on where to go, you simply pick them back up and put them at the start when they hit the end of the world. They walk down the same path and in a way you're used to Navren still being Navren but with different experiences and Krilari still being Krilari with different hair. Why change that?

The purpose of this guild is to solve the "Now What?" question many people ask themselves at a point of the end of their character. Were it up to me, everyone would make brand new characters of everything and it'd be like the first day of a new school and you get to flourish out and meet people, instead of lingering around people who already know each other and you're still pretty minor on the food chain. No worries, though, people work their way up even when faced with such problems, but I digress. People who feel their characters have ran their life should be encouraged to spindle out threads of new ideas, new concepts and creations to keep the two day old clothing of the server fresh and not smelling like Anski-workout-sweat. Although this is more of an article than a guide, the stress remains the same.

If you're tired of a character, consider all the options you have at your disposal before simply changing their skin color and facial hair before tossing them back out into the world. You may be asking yourself, 'But Anski, why else is this relevant other than the congregation of your own personal idealism on the server?'
Fear not, question asking minions, because there are more points to make! Particularly, there is one red flagging high upon yourself rather than the server well-being at large. What is a good writer that has fallen ill on old ideas? Well, probably a continual best seller writer like that James Patterson fellow or old Tom Clancy. But, they write to themselves and the (ignorant) masses keep buying their novels! But here, on a cornerstone of human-to-human interaction, the informed masses must simply be creative enough to stand out amongst their peers to create everyone standing out and a blanket of glory will overtake the outward appearance of the player base. If you limit yourself down, one takes on the grief of having a character that they have made simply a thousand times before and this often enough leads people to becoming simply disenchanted with the idea of RPing anymore. It's harrowingly sad, but from my concourse across the server, i've seen it done simply a million times before from a lot of people I consider my friends.

Now, this isn't a forward demand for everyone to trash their characters and start a new, but rather for people to cope with the often foreign concept of beginning again with no traces of their past around them. The forging of a new mold into a solid brick of iron is not an easy task, and one must begin into it with a forceful confidence, or fail where others have succeeded. Everyone started brand new on the server once, and some feel like they must rise to the challenge again. Fear not, new adventurer, for it is easier than once perceived. The upward bonuses of being able to begin from nothing is the allowance of your characters to be something you have no knowledge of doing before. You may ask 'But Anski, what simply stops us from rolling alts and experiencing what we've yet to experience before?' The answer is simply nothing. Nothing stops a player from experiencing all there is to experience with new characters, but the valley remains a valley no matter how high you climb up the walls. If you tire of your new alt adventurer, you simply slide down the canyon walls back into your safe zone.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you've slid down so much, you may feel as if you can never climb up the canyon wall again, and that walking in a canyon isn't really all it's cracked up to be and you're bent on going fishing or doing something that looks clearly more interesting than what was before it. This is the point that the whole article is focused on: a clean slate may be the only solution to a person feeling down in a rut from RPing and wish to absolve themselves from it because they have simply exhausted their character and they can grow no more. Their pretty adventurer has become worn with time and has simply seen so many people that meeting someone else is not new, they'd rather wish dwarf-wizard-friend and orc-friend were still around so their adventurer could be their adventurer in full. Unfortunately, people do leave for this reason or that reason, and those who hunker through the years simply just have old characters. I have experienced this three times now, as a whole account rather than a single adventurer.

There's always a bright side to starting with nothing at all and reconfiguring that into something brand new, but there is also a downside. You're starting into a place where many people have reached a plateau of character relationships, and becoming a part of that makes you feel like a foreign adventurer in a sea of fish that all know each other by first name and ask how their wives are doing. This is tough but possible to be overcome, especially when everyone is almost severing all of their relationships at once. Sure, some won't, (but who needs them anyway?) and that's alright. However, many more will be.

If you're feeling your characters have all grown into great things and their prime has come and gone, it may be right well to look into another option than just simply remaking them over again. It's clearly not for everybody, some characters are still in their prime, and if you feel they are, then continue to run with them as far as you're willing to go, it shows a capital perseverance of self and writing, but not all feel this way. If you're willing to let go, it's not as hard as it looks.

Everyone needs a new main adventurer every now and then. ]]> The Stages of Grief
A Guide on Being Able to Let Go
Brought to you in Palatino Linotype

So you've made an adventurer.

[Image: Guide01.png]

Here's a cool orc who's tough on the outside and nice on the inside, like a klondike bar or stale melted cheese.

[Image: Guide03.png]

This is really just a picture of Marianna.

Enemies aren't usually nice to your character and want to slay them. Fortunately, as a bastion of good/evil, you wish to destroy your nemesis as much as they want to destroy you. This makes for some great RP, and can stand as great turning points in your adventurers life. Some cause you to cut out your eyes and swear your life to killing them, some cause you to train to become a better adventurer to defend yourself from good/evil. As you do, you either engage in a locked battle of alignment versus alignment for eons or one of you succeeds in killing the other. Especially if you're the defeated, the rest of this guide centers on you.

You may be asking yourself a question so important to you that your answer could make or break a good character's longevity within the current status of the social hierarchy and continuance on the server world.

Now what?

This question has been asked by many men and women, such as Lincoln on winning the Civil War, the US eradicating smallpox and many people after completing college. For some people, this question is irrelevant, their adventurer's longevity will never be struck down by seven letters and a question mark. These people are typically forward thinkers and may have some involvement with applying their characters to this guide. We have reached the core beginning of this guide: Now what?

Your tiny adventurer has become a big adventurer and an old adventurer. They have made, and specifically lost, many friends along the way. You continue to use them forwardly as they grow in understanding and capability. Normally, this is where people usually forward their characters into Prestige titles so that they can gain even more development, but this system has become moot so your characters must come to a conclusion somewhere. But this is not the case with many people. Characters continue as far as their creator is willing to run with them, but this is for people who have stopped in the dust, looking at their old and beaten kite with a bunch of holes in it and glancing over at the cool kids with their new kites that don't have holes in them, and asking themselves the same question that has baffled mankind since the dawn of reason: Now what?

Some people leap at the opportune to remake them. Brand new adventurers at heart, they know nobody and haven't seen the trials of war and friendship. But, here lies an underlying concept, what halts the creator from simply guiding them in the same direction they were before because they're used to their character being the same way? They'll make a new dwarf-wizard-friend and fall in love with nice-human-friend and have a villain and they'll act the same in some aspects and different in others. Nobody travels down the same path twice, right? This is true, but when you're looking at the paths from a seat amongst the gods and pushing your little tiny-minions on where to go, you simply pick them back up and put them at the start when they hit the end of the world. They walk down the same path and in a way you're used to Navren still being Navren but with different experiences and Krilari still being Krilari with different hair. Why change that?

The purpose of this guild is to solve the "Now What?" question many people ask themselves at a point of the end of their character. Were it up to me, everyone would make brand new characters of everything and it'd be like the first day of a new school and you get to flourish out and meet people, instead of lingering around people who already know each other and you're still pretty minor on the food chain. No worries, though, people work their way up even when faced with such problems, but I digress. People who feel their characters have ran their life should be encouraged to spindle out threads of new ideas, new concepts and creations to keep the two day old clothing of the server fresh and not smelling like Anski-workout-sweat. Although this is more of an article than a guide, the stress remains the same.

If you're tired of a character, consider all the options you have at your disposal before simply changing their skin color and facial hair before tossing them back out into the world. You may be asking yourself, 'But Anski, why else is this relevant other than the congregation of your own personal idealism on the server?'
Fear not, question asking minions, because there are more points to make! Particularly, there is one red flagging high upon yourself rather than the server well-being at large. What is a good writer that has fallen ill on old ideas? Well, probably a continual best seller writer like that James Patterson fellow or old Tom Clancy. But, they write to themselves and the (ignorant) masses keep buying their novels! But here, on a cornerstone of human-to-human interaction, the informed masses must simply be creative enough to stand out amongst their peers to create everyone standing out and a blanket of glory will overtake the outward appearance of the player base. If you limit yourself down, one takes on the grief of having a character that they have made simply a thousand times before and this often enough leads people to becoming simply disenchanted with the idea of RPing anymore. It's harrowingly sad, but from my concourse across the server, i've seen it done simply a million times before from a lot of people I consider my friends.

Now, this isn't a forward demand for everyone to trash their characters and start a new, but rather for people to cope with the often foreign concept of beginning again with no traces of their past around them. The forging of a new mold into a solid brick of iron is not an easy task, and one must begin into it with a forceful confidence, or fail where others have succeeded. Everyone started brand new on the server once, and some feel like they must rise to the challenge again. Fear not, new adventurer, for it is easier than once perceived. The upward bonuses of being able to begin from nothing is the allowance of your characters to be something you have no knowledge of doing before. You may ask 'But Anski, what simply stops us from rolling alts and experiencing what we've yet to experience before?' The answer is simply nothing. Nothing stops a player from experiencing all there is to experience with new characters, but the valley remains a valley no matter how high you climb up the walls. If you tire of your new alt adventurer, you simply slide down the canyon walls back into your safe zone.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, if you've slid down so much, you may feel as if you can never climb up the canyon wall again, and that walking in a canyon isn't really all it's cracked up to be and you're bent on going fishing or doing something that looks clearly more interesting than what was before it. This is the point that the whole article is focused on: a clean slate may be the only solution to a person feeling down in a rut from RPing and wish to absolve themselves from it because they have simply exhausted their character and they can grow no more. Their pretty adventurer has become worn with time and has simply seen so many people that meeting someone else is not new, they'd rather wish dwarf-wizard-friend and orc-friend were still around so their adventurer could be their adventurer in full. Unfortunately, people do leave for this reason or that reason, and those who hunker through the years simply just have old characters. I have experienced this three times now, as a whole account rather than a single adventurer.

There's always a bright side to starting with nothing at all and reconfiguring that into something brand new, but there is also a downside. You're starting into a place where many people have reached a plateau of character relationships, and becoming a part of that makes you feel like a foreign adventurer in a sea of fish that all know each other by first name and ask how their wives are doing. This is tough but possible to be overcome, especially when everyone is almost severing all of their relationships at once. Sure, some won't, (but who needs them anyway?) and that's alright. However, many more will be.

If you're feeling your characters have all grown into great things and their prime has come and gone, it may be right well to look into another option than just simply remaking them over again. It's clearly not for everybody, some characters are still in their prime, and if you feel they are, then continue to run with them as far as you're willing to go, it shows a capital perseverance of self and writing, but not all feel this way. If you're willing to let go, it's not as hard as it looks.

Everyone needs a new main adventurer every now and then. ]]> <![CDATA[The 'Because.' Phenomenon]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-24331.html Mon, 27 Jun 2011 02:40:42 -0700 flammos200]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-24331.html Why do our characters do/are stuff?

Starting with the ending: A world of thanks

It's been... a year and a half or so since someone questioned my actions and those of my characters. The thing is, I want to say thanks. I'm not naming names - even in a positive light - but I will say that sometimes, a kick in the rear is a step taken forward, no matter how bad or mean or unfair it might seem at first.

I promise you, having your motives, your actions, and your characters put into question makes you a better role-player. Try not to be angry when people ask 'Why does/is your character X?'. It will help you and your character immensely to grow.

Another set of thanks go to whatever Gee-Emm read RSP profiles on GMI one mornin' and happened upon one of my own, and proceeded to question - quite politely - why the character had the station that they did. After the issue was resolved(Civilly. The character in question was a Special Profile), I was incredibly glad that somewhere out there, GMs pay attention to the characters that people play still, and that particular bit that made 'Old CoTH' so great and fun was still alive somewhere...

So, yeah. Whoever that was, thanks. And to everyone else listening: Question everything that seems suspicious!

Now that that's over with...

Middling in beginnings: A world of questions

Have any of your characters been racist? If so, why? Racism, in Warcraft, same as hatred, magic, combat and anything, really, has reasons behind it. What are your characters'?

Racism cannot exist without reasons. Hatred cannot exist without reasons:

~Why does your Draenei hate Orcs?
-Because the Orcs slaughtered the Draenei on Draenor. - from here you can build that, maybe, your Draenei lost a loved one/family member there? Or anything, really.
~Why -doesn't- your Draenei hate Orcs?
-Because Orcs have attempted to redeem themselves from a fel-wrought path by slaying Mannoroth and freeing themselves in the process. - from here you might build their view on Blood Elves who've done the same to fix their Sunwell.

~Why does your Blood Elf hate Night Elves?
-Because the Night Elves exiled the Highborne(which the Blood Elves revere) and are still nearly hostile to arcane users. - from here you might build their view on Trolls as feral, or perhaps a dislike of nature in favor of arcane? Or arrogance?
~Why doesn't your Blood Elf hate Night Elves?
-Because the Blood Elves are slowly moving forward from their Arcane/Fel paradigm into a Light-based one. Forgiveness is one lesson of the Light. - from here, you might build the character into a Paladin or Priest, and shape their views of Draenei, in thanks for them restoring the Sunwell with Light.

And so on. You have to remember that you tailor your character, but you must -always- have reasons behind the decisions they make and the views they adopt. Yes, it is possible for people to do uncanny stuff or hold uncanny views, but it is only thanks to reasoning behind such actions and views that they can do it.

'Because.' is not an answer that works in this case. In fact, it's a fairly flippant and rather disrespectful one, whereas discussing one's reasons with the people that ask you to politely explain yourself shows not only respect for your fellow player, but consideration of the Lore-setting in which Warcraft role-play takes place.

And I mean anything out of the ordinary - and even the ordinary things themselves - should have reasons behind them.

The reason for all the reasons - as it were - is because it allows you to flesh out the background of your character, and turn them into a working, thinking person rather than a mere robotic slave that adopts their views to your own, or to a predefined set without actually thinking any.

We've been faced often with the conundrum of the Chaotic character. Chaotic, however, does not mean random. It also does not mean 'crazy' or 'insane' - these terms do not even exist. If you wish to play out a mental illness do so only after researching it, and remember that less than ten percent of mentally ill people are actually violent, and that 'crazy' does not mean random.

A Chaotic character is able to shift their moral code lots 'n lots, sure, but there's always a reason behind it.

Ending with the middle: A world of warcraft

What is Warcraft? A universe at war with an immense demonic force that keeps sending all sorts of minions and enemies into the fray. But Warcraft is also a world of heroes.

Warcraft is based on epic deeds, on holy warriors, and spirit-blessed shamans, on mighty Orcs and Tauren, on spell-slinging Elves and subtle assassins. Warcraft is a world where renegade Warlocks battle fire with fire, and bring about Fel magic against the Legion. Warcraft is a universe of many worlds and many planes, all on which a single thing is constant.

War

Starting with the ending: A world of thanks

Middling in beginnings: A world of questions

Ending with the middle: A world of warcraft

War

The question is, why do you fight? Why do you do the things you do? What makes you who you are? What dark past made your shadow scar Azeroth and beyond? What bright future do you wish to forge in the everburning Light?

Who are you? Have you taken the time to ask yourself? If not, you'd better start soon, because there's a world of cause and effect out there. A world that will change you as much as you change it.

TL;DR: Never say 'IT'S MY PERSONAL CHOICE GAWD' because you don't fit into this picture. Your character does.]]> <![CDATA[Sewer Swimming: A Guide to Sueism, Godmodding and ClichÃ©s]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-15157.html Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:26:47 -0700 HelveteSong]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-15157.html
[1.0] What is a Mary Sue?
[1.1] Symptoms of Sueism

[2.0] Why should I care about Sueism?

[3.0] Types of Mary Sues
[3.1] Black Hole Sue
[3.2] Purity Sue
[3.3] God Mode Sue
[3.4] Copycat Sue
[3.5] Sympathetic Sue
[3.6] Anti Sue
[3.7] Thirty Sue Pile-up

[4.0] How to avoid Sueism
[4.1] Be Believable
[4.2] Flaws
[4.3] Read the Damn Lore

[5.0] What is God-modding?

[6.0] Why should I care about God-modding?

[7.0] Types of God-modding
[7.1] Aimbotters
[7.2] God-Moders
[7.3] Min-Maxers
[7.4] Miss Cleos
[7.5] McFlys
[7.6] Speedhackers
[7.7] Zoicites
[7.8] Oneshotters
[7.9] Trinities

[8.0] How to stop GMing

[9.0] Cliches
[9.1] I wield Frostmourne/Ashbringer/Gorehowl!
[9.2] I was trained by [Insert lore character of your choice here]!
[9.3] I'm the Son/Daughter of [Insert lore character here]!
[9.4] I'm a Mage/Warrior/Paladin/Shaman/Druid!
[9.5] Amnesia
[9.6] I'm from an alternate dimension!

[10.0] Conclusion

[1.0] What is a Mary Sue?
Why, that's a very good question, kind reader looking at my guide! A Mary Sue, most simply put, is a created character, whether it be in a fanfiction, or in our case, a roleplay, who's too damn perfect to be realistic or believable. For example, a half-angel, half demon warrior who's sword will save the world. Also, he's incredibly handsome, super smart, is invincible, and can make anyone who makes eye contact with him fall in love with him. Believable, right? If you said yes, either you're still new to roleplaying...or need to be taken out of the gene pool. I digress, I'm here to educate, not insult.

[1.1] Symptoms of Sueism
-Being immune too any, all or most status effects/curses/hoaxes.
-Ignoring a fellow roleplayer's attack because your character is just too awesome to be attacked.
-Instantly being strong without any recorded progress of strength/endurance training.
-Usually likes the spotlight on their own character so they use attention seeking methods in order to take the spotlight.
Ã‚Â-Have powers that equal or surpass Thrall/Lich King or any other significantly strong character in World of Warcraft.
-Beauty that is always described in sparkly detail. (Can be overdone)
-You're character comes out of a battle unscathed, scar-less and generally A-OK.
-He/she has spiritual powers that heal the sick, make brownies, make woman fertile without using any mana.
-Other characters tend to get jealous of your ass kickery, good looks, sharp wit, intelligence, and charm.
-He/she suffers from amnesia.
-He/she habitually shares profound wisdom and knowledge
-He/she has Barbie Doll syndrome.
-He/she succeeds in everything.
-Inversely, he/she fails at everything.
-He/she has unusual tatoos that magically appeared.
-He/she has a super model figure.
-He/she has an unnatural hair/eye color when no one else in his/her race can have it.
-His/her parents died horribly (or they just died) and your character is out for revenge.
-He/she the last of his/her race or clan.
-He/she has a demon or something trapped inside himself/herself.
(List copypasta'd from Gaiaonline guild 'Kingdom Hearts: Beyond the Door')

[2.0] Why should I care about Sueism?
Sueism is a very bad thing in roleplaying. It can utterly and unequivically ruin a RP session. A Mary Sue, or its male counterpart, Gary Stu, simply try to make the story all about them, which in a roleplay, frankly sucks. You're playing a character and living out their story! Why the hell should you now worship some dude because he carries a golden sword made of pure Light and knows all of the Dragon Aspect leaders personally and meets up with them to play poker every Thursday?! Pardon my French, but...no. It's never about any one character, but of all of the characters in the world who's actions and influence create one giant story. Even the Canons, despite having Sueish qualities, do not create lore on their own. There is always, always, more than one player in the game of roleplaying. Because if you're roleplaying by yourself, that's not roleplaying, that's just...lonely.

[3.0] Types of Mary Sues
There are many types of Mary Sues, so many to list that it would take up a majority of this guide! But I'll list key ones that we would most likely see on CotH.

[3.1] Black Hole Sue
The Black Hole Sue alters the fabric of reality to accommodate the person's world. All villains stand down after a single quip, all of their allies fall in love with the Sue, and all is right in their messed up little world. To counter this Sue, be humble. Share the limelight. Let the story form without constant tampering.

[3.2] Purity Sue
The Purity Sue is like a saint on overdrive. They're pure, gentle, have a soothing voice, and can do no wrong. To counter this Sue, have some faults, ya know? Maybe she's secretly a sadist, or he has multiple wives. Whatever.

[3.3] God Mode Sue
No one can harm this Sue, he/she's too powerful! All attacks are dodged, all magic immune'd, and nothing will stop this Sue from saving the day! To counter this Sue, take hits in battle. No one is indestructable.

[3.4] Copycat Sue
Exactly as the name implies. This Sue just copies from other people, movies, games, books, TV shows, etc. There is no creativity when it comes to this Sue, and that's what makes them so memorable. To counter this Sue, well, isn't it obvious? Think up your own ideas about your characters!

[3.5] Sympathetic Sue
This Sue cries out for sympathy, everyone has to feel bad for them. I mean, after all, their parents were murdered by bandits, they've been robbed, and no one loves them. Boo hoo. To counter this Sue, don't ask for sympathy. Have something a little positive about your character. If you're playing a down-on-your-luck bum, then I have no comment.

[3.6] Anti Sue
Ah, yes, the Anti Sue. This Sue was created by people attempting to hide their Sueist nature. No longer is she beautiful; she's now a hag. No longer is she intelligent, she's now smart as a sack of bricks. Yet, for being completely useless, ugly, and unintelligent, she's still the center of attention! To counter this Sue, balance out your character with good and bad things about them. She's smart, but a little homely. Rich, yet is crippled by an old war wound. Work with it, people!

[3.7] Thirty Sue Pile-up
The nightmare of all Sues. This is when people cram so many Sues together, it forms a giant Suemonster capable of halting all RP around the server in shock. To counter this Sue...Don't make such a damn Sue in the first place. Dismantle all the Sue pieces from it and restart the character if you need to. [Which you probably do.]

[4.0] How to Avoid Sueism
Now the real question comes up: "Helvete, how do I avoid being a Sue?" Why, that's another good question from you, my faithful reader! Keep this up, and I'll give you a gold star. Avoiding Sueism isn't as scary or difficult as it looks, but there are a few important rules to keep in mind:

[4.1] Be Believable
BY KRETOL HIMSELF, this is the most important out of all the steps. Your character does not need to be Jaina and Arthas' love child who wields Ashbringer to be a good character. Even the most common farmer's child can be a good character as long as they're fleshed out properly. If you're having trouble of whether something is believable or not, remember this? "Would it make sense if my character [insert whatever question you have here]?" If the answer is no, don't toss it in there. No one is perfect, everyone has flaws of some kind. Which leads into my next point.

[4.2] Flaws
Flaws are an important part of your character not being a Sue. No person is ever, truly perfect. And if they say they are, they need my size 12 shoe in their arse. But I doubt it would fit seeing as their head is wedged pretty deep to begin with. Again, I digress. Your orc has scars all over his face and body? He's not a handsome chap, then. Your Dwarf's taken one too many hammers to the noggin? Guess he's no rocket scientist. But not all flaws are physical. I cannot stress this enough. Your Blood Elf is constantly trying to find fel magicks, a xenophobic Night Elf. All of these can help you avoid Sueism and create a character that you normally wouldn't have thought of. IMPORTANT: Clumsiness and naivity are REALLY CRAPPY FLAWS on their own. Have a reason for them. Maybe your character has a permanent limp, so he can't walk right. Maybe your other character is a shut in, so she knows nothing about proper etiquette. Don't be a Bella.

[4.3] Follow the Damn Lore
Simple, yes? Well, for some, not really. I mean, if you don't know the lore, go read up or ask for help! It's reasonable, it's safe, you learn something. Night elves don't go to Ratchet/Booty Bay/ANY Goblin city without a pretty damn good reason to do so. Also, no Belf and Nelf would ever be civilized towards one another. EVER. They'd be at each other's throats. That would also be the same when it came to any Alliance race and any Horde race. There are always exceptions, but again, that's in the lore. If you're too lazy to find it...Tough crap. Go find it, learn it, so you don't look like a fool if someone asks why your troll is walking around with a human and not eating his face.

[5.0] What is God-modding? (GMing)
Ah, GMing. The way to keep a character safe from death, maiming, or any harm period. Also works in reverse, allowing a character to do the impossible and kill any foe, no matter how big or tough or evil. How does a human who's farmed his whole life beat a Night Elf who's been trained for hundreds of years in combat? It doesn't happen without one of two things: Really lucky rolls or God-modding. If you have to God-Mod, you're a cheater. No one likes a cheater. If you think people like cheaters, you're clearly lost in your own land of la la happiness, where vampires sparkle and protagonists have no personality. Do not confuse this with Game Master GMing, they do it for good. Generally. >_>

[6.0] Why should I care about God-modding?
GMing, like Sueism, kills roleplay. Two characters are in a fight, one stabs the other eighteen times in ribs, cuts the other guy's arm off, and stomps on the guy's foot before guy number two can respond. Fair, right? Again, if you answer yes, out of the gene pool with you. you don't get to reproduce. Like I said earlier, GMing is cheating. It's rude, disgusting, and if you do it intentionally...you're an a-hole and deserve a boot to the head.

[7.0] Types of GMing
Like the Mary Sue section, I'll only list the most important ones.

[7.1] Aimbotter
An Aimbotter is one who can fire off an arrow from Booty Bay to Darnassus and hit Tyrande in the face every time.

[7.2] God-Moders
God Moders are the ones who shrug off every attack, even after being impaled by a giant sword, they fight as if nothing was wrong.

[7.3] Min-maxers
Min-maxers are characters that are overly powered and have crappy weaknesses. A perfect example would be Achilles from Greek mythology. Weak point, his heel. His power? DESTROY EVERYONE.

[7.4] Miss Cleos
Miss Cleos use out of character knowledge as in game knowledge, giving them the unfair edge in any roleplaying situation.

[7.5] McFlys
McFlys do everything in hindsight. For example, A swings at B with his sword. Oh, B had already been blocking so the attack doesn't work.

[7.6] Speedhackers
Speedhackers, in short, do impossible things in a small amount of time. For example, a paladin revives six of her fallen allies between attacks from a lone Forsaken.

[7.7] Zoicite
Zoicites alter themselves as needed for each situation that happens to them. Lost in the mountains? Oh, I'm a world class survivalist even though I've never left Ironforge in my life.

[7.8] Oneshotters
People who win fights with instant death attacks. Warlock uses Finger of Death and pwns everyone.

[7.9] Trinities
Trinities suddenly gain abilities with no prior exposure. *Poof!* I'm immune to fire now, and since you're a fire mage.../pummel

[8.0] How to Stop/Prevent GMing
Now, how do we stop this pesky and overall not nice issue? Well, simply put, all battles should be roll battles if you're worried on trust. You can't God-mod a roll in WoW that isn't quite obvious. I can't really make it any clearer than this: Use common sense. Don't dodge every attack. If you're in plate armor, you'll have a harder time dodging than someone in leather armor. And people in leather armor will take more damage from a weapon attack compared to someone in plate armor. It's not that complicated.

[9.0] ClichÃƒÂ©s
ClichÃƒÂ©s are ideas that overly used and are no longer really that creative or unique. Yes, they seem fancy, but in reality, it's not. Get over it.

[9.1] I wield Frostmourne/Ashbringer/Gorehowl!
Umm, no, you don't. Lore weapons belong to LORE CHARACTERS. There is no reason why you should ever have one of these. EVER. Unless some kindly god on high decides your character is worthy of wielding a lore weapon, you don't get one. Also, the chances of you actually getting a lore weapon? Zero to none.

[9.2] I was trained by [Insert lore character of your choice here]!
I understand that you're trying to make your character super and everything, but this is just plain sad. You don't need a lore character to make your character cool. You need to use what the lore gives you and work with it. Lore characters obviously affect the lore, but you don't need a personal relationship with Arthas for your character to be a great person.

[9.3] I'm the Son/Daughter of [Insert lore character here]!
Just like the previous one, but worse. That would mean the lore character had to have bumped uglies with another person, which raises the question of when the f**k they would have had time to do so since they were, you know, busy making lore!? So if you think this is a good idea, you would be wrong. No character should be close to lore characters.

[9.4] I'm a Mage/Warrior/Paladin/Shaman/Druid!
Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this? If you can't, I'll explain. This person has decided to cram five different classes into one to make a super character. This is what I like to call overkill. Once again, you don't need your characters to be this special. Although, to be honest, Blizzard did this with Me'dan, who is the son of Garona Halforcen and Medivh, meaning he's one half Human, one quarter Orc, and one quarter Draenei. He can use mage spells, shaman spells, and is learning in the light as a paladin. My conclusion: Blizzard has lost all creativity.

[9.5] Amnesia
"Oh my god, I have amnesia! I can't remember who I am!" There was a reason this is banned from being used in profiles. Mainly because it means you're a lazy bastard who wants to not make a history for your character. That is disappointing in its own right, but I am once again here to teach, not judge. Rule of thumb, though: Amnesia is totally unentertaining and should not be used by people writing their profiles.

[9.6] I'm from an alternate dimension!
Simply put, the Warcraft universe already has a huge amount of lore to work with. Stay in our dimension please. Unless you're from Outland. Then you are allowed. Otherwise, I've only got one thing to say to that: GTFO.

[10.0] Conclusion
My conclusion is simple and to the point. Sueism is a serious issue in Roleplaying, but it can be averted if you follow simple steps and be creative. If you're having trouble, you can always ask for help. God-modding is cheating, and you will be flogged for it if you're doing it intentionally. If you don't if you are or not, check and see if you're giving the other person a fair chance to respond to your post. Finally, avoid clichÃƒÂ©s. They never look good and make you seem like a really bad roleplayer. In the end, it all comes down to respect for your better roleplayer. And if you can't respect your fellow roleplayer, you can frankly go to hell.
The End]]>
[1.0] What is a Mary Sue?
[1.1] Symptoms of Sueism

[2.0] Why should I care about Sueism?

[3.0] Types of Mary Sues
[3.1] Black Hole Sue
[3.2] Purity Sue
[3.3] God Mode Sue
[3.4] Copycat Sue
[3.5] Sympathetic Sue
[3.6] Anti Sue
[3.7] Thirty Sue Pile-up

[4.0] How to avoid Sueism
[4.1] Be Believable
[4.2] Flaws
[4.3] Read the Damn Lore

[5.0] What is God-modding?

[6.0] Why should I care about God-modding?

[7.0] Types of God-modding
[7.1] Aimbotters
[7.2] God-Moders
[7.3] Min-Maxers
[7.4] Miss Cleos
[7.5] McFlys
[7.6] Speedhackers
[7.7] Zoicites
[7.8] Oneshotters
[7.9] Trinities

[8.0] How to stop GMing

[9.0] Cliches
[9.1] I wield Frostmourne/Ashbringer/Gorehowl!
[9.2] I was trained by [Insert lore character of your choice here]!
[9.3] I'm the Son/Daughter of [Insert lore character here]!
[9.4] I'm a Mage/Warrior/Paladin/Shaman/Druid!
[9.5] Amnesia
[9.6] I'm from an alternate dimension!

[10.0] Conclusion

[1.0] What is a Mary Sue?
Why, that's a very good question, kind reader looking at my guide! A Mary Sue, most simply put, is a created character, whether it be in a fanfiction, or in our case, a roleplay, who's too damn perfect to be realistic or believable. For example, a half-angel, half demon warrior who's sword will save the world. Also, he's incredibly handsome, super smart, is invincible, and can make anyone who makes eye contact with him fall in love with him. Believable, right? If you said yes, either you're still new to roleplaying...or need to be taken out of the gene pool. I digress, I'm here to educate, not insult.

[1.1] Symptoms of Sueism
-Being immune too any, all or most status effects/curses/hoaxes.
-Ignoring a fellow roleplayer's attack because your character is just too awesome to be attacked.
-Instantly being strong without any recorded progress of strength/endurance training.
-Usually likes the spotlight on their own character so they use attention seeking methods in order to take the spotlight.
Ã‚Â-Have powers that equal or surpass Thrall/Lich King or any other significantly strong character in World of Warcraft.
-Beauty that is always described in sparkly detail. (Can be overdone)
-You're character comes out of a battle unscathed, scar-less and generally A-OK.
-He/she has spiritual powers that heal the sick, make brownies, make woman fertile without using any mana.
-Other characters tend to get jealous of your ass kickery, good looks, sharp wit, intelligence, and charm.
-He/she suffers from amnesia.
-He/she habitually shares profound wisdom and knowledge
-He/she has Barbie Doll syndrome.
-He/she succeeds in everything.
-Inversely, he/she fails at everything.
-He/she has unusual tatoos that magically appeared.
-He/she has a super model figure.
-He/she has an unnatural hair/eye color when no one else in his/her race can have it.
-His/her parents died horribly (or they just died) and your character is out for revenge.
-He/she the last of his/her race or clan.
-He/she has a demon or something trapped inside himself/herself.
(List copypasta'd from Gaiaonline guild 'Kingdom Hearts: Beyond the Door')

[2.0] Why should I care about Sueism?
Sueism is a very bad thing in roleplaying. It can utterly and unequivically ruin a RP session. A Mary Sue, or its male counterpart, Gary Stu, simply try to make the story all about them, which in a roleplay, frankly sucks. You're playing a character and living out their story! Why the hell should you now worship some dude because he carries a golden sword made of pure Light and knows all of the Dragon Aspect leaders personally and meets up with them to play poker every Thursday?! Pardon my French, but...no. It's never about any one character, but of all of the characters in the world who's actions and influence create one giant story. Even the Canons, despite having Sueish qualities, do not create lore on their own. There is always, always, more than one player in the game of roleplaying. Because if you're roleplaying by yourself, that's not roleplaying, that's just...lonely.

[3.0] Types of Mary Sues
There are many types of Mary Sues, so many to list that it would take up a majority of this guide! But I'll list key ones that we would most likely see on CotH.

[3.1] Black Hole Sue
The Black Hole Sue alters the fabric of reality to accommodate the person's world. All villains stand down after a single quip, all of their allies fall in love with the Sue, and all is right in their messed up little world. To counter this Sue, be humble. Share the limelight. Let the story form without constant tampering.

[3.2] Purity Sue
The Purity Sue is like a saint on overdrive. They're pure, gentle, have a soothing voice, and can do no wrong. To counter this Sue, have some faults, ya know? Maybe she's secretly a sadist, or he has multiple wives. Whatever.

[3.3] God Mode Sue
No one can harm this Sue, he/she's too powerful! All attacks are dodged, all magic immune'd, and nothing will stop this Sue from saving the day! To counter this Sue, take hits in battle. No one is indestructable.

[3.4] Copycat Sue
Exactly as the name implies. This Sue just copies from other people, movies, games, books, TV shows, etc. There is no creativity when it comes to this Sue, and that's what makes them so memorable. To counter this Sue, well, isn't it obvious? Think up your own ideas about your characters!

[3.5] Sympathetic Sue
This Sue cries out for sympathy, everyone has to feel bad for them. I mean, after all, their parents were murdered by bandits, they've been robbed, and no one loves them. Boo hoo. To counter this Sue, don't ask for sympathy. Have something a little positive about your character. If you're playing a down-on-your-luck bum, then I have no comment.

[3.6] Anti Sue
Ah, yes, the Anti Sue. This Sue was created by people attempting to hide their Sueist nature. No longer is she beautiful; she's now a hag. No longer is she intelligent, she's now smart as a sack of bricks. Yet, for being completely useless, ugly, and unintelligent, she's still the center of attention! To counter this Sue, balance out your character with good and bad things about them. She's smart, but a little homely. Rich, yet is crippled by an old war wound. Work with it, people!

[3.7] Thirty Sue Pile-up
The nightmare of all Sues. This is when people cram so many Sues together, it forms a giant Suemonster capable of halting all RP around the server in shock. To counter this Sue...Don't make such a damn Sue in the first place. Dismantle all the Sue pieces from it and restart the character if you need to. [Which you probably do.]

[4.0] How to Avoid Sueism
Now the real question comes up: "Helvete, how do I avoid being a Sue?" Why, that's another good question from you, my faithful reader! Keep this up, and I'll give you a gold star. Avoiding Sueism isn't as scary or difficult as it looks, but there are a few important rules to keep in mind:

[4.1] Be Believable
BY KRETOL HIMSELF, this is the most important out of all the steps. Your character does not need to be Jaina and Arthas' love child who wields Ashbringer to be a good character. Even the most common farmer's child can be a good character as long as they're fleshed out properly. If you're having trouble of whether something is believable or not, remember this? "Would it make sense if my character [insert whatever question you have here]?" If the answer is no, don't toss it in there. No one is perfect, everyone has flaws of some kind. Which leads into my next point.

[4.2] Flaws
Flaws are an important part of your character not being a Sue. No person is ever, truly perfect. And if they say they are, they need my size 12 shoe in their arse. But I doubt it would fit seeing as their head is wedged pretty deep to begin with. Again, I digress. Your orc has scars all over his face and body? He's not a handsome chap, then. Your Dwarf's taken one too many hammers to the noggin? Guess he's no rocket scientist. But not all flaws are physical. I cannot stress this enough. Your Blood Elf is constantly trying to find fel magicks, a xenophobic Night Elf. All of these can help you avoid Sueism and create a character that you normally wouldn't have thought of. IMPORTANT: Clumsiness and naivity are REALLY CRAPPY FLAWS on their own. Have a reason for them. Maybe your character has a permanent limp, so he can't walk right. Maybe your other character is a shut in, so she knows nothing about proper etiquette. Don't be a Bella.

[4.3] Follow the Damn Lore
Simple, yes? Well, for some, not really. I mean, if you don't know the lore, go read up or ask for help! It's reasonable, it's safe, you learn something. Night elves don't go to Ratchet/Booty Bay/ANY Goblin city without a pretty damn good reason to do so. Also, no Belf and Nelf would ever be civilized towards one another. EVER. They'd be at each other's throats. That would also be the same when it came to any Alliance race and any Horde race. There are always exceptions, but again, that's in the lore. If you're too lazy to find it...Tough crap. Go find it, learn it, so you don't look like a fool if someone asks why your troll is walking around with a human and not eating his face.

[5.0] What is God-modding? (GMing)
Ah, GMing. The way to keep a character safe from death, maiming, or any harm period. Also works in reverse, allowing a character to do the impossible and kill any foe, no matter how big or tough or evil. How does a human who's farmed his whole life beat a Night Elf who's been trained for hundreds of years in combat? It doesn't happen without one of two things: Really lucky rolls or God-modding. If you have to God-Mod, you're a cheater. No one likes a cheater. If you think people like cheaters, you're clearly lost in your own land of la la happiness, where vampires sparkle and protagonists have no personality. Do not confuse this with Game Master GMing, they do it for good. Generally. >_>

[6.0] Why should I care about God-modding?
GMing, like Sueism, kills roleplay. Two characters are in a fight, one stabs the other eighteen times in ribs, cuts the other guy's arm off, and stomps on the guy's foot before guy number two can respond. Fair, right? Again, if you answer yes, out of the gene pool with you. you don't get to reproduce. Like I said earlier, GMing is cheating. It's rude, disgusting, and if you do it intentionally...you're an a-hole and deserve a boot to the head.

[7.0] Types of GMing
Like the Mary Sue section, I'll only list the most important ones.

[7.1] Aimbotter
An Aimbotter is one who can fire off an arrow from Booty Bay to Darnassus and hit Tyrande in the face every time.

[7.2] God-Moders
God Moders are the ones who shrug off every attack, even after being impaled by a giant sword, they fight as if nothing was wrong.

[7.3] Min-maxers
Min-maxers are characters that are overly powered and have crappy weaknesses. A perfect example would be Achilles from Greek mythology. Weak point, his heel. His power? DESTROY EVERYONE.

[7.4] Miss Cleos
Miss Cleos use out of character knowledge as in game knowledge, giving them the unfair edge in any roleplaying situation.

[7.5] McFlys
McFlys do everything in hindsight. For example, A swings at B with his sword. Oh, B had already been blocking so the attack doesn't work.

[7.6] Speedhackers
Speedhackers, in short, do impossible things in a small amount of time. For example, a paladin revives six of her fallen allies between attacks from a lone Forsaken.

[7.7] Zoicite
Zoicites alter themselves as needed for each situation that happens to them. Lost in the mountains? Oh, I'm a world class survivalist even though I've never left Ironforge in my life.

[7.8] Oneshotters
People who win fights with instant death attacks. Warlock uses Finger of Death and pwns everyone.

[7.9] Trinities
Trinities suddenly gain abilities with no prior exposure. *Poof!* I'm immune to fire now, and since you're a fire mage.../pummel

[8.0] How to Stop/Prevent GMing
Now, how do we stop this pesky and overall not nice issue? Well, simply put, all battles should be roll battles if you're worried on trust. You can't God-mod a roll in WoW that isn't quite obvious. I can't really make it any clearer than this: Use common sense. Don't dodge every attack. If you're in plate armor, you'll have a harder time dodging than someone in leather armor. And people in leather armor will take more damage from a weapon attack compared to someone in plate armor. It's not that complicated.

[9.0] ClichÃƒÂ©s
ClichÃƒÂ©s are ideas that overly used and are no longer really that creative or unique. Yes, they seem fancy, but in reality, it's not. Get over it.

[9.1] I wield Frostmourne/Ashbringer/Gorehowl!
Umm, no, you don't. Lore weapons belong to LORE CHARACTERS. There is no reason why you should ever have one of these. EVER. Unless some kindly god on high decides your character is worthy of wielding a lore weapon, you don't get one. Also, the chances of you actually getting a lore weapon? Zero to none.

[9.2] I was trained by [Insert lore character of your choice here]!
I understand that you're trying to make your character super and everything, but this is just plain sad. You don't need a lore character to make your character cool. You need to use what the lore gives you and work with it. Lore characters obviously affect the lore, but you don't need a personal relationship with Arthas for your character to be a great person.

[9.3] I'm the Son/Daughter of [Insert lore character here]!
Just like the previous one, but worse. That would mean the lore character had to have bumped uglies with another person, which raises the question of when the f**k they would have had time to do so since they were, you know, busy making lore!? So if you think this is a good idea, you would be wrong. No character should be close to lore characters.

[9.4] I'm a Mage/Warrior/Paladin/Shaman/Druid!
Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this? If you can't, I'll explain. This person has decided to cram five different classes into one to make a super character. This is what I like to call overkill. Once again, you don't need your characters to be this special. Although, to be honest, Blizzard did this with Me'dan, who is the son of Garona Halforcen and Medivh, meaning he's one half Human, one quarter Orc, and one quarter Draenei. He can use mage spells, shaman spells, and is learning in the light as a paladin. My conclusion: Blizzard has lost all creativity.

[9.5] Amnesia
"Oh my god, I have amnesia! I can't remember who I am!" There was a reason this is banned from being used in profiles. Mainly because it means you're a lazy bastard who wants to not make a history for your character. That is disappointing in its own right, but I am once again here to teach, not judge. Rule of thumb, though: Amnesia is totally unentertaining and should not be used by people writing their profiles.

[9.6] I'm from an alternate dimension!
Simply put, the Warcraft universe already has a huge amount of lore to work with. Stay in our dimension please. Unless you're from Outland. Then you are allowed. Otherwise, I've only got one thing to say to that: GTFO.

[10.0] Conclusion
My conclusion is simple and to the point. Sueism is a serious issue in Roleplaying, but it can be averted if you follow simple steps and be creative. If you're having trouble, you can always ask for help. God-modding is cheating, and you will be flogged for it if you're doing it intentionally. If you don't if you are or not, check and see if you're giving the other person a fair chance to respond to your post. Finally, avoid clichÃƒÂ©s. They never look good and make you seem like a really bad roleplayer. In the end, it all comes down to respect for your better roleplayer. And if you can't respect your fellow roleplayer, you can frankly go to hell.
The End]]> <![CDATA[It's YOUR Character: Making an Effective Character Profile]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-14634.html Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:24:40 -0700 Darkneon]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-14634.html

0.0 Preface
Welcome to Ã¢Â€ÂœIt's YOUR CharacterÃ¢Â€Â by Darkneon! Consider this a good start to beginning or improving upon your Character Profiling and Building skills. In this guide you'll be introduced the many different ways you can effectively create and present your character starting from absolute scratch! For the remainder of the time, we'll be using Conquest of the Horde's character template, break it down bit-by-bit, and learning tips, tricks, and guidelines for each sect.

Table of Content
0.0 Preface
1.0 Preparations
1.1 Ideas and Inspiration
2.0 Foundation
2.1 Race and Gender
2.2 Physical Appearance
2.3 Class
2.4 Age
3.0 History
4.0 Name
5.0 Personality
6.0 Alignment
7.0 The Finishing Touches
8.0 Keeping it Short (Optional)
9.0 Example Profiles
10.0 Profile-Checking Courtesy
11.0 Special Thanks!
12.0 Epilogue

1.0 Preparations
Okay, first things first. When we start baking, we have to gather all of our ingredients, right? Well, before we begin: here are some questions you should keep in mind while building your character and profile:

1. How am I going to use this character in-game?

-This is simply to remind you what the purpose of this character is. Are they meant to make others laugh and lighten a moody situation, or inject drama into others and create conflict?

2. Will other people take pleasure in role playing with my character?

-You don't role play for you. If other people will be burdened by trying to find ways to accept your character OCCly, then it's best to just not go through with it at all. Give and take, that's what it's all about. Knowing when to take some attention away from others, and when to back down and give them the spotlight. (Humility, anyone?)

3. What would the GMs be thinking?

-Self-explanatory.

4. What am I doing to avoid creating a clichÃƒÂ©, Mary Sue, or flat character?

-These are the characters that are basic clones riding on the originality of another author. All it takes to make one is creating a spin-off and switching a few things around with your own imagination. This borders on the edge of copywriting, and requires no imagination on your part. /Nobody/ likes to role play with an idea we've seen hundreds of times. That's why we're going to start from scratch and do this the proper way.

5. What will my character contribute to a situation?

-Role playing is about having fun, portraying realistic emotions, and pulling your weight. If people have to constantly have their character's lessened at your expense, or sacrifice the quality of their role play just to be able to fit you in Ã¢Â€Â“ do you think you're doing your duty as a role player? This is generally why things such as vampires, half-demons, or Naga aren't playable. Unless you get special attention while you role play that kind of character, you really aren't contributing much. This includes characters that are meant to make everyone (everyone!) feel a certain way. This is godmodding and forces other players to sacrifice their role play by having their characters react to the way you want them to.

Avoid including your opinions of your character in a profile! When writing one, always stick to the facts.

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1.1 Ideas and Inspiration

Start thinking. Did you ever meet somebody that you wanted to be, just because of their personality? Have you ever read a book and just admired the way a character acted and spoke?

Make a catalyst of all the things you'd think you'd have fun portraying (emotions, actions, speech, etc). This will serve as your inspiration and will be the determining factor on whether or not you've created a Mary Sue or an original character. Though, we'll get into that later.

Try jotting down some ideas on what would make somebody act like this. Then, start crossing out anything you're unsure of.

Example:
I personally admire Atticus Finch from to Kill a Mocking Bird. I've always wanted to role-play a businessman. Hey, maybe even that plump boss who always has the giant cig hanging from the corner of his mouth! Though, I don't want my character to be completely heartless, because that's just not my role play style.

Now let's see. . . Atticus Finch is known to be calm, patient, intellectual, and very good with children. However, there are very different types of businessmen. So I'm going to be more specific, and choose something that compliments my other ideas. Therefore, I'll go with the traits of a small-town businessman. The ones I like tend to pay attention to quality, make friends with customers, and are very skilled in their craft. The boss tends to be very determined, demanding, and of course Ã¢Â€Â“ the famous cig.

Time to make a character collage! I like the intellectual and being good with children, but I'm having some doubts how patience may affect the overall character. So, I'll cross that out. Paying attention to quality and being very skilled is also great! There are a lot of things I can do with a demanding and persistent character. See how easy it is! (corny smile)

~

This is about the time you should start getting a good sense of what type of character you're going to play. I'm advising you never to wing your profile, and don't start this process with a solid intention in mind Ã¢Â€Â“ you'll have to be flexible if you want a realistic character. When you're trying to hard to get exactly what you want, that's when you start making mistakes and end up 'bending' the rules. In most cases, this is what will get your profile denied or at least severely questioned.

[Image: deniedIYC.jpg]

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2.0 Foundation

2.1 Race and Gender

Now that you have an idea in mind, think about which race your ideas would most likely fit in with.

My idea will work great for a human or a dwarf, but being good with children or carrying a cigar isn't something Orcs or Night Elves are known for. Stick to the Status Quo; don't try to assimilate a society to fit your needs. It doesn't really go over well and adds a film of unrealism to your character. If you want to play a particular race, than make sure you eliminate any inspirations that don't fit. A Tauren is chauvinistic where a human is green. Once you have determined your race, this is the perfect opportunity to expand on your collage by adding traits the race is known for. Then based on these traits, determine which gender bests fits them (don't be afraid to play on stereotypes, everyone's a little bit racist).

In this instance, I don't really find it as exciting to portray a Human, so I'm going to roll a dwarf. Dwarves are known to be proud, gruff, and inebriated. When I imagine my character, I see a man. You don't really think of women when you imagine cigars and plump-bosses (, do you?). This is probably because my inspiration was drawn from male dominant sources.

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2.2 Physical Appearance

Oh dear! A luscious blonde with sparkling blue eyes as deep as the ocean? Jet black hair with shining emerald eyes that glimmer with unfathomable thought? Please, stop! Ask yourself: What is the point of the Physical Appearance of your character? Personally, I think it goes beyond what (s)he's going to look like. It's time to learn what to take advantage of and what to leave alone. The appearance of your character can be used greatly to contribute to how (s)he is fleshed out, or serve as an anchor weighing them down at the bottom of the Great Sea.

Hair and Eyes

Please, do yourself a favor and keep these simple. Genetics is the laziest pretext to try and create an original character. Don't take the extra mile by getting too in-depth about what color it is. Of course, expanding blonde to dirty blonde makes sense. Though, putting things like honey blonde or silky-extra-soft blonde is unnecessary and just plain too much. DON'T USE GEMS TO DESCRIBE EYE COLOR. It's excessively narcissistic and takes away from the entire profile. Say blue eyes, not sapphire. Nobody really wants to hear the most specific color for your character's hair that you can come up with, and you're better off using your creativity elsewhere.

Also, keep it natural. When you leave your house to go to work or school Ã¢Â€Â“ do you commonly see people with yellow eyes and purple hair? It's possible, but it's not common. Please, using hair and eye colors to try and make your character more innovative is not even a pioneering gesture in itself, don't do it! It's a big no-no (sage nod). Well, describe them however you feel. . . that's just my opinion.

~My character is going to have black hair and brown eyes.

Weight and Height

This is your friend! Not many people take advantage of this. How does the life-style of the short and portly man differ from the tall and buff surfer boy? Height and Weight are good sources on fleshing out your character's personality. Perhaps he missed the most important interview of his life because he was so short he couldn't reach his gyrocopter keys that his mother left on the kitchen stool and is now spending the rest of his life cleaning up Kodo dung at the Darkmoon Faire. Just remember, be natural with it. Stay within the limits of your race Ã¢Â€Â“ that's the reason why we chose that before we got to this.

~My dwarf is going to be pretty average height, but I imagine him very plump. Therefore he's going to be average 4'11'' but a whopping 210 pounds! Can you imagine the disproportion? Nom nom nom nom nom.

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2.3 Class

[Image: ClassIYC.jpg]

This is a sketchy topic because it can be determined BEFORE or AFTER you finish your profile. Therefore, we'll split this into two categories. Malleable and Lore-Restricted.

Malleable:
-Warrior
-Hunter
-Rogue

Lore-Restricted:
Lightly:
-Druid
-Shaman
-Mage
-Warlock
-Priest

Heavily:
-Paladin
-Death Knight

Regardless of what class you've chosen, you've now just picked the next source of inspiration to glue to your ever-expanding character collage!

For those of you who've chosen a malleable character, you should have a good sense of what this means your character is capable of. This can determine their fighting style and secondary skills. Don't feel obligated to stay within the limits, though. You don't even have to play the class! If you simply want to be an engineer with no warrior skills- then it's perfectly okay to use a warrior for your place holder. Never feel obligated to have to play a warrior, hunter, or rogue just because there's no Engineer class. NOTE: If you decide to use a malleable class as a place-holder, then your character would not have the skills associated with that class. Feel free to build your characters skills and style from scratch. However, if you're going to be using magic, or portray any skills that belong to a Lore-restricted class, than you're in the wrong category.

Those who've selected a Lore-Restricted Class, start doing your research! You'll probably spend more time researching than you will be actually writing your profile. Don't assume you know your lore well enough NOT to do research. That is a major mistake. Researching the class will provide you with additional information, reconfirm your knowledge, or even correct it. Once again, use this information to your advantage. Think about the traits and personalities associated with this class Ã¢Â€Â“ add it to your collage. The best character in this genre is one that is accurately portrayed. Once again though, choose carefully. There's no such thing as a loving Death Knight, and a Druid starting forest fires. Like many, you can claim some special event to make this possible, but what use is that to anyone? People want to role play with a shaman, not some industrialized electric shooting orc that got dropped on the head when he was a toddler. It's funny, but it's only meant for laughs. If that's the type of character you're trying to go for, then there isn't much point in you even reading this part of the guide.

~ IMPORTANT NOTE: See Section 9.0 Example Profiles for a default and heavily-lore based character profile.

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2.4 Age

Okay! So you've done your research and you have a pretty good idea what the character is going to be like. Now read the age guidelines for your race and gender (as determined by the server you're playing on). Determine the most accurate age for your character (not the age you want), and stick with it. Once again, draw from this. What are traits associated to the people of this age?

Whoa, whoa! You chose a Night Elf? Even after consulting the guidelines, you may find yourself a bit confused. When it comes to the immortal Elves (Pre-Mount Hyjal Smashing), what basically happened was they were born, aged to 300, and then stopped growing (kinda like being petrified or frozen in carbonite). Well, when the big ol' defiler came around and went all Terminator on the big tree in the sky, the Night Elves lost their immortality. You know the story! If your Night Elf was born before then, you get another 900 years of life! If you were born after, then don't worry about it. When mortal and aging, Night Elves can only live for 1,200 years. So apply this depending on when your Night Elf was born.

~I think mine would be a middle-aged gent, but going into his more elderly years. So in Dwarven years, that would be about 165. The middle-aged tend to be more experienced in the world, but more prideful, as well.

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3.0 History

Whoa, whoa! Hold up Darkneon! You skipped personality!

Haha, your so cute when you think your helping. Actually, there's a point to this. I promise!

Now that you've gotten your foundation and research in order, it's time to start defining where your character comes from. For those with Lore-restricted character, this will be fairly easy for you. Those who have to build from the ground up, sit in for the haul. First things first: RESEARCH YOUR RACE'S LORE! Google, WoWWiki, Fellow Role players. Get all the information you can before you even start writing! This will help you avoid making the many mistakes that the GMs will be looking for. (They're vultures, I tell you.)

What really helps me is starting in Year 30 (the beginning of the WoW MMORPG series) and working backwards on the timeline to determine when my character was born. When writing your history, there may be times where an event that affects your character occured. (Every character is subject to lore! Unless (s)he was born under a rock, yours is not exempt! NO EXCEPTIONS!)

Keep your collage and research at hand, but keep in mind Ã¢Â€Â“ this is where your character concept will probably undergo metamorphosis and mutate into something far from what you expected. Building a character is kind of like working with water colors. You get to pick which colors to put on the paper, but the second you set your brush down Ã¢Â€Â“ you just let the water do what it wants.

Start off with the family history. What type of people have been in it -- is it old or new? Think about what traits the parents would probably pass to their children, and base it on how you want your character to turn out.

Then, begin with the childhood. This is the growing phase of every organism, and what happens now will impact your character forever! Did they have any childhood friends that affected them greatly, any experiences that still affect them as an adult, and what skills did they begin to learn? Be original, but don't be afraid. Consider the world of Azeroth. People die everday, everybody carries a sword, and the dead are walking. You're most likely going to experience a death. Portray the character's childhood in away that compliments the culture of WoW. That is why I'd like to mention that having your character changed by the death of his/her parents is NOT clichÃƒÂ©, but riding it as the most significant event in their life IS.

Work your way into adulthood. Think, what happens when a person goes from being a teenager to an adult. They begin detaching from their parents, finding work, making new friends. Consult stories and documents of people's lives to gain inspiration, if you must. Write about exciting things they did, how their life is changing, and even if they had their own family. Things they will remember!

For Lore-restricted characters, your life is probably already determined for you. Though, I'm pretty sure your character wasn't a child death knight or destroying the Dark Portal between the First and Second Wars. Don't feel like you have to input extra character subplots just to make your history look unique. THIS IS YOUR HISTORY, NOT YOUR BIOGRAPHY. Think about why GMs want to know about your characters history. Yet alone why anybody (such as a boss, or government) would want to know anything about your history. They want to identify where you were and what you were doing at the time given. If you were in the Wetlands, bathing your bottom in a pool filled with crocodiles during the orcish invasion and got your arse bitten off and had to spend the entire First War in an infirmary - then say so! Though, don't inflate your history uselessly describing every little detail and emotion your character went through.

You do not have to portray your character through his/her history. Remember most of all: everything is cause and effect. This is what will change your character the most. How everything leading up to that point influences the decision they make. Often are histories questioned when somebody feels that the choice your character made completely went against logical reasoning.

COMMON PROBLEM ALERT! Too much do I see people play a race that acts against its entire culture. I'm no exception, as I have done this too. I admit that I chose to play a blood elf, but I purposely made her run away to the Darkmoon Faire just so I wouldn't have to play her as a blood elf. Of course, there are people like this in Azeroth, but it's happening too much. In addition, the reasons for doing so are very selfish, most of the time. The quality of role-play in your community is affected when people go out of their way in order to play the character they want. I have specifically formatted this guide to make sure you don't end up doing the same thing! People want to role play with a tolerant Tauren, not a half-wit moo-moo who's constantly reminds everyone that he's nothing like those druggie cows back home. (Though, this is a good idea, it gets out of hand when everybody does it.)

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4.0 Name

That's a mighty cool Night Elf Druid you got there. What's his name?

Ã¢Â€Â¦

You haven't even named him yet?
Alright, I guess I'll have to show you how to do it.

With names like Lalamoonspam and L33T, Warcraft is probably requesting some normal people, and you're the best I can do so listen up!

If you researched your race's lore, then you should be familiar with how they name each other. If you're still clueless you can use the randomize option when creating a character in-game, or at least draw inspiration from it. Last names are usually granted through a family history or great deed so it's only common sense that you include it in your history and explain how you got it.

Legacy Rules: This is for last names that are acquired through feats or great deeds.

Rule #1: Use as many fancy words as possible. Instead of Bookeeper, try Tometosser. Nightelfripperandgutter? How about Treantsmasher?

Rule #2: Use a combination of Noun-Verb, Adjective-Noun, or Adjective-Verb (and vice versa).

Humans are Special: It's true; they don't have silly last names like Sunstrider and Pebblewatcher. Humans first gained their last names in association to professions. Ted the metal worker is now Ted Steel, and Sarah the town Ã¢Â€ÂœladyÃ¢Â€Â who gets so clobbered on Saturday nights that she ends up puking into the public well is now Sarah Dreadfulwater. Yup, it's just that easy ladies and gentlemen.

Quick Tip: You may think names like Ashley and Steve are too common, but your first name is not what makes you unique. That's why you get to have so much fun making a last name from scratch! SO DO IT.

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5.0 Personality

This is the coat of frosting, the presentation and the collaboration of all your hard work thus far! It's time to solidify your character, and show your community what to expect from your character. There are millions of ways you can write out a personality, so I can only offer you some tips and categories to focus on.

[Image: TipsTricksIYC.jpg]

1. Keep it organized. If you have to, spread it out into sections.

2. Stay true to your history.

3. Let the paint flow, don't force the character.

4. Determine how your character has been affected by their occupation. Everybody has to make a living.

5. What your character is trying to achieve in life.

6. Their motivation and inspiration. You should be an expert on this stuff by now! Why does your character do the things they do? What are their needs?

Regarding 6, here's a good list of needs that I acquired from a forum sometime ago. (Apologies that I do not know who to accredit for it, if anybody knows Ã¢Â€Â“ please speak up)

+Achievement - Someone with this need sets out to accomplish difficult tasks. This person might maintain high standard and work towards distant goals. They might enjoy competition and are generally willing to put forth more effort to attain excellence.

+Affiliation - Someone with the need for affiliation enjoys being around people, enjoys being with friends and will accept people readily. This person would make efforts to win friendships and maintain associations with people.

+Aggression - Someone who needs aggression enjoys combat and argument. This person is easily annoyed and willing to hurt people getting in their way. They might seek to Ã¢Â€Âœget evenÃ¢Â€Â.

+Autonomy - Someone with the need for autonomy tries to break away from restraints, confinement, or restrictions of any kind. They enjoy being unattached, free from people, places, or obligations, and may be rebellious when faced with restraints.

+Exhibition - Someone with this need wants to be the center of attention. This person enjoys having an audience and engages in behavior that wins the notice of others. They may enjoy being dramatic or witty.

+Safety - Someone who needs safety does not enjoy exciting activities, especially if danger is involved. They avoid risk of bodily harm and seek to maximize personal safety.

+Nurturing - Someone with the need to nurture gives sympathy and comfort, assisting others whenever possible. They're interested in caring for children, the disabled, or the infirm, and offer a Ã¢Â€Âœhelping handÃ¢Â€Â to those in need. This person readily performs favors for others.

+Order - Someone with this need is concerned with keeping their personal effects and surroundings neat and organized. They dislike clutter, confusion, and lack of organization. They are also interested in developing methods for keeping materials methodically organized.

+Power - Someone with the need for power attempts to control the environment and influence or direct other people. This person expresses opinions forcefully and tends to enjoy the role of leader, which they may assume spontaneously.

+Succor - Someone who needs succor frequently seeks the sympathy, protection, love, advice, and reassurance of other people. They might feel insecure or helpless without such support and confide difficulties readily to a receptive person.

+Understanding - Someone with this need wants to understand many areas of knowledge. This person often has a strong intellectual curiosity and values the synthesis of ideas and logical thought.

You can have as many as you think necessary!

7. Choose two dominant traits that are consistent and reinforce one another. Give a contradictory trait to add more depth. Your character can be kind and caring, but quick to blame others. Heartless and malicious, but easy to talk to.

8. VERY IMPORTANT: Attitudes and Behaviors. These are very different from one another. How you behave to a gnome can differ with what you think about them. Interracial interactions have been clearly defined in World of Warcraft, but you don't have to limit it to just race. We all have different attitudes about genders, certain jobs, and even certain types of people. You may be one who behaves respectfully to the elderly, or one who slaps their butts. Just don't get carried away, you're trying to point out what makes your character different from others.

9. Tastes and preferences. Is your character an advocate of fine wines? Would they rather spend the morning in the library than at a bar? Do they prefer leather to soft . . . sofas? Tell us more about them as a person! If you have to, get a cheesy personal survey to get some ideas.

10. Don't feel restricted to these categories and tips; consider what you remember about other people. Was it their corny sense of humour or their cotton swab building abilities? The personality is what makes your character original, and not just a collection of other people's ideas.

11. Have fun with it!

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6.0 Alignment

Don't complain just because it's optional! You should use it.

Advantages of Having an Alignment:
1. Alignments are simple.
2. They help you stay in character.
3. You're not completely bound to a single alignment for the rest of your life. Your choices and actions will be able to change it.
4. Alignments are very good at coagulating your character's personality.
5. Alignments are simple.

Here's a crash course!

Spoiler:

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7.0 The Finishing Touches

It's finally all together. Are you happy with the way it turned out? Are you confident that you'll be able to role play this character, and have fun doing it? Reflect upon the questions you were told to ask yourself at the beginning of this guide. If you're absolutely not sure about any of this, I advise you to restart and try again. It's hard, but you just have to know when to quit and start over.

When applying this section of the guide to your character profile, always keep the GMs in mind. They're the judges who determine whether you spend your life happy or in a miserable pit of eternal suffering. Not really, but it'll do you good to think so while posting your profile!

By now, you should probably have most of your template filled out. Based on what I've read about GM comments on character profiles Ã¢Â€Â“ here's a list of all the things you should keep an eye out for:

Spacing
That giant wall of text containing all of your beautiful and completed ideas glowing in the morning light . . . is very unappealing to read. Every time you finish writing about a specific idea, section of time, or story - put a line of space between that paragraph and the next. The GMs have better things to do than spend almost an hour trying to keep their place in the text-block of your profile, and trust me, they won't bother. You'll most likely receive a reply saying to Ã¢Â€ÂœFix your spacingÃ¢Â€Â, and be forced to wait another couple of days before they get around to it, again.

Example
WRONG:
Lisa was a farmer's girl born in Tennessee. She had a ma, pa, and two brothers that she really liked. She's the youngest of the family, and usually ends up getting picked on by her two older brothers. One time, they stuck her hair in cow dung and laughed. She got really angry and pushed her older brother into pa's favorite horse. The horse whined and grew epic wings. Turning into a demon of mass destruction, raging it's hooves of fury across the continental United States. The government quickly deployed several of their ICBMs to deal with the equine threat, but to no success. The horse had used mana shield! Lisa quickly summons the spell breakers of Canada to take care of the horse. Using feedback and the power of love, the hockey elves successfully destroyed the wrathful stallion. When pa found out, Lisa got grounded for a month and denied mashed potatoes on Family Friday.

RIGHT:
Lisa was a farmer's girl born in Tennessee. She had a ma, pa, and two brothers that she really liked. She's the youngest of the family, and usually ends up getting picked on by her two older brothers.

One time, they stuck her hair in cow dung and laughed. She got really angry and pushed her older brother into pa's favorite horse. The horse whined and grew epic wings. Turning into a demon of mass destruction, raging it's hooves of fury across the continental United States. The government quickly deployed several of their ICBMs to deal with the equine threat, but to no success. The horse had used mana shield!

Lisa quickly summons the spell breakers of Canada to take care of the horse. Using feedback and the power of love, the hockey elves successfully destroyed the wrathful stallion.

When pa found out, Lisa got grounded for a month and denied mashed potatoes on Family Friday.

~Much easier to read, right?

Grammar/Spelling
We can all use work on this. Don't be lazy, send your profile to a good friend who'll take the time to go through and edit your work. Even better, use Microsoft Word. An occasional error is okay, but if it happens to frequently it can make your profile hard to read, and you will be asked to correct mistakes on your own time.

Colors, Pictures, and Pizazz
Save it for Wiki. GM's aren't interested in how pretty you can make your profile look. Once it's been accepted and transferred to the wiki, then you can knock yourself out! Though, remember the process. It's very tedious and time-consuming to try and transfer things from the forums into the wiki if you have to deal with colorful words and giant pictures.

Bolding, Italics, and Underlining
I don't know where the GM's stand on the use of these tools. However, treat them respectfully. They are to organize and emphasize certain parts of your profile. If you want, you can set up a format in which to categorize your profile. Such as bolding History and Personality, and then underlining the different sections such as Childhood, Adulthood, Tastes, and Dislikes. If you want to emphasize a certain word, then use the tactic of /slashing/ it. Italics can sometimes interrupt the flow of a sentence, and are better left to point out quotes and sourced information.

Practice Good Writing Skills
Be on the watch for redundant words. If a certain word (verb, adjective, preposition, etc.) appears more than three (maybe even two) times in about three sentences, you should probably find an alternative word. Recycling in the Writing world is bad! Expand your vocabulary and try to find that word that fits perfectly. Tea is sublime, not good. The boy struts, not walks. Lock onto that word you tend to use often, and destroy it with your awesome editing powers!

When it comes to repeating nouns, find other ways to address the subject. Timmy could be the small boy, the curious youngster, or a perverted princox depending on the situation.

Alter your sentence structures! They ate the sandwich. The sandwich, they ate. Ate they, the sandwich. Ate the sandwich, they. This method seems odd, but Shakespeare used it, too!

Be Picky
After posting your profile, read it over and over and over and over again. Post it, sleep on it, then read it again. Eat breakfeast, go to school, eat lunch, come home, then read it some more! You'll often find little mistakes that you didn't catch before. Don't be afraid to edit them out. If you feel that you can add a little bit more to your character's personality or history, then do so! Though, if you find yourself constantly changing things or even altering entire sections of the profile then it's not ready and you should consider taking it off and working on it a little bit more.

Don't make the mistake of withdrawing a good profile, however! Sometimes, you just have to teach yourself to stop and when to know it's enough.

Accept Criticism
Fellow community members will often take the time to assist you in touching up your profile after posting it. Be respectful, regardless if they're wrong, right, rude, or kind. Sometimes they may have a valid point, and if it regards the lore Ã¢Â€Â“ then somebody has made a mistake. It's best to wait for the final word from the GM if an agreement isn't reached. If you're enlightened to something that was indeed wrong, then it's all the better.

However, if they question something that doesn't make sense about your character (often regarding the very common problems in character profiling I've already addressed), and you aren't able to provide a very clear and realistic answer. Then, it's time to reconsider some things about your character. If there's anything that goes against a good quality character , it's one that people have to make big exceptions for.

Don't assume anything though, sometimes it may just be that they didn't read something correctly and seek clarification.

Don't Argue with the GM
Whether they are wrong, right, mislead, or miserable at the time, their word is final. It's a server rule that you've agreed to willingly, and they're probably right. In the case you truly believe you have been wronged, take it up with another GM, but be prepared to face the negative and positive consequences alike.

Be Patient
I have to explain this to you? Well, whenever somebody groans at you about how annoyed they are that the GMs are taking /so/ long to read their profiles, laugh in their faces for me. Take advantage of the time to be picky. I couldn't imagine what would've happened if a GM pointed out that I spelled Moonbrook as Westbroke. The agony!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8.0 Keeping It Short (Optional)

This is, as mentioned above, completely optional. Though, I do understand. We don't want to hold up the poor GMs with too many well-thought out profiles, or we're just trying to get this damn character approved ASAP.

When writing the personality, avoid restating attitudes and behaviors already associated with that class or race (e.g. a paladin who hates Scourge, duh). Try to focus on the things that will influence their choices and actions, plus anything that will compliment the history of your character.

When writing the actual history, keep it down to the major events in their life (entering an academy, graduating, fighting the First War, etc). All lore-based events count and should be included.

Going with this option means that you have to sell the personality. GMs are looking for individuality just as much as they are looking for Lore-complimenting characters.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9.0 Example Profiles

These are two approved profiles that I wrote so that you may use them as a reference. I used this guide to write these.

Wimrick, Profession: Explorer, Default Class: Warrior. (Malleable)

Spoiler:

Marcellus, class: Paladin. (Heavily Lore-Restricted)

Spoiler:

Marcellus, class: Paladin. (Heavily Lore-Restricted)

Spoiler:

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10.0 Profile-Checking Courtesy

GMs aren't the only ones who try to assist players with profiles. So, here are a few things to keep in mind when commenting on somebodies profiles:

1. Don't comment on profiles near the bottom of the list. This bumps them to the top and makes the wait even longer, after they cross the mid-point line, it's the GMs duty to inform them of any mistakes.

2. Don't try to argue Lore. Most of the time, you will be assuming. Unless you truly know that something will not fly, then don't start a flame war. Often, many people will join in with their own opinions and assumptions.

3. When you know what you're talking about: Make a good argument. Format it, spell/grammar check it, and support it with citations and quotes.

4. Start with the Positive. This is both being mature and respectful. What is it that they did extremely right? Was there anything creative they did that you noticed? Don't lie just to sound courteous.

5. Be Precise: Think of possible ways your comment can be misinterpreted and try to fix it. Always attempt to support yourself with quotations and citations when possible.

6. Don't throw your opinion into a debate over a profile: This is the GMs job, not yours.

7. If you just want to comment for the sake of commenting, PM the player.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11.0 Special Thanks!

I'd like to thank Piken for addressing what seems to be big confusion regarding the Night Elf age guildlines. I'd also like to thank Piroska for helping my brain comprehend it. I swear, I tried to explain it, but it wouldn't listen. Your contribution is truly appreciated! (It also makes me look good!)

Another thank you to Sourpuddle for taking the time to point out spelling errors and for helping improve the Class portion of this guide!

Thank you!
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

12.0 Epilogue

Remember to Thank the GM who takes the time to initial, approve, and transfer your character to the wiki.

It's always polite to show that you're willing to take some time to let them know their efforts are appreciated. They do it for you.

That's about all I can think of right now. Keep in mind that that there are hundreds of different ways to go about making a successful character profile. If you develop your own system, even greater! Hopefully, you find something useful in this guide to aid you in your character-m]]> <![CDATA[The RP secrets: In-depth look at profiles]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-13198.html Wed, 13 Jan 2010 07:06:49 -0800 Monolith]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-13198.html
Player: This is your forum name. Place it so we can know who put up the profile when we put it on the wiki.

Character Full Name: Your character's full name. Things like "John Johnson", "John William Johnson", "John 'the snake' Johnson". It can involve just first and last, first middle and last, and a nickname. Remember to sound like your races' names too. Nothing like "Razgotu Forrguudra" the Gnome. Furthermore, no names of lore characters, and no relations to lore characters in-name. Remember: Strong characters need not piggy back off of the established fame of a lore character!

Character In-Game Name: What you named your character when you made it in-game. Should be just the first name. Remember CotH's naming policy as well!

Nickname(s): What is your character known by that isn't his name? Could be a shortened version of his full name (I.E. William would be "Will") or an alias, or perhaps just something random people call him.

Association(s): Oftentimes, your main association will be Horde or Alliance, your city, and any other factions/guilds you belong to. Remember only a few factions beyond Alliance and Horde are open to players. No Illidari. No Scourge. No Scarlet Crusade. Nothing like that.

Race: Any of the ten races allowed are right there on the character select screen when you go to make the character. You needn't be half-anything, you can just be a full blooded Human, Elf, or what have you. Anything beyond the ten basic races will be a... Well, I'm not going to lie. It's more than likely going to be a "No."

Class: Here is where your character class goes. No prestige titles go here (I.E. Assassin, Bonechewer, Felsworn etc) since as you fill this out, it isn't an approved character. It needs to be approved before you can get a prestige. Furthermore, you can be a class OOC and IC. Say IC you just want a tailor. OOC you're a Warlock. Be sure to address this! Furthermore, anything beyond the basics will need to be cleared with a GM first.

Age: http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Age_Guidelines Remember to stay within the norms of your race! No Human lives to be a thousand, and no Elf is going to run around at 22.

Sex: Male or female. Not difficult.

Hair: Once again, keep within the norms of your race. No pink hair for Orcs and no black hair for NElves.

Eyes: Norms of your race! You don't need to be super special with MEGA SUPER SAYIAN eyes that crackle lightning.

Weight: http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Weight_guidelines Remember to keep proportions in note. If you're 300 lbs and 5'2. you're going to be very wide. Norms of your race apply.

Height: http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Height_guidelines Once again, keep proportions in mind. I once made an extremely gaunt warrior because I wanted him to be 6'2 and around 110 lbs.

Usual Garments/Armor: What does your character usually wear? Robes to express his higher standing or magical backround? Thuggish leathers that help conceal him in darkness? Shining armor that reflects the glory of the light? Peasant clothes? Be descriptive!

Other: What does your character have that is unique about them? Perhaps he has no teeth, or missing an eye. Maybe he has a birth defect. Be descriptive! Can't stress this enough.

Alignment: This describes it better than I ever could. http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Character_Alignment

Personality: My favorite part. What is your character like? What does he like? What does he hate? What does he think about current events? IS he reactionate or stoic to his surroundings? Be descriptive! Something like "He is happy" just will NOT do! It is your character, you should know him inside and out! So, tell us.

History: The bulk of the profile. Your character's apst. What happened to him? What made him the way he is? Where was he born, and how was he brought up? This part of the profile is the most important, as it lets us take a look at your character, to see what made him how he is. Go from birth to now, not with every minute detail though! We're looking for an outline, and the ideal length is 3-6 paragraphs. Remember to space and the like, and that personality combined with history must be at least ten lines!

Alright, that about does it. Just wanted to make a quick guide on the detailes of a profile. Have fun making your next character, and my next guide will be over IC events!]]>
Player: This is your forum name. Place it so we can know who put up the profile when we put it on the wiki.

Character Full Name: Your character's full name. Things like "John Johnson", "John William Johnson", "John 'the snake' Johnson". It can involve just first and last, first middle and last, and a nickname. Remember to sound like your races' names too. Nothing like "Razgotu Forrguudra" the Gnome. Furthermore, no names of lore characters, and no relations to lore characters in-name. Remember: Strong characters need not piggy back off of the established fame of a lore character!

Character In-Game Name: What you named your character when you made it in-game. Should be just the first name. Remember CotH's naming policy as well!

Nickname(s): What is your character known by that isn't his name? Could be a shortened version of his full name (I.E. William would be "Will") or an alias, or perhaps just something random people call him.

Association(s): Oftentimes, your main association will be Horde or Alliance, your city, and any other factions/guilds you belong to. Remember only a few factions beyond Alliance and Horde are open to players. No Illidari. No Scourge. No Scarlet Crusade. Nothing like that.

Race: Any of the ten races allowed are right there on the character select screen when you go to make the character. You needn't be half-anything, you can just be a full blooded Human, Elf, or what have you. Anything beyond the ten basic races will be a... Well, I'm not going to lie. It's more than likely going to be a "No."

Class: Here is where your character class goes. No prestige titles go here (I.E. Assassin, Bonechewer, Felsworn etc) since as you fill this out, it isn't an approved character. It needs to be approved before you can get a prestige. Furthermore, you can be a class OOC and IC. Say IC you just want a tailor. OOC you're a Warlock. Be sure to address this! Furthermore, anything beyond the basics will need to be cleared with a GM first.

Age: http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Age_Guidelines Remember to stay within the norms of your race! No Human lives to be a thousand, and no Elf is going to run around at 22.

Sex: Male or female. Not difficult.

Hair: Once again, keep within the norms of your race. No pink hair for Orcs and no black hair for NElves.

Eyes: Norms of your race! You don't need to be super special with MEGA SUPER SAYIAN eyes that crackle lightning.

Weight: http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Weight_guidelines Remember to keep proportions in note. If you're 300 lbs and 5'2. you're going to be very wide. Norms of your race apply.

Height: http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Height_guidelines Once again, keep proportions in mind. I once made an extremely gaunt warrior because I wanted him to be 6'2 and around 110 lbs.

Usual Garments/Armor: What does your character usually wear? Robes to express his higher standing or magical backround? Thuggish leathers that help conceal him in darkness? Shining armor that reflects the glory of the light? Peasant clothes? Be descriptive!

Other: What does your character have that is unique about them? Perhaps he has no teeth, or missing an eye. Maybe he has a birth defect. Be descriptive! Can't stress this enough.

Alignment: This describes it better than I ever could. http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Character_Alignment

Personality: My favorite part. What is your character like? What does he like? What does he hate? What does he think about current events? IS he reactionate or stoic to his surroundings? Be descriptive! Something like "He is happy" just will NOT do! It is your character, you should know him inside and out! So, tell us.

History: The bulk of the profile. Your character's apst. What happened to him? What made him the way he is? Where was he born, and how was he brought up? This part of the profile is the most important, as it lets us take a look at your character, to see what made him how he is. Go from birth to now, not with every minute detail though! We're looking for an outline, and the ideal length is 3-6 paragraphs. Remember to space and the like, and that personality combined with history must be at least ten lines!

Alright, that about does it. Just wanted to make a quick guide on the detailes of a profile. Have fun making your next character, and my next guide will be over IC events!]]> <![CDATA[Secrets of RP: IC and OOC seperation.]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-13191.html Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:49:23 -0800 Monolith]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-13191.html Diving headfirst in, I will first speak of the abomination that is...

METAGAMING

In short, metagaming is using your knowledge OOC, maybe something said over the chat channel, to your IC benefit. As in, you hear a warlock coven's meeting at this location, and you spread the word IC, or go try to find them. It is incredibly low, and you're discouraging evil role-play, easily some of the best and most fun role-play out there. First things first, I will speak of the two complexes that I've become familiar with that are often linked to metagaming. I will, as I so often do, use examples.
The Hero Complex
You just created a paladin. You are a defender of good, a keeper of what's right, and a divine light in this dark world. But, oh noes! What good is it to be a slayer of evil and not slay evil?! Instead of going out to fight Scourge, demons, monsters, or the other infinite horrors of Azeroth, you hear from a friend that his warlock coven is sacrificing a virgin. Why, that's just the thing your paladin would stop! You rush to the location, and try to halt the evildoers from doing their deed. Totally fine, right?
No. It isn't.
You, by doing this, are attacking their group. And not just ICly, you are doing it OOCly. You are discouraging having secretive evil RP by just doing what you want to, and not as THE RULES say you HAVE TO. With little ability to be secretive, the point of being a secretive warlock coven is inert! By doing this en masse, the group will disappear, thus ruining that RP forever. Well done, you're taking away the fun of others. Some hero.
The Villain Complex
You just rolled a shadow priest. A real facemelter, he is! And soon he's part of a big evil group! Yay! The group suddenly targets a specific warrior for actions against. You, knowing your shadow priest has to be helpful, decide to know where he is, at every moment, ever. Why? You're friends with the warrior's friend, who's always around him. You can kick back, relax, and have a chocolate malt as you tell your guild he's attempting to hide in Redridge. That's fine, right?
Yeah, no. It's not.
For the same reasons as above, this is not a proper or acceptable way of RPing! Think about it, would you like to be in that Warrior's spot when the group descends on him?
Metagaming is bad, and metagamers are terrible people. Report them when you see them.

My next point.
Character death/maiming
Recalling back to the idea of someone dropping in on a group of Warlocks- metagamed or not. Say you do that, and you raise your mighty hammer and bellow a roar, only to engage them! You are quickly overrun by the 5-on-1 odds and killed by the group. What did you honestly expect? Them to say "Oh no! A Paladin! Curses, foiled again!" And to flee? While they have the advantage, I don't think they will.
Okay, now your character is dead. What do you do?
WHAT NOT TO DO
-Whine
-Develop a personal OOC vendetta against those who killed you
-Rage in any way. That only leads to BAD TIMES.
WHAT TO DO
-Reroll, experience new RP!
-Wait a week
-Find a Priest
-Fill out a Resurrection thread
-Get it approved
-Good times!
Maturity over anything that happens is always the best choice for anything. You'll gain the respect of your peers, of the GMs, and be welcome in any RP you wish in which to participate. It's not like the character is lost forever, anyway. Only a week.
As far as maiming goes, let's say instead of death... the warlocks cut out your eyes, chop off your hands, or cripple you in some way. You character is no longer functioning? Of course not! It could make for great RP! Revenge or sorrow RP, RP that really will provoke emotion.

**Always remember. A character warning must be issued before character death or maiming can happen! If it doesn't come, then you may retcon the event or pass it off as you were unconscious. And there must be time for the character being warned to flee before attacking!**

My third and final point.
DRAMALLAMAS
You're following this guide. You're being a functional, enjoyed member of any RP you're in. Yay for you! However, someone comes in and begins stirring up as much crap as possible. He talks in caps and tries to start OOC fights with every member of the RP, or is the more sinister one who doesn't use caps, but makes constant snide and sarcastic remarks.
WHAT TO DO
-Don't feed the Llama. Just keep quiet, do not engage him/her.
-Take screenshots, and submit them to any friendly neighborhood GM. You will soon find him a lot more humbled.
WHAT NOT TO DO
-Engage him/her in any way. That's just feeding the fire.
That's it. Simple, eh?

There. That's all I care to type in one sitting. My next RP seret will be.. Addressing profiles in-depth!]]> Diving headfirst in, I will first speak of the abomination that is...

METAGAMING

In short, metagaming is using your knowledge OOC, maybe something said over the chat channel, to your IC benefit. As in, you hear a warlock coven's meeting at this location, and you spread the word IC, or go try to find them. It is incredibly low, and you're discouraging evil role-play, easily some of the best and most fun role-play out there. First things first, I will speak of the two complexes that I've become familiar with that are often linked to metagaming. I will, as I so often do, use examples.
The Hero Complex
You just created a paladin. You are a defender of good, a keeper of what's right, and a divine light in this dark world. But, oh noes! What good is it to be a slayer of evil and not slay evil?! Instead of going out to fight Scourge, demons, monsters, or the other infinite horrors of Azeroth, you hear from a friend that his warlock coven is sacrificing a virgin. Why, that's just the thing your paladin would stop! You rush to the location, and try to halt the evildoers from doing their deed. Totally fine, right?
No. It isn't.
You, by doing this, are attacking their group. And not just ICly, you are doing it OOCly. You are discouraging having secretive evil RP by just doing what you want to, and not as THE RULES say you HAVE TO. With little ability to be secretive, the point of being a secretive warlock coven is inert! By doing this en masse, the group will disappear, thus ruining that RP forever. Well done, you're taking away the fun of others. Some hero.
The Villain Complex
You just rolled a shadow priest. A real facemelter, he is! And soon he's part of a big evil group! Yay! The group suddenly targets a specific warrior for actions against. You, knowing your shadow priest has to be helpful, decide to know where he is, at every moment, ever. Why? You're friends with the warrior's friend, who's always around him. You can kick back, relax, and have a chocolate malt as you tell your guild he's attempting to hide in Redridge. That's fine, right?
Yeah, no. It's not.
For the same reasons as above, this is not a proper or acceptable way of RPing! Think about it, would you like to be in that Warrior's spot when the group descends on him?
Metagaming is bad, and metagamers are terrible people. Report them when you see them.

My next point.
Character death/maiming
Recalling back to the idea of someone dropping in on a group of Warlocks- metagamed or not. Say you do that, and you raise your mighty hammer and bellow a roar, only to engage them! You are quickly overrun by the 5-on-1 odds and killed by the group. What did you honestly expect? Them to say "Oh no! A Paladin! Curses, foiled again!" And to flee? While they have the advantage, I don't think they will.
Okay, now your character is dead. What do you do?
WHAT NOT TO DO
-Whine
-Develop a personal OOC vendetta against those who killed you
-Rage in any way. That only leads to BAD TIMES.
WHAT TO DO
-Reroll, experience new RP!
-Wait a week
-Find a Priest
-Fill out a Resurrection thread
-Get it approved
-Good times!
Maturity over anything that happens is always the best choice for anything. You'll gain the respect of your peers, of the GMs, and be welcome in any RP you wish in which to participate. It's not like the character is lost forever, anyway. Only a week.
As far as maiming goes, let's say instead of death... the warlocks cut out your eyes, chop off your hands, or cripple you in some way. You character is no longer functioning? Of course not! It could make for great RP! Revenge or sorrow RP, RP that really will provoke emotion.

**Always remember. A character warning must be issued before character death or maiming can happen! If it doesn't come, then you may retcon the event or pass it off as you were unconscious. And there must be time for the character being warned to flee before attacking!**

My third and final point.
DRAMALLAMAS
You're following this guide. You're being a functional, enjoyed member of any RP you're in. Yay for you! However, someone comes in and begins stirring up as much crap as possible. He talks in caps and tries to start OOC fights with every member of the RP, or is the more sinister one who doesn't use caps, but makes constant snide and sarcastic remarks.
WHAT TO DO
-Don't feed the Llama. Just keep quiet, do not engage him/her.
-Take screenshots, and submit them to any friendly neighborhood GM. You will soon find him a lot more humbled.
WHAT NOT TO DO
-Engage him/her in any way. That's just feeding the fire.
That's it. Simple, eh?

There. That's all I care to type in one sitting. My next RP seret will be.. Addressing profiles in-depth!]]> <![CDATA[The secrets of RP part one- Improv!]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-13157.html Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:06:13 -0800 Monolith]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-13157.html Improv.

RP is all about improvision. Your character and you must always be prepared for anything that could happen. Take, for example, your character is sitting in a bar and enjoying a drink. Then, out of nowhere, a barfight breaks out! Does your character... Run? Join in? Hide? Ignore it? Food for thought!

I, for one, do exercises to think deep of my character's psyche. If you feel your RP is lacking, you can try them as well. One of my favorite exercises is writing down a series of events and then imagining and recording your character's reaction. For example, if my character Tarius- a Deathknight- went to be executed for some terrible crime, he'd stay silent to the crowd and try to mentally justify what he did. However, on the other end of the spectrum, my Mage Zimmasul would cry and beg for his life in a panic. If my Rogue Ilario was asked about his past, he'd give a brief lie and try to change the subject. However, if my Hunter Bass was asked, you'd get a long, story-like spiel about what he remembers. Those are just a few examples. How would your character react to...

-Someone romantically interested in them?
-Being demoted or fired from a job or mission?
-Having a child?
-Friends/family killed?
-Being outsmarted?
-Being told a bland joke?
-Stepping on a nail?
-Eating something disgusting?
-Buying a slave?

Those are just a few ideas that really, some expect will never happen to them. Some may sound silly or pointless, but everyone reacts differently. Doesn't hurt to think of how your characters will. Personally, I believe the stranger and weirder the situations you put your characters in, the better. You really get a chance to think on them, that way. The better you understand your characters. The better you understand your characters, the better RP you will get out of them.

Please feel free to post situations and reactions down below, as well as critique, comments, or anything. My next guild will be of keeping IC and OOC seperate!

~Monololololith]]> Improv.

RP is all about improvision. Your character and you must always be prepared for anything that could happen. Take, for example, your character is sitting in a bar and enjoying a drink. Then, out of nowhere, a barfight breaks out! Does your character... Run? Join in? Hide? Ignore it? Food for thought!

I, for one, do exercises to think deep of my character's psyche. If you feel your RP is lacking, you can try them as well. One of my favorite exercises is writing down a series of events and then imagining and recording your character's reaction. For example, if my character Tarius- a Deathknight- went to be executed for some terrible crime, he'd stay silent to the crowd and try to mentally justify what he did. However, on the other end of the spectrum, my Mage Zimmasul would cry and beg for his life in a panic. If my Rogue Ilario was asked about his past, he'd give a brief lie and try to change the subject. However, if my Hunter Bass was asked, you'd get a long, story-like spiel about what he remembers. Those are just a few examples. How would your character react to...

-Someone romantically interested in them?
-Being demoted or fired from a job or mission?
-Having a child?
-Friends/family killed?
-Being outsmarted?
-Being told a bland joke?
-Stepping on a nail?
-Eating something disgusting?
-Buying a slave?

Those are just a few ideas that really, some expect will never happen to them. Some may sound silly or pointless, but everyone reacts differently. Doesn't hurt to think of how your characters will. Personally, I believe the stranger and weirder the situations you put your characters in, the better. You really get a chance to think on them, that way. The better you understand your characters. The better you understand your characters, the better RP you will get out of them.

Please feel free to post situations and reactions down below, as well as critique, comments, or anything. My next guild will be of keeping IC and OOC seperate!

~Monololololith]]> <![CDATA[Playing Discordant Characters Effectively]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-10327.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:39:12 -0700 Moose]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-10327.html Playing Discordant Characters Effectively
And Teaching Yourself to Blend in With Society
a caffeine-filled post by Moose

H'okay, where do I start here?

I'm Moose, if we haven't met before. I'm an avid gamer and take an active interest in playing less-than-nice characters--in fact, villainous and cruel types are probably my favorite to play. When done right, they feel alien to us and completely compelling--while we grow attached in an expected manner to good guys, the bad ones draw us in and make us question our own morality by finding things in common with what we want to push aside as pure evil. Unfortunately, it's very easy to play a bad guy (or even an antihero) the wrong way, which is detrimental to IC scenes in RP and OOC consistency. A bad villain played wrong is never fun for anyone.

I won't get into it too much as there's plenty of guides around, but when you make an unsavory character you want to keep a few things in mind--namely, you can't be in the spotlight as often as a good guy is, your character is in the wrong (and the right typically prevails), and there's more to your character than just the bad stuff. It's easy to get caught up in the dark arts rituals and the mad lust for power, just don't let it become the only thing you ever do. To play a villain, you have to be patient.

But this post isn't about villains.

This post is about discordant characters, which are far more than just villains--in fact, unsavory characters spawn from their personality, not their alignment. A discordant character is something of the following: gruff, aloof, rude, crude, petty, brattish, snobbish, cruel, spitfire temper. They're not the sort of people you want to keep as friends in real life. Drama follows them everywhere and threatens to drown them in their own blood as they're constantly getting into fights, be it verbal or physical conflict. Many of them are good at drawing attention to themselves and then spurning the sudden interest taken when they act in a way that society would consider uncouth.

Discordant characters draw attention to themselves, but playing one requires OOC courtesy and a general knowledge of where to draw the line. Everyone should have a chance to be in the spotlight and you may end up toning down your loudmouth just so the quieter characters get their own facetime. Unfortunately, this is harder than it sounds--after several years of playing meanies, I still struggle to find a balance between IC technicalities and stepping aside OOCly. But I can share what I know with you.

To start things off, here's a few discordant archetypes I've seen:
Calculating Researcher: Jordan spends most of his time hunched over his disorganized notes, mind always buried in calculations and work. He tends to neglect his physical health and has odd sleeping habits, leading him to be tired and irritable in the day. Though he's not that bad a guy, he keeps few friends and tends to speak with others in a detached, cool manner. He is not very expressive and sometimes attempts to analyze emotions, and the like that should be left out of the scientific method. This archetype can be researching any manner of things. It's typically swung either sympathetically, where the focus is on the researcher's tireless devotion and eventual destruction of themself, or cruelly, where the focus is on the researcher's work and the downright horrid ends they're willing to meet. A close cousin of the Researcher is the assassin that spends most of his time planning another's murder and studying the art of silent killing.

Greedy Bastard: Gustav always has money on his mind. He will do anything to get at money and has few morals or ethics if the end result is profit. He has a head for numbers but prefers to con others into doing the dirty work for him; when he's found out it's difficult to track him down thanks to careful covering of his tracks, which is what has enabled him to survive many of his predecessors. This fiscal-minded character is most often male and faction-neutral, though this isn't always the case. Most goblins are based off this archetype, to one degree of social behavior or another. Its shortcomings lie in overuse and abuse; characters that claim unsavory, grey-moral activities in the name of money are often red-flagged for poor RP.

Mister Angry: Something's got Hogarth's panties in a knot, and it seems he's got a grudge befitting the whole world. Anger and annoyance follow him in a cloud of persistent petulance. He's not much of a talker and typically responds to people with grunts instead of real words; he will resort to violent tactics when pressed. This character is usually male and not a magic-user. He's often a cynic that has seen a lot of war, and tends to be a merc-for-hire. The degree of violence varies widely from someone who is merely unsociable to someone with a hair trigger.

Nobler-Than-Thou: Claire is, by all accounts, a spoiled twit. She's petulant and seems to think the world revolves around her; whenever more mature people prove otherwise she resorts to throwing fits and complaining loudly about how nothing ever goes her way. She expects the world to kotow to her nature, and is often met with disappointment when this is not the case. Personally, I've seen this archetype more in women than men but it's been done for both genders. In WoW's setting, this is especially common in blood elves and human nobility. It can sometimes be difficult to enjoy playing characters like this because of the type's tendency to not back down and reject all logic and reasoning in favor of what they think is right.

Spitfire: Ember is a brattish, fiery woman with an incredibly sharp tongue. She's quick to retort and constantly finds herself in petty arguments without knowing when to quit. Her words are often unnecessarily rude and bitter. When frustrated, she resorts to underhanded tactics such as blackmail and extortion. This character is typically a female rogue. In modern settings she is often a redhead with freckles and green eyes; this likely stems from Irish stereotypes. Unfortunately, it's also a very overused concept and takes some work to play in a distinguishable manner.

World-weary Warrior: Rob doesn't take crap from anyone. He isn't up to dealing with childish complaints and tends to laugh in people's faces when they try to give him guff. While he's not always the man on top in fights, he is physically fit and packs about as much bite as he does bark. He can be overly aggressive and quick to judge; Rob jumps the gun on most issues of great importance and is usually regarded as a callous jerk. This character is typically brutish and--you guessed it--a warrior. There's also a good chance they spend most of their time in taverns. A common variation is the world-weary rogue, which is usually more passive but still refuses to put up with diplomacy.

There are, certainly, other archetypes out there that I haven't listed, but you likely see where I'm going by now. Discordant characters are not nice people and are much more likely to get into trouble than your average Joe. As such, they can be much more fun to play . . . but it's also difficult to get them right. It's very easy to take an archetype and spin it in the wrong way, creating a character that is detrimental to RP rather than helpful. For the most part, whether or not you can make a bad character work relies on your OOC handling, but your character's given personality also plays a part. Below I've included some examples of the same archetypes that I've seen in the past--either they make me groan and shake my head, or just sigh a little bit and move to the other side of the tavern. For whatever reason, something went wrong when the player created or started playing the character, and they ended up unrealistic in some manner.

Discordant Archetypes Played Wrong:
"Bad" Calculating Researcher: Jordan is an outright psychotic man with a penchant for needles and test tubes. Though he has no verifiable training in his line of work, he adores watching people bleed and always carries his tools on hand. While fun to play, this example has little to no use in an everyday setting because of the mental instability and vioelnce; he would quickly be apprehended and locked up in most areas of society. Remember, kids, you don't need to be crazy or unscrupulous to be bad.

"Bad" Greedy Bastard: Gustav is literally rolling in wealth. He has a huge empire and lots of connections and no one ever catches him because he's very careful and usually has his minions do the work for him. Everyone who tries to rat him out he silences--personally. There's not much wrong with this example of the archetype, except it assumes no responsibility for its actions and thus cuts out an important part of dramatic RP. Its "personal" note is a bit on the side of Sueism, which is never a good thing, and it conflicts with him preferring to use minions for his dirty work.

"Bad" Mister Angry: Hogarth is a very quiet, thoughtful man. He keeps to himself and never has much to say, but is easily angered and will lash out with physical force in response to very little provocation. This example is bad because it limits the amount of interaction between this character and a stranger. Chances are, very little will be accomplished.

"Bad" Nobler-Than-Thou: Claire is an elegant, well-mannered woman that grew up in a noble house with everything given to her. She comes off well and everyone likes her so they give her what she wants, though on occasion she can be frustrated when things don't go her way. This example is bad because the character's personality conflicts with her upbringing and gives off mixed messages throughout. The player wants us to view her as kind, but offers no evidence as to why we should think she's a good person.

"Bad" Spitfire: Ember is a witty, attractive woman that always knows when to find the right words at the right time. She has a bit of a temper and can sometimes get in trouble, but is always able to get herself out with minimal trouble; everyone's a sucker for a pretty face. This example is bad because . . . well, if I added a winking emoticon, it would sound more like an eRP ad than a real personality.

"Bad" World-weary Warrior: Rob thinks everyone around him is stupid and challenges people to fights every chance he gets. He loves to fight and almost always wins because he fights so much; the bartender at his favorite tavern lets it go because he pays so much money to the establishment and always buys a round of drinks for the combatants once he's beaten them. This example is bad because the character is assumed to win most fights, and is not reprimanded for poor behavior. In a realistic setting, the character would be thrown out of any bar for starting a fistfight.

So where's the big problem with most of these examples? They're all somewhat realistic and would be just fine with a little tweaking; you know a few people you could trust to spin it right on its head and turn the character into something great. And that's wonderful; I know some people like that too--but there's also the people that do it wrong, and you should especially watch yourself when playing a discordant character to help keep from souring RP.

As a rule of thumb, if you doubt whether or not you're being disruptive, just back off. If your character is yelling at one guy in a bar and there's six PCs there, you should probably quiet down--how you do so depends on your character, but being needlessly volatile is often a bad idea. Keep in mind that there are going to be other people RPing with you besides just yourself. By the same token, if your character is ignoring any and all attempts to communicate, where's the fun in that? You'll get nowhere if all you do is tell people to go away.

Thus, I provide you with a caffiene-fueled rant and a list of techniques I've used in the past to take bad characters out of commission and throw the goodies in. Most of these are broad generalizations, and you'll likely have to fit them to each and every situation, but when you're stuck it may be a good starting point to look here.

First up: talkers. Are things getting too heated? Does your character not want to back down, but you know that remaining stubborn could result in unneeded OOC drama and cause hurt feelings because of the result? Are you worried that a fight will erupt and you'll face guard abuse or being forced to leave because of a tavern brawl? Do you feel the need to keep the peace or step out of a conversation for any reason? Here you go.

Getting Your Loudmouth Out of a Negative Conversation:
1. Step back OOCly. Let the people you're RPing with know that you're looking to back off and would like not to be pressed too hard. This way, they know you've got some player reasoning behind actions that may be slightly out-of-character and will adjust to fit instead of questioning you.

2. Take a look at the situation. Who started the fight and where does it look like it's going? How angry/frustrated/emotional is your character compared to their normal state, and are the other characters in a similar state? What is the main focus of the fight? Through this, you can help decide what reasoning you can use to have your character step back.

3. Let your character calm down. Maybe they realize they misheard something, or start listening to the person telling them that they're being childish, or they remember a key piece of information that . . . you get the point. This is entirely situational and may be difficult to pull off if you feel that your character would not back down, but you have other options discussed below.

4. Let the other characters calm down. Generally, once one player steps back and accepts that their character is going out of line to an uncomfortable level OOCly, the other players will rein themselves in automatically. It really just takes one person to shift the focus of an RP from negative to positive, which is very useful if you feel your character is followed by too much aggression.

5. If you can't quiet your character by reasonable means, ask someone else to help via whisper. PM a friend that you came in with and have them drop a line that you can escape with--your character is screaming bloody murder, but your friend grabs them by the shoulders and holds them back so that a real fight can't erupt. Getting the message, one of the other players grabs the man you were about to fight and holds him back too, giving everyone a chance to sit back.

6. If all else fails, and you're not happy with where things are going, get out. Have your character storm out if need be, or escape to pressing business, or just leave quietly because no one else is taking the hint and quieting down. If it's not fun for you, there's a chance those around you aren't enjoying it much either.

And, conversely, some characters aren't good with starting conversation because they're not very sociable. These types are especially hard to play because they rely on other players to take the initiative, and without OOC communication most players will assume you're busy and/or don't want to RP (for some odd reason, you're sitting on CotH anyway) when you tell their character to leave.

Making Friends for the Socially Awkward:
1. Talk out of character first. While you may not be a fan of metagaming, making nice OOC is the key to avoiding misunderstandings and hurt feelings. It helps to set something up ahead of time with characters that don't like to talk, because you already know the person you're going to be meeting--thus, you don't need to explain your actions to them and they know you want to RP with them.

2. Focus on making your emotes easy to respond to. No one wants to have to lead an RP all by themselves; if you give the other player nothing to work off of they'll grow frustrated. Instead of grunting and offering terse answers, consider throwing in a condescending remark or something similar for good measure--it may not be pleasant, but it helps give the RP direction so the other player isn't doing all the work.

3. Seek out like-minded characters and give your character something to appreciate in others. If you hate everyone equally, except for people who earn your respect, then you'll never give anyone a chance to earn your respect. A night elf may not want to speak to your average drunk, but she may not mind speaking to another elf in Darnassus. And then, though she'd never talk to a gnome of her own volition, one of her progressive friends may declare the gnome to be "all right." Everything is situational, which leads me to my next point.

4. Stick your character in situations where they will be inclined to speak. Do not plunk your researcher down in a tavern where it's loud, noisy, and generally disruptive and expect him to get any work done. Taverns are there for socializing, and we all know that one guy who sits in the corner and occasionally emotes turning a page in the book he's reading--try to keep away from that. If you have a brawler, take them to a brawl when looking for friends. If you have a researcher, go to sites of intellectual interest (you may have to set up an appointment for that one). If you have a drunkard, by all means stay in the tavern--but don't expect to find your greedy bastard a partner in crime just by sitting around boozing all day.

So your snappy jerk avoided getting in a brawl today and your antisocial jerk made a friend. But you still have your greedy meanie to worry about and whatever's going on with his empire, and your researcher is getting nowhere which makes him kind of boring, and you're not quite sure what you want to do with your rogue because she's always being . . . well, you get the point.

Either way, you made a lot of progress today and now you think it's time to treat yourself to playing your main; after all, you were just reading this guide because you set something up that wasn't going to happen for a few hours. So you log on your main but the things you've just learned are stuck in your head and you can't stop thinking about your alts, so you vow to get one of them the storyline they deserve . . . for some reason, you end up playing major villain when you were originally going to be dicking around with your group of friends. No biggie; you're still locked together OOC.

Playing Storyline Villains:
1. Remember that the heroes are supposed to win. Unless you're going at it OOC for a downer ending, accept that you're likely going to get the short end of the stick. People like happy endings. You can't change that. You can still go out with a bang, cause some tragedy and make the world hate you, but you have to keep in mind that in the end you will not prevail. Though just because you know that OOC is no reason to let it affect your IC schemes.

2. Accept that you are a supporting character. You will be left out of the hero's plotting and will likely only appear in the storylines when the heros need you to. Unless you're lucky enough to be in a villain-centered storyline, or one where both good and bad characters get equal representation, you won't be seeing as much facetime as you might like. As such, you've got to do a lot of OOC planning--keep track of where your villain is off-screen at all times, what they're doing and what's a realistic marker of advancement in between appearances.

3. Take a look at how your character relates to the heroes. What ties them into the storyline? Is it something as simple as an accidental murder that led to your character being on the run, or a planned series of killings to undermine an otherwise strong order? Depending on the situation, your character may be a grey-area question of morals, or he may be the black part of a black and white situation.

4. Play up your strengths in the beginning and hide your weaknesses, but set yourself up for failure in the end. As mentioned above, the good guys are probably going to win, and if there's no question about who's the good guy then it's not you. But as a storyline villain, you are probably the primary storyteller and the one driving the players behind. I speak mostly of D&D and DMing in this matter, but if you're pulling the strings you better be able to put on a climactic show.

5. Don't metagame. While it's alright to stick around in an RP after your character has left ICly, don't use any of the information you learn without good reason. And when I say good reason, I mean /good/ reason--it's very easy to play a rich villain and say he had a spy watching, but unless you go out of your way to emote the spy/tell people OOCly that there's someone watching, then you better not let it give you an advantage in RP. This is your main failing as a storyline villain: you likely don't have anyone to plot with. You're alone. In the event you have multiple villains involved, that just makes it all the better for you.

6. Make your villain appeal to human emotion. Playing a cold, callous, wretched individual is great, but it can be perceived as flat and/or poorly characterized. Instead of taking the obvious route and playing a monster that's easy to hate, consider playing a villain with grey morals that challenges the audience to consider his line of thinking instead of branding it as evil--study modern social issues and apply them to fantasy settings; take a look at the underlying principles behind conflict and build a plot that resolves around emotional distress and questions. Or go ahead and play a hack n'slash game; that's fine too.

There's a far more extensive variety of personalities and archetypes than what I have listed up near the beginning of this post. You can find these by google, but I offer you one site in particular: http://www.sff.net/paradise/plottricks.htm This link is especially important if you're at all interested in playing a storyline villain. It's a very humorous read if you've never seen the Evil Overlord List before, but it has tons of information added on and compiled in an easy to read manner. Though particularly useful for humorous endeavors, it has a very realistic/cynical view on combat that can easily be used to reflect a villain's way of thinking; I like to refer back to here every now and then for laughs and plot ideas.

And now then, if you're wondering, I wrote this post and threw it up on the internet because I like to share my ideas. Even if none of you benefit from reading this, I know I helped set myself straight by writing it and learn something new just by attempting to impart my ideas to others. I like seeing bad-to-the-bone characters, but sometimes they can disrupt otherwise fine RP and I felt I might be able to make a difference by posting a few helping techniques to keep that from happening. Don't take your naughty children to church, ladies and gents.

Keeping these principles in mind, go on and participate in whatever RP you have set up . . . and leave me alone. I don't want to know what you do in your spare time with that elf, thank you very much.
Moose
Blah blah blah, sorry Moose, I TL;DRed you again.]]> Playing Discordant Characters Effectively
And Teaching Yourself to Blend in With Society
a caffeine-filled post by Moose

H'okay, where do I start here?

I'm Moose, if we haven't met before. I'm an avid gamer and take an active interest in playing less-than-nice characters--in fact, villainous and cruel types are probably my favorite to play. When done right, they feel alien to us and completely compelling--while we grow attached in an expected manner to good guys, the bad ones draw us in and make us question our own morality by finding things in common with what we want to push aside as pure evil. Unfortunately, it's very easy to play a bad guy (or even an antihero) the wrong way, which is detrimental to IC scenes in RP and OOC consistency. A bad villain played wrong is never fun for anyone.

I won't get into it too much as there's plenty of guides around, but when you make an unsavory character you want to keep a few things in mind--namely, you can't be in the spotlight as often as a good guy is, your character is in the wrong (and the right typically prevails), and there's more to your character than just the bad stuff. It's easy to get caught up in the dark arts rituals and the mad lust for power, just don't let it become the only thing you ever do. To play a villain, you have to be patient.

But this post isn't about villains.

This post is about discordant characters, which are far more than just villains--in fact, unsavory characters spawn from their personality, not their alignment. A discordant character is something of the following: gruff, aloof, rude, crude, petty, brattish, snobbish, cruel, spitfire temper. They're not the sort of people you want to keep as friends in real life. Drama follows them everywhere and threatens to drown them in their own blood as they're constantly getting into fights, be it verbal or physical conflict. Many of them are good at drawing attention to themselves and then spurning the sudden interest taken when they act in a way that society would consider uncouth.

Discordant characters draw attention to themselves, but playing one requires OOC courtesy and a general knowledge of where to draw the line. Everyone should have a chance to be in the spotlight and you may end up toning down your loudmouth just so the quieter characters get their own facetime. Unfortunately, this is harder than it sounds--after several years of playing meanies, I still struggle to find a balance between IC technicalities and stepping aside OOCly. But I can share what I know with you.

To start things off, here's a few discordant archetypes I've seen:
Calculating Researcher: Jordan spends most of his time hunched over his disorganized notes, mind always buried in calculations and work. He tends to neglect his physical health and has odd sleeping habits, leading him to be tired and irritable in the day. Though he's not that bad a guy, he keeps few friends and tends to speak with others in a detached, cool manner. He is not very expressive and sometimes attempts to analyze emotions, and the like that should be left out of the scientific method. This archetype can be researching any manner of things. It's typically swung either sympathetically, where the focus is on the researcher's tireless devotion and eventual destruction of themself, or cruelly, where the focus is on the researcher's work and the downright horrid ends they're willing to meet. A close cousin of the Researcher is the assassin that spends most of his time planning another's murder and studying the art of silent killing.

Greedy Bastard: Gustav always has money on his mind. He will do anything to get at money and has few morals or ethics if the end result is profit. He has a head for numbers but prefers to con others into doing the dirty work for him; when he's found out it's difficult to track him down thanks to careful covering of his tracks, which is what has enabled him to survive many of his predecessors. This fiscal-minded character is most often male and faction-neutral, though this isn't always the case. Most goblins are based off this archetype, to one degree of social behavior or another. Its shortcomings lie in overuse and abuse; characters that claim unsavory, grey-moral activities in the name of money are often red-flagged for poor RP.

Mister Angry: Something's got Hogarth's panties in a knot, and it seems he's got a grudge befitting the whole world. Anger and annoyance follow him in a cloud of persistent petulance. He's not much of a talker and typically responds to people with grunts instead of real words; he will resort to violent tactics when pressed. This character is usually male and not a magic-user. He's often a cynic that has seen a lot of war, and tends to be a merc-for-hire. The degree of violence varies widely from someone who is merely unsociable to someone with a hair trigger.

Nobler-Than-Thou: Claire is, by all accounts, a spoiled twit. She's petulant and seems to think the world revolves around her; whenever more mature people prove otherwise she resorts to throwing fits and complaining loudly about how nothing ever goes her way. She expects the world to kotow to her nature, and is often met with disappointment when this is not the case. Personally, I've seen this archetype more in women than men but it's been done for both genders. In WoW's setting, this is especially common in blood elves and human nobility. It can sometimes be difficult to enjoy playing characters like this because of the type's tendency to not back down and reject all logic and reasoning in favor of what they think is right.

Spitfire: Ember is a brattish, fiery woman with an incredibly sharp tongue. She's quick to retort and constantly finds herself in petty arguments without knowing when to quit. Her words are often unnecessarily rude and bitter. When frustrated, she resorts to underhanded tactics such as blackmail and extortion. This character is typically a female rogue. In modern settings she is often a redhead with freckles and green eyes; this likely stems from Irish stereotypes. Unfortunately, it's also a very overused concept and takes some work to play in a distinguishable manner.

World-weary Warrior: Rob doesn't take crap from anyone. He isn't up to dealing with childish complaints and tends to laugh in people's faces when they try to give him guff. While he's not always the man on top in fights, he is physically fit and packs about as much bite as he does bark. He can be overly aggressive and quick to judge; Rob jumps the gun on most issues of great importance and is usually regarded as a callous jerk. This character is typically brutish and--you guessed it--a warrior. There's also a good chance they spend most of their time in taverns. A common variation is the world-weary rogue, which is usually more passive but still refuses to put up with diplomacy.

There are, certainly, other archetypes out there that I haven't listed, but you likely see where I'm going by now. Discordant characters are not nice people and are much more likely to get into trouble than your average Joe. As such, they can be much more fun to play . . . but it's also difficult to get them right. It's very easy to take an archetype and spin it in the wrong way, creating a character that is detrimental to RP rather than helpful. For the most part, whether or not you can make a bad character work relies on your OOC handling, but your character's given personality also plays a part. Below I've included some examples of the same archetypes that I've seen in the past--either they make me groan and shake my head, or just sigh a little bit and move to the other side of the tavern. For whatever reason, something went wrong when the player created or started playing the character, and they ended up unrealistic in some manner.

Discordant Archetypes Played Wrong:
"Bad" Calculating Researcher: Jordan is an outright psychotic man with a penchant for needles and test tubes. Though he has no verifiable training in his line of work, he adores watching people bleed and always carries his tools on hand. While fun to play, this example has little to no use in an everyday setting because of the mental instability and vioelnce; he would quickly be apprehended and locked up in most areas of society. Remember, kids, you don't need to be crazy or unscrupulous to be bad.

"Bad" Greedy Bastard: Gustav is literally rolling in wealth. He has a huge empire and lots of connections and no one ever catches him because he's very careful and usually has his minions do the work for him. Everyone who tries to rat him out he silences--personally. There's not much wrong with this example of the archetype, except it assumes no responsibility for its actions and thus cuts out an important part of dramatic RP. Its "personal" note is a bit on the side of Sueism, which is never a good thing, and it conflicts with him preferring to use minions for his dirty work.

"Bad" Mister Angry: Hogarth is a very quiet, thoughtful man. He keeps to himself and never has much to say, but is easily angered and will lash out with physical force in response to very little provocation. This example is bad because it limits the amount of interaction between this character and a stranger. Chances are, very little will be accomplished.

"Bad" Nobler-Than-Thou: Claire is an elegant, well-mannered woman that grew up in a noble house with everything given to her. She comes off well and everyone likes her so they give her what she wants, though on occasion she can be frustrated when things don't go her way. This example is bad because the character's personality conflicts with her upbringing and gives off mixed messages throughout. The player wants us to view her as kind, but offers no evidence as to why we should think she's a good person.

"Bad" Spitfire: Ember is a witty, attractive woman that always knows when to find the right words at the right time. She has a bit of a temper and can sometimes get in trouble, but is always able to get herself out with minimal trouble; everyone's a sucker for a pretty face. This example is bad because . . . well, if I added a winking emoticon, it would sound more like an eRP ad than a real personality.

"Bad" World-weary Warrior: Rob thinks everyone around him is stupid and challenges people to fights every chance he gets. He loves to fight and almost always wins because he fights so much; the bartender at his favorite tavern lets it go because he pays so much money to the establishment and always buys a round of drinks for the combatants once he's beaten them. This example is bad because the character is assumed to win most fights, and is not reprimanded for poor behavior. In a realistic setting, the character would be thrown out of any bar for starting a fistfight.

So where's the big problem with most of these examples? They're all somewhat realistic and would be just fine with a little tweaking; you know a few people you could trust to spin it right on its head and turn the character into something great. And that's wonderful; I know some people like that too--but there's also the people that do it wrong, and you should especially watch yourself when playing a discordant character to help keep from souring RP.

As a rule of thumb, if you doubt whether or not you're being disruptive, just back off. If your character is yelling at one guy in a bar and there's six PCs there, you should probably quiet down--how you do so depends on your character, but being needlessly volatile is often a bad idea. Keep in mind that there are going to be other people RPing with you besides just yourself. By the same token, if your character is ignoring any and all attempts to communicate, where's the fun in that? You'll get nowhere if all you do is tell people to go away.

Thus, I provide you with a caffiene-fueled rant and a list of techniques I've used in the past to take bad characters out of commission and throw the goodies in. Most of these are broad generalizations, and you'll likely have to fit them to each and every situation, but when you're stuck it may be a good starting point to look here.

First up: talkers. Are things getting too heated? Does your character not want to back down, but you know that remaining stubborn could result in unneeded OOC drama and cause hurt feelings because of the result? Are you worried that a fight will erupt and you'll face guard abuse or being forced to leave because of a tavern brawl? Do you feel the need to keep the peace or step out of a conversation for any reason? Here you go.

Getting Your Loudmouth Out of a Negative Conversation:
1. Step back OOCly. Let the people you're RPing with know that you're looking to back off and would like not to be pressed too hard. This way, they know you've got some player reasoning behind actions that may be slightly out-of-character and will adjust to fit instead of questioning you.

2. Take a look at the situation. Who started the fight and where does it look like it's going? How angry/frustrated/emotional is your character compared to their normal state, and are the other characters in a similar state? What is the main focus of the fight? Through this, you can help decide what reasoning you can use to have your character step back.

3. Let your character calm down. Maybe they realize they misheard something, or start listening to the person telling them that they're being childish, or they remember a key piece of information that . . . you get the point. This is entirely situational and may be difficult to pull off if you feel that your character would not back down, but you have other options discussed below.

4. Let the other characters calm down. Generally, once one player steps back and accepts that their character is going out of line to an uncomfortable level OOCly, the other players will rein themselves in automatically. It really just takes one person to shift the focus of an RP from negative to positive, which is very useful if you feel your character is followed by too much aggression.

5. If you can't quiet your character by reasonable means, ask someone else to help via whisper. PM a friend that you came in with and have them drop a line that you can escape with--your character is screaming bloody murder, but your friend grabs them by the shoulders and holds them back so that a real fight can't erupt. Getting the message, one of the other players grabs the man you were about to fight and holds him back too, giving everyone a chance to sit back.

6. If all else fails, and you're not happy with where things are going, get out. Have your character storm out if need be, or escape to pressing business, or just leave quietly because no one else is taking the hint and quieting down. If it's not fun for you, there's a chance those around you aren't enjoying it much either.

And, conversely, some characters aren't good with starting conversation because they're not very sociable. These types are especially hard to play because they rely on other players to take the initiative, and without OOC communication most players will assume you're busy and/or don't want to RP (for some odd reason, you're sitting on CotH anyway) when you tell their character to leave.

Making Friends for the Socially Awkward:
1. Talk out of character first. While you may not be a fan of metagaming, making nice OOC is the key to avoiding misunderstandings and hurt feelings. It helps to set something up ahead of time with characters that don't like to talk, because you already know the person you're going to be meeting--thus, you don't need to explain your actions to them and they know you want to RP with them.

2. Focus on making your emotes easy to respond to. No one wants to have to lead an RP all by themselves; if you give the other player nothing to work off of they'll grow frustrated. Instead of grunting and offering terse answers, consider throwing in a condescending remark or something similar for good measure--it may not be pleasant, but it helps give the RP direction so the other player isn't doing all the work.

3. Seek out like-minded characters and give your character something to appreciate in others. If you hate everyone equally, except for people who earn your respect, then you'll never give anyone a chance to earn your respect. A night elf may not want to speak to your average drunk, but she may not mind speaking to another elf in Darnassus. And then, though she'd never talk to a gnome of her own volition, one of her progressive friends may declare the gnome to be "all right." Everything is situational, which leads me to my next point.

4. Stick your character in situations where they will be inclined to speak. Do not plunk your researcher down in a tavern where it's loud, noisy, and generally disruptive and expect him to get any work done. Taverns are there for socializing, and we all know that one guy who sits in the corner and occasionally emotes turning a page in the book he's reading--try to keep away from that. If you have a brawler, take them to a brawl when looking for friends. If you have a researcher, go to sites of intellectual interest (you may have to set up an appointment for that one). If you have a drunkard, by all means stay in the tavern--but don't expect to find your greedy bastard a partner in crime just by sitting around boozing all day.

So your snappy jerk avoided getting in a brawl today and your antisocial jerk made a friend. But you still have your greedy meanie to worry about and whatever's going on with his empire, and your researcher is getting nowhere which makes him kind of boring, and you're not quite sure what you want to do with your rogue because she's always being . . . well, you get the point.

Either way, you made a lot of progress today and now you think it's time to treat yourself to playing your main; after all, you were just reading this guide because you set something up that wasn't going to happen for a few hours. So you log on your main but the things you've just learned are stuck in your head and you can't stop thinking about your alts, so you vow to get one of them the storyline they deserve . . . for some reason, you end up playing major villain when you were originally going to be dicking around with your group of friends. No biggie; you're still locked together OOC.

Playing Storyline Villains:
1. Remember that the heroes are supposed to win. Unless you're going at it OOC for a downer ending, accept that you're likely going to get the short end of the stick. People like happy endings. You can't change that. You can still go out with a bang, cause some tragedy and make the world hate you, but you have to keep in mind that in the end you will not prevail. Though just because you know that OOC is no reason to let it affect your IC schemes.

2. Accept that you are a supporting character. You will be left out of the hero's plotting and will likely only appear in the storylines when the heros need you to. Unless you're lucky enough to be in a villain-centered storyline, or one where both good and bad characters get equal representation, you won't be seeing as much facetime as you might like. As such, you've got to do a lot of OOC planning--keep track of where your villain is off-screen at all times, what they're doing and what's a realistic marker of advancement in between appearances.

3. Take a look at how your character relates to the heroes. What ties them into the storyline? Is it something as simple as an accidental murder that led to your character being on the run, or a planned series of killings to undermine an otherwise strong order? Depending on the situation, your character may be a grey-area question of morals, or he may be the black part of a black and white situation.

4. Play up your strengths in the beginning and hide your weaknesses, but set yourself up for failure in the end. As mentioned above, the good guys are probably going to win, and if there's no question about who's the good guy then it's not you. But as a storyline villain, you are probably the primary storyteller and the one driving the players behind. I speak mostly of D&D and DMing in this matter, but if you're pulling the strings you better be able to put on a climactic show.

5. Don't metagame. While it's alright to stick around in an RP after your character has left ICly, don't use any of the information you learn without good reason. And when I say good reason, I mean /good/ reason--it's very easy to play a rich villain and say he had a spy watching, but unless you go out of your way to emote the spy/tell people OOCly that there's someone watching, then you better not let it give you an advantage in RP. This is your main failing as a storyline villain: you likely don't have anyone to plot with. You're alone. In the event you have multiple villains involved, that just makes it all the better for you.

6. Make your villain appeal to human emotion. Playing a cold, callous, wretched individual is great, but it can be perceived as flat and/or poorly characterized. Instead of taking the obvious route and playing a monster that's easy to hate, consider playing a villain with grey morals that challenges the audience to consider his line of thinking instead of branding it as evil--study modern social issues and apply them to fantasy settings; take a look at the underlying principles behind conflict and build a plot that resolves around emotional distress and questions. Or go ahead and play a hack n'slash game; that's fine too.

There's a far more extensive variety of personalities and archetypes than what I have listed up near the beginning of this post. You can find these by google, but I offer you one site in particular: http://www.sff.net/paradise/plottricks.htm This link is especially important if you're at all interested in playing a storyline villain. It's a very humorous read if you've never seen the Evil Overlord List before, but it has tons of information added on and compiled in an easy to read manner. Though particularly useful for humorous endeavors, it has a very realistic/cynical view on combat that can easily be used to reflect a villain's way of thinking; I like to refer back to here every now and then for laughs and plot ideas.

And now then, if you're wondering, I wrote this post and threw it up on the internet because I like to share my ideas. Even if none of you benefit from reading this, I know I helped set myself straight by writing it and learn something new just by attempting to impart my ideas to others. I like seeing bad-to-the-bone characters, but sometimes they can disrupt otherwise fine RP and I felt I might be able to make a difference by posting a few helping techniques to keep that from happening. Don't take your naughty children to church, ladies and gents.

Keeping these principles in mind, go on and participate in whatever RP you have set up . . . and leave me alone. I don't want to know what you do in your spare time with that elf, thank you very much.
Moose
Blah blah blah, sorry Moose, I TL;DRed you again.]]> <![CDATA[Rensin's Overused Concepts]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-9184.html Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:42:34 -0700 Harmonic]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-9184.html
Now, some of you will automatically think I'm trying to bash you, or that "HEY THAT'S MY CHARACTER", but in all honesty, it's to -help- you guys. It's also... not by coincidence they are here. So, if it is here, and it matches your character... well...

Anyhow, here's the list.

The Orphan: Ahh. I start out with this why? Because I do not think I have a single chracter with living parents. While, this isn't -so- bad, some people milk it like there is no tomorrow. As in, what I call, the "pity me" orphan. This is usually a person playing them as so tragic, and misbegotten by everyone that they cannot bear it! Oh the drama!

There is also a -second- part to it. The orphan of a dramatic death. This orphan has seen it all, usually at a young age. People think this makes them deep and tragic, with something to be figured out when that guy starts to ask you about your past...but really, it's something that has happened to either so many people in WoW, or enough times at least in character that it's pretty anti-climatic at this point.

Like I said, this -can- be pulled off, since it's quite difficult to play a character with relations that don't exist in game, or that you can at least communicate to, but just take it down a notch and you'll be cool.

The Uberdin: This is usually a Pally. They can consecrate the ground better than anyone, and they are excelled in combat, romancing, fel magic, ancient lore, and window washing. This is one of the most watched for characters, just because they roleplay them as being able to do anything. Worship the light? Pah, only if they have to, which is seldom because this motorcycle driving archtype is obviously broody.

The Nice Warlock/Forsaken/Deathknight: This is a character that goes against everything that you'd consider any of these things to be. Rather, than the standard tortured soul that has REAL flaws and problems, such as being dead, having to carry themselves secretly, or practicing an art that could get them killed ICly... they are the opposite.

They are overly nice to everyone. They are so friendly, that they'd hug a human and discuss how fun it is to practice summoning their sexy Succubus, or their cute and cuddly Ghoul with a heart of gold. This character may be centered around... *gag* eRP, or something also excedingly rediculous.

Powermage:Mages can do anything right? Right? No, they can't. But people try to make them do everything.

You know the powers your mage has on 'em? Some of -those- aren't even considered IC. Don't make us stuff for 'em. Especially mental powers.

Brain Damaged Orc: There are two GMs and and two ADMINs, -read it- ADMINs that will tear this character appart. Unless the character is a peon there'd be no reason for them to act mentally defunct. Orcs are actually a quiet, and honorable race that fight to -survive-. Playing them as dumb is insulting.

Social Bunny: Not what you think. This is a character that knows major lore figures. Why would you know these figures? And honestly, if you do know them, so darn intamately, why are -you- not a lore figure? The simple answer is that you are not. Piggy-backing on the success of an established character in a profile is a sign of weak writing. It shouldn't be about how amazing Thrall is, the profile should tell us about your character.

Although, Thrall is amazing.

The Crazy: This character is usually described as "unstable" or "wild", or something like that. Players make it known that their actions are -random-, and so on and so forth. Basically, what the profile screams is "I don't know what the hell I'm doing with this character, so I'll call him crazy."

Crazy? It's actually just... lazy. Put some time into it, and try to actually come up with a concept other than saying they are random.

Mastertinkerbubblefluffmeggacute (Gnome): Secrettom will appreciate this, I think. Since it's seen a lot. And that's Gnomes with wierd names popping all about claiming they are "masters of blahblahblah" and so on and so forth. Yes, they love to tinker. Yes, their names can be slightly off the norm. But when you get Gigglestink, inventor of the Nuke, it's going way too far. It's a good idea to tone it down with the cute, and the whole mastergenius stuff, and stick to a single concept. Like steampunk. Gnomes are cool when played right, but I'm going to be blatant. There are like, six Gnomes (not gonna name, but I will say their may be more) that don't make me OOCly want to steer away from them.

Gnomes -should- be a majority serious, with a splash, a -splash- of cute/tinkery.

Broodelf: Goes for both Elf races. This is an elf that is so broody that he's a real turn off to the people around him. With Bloodelves, it's usually an elf that hates -everything-. While, yes, BE's are generally not nice, but snobbish, they still can differentiate between another noble, and someone who is a stinking-non-noble.

For the NE's, this is that -male- elf that defies women, of any race, and goes to the glorious human lands to spread around whatever it is those damn things spread around. Men in this race should be so much more docile than what they are played to be. They've been ruled by women for -Thousands of years-!

Venomdruid: Ahh, this is a type of druid that has shown up more than a few times on profiles. This archetype is a druid that not only slept in the Emerald Dream, but the Nightmare as well. Somehow, they claim that this makes them evil, or something like a mentally defunct spit personality being.

It really makes no sense, but it's happened, -quite- a few times. Heh.

---------------------------------

Final part: The "duh" factor.

This is pretty self explainatory. I hope you all know this one. If it is not from cannon lore... it shouldn't be in your profile. If it's something you made up, and includes something -with- official lore (such as an area or a character) it certainly shouldn't be in your profile. If you get something super special that makes you awesome and everyone else suck, it shouldn't be in your profile.

Also, if you are a megapowered as a -child-, then it's an automatic failure of the duh check. Any. Class. Or. Race.

This is the "duh" factor. The "duh" factor basically means, that if you cannot... comprehend this, then your character will get denied. Why?

Well, duh.]]>
Now, some of you will automatically think I'm trying to bash you, or that "HEY THAT'S MY CHARACTER", but in all honesty, it's to -help- you guys. It's also... not by coincidence they are here. So, if it is here, and it matches your character... well...

Anyhow, here's the list.

The Orphan: Ahh. I start out with this why? Because I do not think I have a single chracter with living parents. While, this isn't -so- bad, some people milk it like there is no tomorrow. As in, what I call, the "pity me" orphan. This is usually a person playing them as so tragic, and misbegotten by everyone that they cannot bear it! Oh the drama!

There is also a -second- part to it. The orphan of a dramatic death. This orphan has seen it all, usually at a young age. People think this makes them deep and tragic, with something to be figured out when that guy starts to ask you about your past...but really, it's something that has happened to either so many people in WoW, or enough times at least in character that it's pretty anti-climatic at this point.

Like I said, this -can- be pulled off, since it's quite difficult to play a character with relations that don't exist in game, or that you can at least communicate to, but just take it down a notch and you'll be cool.

The Uberdin: This is usually a Pally. They can consecrate the ground better than anyone, and they are excelled in combat, romancing, fel magic, ancient lore, and window washing. This is one of the most watched for characters, just because they roleplay them as being able to do anything. Worship the light? Pah, only if they have to, which is seldom because this motorcycle driving archtype is obviously broody.

The Nice Warlock/Forsaken/Deathknight: This is a character that goes against everything that you'd consider any of these things to be. Rather, than the standard tortured soul that has REAL flaws and problems, such as being dead, having to carry themselves secretly, or practicing an art that could get them killed ICly... they are the opposite.

They are overly nice to everyone. They are so friendly, that they'd hug a human and discuss how fun it is to practice summoning their sexy Succubus, or their cute and cuddly Ghoul with a heart of gold. This character may be centered around... *gag* eRP, or something also excedingly rediculous.

Powermage:Mages can do anything right? Right? No, they can't. But people try to make them do everything.

You know the powers your mage has on 'em? Some of -those- aren't even considered IC. Don't make us stuff for 'em. Especially mental powers.

Brain Damaged Orc: There are two GMs and and two ADMINs, -read it- ADMINs that will tear this character appart. Unless the character is a peon there'd be no reason for them to act mentally defunct. Orcs are actually a quiet, and honorable race that fight to -survive-. Playing them as dumb is insulting.

Social Bunny: Not what you think. This is a character that knows major lore figures. Why would you know these figures? And honestly, if you do know them, so darn intamately, why are -you- not a lore figure? The simple answer is that you are not. Piggy-backing on the success of an established character in a profile is a sign of weak writing. It shouldn't be about how amazing Thrall is, the profile should tell us about your character.

Although, Thrall is amazing.

The Crazy: This character is usually described as "unstable" or "wild", or something like that. Players make it known that their actions are -random-, and so on and so forth. Basically, what the profile screams is "I don't know what the hell I'm doing with this character, so I'll call him crazy."

Crazy? It's actually just... lazy. Put some time into it, and try to actually come up with a concept other than saying they are random.

Mastertinkerbubblefluffmeggacute (Gnome): Secrettom will appreciate this, I think. Since it's seen a lot. And that's Gnomes with wierd names popping all about claiming they are "masters of blahblahblah" and so on and so forth. Yes, they love to tinker. Yes, their names can be slightly off the norm. But when you get Gigglestink, inventor of the Nuke, it's going way too far. It's a good idea to tone it down with the cute, and the whole mastergenius stuff, and stick to a single concept. Like steampunk. Gnomes are cool when played right, but I'm going to be blatant. There are like, six Gnomes (not gonna name, but I will say their may be more) that don't make me OOCly want to steer away from them.

Gnomes -should- be a majority serious, with a splash, a -splash- of cute/tinkery.

Broodelf: Goes for both Elf races. This is an elf that is so broody that he's a real turn off to the people around him. With Bloodelves, it's usually an elf that hates -everything-. While, yes, BE's are generally not nice, but snobbish, they still can differentiate between another noble, and someone who is a stinking-non-noble.

For the NE's, this is that -male- elf that defies women, of any race, and goes to the glorious human lands to spread around whatever it is those damn things spread around. Men in this race should be so much more docile than what they are played to be. They've been ruled by women for -Thousands of years-!

Venomdruid: Ahh, this is a type of druid that has shown up more than a few times on profiles. This archetype is a druid that not only slept in the Emerald Dream, but the Nightmare as well. Somehow, they claim that this makes them evil, or something like a mentally defunct spit personality being.

It really makes no sense, but it's happened, -quite- a few times. Heh.

---------------------------------

Final part: The "duh" factor.

This is pretty self explainatory. I hope you all know this one. If it is not from cannon lore... it shouldn't be in your profile. If it's something you made up, and includes something -with- official lore (such as an area or a character) it certainly shouldn't be in your profile. If you get something super special that makes you awesome and everyone else suck, it shouldn't be in your profile.

Also, if you are a megapowered as a -child-, then it's an automatic failure of the duh check. Any. Class. Or. Race.

This is the "duh" factor. The "duh" factor basically means, that if you cannot... comprehend this, then your character will get denied. Why?

Well, duh.]]> <![CDATA[The "Normal" Character.]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-5427.html Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:17:44 -0700 Harmonic]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-5427.html
To me, a normal character is any of the standardized races that you start with, Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Draenei, Night Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Forsaken, and those Blood Elves. A normal character would be someone that fits with the lore that's already been established by Blizzard, and what little tweeks we put in, meaning that, lets say, you decide to play a demon from japanese lore, it -really- wouldn't ever be accepted.

Now, very rarely do people jump to this conclusion. -However-, a lot of people do think that they can play, lets say, a character that has a relationship with an enemy faction that they normally wouldn't. Now, while there are exceptions to the rule (such as Steamwheedle Cartel members), it is highly unlikely this would happen, and therefore would also not be accepted.

This goes for people trying to play non-standard races (any type of NPC that isn't already one of the 10 starting races), playing a lore figure, playing a figure that cannot exist in the WoW universe, playing a character with already established prestige, playing a character that has a very odd or outlandish backstory, playing a character with a very... odd class that isn't standard (that hasn't been already approved by a GM), or playing a character with multiple classes.

Someone had also said that normal is boring. I happen to think that, if you are able to write and roleplay well, you can make normal a hell of a lot of fun. Now, normal does not mean that they are ordinary, or that they can't accomplish great things, normal just means that it fits in the outlines that have been stated throughout the forum.

Normal means that you can be evil, comical, smart, brooding, stupid, sad, heroic, docile, shy, or ANY combination of a vast ammount of emotions, or your character can be something in WoW that you could -never- be in life. I've seen hundreds upon hundreds of profiles that have taken the perfectly normal, and made it -fun-.

Again, what it all comes down to are two different things. What is fun for you to play, and what fits within the rules and established lore. Good luck with your characters, and I hope some people find this useful.

Resources, taken from CoTH's wiki, and rules:

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Chara...ning_Signs

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Ten_C...scriptions

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Possi...able_Races
TO ELABORATE ON THIS PAGE: It's a bit outdated, and it says that they are -possible- player races, which means -in the future-. They are not NOW. Crossbows will be fired at you if you try to play 'em now. And fire.
http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Non-Playable_Races

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Rules#Role-playing
For this link, see rule #5.

And, so you can see what profiles have been accepted to get an idea of what GM's look for, look to this link.
http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Character_Profiles

Disclaimer: I am not liable for whatever tone you read this in. This is in no way, shape, or form directed at anyone, it was sparked by a discussion in chat. IF you find that this may relate to you in any manner, then be content in knowing that I used fictional characters that have no relation to anyone living or dead.

All hearings have been held in a court of law under Judge Judy Garland, and the trials are rea-... eep, got carried away.]]>
To me, a normal character is any of the standardized races that you start with, Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Draenei, Night Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Forsaken, and those Blood Elves. A normal character would be someone that fits with the lore that's already been established by Blizzard, and what little tweeks we put in, meaning that, lets say, you decide to play a demon from japanese lore, it -really- wouldn't ever be accepted.

Now, very rarely do people jump to this conclusion. -However-, a lot of people do think that they can play, lets say, a character that has a relationship with an enemy faction that they normally wouldn't. Now, while there are exceptions to the rule (such as Steamwheedle Cartel members), it is highly unlikely this would happen, and therefore would also not be accepted.

This goes for people trying to play non-standard races (any type of NPC that isn't already one of the 10 starting races), playing a lore figure, playing a figure that cannot exist in the WoW universe, playing a character with already established prestige, playing a character that has a very odd or outlandish backstory, playing a character with a very... odd class that isn't standard (that hasn't been already approved by a GM), or playing a character with multiple classes.

Someone had also said that normal is boring. I happen to think that, if you are able to write and roleplay well, you can make normal a hell of a lot of fun. Now, normal does not mean that they are ordinary, or that they can't accomplish great things, normal just means that it fits in the outlines that have been stated throughout the forum.

Normal means that you can be evil, comical, smart, brooding, stupid, sad, heroic, docile, shy, or ANY combination of a vast ammount of emotions, or your character can be something in WoW that you could -never- be in life. I've seen hundreds upon hundreds of profiles that have taken the perfectly normal, and made it -fun-.

Again, what it all comes down to are two different things. What is fun for you to play, and what fits within the rules and established lore. Good luck with your characters, and I hope some people find this useful.

Resources, taken from CoTH's wiki, and rules:

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Chara...ning_Signs

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Ten_C...scriptions

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Possi...able_Races
TO ELABORATE ON THIS PAGE: It's a bit outdated, and it says that they are -possible- player races, which means -in the future-. They are not NOW. Crossbows will be fired at you if you try to play 'em now. And fire.
http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Non-Playable_Races

http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Rules#Role-playing
For this link, see rule #5.

And, so you can see what profiles have been accepted to get an idea of what GM's look for, look to this link.
http://wiki.conquestofthehorde.com/Character_Profiles

Disclaimer: I am not liable for whatever tone you read this in. This is in no way, shape, or form directed at anyone, it was sparked by a discussion in chat. IF you find that this may relate to you in any manner, then be content in knowing that I used fictional characters that have no relation to anyone living or dead.

All hearings have been held in a court of law under Judge Judy Garland, and the trials are rea-... eep, got carried away.]]> <![CDATA[The Cartel and YOU(r character)]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-2279.html Sat, 09 Aug 2008 15:50:59 -0700 TwilightDisciple]]> https://www.conquestofthehorde.com/thread-2279.html

The Cartel vs. The World

Since I know there's people who RP either as members of the Steamwheedle Cartel, associates/allies of the Cartel, or thinking of joining them, I figured this would help them as well as people who encounter them. Also, I figured, with the new faction system, this is as good a time as ever to type this up.

These are based half on confirmed lore, and half on speculations made using confirmed lore.

Steamwheedle Cartel vs. Other Races
The Cartel doesn't care about race. They only care about your moneymaking power, your cunning, and whatever else you've got to contribute to the cause. It's because of this that, if you cross them or jeopardize their operations, they go crazy on you. People like the Southsea Freebooters and Bloodsails are their enemies for these reasons. They also punish inside problems rather harshly. Think Mafia or any other prosperous, high-end organization.

One group they REALLY hate? The Scourge. They hate anyone able to wipe out their customer base.

Overall, when a member of a race is discovered to be Cartel, things get different. While historical grudges or alliances may be nullified, a new window of distrust may be opened.

Also remember, as a Cartel member, your character may still have grudges with certain races. While some more business-oriented and older non-Goblin members may learn to push their racism aside while actually in the face of the races they dislike, others may outright refuse to deal with certain groups while being a member. It all depends on your character.

One must remember that Steamwheedle Cartel is not some racial utopia; far from it. A lot of inducted Cartel members might come from shady pasts and may have been cast out or done wrong by their race. They may have a disdain for outsiders that are a member of their own race, even, and only view those outside the Cartel as potential money sources and nothing more. Some may bring in old prejudices. Again, though, they struggle to make sure business comes first, unless they want to be counterproductive. This is an interesting thing to RP, a racist in the Cartel.

You should read Rensin's Guide on Race Relations for further insight into this.

Generally, non goblin Cartel members shouldn't flaunt who they are unless on official business. The princes are holed up in a mountain fortress for a reason. Take Krent's advice here on how to act, members and associates:

Krent Wrote:Only point I'd like to add is from the dangers of meta-gaming. Just because you know how each of the various races of Azeroth will react to the Cartel, doesn't mean that you're character will. Whenever I play Krent in a public setting, I tend to use the education taught to me in Mobster / Gangster / Yakuza films when regarding Organized Crime. As in, if you're not in a territory that's controlled by your crew, don't flaunt it. Secrecy is one of the most vital aspects of the gang life. Never know when you might bump into the vengeful sibling of someone your organization had killed, right?

If you plan on joining the cartel or are already a member, it's better you don't have your character run around screaming "HAY GUIZ BEING IN THE CARTEL IS SO AWESOME.". Krent has this problem with his new fondness of Goblin-jive, but he generally tries to take steps towards secrecy when referring to his work. "Delivery boy for a respectable catering service.", etc etc.

This is the number one problem I see in the aspect of "criminal" RP. Too many players try to flaunt their outlaw / criminal / infamous status, without thinking about the dire repercussions that would come of it.

Thank you, Krent. Now, I will try my best to explain how goblins are usually handled, and non-goblin Cartel members are handled differently. I will lump them together at times, as anyone who allies with Goblins may be treated the same by some groups.

Steamwheedle Cartel vs. Horde
The Cartel has a stronger history with the Horde than they do the Alliance, as they were once Horde. From WoWWiki:

Quote: During the Second War a Horde ambassador met with a single trade prince, and convinced him and his subordinates to join the Horde (while the rest of the goblin race stayed neutral). This may have been Trade Prince Steamwheedle. Some horde members have tried to improve relations with the Steamwheedle Cartel. Perhaps with enough persuasion, the goblins could be convinced to rejoin the Horde for the first time since the Second War. This is unlikely to happen however, as the trade prince realized his mistake and left the Horde, and the goblin race remembers the mistake and remains neutral to this day.

Also, it's said that some members of the Horde are still trying to get them to re-unite. This may have weakened over time with the Goblins taking in nearly any race under their wing.

Orcs
Goblins aided the orcs in the past. They have an extremely strong relationship. Some Goblins have even remained in the Horde. The Steamwheedle Cartel is now neutral from Orgrimmar, but the orcs remember their allies.Because of this history, perhaps orcs are more likely to feel more at ease around, say, a human member of the Cartel faster than a permitted human diplomat from Stormwind?

Trolls
Oh my god. Darkspear Trolls tolerate the Cartel because of their history with the orcs, but I would imagine the older ones have all kinds of problems with them. Goblins outbred and outadvanced in technology the jungle trolls of Kezan, nearly wiping them out. (One troll village is left on that island, but no one has any interest in the area to bother it) I imagine the trolls who head to the Zandalar summit every 6 years still bring this issue up.

Non-goblin members would probably be tolerated with equally mixed feelings, too. Anyone who supports a goblin is only adding to the problem, they'd see it.

Tauren
Conservative Tauren hate the destructiveness and materialness of Goblins in general. With Venture being (Either is, once was, or is becoming one, no one knows for sure) a possible subsidiary of Steamwheedle, and what they've been doing in Mulgore, their relationship with them is probably the rockiest out of the Horde.
When before a non-Goblin member, they will probably just try their best to stick to common ground and business. They probably won't try to get personal so that conflicts of interest don't arise.

I could be very wrong and need to do more research on this. I only know so much about the Tauren.

Forsaken
There are hardly any Undead in the Cartel. None are known to live anywhere on Kezan. That said, the Forsaken probably see Goblins as too damn quirky to deal with. The Forsaken tend to hate outrageous surprises they can't control, and Goblins embody that.

Their allies are no different. Seeing the big mish-mash of races among them makes them hard to predict. Other than that, they're someone who'll do business with them.

Blood Elves
This race already has it pretty rough and they give it to other people pretty rough. However, Cartel members are taught to do business with them as smoothly as possible. Blood Elves like the Cartel's typical Ã¢Â€Âœdon't ask, don't tell, don't careÃ¢Â€Â approach to things and expect the same from their non-Goblin members. Though, I'm sure some testier Blood Elves would love to lay it on thick and see how fast enemy races in the Cartel will crackÃ¢Â€Â¦

Steamwheedle Cartel vs. Alliance
Less ties here, but some interesting relationships, nonethelessÃ¢Â€Â¦

Humans
Humans are curious and diplomatic, so they'd be more curious about the Cartel. However, an establishment run by a people who had such strong ties to the orcs in the past can only be trusted so much. That said, humans are the third largest population on Kezan, so that should say something.
*Update* Humans and goblins have a stronger relationship than I'd thought. As long as there's been humans in Theramore, there's been goblins giving them a leg up... for a price.

Gnomes
This is the big one. Even though there are gnomes in the Cartel, this is probably the most fiery relationship. They constantly compete in terms of scientific and technological advances. It can look like friendly competition to those who don't know, but the competitions lead to destructive results for anyone within range. Gnomeregan-based scientists probably get frilled over Cartel scientists of any race, especially.

*By this, I don't necessarily mean people studying gnomish engineering vs goblin engineering. There are many sciences in Warcraft. I just mean people who are technology bound and are lending their services to the Cartel instead ofÃ¢Â€Â¦ not Goblins.

Ironforge Dwarves
Believe it or not, there is a rumor that Prince Steamwheedle has a strong alliance with the Ironforge dwarf leaders, friendship, even. This makes sense, as goblins and dwarves share some dominant traits (short, their technology has some things in common, main hub is a giant fortress city in a firey mountain, materialistic, intelligent) that would make them good friends. Whether the relationship is with a Bronzebeard or some higher-up is unknown. The bond isn't widely known, but not a secret, either.

Night Elves
Elven Sentinels have been known to kidnap Goblin deforesters and force them to develop machines that contribute to restoration. Your typical Kal'Dorei is a cool-headed, jaded xenophobe. Your typical goblin is a hot-headed, excitable socialite. It's rare a highly traditional Night Elf would even think of stooping low enough to do business with a goblin, nor a known Cartel member. If they did, they would be extremely covert about it.

Draenei
While Draenei are nowhere near anti-social, and have cool technology like the Goblins, I would imagine the whole thing with Goblins mostly being some kind of Neutral or Chaotic aligned would put a wrench in things. I don't know how many of them know of what the Goblins are all about right off, but I'm sure they're in for a bad (or oddly fascinating) surprise when they learn about their ways and Cartel culture.

Please feel free to dispute these or ask questions, especially the ones where I said I wasn't wholly familiar with the race.

Identity and Insignia
This goes back to Krent's argument. However, there are some instances where a Cartel member must make their allegiance known.

Most Cartel members who aren't goblins likely have an insignia of some kind, be it a pin or an armband or SOMETHING that says who they are. I ask you to read this part as there's been some "I totally know you're Cartel!" occurrences.

When would a non-goblin Cartel member wear their insignia?

If they're in a city that normally deems them an enemy. (Orc in Stormwind)
If they're out in the wilds of a notoriously contested area and not on Cartel property. (Example: Human Cartel merchants on a caravan may do this for some kind of added protection when passing through 1k Needles, which is mostly Horde-dominated, or Silithus, which is just contested.)

When would a non-goblin Cartel member NOT wear their insignia?

If they're on Goblin property, like Booty Bay or Ratchet.
If they're in a sanctuary where open conflict is not allowed anyway.

You always have That One New Guy who may proudly brandish their insignia everywhere. Aside from that, it's safe to assume most non-Goblin Cartel members follow these rules.
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The Cartel vs. The World

Krent Wrote:Only point I'd like to add is from the dangers of meta-gaming. Just because you know how each of the various races of Azeroth will react to the Cartel, doesn't mean that you're character will. Whenever I play Krent in a public setting, I tend to use the education taught to me in Mobster / Gangster / Yakuza films when regarding Organized Crime. As in, if you're not in a territory that's controlled by your crew, don't flaunt it. Secrecy is one of the most vital aspects of the gang life. Never know when you might bump into the vengeful sibling of someone your organization had killed, right?

If you plan on joining the cartel or are already a member, it's better you don't have your character run around screaming "HAY GUIZ BEING IN THE CARTEL IS SO AWESOME.". Krent has this problem with his new fondness of Goblin-jive, but he generally tries to take steps towards secrecy when referring to his work. "Delivery boy for a respectable catering service.", etc etc.

This is the number one problem I see in the aspect of "criminal" RP. Too many players try to flaunt their outlaw / criminal / infamous status, without thinking about the dire repercussions that would come of it.

Quote: During the Second War a Horde ambassador met with a single trade prince, and convinced him and his subordinates to join the Horde (while the rest of the goblin race stayed neutral). This may have been Trade Prince Steamwheedle. Some horde members have tried to improve relations with the Steamwheedle Cartel. Perhaps with enough persuasion, the goblins could be convinced to rejoin the Horde for the first time since the Second War. This is unlikely to happen however, as the trade prince realized his mistake and left the Horde, and the goblin race remembers the mistake and remains neutral to this day.

If they're in a city that normally deems them an enemy. (Orc in Stormwind)
If they're out in the wilds of a notoriously contested area and not on Cartel property. (Example: Human Cartel merchants on a caravan may do this for some kind of added protection when passing through 1k Needles, which is mostly Horde-dominated, or Silithus, which is just contested.)

When would a non-goblin Cartel member NOT wear their insignia?

If they're on Goblin property, like Booty Bay or Ratchet.
If they're in a sanctuary where open conflict is not allowed anyway.

You always have That One New Guy who may proudly brandish their insignia everywhere. Aside from that, it's safe to assume most non-Goblin Cartel members follow these rules.
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