Mounts and Races?

[star2316]

I think you ultimately can tell what is what for acceptable mounts.

First look at the size of the race. Is it too small or too large to be easily carried by the mount in question?

Obviously Mechanostriders should only be used really by Dwarves and Gnomes. But Draenei are just too big for them, you'd need a bigger version of one to support them. Humans could maybe slide through with it, and if they had Gnomish engineering, they could get by with having built one capable of supporting them.

Really the Mechanostrider setup is one that anyone could use. They just need Gnomish Engineering. You can build a larger version of them to support the bulk of a larger individual.

For rams, you could get by with Humans, Gnomes, or Dwarves. Maybe Night Elves as well. I doubt you could breed a ram big enough for a Draenei to climb on without breaking it.

The same applies to horses. Gnomes and Dwarves can ride a horse. If you want to RP it, go with the LotR route. Have them claim the animal is a Pony, which would be a more appropriate size.

For the Saber mounts, if you are a race other than Night Elf, you shouldn't have these unless you are Exalted. The mount farm put aside. By the time you reach Exalted with the Night Elves, you can always say you earned the right to ride one.

The same goes for most any other mount, at least the way I see things. If your character has put in the RP and OOC time to build their standing among the faction that uses the mount, then you should have the right to use one.

Naturally if you just go out and buy it, that's always up to you. For my characters, I plan to do it the old fashioned way and build my reputation and standing. It doesn't hurt that I'm playing a neutral character that already has the goal of becoming friendly with the variety of factions, to have a larger clientèle.

I say, just use your head. Don't roll up a Draenei, port to the Mount farm, and immediately purchase up a Mistsaber to ride around on. Actually earn the right to ride one, and if anyone gives you hassle about it, tell them as such.

I think everyone should expect some reaction ICly . The random Night Elf character seeing someone on a saber would likely not know why that someone ride a saber and would question it , Just a example . The Faction Reputation do not really tell the story to strangers

[Hexproof]

I think you ultimately can tell what is what for acceptable mounts.

First look at the size of the race. Is it too small or too large to be easily carried by the mount in question?

Obviously Mechanostriders should only be used really by Dwarves and Gnomes. But Draenei are just too big for them, you'd need a bigger version of one to support them. Humans could maybe slide through with it, and if they had Gnomish engineering, they could get by with having built one capable of supporting them.

Really the Mechanostrider setup is one that anyone could use. They just need Gnomish Engineering. You can build a larger version of them to support the bulk of a larger individual.

For rams, you could get by with Humans, Gnomes, or Dwarves. Maybe Night Elves as well. I doubt you could breed a ram big enough for a Draenei to climb on without breaking it.

The same applies to horses. Gnomes and Dwarves can ride a horse. If you want to RP it, go with the LotR route. Have them claim the animal is a Pony, which would be a more appropriate size.

For the Saber mounts, if you are a race other than Night Elf, you shouldn't have these unless you are Exalted. The mount farm put aside. By the time you reach Exalted with the Night Elves, you can always say you earned the right to ride one.

The same goes for most any other mount, at least the way I see things. If your character has put in the RP and OOC time to build their standing among the faction that uses the mount, then you should have the right to use one.

Naturally if you just go out and buy it, that's always up to you. For my characters, I plan to do it the old fashioned way and build my reputation and standing. It doesn't hurt that I'm playing a neutral character that already has the goal of becoming friendly with the variety of factions, to have a larger clientèle.

I say, just use your head. Don't roll up a Draenei, port to the Mount farm, and immediately purchase up a Mistsaber to ride around on. Actually earn the right to ride one, and if anyone gives you hassle about it, tell them as such.

I think everyone should expect some reaction ICly . The random Night Elf character seeing someone on a saber would likely not know why that someone ride a saber and would question it , Just a example . The Faction Reputation do not really tell the story to strangers

Yeah, I really doubt, though, that faction reputation should be involved in why or why not you should have a mount. Suppose all Night Elves hate you for some reason, save one, and they gave you their saber when they died?

Maybe you bought it from a rather odd goblin for some reason?

Just throwing these ideas out there.

[Dilly]

Well, sabers might be a little harder. To the Night Elves, these sabers are highly respected and sacred beasts, therefore, it would be extremely hard to get one. If you bought it from a goblin, how the hell did -he- get one? At times, it seems nearly impossible to have a saber if you're not a Night Elf, so you should probably have a jolly good reason. ^.^

[garrett]

The simplest reason is usually the best, when you think about it.

Look at how Blizzard programmed it in. You have to be Exalted to even buy a mount. And that, to me at least, means you are in extremely good standing with a given faction.

In real world terms, let's equate that to you being given permission to be in the same presence as the President of the USA, or the Queen of England.

That's why I said to go with reputation in the case of most of the mounts. By the time you are Exalted you should easily be trusted enough to work with a mount.

The goblin route could potentially work, he'd have to steal one, naturally. That opens up some RP in terms of Night Elves approaching you to try and retrieve the mount, attacking you for thinking you stole it, and so forth.

Frostsabers are legendary cats native to
Winterspring, and they are highly sought after by
the most experienced Sentinels as mounts. The
night elves view frostsabers as sacred, and treat them
with more respect than almost any other creature.
In recent years, with the coming of the goblins to
Winterspring, frostsaber trainers have begun selling
their trained mounts for the first time in history.
Traditionalists view this as blasphemous, but many
understand that the coin from such sales often goes
to a worthy cause (and the frostsaber trainers are
highly selective about just who they are willing to
sell to). Frostsaber cats are intelligent and loyal when
domesticated, but feral and aggressive when left in
their natural environments.

Trained frostsabers are only sold
to an exclusive few who have proven
themselves strong allies of the night
elves. Even so, the price tag is extremely
high; usually ranging from 10,000 gp to
12,000 gp.

Nightsabers are typically sold for about 500 gp, but
the night elves tend to be selective about who they are
willing to sell to.

This is from the Warcraft RPG sourcebook for Alliance players.

In reading that, it shows that the mounts are sold, just to selective individuals, which works out to the Exalted rep.

Rams are also listed in there as being for sale, though the only thing they show is that the dwarves have been training humans in how to train and care for rams.

So in most instances of lore, these mounts are sold to trusted individuals, so you can usually get away with having one while being exalted, I would think.

[Hexproof]

Again, Exalted (Or any reputation level) =/= IC.

It depends on the individual selling, the individual buying, and etc.

[Piken]

I personally am under the strict belief that all races should stick with their own mounts and not touch any other race's mount, with a few exceptions(Orcs riding Kodo). That said, I don't really take anything written there seriously because Blizzard, to me, tends to make things so people are happy instead of doing anything in regards to.. keeping with their lore. First you couldn't get other race's mounts, then you could when you got exalted, etc. etc.

I don't think the Night Elves would -ever- give away their Sabers. Like it was said, they're seen as sacred beasts. Same with Trolls and their Raptors; sacred beasts in the Troll's eyes. And as being sacred animals, you'd think they.. ya know, wouldn't give them out. Especially to races that basically go against all of their beliefs, or at least a majority of the race does. Horses, sure Gnomes and Dwarves could get them relatively easy, but you don't just buy it and know how to ride. You still have to train yourself to take care of said horse, etc. I could give my opinions for all the others, but I'll spare you guys.

Just my opinion.

[garrett]

The best thing I think that everyone can do is that if they don't approve of a non-Night Elf riding a saber ICly, if they have valid reasons as to why, it's probably just a good idea to shrug it off. There's really no point in starting an arguing match in the middle of the game just because you don't like the fact that they have a specific mount.

Reputation holds a lot of standing with being In Character. Look at the stuff you have to do to earn Reputation. You are doing things to help that faction. That is naturally going to make them like you more and make them more inclined to teach you their ways. That's the whole point of the reputation system. At least when you look at it from an RP perspective.

It's only natural that if I continually bust my hump to aid your group, you are going to like me more and trust me.

[Anski]

Reputation holds a lot of standing with being In Character. Look at the stuff you have to do to earn Reputation. You are doing things to help that faction. That is naturally going to make them like you more and make them more inclined to teach you their ways. That's the whole point of the reputation system. At least when you look at it from an RP perspective.

Quests are not In Character. Therefore, doing them doesn't mean your character went out and did them.

Reputation Mechanics, just like level, has absolutely no gravity in your characters life.

[garrett]

Why shouldn't they be in character? Just because it's an NPC asking you to do something, doesn't mean you can't roleplay the entire thing out, whether it's slaughtering imps and pigs in Teldrassil, or gathering Defias stuff in Elwynn.

I will concede that just running up to a questgiver, taking a quest, and running around to kill stuff isn't in character.

But you can't really call anything dealing with NPC's as OOC. They live in Azeroth as well, and if you are going to RP walking through Stormwind, to your character, every person you meet is someone else that is living and breathing in Stormwind.

[Piken]

The quest and reputation mechanics are not IC. It's as simple as that.

Sure, you can RP that someone hired you to go out and, say, kill a couple of kobolds that happen to be attacking a farm. But that will not give you rep with an entire nation. That said, in WoW, reputation is all grinding the same. Exact. Thing. Over and over and over. There's nothing in character about it. Soldiers have to fight and survive and show extreme prowess in wars before they get recognition, why should some random guy who knows how to stab a pig and not get too hurt by it get more 'fame' than him? He shouldn't, and he wouldn't.

Maybe you gain a bit of 'fame' inside of a small town if you've done -a lot- but doing minor things will not make an entire nation/faction say "Whoa that guy is cool! Lets give him stuff because of it!" It just doesn't make sense. There's no reason to argue it.

[Hawk]

Well, for starters, most of the quests require you to step right into the middle of a base and kill like 10 people and then walk off like nothing happened. Could this be done IC? Hell no. There would be MUCH MUCH more things there ICly, plus they're going to notice you no matter what. Delivery quests? Some could be IC, but they certainly can't give you rep, like Piken mentioned.

There's really not much else to it. Not all quests are IC, simple as that, and there's really not much point in arguing it. Not to mention going off topic on a thread about which mounts should be bestowed to who.

[Ronin]

Possibly to help get things back on topic, as the supreme commander of Jarving, and having got him an Elekk mount, I had a very (lol) good reason ICly, in the form of a story that he told few. As far as size issues, he had to climb a rope to get onto it, and fell off a lot of the time. So, that covers the basic issues of "how'd you get it ICly". Some things are easy to explain, some aren't.

As far as sabers go, I'm going to throw out there that in addition to the Kal'dorei likely being against people having them, you're also talking about going up to a huge purgatorial beast and saying "hey, look at the little fuzzy kitten!" *Pet pet*. More likely, you'd be scared half to death of a huge tiger, and avoid it. Same with Trolls and Raptors.

Just my two cents.

[Shane]

Is it possible to get a mount of the opposite faction with the IC reason that it was smuggled by the Goblins ?
My char works as a merc for the Goblins and does some business with them too, so is it possible ?

Also, can Swift Razzashi Raptor be used IC-ly ?

[freelight]

Is it possible to get a mount of the opposite faction with the IC reason that it was smuggled by the Goblins ?
My char works as a merc for the Goblins and does some business with them too, so is it possible ?

Also, can Swift Razzashi Raptor be used IC-ly ?

I second this. As long as the combination is within reason (like, say, a Blood Elf on a non-undead horse) and there is a good IC reason (like smuggling, or befriending a member of the corresponding faction), I'd very much like to see faction restrictions lifted from mounts.