Take a look at the ones you are RP'ing with!

[Binkleheimer]

Pfft. Shado was wearing a damn helmet.
And he's supposed to be creepy.
>.>

[Aphetoros]

Shado is creepy no matter -what- he is wearing. In my head he sounds like a sadistic, schizophrenic serial-killer, the way he talks with all the ...'s.

Creepy factor: A+

[DaveM]

Yea, well, people designing over-the-top characters visually do it TO get attention. If I was a GM, I'd make it my hobby to have NPC guards harass and kick around these people.

But giving them attention off of a character that ultimately hasn't power over them just gets me served with awnsers along the lines of "No, no - I'm a champion blessed by the holy light of the shamanic spirits from the dark shadows!".

My characters treat flashy death knights like over the top goth kids, deathmist warlocks like over-emo-kids and full-armor-pallys like insecure jockos. Makes sense to me in the WOW and saves me the trouble to bother with them until they get right in my face.

[Binkleheimer]

Shado is creepy no matter -what- he is wearing. In my head he sounds like a sadistic, schizophrenic serial-killer, the way he talks with all the ...'s.

Creepy factor: A+

Well... it seems... ellipses... are clearly... evil...

Heh. Toned down his armor after he got into a bike fight and "ruined" his armor. :3

The particle effects were starting to bug me.

[Rigley]

Pish posh, Shado seemed like a perfectly amiable man of corrupt business.

On another note though regarding the dreadmist locks most of my warlocks see them as some beatdown waiting to happen. They're usually too polite or amused to interject.

EDIT: Also those who find elipses evil clearly have never met Wilt or Endling. I would rank them somewhere up there on intimidation to be around a kitten with tape on it's paws to -possibly- a stuffed animal. The stuffed animal is a penguin for our sake of argument.

A penguin with a tie.

[Jurkey]

I think this got pretty much off-topic.
McBubbles, you tell me to confront the people if ia have a problem with it? IMO, thats like telling people to follow the law if it bugs me.
It is a problem, which is going on around here. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks it's kinda odd that people walk around in hardcore-shady gear and nobody seems to care.

I just think people should keep this thought in mind - if you see a death knight mongering around the inn you WOULD be affected by it. Even though that it's time ago that Death Knight's joined factions, it still takes alot of time for people to get used to it - you could kind of compare it to how racism is still going on, even though it is long time ago... you get it.

For the sake of people looking like corpses, clowns or whatever - it influences your RP, even if your character is "fearless". Who would trust a hooded guy with a mask, telling you to talk to him outside of Booty Bay?

[Ben]

I remember when I began RPing as a Death Knight. The rules of the Ebon Blade were that Death Knights off duty were not to wear their armour. Some sort of spell that I never quite understood allowed it to appear upon you, and disappear at will. If you did not do this, and were caught more than once, you'd be hunted down and killed for being imposing upon the living races of Azeroth; which was not an objective of the Ebon Blade.

This was perfect for my Death Knight to later become an Assassin for The Commoner's Party; because people didn't suspect a thing.

I usually hid the huge runeblade, which you can see in my avatar, elsewhere and kept a series of shortswords and daggers on me at all times. You can't be slowed as a Death Knight because they cant feel anything. Just made it a little awkward to move, so running was generally out of the question.

Just an example of my agreement with this.

[Cepht]

This is not directed at anyone in particular, but it would be better to feared for the things your character has done IC, then to be feared for your npc-bought dark cloak, shiny ogre-sized sparkly rainbow colored sword, and ominous guild tag.

As for fear I do agree.. people need to make an effort to incorporate a little fear.. that goes for baddies with steel balls too.

[Darkneon]

I'm going to go ahead and say that what our characters are affected by is really up to us (in the sense of personal preferences). Not to say that what was suggested in the original post isn't something that is good for initiating role play, because it is a good role play habit to react to what is going on around you. However, I believe its become a common trend for a majority of characters to wear powerful gear, masks, and hoods without a very good reason. If I took the time to make my characters react to every person who wore a mask, hood, or nonstandard armor...I'd really have no time to role play at all. We can try to solve this problem, but that's just like trying to get rid of role playing hot spots. A lot of effort for little reward.

From a biased point of view, I believe sometimes players use "suspicious" armor as an outlet for mary sue urges. Wearing a mask or hood is supposed to make other character feel fear, and react to how dark and possibly dangerous this stranger could be. Powerful armor is meant to make other characters feel threatened or intimated and say to themselves, "Oh...better not mess with that guy". Of course, we'd never actually admit this out loud, but I'm pretty sure we've all thought about it. I mean, it's not murder, we all want our characters to feel important to what is going on; but, it's become a norm. I've just made all my characters believe that with a war going on, they're going to see some pretty strange things, and it might be in their better interest to not even acknowledge it.

My point is, that by requesting players make their characters react in the way you want them to, you are only reinforcing god moding and Mary Sue tendencies. Player will make their character react as they see appropriate, and with masks and scary armor being as common as underwear - you'll probably be disappointed in the end. If the player just chooses to not have their character react at all, then so be it. My advice is to not depend on your clothing to describe your character (especially at this time in CotH), but rather to allow your actions and speech to do it. Sitting stiffly and looking over your shoulder constantly is just as effective as wearing a dark hood (if your intention is to appear suspicious).

Other than that, this thread is just preaching to the choir.

[Jurkey]

I agree with you in some ways Darkneon. But I think that either people should react, or the people who has to wear gear like that should tone it down a little. Why would someone want to walk around with a huge sword on their back and full-plate inside a city?

I think that to make this "trend" go away, GMs should RP bruisers more. Not to make it seem like the GMs fault, but if every player tried to avoid suspicious looking characters(IC) and feel more "terrified" around them - while GMs RP bruisers being like "Hey you! Take off your mask, we're inside!" or something in that manner, the "Mary Sue" looking players might consider their equipment before flashing it off.

Ignoring the problems doesn't solve it though, and it would be sad to be unable to walk into Booty Bay without seeing any commoners, but only people flashing their new ICC armor.

[Darkneon]

Yes, but not every problem can be solved (I once again refer to role playing hot spots). It's really just up to those of us that don't do it to lead by example, and hope that it will catch on. It's not exactly something you can force other people to do without getting some very unwanted results.

On a closing note, CotH isn't perfect, but it's still pretty damn good. Sure, we have some issues like the very problem you're addressing, but we'll always have problems like that. We can't slap a band-aid on it, or hold it together with duct tape, we just have to stick it out. If you really want to put a dent in this problem, I suggest getting in touch with the newer and less experienced players who have recently joined the server, and drop them a few pointers. That's one less Tier 6 warrior to worry about, and they'll probably pass the habit along to their friends.

That's the only solution I can offer though, hopefully, you'll find the one your looking for in this thread or another.

[Rigley]

Just a note: Moving this to general, since this isn't really suitable for the IC forum.

I kinda meant to do that in my first post. But I was sleepy. And I forgot.

[Jurkey]

I respect your opinion Darkneon, but you don't really seem motivated to fix the issue.
The fact that CotH is not perfect, is not a valuable arguement (IMO).

The more people who read this thread, the better - they will somewhat keep in their mind (hopefully).

[Xigo]

I agree with you in some ways Darkneon. But I think that either people should react, or the people who has to wear gear like that should tone it down a little. Why would someone want to walk around with a huge sword on their back and full-plate inside a city?

I think that to make this "trend" go away, GMs should RP bruisers more. Not to make it seem like the GMs fault, but if every player tried to avoid suspicious looking characters(IC) and feel more "terrified" around them - while GMs RP bruisers being like "Hey you! Take off your mask, we're inside!" or something in that manner, the "Mary Sue" looking players might consider their equipment before flashing it off.

Ignoring the problems doesn't solve it though, and it would be sad to be unable to walk into Booty Bay without seeing any commoners, but only people flashing their new ICC armor.

Concerning guards, they are only used to enforce specific laws within their respective city. Whether or not a guard deems something suspicious is entirely opinion based. And it's best to just keep opinions away from the guards.

One guard might have nothing against hoods. One might have a phobia of old women in robes. Another might think that all people missing a finger are pure evil.

Also, concerning bruisers. That is the place suspicious characters go to in order to conduct business. A goblin would never ask someone to take down their hood.

Finally, a great deal of people have very proper IC reasons to carry around a weapon and travel in plate armor.

We cannot enforce how characters react to other players, for that would be on god-moding levels. You can say 'I look suspicious', but you can't enforce how a character reacts to your suspicious behavior.

Though this thread is a good reminder as to 'looking at other characters', mind you.

I think I might write a post on this.

[Jurkey]

I understand what you are saying Xigo, and there is might people who doesn't give a shit about suspicious looking people - but there should also be people who did care. Even though some people are used to it, it would be odd if -noone- cared.

I'm just saying that the average human commoner, who lives on a farm with his happy family would -might- feel uncomfortable with the dark-clothed assassin who wears a mask and hood, sitting in the corner of the inn.