Cross-faction roleplay

[ShadowMoon]

When I played here many moons ago, there was a very nice backstory to the server, and I created my characters to fit into the world. It was a more post-apocalyptic setting where cross-faction RP could happen, since most of the world was destroyed and there were refugees everywhere. I played a human priestess who helped the sick in Orgrimmarr, and another human mercenary out of Booty Bay. A lot may have changed since then.

In the vanilla WoW-world, my priestess is much less possible and feasible. Normally, I am pretty liberal about accepting who wants to play what and with whom. Whatever you play has to fit into the current world's story, in my opinion. I tend to shy away from special backstories nowadays since there are many people out there that won't accept them, and communicating this backstory over and over again to new people takes time away from RP.

~Shmoo~

[Blaize]

*slaps her forehead* Cross faction hatred and conflict doesn't necessarily have to end up in character death. What are we afraid of?

For example. Two members of opposing races arguing over which race is more noble, which race did the most wrongs, etc...It´s a really fantastic roleplay to do. It brings out a lot of emotions to interpret (hatred, sadness, bitterness...), lots of personal and racial defects (pride, arrogance, fear of the unknown...) AND you get to talk about lore from your race and your character's point of view.

Something like this is really fun to roleplay and doesn't have to be limited to hatred between races. A paladin and a rogue, or a druid and a mage...there are groups within the same race that also come into strong disagreement with eachother.

It's not just something people complain about to be bitchy. It's just that it's not nice to have read through the corresponding lore, worked on your character and tried to keep the lore into account when you roleplay...just to find that most other people just do whatever they feel like at one given moment and probably haven't even BOTHERED checking what their race's beliefs, allies or enemies are.

It's also a shame for those players who have fleshed out a good reason and background story that justifies their character's friendship with an enemy race. If the others just doesn't bother, these players will start to think their was no point to their effort.

Cross-faction rp isn't bad if it is done well, taking things into account. And it doesn't have to be friendly (though in reasonable cases it can be: For example, not long ago I OOCly witnessed a fight between a traditional orc and a kaldorei-befriending orc (the kaldorei was present also) which, although it kind of guard abused, had a reasonable background excuse to it and they reacted as their characters should). People seem to think that if they want to rp in a neutral town they have to be friendly and nice or they won't get rp. It's not true! Hatred generates GREAT roleplay sessions!

[Jeff]

Never will be too friendly to the cross-faction, but none of my characters will kill many people on sight. Not without exchanging some insults Aeneas-Achilles style first.

[Araval]

(Just voted, haven't read every single reply yet, so forgive if I repeat! :3)

In my humble opinion...

I believe that it should not be regulated. I will agree that not all of your characters should instantly love both factions, but if a particular character has a good reason to begin to be friendly with the opposite faction, and it is something well thought out, and not just "Hey, this guy is a person who seems super awesome!!!!" then, in my opinion by all means.

For an example, look at any war, or conflict in our own history. Now, yes, the great majority of people would hate the other side, some would even kill them on sight. But there will always, always be sympathizers, or people turned to sympathy after being put into a certain situation.

Now I do not believe all of a person's characters should be sympathizers. If everyone was friendly, that would also kill a good chunk of RP type as well. It should be taken into consideration by everyone as they make their character grow and learn about him/herself.

Another thing I think should be taken into consideration, not just by those RPing cross faction, but anyone around them that may see/hear of them, either with their own eyes, or guards around... If your character sees this and becomes upset, why not go gather a mob of your faction to break this up? Or, gather a mob to shun and exile this person from any town, or outpost of your faction? Letting it go against what your character would do breaks off even more RP right there.

So, in conclusion. I feel that as long as everyone does what they truly feel their character would do, with reason of course... cross faction or against it, we could have tons and tons of good RP. Exiling, tarring, feathering, secret friendships, fights, death, pitchfork-wielding mobs, and all sorts of RP could come out of this.

Feel free to disagree, this is just my opinion! :mrgreen:

[Kaghuros]

Another thing I think should be taken into consideration, not just by those RPing cross faction, but anyone around them that may see/hear of them, either with their own eyes, or guards around... If your character sees this and becomes upset, why not go gather a mob of your faction to break this up? Or, gather a mob to shun and exile this person from any town, or outpost of your faction? Letting it go against what your character would do breaks off even more RP right there.

Perhaps one of the most sensible things said here.

If your character sees something offensive to them, act on it! Does your character hate that X Blood Elf and Y Human are nice to each other? Well, tell a guard, gather a mob. Make sure they'll never set foot in the city again on fear of their life. Do what your character would do based on their personality, and remember that the majority of NPCs act as their race does (Same hatreds, same motives, etc.).

[Aruk]

Cross-faction peace? I'm more or less up for it, because in real life, I really don't tend into other people because they've a tail, and I don't.

The fact is (I've actually cast my vote some time ago, but didn't really find the words to elaborate.)

Cross-faction peace it is for me, but again, as repeated before with good reason. Leaving Ansehqwa out of this one, I'll turn my elaboration's taking in Telika's example.
She is a Draenei, and like her kind (and practically all races, but the Tauren more or less) has a problem with any other races. Unlike most Draenei, she doesn't have a personal (i.o.w. racial) grudge against the Orcs for example, because they are orcs but more likely a grudge because she can't pass through the Barrens without a bunch of guards jumping her every time she want's to get to Booty Bay, thus making the long trip even longer. And take into consideration it's a round trip on foot.

She will be at peace with an Orc or anyone else, as long as they've a purse full of gold and anything worth her time and short patiance span.

Off the job, on the other hand, Telika's likely to put a bullet into anyone's head since she has more or less a problem tolerating anything other then her animal companion.

Now, setting aside the mob gathering and everything else, I somehow have difficulty really percieving the following situation;
A human... or two or three of them taking up with an Orc and telling into his or her face 'get out of my sight'. For one I would likely see them trembling at the very thought of a massive male Orc, let alone standing up to him in the middle of nowhere, with no chance of soon needed medical attention, and enforcing "the human thriumph over other races."


But setting aside Cross-faction peace, it's the peace within the factions I find strange. I don't have a problem seeing a Tauren and an Orc shaman for instance conversing away merilly, but seeing a Tauren shaman and Orc warrior having a merry drink? Or a Troll Rogue getting along just fine with a Tauren Warrior?
I've also seen Paladins and Rouges in Stormwind drinking and getting along just dandy...
...
Did I miss something here?

The thing I'm trying to point out here, is that the Cross-factions aren't so much big of a deal, as you're not that likely to run into a member of the opposing faction (since everyone is more or less glued to Stormwind), but the interaction amongst the members of the same faction.
This has nothing to do with the pole, but just something I really wanted to point out...I guess it's my two penny's as well.

[Piken]

For the mob-forming thing, I think what they meant was.. Say, you're in Booty Bay. You're walking along, la-di-da, and you see a certain human with.. some random Blood Elf, showing much more affection than they should be showing. It makes them angry! Maybe they run over and yell at the human and blood elf. Now, a couple days later, you're in.. Goldshire, we'll say. You see this same Human. "Hey! Blood Elf lover! Get your traitor-loving self outta here!" Then proceed to tell the citizens, guards, whoever of this person's actions with the Blood Elf from before. People react with "=O! That's disgusting! /raeg /mob" And yeah. At least, that's how I took what Kag and Ara were saying.

And as for the whole.. different classes drinking together. WoW classes are vague. Warrior? Well, -anyone- can be a warrior, persay. Mages and priests can be considered warriors. The warrior class, if the person is RPing as such, is just someone who specializes in heavier weaponry and armor, assuming the person is even RPing that. It could be an OOC choice to allow more weapon/armor options. As for rogues, this is another vague class. The rogue is basically supposed to be sneaky, etc. etc. But just because the person chose the class doesn't mean that it defines their character. Could be an OOC choice, could be that maybe the person's a liar? People do lie about what they do in their lives. A warlock won't go running around Stormwind saying "Omigawd, lookit mai demunz!" He'd be cut down where he stood. So.. to sum it up, classes don't really matter. One more example: If a warlock and paladin are drinking together, and the paladin -knows- that the person's a warlock, I'd think they'd be a bit sketchy about this person. Other than that.. yeah. Shouldn't really be an issue.

Hope that cleared things up a bit and helped. And sorry for the mini-Wall o' Text.

[Addin]

Like the poll option says, cross-faction roll-play should be allowed only if there is a legitimate story behind it. So ultimately... yes we should have cross-faction roll-play.

[Anski]

I think that you should act on it on the grounds that your -character- doesn't like it, rather than -you- think that there should be WAR at all times. Marin befriended an orc, and was subsequently attacked over it. Even though Marin had won the fight, the reason the two orcs had against him weren't "This isn't right we are at war, ergo you should both die," it was that the orc he had trusted was blamed of having no honor to his brethren for trusting someone of the faction that their leader had told them was evil.

To reiterate; do not let your OOC mindset of no crossfaction bleed into all of your characters mind.

[Terant]

I think that you should act on it on the grounds that your -character- doesn't like it, rather than -you- think that there should be WAR at all times.

QFT.

[Kaghuros]

To reiterate; do not let your OOC mindset of no crossfaction bleed into all of your characters mind.

Unless you intentionally create a character who cleaves to the stereotype to break the norm (The norm among RPers, that is. Since people seem to want to be unique snowflakes and love everyone, though I must admit it doesn't happen as much as it used to.), in which case your character is fine being angry as all hell.

[Piken]

Piken and Gromel are angry pandas.

[Painty]

All in all it's a pretty vague matter, (like everything else discussed in detail here), and not my favorite thing to discuss. Anski and Hawk I think have it the best; when push comes to shove, it's all your character. Not lore, regulations, or personal feelings of the matter. Those things all affect your character, no doubt, but as I've said before pushing extremes and making your character into a flat expression of the typical insert-race-here (or the exact opposite) is just poor writing.

Making friends with opposite factions? It could happen, and it might. It won't necessarily, though, realistically. I guess if setting up rules and guidelines and even allowing GM enforcement helps keep the ridiculous and unrealistic from happening, it'd be the best way to go, but personally I don't think it's something to go nuts over.

[Hawk]

It's a lose/lose situation really. People complain there needs to be more hatred, then others complain about characters dying, and lets face it, most crossfaction arguements will result conflict, especially in the case of Orcs seeing as they lead to the more brutal nature. There's honestly not much we can do about it, seeing as everyone has a different opinion and not everyone will agree with each other.

So honestly? Do what your characters wants, BUT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, actually make it reasonable, and don't let the opinions of others get in the way of your character's choices. It's YOUR character.

But again, be reasonable. Draenei simply won't like Orcs. Ever.

/end

[Cressy]

So honestly? Do what your characters wants, BUT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, actually make it reasonable, and don't let the opinions of others get in the way of your character's choices. It's YOUR character.

Until the cross-faction hippy lovers get all pissed off OOCly for my character hating them. If I have to be okay with your. . . "I want to ERP with everything with legs," then you better be able to deal with my (example) night elf punching your blood elf in the face for making sexual advances towards her.

/end