TB Roleplayers: I Am Here to BLOW YOUR MINDS

Action.

It can be as small as a little Troll warrior asking the wandering Death Knight, “Sih, kin Ah mine de ore from dat rock?” to as big as a group of people hanging out in a small coastal town, drinking around a fire and engaging in multiple conversations.

It all starts with one person, occasionally more, and expands from there. It never, however, spawns from players moaning about a lack of interaction or the amount of cliques on a particular server.

Roleplay is a social activity. It requires people to take their characters out into the world and engage with other characters, whether it’s a short snippet of conversation or a long, drawn-out plotline between a group of dedicated individuals. The people that get roleplay are not the ones that spend much of their time complaining about how dead roleplay is, nor are they the ones that constantly spout negativity and/or venom toward others (hint: I am only nasty toward someone if they are being nasty toward me – disagreeing does not equal being a jerk).

The people that get roleplay are the ones that act.

There is one member of my roleplaying community that has been on the server for six months and she does more for roleplay than any five of the most frequent complaining-types on my server. She frequently advertises that there is roleplay going on in certain locations from the Crossroads to Ratchet, and politely invites people to join in. She is friendly, open-minded and positive. She is active in three guilds and on one major community messageboard.

Guys? She’s already better at this than I am, and I’ve been at it for four years.

The secret to active roleplay: Just Do It!

One thing I have noticed in my time on Thorium Brotherhood is this: as more complaining takes place, less gets done. Time spent bemoaning the state of RP is time wasted. No amount of talk is going to improve anyone’s situation, ever.

The reason that I do not believe that roleplay on Thorium Brotherhood is dead is because, as hermit-like as I am, I actually do attempt to get out there. I occasionally show up to the main weekly event, even though I do not get along with a lot of people that go there. I occasionally seek people out. Once in a while, I run an event. I am frequently in-character wherever I go, especially in cities and while questing or grinding. Most of all, I maintain a positive attitude toward my server and its RP, even if I sometimes don’t agree with how people go about it.  I am open-minded. I do my best not to exclude people, though I can’t cater to everyone, and I do not, ever, try to pass myself off as some saviour of RP.

It is important to remain positive.

There are several people that are working their asses off in this community, trying to run events and just be Out There and helpful. Caeryn, Roshanar, Mellodi, Thierry, Lystaa, Berko – just some of the names from my particular section of the community – all do their best to encourage roleplay and help people out with it. They maintain a positive attitude toward Thorium Brotherhood RP. They don’t belittle it or minimize the efforts of those that even try by spouting venom at them.

That is hugely important. The more supportive people are of those that do their part, the better.

All in-character, all the time.

If one is unhappy with their particular lot in roleplay, perhaps it’s time to take a different approach. Try being in-character everywhere: while questing, during PvP, in the auction house, while crafting, no matter what one is doing or where one is, remain in-character and react to everything, even if nobody else is there. Immersion? Very helpful.

Events are awesome!

If it’s impossible to attend the events that are currently held, by all means, create some. Be as inclusive as possible to encourage attendance (unless, of course, one has a certain theme in mind – such as something meant for a single race or class) and do not use OOC reasoning to exclude any groups of people. The reason for an event must be in-character, even if it’s something as simple as “get completely wasted”. “Saving” RP is not a good reason for a roleplay event. Remember? Keep it positive.

Cliques: Interacting with people outside their boundaries since 200x.

Something else that people need to realize: TB’s “cliques” have been interacting with one another and with those outside them in a positive manner since, well, forever. When those interactions become negative, it is not the fault of the clique itself, but of individuals within any groups. Sometimes, some people just don’t get along – this does not make an entire group of people horrible. If, however, one person finds him or herself having difficulty with more than one group on a server, perhaps the problem isn’t the other people at all – in fact, it’s more likely to be that single person.

Overall: Be positive and get out there. There’s nothing to lose, folks. Nothing at all.

What I Would Like to See From the Roleplaying Community

A lot of roleplayers have this automatic sense of defeat about them. Nothing is within their power to fix, or if it is, there’s no point in doing it. Why should they report people that break the rules? It could cause trouble, create fights, fracture the community!

You know what? So does bitching without action. So does being a dick to people without real cause. So does being a permanent Negative Ned or Nancy. So does the constant complaint that Roleplay is dead, woe is us, let’s all cry for the good ol’ days.

My fellow Roleplayers, grow some fucking spines. Instead of bitching about the state of RP, do something. Be in-character wherever you go. Roleplay with everybody you meet, whether it’s in instances, battlegrounds, at the auction house, while negotiating for various trade goods – even the most mundane thing, do it in-character. Start running events! Start posting roleplay threads to your realm’s or community’s forums! Start dragging your guild or friends into the cities and roleplaying in public!

Don’t just sit there and bitch about how you think Roleplay is dead, how there’s no roleplay out in the world of Warcraft and blah blah blah, wah wah wah, soooooob. For fuck’s sake, pull your heads out of your asses and take action.

Report griefers. Report the textspeak kids that are yelling about how gay some dude named Tacobull is. Inform people that they are on a roleplay realm and that there is a specific ruleset that applies. They rolled on a roleplaying realm, it’s our sandbox, they have to play by Blizzard’s rules, too.

What does this mean for non-roleplayers?

It means that, really, not much will change. Your /guild, custom and /whisper channels are still yours to do whatever you like with, and you can get away with being OOC in /say and /yell if you’re sneaky about it. “lol im guna get so wasted 2nite!!! xDDD” becomes “Haha, I’m so getting wasted tonight”. Of course, the character could also be based upon you.

If you’re going to roll on a roleplay realm, be prepared to follow Blizzard’s roleplaying guidelines. That’s it. No ifs, ands or buts – it’s official as per Blizzard.

Overall, Roleplaying Community, I’d like to see you stand up for yourself. I’d like to see you do less complaining and more acting. This is going to be fucking hilarious coming out of me, but I’d like to see less petty bullshit and more working together.

If Matojo can set up the occasional roleplaying event and show up to a weekly tavern every so often that’s held by a guild that dislikes her (and that she doesn’t particularly like, either), other roleplayers (that don’t hold the “OMG RP IZ DED” opinion) can put in a little effort, too.

On Playing Half-Elves

I apologize if I’ve covered this before, but I was up way too late last night debating about this very thing, so it’s on my mind.

Most who roleplay with me are aware that I’m willing to accept a lot of things. I can deal with the walking homosexual stereotypes (though, to be honest, I’m getting a little tired of people playing up the stereotype of the FABULOUS gay elf – you do know it’s possible to be into members of the same sex without being flamboyant, right?), the occasional speshul snowflake, the dudes with mechanical parts (though that is supported by lore and people that don’t see that obviously never quested in Stonetalon, Borean Tundra or ran Gnomeregan) and the secret somethings. I can deal with strange shit if it’s played well.

What bothers me the most about the play of half-elves is that, like secret dragons, they are rarely played in a manner that realistically matches the setting.

In World of Warcraft, Quel’dorei – the blue-eyed, pink-skinned elves whose majority population became Sin’dorei with Kael’thas upon feeding on Fel energies – and humans are considered traitors by the Sin’dorei. For the Quel’dorei, it’s because they didn’t join the Sin’dorei in their transformation. For the humans, it’s because they basically left the Sin’dorei to die when the Scourge happened. So, one can imagine that neither race would be welcomed to the Horde with open arms – their offspring even less so.

So, try to imagine a half-elf that doesn’t have green glowy eyes. Tell me how long you think that would last in a Horde city, realistically speaking.

Yeah. Exactly.

You would also think that a character that has been challenged for being the product of two traitorous races’ mating, has been threatened and has had their points of view regarding human relations to pretty much every member of the Horde would be a little more careful about how… they… act. You would think that they wouldn’t be so quick to exclaim, “I’m part human!”, or to express their like of humans and how totally not dicks they are, seriously guys.

But, no.

Azeroth is a world that is at war. Most Sin’dorei are unwilling to forgive the Quel’dorei and the humans for screwing them over, and most of the other Horde races are pretty rar-fase over anything with an Alliance tabard. Yes, there are exceptions, but those are rare – and the player-characters that actually play out being “roooar hiss” are met with… surprise on the part of the half-elf. The half-elf who has been met with these reactions before.

What.

I’m not quite sure where my point was, I know I had one. I guess it’s this: If you’re going to play something that the in-game world at large considers “taboo” or outright traitorous, for the love of Djehuty who guides my writing hand please at least attempt to play your character in a manner that’s realistic for the setting. This does not include putting a spotlight upon yourself and bragging about where you’re from or what you did while under Alliance rule (I’m writing from a Horde P.O.V. here), nor does it include spouting off about how the Alliance are so totes cool and omg the Horde isn’t innocent either we should all be ~*friends*~. It… isn’t working that way in the game world. It really isn’t.

… No really I had a point come baaaaaaack.

To Each Their Own

The topic of ERP has come up (pun unintended) quite a bit in my RP community. For those that aren’t aware, ERP refers to “erotic role-play”, which tends to be the butt of roleplay-server-related jokes.

Truth be told, a lot of people in various roleplay communities have an unhealthy fear of erotic roleplay that borders on fascination – people are very, very quick to judge those that may partake of this activity and vehemently deny, deny, deny any interest that they may have.

I’m gonna be blunt here, folks: the more one cries out against an activity while, at the same time, being extremely curious and fascinated by it, the less I believe that they think it’s bad.

I have participated in intimate roleplay. I occasionally enjoy it, though I haven’t actually pulled any off in quite a while (usual RP partners off having lives, me getting eaten alive by PvE fever, my RP not generally leading in the direction of sexytiems OR the characters that do go that way are characters I’m not comfortable following into their bedrooms) and I’m pretty indifferent to what other people want to do with their time. The things that I’m noticing when I see people rail against erotic roleplay are the following:

• Internalized misogyny: Female characters that are dressed in “revealing” clothing are pointed out first, and often as “fishing for ERP”. Slut-shaming abounds. Would the same questions and shaming arise if the character happened to be male?
• Closet fascination: Many times, the people that I see that express disgust over this activity also seem to be very, very fascinated by the concept. They think it’s wrong and horrible but they want to hear about everything to do with it.
• An unhealthy view of sex: Adults regarding sex in the same way that the pre-fifteen crowd does tends to worry me just a little.

To the RP community’s credit, at least we don’t have “ERP ruins the ~meaning~ of sex and makes 14-year-olds pregnant!”-guy anymore.

When this topic is brought up I tend to cringe. I know that slut-shaming is on its way, along with the usual tsking, and it’s disappointing that people that otherwise take pride in being mature, well-adjusted adults are so bloody childish when it comes to this.

I’m not gonna re-hash what others have said regarding double standards, internalized misogyny/sexism and slut-shaming when they really did say it better (I will also take recommendations for other articles).

“Oh, that’s disgusting! … Tell me more.”

Often when a potential ERPer is spotted, the spotter announces this to the channel. The rational and well-adjusted among us respond simply with, “So what?” and move on with our lives, while the others’ reactions vary from “OMG! What are they wearing?” to “What are they doing?” to “Omg you should hit on them”. People want to know as much detail as possible. It becomes a serious case of voyeurism that is… both hilarious and sad to watch.

It’s natural for people to gravitate toward a train wreck in order to watch the carnage.

With that said, this type of behaviour makes me want to say, look, if you’re that interested, stop fucking denouncing the activity and just admit it. You’re a voyeur. Intimate roleplay interests you. You secretly like smut. We get it. No amount of insistence of your disgust over it is going to prove otherwise.

Matojo Says: “For fuck’s sake, people, grow up already.“

Guess what? Intimate roleplay is exactly like other forms of erotica in that it’s a natural byproduct of a culture that… likes sex. There’s nothing wrong with it, especially not if one is interested in, say, erotic stories or art. Or porn. Some of the exact same people that have no problem with erotic literature or art are the very same folks that bash erotic roleplay and those that partake of it.

Guys? It’s the same shit, it’s just a different medium.

Grow the fuck up already.

What Matojo Thinks

I occasionally ERP. It’s another tool in my character development toolbox and it has (sometimes unfortunately) shed some light on some of my characters’ personality quirks and why they are the way they are (although very little can explain Ojore aside from if your siblings were murdered in a Quintaglio-esque culling you, too, would be fucked up). It is not the focus of my RP, though I have absolutely no issue with smut for smut’s sake. Sometimes, it’s hilarious (Dybo: Ticking Timebomb Extraordinaire), and yes I’m a horrible person.

There is nothing wrong with erotic roleplay. To each their own, and if the idea of somebody including sex in their pretendy fun-times is that much of a threat in one’s mind, they need to grow the fuck up. You’re adults, for fuck’s sake – sex-related talk should not be met with highschooler derision and flailing.

TL;DR Erotic Roleplay is just like roleplay, but there’s sex in it. Oh noes. Grow the fuck up. Blah blah blah misogyny, slut-shaming, double standards, sex is not icky you fuckwads.

[Event][Thorium Brotherhood] COME ONE & ALL TO GRIN’DAL’S BRAG & BRAWL! May 14, 8:00pm!

(( A slightly overweight Troll with a large, orange mohawk stands atop the highest point in each of the Horde capital cities to make the following announcement, once per week, at 5:00pm SHARP every evening. His voice is loud, his manner of dress is rather flamboyantly Trollish and he often punctuates his statements with winks and grins. ))

Ladies and Gents and Not-So-Gents, lend me your ears!

Dis be Grin’dal Darkspear talkin’ and do I, oh do I, gotta deal for you!

De jungle be a harsh, harsh place with lotsa things with sharp teeth and sharp weapons to jab ya wit’, but for one day a week you can forget all a’ dat and come on down by de water to enjoy a l’il somethin’-somethin’. What’s dat, you askin’?

Come join me on de day of de fourteenth of May at eight bells in de bay outside Grom’gol – just a short Zeppelin ride ‘way from Orgrimmar or de Undercity! – for a bit o’ boozin’, fightin’ and braggin’. Dat’s right, folks, it’s:

Grin’dal’s Beach Brag ‘n Brawl!

Bring you friends, you enemies and family! Bring you own booze or buy what I got! Prepare all you best stories an’ prepare youself for a good warm-up ’cause, guess what? I’m a no-rules, no-holds-barred kinda guy! Whether you wanna watch, heckle or participate, you welcome to drop on by!

So join me on Friday de fourteenth at eight an’ don’t be shy!

(( Grin’dal’s Beach Brag ‘n Brawl! Here’s what it’s about:

When: Friday May 14, 2010
How Often: TBA
Time: 8:00pm ST (9:00pm EST) until 10:00pm ST (11:00pm EST) (People are welcome to continue brawling and drinking and Grin will be selling drinks as long as he’s there, that’s an approximate so folks know a timeline. )

Grin’s Beach Brag ‘n Brawl is a mix of tavern, fight “ring” (or coast) and bragging contest. If dueling isn’t your thing, mingle and watch the duels – cheer on your favourite combatant! – or stick around for the braggery.

Brawl: No rules, one-on-one duels. Participants decide whether they’re going to go all-out with full armour & weapons or if it’s going to be fist fights. Note that Grin’dal does not fight, he is a lazy motherfucker and is more of a lover than a fighter. Feel free to bet amongst yourselves, Grin will pretend he doesn’t see what’s going on. Grin’dal will be available to heal fighters’ wounds after combat, and if there is demand he will be taking orders for elixirs and flasks.

Brag: At some point in the evening, Grin’dal will announce that the Bragging Contest will begin – at this point, the only prize being an inflated ego. He will select two participants out of the volunteers and he will choose which braggart will begin. The selected braggart will announce why he is so great (“I have the keenest eyes in all of Orgrimmar!” for example) and his competitor will counter (“Funny then, how you didn’t see me on the roof of the bank with your mother! I once shot the fly off a Night Elf’s nose when he was in Ratchet and I was atop the tower of the Crossroads!”) – the back-and-forth continues until one of the braggarts concedes defeat. Creative use of insults, puns, “your mother” jokes, etc. are encouraged. In cases where the only retorts consist of insults with no counter-brag, Grin’dal will declare the winner himself. Braggarts MUST counter with more bragging! That’s the point! The more ridiculous, the better.

Booze! Grin’dal will bring a supply of strong booze, because strong booze is the best there is. If he can get his hands on Darkmoon Ale, he’ll be selling at one silver each. Otherwise, depending on what he brings, booze will range from 1s-4s each. Feel free to bring your own drinks if you have a preference because there won’t be much variety.

Do you have goods or services you’d like to hawk? Inform Grin’dal – via the PM system on thoriumbrotherhood.net (Matojo!), an in-game letter, via e-mail at erebusterror@hotmail.com or in-person at the event – and he’ll yell all about you! This is not mandatory. You are welcome to show up and do your own advertising as well!

I hope to see you there! ))

The Return of Varkev Hammerhoof

Varkev was one of my first alts on Thorium Brotherhood.

He was also my very first RP character in WoW, predating Mama Lana by several months. The character was rolled on Eredar as a Tauren Warrior before I abandoned that server and moved to Thorium Brotherhood, where he was rolled as a Tauren Hunter. The patient, slow-speaking young Tauren developed through his entry into the Harbingers of War, the insanity and death of his half-sister and an attempt at Druidry before I finally deleted him and sent the character off, off-screen,  into Northrend. My new druid was his sister, Ipolani, and gradually I found that I really didn’t know her as well as I had thought, that she was a lot harder for me to play than Varkev had ever been.

All I had to do was understand something very, very important about Varkev:

He’s not an idiot.

I think this was a fact that was difficult to translate for those that played with him, too, because of the way he interacted with people and his habit of mixing up robes with dresses (they were the same thing, as far as he was concerned). His speech, in Orcish, was almost child-like, he was long-winded – often taking several statements to get to his point – and his patience was interpreted as him being slow.

Varkev Hammerhoof is a patient, gracious man who is very comfortable with himself; he is quite happy to wander around a city in a pink dress if he feels like it, and he is just as able to sport the heavy leather armour of the Bear Brother that he is. He’s willing to stand back and heal, or rush forward and take a few fists to the face.

He’s also eccentric.

His trip into Northrend drastically changed him and made him understand things that he had never understood before, but just what, even I’m not certain of yet. Perhaps it forced him to grow up.

Now, Varkev is a level 71 Tauren Druid with a Bear and Tree spec available to him. As a Bear, his health sits around the 12k mark, with some rather impressive (to me, at least) avoidance stats and what appears to be decent damage numbers. He is prepared to take on the threats of Northrend with some macros, spec and rotation advice offered in some of BBB’s Bear-Tanking Intro posts.

And I am feeling more comfortable with this character than I ever had before. It’s almost like, shoving him into the back of my head and forcing myself not to try to get into him, effectively “killing” him for a while, made us come to some understandings with each other. His sister standing in for him seemed to make it easier to step into him.

Add onto the fact that I’m far, far more comfortable playing men (most of the time) than women, and I wonder why it took us so long to figure things out.

This is Varkev Hammerhoof, and he’s back and ready to start eating some faces.

Glory to the Horde!

… One day I will get myself a decent, non-GIMP, image-editing program for work. ONE DAY. And yes I was totally lazy with the image BUT AT LEAST THIS TIME I HAVE A PICTURE.

RP Fail.

I wish people weren’t so private with their RP and actually RPed randomly instead of only in their guild setting. Lots of good RPers who ignore random RP.

~ Member of RP Community

Oh, really?

I would have more stock in this if it was from somebody that didn’t demonstrate trollish behaviour on the official forums, who didn’t frequently create guilds for the sake of “saving” RP on my server and who didn’t play a Tauren banshee with mechanical legs at one time or another.

I guess I’m an elitist!

When I actually stick my face out into the crowd, I do my best to include strangers, random RPers, even people I don’t like (assuming they aren’t the people that have caused me a ton of grief, those people can go fuck themselves with a rusty fork).

“But Matojo!” You cry, “People privatising RP is a big problem! Something has to be done! RP is dying!”

Really now?

I think the bigger problem is the Chicken Little Syndrome.

Allow me to explain.

Chicken Little Syndrome is when members of a server’s Roleplay community – usually individuals with a reputation as attention-seekers (much nicer description than what I was originally going to type) or people that have never done anything but complain, anyway – begin to cry out that RP on the server is dead, it needs saving, oh woe is the RP. They blame the cliques, they blame the PvPers, they blame the raiders, they blame everyone and everything under the sun.

Yet, when I’ve seen these individuals at events (namely, The Drunken Kodo, I have yet to see them at The Refuge’s Campfire), their interaction with other people consists of talking to themselves in their own language, or simply making a rude remark or two and not really trying to engage others, among other behaviours that don’t encourage characters to try to interact with them.

When the local RP Hermit (Me) can happily poke and prod at people when she shows up to things, there is a problem. That problem isn’t the server, in that case, nor is it the community.

Guess what?

RP requires effort on the part of the individual. There is nothing wrong with RPers sticking to their guilds if that’s what makes them happy, and the more that people complain, the less likely we are to poke our heads out.

Also consider this: People like me, who have been playing for a long time, have also had a large share of drama of our own. We’ve learned what type of people are more likely to create problems and, as such, we strive to avoid that. If one finds people actively avoiding RP with them (and I mean, completely ignoring their actions and refusing to speak to them if the setting isn’t insanely busy like many public events are), the problem may not be them. The problem may be you.

The saying is “once bitten, twice shy”. I’ve been bitten before, so have members of my guild. We are tired of bullshit so we’re very careful of who we let in – at least, to the Big Stuff – but we still ask that you aren’t afraid to approach us when you see us sitting around a campfire and boozing. Yes, the Harbingers of War are tight-knit and a clique of a fashion, but all guilds are, and we’re also fairly easy to get along with.

Generally, this is the case with most RP guilds if other people are willing to put in the effort.

My point is this: RP never, ever, ever just comes to you. It requires effort, it requires care and hard work. It’s something that, if you try, if you work at it, it will yield great rewards – but if you spend a lot of time b’awwwing about the lack of it, all you’ll do is continue to push it away.

Want to make guilds? Great, develop a story, advertise, pimp, openly recruit, be loud and be proud.

Don’t make it your personal mission to “save” RP anywhere – that just turns people off. RP for the sake of RPing and leave it at that. If you play a character that isn’t very social, don’t complain about lack of RP – develop some characters that are or concoct a reason for that character to speak up. Does he have strong opinions? Maybe s/he pulls something stupid or inherits a pet or magical object that just doesn’t agree with him.

Most of all?

BE CREATIVE.

Bitching? Gets you nowhere.

Bad Matojo, no bikkit. Stop cannibalizing your own Godsdamned community.

The Elf x Troll Appeal

Once upon a time, a real awesome dude posted a query to the Thorium Brotherhood Downtime Forums asking what the fuss was all about regarding Troll/Blood Elf relationships. For the curious, the thread is here, as is my TL;DR reply. It’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart so, guess what? Y’all get to hear about it.

I love conflict. The character relationships that have worked out the absolute best for me involved a ton of it, and if it wasn’t conflict it was just unusual chemistry. Relationships where all is perfect and the characters are lovey-dovey and always happy just don’t do it for me – I require quirks. This is why Matojo and Darda lasted so long. This is why Chrys and Toroca work so well together. This is why Tuhina and Grubgrabber are so fascinating. This is why Juni’andi and Masamba work. This is also why none of Kombe’s relationships have really taken off.

Inner struggles, misunderstandings, men doing stupid shit, women doing stupid shit, culture shock, it all combines to form a delicious drama cake. When things are perfect and everyone is happy and there are no personality clashes (something one can’t avoid when dealing with Matojo himself, for example – even his happy relationship with Hecubah has its hissing matches) … it gets boring. Fast.

Troll/Blood Elf pairings have all of that. There’s so much potential for in-character drama, so much misunderstanding, that it’s a pretty damn juicy thing. Why the hell not?

“But they hate each other!” The masses cry, and to that I say, “The Amani hate the elves and the elves hate everybody, but Jungle Trolls are not Amani and the Trolls and Sin’dorei are not freaking collectives!” There are individuals. Just like with people, there will be some that will not fit with the mould. There will be the occasional member of a species that views things a little differently, has different likes or dislikes or is interested in unusual approaches to things.

Not everybody is the same.

For Matojo, elves were exotic. They were different, and he wanted something different – they were also a lot smaller than him (kink, hooo) and he figured he couldn’t get them knocked up (Matojo’s aim is amazing). Toroca didn’t like elf girls, at first, and he doesn’t like most of them anyway, but Chrys caught his eye somehow.

Character development happens. If a particular pairing doesn’t make sense to you, don’t do it – or try it. Either way. You never know, something a little different could be a lot of fun.

RP Tips: Spotting Crazy Before It Gets BAD

I’m not completely satisfied with my approach here, but I am going to post anyway in the hopes that maybe something that I point out may make other people recognize Bad RP Partners and detach themselves from a potential drama storm. If people would like to share their stories, tips or anything else, please send me an e-mail by clicking this link. Your stories, if used as examples, will remain anonymous unless you state a different preference.

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I first started RPing in IRC (and MS Comic Chat) in 1998, eventually branching into forum RP and, in 2006, World of Warcraft RP. In most games that I played, I played as if I was in character (even Runescape, which probably confused the hell out of people – Keistera Drakengarde, half-elf herbalist and witch reporting for duty).

In that time, I’ve had several experiences that make me realize why places like bad_rpers_suck exist.

The situations that I went through and put up with are by no means unique – psychotic RPers pop up in every medium – which is a fact that is oddly comforting while being utterly terrifying at the exact same time.

I have:

• dealt with attention whores that didn’t understand why characters were backing off from theirs (even though it was stupidly obvious)
• watched a player have a meltdown over a PvE situation that then drove her RP – she went from rational to batshit over the course of a week (and showed signs of obsession over other player/characters)
• ripped a boy a new asshole over his obsession with a mutual friend and his repeated attempts to control/script RP
• stepped away from a player that, I learned, left a stream of drama in her wake wherever she went and appeared to be working on the same with me (she then raked another friend over the coals instead – I am glad I’m female, I’d be screwed if I had a penis)

Do I know crazy? I know crazy. This isn’t even counting the IRC shit, this is WoW, and the IRC shit was worse – I don’t even remember half of it. I just know. I’ve even heard stories, damn it.

This entry was going to be much, much longer, with sub-headings and everything, but as I sat back and looked at it I realized – it’s really not that complicated.

Players that are going to give you problems in roleplay give off various signs, some more obvious than others. Some are relatively sane until they’re triggered, others put up a big fucking neon sign ages before anything happens that makes you look back and think, “Well, fuck.”

• Does the player understand the divide between in-character and out of character?
  • Does s/he get upset about situations that occur in-character, such as fights between characters, characters breaking promises, characters not pursing hir characters romantically, etc.?
  • Does s/he understand that your character is not you?
  • Does s/he often mistake your character and hir actions for you and your actions?
  • Does s/he understand the boundary and stick to it?
• Does the player accept that Real Life is more important than RP?
  • Does s/he get offended when you can’t RP due to a real life obligation?
  • Does s/he demand your time or constantly guilt trip you over your busy life?
  • Does s/he act as if s/he understands at first, only to turn around later and raise hell?
  • Does s/he demonstrate understanding and patience – and stick to that?
• How does the player react when plots or scenes don’t go hir character’s way?
  • Does s/he pout and whine and try to seek ways around what happened?
  • Does s/he get angry?
  • If s/he is told that in character actions have in character consequences, does s/he seem to understand or does s/he throw a tantrum/guilt trip instead?
• How often does the player set up bouts of drama concerning hir character?
  • All the time – and the situations coincide with real life drama.
  • All the time – and the situations seem designed to snatch attention from everything else/are unrealistic and gimmicky/make me want to tear my hair out and scream at the inanity of it all.
  • Whenever hir character isn’t getting enough attention.
  • Frequently – but the plots/scenes are well thought out, make sense, are completely in-character and do not make me feel like some kind of puppet or a prop that makes hir character look good.
  • Often/sometimes/never – but when they do crop up they’re well thought out and not gimmicky/drama whorey at all.

If you did not answer with “s/he understands the boundary and sticks to it”, “s/he demonstrates understanding and patience and sticks to that”, “s/he understands that in character actions have in character consequences” and/or “the player’s drama is well thought out, makes sense, is completely in-character and not gimmicky/drama whorey”, you might have a problem player on your hands.

Communicate, try not to be accusatory and try your best to get your message across about why the other player’s behaviour bothers you. If the other player doesn’t take what you’re saying well, or doesn’t see the problem, then politely pointing out that you both have very different roleplay styles and it’s time to move on may be for the best.

Blood and Hookahs: An Announcement for My Fellow ‘Knights

I hate to break it to you, guys, but you’re dead.

You aren’t alive, you aren’t half-dead, you really are dead – there’s no escaping it. In order to become a Death Knight in this latest generation, you have to die. You were raised from among the ranks of heroes that died on the field of battle – ’cause, you know, there’s nothing quite so humiliating as being dragged into the service of those you died against – and you became what you are today. Alternately, as long as your corpse wound up on the collecting wagon and you didn’t fail miserably when you were brought to unlife, you had a chance.

Sure, you can say that you’re alive if you really want to, but here’s the thing…

… that means you willingly gave yourself to the Scourge.

You know, the group of abominations that’s trying to wipe out life on Azeroth? They’re lead by the Lich King, who used to be Arthas Menethil.

So if you willingly gave yourself to the Scourge, then you … are a traitor to your people. What are you doing walking among the rest of us? How does anybody know that you’re really on the side of the Horde or Alliance? It’s possible that you’re still a Scourge sympathizer and you’re just lying to cover your ass.

Do you see the difficulty of claiming to be a living Death Knight?

And half-dead? I don’t even know how to explain that – I never even got an explanation out of the guy that was claiming such a thing (if you ever read this, Half-Dead Troll Death Knight, please asplain – but I still think you are a tool and a creeper) and I sure as hell ain’t gonna try to get in touch with him just to do find this out.

So, remember folks:

Death Knights are DEAD – and if you think yours is alive, don’t worry, your “brethren” will fix that post-haste.