Which is like I, Claudius only with less togas. This of course has nothing to do with my post, but I did want to make my lack of togas clear to the reader. ANYWAY.

Me: “So I’m an RP’er. My alts are all in rp guilds and rp channels.”

Them: “You’re . . .what?”

Me: “Well I mean, we’re on an RP server. I know how much of an anomaly I am – someone who like, balances rp and raiding. Imagine that.”

Them: “But you’re an officer in a hardcore raid. HOW CAN YVA’S BRAIN HAVE RP NERDGASMS AND GET EPICS TOO AND NOT KERPLODE?!?”

Me: 1111!!11!!!1111

And then I do kerplode. Because I haven’t the faintest idea why people don’t think raiders can be rp’ers and vice versa. Sure it’s an exercise in time management, but it’s oh-so-doable, despite people thinking otherwise

Some people say rp and raiding are mutually exclusive.  I’ve come to a few conclusions about the notion. First, I think TEH PURPLEZ are – oddly – easier to get right than good rp, and thus people who start to raid give up on roleplay as it’s “the thing that takes more work with less tangible results than the dungeons”. You can walk into Naxxramas, clear it in two hours with a solid group, and walk out feeling like you’re ‘done with WoW’ for the week. RP isn’t like that. You don’t just walk up to someone, spend two hours blabbing at them in character and that’s it until everything resets. What happens during a two hour rp interaction affects how your character talks, acts, and treats the other character in the future. Even without some EPIC STORY PLOTPOINT in the rp, you’re progressing an arc. Said story arc may require out of game work, like writing fics or time on a chat program hashing out roleplay expectations. This is a big commitment to the character you play, the character you just rp’ed with, and the player of the other character.

Raiding? Well, I’m not going to say I’ve never spent time out of game looking at specs, boss strategies, or WoW Webstats. That’d be a lie. I can say with certainty it’s nowhere near as much time as I’ve spent talking to other players about rp, though. The dungeons don’t change from week to week; they’re the same content and sooner or later you run out of surprises with them. RP? Well, with a solid group of folks, it’s always dynamic. Managing it requires more time and – in my humble estimation – a truckload more work.

Here then are a few tips for folks who want to try and partake in both RP and Raiding. Ignore them if you’d like, but they’re how I’ve managed to be part of both communities without losing my mind.

  1. Set aside ‘guaranteed rp time’ each week. Commit to it as much as you commit your nights to your raid. RP is something a lot of folks “intend to get back to after a break” but never do because it’s hard to walk into stories already in progress. Treat rp time as a scheduled commitment, and you won’t fall behind.

  2. Get into a few in character channels. Even if you’re raiding, there’s downtime during pulls. You can toss a comment here and there without wiping your raid AND still keep abreast of other folks stories.

  3. If you know of other folks in your raid who’d like to rp – or do rp – encourage them by inviting them to your stuff. There’s no shame in what you’re doing, and I bet a lot of folks would secretly like to rp but don’t because they’re intimidated by their non-rp’ing raidmates. Help them fly their freak flags with pride! Set an example for other folks, and you might find yourself encouraging people to break into the scene. A bigger scene means more rp opportunities going forward.

  4. Keep your promises. A weird one, I know, but if you tell someone you’re going to fic up a post rp interaction, don’t blow it off because your raid asked you to go to a ten man. Have some self control and treat the promise you’ve made to your rp buddy as a priority. You don’t want them labeling you as “Just some raider” when you blow them off for a purple pixel that’ll still be there next week.

That’s all I’ve got for now. Have fun.