Guest Post: Loreli

New for 2010 by =Loreli-AngelofDeath on deviantART

Loreli, from Angel of Death Studios, isn’t a Wildfire Rider.  She’s the head of Security for Arrens’ Stormwind University. While relatively new to our circle on Feathermoon, Lore isn’t a rookie when it comes to RP.  She’s held her own against bastards, con men, ghosts and crazy people.   In Real Life, Lore is also a hell of an artist, writer and a fantastic person to collaborate with.  Today, she’s filling in for me.  I asked her to shine some light on what its like to join a new RP circle.  She’s got pretty interesting insights.

Before coming to World of Warcraft, I played an IRC based RPG for five years. To say I’m not new to role-playing I think, by this point, is an understatement. They say the only constant in life is change. Inevitable, things will happen. People move on to other ventures. Real life intervenes. Before you know it, the group that you’ve been role-playing with, sharing stories for months, or even years, is in shambles. It’s sad, it’s definitely difficult but it can’t be avoided.

You could lament the loss of your RP buddies, and I did, for quite some time. You could banish your RP muse to the depths of your subconcious, but if it’s anything like mine, they’ll find a way to come back and you’ll feel the call of the story-teller.

So what do you do?

Changing RP groups is a bit like moving to a new town, going to a new school. You’re the new kid, you want to be noticed, you want to make a good impression. I’ve found that role-playing in World of Warcraft is even harder to break into than what I was used to. With a dice-based RPG like you’ll find on IRC or Dungeons & Dragons, you’re there to role-play. That’s the whole point. With WoW you’re not required to role-play. You can spend all your time running quests, raiding, or trying to be a PvP guru. It’s entirely plausible to have been playing WoW since beta and have never seen role-play happen, even on an RP server. The point I’m getting at here, is even as a practiced role-player it’s hard to find role-play going on, let alone break into it.

I’m sure we all know piping up in Trade or General chat going “looking for RP” is only going to bring griefers or land us in the middle of an ERP session in Goldshire or Silvermoon City. We also know that that sort of thing makes people wonder what sort of RPer we are and the assumption is generally a negative one.

I owe a bit of my success on Feathermoon to luck. I’m more than willing to admit that. I also owe it to the amazing people I’ve met there and the guild I joined.

However, what seems to be a constant is this: be willing to start small. Even if you only connect with one person at first, that’s better off than you were before. Be willing to be a part of the story, not try and jump into your own too quickly. We all have a story to tell, we all want our characters to be interesting. While your tale may be super epic and amazing, if you take some time and watch, get a feel for what plots are already in motion, you might find something you hadn’t considered before. There may be a way to tie yourself into a much larger story, exposing you to a much larger group of people. Before you know it you’re almost overwhemled and buried in more role-play than you can keep track of.

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