In the spirit of full disclosure, I snagged this song idea from All Songs Considered.

So you and your RP group have decided to run with a romance story. You’ve agreed to certain boundaries and you’re having a grand old time. What do you do next?

You keep the story alive.

Look, a story is a lot like a relationship. You have to give it the attention it needs in order for it to flourish. Even if the story (or relationship) is healthy and easy to maintain, you still need to put effort towards it. This can be small things, like a few minutes of RP on a non RP night, planning a big RP event between you and your partner(s), or ficcing up something “just because you can.” Keeping the RP Romance alive means you have to give these people, and their stories, more care than you may realize. That is part of what makes Romance RP special.

Now then, there is a difference between Romance RP and Erotic RP. ERP isn’t something that I, or many in my circle, are interested in. If you want to do it, that’s fine. Make sure that this is part of the boundaries you set out earlier. Surprise ERP isn’t spontaneous fun. It’s at best uncomfortable for your partner.

When the romance has those “tender moments” feel free to say “And Scene” or “And the Camera Fades to Black.” You could even play “Take my breath away” over your choice of audio chat programs.

Recounting a love scene in detail, when your partner is not interested in hearing it, detracts from the story. How can this scene affect the RP? Simple: If you and your partner agree to “fade to black scenes” and you start recounting this:

You are crossing boundaries. Again, at best this make RP awkward. Even Ficcing a love scene may be too much for someone, so if you want to fic the scene, you need to talk it over with the people you RP with. Otherwise, you jeopardize a lot more than your RP circle.

Romance is tricky folks, whether it is in a story or in real life. You have to take care of it, you have to set your boundaries and you have to talk about it. Otherwise, you may not just kill the romance. You could end up with ruining relationships.

The first rule of Romantic RP: Talk it over with the other player.

Let me perfectly honest here: You might think this RP idea is the best thing since D&D, but if the player of the character isn’t interested, you don’t force it. If they are interested, you need to do the following things:

In short, treat this RP like you would any other RPing partner. The major difference between this kind of RP and “traditional” RP is that you have to allow your character to grow and change based on what occurs in the in game relationship.

Not following Rule Number one isn’t cute or ground breaking RP. It is a serious breach of boundaries. Just because it happens in a romantic comedy does not mean its a good idea in game.

What are some other good rules for romantic RP? Do you have a story about Romance Gone Wrong? Fill us in!

Listen to theme.

Write 140 word story.

Post it.

There may be dozens of roles in RP circles. I don’t just mean the classes or professions, but the roles characters play within their circles, cities, and culture. In other words, how do others see your character? We have the leader, the heavy, the advisor, the traitor… What other roles can you think of? What roles do you typically play and why roles do you rarely see done (or done well)?

Wildfire Riders don’t recruit. While we do try and advertise for RP events and we try to pull people into RP, we do not go out of our way to look for RPers. I, personally, am of two minds. I personally think that RP guilds should advertise and work with all sorts to make events happen; however, I think RP guilds shouldn’t recruit in a traditional sense.

Like a raid, there are roles and tasks in every story. People need to herd cats to the event, work toward a satisfying goal and then move on to the next goal. RP shouldn’t be handled like a raid. For instance, the tone, theme and methods of storytelling in WOW vary greatly from group to group. One circle’s RP style may not work for another group. Stories and RP are more personal than raid content. A person may be shot down by raid because they’re can’t follow directions or hit good number. Working with someone’s story requires more panache and care than typical raiding applications.

This is not to say that I think RPers should stay to themselves. Personally, I believe RPers need to make a public appearance on their server and support each other. I just draw the line at actively recruiting RPers.

What do you think? Should RP guilds actively recruit? What would that process look like? Fill us in!

Azeroth has a variety of alcohols, tobacco products, and it has coffee, but what about other, more illicit narcotics? In Dalaran we can see the washed up mage, a victim of Kungaloosh:

Shattrath had it’s own down-on-their-luck NPCs, and let’s not forget the Blood Elves. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include herbalism and alchemy as well. Addiction is a real thing in Azeroth, my question is what are people using?

I know there are people who will be up in arms about drugs (either for or against legalization) but that is neither here nor there. What we want to talk about is the seedier side of RP. Have you run a story where people were using narcotics? Do specific races–like the Belfs–have specific narcotics? What if the Tauren have a hallucinogen that is extremely addictive (and damaging) to gnomes? What are the policies of the factions regarding drug use?

Can Forsaken really get wasted?

Stories involving illicit substances can be personal–one character’s struggle to over come addiction–to a large scale story pitting guilds against guilds–I’m thinking of Traffic. The Riders have examples of both of these stories: Bricu’s work to overcome alcoholism and dealing with a lotus peddler. Fallout out from both stories will be examined in our regular RP event.

This kind of story is worth looking into. But there are also pitfalls. Addiction is exceedingly common, and a number of people have their own attitudes towards the personal, legal and societal implications of drug use. Be understanding when plotting these kinds of stories, otherwise, your story may never get off the ground.

Does anyone have examples of drugs in Azeroth? Anyone care to share their stories involving the illicit substance of WoW? Let us know!

Darin House's Poker Photo

Photo courtesy of Darin House’s Flickr Stream

So you have a room full of shady, reasonably wealthy characters, each of whom who have a tendency to bluff and exaggerate, smoking in a bar stocked with expensive booze. How long before they start gambling?

I’m sure its possible to come up with a narrative method for card games. Rules would have to be ironed out and someone would probably figure out how to utilize the RNG to address ties…but why bother when you can just download an addon?

Back in Vanilla, people played a few hands of Anzac between pulls (or wipes) just to pass the time. But a poker game can be an RP event in and of itself. A small, illicit game can be part of a regular RP night. Imagine a regular, floating game that people try to find in a major city.

But a full on poker tournament can be a large scale event. It could be a charity event or just a damn big game. Right now on Feathermoon, the regular poker game is phase one of a big story… But that’s a post for a differnt story.

A mini game like this can add another dimension to RP. Are there other mini games available now, or are we going to wait for Pokewow?

A character who is either stupid or willfully obtuse. Dealing with a lurch is no different than dealing with any other difficult character. Some might scream at a lurch, some may ignore a lurch while others just love their lurch. Today’s filler open thread: who is your lurch and how do you rp with them?

Tru fax:  If you play Daft Punk, Bika dances.

I bring this point up not just because Daft Punk is in the air, but because–like dancing and celebrations–RP is something you do with other people.  When we RP, even in WoW, we are interacting with each other.  The only “bad” RP is where you are RPing “at someone.”

Sitting in a corner moping or sighing, sitting near the fire and emoting,
/whishes she (he) could be with the cool kids,” or telling everyone what they think and feel when they see your toon are examples of RPing AT another.  In the real world, we don’t typically dance AT another person, nor do we celebrate At them.  We interact with each other.

This, above all other things, is the key to RP.  Interaction.  Every other part of RPing, from character inception to story telling, depends on whether or not you choose to interact with people.  This is RP in its simplest form.

Can you give us an instance where you were either had a bit of surprise RP or if you were  RP’d At?  Was there a way to take the “Bad” rp and make it work?  Let us know!

I’m going to be honest: I don’t get people who feel the need to come after or condescend RPers. For the past two days, the Breakfast Topic at WoW Insider has attempted to start a conversation about RP: What we do, how we do it, what mechanics we follow and why we follow those and not others. I get it. Mr. Ross has questions about the hobby we talk about here regularly. Yesterday, Falconesse answered a few concerns.

Today it’s my turn.

First and foremost, I need to help clarify something: Dr. Who’s Police Box is a Tardis: Time And Relative Dimension in Space. It’s like a time travelling bag of holding that’s stuck in the shape of UK Police Box circa 1963. The 11th doctor explains that to Amy Pond in the above video clip.

Now that we are all set on the Doctor, let’s come back to Azeroth.

Dealing with the Sandbox that WoW provides is pretty consistent topic here at WTTRP. Some mechanics we incorporate easily: Anything magical or ‘engineery” is quickly imported into RP. Some, like rezes, require a little finesse. Some are flat out ignored by specific rp circles but others are full embraced. Levels are an example of this particular mechanic. I’ve seen it used a “seasons” or “campaigns” while most of the RPers I associate with it don’t use it all that often.

When we queue for a random–what some of us call ‘taking a job’–we don’t typically start RPing while we’re healing, dpsing or tanking. RPers want to enjoy the content just like every other player of the game. Random BGs are in a similar vein: Although, to be perfectly frank, when people do trash talk RP or Feathermoon, some of us do become more vocal…but that’s a future post.

What matters most to RPers–as much as lore and content–is the story they are telling. RPers have an idea that they want to carry out their way. Sometimes they find the right circle, sometimes they don’t. But they try to tell a story set in someone else’s world. They pay their $15 a month to let their story play out. Blizzard probably will not allow player-created content in WoW, which means the stories told by RPers will be the closest our hobby gets that form of content. It may not work for everyone, but given the population of the WoW, it will probably work for someone.

Questions about RP, how to RP, how to integrate Mechanics of WoW into RP are all fair questions. These are questions that can be easily answered by playing on an RP realm or hanging out with RPers. My question to Mr. Ross is this: Do you really care?

Honestly, these questions could have been addressed by reading a few articles on WoW Insider, WTTRP or any other RP blog. Framing the questions with “I don’t get it” comes across as condescending at best. There is enough griefing on RP Servers, we don’t need to start this conversation the same way WorgenFreeman starts to bash an RP event.

So Mr. Ross, if you’re sincere, you’re welcome to come to Tuesday night at the Pig and Whistle. Anyone else have questions about RP, we’ll be here till they turn the servers off.