Teothy leant over his workbench, tiny file in hand and tongue stuck out the corner of his mouth in concentration. In his other hand was a delicate mithril tube, ends being smoothed down to ensure the closest fit he could ensure. Leakages were bad. Sweat beaded on his brow above his goggles as he focused on his fragile task, his mechanised squirrel-cum-workbench assistant peering at the activity with tiny jeweled eyes. It was difficult work this, but Teothy didn’t mind. At least with this tube, it wasn’t going to burn his entire workshop down should he slip. A second time.

Core mechanics influences a great majority of roleplay in World of Warcraft; at the most basic, a character’s race and faction has a fundamental significance in shaping them, a character’s class and spec can have almost as an important effect. It’s pretty understandable – these core “Who You Are” aspects of the game client are going to translate readily to “Who You Are” in regards to a character’s personality and history. Other aspects of the game can have varying influence; Exalted status with various factions, or character mounts and vanity pets. One of the fundamental game facets which perhaps does not get as much use in facilitating RP stories, behaviour and histories is that of Professions.

Most people have professions on their characters; up to two primaries, and the three secondaries (Riding doesn’t count here). They’re selected for varying reasons – some people min/max in regards to the game, some people chose when they rolled a character because they appealed or seemed to fit, some people don’t even go for them, often in the case of alts or some of the secondary (cooking) professions. I won’t delve into a technical discourse on the ingame professions here, but look at how and why professions can be incorporated into roleplaying to widen both it’s breadth and depth.

At it’s most basic, a profession is just that – a profession. A job. They can provide a framework to a character’s “real life/history”, in as much as a character’s class can. A priest with Tailoring, with a bit of elaboration, easily becomes a merchant class seamstress who joined the Church of the Light in order to assist with the Third War. It provides depth to a character, and can provide additional details with which to run with. The priest of the example? Did she come from a family of clothiers? Is there a shop somewhere? Who taught her?

A lot of professions suit specific classes in a thematic way – Blacksmithing warriors, for example, or Enchanting mages – which allows the conventions to be flipped. Your dress-wearing warlock is a Miner? How did that happen, and why? Not only what a character “does” in regards to a profession itself is a source for roleplay inspiration, but also the relationship between the character and the profession in question. A hunter with Inscription, stemming from his compulsive need to chronicle his travels and experiences?

How a character “expresses” their profession is a rich source of ideas and material for roleplay. It can provide a character’s day to day livelihood, when they’re not out slaying internet dragons. But it can also be the professional solider who marches into battle with bandoliers of goblin explosives and strange teleportation technology. A mage who incorporates alchemical studies in their obsession with harnessing the arcane. A rogue who’s skill at forging documents has risen to an almost mystical level.

While professions can be used to enhance background, they also offer ample opportunity for “current” ideas and storylines. The most basic being; how exactly are they done? How exactly does a druid take a pile of animal hide, scales, and magical thread, and turn it into a brand new suit of amour? What’s involved in crafting a brand new boomstick, or imbuing someone’s claymore with the ability to drink its foe’s vitaity? Is it special armour – then what about special materials? What is rune thread exactly? Alchemical transmutes; how does someone turn a common jewel and some Eternals (which are what, exactly?) into something rare and prized? The possibility of elaboration is vast.

Do you use your character’s professions as roleplay device? Howso – are they their class primarily, or their profession? Or neither? How do you incorporate your character’s professions into your roleplay? Let us know in the comments field. For extra credit, put together a one-to-three paragraph piece based around your character and their professions, and which way you would like. I’ll be grading accordingly.

What are the features that you wish WoW supported? These could be technical features–OpenGL enhancements, cross-faction languages–or story features–A Wrathgate-like event for Cataclysm.

Personally, I want more customizable options; specifically, more hair styles. Hell, I also want trenchcoats and the option to by Gilnean fashions (top hats!). I also think adding a hint of grey to a character’s hair color would also be a welcome change.

What else do YOU want for Cata?

My name is Delion, and I make this magic carpet look fabulous.

Here, Delion of the Wildfire Riders shows off his Magic Carpet. Delion is a priest of Elune; however, his real calling is tailoring. In fact, one might consider Delion to be Feathermoon’s Tim Gunn. Delion owns the Finest Thread, in Stormwind, and he has the reputation for being one of the Kingdom’s most brilliant designers.

If you are lucky enough to have a character like Del in your RP group–one that knows their class and RPs brilliantly–then you know how wonderful it can be to RP with someone who has character goals that go beyond the classics tropes (vengeance, money, power, grudges). Every character, while not as awesome as Delion, can develop traits, skills and quirks that go beyond the stereotypical “Bad Ass Adventurer.”

Trade skills are a perfect way to develop these traits. For instance, Bricu became a jewelcrafter, not to make magical trinkets, but to make an engagement ring for Threnn. Ilarra Stormrunner maxed out her First Aid and has been known to describe herself as a Doctor (although, to be fair, she could also just be a bit touched). Aelflaed, in addition to being a combat medic, has now inherited a farm (one that she plans on using). Yva Darrows is a fantastic baker (just eat the fudge she made).

How do you incorporate your trade and secondary skills into your RP? Is your character famous for anything that she, or he, makes?

“Roll for fashion.”

There are plenty of items in the game that just plain look cool, but their stats are wrong for your spec, or they’re the wrong armor type — a tank in a dress isn’t going to be able to take too many hits when facing Yogg-Saron.

Threnn is, ICly, a swordsmith.  She’s always preferred the weight of a blad to that of a mace, and yet, in-game, there are very few healy swords for holy paladins.  (The first I heard of was a drop off of 25-man Kel’Thuzad.  It appears that there’s also one at the end of the 25-man Trial of the Crusader, in heroic mode.  But for the most part?  Maces, maces, maces.)  So whenever we’re running around ICly, it’s not her shiny mace of shininess at her side, but ye olde Lightforged Blade from way back at level 50 that she carries around.

Davien also did a brief stint running around in pants rather than a skirt for a while, and it brought to mind the thing that’s made me grit my teeth for 80 levels now:  She’s a tailor.  You’d think she’d be able to keep her knees from showing through every pair of pants she wore.  Believe me, I get it: the Forsaken are all corpsified and gross.  But good lord, let them at least be able to not rot through every item of clothing they don.

What crafted or endgame items (or level-appropriate ones, if you’re like our beloved Fellsie and not levelling nosirnohow) do you wish worked with your characters’ RP?

While limyaael’s rants seem geared mostly towards people writing stories that contain these common fantasy archetypes, many of the points made in that post translate very neatly into playing those types of characters in WoW.  Let’s take a peek!

1) Your character is not special or important just because she’s an assassin.
I’d say that’s pretty much a given, but there are plenty of RPers out there who think their stealthy ninja killer is the first of its type.  There’s a whole organization for them, and remember that Matthias Shaw’s grandmother headed its predecessor, the not-so-subtly named Stormwind Assassins.  Hordeside, they’re called Deathstalkers.  Garona is a major lore character who also happens to be — you guessed it — an assassin.

Granted, these organizations only cover two races and one half-orc, half-draenei, but it doesn’t lessen the point: assassins aren’t any big surprise in the WoWverse.

Now, this doesn’t say that your character can’t have something that sets him or her apart from the others.  I’m never going to declare myself completely averse to interesting character twists.  A Tauren assassin?  Sweet!  Sure, there aren’t any Tauren rogues, but I’m not convinced that being able to hit the stealth button is the only legitimate way you can play an assassin.  The important things are these:

a) Make it plausible.  How does a big ol’ Tauren get away with it?  Hell, how did he come into the profession in the first place?

b) Remember that you’re character shouldn’t be defined by the twist and the twist alone.  If the only thing that makes him cool is that he’s got hooves instead of feet, well, it stops being interesting once people get used to it.  And if the character’s RP is simply stressing, repeatedly, how he’s the only Tauren assassin, well… where’s the personality?

2) The “thrill of the hunt” assassins are nothing new at this point.
It’s true… mostly. You’ll probably notice a theme as I go through this list. The exception always being “but if you can do it well, go for it!”

And I have seen it done well.  Noxilite’s Mallek is a perfect example.  What is he doing that makes it work that other people don’t always pick up on?  Look at limyaael’s point d: “The author is romanticizing murder.”  Mallek sure as hell isn’t.  He’s ruthless, he’s a monster, he’s unapologetic about it.  His player never tries to add any kind of “But!  But!  He’s really funny and endearing!  You should like him despite himself!”

Another way I think it could be done well stems from limyaael’s Evil Overlord quote: “I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.”  For this to work, I propose, you need to have another character to play off of, someone played by another human being, that is, not an NPC.  That kind of ongoing rivalry would have the potential to make excellent story fodder.  It also doesn’t have to mean that the two are gunning for one another.  It could just as easily be a Grosse Pointe Blank type scenario, where they find themselves vying for the same bounty more often than not.

3) Just because the character is an assassin does not mean that he or she is an awesome fighter.
No, really.  Skilled with a few different weapons?  Sure.  But a master of every kind of fighting in every situation is ridiculous.  If your PC can fight her way out of every possible trap, what’s the fun of playing her?  Bear with me here, because I’m going to talk about a character who’s a con-man and not an assassin for a minute.

Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora is brilliant at disguise, adept at talking his way out of ugly situations, and a very quick thinker.  But once the fists and swords stop flying, Locke is screwed. (Unless Jean Tannen’s there.  But that’s another digression.)  Lynch’s willingness to let his main character get his ass handed to him is one of the things I really appreciated about the books.  He could just as easily have made Locke great with a dagger.  He didn’t.  It made for a far more interesting story.

The same goes for assassin characters.  If they can wriggle their way out of everything, we stop caring.  Limitations are good things.

4) Work out the framework for acceptance of assassins.
Blizzard did this for us, mostly.  See #1.  However, that’s society as a whole.  What about within the circles you want your character to be part of?  How is a guild filled with law-abiding citizens going to react if they find out one of their own moonlights for Matthias Shaw?  Do you really think it’s realistic to brag in front of the Guard about the job you did last night?

Probably not.  They’re known to exist within the society, yes.  But do they flaunt it?  Probably not so wise to do so.

5) Reconsider the “assassin’s mark.”
This ties in to the previous answer.  Is it wise to bear a tattoo marking you as an assassin?  If some noble’s looking for their uncle’s murderer, why wouldn’t he or she start by having everyone with a dagger proudly displayed on the back of their left hand rounded up?  Perhaps one that’s a bit more hidden could work, but if your FlagRSP description proudly points out the mark, or your character has a habit of running his fingers over the smudge of ink on the inside of his wrist in the hopes someone will ask about it, well.  Now you’re just being blatant.  Cut that out.

6) Know what is fatal.
This isn’t as essential to RP, but it still comes back around to believability.  No, you shouldn’t have to go out and google methods or have a heap of anatomy books on your desk, but if you’re going to suggest you can kill someone with your pinky finger, be ready to answer when someone else asks you how it’s done.

7) Think through the implications of murder.
This.  A million times, this. What does it do to your character’s psyche?  We’ve talked about in-character consequences before, haven’t we?  (I could swear we could, but I’m a failure at finding the post right now.)  If not, here’s the thing: whatever your character does, whatever choices he or she makes, there need to be consequences to those actions.  Maybe it’s something external: your assassin gets arrested or at least becomes a suspect.  Maybe it’s internal:  killing a lot of people probably fucks you up.

The consequences can be any range of things, but if you’re expecting people to believe that getting paid to take lives produces the same kind of character as the guy who gets paid to bake bread, I’m calling shenanigans.

Have at it, cats n kittens!  What other cliches do you see in assassin characters?  What examples do you have of turning them around into interesting for RP?