Heroes, Antiheroes, villains and bad-asses: What do you play in WoW and why?

Step Three of dealing with issues in WoW is implementing and assessing what you problem solved in step two. This is the part of the plan that has a tendency to fall through. It’s really easy to come up with a few plans that seem positively brilliant… But they fall short when we try to accomplish too much.

Breaking down a plan into small, confidence building steps is key to reigniting the spark. It’s tempting, once you have a plan you love, to do as much as possible as quickly as you can.

This may be how you burned out in the first place.

Go slowly. Enjoy the RP. Let it build. Enjoy it for what it is: Sharing stories with people you want to be with.

The next common stumbling block is the lack of a critical eye on the plan and its implementation. Simply following a plan isn’t enough to rekindle RP. Sometimes, a plan needs to be scrapped as the story just doesn’t go anywhere. Take time to review and revise the plan. Remember that the plan is supposed to help get you to your goal of more RP and shaking the blues. If something better comes along, by all means, go for it.

Be critical, be flexible, but by all means, enjoy it. If the RP isn’t happening or it isn’t fun, then what’s the point?

Fact is folks, hurdles can be jumped. But action alone will only burn you out again. Careful planning and evaluations can not just beat the burnout, but bring you back to the story.

Anyone else got tips, tricks or hurdles they’d like to share? Fill us in!

The same holds true between reader and author. We here at WTT:RP wrote about WoW-based RP for nearly two years. Over the past few months we’ve let our responsibilities slide. There are a number of reasons — most of them simply real-life responsib, but what matters is that we have been negligent to you, our favorite readers.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to change that.

We’re not just going to focus on WoW RP. We’re going to expand to talk about table-top games, story games, and RP in other game worlds. While WoW is still a huge source of RP for us, we need to acknowledge the other games that we play. With that in mind, you’ll see some changes to the site design as we get WTT:RP ready for the next phase. If there are any titles or subjects you’d like us to cover, let us know in the comments!

We’ve had a fantastic series of conversations on RP, and there are many more we still want to have. But now it’s time to include the other RP settings we love. Stick with us. We’re going to show you that RP isn’t dead, it’s constantly evolving.

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!

This week, we’re going to talk Romance and RP. To prime the topic, let’s have an open topic on romance: Have your characters had romances? Has your character been on a date in game? Do you fic it or do you rp the date?

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)?

To get this picture, I played a dirty trick on Clem. As tricks go, it was pretty simple, but it was effective. Most of the good tricks, in my opinion, are simple. What are some of the really good tricks you have pulled off, or been victim of, in game?

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!