The Scourge Invasion

(I'm a little pressed for time right now. I'll elaborate further on my thoughts about this World Event, but for now, I want to reprint the technical advice posted by Bokaia of VeCo server to the server forum about how this works.)

Says Bokaia:

"Getting Infected
- Get bitten by a current zombie
- Stand in the puke cloud (Retch) too long

"Turning into a zombie
- Wait 10 minutes after you are infected
- Die while infected. This includes getting killed by a zombie, or losing in a duel or suicide (aka jump off a high place)
- Using some of the existing "immunity" abilities like Stoneform, the paladin's bubble, or Ice Block for mages.

"Being A zombie
- Take your gear off, you get durability loss when you die, gear has no weight on the zombie skills
- You need to feed to heal yourself. You lose HP just standing around and you are a "soft" target.
- Retch heals zombies that stand in it. Make sure you stick together in a group, the more the merrier.
- Mangle! heals you with each bite that lands

"Unbecoming a Zombie
- If you are infected, seek out an Argent Dawn Healer, they are scattered about the lands, usually in the cities there are a few
- Have another player Cleanse you (or cure disease).
- Die as a zombie. This will be like you died normally and requires a corpse run (or get rez'd by a player)."

I for one am grateful for this useful information.

Just for Some Amusement

...I don't have any deep thoughts today. All I have to offer is that you should go watch this video, which I found while I was randomly surfing around YouTube.

Oh, yes. And this one, too.

...And if you think my fiddling with YouTube indicates having wayyyy too much time on my hands, let me show you what "too much spare time" really looks like. (I mean, it's really well put together, but how much work did it take this guy?!)


Edited! The hilarity is nonstop on YouTube. Go also have a look at the aptly-named ROFLMAO! In fact, anything from Oxhorn is probably top-notch.

How to Involve Everyone! An Example

Our guild, the Knights of Dusk, has an interesting in-character history, and the higher-up officers all have a rich and interwoven story. I still don't know most of it, and I can usually get one or more of them to tell me things for the asking.

Well, we had a very exciting event back on the 10th, and I thought I would tell you here what I saw happen, as an example of how to do events that are fun for all levels.

Early in the week, Heuri was kidnapped by the Scarlet Crusade. Orkbane, Flinzy, Jdal, and Kazas made a rescue attempt at the Scarlet Monastery, only to find that Heuri had been removed to parts east. Over the course of the week, through various means, we found out some of Heuri's dark and unpleasant past.

Dear old Heuri, it seems, had once belonged to the Scarlet Crusade himself! Apparently he was of such use to them that they decided not to kill him outright for his "heresy," but to "re-educate" him by means of torture and brainwashing. (And equally apparent was that they didn't take into account Heuri's age; guys who are older than dirt can be pretty set in their ways.)

So the entire order of Dusk gathered together in Stormwind, and then was summoned to assault the stronghold at Hearthglen. The lowbies--including your humble servant--were grouped with Alio, and the various raid parties hit the separate towers at the same time.

Now, of course, you'd be thinking, "How can this be interesting to the lowbies at all? They're mostly just following this mage around watching him kill Scarlets." Well, this is where our officers pulled a fast one on me--and made sure we all felt included in the story.

See, the fellow front-center of the image is Jeremias; above and moving out to the right are Cathedia, Alio, and Benaias. But the really important one there is on the left: Remaerd, part of the guild's grand backstory. Finding him seemingly at random in this place basically threw us all for a loop, and made our contribution seem actually important!

So we "captured" Remaerd and brought him down for questioning, while the highbies went around clearing the rest of the compound. We held him outside the fortress while they assaulted the main chamber. I followed to get a snapshot, and saw this:

Imagine our surprise to find Heuri wearing the colors of the Scarlets! I made sure to have some fun with that, myself--having Jeremias rush at him several times in error. Then I had Jere ask Heuri to "please take off that helmet or something." Heuri obliged--replacing it with Whitemane's chapeau. (How in the universe did he guess I'd ask that?) Jere's reaction: "Um, all due respect, sir...that's not much better." Good for a laugh.

All in all, it was a successful run. Nobody got killed, not even the lowbies. Everyone got to play their characters, we came together as a whole guild, and as an added bonus for me, Jere's made a new friend in Remaerd.

That is how you throw a successful event, and I feel privileged to have been part of it.

How to Act Like a Normal Person

I know what you're thinking: "Wow, that sounds so unnecessary. I wonder if Jere ran out of subjects?"

Oh, how I wish, how I wish it weren't necessary to write this post. But it seems that people forget, in their rush to epicness, that their characters do, in fact, breathe in and out, eat, sleep, and swear when something falls on their toes. I'm sorry for doing this to you, but even Chuck Norris does these things. (Now we will pause while someone makes a stupid joke.)

"Well," you say, "that's fine, but it's really only a game. We can ignore the mechanics of real life when we're in the game world, can't we?" Sure you can. Just realize that your RP experience is going to be as shallow as your character.

What do I mean by shallow? Well, I mean that you've put limitations on your character's existence. He (or she) only exists until you'd rather do something goofy and completely unrealistic; then you bundle up his (or her) personality and shove it in a dark corner. These are some of the things I mean:

• The gazelle on crack. You know the kind. They can't stand still; they're forever jumping up and down. They can't even run, much less walk; they're too busy performing imaginary slam-dunks. Unless their space bar is stuck, there is not a serious roleplayer on Azeroth who's going to want to deal with them.
• Dancin' dancin' dancin' machine. They want you to watch 'em git down, watch 'em git down, regardless of the situation. How can you have a serious discussion with someone who's thrashing around like an epileptic fish? No, my friend, it is not "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" while we're talking about attacking the Scarlet Crusade in Hearthglen. And that goes double for that obnoxious piccolo. What Blizzard was thinking when they implemented that, I don't know...*
• The silent minority. They never speak when spoken to. They only talk if they have an agenda; the rest of the time, they ignore you. They pass you on the street and don't acknowledge you. They arrive without a word, and leave without a word; you're shocked to realize they've been there for the last half-hour. It's one thing if that's part of the character...but it's usually not.
• The clueless. You finally get them to talk to you "in person." You're chatting a little, then they suddenly say something completely ridiculous, usually a total non sequitur. I'm sorry, but we were talking about Stormwind Harbor; where did the Deadmines come into the discussion? I recently had a fellow launch into a grandiose description of his hairstyle and clean shave--to which the only logical response was "Um, if you say so." They wouldn't talk like that in real life, but somehow...
• The suicidal. Now, how many people do you know who would be rude to their superior officers or bosses? Yet there are those in World of Warcraft who somehow have no compunction having their characters be rude to people. A recent example was a young fellow who addressed Jeremias by first name instead of "Commander"--rule of courtesy is to give the superior the option to tell you "just call me Jere"--and then said "be right back" and ran off without waiting to know whether I was busy. Of course he didn't find Jeremias there when he returned! Jere's a busy man, between his questing, his duties as an officer, his business interests, and his wife. You wouldn't treat people this shabbily in real life, unless you really want to have a fulfilling lifelong career at the 7-11.
• The illiterati. These are the people who want to roleplay without punctuation, capital letters, or even grammar. You've seen them exhibit more than the most rudimentary language skills before, so you know it's not ignorance that makes them try to type with their feet. It's just that they apparently don't care if you fully understand what they just said. For amusement, try reading aloud what they've said exactly as they've typed it. Extra points if you can manage a whole paragraph without fainting.

These are the kinds of things people don't do in real life; and it's exactly these things that can render your RP experience very shallow. Part of the appeal of roleplaying is to immerse yourself in a non-RL setting, and use that as a vehicle to share a fun experience with others of like inclination. But if you're forever trying to circumvent the demands of that setting, you will eventually derail the entire thing for everyone around you.

As the goblins say, "Keep it real." I'm not saying you have to walk everywhere or act out currycombing your horse every time you hop off, but do keep in mind that your character is, in this setting, a living breathing person with his own motivations and needs. The less you think of him as a "toon" and more as a person, the easier you'll find it to get into character and interact with others.

* And by the Light, I swear, if this one fellow I know ever does that to me again, rank or no rank, I'm feeding him that flute when I get to his level. My GOD, why do human males have to disco?

Friday Five--Living Arrangements

This needs no introduction.

1. What does your living room look like? Nice and clean. Sera is very particular about housekeeping. We have a nice sofa and a few chairs, and I've put all my books on the shelves. Got a portrait of Allisara, my sister, and one of Andrew, Sera's father. I wish we had one of my mother; she was very beautiful.


2. Do you have any pets? Not yet, but I'm going to get Sera a kitten for Winter Veil. Don't tell her, though; it's a secret. Stalwart, my warhorse...he doesn't count. He's more like a friend than a pet.


3. Do you collect anything, and is it of value to anyone other than you? *laughs* I really don't know. I'm not very attached to things; what I have is usually of significance to me.


4. Do you have any side jobs, other than being a paladin? I'm a blacksmith. I'd like for the world to be so that all I do all day is shoe horses and fix wagons, but until then, I'll settle for making weapons for people to protect themselves. Oh, but if you mean investments, I've got some money in some new gnomish inventions for housekeeping, that kind of thing.


5. What would I find in your sofa cushions? I'm not sure. Sera keeps a clean house, like I said. But if you find that pencil I dropped somewhere, let me know. I keep losing my pencils.

Too Many Annas' Fast Friday Five

Here's another one, meant for snap answers. Let's do it--and this time I'll do it OOC, because Jere can and will wax poetic if given the slightest opportunity.

1. Tall, short, or average? What kind of build? Short end of average, small end of medium. Muscular but not big. He'll likely gain an inch of height before he turns 19.


2. Name one thing about your character that is quirky, unusual, or unexpected. He knows Common sign language.


3. Name one thing about your character that is stereotypical of his class, race, or origin. He's a pally all the way--honor, duty, and clean living. So clean he sparkles.


4. What is his favorite article of clothing? His socks. His wife Sera makes his socks for him, so he loves them.


5. What is your character's favorite color? Blue.

Come on, folks, let's have some input! *grin*

Another Friday Five from Too Many Annas!

Okay, here's set number two, based on these questions.

1. When is your birthday? June 14th. I'm eighteen now.


2. What is your favorite place in the world? Hmm. Well, if you'd asked me a month ago, I would have said Southshore, because that's where Sera lived and where I finished growing up. That's also close to where the hall of the Knights of Dusk is, where I spend quite some time. But really, my favorite place is our home in the Mage District of Stormwind City.


3. What kind of sense of humor do you have? What? That's an odd question...Well, I guess it's take-it-as-you-find-it. I don't really go in much for off-color jokes or drunken humor; I just don't find that kind of thing very funny. I do like a well-turned joke or pun, humor that makes you think.


4. Are you introverted or extroverted? Well...I don't know. That's hard to say. I have a hard time talking to strangers, but if you get me started, I often can't shut up. I don't have a lot of problem talking religion or politics with anyone...but I'm not going to discuss the details of my intimacy with my wife, not even with close friends.


5. What just irritates the hell out of you? Disrespect to ladies, or to one's superiors. Or drunkenness--which is a kind of disrespect, if you really think about it; I mean, if you go deliberately making a fool of yourself in public, it suggests you don't care what people think of you. I've never seen anyone who was made a better person by drinking. No use for it.

I could let this boy ramble on all day, but he's got work to do. Anyone else? Please comment your answers!

Too Many Annas and the Friday Five

Via Cynra's clever blog, I have discovered Too Many Annas, which seems to be dedicated to a similar proposition to that of this one. It seems that every Friday, in order to help her readership get a handle on their characters, she posts the "Friday Five"--a set of five questions that one can answer pertaining to one's character.

I'm going to go through them and answer them, catch up a little, as they would be answered by my character, Jeremias.

Today's is from this post.

1. What is your name? Jeremias Auromere. A great honor to meet you. *bow*
2. Why did you choose to become a paladin? Well, I didn't, not really. When I offered myself to the Holy Light, I didn't know what I would be called to do. I thought I was supposed to be a priest--being short and a little scrawny--but they decided I was better suited to become a paladin. I think it's better this way, too. Funny how you never know who you are as well as the Light does...
3. The worst trouble you ever got into as a child? Ha, the usual run of boyish mischief, I suppose. I think the worst ever was when my sister was going to have to marry this one fellow I didn't like--nobody liked him, to be honest--so I cut the girth on his saddle. He tried to get on his horse, and fell off and broke his arm. Allis wound up not having to marry him after all, so I figured it was worth a week with no books.
4. Your favorite thing to eat? Anything my wife Sera cooks is good. I think I like her apple turnovers best, especially when they're piping hot. Or maybe that beef roast she makes with potatoes and carrots cooked in the pot with it. Or there's this one breakfast she makes with roast chicken bits, potatoes, bacon, and cheese...Oh, I don't know. I'll eat anything she wants to feed me.
5. What do you have in your pockets? Well, these are my spectacles; can't read a blasted thing without them, no wonder I used to get pounding headaches...My pencil and notebook, for when I do my blacksmithing and take notes. My pocketwatch; my father-in-law gave it to me when I went off to train. And here's a lucky charm; Lord Mysin gave it to me as a wedding present, he's too generous.

If you try this yourself, you can add details to your character that you wouldn't have thought of on your own. In fact, if you'd like, go ahead down in the comments.

Don't We Wish?

In response to the widespread complaints about the overpoweredness or excessive versatility of the Druid class, apparently Blizzard has released the following notes on the next patch:

The following changes will be made to Druid classes:
- Druids in moonkin form will randomly be debuffed with [Avian Flu], which, while infecting any melee target with the same, results in death within thirty seconds. This debuff cannot be removed.
- Druids in cat form will randomly be debuffed with [Hairball], a paralysis effect for 20 seconds.
- Druids in bear and dire-bear form can now be distracted and rooted by use of the [Pickanic Basket] item. Also, any mob or PC with variants on the names "Stephen" or "Colbert" will do bonus damage.
- Druids in aquatic form will receive double damage from [Outboard Motor].
- Druids in flight form and swift-flight form may randomly suffer from the [Jet Engine] debuff, which results in death within five seconds.
- Druids in tree-of-life form will randomly suffer from the [Termites] debuff, which will do 500 damage every ten seconds for two minutes, and result in significant devaluation.
- Druids in travel form may no longer carry the flag in Warsong Gulch--because, as we all know, cheetahs never win.


...I think I need more sleep.

Unstoppable Force, Meet Immovable Object

I love the /em command. It allows for the maximum amount of flexibility in roleplaying; you can come up with all kinds of inventive ways to express what your character is doing. Some of the preprogrammed emote commands are just fine, but they're limited, of a necessity; you can't expect Blizzard to make something up for everything you'd like to do.

One of my personal favorites, when I'm buying time to compare someone's gear with things Jeremias can make as a blacksmith, is to emote: "Jeremias takes out a notebook, a pencil, and a pair of spectacles, and starts making notes." Or, if someone is griefing me and someone else in our roleplay, and we deign to acknowledge them, the following is emoted: "Jeremias looks at Rphater as though he were a three-legged chicken."

Another member of our illustrious guild seems to have a few macros in his pocket to emote the process of smoking a cigarette. It's little details like that that can give your character some depth, instead of just standing there shifting his weight from foot to foot.

One thing that you can encounter, though, in your career with homemade emotes, is that you can occasionally slip into what's called "godmoding"; it means exactly what it seems to mean, in that you basically are trying to make yourself all-knowing and all-powerful (whatever your opinions on God Himself, anyway).

Now, I'm not saying that anyone who falls into this trap is doing so deliberately, or is experiencing a power trip, or any such thing. What I am saying is that it's a very annoying thing to do, whether you mean to or not. What basically happens is that you make it impossible to work with your character's actions. Maybe your target doesn't want to have her backside grabbed. Maybe your level-3 warrior wouldn't realistically be able to connect that face-crushing blow to the level-70 rogue.

What winds up happening is that you force someone else to act in one of several ways, all of them negative. The first thing that can happen is that they just flat ignore you, even to the point of /ignore. The second is that they feel forced to play along, which is no fun because you basically took away their free will and capacity to resist you.

The third is probably the worst option of all, for you, the target, and everyone around you. I call this option "The unstoppable force meeting the immovable object." This is the kind of thing I mean:

Darkmage casts a powerful spell that blasts Targetpractice against the wall.
Targetpractice shrugs and laughs as he resists the spell and stays right where he is.
Darkmage sets Targetpractice's feet on fire and laughs as the fool dances around in pain.
Targetpractice also resists that spell, his feet don't catch on fire, and lops off Darkmage's head with one blow of his mighty broadsword.
Darkmage ducks the blow, then casts a spell that makes Targetpractice's pants fall off. Then a dog bites Targetpractice on the backside.
Targetpractice's pants stay firmly where they are and the dog eats Darkmage's face instead.
Darkmage avoids the dog and casts Fireblast on Targetpractice, causing his chest to explode into a shower of sizzling gobbets of steaming flesh. Targetpractice falls down dead.
Targetpractice resists the spell and kicks Darkmage so hard he vomits up his intestines and dies.
Quietobserver thinks that these two are complete morons and wishes they would both die.
Rphater says: "lolololol lrn2life u rpers r all noobs"


That's what I mean. Don't do that. Ever. Please.

In any event, you may someday see an experienced roleplayer actually connect the blow, cast the spell, or cause the event--such as, for instance, Jeremias. But keep in mind that I will have been talking with the person in /whispers about what we're going to do, and it is actually orchestrated. That is the key to avoiding the mess above: cooperation. In fact, that's the key to all really good RP.

Just have sensitivity for the rights and feelings of others, and you will be just fine.

The Birth of Jeremias

Before I get started, I'd like to point out that my mother instincts are severely overclocked. Many of my guildies have discovered this, sometimes to their irritation, I'm sure. So you'll please excuse me if I sometimes hold out Jeremias to you with pride, referring to him as "my boy" and "my brainchild."

To some extent, he is, and I'm very fond of him. I wouldn't mind my real-life son turning out like Jere.

Anyway, in my previous post, I said that I would use Jeremias to demonstrate why creating a sort of "average-Joe" character, and evolving him from there, can be much more rewarding and fulfilling than creating a Dr. Deadlybad or Saint Almighty.

When I first rolled Jeremias, I had a vague idea that he was an out-at-the-elbows former aristocrat, driven to make good on his family's sullied name. I wasn't sure where he lived or how long he'd been there, but I thought of him as sort of a country boy. I also needed to account for my excessive verbiage, so he'd read many books of heroism and legendary awesome people, and that rounded out his character.

Other details came later: the drunk father who sometimes shows up asking for money, the location of his former home, his fiancee and father-in-law, his crazy mage sister who used to cast Frost Nova on him. As I learned about Warcraft "history" and the ways of paladins (from WoWWiki.com, mostly), I embroidered Jere's character.

And I also left him room to grow. When he joined the Knights of Dusk, he was deeply impressed by Mysin's attitude during their interview; and while he doesn't exactly aspire to be just like Mysin, he'll take a leaf out of the Dusk Lord's book when he gets the chance, and respects him and his opinions enormously. I've recently given Jeremias reading glasses, just to humanize him, as well as making him short and on the small-framed side.

I also needed to compensate for the fact that I roundly stink at PvP, so Jere is now officially a nerd. He's not an engineer because he's a royal klutz, but he's a bookworm in the extreme who knows all kinds of things that your average paladin might not.

My point with all this is to show that you, too, can create a complex character from very simple beginnings.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE, however: You may occasionally see me "godmode" Jeremias, in that he will do something totally outrageous that breaks the apparent rules of RP. There are two very good reasons for this. One is that I get permission from the person/people involved to throw out the deus ex machina that ends or improves the story. The other is that it's part of my job in the guild to head off fatal storylines (i.e., one of the higher-ups is going to can you for going there) and to shore up plots that have potential (e.g., we can do something with your character being infected with the Plague of Undeath). I do not recommend you try this at home. You may be purged in the cleansing fire if you do.

So, if we have any experienced roleplayers reading this, would you mind telling us where you started your character and what you added along the way?

Introducing...Loldemort!

I started this blog to provide some pointers for beginning roleplayers, and now it's time I added some insightful content.

Today's topic is Loldemort, in all his varying incarnations.*

I'm sure everyone's familiar with ol' Tom Riddle from the Harry Potter series by now. (Oh, God, that I weren't...) I'm not talking about him, though he's really a very hackneyed character; I'm talking about the player characters in World of Warcraft who just absolutely have to be evil, just like him.

And not just evil. I mean, bottomlessly, soul-suckingly, kitten-torturingly evil. So evil that people cringe from you when you walk by--yet you look so good in that tuxedo.

In other words, Loldemort is the guy who's trying so hard to be irredeemably bad that everyone just winds up laughing at him. He usually manifests as a warlock or a rogue or an evil paladin who's on his way to becoming a Death Knight. (No, Daemien, I'm not talking about you. Your guy isn't laughably evil. He's just obnoxious. And it's fun.)

Sometimes Loldemort is secretly a lich, a vampire, or a werewolf--or a half-Blood Elf who's spying on the Alliance!!! Well, I hate to pull the plug on you, but your guy would be decomposing rapidly if he were a lich; there are no vampires in Warcraft canon; and if you were a werewolf, you'd live in Pyrewood all the time and never venture out. (Oh, and the half-belf wannabes: You're not. Half-elves look like elves. Get used to it.)

Remember: Gothic horror is not cruise-control for RP. Sometimes, your average Joe is more fun and effective than Doctor Baron von Evil-Satan.** I'll explain in the next post, using my own dear Jeremias as an example.


UPDATE! It is very difficult to maintain a reasonable level of evilness in a character. We have now witnessed that with the aforementioned Daemien. His story went completely off the deep end, with a doppleganger and summoned demons that resulted in serious and unwanted repercussions to other characters. We're now having to patch that up as fast as we can, trying to tie off all the loose ends, without being as ridiculous ourselves.

I promise that Bayer is making a lot of money from the Knights of Dusk right now.

This is why I strongly recommend you not play the eeeeeevil bad guy. It's just too easy to screw up.


* I can't take credit for "Loldemort." That name was, as far as I know, coined by one "Tarquin" of the Feathermoon US server.
** I can't take credit for "Doctor Baron von Evil-Satan", either. That one was concocted by Burnie Burns of RoosterTeeth Productions (makers of "Red vs. Blue," among others).

Explaining the Links

If you look over to your left, you'll see (as of today) four links.

- WoWWiki, of course, is the ultimate central location for information about WoW lore and mechanics. You'll have to take some of it with a grain of salt, because it is user-edited--particularly in the matters of some of the religious information; some darn fool keeps editing the sections on "the Holy Light" and "Elune" despite that they've been repeatedly put back to what they ought to be. (I don't know who's trying to eliminate all information about theistic Light-worshippers, but it's getting very old very fast. It must drive them nuts that there is no such thing as inherent Light resistance and that paladins once sang "Deo Gratias" as they went to war.)

In short, with WoWWiki, it's a useful starting point, but double-check with your "Commander" about something before implementing it in your character.

- WoW Insider's excellent column series, "All the World's a Stage." It's got some wonderful information about how to play certain classes or races--although if you play a jihadist paladin, I swear I'll have Jeremias come after your heretic character. I recommend reading everything there, but you should probably skim it to start and hit the articles that pertain directly to your character.

- The Mary-Sue Litmus Test. When you get done creating your character, and before you bring him to the stage, go take this test. Be completely honest. Remember, though, that you're testing your character against the World of Warcraft canon, so only check an "unusual" box if it really is unusual on Azeroth and in Outland for X to be true. (For instance, paladins' eyes do occasionally glow, when the paladin is filled with the Light.) And be humble! If your character shows up as a Mary-Sue, modify him down; you can always evolve him as the stories progress.

As an example, my Jeremias comes out, on a scale of 0 to 40-odd, as a solid non-Sue "8". I'll post a character description to show you how much flexibility you have before your character gets downright cliched and annoying.

- Cynra's clever blog. Airee.net has afforded me some serious amusement, and also some serious pointers. She's a very smart woman, and her writing will help keep you from taking all this RP stuff too seriously.

...There will be more links in the future, but that's enough for today. Go look and learn!

Not another WoW blog on roleplaying!

I know that's what you're thinking. With some tens of millions of people now playing World of Warcraft worldwide, I don't imagine that this blog is going to be anything really spectacular or unique.

Mostly, this blog exists to help my new and less-experienced guildies of the Knights of Dusk get their feet under them, by putting all kinds of resources for RP at their fingertips.

Occasionally, if the mood strikes me, I'll put something more substantive in a post, but please don't expect a daily blow-by-blow of my WoW experiences. I'm not that exciting. Also, I'll try to introduce the links on this blog by explaining what I think is so fab about 'em.

Anyway, please check out the links, and if you have any questions, then you can leave me a comment, and I'll try to get back with you promptly. (And if you're a guildie, you know where to reach me.)