So you want to make a new character?
In World of Warcraft, creating a character to play usually takes a while for me to do. This is mostly because when I create a new character I intend to role play it, so usually I make up a quick background, pick an alignment and roll with a general idea of how their attitude, personality, etc, will be. The character develops as I RP them, and sometimes they end up like Xena at the end of the TV series. No, really.
Sometimes people don't care what their character looks like, what its name is, and even what class it is, which is fine unless you seriously plan on role playing them seriously for serious. Banking toons are a good example of this, because usually all they will be used for is, well, banking. They run back and forth between the Auction House, mailbox and bank, happy to be slaves for the higher level characters they share server space with. On Moon Guard we experience an extra phenomena where people make level 1 (58 for Death Knights,) characters, and head straight for Goldshire to cyber at each other. Moon Guard is notoriously famous for it.
This video explains it better:
Now that you're scarred for life, I'll continue. How do you make a character that has seriously serious RP potential? To be honest, you could make a HERPADIN, run him to Silvermoon and start cranking out dialogue and emotes, but it probably wouldn't receive very good reception. You'll probably get ignored, told to go away, and/or maybe even reported for harassment. Really though, that's obvious.
I think one of the first steps in creating an RP character is thinking of an alignment, that thing that pretty much dictates how your person will act and react to others, and how they carry themselves in the world. It governs their judgement, actions and attitude, but really it just helps people figure out how to RP that character.
Alignment can change as you develop your character. Maybe you start out thinking your person will be Lawful Good, and later on down the road discover that Chaotic Good fits them better. There isn't anything wrong with that; it's just part of building and discovering your character.
Another first step is having an idea of what your character is, and alignment can help with that too. Maybe you always thought that making a Wildhammer Dwarf would be fun to play, or perhaps a Forsaken Priest. After you think of an idea (or a few), I would suggest doing research on the lore of those things. Even though all Dwarves and Forsaken start out in the same starting zone (with the exception of Death Knights, of course), that doesn't mean your character necessarily has to from a story point of view. Wildhammer Dwarves wouldn't start out in Dun Morogh with their Bronzebeard cousins so easily as it is, and they only recently rejoined the Alliance. I personally use Wowpedia to help me get my background correct since it is readily available, but there are also the Warcraft novels and information off of the World of Warcraft portal on the Battle.net site.
You really must do your homework on making sure you know as much about the lore behind your character as possible. Information on their race, their race's background, the background behind that, how they as a people respond to things, etc. For instance:
This character is pretty much screwed in terms of role play. Why? Besides the ridiculous name I made up for educational purposes, attaching 'strasz' or 'strasza' automatically tags the character as a dragon. A red dragon, to be more exact. Dragons are pretty much a 'no-no'. Not only is it kind of dumb for a dragon, a respected force of nature, to be strolling about in Stormwind (since they can take on humanoid forms) or any other major city just because it can, I shall quote a poster from the battle.net forums with whom I agree:
Be sure to stay tuned for Part Two of Making a (RP) Character - How I came up with my main, Lycannon.
In World of Warcraft, creating a character to play usually takes a while for me to do. This is mostly because when I create a new character I intend to role play it, so usually I make up a quick background, pick an alignment and roll with a general idea of how their attitude, personality, etc, will be. The character develops as I RP them, and sometimes they end up like Xena at the end of the TV series. No, really.
This video explains it better:
Now that you're scarred for life, I'll continue. How do you make a character that has seriously serious RP potential? To be honest, you could make a HERPADIN, run him to Silvermoon and start cranking out dialogue and emotes, but it probably wouldn't receive very good reception. You'll probably get ignored, told to go away, and/or maybe even reported for harassment. Really though, that's obvious.
I think one of the first steps in creating an RP character is thinking of an alignment, that thing that pretty much dictates how your person will act and react to others, and how they carry themselves in the world. It governs their judgement, actions and attitude, but really it just helps people figure out how to RP that character.
Alignment can change as you develop your character. Maybe you start out thinking your person will be Lawful Good, and later on down the road discover that Chaotic Good fits them better. There isn't anything wrong with that; it's just part of building and discovering your character.
Another first step is having an idea of what your character is, and alignment can help with that too. Maybe you always thought that making a Wildhammer Dwarf would be fun to play, or perhaps a Forsaken Priest. After you think of an idea (or a few), I would suggest doing research on the lore of those things. Even though all Dwarves and Forsaken start out in the same starting zone (with the exception of Death Knights, of course), that doesn't mean your character necessarily has to from a story point of view. Wildhammer Dwarves wouldn't start out in Dun Morogh with their Bronzebeard cousins so easily as it is, and they only recently rejoined the Alliance. I personally use Wowpedia to help me get my background correct since it is readily available, but there are also the Warcraft novels and information off of the World of Warcraft portal on the Battle.net site.
You really must do your homework on making sure you know as much about the lore behind your character as possible. Information on their race, their race's background, the background behind that, how they as a people respond to things, etc. For instance:
This character is pretty much screwed in terms of role play. Why? Besides the ridiculous name I made up for educational purposes, attaching 'strasz' or 'strasza' automatically tags the character as a dragon. A red dragon, to be more exact. Dragons are pretty much a 'no-no'. Not only is it kind of dumb for a dragon, a respected force of nature, to be strolling about in Stormwind (since they can take on humanoid forms) or any other major city just because it can, I shall quote a poster from the battle.net forums with whom I agree:
"I think the line has to be drawn somewhere before you get to RPing your character as being a race which is inherently more powerful than humanoids, lives forever, and has abilities and powers to which the character itself will have no claim."So even though the idea of RPing a dragon or any other magnificent thing may be alluring, I highly suggest against it, tenfold if you are new to role playing.. You can come up with quite an original character just starting out with 'Wildhammer Dwarf', for instance.
Be sure to stay tuned for Part Two of Making a (RP) Character - How I came up with my main, Lycannon.
0 comments:
Post a Comment