They used the huge world of Warcraft and their imagination to turn WoW into their own game with hundreds of alternative plots.

World of Warcraft is a huge world in which every player can find something for everyone: from fishing and archeology to mastering raids and capturing enemy capitals. However, all this happens according to the rules that developers set. Those who wanted to create their own story and go beyond the plot and quests, united in role-playing communities. They often were not interested in high-level raid content or PvP battles. They used the huge world of Warcraft and their imagination to turn WoW into their own game with hundreds of alternative plots.

How role-playing game differs from the usual gameplay in WoW

On RP-servers for their hero create a whole story and family tree. In the role-playing game, the personality of the gamer is absent – he must merge with a fictional image and behave in accordance with his inclinations, habits and occupation. Almost everything, especially in the early stages of WoW development, was based on in-game communication, the use of prescribed movements and emotions, as well as the imagination of the players themselves.

Passage of raids or PvP here fades into the background or third plan. RP guilds rarely master this content, although single-player role-players who do not mind going to the dungeon are found. In this case, they continue to act out their image, which is sometimes strange perceived by other users.

In a role-playing game, participants themselves come up with goals and global tasks – for example, to capture such and such territory or clear the undead from the continent. Naturally, it is impossible to accomplish this in reality, therefore, events are organized between guilds of different ideological orientations. On the one hand, for example, there may be warriors of the Scarlet Order who want to get rid of the “unclean races”, and on the other hand, the Cult of the Damned, serving the Lich King. They perform their rituals, sacrifices or prayers, after which they met in battle. RP battles are more like Dungeons & Dragons – no one fires real fireballs at an opponent. The battle takes place with the help of a roll system, where the success of the strike or block depends on the number dropped out. Sometimes this leads to big scandals, because a fragile girl in a dress could kill a veteran chained in armor.

Role Play Rules

The World of Warcraft role-playing community has created a set of unspoken laws. The player should not just go out of the way and interact with other characters on his behalf. If you need to ask something or agree with someone, you need to start the message with the abbreviation OOC (out of character). Although the opposite problem may arise here – “full-time RP-players”, which, in principle, do not go out of the image under any circumstances. They will ignore any messages that are not related to winning back their hero, even if you offer them a joint event or ask them to wait because of the courier who rang the doorbell.

Otherwise, role-playing players must adhere to the logic of the World of Warcraft and not deviate from their own hero. If, for example, you have created a robber person who is living on the social bottom, then he should not be able to miraculously translate texts written in the language of the high elves. Well, a pastry gnome can hardly be an illegitimate child of Jaina and Arthas.

Sodom and Gomorrah in Goldshire

The role-playing system in World of Warcraft at the first meeting may seem rather mediocre and vulgar. If you start looking at YouTube for videos related to the WoW roleplayer, you’ll first be given a tavern of debauchery in Goldshire – “The Pride of a Lion”. This is where most of the novice RP servers sit. Wagering here is not very diverse, and almost all of it is built on alcohol, striptease and sex.

Already at the entrance to the Pride of the Lion, a tipsy dwarf can offer you to transfer from the needle of Stormwind approval to his face. In the main hall, half-naked elves dance and representatives of the most ancient profession work, who satisfy the fantasies of customers with the help of simple movements, emotions and chat messages. Going down to the basement, you can witness real sodomy – pumped up men make love with little gnomes and with each other.

Watch

Most of the simple role-playing content is built around taverns and the situations that might happen there. More hardcore players consider such entertainment a pampering of people who have no imagination. According to them, the orgies in “Pride of the Lion” only spoil the image and distort the impression of real roleplay.

Where, how and what do roleplayers do?

Among the Russian-speaking role-playing players, the Eternal Song server is most popular. For the English-speaking audience there is a special site argentarchives.org, which collects all the information related to role-playing content. There you can learn about events and guilds, and each has a separate page on which its “history”, philosophy and goals are told. You can even find a paragraph on “sworn enemies” – guilds that pursue opposite goals.

review often goes beyond WoW itself. Due to the meager functionality of role-playing games on official servers, players have to present most of the action, complementing it with home-made content. This includes animated videos, entire forums, poetry, art, and many hours of storytelling in Discord chats.

Users come up with their own characters, which are somehow connected with the existing heroes of the lore. Origin also determines their role in the world, for example, Baron Perenold’s granddaughter niece would hardly have felt great love for both the Alliance and the Horde, and most likely would have tried to gather faithful companions to return the kingdom of Alterac.

The role players thoroughly study the ENT of the game and on its basis also recreate significant events from the world of Warcraft or build their alternative history. Guilds can reconstruct battles or conduct detective quests that are in no way related to the plot of the game. Events such as the capture of a serial killer in Stormwind or the search for treasures in Tanaris are suitable for a large number of heroes and can become really massive. Absolutely different characters can play such events, just everyone will do it in their own way and for different purposes.

In the current version of WoW, the role community is assisted by the transmog function, which allows you to give the armor any necessary appearance. Thanks to this, it has become easier for players to emphasize their involvement in any association. In the original version of WoW, roleplayers had to buy or craft the necessary clothes to turn into occultists or paladins of the Silver Hand. Over time, specialized add-ons appeared that allowed you to create personal characteristics of your character, thereby reinforcing his uniqueness.

Guilds

Grazing sheep in the Golden Earth or brewing beer in Dun Morogh is possible without company, but allies are still necessary for larger and more ambitious goals.

In the history of Russian-language role-playing servers, there were many large guilds that played out completely different stories. Dwarf Association “Mountain Clans” fought for the exaltation of his race. Their goal was to gather all the warring factions and build a new stronghold of dwarves in Azeroth. Racial guilds have always been quite popular – one of the oldest was destitute Gnomerengans. They did not have a bias in roleplay, but they adhered to racial segregation, Gnomish aesthetics and hostility to troggs.

The guild was more sharpened under roleplyCult of the Damned “. She recruited into her ranks only weak and flawed characters who were rejected by society. Of these, necromancers were made who worship the Lich King. Guild events were associated with the spread of the plague and wars with the armies of Lordaeron. The Cult of the Damned had a tough rule – if during the wagering the user’s character died, then meet. This item concerned even the highest ranks of the guild.

There were peace associations, such as “Star of knowledge.” This order was based in the Western Plaguelands and tried to distance itself from any military and political intrigues. He took in his ranks heroes of different views, but all of them were united by a craving for knowledge. In their monastery they gathered a huge library of Azeroth.

Some of the most sophisticated Satanists were “People of Evil.” Their cult was based on faith in Kashima, the vengeful spirit of a girl brutally murdered by vrykul. According to legend, one of the guild members brought her bones from Northrend and founded a sect, the purpose of which was to avenge all of humanity for cruelty and injustice, destroying the established order. “People of Evil” specialized in sacrifices, killings and intimidation of the local population.

I make stools

A short excursion into the world of Warcraft roleplay, especially that part of it that is connected with pirate servers, was made for me by game blogger Alexei Bernik, author of the First Role channel. He said that now, thanks to the increasing functionality of servers and add-ons, interest in role-playing games in WoW is growing. Bernick himself already played many different roles, but now he has become the criminal authority of Lordaeron with the help of an ax and a stool.

Weekday in Lordaeron

Bernick plays on the pirate role-playing server Noblegarden. It recreated the locations of Lordaeron from Warcraft III before the Scourge attacked the kingdom. In WoW, these zones are presented in a completely different way. The server administration completely reworked the mechanics of the game. There are no familiar abilities and quests – everything has been redone by game masters directly under the roleplay, so that users can fully play the roles of bandits, farmers, guards and merchants.

Game masters throw up all kinds of local scenarios and tasks, such as a joint bear hunt or bandit showdowns on the outskirts of a forest. Recently, a large-scale event took place at Noblegarden – the Scourge attack. The population of Lordaeron was divided into two camps – some fought the threat, restoring settlements and destroying the plague, while others joined the Scourge, becoming novices. Players collected resources, created outposts and conducted large-scale battles. Looking at the events unfolding at Noblegarden, it’s hard to believe that this is still World of Warcraft – here is its own world with disassemblies in the gates, prisons and stools.

Thanks to the vast laura and many years of history, World of Warcraft has become an excellent training ground for translating fan ideas into roleplay. But all this starts to work only if you really plunge into the invented world and believe in it. Without imagination and desire, the role-playing game will stall for you at the basement stage of “The Lion’s Pride”.