Take a look at your main RP character. What makes them tick? What events, past and present, have helped them be the character they are today? What if something drastic happened to them? What if something cataclysmic (sorry for the pun, but it works) shook them to the very core of their being and changed them 180 degrees from the character they are today?

Without getting into too many details just yet, Arrens would not be anywhere near who he is today. Having had some recent email discussions with Anna about this subject, I came to realize that if Aely were to leave Arrens – say she didn’t want to marry him for any number of reasons – how would he be different? For one, he’d no longer be the headmaster of Stormwind University. He’d hole up in books, certainly. It’s kind of his thing when things are going horribly wrong for him or leave him confused. But this singular event would likely cause him to search for power, something far greater than he already possesses. And as the old saying goes, power would corrupt him. He would become that warlock he’s spent his entire career trying to avoid. It would take him down paths far darker than merely being summoned to the Twisting Nether by an enraged demon.

Perhaps, as I’ve said, I’ll have an opportunity to explore this in some fiction – sort of an alternate universe version of Arrens.

What about you? How would something of such magnitude change your character? Would they go from good to bad? Bad to good? Remain as they’ve always been? Or something completely different?

Arrens stretched, his complacent muscles sore after the long flight. “I require some herbs from the region, Master Gyll. As it happens, the University’s run out of Khadgar’s Whisker for next year’s alchemy students. I need to replenish our stock.” He wiped the beads of sweat forming on his brow. “Unfortunately I hadn’t taken into account that it would be this humid here already.” He fanned himself to no avail. The robes he wore, while not thick, kept all but the stiffest breezes from reaching his skin.

Gyll chuckled. “Aye, lad. Welcome to th’ jungle.” Handing Arrens’ package back to the warlock, he said, “That’ll be 35 silver, lad.” Handing over a little extra for the tip, Arrens thanked the dwarf and summoned his stead Inigo before leaving the confines of the port city.

Hours later and several dozen specimens of Khadgar’s Whisker later, the sun began to set. Arrens’ robes were soaked through with sweat as he swallowed the last bit of water. “How the fel does anyone live down here?” he asked himself. Placing his case in Inigo’s saddlebag, he mounted his demonic stead and made a steady pace back to Booty Bay.

Before reaching the town, he saw an enormous bonfire along the coast. As he approached, he saw all manner of celebrants in varying states of intoxication laughing and celebrating the beginning of the summer. He chuckled as he recalled Aely telling him similar stories of the north, stories he had no first hand knowledge of as his youth was spent cloistered in the libraries of Dalaran.

Travelling a ways further down the coast, he dismounted Inigo. Looking back, he could still see the glow of the bonfire, but his distance was great enough that he knew he wouldn’t be bothered by their drunken revelry. Removing his clothing under the darkened sky, he stood in the pale moonlight. While the heat of the day had lessened some, the humidity continued to make him sweat. Arrens approached the waters of the South Sea and dove in. While warm, it was considerably cooler than the air and felt refreshing to the warlock.

As he was enjoying himself, he was surprised to hear quiet laughter nearby. Looking up, he saw two goblins running from his position back towards the bonfires. Not wanting anyone to see an esteemed Stormwind University headmaster in all his naked glory, he decided it was time to leave and return  his goods back to Stormwind. As he approached Inigo, his jaw dropped. While his crate of goods was still within the saddlebag, he was horrified to discover his clothing missing. He rummaged through his saddlebag further and pulled out his buzzbox. Switching to a private channel, he spoke quietly.

“My love? Aely? I’m…yes. Yes, my love. Yes. I know it’s late. I’m sorry to have woken you. No. No, I”m fine. Really. But…erm…I need some help. And some clothes…”

((Thanks to Anna for the inspiration for this post.))

And therein lies the crux of my problem with it.

I myself am not a private person. If I were, I’d not post my real name anywhere. I’d follow in the footsteps of that Anna chick who may or may not have written her own post about why she won’t be using the RealID feature either. Don’t believe that I’m not private? Scroll down. Look to the left. See that? That’s my real name. No, really. It is. Says so on my driver’s license too. So no, I’m not a private person.

However! That doesn’t mean I want to chat with all and sundry whenever I log into the game. As it is, I don’t do much “chatting” in the myriad chat channels to which I automatically log into when I sign on. Most are out of character channels, either to poke RP ideas at others or to group dungeon runs/raids with any that might not be on a character in guild. One’s an in character channel used specifically for RP purposes. That’s probably the one I’m in most. Even my own guild’s chat is normally Arrens chat free unless I’ve got a particularly snarky comment to say to someone. Aside from that, I’m typically doing things other than treating this game as a social platform or an AOL chat room.

But AOL chat rooms had one thing RealID doesn’t: The ability to be invisible. See, there are days where I’m as anti-social as the next person. Those days are far more frequent than you might believe. If I’ve had a rough day at work (more standard than not) and decide to relax by queuing up for a battleground, the last thing I want is to be hammered by 15 whispers followed by another 20 friend invites. If I had the ability to log out of the game invisibly and sign in the same way, I’d be all about this feature. Instead, when I log in, you know I’m there. The “busy” or “away” tags won’t likely do much to stop anyone from whispering anyways, even if it is just a mundane “hey, I see you’re away. hi anyways” kind of thing.

And don’t get me started on the “friends of friends” nonsense either.

I understand Blizzard’s intent with this. They’re trying to make what is supposed to be a social MMO more sociable. And I commend them for that. However, I think there’s a few things that can be added that won’t take away from the design goal, but would make folks like myself less apprehensive about going into it.

The title comes from a twitter remark by Yva of WTT:RP. “You know, if we collected all the sand in your vagina about Lore leaving SWU we could make a pearl, Steve.”

Last month, Lorelli left Stormwind University to join the folks of Wildfire Riders. This bugged Arrens on a whole bunch of different levels, none of which he can really talk to anyone about. Here’s the reasons why, from an Out of Character perspective.

Back when I GM ressurrected the warlock in December of ’08 and transferred him to Feathermoon, I did it knowing full well who I wanted to RP with. Having read Anna for as long as she’s blogged about WoW, the crew she ran with sounded amazing. Their level of immersion into RP was something I had wanted since I returned to the game as well as giving me an opportunity to take a peek at Alliance side RP. The only problem I had? No character to the warlock. No personality. No backstory. I had nothing to go on as I traipsed into the Pig & Whistle Tavern one Tuesday night and found a whole lot of people with <Wildfire Rider> tags under their names. So the good warlock just sidled up to the bar and…played voyeur. Within 20 minutes, things began to form in my head. I wanted a good character. I didn’t want to play the sterotypical evil warlock out to gain power and cause destruction. I wanted a dichotomy; a good-natured soul that just happened to enslave demons to assist him with his work.

As the weeks went on and my character was introduced to the rest of the Riders, I realized I had made a choice I liked with my character. The Riders, you see, can best be described as “morally diverse” from Arrens’ perspective. Arrens sees things in black and white. It’s either good or it’s bad. There is little-to-no gray area. The Riders don’t always see things that cut and dry and for Arrens to overhear varying conversations about business ventures, it has a tendency to raise alarms in his head.

As time pressed on, Arrens’ story and that of Stormwind University got more intertwined with the Riders. He was taken by SI:7, drugged and questioned merely for his association with Tarquin ap Danwyrith, the leader of the Riders. Tarquin, coincidentally, ended up sleeping with Rosie, a romantic interest of Arrens’ (which, by the way, was a helluva way to pay him back for not saying a damn thing about Tarq, Tarq! ) When Arrens professed  his love for Rosie (who is not a Rider), things got all sorts of buggered. He began transforming into a demon at that point which led to him being suckerpunched by Feliche, Dravir and, if memory serves, Tiforis, though I might be mistaken on that one. Regardless, all three of them are Riders. While Arrens may or may not have deserved being used as a punching bag, the fact that three people wearing the Red & Black did it doesn’t sit too well with him.

As things continue to develop, with the problems with SI:7, Bricu & Threnn’s daughter being kidnapped, Yva threatening him, and the Maggie Maunt line, students of SWU are being called upon to help the Riders. This, again, is a major crux of his. He fought during the siege on the Black Temple. He knows what it means to fight and has largely given it up. But putting his students in danger? Yeah, that’ll piss him right off every time.

All of this leads us to where we are today. Lorelli left the University and Arrens is most unhappy with the situation. He considered Lore a confidante. As the head of school security, she had access to every nook and cranny of the school and its secrets. All of that now wears the Red & Black and was there when Lore was told the Bloody Long Story by Bricu. Arrens has heard the Story now no less than half a dozen times. And each time, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Not the “friends unite in a time of need” part, but the “fuck everyone else not in the Red & Black” part. And knowing Lore is a part of that now upset him.

As far as Arrens is concerned, the Riders’ sole saving grace is Aely. Were it not for her, Arrens would have probably started going to the Boomstick Pub or the Blue Recluse a long time ago. She’s the one that showed him there is a good side to the Riders, that there is morality in that “morally diverse” bunch.

So there it is. That’s why Arrens has sand in his vagina about Lore having joined the Riders. Is he right? No, of course not. If he were right 100% of the time, I’d mock him and call him a Sue (and thus, myself). But that’s Arrens’ line of thinking. As for myself? I still can’t believe you folks have allowed me to join in on your shenanigans. I still consider it a great honor and hope that we can all continue to have fun together as I endlessly mock Lore about leaving the relative safety of SWU.

Life has, as they say, kicked me in the nads recently. Work scheduling is…a challenge these days. Some days, I work nights. Other days, I work during the daylight hours. And, just for an added bonus, some days they make me work overnight. This hectic schedule of 60-70 hours a week have left little time for blogging, so my humble apologies for having gone dark for over a month as I try to get back in the groove. Can I promise to post every day? No. Will I be silent here on my little corner of the internet for weeks at a time still? Probably. The schedule looks to let up some time in September at the earliest, November at the latest. So until then, things will still be largely sporadic around these parts. Bear with me.

On the RP front, things still progress between Aely and Arrens, as hopefully made obvious yesterday. Due to the nature of my work schedule, Anna and I are constantly talking about RP opportunities, plotlines and dates for Very Big  Things. Said dates have been moved to the right by a fair margin and that’s ok. When these Very Big Things happen, they promise to be pretty kickass. Moreso than had we just rushed into them for the sake of having our characters mentally quiet down in our collective heads.

As you hopefully read here on Monday, Likal did a guest post. Should any of you have something you’d like to contribute, please do so! Got something RP related? I’d love to post it. PvP oriented? Lemme have it! (I’ve been on a serious in-game PvP kick when I can.) Got a trick to earn buckets of gold in one day so that I can afford both a Mechano-Hog and a Traveller’s Tundra mount on the warlock in that same day? Well…just email me with that tip. We’ll keep it between us.

Until next time, my friends. Be good or be good at it.

Whoops! Wrong post. What I’m actually here to talk about are my experiences on RP realms, as coming from someone who spends most of their time on a ‘normal’ realm, who is now spending slightly more time on RP realms. I was chosen for this task because Arrens doesn’t have enough posts on his blog (last I checked it was a month since the last one and that makes me sad); and also because I just joined his guild (Stormwind University) with my little Night Elf hunter (Likal) after excessive but very polite in-game stalking (or at least I think it was polite). And as you all surely know, Arrens resides on Feathermoon, an RP server. And get this: they RP over there!

Now, I’m not the most inexperienced RPer in the world. Back in high school (must be about 9 years ago now, my word, don’t I feel old), when The Internet was really starting to pick up and AOL was a viable internet provider (oo, burn!), I used to AIM RP with my high school buddies and a few of our internet friends. I even played in MUDs (specifically one based on the Wheel of Time series, ironically one I have not read), where I did some lighter RP. Eventually this lead to forum RP on Gaiaonline, something I still do today. So with all this RP experience under my belt, I know about the basics (probably – I’m sure there is much to learn!)

And it’s not as if I haven’t dabbled playing on WoW’s RP realms before. While my fiance would rather not RP, we still rolled a couple toons on an RP realm that a Gaiaonline friend played on. We didn’t level up too far though (probably because they’re Alliance – FOR THE HORDE!!). But we never actually roleplayed on those toons. Oh sure, we didn’t say anything weird in any public channels, we would emote back at people if they emoted at us, and every now and then we would giggle as we RP walked around town for a little bit (well, I giggled; I’m pretty sure the fiance just sighed and played along). And being the altoholic that I am, I rolled plenty of low-level toons on multiple RP servers (words of advice: When almost all of the servers are down, don’t roll a fresh toon on an RP server… it is not pretty), but I never really roleplayed on any of those toons either.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t done any WoW RP before; I’ve had some spontaneous encounters on my RP realm alts. Once, my level 20-something Night Elf druid playing ‘tour guide’ for a couple low-level lady Night Elves, who had put out a distress signal about horde on Teldrassil (they were just RPing, of course. Otherwise I doubt I would have lived). On our way to Stormwind (for that is where they wished to go), their personalities alternated between being naive and… lusty. It was very interesting baby-sitting those two on the way. Another time, I happened to be leveling my female human priest, who was level 4 or 5. There happened to be another human who was also leveling; some male warrior, I think. I was questing, he was questing, and so we ended up questing together a bit (in character!). He acted like a perfect gentleman. Except that once we got to Goldshire he asked if I wanted to E-RP. *facepalm* I should have known such an innocent RP was too good to be true while wandering around the human starting zone! (I firmly declined his invitation, of course, and he eventually respected my decision. Though we did end our RP conversations shortly after that.)

However, none of those incidents really felt like ‘real roleplaying’. One reason was because I haven’t RP’d ‘instantly’ using a chat client for a long time. I mean, RP in the WoW client is similar to AIM; you can converse as fast as you can type. You can’t hold off on posting, to ponder for hours, even days, on what the best way to react would be, and then to write it. You have to instantly spring up with dialogue, or actions, and make sure that those are things that your character would say, things your character would do. And that, for me, is one of the scariest things for ‘live’ RP. Especially if you’re new.

And it leads into the second reason why those RP situations didn’t feel ‘real’ – I wasn’t worrying too much about what my character would do or say, something that probably is, you know, important when roleplaying. In the above examples, neither of my toons above had a well-defined background. If I logged in again, none of the people I RP’d with would likely remember me, so I could get away with making up a new background. But now that I’m trying to establish myself on Feathermoon with a permanent character, with a set backstory, I’m worrying about that a lot more.

My worrying lead me to actually avoided doing any significant RPing on Likal for some time. I leveled Likal to level 10 (because what kind of self-respecting hunter doesn’t have a pet?). I picked professions that I thought would work well with the character (herbalism, for money, and tailoring, for bags). I got her the perfect pet (the Flamingo!); I spent days thinking of a suitable name. I worked out a backstory. Where was she from? How old was she? Why was she a hunter? Why didn’t she want to get one of those cats that are all over Teldrassil and instead got the bird from enemy territory?

I read various RP blogs for months, familiarizing myself with their stories, and other interesting tidbits that would (possibly) help my own RP in-game. I looked at various RP addons, eventually installing FlagRSP, which I spent some time fiddling around with. (Here’s a fun fact – if you go between factions a lot, you can actually read the profiles of the opposing faction. Freaky!)

And then came the hardest part – making contact.

Remember what I mentioned about stalking? It’s true. I would log onto Likal, to quest a bit or sell my herbs, and then I would /who University, or /who Wildfire, to see who was on from Arrens’ guild and Anna’s guild (Yes, this Anna). Sometimes I would see names that I had read about from their blogs, different characters all with interesting stories in their own rights. But since they weren’t the bloggers themselves, I decided not to freak them out entirely and limited my initial contact to only Arrens and Anna. It was easy enough to say ‘Hi’ OOC-like and have a conversation about how awesome their blogs are. But after a while, I wanted more than just to say ‘nice blog’ and giggle like a crazed fangirl. Yes- I wanted to RP.

But… I wasn’t too sure how to go about it. Sure, I had FlagRSP, but every time I set it for ‘Looking for Contact’, I would get extremely nervous that maybe somebody I didn’t know would start talking at me, and then I would make a fool of myself! Yes, my inherit shyness extends even into game. And that same shyness stopped me from seeking out others who were set to ‘Looking for Contact’, because, well, then I would be seeking strangers for RP opportunities.

Instead, I logged on and looked for signs of RP. I had to leave the Night Elf starting zone and Darnassus, as apparently no one hangs out there, and head to Stormwind. I hung about the two bars around Old Town and the Dwarven District, as I heard that sometimes RP happens there. I even followed some people who started RP conversations around town, to see what things they talked about, to see how what they would say (which, I must admit, would be pretty creepy to see a little Night Elf with a pink bird following you around).

Finally, one day, I decided to break the ice. Mainly because I saw that Annalea (who is not a Too-Many-Annas Anna, fyi) was in Stormwind. Well, I was in Stormwind too! Maybe if she wasn’t busy, I could try this roleplaying thing. To determine if she wasn’t busy, I tried to use my leet tracking skills to find her (Likal is a hunter, remember?) If she didn’t seem to be too busy, then I could casually start RPing with her. The fatal flaw in my plan was that I am a fail-hunter, and could not find her after wandering the streets of Stormwind for longer than I’d care to admit. Finally I broke down and whispered her, asking where, exactly, she was. But that at least broke the ice, and her directions to her location were utterly clear. And while our conversation started OOC, once I arrived at her location we started to RP!

It was just a conversation, of course. I was (and probably still am) a complete stranger to her (both IC and OCC, har har). Just a couple of adventurers, sitting near the wine shop, making small talk (well, I was standing for most of it until I realized that looked silly). We talked about all sorts of things; my pet and her name, where I was from, where she was from, various people she knew (a subtle way to indicate where I could find more people to RP with, I suspect), events that would happen in the near future (mainly The Rose Ball). She picked up on various descriptions from my FlagRSP; I mostly tried to keep up with the conversation and actually ask her questions instead of just answering. It was like I had studied for a test and I knew the answers; I knew enough about Likal that questions about her past were easily answered. I didn’t need to hem and haw when she asked me where I came from, or why I was in Stormwind. And that made it more fun to act out.

I’ve been present for two Wildfire Rider and friends Tuesday RP nights, mostly just watching. I’ve introduced myself to a few more people. I’ve joined the Stormwind University. I could probably go on about each of those events, but I think I’ve written enough for now. My ‘introduction’ to this particular RP group is still ongoing; Likal certainly doesn’t know everyone yet, and they don’t know her.

And while I’m still getting accustomed to RP in WoW, I’m still enjoying what I’ve done so far, immensely. This kind of RP may be different than what I’m used to, but in the end the goal is the same: To tell a story, and to have fun while doing it.

But priests. Oh, priests are a special breed. Two specs for healing means double the fun. Running with a holy priest? Keep right-clicking off Renew and watch their healing numbers plummet. Disc priest filling out your group? Ditch the bubble and blame them when you die. Trust me, it’s great fun!

Normally I’m a strong advocate for entering the battlegrounds with the express purpose of focusing my anger and attention on one particular class for the day. And while today, on its surface, might not seem any different than any other, I’m here to tell you, my faithful friends, that it is. Today…whoa, today…is far darker and more sinsister than anyone might have you believe. You see, 26 years ago today, a force was brought unto this world, one with evil intentions and a boatload of snark to toss around at random strangers on the internet. That’s right, friends. Today is a certain priest’s birthday.

Due to mitigating circumstances, I’m afraid I was unable to properly prepare for this harbinger of darkness or the celebration that is likely to take place today. As such, I would ask you, my dear readers, to do it for me. For my friends on Azgalor (US-PvP), should you see the priest in question (or her pally/warrior/huntard…doesn’t matter to me!), I ask you to cleanse her of her evil. Wash her of the snarky taint that has permeated her blackened soul and make her the kind, nice, loving bubble dispenser she was meant to be. That’s right. I’m asking the unthinkable. I want everyone on Azgalor to /lick her. Horde, Alliance, some unknown third-party faction that shouldn’t be playable, doesn’t matter. Everyone /target Vyree, Ambrosine, Lyrande or Jamethera and then /lick. Screenshots sent to me at arrens3971 [at] gmail dot com will be posted in an upcoming post to determine the cleanliness of Bubble’s soul.

Remember, this isn’t about me. This is about helping out one of our own. Thank you.