World of Warcraft Roleplaying Guide Book: The Beginners Guide to Immersing Yourself in Online Interactive Storytelling

Getting Down The Basics

World of Warcraft is perhaps one of the biggest games that’s out there right now in terms of sheer size, history, and scope. It’s the leading video game in the MMO genre and has gone on to inspire a lot of other video games since it first came out in 2004.

When you really get to playing the game, you’ll see why it’s popular, addicting, and why a lot of the players that play it now are dedicated as they are. With the new release of its latest expansion, Shadowlands, dropping on November 23rd, 2020, players are excited to see the new content and explore the new storylines that are going to soon be available.

Not only that, but there’s a wealth of content to get involved in as well from expansions past. From raids, to armor set collecting, to pet collecting, to achievements, to gold farming, and more there really is something for everyone no matter what you’re interested in doing.

But this guide isn't going to be about the game itself and all that is available. No, we’re going to sit back and focus intently on one aspect of the game instead that has one of the most thriving, diverse, interesting, and active sub-communities in the game.

We’re talking about Roleplaying, and what are collectively known as “Roleplayers.”

You might have seen them, or even heard of them. If you’ve seen them in the game, you might have observed how their armor and gear look immaculately well made (What we call transmogs) and how they might be speaking as if they’re the characters themselves. You might have even heard stories about them, and the things they do that range from the weird and strange (Such as the infamous Goldshire) to the epic and fantastical, such as the various charities that they run.

If you’re someone who wonders about these sorts of people, and what it is they do, well, you’re in luck! The aim of this guide, more or less, is to showcase this hobby, and how roleplaying on World of Warcraft can add a new element to the game, and even extend its shelf life if you’re a player who is finding themselves bored of what World of Warcraft has to offer but want to keep playing.

Essentially, I’m going to talk about Roleplaying as a hobby, and how you as a beginner can get involved. Even if you’re intending to just roll a character on the server and observe, or if you fully intend to get involved, this guide and the series of subsections involved can help you out in getting situated on a Roleplaying Server, developing a character, and even how to integrate into the community itself.

So, let’s just get started huh?

What is Roleplaying

Roleplaying, by and large, is exactly what it sounds like. You take a role, and you play it. Remember when you were a child, and you played pretend, making up stories with your friends (or even yourself) on how you were a superhero, or video game character, or anything else?

It’s sort of like that. You essentially create an alternate “persona” that you want to explore and inhabit, and then you simply act as if that character would. It’s like playing pretend, but with a lot more nuance to it than simply putting on a mask, and a cape, and running around.

Well, you COULD do that, but there’s a lot more to it than that as I said. A lot of beginners who are new to the hobby think that’s all it takes, but there’s more or less a bit of a process to it.

What do I mean? Well, unlike playing pretend when you’re a child, Roleplaying, by and large, is an agreed-upon way for players to engage and collaboratively story tell as well while inhabiting a similar world that’s already structured with a rich history and ruleset. When you play pretend as a kid, you’re really just sort of making things up as you go, but when you Roleplay you’re placing your “persona” (also known as “character” ) in a setting where other players place their characters at and then try to work together to form a narrative.

Here’s an example:

You decide you want to make a character who is an old soldier who lost his wife and child in the last war. So he’s hanging out at a bar getting drunk. Some other players walk up, and talk about the war as well, talking about their achievements in an attempt to boast.

Your character might hear this and get angry they’re making light of something that ruined your character's life, so he argues with them. Or, he stews in his anger, and just drinks more and listens to the other players.

Either way, you’re all a part of a narrative that you’re creating together. You’re reacting to the other characters' actions, and they’re propelling the story forward to allow other players to react.

Neat huh?

If all of this sounds exciting, and even kind of fun, then stick around and read the rest of this guide. I’ll be going over points such as:

• What Servers to Join
• What Addons to use
• What Roleplay Etiquette to follow
• What kinds of characters you can develop
• Where to find guilds and friends
• How to Avoid Drama
• How to expand your creativity and improve

As well as a few other topics of discussion that I feel we need to go over.

Now, let’s move on and discuss where you can place yourself in the game, and what Servers you should be looking to join. That will be our next step in getting involved in the hobby.