World of Warcraft®

Have in mind that with a faction change there's obviously race changes (It would honestly be really cool if you could actually retain your race and faction change, there's plenty of NPCs and Warcraft lore characters who by in-game laws should belong to the opposite faction afterall; tho I do understand why this isn't an easy feature to implement or even feasable at all) and while I don't mind just making a new story from scratch for this character, I do wonder if there would be a feasible way to effectively RP my way into a race/faction change, or rather, if the RP community would appreciate such a thing or rather turn it down and dismiss you.

Is it a possibility? And how would you do it? Would you maybe roleplay the faction change but keep the same race for both factions (f.i: I was a troll, moved to alliance as a worgen, I could always say that I was always a worgen working for the horde, tho this feels more cheap than actually coming up with a decent story for both faction and race change)?

I think it's an interesting topic, and while I don't hardcore roleplay much, I do love to participate in small events here and there, and now that I'm back to the game, I would like to be able to give a decent story whenever I'm asked where I come from c:

When everything boils down what is truly paramount is if you like it, and out-the-window with what anyone else things. If people are interested then they'll participate, if not then they won't... but from the tone of your post I think its safe to assume we're already on the same page with this, so 'nuff said.

Can't a race change/ faction change be RP'ed? Yes, I think it can.
Can it work? Certainly.
How will it be received? Depends on the player, their pc, and how 'well' you write it up.

Everyone has their own tolerance and taste. As a whole I feel like this community is very forgiving. There are limits of course, but as long as you provide a compelling story sprinkled with some lore bits then I think it should be fine. It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask about details now and then, if you're looking of specific input, but by and large we circle back to the point of "its your RP".

Getting a little more into specifics, this world is full of incredible sci-fi tech mixed with high-fantasy elements like magic. I've heard of other players conducting mind swaps between characters (magically and literally). I've also heard of PCs that have been 'polymorphed' from one race/sex into another.

Making either of these work really depends on the level of details you provide. If you can get me hooked into the character early on then I'll sit through thread after thread and likely enjoy the journey. In-Game if your character is interesting and meshes with my character at the time well enough, then I'm going to be continuously looking for more encounters with that character regardless of how crazy their "how I came to be" story is.

09/27/2014 08:06 PMPosted by Veleena

And how would you do it?

Assuming for a moment that I was going to carry Cail over to the horde, I would first have to find that one horde side character that meshed for me on all levels.

He'd have to be of a race I enjoy playing. His class would have to be similar, but not necessarily the same. Certainly of I'm giving him a race change then he'd still be a priest, but I'd likely just level new toons until I found one the gelled for me.

Next I'd have to come up with an interesting 'how'. Interesting, that is, for me. Was it magic based? Was it tech based? Being a gnome perhaps it was an accident with some sort of machine, and given who Cail is it would have to be some type of medical device... so in this case I think a psychic mind swap would be in order.

Having that much ironed out, I'd probably consider Gnome -> Goblin just because that story would sound interesting to me (knowing Cail as I do). However, I loath playing the race so that'd be a hard sell. If I couldn't make him work from level 1 to 50 (or 60) then he'd become a different race.

However! I am reminded of a gnome by the name of Timeus that used technology (i assume gnomish) to take on the appearance of a goblin thus enabling him to have a goblin horde side counterpart. A holographic cloaking machine, I think it was. That would be an angle to explore, not just for me (if I were to do this... which I'm not...) but also for you.

As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be a half bad idea for you Veleena. Change it from 'gnome tech' to a mage or warlock 'spell effect' and there ya have it. Were I in your shoes I'd explore some sort of demonic ritual that allowed you to assume another form.

There are trinkets in-game afterall that allow this. Some might argue that its just a 'toy', but hogwash I say. Its in the game so use it!

It could be a demonic polymorph. Perhaps you captured a victim and conducted a body swap ritual. Perhaps you had concocted a ritual that would cure you of your worgen curse, but as an unforeseen consequence it cursed you to become a different race. Alternately, perhaps you ran afoul of a particularly powerful demon, or demon lord... or simply an imp that was connected; and as revenge or simply for profane giggles he/she/it changed you to something else.

I don't know your character so I'm really just spitballing here... but this is how I would approach it.

Once you get these basics ironed out I'd go back and research some lore points that you could reference just to give yourself at least the intended appearance of legitimacy. A lot of times if you just show the other player that you're trying or that your intention is good, then they'll let things slide. I know I would.

Depends on the nature of the faction change. If it's into somebody else, it leaves two possibilities: Either the original character is dead, or is consigned to NPC status for the forseeable future (possibly for killing off later, who knows). Keeping the same name requires a bit of thought, though. Having four engineers - though I cheated with one and got it up to max with my free preorder character boost, lol - the simplest idea would be "freak transporter accident that ended up permanent". Magical transformation is also possible. The easiest, in my view, would be if it were a human raised as a Forsaken (something I have done in my writing on several occasions; I actually managed to do it in reverse with my priest, heh heh).

There is in fact someone I encountered last night at the Lounge Night event in Cape of Stranglethorn who I remember being a human, and is now a blood elf. I'm GUESSING it's some kind of disguise, given that (though in-game she could understand it) she ICly expressed a lack of comprehension when Ketiron here was speaking Thalassian with a fellow blood elf...and his suspicions were raised enough to call her on it. Another fellow there mentioned that she had "recently suffered an accident".

Ultimately, it's your $30; find an idea that 1)makes sense within the framing of the story and 2)both you and your fellows would be willing to work with. The rest is history.

One of the finest factions changes I've seen done in game was Finnaeus's; he wrote it up on the forums, and it was a great read.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/7180007943?page=1

I know of the ones Ketiron mentioned. I also know a few people who keep a toon on both sides, taking advantage of in-game items to explain appearance changes, or people using human/night elf models to be "high elves" and blood elf on the other side. I know of two undead humans who disguised themselves as living, each to a different degree of success, which they hinted at in their role play.

Pandaren are just cheating. :P

I'm not really all that fond of people playing a race that's visually different from their avatar just because of the confusion it causes. I'm not saying I think people are wrong for doing it, but they better not get annoyed at me if I don't know that they're actually a blue-eyed high elf. It's awkward getting past that stage where everyone has to learn that, and it's not something I'd willingly put myself through. It's the reason I won't roll a Death Knight; I have no desire to role play a Death Knight, but they're so visually different from other classes it's hard to ignore that they're undead.

So for me, any faction change would have to include a disguise to make me look like the other race, or some sort of body swap. Of course, one would wonder why I would even need to faction change Derscha when she's already best friends with a Forsaken, and most of her employees are Horde... oh, right, game mechanics still refuse to acknowledge the AAMS. Silly game.

Though how would I do it if I were serious? Quickly, off the top of my head:

Derscha would just use some sort of magical disguise, maybe turn goblin. I just can't imagine her being tall.

Ketlan, my human priest, could simply be risen as undead. I imagine this would put a terrible strain on her marriage as her husband has a deep-seated fear of undead.

Kezrin would be a bit trickier as there's not many choices for shaman, but I bet I could convince Mormel to join in for some more memory/mind swapping shenanigans and have her wake up one day as a dwarf or pandaren. Mormel's already run a story line where one of her demons was experimenting with re-writting people's personalities and memories, and Kezrin was one of the test subjects, so there'd be plenty of pre-existing groundwork. However, I dearly love playing Kezrin as a goblin!

I do have one character, a human rogue, who has ICly disguised herself as a Forsaken using makeup and a talisman to give her an artificial pallor and stench. She only does it for brief periods of time, as it gets hard to continually hide the fact that she has do things like, er, breathe. And other bodily functions. I've yet to actually roll a Forsaken in-game with her name, but I've seriously given it thought.

I've sorta... kinda did this very recently. Had another "character" I RPed as... although used Mormel as a stand-in/proxy for her. Over the course of a story arc this character, well, died and the one that killed her is a Death Knight. We then decided to raise her from the dead which prompted me to finally make her and put her in game as a DK called Rimsala.

Faction transfers would require a similar line of thinking but with a need for more creativity to "sell" it so to speak. Memory rewrites is something one of my villains could do, as Derscha point out. Disguise themselves as their new race, which is basically what Iceia does. Being raised from the dead aka Rimsala. No doubt there are plenty more.

Really as long as it makes sense in the context of the setting and, more importantly, for the character themselves it will work.

I would be the blood elf Ketiron saw at Lounge last night. At present, I have not race changed my character. If one were to check the armory, one would find a human paladin named Azheira on CC and blood elf paladin of the same name on SoE. Both characters are mine. (All other Azheiras found on the armory are false and very poor imitations of the real thing).

The 'accident' referred to above, is not the cause of her current appearance. The accident removed several years worth of memories from her mind.

Azheira's current story has her a captive of a very powerful blood elf priest who has placed an illusion on her that changes other people's perception of her. To everyone who sees her, she appears as Sin'dorei. She only wears the illusion when she is out in public. She retains her human form when she is at the home of the priest.

That said, there has been one person who has seen through the illusion. If I had not been so distracted by something else the night that happened, I would have oocly informed that player that the illusion could not be seen through. I did not, however, and so have chosen to go with it and let that part of the story play out in whichever way it goes.

You may be wondering if my character did not understand Thalassian, how she can understand orcish. It's a long story, but her former husband was an orc. (That is part of the lost memories).

I have had quite a few people ask me if this will be a permanent race change for Azheira. I do not know the answer to that yet. It is certainly a possibility I am willing to consider, but I will let the story play out and whatever happens, happens.

If I do decide that she will give up her life as a human, I do not know how the actual race change will occur ICly. At this point, I would assume the priest's illusion spell would simply become a permanent one as opposed to temporary. But perhaps there will be more to it than that. We shall just have to wait and see. That is the fun of role play.

I stand corrected, Azh...silly of me not to have noticed the server!

No worries. You are not the first person to have assumed I made a faction change.

After all, who would ever have more than one max level paladin. >.>

*coughgenevracough*

09/28/2014 02:30 PMPosted by Azheira

No worries. You are not the first person to have assumed I made a faction change.

After all, who would ever have more than one max level paladin. >.>

Careful, since I can count atleast three of yours we might have to start calling you Genevra 2.0 :P /runs

09/28/2014 08:03 AMPosted by Derscha

Ketlan, my human priest, could simply be risen as undead. I imagine this would put a terrible strain on her marriage as her husband has a deep-seated fear of undead.

Just a liiiitle

09/28/2014 03:14 PMPosted by Kordrion

Careful, since I can count atleast three of yours

Only three? Perhaps I should remedy that. It's not like I don't have a few others at -slightly- lower levels.

<Adopts an expression that would indicate she finds nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.>

09/28/2014 03:12 PMPosted by Ketiron

*coughgenevracough*

09/28/2014 03:14 PMPosted by Kordrion

Careful, since I can count atleast three of yours we might have to start calling you Genevra 2.0 :P /runs

I resemble that remark /hides all the other paladins.

Oh wow! First of thanks for the feedback! I didn't expect such great replies in such a short time span!
Those were some very interesting methods and advices truthfuly. I was seeking to see if the community even accepts that kind of stuff, needless to say now I see that my fears were unfounded c:

I need to write a good story for this char, I had a little bit written when she was a troll, so I can connect both stories. Basically I was thinking in something along the lines of a curse, by another warlock troll who she has been rivals with since they were kids. Making it both a personal story and your typical tale of tragedy. As she obviously lost against him.

I was also thinking about her finally killing him, but not because she wasn't careful, but because by the time they face again, she's overcome any desire to go back to being a troll and fight for the horde (since she had been quite troubled when the attack on Theramore happened and resented the warchief ever since) so she went ahead and dueled with him again, this time coming victorious at the price of never going back.

Oooobviously, there's lots to develop and many details to include, but so farm how does that sound? Does that sound like something that would piss people off?

09/29/2014 08:44 AMPosted by Veleena

Does that sound like something that would piss people off?

I think this is a crazy question to ask. A better one is, "Is it a good story?"

As Derscha kindly and generously mentioned, (you fantastic gnome, you!) I had a similar quandary about a faction change. Long story short, Finn's brother is a Forsaken, and when I first devised of Finn he was most definitely a Gilnean. It's hard to RP that story out across faction, and I wracked my brain on how to get the two of them together in a story that was convenient and added dimensions to the both of them. Mists of Pandaria included a race that could transplant souls (thanks Mogu!) and voila! An idea was born.

I never stopped to think if the idea would piss anyone off. Rather, I worried myself on whether or not I could write the thing well enough to sell the story as believable. You should be daring when writing anything, and I think any bold or challenging idea is worth it if you can write it well.

The faction change thing can be an avenue to tell a broader story - for myself, that story is "All Things Must End". I'm not under any illusions that I'm wow-ing everyone with what I write, but I'm also not overly concerned about upsetting anyone either. I just worry about "is it a good story?" and "Am I writing it well?" If you can flesh out your idea with great character details, good conflict, and develop interesting characters, I say go for it. Especially if you ultimately end up RP-ing in game live with other players. Because at that point, plot is just background information that informs how you interact with other players.

Hm hm, I'm just a little conscious about this all, simply because I haven't really joined any RP event since I came back to WoW, and being quite shy myself I don't want to attend one and you know, have a story that will make people roll their eyes.
I don't doubt that I can make it beliveable enough, hell whenever I think about the different plots and twists of the story I have in mind I get the FEELS so I guess that's good, I just don't really want to be "that guy".

I mean, like you say in the end plot is just background information, but I don't want to end up looking like a fool just because I dared go that way xD

As has been mentioned above, Undead and Humans are the easiest to explain a faction swap between while keeping the same identity, and it can work both ways; for mages with a grasp of illusion magic (at least for Undead going human), it becomes so easy as to almost feel like cheating... a hand-wave. The real trick is coming up with the "why" in that case.

In other, more wild cases though, you really need to get creative with the "how", which can sometimes eliminate the need for a "why".

And yes, I've done the undead/human swap myself. In both directions, even.

09/29/2014 11:49 AMPosted by Veleena

Hm hm, I'm just a little conscious about this all, simply because I haven't really joined any RP event since I came back to WoW, and being quite shy myself I don't want to attend one and you know, have a story that will make people roll their eyes.
I don't doubt that I can make it beliveable enough, hell whenever I think about the different plots and twists of the story I have in mind I get the FEELS so I guess that's good, I just don't really want to be "that guy".

I mean, like you say in the end plot is just background information, but I don't want to end up looking like a fool just because I dared go that way xD

That's understandable, and I do admit there are a few folks out there that have a certain degree of expectation on what is acceptable and unacceptable to them in terms of RP. And obviously there's a level of insecurity when you're putting something creative out there.

Be fearless, and I'm sure you'll find a few folks willing to follow along and RP with you in game.

09/29/2014 11:49 AMPosted by Veleena

Hm hm, I'm just a little conscious about this all, simply because I haven't really joined any RP event since I came back to WoW, and being quite shy myself I don't want to attend one and you know, have a story that will make people roll their eyes.

You should not feel the need to have a super ultra detailed backstory in place before attending an RP event. In fact I actually advise against it because it adds a level of rigidity right off the bat to your character. Having a general idea of a backstory with one or two character "hooks" is a good start. Then again I am a big proponent for fluid, organic RP and not scripted events.

The reality though is that there really is no "right" or "wrong" way to RP. You need to decide for yourself what sort of RP you enjoy and then find similarly minded individuals. There are many forms of RP and character types I personally find insufferable. However those people are enjoying themselves and that's really the reason any of us do this. To make friends and have fun.

There are many forms of RP and character types I personally find insufferable.

Can you stop talking about me like I'm not here? I CAN HEAR YOU!