RP like Bear!

I just wanted to point out an excellent article posted by the Big Bear Butt relating Hamlet and roleplaying. Trust me, it really does make sense. Go read it.

I think the article describes perfectly where roleplayers fit into the world. Nothing annoys me more than reading someones bio where they are the long lost brother of Arthas. It only annoys me more when they don't make any sense with the lore like they are the illegitimate love child of Jaina and Thrall, a vampire and can fly.

We are not the heroes of the World of Warcraft. We are adventurers within it and truly do not control the outcome of anything. All we can do is play our parts and be the lead in our own story. Remember this when you develop your story and character's personality.

Player Event Tips: How to Conduct a Wedding

The wedding should be special and individual to the couple so just use my tips here as a general guideline. Things can and in some cases should be altered to make the event special for the two speaking the vows.

If you are asked to host a wedding, first thing you should do is talk to the bride and groom and get this basic information:

Groom:		Bride:
Date:		Time:
Location:
Best Man:		Maid of Honor:
Ceremony Type:

They do not need to know all these things off the bat so if they can't think of a location or have no idea for a best man don't sweat it. If they don't even want bridesmaids or groomsmen that's perfectly ok. Improvise with what they do know and you can give suggestions for others.

Location

First off you will want to ask your couple if they had a location in mind. Your couple may have a special location like where they met or where he proposed.

You will want to choose your location carefully. Typical locations include the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus or Stormwind Chapel. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with any Horde side wedding locales. Perhaps someone can enlighten me!

The problem with the Temple of the Moon is that it is a teleport point. There is not a whole lot of traffic to Darnassus but it can be a bit disruptive to have people appearing randomly during a service. Stormwind Chapel's problem is that it's a training area for priests and paladins as well as first aid. You'll have more disruptions or chances to have RP griefers find you here. Both these locations are very pretty and fit for a wonderful service if you don't mind these little issues.

Why not explore a bit? There are many different locations for ceremonies across the world. My guild has performed ceremonies in the little square behind Scarlet Monastery. Another popular location for us is at the Thalanaar flight point in Feralas as it goes with our guild's story. In my travels with Desdarii, I found an alter in Azshara that I had never seen before. I'm willing to bet each zone has at least one scenic area that could be used for a ceremony.

Other things you need to keep in mind are the attendees. Do lower level friends need access to this area? Can you make it safe for them to attend? We're not looking for a wedding and funeral all in one! Are you on a PvP server? Perhaps you want to avoid contested areas.

Ceremony

Ask the happy couple if they have a specific service they want performed. Do they want to write their own ceremony? Use a typical ceremony but write their own vows? Maybe they just want to wait for the point where they say “I do” and call it good. Find out what they would like.

I personally have never hosted a wedding in WoW so I do not have a typical ceremony script I can share with you. I've scoured google looking for examples to link to with you with no luck either. So as soon as I'm able, I'll sit down and type up a generic anyone/anyplace script to use as a base for your ceremony. If you have a ceremony script you are willing to share, please pass it along!

Extra things you may consider for dramatic effect would be the Elune Stone that you get from the Lunar Festival that shines a beam of light down. The stone says the effect last 3 minutes but I've heard tales of others claiming it to be much shorter so be sure you save it for the perfect moment.

Clothing

You'll want to decide on the clothing for everyone involved. It's fairly easy for the bride to get a wedding dress and the groom to pick up a tuxedo (made up of Tuxedo Shirt, Tuxedo Pants,
Tuxedo Jacket and any pair black shoes you can find). The florist in Stormwind City and Thunderbluff sell Bouquet of White Roses for the bride to hold as well as other assorted bouquets for you to choose from.

The person performing the ceremony should probably be in a robe of some sort. There are many to choose from that look nice enough to make you look official. I would recommend you pick something a light or neutral shade as you goal is to make it the bride and groom's day, not yours. Thinks like the brown linen robe, grey woolen robe or any nicer looking robe should work fine. Your higher level items will work as well so don't think these low level items are necessary. They are just easiest for anyone to wear.

The others in the party should also be dressed in nicer clothing. No obvious armor pieces (unless you've hired someone for security at your wedding). Nice dresses, more tuxedos or robes are appropriate. If you have more than one bridesmaid or groomsman you may want to hire a tailor to help you create them all matching outfits. The girls can use a different bouquet or even a single flower.

Don't forget the rings! Here are a couple suggestions that can be purchased from vendor's or through quests but one of the couple is a jewelcrafter, why not make their ring to be something extra special?

• Flawless Diamond Solitaire
• Miniscule Diamond Ring
• Silver Piffeny Band
• The Rock
• Carinda's Wedding Band (Horde Only)
• Gold Wedding Band
• Dalson Family Wedding Ring

Invitations!

This is optional but you can send in game mail inviting members to the event noting date, time, location and occasion. You can include poems or print it out formally to give it a special touch. If it important to the bride and groom make sure to note that they should come in role-playing gear, not their armor. Other places to let the news out would be the usual. Guild forums, the guild's message of the day, if you wanted to open it up past your guild you could consider your realm forums as well.

Set Up

You will want your groom, bride and any others involved with the wedding in a group/raid with you so you can communicate to them privately. You can also use a voice chat client and a private room to communicate with your party members quicker. Before the ceremony give them a quick overview of how it will play out listing any specific actions they may need to take so they are not surprised.

I will talk for a while and then I'll ask groom to kneel in front of bride to recite his vows. Then bride will do the same for groom. Then you'll emote that you are exchanging rings and I'll ask you the “I do” question. Then we're done!

During the ceremony you may want to type out little reminders to help them during the event.

Now face each other and groom please kneel. Repeat after me.

Remember with a scripted event you want to keep the flow going. People will just have to be patient with typing speeds but the more dead air you leave hanging the more people will wander off or discover some new way to be disruptive. Don't give them a chance to do so. Keep the event progressing.

Afterwards

Make sure you release everyone from the rigidity of watching an event and allow them to dance and mingle. Make sure to take photos of the happy couple to mark the happy occasion. You may wish to move the party in town to a pub or something of the sort to allow people to purchase drinks and be “that guy” at the wedding reception.

Wedding ceremonies can be great fun and special to attend. I hope I've given some insight on how this day can be conducted. If you have any tips or things you've seen done in weddings that you'd like to share, please be sure to contact me! I'd love to hear them.

Because I Was Dared To

Running through Karazhan last night we reached the hallway where the Maiden is. Almost every time we enter this point my healing friend Rina asks, "What's down this other hallway?" The answer to this is usually something vague like "evil things".

Well this wasn't enough to satisfy my curiosity so I inched closer to Rina and whispered to her, "I dare you to go down there and look." She replied, "No you do it." So together we devised a plot where I would use my invisibility spell to disappear from the group and run down to investigate without alarming anyone. Then I could see what evil things lived down there with my own eyes. I readied my camera for Rina so we could both be satisfied.

Unfortunately my disappearance was noticed shortly after fading out. When questioned, Rina fessed up to our little plot but assured them I was invisible and should be quite safe.

Upon reaching the bottom of the long empty hall I spied the large animals flying around. I was all excited by the adventure and couldn't wait to return to the group so I yelled up the hallway, "BATS!" for Rina's benefit. Tevne decided to play a prank and yelled back that they were sound activated and were probably now after me. I didn't turn back to see if it was true. I just started running. My fear escalated by the shouts of my friends at the top of the hall yelling for me to "RUN!" When I got to the top I see they were all just teasing me but now we know what's down that hallway and it's thanks to my bravery! I'm pretty proud of myself.

Learn 2 RP: Immersion

Immersion is a word you will probably hear a lot if you spend any time in role-play forums or discussions. What does it mean when people talk about their immersion? Well Dictionary.com gives this definition:

immersion [i-mur-zhuhn, -shuhn] an act or instance of immersing. state of being immersed. state of being deeply engaged or involved; absorption. baptism in which the whole body of the person is submerged in the water. Also called ingress. Astronomy. the entrance of a heavenly body into an eclipse by another body, an occultation, or a transit. Compare emersion

For role-playing purposes, I believe most people would use definition number 3, state of being deeply engaged or involved. In game that would mean you are into your character and their story, you are integrated with the conversation you are having with others. This does not believe you are your character or anything crazy like that (although there are those people out there).

The best way I can describe it is to use a metaphor such as going to see a scary movie. A movie can make you physically jump in your seat when the monster springs out. (I also have a tendency to scream which is why I stopped watching horror movies.) You aren’t in any danger yourself safely sitting in the theater, but you are so engrossed in the movie you react to it.

This is sort of how immersion works for role-players. Those emotes and text come alive and allow us to feel apart of the situation. Best way create this immersion is to stay in character. Keep the OOC in a separate channel or out of the conversation completely!

Desdarii Out of Town

Keste and I are actually going to be out of the country for a much deserved week long vacation at a resort in the Dominican Republic. You should expect this blog to be completely stagnant during this period as I am not even planning on bringing a laptop. If you need me, I'll be on the beach. Don't call. I will return on the 28th to post the random nonsense I post at that time.

Comedy

I was wandering around Shattrath City when I heard a Shattrath Saul tell of a show that would be happening in the World's End Tavern. Since I had no place to be in a hurry I walked down to see what all the hub-bub was about.

As it happens, the show was to be a comedian called Perry Gatner. I ordered myself a glass of wine and settled down to enjoy the show. That's my good friend Odila there on my left who also stopped in to catch the show.

I have to say that Mr. Gartner's impressions were quite good. He sounded exactly like the characters he was trying for. The effect was quite impressive. However, his other jokes were ... how do I say this? Horrible. They were horrible. I think that he even offended the two little Gnomes standing in the front row.

Mr. Gatner has a little work to do on his act but I'm pleased to find that the World's End Tavern is making use of their stage. I was not aware this was going on. I'll be attempting to pay more attention to what Shattrath Saul has to say.

Achievements!

Excitement! I just read about this in my feed reader: New Expansion Feature: Achievements. I'd like to give a special thank you to Big Bear Butt for putting the announcement on his blog for people like me who can't read WoW's site from work.

While most podcasts I've heard mention this liken it to XBox gamer achievements, I think that's sort of a poor analogy. The XBox achievements are in your profile, period. It's there if you're interested and do little else. In game achievements like Blizzard is describing sounds closer to the achievements system currently being used by Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). My husband and I played LOTRO when it was in beta and for a year after its launch so I'm pretty familiar with this system as it was in that game.

In LOTRO the majority of achievements were title based. Although these titles did absolutely nothing, people worked to get them like crazy. Each region had its own set of unique titles. Some were granted through exploring, some through quests, and some through straight killing. Apart from the region specific titles there were also titles for in game events, crafting, emotes, etc. There was even one for eating breakfast foods.

It sounds a little corny but they were important to people. Things like the emote quests would get you titles like “Desdarii the Beloved” because you were /hugged so many times. Things like killing quests would get you titles like “Desdarii the Wolf-Slayer”. Quests would get you names like “Desdarii, Champion Pie-Eater”. They were great, they were many and they were absolutely fantastic for role-playing.

Players would purposely work for hours or days to get a specific achievement title because it fit with their character or just because it was rare and they wanted something unique. This makes the achievements a new type of grind similar to having to go farm ore or gaining reputation. The good news is that I’m guessing it will be a completely optional grind. You won’t have to get a certain title in order to do a dungeon or gain a pattern. It’s just a guess though.

For those who think they will be annoyed by everyone and their brother sporting a title and stretching out their name, I’d like to remind them that there already is an option to hide titles in your interface. If you don’t like them, don’t do them and don’t look at them. Leave my to my silly pointless play.

I’m so excited to see this sort of thing being introduced into WoW and I am happy that such a fun system is being pulled into the game I love. I believe they are even taking it to another level with the granting of cosmetic items such as the tabards for this sort of play. I look forward to see what some of the rewards are so I can plan which my characters absolutely need.

Player Event Tips: Top Five Event Don’ts

Now I am all for spur of the moment parties where people show up and mingle and have fun. Invite me to events like that anytime. What tends to annoy me is when I attend something supposedly pre-planned only to find when I get there it’s an organization nightmare.

Here are my top five event don’ts.

1. Don’t try to remotely host your event. If you want people to take their time to attend your event, at least extend the courtesy of being there. It may mean you have to miss some great dungeon run but there will be other runs and this is a special event created by you!
   
2. Don’t change the rules during the event. The rules you made up should cover all your bases. If something doesn't work during the event resist changing things (if possible). You should have explained the rules ahead of time and changing just invites criticism of favoritism.
   
3. Don’t flip the date and time all over. Once you’re committed to doing an event set a date and time and stick to it. If you cannot attend yourself, postpone for a better date. Otherwise keep a good date and time that works for most people. Don’t change because your paladin buddy can’t make it and inconvenience 10 other people. People want to come to your party. Don’t make it difficult or confusing on when it is!
   
4. Don’t micro-manage. Allow the attendants to take the event where they want to. So long as they aren't being disruptive to the event as whole, let them play and have fun! That’s what you invited them out for!
   
5. Don’t try to wing it. Some events allow you to just show up and mull about but if you are hosting an interactive or scripted event don’t think you can just make it up as you go. Certainly you can try, and it may be a success but your audience will enjoy a well planned and organized event more. Do your research and plan ahead of time.

Another Good Day for Desdarii

Another trip to Karazhan has decided to shower me with gifts. This place isn't only beautiful and fun, it's full of mage goodies!

We were back to the front gate as all the ghosts we previously dispatched had found their way back to Karazhan to haunt and roam. Once again were able to take care of all of the specters up to the Opera event. We seem to be on a fairly steady weekly schedule with the lower story of Karazhan.

This week I was able to pick up the Brooch of Unquenchable Fury from Moroes. I wonder how many of these he has? Cyllinth was lucky enough to pick up this accessory last week. I didn't spend too much time thinking on it as it is a considerable upgrade for me. I happily raised my hand for the needed upgrade and it was passed to me.

This week in the opera hall we got to witness the Wizard of Oz showing. I believe this my favorite part of Karazhan. There's something so grand with the idea of witnessing and participating in a play. Even if our "participation" is just to slay the players. The acting is top notch and sometimes funny. With the witnessing of Oz, I've now seen all the plays the hall performs.

I was pretty nervous about this event as it looked like a lot of people to be fighting at once. Our priestess Odila was kind enough to whisper to me the ins and outs of the fight and what spells I should be using against each character. I am indebted to her as I think I did very well in assisting with this fight.

As a reward I was given the Wicked Witch's Hat. It's an actual pointy witch hat and even matches my tunic perfectly! I love pointy hats. They somehow make me feel more magey.

Goldy Reports: Stormwind

Good day! Goldy here reporting from the hustle and bustle of Stormwind City! We have quite a bit going on in this booming metropolis that you should be aware of.

In the canal district, between the Park and Cathedral Square you'll see a lot of scaffolding and cranes erected near the back wall of the city. I had the privilege of speaking with Foreman Wick who had this to say, "We're building another road down into Stormwind Harbor as soon as this wall has been removed." As to why the city streets are extending down to the harbor, he wouldn't say.

There are rumors of a new shipping trade or even passenger ships that will be arriving at the harbor and so the new road is needed for ease of passage. This little dwarf is really not super hot on the idea of having more trips across the sea (I tend to get completely smashed before the boat sets sail and then feel sick from all the ale sloshing around in me belly). I will keep on this story so I may report any new developments in reasons for this new passageway.

You may wonder how are they planning on tearing down this wall? With dynamite of course. Quite a bit of dynamite, in fact. When asked about it Mason Goldgild commented, "I've been sappin' since [Foreman Wick] was in diapers". I'm not sure that really makes me feel any better. The entire dock is stuffed with barrels of the dangerous explosives. There are even boat fulls of it sitting in the water. Lets hope they are tied up properly to prevent them floating further down the canal.

One question no one seems to be answering is what this means for the giant albino crocolisk that lives in these canals. Some local boys tipped me in on the "Sewer Beast" and the legends that surround it. I seriously doubt this poor creature's welfare is being considered in this demolition project. I'm sure the Night Elfy activist types may have something to say about this animal mistreatment.

Polymorph Piggies!

I saw some other mages about with advanced polymorphing skills that include being able to turn enemies not just into sheep but pigs and also turtles! I did some research and discovered that Archmage Xylem up in the northern parts of Azshara held this knowledge.

I took some time out this weekend to travel to his tower and request training of this skill. He had a couple simple requests before he would share his skills. One of these tasks involved using my sheep spell on the naga around. After a few seconds of being forced into the form of a sheep they exploded into clones!

It was the cutest thing ever. Mini sheep were all over the place. I was supposed to dispatch the tiny sheep but I had fun playing with them before actually finishing the task and getting the pig polymorph knowlege.

Catching Up

I've been a bit neglectful in my writing of late. I will catch you up with everything I've been up to in a quick-like fashion.

Friday - Gruul's Lair

There wasn't any plans. Keste and I were going to attempt to get our heroics team together and attempt a new dungeon when across the Guild channel a call for Gruul's Lair sounded. I didn't quite believe I was skilled enough for such a formidable dungeon but I was more than willing to throw my all into an attempt. We were able to fill most of the team up with guildmates and guild alliance friends. The others we picked up and filled in.

I wish I could tell you all about our heroic stomping through Gruul's Lair and how we came out victorious, but I cannot. We made it to High Kin Maulgar easily enough but were not strong enough to overcome such a large group of fiends. Keste seemed a little frustrated with the entire event but I was excited to just be trying something new. There are plans to try again sometime in the future and with Dineh leading the charge, I'm sure we'll break through.

Saturday - Skirmishes and Karazhanot

I worked most of the day completing any and all chores I could to keep my bank account growing despite the raiding I am doing. I then offered my services to the Silverwing Sentinals in Warsong to try to earn myself some marks of honor for my deeds. This proved to be a worthwhile project as painful as it seemed at the time. Although I walked out of the gulch battered and bloodied, I had shiny new Vindicator's Silk Cuffs to make it seem all better.

I then fished and cooked extra food to hand out for the Karazhan raid scheduled for later that day. Unforuntately too many people were away and the assault on upper Karazhan was postponed until Monday.

Sunday - ?

I honestly do not recall anything I did this day. I must be careful I'm not forgetting days or perhaps there is some plot to drug me into not remembering. Either way, Sunday was a bit of a blur...

Monday - Karazhan

Monday Geearthur's team resumed it's fight through the upper corridors of Karazhan. We were able to take down the Curator and finish another game of Chess. I'm proud to say that this time around, I really understood the whole Chess event better. I didn't stand there for several minutes trying to figure out how to control my pawn. I even jumped on a healer and assisted the King this time around!

Was a good time but once again the Prince defeated us. I dislike him very much and will be extremely happy when I see his corpse littering the floor. A tad violent maybe. But I don't doubt you might feel the same.

Oh and I also got myself a new staff! The Staff of Infinite Mysteries. Sounds pretty neat doesn't it? It looks pretty neat as well. My task for tonight is try to gather the materials required to get enchantments added to it.

Learn 2 RP: Some RP Annoyances

This is not a guide on how to annoy role-players. Those who pride themselves on the task of killing any and all RP they find do not need a guide. Instead these a quick list of some things you can do to help you find more rich and satisfying role-play.

Acronyms / Leet / Text Speech
Role-players are trying to believe they are part of a story. They’re there to listen to what you have to say as if it’s a story unfolding out of a book. Nothing can kill this feeling quite as fast as having to decipher your text. Type out or emote your text instead and you’ll find yourself some people more willing to role-play with you.

Examples:

ur = you are or you’re
ty = thank you or /thank
lol = /laugh or /giggle or even emote your own laugh

Godmod
If your character can overcome every attack, knows the answer to every question, or has powers that are little out of control your character may be considered godmodding. You’ve created your character too powerful and you’re really just not very fun to talk to. I’ll have a separate Learn 2 RP all about this topic in the future.

Stand Still
Unless you are role-playing a hyper, out of control, sugar maniac, you probably should have your character standing still while talking. Walking (not running) around is fine but don’t be jumping all over my screen while I’m trying to talk to you. If someone was running around me in circles while I was trying to have a conversation with them in real life, they are either 3 years old or a weirdo. Don't be the weirdo.

Authenticator Arrived

Today my husband and I received our Blizzard Authenticators. It was super easy to set up. Just went to my account management page on the official WoW site and synced the two items together.

Now when I log in I get this token entry window before actually logging in. I just push the button on the authenticator, type in the code and you're in. I tried it and it was really just that simple. It's an extra step but the extra security is definitely worth it.

There is a frequently asked questions page on the Blizzard web site that can answer pretty much any other questions you may have on this item. I for one am very pleased with the purchase. Now I need to figure a way to attach it to my laptop so I am certain to not lose it.

Jewelcrafting Successes

It was a very long and expensive road but my quest to gain knowledge and skill in the art of jewelcrafting has finally been accomplished. I was quite often frustrated in the stops I ran along the way. The halts were mainly due to me not having the right materials to properly practice my skills and this I'm sure it purely my fault. I really stumbled and bumbled my way through it. I didn't go out specifically searching for the gems I needed.

There is a part of me that is drawn to the precision and skill needed to create a perfect sparkly gem. But then there is also the part of me that says, "It is too time consuming, just put it aside and we'll get back to it". Unfortunately, I feel I chose to put it a side more often than I should have.

I decided to correct that and spent some long hours perfecting this craft I have chosen. It has paid off as all the books I've read and jewelcraft masters I have met tell me there is no more for me to learn.

However, it isn't really over. Just the working of my skill is complete. There is still much to learn. Many patterns to find. I purchased quite a few from the Shattered Sun Offensive but I did not have enough gold for all the patterns. I will have to buy them when I have the money as I go along. From my research atop the Aldor tower, I read that many recipes have been lost in dungeons or around the world. I will have to make an effort to search for these

Player Event Tips: Competitions

These sorts of events are where you will find your preparation for the event to be most important. I've attended my fair share of un-organized competitions and some of them even turned out to be good fun but the best way to ensure a good time is to think everything out before hand. It’s hard to give you specific guidelines on how to run this type event as they can vary so greatly.

For me, planning these events is very much a process. I have a template I use when planning a player event (yes, I’m this anal). This template will then be what is used to post my event details to the public to let them know about it. Some of the general rules listed in the Scripted Events post hold here. Timing, macroing the rule text, etc. These types of events though can take a little more imagination as you are requiring your audience to participate in your creation. It can feel at times a bit like herding cats. You have been warned.

Examples of Competition Events:

• Fishing Tournaments
• PvP Events
• Deadmines Dress Up
• Scavenger Hunts
• Noobie Races

Think of how you’d like the event to work and then spend some time thinking on how people could ruin your event. Yes, you have to think like a less-than-smart teenager whose only concern is winning and is willing to cheat to do it. I actually spend a lot of time, sometimes a whole work day (shhhhh…) trying to figure out ways the event could tank and solutions to prevent it. Best piece of advice I can give is to bounce ideas of other players who know the system and how it could be manipulated.

Perhaps the best way to explain a the process I use is to show you. Here is the event plan I created for an old Fishing Tournament I hosted. Fishing tournaments are pretty easy to host but here are some things you may not have thought about before.

• One problem I saw with hosting a fishing event was the potential for people to fish up a ton and a half of the required fish before-hand giving them a huge lead before the event even started. Therefore I kept both the location and the desired fish a secret. We were simply meeting up in Theramore. I actually moved them all to the Barrens and instructed them to catch deviate fish. Anyone spending time fishing in Theramore before the event probably didn't hurt their fishing skill but it didn't give them an advantage in the event.
  
• Another problem would be others calling people cheaters for having lures or +fishing gear. To prevent that I put in rules that they would be allowed. I purchased and carried several lures on my character to hand out at the event on a first come first served basis. Anyone still whining at this point would be directed to read the rules and tell them that it was stated before hand they are allowed. If they didn't bring any, it was their oversight.

These are just two simple things that in a group of friends probably wouldn't matter but when you open it up to a larger group will surface and probably give you a headache. If hosting a very large competitive event be prepared to spend your entire evening fielding whispers. At one point in my event career I actually hired a person to be my event assistant and I had a DND message up to direct all questions to her. Yes. I am crazy about player events.

Do you need to put in all this time and effort to have a great event? Certainly not. A small group of friends having a fishing tournament could probably do without all these rules as you will still be friends afterwards. I do recommend this method if you are hosting for more than a small group, even if just your guild whom you consider friends. You want to make your event clear and easy to participate in. You want your event to run smoothly and have people walking away saying, “Wow that was fun, can’t wait for the next event”. Preparing to this degree isn't a guarantee that will happen but in my experience does give you a much higher change of success.

What Big Claws You Have

Last night my friends and I started through Karazhan again. Even though we had killed all these ghosts last week, I found them here again! Which I guess makes sense. How do you kill a ghost anyway? So we started over from the entrance.

We were able to get all the way to the Opera event again and I was able to see a new show this time. We were faced with a harmless looking grandma but she turned into a very large wolf and started chasing us around. The wolf was very funny and I had to remember to focus on shooting him and not stop to listen to him.

Luckily he never chased me through the fight so I didn't get to see him up close. I walked up to inspect him after he was safely dispatched. He really does have big claws! Look at those things! They're almost as long as my arms!

As much as I am enjoying my new dungeon heavy schedule, I'm sort of glad that tonight I have the night free to goof around. I'm going to make a "me" day and maybe get my hair and nails done.

Say My Name!

Lately I've run into some people pronouncing my name incorrectly. I realize my name may be odd for those not used to Draenei culture but it seems even after helping them with the pronunciation, they continue to say it wrong.

Most commonly I've been called Des-dree or Des-dar-eye. The correct pronunciation of my name is: des-DAR-ee. Or you can just call me Des for short.

Keste is falling victim to this sort of name abuse as well. Keste has mostly heard, Kesty. His name is really just pronounced, Kest (the last e is silent).

I don't get too upset by the name calling. I realize foreign names can be difficult at times. I'm sure I've misspoke many times myself. So long as I realize they are speaking to me I typically just shrug it off and respond to whatever they decide to call me. This is not an excuse to call me nasty names and expect me to respond! *smiles*

Another in Our Heroic Tour

Keste called us all together again for another romp through a heroic level dungeon. Dalen and Dumadin were happy to join Keste and I again as we made plans to crawl our way through Underbog. We picked up a paladin to fill out our group.

This run through seemed, at least to me, to be slightly easier than the Slave Pens but it was still significantly difficult. It would only take a small mistake to spell disaster. We had particular problems with Swamplord Musel'ek. It took us several attempts before we were able to defeat him and his feral druid pet.

I spoke with the druid, Claw, after the encounter and the poor fellow was so embarrassed over having been tamed by Musel'ek he didn't even want our assistance getting out of the Underbog. I think Keste understood his shame and asked that we leave him alone and press on.

Then we were facing the Black Stalker. What a bugger of a spore walker this fellow turned out to be. The Black Stalker wasn't so much a problem as his friends that came to his aid spitting lightening bolts. This also took us several attempts but our group was coordinated and intelligent and we were able to create a strategy that worked for us.

More badges and a couple upgrades for my friends. We are really doing well and are encouraged to continue. First we need to work on our standings with the other areas to obtain heroic keys for some of our folks. We agreed to meet up again on Friday to work on these reputations.

Learn 2 RP: Add-Ons

This edition of Learn 2 RP is dedicated to my husband, Keste, who loves mods. The man will install and try any mod he finds even remotely interesting. I use his mod addiction as my tester for any mod before I decide to try it. As a result, I have not installed all of these mods listed so use them at your own risk!

Today I want to touch on some add-ons available for RP’ers. Back in May the RP podcast Mischief and Mayhem took some time to go over some of the mods listed here and it is a really good review. I suggest you go give it a listen. These are mods I've either tried or heard good things about.

Roleplaying Helper 2
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/12393/
This mod has phrases and emotes programmed into it and set to trigger when a specific event happens. It may say or emote something when you enter combat or cast a specific spell. It’s all easily modified so you can enter your own phrases, emotes and how frequently the events trigger. I keep my frequency down as it gets a little old if you’re commenting every time you cast a spell or leave combat, etc. I really enjoy this mod and how it changes my phrases based on which character I’m playing. It's easily customized as well which makes it great.

GuildGreet Extended
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/7529/
It’s really not targeted to role-players but it would alert you if someone in your guild logged in, joined the guild or leveled so you can greet them or congratulate them. The phrases were customizable and you could create several that it would use at random. This mod has good intentions but I found the robot-ness of it a little annoying and ended up uninstalling it.

Eloquence
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/1990/
I honestly tried this one out a long-long time ago so I don’t know if my opinion of it even counts. It helps you by translating common RP faux pas into speech that’s … well more eloquent. For example it will grab and translate your LOL’s into /laugh or specific emotes. I uninstalled it because it was sometimes quirky and translated words I didn’t intend and made my sentences make no sense. This could be corrected with more recent versions.

MyEmotes
http://forums.moonshyne.org/index.php?topic=79.0
This is currently in alpha and replaces Emotomania. It adds a lot of new emotes to your list and allows you to create custom emotes and aliases to easily call them. I have not used either MyEmotes or Emotomania. Keste says he had Emotomania installed at one point but uninstalled it because he simply wasn’t using it. He installed MyEmotes and says that is has a ton of emotes available and thinks the new version is good. His only complaint is he couldn’t find a list of the new emotes outside of looking through the lua file. It is still just alpha so I’m sure it’s coming!

PetEmote
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/3538/
I have heard good things about this mod from a couple different people but have never tried it personally. (Would you believe I’ve never rolled a hunter? It’s true.) What it does is automates your hunter or warlock pet into having a personality of their own. Your pet will emote randomly or sometimes to tell you something, for example your pet may paw the ground when hungry.

Outfitter
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/4784/
This is another one that I don’t think was built with role-players in mind but was sort of morphed to our purposes. It will allow you to easily swap out of your armor into role-play clothes. You can have a set for town, a set for fishing, etc. You do have to be carrying all these outfits around with you.

MyRolePlay
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/3133/
Here is a wonderful mod that all role-players should have. It allows you to give your character descriptions, last name, and mark yourself as a role-player looking for contact. This mod also works with FlagRSP2 which is similar to MyRolePlay. Players without these mods installed do not get to see your additional information.

Blizzard Authenticator Shipping Refund

Last week, I was one of the lucky ones that was able to order a Blizzard Authenticator for my husband and myself. They have since sold out so I'm very happy that we were able to get our order in. They haven't arrived yet, I'm suspecting today or tomorrow, but I thought I'd share this little tidbit.

I read from the Big Bear Butt that ground shipping was free. I did not experience that however as I was charged $2.30 for shipping and handling of my two authenticators. I didn't sweat it, figured the extra dollar and change per thingy was still pretty cheap for the extra security to our accounts.

Today I got an email from my credit card that Blizzard has credited me back the $2.30 shipping so it had to be some sort of accident that I was charged. Like I said, I wasn't upset over the couple bucks but it's nice to see it refunded just the same.

Feeling Pretty Heroic

Last night Keste pulled together a team of some of our favorite people (plus a shaman we just met) with the goal of trying to heroically plow our way through the Slave Pens. Our good friends Dalen and Dumadin answered our call.

The entrance to the Slave Pens was enough to scare the pants off of me. But the team needed my spells in order to make it through so I said a quick prayer to the Light and walked through holding my head high.

The entire trip went much better than I expected. Most of the issues we encountered was due to the Shaman who was not familiar with how we run. A few set backs here and there but we made it all the way through. I think all were happy to add some badges to their packs and the bog monster in the far back of the dungeon had many goodies in his pockets. I was really shocked how many items he had. Keste walked out with some very nice new pants.

The whole effort really invigorated our team and we discussed trying a new heroic dungeon this coming Tuesday. We most likely will replace the shaman. No slight to him but we'd really prefer to get another one of our guild mates in with us if possible.

Continuing in Karazhan

Last night Keste and I continued in the upper halls of Karazhan with Geearthur and Team Banana. We were able to take care of the Curator with little problem and pushed on through the library. Those little mana eel like things that happen to be immune to all my spells proved to be quite a pain. I had to try to hit them with my staff and I'm afraid I looked most clumsy doing it.

Next we pushed on to the giant chess board for a game of wizard's chest. I was in control of a pawn and did my best but I do not think I assisted much. Luckily the Bananas were very skilled and were able to make up for my lack of skill and we completed the event.

To finish the evening we worked our way back to the Shade of Aran. We were all very tired at the point and took some time out for a quick nap at Aran's doorway. We wanted to make sure we were well rested and at our best!

Unfortunately our little break did not help us as the Shade got the better of us. We plan on taking a bit longer rest and come back on Monday. I am confident we will be victorious.

Midsummer Fireworks

Keste and I stopped by Lakeshire on the fourth to watch some fireworks. The docks were full of people and many of my friends could be found in the celebration.

There were fireworks from the dock as well as off the bridge. It seemed everywhere you look there was an explosion of light and color. It was truly a wonderful end to the fire festival.

Old World Fun

There has been talk in the guild about possibly taking a stab at some of the high end dungeons on Azeroth. Places that are now rarely visited like Molten Core and Onyxia's Lair. Keste decided to prepare ourselves for such a task by getting all the necessary attunements.

We invited Geearthur along and we had a lot of fun running amok inside of Black Rock Depths. This photo is of Gee grabbing the attention of as many of the dwarves as he could before Keste and I helped dispatch them. I thought it was great fun!

While in Black Rock Depths we all finished the attunement to Molten Core so that was quickly checked off the list. Keste and I also helped rescue the Marshal Reginald Windsor from his prison. We then met him in Stormwind and unmasked Lady Katrana Prestor for what she truely is.

Before we ventured into the Lower Black Rock Spires, I stopped and spoke with Kibler about the exotic pets he would help me obtain. I could get a spider or... a worg! I love Silvers very much but I believe I'm more of a dog person and would much prefer having a puppy following me around. Who wouldn't? Dogs are such wonderful creatures. So I took the empty worg cage and followed Keste into the Lower Spires.

Keste was there trying to obtain his key to the Upper Black Rock Spires. We accomplished his goal and I walked out with a caged worg pup and enough eggs for a smolderweb hatchling. I've decided to name the pup, Oscar. He just looks like an Oscar to me. The hatchling probably will not get a lot of play time, but I may pull him out during Hallow's End.

So at the end of the day, Keste and I are ready for Molten Core, we are one Upper Spires crawl away from our key to Onyxia and Black Wing Lair. It's funny because we were putting these tasks off because we thought they were a tad boring but I had quite a bit of fun!

Player Event Tips: Scripted / Theatrical Events

These sorts of events are where you will find your preparation for the event to be more important. People generally are not going to actively participate in your event so it’s all on you to make the event entertaining and worth their time.

Examples of Scripted Events

• Weddings
• Funerals
• Guild Ceremonies
• Plays
• Fashion Shows

I would say that timing would be the most important thing here. You should constantly keep the event progressing on. Think of it like a radio program. Dead air is bad. Role-players are a patient bunch but you have to keep things moving. I’m not recommending you speed type through your event but keeping a good pace so people realize what is going on is important. You know it’s going a tad too slow if you hear people asking things like “Is that it?” or “Are we done?”

This is going to sound rude but you should think of your audience as being about six years old. A six year old child can sit for a certain amount of time and listen well until their attention span snaps. When that happens you will find your event disrupted by attention wanting crazy people. I’m not sure if people just see a crowd and can’t keep their crazy in or if they really have a short attention span but you will want to avoid the six year old outburst if at all possible.

Do not misunderstand me, not everyone who attends events is this way. In fact, most are not. But there always is that one six year old in the audience and you will want to plan your event around their attention span for the sake of everyone else’s enjoyment.

A good rule of thumb for a scripted event is twenty minutes to an hour. If you have it shorter than twenty minutes, people will gripe about spending 10 minutes on a griffin for something that ended so quickly. If you have it more than an hour you’ll get the crazy attention starved six year olds.

Not everything fits into this time frame and that is perfectly alright. I do recommend that if you plan the event to last longer than an hour that you mention it when you announce your event. It doesn’t have to be formal, a simple “I suspect this event to last 2 hours” is fine.

As with many things, communication is the key. If you are running late or hit an unexpected snag, simply communicate it to your audience. It may feel a little embarrassing to have to do so but you’ll find that the audience is more patient when they know what’s going on.

Your goal is to have everyone walk away saying “That was a great time, I’ll make sure to attend at the next event”. Hopefully I’ve helped you a little in achieving that goal.

General Tips

• Type out what you plan to say and keep a print out near you during the event. There could be a lot of things going on and having the script in front of you could help you find your place when distracted.
• If possible, macro the text so you don’t have to spend your entire event frantically typing. You can also have the script in a file open in the background and copy/paste in the script although I don’t recommend this, it may work better for those who use windowed mode.
• If you have actors other than yourself involved, make sure they have their parts scripted and given to them before hand. If long and complex, consider a rehearsal. Make sure they are all in a group with you so you can quickly communicate to them during the event.
• If there is a lot of movement or a large space you are performing the event, make sure your audience is close enough to hear you. /say does have a rather short range.

Caught an Opera Tonight

Tonight good Sir Geearthur invited me along to Karazhan again. I was more than happy to attend. Keste was able to join after the Moroes fight due to our rogue having to leave. We were both so elated to be able to be in Karazhan at the same time.

Team Banana seems to have grown together and are working together much more effectively since I last joined them. We were able to handle the Maiden without any problems this time around. I was so excited to see what was next.

I know Karazhan is old news to many of my friends but I can't help but be in awe of this dungeon. The Opera event is the most amazing thing I have seen thus far. We had Romulo and Julianne for our show and were able to bring down the house so to speak. Ok, so that's a bad pun but I cannot describe how excited I was to experience this. The entire event was a real production! The added bonus of doing it with such wonderful friends, not to mention my loving husband, made it an evening to remember. Luckily I had done my homework and advanced reading of this particular event so I was able to jump in after snapping out of my original gawking mode.

It was a very fruitful evening for me as well. I walked out of the dungeon with Grasp of the Dead as well as the Boots of Foretelling. I am so pleased with how well everything has been going for me. Gee says they are continuing Karazhan on Saturday. I hope they are still in need of a mage and her furry hubby companion.

Arenas ... I'm Doing It Wrong

Let me preface this with the fact that I like PvP. There are several things that I like about it.

• You get to smash people in the face.
• No need to find 4 other people.
• Relatively quick and easy to get in and out and keep yourself occupied.
• You can take care of other little day to day tasks while in queue and not feel like you're holding anyone up.
• Smashing people in the face!

With most of my characters, I feel comfortable and completely at ease in battlegrounds. I have to say my shadow priest would be top ranking as my favorite; running in Warsong Gulch melting faces and capping flags. In fact, I love it. To the point that my friends thought I was a tad off and wouldn’t even try it with me. I simply talked about it too often. (I find out now that they’ve since discovered the wonders of PvP and are happily playing without me. /sigh)

My problem with Desdarii is I didn't PvP with her from the beginning and I'm out of practice. I flip out and don't remember all the skills and talents I have available to me. I can get away with this sort of behavior in the battlegrounds. Eh, so I die again. It's a quick reminder that I have ice block and should use it. I dust myself off and go back out and the overall goal of the BG is marginally effected if at all. Plus I'm familiar with the battlegrounds. I've played many different class types through them. I understand what's going on and feel I do what I can to make myself useful.

Enter the Arenas

First a little history as to why the Arenas are so new for us. Keste and I quit playing WoW last year right before the Burning Crusades came out and returned in December of 2007, leveling up horde characters on Khaz Modan. This whole concept of Arena was new and wondrous to us. We never tried it with our horde 70s and decided we wanted to try it for sure with our Mage and Druid. We expected to get killed but we really wanted to see it. Plus, we came up with a really cute name: We Will Rawr Pew! Ahhh… it still makes me giggle.

So Keste goes through the process of setting up our 2v2 team and one evening we set some time aside to give it a try. Like I said, we expected to get killed. We were doing it for fun. The experience of something new. That is why it came as such a shock to us that we logged out angry and upset.

We weren’t killed. That is really not a good description of what happened. We were decimated. My mage honestly could not stand up for more than 2 seconds in any match. Keste didn't fair much better but at least he got to live long enough to watch me die. It was several matches before I even could claim I at least caused someone some damage before dying quickly. That was it! I was proud I could damage something before dying.

How Do We Compete?

I’m sure Arena pros out there can give me a million different reasons as to why we experienced this but we're really stuck as to what to do now. Here are some of the thoughts Keste and I were throwing around.

1. We are totally new and unfamiliar with the setting. In one match Keste and I were facing the wrong way and didn’t see the doors opening behind us. /blush
2. We are severely under geared compared to these teams. We have gear that has us about Karazhan entry ready while our opponents are in PvP purples.
3. Mage/Druid combo may not be the best. Not really an option to change it. We Will Rawr Pew!
4. It is very close to the start of Season 4. As I understand it, everyone’s ratings are reset making even the heroes of season 3 at the same rating as us. Probably not the best time to try to break into the Arenas.

There may be other reasons but these are the ones we could think of. That night we left the Arenas claiming that it just wasn't fun and we'd go back to doing things we liked. I think I even exclaimed hatred for the Arenas, but I'm prone to extremes at times. We've since cooled down from the defeat and are willing to give it a go again. What we are left wondering is, how do we compete?

We talked about trying again in a month when hopefully the better teams will rank up and we’ll have others just breaking into Arenas similar to us to match against. Perhaps giving us at least a chance to kill someone. (Baby steps here. We don’t have to win; we just want to kill someone.) In the meantime, how do we go about preparing for this task? Should we be running the battlegrounds to get the PvP gear available with honor? Will that be enough to give us a shot? Or is it simply too hard to get into the Arenas now that we’ve waited until season four to jump in?

I leave that open to anyone willing to give advice. We certainly need it.

Can't Get Us! We're Safe!

Last night my guild mates Stropothrina, Keste, and Cyllinth along with our dear friend Dumadin wandered into Shattered Halls to see what we could see. Most of us had never ventured into the halls and were experiencing everything for the first time.

As it happened we had a fairly easy time making our way through the dungeon. We started slipping out of the "always on edge" reactionary fighting attitude to one of an outing with friends. Seems a little silly to think of raiding a dungeon this way but it helps me feel more at ease.

During one of the fights Dumadin was experiencing some sort of troubles. His reaction times were slowed to a crawl and he claimed to be effected with some sort of ailment called "Lag". I don't know what that is, but I hope it's not contagious! I was standing right next to him!

Because of Dumadin's difficulties I yelled to all the orcs, "TIME OUT!" Rina thought this was very funny and we started discussing how it would be great to play a game like tag with the orcs. How we could call "Time Out" if we needed it and how we could run to an object to be "Safe" so they couldn't tag us. We decided barrels inside the dungeon were considered "Safe". It proved to be a good choice as they were placed throughout the dungeon.

Before we faced the Warchief Kargath Bladefist, Cyllinth sort of faded away. We waited to see if she returned but she did not. I hope that is not an extreme case of "Lag". Again, I was standing next to her! While we waited for Cyllinth, Rina and I hopped up on the final barrel for a photo opportunity. When Cyllinth couldn't return to us, we called in Aloenus to come and assist us with fighting the Warchief.

Overall I'd say I had a very productive and fun evening!

Learn 2 RP: Emotes

One thing you will quickly learn is a lot of role-players love to emote. Using emotes instead of words are a great way to describe your character, their actions or the situation better so that those around you understand you better.

Example:

Keste: Hello Desdarii!
Desdarii: Desdarii squints trying to focus on the familiar face.
Desdarii: Oh hello there, Keste! I almost didn't recognize you.

There are many emotes built into the game already that you can use with slash commands. Some of them have actions, some of them have vocals, some of them just display emote text on your screen. Most of them will say different things based on if you have someone targeted or not so make sure you try both versions out. Don’t worry about memorizing or knowing all of them. You will quickly develop your own favorite set of emotes that you’ll be using over and over.

As a word of warning, some of the built in emotes do not necessarily do what you think they should. For example you might think that /shake would offer your hand to someone in greeting; instead it says you shake your rear at someone. Not a very friendly greeting! Just look over the list or try an emote out first before using it in a RP situation.

You can create your own emote in game by typing: /em or /me

Example:

/em takes a sip out of her flask and slips it back into her pack.

Will appear in game as:
Desdarii takes a sip out of her flask and slips it back into her pack.

Creating your own emotes will not cause any actions or vocals to happen with your character but the text will be there describing what you are doing. These emotes have the same range as /say and will only be visible to those around you.

You can also bring your pets to live by adding a ‘s at the start of your emote.

Example:

/em 's kitten curls into a ball on her lap.

Will appear in game as:
Desdarii 's kitten curls into a ball on her lap.

The opposite faction will not understand emotes you make yourself but do comprehend emotes that are built into the game. Emotes made with the /em command show up as strange gestures to the opposite faction.

If you want to indicate an action in a specific chat channel, like guild chat, most people put asterisks or sometimes brackets or greater than/less than signs around their action to indicate an emote.

Example:

Desdarii: *Walks into the guild hall and greets her friends*

Using emotes will really help bring your character to life! Make sure you use start using them to give your character a little action.