Storyboard: Let me show you my pokeymans
Today, I'm going to switch gears just a little bit and do what might seem searingly egotistical. I'm going to tell you about my characters. Well, not all of them -- I'm limiting myself to the various new characters I've created for the latest World of Warcraft expansion, since there has been particularly good reason to do so. But still, this week's column is all about the characters I've created, both the good parts and the bad.
My rationale behind this, however, is hopefully a solid one. I've been talking about the best ways to go about crafting characters and how to best play the RP game for several months now, but I've been remarkably short on actual examples from play. One of my firm beliefs is that a good teacher can demonstrate quality work in a given field, and so I'm turning the gaze inward. Let's see if my advice in practice is worth a hill of beans, yes?
Reyhana
For a good portion of her life, Reyhana has had the bad luck to be in just the wrong place at just the wrong time. Studying as an apothecary in Lordaeron, she moved to Gilneas just before the erection of the Greymane Wall sealed her in. That became her career for several years within the heart of the city, until the night the Worgen came to the city, when she decided to take up a weapon and stand against the wolf-men. And so she became one of them, as did most of the population of the country, which left her stranded, with no home to return to and a feral power boiling in her blood.
Strangely, none of this particularly bothers her. Reyhana has always been a wanderer, not having been a native to Lordaeron in the first place, and her newfound transformation to a Worgen hasn't dulled her analytical edge or her love of travel. She's within the Night Elf lands now, learning what she can of the area before the Cataclysm, with an eye toward the ancient organizations of the Elves. She's not been in the right places to avoid hardship, but it seems to have left her unfazed.
What works: Reyhana's a perfect example of what I've been saying about archetypes -- her class is Warrior, but she's a scholar through and through. The character also has a strong pragmatic side that allows me to sidestep the potentially thorny issues of a curse and focus instead on the positives it offers. Plus, someone just released from a virtual prison has every reason in the world to travel everywhere -- definitely useful in a game that can be somewhat world-hopping.
What doesn't: As a variant on a character I've played many times over, Reyhana has a fair bit of baggage and preconceived notions. She also can read perilously close to being an immaculate character who fails at nothing, as a scholar and warrior both, which means that most of her weaknesses need to come out via RP rather than being immediately visible.
Xelanne
Life's a cutthroat business. You want to make the big bucks; you have to be ready to gamble. And Xelanne tends to think of herself as a pretty good gambler, even if she has had a bit of a losing streak recently. That's why she's a Warlock -- it's a great return on her investment, and she's pretty sure that if she plays her cards right, she can avoid ever having to worry about the whole downside of trafficking with demons.
Admittedly, she's had a bit of a losing streak, with the whole destruction of her assets in Kezan and being forced to serve as a low-level functionary for the Horde. And yes, now is probably a better time to focus on not getting blown to bits rather than trying to build a stable set of assets for the future. But she gambles on what looks like the best shot in the long run, and she knows the stakes as well as anybody. The fact that she's willing to bet high doesn't change that.
What works: Xelanne started out as a character without a strong voice, but she developed one quickly. I like the idea of someone's essentially treating life as one big game of poker and playing with the cards in hand. Xelanne is a rogue, through and through, and what she wants is to win -- the money and power that comes along with victory are nice perks, but secondary.
What doesn't: It's really hard to get through the more amusing surface of the character and into the serious parts of her personality. Part of that is just the fact that she's a Goblin, but a lot of that is also that she's so busy being a gambler and bluffing her way through things that she doesn't let any vulnerability show through.
Eigrun
Being a siege engineer during a war isn't a pretty or glamorous job, but it was one that Eigrun did. He volunteered as soon as the Dark Portal opened to start serving with King Magni's forces on the other side, and he worked his rear off for months on keeping machinery humming through everything. That meant working with the Wildhammers, though, which he wasn't too keen on -- he didn't understand how Dwarves could give away their heritage of stone and machinery in favor of open skies and some namby-pamby shamanistic whatchamacallit.
By the time the war was more or less over, though, he came away a changed Dwarf. When the Wildhammers came back to Ironforge, he jumped at the chance to start training as a Shaman. The spirits weren't all that different from a fussy engine, he realized; they still required a gentle hand and a bit of nudging to get moving. Besides, stuffing a few flame spirits into a mortar shell packs way more of a punch than you'd think.
What works: Eigrun's a character I can play as seriously or ridiculously as I want without breaking him. I love the idea of a Shaman gently coaxing the spirits into cooperation in the same manner as a mechanic, and I also like the idea of a veteran Dwarven soldier. This lets me have both in one convenient package.
What doesn't: Eigrun's sole character quirk is also his big defining trait -- in every other way, he's a pretty thorough stereotype. He's going to need some serious roleplaying to start fleshing out the details into a full-blown character, as I'm not terribly fond of playing a character who is essentially painted by number.
Oselu
The legends of the loa are all within Oselu's head. He can list the virtues and strengths of every spirit; he knows all the old Troll sagas and legends dating back well before the Sundering. Ask him almost anything, and he can provide an answer. What he could never provide, however, was a suitable frame for a loa himself. For all his youthful strength, Oselu was rejected each time he tried to become an acolyte of even the most minor loa, and despite all of his learning he's never understood why.
Even now, as he's taken the role of a Druid, he doesn't understand why it's so taxing to try to adopt his forms. His teachers have tried to explain what it means when he cowers and cringes as a bear, why he walks gracelessly and casually in the shape of a cat, but he just doesn't get it. Now his shape is more maleable than ever, but the core of his being remains weak, flimsy, and unsuited to tasks more daunting than those he has already faced -- and his only answer is to bury his head further in a book, away from the drums of war and the rhythm of the land.
What works: I like trolls, I've looked forward to playing a troll druid for a long time, and I like the idea of having a character who just isn't very good at what he does. Oselu knows everything there is to know about being in the shape of an animal except how it's supposed to feel, and that's his major weakness. Plus, the idea of a cowardly cringing bear is adorable.
What doesn't: With a character defined in large part by a failing, Oselu is going to have some very difficult development ahead. I have to simultaneously keep his core flaw intact and let him develop and strengthen, and the two jostle uncomfortably for space. It's all too easy with an innately flawed character to go too far in either direction and either lose the essence or wind up with a static shell.
I hope today's column was at least edifying in letting you see my various principles in action, and I promise it'll be a while before I let myself get this narcissistic again. Feedback can, of course, be sent to eliot@massively.com or left in the comment field. Next week, let's look at one of my personal favorite archetypes, one that's more closely tied to an eponymous class than any other archetype I care to name.
Every Friday, Eliot Lefebvre fills a column up with excellent advice on investing money, writing award-winning novels, and being elected to public office. Then he removes all of that, and you're left with Storyboard, which focuses on roleplaying in MMOs. It won't help you get elected, but it will help you pretend you did.
