My campaign ended just before GenCon, and now my friend Joel is starting a new campaign. We counted on some reshuffling of players (including me, as I nearly dropped the Thursday group to join a Friday group..)

So Joel recruited with ads.

He got two friends who had only played WoW. This seems significant to me. We've all been shooting emails back and forth in anticipation of the second session (the first session for these new guys- only John, I, and one other returning player from one of the earliest 3.0 campaigns I ran were at the session last week).

Here's an email from one of the new guys:

Quote>We'll definitely be there.  been looking for something like this ever since I
>managed to quit playing WoW a couple months ago.  I'm looking forward to it.

He opted for an orc fighter. Not half-orc-- he was specific about playing an orc.

Well, AM, one of the things that was always truly standout about the entire Warcraft lineup was Orcs were never just mindless goons to beat up for XP.  If you were like me back in the day, it was refreshing to see an actual culture and reason for the enemity, not to mention the sheer bashing fun of playing as the Horde (oddly, WoW is the only warcraft game that I've never really wanted to play Horde in. Always hated the Alliance parts of the previous Warcraft stories, but when it came to 'RPGing'.... )

Of course, now you'll have to deal with a character with a +4 strength....

Quote from: SpikeWell, AM, one of the things that was always truly standout about the entire Warcraft lineup was Orcs were never just mindless goons to beat up for XP.  If you were like me back in the day, it was refreshing to see an actual culture and reason for the enemity, not to mention the sheer bashing fun of playing as the Horde (oddly, WoW is the only warcraft game that I've never really wanted to play Horde in. Always hated the Alliance parts of the previous Warcraft stories, but when it came to 'RPGing'.... )

Of course, now you'll have to deal with a character with a +4 strength....

I'm all for it! Well, my character is a half-orc sorcerer with Fist of Stone (that's a +6 strength bonus, which only lasts a minute. But still). So I may actually outstrongbad him, when I boost myself up to 22.

Warcraft orcs rock.  One of the cool things about the Alliance/Horde split is that it's not nearly black and white.  There's really a lot of grey floating about.  The Orcs and Tauren are really pretty much "good" races in D&D terms, the Trolls are kinda neutral-ish.  The Undead have some fucked up ideas though, and the Blood Elves have that whole "we have a god enslaved in our basement and torture him to get his divine powers".

anyway, my WoW core group was actually my D&D group first.  They were the ones that got me into WoW.  Of course, then one of the group stopped taking his medication, which made his whole anal-retentive argumentative streak a hundred times worse and eventually made play impossible as it jsut sort of screwed up the whole network dynamic, and we wound up just playing WoW because there was less for him to argue over.

Perhaps you might want to adopt the WoW RPG version of the Orc race so its less of a shock to them.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadPerhaps you might want to adopt the WoW RPG version of the Orc race so its less of a shock to them.

For once, I'm not the DM!

Quote from: J ArcaneWarcraft orcs rock.  One of the cool things about the Alliance/Horde split is that it's not nearly black and white.  There's really a lot of grey floating about.  The Orcs and Tauren are really pretty much "good" races in D&D terms, the Trolls are kinda neutral-ish.  The Undead have some fucked up ideas though, and the Blood Elves have that whole "we have a god enslaved in our basement and torture him to get his divine powers".

IMO the biggest draw in the WoW setting is how the Horde races have decent twists from their vanilla fantasy stereotypes. It provides good balance from the very typical Alliance races (with the possible exception of the slightly gonzo Draenei). It helps give folks race choices from the more to the less conventional.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadPerhaps you might want to adopt the WoW RPG version of the Orc race so its less of a shock to them.

I did that for a game once actually.  Used the Warcraft Orc stats from the WOWRPG with the minor modification of removing the bonus against humans, for a Warlock in a game.  I really had wanted to paly a half-orc or orc Warlock, but frankly, as PC options, Orcs really suck, and half-orcs are just a waste of paper.

Shut up!!!!

I love my half orc sorcerer!!!!

:haw:

Ok, SRSLY, I do. Touch spell melee sorcerer for the win!

Quote(with the possible exception of the slightly gonzo Draenei)

Crystal space ships flown by blue demons is totally frickin' metal.  

Quote from: JamesVIMO the biggest draw in the WoW setting is how the Horde races have decent twists from their vanilla fantasy stereotypes. It provides good balance from the very typical Alliance races (with the possible exception of the slightly gonzo Draenei). It helps give folks race choices from the more to the less conventional.

There's an orc variant in a D&D 3.5 supplement that presents them in the same "green-colored Native American" light as Warcraft, but I can't remember the name of the race or the book it appeared in.

Just a quick fuck yeah! on the whole idea that WoW would help introduce some people into the table-top side of the RPG hobby.  Makes me glad.

Of course, kick-ass orc characters (whether pure or half-breed ... I kid!) make me glad too.

Sounds great, AM!  I love WoW but if given the choice between tabletop gaming and WoW, tabletop wins every time.

Keep us updated, willya?  I'd be interested to see how these guys adapt to tabletop RPGs; kind of reminds me of a player I had in my group back in highschool - he'd played Wizardry and similar games (that dates me, yes, I know) and he had a bit of trouble grokking the, hm, "openness" possible in a TTRPG.  Though, frankly, back in those days we ran a lot of modules kinda like video games anyway. :haw:

Very good thread, AM. Pretty interesting. I agree with most of what's been said, and look forward to see how they will adapt to tabletop.

I find that really nifty; what's your stat spread look like?