Grim Views

GRIM ROLEPLAY INFORMATION

Grim Roleplay
The Grim considers itself a heavy RP guild. What that means to us is that we try to RP as much as possible as we play WoW. If a Grim is online, that Grim is in character for the time they are logged in. Anything that can be said or done IC, will be said and done IC.

OOC is only to be used for general non-game related chatting and for game mechanics that are just too difficult to describe IC. OOC is also used in cases where time is of the essence; voice chat is OOC and used for giving directions during raids and PVP events.

This information is intended to give everyone an understanding of the general feel of Grim roleplay, to help make people more comfortable RPing within the guild, and to create a baseline of expectations in effort to avoid disagreements.

In The Grim, we strive to promote RP for all players. We give each other the benefit of the doubt when it comes to mistakes or slip-ups. IC, we may bicker and squabble, but OOC, we strive for cooperation and camaraderie with each other.

If you have any questions about anything, ask! Send a whisper to the person you’re RPing with, ask an officer, a veteran Grim, post on the forums, or ask in the in-game OOC channel.


Lore
We try to roleplay within the lore, but we are not all lore experts, nor do we expect our players to be. If a Grim character or storyline seems reasonable within the WoW universe, we’ll roll with it. Even if something is not probable in the WoW world, if it is very well-played, we might still roll with it, although we may treat that character as insane! Characters can talk about history (lore) as much as they want. If they are wrong about something, we roll with it IC--either by playing that our characters are ignorant of the mistake, or correcting them IC. OOC discussions are also acceptable.


General Public Knowledge
The Grim is one of the older organizations within the Horde. As such, it has long ago discovered the value and obtained the resources for a network of spies and informants. All those who seek entry into The Grim will be thoroughly investigated. If insufficient information can be found about an applicant, that applicant will not become Grim.

Any information found on the Armory, on the in game roster, or on guild membership tracking websites is considered by The Grim general public knowledge, and may or may not be used in RP by anyone, as each individual players chooses.

Our characters may communicate with each other beyond the scope of the game. Minions, directly serving or assisting primary characters, may become knowledgeable to certain individuals, actions, or events at the player's choosing. Information spreads through word-of-mouth, and those who have already proven themselves within The Grim are considered far more trustworthy than those outside of the organization.


Achievements
Achievements are often referred to as bragging rights. It is up to each individual player whether they acknowledge guild achievement spam as IC announcements. Many do, as a way to congratulate each other on obtaining achievements.


War Mode/PvP Flag
In the past, Thrall worked with the Alliance to try to attain peace. As a result of those efforts, Horde members can choose to shield themselves from Alliance attacks in certain locations. Grims scoff at such peace attempts, and refuse to hide behind such shields.

In short, Grims are always flagged for PVP or have War Mode toggled when in the presence of other Grims, including meetings, events, and city defense where they might otherwise not be PvP enabled. (Ideally for IC reasons, Grims are flagged for PvP at all times, but this is not something that will be enforced.)


RP Addons
RP addons are not required in The Grim, although many players do use them. If there is something special about a character that does not show on the screen where the other players can see it, it is that player's responsibility to make it clear through RP. Some people have trouble remembering odd character traits, so if a slip-up occurs a gentle reminder in whispers, or better yet an IC correction, should be used to set things straight. The more often such a trait is mentioned in RP, the more likely it is that other players will remember it.

Examples of compatible RP Addons include Total RP 3, MyRolePlay, and XRP.


IC/OOC Separation
IC knowledge and OOC knowledge should be kept separate as much as possible, but slip-ups do happen. When they happen, there are many ways to handle it IC--treat the character like they heard bad information or they’re crazy, or pretend your character didn’t hear it. Whenever possible, use it as an RP opportunity and keep the RP flowing, especially if it’s in guild chat or there are multiple people involved. If it is a major slip-up, or one you can't RP around, you can whisper the other player about it and try to find a resolution.


Character & Player Gender
The character gender does not need to match the player's gender. If we see a female character, we'll refer to the player as female for the sake of convenience until we learn otherwise, but we really don't care if a male is playing a female, or a female is playing a male. It's all good, as long as someone isn't being deliberately deceptive OOC for questionable reasons.


Death
Death is handled many different ways. Some refer to the spirit healer and resurrections. Others say someone was defeated or knocked out. For bosses, they have obviously been killed many many times.

The way we handle death is: everything goes! However a player and their character refer to death, we roll with it.

For more information, see the "Defeat vs Death" post below.


Chat
/guild, /say, /yell are always IC, never OOC - no exceptions, not even for typo corrections.

With the advent of Battle for Azeroth, the Grim Community channel (GrimIC) should be used for IC communication as often as possible. Ensure the channels you need and want to follow are showing in your chat window.

The Grim Community's default GrimIC chat is always IC. By default, a Grim’s hearthstone is tuned into the special guild frequency by advanced goblin technology. However, some Grim characters, particularly those who are talented in engineering, may use other devices to communicate.

Also by default, GrimIC chat is audio only, not visual. Again, some Grims may have specialized communication devices that can transmit or receive visual images.

Some Grim characters play that their communication tool is attuned to all Grims. It might show all the Grims who have their device turned on (all characters logged in at the time), or who is speaking, or when someone turns their device on and off (logs in/out). Many also play that the device shows them where someone is, as the roster shows the zone a player is in.

In other words, GrimIC chat is a tool we all use for our characters to communicate, but the specific details of how a character accesses it are up to the player.

The Grim Community also has an OOC channel (GrimIC - OOC). Following this channel is optional and not everyone will do so. Anything that can be said IC should be said in the main GrimIC channel, including looking for a group, asking if anyone can do a particular tradeskill, etc. Be considerate of other members in the OOC channel. The topics of politics and religion are off limits.

/party, /raid, /instance are always IC if it is a Grim group. If it is a pick-up group, use your judgment.


Vocabulary
The Grim has its own terminology for things that don't always sound in-character.

attune - invite (to a party or raid)
fist - party
vanguard - tank
guild hall - forums
the mad - non-roleplayers
blue badges - honor kills
bragging rights - achievements
as heroes - heroic raid/dungeon/scenario
tasks - quests
missions - quests
menders - healers ("healers" is also acceptable)
killers - dps
seasons (of training) - level
circles (of training) - level
fully trained - max level

For more insight on how The Grim roleplays, see this post from a former Grim GM:
How I Role (Ninja RP) by Malebrignon

WHY DO WE FIGHT?

Why do we fight?

Peace through Annihilation. Peace can and does have many different meanings to many different people, but our method of obtaining whatever you may consider to be peace is singular, and it is Grim. Our peace will be a peace of finality and of methodically obtained and proven superiority. It will not be quick. It will not be easy. But it will be ours.

The Grim are a fanatical extension of some of the Horde’s more violent ideals. Despite our extremity of thought, we do not exist exclusive of the Horde. Some of you may have that idea, and insist on the Grim’s superiority over the world at large. Others among you may believe that to the contrary, the Horde is all important, and that doing what is necessary involves keeping the Horde’s leadership looking in the correct direction, the Grim’s direction. Whether or not we are truly superior to those who are not Grim, what keeps our varied membership working together for a single goal is the Horde itself and our places within it. This does not refer to our places within the great unwashed masses of worthless commoners and mindless adventurers, but it does mean our places within the glory that is derived from accomplishing the goals of the Horde and the Grim, from annihilating all that stand in our way, including if not especially the Alliance.

The Horde is a word of the Orcs as the Alliance is a word of the humans, a Horde of clans that raged against an Alliance of nations. These links are unavoidable. The Grim who lived through or recall the history of the Eastern Kingdoms may remember the old Horde and the devastation it wrought on Azeroth through the use of the Dark Portal. Those who are now Forsaken and Blood Elf may have been touched by the actions of those Orcs directly in their old lives. As the Forsaken have broken free of the hold of the Scourge, so the Orcs have broken free of the hold of the Legion. We are a faction united by our capacity to find freedom when others would hold us prisoner and use us to their advantage rather than our own. The Trolls and Tauren are not excluded from this fight, this need to break free from the shackles and take up arms against those who would push us down. Although their reasons may be less direct, they are undeniably Horde. We will not allow anyone to bind us in chains again. We will obliterate them before they get the chance. For this, we fight.

~ Qabian Amberllight
Former Keeper of The Grim

DEFEAT VS DEATH

This is probably the most difficult part of roleplaying in a fixed world. Nothing we kill stays dead. Nothing we kill will stay dead. We may be merciless killers of all who stand before us, but due to the nature of the game itself, nothing that dies at our hands will die with any permanence, with extremely rare exceptions. The counterpart to our inability to kill anything is that nothing truly has the ability to kill us. We are Grim, and we endure. So how do we deal with this permanent environmental stasis in character? It definitely takes some creativity on the part of the player.

The easiest way to deal with repeatedly running up against the same enemies, whether Alliance or otherwise, is to consider a win or slaying as a defeat rather than a permanent death. One can walk away with pride in defeating the enemy, causing them setbacks and stripping them of their power, taking what they may have had for one’s own use, even when the knowledge that they have the capacity to recuperate remains. Even Nefarian’s death is attributed to Sinestra’s insistence that he has “fallen”, rather than any sort of implication of permanent nonexistence.

Viewing battles won as defeats for the enemy rather than permanent in-game deaths has several advantages in terms of roleplay. It allows a reasonable explanation for why a group might continually approach the same fights. While the enemy has already been “conquered” per se, the fact that they refuse to give up quite so easily means that they continue to present opportunities for training and acquisition of materials and weapons that will serve the Grim in their later encounters against ever more powerful enemies and the Alliance.

Defeats also allow for in character acknowledgment of the activities of other organizations and guilds outside of the Grim, without the need to say, “Oh well, it’s done. Why bother now?” Why bother? Because while some group of nobodies might have beaten the biggest, scariest thing out there to a bloody pulp, the Grim have yet to impose their superiority and control over those groups themselves. We continue to fight the fight, to improve ourselves in order to further our cause and the Mandate, and to lock down potential enemies and abuse them for everything we can get.

“But we chopped off Onyxia’s/Nefarian’s/Magtheridon’s head and hung it up in Orgrimmar/Thrallmar! How can you say she/he/it’s not really dead?” Again, this requires some creativity, but in a world of magic, it’s not so outrageously difficult a thing to consider. Onyxia was apparently killed by Varian with the introduction of Wrath, but she’s still holed up in her cave in Dustwallow? Alexstrasza definitely sees to arrangements for Malygos, but his agents still continue to act outside the Eye of Eternity, and next week he’s waiting for another group to take their best shot? The Dragonqueen does say a few conveniently interpretable things: “This day, one of the world’s mightiest has fallen,” and “Life… goes on.” Magic, illusions, minions, schemes, power struggles, healing, interference with timelines, any number of explanations can be employed for why such resurrections or continued existences might be the case. Ultimately, does it matter exactly why they are still around to be fought? Or does it matter that we as Grim can still find use for them? Perhaps even the wisest scholars have yet to answer the questions of why some things are the way they are. Alternately, you can go into an encounter completely OOC, but where’s the fun in that?

Actually acknowledging the stasis of the world is definitely accompanied by a sense of futility. Why bother doing anything if nothing ever changes? At that point, what to do with your character’s will to continue fighting is entirely up to the player, but Azeroth has been locked in wars for millennia. Some of the enemies have been reduced to mere trifles, some occasionally return with a vengeance, and new forces grow in strength that need to be fought, so while our actions seem to have little impact on the canon game world, there are always new challenges coming in patches and expansions for your character to pick up and run with in terms of roleplaying and reasons to continue to follow the Mandate.

Occasionally, things can change, but it’s rare in the fixed game world. Bolvar’s death and Wrynn’s return are serious world changing incidents in ways that killing Nefarion or Malygos are not. That cutscene, that battle, can only happen once. We can control our actions within the Grim, and changes can occur within any original roleplay within the guild or with other players, but ultimately, whether or not the external canon world changes is up to Blizzard. The Grim are more than capable of creatively rolling with the punches Blizzard may throw our way, but with the introduction of phasing, the idea that a character who has not yet experienced an incident still has more to learn about the reality of things is being stretched to a difficult limit. You can see Varimathras, but I can’t?

The main idea in continuing to create and play out stories within this type of world where many of the structures are laid out for us in ways that are often less than encouraging is to stay flexible, while always keeping the canon in mind and taking the spirit of the lore to heart. Blizzard is continually throwing wrenches by allowing things like our continued ability to attack Onyxia and display her head in Orgrimmar to exist in a canon where she was killed with apparent finality by Varian Wrynn in the comic, or the ability to interact with Sinestra regarding the Netherwing dragons in a canon where she was killed with apparent finality in a novel. The explanations of “defeat without death” are still viable for those situations, but it all does start to seem ridiculous when what exists in the game is never solidly explained. Just keep in mind flexibility and creativity at all times.

– Words From Qabian Amberlight
Former Keeper of The Grim

DEALING WITH NON-ROLEPLAYERS

The Mad

Whether or not to acknowledge non-roleplayers seems to be dealt with on a case by case basis. Keep in mind that some people who may seem to be griefing your roleplay might simply not understand what it is you’re doing and why you’re doing it. People end up on servers for any number of reasons. Every player has a potential to become a roleplayer with the right incentive and encouragement.

However, not every player wants to be a roleplayer. While you may disagree with this and point them to the server’s ruleset, you don’t need to let them ruin your roleplay experience. Blatant OOC speak is often referred to as the gibbering madness, and your character treating such players as incomprehensibly insane is one commonly used RP tactic.

While all Grim characters are expected to be IC in public at all times, including no use of bracketed OOC speak in /say or /yell public channels, pick-up groups or PUGs are generally left to the player’s discretion. Roleplaying within random pick-up groups can lead to very interesting situations. Alternately, one can phrase one’s speech ambiguously to be comprehensible both IC and OOC. Some things which may be considered OOC at first glance, such as many acronyms, are upon further consideration logical extensions of IC language. Even the word “tank”, while generally not preferred by the Grim over vanguard, has always had a place in terms of technology, with actual “tanks” existing in even some of the lowest level areas. Whether or not to roleplay with “the mad” and in what manner is ultimately up to the player, but try to keep in mind the guild you represent and our standards as Grim.

This ideal continues for public organizational channels such as Local Defense and /bg. The ability to ambiguously phrase directions, suggestions, or alerts in a way that can be considered IC and yet is comprehensible to the general cross-server populace is a valuable skill.

– Words from Qabian Amberlight
Former Keeper of The Grim