Unexpected Roleplaying

So there I was. I had rolled a new gnome rogue, as I didn't have a rogue yet on Shandris. (Which brings me to sixteen... but I digress.) I had leveled her up to 7 and was running around Dun Morogh, tackling one of the early quests near Frostmane Hold. I glanced around and saw another character duck behind a ridge in the area. I was curious -- there were few players around at the time -- so I kept watching. I didn't see much, until something peeked out from behind the ridge. It was a Felhunter... and the level was ??. Ack! Horde in Dun Morogh!

I wasn't concerned; Shandris isn't PvP and of course I wasn't flagged either. But I thought someone might be interested so I tossed a quick message out on the Local Defense channel: "Horde warlock near Frostmane Hold". (Which was, I think, my first message on one of the main channels.) As I mentioned, there weren't many players online, so I wasn't expecting much response. And I just had one response, from someone named "Slayerr" or "DangerX" something similar. (I'll call him "Slayerr".)

"wat lvl r they" he asked
"I dunno, he has a felhunter, 40+?" I (incorrectly) answered.
"hold on i will coem help u" came the response.

Well, I didn't need any help. Might be fun to try PvP at some point... but this wasn't going to be it. But he sent a party invite, and I figured, what the heck, maybe he just needs help finding the guy, so I accepted.

During all this, I'd lost track of the Hordie. But then I started seeing more messages come across the Local Defense channel:

"Coldridge Pass is under attack!"
"Dun Morogh is under attack!"
"do not feer, i am coming" said Slayerr.

Of course you are, I thought. He was coming down from Ironforge, and had a ways to go. So I checked Slayerr's stats: Draenei Paladin... level 10. Level 10? I'm not sure what he's up to but it should be amusing. Let's see what happens.

We chatted a bit as he was coming up, and I found two things interesting. For one, he didn't seem to be a native English speaker. Lots of typos, but in ways that weren't normal for standard casual or haXX0r chat. And, he was roleplaying.

It took me a while to recognize. I'm intrigued by roleplaying in WoW but haven't tried it yet, since I'm still trying to understand what I'm doing in the game. Of course Shandris isn't an RP realm. And a name like "Slayerr" (or whatever it was) doesn't sound like a RP name. But sure enough, Slayerr was roleplaying, which probably explained why this headstrong Paladin was gunning for a Horde more than 20 levels above him.

I didn't think much of it, though. Slayerr finally showed up and wanted to go looking for the Warlock. (Based on my brief glimpse, it was probably Undead but I couldn't be sure.) We looped over towards Coldridge Pass and headed up the road towards Kharanos.

And that's where we saw the Dwarven mortar team.

They'd been massacred by the Hordie. He'd left their bodies strewn around the tents; obviously he'd taken the time to battle them all and easily slain them. It is a bit shocking to see, especially since the "Ammo for Rumbleshot" quest shows you some good, amusing roleplaying from these NPCs. And Slayerr took this to heart.

"oh NO!"
"hou coud this happen!"
Slayerr kneels.

I threw in a /cry, since it seemed appropriate. But Slayerr knelt for a long time -- maybe a minute. "Wow," I thought, "he's really into this." I was curious to see how he played it out, so I knelt too and waited. After a bit more, he rose and spoke again.

"they tryed there hardest but he was too strong"
"they did not dye in veen"
"i will avenge them!"

I was impressed with the roleplaying. It's nothing magical -- all tied to game events, and nothing really out of the blue. But still, it was cool to see. The spelling was a bit offputting (wish I had saved it exactly) but the effect was pretty cool. It intrigued me to see more roleplaying, and I might have to roll a character on an RP realm before too long.

But at the time, I had had enough. "Sorry, I have to go. Good luck on your quest," I said. "I undertaand... be brave" he replied. I ungrouped and ran away.

But, I was playing a rogue. So I suppose, in a small way, I was roleplaying too.