Yeah, you heard me. This october, Instance and Frogpants hosts such as Scott Johnson, Mark Turpin, Dills McDilly Dills, Tom Merritt, Veronica Belmont (once we ask her), Brian Ibbott, and many more will host a online streaming event to end all streaming events! “BLIZZGONE 2012“!

Ahem…

What this means is literally our attempt to make up for the loss of this year’s Blizzcon, with our own big opening cerimonies, our own big announcements, streamed raids, Starcraft 2 matches, live interviews, and MORE!

What will this cost you? NOTHING, that’s how much. We will be doing a charity drive throughout, so willing individuals can help give to a great cause, but the proceedings will be totally free, and totally not endorsed by Blizzard! (Unless they want to.)

We have some time, but we wanted to get the bug in your ear. (A big bug…like a Zerg Overlord sized bug even.) Details to come! Join us in October for BLIZZGONE, 2012!

Great news for Instance fans, who also want their ToR fix. A brand new show is launching this week on the network, in the form of The Instance: Old Republic Edition, with episode one being available this thursday night! (Think of it as a sister show to what you are already used to with The Instance Prime.)

Hosted by myself, Dills, and a rotating 3rd guest chair! Which, schedules permitting, will often be Turpster even. Very excited about a new show, dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic, which hits shelves on 12-20-2011.

Also, a dedicated Twitter Account up as well: @torshow You can email your questions, comments and suggestions to instancetor@gmail.com.

What does this mean for The Instance Prime? Not a thing. No changes at all…if all you care about is WoW, The Instance will continue doing what it does, and doing it well.

Here’s the site link for the new show!

Created by listener, Hornburger (lvl 1 Tauren Paladin – Earthen Ring)

Good news! We’ve been promising these for a while. Two iPhone 4 cases are up on the store, featuring Obey Henry, and Steve The Duck! (Android coming soon.) Check em out!

Our long national nighmare is over! Tickets are now available for Nerdtacular 2011! Get in early, as quantities are limited! Get all the details on that link, and let the fun begin!

We are VERY excited to see all of you this year. June is coming fast!

Thankfully, we don’t have to go very far to find a respectable chart of life spans for WoW. When WoW fails to provide a wealth of info regarding a specific topic, as in this case, then it’s time to turn to the WoW RPG.

The WoWWiki Life spans page is a prime resource for this. Here is a chart that breaks down ages into Adulthood, Middle age, Old, and Venerable. Very handy, that. If you do bring use of this chart into your RP, be sure to also read and apply the footnotes on it, especially in the unique cases of Forsaken and Draenei.

Advancing a step or two beyond the age stat, you may also want to include height and weight in your character’s description. The WoWWiki Roleplaying stats page will provide you that info, again based off the WoW RPG.

As mentioned above, Forsaken and Draenei are unique cases when it comes to age. Once a character becomes Forsaken, they stop aging, so it’s up to the player to decide what race and age they were prior to becoming Forsaken. Draenei ages are a bit more difficult to lock down, and it may be that it doesn’t really matter to them. Check out these two articles – WoWWiki Draenei, and All the World’s a Stage: So you want to be a draenei - for a deeper understanding of their concept of age, and decide if it’s something you want to include in your roleplay.

It should also be noted here that your character’s age does not have to correlate with their creation. For example, I never count a new character to be age 1. New characters are generally presumed to be brand new to the adventuring life, not to life itself, so feel free to set their age at that moment to whatever you desire to work into your RP story.

Do you roleplay with the age factor? Please share your ideas in the Comments section here below, send a tweet to the RoleCraft Twitter feed, or post on the official RoleCraft Facebook group page. Also, feel free to ask your WoW roleplay questions at the new RoleCraft Formspring page! Until next week, role on!

That’s the case with this week’s edition of RoleCraft. Once again, thanks to Dungeons & Dragons (and my players!) for helping me to see this question in a new light, at least for me. This has lead me to how roleplayers may start their RP characters in a very simple way: by roleplaying their roles.

In the 4th edition D&D rules, character classes fit into one of four roles: controller, defender, leader, and striker. These roles are defined by their combat functions: control and area offense (controller), defense (defender), healing and support (leader), and focused offense (striker).

With these simple roles in mind, let’s look at how they may mesh when WoW’s classes are added.

Leader
Paladin
Priest
Shaman
Druid

Controller
Death Knight
Mage
Warlock

Defender
Warrior
Paladin
Death Knight
Druid

Striker
Rogue
Hunter
Warlock

Now, bear in mind that I’m taking these classes at face value. I know they can be rather multifunctional, based on equipment, talent tree, and other factors. Since this is aimed at a starter roleplayer, I’m staying with the basics.

Once you decide on which character to play, knowing their role in combat may help you with configuring a proper personality for them. Leaders tend to be rather charismatic, outgoing, even inspirational, all very fitting traits for classes that are capable of encouraging a group of friends from within the middle of a fight. Controllers do better fighting from a slight distance, where they can see the big picture, and focus their talents where it’s needed most at any certain time. Defenders are the front line fighters, unafraid of jumping into the fray against the strongest enemy, or to protect the weakest of the group. Strikers are the quick-kill type, capable of inflicting a lot of damage in a very short time, and usually from an enemy’s blind side.

Taking these roles into consideration, think about how you see your character’s role in combat affecting their personality outside of combat. Going with the flow, leaders could still be the take charge type, controllers the big thinkers and planners, defenders the bravest and hardiest of the group, and strikers the silent, brooding type. Of course, you could just as easily turn the roles on their heads, and roleplay the exact opposite personality, like a leader class who is shy and reserved, or a defender who doesn’t like violence.

As I said, this is only meant to be another way of looking at how a new roleplayer may begin their RP gaming livelihood. I hope it also shows an example of how roleplaying in other games may be a great help in roleplaying your favorite games. As always, please share your ideas in the Comments section here below, send a tweet to the RoleCraft Twitter feed, or join and post on the official RoleCraft Facebook group page. Also, feel free to ask your WoW roleplay questions at the new RoleCraft Formspring page! Until next week, role on!