How should mounts be treated in RP?

[Techno-Druid]

One thing I noticed is that a lot of roleplayers don't take mounts into account very often.

If you look at how we've treated horses and other beasts of burden and mounts (war elephants, camels, etc), they've generally been treated with a certain amount of respect or honor.

I would imagine that in Westfall, Redridge of Elywnn, a horse would be a valuable and high esteemed commodity, much less a gryphon.

What do you think?

I tend to give my mounts names ICly, I also try not to use my gryphon as much. I tend to roleplay leaving and picking up my gryphon at the flight masters at various times (it's frustrating, but ultimately it feels more realistic).

[Deleted]

I name my mounts too. Lore-wise, it isn't very common to have exotic mounts, and for the most part, flying is an extreme luxury. I cringe hard when I see someone who roleplays as an owner of a proto drake, because realistically, that thing will murder you.

[Caerule]

People don't even remember they came on mounts, most of the time. My character is always the one taking the mounts back to the nearest Horde base, once my guild ends up taking a portal back to base, forgetting the mounts they came on.

As for the mounts themselves, it really depends on the character. I've named my Orc Champion's Rylak. She's the head of a large group, so wanted something big and memorable. A living trophy from Draenor. Her wolves she cares little for, however. They are just riding beasts. But I still take care to have a different one on Draenor, or Azeroth. She's no Frostwolf orc that cares for her mount as a companion. That may change if I get her a great bear mount in Legion. She'll value it more, because it'll stand out more.

My elf and Goblin have always been pretty "boring" with mounts. My elf has a 2-person rocket she built herself. My Goblin rode a large warhead everywhere, though a /roll of 1 made that end fatally, 2 weeks ago. .

I have more characters, that are more likely to have named their Horse/Hippogryph and Raptor/Bat. But I've not played them enough yet to think up names for them.

[Florena]

Mostly RP wise I use a small handful of mounts, rather than RPing having the hundred or so I do. Some of my guild mates do incorporate it into their RP, which works well for their characters. My main tends to use the chopper and gyrocoptor mounts for the most part. The only mount I really did any kind of special RP with was my twilight drake I got in Wrath, because I felt like I needed some sort of justification for having a mount like that. XD Then I ended up 'killing' it off in Cataclysm.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

I have always picked particular mounts for each toon to fit their role play, but I haven't been naming them. I should! Thanks for the idea.

I use macros to summon my mounts so it will be easy enough to re-title the macros with the mounts' names and see them every time I mount up.

[Deleted]

I have always picked particular mounts for each toon to fit their role play, but I haven't been naming them. I should! Thanks for the idea.

I use macros to summon my mounts so it will be easy enough to re-title the macros with the mounts' names and see them every time I mount up.

Almost the same --

My female Draenei's mage mount is a fey dragon named Farah.
My female human paladin's mount is a Quel'dorei steed (or a charger when armored) named Gale.
my female blood elf mount is a Thalassian steed (charger) named Blaze.

Both Gale & Blaze are pun names to emphasize on the contrasts between both the paladins I have, both in character, ideals and themes.

[FelPlague]

I think to a degree this matters. I like to have my mount make sense for the character. Like my death Knight a frostwyrm. Warrior a ironbound protodrake (dwarf) warlock affliction the felhunter. Destroy/demo infernal (if I can get it)characters should ride their race/class mounts if possible. Humans on horses. And people should always walk around on ground mounts. And only rp with flying mounts when needed or rarely.. just flying around all over makes it feel less special

(Interested in rp but have never really spent time doing it. Also haven't named my mounts)

Like a dwarf warrior of iron. Riding a beast of iron. Both creatures built of the land. My death Knight.able to control the unread. Controlling a frost wyrm makes sense. And warlock dreadsteed... pretty easy. Paladin of the alliance. (Will post a screenshot of my Paladin later) using a royal gryphon!

[Deleted]

Some of my guild mates do incorporate it into their RP, which works well for their characters.

As long as they aren't being weird about it, like "we have lotsa dragonz!!1!" then it's fine. It's simply retarded for a, say, human character to raise dragons IC.

For example: My human paladin has about 30 horses off screen (we even RP with my friends that I lend horse to the companions that don't have any IC). That, right there, is an example of a good incorporation as opposed to the cringe inducing concept I sometimes come across.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

As long as they aren't being weird about it, like "we have lotsa dragonz!!1!" then it's fine. It's simply retarded for a, say, human character to raise dragons IC.

For example: My human paladin has about 30 horses off screen (we even RP with my friends that I lend horse to the companions that don't have any IC). That, right there, is an example of a good incorporation as opposed to the cringe inducing concept I sometimes come across.

My Death Knight is the former cavalry officer who rides everything; he has personal favorites, but is as likely to be found riding whatever is native to the zone he's in. All my other toons have dedicated mounts they take everywhere.

[Florena]

As long as they aren't being weird about it, like "we have lotsa dragonz!!1!" then it's fine. It's simply retarded for a, say, human character to raise dragons IC.

For example: My human paladin has about 30 horses off screen (we even RP with my friends that I lend horse to the companions that don't have any IC). That, right there, is an example of a good incorporation as opposed to the cringe inducing concept I sometimes come across.

I think they mostly focus on the wolves etc, for dragon mounts I don't think they ever rped 'raising' them it would be more a thing of earning their respect/trust enough to be used as mounts. I shouldn't really speak for them though.

[Deleted]

I think they mostly focus on the wolves etc, for dragon mounts I don't think they ever rped 'raising' them it would be more a thing of earning their respect/trust enough to be used as mounts.

Oh I wasn't talking about your friends, sorry if it sounded like that!

And yeah, this sounds cool in my book.

[Benomatic]

even though I am on a PVE server, my mounts always reflect my race class combos

[Florena]

even though I am on a PVE server, my mounts always reflect my race class combos

I tend to do that as well, for the most part. My draenei mage rides an elekk for example. My main, who is human, is an engineer though and instead uses mechanical mounts she built herself. As a monk I had a human ride the crane mounts because while she wasn't FROM Pandaria she embraced its culture. Sometimes for the lulz I'll break out the core hound mount or something but I tend to have a few mounts per character, and usually break out the others when bored and just messing around rather than RPing.

[Warcrafting]

Personally, I've had two real role-play mounts, my Night Elf Hunter's Hippogryph and my Orc Shaman's Red Drake (Stay with me for a mo').The Hippogryph Lsadriel bonded with when she was a member of the Sentinels. Gramansh, my old shaman, was born into the Dragonmaw Clan a few years before before the First War. He came of age soon after the Dragonmaw began breeding Red Dragons, and was givn the honor of riding one. He refused, howeer, to abuse his particular dragon, Lilistrasza, and bonded with her. When Gramansh saw that the Second War was a lost cause, he fled with Lili into the ruins of Alterac, returning when he heard about Thrall reforming the Horde.

[Lochton]

One thing I noticed is that a lot of roleplayers don't take mounts into account very often.

If you look at how we've treated horses and other beasts of burden and mounts (war elephants, camels, etc), they've generally been treated with a certain amount of respect or honor.

I would imagine that in Westfall, Redridge of Elywnn, a horse would be a valuable and high esteemed commodity, much less a gryphon.

What do you think?

I tend to give my mounts names ICly, I also try not to use my gryphon as much. I tend to roleplay leaving and picking up my gryphon at the flight masters at various times (it's frustrating, but ultimately it feels more realistic).

All my mounts are used in RP too, if I was near them during the RP, or arrived with them. I give them names if they fit for such, or like one other, 'the goat' which is my pandaren who in his story just haven't gotten to the naming part.

[TyrannicalPuppy]

I name my mounts too. Lore-wise, it isn't very common to have exotic mounts, and for the most part, flying is an extreme luxury. I cringe hard when I see someone who roleplays as an owner of a proto drake, because realistically, that thing will murder you.

Depends on the flight. The Argent Crusade employed the aid quite a few bronze proto-drakes and didn't have that issue.

That being said, lore-wise there really isn't any basis to go on for how rare any given mount is, save for a few. Some are, obviously, completely ridiculous (e.g. the robot horse from the shop), some, like the intelligent dragons (save for nether drakes) wouldn't normally choose to become someone's permanent mount or companion, while the Cloud Serpents, for example, have an entire order dedicated to raising and learning to ride them; and I'm certain that even IC the order would be / have been happy to take in outsiders.

[Deleted]

Depends on the flight. The Argent Crusade employed the aid quite a few bronze proto-drakes and didn't have that issue.

That being said, lore-wise there really isn't any basis to go on for how rare any given mount is, save for a few. Some are, obviously, completely ridiculous (e.g. the robot horse from the shop), some, like the intelligent dragons (save for nether drakes) wouldn't normally choose to become someone's permanent mount or companion, while the Cloud Serpents, for example, have an entire order dedicated to raising and learning to ride them; and I'm certain that even IC the order would be / have been happy to take in outsiders.

I am not against using the proper mount in the proper context. You saw Argent Crusaders using proto-drakes in Icecrown, but you don't see any of them casually walking with them in Stormwind, yes? I mean, when the Northrend Campaign concluded, I highly doubht that those "tamed" protos were brought home.

That said, I have a friend who RPs befriending a netherwing; she calls him "Suraku" that her character befriended in Netherstorm after her healing the injured dragon. We role play frequently and she rarely brings him up or even use him (I think I have seen him once on screen), and I believe that this is one of the instances that work quite well.

[Deleted]

I literally have a notepad saved on my computer listing all my current mounts, whether they are male/female and what I've called them. More for personal reasons than actual RP (haven't done any all expansion really) but I like doing that, also when I rode in on a mount, I absolutely made sure I did along the lines of /e ties (mount) to nearby post/tree etc then pick it up again before I left.

When I do rp though, my main is known for being a big mount/pet lover. During the Argent Tournament days, she was the stable master helping to make sure all the animals were cared for before and after a joust =p

As for flying mounts, I guess they should be considered a luxury, but as Caerule said, I think it's ok to have a flying mount in RP if you are a leader of sorts or if it just fits better into your story, otherwise I would avoid riding that sentient bronze dragon everywhere you go :P then again, if you are in an area that requires flying to get around, like Icecrown was (we did a lot of stuff there in the day) then having a flying mount just makes sense as you couldn't travel on the ground without being swarmed.

Looking at these responses though, I would say people that care about what a mount is (or are just consistent in their RP) :P

[Leenaleena]

My blood elf priestess' mount used to be a Proto-Drake, named Cobalth (or just Coba) for its few iridescent scales of that color on its wings. Her chosen home is high up on the Mountains of Thunder where she took up drake-breeding. (Her family got their wealth from breeding hawkstriders and dragonhawkes several centuries ago so she had a background in mount breeding from that.) A great deal of that headcannon came from wielding Dragonwrath, so I'm not sure how much of that translates to actual RP environments.
The drake did however get hurt by fel-fire during one of the demon invasions, which is why she's not using it on the Broken Isles In the meantime, she rides on a white/pale Hawkstrider.

As far as my headcannon is concerned, flying mounts are banned in Orgrimmar (they intercept the flight patrols too often) and only very few adventurers/travelers are allowed to use them. But common courtesy means that they are only used for long-distance travels and are sent off to the stables as soon as people arrive. I suppose that works for any capital.

Her cousin, a former Blood Knight, joined the Order of the Serpent Riders. She is on leave to help the war efforts on the Broken Isles. Naturally, the strain on mount and rider is great. Due to the priestess' current posting as diplomat in Shal'Aran she got her hands on a mana-saber which she gave to her cousin instead.

Every other character uses flight master/stable mounts. They either don't own mounts or don't have anything special; they use faction/race mounts instead. If I ever do dabble in RP, I'd make sure to only use mounts from stable to stable (and when having them in the field, remember to feed them! I had a gamemaster kill a fellow's mule on a pen&paper night, simply because he refused to take the hints to feed the creature.)

[Benomatic]

Same here!
Though I have troubles finding a decent flying mount for my orc shaman besides the Wyvern

Sandstone drake?