What changes
In Classic the first question was: which realm? A name off a long list, and with it the decision about who you would ever see. Get it wrong and you paid for the transfer later.
Forever asks a different question. You are not choosing a home but a way to play. Each ruleset is a broad ecosystem rather than a single server - the population of a ruleset is the population of many realms.
The five rulesets
| Ruleset | For what |
|---|---|
| Normal | WoW as you know it: exploring, questing, cooperation. PvP when you want it. |
| PvP | Every trip into contested territory carries danger. Open-world conflict as the default. |
| Roleplaying | For anyone who wants to lean deeper into the fantasy of Azeroth and find like-minded players. |
| Roleplay-PvP | Roleplaying with open-world conflict. Announced on 22 October. |
| Hardcore | The hardest variant: every decision counts, and death sticks. |
Hardcore was not there at launch on 4 November - it is still to come.
Roleplay-PvP is coming after all
On 22 October Aggrend announced on the forums that there would be a Roleplay-PvP ruleset at launch on 4 November. A week earlier Blizzard had voiced concerns on its podcast (see below); over "the last few days" it examined what it would take "and decided to go for it". Blizzard also wants the ruleset to be selectable during name reservation from 27 October - "we're working hard to make it so", so that was not yet a firm promise. The ruleset article gained a sentence to that effect the same day.
According to player reports, Roleplay-PvP was indeed selectable during name reservation from 27 October. On 29 October Blizzard revised the ruleset article: Roleplay-PvP now has its own description ("strict naming conventions and behavior rules", and "almost always at risk of being attacked by opposing characters"), and the faction-balance paragraph now speaks of "the PvP rulesets", plural. In podcast episode 6 the same day Blizzard said balance runs "in each individual rule set" and aims for 50/50. Playing Horde on PvP therefore does not stop Horde creation from being paused on Roleplay-PvP.
Still open is whether, as on the PvP ruleset, only one faction per account is allowed there: the rule in the article still names only "the PvP ruleset".
You do not switch
This is where the choice gets serious: you cannot hop back and forth between rulesets. To play differently you create a new character there. An existing one does not move.
There is one exception, and it runs one way only: when a Hardcore character dies, it may transfer to another ruleset - including PvP. Blizzard's ruleset video of 5 November adds the limit: a fallen character "can be sent to any of the three non-hardcore rule sets", but not into PvP if you already have characters of the other faction there.
PvP: one faction only
This is the restriction that is easiest to miss. On the PvP ruleset you commit to one side. Create an Alliance character there and you can no longer create a Horde one on that ruleset - and the other way round. The video of 5 November puts it plainly: "Roll an orc under PvP and every PvP character you create from then on will be Horde. There is no second PvP space."
Normal, Roleplaying and Hardcore do not work that way; both factions are allowed there.
If one faction gets too strong on a ruleset, Blizzard can temporarily pause new characters of that faction, as in Season of Discovery. And battlegrounds do not respect the borders: "Battlegrounds may include players from other rulesets, with the exception of Hardcore."
What carries across rulesets
Not everything is separated. Collections and Legacy Points are account-wide, across rulesets. A mount your Normal character unlocks is available to the PvP one too.
Hardcore is the exception, and again one-way: what you achieve in Hardcore can reach the outside. What you achieve outside does not count in Hardcore. More on that under the Legacy system.
Language is its own setting
Independent of the ruleset you can set a preferred language, so you are more likely to meet people who speak it. The path is Game Menu → Options → Languages and Social. You can change it, but only once every 24 hours.
Language is not a hard line. In episode 5 of the podcast Blizzard says it tries to place players with others who share their language, "but sometimes that might not happen"; playing with friends in another language still works (48:27). Pick German and you stay in the Europe region: besides the rulesets, the regions are the only hard lines (49:59). Europe and North America together is not how it works at launch.
What is not known yet
Until 22 October RP-PvP was not planned. In episode 4 of its podcast Blizzard still said: "we don't have any plans right now", but "never say never" (09:26). The concern back then: a second roleplaying ruleset would split the small RP community further. A week later came the reversal (see above).
Paid transfers between rulesets are not announced either, and Blizzard is leaning against them. In the same episode it calls each ruleset "one mega server" and says it is "not likely" to let players move freely between them (03:58); whoever tires of PvP will "probably" have to start again on the Normal ruleset (05:02). The reason is faction balance, which only holds if players cannot leave. A firm no it is not.