Jakkal's guide to RP - How to avoid being lame.
Section 1 ? Introduction to Kaerwyn
-=+ Character Creation Tips +=-
Before you do anything else in Kaerwyn, you need to make a character. Thus the question arises, "What kind of character do I want to play?" Please keep in mind some things when you create your new characters.
1. You'll want your character to be well rounded, for every up there is a down. Make them equal, if you have to, ascribe certain attributes points to them. They won't mean jack shit once you start RPing, but at least you're more likely not to have "the lame character." Every character should have certain advantages and disadvantages, and they should work in harmony with each other. For example, if you have a huge 300lb human fighter type, you cannot make him stealthy and quick. Disadvantages for fighters would be slow and clumsy, Advantages would be strength and better aim. If your character is the classic "Theif" type, then they would be Quick and Cunning, but at the same time weaker and make less an impact. Any character that is strong, quick, nimble and a marksman is likely to get ignored, if not removed by the ops.
2. (Personality and morals) One of the biggest mistakes RPers make is the lack of personality. They put a lot of effort into fighting, weapons, history and other character attributes, but they completely forgo the most important part, the personality. What does your character like? What does your character hate? Is there something that really pisses them off to the point of irrational thought? What about intelligence? Any common sense? What about willpower, do they give up easily? And most importantly, WHEN you RP, keep ALL this in mind. Your characters actions and reactions should be based on their personality attributes. If your character has high intelligence, but you allow something stupid to happen for a plot, then you are playing them out of character. Example: Lorelei hates Anthropomorphic animals. If I one day decided I wanted Lorelei to meet another character (who is an anthro) and become friends, I would seriously be playing her out of character. HOWEVER, if that character did something on his own merit to earn her trust (which is possible), it would not be considered "lame."
3. (Abilities) People are all about their characters special abilities. While this is an important part of a character, it's really insignificant in the RP. This is also the part where players become the most unrealistic, and I mean beyond suspension of disbelief. But in any case, certain characters would have certain abilities. Please keep your attributes and personality in mind with your abilities. You want your characters to have somewhat "realistic" abilities with "realistic" limits. That does not mean you cannot make your characters have supernatural or extraordinary fantasy powers. What it does mean is to put some effort and somewhat explain why your character can do what it does. Remember, you can?t really disarm a character?s abilities, and that will make others ignore you. Here's a list of popular abilities:
-Shapeshifting is a popular character ability, and it is also the one most abused and unrealistic. Often characters will change back and forth without expending any energy or whatnot. In addition, players often don't put any effort into an explaination for why their character is a shapeshifter, what their limits are, and what they can do as a shifter. The werecreature is a classic "lame" example. They are extremely overused and generic. The "Generic" werewolf is the most common "lame" character. The standard FFRP "lame" werewolf is one that gained the ability through a bite/attack, are extremely affected by the full moon, and become bloodthirsty beasts when they change (but often still have some if not all cognitive abilities). Put some effort and explain WHY your character gained the curse from a bite, why the moon affects them, and why they'd become bloodthirsty when they shift. Good limitations for shapeshifters are as follows: inability to control the change, don't gain uberstrength, don't gain a lot of mass/size, can't change back and forth on a whim or instantaneously, et cetera.
-Telekenesis is another abused character ability that RPers GROAN about everytime they see it used. TK is one of the most annoying attributes another character could have, simple because they don't have to have direct contact to something to move it, lift it, throw it, et cetera. Other players also specifically hate TK because there's really no real way to dodge/fight it. If you use TK to pick up another character, you've effectively taken them out of play as far as actions go. You could also possibly ruin plots by making something fall, catching something that should fall, or moving something out of a character's reach. Good limits for TK would be: only affects small objects, must put all their concentration in it, only within a given range, easy to thwart, et cetera.
-Magical Abilities are also very popular, and very much abused. We often frown on magic users for the simple fact that players think they can do or get away with anything using their magic. Magic is not an "end all" godlike solution to everything. Magic, like TK, is also very hard to dodge when you try to use it 'on another character. Magic users MUST have limits, period, otherwise you are playing a minigod that's got no use other than to ruin plots and piss off other players. Good limitations for magical abilities would be: can only use one type (fire, ice, healing,etc), weak magics, must put all their concentration in it, weakens the character, only within a given range, easy to dodge, etc.
4. Character history is an important part of a character that's often overlooked. The history of the character is what makes them what they are. Ideally you should be able to explain all your character's aspects in the history. They say our experiences make us who we are, why we react certain ways, and why we have certain attributes. This is VERY important for characters to insure they are not "lame" or often called "2 dimensional." A character should not be "A name with stats", no, a character should be a well rounded individual with a colorful past that explains why they are the way they are. Many players never bother to focus much on the character's history, thus the character appears dead, dry, and stale.
5. (Weapons and Equipment) Sometimes people have no interest in playing a character with special abilites or powers or whatnot. However, they make up for their lack of supernatural abilities with weaponry and trinkets. Now the well rounded character wouldn't be a mage AND an uber warrior, so this is not normally a problem. The issues arise when people unrealistically equip their characters. Often times people want their characters to have powerful weaponry. In classic FFRP groups, guns and other similar "high tech" firearms would /not/ be allowed. In Kaerwyn, however, we don't wish to limit your characters like that. If you're playing a space faring military guy, there's a chance you've got a high tech weapon. Now, here's the problem. You can only keep what your character can EASILY carry on their person. This does NOT mean you go out of your way to prove to the ops that infact, all your uber weapons can be held on your person. No, we don't want to hear that. It's unfair for us to complain about magic users when your "walking armory" can do much more damage. So when you make a character, keep in mind what weapons and equipment your character has on you. Does s/he have a sword and two daggers? Does he have a scanning utility and a phasor? Does he have a beretta with a single clip of 9mm rounds? You need to keep up with what your character has and what your character has used.
6. (World they're from, physical description, and other stuff) I think we've pretty much covered the important stuff for character creation. Now you just need a few more things before they're finished. First of all, you'll prolly want to make a little information on the world they're from. Not much mind you, the world they /left/ often isn't that important. Next you'll want a physical description for your character. Now technically you only need to write one description, however when you post this on IRC, you're limited to about a paragraph. Often times that's not enough for many players to adequately describe what their characters look like. This is where the Character Sheet (CS) comes into play. In the CS, you can be as thorough as you wish, make it several paragraphs, go all out! You can also post a picture of your character in your CS if you have one available. A picture is worth a thousands words afterall. Finally, before you can play your character on Kaerwyn, you need a reason they got there. Many players make their characters fall through a rift during some kind of stressful period, or when they are near death. Characters don't often see the rifts when they enter Kaerwyn either, some just walk down the street and suddenly they're in the middle of the woods. Just remember that if your character is aboard some kind of vehicle when they enter the rift to Kaerwyn, that it will be removed from Kaerwyn by the dragons when no one is looking.
-=+ The Realm of Kaerwyn +=-
Kaerwyn is more than the typical FFRP Nexus realm. We have built it into a rich, working environment with several "setting" choices for your characters to interact and play out storylines. We mistakenly assumed that we didn't need to give much information on Kaerwyn itself, however, the background behind Kaerwyn adds in that extra element of realistic restraints.
Kaerwyn exists on the etheric plane. Well first you need to know some things about the "Etheric". Now anyone that's all new-agey would know that the "etheric" means different things to different people, so we'll explain to you what we think the "etheric" is. First, you need to know about the multiverse as a whole.
The multiverse is made up of several layers of reality. They are organized by their realistic density. This is not a physical term, per se, but the physical nature of these planes is what causes their eventual organization. Beings who are as old as the universe are from the astral, the oldest of the planes. In the astral, there is no physical. Reality has no cohesion; it is literally a plane of thought and existence. This is quite boring when you've spent a few millennia there. These beings, which we shall call the dragons, decided they wanted to go on an extended vacation. But in order for beings without form to pass into physical realms, they needed to form some kind of ethereal vessels. The Etheric plane exists between the astral and the physical realms. It is a pseudophysical realm. Much like the astral it could be affected by thought, and much like the physical, it has a form true to itself. The dragons that formed Kaerwyn maintain Kaerwyn, and prevent others from "changing" kaerwyn with thought to suit their needs. These dragons created Kaerwyn as a gateway nexus world. They were bored in the astral, they wanted to travel, see the multiverse! They wanted to live new lives and experience new things. Using Kaerwyn, they could form physical bodies, and visit physical worlds. They could leave Kaerwyn as spirits and be "born" to other worlds as well.
But soon the rifts, controlled not by dragons but by fate, opened for others than the dragons. People from all times, worlds, places, cultures, et cetera started pouring into Kaerwyn over time. The dragons were nowhere to be found. They are still there, however, making sure the visitors don't step out of line... they however wish to keep themselves unknown to the otherworlders. The dragons allowed the mortals to build their own town on the lake, but that is all. Anything else the mortals tried to build would seemingly disappear, as if it never existed. The town, by appearance looks normal, however, by experience it is quite extraordinary. It is an obvious mixture of the ingenuity of several different races, times, and technique. Many of the buildings have electricity and running water, but there is no obvious source of such power. Some buildings use crystals for energy storage, some use a mix of magic and technology. The town itself has different types of businesses and residents. It has a library, some restaurants and pubs, many apartment complexes, clothing stores, weapon stores and just about anything else you can think of. Technology, however, is rarely found for sale in any business, for it is rare and people tend to keep their hands.... paws... fins... etc on them. As far as play goes, the town makes for a good plot device. You can have your character "live" in the town, get many "supplies" in town, and meet people in town. You should not however, put any kind of limits on the town, or make any definitive statements about the town that the administration of Kaerwyn have not approved.
If you wander down the path to the south, you'll find yourself walking into a thick old growth forest. The path is rather large, definitely large enough to fit a full size pickup truck through. Your character might wonder why everyone is clustered together in the town, but then again who would ruin such a beautiful forest? There is very little to see outside of the town except for various untouched natural landscapes. If you walk about 2 miles away from town on the path to the south... you will find a small rustic tavern... just sitting in the middle of a clearing. Weird. The tavern is obviously old, but it looks like it's really well taken care of. The tavern is where most of the characters will interact, it's a great starting point. The tavern has several different "interior" settings. You have the bar, obviously, several open area tables, several secluded booths, a couch infront of the fireplace, a very private upstairs "inner balcony", kitchen, storage room, and even "guest rooms" upstairs. These are great settings for various types of character interaction. The tavern has a strange quirk about it though. If you damage it, it will repair itself. Now the tavern won't show any signs of healing. It'll stay damaged exactly as it was (assuming no one does anything additional to it) until people's backs are turned. When no one is looking, suddenly the tavern is as good as new. If you go around and damage the tavern often though, you might catch the attention of the dragons. This is probably not a good thing.
If you keep walking down the path to the south, past the tavern, about 7 miles away, there's some ancient city ruins. It's mostly covered up by plantlife such as trees, vines, etc. It looks like an old Roman city. Crumbled pillars and broken walls litter the area. There is absolutely nothing of value here. You won't find anything special here, and you cannot go in any of the buildings still standing. If you try to go into one of the buildings, or you're just there too long, the dragons will make you appear in the tavern, town, or over the lake. Of course that depends which dragon is on guard duty. The ruins are sacred to them afterall, you don't want to mess with it. Players who blatantly defy this will be banned.
There are several other areas that your character could happen upon. Surrounding the immediate area are large mountains, they look somewhat like the "Rockies" of the US plains. These mountains have beautiful views if your characters feel like hiking. There are also caves in these mountains, no telling what's there just waiting to be found. There are many open grassland areas near the lake, and the lake has some sandy "beach like" areas. Overall it's a beautiful landscape that many would consider a paradise. The playable area is known as the ?Kaerwyn Caldera?. This is the area between the mountains and the lake. Beyond the mountains is a vast desert.
-=+ The Kaerwyn Riftways +=-
As everyone by this point undoubtedly knows, you get to Kaerwyn through point to point singularities, or ?Rifts?. These rifts make for /instantaneous/ travel between point A to Kaerwyn. These rifts cannot be opened by unauthorized characters, and cannot be controlled in /any/ way.
Characters on Kaerwyn will find they are ?trapped.? This is to prevent people from wandering about, realm to realm, without any idea of what they?re doing. It also brings in several character interaction development scenarios.
Rifts on Kaerwyn most commonly open up in the town, in the tavern, at the lakeshore, and at the crossroads. You may choose any place within the Kaerwyn caldera for your character to arrive on Kaerwyn, save the ruins.
Section 1 ? Introduction to Kaerwyn
-=+ Character Creation Tips +=-
Before you do anything else in Kaerwyn, you need to make a character. Thus the question arises, "What kind of character do I want to play?" Please keep in mind some things when you create your new characters.
1. You'll want your character to be well rounded, for every up there is a down. Make them equal, if you have to, ascribe certain attributes points to them. They won't mean jack shit once you start RPing, but at least you're more likely not to have "the lame character." Every character should have certain advantages and disadvantages, and they should work in harmony with each other. For example, if you have a huge 300lb human fighter type, you cannot make him stealthy and quick. Disadvantages for fighters would be slow and clumsy, Advantages would be strength and better aim. If your character is the classic "Theif" type, then they would be Quick and Cunning, but at the same time weaker and make less an impact. Any character that is strong, quick, nimble and a marksman is likely to get ignored, if not removed by the ops.
2. (Personality and morals) One of the biggest mistakes RPers make is the lack of personality. They put a lot of effort into fighting, weapons, history and other character attributes, but they completely forgo the most important part, the personality. What does your character like? What does your character hate? Is there something that really pisses them off to the point of irrational thought? What about intelligence? Any common sense? What about willpower, do they give up easily? And most importantly, WHEN you RP, keep ALL this in mind. Your characters actions and reactions should be based on their personality attributes. If your character has high intelligence, but you allow something stupid to happen for a plot, then you are playing them out of character. Example: Lorelei hates Anthropomorphic animals. If I one day decided I wanted Lorelei to meet another character (who is an anthro) and become friends, I would seriously be playing her out of character. HOWEVER, if that character did something on his own merit to earn her trust (which is possible), it would not be considered "lame."
3. (Abilities) People are all about their characters special abilities. While this is an important part of a character, it's really insignificant in the RP. This is also the part where players become the most unrealistic, and I mean beyond suspension of disbelief. But in any case, certain characters would have certain abilities. Please keep your attributes and personality in mind with your abilities. You want your characters to have somewhat "realistic" abilities with "realistic" limits. That does not mean you cannot make your characters have supernatural or extraordinary fantasy powers. What it does mean is to put some effort and somewhat explain why your character can do what it does. Remember, you can?t really disarm a character?s abilities, and that will make others ignore you. Here's a list of popular abilities:
-Shapeshifting is a popular character ability, and it is also the one most abused and unrealistic. Often characters will change back and forth without expending any energy or whatnot. In addition, players often don't put any effort into an explaination for why their character is a shapeshifter, what their limits are, and what they can do as a shifter. The werecreature is a classic "lame" example. They are extremely overused and generic. The "Generic" werewolf is the most common "lame" character. The standard FFRP "lame" werewolf is one that gained the ability through a bite/attack, are extremely affected by the full moon, and become bloodthirsty beasts when they change (but often still have some if not all cognitive abilities). Put some effort and explain WHY your character gained the curse from a bite, why the moon affects them, and why they'd become bloodthirsty when they shift. Good limitations for shapeshifters are as follows: inability to control the change, don't gain uberstrength, don't gain a lot of mass/size, can't change back and forth on a whim or instantaneously, et cetera.
-Telekenesis is another abused character ability that RPers GROAN about everytime they see it used. TK is one of the most annoying attributes another character could have, simple because they don't have to have direct contact to something to move it, lift it, throw it, et cetera. Other players also specifically hate TK because there's really no real way to dodge/fight it. If you use TK to pick up another character, you've effectively taken them out of play as far as actions go. You could also possibly ruin plots by making something fall, catching something that should fall, or moving something out of a character's reach. Good limits for TK would be: only affects small objects, must put all their concentration in it, only within a given range, easy to thwart, et cetera.
-Magical Abilities are also very popular, and very much abused. We often frown on magic users for the simple fact that players think they can do or get away with anything using their magic. Magic is not an "end all" godlike solution to everything. Magic, like TK, is also very hard to dodge when you try to use it 'on another character. Magic users MUST have limits, period, otherwise you are playing a minigod that's got no use other than to ruin plots and piss off other players. Good limitations for magical abilities would be: can only use one type (fire, ice, healing,etc), weak magics, must put all their concentration in it, weakens the character, only within a given range, easy to dodge, etc.
4. Character history is an important part of a character that's often overlooked. The history of the character is what makes them what they are. Ideally you should be able to explain all your character's aspects in the history. They say our experiences make us who we are, why we react certain ways, and why we have certain attributes. This is VERY important for characters to insure they are not "lame" or often called "2 dimensional." A character should not be "A name with stats", no, a character should be a well rounded individual with a colorful past that explains why they are the way they are. Many players never bother to focus much on the character's history, thus the character appears dead, dry, and stale.
5. (Weapons and Equipment) Sometimes people have no interest in playing a character with special abilites or powers or whatnot. However, they make up for their lack of supernatural abilities with weaponry and trinkets. Now the well rounded character wouldn't be a mage AND an uber warrior, so this is not normally a problem. The issues arise when people unrealistically equip their characters. Often times people want their characters to have powerful weaponry. In classic FFRP groups, guns and other similar "high tech" firearms would /not/ be allowed. In Kaerwyn, however, we don't wish to limit your characters like that. If you're playing a space faring military guy, there's a chance you've got a high tech weapon. Now, here's the problem. You can only keep what your character can EASILY carry on their person. This does NOT mean you go out of your way to prove to the ops that infact, all your uber weapons can be held on your person. No, we don't want to hear that. It's unfair for us to complain about magic users when your "walking armory" can do much more damage. So when you make a character, keep in mind what weapons and equipment your character has on you. Does s/he have a sword and two daggers? Does he have a scanning utility and a phasor? Does he have a beretta with a single clip of 9mm rounds? You need to keep up with what your character has and what your character has used.
6. (World they're from, physical description, and other stuff) I think we've pretty much covered the important stuff for character creation. Now you just need a few more things before they're finished. First of all, you'll prolly want to make a little information on the world they're from. Not much mind you, the world they /left/ often isn't that important. Next you'll want a physical description for your character. Now technically you only need to write one description, however when you post this on IRC, you're limited to about a paragraph. Often times that's not enough for many players to adequately describe what their characters look like. This is where the Character Sheet (CS) comes into play. In the CS, you can be as thorough as you wish, make it several paragraphs, go all out! You can also post a picture of your character in your CS if you have one available. A picture is worth a thousands words afterall. Finally, before you can play your character on Kaerwyn, you need a reason they got there. Many players make their characters fall through a rift during some kind of stressful period, or when they are near death. Characters don't often see the rifts when they enter Kaerwyn either, some just walk down the street and suddenly they're in the middle of the woods. Just remember that if your character is aboard some kind of vehicle when they enter the rift to Kaerwyn, that it will be removed from Kaerwyn by the dragons when no one is looking.
-=+ The Realm of Kaerwyn +=-
Kaerwyn is more than the typical FFRP Nexus realm. We have built it into a rich, working environment with several "setting" choices for your characters to interact and play out storylines. We mistakenly assumed that we didn't need to give much information on Kaerwyn itself, however, the background behind Kaerwyn adds in that extra element of realistic restraints.
Kaerwyn exists on the etheric plane. Well first you need to know some things about the "Etheric". Now anyone that's all new-agey would know that the "etheric" means different things to different people, so we'll explain to you what we think the "etheric" is. First, you need to know about the multiverse as a whole.
The multiverse is made up of several layers of reality. They are organized by their realistic density. This is not a physical term, per se, but the physical nature of these planes is what causes their eventual organization. Beings who are as old as the universe are from the astral, the oldest of the planes. In the astral, there is no physical. Reality has no cohesion; it is literally a plane of thought and existence. This is quite boring when you've spent a few millennia there. These beings, which we shall call the dragons, decided they wanted to go on an extended vacation. But in order for beings without form to pass into physical realms, they needed to form some kind of ethereal vessels. The Etheric plane exists between the astral and the physical realms. It is a pseudophysical realm. Much like the astral it could be affected by thought, and much like the physical, it has a form true to itself. The dragons that formed Kaerwyn maintain Kaerwyn, and prevent others from "changing" kaerwyn with thought to suit their needs. These dragons created Kaerwyn as a gateway nexus world. They were bored in the astral, they wanted to travel, see the multiverse! They wanted to live new lives and experience new things. Using Kaerwyn, they could form physical bodies, and visit physical worlds. They could leave Kaerwyn as spirits and be "born" to other worlds as well.
But soon the rifts, controlled not by dragons but by fate, opened for others than the dragons. People from all times, worlds, places, cultures, et cetera started pouring into Kaerwyn over time. The dragons were nowhere to be found. They are still there, however, making sure the visitors don't step out of line... they however wish to keep themselves unknown to the otherworlders. The dragons allowed the mortals to build their own town on the lake, but that is all. Anything else the mortals tried to build would seemingly disappear, as if it never existed. The town, by appearance looks normal, however, by experience it is quite extraordinary. It is an obvious mixture of the ingenuity of several different races, times, and technique. Many of the buildings have electricity and running water, but there is no obvious source of such power. Some buildings use crystals for energy storage, some use a mix of magic and technology. The town itself has different types of businesses and residents. It has a library, some restaurants and pubs, many apartment complexes, clothing stores, weapon stores and just about anything else you can think of. Technology, however, is rarely found for sale in any business, for it is rare and people tend to keep their hands.... paws... fins... etc on them. As far as play goes, the town makes for a good plot device. You can have your character "live" in the town, get many "supplies" in town, and meet people in town. You should not however, put any kind of limits on the town, or make any definitive statements about the town that the administration of Kaerwyn have not approved.
If you wander down the path to the south, you'll find yourself walking into a thick old growth forest. The path is rather large, definitely large enough to fit a full size pickup truck through. Your character might wonder why everyone is clustered together in the town, but then again who would ruin such a beautiful forest? There is very little to see outside of the town except for various untouched natural landscapes. If you walk about 2 miles away from town on the path to the south... you will find a small rustic tavern... just sitting in the middle of a clearing. Weird. The tavern is obviously old, but it looks like it's really well taken care of. The tavern is where most of the characters will interact, it's a great starting point. The tavern has several different "interior" settings. You have the bar, obviously, several open area tables, several secluded booths, a couch infront of the fireplace, a very private upstairs "inner balcony", kitchen, storage room, and even "guest rooms" upstairs. These are great settings for various types of character interaction. The tavern has a strange quirk about it though. If you damage it, it will repair itself. Now the tavern won't show any signs of healing. It'll stay damaged exactly as it was (assuming no one does anything additional to it) until people's backs are turned. When no one is looking, suddenly the tavern is as good as new. If you go around and damage the tavern often though, you might catch the attention of the dragons. This is probably not a good thing.
If you keep walking down the path to the south, past the tavern, about 7 miles away, there's some ancient city ruins. It's mostly covered up by plantlife such as trees, vines, etc. It looks like an old Roman city. Crumbled pillars and broken walls litter the area. There is absolutely nothing of value here. You won't find anything special here, and you cannot go in any of the buildings still standing. If you try to go into one of the buildings, or you're just there too long, the dragons will make you appear in the tavern, town, or over the lake. Of course that depends which dragon is on guard duty. The ruins are sacred to them afterall, you don't want to mess with it. Players who blatantly defy this will be banned.
There are several other areas that your character could happen upon. Surrounding the immediate area are large mountains, they look somewhat like the "Rockies" of the US plains. These mountains have beautiful views if your characters feel like hiking. There are also caves in these mountains, no telling what's there just waiting to be found. There are many open grassland areas near the lake, and the lake has some sandy "beach like" areas. Overall it's a beautiful landscape that many would consider a paradise. The playable area is known as the ?Kaerwyn Caldera?. This is the area between the mountains and the lake. Beyond the mountains is a vast desert.
-=+ The Kaerwyn Riftways +=-
As everyone by this point undoubtedly knows, you get to Kaerwyn through point to point singularities, or ?Rifts?. These rifts make for /instantaneous/ travel between point A to Kaerwyn. These rifts cannot be opened by unauthorized characters, and cannot be controlled in /any/ way.
Characters on Kaerwyn will find they are ?trapped.? This is to prevent people from wandering about, realm to realm, without any idea of what they?re doing. It also brings in several character interaction development scenarios.
Rifts on Kaerwyn most commonly open up in the town, in the tavern, at the lakeshore, and at the crossroads. You may choose any place within the Kaerwyn caldera for your character to arrive on Kaerwyn, save the ruins.