Post by Alezand Jozlyn, Allaine knight on Mar 4, 2007 3:17:19 GMT -5
Welcome, guest, to the Kingdom of Avaren and the surrounding worlds.
For those new to the idea of online role-playing, the main idea of this site is to create a 'character' with which you use to role-play across the various boards, developing both your character and storyline as you post with other characters on the site.
For starters, come up with a general idea you have for a character. Male or female, old or young, black or white; everything about your character you decide upon. Once you've got your character idea all in order, it's time to register your account, making certain to read all the proboards rules and such in the process, in addition to this site's rules. Then it comes to the time to post on any of the boards available as if you were writing a story from a third person past tense perspective.
-=Important: Getting Started=-
Note that when creating a new character, you should Private Message myself (the admin Alezand Jozlyn) to ask for your position to be changed. The basic two positions for beginners are "warrior" or "mage", which start off at the bottom rung of their own respective skill trees, which can be found here. As a third option, you may forgo requesting a position and remain a normal townsfolk, yet that is an uncommon option. As new worlds open up, new professions will too.
-=Creativity=-
All characters on Avaren and the other worlds must be original. While may use the names of people from other sources (ex. Japanime, video games, motion pictures, comic books, regular books, etc.) the character's personality and history itself must be original. Of course, by the simple act of Role-Playing on within that setting the character is set apart from whatever their original source was, so this is generally not an issue. More importantly, one needs to note that nothing besides express admin permission (which is rarely given) will allow you to have and sorts of special powers or abilities because of who you claim to be or what race you give to your character. (For example: if you claim you are the character "Eragon", you cannot claim to have a dragon as a pet. Or, if you claim to be an elf, you cannot claim it gives you any sort of superior speed, strength, skill, etc...), However, you may earn abilities, weapons, armor and creatures through hard work. Generally level four is the threshhold a character has to pass into to be given access to such priveleges.
-=The Worlds Themselves=-
The Kingdom of Avaren is a site of medieval setting in regards to technology, thus there would be no form of firearms or anything people would consider "modern". Also, while medieval in a technological setting, Avaren is within its own world, such as Lord of the Rings, or Dragonlance. As such, there should be a hold on reference to specific historical people or events; as such things probably never occurred. Discovery of other worlds and times have been claimed by Mages experimenting in spells or travelling warriors who have crossed well beyond the borders. For now these are just rumors. Or are they?
-=Avatars and Signatures=-
Avatars and Signatures (commonly knows as avi/sig), are a very mainstream way of portraying your character for all to see in image form. There are places in the out of character board where you can make requests for other people on the site to make these images for you. Bear in mind that the maximum size for an Avatar is 100x100, thus is generally used to portray a close-up on the character's face. The signature, on the other hand, doesn't have a set max size and is generally used for such things as the character's name, a full-body image, or even a quote about the character. Unfortunately, signature pictures that are a certain size stretch and distort the page, in addition to slowing down people who use dial-up or have otherwise slow computers so I would ask that these pictures be kept within a reasonable size. If someone's signature image is, in your opinion, in violation of this and is clearly greatly oversize, don't hesitate to report them so this can be taken care of.
-=NO God RP-ing=-
God RP-ing is when you write other people's characters in your posts, giving them actions or thoughts in a way that they do not wish their character to do. Only a character's rightful owner is allowed to do say how their character reacts to any given situation, unless, of course, you have been given their previous permission to god RP their character.
On that note, god modding is very similarly along those lines, more often referred to as "over empowerment" or "power playing". This basically means that you are giving yourself powers and abilities far beyond what anyone should have, usually in an attempt to try and look better than other characters or best them in some way. Not only does this make other people think less of you, it's against the rules so play to what your strength should be.
Also, remember that there is no killing characters without the owner's mutual consent, unless under certain circumstances in which they are clearly attempting to abuse this rule. After all, saying a character is dead is, in essence, saying how a character is reacting to the given situation and thus god RP-ing.
-=Content=-
As a general rule, I would ask for role-players to keep any sexual content in check. It should be obvious what would be deemed inappropriate or not, although moderators will make sure this is kept in check. Not only do most people not wish to read this sort of thing or find it offensive and inappropriate, it is against proboards Terms of Service. In other words, keep it clean on the boards themselves.
-=Invite only=-
Invite only, or "closed" threads are threads where you allow are attempting to bar anyone else from posting except a select few whom you know or who somehow get invited. First off, this is overall frowned upon, as it discourages people from posting with one another and breaks a site into small groups of individuals who only role-play amongst each other and won't accept anyone else, ultimately retarding activity. If, for some reason, you really do not wish to have anyone else posting in your thread, make a small out of character note for it in the beginning of your post, stating why you think no one else can/should post with you.
-=Talking to the Admin=-
Questions, comments, complaints? Feel free to message Alezand Jozlyn with any grievances and I will make certain to take heed of your troubles and see what I can do to help.
-=Final Rule: Most Important of All=-
This is online Role-Playing, so the most important rule, at the very end of the list so it will be the most recent one you've read if you've been going top to bottom is to have fun. Role-playing is, as many know, just a game and games are out there to have fun with and make us happy. Keep this in mind while you go along posting.
-I think that just about cover the basic rules of role-playing on Avaren and the other places, although if I left something out feel free to tell me. If not, go ahead and have fun. ^_^ (revised March 4 2007)
For those new to the idea of online role-playing, the main idea of this site is to create a 'character' with which you use to role-play across the various boards, developing both your character and storyline as you post with other characters on the site.
For starters, come up with a general idea you have for a character. Male or female, old or young, black or white; everything about your character you decide upon. Once you've got your character idea all in order, it's time to register your account, making certain to read all the proboards rules and such in the process, in addition to this site's rules. Then it comes to the time to post on any of the boards available as if you were writing a story from a third person past tense perspective.
-=Important: Getting Started=-
Note that when creating a new character, you should Private Message myself (the admin Alezand Jozlyn) to ask for your position to be changed. The basic two positions for beginners are "warrior" or "mage", which start off at the bottom rung of their own respective skill trees, which can be found here. As a third option, you may forgo requesting a position and remain a normal townsfolk, yet that is an uncommon option. As new worlds open up, new professions will too.
-=Creativity=-
All characters on Avaren and the other worlds must be original. While may use the names of people from other sources (ex. Japanime, video games, motion pictures, comic books, regular books, etc.) the character's personality and history itself must be original. Of course, by the simple act of Role-Playing on within that setting the character is set apart from whatever their original source was, so this is generally not an issue. More importantly, one needs to note that nothing besides express admin permission (which is rarely given) will allow you to have and sorts of special powers or abilities because of who you claim to be or what race you give to your character. (For example: if you claim you are the character "Eragon", you cannot claim to have a dragon as a pet. Or, if you claim to be an elf, you cannot claim it gives you any sort of superior speed, strength, skill, etc...), However, you may earn abilities, weapons, armor and creatures through hard work. Generally level four is the threshhold a character has to pass into to be given access to such priveleges.
-=The Worlds Themselves=-
The Kingdom of Avaren is a site of medieval setting in regards to technology, thus there would be no form of firearms or anything people would consider "modern". Also, while medieval in a technological setting, Avaren is within its own world, such as Lord of the Rings, or Dragonlance. As such, there should be a hold on reference to specific historical people or events; as such things probably never occurred. Discovery of other worlds and times have been claimed by Mages experimenting in spells or travelling warriors who have crossed well beyond the borders. For now these are just rumors. Or are they?
-=Avatars and Signatures=-
Avatars and Signatures (commonly knows as avi/sig), are a very mainstream way of portraying your character for all to see in image form. There are places in the out of character board where you can make requests for other people on the site to make these images for you. Bear in mind that the maximum size for an Avatar is 100x100, thus is generally used to portray a close-up on the character's face. The signature, on the other hand, doesn't have a set max size and is generally used for such things as the character's name, a full-body image, or even a quote about the character. Unfortunately, signature pictures that are a certain size stretch and distort the page, in addition to slowing down people who use dial-up or have otherwise slow computers so I would ask that these pictures be kept within a reasonable size. If someone's signature image is, in your opinion, in violation of this and is clearly greatly oversize, don't hesitate to report them so this can be taken care of.
-=NO God RP-ing=-
God RP-ing is when you write other people's characters in your posts, giving them actions or thoughts in a way that they do not wish their character to do. Only a character's rightful owner is allowed to do say how their character reacts to any given situation, unless, of course, you have been given their previous permission to god RP their character.
On that note, god modding is very similarly along those lines, more often referred to as "over empowerment" or "power playing". This basically means that you are giving yourself powers and abilities far beyond what anyone should have, usually in an attempt to try and look better than other characters or best them in some way. Not only does this make other people think less of you, it's against the rules so play to what your strength should be.
Also, remember that there is no killing characters without the owner's mutual consent, unless under certain circumstances in which they are clearly attempting to abuse this rule. After all, saying a character is dead is, in essence, saying how a character is reacting to the given situation and thus god RP-ing.
-=Content=-
As a general rule, I would ask for role-players to keep any sexual content in check. It should be obvious what would be deemed inappropriate or not, although moderators will make sure this is kept in check. Not only do most people not wish to read this sort of thing or find it offensive and inappropriate, it is against proboards Terms of Service. In other words, keep it clean on the boards themselves.
-=Invite only=-
Invite only, or "closed" threads are threads where you allow are attempting to bar anyone else from posting except a select few whom you know or who somehow get invited. First off, this is overall frowned upon, as it discourages people from posting with one another and breaks a site into small groups of individuals who only role-play amongst each other and won't accept anyone else, ultimately retarding activity. If, for some reason, you really do not wish to have anyone else posting in your thread, make a small out of character note for it in the beginning of your post, stating why you think no one else can/should post with you.
-=Talking to the Admin=-
Questions, comments, complaints? Feel free to message Alezand Jozlyn with any grievances and I will make certain to take heed of your troubles and see what I can do to help.
-=Final Rule: Most Important of All=-
This is online Role-Playing, so the most important rule, at the very end of the list so it will be the most recent one you've read if you've been going top to bottom is to have fun. Role-playing is, as many know, just a game and games are out there to have fun with and make us happy. Keep this in mind while you go along posting.
-I think that just about cover the basic rules of role-playing on Avaren and the other places, although if I left something out feel free to tell me. If not, go ahead and have fun. ^_^ (revised March 4 2007)
