Ello all. Here's a new little event for you. It's an RP! And it follows these rules:
== Theme ==
A Steampunk world littered with magic. This is a medieval world nonetheless, but some firearms will be allowed. No fully automatic or semi-auto though. Think flintlocks, muskets, and the like. Blackpowder guns can be permitted. Further specifics will be at the end of this rule set.
There are two types of people in the RP: characters and NPCs.
=== Characters ===
You can now have any number of active characters, just don't go overboard. These are your characters and your characters alone. No one can control them but you. Guidelines for creating your characters are at the end of this rule set.
=== Character Groups ===
Each chapter focuses on a group of characters. You do no thave to join every group in every chapter. Future chapters will go back to other groups.
=== NPCs ===
NPCs are more flexible. Often you’ll see some soldiers, villagers, monsters, or other non important characters. Generally, anyone can create and use these characters. But if someone is using a NPC in a character like fashion, it’s probably best not to control it for them.
Occasionally an important character will be marked for shared use (such as a leader of a group of NPCs). These NPCs, while they can be used by anyone, should only be controlled sparingly.
==== NPC Groups ====
Large bands of NPCs with similar interests are "Groups". Some examples include the villagers of a particular town or the soldiers of an army.
Groups can be controlled en mass much like a single NPC, however much more description is expected.
Groups are SLOW. The larger the group, the slower it is. For example, a large advancing army will take several posts to arrive at its target destination. If the said army is attacking a village, the villagers will be SLOW to organize and react, unless it is made clear that they have been preparing for the attack beforehand. If another army is called in to defend the village, it will take a while to arrive, etc.
Groups will remain in context. Soldiers will very readily fight in an organized manner. Villagers will not because it is not what they specialize in. Merchants will always be interested in money and profit, etc.
Group sizes should remain reasonable. An army in the tens of thousands is very large. A hundred thousand is unfathomably huge, and would require very many posts to set up. A million will likely get you a polite request to edit your post.
As a rule of thumb, it's best to run any intention to use a group of more than a few thousand by me before using it.
=== Actions ===
Each character is limited to three "actions" per post. An action is something your character does. Some examples:
* Attacking another character
* Defending an attack
* Charging/preparing an attack (i.e. for bigger than normal spells)
* Starting to walk/run/fly from one place to another
* Arriving on the scene
* Picking up an item
... etc. Basically use your own judgment. Conversation with other characters doesn't count (so you can talk as much as you want). This is a maximum and not a required value. Remember to keep the fluidity of the story above all else.
Note that both starting to travel to one location and arriving at a location are each considered one action, but it is a bad practice to have your character leave one area and arrive in another in the same post. See the 'travel' section below.
=== Charging Techniques ===
An action is "charged" if it requires more than one "set up" posts to execute. Each of these posts require a description of the action charging or being set up. If a post does not contain description of the action being charged, then it does not count as charging that specific action. Furthermore, the length of (real world) time passed and the number of posts by other players in between the beginning and execution of an action have no effect on how much the action has been charged.
Basically, if a character "charges" an attack, honor that attack as more powerful than normal. This is furthered generalized by the following.
=== Rule of Proportional Effects / Proportional Posts ===
This is more of a guideline than a steadfast rule. Think about what your character is doing and how many people (other characters and NPCs) his/her action is going to affect (cause them to take an action, or make them do something completely different than what they currently are, etc.). The number of posts describing your character taking that action should be proportional to the number of people that are being affected by it.
In other words, a simple fireball attack might affect 1-3 people-- just one post for that. Some sort of shockwave might blow apart a large section of a town-- better take two or three posts, the first an elaborate description describing your character preparing the spell, the last for the character executing it. Need to rescue your friend from 30 armed NPCs? There's no way that can be done in one post. Probably should go for three or more. What your character actually does during those posts doesn't matter. He could fight through all the guards, sneak around them, prepare some elaborate plan, etc. Some sort of event that involves an entire city, say, should be detailed through probably ten or more. Some event that involves the entire planet? Probably an entire chapter.
=== Story events and nature of actions ===
As far as the story goes, anything can happen as long as it's in good taste and doesn't disrupt the flow of the RP or its medieval setting. The only restriction is that you don't control other players' characters. i.e. If you throw a fireball at someone, you let them decide whether they get hit by it or not.
=== Travel ===
Try and be realistic in the amount of time it takes to get to one place from another. You should never leave one area and arrive in the next in the same post. Places that are farther away should take more posts to get to. I'm not going to spell out the distances between each place we've been to so far, so use your own judgment.
Be descriptive! Especially when you're entering a place of your own design. Try and build off of other posters' descriptions as well. This is important, as it’s easier to tell what’s going on if you know where you’re at.
=== Posting ===
There is a limit of three ’updates’ per day. An update is a post that contains any actions for any of your characters. The only exception is a post that contains only dialogue, i.e. if your character is just talking to another character.
On the other hand, try and stop in to update at least once a day!
==== No one-liners ====
No lame one line "Character A followed Character B" posts. Let us know what they're thinking, what scenery they're looking at, etc.
==== Three day rule ====
If you are fighting someone and your opponent doesn't post for three days, assume they were hit by your attack and knocked unconscious.
==== Location ====
Most posts should have the location name at the top of each group of characters you are updating like this:
''- Location name A -''
Update for character A here.
----
''- Location name B -''
Update for character B here.
When you'd like to keep the location secret, use '? ? ?' or the equivalent.
This helps keep track of where everyone is at.
==== Comments ====
Comments not part of the flow of the RP should be made obvious by placing them in between parentheses or slashes, etc. Try and keep commenting to a minimum. Major questions should be asked in the current chapter's signup topic, rather than in the middle of the RP.
Try and refrain from quoting other posts unless absolutely necessary, since they just look bad and disrupt the flow of the RP.
Comment-only posts are discouraged. If you want to discuss something, post in the signup topic.
=== Limitations ===
No unbounded instant teleportation. If they have the ability, characters can only teleport for short distances, and even that should be used sparingly. No instant transmission from one place to a totally different one. And traveling at the speed of light is the same thing... so don't!
No character is allowed an off-the-wall "sensing" ability. Nobody has tracking devices on their person, magical or otherwise - unless you explicitly place one on their person during the course of the RP. Limited sensing is allowed, such as sensing general things like life within a few dozen feet and sensing a specific person within a few feet.
=== Story Integrity Guidelines ===
The following amendments are added to keep the basic story and RP world on track, and to prevent things from getting out of hand.
==== Dimensions ====
A "dimension" is defined as any place that cannot be reached through normal means of travel (e.g. walking, flying, etc.).
Characters cannot "control" dimensions. Dimensions cannot be destroyed, time flow cannot be changed, the fate of a dimension cannot be linked with character's life, etc.
Sanctium: The normal realm of all living things. It could be considered "Earth" if you would wish to call it that. This is where technology has evolved and civilzation has been achieved.
Infernium: One of the two planes of death, Infernium is where those who committed acts of evil arrive after being judged for the afterlife.
Celestium: The second of the two planes of death, Celestium is the plane where those who have only done acts of good end up after death.
Arcanium: The Arcanium is the dimension from which most beings of magic origins come from. It has a large link to the Sanctium, and portals between the two open quite often.
==== Dimensional Travel ====
Each player may have his/her characters cross into another dimension only once per chapter. There can only be one crossing, and the number of characters involved does not matter. Once the crossing occurs, none of that player's characters can change dimensions until the next chapter, even if they didn't take part in the crossing. (Exceptions can be set up if need be.)
=== Reading ===
It is important to read every post of the RP since your last post. In order to create a coherent world, we all need to know what is going on with everyone else, even if what other characters are doing on the other side of the world do not immediately affect your own.
If you get totally lost, just ask in the sign up topic and one of us will be happy to give you a short summary of what's going on.
Though the rules are long, they will probably not be as long as the collective posts the RP receives on a good day.
Chances are if you've just skimmed though the above rules and jumped to this line you are not cut out for this RP.== Character Signup ==
=== Specializations ===
Characters only are allowed to have a specialization in a few areas, which will be described in the character's biography. Specializations can be very specific (e.g. "Fire Magic", "Sword Techniques"), or more broad (e.g. "Destructive Magic", "Bladed Weapons"). The broader the specialization, the less effective the character's talents should be in that area, but on the other hand, the character will have a wider variety of skills. Think of this as sort of a "class".
This is to prevent characters from suddenly using uncharacteristic abilities out of nowhere. This does not mean that characters cannot have hidden abilities, just that those abilities need to be added to the character's specialization once they come out. Try not to make the list of specializations too long or unreasonable, though.
A side note, your characters can learn things through out the RP, but you need to show that they are learning it.
=== Bio ===
Post your character signup right in this topic. I will look it over and then give you the okay if it's fine. Though to be honest, I doubt there's anyone here I won't okay.
=== Character Design Guidelines ===
Please remember that this is a medieval world. Please try to make your character fit that.
No army-killing abilities. If you do, it needs to have an extremely large consequence to using it.
Inventors are allowed, this is a Steampunk world afterall.
Gun-wise, do not go past blackpowder guns. Flintlocks and the such are very common, and blackpowder guns should be rare.
I will post an example reference (As well as it being my character for the first chapter) here.
(P.S. Thanks to Virmir for letting me use his rules for this, as well as letting me modify them a bit.)
Also, This is the world map for the first chapter.
http://crimsonflagcomic.com/forum/index.php?topic=868.msg9613#msg9613 The first group will start in Greenmill, as townsfolk defending against the monsters that have appeared in Riverwood Forest.
Sign-Ups will close
after a week. when I say.
ATTENTION: As of now, Zavier has control over this thread and RP equal to mine.
