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[Azrael.]

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Amy aka Azrael. :

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I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this guide, Rellik San, SG, and so on.


Basic Rules

1. Standard EC and Game Forum Rlues apply.

2. Post Length - Please keep your posts longer than 3 sentences / 3 lines. It gets very tedious looking through the topics and it is unfair on people who when trying to post lengthy replies, have ten one line posts popping up.

Exemptions:
- When two different members are carrying out a conversation. - Though this I'm not entirely sure on allowing.
- When you are stuck for something to say.

* - However excessive one line/sentence posting [without reason, as in you can post more], will be counted as spam and you'll be asked to lengthen your replies.

3. No power playing - doing so will be met with at first a warning, then a removal from the game, if you fail to remove yourself from the game you will be handed an official warning. If there is a dispute about what constitutes a power play then message PurePoison or Sarcastic_Guy and they will give a decision, if the player is in a game, one of the mods is playing, contact the mod who isn't playing. (Unless the mod in question is the GM)

4. Deus Ex Machinas - If a game is losing momentum, it is acceptable for a player to perform a minor power play to liven it up again, say for example punching through a solid wall to unleash some demons, it could be written off as temporary influence from an outside force or a Deus Ex Machina, however I will say don't abuse this to silly levels, if there is a logical closure point instead of just fading away, the close it, nothing is worse then a story that doesn't know how to end.

5. Interactions - Interacting with other characters in a nominal way, there will be a degree of control of that character, but only a minor one, nothing character defining, this is to allow the story to progress, you don't throw the character into a fight or have them kill themselves or such, but if you need a character and that player isn't on, saying their character is at such and such a place is acceptable.

6. PvP - Combat between player characters is always gonna be a tricky subject, but I say keep it short and sweet and make sure the only thing left is a change in the interaction dynamics, UNLESS its alread agree'd upon that a character will die. I know it sucks being on the losing side, but if your becomming a villain of the piece, don't be afraid to have a little more back then fourth with the victory thing.

Free Forming RP at its core, is basically a collaborative writing exercise. There is no mechanic governing how characters must interact, conflicts are resolved, and for better or worse, is basically just people trying to tell stories about each other while trying to reconcile any conflicts people have in the direction of the story.

As such, the first thing anyone who wants to join in an RP needs to understand is that your character, for better or worse, is now part of a storyline much bigger than himself. And when crafting your plot within the story, the ability to keep a mindful on how your character fits into the stories big picture will help you make your character’s narrative that much more compelling. That is, you cannot simply approach this like a normal game where you just create a character and hope that it will all work out. Your character needs to have some kind of narrative coherence with the rest of the cast and the game itself.

With that in mind, you must remember that you are not your character. You are writing a character. And so it is important that you make sure any conflicts that happen in character are kept in character and that the other players are in essence, co-authors of the same story. (More on that later)

When writing your character, start with Rellik’s guide on the subject when giving it some thought.


Resolving conflicts

Let’s face it, conflicts are what make games/stories fun. But when there is no GM to provide the conflicts, (as it is in most free-form games) the conflicts that arise will almost always either be self-appointed or be inter-character conflicts. And just like in real life, it is inevitable that no matter how well people get along, at some point they will disagree on something. At some point, you’re going to have inter-character conflicts.

This is not something we want to avoid, (in fact, some of the most interesting conflicts are often character based) but rather something we need to figure out how to manage so it can be resolved without devolving into an argument of who is powerplaying who.

Hence we need to remember the following:

1. Your character is not you. Do not take it personally when another character acts against your character, unless you know that said conflict was driven entirely by issues one player has with another. (in which case, we have a much bigger problem)

2. While the player acting against you might seem like they are working against you, they are actually providing you with potential chances to work into your character’s plot points. As such, you should try to work with each other on how you can use this conflict to further drive your character plot.

3. Normal forum rules still apply here. So keep it civil.

So, when another PC acts against your character, you need to first figure out what they’re driving at and what their prime motivation is. This is also why while it is good to have an idea where you want to go with a plot point, it is imperative that you try to keep an open mind on how that plot point is resolved.

Of course, even with all of that in mind, sometimes you’re just not going to agree on how something should be resolved in the narrative. Talk it out with the other players as much as you can. (preferably through PM if possible) And when you have finally hit a point where you cannot figure out how to resolve this, THEN you come to me. At this point, each player will write to me one PM justifying their stance. I will weigh both cases, and then send a PM to both players on my verdict of how two things. A. the results of the conflict and B. who gets to narrate the results. In general, I will award the narration to the player who gets the unfavorable result out of the conflict so that player can still gracefully write out how his PC lost the conflict in question.

How we will decide on the result will generally be based on the following things:
- Who, by their profiles and such, seems more likely to come out on top
- Which result is more likely to produce a more interesting narrative
- Which result is more likely to generate more potential story to follow up on this conflict
- The attitude of the people involved [towards each other and the like].
- What the conflict is in general.

In some cases, we will not be able to decide myself, and in those cases, we may try two things.
A. A poll and the other forumites can decide through voting. (This will only happen for conflicts that I feel are large enough to warrant a forum decision)
B. Roll a die, flip a coin, or use whatever random result generating device I have at my disposal.


When creating your character, try to use the following format:

Basic Character info:
Name, age, height, whatever you feel is appropriate to tell people

Social Influences:
What kind of social influence does this character have in the setting? Is he a prominent figure in a cabal of secret assassins? Does he lead nation? Or maybe he just has a couple good friends that will throw away their life for the character.

Assets:
What kind of things does the character own? It doesn’t have to be an extensive laundry list of every little possession he has. Rather, this is where you list his MAJOR assets. i.e. does he own a major corporation? A special vehicle? A narrative worthy McGuffin?

Personal Capabilities:
What skills, powers, etc, does he have personally?

The Two Emotions:
I have always found that the easiest way to make sure your character remains consistent is to pick two emotions for the character. One emotion for character motivation, and one emotion that this character invokes in other people.

When picking the emotions, it always helps to be as specific as you can, as this will help you zone in on the core of the character itself.

The reason why a lot of characters will come off bland is because of the second emotion: the emotion that the author wants to invoke in other characters. When every guy just wants to make other people go "dude, that's so cool", you have a problem. These characters might all have their unique history, powers, looks, etc. But for the purposes of the audience and for those they interactive with, they will all feel the same. Why? because the objective of the character are all the same.


Beliefs and Instincts:

These ideas were culled from a game system called "Burning Wheel". While they were initially mechanics, the theory behind them is a very valid way of structuring your character. In it, a character in addition to all their other stats, will also have 3 beliefs, and 3 instincts. It is through these two aspects that characters start to take on a narrative of their own.

Beliefs are essentially what the character's core motivation comes from, and are often what drives the character to action. Why they picked 3 beliefs was probably for brevity sake, but in game, beliefs were used primarily to drive the character's agenda. This was very much deliberate. The reason why is because interesting beliefs will lead a character to action, which leads to pushing the plot forward in motion and provide good guidelines as to how a character to react towards a situation. Bad beliefs will simply make a character meander, be indecisive, and basically not be very consistent.

This is why when you try to craft a character's belief system, it is important to ask how this character will go about carrying out his belief system, and how it would manifest itself in the context of the setting.


Plot Points:

What kind of issues do you want your character to tackle throughout the story? List them here so that other players can see and try to engage you on those plot points. Try to keep the outcome of said plot points open though, as it is impossible to predict how people will try to engage your plot points.



More Information on Characters and Setting:

Characters:

Now, I know your all thinking "who the hell is this git to tell us how to generate a character?" but hear me out, you might learn something. Now all over Gaia, all I see are the same, tormented angst ridden demon/vampire/werewolf/angel characters, no matter what the setting, personally, I hate that, come on people you can be more original then that. Why not a vampire who's blood loss is so strong he must always find ways to feed as his only concern, as opposed to being angsty about not having a working heart. Also, I don't know about you guys, but think about this for a second, your a vampire, you've had your training, know you history and got some power... now whats likely to be your first reaction "Oh no... what have I become?" or "Right, those ******* that picked on me in high school are having it now?!".

Its all about motive, so first thing you should decide to make your character is whats their motive? power, money, revenge, acceptance, love, hate, honour, glory, knowledge, truth, lust... the motives you can have are endless, and will often put your characters actions into context. As well as defining a bit about your character.

But what is the force behind the motive? is the next consideration. Maybe they seek knowledge to find a cure for a loved ones illness, or maybe the knowledge is for much darker ends like finding and using an artifact to bring about the apocalypse. This adds another level of depth to the character that will give you an idea of what the character does (E.G. curing a disease would mean a raid on a biogenics lab, where as seeking an artifact would mean raiding a history museum).

Next up is attitude: Attitude is a big problem, as its your characters persona, the image your character will portray to everyone else and an image you as player have to maintain. Is your character cocky but kind, pessimistic and violent, self loathing but protective? three very unique and conflicting attitudes, for example, someone who is cocky but kind, will rush to save their friends, but tease their friends about it afterwards. Where as someone who's pessimistic and violent, wouldn't care about their friends, as they are probably already dead, but will go to the fight for the violence. Self loathing but protective, would probably sacrifice themselves (or at least try too) to save their friends, seeing it as the only way too make their life more then an empty shell. Three different reactions, to the same situation, each of them conflicting with the other, to make your character unique from the others.

Lastly powers, this is my biggest gripe, where is the fun in playing a demi god? Someone so strong with no weaknesses and able to blink out planets in a split second. Its not fun to play and its not fun for other players, as it puts them off wanting to interact with that character, instead, why not limit your power. Say for example, you have high powered energy beams, well why not make the energy flow so strong it harms you aswell as your target? Or something akin to a small nuclear blast, but results in the character falling into a coma. Maybe even an attack, that when used turns the character into a berserker, with no idea of friend or foe and whom just wants to fight. You still have power, but the power comes at a cost and opens up, often unexplored avenues of potential roleplay.

I'm not going to tell you about name's, age's, race's, appearance's etc. because they are up to you, they rarely affect your character from a roleplaying stand point. My points above, aren't to tell you what to do, what you can't do. But to guide you, into creating more mature, complex, interesting and ultimately fun characters to play. The kind of characters that will stick in your mind and make great stories to tell your other gaming buddies, as opposed to "I played an emo/vampire/angel again... I hung out in a club and fell in love with two girls." your stories will be "I had to break into the museum of natural history to stop that guy stealing the sword of Ansarok, but only I tripped the security, and got accused of being the thief." I know which story I'd rather hear.


Setting:

Often setting is consigned to be purely; a high school, or our world but with vampires, or some TV show world. But why not build on that basis, for example lets start with the hardest to build up on, the High School setting, why just 1 high school? why not base it in a town with several high schools, why not make them all rivals, get a bit of west side story influence going. What about the world and style of these schools, are they based in the present, the 1950's or the future? 2 factors and already the world is taking better shape then just some vague high school that could be anywhere.

Next what type of people go to that school, is it the bikers and social outcasts that dominate it, the jocks and preps? maybe even the science geeks. Does the school have a required uniform or dress code, or is it come as you please? is it mainly african-american denomination or is it a typical middle class white kids school? Is it religious? if so which religion? all these questions and factors that need answering. And its not as though they are particularly in depth, but can be used to flesh out the world and give a better understanding of the characters location and whats deemed acceptable by the authority figures.

Another step often over looked is history, now I don't mean a full history, but some key events that might interest players and help to flesh out the world, like maybe it was used as a bomb shelter during the blitz, or is a converted hospital. This is mostly useful to games with a supernatural twist to them, as they'll help to set up encounters. Lets say its a supernatural game and the school is a refitted mental hospital, how will the spirits of the patients and doctors who died there react to the students actions, will it be with interest, or will it be violent reactions?

Lastly but by no means least, aesthetic, this will help draw an ultimate mental image of the place, and again, you don't have to go into great detail to acheive great effect, for example: The school is old, and run down, plaster falling off walls and lights often flickering. A simple description but it draws a powerful and universal mental image, without being obsessive about detail.

So lets put all these things into practice and I'll design a basic high school setting for a super natural game, using these steps:

An English boarding school in present day, out in the countryside, at least an hours drive away from the nearest village. The sports teams are the ruling class here, getting away with everything short of murder, the staff coming down hard on everyone else for the slightest infraction. The building was used as an evacuee home during the London blitz, but sadly got hit by a bomb, the effects of which are seen today with several of the schools wings being off limits. Its a grand design of a building, all stone arches and marble walls, often feeling cold and uninviting, but very well maintained despite that, more often then not, theres bits of scaffold somewhere renovating something or another.

Just a paragraph, that has given a lot of information, enough to draw some mystery and create a strong mental image of the place. for all of 5 minutes work. See thats not so painful is it? and without even needing a wall of text all the information you need is given.

So have fun crafting your own worlds and settings using these tips that extend to almost any setting, from a cold sterile space station, to an underwater acropolis.

[Josh Joshson]

Rocks fall. Everyone dies.

[Rellik San]

Adding to my previous character creation guide;

Character Creation II - It's all in the details.

Details are the life blood of your character, even minor ones can be used to say something about them. From a chipped tooth to a scar across their hand, from a locket to an earing all these things can be used too say something about your character, because there is nothing lamer then looking "cool" for the sake of it; To exemplify what I mean I'll be using some random internet anime dude;

Instantly; Dark skin, suggesting he's from a desert/tropical region, bright clothes worn loosely also help too verify this; The colours of the clothes perhaps significant of his clan or role in society. One eye is Green, perhaps an omen within his society, maybe its a sign or demon taint... meaning he was ostracised as a child and as such had a brutal upbringing; Hence the grim expression. The gauntlet; a stolen artefact from his villages temple, thought dead but responded too his mark, on his other arm, tattoo's, maybe wards designed too seal away a dark power within him. A tattered red scarf, maybe indicative of a journey across harsh terrain, cut and torn as he wore it too protect his eyes from brutal sand storms until he could find shelter.

So going off all these potential details in his appearance, we can easily construct a history for him;
Born to a princess, he was marked with one green eye, in the nomadic tribe he comes from a dangerous omen. As such he was taken from his mother and kept by the tribes holy men, who tattooed wards on to his arm, sealing away any daemonic influences before they could manifest. His childhood was a harsh one, we was less then an animal to the tribe, oft times going hungry for days. One day the camp was attacked, although the attackers were driven away he suffered a graze to his arm, which broke the seals temporarily, but it was enough a voice called out and he entered the high priests tent, witnessing the emaciated and gnarled hand of a daemon; The voice kept calling, enticing him to touch the hand... as he reached out too touch it, the hand grabbed his wrist and exploded into shards of solid blood slicing his arm and entering his blood stream, mutating him in the process. He awoke seconds later, feeling whole for the first time, stronger then he ever had, as the voice in his head from before urged he grabbed a sword and a head scarf, stole a horse and rode out into the brutal desert plains to learn his new powers before exacting revenge.

This origin also serves too provide us with motivation; Revenge, he wants those priests too suffer, he has a newly discovered power he can't control giving us a source of tension and almost no idea what nominal human interaction is like giving us a source of drama and all of it derived from using visual cues. Nothing about the character is for the sake of aesthetics and he's all the more interesting for it, you can guess his story just by looking at him. Remember the most effective character designs are the ones where each element has a meaning... if your character has a metal gauntlet; why does he have it? How did he acquire it and what meaning does it have too him?