RP Guide

This is scary, I'm talking to you, well the reason is that I'm a frustrated designer, I have to have something to do or I start eating Worlds, and you don't want that to happen so here goes, I'm going to ramble on Ashirion and anything else that takes my fancy, scary eh? you're damn right, and it's scaring me to just talk about it. :)

What is Ashirion? That's a tricky one but it's a roleplaying game, now this might confuse a few people but we're not in the business of handing out RP on a Silver platter, we'll prod, we'll push and we'll direct from the shadows but often we will not sit for 24/7 and provide you with non-stop RP for every single character you have. Why? because if we did we'd end up with nothing done RL, and quickly become jaded of the whole thing. Believe me, I've seen it before, so it's up to you as the player to get onto the Game Grid and seek out rp, page people interact, get to know the face behind the character and see if you like their style and they like yours...create little stories of your own. No one's going to rip your head off about it, unless it's a story that runs something like this?

"Hey Valdarnin? guess who I killed today?"

"Err? one hundred town guard?"

"No, I snuck up behind the Lord Whitewolf and knifed him in the back with my kitchen knife, he died real easy..."

This is likely to trigger a full scale headhunt from the Shakari and the rest of those people who really like to stomp on 'evil' characters...

And probably an informal chat in my lair.

I have no problems with people who like to play evil characters but those who do will have to realise that to every action, there's a reaction and it might not be the one you like. I don't enforce any kind of moritorium on evilly aligned people but I do expect those who play such to come to the GM's and myself with any plot that might unbalance the game world, harm or injure a critical character, or any other reason etc. This might be thought of as a kind of unnoficial guide to various aspects of RP, mostly for those new to the World who might not have played in this kind of environment at all. So if you are going to play a evil character or one who rocks the boat, you'd better be ready for the boat to become unstable and be prepared to have IC PC's and NPC's track you down if you're overtly evil.

Ashirion is not a really nice-nice place, it's a real world, there's good and there's utter evil, twisted and nasty evil that corrupts the soul and forces the body into shaking spasms of fear, we tend to take a dim view of any character who is super-human, and cannot be harmed, you start running through combat without losing, or taking a wound, we'll start keeping track of this ourselves and once again, you'll visit my lair for a few informal chats and instruction in fairness. Not to rant but I've had reports already of some combat problems in the game, and well even my feature characters get hurt. And yes the staff play feature characters as well as a few normal ones, so when you're out there on the Grid and you decide to give the player of say Markus some lip OOC, you'll find you just insulted the game's owner, author and god of the MU*. ICly is a different matter, if it's in the characters nature ICly, then that's fine, I'm not going to bite over that.

The same goes for magical powers, demonic entities and generally those things that by all rights should put the fear of the Gods into a player, what I like to see are those characters who will hold a sword against a demon with fear in their eyes, but a strong heart, and internal battle waged...do they attack or run like hell? do they stand or flee? I mean these things are scary...when one of the Shakari goes into FULL Battleform battle form, dons their armour, they're around fourteen feet tall, full of claws and teeth and can render most non humans and humans into kibble in a matter of seconds, it's only because the Shakari are so well controlled that they don't become power-playing machines. The moment someone plays one of them like a Werewolf and not the noble defenders of justice they should be, is the moment that Shakari is taken from them. The Shakari, the Eldrin are legends in their own right, read the history and theme...these are the creatures that made it possible for the good folk to sleep easier against the Void and the Risen. The moment that they fail to inspire that sense of wonder, you have to wonder yourself if you're playing a character or just another cardboard cut-out.

The Risen and the Void, tangible evils

These are just two of the very twisted evils that I created to scour the face of Ashirion, they are not playable by the players and very few staff have ever been granted access to one, they are the faceless evil that stalks the night, if one appears, one of the Risen Lords and Ladies, or one of the Void. You better learn to run and run fast, they are like Darth Vader, the ever present evil that crawls from the shadow and invades your homeland putting it under a terrible potent power.

The Risen are the undead of Ashirion and they come in many shapes, forms and sizes of taste...from the shambling masses of Zombie like hordes, to the skeletal armies of the Lich Lord, note I say LICH Lord, not many Liches but only ONE. Wraiths and Shadows all of them fall under the auspice of the Risen. Controlled by the Thirteen Lords and Ladies of the Risen, and I'm not going to even speak of them and their names, it's most likely that pretty soon for the staff will come the Evil Document, but I don't feel like going into massive detail on the Risen Lands...

The Risen again, how to deal with one, they as I said come in many shapes and forms, shambling zombies are disgusting creatures, they look and smell awful, they have rotting flesh and guts that usually hang out like knotted slickened ropes. When you slash them to bits they keep coming the only way to eliminate one of them is to cut it down and keep chopping till there's nothing left to even chop. Off comes the head, the head will moan on the floor, and the body will keep stumbling after you.

Wraiths, Shadows and other non corporeal beings. These are hellishly scary to confront, they don't show wounds and often non-magical weapons will just tickle them, they exude a cold aura and can drain the very life force of a creature just by contact. These things should make you want to run to the other side of the room and scream 'MOM!!! It's picking on ME!!' if you have a patron deity, pray to them...tis wise.

The Void? Oh them, that's not the right way to address the Void, this is.

RUN! RUN very FAST and very FAR AWAY!!!

There is no being more feared on the face of Ashirion than the Void currently, pretty soon they might have a run for their money but that story is only just beginning. The Void appear akin to wraiths but they speak in whispers and echoes, they seem to move one step behind reality with a soft footfall of apparent doom. Their goal is balance, and their way of doing this is to render the whole Universe into one perfect Void, devoid of all life save the perfect form of it, nothing, ironic really since the Void are a lifeform in of themselves. But don't try and reason that with them, it will only make them 'balance' you all the more quickly. If you want a good comparison, the Void and the Borg are good mirrors, save that the Void just 'balance' by totally annihilation of all things, alive or undead...until the Void remains. If you meet a hooded wraith like figure and it speaks like so.

"We are all and nothing, we are the end of everything, we are the last motion on the wheel of fate.." RUN, because unless you know how to stop/kill it...you're dead...

Of course this is not an exhaustive list of darkness, there's much more out there, that is to be feared of, or met with magic or non magic blade...it's all part of the fun.

Ashirion, Incarnations and powers that be...

In all sense and purposes they are Gods, but unlike a lot of the lower fantasy worlds, or some High fantasy worlds, here the Gods can walk the mortal realm in disguise and do so frequently, the Ashirion themselves are felt in all places, as immortal as the weather and time of day, they provide the weather and climate, storms and shine for the broken Sphere, without them all things would cease to be as they are now. They are powerful beings and each possessed of a knowledge that transends most mortals abilities to understand.

So when you are in their temple, or a holy place it's unwise to actually speak ill of them openly, because you might actually gather their attention enough to drop in and have a word with you, they are curious beings and delight in mortal interaction, they won't harm a mortal...well unless the Season happens to be High-Lord Summer and you have really pissed him off or something?

Try to remember that these are infinitely powerful beings who are not Mortal and they don't have the same buttons that we do, if you tell one to 'fuck or piss off' you might find that they break their non-harming of mortals and give you a taste of 'Seasonal Goodwill' I.E. Lord Autumn might just walk away, and the next time there's a storm, you'll be dodging lightning like raindrops.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Ok so Icly you can say, I don't respect the Gods, I don't believe in them, that's all well and good, but we work on actions/consequences and let me illustrate to you one such problem with not believing in a force like luck ;)

Fortune smiled, she did that so rarely these days, what with the goings on in Kemman Dell and the current run of lousy hands at cards, well one lousy hand. Of all the people she had to pick a game with, Fate, the Legend. 'Damn cheater' she thought as she made her way through the town of Kemman Dell, someone bumped into her, he looked like a thief, or a vagabond, her kind of guy.

"Watch the frig where you're going bitch!" He snarled. Ok so he didn't make a good first impression, and his hands were certainly going places that even some of her previous lovers had been /very/ careful of, so she tapped her foot, cultivating her mortal smile and poise...and her mortal knee.

*CRUNCH* He doubled over in pain.

"I should...kill...you for that..." He snarled, rising to his feet, painfully.

"Yes, you should, but you wont..." Fortune beamed her smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I don't think your profession could take a run of bad luck."

"Aint no such thing as luck, and the goddess don't exist, she's a figment of th'priests at the temple, to make us believe in ideals they want."

Insulted? yes she was...and she was so damn real, she was going to prove it...

They went on their way, Fortune back to her home to brood, and the thief, back to his job, but for weeks, he couldn't get a single pocket to pick right, he picked a Shakari's pocket, got clawed for that, his wounds got infected and his blood poisoned. He could not break into a house, the door was stuck, the window wouldn't smash, he slipped and broke his leg, got gangrene and had to have it cut-off. And eventually, still stubbornly refusing to believe in Fortune, he wound up as a beggar on the street.

A woman passed him, he thought he recognised...and tossed in a gold coin...one only...after six hours, he had a pile so large he could barely believe it. Then it clicked and he grew afraid...very afraid...one lucky coin, with that woman's face on it...Fortune, the Goddess of Luck.

Credo.

Adventure? Etiquette and stuff

Thus begins another of Wolf' informative guides to the aspects of roleplaying, well at least I hope they are informative and of some use to you. So you have a character on Ashirion but what is there to do? hrm, tricky question...there's a lot of gameworld out there to explore and we'll be adding more and more as time goes on, new areas become open and new concepts tested. I'm an evolver...an author who doesn't like to let things sit and stagnate.

So what about Adventure...well, I'm going to be getting people to add Dungeons to this world as there have always been so, such twisted and evil places do exist and you should have the right to explore them, they'll be ICly nasty places, full of traps and monsters, at least tis my hope they will. But there's also so much more to adventure, than combat and monster bashing...there's the intricate flow of subtle plans to ferret out, like what's happening in Kemman Dell, and how can I get involved. Don't be SHY OOC, ask around and people might tell you or even involve you in some of the shennanigins...

Interact with your fellow players, this is a game with real people and players who like to share stories, like an interactive novel, save that you are one of the many stars of that book and can shape your destiny how you feel it should be shaped. The key to sucessful rp on here and other places is creating a character that lives, breathes and most of all feels real to the other people. Have likes, dislikes, hates and loves. Don't spend every waking moment attempting to have tiny-sex with every single woman or man on the MU* get out there and interact with the population get involved and play the character. If he/she is flirtatious, fine, if he/she is downright sexual then fine. Most of all try and make them seem real to the other people in the game and your own sense of enjoyment will be magnified.

This brings me to a concern of mine, if you log in, connect to the game then you're here to interact with the game-world and story, we ask that you actually attempt to play your character here and not have to be 'poked prodded cajoled or forced' into roleplaying or making a pose, if you spend too much time idle in a public grid RP room, then we will force your PC into the OOC area unless you have mentioned that you're idle for a few mins, any longer and we respectfully ask you to either log out or put the PC into +set ooc mode so you can idle in the OOC area we created for such.

I play on the grid as a number of characters and there is nothing more annoying than going through a three line pose three times, because people were idle in the room, missed the screen, switched worlds and their buffer can't cope. If you're IC and in an IC area then please be IC and keep idling IC to a minium.

Also please respect people OOC, the moment that I get a report of behaviour that violates the MUX's rules of conduct I will follow it up as best as I can, and the moment that too many lines have been crossed I will have no choice but to take action which could result in the nuking/toading of a character, the character being removed from play for a week or so, having the connect flag taken from it or set slave. Or even just thrown in our OOC Jail to cool off for a while? I don't like to have to be heavy pawed but I will be if I am forced to take action. This is a game, but it doesn't mean that the person OOCly on the other end of your jibe, joke or comment, won't take offence. Let's try and make it fun for all.

After all that's said and done, so far there have been hardly any incidents for me to poke my muzzle into so alls well and good, I'm impressed with the new staff and the new crowd of players. Harlequin and most of you all have very good lyrical pose styles that work well with the flow of the world and the game, you don't have to be spoon fed rp 24/7 or at all, and will go out and find it yourselves, this is good to see. One concern however is that I would ask people NOT to pose the Barstaff or Puppet NPC's they might see hanging around a place unless they specifically have permission from me or one of my RP staffers for the scene or duration of their stay on the game, this serves two reasons...one it keeps consistancy and two it keeps the NPC's into the hands of the staff where they are most well used. I do not enjoy seeing Kennig Darandar for instance speaking in an upper-crust english accent, or cowering like a ninny from a fight. This is a hard bitten Shakari soldier who retired from the Wolf Knights for a very good reason, he can enforce order in his bar quite nicely if he has to.

Have fun within the game world people, but not at the expense of other players and you'll have a happy and wonderful time on A:TBS. And you'll enjoy my company and possibly friendship even more, you'll get to interact with a number of characters in and around all the locations, and you should find that you enjoy all there is to enjoy. And more.

~Wolf - The Bosswolf