[OOC] Starless

[Taka]

I'm definitely interested and I have a character in mind though I tend to really base my character off berserk in such an instance. I have a mythology and such. Though I have questions the same as Yoshua so I'll wait till you answer those first.

[Dextkiller]

My goodness, what's that now? 19? Lots of attention.

[Dead Cruiser]

Yeah. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, and so my heart goes out to our Glorious Leader.

[Shienvien]

@yoshua171: *waves back* I'm the omnipresence. Got to hold up my reputation.

[yoshua171]

@Kal-El lol I see you following me around xP

@Shienvien lol I suppose you do xD

[ravenDivinity]

'Tis I, your loyal co-GM and Lord Protector of the Starless Roleplay, here to answer your questions, @yoshua171.

Answers Emporum

Frequently Asked Questions

^{(They're not frequently asked, the title just flows better and fixes the hider eating my indentation.)}
Is it one character per player?
As far as I know, one character is the limit. If, however, it is not the explicit rule, then it is definitely what has become common or convention per precedent. You will also notice that we are offered free reign in controlling NPCs and that the only stipulation is that we be trustworthy enough to not abuse such a power—as is frequently the case in this roleplay. Much of the creative liberty, which Transience has awarded us, is granted to us in good faith.

What worldbuilding and lore creation has already occurred which cannot be found in the OP?
That is a good, albeit tough, question. I would like to scour through the whole OOC and the IC to take note of the lore and world so far, but the difficulty arises in the sheer pile of posts which I would have to sift through to find the answer. I might actually try and do so, but there are so many posts (roughly 820) in the OOC already, many of them just #banter and not actual substance.

Concerning magic...
Well, the first part here is clear: magic is definitely a thing. There is most certainly powerful, spell-flinging magic, and it is certainly capable of leveling mountains and slaughtering demonic hordes with holy fire. One thing that I have noticed is that magic usage is limited to the legends themselves and the gods and that the common man is not capable of magic. Enemies created by myself and Transience might be capable of it, but outside those that I named, I am unsure whether anyone else has any kind of magical power. Still, I am fairly confident there will not be further limitations to magic and its capabilities aside from those placed by the players themselves. Again, magic is one of those "good faith" issues. Hopefully, we can trust you to be fair and reasonable about it.

Are we limited to human or humanoid races?
Transience said this already; we are limited to humans as it is an anthropocentric roleplay. But if you can design a well thought shapeshifter, go ahead and take your shot!

Where's the story so far?
I... am not entirely sure. I myself have to update my understanding of where everyone is at, but I will say that you are not explicitly required to know everything that is happening. Introducing new people to the roleplay has been so far fairly easy, since most of that work only requires exposing the setting and plot to them bit by bit as they join and immerse themselves. From there, it's simple enough to put them into the action with all the other characters.

Is there a loremaster?
Nope! Nope-ity, nope, nope! There is no such title nor has there ever been in the roleplay. Everyone contributes to the lore aside from things that occurred before Ansur guided his people into Ansus. It is no person's sole duty to dictate how anything works in the roleplay, and the GM, as with most roleplays, has the final say on it. The bestiary and the lore sections in the OP need updating. When I summarize the roleplay so far after clearing some school stuff off my plate, I'll have a more definitive answer to stuff that's happened so far. I guess, concerning your question though, Transience is technically loremaster.

Are there any other realms? Are we open to there being others as long as they make sense and don't over complicate things too much?
I will keep silent on this question for a little bit and perhaps leave it for Transience to answer.

In regards to NPCs, how many is acceptable, how fleshed out can they be, what happens if one becomes commonplace and shows up quite often, actually becoming important in some way, can an NPC become--or be played similarly to--a character?
NPCs are infinite in number. They are created and exist by necessity. NPCs which do not exist with respect to the established lore and rules are all which are off limits. For example, you cannot create an NPC that is the current president of Ansus because Ansus does not have a presidency; rather, it has a monarchy. There is no limit to how developed an NPC can become either, and they can ascend to a pseudo-character status minus the player exclusivity.

How do we feel about complexity, the ambiguous, the vague, the mysterious, the obscure, and the convoluted?
There is already quite a bit of that in the lore thus far, and it would be pretty accurate to say that this roleplay is open to all of those things. Is complexity allowed? Definitely. Is complexity, to the point where nobody can make sense of it, allowed? Probably not, but again, all in good faith. This is after all the Advanced section, and we trust most players to use good judgment. That policy has worked, and I like to think it will continue to do us well.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that anything I say may not be 100% correct and that @Transience is the final authority on all things here, and he can verify whether the things which I have said were true or not.

One more thing. I invite everyone who has submitted lore in the OOC to present it, so that we may keep record. After I take care of some business, I will try to reread the IC and summarize the plot.

Edit: I also think, like @Vigfast, that the roleplay lends itself more as a story than it does as a game, and the goal is not to make powerful characters, but to create interesting, developed characters who do their duty as plot drivers. In the future, I plan on revealing Altim's flaws and showing that these legends are not all that they are presented as. That too seems to be the major theme; these are great figures, but the plot gives strong reminders that they are not as good as history makes them sound. Do not make a character that is strong or flawless, make a character that is unique, defective, and rife with lessons to be learned.

[Dextkiller]

@ravenDivinity correct developmental arcs for the win!

[Free Faller]

Well, fuck. I don't know if any of ya'll have bothered to throw any of those squiggle-dots I use as dividers in my posts into Google Translate, but I just did out of curiosity of how well they translated... The answer is not good, and there was some pretty profound/poetic shit in there too, Lol. Ah well, it still looks cool.

Anyway, I'm half-way through with a post. It should be up tonight sometime.

Oh, and also, we're getting more players than you can shake a baby at. Which is awesome. One day we'll have enough for a legit army, which we're probably going to need.

[Dextkiller]

Oh, and also, we're getting more players than you can shake a baby at. Which is awesome. One day we'll have enough for a legit army, which we're probably going to need.

@Free Faller

I just hope it doesn't get to be too much.

[Vigfast]

Do not make a character that is strong or flawless, make a character that is unique, defective, and rife with lessons to be learned.

@ravenDivinity

Thanks to the wonders of mead, I'd like to make a shout-out to flaws in characters and limits to power.

In an RP like this (fairly free form, chill with rules, big/scary bad guys), one naturally is tempted to write some super powered, magically fueled death machine...but, long experience has shown me that such characters are essentially...not interesting at all.

[lydyn]

@Vigfast I do feel like noting that one can write a super powered, magically fueled death machine and still have an interesting character. It becomes less about what they can do and who they are as people. My mind naturally goes to Superman.

Edit: However I do agree most people have issues with making Mary Sues as it were when writing powerful characters.

[Vigfast]

Yeah, no arguments there, I mean there are people who have written about gods and managed to make it interesting.

I think, what I would argue though is that as you bump up the power of your character, it requires increasingly more discipline to keep yourself in line with the RP, the other players, and even "who" your character is.

In a supremely silly reference (on my part), it really comes down to the ever classic "with great power, comes great responsibility" quote.

[lydyn]

@Vigfast I totally agree! Takes maturity and discipline. ^.^

[Vigfast]

And funny hats obviously.

[Dextkiller]

@Vigfast@lydyn
I agree with you both. Power creep can turn into a serious issue. It's always important to keep your character's flaws in mind as well as their strengths. Fear, emotions, morality. Building a REAL person is tough because you may know what the RIGHT decision is, but maybe not what decision your character would make.

[Dawnscroll]

Yeah, no arguments there, I mean there are people who have written about gods and managed to make it interesting.

I think, what I would argue though is that as you bump up the power of your character, it requires increasingly more discipline to keep yourself in line with the RP, the other players, and even "who" your character is.

In a supremely silly reference (on my part), it really comes down to the ever classic "with great power, comes great responsibility" quote.

@Vigfast

Absolutely agree with Vig here. It's important that people keep their characters well within the realm of reality in regards to strength

*whistles as he cleans six new dragon skulls*

[Taka]

How do you guys get your sheets to look so pretty?

[Dextkiller]

@Kal-El search "line dividers" in Google. Save them up or link them in. If you're adept in something like Photoshop or illustrator you can always whip yourself something up pretty quick.

But its not a deal breaker if you aren't, there's plenty of good stuff out there!

Edit: also, you can usually find character reference pretty easy.

[yoshua171]

I agree on the whole power thing really. I mean, I've made some really powerful characters in the past, two of which are my favorite characters not because "Oh, I can defeat all the people and cause all the destruction," but because of how and why they use that power and what kind of people that power has made them become.

One of them is my all time favorite and longest running character: Zume Tatasuko (sometimes called Arkaeis Zraimat). He has super high intellect (like...beyond human high)+very strong sensory capabilities and usually some kind of "void," magic, which is really quite complex. Depending on the verse he's in I either have to put limiters on him to balance him out or he is naturally balanced already. However, while his power is certainly interesting, it's more his motivations and how he interacts with a world that makes him fun.

In all honesty if I wasn't playing him so well, he'd be an archetypal or perhaps even gary stu character. Instead everyone who has ever written or read him enjoys interacting with him because he's just...interesting.

Plus, despite Zume having a lot of strengths, he has his weaknesses. The people he cares about happen to be one of them. In one verse that he's in, his weaknesses are a bit more evident as he is more among peers rather than being stronger than a good portion of individuals as he tends to be in another verse.

Zume's hard to explain as he's a ridiculously complex individual both in abilities and in personality so I'm probably not doing him justice right now. He's one of those characters you have to really see in action rather than understand in theory, if that makes any sense.

---

The other really powerful character I have is Szayeis, who was a shapeshifting demonic lord, to put things lightly. He had status, his own kingdom, immense power, and was feared by many. However, he had a good many flaws. He has a certain arrogance to him, or at least pride of a sort. Not to mention he was deeply scarred by events in his past, which were largely responsible.

Again Szayeis is an archetype in that he is the Archetypal "evil". However, I don't really play him being "evil," as straight as some might as he does have his good sides, though rare. He isn't entirely beyond repair, even though he is pretty much morally reprehensible in every way ^^;

He especially managed to be interesting when something which threatened his continued existence (and the existence of the universe in which he lived) was threatened and it directly related to his individuality and soul. He was thus forced to work with people who he would otherwise only be fighting, which showed some more depth to his usually cruel, manipulative, and highly amused/high and mighty personality.

His power certainly lent him a lot of influence over others (be it through fear or sheer authority), but he wasn't interesting or fun to me because he was powerful, as I mentioned. He was interesting because he had an intriguing, nuanced, and deep personality.

So yeah, I'm...pretty good at using power in characters more for the purpose of it being a part of them which they have earned through many trials and tribulations. For such characters I tend not to reveal exactly how they rose to power, but instead prefer to allude to it, use flashbacks, and gradually reveal all the nuance and history written in their being--if you will.

Anywho, I'm rambling now.

Response Emporium

Is it one character per player?
As far as I know, one character is the limit. If, however, it is not the explicit rule, then it is definitely what has become common or convention per precedent. You will also notice that we are offered free reign in controlling NPCs and that the only stipulation is that we be trustworthy enough to not abuse such a power—as is frequently the case in this roleplay. Much of the creative liberty, which Transience has awarded us, is granted to us in good faith.

@ravenDivinity

In regards to NPCs, how many is acceptable, how fleshed out can they be, what happens if one becomes commonplace and shows up quite often, actually becoming important in some way, can an NPC become--or be played similarly to--a character?
NPCs are infinite in number. They are created and exist by necessity. NPCs which do not exist with respect to the established lore and rules are all which are off limits. For example, you cannot create an NPC that is the current president of Ansus because Ansus does not have a presidency; rather, it has a monarchy. There is no limit to how developed an NPC can become either, and they can ascend to a pseudo-character status minus the player exclusivity.

@ravenDivinity

Well, since NPCs are largely open in that manner I figure I won't have to worry much even if there is a strict one character rule. It's just that I tend to get lots of ideas for things that really inspire and amuse me...and this seems like something that will do so quite a bit. So yeah, there's that. I'd obviously keep from making NPCs that didn't fit into the world as that'd be unreasonable and silly :P

What worldbuilding and lore creation has already occurred which cannot be found in the OP?
That is a good, albeit tough, question. I would like to scour through the whole OOC and the IC to take note of the lore and world so far, but the difficulty arises in the sheer pile of posts which I would have to sift through to find the answer. I might actually try and do so, but there are so many posts (roughly 820) in the OOC already, many of them just #banter and not actual substance.

@ravenDivinity

Hmm, I see. Well I suppose that's alright then. I mean it is 20 posts to a page I believe. So 820/20=41 pages give or take a few. Might be easier if you have several people do it and assign each person a certain amount of pages like:

X you search through pages 1-10, Y you search through pages 11-20, etc etc. Having made a world with exorbitant amounts of lore (all either talked about or written out by various people) I know the importance of having that lore available in one place. Especially for new people joining in :P

I know I'd certainly be interested to see what people have come up with in those 820+ posts.

Concerning magic...
Well, the first part here is clear: magic is definitely a thing. There is most certainly powerful, spell-flinging magic, and it is certainly capable of leveling mountains and slaughtering demonic hordes with holy fire. One thing that I have noticed is that magic usage is limited to the legends themselves and the gods and that the common man is not capable of magic. Enemies created by myself and Transience might be capable of it, but outside those that I named, I am unsure whether anyone else has any kind of magical power. Still, I am fairly confident there will not be further limitations to magic and its capabilities aside from those placed by the players themselves. Again, magic is one of those "good faith" issues. Hopefully, we can trust you to be fair and reasonable about it.

@ravenDivinity

Hmm, I see. So magic has no rules at the moment. I mean, that's more or less fine, plus it allows for specific forms of magic to perhaps have rules and everyone get what they want I suppose (within reasonable limits of course).

Are we limited to human or humanoid races?
Transience said this already; we are limited to humans as it is an anthropocentric roleplay. But if you can design a well thought shapeshifter, go ahead and take your shot!

@ravenDivinity

Hmm, shapeshifters eh? I presume by shapeshifter you mean something more akin to Changelings...if anyone knows what those are lol. Basically, they can only turn into humanoid appearances (not forming any new limbs/appendages), but they can alter their facial and body structure to look like pretty much anyone they want to. The changes take a few minutes depending on how used to it they are at that point. They also tend to be amazing actors.

Where's the story so far?
I... am not entirely sure. I myself have to update my understanding of where everyone is at, but I will say that you are not explicitly required to know everything that is happening. Introducing new people to the roleplay has been so far fairly easy, since most of that work only requires exposing the setting and plot to them bit by bit as they join and immerse themselves. From there, it's simple enough to put them into the action with all the other characters.

@ravenDivinity

Alright well it'd take awhile for me to get through all of that due to how busy work is keeping me at the moment. Still, since the pace seems moderate-slow I should be able to keep up once I have a character and whatnot. I might read the posts during free moments at work, it'd certainly be something to do.

Is there a loremaster?
Nope! Nope-ity, nope, nope! There is no such title nor has there ever been in the roleplay. Everyone contributes to the lore aside from things that occurred before Ansur guided his people into Ansus. It is no person's sole duty to dictate how anything works in the roleplay, and the GM, as with most roleplays, has the final say on it. The bestiary and the lore sections in the OP need updating. When I summarize the roleplay so far after clearing some school stuff off my plate, I'll have a more definitive answer to stuff that's happened so far. I guess, concerning your question though, Transience is technically loremaster.

@ravenDivinity

Being a loremaster doesn't necessarily mean you submit or control all the lore (or even that you finalize it). It only requires you have an exceptional understanding of most/all existing and presented lore. Noted though.

Are there any other realms? Are we open to there being others as long as they make sense and don't over complicate things too much?
I will keep silent on this question for a little bit and perhaps leave it for Transience to answer.

@ravenDivinity

Kk, I await Transience's response.

How do we feel about complexity, the ambiguous, the vague, the mysterious, the obscure, and the convoluted?
There is already quite a bit of that in the lore thus far, and it would be pretty accurate to say that this roleplay is open to all of those things. Is complexity allowed? Definitely. Is complexity, to the point where nobody can make sense of it, allowed? Probably not, but again, all in good faith. This is after all the Advanced section, and we trust most players to use good judgment. That policy has worked, and I like to think it will continue to do us well.

@ravenDivinity

Well that's a relief, thanks.

I also think, like @Vigfast, that the roleplay lends itself more as a story than it does as a game, and the goal is not to make powerful characters, but to create interesting, developed characters who do their duty as plot drivers. In the future, I plan on revealing Altim's flaws and showing that these legends are not all that they are presented as. That too seems to be the major theme; these are great figures, but the plot gives strong reminders that they are not as good as history makes them sound. Do not make a character that is strong or flawless, make a character that is unique, defective, and rife with lessons to be learned.

@ravenDivinity

Often I make a character and then I realize how strong/effective they are after I have fought with them once or thoroughly thought of all the ways I could use their ability or abilities/equipment together. I only asked so I didn't step on any toes if I did decide to make someone particularly powerful. My goal is never just to have power for the sake of power. I use it more as a story device than anything else.

[Dead Cruiser]

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