The Rules & Guidelines for Corwythian roleplay.

ALL ROLE-PLAYING NEEDS RULES – THESE FOLLOWING ONES ARE DESIGNED TO HELP YOU GET AS MUCH OUT OF THE RPG EXPERIENCE AS POSSIBLE.

1. The roleplay is done as a story where the individual poster writes what his/her character does and says. The board member can have as many characters as he/she likes, but it's a good idea to spread them out in different adventures. One reason for this is that it's just not FUN to talk to yourself! Interaction is the key. The other reason is, it makes the member exercise too much control in an adventure if he/she is virtually in charge of an entire party. The board member should post their characters in the Royal Census folder with a separate reply for each character played, complete with pertinent information so that other people can refer to this as necessary. Please understand, too, that this is not a D&D-type rpg forum, so we don't need things like alignment, stats, etc. If you take a look at Almirena's character descriptions, for instance, you'll see that the type of information needed is as follows: Name, age, species, appearance, general information & skills. The aim is to have a description available for roleplay, so that others know what your character looks like, and what his/her talents are, etc. (It also helps you to define how you play with that character.)

Have you read our species information? It's one of the links at the top - the Corwyth d'Bretts (for species characters which you can play), with the monsters are listed in the Corwythian Bestiary (also at that link). Those two pages are full of essential information - but remember that we're flexible, and happy to consider new species and monsters. The Elemi, for instance, came about because of a discussion with a member.

2. Please ensure that your character does things consecutively. It's so tempting to have your character in various forums at once - but it really doesn't work! If your character wants to go to the Bazaar to buy oil, and then to talk to someone else in the Streets, and then visit the Librarian, drop in on someone at Grin St, etc., etc.,. you should ensure that all these are done ONE THING AT A TIME. You don't have to stick to real-time - for instance, your character needn't wait for 8 hours to pass by when he/she is 'sleeping' - but let events follow naturally. For example:

"Belogh trudged back to the inn, and called a swift goodnight to the innkeeper before making his way up the stairs. He opened his door with his key, locked the door behind him, and barely took the time to remove his leather armour before collapsing on the bed to sleep deeply."

Your next post can follow immediately on from this if you want to continue.

"The early morning rays stream in through the window, and Belogh groans and sits up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He stretches, and feels surprisingly well rested. Perhaps now, he thinks, I will have the strength to dig for that treasure... He performed his morning ablutions, dressed himself, and then went down the stairs.

"Good morning! What's for breakfast?" he said to the innkeeper, smiling in contrast to his tired surliness last night.

PLEASE NOTE: The innkeepers and waitresses and barkeepers and waiters don't follow this rule. They're played by the moderators and the admin, to help YOU with interaction, so you don't need to worry about working out whether 'your' time is 'their time'. If you need it to be morning, it will be morning. If you need it to be afternoon, it will be afternoon. The only time you must be careful with time is when interacting with other active characters who might be specifying their OWN time. It is relatively easy to avoid time clashes - but if in doubt, post in the Traveller's Guild to the characters concerned.

SPECIAL NOTE: The only characters that can be in more than one place at a time are The Empress, The Emperor, and Spelucetia - but the admin reserves the right to extend that list if necessary.

3. Your various characters can either join an existing adventure, or start up a new quest and recruiting others by posting a notice in the Goose and Goblin, or by asking around adventurers looking for a job. We have a 'quest assured' policy here...<grin> In other words, if you're looking for adventure, you'll find it!

4. Posting in the role-playing forums must be "in character" - not as your board personality, but as one of the created characters you are playing. You can use your board name, but obviously some board names (such as Way2hot! or MachineGunCoolGuy) - would be completely inappropriate. One of the characters I'm playing is called Almirena - she looks like me, but she's not me (I'm not an Empress – YET!)- but I'm also playing a pugnacious elf and a bishop and an Archmage and... well – you get the idea… (And I probably won't stop there - I love this!) Note that even though I'm using my board name for the first name of one of my characters, it's a separate character, and the name is appropriate for the mediaeval setting. It's necessary when posting in character to indicate as which character you ARE posting... something like this in the subject heading: *As Sue Flay* or simply *Sue Flay*.

5. To engage in a battle, you need to be careful to control only YOUR character. It's particularly difficult in this type of scenario to write a long post, so it should be something like this:

"Lepidus sees a sword flash towards him, and he raises his shield, immediately striking out with his axe, hitting Felipe on the shoulder."

And NOT something like this:

"Lepidus sees a sword flash towards him, and he raises his shield, immediately striking out with his axe, knocking Felipe's head off and kicking it away, spitting upon the fallen decapitated body and running up to the pathetic-looking head, jumping gleefully on the remains with hobnailed boots..."

(Yuck ...).

Obviously a really WELL-written fight, with everyone participating, is going to take careful posting and lots of co-operation.

If you're unsure about how to post a fight scenario, you can obtain special tuition in the College forum for a one-on-one tutorial. In general, you make a move - the opposing character (played by someone else) reacts to the move and then makes a countermove... and so on. Try not to let it drag on for too long, though... and take a look at the weapons link for further information.

6. Don't create a god-like character who can defeat everyone and has no vulnerabilities - there's no fun in that, and it's unfair. The point is not to "win" (as in a computer game) - it's to interact with the other characters.

One important thing to remember is the story is going to head in unexpected directions, because it's not just YOU playing - it's everyone. We need to be prepared for that, and be considerate of everyone's input. However, if someone has a plot line set up, and they post a comment about not spoiling it (or email someone about it), it seems reasonable to go along with that if it works for everyone. Again, the key word is "co-operation" - but "unexpected directions" is another key point. I suspect pre-designed plots in a RPG are actually detrimental to the essential idea ... it's too controlling, in general. Meaning, we reserve the right to drop a monster or two in the middle of your quest… <wicked grin>

7. NON-role-playing/out-of-character comments can be posted in one of the appropriate forums such as the Traveller's Guild. They absolutely should NOT be posted in the role-playing, as this disrupts the narrative flow. (There may be the very odd exception, however, at the discretion of Da Big Bosses – that's us!)

8. Don't control someone else's character. This means that, if you have to post someone else's response in your post, keep it to an absolute minimum and make it credible as far as their character is concerned, and fitting ... For instance,

"Celesta finds herself slipping on the edge of the steep cliff and cries out in horror. As she feels herself falling, someone reaches out and pulls her to safety."

is better than

"Celesta finds herself slipping on the edge of the steep cliff and cries out in horror. As she feels herself falling, Oggemon the Giant throws her a rope which she grabs. He pulls her to safety and plonks her down on the ground, saying, 'Don't go so near the edge next time, stupid human!'"

Even better is

"Celesta finds herself slipping on the edge of the steep cliff and cries out in horror. She reaches out her arms, trying to grab hold of something... her feet search desperately for solid ground..."

- THEN wait for someone to save you in THEIR post.

And this would be acceptable:

"Celesta sits down and accepts the loaf of bread offered to her by Harigat, who closes the door to ensure they have the privacy he mentioned they needed."

whereas this is not:

"Celesta sits down and accepts the loaf of bread offered to her by Harigat, and the fruit he puts down on her plate, and the goblet of Prunski, and then he says, 'Shhh! As I said, spies are everywhere! Sit there, stay still, and I'll make sure we don't get any unexpected visitors'. He tiptoes over to the door, looks down the corridor, and then slams it shut, locking it loudly."

Even better would be

"Celesta sits down upon one of the chairs, looking up at Harigat. 'I don't want to be a nuisance,' she begins, 'but perhaps we should close the door... the news I have is not for common knowledge.' She feels faint with hunger, and is glad to be seated."

THEN wait for someone to post - if they have any common humanity, their character will feed your character, etc.

9. And along with not trying to control other people's characters go the usual rules: don't kill someone else's characters (even if they're obnoxious characters!), don't make them do out-of-character things, don't write someone else's responses for them (that, after all, is why THEY'RE playing!), and while it's all right to stage a battle scene with NPCs, let other people join in - where's the fun in defeating a pack of 13 monsters with your superb kick-boxing skills, while everybody else is gazing on (NOT in admiration!)?

10. Keep the skills, the weapons, the knowledge, the settings, and so on to the mediaeval/fantasy setting. No time travel unless given express and special permission (why would you need it, anyway?). Obviously, that means no wandering around in a miniskirt and high heels, no racing to the rescue in your batcopter, no blowing up a fortress from twenty miles away (Greek fire would be fine to use, but they did NOT have remote detonators!), and no guns. Magic is fine... but again, it shouldn't be god-like magic - otherwise the mage is in a position of supreme power, which is completely unbalanced. A magic-user is vulnerable, too... and spells are not ALL-powerful.

Magic users, please check the magic link for guidelines - you are free to extrapolate, of course, but please don't attempt to out-magic Spelucetia. She WILL turn you into a small spotted toadstool if you try! <grin> The same applies to Refnol the Mage - and any other mod/admin controlled character that we need to set into play.

In general, just respect the fact that mod-played characters also have a function beyond simple roleplay - they're also there for guidance, assistance, and ensuring that things move smoothly. <smile>

11. Don't bring your Pet Sphinx to town! LOL! And don't make up monsters which are inappropriate, such as Species 849 from Galaxy so-and-so... Actually, before you invent a monster, it’s a good idea to post in the Traveller's Guild first, so that we can tell you whether or not it's appropriate. We do have a no-dragon policy, and no demon-character policy (unless you're playing an evil demon known as a blarghi. Please contact Almirena about that - because blarghis are monsters, this type of character WILL be killed without your permission, but it can be fun to play such a baddie!).

You can try to invade the town with hostile forces if you're playing a bad character, but we warn you now: We'll win!

Re merchants... We try to keep the merchant and shop owner characters for the mods/admin, or for players who've become familiar with Corwyth and are regular posters - for a very important reason. Such a character MUST be around for interaction whenever needed - it's not like a character in an adventure, whose posting habits can be more sporadic as your time allows. And furthermore, "official"-type characters (such as merchants, guards, waiters, etc.) are presumed to be so familiar with Corwyth that they can give advice, help, etc. You MIGHT inadvertently post something which actually isn't Corwythian... so it's a good idea to post as a questing character instead. The option is always there, once you've become familiar with Corwyth, for you to apply for mercantile permission <smile> - and of COURSE you are more than welcome to apply for entry into one of the various Orders of Corwyth... (Yes, yes, we set up an initiation - and we're tough, we're mean, we're... inventive... LOL! Seriously - we won't make it too difficult for you - but hopefully it will be fun.)

12. Thief characters - we LOVE thief characters - but just remember not to attempt to steal without being a guild member. How can you become a guild member? Well... be subtle... ask around... you might just stumble onto the appropriate people. (To be candid, if you post as a thief-type or wannabe thief-type, you will receive lots of apparently 'casual' information dropped to make it easier for you to know who to talk to, etc...)

Once you go through the appropriate tests, you'll be given membership into the Order of the Juggling Pumpkins, which gives you entry into the Thieves' Guild - and you will be given some fascinating options for roleplay...! Check the thief link at the top of the page for further information.

13. Corwythian world view is that there is one god called Ichbin. Hence, please don't import other gods into Corwyth, or play an avatar... There are no avatars of Ichbin.

Read the information about religion and society in the link at the top of the forum for further details - please feel free to play a cleric of Ichbin, etc.

This is not negotiable - you'll make us feel terribly mean if you ask for permission to use other gods, but we the admin/mods will hold firm and have any heretics mummified and stuffed into pickle jars. <grin> It's how we created Corwyth, part of the world view. Please note, too, that society is structured along mediæval feudal lines, and that impacts on roleplay.

14. Above all - HAVE FUN! Email us if you have ANY questions at all... remember that this is a developing forum, and we are always amenable to suggestions. We might not act upon those suggestions, but we'll definitely consider them!

 

 

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