Welcome to Dark Age Legends, chapter 10 sign ups! Chapter 10 will pick up where chapter 9 left off, but due to the break in the action, this is an excellent point to jump in if you haven?t already. If you haven?t been following the story the entire way through, don?t worry. You are not expected to read the entire RP-- just the summary and guidelines below. However, if you never played in a forum RP before (particularly this one) you may want to read a random page or two in the middle to get a sense of how everything works.
Current players: There are some rule changes this time. Look for things marked <span style='color:red'>(NEW)</span>.
ThemeA fantasy medieval type deal. Magic is encouraged. Technology should be low (but a few weird inventions are okay). Guns are permitted if you really want them, but they shouldn't be too effective.
ArchivesThe automatically updated <a href='
http://darkagegames.net/dal/viewer.php?id=472' target='_blank'>DAL Archives</a> might be easier to read than the topic on this forum if you want look back at the story (it?s just a script that reads from the forum database and strips off all the signature, avatar clutter, etc.) This is useful if you want to save some pages to your harddrive.
Also, there's the <a href='
http://darkagegames.net/dal/viewer2.php?mode=1&id=472&page=0' target='_blank'>big page</a>, which is the entire RP on one huge page (Caution, modem users! It's over 4 MB at this point.)
And don't forget <a href='
http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia' target='_blank'>DALpedia</a>!
Dark Age Legends Rules v1.7There are two types of people in the RP: characters and NPCs.
You can now have any number of active characters, just don't go overboard (or I'll do more amending!). 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.
NPCsNPCs 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. Generally NPCs die off or leave the story in some way after a few posts, so posting them on the sign-up isn?t necessary.
NPC Groups <span style='color:red'>(NEW)</span>
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 an edited post. (Heh...) Remember that this is a medieval world we're talking about, so it's not very densely populated.
ActionsEach character is limited to two "actions" per post. An action is something your character does. Some examples:
- Attacking another character
- Defending an attack
- 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 <span style='color:red'>(NEW)</span>
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 PostsThis 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 effect 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 actionsAs 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.
TravelTry 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.
PostingThere is a limit of two ?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-linersNo more lame one line "Character A followed Character B" posts... I mean come on. (Heh...) Let us know what they're thinking, what scenery they're looking at, or something.
Three day ruleIf you are fighting someone and your opponent doesn?t post for three days, assume they were hit by your attack and knocked unconscious (heh?)
LimitationsNo 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!
CommentsComments 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 on this 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.
<span style='color:red'>(NEW)</span> Comment-only posts are discouraged. If you want to discuss something, post in the signup topic.
Story Integrity GuidelinesThe following amendments are added to keep the basic story and RP world on track. These are mainly laws and limitations placed on the DAL universe to keep things from getting too out of hand.
DimensionsA "dimension" is defined as any place that cannot be reached on Gaian through normal means of travel (e.g. walking, flying, etc.). Gaian itself is a dimension.
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.
DAL does not operate on the "infinite number of possible dimensions" idea. You know, where there's a multitude of dimensions in which random key events occurred differently in their individual timelines, so each world is slightly different from the others, but have mostly the same people in them. I just hate those kind of stories... (Heh...) There can be multiple dimensions in DAL, but each one is unique.
The "real world" doesn't exist in DAL. There's no "real world dimension", no dimension that (largely) resembles it, and no way to reference it. (Past references to the real world can simply be forgotten. I don't expect anyone to go back and change anything.)
Dimensional TravelEach 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.)
ReadingIt is important to
read every post of the RP since your last post, and perhaps a page or two before the current point if you're just signing up. 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 don?t immediately affect your own.
If you get totally lost, just ask in this 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 are probably not as long as the collective posts the RP receives on a good day.
<span style='color:red'>Chances are if you?ve just skimmed though the above rules and jumped to this line you are not cut out for this RP.</span>(Heh?)
Character signupSpecializations <span style='color:red'>(NEW)</span>
Characters only are allowed to have a specialization in a few areas, which will be described in the character's bio. Specializations can be very specific (e.g. "Fire Elemental Magic", "Sword Techniques"), or more broad (e.g. "Elemental 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.
Bio <span style='color:red'>(NEW)</span>
Continuing players: If you've participated in the RP before, update/make an article for your character in <a href='
http://www.darkagegames.net/dalpedia' target='_blank'>DALpedia</a>, and post the LINK to it here.
New players: If this is your first time playing, post your character signup right in this thread. I'll look it over and then give you the okay to post it in DALpedia.
Include the following information in your DALpedia article/signup post:
Name:
Gender:Race: Can be pretty much anything
Specialization(s): See above
Age:
Job:
Weapon(s): plus a description, if necessary
Alliance: Could be a kingdom, tribe, cult, etc. (or no one at all!)
Description: Physical appearance
Bio: A short background. Perhaps just his/her immediate past, but can be more in depth if you want.
Chapter 1, 2, ... , 8, 9 Bio: If your character was in any previous chapters, give a short description of what he/she did in each. You can also describe what your character did during the interludes between chapters 3-4 and 5-6 if you want.
(Updates to my characters coming soon!)
Chapter 10 begins in a week or so!
As a side note, I may be taking a break from DAL for the first half of the chapter or so. (Just too much going on.) We'll see when things start up next week, though.
