How to Start

INFODUMP

First, let's go into a little bit of what The Coterie is and what it is not. It is what we like to call a freeform text and image based rpg (RolePlaying Game). It is not a journal or blog. It is a place to express your ideas with others and perfect your roleplaying. It is not a place to bury yourself in a corner of your own world and forget to interact with others. It is an intricate world of adventure, magic and mystery. It can be a place for those who try to expand their vocabulary and understanding of literary aspects. It is not a nesting ground for those fluent in chat or L337 speak.

You can start by thinking of a character. Think long and hard; You'll be stuck with it for a while. For ideas, you can look at the already found creatures and beings in The Bestiary. This character should be very basic and pretty mundane. You don't want to have you character completely finalized and have no where for your story to develop!

Your character will need a name, species/race, gender, career, age, height, weight, hair description, eye color, general description, background and any physical health problems. You don't need eveythign right now, so start with a name.

Once you have a name, Make an Account.Make your Username the same as your character's name, or what you want to be called. It you want William Henry Phillip to be called Lefty, make Lefty your Username.

Next, go to the Residential Block and hit New Topic in the upper left. Make the subject line YOURNAME's Room. Copy the following text and paste it into the body of the post.

Code: Select all [size=200]Biography[/size] [size=150]BASIC INFO[/size] [b]Name: [/b] [b]Species/Race: [/b] [b]Gender: [/b] [b]Career:[/b] [b]Age: [/b] [b]Height: [/b] [b]Weight: [/b] [b]Hair: [/b] [b]Eyes: [/b] [b]Description:[/b] Anything that should be easy to find out about you, such as your skin color, body build and common clothing. A picture is nice. [b]Background:[/b] Important things that cannot be easily determined about you such as where you're from and how you got here. [b]Permanent Health:[/b] Things like scars, missing eyes and psychological problems.

[size=150]STATISTICS[/size] [b]PRIMARY[/b] [b]Strength[/b]: [i]Your general physical ability. Improved by working out.[/i] [b]Will:[/b] [i]How hard you're trying. It's all about who wants it more.[/i] [b]Intellect:[/b] [i]All those little connections over time add up. Not reasoning, but knowledge.[/i] [b]Health: [/b][i]The general well-being of your body.[/i]

[b]SECONDARY[/b] [b]Intelligence Quotient (IQ):[/b] (Intellect * 10 points) [i]A score designed to assess intelligence.[/i] [b]Lift Strength:[/b] (strength * Strength / 5 pounds) [i]How much you can lift over your head in one second.[/i] [b]Survivable Blood Loss:[/b] (Health / 5 Liters) [i]The maximum blood loss you could survive.[/i] [b]Speed:[/b] ((Will + Strength)/5 Meters) [i]The length of ground you could cover in a second.[/i]

[b]Max Stamina:[/b] (Health + Will) * 10 [i]Used to add to melee attack power and subtracted from if damage is dealt. Once it reaches 0, you're either dead or incapacitated.[/i] [b]Bodily Resistance:[/b] (Health + Strength) [i]Unconscious resistance to things like poison or radiation[/i] [b]Sensitivity:[/b] (Intellect + Health) [i]Your perception and how well you observe what's around you and notice things[/i] [b]Mental Resistance:[/b] (Intellect + Will) [i]How well you defend against attacks on your mind like hypnosis or brain-washing[/i] [b]Dexterity:[/b] (Intellect + Strength) [i]Quickness, agility and skill.[/i] [b]Physical Resistance:[/b] (Strength + Will) [i]How well you get out of the way and absorb damage[/i]

[b]TERTIARY[/b] [b]Athleticism:[/b](Strength + Will + Health) [i] Your general skill in moving, throwing, jumping and large motor skills.[/i] [b]Climber:[/b] (Strength * 3 ) [i]How well you can climb things like buildings or rock walls[/i] [b]Swimmer:[/b] (Strength * 2 + Will) [i]How well you swim[/i] [b]Stealth:[/b] (Will * 2 + Intellect) [i]Your ability to not be seen[/i] [b]Animal Connection:[/b] (Will + Health * 2) [i]Your aptitude towards communicating with animals and avoiding conflict[/i] [b]Sense of Direction:[/b] (Intellect * 2 + Will) [i]How well you orient yourself[/i] [b]Medicine:[/b] (Health * 2 + Intellect) [i]Your ability to use what's available to stop or reverse injuries to your buddies[/i] [b]Linguistics:[/b] (Intellect * 3) [i]How well you know languages. Every 20 points is one language spoken quite fluently[/i] [b]Research:[/b] (Intellect * 3) [i]How much History and how many facts you know and remember[/i] [b]Mathematics:[/b] (Intellect * 3) [i]Your ability to crunch numbers[/i] [b]Mechanics:[/b] (Intellect * 3) [i]How well you can design, reverse engineer or repair a mechanical device[/i] [b]Hacking/Robotics:[/b] (Intellect * 3) [i]How well you can infiltrate, reverse engineer or repair a robotic or electronic system[/i] [b]Explosives:[/b] (Intellect * 2 + Will) [i]Your usefulness with explosives[/i] [b]Melee Weapons:[/b] (Strength * 3) [i]Your skill in fighting with close range weapons[/i] [b]Launcher Weapons:[/b] (Will * 2 + Intellect) [i]Your skill in combat with long range weapons[/i] [b]Hand to Hand Fighting:[/b] (Strength + Will * 2) [i]Your skill in fighting with your bare hands[/i] [b]Majick Combat:[/b] (Will * 3) [i]Your skill in fighting with majick[/i]

Fill in all the details at the top after the b and the bracket. If you don't want to tell something, like your full background, leave it blank. Pictures are nice for the description. Add them by pasting in an image's url and surrounding it with the IMG tags.

The next part is your primary Statistics. You start with 40 points to distribute between the four statistics of Intelligence, Strength, Will and Health. You can go extreme and have them really unbalanced, but that may hurt you in the end.

The next part is the rest of your stats. Replace the parenthesis and everything after them by using your primary statistics to perform the operations indicated. So,

Intelligence Quotient (IQ): (Intellect * 10 points) A score designed to assess intelligence.

turns into

Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 90

if your Intelligence was 9.

Then make a reply to your room (Using the quick reply at the bottom of the thread or the Reply button) With the following text.

Code: Select all [size=200]Storage[/size]

This post will hold all your nontrivial possessions like weapons, items and armor.

Submit that post and make another one with this text.

Code: Select all [size=200]RP Point Record[/size]

This will be an index of all your RP Points. This makes you accountable and trackable to make sure your math is correct and nobody cheats.