Post by Destination Darkness on Jan 24, 2007 20:03:47 GMT -5
The method of character creation used on this site might appear daunting but it truly is not. Taken directly from the character sheet provided in the original rpg, this method is going to be a bit different than what most online rpgs offer so I will try to be as blunt as possible. You'll notice that the form is broken down into three parts.
The first section is the important one, a massively long list of various things. This is all about your character basically, the stats in a sense. It has little to do with personality and appearance as of yet, the second section is for that stuff. The first part of this section, general information, refers to the basics. Name, age, height, tribe and so on. This stuff you should already know how to fill out and is basic need-to-knows about any Garou character. After that, you will find a list of various "Attributes". This is where things get a little unconventional.
Attributes refer to your character's skills and abilities, pretty much, what they can and can't do and what they are good and bad at doing. Each individual attribute will be explained below but for now, let's just go over what this system is all about. Attributes and Abilities are measured in numbers, 0 being the absolute worst and 5 being extremely exceptional. Using a number scale of sorts, you will fill out the list, pretty much determining what your character is good and bad at, what they know and don't know how to do. It is actually quite simple, if a little abnormal for an online text rpg.
So, what are these stats used for? Not much, to be honest with you. They're mostly to stay true to the original Werewolf: The Apocalypse, which was a table-top rpg that used these stats to determine the outcomes of any and all actions taken. However, they do in fact serve a small purpose here as well, one very much the same as their purpose in the original game. These stats should help, but not necessarily determine, the outcome of events in character. So, if your character has poor social stats, they should not be running around sweet talking everyone else. Likewise, if you're rping with a character with poor social skills, your character should not fall victim to their attempts at word play.
Again, the stats don't out-right determine what happens in character but they should definitely have a significant impact. I don't want to see Lupus Garou driving like Speed Racer or a Red Talon hacking into government files.
There is no limit to the number/amount of attributes and abilities a character can have. I will be the judge of that. Should I deem your character too "powerful", their attributes will need to be changed. Do not worry about it too much though. Simply do what you think fits your character best and I will be sure to alert you should changes be needed. To give you a sort of reference, the average number of dots for attributes is 15 (every Garou starts out with one dot in each attribute, so you really only have 6 to move around) and 27 for Abilities (which can go absolutely anywhere). However, for the sake of variety, I will allow up to 30 dots in the attributes and 40 for the Abilities. But do not take this for granted! I do not want to see every single new character with 30 dots under attributes. Newbies should stick with 15 and 27 for their first character and then, as you prove yourself a respected member of the forum, you may add more depending.
So, after you fill out the Attributes and Abilities, you will find a few things called Advantages. Backgrounds are chosen from the list provided below and, like Attributes and Abilities, your character's strength within that particular background are determined by a number. Do be aware that backgrounds are often limited by the tribe your character is in and that you only have five total points you can use on backgrounds... Usually. Now, again, I'm stretching the rules a little and I will probably allow slight variations but nothing too serious. Maybe 7, probably 6... but not 12 or anything insane.
Gifts are also chosen from a list that will be provided. Like spells, they are special secrets and abilities of the garou. These gifts vary between the species so those who choose a non-garou character creation may in fact "invent" a few gifts for that character but again they will need my approval. Gifts are determined by rank and by breed, auspice and tribe. However, all beginning characters have only three level one gifts, one for each category. Meaning, you pick one gift for your breed, one for your auspice, and one for your tribe. You cannot pick two for breed and one for tribe, it doesn't work like that. So pay attention to that sort of thing.
Gifts can and often are taught/learned as your character lives their life and I often will allow other gifts to be added to your character's arsenal as time goes on. Rarely though, do I allow more than the standard three at creation. If you can back up your character's extra gift with a detailed account in their history or a good reason for having the gift, I might let it slide... but generally, let's stick to three, shall we? The same loop-hole applies to backgrounds as well, but again, let's keep things limited.
Renown is next, a trait that later determines how others perceive your character. Garou with high Honor are usually respected for their acts of justice and fair handling of situations while Garou with high Glory are regarded for their bravery and triumphs. Initial Glory, Honor and Wisdom are all determined by auspice. From there, it is earned via role-play, only to be awarded by myself or other staff members for actions and events that your character handles in character. If you think your character has done something extraordinary, pm me about it and renown awards will be considered, though most rewards are determined via a chart provided in the Werewolf: The Apocalypse guide book. To give you a few examples, revealing a garou to be corrupted by the wyrm will award a character 6 wisdom while falsely accusing another Garou will get your character -5 honor and -4 wisdom. There are more minor activities, such as besting another being in a riddle contest or helping to guard a caern... but I'm not going to list them all.
So what is renown exactly? Renown determines a Garou's rank and rank determines a werewolf's power and respect. Just like in a wolf pack, the higher ranking Garou have more power than the lower ranking ones and can use more powerful gifts. All garou start out at rank one when created and must obtain a certain amount of renown to seek out the next rank. The exact requirements varies between auspices and shall be listed below.
After rank, we have a few things called Rage, Gnosis and Willpower. Again, these values are represented by numbers and are determined by your character's auspice, breed and tribe respectively. They will also be displayed in your profile should you somehow forget what they are. What are Initial and Current? Well, your initial rage/gnosis/willpower is what you start out with but more developed characters may have gained gnosis/rage/willpower either through rp or perhaps sometime in the character's past (which would have to be explained in the history). Which means, their current rage/gnosis/willpower would be higher than it was 'initially'. That's all.
How do you gain rage/gnosis/willpower? Staff members will award it to your characters depending on how often you role-play with them and how they behave during said role-play. So, for example, a character that almost constantly uses their gifts or communicates with spirits a lot might be awarded an extra Gnosis point after some time. Like wise, a character who frequently gets angry and is very primitive in behavior will gain a rage point. And a character who commonly shows an overall calm, level-headedness will gain willpower. Though these points were important in the table-top version of the rp, on this site, it's just so people can get an idea of your character's personality and magic skill level, very much like the Abilities and Attributes. They only influence what happens in character. So a character with higher rage is more likely to get angry and, most importantly, more likely to shift in a stressful situation while a character with more willpower is less likely to do either of those things, as well as being less likely to fall into traps or fall victim to mind games.
Next, we have a category titled Fetishes. No, these are not the fetishes you're thinking of. They are weapons/items usually infused with a magical being or spirit, giving them magical properties. You will find a list of these a little further down. Only Garou with a Fetish background can have a fetish and even then, what kind of fetish is limited to the number of points under that background. Certain fetishes require more points than others, and the only way to gain any sort of background points is to be taught by others In character.
Finally, we have a few miscellaneous things. Battle scars is obvious, where you describe any battle scars your character might have obtained and what impact they have physically. Though Garou can heal quickly, they do scar sometimes.
The Metis Deformity only applies, obviously, to metis characters. Metis are always deformed in some way or another. Though it truly varies from individual to individual, I will provide a list of the most common below. It is encouraged that you come up with your own deformity though, for variety's sake.
So, with that section of the bio filled out, the rest is easy. The second section is the kind of bio form you are probably used to, where you tell us what each of your character's forms look like and how your character generally acts. You don't have to go into too much detail but do try and make them each like a paragraph. Again, you don't have to but it'd be nice. The character history should however be rather detailed. Tell us what happened before their Rite of Passage, how they experienced their first change and what it did to them and others emotionally, who they lived with and where, how they dealt with being Garou and why they chose to live that way. I'm expecting at least a good sized paragraph here unless your character is really young. Three paragraphs is optimal.
The final section is just so we can keep track of which characters belong to whom. Just fill out the info, you know what that's all about.
The first section is the important one, a massively long list of various things. This is all about your character basically, the stats in a sense. It has little to do with personality and appearance as of yet, the second section is for that stuff. The first part of this section, general information, refers to the basics. Name, age, height, tribe and so on. This stuff you should already know how to fill out and is basic need-to-knows about any Garou character. After that, you will find a list of various "Attributes". This is where things get a little unconventional.
Attributes refer to your character's skills and abilities, pretty much, what they can and can't do and what they are good and bad at doing. Each individual attribute will be explained below but for now, let's just go over what this system is all about. Attributes and Abilities are measured in numbers, 0 being the absolute worst and 5 being extremely exceptional. Using a number scale of sorts, you will fill out the list, pretty much determining what your character is good and bad at, what they know and don't know how to do. It is actually quite simple, if a little abnormal for an online text rpg.
So, what are these stats used for? Not much, to be honest with you. They're mostly to stay true to the original Werewolf: The Apocalypse, which was a table-top rpg that used these stats to determine the outcomes of any and all actions taken. However, they do in fact serve a small purpose here as well, one very much the same as their purpose in the original game. These stats should help, but not necessarily determine, the outcome of events in character. So, if your character has poor social stats, they should not be running around sweet talking everyone else. Likewise, if you're rping with a character with poor social skills, your character should not fall victim to their attempts at word play.
Again, the stats don't out-right determine what happens in character but they should definitely have a significant impact. I don't want to see Lupus Garou driving like Speed Racer or a Red Talon hacking into government files.
There is no limit to the number/amount of attributes and abilities a character can have. I will be the judge of that. Should I deem your character too "powerful", their attributes will need to be changed. Do not worry about it too much though. Simply do what you think fits your character best and I will be sure to alert you should changes be needed. To give you a sort of reference, the average number of dots for attributes is 15 (every Garou starts out with one dot in each attribute, so you really only have 6 to move around) and 27 for Abilities (which can go absolutely anywhere). However, for the sake of variety, I will allow up to 30 dots in the attributes and 40 for the Abilities. But do not take this for granted! I do not want to see every single new character with 30 dots under attributes. Newbies should stick with 15 and 27 for their first character and then, as you prove yourself a respected member of the forum, you may add more depending.
So, after you fill out the Attributes and Abilities, you will find a few things called Advantages. Backgrounds are chosen from the list provided below and, like Attributes and Abilities, your character's strength within that particular background are determined by a number. Do be aware that backgrounds are often limited by the tribe your character is in and that you only have five total points you can use on backgrounds... Usually. Now, again, I'm stretching the rules a little and I will probably allow slight variations but nothing too serious. Maybe 7, probably 6... but not 12 or anything insane.
Gifts are also chosen from a list that will be provided. Like spells, they are special secrets and abilities of the garou. These gifts vary between the species so those who choose a non-garou character creation may in fact "invent" a few gifts for that character but again they will need my approval. Gifts are determined by rank and by breed, auspice and tribe. However, all beginning characters have only three level one gifts, one for each category. Meaning, you pick one gift for your breed, one for your auspice, and one for your tribe. You cannot pick two for breed and one for tribe, it doesn't work like that. So pay attention to that sort of thing.
Gifts can and often are taught/learned as your character lives their life and I often will allow other gifts to be added to your character's arsenal as time goes on. Rarely though, do I allow more than the standard three at creation. If you can back up your character's extra gift with a detailed account in their history or a good reason for having the gift, I might let it slide... but generally, let's stick to three, shall we? The same loop-hole applies to backgrounds as well, but again, let's keep things limited.
Renown is next, a trait that later determines how others perceive your character. Garou with high Honor are usually respected for their acts of justice and fair handling of situations while Garou with high Glory are regarded for their bravery and triumphs. Initial Glory, Honor and Wisdom are all determined by auspice. From there, it is earned via role-play, only to be awarded by myself or other staff members for actions and events that your character handles in character. If you think your character has done something extraordinary, pm me about it and renown awards will be considered, though most rewards are determined via a chart provided in the Werewolf: The Apocalypse guide book. To give you a few examples, revealing a garou to be corrupted by the wyrm will award a character 6 wisdom while falsely accusing another Garou will get your character -5 honor and -4 wisdom. There are more minor activities, such as besting another being in a riddle contest or helping to guard a caern... but I'm not going to list them all.
So what is renown exactly? Renown determines a Garou's rank and rank determines a werewolf's power and respect. Just like in a wolf pack, the higher ranking Garou have more power than the lower ranking ones and can use more powerful gifts. All garou start out at rank one when created and must obtain a certain amount of renown to seek out the next rank. The exact requirements varies between auspices and shall be listed below.
After rank, we have a few things called Rage, Gnosis and Willpower. Again, these values are represented by numbers and are determined by your character's auspice, breed and tribe respectively. They will also be displayed in your profile should you somehow forget what they are. What are Initial and Current? Well, your initial rage/gnosis/willpower is what you start out with but more developed characters may have gained gnosis/rage/willpower either through rp or perhaps sometime in the character's past (which would have to be explained in the history). Which means, their current rage/gnosis/willpower would be higher than it was 'initially'. That's all.
How do you gain rage/gnosis/willpower? Staff members will award it to your characters depending on how often you role-play with them and how they behave during said role-play. So, for example, a character that almost constantly uses their gifts or communicates with spirits a lot might be awarded an extra Gnosis point after some time. Like wise, a character who frequently gets angry and is very primitive in behavior will gain a rage point. And a character who commonly shows an overall calm, level-headedness will gain willpower. Though these points were important in the table-top version of the rp, on this site, it's just so people can get an idea of your character's personality and magic skill level, very much like the Abilities and Attributes. They only influence what happens in character. So a character with higher rage is more likely to get angry and, most importantly, more likely to shift in a stressful situation while a character with more willpower is less likely to do either of those things, as well as being less likely to fall into traps or fall victim to mind games.
Next, we have a category titled Fetishes. No, these are not the fetishes you're thinking of. They are weapons/items usually infused with a magical being or spirit, giving them magical properties. You will find a list of these a little further down. Only Garou with a Fetish background can have a fetish and even then, what kind of fetish is limited to the number of points under that background. Certain fetishes require more points than others, and the only way to gain any sort of background points is to be taught by others In character.
Finally, we have a few miscellaneous things. Battle scars is obvious, where you describe any battle scars your character might have obtained and what impact they have physically. Though Garou can heal quickly, they do scar sometimes.
The Metis Deformity only applies, obviously, to metis characters. Metis are always deformed in some way or another. Though it truly varies from individual to individual, I will provide a list of the most common below. It is encouraged that you come up with your own deformity though, for variety's sake.
So, with that section of the bio filled out, the rest is easy. The second section is the kind of bio form you are probably used to, where you tell us what each of your character's forms look like and how your character generally acts. You don't have to go into too much detail but do try and make them each like a paragraph. Again, you don't have to but it'd be nice. The character history should however be rather detailed. Tell us what happened before their Rite of Passage, how they experienced their first change and what it did to them and others emotionally, who they lived with and where, how they dealt with being Garou and why they chose to live that way. I'm expecting at least a good sized paragraph here unless your character is really young. Three paragraphs is optimal.
The final section is just so we can keep track of which characters belong to whom. Just fill out the info, you know what that's all about.