FFRP Central: All players start here!

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: This is a new thread following Happy Turtle's original.

Introduction

Hello, and welcome to FFRP Central. This thread is intended to be a One Stop Shop for newcomers and veterans alike, to help players find games and games find players, and to allow for discussion among members of the community.

What is the FFRP forum all about? It's about roleplaying a character in a universe or setting that is freeform and open ended, with no DM and with new players welcome to join at any time.


"Hi. I'm new here! How do I get started?"

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Welcome! Every roleplaying universe is different, and more will come to exist after this guide is written. Start by posting here in the FFRP Central thread and introducing yourself. Tell us what kind of roleplay you're interested in. Someone will come along and direct you to the current OOC thread of the universe that is right for you. While you're waiting, read the faqs below and browse the index in the post below to familiarize yourself with the subforum.

Universes

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Like Ongoing Games, FFRP has multiple games going on at one time. What makes a game go here and not there? According to Roland:

If it doesn't have a DM (even if there is some plot or conflict resolution by consensus), can be joined by anyone at anytime, and is roleplaying, it belongs in FFRP.

He didn't say it should also be systemless, but I think that's implied by the name of the subform.

The FFRP section is divided into different role playing universes, and each thread should be identified with a [Tag] in the title to show which one it belongs to. Since games come and go, and some don't survive, they will not be indexed in post two of this thread until a setting has been existence for at least six months and is still going strong.

"None of these settings are what I want. How do I start my own?"

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Anyone can start a game up at any time. There is no approval process. However, there are some guidelines that are recommended to help avoid early game death from lack of interest:

1. Check in at this thread first with your idea. Let's say you want to start a Cyberpunk universe. If there is already a Cyberpunk themed game, then check it out first. Maybe you'll decide you'll have enough fun in the existing universe that you stop here.

2. If you think your Cyberpunk universe is different enough to want to continue, then recruit some players. You may find it useful to use the Finding Players subforum, since most of the players in ffrp are already involved in roleplay universes and may not be looking for more games to play in.

3. Once you've collected some players, go ahead and start your thread. This is the important part: CHOOSE A THREAD TAG to identify your game, and make sure it is in brackets at the start of the title of every thread you make.

4. Watch this thread for new people introducing themselves and looking for places to roleplay. Invite them to your thread! Roleplay! Have fun!

5. Once your game has been going for six months: Congratulations! Most new games do not survive this long! PM me with whatever information you'd like to go in the index and pat yourselves on the back.

[LibraryOgre]

Game Index:

[BitP:Reborn] Bleach in the Playground: Reborn 2

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Name of the universe: Bleach ITP Reborn
Tag: [BitP: R]
Description: A FFRP taking place in the Bleach setting.
Character Limitations: Must fit within the setting, can't be Captain-power from scratch. More info can be found in our wiki
Founding players: strawberryman, horngeek, and a host of others.
Other notes: As noted, we have a wiki, and we recommend looking at it. We had a long set-up period, so we deviate from Canon somewhat.
Style: Shonen, Urban Fantasy, Hungry Ghosts, Soul Reapers, over-large swords and general wackiness.
What Makes This Different From Other FFRPGs? Ever thought Bleach has much of its potential wasted by Tite Kubo's lack of penmanship? Well, come over here and show if you can do any better!
Date Created: Set-up started in May 2010, playing started at June 2010

[CHB] Camp Half Blood

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Name of Universe: Camp Half-Blood
Tag: [CHB]
Description: A place where teenaged children of the Greek Gods live safely and curtain.
Character limitations: It must be a child of some sort
Founding player(s): waterpenguin43
What makes this different from other FFRPGs?
The whole Greek Gods bit.

Camp Half-Blood (of Percy Jackson fame) is a place where teenage children of the Greek Gods of various ages come to live moster-free lives, enjoy a variety activities and curtain (we're working on that). Right now there's a war against the titans going on (pretty much all you can do with a plot involving Greek Gods. ) and various arcs (vaguely or strongly) relating to them spring up.
If you want to join, just post on the OoC thread, someone will link you to the Character Creation thread, and you're in!

[FiM] My Little Pony

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My Little Pony mainstream. See the OOC thread for more details.

[OPT] The Other Ponythread

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Name of the universe: The Other Ponythread RP
Tag: [OPT]
Description: Takes place in the original Ponythread setting. But the setting is relatively unimportant: this is just the place to go if you have random characters you want to wander around in a Celestia-less Equestria.
Character Limitations: We're kinda chill about that. We have eldritch abominations, powerful demons, god-slayers, and a monstrous rendition of the Mane Six running around. Heck, we even have a Kryptonian (which, if you realize just how OP Kryptonians are, says a lot). So long as you're willing to let your characters lose encounters on occasion, you're fine.
Founding players: Crimson Doom, Rater202
Other notes: There's no approval process; you can just jump right in. However, to make it easier to have new people join, it would be helpful if you could post a character profile as soon as is feasible. Also, since I've appointed myself to make a history, if I'm running behind, feel free to nag me until I catch up.
Style: Generally speaking, this is a Clash of the Gods kind of thing: what happens when several extremely powerful characters wind up in the same space all at once? There tends to be a fair bit of combat and conflict, but there's also been romantic subplots, and there's certainly room for other genres. In short, we're flexible.
What Makes This Different From Other FFRPGs? Most FFRPGs tend to heavily discourage overpowered characters. This RP, by contrast, is almost entirely composed of them, and so overpoweredness is, if not encouraged, at the very least tolerated. If you have characters that were deemed too powerful for other RPs, odds are they're acceptable here, so long as you're not stupid about it.
Date Created: 08/06/2013, although the original Ponythread RP that this is a spinoff of began on 09/27/2012.

[FWM] My Little Pony: Friendship Was Magic

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Name of the universe: My Little Pony: Friendship Was Magic

Tag: [FWM]

Description: An dark alternate universe interpretation of the FiM universe. In here, Princess Celestia declared herself as the Eternal Tyrant of Equestria, the Iron Hoof. Subsequently overthrown in a civil war that restored her sister, Princess Luna to power, Equestria is now known as the New Lunar Republic. The current RP deals with the aftermath of that civil war and revolves primarily around the town of Bridle Shores.

Character Limitations: You must be a pony, obviously. (Or any one of the known races in the MLP-verse) Your characters, ideally, should take into account the alternate timeline and keep to a reasonable power level. If in doubt, feel free to drop by the OOC thread and ask.

Founding players: Crisis21, Lixie Lorn

Other notes: Most of the background information has been recompiled into a GDoc link in the first post of the OOC thread. We’d recommend at least reading some of it before getting started. It is a WIP, so please excuse the mess.

Style: Ponies, Dark, D&D-esque, Wacky Tech Levels, Ponies

What Makes This Different From Other FFRPGs? We feature ponies. With swords. More seriously though, if you like MLP, love RP-ing ponies, but wish a darker setting than the show, then this might be the place for you.

Date Created: 31/7/2011

[FoE]My Little Pony Fallout Equestria

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Post-apocalyptic pony universe. See the OOC thread for more details.

[Nexus] The Nexus (former names: Town, Acronymia)

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Name of Universe: The Nexus (former names: Town, Acronymia)
Tag: [Nexus]
Description: A nexus of realities where all cosmologies are true. At the same bar, there could be a DnD barbarian, a 24th century shadowrunner, a Jedi, a cthuloid monstrosity, and a perfectly mundane baker's apprentice.
Character limitations: No limitations except for the forum rules.
Founding player(s): Town was founded around the dual between players Mortia, and Lykan. Then evolved with the addition of Sneaks Milk Bar. Then kept growing and changing.
Other notes: There's no pre-approval process, but if you come and say hi in the Nexus OOC thread, people will try and help your character get settled in.
Style: Comedic, dark, angsty, romantic, apocalyptic. All over the place, really.
What makes this different from other FFRPGs? This is the oldest and most established universe, the one the subforum was created for. It's also the most chaotic and anarchic as there is no overarching plot, consistent rules, or guiding hand. The advantage of this is that you can play any character you like. The disadvantage is that your character may not work quite as expected when they are taken out of their home universe and left to deal with people from different cosmologies. If you value order and consistency, it may not be for you, but for sheer chaotic roleplaying fun, Nexus is clearly the best choice. </biased opinion >
Date created: ~2005

Inactive Universes (might be revived):

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[FMAitp] Fullmetal Alchemist ITP

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Name of Universe: Fullmetal Alchemist ITP
Tag: FMAITP
Description: An RP taking place in the FMA Universe
Character limitations: Must fit the setting, and not overpowered.
Founding player(s): Maximum Zersk, Moon Wolf
Other notes: None
Style: Alchemy/Shounen/Storytelling
What makes this different from other FFRPGs? It takes place in the FMA Universe, and is more guided and is less tolerant of silliness than the Nexus is
Date created: 2010

[Naruto] NarutoITP

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Name of Universe: NarutoITP
Tag: [NarutoITP]
Description: A FFRP taking place in the universe of Naruto/Naruto Shippuden.
Character Limitations: Must fit the setting, not overpowered.
Founding Player(s): Callos_DeTerran; Innis_Cabal
Other Notes: None.
Style: Shonen/Ninjas/Fighting/Adventure
What Makes This Different From Other FFRPGs? It takes place in the universe of Naruto/Naruto Shippuden. There are alliances, organizations, and clear examples of good vs. evil. It has more of a guided plot with key battles than some other FFRPG's.
Date Created: October 2009.

[Rail] Railgun in the Playground

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Name of the universe: Railgun in the Playground
Tag: [Rail]
Description: An RP based on the To Aru Majutsu No Index/To Aru Kagaku No Railgun setting. It takes place in Academy City and focuses solely on the Science side.
Character Limitations: Must be consistent with the setting. No Magicians. Subject to approval.
Other notes: More information may be found in our wiki.
Style: Shonen; High technology; Teenagers with psychic powers; School life; Tragedy and comedy
What Makes This Different From Other FFRPs? It's set in a technological wonderland which looks idyllic on the surface, but has a hidden dark side beneath. The setting has a flexible mood which is equally suited for both serious drama and silly hijinks. It also has a lot of potential axes for conflict, ranging from supernatural vs mundane to the tried and true good vs evil.
Date Created: Approx. August 2010

[Twi] Lynching Games (Twilight, Eragon)

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Name of Universe: Twilight Lynching Games
Tag: [Twi]
Description: A free form/structured hybrid in which you play as established fictional characters from a variety of settings and to battle with the characters of the Twilight series of Novels/Movies as well as other PCs.
Character limitations: Depends on the particular game but usually only restricted by desired power level and plausibility of them existing in modern times. Also, we keep things limited to established fiction characters.
Founding player(s): Cracklord, Industrious, Doliest, Darkblade
Other notes: Each thread represents one game with the thread's creator as the GM who plays the canon Twilight characters and other NPCs.
Style: It's basically a sandbox game with direction.

Name of Universe: Eragon Lynching Games
Tag: No Tags
Description: A free form/structured hybrid in which you play as established fictional characters from a variety of settings and to battle with the characters of the Inheritance Cycle series of Novels as well as other PCs.
Character limitations: Depends on the particular game but usually only restricted by desired power level and plausibility of them existing in Fantasy setting.
Founding player(s): Cracklord, Industrious, Doliest, Darkblade
Other notes: Each thread represents one game with the thread's creator as the GM who plays the canon Inheritance Cycle characters and other NPCs/
Style:

Date created: ~2009

Do you want your universe indexed here? Has it been active for six months or more? Simply PM me with the details you want added. You can use the format above, or write your own description. If you want a link to your character directory or OOC thread, this is fine, but it will be your responsibility to let me know when the links need updating!

[LibraryOgre]

General guides to freeform roleplaying:

These universes obviously cater to different audiences and employ different genres, moods, tones, and themes. But they do share a few things in common, these being the rules. Now, these rules aren't absolutes. Different universes, threads, and posters might be more or less permissive than these rules, and there is always room for a little variation. If there is a conflict between these rules and the rules of a specific setting, or a specific thread within that setting, those will have priority over these general guidelines.

Godmodding: What it is and How to Avoid it Written by Vael

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Godmodding: Taking control of someone else's character without their expressive permission. This term applies to any extent of control, especially including any reactions to something you have done.

Using this definition of godmodding condenses our rule ‘Do not Godmod’ to one very simple but inclusive rule: Do not control someone else’s character. This seems a simple enough thing to avoid, but in some situations (such as combat) people take control in a limited way without realizing it.
Still using combat as our example, here are three examples of godmodding. One blatant, one general, and one subtle in successive order:
(And yes, Vael is me. Darn my godmodding! )

1. Vael shoots a blast of energy at (PC) and the energy rends (PC) who falls dead with a wail.
2. Vael swings a sword at (PC) and strikes home, leaving a small angry red line of blood.
The third example is split into two posts by two separate people to show the entire situation:
3. Post (PC) – (PC) draws his weapon and readies himself for combat, going on the defensive.
Post (Vael) – Vael slashes (NPC), giving him a gaping wound and reverses the attack, striking at (PC)

The first example of godmodding is obvious, I attacked someone and killed them, usurping all of their control over their character, not even allowing them to describe how they died.
The second example is fairly noticeable as well. I attacked and rather than allowing them control over their character, I went ahead and said that they were hit rather than giving them a chance to respond.
The last one is a rather subtle godmod, though it is still there. I did not post a definite reaction for the PC, only saying that I attacked them. I did not kill anyone’s NPC without their permission, only using the NPC with general license. However, what I did do was presume that I hit the NPC. What if (PC), or another person nearby had wanted to prevent me from harming the NPC? I effectively denied them a chance to react to my attack, though my use of the NPC was okay.

Godmodding in non-combat situations is just as bad as doing it within combat. Some examples of non-combat godmodding are as follows:

1. Vael casts Heal and cures (PC)’s wounds.
2. Stealthily Vael picks (PC)’s pocket and steals (something).
3. Vael dodges the bouncer blocking the door and runs outside.

In the first example I did not allow someone the chance to say how grievous their injury was, or even if they had something that would resist healing spells. In short, they lost a chance to react. You would normally assume people like getting healed, but in town people are crazy, so you never know.
Second example. What if the character is sharp-eyed, clever, or simple lucky? Again, try to do something rather than succeed.
Third example. Now this seems okay, and perhaps in responding to someone else’s post it would be. But if someone says “I block the door” and you run past them without letting them respond, it is godmodding. This, perhaps, is not the best example, as it could be either godmodding or a reaction statement that is fine. I include it merely so that you can see that there are different levels to godmodding, and that it is complex to determine whether some things are godmodding are not. If you aren’t sure, don’t act, try to act.

Now that I have defined godmodding and given some examples, the question to answer is: How can I avoid godmodding by accident?
The answer is this: You can try to do anything to someone, but they control what actually happens to themselves. Never deny someone a chance to react, no matter what you do. Before you post, consider what you have written. Do you directly affect someone with it, adversely or positively? Do you block them off from some options that someone would normally have in their situation? If the answer to either question is yes, you probably need to revise your post.
Note, however, that the definition states that this is only godmodding if you do not have someone’s permission. If you obtain someone’s OOC permission to godmod, then feel free to godmod against them within their restraints. However, I recommend that you merely work out someone’s response before time, just in case something unexpected comes up (like another player interfering).

However, just as bad as taking control of someone else's character is making your own never get affected by them. As Regiji says: "The counter part to an irresistible force is an immovable object." Therefore, you should let people at least achieve SOMETHING when they attempt to affect you. You don't have to all the time, but if your character is continually "immovable" you will be godmodding, and people will be extremely likely to ignore you. So don't just "I dodge" everything, okay? Let people do something to you if they try.
Also note that there is another form of godmodding similar to the above, which will be known as ‘passive godmodding’ (kudos to Iames for the name). Passive godmodding is when a player ignores an entirely legitimate post for little to no reason. If you miss reading a post, that is one thing, but to ignore a post intentionally is very bad form. You are allowed to react to someone’s post in nearly any way you want, but ignoring it really should not be done unless they are godmodding or adversely affecting an ongoing plot without permission.

Threads

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As stated way back at the beginning of this guide, in FFRP, a thread represents a location in which interactions take place. In larger universes, you move your character from place to place by moving from thread to thread. Some universes may take place within a single thread.

There are a few different types of threads.

Out of Character threads are for discussion and banter not within the narrative of the roleplay. These should be your first stop when starting in an FFRP universe.

Public threads constitute the majority of threads in FFRP. These threads represent IC locations that are open to all characters. You can pretty much just hop in, get to interacting, and have fun.

Closed threads and plot threads are beasts of a different nature. Closed threads are private places, open to only a select few or only reachable only through certain IC means. Plot threads are usually created to contain the events of a plot, and are usually open only to those involved with that plot.

To find out where you can post you should read the first post of the thread to see if it contains any relevant information (which it usually does), ask in the OOC, or ask a participant or creator of the thread via PM or some other means.

Plot

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Plot is a term applied to events or series of events comprising a storyline. Plots are either created by players deliberately or emerge out of natural, normal interactions. In plots, people sometimes mess around with the rules a bit. Godmodding of a limited form might be permitted if it aids the plot.

Also, plots can also be somewhat resistant to outside interference. While I personally encourage people to be flexible, to not plan for their plots to end in a certain way, and to be open to new influence, it is true that, for the most part, plots are resistant to interaction from people who are not participating in the plot. This will vary from universe to universe, plot to plot, and from user to user.

Deadtime

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A deadtime is a state in which your characters cannot be harmed, but cannot interact with anything around them. You put your characters into deadtime when you are about to log off and stop roleplaying for a bit. A character in a deadtime cannot be affected by anything going on around it.

If a character is deadtimed, and a plot or series of events would likely evoke a reaction from that character, it is polite to wait for the character to undeadtime and react before advancing the plot or events.

Some verses might have IC explanations for deadtimes.

The Curtain

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The curtain is employed when two characters become physically intimate. When two or more characters decide to have sex, the curtain falls to shield the eyes of the innocent from the festivities and to give some privacy for the participants. This is to both a) abide by the forum rules and b) to keep things relatively family friendly.

Mods have had to remind people in the past to pull the curtain early and not often, and this is possibly the issue that has caused the most mod interventions in this subforum. Remember, there are other roleplaying forums on the internet that are rated R (or X ), but this is not one of them. Keep it clean, and remember we don't need to know where everyone's hands and lips are at all times.

Safe: "Romeo pulls Juliet into a kiss and the curtain falls."
Potentially Problematic: "Romeo kisses Juliet passionately, his hands reaching under her bodice and..." (foreplay goes on for numerous posts before the curtain falls)

Official Word of Mod here.

Your first character

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So, you're ready to make your first character. One of the hardest things to get used to in ffrp is that you don't start out in an adventuring party, and there's no DM to push characters together. You'll have to actually find people to interact with on your own. Here are some tips (not requirements!) for making that easier on your first character:

• Don't be the quiet person in the shadowy corner. If you roleplay as someone who is outgoing and talkative, you'll find it easier to make IC friends. Someone who is curious or greedy will be more open to plot hooks and adventure opportunities. But if you roleplay someone who is shy or quiet or wary of other people, you're likely to be left alone.
• Don't be openly evil. If you walk into the tavern and start murdering npcs, you are unlikely to make a lot of friends and likely to get jumped on by a bunch of PCs who were looking for a fight.
• Consider starting low-powered. It's tempting in a freeform system with no scores or points to decide that your character is the best at everything, but where will they go from there? They can always gain powers or magic items or skills as they go on.
• Don't be too needy. Remember in ffrp, you are not THE hero of the story. You are A hero, and there are many stories. The characters you meet at first are likely to be involved in their own affairs. Some players start by having their character immediately in need of rescue, healing, training, attention, etc. This can work well, but make sure you have a plan B in case there is no one willing to drop everything to devote themselves to being your rescuer! Can your character make it if they receive only a minimal amount of help, or none at all?
• Don't be too self-sufficient. Remember in ffrp, you are not THE hero of the story. You are A hero, and there are many stories. If you are a combat powerhouse and a healer and a master of obscure lore and a spellcaster, people are likely to get weary of their characters taking a back seat to yours and decide you can do just fine without them.
• Be aware of deadtimes and real life. Sometimes, not many people are online and active. Sometimes the people who are may only have a limited time to play and want to use it to progress their favorite storyline instead of meeting new people. Try to be patient and remember that it won't be long before you'll be the one wrapped up in your own favorite storylines. Talk to people in the ooc thread while you wait for your character to get 'stuck in'.
• Have fun! Remember this is a game, and if it isn't fun, you aren't doing it right.

Tips For RPing Written by Artemis97

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Tips For RPing

And so, let's begin. In no particular order...

Character Speech

When someone is speaking, we need to know who! Speech colors help to differentiate speech from normal narration, and each of our characters from each other, but if other players do not know to who each particular color belongs, all we see are disembodied words. When two or three people do this over the course of a few pages, it gets very confusing. So tell us who's talking!

So, instead of: Hi! How's it going?

Try: Bob says, Hi! How's it going?

Also, I humbly suggest we all start using quotation marks. I will admit this is a pet peeve of mine, and not entirely necessary, but it is proper English and if you accidentally miss a color tag, or don't even want to use colors, your text is still understood.

So: Bob says, "Hi! How are you?"

New: Another thing, try to use your character's name every few posts. If all we see is 'he' or 'she' all we learn is the speaker's gender. And try and include a brief description when you enter a new place, or are talking with people who might not know who, or what, your character is. That way we don't spend ten pages having a normal conversation with what turns out to be a "Ten foot tall undead wookie."

Next up...


Location Tags

Some threads in FFRP are larger locations that may have smaller locations within them. Even a single building has many rooms. Using location tags helps us all know where your characters are and where the action is at, helps us know who and what our characters can and cannot see, and keeps things organized for those of us reading through large threads and following only one storyline. They're pretty simple, just put where you are at the top of your post.

Like so:

Streets

And then your post continues... blah, blah... you get the idea.

Some of us put brackets around the location, to further seperate it.

[Streets]

And some bold it to make it that much more noticeable.

Streets or [Streets]

Location tags are handy things. Even if your characters are just upstairs in the Taverna, it keeps us all from thinking they're in the middle of the common room.

Moving on...


Big Scenes

That is, scenes involving more than two or three players. Now, I know we're all bored and we all want to make our characters talk and do stuff, but we need to exercise a little patience and keep our fellow Players in mind. Especially during a big fight, give everyone a chance to respond. We all type at different speeds, and some of us might have a little more to say than others. In either case, if the situation we're responding to changes, we have to spend more time editting out posts to reflect the change. If this happens multiple times, it can make a player feel left behind and alienated.

This brings up another topic


Editing

If I edit, and you edit, then he edits, but I edit again.... it gets really confusing. Again, just exercise a little patience, maybe wait until your next post to reflect the change.


Lonely Characters

If you see someone put a character into a thread that isn't seeing a lot of action, throw a character their way. It doesn't have to be one of your regular characters, heck it doesn't need to be a character at all. A monster suddenly popping out of nowhere make things rather interesting and can cause some fun for both parties. Anyways, my point is, don't leave your fellow players hanging. When it seems like no one wants to interact with you or your character, it alienates you. We lose players this way. I know we don't mean to be unfriendly, but it really isn't a nice thing.

This goes double if the player in question is new to the sub-forums. Don't let us lose people before they even start to play. FFRP is a fun place, let's share it with them.


Well, that's about all I can think of right now. Like I said before, this is meant to be a discussion. Feel free to make your own suggestions. And I want to say again that none of this is meant to hurt anyone. This is done in a hope to help all of us.

Thanks for listening, and please do weigh in.

~Artemis

On Overpoweredness by Firefox

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This essay was written in 2008. The specific references and examples are out of date, but the general principles remain relevant.

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On Overpoweredness in the Town, by Douglas Tudor

Some of you may have noted the alarming tendency of Town characters to be incredibly powerful. The more observant of you may have noticed that this is by no means limited to strength of power in a fight. In this essay I intend to explore the extent of overpoweredness in the Town, the causes behind it, and possible solutions.

I. On the Magnitude of the Problem

Many characters in Town are just frankly overpowered; they are so strong and skilled as to defy all sense of modesty, much less realism. But what exactly is “overpowered”? For the purpose of this essay I propose to define it as a state of a character’s being that comes about through the character excelling in any given area or focus to the point of making other characters feel inadequate. Simply put: an overpowered character is too powerful. Some examples of this are a character being immortal, a character being able to beat everyone in a fight, and a character that is immune to certain nonlethal effects. What makes these examples detrimental to role-playing?

Ia. Examples Part One

If a character cannot die, then there is no point in fighting them; when dealing with an immortal character that is specifically against your character there are really only two options. If your character is lacking imprudent they will be killed, if your character is logical they will not even bother to attack that which they cannot kill. Either way, immortal characters who provoke in-character fights only serve to aggravate the players.
If a character is so strong that their attacks would kill anything that was not implausibly invulnerable, they have no business fighting anybody. It is the player’s responsibility to keep these types of characters out of situations that demand in-character fighting. An example of this is Beholder1995’s characters Zealot and Bigot. These characters were incredibly hard to kill and capable of moving extremely swiftly and striking with great force. Moreover, it frequently seemed to the players that their only point was to provoke Lawful or Good characters into fighting, and subsequently losing to, these demigods.
A more controversial form of overpoweredness is a character that is invulnerable, even to beneficial actions, outside of combat. An example of this type of overpowered character is somebody who cannot be healed, scryed, or aided in a similar matter during the course of nonviolent role-playing. The vast majority of the time this occurs the player attempts to justify it by claiming it is in the name of plot. And while it would not be fun to have a plot related injury or grievance be magicked away with ease, we must recognize that having a character cry out for succor and having one’s own character being unable to provide this aid and in fact able to do little more than stand idly by is extremely frustrating to most players. This counts as being overpowered because it makes other characters feel weak or incompetent.

Ib. Examples Part Two

It is important to note that the state of being overpowered is not just restricted to individual combat. The majority of main characters in the Town have another way to be the best: resources. Whether it is a ridiculous amount of money or a powerful army filled with powerful warriors eager to fight a character’s battles, nearly every player has doled out ample resources to their favorite character. I understand that, for the most part, these characters have excellent and in character reasons for their abundance of resources, but for the purpose of this essay I am putting that aside. To show the magnitude of this form of overpoweredness, I will list several players and their characters; please keep in mind that this list is by no means necessarily current.
The whole premise of FireFox’s character Tobias is that of a cunning strategist in command of a powerful personal army and nation.
Mee’s character Orianna had, and possibly still has, a legion of angelic soldiers under her command.
Beholder1995’s Baron has a large estate and somehow owns a great amount of money.
Quinsar the mage is the master of a large tower with numerous servants, a private army, powerful artifacts, and many other resources.
Lupy’s Archbishop, while also completely inline with the very premise of the character, is also the most egregiously overpowered character in this facet. Millions of powerful soldiers, worlds full of resources, and the personal favor of an omnipotent God all contribute to Lupy’s overpoweredness.
This is by no means a condemnation of any one player; rather, these examples are solely intended to illustrate the scope of the problem.

II. On the Causes of the Problem

Now, why are characters so overpowered? The answer lies in several parts. First, we cannot ignore the physical aspect of the problem: Testosterone. It is not a coincidence that our female friends have no really overpowered characters while almost every male player has at least one. The psychological need for a powerful character or persona stems from the fact that we “Townies” are, for the most part, American males. We collectively hate losing and enjoy having the strongest and toughest characters around. I believe that this is simply a result of our cultural identity. On the other hand, perhaps the answer lies in our individual faults. It is possible, and fairly likely, that any one of us creates an overpowered character as a matter of compensation for our own shortcomings. If this is true, it bears mentioning that we can avoid falling into this trap and still make a perfectly normal character despite how we feel about ourselves.
However, I find the main cause of overpoweredness to be a direct need for powerful characters as a result of the snowball effect. One person brings in an overpowered character, and other players feel the need to match that power with their own character. This need to balance the scales of power stems from an admirable desire to keep the Town fair by keeping one character from dominating over everything. While this seems to work in the short run, it only worsens the problem over time. By making powerful characters, a player is only fostering the mistaken impression that overpowered characters are acceptable.

III. On Solutions

In order to correct a problem it is first necessary to know both the extent of the problem and the underlying causes. Once these are known it becomes possible to systematically attack the problem in a way that will destroy it permanently. This can be done by first stopping the problem from spreading by neutralizing its causes and then, through the intelligence of the extent of the problem, carefully eliminating ever last vestige of overpoweredness. However, every player who wishes to enjoy Town as a role-playing experience must cooperate to achieve this end. The people have at least two options. We can either attempt to eliminate overpoweredness immediately and completely, or we can ease into it by taking slow steps to end the problem.
If we decide to try and solve this the fast way, every willing player must tend to their own characters. This can be done in any one of a least three ways: removing the character, fixing the character, or relegating the character to a lesser role. While it is a more drastic measure, one can simply stop playing an overpowered character. It is possible to fix an overpowered character by crippling it or making it less powerful through either making it weaker in a fight or losing the resources that makes it so formidable in the first place. The last option is to take a powerful character and do much less with it. Have it be more of a behind the scenes character that does not interact very much outside of plots. Then you could make a much less powerful character that interacts frequently and does not overly dominate in fights. If every player chooses an option that best suits them and their overpowered character and enacts it immediately we will all be in a suddenly better environment that is more conducive to fair role-playing.
This option may seem to be too hasty or even drastic, so we players may decide to ease into the transition by enacting the options outlined previously at a far slower pace, giving the individual players weeks to plan how they wish to go about this, or setting time aside to develop a plot that results in an overpowered character dramatically becoming more reasonably strong or influential.

In conclusion, characters being so powerful as to be detrimental to the overall quality of the freeform, group role-playing atmosphere are alarmingly common in Town. Regardless of why they exist, they all make things less fun and entertaining for everyone and should be eliminated as conveniently as possible. I strongly urge you all, my friends and fellow players, to reflect on my words and to consider abolishing overpowered characters. It is my belief that doing so can only prove to be extremely beneficial.

Combat and Power Management by Darkcomet

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Tips for Headache-Free Combat

Power

Power levels amongst potential combatants vary wildly. Throwing high-power characters at lower-powered ones who don't stand a chance against them is generally disliked by the players of the lower-powered characters. While high-power characters' players may feel restricted, there are several things they could do to avoid this situation.

Scaling-A popular method for playing high-power characters smoothly is power scaling, or adjusting the power used according to the opponent's power level. To put it simply, just because you can kill everyone in the room in one shot DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD. Throwing high-power around whenever possible just annoys people, and should not be done.

Targeting-High-power characters can also target other high-power characters instead of lower-powered ones. This is fairly obvious.

Non-aggressiveness-Aggressive high-power characters often cause annoyance among other players. If they look for fights all the time, people will get tired of dealing with them, especially if they're powerful enough that they can't really be stopped. For example, this is pretty much why gods in the Nexus usually don't run around blasting everything they don't like. The players involved don't like fighting something they can't possibly stop. It feels pointless and wasteful.

In addition to these factors, raw power level alone shouldn't necessarily mean that lower-powered characters are guaranteed to lose. If the lower-powered characters can play sufficiently intelligently or epicly, that should be a factor in who wins the battle. Think of it as a 'boss fight' of sorts-if the extreme raw-power of the boss meant the heroes always lost, there wouldn't be much of a game to play, would there?

Besides that, there is another point to power management in combat.

Avoiding Escalation

Even when power levels are equal, when they're high, a common problem is escalation. This is when one side perpetually pulls out greater firepower when it isn't truly needed, making it seem like the player of said side is trying to force a win for them.

The other problem with this is, when two high-powered sides are fighting, this may force the other side to escalate to greater force as well. For example:

(C1=Combatant 1, C2=Combatant 2)

C1: So we're around equal, huh? Well guess what? I have a tank!
C2: Well I have an army with anti-tank weapons!
C1: Ah, but you forget that I have a swarm of giant monsters to eat your army!
C2: I can crush your monsters with-

Okay, that's enough, guys, you can go home. The point is, when escalation occurs, it can make all players involved look rather unintelligent power-wavers.

It is much better to continue to play on equal terms rather than pull out gratuitous firepower. That way neither player is forced to look bad, and the combat scene is much better to participate in and to read. Remember the core idea of this guide: Just because you can do something extremely powerful does not mean you should.

PC Kills

Going so far as to try to outright kill another player's character can be controversial. Some are okay with it, others are not. It is usually best to ask the other player involved if they are okay with you seriously trying to kill off their character.

Trying to force character deaths on others who are not okay with them will often make the player trying to do so seem rather unpleasant, leading to OOC rifts between that can last for quite a long time. Dealing with these rifts is difficult, and often limits what players can do if they are, for example, trying to avoid another player's characters.

Losing

Losing in combat scenes is not always the horrible thing it seems like. Provided that the players involved aren't going for PC kills, it can lead to interesting roleplaying opportunities that can provide a nice change from simply stomping everything in sight all the time. At the same time, making these things work out can help to build respect among players.

Credits for this FAQ:

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Neon Knight for organization and writing
happyturtle for guidelines and feedback
Vael, Artemis97, Firefox, and Darkcomet for additional sections
Anyone who provided feedback

[LibraryOgre]

Random stuff:

"I can't change the title of my thread!"

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After 28 days, you can't edit the title of the thread yourself, but a moderator can. If you have an old thread that lacks a tag, or one that has an obsolete [Acro] or [Town] tag, you can have it renamed.

Official word from the ffrp mod:

you can use the report button for any post that you would like a moderator to review, for any reason. A request to have a thread title renamed after the 28 day window would be a good example.

[Wordz8 w/ Jesus]

Cool, these are very informative tips.

I have never done FFRP before, and was often confused how it works.
I saw some comments about the nexus in the original post by happyturtle, sounds like it would be hard to pick up if all kinds are mixed there. (I'm making an assumption, maybe I am wrong.)
I think I am looking for something, I assume is more simple/consistent.

I liked the idea of the bleach one, and even came up with a character for it, who I am alright with being weak.
(after reading episodes 1-8 and some of their wiki)
But I can't find anything more recent than 2011(2014 if "[BitP:R2]" counts), so I assume they stopped.

[Deathkeeper]

It’s still going. Have fun!

[Earl of Purple]

Also, with Nexus, it's not that bad. There's a lot of history, but most of us weren't around for all of it and it's more character-based than lore-based. It comes up occasionally, but more in how it shaped the character you're talking to at the time, or the location where you're talking to them, than anything else. The fact that anything goes means you could have the same character and give it a try; wouldn't be the first time a Bleach-based character went to hang around with the cyborgs, knights and faeries (and cyborg knight faeries) in the Nexus, either.

[DarkElfDude]

hi I'm pretty new to this, I've only role played on real-time messaging apps but this seems like it would be pretty fun,

im looking for a setting that is high fantasy but also has a little bit of tech mixed in, like steampunk or just any fantasy setting that allows flintlocks and guns since my character is an artificer, magitech is also fine

[5a Violista]

hi I'm pretty new to this, I've only role played on real-time messaging apps but this seems like it would be pretty fun,

im looking for a setting that is high fantasy but also has a little bit of tech mixed in, like steampunk or just any fantasy setting that allows flintlocks and guns since my character is an artificer, magitech is also fine

Nexus, the bigger setting that includes 80% of the threads here, kind-of fits what you're looking for.
It's sort-of a "kitchen sink" "center-of-all-realities" setting, but because this forum is largely D&D many of the characters are from D&D-like high fantasy settings, but there's also a wide range of technologies available as well.

If that sounds alright with you, a good place to get started would probably be the Trog's Tavern thread, followed by the OoC thread.

[Lord Raziere]

We do not currently have a roleplay like that on here. Nexus is open to literally anything but you might not want to play in something so unfocused and anything goes, and the focused setting roleplays generally focus on pre-existing settings

however, nothing says we cannot make a new focused roleplay based no pre-existing setting or figure out a pre-existing magitech/steampunk setting to use. I do love me some magitech and/or steampunk fantasy and as long your willing to discuss what kind of setting we both agree upon, what characters we'll allow as well what the plot will be and whether we will plan this interactions or improvise this sort of thing, we can discuss this fully in a OOC thread created for it.

but before that, simple questions: any particular pre-existing setting in mind or custom, and any idea for a particular name for a custom built setting so we know what to name the thread?

[DarkElfDude]

We do not currently have a roleplay like that on here. Nexus is open to literally anything but you might not want to play in something so unfocused and anything goes, and the focused setting roleplays generally focus on pre-existing settings

however, nothing says we cannot make a new focused roleplay based no pre-existing setting or figure out a pre-existing magitech/steampunk setting to use. I do love me some magitech and/or steampunk fantasy and as long your willing to discuss what kind of setting we both agree upon, what characters we'll allow as well what the plot will be and whether we will plan this interactions or improvise this sort of thing, we can discuss this fully in a OOC thread created for it.

but before that, simple questions: any particular pre-existing setting in mind or custom, and any idea for a particular name for a custom built setting so we know what to name the thread?

I was thinking something similar to final fantasy 8, not a final fantasy roleplay just a custom one with that kind of vibe, Airships, and guns in the same scene as magic spells

As for the name i was thinking it could be named after key city that it would take pace in,
maybe something like hallowport, or emberstead

[igordragonian]

I never played FF, but I know the general concept. If this enough I'l join

[Lord Raziere]

I was thinking something similar to final fantasy 8, not a final fantasy roleplay just a custom one with that kind of vibe, Airships, and guns in the same scene as magic spells

As for the name i was thinking it could be named after key city that it would take pace in,
maybe something like hallowport, or emberstead

I never played FF, but I know the general concept. If this enough I'l join

Ah so, something modern-ish. I know FF8 from a lets play series.

so basically guns, some things like gunblades for elites, flying steel airships and fortresses, reactors, probably some mana-robots being developed as weapons by militaries, a war happening at some point in the past, yet monsters somehow still surviving despite the tech advances (perhaps by being turned into weapons themselves and getting loose?) but others dying out (like zombies, because they are generally too weak and slow, would get easily defeated by assault rifles)

I assume generic/"anything goes within reason" kind of magic. I think I have something plotted out that can work, heres my pitch:
For thousands of years throughout history the world has periodically warred against a great evil: Bubon, Lord of Plagues and Spirit of Epidemics, Every few hundred years he would awaken and begin spreading disease across the world, a group of heroes would rise to defeat him but every time they would only be able to defeat him temporarily or imprison him until he rose again. However with the rise of magitech, 50 years ago came the Last Plague War, Bubon was not defeated by a lone band of heroes...but by industry and the power of magitech. With the flying fortress Terminus the nation of Renkardia cast an incredibly powerful new fire spell that no individual mage could achieve known as Pyros Ultima and in a single explosive flash of light, Bubon was burned away from the face of the planet, leaving only a city-sized crater behind. the mages checked: this time he was gone for good.

Since then Renkardia's rival superpower, Solvadelt made its own flying fortress capable of casting it as well, known as Helios. Seeing that if these superpowers were to fight it would be too destructive, these two nations as well as the rest of the world settled into an uneasy peace while the people cheered for the destruction of the ancient evil and see the fortresses as shining examples of what good magitech can do, even if no one knows the exact mechanics of how this was achieved. With this peace came unprecedented economic prosperity and the growth of mega-corporations across the world, the world filled with products and advertisements for them.
However despite this, there has been many close calls of the cold war between the Renkardia and Solvadelt before they managed to prevent it from becoming hot, many small wars between less fortunate nations have broken out across the world, urban violence seems to be on the rise, the various monsters that adventurers have always faced are becoming more aggressive, and violent sports have become popular these days, with many of them emulating the adventuring heroes of old such as arenas, dungeons or obstacle courses full of monsters all built for entertainment.

Amid all this, is the city of Emberport, widely regarded as the economic center of the world and thus the biggest most culturally diverse one, with every mega-corps having a hand there, every species having members living within it, it is massive urban cityscape like none other, built upon magitech and money, its mayor not being nearly as powerful as the corporations within it, despite this, Emberport belongs to neither Solvadelt or Renkardia and is apart of a smaller nation, with representatives of both superpowers vying for its economic power through more subtle methods. The city is also the one nearest to Bubonic Crater and thus attracts tourism for people wanting to see it. You are perhaps a new hero who have arisen in this new age, adventurers being replaced by mercenaries, celebrities and others once the map was filled in.

Disease has been wiped out and technology fills the world, where do you come in?

[DarkElfDude]

Ah so, something modern-ish. I know FF8 from a lets play series.

so basically guns, some things like gunblades for elites, flying steel airships and fortresses, reactors, probably some mana-robots being developed as weapons by militaries, a war happening at some point in the past, yet monsters somehow still surviving despite the tech advances (perhaps by being turned into weapons themselves and getting loose?) but others dying out (like zombies, because they are generally too weak and slow, would get easily defeated by assault rifles)

I assume generic/"anything goes within reason" kind of magic. I think I have something plotted out that can work, heres my pitch:
For thousands of years throughout history the world has periodically warred against a great evil: Bubon, Lord of Plagues and Spirit of Epidemics, Every few hundred years he would awaken and begin spreading disease across the world, a group of heroes would rise to defeat him but every time they would only be able to defeat him temporarily or imprison him until he rose again. However with the rise of magitech, 50 years ago came the Last Plague War, Bubon was not defeated by a lone band of heroes...but by industry and the power of magitech. With the flying fortress Terminus the nation of Renkardia cast an incredibly powerful new fire spell that no individual mage could achieve known as Pyros Ultima and in a single explosive flash of light, Bubon was burned away from the face of the planet, leaving only a city-sized crater behind. the mages checked: this time he was gone for good.

Since then Renkardia's rival superpower, Solvadelt made its own flying fortress capable of casting it as well, known as Helios. Seeing that if these superpowers were to fight it would be too destructive, these two nations as well as the rest of the world settled into an uneasy peace while the people cheered for the destruction of the ancient evil and see the fortresses as shining examples of what good magitech can do, even if no one knows the exact mechanics of how this was achieved. With this peace came unprecedented economic prosperity and the growth of mega-corporations across the world, the world filled with products and advertisements for them.
However despite this, there has been many close calls of the cold war between the Renkardia and Solvadelt before they managed to prevent it from becoming hot, many small wars between less fortunate nations have broken out across the world, urban violence seems to be on the rise, the various monsters that adventurers have always faced are becoming more aggressive, and violent sports have become popular these days, with many of them emulating the adventuring heroes of old such as arenas, dungeons or obstacle courses full of monsters all built for entertainment.

Amid all this, is the city of Emberport, widely regarded as the economic center of the world and thus the biggest most culturally diverse one, with every mega-corps having a hand there, every species having members living within it, it is massive urban cityscape like none other, built upon magitech and money, its mayor not being nearly as powerful as the corporations within it, despite this, Emberport belongs to neither Solvadelt or Renkardia and is apart of a smaller nation, with representatives of both superpowers vying for its economic power through more subtle methods. The city is also the one nearest to Bubonic Crater and thus attracts tourism for people wanting to see it. You are perhaps a new hero who have arisen in this new age, adventurers being replaced by mercenaries, celebrities and others once the map was filled in.

Disease has been wiped out and technology fills the world, where do you come in?

dang, I'd be really interested. id have to change my character a little but i would love to do something like that

i had an idea for the magic system where it would kind of be a verbal version of the naruto Jutsu system, different verbal components add features to the spell (im thinking latin being the spell language) for example

"glacies carcerum" which directly translates to ice prison could be a spell that causes ice to encase the target

and most spells would have a prefix that applies to all spells with that element
like for example again "glacies" would be used for all ice spells

but magic systems aside i would totally be interested

maybe we could put a template for characters in the ooc and haave characters be approved before they are used so people dont walk around with private airships and 20 magitech items

[Lord Raziere]

okay, Emberport OOC is up, we'll discuss this more there, but we already have a template we used for these kinds of things and it works well, as for approval sure, probably, but generally we don't really get a lot of need to be harsh about that sort of thing, people here are generally pretty reasonable when it comes to making characters, still, its a good precaution to just look it over and discuss any concerns about a character, make people get more involved and interested and communicate clearly.

[MossyMeow]

I'm a long-time lurker who has only recently started posting. I only discovered this subforum today, but I'm already excited about it. Free-form roleplaying was a huge part of my life a few years ago, but pretty much any roleplay I ever joined or started fell apart.

More specifically, I grew up roleplaying on the official (and now-defunct) Warrior Cats forums. While I would be open to roleplaying in a wide variety of games, I was wondering if there is anyone on the forum who has at least a passing familiarity with the Warrior Cats book series and would be open to roleplaying a game set in that universe.

More generally, could someone direct me to the Nexus OOC thread? I can't seem to find it.

[Morty]

More generally, could someone direct me to the Nexus OOC thread? I can't seem to find it.

The thread is here. It seems to have fallen near the bottom of the page.

[Shadowcaller]

I should note, the reason the nexus OOC thread sees so little use these days is since because most players prefer using the nexus discord instead. I believe it's linked in the OP of the OOC thread.

[MossyMeow]

The thread is here. It seems to have fallen near the bottom of the page.

I should note, the reason the nexus OOC thread sees so little use these days is since because most players prefer using the nexus discord instead. I believe it's linked in the OP of the OOC thread.

Thank you both for the link and the info. I don't have a discord account at the moment, but I might have to make one- Nexus seems like a total blast. I love a good dose of absurd, silly fun now and again, and it seems perfect for that.

[Fendrick]

Hi all. I have posted before in the nexus, like at least a year ago. I'd like to get back into it, but I'm a little unsure where to start now, and I'm wary of letting other posters down if I stop posting again; any tips on how to get involved in a manageable way/any ideas for gentle things to start off?

Thanks!

[MossyMeow]

Hi all. I have posted before in the nexus, like at least a year ago. I'd like to get back into it, but I'm a little unsure where to start now, and I'm wary of letting other posters down if I stop posting again; any tips on how to get involved in a manageable way/any ideas for gentle things to start off?

Thanks!

I can't exactly give any advice because I'm new as well, and also haven't begun roleplaying yet, but I can say that I felt very welcome when I did pop in, and that I'm sure they'll welcome you back with open arms. I can also say that when I finally get around to creating a character and jumping into the game, I'll be happy to roleplay with you. Good luck!

[Fendrick]

I can't exactly give any advice because I'm new as well, and also haven't begun roleplaying yet, but I can say that I felt very welcome when I did pop in, and that I'm sure they'll welcome you back with open arms. I can also say that when I finally get around to creating a character and jumping into the game, I'll be happy to roleplay with you. Good luck!

Thank you! Awesome!!

[Rater202]

If I wanted to do an FF with a pretty tight plot based on the Main Marvel Universe(Drawing inspiration from The Runaways) would anyone be interested in playing in it?

It's something I've been sitting on, even tried running it on another forum, but both times it died from lack of interest so I don't want to put the effort in if no one is gonna play.

[Demon Prince]

Hello hello. Not new, but haven't been here in a while.

Mostly just want to slide some characters into stuff, fantasy-oriented. I'll look through the possible places to join later, but if there are suggestions I'm open!

[Shadowcaller]

I'm not sure the Nexus counts as fantasy-oriented now. Perhaps fantasy-esq, like "Urban Fantasy". But if you're not new you might at least be familiar with the setting.

If not, you can always ask or perhaps look at our discord.

[Jon talks a lot]

I believe I'm supposed to post here about myself for guidance when I start out?

I like playing higher fantasy oriented games, and in particular I like generic swords and sorcery type stuff.

If it helps at all, my favorite D&D class is Paladin.

Can someone show me a good thread to rp in?

[Deathkeeper]

Well, Nexus tends to be more eclectic than strict sword and sorcery, but eclectic does mean we do everything.
If you're interested the link Shadowcaller posted above your post for our discord should still work. Feel free to drop by!

[Jon talks a lot]

Well, Nexus tends to be more eclectic than strict sword and sorcery, but eclectic does mean we do everything.
If you're interested the link Shadowcaller posted above your post for our discord should still work. Feel free to drop by!

Can't go on discord right now, but I will certainly do so once I am back home.

I really appreciate the response.

[TempuraToast]

Is Nexus still alive?

[5a Violista]

Is Nexus still alive?

Yeah
It's the most alive one, dominating the majority of threads here. Just look for any with the orange(?) nexus tag next to it, such as the one titled Trog's Tavern. If you want to do something in it, just come up with a basic description of your character and have them arrive in the tavern.