Role Play In The WoT RP: A Step By Step Guide

[Taymist]

What is Role Play?

Role play is a type of interactive writing. Each person plays a role as a certain character in a specific setting. Role play here at Dragonmount gives you the opportunity to write as a character based in the Wheel of Time world. Your character(s) will interact with other characters in this setting; what you do will effect that setting, and it in turn will effect you.

At this site you can role play up to 24 characters across all of the RP Groups. How you split this number is entirely your choice. If you want to write 24 Warders, be our guest!

 

The 3 current RP Sections are Freelanders, Tar Valon and The Alliance. Each RP Section contains the RP Groups and/or RP Guilds as follows:

 

Freelanders: Freelander Guilds (Aiel, Kin, Ogier, Sea Folk, Seanchan, Tuatha'an, Freebooters [innkeepers, mercenaries, nobles, thieves etc.]), Children of the Light RP Group, Congress of the Shadow RP Group.

 

Tar Valon: Warders RP Group, White Tower RP Group.

 

The Alliance: Band of the Red Hand RP Group, Black Tower RP Group, Wolfkin RP Group.

What is the Dragon Reborn Portal Stone World?

Our Portal Stone World is very similar to the world of the books written by Robert Jordan. It allows role plays to take place in a time where the Dragon Reborn is discovering himself and preparing the world for The Last Battle. However, it is not identical. Events have transpired rather differently (or have not even happened at all), some main characters in the books do not exist and those who do, exist in an altered form. Think of our world as an alternative reality, another possibility... a "might have been".

Any concept in the books is yours to explore. Want to become an Aiel Wise One or a warrior of a mighty society? Or join the Band of the Red Hand and roll the dice? Do you desire to have the power of Saidar or tainted Saidin at your finger tips? Your path might lead you to the White Tower or the Black Tower. Protect and serve as a Bonded Warder of the mysterious Aes Sedai. Sail the seas in a Sea Folk vessel or set a long handle on your axe and explore the world outside the Ogier Stedding. Maybe you long for some Seanchan exotics. Will you be a holder of the leash or the leashed one? Or command the Hailene as one of the Blood? The Great Game in the courts of the Westland is yours to master as are the roads as a traveling Freebooter, such as Peddler or a Gleeman. Root out evil from the land in the shiny white armour of the Children of the Light. Or become one that they hunt; a darkfriend with sinister plots. Roam with the wolves in the wilderness and the Dreamworld and become one of their 'kin.

How do I Role Play?

Our role play takes place on message boards located here in the forum. You will write a piece from your character's point of view, (third person, past tense being customary), and post it as a new thread or as a reply to an existing thread. Other players will then respond in turn, each posting pieces from their character's point of view. However, there are three key points of etiquette to be aware of before you start posting.

Etiquette

1. PERMISSION. All characters must have a biography, or bio, which must be approved and cross checked before role play begins. You must, within reason, have specific permission for any special or remarkable skills, gifts or possessions. Your character must not, for example, wake up one morning and have a dramatic Foretelling unless you have been awarded the Foretelling Talent by an appropriate member of Staff. There are limits to this; if your character was raised as the literate son of a High Lord it would be reasonable for you to assume that he can read the Old Tongue; that same character is unlikely to have woodcraft or tracking skills which a common born character might have.

2. MODERATION. A perfect character is considered flat and there is generally little interest in interacting with them. Nobody wants to play the less interesting henchman to your stunningly gorgeous, fabulously intelligent, super-powered legendary princess heroine. Your character will not be perfect! Just like an ordinary person, they will have strengths and weaknesses, good points, bad points, flaws and complexities. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. Sometimes they fail utterly at everything they turn their hand to. That's where the interest is in role play. Think hard about your character's flaws and play them.

3. CONSENT.

i) Ensure you have approval from your RCL, ACL, or other Staff member (e.g. MoN) where necessary, especially for "requirement" RP's such as classes or for inter-Group RP's.

ii) Talk to other players before you start a plot involving them and make certain everyone is happy.

iii) If an existing role play thread is marked in the title as "Open To All" or something similar, then you are welcome to join in. Most role plays are specific to certain characters, however, and you should not post on these unless invited to do so.

iv) Never ever kill another player's character without their permission. This is considered a huge breach of etiquette.

v) Do not do something which would have a significant effect on other players' characters (such as describing an accident where they would be disabled or having them trapped in any way) without gaining their permission. Most players will be open to new possibilities. If you are having difficulty getting players to agree to your plot, and you feel they are being unreasonable, you can always turn to the Staff for help.

vi) Your character may make observations or have reactions to what someone else does. However, you are not usually privy to the thoughts, feelings, dreams etc. of another player's character so do not try to write from their point of view without express permission.

vii) If another player writes anything regarding your character that you feel is seriously flawed, contact them privately to discuss it, explain your reasons and request that they change it. Should they refuse to comply or you're unhappy with their response, approach a member of Staff for your RP Group and ask them to handle it.


Grey's Rule / God Mode

A very specific Role Play rule, and one that is named after a very old member of Dragonmount from around 2001-2. He used to play a giant of a character and wielded a massive sword which he used to simply cleave his way through combat. He fought frequently and was quite the berserker, getting himself into all sorts of situations where he would fight against a wide variety of odds. Sometimes he would win.

Sometimes.

At other times, including the moment where his character was killed, he would be clobbered or left just short of dead for his trouble. He threw his characters into all sorts of situations expecting to win, yet if he was ever alerted to the fact that he couldn’t do so, he would be willing to take the realistic consequences of having taken that course of action. So, in his honour, (because its a rare person who is willing to take it on the chin), we name this rule after him.

If a character is doing something wildly improbable, such as attacking twenty armed soldiers, then unless there are very good reasons for why they should win, (the twenty soldiers are wounded and ill or a wall has been collapsed on them first, etc.), Admins reserve the right to enforce the realistic consequences of your actions. In this case, your character would be stabbed repeatedly, or perhaps if you’re very lucky the character will just be beaten to within an inch of their life and have to spend months healing. They may or may not regain full use of their limbs. As a player you’re trusted to do the right thing. If you do not, then the right thing can and will be enforced.

So if you do something unrealistic, either do it incredibly well or be prepared for your character to face the consequences.


How do I get started?

It's as easy as one two three:

1. Post here on The Welcome Inn board to let us know you're here and which Group you're interested in then check your chosen Group's Bio Rules and History.

2. Get your character concept written up into a bio and send it to the bio email for approval.

3. Wait for a bio cross check and start your role play!

Your character concept is the initial idea you have for a character. You might want to play the angry Illianer innkeeper who joins the Band of the Red Hand to protect her war-obsessed younger brother, or the subtle, devious Cairhienin spy, or a sultry and empty headed courtesan from the Domani courts. Bear in mind the MODERATION rule from above. You might want to play the legendarily beautiful, high spirited, flawless princess fleeing an arranged marriage who has amazing strength in Saidar and is destined to become Amyrlin Seat, but your bio will not be approved until you have taken the perfection down a notch. Consider the plausibility of your character and their history. Is it likely? Does it fit within the world RJ created? Does your character's description match their nationality? and so on. Use some basic common sense. If in doubt... ask!

What is a bio and how do I write one?

Your biography or bio is basically a character sheet which lays out certain key details about the character you'd like to play. It's like the foundation on which you can build your role play. You can't start role playing until this bio is approved and cross checked, and it's the basis for everything you do from then on, so think about it carefully.

Your character will fit into one of the RP Groups listed above. Each has slightly different bio requirements so be sure to check that out first. Most will want you to list your character's name, age, origin, description, personality, history and possibly some notes about any skills or agenda they might have. Other characters are not aware of this bio, only other players, so feel free to write about their motivations and secrets.

This page lists some good guidelines. Read it and take away general tips: for example, rules about being from a continent in the known world, never mentioning Forsaken or main plot characters such as the Dragon Reborn, and not being a blademaster or the world's foremost expert on Sharan lore are common to all RP Groups.

Further detailed information on Bio Writing, Approval and RP Group histories can be found HERE.

Any tips on making a good impression?

-Read the requirements carefully and follow them. This shows that you respect our system and that you're willing to fit in.
- Be polite and constructive with other members. You need to compromise as much as they do. Negotiation can be frustrating, but everyone should be informed and in agreement before you effect them. Keep it civil at all times and don't descend into insults or slanging matches.
- This goes double for staff, who not only contribute their time free to run this game for you, but also work very hard. They appreciate people treating them well.
- Good writing is always a plus, but for people who feel they will never be Tolkien, we also have much love for friendly players who contribute to the atmosphere and are always around when somebody needs help.

Can you show me some other resources?

The concordance contains everything you'll ever need to know about the Wheel of Time. What existing book might a lady of cultured tastes be reading? Is there any herb to treat blood loss? This site has the answer ... and if there's anything it can't tell you, the Wheel of Time Encyclopaedia has it.
Old Tongue dictionary for when you can't remember that word al'Lan Mandragoran used to describe a love lost beyond regaining.
And lastly, a dictionary and a thesaurus are your friends.

 

An additional assistance for OP channelers, courtesy of our own Matalina:

 

Quote

I like visuals on the weaves we can do... so back in the day I made a OP score and weave calculator.... first one was javascript, second one was php...

 

I rewrote it for a third time and made it modern using bootstrap 4 and vue.js - It's a single page app but it does have an external resources; the weaves file (cause I did't want to clutter the code). If you downloaded both of them it works on your own computer.

 

https://aliciawilkerson.com/dev/op-weaves/

 

the old one is still up (https://aliciawilkerson.com/dev/opweaves.php)

 

You can see all the weaves without any numbers, and you don't have to calculate a valid strength to see what you might be able to do. 

So how come you have planning boards here but the information is listed somewhere else?

Some of our RP Groups have their own informative offsite located elsewhere. It's simpler for us to run our own sites when there is such a wealth of information specific to each RP Group and these can offer assistance to anyone interested. All offsites are run under DM rules and they are for archiving/information only. No activity or posting takes place there, only at DM.

Dragonmount has consolidated all planning boards back to onsite. To view all of a RP Group's boards here, you will need to be added to some private Club boards. This will be done following Bio approval/CC.

 

Main PSW Timeline Events can be found HERE.

We also have a Wikia with PSW histories, biographies and systems:

Dragon Reborn PSW Wikia

Other RP Group websites:
[*]Black Tower (BT): http://blacktowerdiv...ress.com/about/  

[*]Freelanders (FL): Freelanders website 

[*]White Tower (WT): http://www.thistledubhewe.com/TheWhiteTowerRP/

[*]Wolfkin (WK): http://pswwolfkinarc....proboards.com/

How do I advance?

You may be thinking right now that you'd like to play an Ajah Head, the M'Hael, an Aiel Society Leader or even a queen. How do you get there? The fast answer is to refer you back up to the PERMISSION rule. If a position is open, ask and you may get. Let's assume for a moment that the position you want is high up or already full and there's no way people are going to approve you to get it straight away. How do you get ahead in the role play?

Staff look for many qualities when deciding these matters. Seniority, i.e. length of time in the role play, is one but not the most important of those qualities. Generally speaking you will not be considered until you've been in the role play a few months because people drop out fast and never make use of the shiny tricks we might have given them. However, come back in six months' time and you have as much chance as somebody who's been around years.

This definitely ties in with the how to make a good impression question up there. People like members who give a lot to their Groups, who are active and keep a high profile, who give help gladly whenever they're needed. Have your own opinions by all means, but be polite on the boards, play by the rules and recognise when it's time to drop a topic. A good way to get ahead, and I can't stress this enough, is to contribute. There are projects under way all the time that could use help. Some are glamorous top jobs like the main timeline work whereas others are unsung necessities which keep everything running behind the scenes like updating websites. People remember who helps out.

It should also be mentioned that some regularly open positions such as Sitters in the White Tower RP Group are determined by election. Therefore, be helpful, make yourself popular, and you're already ahead of the game.

So do you have some kind of overseer people and who are they?

The RP Club Leader (RCL) is responsible for all of the RP boards (both the Dragon Reborn RP and the Revolution One).

There are also co-ordinators called Assistant Club Leaders (ACL's), and if you have some questions pertaining to a particular RP Group, they are the people to contact.

WoT RP RCL - Taymist

Assistant Club Leaders (ACL's) are as follows:

* Tar Valon - Kathleen
* The Alliance - Cass
* Freelanders - Vacant, contact any member of Staff

Their contact details can be found HERE.

I have more questions!

Pick one or several:
- Email the RCL, or one of the ACL's
- Post on the Club's public Dragon Reborn OOC (out of character) board if you're an active RP member
- Post on this board if you haven't yet completed a bio and had it approved

 

 

[Taymist]

Map of WoT land in relation to the RP boards

 

 

 

[Taymist]

Main Characters in the PSW (all NSW's)

 

Calder Berrick is our Mat. He's at The Citadel and officially in charge of the Band, at the Dragon's orders. He's also in charge of the Legion of the Dragon but has left his second in command in charge of that. (Our equivalent of Talmanes, not sure he had a name).

 

Jarron al'Tanin is our Rand. In Cairhien? I think. Don't quote that as gospel. I'd need to check.

 

Ruan Andradem Shoa Paendrag, our Daughter of the Nine Moons / Tuon. Her bio is on the Wikia. She's with Calder at The Citadel following their escape from Tanchico.

 

Barin Aydaer / Fierce Claw is our Perrin. There is no Faile in the PSW. Barin is with Jarron currently.

 

The Chosen/Shadow NSW's are all on the Wikia HERE

 

Nana al'Meara aged 26 (Nynaeve) - OP Strength 42, Skill 42

 

Eldwene al'Varin aged 18 (Egwene) - OP Strength 39, Skill 39

 

Elnora Trakand aged 18 (Elayne) - OP Strength 39, Skill 39

 

Mariana Damar aged 50 (Moiraine) - Blue Ajah, Cairhienin

 

Logan Allianin aged 40 (Lan) - Malkieri

 

Qulias aged 122 (Loial) - from Stedding Madan

 

Jasin al'Kar aged 32 (The Prophet) - From Andor; Banner Captain, Infantry, Band of the Red Hand