CHARACTER CREATION GUIDELINE/IN GAME RULES

[FourStringFingerSting]

If you haven't already read the forum rules, be sure to do that now. If you already read these rules, then congratulations! You're almost ready to start playing NEO-NOWHERE! The only thing left for you to do is to create a character using the following guidelines, and you'll be on your way!

When creating a character, you must create a topic with the title of the topic being your character's name. In this topic, you'll post your character bio, which will follow this guideline:

- Name (Self explanatory. Full names are not required)
- Nickname (Optional. Put this if your character has a nickname that he/she would like to be referred to in-game)
- Age (The age of your character)
- Gender (Your character's sex: Male or Female?)
- Height/Weight (How tall/short and heavy/light your character is. This info will be useful for certain situations in-game)
- Physical Appearance (Hair color, eye color, clothing, facial hair, etc. If you have a picture of your character, please post that as well!)
- Power (All characters are allowed to have one unique super-power in-game. These powers really have no explanation, they are just a natural gift that certain people have in this universe. Powers can consist of super-speed, invisibility, control of fire, etc. Make sure you are specific in detailing what your character's power is capable of)
- Special Traits (Key traits that your character might have, that don't necessarily compliment your characters power. This could be good listening skills, mechanical skills, culinary skills, whatever! Keep these to a minimum of 3)
- Flaws (Obviously, nobody is perfect. What flaws does your character have? Bad eyesight, short temper, addictions? Each character must have at least 3 bad traits)
- Weapon (If your character uses a certain weapon, make sure to make note of it here)
- Alignment (Is your character a defender of all things good? Or an evil mastermind? Or just neutral?)
- Background (A little history on your character. Make sure you explain your characters motives and/or aspirations. Basically, anything you think people should know about your character, put it here)

Make sure to fill out this character guideline to the finest, and best detail when creating your topic for submission. Once you've posted your character topic, an administrator or moderator will let you know if it's accepted or not. If your character is overpowered (also known as god-modded) or you didn't fill out the complete guideline, you may be asked to tweak your character to make it more reasonable for in-game play before it is accepted. Once you have the go-ahead from an admin or moderator, you're free to start posting in the main storyline topic!

BUT BEFORE YOU GET STARTED, BE SURE TO READ THE IN-GAME RULES TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE GAME AND STORY PROGRESSION WORKS:

STORY PROGRESSION
Once you are allowed to start playing, you obviously must create an introduction post to insert your character into the story appropriately. You may choose to introduce yourself however you please, as long as it doesn't conflict with the other in-game rules. The way the story progresses is that one character will make a post detailing what's going on, and then another character may chime in and continue on the story from wherever the previous character left off, depending on the situation. For example...

Character 1: Brad walked into the dark, quiet building, hoping to find some sort of weapon. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, a zombie lunged towards him, grappling onto his shoulders, and snapping with it's blood stained teeth. Brad, unable to hold off the zombie's strength for long, felt the cold snap of fear crawl down his spine.

Character 2: Bill, seeing the young man walking into the dark building, decided to follow behind him from a distance. He heard a scream of terror come from inside moments after the young man walked inside. Rushing in, Bill saw the young man fighting off one of the undead ghouls, and quickly ran in to help. With a flick of Bill's wrist, a bolt of energy shot from his hands, and struck the head clean off the zombie, dropping it straight to the floor in a bloody mess.

Character 1: Brad, motionless, looked down to see his attacker headless, bleeding out all over the floor. With a grimaced look on his face, he turned to Bill. "Ugh, you got it's blood all over my new shoes!"

This is how the nature of the story should progress, with each character slowly advancing the story one after another.

CHARACTER CONTROL
A common mistake made in RP's of this nature is people taking control of another person's character, even if for a brief moment, to advance the plot in a certain way. Be advised that you are only allowed to take control of your own character. Unless special arrangements have been made, and cleared by an admin or moderator, you are not allowed to make other character's do any sort of action, no matter what the scenario.

MOVING AT AN EASY TO FOLLOW PACE
Make sure when you're advancing the story with a post, don't try and squeeze in a ton of different things at one time. This causes confusion, and may advance the plot too fast for other players. For example...

Tony entered the bar, grabbed the shotgun beneath the counter, walked across the street, shot some zombies, walked into the parking lot, hot-wired a car, drove a few blocks, crashed the car into a parade of zombies, jumped into a ravine, swam upstream for 7 miles, and then took a nap.

As hilarious as this seems, it happens quite a lot with these types of RP's, so be sure to take it slow and easy when making another post, for the sake of other players.

COMBAT AMONG 2 OR MORE PLAYERS
This tends to cause the biggest problems among RP's of this nature. Whenever 2 or more characters get into a battle, their tends to be an issue at one point or another with it being a fair fight. Just follow these small steps: Only take control of your character, each post should only consist of one attack at a time, and make sure that you're being fair when battling in terms of trading blows, blocking, dodging repetitively, etc.
People have a tendency to not want their characters to get hurt ever. Obviously, both people can't keep fighting, and not get hurt. Be fair, and respectful about decided when to dodge or block, and when to finally take a hit. Also, MAKE SURE THERE IS A COMMON AGREEMENT WHEN DECIDING ON A CHARACTER'S DEATH OR INJURY. Know that you decide when your character dies, and if something traumatic happens to them. Nobody else may decide this for you. Here's an example of how a fight scenario might play out:

Character 1: Trey leaped towards Alex, raising his blade high in the air, and then bringing it down in an attempt to make a successful cut...

Character 2: Alex, seeing the blow coming from a mile away, dodged the sword swipe, and proceeded to spin around with a back kick, aiming for Trey's ribs...

Character 1: The kick hit Trey swiftly in the ribs, knocking him back, griping with pain. Shaking it off, Trey jumped back to his feet, and threw his sword towards Alex like a spear...

Character 2: Alex, stunned at how quickly Trey recovered, attempted to dodge the sword throw, but didn't move fast enough. The sword managed to cut a nice ribbon of flesh off Alex's arm. Panicked, Alex shot Trey a fearful glare, and proceeded to retreat into a back alleyway...

Character 1: Trey, still winded from Alex's kick, decided to let him go. He'd come across him sooner or later, and they'd be able to finish their fight soon enough. Sheathing his blade, Trey started walking in the opposite direction, hoping to find something new.

All of this making sense? As I said before, just be fair, and respectful to the actions of other players, and things will run smoothly every single time.
Now for the final, and most important rule of them all:

HAVE FUN WITH IT!
As I said before, try your hardest to have the most fun you can have, because if you aren't having fun, that means I'm failing you! Interact with other players, create interesting story twists, make up terrific characters, and just straight up have a good time! That about wraps up everything, so make sure to just follow all the guidelines when making your character, read all the forum and in-game rules, and you'll be as good as gold! Thanks for signing up! Enjoy!