New Player Trying to Get Started

Charei

So I just started playing Achaea today and though I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to get the actual gameplay aspects down pat, I'm having some problems with the role-play side. I have in my head the idea of becoming a scholarly Magi, but I don't know how to make my character "live and breathe", which is making me have some trouble interacting with other people? If anyone has some tips they'd be greatly appreciated!

Ruth

First and foremost, welcome to Achaea! Here are the few thoughts I wanted to share:

• It's always good to sit down and take some time to flesh out your character's background. You want to be a scholarly Magi? Sure! However, why does Charei want to be one? More importantly, why did he choose to pursue the scholastic arts of a Magi in Mhaldor after the Trial of Rebirth? What's his personality? You might perhaps find it easier for you to push your character towards acting in a certain way if you have some form of answer to these questions.
  
  
• I think you're going to have a little more difficulty in interacting with other people right off-the-bat in Mhaldor, but don't give up. Little interactions go a long way. If you're a scholarly person, maybe you'll want to ask the next person you bump into in the city where the city's library is, and so on and so forth. Throw in an emote or two, and with luck, you might hit someone who'll be willing to roleplay more with you. Nizaris is actually an awesome first person for you to meet. I also don't mind interacting with you to start things off.
  
  
• General advice: does Charei have any quirks? That's something you can totally integrate into your character with emotes. Some examples include things like..
  Xer's left temple pulsates as he rubs his chin thoughtfully.
  Asifa clicks her claws together nervously.
  Ruth's ears twitch briefly.
  
  It's certainly a great way to give your character some depth!
  

Aepas

Welcome indeed!

Sitting down and taking the time to flesh out your character is very important. No problem with pen and paper if you want to develop him fully. Granted, always leave room for improvement, you'll find many things that happen in game that will change your character's view on life. It's important to keep a decent IC/OC seperation, as I've found in my opinion, my character has gone against what I'd think to do myself.

Quriks and flaws are a fun way to add depth to your char and as mentioned before, emotes! Emotes do a ton and describing your character in a way that just telling someone does not. You can't just tell people you want to be scholarly, you have to act it, show it, speak it, and be it.

Scholars are a bit difficult to play, but there is always the wiki and whatnot to brush up on history, as well as plenty of the older players who all have their own stories to tell. You need a good mix of finding things IC and a lot of study OC to make sure all your stories are correct. (not that I entirely condone using OC means to find all this, there is just so much to learn and find out about).

Mhaldor is tough on newbies, difficult to get interaction and some of the requirements are pretty hard. Be ready to fight, as it's expected of everyone, but seeing as you're a mage you'll be helpful either way.

Just keep at it, you'll find it quite rewarding

Jurixe

"How to make a character come alive"...this could span an entire book, but I'll just tell you the things that worked for me.

• Take a little time to learn about the lore, the history, and the setting of the place you plan to play in - in this case, Mhaldor. You don't have to learn about its whole three hundred years of existence, but it's a good idea to get the basics - how you're generally expected to behave, what are the traditions and etiquette, our enemies, our beliefs, our Divines and such. Once you have a good grasp of the setting, you can then begin creating a character to fit in with that setting (assuming you do want to play an Evil character), which I find is a lot easier than trying to make the setting fit your character. You'll be able to flesh out your background and personality much more initially this way, as well as having a better idea of what you can be/can do/what to aim for. If you ask around, as well, there are a few help files you can refer to that should greatly help with this.

• Emotes. Jurixe feels genuinely 'alive' to me because constantly using emotes forces me to really think about what Jurixe would do/how she would express herself depending on certain situations, and so it becomes easier and easier for me to slip into 'her' mindset when interacting with other characters. I'd keep them simple, to start off with, and gradually develop into more 'in depth' emotes if you feel confident enough/if you want to. Note that everyone's opinions will differ on this, and there's no real 'right' answer; this is just what helped for me.

• Maybe think about giving your character a few 'quirks', so to say, to better create that separation between you the person and your character. This way, just like the emotes, it really forces you to actively think about what your character would do/say in certain situations, and helps reduce the default of just using it as a fantasy avatar for your own personality. For instance, in the beginning I decided I would try and speak as formally as I possibly could, which involved the use of a lot of convoluted words and phrases. This is much less obvious now (or maybe I've just gotten used to it...) but it did achieve its goal in making me really pause to think about trying to say things in 'Jurixe-speak'.

**** I should insert a disclaimer here to avoid making said quirks too weird or too overly

               attention-grabbing if you can. They don't always have to be noticeable by other

               people - this is mainly for your own benefit. So it could be something as small as...

               deciding your character hates vegetables and only buying all-meat food. The main

               thing is just to create something that is uniquely your character, and nothing to do 

               with yourself.

• Try to talk to other characters if you can. This can be a bit difficult in Mhaldor, but there are quite a few who enjoy interacting with newer characters and will make an effort to go and talk to them when they can. The main purpose of this is so you can see how other characters behave, and at the same time start coming up with your own responses for your character - what does your character do when a higher ranked person greets them? Does he immediately bow to them? Does he greet them by rank? Is he utterly terrified of them and kneels immediately, expecting to be beaten because of his status as a slave? All these are questions that you can consider.

This grew really long really fast, so I think I'm just going to stop it here. You're more than welcome to PM me if you'd like to talk a bit more about this. As others have said with Mhaldor, it's admittedly not the easiest place for a newbie to start, but if you persevere with it it can be a very rewarding experience. Just know that we're all people behind the screens, and we really do want you to stay and have fun! (no, really, we do)

Horatio

To supplement the great suggestions by @Ruth and @Aepas, once you get settled in to early Mhaldorian life, seek out information concerning Lord Agatheis. Being the Elemental Lord, there's no better source for elemental lore, theory, and philosophy. I doubt I still have much, if any, of the information I collected when I delved deep into the realm of the elements, but if I do, perhaps I'll manage to bump into you in the game at some point.

Iocun

I would actually recommend not to study too much of Achaea's lore initially. You don't want to come off as someone who was born a scholar - starting off with an all-knowing character will annoy some people and look a bit like metagaming. Instead, try to be someone who becomes a scholar. Be curious, ask questions (without being too annoying about it), visit libraries, attend lessons and sermons, try to find other characters who are known for their intelligence or knowledge and interact with them, but don't be afraid of starting off a bit naive or ignorant about certain things: growing from somewhat naive into a learned scholar adds quite a nice bit of character development.

That doesn't mean you can't read up on some basic things first, as long as you keep them to things one would expect an 18 year old to know, i.e. a fundamental knowledge about Achaea's history, geography, about your city, etc., but without being an expert on anything.

Jurixe

Oh, sorry if I came off wrongly. Yes, I did mean mainly to try and find out the basics, and of course no one expects you to be an expert in Achaean lore immediately out of the Trial - the process of finding and learning the information you need can also be a fun experience, as Iocun said. I just meant that taking the time to get to know some of the basics would help you have a better idea of what sort of character would be acceptable to play, and you have more definitive parameters within which to build your backstory/personality.

Delphinus

1. Learn about the lore, but you don't need to get hung up on it.
   
2. Keep your character believable. Special snowflakes might not have a chance in Hell, but there's a place reserved for them nonetheless.
3. Don't go in with the mindset of "having an RP." Publicly, you should always be in role.
4. In a game where characters live for centuries, background isn't as crucial as you might think. Your character's real-time growth is more important. That will happen naturally, which leads to:
5. Don't stress about it. The fact that you're asking means you'll do fine.

Tesha

Welcome some things that helped me was:

*~* Picking a few traits for Tesha. She is really girly, very passionate, a little shy and sensitive. Your character might be bold and aggressive or demanding, or just really really polite. The important thing is it should feel comfortable for you and you should enjoy it.

*~* Stay in-character while you are starting out. Other rp experiences have 'sessions', but it is not really like that here from my experience. React to things how your character would react, but do not worry quite so much about having to know everything about your character right away. I am still making things up for Tesha.

*~* Enjoy yourself, and do not stress if you have a bad experience because even bad experiences can help build your character. Immerse yourself, it is a really nice world.

Erasariel

I should've read this when I first started.

Averi

What I find helpful, is to get the basic personality of your character down.  

For example, maybe take just a few minutes to find out where they fit on the OCEAN personality test or the Myers-Briggs, simple stuff like introvert/extrovert, conscientious or not.  Figure out how your character would react to someone being overly affectionate, violent, rude, angry, happy, friendly. 

Then take some time to REALLY figure out what your character looks like.  What hair colour/eye colour/skin colour/body type/height/voice were you naturally given?  Then are those things impacted by your current city of choice or how you think of yourself and want others to think of you?  For example, if you were born with a baby face and you are mhaldorian or if you were tiny and wanted others to think that you were tough, what would you do?  Identify these insecurities and then try to figure out how your character will try to compensate for them.  Perhaps if you had dark hair, eyes and serious features and were a cyrenian priest, you might try to smile more or something to show that you're actually a kind person on the inside or wear all white or move in a slow and nonthreatening manner.

That being said, posture and clothing choices should be reflective of who your character is.  Maybe take some time to thoroughly go shopping. (Unless your house dictates what you wear which I think if you're in Mhaldor, that is the case).

After that, go through HELP EMOTELIST and identify which ones your character can use and which ones your character cannot.  You might want to test some of them when you're interacting with other people. 

I also find it helpful to look at real people and think about who I know in my life who is similar to my character.  Sometimes it helps you when you're trying to play someone who isn't very much like yourself.  

Backstories can help cement a lot of things but it is difficult to create one when you are still figuring out how the Achaean world works.  I've always had a habit of making the backstory after I figure out which house/city I want to be a part of and who my family is.  Instead of trying to figure out your character's entire backstory, maybe just ask yourself these simple questions. 

Was your character's childhood happy or sad?  Did you grow up with parents? 

        What kind of general environment did your character grow up in (out in the woods, in the streets as an orphan, part of a fairly well established family)?

Good luck! And have ALL the fun!

Edits: Grammar

Nizaris

Hi and welcome to Mhaldor and the Blood Congregation!

Everything said here, with particular emphasis placed on @Delphinus's simple and stress-free comments, are very well said, and very helpful.

As to learning about lore, I advise letting that happen in-character. The Congregation's requirements take pretty good care of it in themselves, and will allow it to happen naturally.

As for emotes, I recommend developing about five emotes or so that you have set as aliases. Indeed, one of the requirements in the Congregation's pentacle is all about exactly this. The idea is for you to have something that's special and unique that you can fire off without any extra work, so as to reduce stress and let you play the game more freely.

In any event, feel free to interact with any Mhaldorian that you meet. A few recommendations: @Quei, @Xer, @Azor, @Ruth, @Jurixe, @Tvistor, @Aepas -- these characters/players have all very established RP, and are more than willing to help you out. I find that it's the history of interactions that go the furthest to providing you with background for your character. It's a better, more natural way to learn what your character is like, because you'll find your character in a situation, and then have to pick a way to respond that is comfortable to you and your character. It's more important to be comfortable, than it is to entirely create an RP from scratch, only to find that you aren't comfortable in it.

Case in point: Nizaris recently class-changed from Apostate to Magi for combat utility. As a player, I just wasn't comfortable with this change. I had developed Nizaris strictly as a priest and apostate, and it just didn't feel right. So, I ended up changing back quite quickly (I think it was three days?) But anyway, the contrived stuff is far inferior to the slow and natural development that you will come up with over time.

Charei

Thank you for all of the responses! I'll take all your comments into consideration as I move forward, and I've already got some things cooking. Thanks again!

Maliken

i am new as well. this was helpful

Haldon

I have to say that Dephinus' post is spot on and is excellent advice. Do those things and the rest will follow.

Don't get discouraged by the role play in mhaldor. Stick with it and you'll soon get past the weeding out process that is being a slave. Then the really really fun part begins.