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Hou-zi are fairly un-complex, most akin to how elf/human faces are shaped in skins, but with fur. There are a plethora of FTU clothing submissions, but very few FTU hou-zi skins. Here’s how you can make your own!

*+-__________-+*

Heads

For this tutorial, I’ll be making a Fei-zhu (colorful baboon-like Hou); this is also applicable to Laobai-zhu (the brown-furred monkeys) and somewhat to Hei-zhu (gorillas).

1. Go to your preferred skin editor! Mine is Planet Minecraft.

2. Select a base color. For Fei-zhu, they can be many different colors (like orcs) in fur and skin color. Typically, their skin contrasts their fur color or is a color beside them on the color wheel (like red & yellow, blue & green, or blue & yellow). For Hei-zhu, though they are typically gray & black, have historically also been the most sub-species with albino variants (seen in a clan before in Tongyi-Hu of Arcas). They are also sometimes are brown-hued. For Laobai-zhu, their colors have ranged from dark blondes, to browns, to red-browns, and sometimes dark (almost black) browns with lighter skin.

3. Face Shapes & Eyes. Face shapes are pretty consistent with all Hou-zi, differing in how fur is shaped and what haircut you give your monkey. The only subrace that sometimes differs are Hei-zhu. As you can see, Hou-zi tend to have inverted eyes (lighter pupils, darker sclera), though in lore don’t actually have pupils or irises at all. 

[Third skin by Jihnyny!]

4. Shading. Shading the front face is fairly simple. I lower the opacity (typically 8-14%) and use a red color to layer on darker shadows on one side, and a highlight of white on the lightly shadowed side as you can see above. Purple and blue work, too (especially if your character has gray, black, or brown skin).

What’s trickier is shading the fur. There are various ways of shading it, but most opt to shade it the same as you would hair, OR, shade it sort of like a cube & layer over it on the Hat Layer to add depth.

As you can see below, I did the cube-shading method, alongside adding shading behind and around the ear.

-> ->

And there you go! A fabulous Hou-zi head. I’ll likely be giving this away in the community disc.

What is a CA?: A CA or Creature Application is a forum application that is necessary to play non-descendant races or creations such as Musin, Machine spirits, undead, and more. When applying it is vital to read the lore to fill the application out properly and roleplaying their abilities, weaknesses, and strengths.

Filling out the application in order:

MC Name: Put your Minecraft Username here

Character's Name: Put the name in of the soon to be persona here

Character's Age: Put the age of the persona, if they are just created such as a automaton then putting 0 or 1 is a valid number 

Character's Original Race (N/A if not applicable): This is only applicable for if the persona was turning into a creature application race such as undead, machine spirit, etc. In this case then put the race they were before the transformation happened. If it is a “natural” CA such as Musin or Kha then this is not the section for it. 

Transformed form: This goes directly with the Original Race section above. What creature are you applying for? Put that here. This is also used for “natural” CAs such as Musin and Kha

Creator's MC Name: This is NOT for the author of the lore post of a creature. This is for who in game created you. All involved in your creation must comment in the comments of the CA with a link to their appropriate application that allowed for you to be created. 
 

Creator's RP Name: The Roleplay names of those who created you must be listed here.

Briefly explain the lore behind this construct or creature: This is where many people stumble. This is for the lore of the whole creature race this is not your personal backstory section. This is the biggest part of the application as you must read the lore and in your own words write out a brief explanation of the lore. “Brief” can be classified as 1 paragraph or more just as long as it is clear that you understand the lore. Be sure to include physical descriptions of the creature in question like height ranges, colors they can come in, strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and other attributes that they have.

this construct or creature has some form of aesthetic choice, can you describe how they look?: Description of how your character will look. Such as cloths, height, appendages and other features.

Do you have a magic(s) you are dropping due to this app? If so, link it: If you have transformed into a CA that you can no longer hold a magic on then put the link to your magic app (MA) here and it will be dropped on acceptance of the CA.

Do you agree to keep Story writers updated on the status of your magic app?: Just as it says, if you have a certain magic and are asked about it or have questions then contact ST in regard to such. Simple yes or no.

Are you aware that if this creature is shelved, your character may be given the option to revert or be indefinitely shelved?: Just as it says. CAs sometimes have a sad ending where the whole race is shelved. You can if you were transformed into the creature be reverted back in this scenario or be shelved meaning the character is unplayable. Simple yes or no.

Memey RP or using this CA for subpar villain/bandit RP can lead to your app being denied, even after acceptance. Please put "I understand" as your response once you have read this part and understand the consequences. Put “I understand” here. If you deny this then your CA will be denied as this hold you the player responsible as you have agreed to this term.

Have you applied for this creature on this character before, and had it denied? If so, link the app: If you have applied to be the creature you are applying for before and the application for it was denied then copy and paste the link to the denied CA here.

Well that is it. I do hope this helped you if you are in a bit of a fix writing your Creature Application. Best wishes future creature!

How do i fix this?

WHY YOU SHOULD PLAY AN ORC:

-ORCS ARE BIG, SWEATY, STRONG AND AMAZING

-SHAMANISM.

-PANASHEA.

-THE GODDAM PLOT LINES

-WWWWWAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHH

-BEST COMMUNITY AGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
 

(was told to unhide the actual post smh)

THE CULTURE

THE FREEDOM

THE COMMUNITY

AN ORCISH OFFICER GIVING OUT A WARCRY
 

SHAMANISM

A LUR HUNTING IN THE FOREST

MISCONCEPTIONS

THE TRUTH

A PROUD UGLUK WATCHING OVER HIS CATTLE FARM

Introduction

Finding families to join can be tough, though to assist in the process of finding families looking for new members, we’ve created this guide! Please note that this is to assist in players finding family heads to contact; players may not join a family without permission from that family’s head. If you have any questions, let me know! This list is organized based on race, so you will find all families of the same race grouped together.

Families can add their family to this list by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/QvVfQ3GARKb6BBxY9.

High & Snow Elves

Aevaris

Contact: lillyeveans / Maevelin#1083

Head: Aestenia Aevaris

Race: High Elf

Location of Residency: Haelun'or

Common Physical Attributes: The Aevaris family have light blonde hair (varying from white blonde to true blonde) and mixed bluegreen eyes. Ear shapes tend to be more pointed upwards and stature is more on the taller, willowy side of high elves.

Common Behaviour(s): The Aevaris family tends to fall into traditional high elf ideals of attitudes towards non-high elves not in Haelun'or. They do enjoy research and building projects which causes them to get involved in multiple projects at once. There can never be too much knowledge and are fiercely loyal and protective of those they care about.

Additional Note(s): 

Maehr’tehral

Contact: Parion / parion#1217

Head: Nelgauth Maehr’tehral

Race: High Elf

Location of Residency: Haelun’or 

Common Physical Attributes: This is a very large family. Members are either known for white hair and blue eyes, or blond hair and purple eyes (this side of the family often has males with beards).

Common Behaviour(s): Although they are high elves, the Maehr’tehral are known for their nomadic habits with individuals who prioritise curiosity and satiating their boredom over the traditional lifestyle of Mali’thill. Their most iconic trait is how all Maehr’tehral suffer from chronic apathy, often losing interest in hobbies and careers very quickly, causing them to frequently change direction in life.

Additional Note(s): 

Orndorff

Contact: Chaltastic / Chalcedony#1223

Head: Heryetta Farise Orndorff

Race: High Elf

Location of Residency: Haelun’or

Common Physical Attributes: The pure-blooded family (tend to) have long, light, blonde hair and darkish-blue eyes. Most have soft curls in their hairstyle, their long pointy ears sticking out of it. Their emotions usually aren't displayed vividly. This has more to do with the construction of their face and less to do with being a high elf, as their facial expressions don't vary widely.

Common Behaviour(s): The family tends to value the high elf culture with its customs and rituals. They are often reserved, but easy-going in mind. The family members tend to care a lot about their peers (and their opinion). Most will do everything to maintain balance and the status-quo, even if that means sacrificing something. Often, the members bottle their emotions up, which is done in different ways.

Additional Note(s): My persona's parents have three children, two daughters and a son, all adults now. The general aesthetic for the family is 1910-1930s but LotC-ified. A fire symbol is often used in clothing and decorations. I'm open to all kinds of family members. Let me know if you're interested! 

Tathvir

Contact: Mewliet / Mewliet#6297

Head: Valerica Tathvir

Race: Snow Elves

Location of Residency: N/A

Common Physical Attributes: They have pale skin, silver/white hair, and gold-ringed, teal-coloured eyes.

Common Behaviour(s): They're very blatant and value family over most things.

Additional Note(s): 

Valaker

Contact: SriFoo / SriFoo#5770

Head: Aeron Valaker

Race: High Elf

Location of Residency: Haelun'or

Common Physical Attributes: The Valaker family is known for having purple eyes, fair skin, and predominantly white hair. They commonly have exceptionally-long ears even for high elves.

Common Behaviour(s): Valakers tend to be extremely ambitious and driven. They are purist at heart yet will often skirt on the edge of it for various reasons usually related to there ambition.

Additional Note(s): Find the family’s discord at https://discord.gg/psfrKKf.

Wood Elves

Arvellon

Contact: Mewliet & DrinkJellybeans / Mewliet#6297 & DrinkPesticide#3970

Head: Eretria & Nerrin

Race: Wood Elf

Location of Residency: Siramenor

Common Physical Attributes: They have bronze or tan skin with common eye colors being green or brown. 

Common Behaviour(s): The Arvellon seed is full of tricksters who enjoy having a good time and even pulling small pranks on other people. 

Additional Note(s): 

Ilathdyn

Contact: Unwillingly / Unwillingly#9099

Head: Eir'thall Ilathdyn

Race: Wood Elf

Location of Residency: Siramenor

Common Physical Attributes: The appearance of the Ilathdyn people can vary, as physical traits and appearances are not often held with much care or regard. Instead, it is the tribal tattoos and inking that allows one to be identified. They follow one's jawline, with one or two metaphorical "teeth" jutting up at each side, symbolizing the bite of Mahae: the Lion mani. Additionally, the clan tattoo follows ones shoulders, down their chest in a decorative dark red hue. They typically wear fabrics, shawls, or robes of red, orange, and black.

Common Behaviour(s): The wood elves of Ilathdyn comprise of more outwardly aggressive and warlike beliefs. They believe in strength, valor, and prowess, for it is what defines the heart of their people. With this, it is rare that a woman would be permitted into the clan - but not impossible. Even more so, homosexuals are viewed as deplorable among the clan, for they are seen as a direct threat to the already limited reproduction of the wood elves. They tend to enjoy rough-housing and brawls, especially with other members of the clan, so they typically don't mind getting socked in the face a few times. They're known for being the outwardly spoken and passionate for their beliefs. 

Additional Note(s): Don't be discouraged by the description of the clan! I understand if it might be a bit much for a new player, but there's plenty of us who would be willing to help you get the ropes of things RPly and OOCly. This clan was made with the intention to create memorable and unique conflict RP with other people - and it doesn't always mean we're the villains in RP either. Sometimes they just want what's best for their people. We're pretty chill people OOCly, and we're always accepting new members, so please don't hesitate to contact me or ask about us in RP. Here’s the clan post.

Sirame

Contact: Junoix / Junoix#6965

Head: Sonna Sirame

Race: Wood Elf

Location of Residency: Siramenor

Common Physical Attributes: The Sirame Seed accepts elves of all races, so there is no common physical appearance except the pointed ears.

Common Behaviour(s): Those in the Sirame Seed are typically guides of the wood elven faith, whether they be druids, priests, healers, or teachers. They are wise and parental in nature, seeking to teach and give advice to those who will listen.

Additional Note(s): 

Tahorran

Contact: linzexu / Lao#3371

Head: Laetranis ap Tahorran

Race: Wood Elf

Location of Residency: Siramenor

Common Physical Attributes: Tahorran tend to have dark hair, dark skin and green or yellow eyes. They stand tall (by wood elven standards) and lithe. Adult members of the tribe are tattooed with the crest and wings of the mighty Eagle- the patron spirit of the clan.

Common Behaviour(s): The Tahorran live a tribal existence in harmony with nature. They are hunters, but are most at home on the rivers and seas. They are renowned for their fast canoes, and their skill as whalers and fishermen. They believe that all things must be acquired naturally, and abstain from "tame" behaviours like farming or animal husbandry. Like other wood elf tribes, the Tahorran are devotees of elnarnsae'ame, the wild faith of the Wood Elves.

Additional Note(s): Find the family’s forum post here.

Mixed Elves

Kaeronin

Contact: Commissar_Voop / Voop#2394

Head: Kailu Kaeronin

Race: Mixed Elf

Location of Residency: Aegrothond

Common Physical Attributes: Members of this family mainly have blond or white hair and can uncommonly grow a beard.

Common Behaviour(s): They are friendly to other people, as long as no one starts making a fuss about someone. Kaeronins always tend to sail out into to the seas; all they want is peace and freedom.

Additional Note(s): 

Uialben

Contact: mika1278  / mika1278#0993

Head: Mika Uialben-Goldhand

Race: Mixed Elf

Location of Residency: Sutica

Common Physical Attributes: Wood elven skin, red hair, red eyes, very much so mixbred between the elven subraces.

Common Behaviour(s): A diverse bunch of elves, usually fairly chaotic in their presence, family is their number one priority alongside the survival of the upcoming generation of Uialbens with a free-going attitude where freedom is all they seek.

Additional Note(s): 

Vincrute (T'Dyrr branch)

Contact: Slamguinius_  / Imp#7502

Head: Ganzorig

Race: Dark Elf/Wood Elf

Location of Residency: N/A

Common Physical Attributes: They typically have golden/amber eyes and white hair.

Common Behaviour(s): Vincrutes of the T'Dyrr line arise with strong traits of duty, dedication, and short tempers. They have traditionally worshiped the ancestors (but not spirits) and Xan.

Additional Note(s): 

Dwarves

Goldhand

Contact: JokerLow  / JokerLow#6666

Head: Uldraek Goldhand

Race: Mountain Dwarf

Location of Residency: Urguan

Common Physical Attributes: Although mountain dwarves, average Goldhands would present themselves with different traits from other mountain folk. With hair, golden as their mina and eyes blue as the sky, the Goldhands could be easily distincted from other mountain dwarves. But afterall, it is a clan, physical attributes mean nothing to a clan. It all stand on what we are united by, which is our oath to the clan and Brathmordakin and blessing to trade and make mina.

Common Behaviour(s): Mostly merchants or traders, tho never stopped at one profession, Goldhands could be anything from fighters to scholars, to mages or bakers. Even tho the clan has the main unifying factor of making minas, it also serves as a family to each dwarf part of it.

Additional Note(s): 

Grimgold

Contact: Hrokaz / Shadowhunter Zulan'jin#2772

Head: Alaric Grimgold

Race: Dwarf

Location of Residency: Urguan

Common Physical Attributes: The Grimgolds are commonly found with gold to crimson hair, with many shades of blonde and red in between, though those of Dark Dwarf ancestry tend to have white or black as other common colors. They are taller than most Dwarves, especially members of Dark Dwarf heritage. The Mountain Dwarf line has pale white skin, while the Dark Dwarves are dark purple-gray to deep obsidian. Their eyes tend to be shades of greens and blues, though the Dark Dwarf line possesses either fiery red or shining golden eyes. Male Grimgolds have long beards, while roughly half the she-dwarves are capable of growing beards.

Common Behaviour(s): Grimgolds tend to be devoutly pious, untrusting of outsiders (though surprisingly accepting of non-Dwarves), and dourly grim. They are flashy with wealth, greedy over treasured goods, but are generous with trusted friends. Family and loyalty are paramount to a Grimgold, with trust being slow earned, and they will not swear an oath they are unsure if they can fulfill. Most favor crafting, soldiering, or church professions, though merchants and thieves are not unheard of. They tend to be well spoken and learned, slow to stir to directed action, but quick to rise to anger when provoked. Generally a clan of great duality, as symbolized by their masks, often treading the line between conservative long held traditions and the liberal advance progress.

Additional Note(s): The Grimgolds are most known for their Clan Masks, which they often wear when not in a Clan Hold. Most are crafted in the faces of the Brathmordakin (except Yemekar), though animals and other concepts like ancestors are also acceptable. Blood related Grimgolds descend from one of four bloodlines-- the line of Edalric, who tend to be statesmen and contains Dark Dwarves though Alaric Grimgold; the line of Valezik, who tend to be warriors and soldiers; the line of Baedenic, who tend to be artists and are said to be very beautiful; and the line of Ezik, who tend to be thieves and merchants. Dwarves of lesser clans can be adopted as Grimgolds, non-Dwarves can be accepted though significantly rare. The Clanfather has clan outfits skins available, but Grimgolds tend to wear blacks and golds and crimsons.The clan page will be updated with additional information here.

Creatures

Pride Therkul

Contact: Rylothh  / Ryloth#6969

Head: Ri'Haskir'Kul

Race: Kharajyr

Location of Residency: Haelun'or

Common Physical Attributes: There are no specifics required, though a large number are Kha'Pantera with charcoal-black fur.

Common Behaviour(s): They are kind to high elves and azdrazi but hostile to most hou-zi, wonks, and goblins. Kharajyr in this pride are very protective of their religious views and would die gloriously in defense of their goddess and creator, Metztli.

Additional Note(s): Pride Therkul is a pride of knowledge collection and safe-guarding. It is one which flows with the blood of Imperial Tla'toanni blessed by the Aengudaemon Metztli. In its ancient times past, the pride sought to collect and understand all knowledge that had been gathered by Descendants, so as to learn and progress as a people after their utopian home of Karakatua was devastated by a terrible volcano. Notably, this particular Kharajyr pride has deep ties with the Aengudaemon Metztli, and the Arch-Drakaar Azdromoth.

Uiatla

Contact: Postmaster_ / Postmaster Ark Ark#8086

Head: Ki'Xochil

Race: Kharajyr

Location of Residency: Talon's Grotto

Common Physical Attributes: The Uiatla primarily consist of Kharajyr'Pantera and Kharajyr'Tigrasi. The younger generation appears to be dark-black furred with tiger-striped markings.

Common Behaviour(s): The Uiatla are a fairly-curious bunch. It seems learning new things is always a draw for many of them. Outwardly, they are genuinely a good bunch too, striving for a little more betterment to the realm.

Additional Note(s): 

Hello!

In both creating an application and creating a new character once you’ve already been accepted, extremely common character tropes are something that you generally want to avoid. This quick guide will help you understand what they are and why you shouldn’t use them!

What are character tropes?

A character trope is a widely recognizable aspect of a story that grants you information about that character, which is often the difference between flat vs dynamic characters. On Lord of the Craft, this means elements of a character’s backstory that stand out and provide insight into a character’s life. 

Broad trope categories would include: 

• Important childhood events.

  • Did this character have a life-changing event growing up?

• Childhood friends.

  • How have this character’s friends impacted them?

• How your character has acquired their skill set.

• How your character views the world around them, and why. 

Some things to consider when making, reviewing, or recognizing tropes on LotC are:

1. Does this character fit a certain stereotype?
2. Is this character’s backstory lacking in details (is it bland), or is the character’s backstory too intense (is it over the top)?
3. Was there a justifiable cause for this character to turn out this way? 
4. And a general tip- Where is this character’s peak? You will want to make a character with a steady rise, but not yet a peak, when writing a backstory. You want to have something for your character to work for so that you will have fun roleplaying as them.

What makes a character trope good or bad?

The phrase ‘character trope’ often has a negative connotation; However, character tropes are not always negative! The main reason why most character tropes are bad is because of how common or cliché the trope is. Common character tropes are bad as they are simply overused and unoriginal.

What are some common bad character tropes used on LotC?

There are a variety of character tropes that should be avoided. Some of the common tropes are as follows:

• Character is orphaned at a young age because of…

  • Bandits

  • Orcs

  • A freak accident

  • Dark elves

• Being the only survivor of an...

  • Massacre

  • Accident

• Having an older wise teacher figure that tells you various things about the world.

• Joining the military because...

  • Your family has had soldiers in the military for generations.

  • Your father has always been your role model so you join to be just like him.

• Seeing someone using magic when you’re young so you decide you want to pursue magic as well.

• Trained his/her entire life to become an expert at...

• Lost all of their memories. 

How can you avoid using a bad character trope?

When it comes to avoiding bad character tropes, there are many options at your disposal. Firstly, try and subvert your tropes! If you find yourself drawn to certain overused tropes, find ways to take only parts of them, or take them out completely. This way, you will not appear like all of the others who use the same trope.

Secondly, allow change in your character. If something happens to them, let it change them. Your character's experience in roleplay should dictate how they act and take on problems. It’s alright for bad or good things to happen! Let them flow and allow them to make your character stronger.

Finally, avoid clichéd situations. Sometimes, it's not what you do but the positions your character might find themselves that causes these poor tropes! Find a unique light for making a situation. If your character was kicked from the army, have it been for a reason of valor rather than one of ignoring orders. Find a way to make your character unique; then you will have a true set of RP legs to stand on. 

Trust your instincts, but also trust in the RP that you come across. Let it mold your character into something rare, and one of a kind. 

Thank you to @AccioNily, @AnonymousAlexa, @HogoBojo, and @LordScisso for working together to create this guide.

Flawed Flaws

“Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.” – W. Somerset Maugham

To have defects is to be completely, essentially, wholly human. Everyone has them, good guys, bad guys, in between guys. It’s what gives us our humanity. And when you’re creating a character, no matter how powerful, benevolent, evil, or normal, they must have flaws. They help add depth, humanity, and conflict to our characters, so we can relate to them better. The perfect character, as Maugham states, is dull, boring to be around. This is no different in roleplay. Without imperfections, your character can be annoying, irritating, even frustrating . So how do you avoid this problem? You give your characters flaws, that’s how.

But not just any flaw. It needs to be something deep seeded in the character. They can make or break a character. Most weaknesses are just superficial failings, or bad habits. Sure, in small doses, these can bring a lot of detail to your character, but they are no substitute for a true character flaw. So what sets apart the good flaws from the bad flaws?

A Good Flaw...

• Is a deep seeded emotional or physical defect

• Adds depth

• Gives us, the players, empathy towards them.

• Impedes the persona in their goals

The Origin of Our Flaws

We are shaped by the moments of our lives. Our infancy, our childhood, our teenage years, our adulthood. Every moment of our lives, the world is changing around us, and so to do we change. And so must our characters.

Can you think of an event in your life that really changed the way that you think about the world? Maybe you had to move away, meet all new friends. Or perhaps you were fired from a job. These large events shape who we are. And your character shouldn’t be any different. Think of a character’s backstory like a seed, or the roots of a tree. They’re the foundation for the rest of their lives. It is here that your character’s faults should originate.

The Anatomy of a Backstory Flaw

The key to creating a good backstory flaw is to understand where the flaws meet the character. Let’s take a look at an example.

“Jane Doe’s family was mugged when she was a child. In the process, her mother was injured by the thief.”

So, has the flaw developed yet? No. That is merely a character event. It’s an action that either the character does or something that acts upon the character. Flaws are not developed in actions, but in your character’s reaction. You, as the creator, have the ability to decide how you want your character to react to any given situation. With every situation, there are many different ways your character can react. Let’s take a look back at that example, but this time, we can add our character’s reaction.

“Jane Doe’s family was mugged when she was a child. In the process, her mother was injured by the thief. Jane Doe believed she caused the problem, and blamed herself. Around the house, her parents noticed she started to put herself down more.”

Can you identify the character flaw that Jane Doe’s backstory has revealed? She’s grown self-depreciative. It didn’t exist before the mugging, nor during. It developed afterwards, when the persona has had time to develop with her reaction. These backstory flaws should coincide with how the character is played, and be present throughout their whole lives. This creates conflict, and gives the character an obstacle to overcome. Perhaps they try and overcome their failings, and succeed, or try, only to fail and grow more flaws. Let the consequences that the flaws bring echo throughout the character’s story. Let’s take our previous example, and see what way Jane Doe’s flaw could get in the way of her life.

“Jane Doe, now grown up, has decided to join the guard force. She is strong, and a good fighter, but never can seem to summon the courage to make decisions due to her self doubt and depreciation, and she is never able to progress through the ranks.”

So our Jane Doe is stuck in a cycle of not being able to progress in life. She has hit a wall caused by her backstory flaw. How is that a good thing? Well, because of this wall, we now have a conflict for the character to overcome. In RP, conflicts like these are great because it provides the character with a goal to work towards. Jane Doe doesn’t want to be stuck where she is forever, but first, she needs to get past her self-depreciation. This creates roleplay for yourself and the other plays to participate in. She may ask people for advice, she may struggle. It helps strengthen the relationships with other characters in the world around Jane Doe.

The Great Responsibility of the Villain

“Villains often move the story along, while the heroes react to the villain, so the villain becomes the engine of the story.” – Michael Scott

Villains could be the heroes of LoTC. But they aren’t, not yet at least. A lot of villains i’ve seen on the server are villains for personal gain, or for simply the sake of being evil. However, in the story of Lord of the Craft, villains should be held to a higher standard than most players because, as Michael Scott said, the villains are the engines of our story. Their characters should be more complex, with deeper flaws that can create roleplay for all sides of any encounter, in order to drive the personal character development of other characters in the world.

What makes a villain? Is it a curly mustached man who turns around in a chair whilst petting his cat, only to reveal his diabolical plan to us as we’re tied down? Not really, no. Villains can take a multitude of forms. It can be a villain that presents himself as such, though that sort of thing is usually frowned upon. A villain is anyone that tries to impede your character's goals. In Jane Doe’s story, her villain could be an officer that won’t give her the chance to prove herself, or even a fellow guardsman that keeps sabotaging her attempts to take the lead. My point is that villains range from people you know in your everyday life, to the most terrifying antagonist. Everyone, hero or villain or average joe, has flaws.

Villains are

• Normal characters with flaws that impede themselves in their goals, and may likely harm others in the process.

• Normal characters with flaws that impede other characters in their goals.

• Real people with wants, needs, desires, and motives. They can win, lose, live, die. They are simply people.

• The hero of their own story.

Villains should not be

• Wholly Evil Characters (Save that for the Antagonist)

• “Minas or die!” 5 4 3 2 1 Go!

• People that only commit villainous acts for the sole purpose of ooc gain.

The Problem with Polar Traits

“Good-Bad” flaws or more properly known as Polar Traits are traits that become negative when they are acted to the extreme. However, the problem I often see is that people like to use these solely instead of other flaws, simply because it sounds better when describing them. And because of this fear of making your character undesirable, people often fail to play the trait up enough to make it an unmistakable flaw. For example, you may say that your character is “Organized”, but what needs to happen is to take that trait and ramp it up straight past organized, through control freak, and make them downright manipulative.

And no, “too selfless” or being “too kind” are not flaws. The more extreme these polar traits are, the more interesting the character. Instead of selfless, your character is at the point where they’re patronizing or condescending, extending their help to anyone and everyone, regardless of if they don’t need it. Instead of kind, they’re blissful, and can’t even differentiate between good people and bad people.

When roleplayed properly, these polar traits can provide an immense amount of depth. However, they can be very difficult to portray.

Flaws Don’t Last Forever*Some Restrictions Apply*

“We all change when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives, and that’s okay, that’s good, you’ve gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.” – The Doctor

The Doctor couldn’t have put it any better with this one. We, as people, constantly change throughout our lives. We change with the people that come and go, with the big events in our lives. Personas must reflect such. But how?

Look to your character’s flaws. They don’t have to last forever because, as your character works through certain things, they learn, they change (constantly). This is called character development. Thus, you’re allowed to take flaws away from your characters, so long as they earn it, through some struggle or event, when the chance is presented for your character to make a choice. Sure there will be some internal conflict, but they might be able to push past the flaws that they hold. It’s moments like these that make characters so interesting to play.

Let’s look back at our Jane Doe example;

“During a battle, Jane Doe’s commanding officer is gravely injured. With no one to lead the group, they have grown disorganized. However, in his last moments, Jane Doe’s officer gives her some inspiring words, and asks her to try and pull the group together.”

Here we have the opportunity and motive for growth, where your character is presented with the ability to move past their flaw. In our example, Jane is held back by her lack of confidence and her self depreciation.But because of her officer’s words, she has the confidence she needs to pull the group together. She just has to take the initiative.

Now this is a vague example, but you get the picture. In the event, there is something to push Jane forwards to make her move past her flaws. And afterwards, she is a changed person. We’re no different than characters.

If your own personal questions are not answered here, please feel free to PM me at anytime. I will answer as quickly as possible.

Are you a new whitelisted player, freshly arrived into the wonderful world of Axios and Lord of the Craft? Are you simply someone seeking some tips to create your next character?

Well look no more! Papi Soviet here is going to give some of his personal tips on how to create interesting, fun and/or even complex characters.

The Beggining.

One of the things I personally like to start off is always picturing in my mind a brief description & name for the character. Lets give a quick example:

Name: Bob McBoberson

Height: 5'10

Weight: TBD (TBD means 'To Be Defined' in this guide)

Brief Story: Bob McBoberson is an aspiring farmer of simple origins and simple way of life, enjoying the little things he can get, he goes about collecting his wheat and eating his very own Bob's Dough Things. Or more comonly known as Bread.

Getting that out of the way, you will have a list of things to put in TBD:

Story.

Living Family (If any).

Family.

Hobbies.

Personality.

And other things.

Those are aspects of your character that you will adress after you think about one crucial point.

Your character's backstory.

People in this server are meme machines and generally just mock everything they can. Let it be mocking someone for a 'Orcs Kille my Parents' past or a 'I want power' desire. 

Be Creative!

Use whatever you have inside your head and be creative! Getting inspiration from many sources, asking people for ideas and reading historical things (if you want a more in-depth characters) can always help sparking up the creative part of your brain, called Norepinephrine, something we have in our brains that sparks up creativity. Look it up,  but first, use it up!

With your good ol' story outta the way, we come to the name. If you haven't already decided on one yet, here's a quick set of tips:

1- Try not getting your real life name/surname. Again: Be Creative!

2- Get inspiration from LoTC Lore and other things. Remember though: Try not to copy them!

3- If you run out of creativity, or, rahter, out of Norepinephrine, ask your friends and even family for a good name idea. Your mom's probably give you some cool tips.

The name being out, you go to minor details which can be adressed at your own desire.

There are still two KEY things left though.

Personality and Family.

The easiest one would be your family.

Does your character have any living members? Any he remembers of? Who are his parents? Is he the first of his lineage? All of that can be answered in a short paragraph on your history, much like this:

McBoberson was always a cheerful lad. When he was about 5 years old, he finally met the so talked about Uncle Larry, brother to his father, Barry. His mother, Margareth, had too a sister, Hope. Those were the members of his family Bob could remember off. Unless you count Papa Johnny, the drunk grandfather.

As for the personality: Be Creative!

Personality ranges around all characters. Let it be a bipolar orc to an anxious human, you can always base off popular (or nor) characters, yourself or even a friend/family member. But again: Be Creative!

That's it for today! Again, if you have un-answered questions, PM me by clicking on my profile and sending a message (if you're a new player) or just drop down a comment.

Папа Sovetskiy signing out!

A name I did on google translate.

This is a simple guide to make a new character. I hope that this will be useful for you, reader, if it isn't useful for you, I'm afraid but there's nothing that I can help you with as I can understand completely how do you feel about it, specially the way I've written this or the grammatics contained in this singular thread. Ceasar non supra grammaticos.

The art of creating a character is a simple one, useful if you want to create a secondary character after you've applied. I mean, its just a few steps, words and advices.

Character Creation

        You do not create a character to get a specific magic or join a specific group. Instead, you must create a character. Who is he? Make it simple and make it so that it contains simplicity. "Joffrey is a eighteen years old man with the ambition of becoming the greatest of the flower farmers and sell it to ladies across the land, opening a business." This is your character. Now, where did he come from and why does he has that ambition?

       Personally, I like to make my character from a completely different place, with a different accent, costumes, standards, philosophy. Now, how does he acts before everything and why? There's a couple of factors we can make use of here. Firstly, he's seventeen; what has he been through to not be afraid of men in heavy armor walking around on a city, for example? (Which I see something as a reason to intimidate someone, but thats my own opinion. What do you feel when you see someone in a police uniform? Please, be honest with yourself, I'll spare you from this thread). Maybe he admires them? Maybe he knows each single one of them? The second factor to consider. His ambition. He wants to harvest flowers and open a business, how well would he know of general skills and tasks? Make mental notes for yourself.

      Thats it, you have a completely flexible character that doesn't wants to be an undead thanks to their invisible manipulator, or a druid. Place this thing on your head. Druids and magics. I'll be honest and express my opinion: people make characters with the sole initial and set intent of becoming a druid. If you want to contest, go ahead, you might be a special cherry from the cake, but what about the other cherries?

        Right now, I'm playing a man named Fonneus that previously wanted to open a blacksmithing business for farming tools (simplicity) because he came from a place that worked with that - farming; countryside people of a small community with a thick accent. He absorbed their costumes, habits and fears. The best he knows of weaponry is a hatchet - barely knows what a sword is. Due to a multitude of events that happened on his migration to Johannesburg to open a blacksmithing place so he could work. What are his experiences? Farming and blacksmithing, the country bumpkin can barely use a sword. He's also not extremely strong  because he's a blacksmith. Remember, simplicity.

        What happened on his life on Johannesburg is that he found a paladin, talked a little bit and began a restless search for paladins and monsters to prove his strenght to the paladin regardless of having experience with fighting or not. For the farmer, maybe he also could've been somehow seduced by the secrets of alchemy and try to seek for eternal life, not because he looked on a book that he handpicked on a library. Something to consider is also how much your character does knows. The argument of "Being a 50 years old high elven scholar so I know everything or a lot of things" is one of the most stupid **** I've ever seen when I was a new player - I was just too blind to see it, hadn't developed concepts back then. 

Metagaming and Powergaming

        Metagaming  and powergaming are a game ruiner for yourself and those around you. It simply kills the purpouse of everything. Everything you do, everything you try, everything you will do, because it kills the purpouse of doing it - the reckless search for knowledge, even if it's proven fake by the wikipedia or Lore Team. You do not know of it. You absolutely do not, and you're not meant to. It might be tempting to know that liches have a weakness to gold, but just roleplay as you don't know that this is true. What kind of insane person would carry around a golden blade? Why would you attack a dreadknight where it's weak if you're a peasant? Scrutiny, please.

Hello, all. My name is Urara the Orc and I’m here to explain to you how to avoid creating a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. Mary Sues and Gary Stus are among the most annoying characters to roleplay with. Not to mention that playing a Mary Sue will limit your roleplaying options greatly. I’m here to talk about what a Mary Sue is and how to avoid writing one.

WHAT IS A MARY SUE/GARY STU?

There is no real consensus on what exactly a Mary Sue or Gary Stu is. Mary and Gary take many different forms and, for this reason, they’re a little hard to pin down. As best I can put it, a Mary Sue/Gary Stu is a character who is too “special”. They have a wealth of good traits/special powers and demand to be the center of attention. However, there are breeds of Mary Sue that capitalize on negative traits as well. Mary Sues demand attention, whatever form they take. They do not necessarily beg for attention in character, but their actions, appearances, and traits scream “LOOK AT ME!”

The “classic” Mary Sue is a beacon of purity. She’s beautiful, well mannered, kindhearted, a friend to all living things, rich, and seductive without being trashy. Think “Disney Princess.” The “classic” Gary Stu is a manly man – skilled at fighting, killer body, chick magnet. Usually, both of these characters have a wealth of skills and powers that don’t make sense. Why would a beautiful, delicate flower of a woman know how to handle a sword? Well, she just does because she’s THAT awesome! Gary can build guns in Asulon because he’s a genius as well as a stud! These characters are blatantly unrealistic, pumped up with all the powers and traits that would make them desirable. They may seem awesome in your head, but in practice, they’re annoying to other players and strain the boundaries of belief.

However, as stated above, Mary and Gary take numerous forms. We have the classics, yes, but there are more. Some common varieties include:

The God Mode Sue – a character with extreme, unbelievable, god-like power. Will often make up powers to get her/his way.

The Sympathetic Sue – a character with a HORRIBLE childhood/backstory. She was raped by her parents, then her parents were killed by orcs, then her parents came back as undead and raped her again. This Sue screams “PITY ME!”

The Jerk Sue – A sue with a nasty personality. She will insult, demean, and otherwise belittle everyone she meets. Why? Because negative attention is still attention, dammit! For females, the Jerk Sue capitalizes on the erroneous idea that a woman must be tough to be cool. Jerk Sues will act nasty and still play themselves up as ideal people.

The Anti-Sue – A character who is ugly, stupid, and useless beyond belief. Will exploit her “flaws” endlessly to get attention. “Waaah, I’m so ugly and dumb!” Oddly enough, these flaws will never truly affect her.

The Commander Sue – A sue who is unrealistically skilled in matters of combat and war tactics. She is always, always one step ahead, always smarter than her opponents, always the winner. Even when she loses, she will twist the situation so it looks like she won.

The Dark Sue - Because evil and darkness are extra cool! This type of sue can overlap with many others, most often God Mode Sue and Sympathetic Sue. Usually has a sob story to justify her evil evilness, but no other motivation. If female, the Dark Sue is usually a vamp or a spooky romantic gothic type. If male, he's usually just straight evil with no proper reasoning or justification. And, as per usual among Mary and Gary, they are absolutely perfect at what they do. To them, "evil" is just something that makes them cooler.

I use the female pronoun here, but be aware that all these can be applied to males as well. A sue is, at her core, a character who cries out for attention – whether negative or positive – and will try at every opportunity to become the center of attention. S/he will try to twist every RP situation so that it's about them.

HOW DO I AVOID WRITING A MARY SUE/GARY STU?

For the purposes of this section, I’m going to assume you haven’t been accepted yet. So you’re sitting there, staring at the application, wondering what kind of character you want to be in Asulon. Well…you want people to like you, so you should be nice! And no one wants to be ugly, so you’ll make your character really attractive! Oh, but you want to be skilled in combat too. Let’s make your character a sword master. Hm, it’s fun to be important, right? Let’s make your character a princess too! It’s easy to see how Mary Sue traits can pile up when you’re not looking.

But don’t fret. Even blatant Mary Sues can be rescued. Take a step back and look at your character. Is she beautiful, kind, smart, AND a skilled fighter? Make a list of all your character’s traits. Try trimming her good traits down. Pick ONE good thing. Maybe she’s very smart, but cold and belittling to others. Maybe she’s a skilled fighter, but she’s ugly and not very clever. Most characters have more than one redeeming quality, but these good qualities are almost always balanced out by negative traits. Maybe she’s kind and pretty, but dumb as a stump. Or maybe she’s pretty and smart, but incredibly mean. Characters are a balancing act. Resist piling too many negative or positive qualities on a character. As stated above, a character who is ugly, stupid, and absolutely useless at everything can STILL be a Sue. Be sure not to make your flaws/good qualities too dramatic as well. Rarely is a character as beautiful as an angel, but so stupid they can’t lace their boots. Everything in degrees.

Be sure also to keep the lore in mind when creating a character. I know that it’s hard to just sit there and read the lore when you’re itching to create a character and get in the world. Still, violating pre-established lore or (heaven forbid) making up your own lore is the calling card of a Mary Sue character. You read that humans were the only race condemned to die by old age. Well, that sounds annoying, so you’re going to make a human who was so pure, she wasn’t affected by the curse. Or say you want to be an orc, but you don’t want to be ugly. Well, your orc wasn’t affected by Iblees’s curse – you’re still pretty and pale skinned. NO. JUST NO. When you enter Asulon, you must obey the rules of Asulon. Also avoid making a royal character or a character with innate magical ability. Power in Asulon must be earned. If we handed political power and magical ability to every schmuck who asked for it, we’d have a crapton of demigods and kings running around. Not everyone gets to be a King/Queen. Sorry.

Your character is entering Asulon as a regular person – not a royal, not a demigod, not an aengel or daemon. If you want power, glory, and attention, you must work for it. Roleplay with your racial leaders. Get involved in your race’s community. If you play well with others and show yourself to be an asset to the community, you’ll get promoted. One of the most fun things about Asulon is watching your character develop. You may never become a King or a Princess, but, trust me, you’ll feel proud when your character gets that sought-after promotion. If you play REALLY well and get your name out there, you might even get those godlike powers you hunger for. But at the beginning, you’re just another joe on the street. Accept it. Embrace it. Believe it or not, the average joe can be a pretty awesome character.

HOW DO I AVOID PLAYING A MARY SUE/GARY STU?

So you’ve been accepted. Good job. That means your character isn’t a complete Mary Sue. You have some negative aspects, but they’re balanced out with positive ones too. No person is completely negative or positive. You’ve crafted a character, but you can’t forget who the character is upon entering the game. You were accepted because you were a homely, but humble and intelligent farm girl. You can’t suddenly turn into a knockout seductress with demon powers.

To avoid becoming a Mary Sue/Gary Stu in game, you must be constantly aware of how you present yourself to other characters. There are two facets to consider here – appearance and attitude.

1 - APPEARANCE

-Just like in real life, your appearance is your first impression. So you must choose a skin that reflects your character. Because Minecraft skins are lacking in detail, we rely a lot on visual shorthand to decide what a character looks like. For instance – big, anime-style eyes mean a character is cute or pretty. So if you’re wearing a skin has eyes that are two pixels tall, we’re inclined to think “Oh, this character must be attractive.” If a person with big eyes told me “Oh, but I’m so homely,” I would think “Yeah, right.” It’s hard to call you homely when you’re gazing at me with those massive, shimmering eyes. So always be sure to choose a skin that accurately portrays your character’s appearance. A farm girl wouldn’t have perfect hair or dress in silk. True, it’s hard to be genuinely ugly in Minecraft – since everyone is an adorable block person – but at least pick a skin that can translate into your “actual” appearance. Be aware of the visual cues for Minecraft skins as well. If your character isn’t cute, don’t pick a cute skin.

2 – ATTITUDE

-You must keep your flaws and limitations in mind when roleplaying. Let’s stay with our farm girl character. She’s never picked up a sword in her life. Say she’s delivering wheat to a farmer’s market in Renatus when she’s suddenly stopped on the road by a pair of bandits. As they start demanding money, she whips out a diamond sword and starts kicking butt.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Yes. The farm girl just gave herself a skill that she would realistically not possess. You can’t just roleplay having new powers and skills out of the blue, especially skills your character would probably not have. It’s not realistic and it’s a quality of a Mary Sue. In a normal situation, the farm girl would have gotten mugged. Maybe this spurs her to seek out a knight and request training, but she would not realistically just pick up a sword and know how to use it. And what kind of farm girl carries around a diamond sword anyway, especially if she has no training? It doesn’t make sense.

If you said on your app that you are a farm girl with no combat training, STICK to it. You can’t make up new powers and abilities. If you put on your app that you are humble and homely, don’t start seducing every man who walks your way. I know that sometimes this is difficult. You cannot control the behavior of other characters. It’s hard to play an ugly girl if men keep throwing themselves at your feet. Still, the way you present yourself is part of how people perceive you. If you’ve chosen a suitably homely skin and act like a rough country girl, people will perceive you as such.

Avoid making up skills and abilities your character would not have. Avoid acting in a way your character would realistically not behave. I know that sometimes it’s hard. When confronted with bandits, we really just want to whip out our diamond blade and stab them in the face. However, sometimes it’s better if your character gets mugged and humiliated. You aren’t perfect and these situations provide a chance for character growth. As stated above, maybe getting mugged encourages our farm girl to join the army and learn to defend herself. That’s a realistic bit of character growth right there – our farm girl isn’t just suddenly a combat master out of nowhere. However, with discipline and time, she may become a skilled swordsman in the future.

It’s also tempting as your character changes to make them different. You may look at your homely character and think “Well…she’s not THAT plain. Maybe just a little cute. Or really cute. Okay, she’s gorgeous.” You end up emphasizing those character traits you like. It’s easy to forget your flaws too when it’s convenient. Your character is dumb, but you’re in a situation where it would benefit you to be clever. So you start acting clever. Soon, you completely forget that you were supposed to be dumb and all of a sudden, you’re a genius. You cannot forget or overlook your flaws. Flaws stay with you all your life. You CAN overcome certain flaws, like ignorance or weakness, but others, like ugliness and true idiocy, will dog you your entire life. In fact, it’s often more fun if you DON’T overcome your flaws. Truly debilitating weaknesses spice up RP.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY CHARACTER IS A MARY SUE/GARY STU?

It’s often hard to tell if you’re playing a Mary Sue or Gary Stu. In your mind, your character is truly awesome and deserving of attention, but does it read that way to everyone else? Other roleplayers are less inclined to play with you if you act perfect and awesome all the time. Failure and conflict are the essence of story. A character who is perfect, no matter how awesome s/he seems to you, is boring to everyone else. A good start is to ask other people if your character comes off as Mary Sueish.

Even so, spotting a Mary Sue requires some self awareness. It’s possible to play a Mary Sue that everyone on the server loves. For instance, I once ran a small RP forum for some friends. My character on this forum was OBSCENELY wealthy, handsome, clever, elegant, witty, well mannered, and intelligent. He was the biggest Gary Stu I have ever created, but all of my friends adored him. It took some time, but I finally recognized what a Gary Stu he was and toned him down. My friends and I loved him even more once he had realistic shortcomings and weaknesses. It’s possible for anyone to create a Gary Stu or Mary Sue. It’s even possible for everyone to love your Gary or Mary. However, as a good roleplayer, it’s your job to spot when you’ve crossed the line and pull back. You can’t be so swept up in your love for your character that you lose sight of him or her as a person. You have a duty to your fellow roleplayers to create good characters for them to play with.

So how do you recognize a Mary Sue/Gary Stu? There are plenty of handy litmus tests that can help you.

-The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

-The Original Fiction Mary Sue Litmus Test

Keep in mind that while litmus tests are good markers, your litmus test score may not be completely accurate. It is partially up to you to look at your character and decide whether or not s/he is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. This requires a lot of honesty. It’s hard to admit your character isn’t as good as you thought. However, as they say, admitting to having a problem is the first step to recovery. Once you realize you have a Sue, you can begin working on making your character more realistic.

If you're still uncertain, see the list below.

COMMON MARY SUE/GARY STU TRAITS

-Claiming to be "the best" at anything. The best warrior. The best farmer. The best builder. No, you're not the best. You can be "good" at something, but you are not the best at anything.

-Improbable Backstory. Oh, so you fought Iblees alongside Krug? But the fires of Iblees didn't affect you because you're so awesome? And Krug was so impressed, he made you his first lieutenant? All before you turned ten years old? No. You didn't do any of those things.

-Good at too many things. So you're good at cooking, sewing, building, farming, dancing, singing, fighting, and lovemaking? Look at yourself in real life. YOU aren't good at everything. Neither is your character. Your character fails at certain things just like you do.

-Incredibly Attractive. It's true that very few people WANT to be ugly. But not everyone has a killer supermodel body with a face worthy of an Italian Renaissance painting. Being a little plain is good.

-Random Magical Powers. So you can fly, read minds, talk to animals, and breathe underwater? No. While there is magic in Asulon, it's not innate and must be taught to people by mages and such. Also, don't give yourself random magical abilities that your character can't have learned. This leads to powergaming. If your character is a novice magician, I doubt he or she could summon an earthquake or a Kraken.

-Absurd Physical Capability. Your character can sprint like an Olympic athlete, swim like a pro, and beat men ten times her size in a wrestling match? Even though she's just a slender sixteen year old girl? No. A sixteen year old would not realistically have that ability.

-No Debilitating Weaknesses or Flaws. If your flaw does not affect your RP, it isn't much of a flaw. And DON'T pick flaws that are cute or endearing, like "clumsiness". And small visual flaws like a cool scar on your face aren't real flaws either. If it could be read as "cute" or "cool", it's not a true flaw. Your flaws must weaken or harm you in some way.

-Being "The Chosen One." No. You're not the "Chosen One". You weren't chosen for anything.

-Claiming to be of royal descent. No, you're not King Godfrey's long lost daughter. No, you're not some duke's illegitimate half-orc son. You enter Asulon as an average person. IF YOU ROLEPLAY WELL ENOUGH, you may be promoted to royalty. BUT ONLY THEN.

-Claiming unearned status or power. Ooooh, so your character is the Knight Commander of the Renatus Guard? Uh, no. If you want to be powerful, you apply as a footsoldier and work for a promotion. Just like in real life.

-Personality? What personality? Avoid shallow, vague descriptions like "nice" or "kind". You need to give your character a vivid personality with bad traits as well as good.

-Claiming to be a special race. Oh, so you're the last member of a race of bird people who died out before Asulon began? No. Unless you have special GM permission, you MUST play one of the approved races (orc, human, dwarf, all flavors of elf, and Kharajyr). You can be a half breed if you like, but that's the extent of it. You are NOT a pixie, a mermaid, a dryad, a wolfman, a nature spirit, a vampire, a dragon, a half dragon, or a shapeshifter. You can ONLY be a unique race if you have permission.

-----------------

I hope this has been illuminating! Comment with feedback, questions, etc.

Written by Firespirit44 of the Guide Team

This is a slightly different guide altogether, this is a roleplaying guide to give you character more depth. What makes a person feel alive?

1. Idiosyncrasies/Habits

2. Aspiration

3. A back story that actually affected the character's personality (Fear of eating beef because he saw one turn into a demon? Heh.)

4. And of course the topic of today: The character's morality.

Now a character's morals heavily depends on what race and what environment he/she was brought up in. If a character was a Orc, they would not have found it odd or morally repugnant to kill dwarves and humans, for they were brought up in a society that hated humans/dwarves.

Morality is largely affected by society. We say what is 'right' and what is 'wrong' based on the established code of conduct present in society. In Oren for example, it is morally 'wrong' to perform sodomy upon a cow. No we're not arguing if you have the right to rp sodomising a cow(ITS A EXAMPLE. PLEASE DONT DO THIS.), but rather would your character do it? Was he brought up in an environment that required the sodomising of cows? If so- why?

Now that was just a joke, but let me put it from another perspective. Let’s say Sam, a orphaned from young, learned the blades from a sensei in the woods, now seeks vengeance on orcs.

That sentence has outlined the character's aspirations, maybe touched a bit on bio, but the important thing is- What happens to a moral of this orphan? His only link to society was a crazy old hermit in the forest, hence why he would choose to emulate all the crazy hermit's habits, which may include snoot-eating as a sign of affection(yuck). To those who made a wonderful backstory, ask yourself.

What environment was my character brought up in? Dismiss any notions of the person behind the screen, holding the character. No, this is wrong. We want to breathe life and make our puppets into pinocchio. Humans, they seem to find that racism is 'wrong'. But tell me, who ever made that notion? What society made you think that 'racism' is a bad thing?

Nationalism was a big thing back in the medieval ages, and in LOTC all major nobles so far have been to a degree, racist. I find it baffling sometimes that humans would randomly side against elves they don't know, just because the offender was 'racist'. Unless your character was born and raised in Aegis, which the humans were quite accepting of other races, now is not the case. Elves, and orcs are looked down upon, treated as second-class-citizens. Dispel the notions that elves might be beautiful, society conforms you to deem this is heretical, that its unnatural. You should fear them, if you haven't met a elf before in your bio.

Racism is just a excellent point for me to bring up, seeing as it is a modern evil. Sexism is another. Unless your character was brought up in a society where women were the leaders of the clan or something, you would generally find the females to be subdued in Oren. Again Sexism is 'wrong', but in the Oren human society, it was not treated that way. Just that usually the females ended up much like in medieval times, tending the homes. Might be you want to rp a strong-willed-female/male-who-believes-in-feminism. That is acceptable. But you must understand the consequences of supporting such a act, and where did you get inspiration to support this? Did a female knight beat you in a duel, hence your fervent worship of feminism?

Case in point, do not attempt to personify real life moralities into LOTC unless it makes sense. Feel free to rp a equal female in orcs, dwarves, and elves, seeing as their society is founded on strength. Oren too is, but the male scene is quite dominant now.

Question yourself why, why and why, when a character does something. It goes all the way down to the fundamental aspect of society that we all try to fit in: "Is this the norm in society?".

There is possible further reading on Character Alignment, explained here.

All Characters are composed of unique traits, abilities, weaknesses, and strengths.

This is what makes characters unique. This is what makes characters.. characters! All of us, every single person on planet earth has their own combinations of what they can, and cannot do. What they are good at, and what they are not good at. Their own quirks that make them unique. One may say you cannot have fun playing a lowly peasant. Of course you can!

Even the lowly farmer than camps out farming has a combination of skills and traits that makes him separate from others. They may always be similar to someone, but never the same. Keep this in mind in your application process. Here are some examples.

Bob the Farmer once grew up in a wealthy household, but the unexpected death of his father sent the whole family plummeting in debt and poverty, casting Bob into the streets, as their wealth collapsed without the strong mind of the father. Now he spends his days farming, wishing his everlasting lifestyle back.

 Comparing this to...

Bill the Farmer grew in poverty, swamped by debt to the Kingdom from his mother and father. Often times, in drunken fights, Bill would slip through the narrow, broken gate they called a door, and retreated to the wheat fields. The sight intoxicated him with happiness, and sort of a reality he could escape to. All grown up, he comfortably dwells as a farmer, loving every day of it.

Both are farmers, however these things end there. From a first glance, they are the same. They are both farmers, and are both poor. However, they have different visions for their life, different back stories, different things that make them... /them/. I believe RP is a place where you could imagine the impossible, have a great time. Creating a cliche character and having no fun is no good at all! Here are further tips.

Physical Strengths/Weaknesses.

Brainstorming time. Think of something. Does your character walk with a limp? Is he/she missing an eye from that nasty, terrible brawl some weeks back at a drunken tavern? Or are they strong, leaping from tree to tree in easy succession. Or are they strong with their upper muscles, plowing through manual labor as if butter? 

Mental Strengths/Weaknesses.

This is a critical time in your character creation process. This literally shapes how your character acts entirely, so be creative! Does your character suffer from a mental illness, or an irrational fear developed out of something that could come from a horror story? Or are they people smart, chatting up conversations that would pose problems for other people? Are they book smart, absorbing information that lowly peasants could only dream of doing?

Concluding this guide, the world is yours to make. Craft your character, and have a great time while doing so. Tata!~

How does this pertain to LotC, you ask? Well, characters are portrayed on how you emote them. It is up to you and only you how to roleplay your character, however I shall be suggesting different ways to potentially portray your character and how you emote his actions. Let's get some examples in!

 The man walks into the tavern, a solid wall of hot firey air hitting me. The stench of old hobbits fill the area, as his blood stained leather swivels in the air. He takes a seat, slamming two coins onto the table. The old innkeeper grunts, slamming down an equivalent mug of beer, it sloshing in the warm heat.

Does that sound very appealing? Sort of like a dark atmosphere of a lazy tavern, that looks relatively hostile and glum. This would fit a GoT mood. Let's look at another...

The man merrily swings the tavern door open, a warm cozy atmosphere to greet him. Hobbits are sitting at tables, laughing and telling jokes. Hobbit hairs and scattered across the floor as instruments begin to pick up as the night progresses. Why, the man even had some rabbit blood on him, from his hearty meal just some hours ago! He places two coins onto the tabletop, the innkeeper sliding a cold mug of beer for him. He takes the drink, turning around with a grin on his face to observe the tavern fun.

This is very different. It expresses a fun atmosphere where the perspective of the man is turned completely around! This would fit a LotR mood. Let's explain how you can change the perspective on emoting and just general moods.

Glum vs. Fum

The Glum Elf:

The Glum Elf trudges through the forest of tall trees, the midnight moon beckoning over him. A screech can be heard of wolf's hunting, as he sits down on the tree. The grass waves eerily, as if waiting for something. He sits to contemplate his horrible life, and how glum he is.

The Fum Elf:

The Fum Elf skips through a forest of towering trees, sheltering him from the lonely moon. A howl of animals can be heard in the distance, as he smiles softly, putting his hands onto the wood as he moves to sit down. Even the grass seems friendly, waving towards him in the beautiful silence of the night.

Noticed it or not, there is significant difference on how things are done here. The emotes are very different, portraying different sides to something. Notice on how the things are completely the same. The trees are tall, there is a full moon out. Animals howl, the grass waves, etc. However, the mood is changed dramatically. Let's delve into things you can use.

Adjectives. These suckers are arguably the most important to acknowledge when describing your character. What sounds more frightening?: "Beckoning Trees!" or "Welcoming Trees!". It is up to you to paint the picture. Further examples: "The old wood croaks eerily." or "The aged wood swings happily to the side." 

Description. What is more informative and appealing? "The wizard walks through the woods." OR... "The old wizard walks through the woods, his large hat tipping as several wood creatures come to greet him. Even the trees seem to be in a good mood as he puffs out smoke from his pipe." Now, I am not saying to make a paragraph every time you want to RP. However, description is key and really does make the place around you!

Words! Don't forget 'ol words! Portray the mood of your character and the setting through these. Either with, "A maddening whisper floats through the trees, the inevitable attack coming..." or "The chair creaks under the weight of the merry dwarf, as he swings his arms about, sending the candle lit buckets of ale sloshing." Happy mood? Darker mood? Merry mood?  Idle mood? Depressed mood? Anxious mood? It is yours to decide! Make your words associated with moods, so you can better describe what is happening.

I think this shall conclude my guide. Enjoy, and make good use of it! Tata!~

This is the hub of all of the "Meet the..." guides. Enjoy your stay!

 
Requests Status: Not accepting requests.
 
Hello, welcome to the hub of the series. Might as well lean back and relax, there's a lot to read here.
I hope that you find the guides useful and entertaining to read through, and enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Keep in mind that they are designed to give you a briefing and a short analysis on how to play a certain character, and are not the end-all-guides type of thing. Most of them will include links to other guides so that you may continue your research, but this was intended as a place to begin your searches.
All of the content here was written by me unless otherwise stated but feel free to use it. If you find that there is something wrong, that you dislike or would like changed, feel free to leave your criticisms below, I will not judge you based upon them and will fix the discrepancies listed. Thank you for reading, the guides are below.
This series is a work in progress, however the guides below are finished.

Do you want to help out, and provide a few useful tips on your roleplay experience on a guide that has not been created yet? Feel free to post below or send me a PM using this format, I greatly appreciate your help, and if you provide useful information I will add you to the credits. :D

Remember to press the light-switch before pasting this in, and then click it again after pasting.
Thank you for your help!

[color=#ff8c00]What guide are you helping with?[/color]
 
 
[color=#ff8c00]Give a short briefing on the subject.[/color]
 
 
[color=#ff8c00]What are a few helpful tips to playing this well?[/color]
 
 
[color=#ff8c00]What are some things to avoid?[/color]
 
 
[color=#ff8c00]Do you have any additional notes to add?[/color] 

Meet The Applicant

New members are always welcome in our community.

Meet The Applicant

New members are always welcome in our community.

"Come on in, use the forums and enjoy the server, we don't bite."

 

 

Briefing:

 

There are always a large amount of people pouring in by the bucketloads in Lord of the Craft. And that is absolutely fantastic, but as you have probably already noticed, you need to write an application to become a part of our community. Well, you can take the easy way out and simply write the application and hope to get it. Or, you can take the difficult, but respected way, and do some prior research first. The fact that you have dug up this guide means you are already doing the latter, good work. What you need is for your application to stand out among the rest, there are many applicants that want to get in just as much as you do. Most applications are denied because of the minimal effort that is put into them, and you need to make sure that you do the necessary work.

Firstly, you need to figure out a unique character, and prepare a detailed history on them. However, don’t overdo it and make them glow in the dark and breathe fire, as an application containing those qualities will most certainly be denied. Expanding and elaborating on you character is the most important part and it is necessary to do as well as you can, you may be using your character when you join so it is crucial. Make sure to do the proper research into the world history and visit the wiki as well as any informative forum posts. In the application, remember that you must not perform any villainous activities or use magic, because those are things that you must apply for, and cannot use in your response questions. Make sure that you include proper definitions for powergaming and metagaming, which means researching them before stating what you believe they are, and of course, not doing either in your open response questions. I wish you the best of luck getting accepted!

 

"You're going to have to put forth more than your minimal attention on your application."

 

Characteristics

• Well thought-out and planned.
• Character expanded on and provided finer details.
• Long and interesting biography.
• Little to none spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.
• Proper definitions and answers for questions.
• None of the content was plagiarised.
• Usage of proper format.

 

*Applicant Billy decides to find someone elses good application, and copies all of the information from it word for word*

 

Inadequate Applicant RP:

Billy has decided that he wants to join Lord of the Craft, he going on the submissions forum and types up a few sentences on why he should be whitelisted.

You cannot simply do that to join, you need to write out a full detailed application which is provided in the submissions forum.

 

Billy pulls out the application and begins writing, he can’t figure out a good definition for powergaming so he finds copies one from the internet and pastes it directly.

This act is known as plagiarism, and if you are caught doing it you will be banned from applying for three months. This is the worst possible thing you can do, do not plagiarise no matter what the circumstances. Write out everything in your own words.

 

Seeking further assistance?

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/80614-official-application-format-application-rules/

Meet the Peasant
Sort of a guide to follow when playing them peasants in the fantasy setting. LotC needs more peasants...

Meet the Peasant

Sort of a guide to follow when playing them peasants in the fantasy setting. LotC needs more peasants...

“Your average peasant had the IQ of an extremely rotten tree stump and the common sense of a very small lump of mud...”

 
 
Briefing:
A peasant of the fantasy medieval ages happens to be a simpleminded, gullible, thick-headed farmer. They spend most of their time at home, tending to their crops and animals, often wading in animal feces. A peasant is someone to play when you are rarely online, only logging on to LotC a few times a week, because they generally just farm and give their crop to the nobles. A peasant in Lord of the Craft has acquired about the rarity of an enderdragon popping up in the overworld. When playing a peasant keep in mind the level at which their mind is at, they are morons. If they see something out of ordinary, it is witchcraft, and it is scary. That includes magic, and if they see anything like that, it’s a witch, burn it, because they can't have that among them. But the peasants wouldn't burn the witch on their own, they're going to run around shouting about it until the witch is dealt with. Also to note, peasants also enjoy spending their time watching executions. Sometimes it can actually be quite fun to play these kinds of characters. It's like a human goblin, but a bit smarter.
 

 

"We've found a witch; may we burn her?"

 
Characteristics:

• Good at farming.
• Muscles toned from the work.
• Often very religious.
• Thick-headed.
• Superstitious.
• Gullible.
• Mostly Illiterate.
• Hate change.
• Bad table manners.

*Peasant pulls out double-handed claymore with his strong hand, slicing the seasoned veteran in half*

 
 
Inadequate Peasant RP:
 
Skilled at fighting with weaponry.
When would a peasant find time to swing a sword for a few hours every single day? Why would he run around swinging a sword when he should be farming?
 
Intelligent and all-knowing.
A peasant is commonly taught just the basics of language, they are supposed to spend most of their time farming anyways. They are not going to spend time sitting around reading books. A peasant has a very small array of ideas and knowledge. As Rhcrow has added, they wouldn't be able to know that lightning is attracted to tall/metal objects, neither would they have the patience to speculate or care.
 
Willing to learn magic.
Aagh! It’s a witch practicing witchcraft, burn her at the stake! And while we’re at it, become witches ourselves! Yeah!
 
Parents died at an early point in farmer's lifetime.
If Billy had his parents killed when he was four, how exactly has he become a skilled farmer now?
 
Experienced Herbalist/Alchemist.
Well, maybe. But a peasant deals with useful crops that he was taught to harvest not anything else.
 
Excessively weak.
Just because a peasant doesn't train with a sword, it doesn't mean his muscles aren't used. He plows his fields, that’s strenuous activity too.
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet the Coward
Because, you don’t see fear role-played that often. Wait, what is fear again?

Meet the Coward

Because, you don’t see fear role-played that often. Wait, what is fear again?

“Haha Uruk, jokes on you buddy! I’m an emotionless and heartless sack of flesh that can’t fear!”

 
Briefing:
Rarely have I seen fear properly role-played in Lord of the Craft. It is becoming a rarity, and truly something to savor while it lasts. I’m looking to re-introduce this foreign notion of fear in hopes that people will take note and role-play it themselves.
First off, fear is felt by everyone unless they are mentally damaged. It is a primal instinct to feel fear because you need to preserve your own skin. If you are a new thief skulking around someone’s house looking for treasures, you’re going to be nervous and afraid of being caught. If you are a child and you are approached suddenly by a stranger you’re not going to be able to maintain a solid conversation with him. If there is a hooded figure sneaking about, you are probably not going to approach him unless you uphold the law; he could be a murderer prowling for his next kill. Of course, this wouldn’t mean that you need to over-react, yelling for the guards because of a figure with a hood on. And to add, if it’s night time outside, and you’re in a spooky forest, you’re going to be jumpy and frightened most of the time, who knows what might jump out? Right, and if you are a peasant and see a wizard casting magicks, run the hell away and scream for help, because it’s heresy and witchcraft! Lastly, you can’t really say you ‘conquered’ fear and therefore you don’t feel it or are used to a situation, a hardened warrior will still feel fear in combat and feel the rush of adrenaline.
 

"Aah! Guards! Guards! He’s ripping that man’s head off!”

 
Characteristics (While fearful):

• Quickened breathing, abnormal sweating.
• Jittery and fidgety.
• Shaky and restless, suspicious.
• Shy and concerned.
• Difficulty focusing on trivial matters.

 

*The fearless child grabs the steel broadsword from his belt, charging at the Uruk while bellowing his war-cry*

 
Inadequate Coward RP:
*Father Freddie drops his metal spoon; it clatters on the floor loudly.
*Child Billy screams in pure fear, running away to hide under his bed, he is now mortally fearful of spoons and believes they’re after him.
Okay, although role-playing fear is nice, that is seriously overreacting.
 
*Human guard Billy is approached by three powerful and bulky Uruks, they are wielding sharp battleaxes menacingly and appear to be about to attack*
*Guard Billy nods to the Uruks, then politely asks them to leave*
Well, I don’t know what to say to this. It appears that either Billy is as naïve as a common rabbit, or he’s got as much emotion as a pile of rocks.
 
*Bulky well-toned Billy is watching his wife cut a carrot with a kitchen knife, his face drains of color as his expression grows fearful, beads of sweat beginning to drip down from his chin.*
Okay… What? It’s not like she’s not going to kill you, you oaf. Although, this could work if the man had a deathly fear of knives, and was psychologically damaged from a trauma involving knives in his childhood or something.
 
Seeking further assistance?
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/78545-displaying-emotions-in-roleplay-other-guide/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/59731-fear-and-pain-in-roleplay/

Meet the Villain
I think there are enough guides on this, but I wanted to chip in too.

Meet the Villain

I think there are enough guides on this, but I wanted to chip in too.

“I’m sure we are familiar with the commonplace LotC villain. He’s had his family brutally murdered, and is now consumed by his vengeful thirst for revenge.”

 
Briefing:
Villainy is a very large part of the Lord of the Craft experience, but at the same time, it’s not for everyone. Before thinking of becoming a villain, you need to ask yourself, how come? If it is to be able to steal from others, acquire items, kill obstacles who are in your way in LotC, then unfortunately I must say that villainy is not for you. On LotC you need to act for the benefit of others, not for your own. Now, that does sure sound contradictory to villainy, but keep in mind that items and personal desires are not as important as the roleplay is on LotC. If you are seeking to become a villain to further progress your experience as a player on LotC, and provide enjoyable events for those around you, then you are capable of handling villainy. There are many types of villains that you can be, street thieves, murderers, instigators of chaos, torturers, as a few examples to get you a general idea, as naming all would take too long.
Now let us progress to the character, because how would one begin committing villainous actions and actually become a villain? Does it happen out of the blue? Not at all. A villain doesn’t pop up out of nowhere, it is something that happens over the course of time, because a character is shaped by events in their life. Conjuring a reason on the spot is the worst thing you can do for roleplay, and more often than not for personal benefit. It is a creative and ongoing process, you must be mindful of your character and play by how they really are, not what your OOC motives happen to be. If you are however making a new character that you want to be a villain, include a meaningful reason in his biography. Keep in mind that you cannot apply with a villainous character. Otherwise, events that occur in your characters life will lead them to commit villainous actions, and you need to make sure that they make sense. If a lawful good character had a family member pass away, he’s not going to go on a killing spree, but instead despair and mourn their death. And if your character is poor and needs to steal occasionally to get by in life, they aren’t going to torture or kill for pleasure. When you do believe that you have enough experience playing on LotC, and your character has found reason to be villainous, feel free to write up an application. However, please do take your time as it is not an easy process, but is in fact difficult. There are many people applying everyday and the villain application team must be picky about what villains they add to the LotC environment. Make sure to be polite and courteous to them as they are dedicating their time to improving the LotC community and there are many applications to go through daily. Don’t expect a review of the application within a few days, it takes time.
Now, what about when you actually are a villain? Well, now the fun begins! Remember to be a responsible player when engaging in villainous activities, as your villain application can be revoked. An accepted application is not a warrant for doing anything you please, it is rather a license that grants you permission to do a few limited things. Remember that winning must not be your primary objective, and you must be willing to let your opponent have their way, your goal must be providing an enjoyable event. Lastly, your actions after acceptance must reflect what you wrote in the application itself, and if the VA is becoming outdated then you should update it by utilizing a mini-VA. Best of luck improving the LotC experience, and enjoying the server as a villain.
 

"That dark elf looked at me funny, he’s next.”

 
Characteristics:

• Character has had negative events happen in life that lead to villainy.
• The character has some sort of logical incentive to commit certain villainous actions.
• The character still has some moral grounds on which he will not commit villainy.
• Actions that are done are not too rash and drastic based upon what the character wants. (If he wants bread to eat, he's going to steal a bit, not kill a farmer to have eternal access to his bread supply).

*Bob the loyal and helpful “villain” has decided that he no longer needs any friends. He then proceeds to slaughter them all in successive assaults.*

 
Inadequate Villain RP:
Billy Bob needs to steal something from Freddie’s house, so he patiently waits until Freddie logs off. Now that Freddie is gone, Billy thinks he can have all the loot he wants! He proceeds to grief into the house, and steal every useful item he can find.
These kinds of actions can be a warrant for a revoke of your villain application. Your primary goal must be providing an entertaining experience for your victims, and not for personal gain. Stealing more than 25% of the items in a chest is also heavily frowned upon and you may be striked. Secondly, when performing a villainous action make sure that whomever it affects is currently online, that way you can avoid a lot of possible chaos.

Billy Bob is a righteous paladin, his primary goal is to punish those who taint the name of his deity and that is the only way he would commit villainous activity, as written in his VA. Freddie happens to be crossing the street in front of Billy, and accidentally bumps into him. Billy Bob pulls out his warhammer in a furious rage and bashes Freddie’s skull.
This event is a strong breach of Billy’s reasoning as stated in his VA. He faces a possible strike and most likely a revoke of his application. Refrain from committing villainy without a realistic reason.
 
Seeking further assistance?
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/80567-a-comprehensive-guide-to-villain-rp/

Meet the Newbie
Relax folks, he’s just learning how to take his first steps.

Meet the Newbie

Relax folks, he’s just learning how to take his first steps.

 “Is roll-play like, when you’re playing with your dog, and it does a barrel roll?”

 
Briefing:
The first entrance to the great LotC, a great and fun experience to behold, and certainly something you remember. A time when you are naïve, and believe anything can happen on the server. Playing a newbie really isn’t that hard, because there are many helpful members on the server that would be willing to help you out. The most important thing I will say is, don’t be afraid to walk up to random characters. If you don’t know anyone yet, then approach the first person you see, and have fun. The commands in the server can be intimidating at first, but there is a good topic on these forums called the “Knowledge Base”. Inside there, you can find out some more useful information so that lacking knowledge on commands doesn’t slow you down severely in-game. If you don’t know about something during role-play, then don’t be afraid to PM a player and ask. That is what I will add to this topic, and remember that being a newbie does not entitle you to break the rules, read through them carefully, because breaking a rule may result in a strike or a ban. Lastly, remember what you came here for. Lord of the Craft is a rich and vibrant role-playing server and community. The most important thing we treasure is the role-play. And if you have come here to have fun and immerse yourself in an entire new universe, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re new and reading this guide, then welcome to LotC, you’re going to love it here.
 
[Edit] As SpamShok has pointed out:
A note for the more experienced players, try not to joke around too heavily with the newer members. In fact, I would rather refrain from doing so, just welcome them warmly. If someone joins and they're presented with messages like "noob", "hate you lol", and the like, this could very well discourage them from playing as they don't know you well enough not to take that seriously.
 

“Power-gaming is when I plug-in my laptop charger while I’m gaming so it doesn’t run out of power… right?”

 
Characteristics:
These are all perfectly normal and will pass with time.

• Learning about the server.
• Possibly enthusiastic to get engaged in the LotC universe.
• Makes occasional mistakes.
• Has little knowledge on lore.
• Most likely not active on forums.

*Experienced role-player offers to help out newbie pick up his poor role-playing skills, the newbie scoffs at him, because he believes he’s already so amazing he can’t get better anymore.*

 
Inadequate Newbie RP:
(Yes newbies have responsibilities too which they are not exempt from).
 
See the ‘emote example’ above.
As a new player in LotC, you should be looking to improve on your role-play, and should actively seek to figure out more about how you can enhance not only your experience, but those around you. There are many guides on the forum that can help you with that, maybe like this one.
 
Billy Bob really wants to get involved in the community economically. He wants to be the richest player and have the most minerals in the server. Billy Bob decides to download an x-ray texture pack and install the nodus client and begins excavating in the ground using strip-mining methods and brightness on full, placing no torches or supports. Billy Bob becomes rich, and as he plays more he figures out that what he did was a serious crime and offense. The Game Moderators later find out and he is punished to an eternal and unforgiving ban.
How unfortunate… poor Billy. Assuming that you have read the rules, you will know how out of place this is. He has committed a truckload of crimes, and broken more than his share of rules. X-ray, hacking, strip-mining, and not placing supports in mines are all extremely tall cliffs to fall from. If you break any of these rules, you tread a very thin line if you have not yet been discovered. This is never acceptable, especially in a role-playing community like LotC. We don’t play to win here, if you want that, find a different server. That kind of attitude is not welcome here.
 
Billy doesn't know how to do a certain thing. He decides that nobody would help him anyways and keeps to himself.
Not true! This should not happen, because the LotC community is always there to help. If you are uncertain about something just PM a guide on the forums, or in game. Ask a question using /modreq [text], don't shy away from asking something that you need to know.
 
 
Seeking further assistance?
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/77226-guide-to-not-getting-yourself-banned-within-your-first-month-of-playing/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/76421-new-player-guide-how-to-win-lord-of-the-craft/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/75539-a-guide-to-writing/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/42700-metagaming-a-guide-to-avoiding-it/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/51242-bad-roleplay-guide/

Meet the Guard
Approving Undead through the front gates since Aegis.  -Oren guard force.

Meet the Guard

Approving Undead through the front gates since Aegis.  -Oren guard force.

 “Stop! You violated the law. Pay the court a fine or serve your sentence.”

 
Briefing:
Where there is a law, there are people assigned to uphold it. Those people happen to be guards, and you might be one of them! Upholding the law is a tricky thing, as you have to always be aware of the on-goings. Hoods and weaponry among citizens are your primary enemies, as they mask identity and provide a threat. Remember that the duties of a guard are to keep the towns safe and clean of villainy, guards are the right hand of justice. If someone is bad-mouthing your emperor, stabbing yo’ people up, or got their hands in too many pockets, you’ve got work to do. Guards need to work together, and maintain a presence where the civilians can feel safe and protected. A guard needs to be online often enough to ensure security and it can be a difficult job, but it’s really up to you. Being a guard can be rewarding, mainly because you can taste having authority over the commoners around you, have fun with that.
 

"Halt, criminal scum! Stop snooping around in that man’s house. Come with me quietly if you know what’s good for you.”

 
Characteristics:

• Spend much time in the city.
• Often have skills in weaponry.
• Headstrong and determined.
• Occasionally, albeit rarely, lazy and uncaring.
• Have their noses everywhere.
• Got access and keys to all the gates.
• Should RP practicing weaponry once in a while.

*The guard stops the innocent civilian because he seems shady, and promptly enacts a terrible death by noose.*

 
Inadequate Guard RP:
 
Metagaming
Billy Bob has read about Freddie the Murderer by searching up his character profile on the forums. He proceeds to pay no heed to the few orcs klomping citizens beside him and directly approaches Freddie, accusing him of murder. He presents the case to the authorities and Freddie is quickly put to death.
Using information from OOC is a huge no-no. Maybe you might feel justified because you’re putting down a villain, but you have to remember that the player himself is not a villain, but you’re punishing him through this meta act, which is a punishable offence. Besides the punishment, it severely discourages good villain RP for the victim because they will feel that it will happen again in the future, and ruins your reputation as a good role-player. Truthfully, you would need to acknowledge Freddie the Murderer just as kindly as any other citizen, as far as you are concerned you need to protect him.
 
Powergaming
Billy Bob has sighted Freddie the Murderer once more; he instantly sprints over and pulls out his magical handcuffs which latch onto Freddie’s hands, sealing them tightly. But Freddie resists! Billy grabs his sword and quickly cleaves off Freddie’s head to prevent further disruption.
Excellent! A medal to you from me for your courageous guard actions. Not. Although guards uphold the law, being part of the ‘good’ side doesn’t give you special power benefits. You need to role-play just like any other person and abide by the rules. There needs to be an even playing field in OOC, as for the playing field IC, no, the Halfling won’t brutally defeat the Uruk.
 
Spamming OOC
Billy Bob is trying to handcuff Freddie after learning his powergaming lesson, but Freddie manages to gracefully escape. Billy becomes enraged and begins spamming lines of OOC text and swears that would make Shiftnative frown.
Well, that is not good. Out of Character should only be used to solve immediate problems in role-play and come to fair resolutions, not to spam an opinion aggressively.
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet the Detached Gamer
The respectable player that is willing to negotiate to progress the roleplay.

Meet the Detached Gamer

The respectable player that is willing to negotiate to progress the roleplay.

 “Let us work together to create a seamless roleplay environment where everyone can enjoy themselves as something else.”

 
Briefing:
There are very few of these people on Lord of the Craft, but when you meet one, you may experience the fairest role-play experience you’ve had yet. What do I mean by a detached gamer? I don’t mean the kind that doesn’t care about the role-play. I mean the kind that is detached from their characters, the kind that can look at things from afar, and decide on a neutral ground where the role-play needs to go. There are many ways to go about this, but first of all you must not let your emotions from OOC get in the way of the story. This is a creative process, we are all writing a grand tale, a vast book, and are all putting forth the pieces of the puzzle, that interconnect with each other’s storylines. There are many esteemed writers of today, but in books there is a very important part. Some characters must suffer to further progress the story, some characters must also decease. It is not everyone that gets the good slice of the cake (although all slices are good :3), and that needs to be understood. In LotC, nobodies’ character is more important than another’s, but you must be willing to subject yours to the will and benefits of others, and willing to view things at a realistic but still fantasy-based perspective. If you can do this fluently, you can consider yourself a detached gamer, it will be an honor to roleplay with you.
 

“Alright, the OOC needs to stop, let us discuss this like gentlemen. How about we role-play that your character will escape with a few cuts and bruises?”

 
Characteristics:

• Often a vast pool of patience.
• Able to negotiate and understand well.
• Very rarely uses OOC.
• Can make excellent decisions and play respectable leaders IC.
• Tries his best to immerse people in roleplay effectively.
• Doesn't let OOC emotion interfere with their roleplay.

*Bob the not-so-detached gamer begins to spam OOC at his attacker, crying and yelling about how his character is too godly to be defeated.*

 
Inadequate Detached Gamer RP:
 
Billy Bob is about to be executed by a guard, but he manages to quickly untie his hands and roll away from the decapitating blow of the axe. He then promptly giggles like a child and, flapping his hands flies away into outer orbit.
Okay, maybe that last part was a little too imaginative and unlikely. However, a fact needs to be faced. It is up to you whether or not you want to perma-kill your character, because nobody can tell you that you have to. There are some situations where surviving would be heavily frowned upon, but nonetheless it is your choice. In this situation Billy was already about to be killed, why not let the character die once? He will be revived by the monks once more, but will merely forget 30 minutes of role-play and events leading up to death. That is all.
 
Billy Bob has just received news that his characters wife has died. He proceeds to kill as many people as he can in main cities, flames the forums, and quits LotC altogether.
(Very unlikely, but it is strongly hyperbolized).
Woah there buddy, slow down! This is a game and you need to remember that. If you find yourself suffering emotionally in real-life from something happening in-game, there needs to be some time out. If you find that you have strong emotion attached to your character, you should take a break from playing the character for a while, or kill him off before it worsens.
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet the Merchant
You know, the one that’s always yelling near you and handing out garbage for minas.

Meet the Merchant

You know, the one that’s always yelling near you and handing out garbage for minas.

 “Greetings Traveler, I am assuming you are dead tired from your trip. Might I suggest looking through my finest assortment of goods while you rest?”

 
Briefing:
This happens to be the first requested guide I am now filling out, huzzah! I am going to begin by saying that I myself have played a merchant, I did it by using a farmer character and owning a big plot which I used to gather my goods. If it is properly played, a merchant can be one of the most amusing ways to spend your time on Lord of the Craft. Now, the most important aspect that being a merchant revolves around is making money.  But on LotC that changes around, because we play for the roleplay and for our amusement. The best way not to fail as a merchant is by providing roleplay to those around you, and it really doesn’t matter if your goods don’t sell all the time. So how do you get started? First of all, you need to figure out what goods you are going to sell, and at what prices. Keep in mind that absolutely ludicrous pricing will not always provide you with good roleplay, and rarely will you be able to sell goods that way. As an aspiring merchant you need to go out and seek people in large towns and cities to share your amazing goods with. Playing a merchant can be very difficult at times, and I’m not going to hide it! You’re going to need to utilize your conversational skills and make sure your grammar is not far from perfection. To be blunt, nobody actually needs your goods in LotC unless they are particularly amazing, so convince them! People need to know that the goods you are selling are going to change their life, that the steak they are going to buy is going to be mind-bogglingly delicious. Describe the goods you have, and make sure people know of your presence. I’ve stood around Oren sometimes with my character, and simply shouted out the goods I possessed, and told people to come running over. Well, it worked! But if it does not, don’t despair; you can always approach people directly. When you acquire enough fame as a successful merchant, you will be able to relax a bit more, as people will tend to come directly to you as of their own accord. To provide the best roleplaying experience as a merchant, remember to let people haggle for better prices, but at the same time discourage that with your character, it can provide for long conversations. However, if they are in a massive hurry, it’s best just to sell your goods quickly and let them leave. Lastly, I wish you good luck playing a merchant as it can be a really fulfilling experience once you get the hang of it.
 

“I am willing to offer quite a generous price for the meat I am selling, as you can observe, it is of the finest quality, being juicy, tender, and absolutely deliciously cooked to perfection.”

 
Characteristics:

• Loud and invasive.
• Descriptive about their goods.
• Enthusiastic when dealing with customers.
• Lots of materials to sell.
• Willingness to have goods haggled, sometimes.
• Fountain of roleplay, constant provider.

*Merchant Billy wants Freddie to purchase his fresh steak. He proceeds by poking Freddie in the arm and ordering him violently to buy his goods. Freddie promptly calls the guards and Billy is persecuted*

 
Inadequate Merchant RP:
 
Billy Bob has decided with good intention that he wants to become a Merchant to increase roleplay for everyone else. Having learned from his previous lessons on being new, he begins spam chopping trees down, digging up ugly fields of sand, and making several chunk large quarries. He is now super rich with materials and decides that he will now sell his goods.
Okay, well at least Billy was trying hard to get involved and add to roleplay. However, this is filled with massive mistakes. First of all, is Billy so skillful that he knows how to chop, dig, and mine efficiently? Secondly, he can get banned or striked for land-scarring because of the huge quarries and ugly, random sand pits. A merchant can’t get all of his goods from himself, he’s going to have to use other sources as well. Find a farmer, and chain a relation with him where he will give you his goods, and you will sell them while relaying the profit to him and taking a bit for yourself.  This creates a sort of middleman and prevents peasants from having to be masters of all the trades. Find a lumberjack, start up a business with your goods. The possibilities are really endless!
 
After having acquired so many goods, Billy decides to head to town to sell. He approaches the closest target who he sees, it happens to be a seven year old halfling child who clearly has no minas. Billy proceeds to demand and bully the child into purchasing his goods.
Well, he’s succeeded in providing roleplay, sure. He’s most likely going straight to jail too!
When you are going about your business as a farmer, you need to keep in mind who your targets are, because you aren’t going to sell cactus green to children, or children’s toys to noble elders.
 
Billy is unsuccessful in selling his goods to the halfling child, what does he do? Billy decides that the appropriate course of action is to enact death on the child.
Brilliant! Now, unless Billy has a Villain application for psychopathy and insanity, he’s going to get a strike/ban report placed on his shoulders. Also, merchants need to really refrain from being evil when selling goods (unless that is how you lure people in, in which case you’re really smart). Why? Because if he’s caught in the act, he can no longer be a merchant. What fun is it playing a merchant if you can’t play a merchant? People are going to interrupt you incessantly with pointy pitchforks which will make it very difficult to sell goods properly.
 
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.
 
Oh yeah, remember to visit Dawn's Bakery if you decide to go back in time to Aegis.

Meet the Noble
If properly played, this is difficult and very time consuming. But I still think we need more peasants.

Meet the Noble

If properly played, this is difficult and very time consuming. But I still think we need more peasants.

 “Hey, you! Yes, you, filthy peasant. Fetch me this, and do that for me. Good, then you can have a pat on the back and some basic recognition.”

 
Briefing:
It is time to address the majority of the Lord of the Craft population. You can’t miss ‘em, it’s the nobility! To begin, playing a noble can be a rewarding experience because of the incredible amount of authority you have over your lesser folk. That’s not too hard to figure out; however, there is a big misconception that is occasionally happening. A noble must be someone that works hard, and does tedious political work, as well as much other basic ordering around. A real participant in the nobility is someone that is helping make decisions, and helping progress the town/city/empire.  Although it seems like a selfish position, it really shouldn’t be. A noble shouldn’t just gobble up the hard work of others, he should be working harder than them. The reason why he would hire a maiden, a farmer, or a builder, is because he himself doesn’t have enough time to do that. Being a noble requires a lot of time and dedication off your hands, and you need to be prepared for such.  Essentially, they are the ones that make a big chunk of LotC even work at all. Why are there little peasantry, dedicated guards, and etc.? It is because the nobility isn’t encouraging it. OOCly, it should be a selfless action to become a noble, because you are going to spend time making your character yell at people and inquire for more workers. If someone isn’t exactly a peasant in their attitude, make them one, it’s not as difficult as it seems. Offer them a job and say that the pay and rewards are going to be fabulous if they work for you. As time goes you can make them do tedious tasks like farming, lumberjacking, and mining. Always remember to provide them with positive feedback and encouraging words. Oftentimes I have seen people get told to work, and then they receive absolutely no recognition for it! That is when they stop working for you and move their butts elsewhere, because otherwise LotC would just become an activity where they become a drone and click at stone blocks repeatedly. Although I’ve described here a noble as a selfless angel, you don’t have to be one. Nobles in the medieval times saw themselves as above the peasantry and the like, so it shouldn’t bother them too much if you actually act as their superior. As a last note, something that I learned from experience, make sure that people know of your power. If someone works for you, keep your position of nobility under an iron fist, hire a guard for your manor and keep them peasants in check. Who knows when they might rebel and have pointy pitchforks at your neck? Good luck playing a noble, there are tons of them out here, and please don't make other people nobles just because they chopped a few trees for you, or have become part of your family. I am aware that is unrealistic, but LotC can only have 300 people online at one time, and therefore we need less than 100 nobles online at peak times because there won’t be enough labourers. As some last information from this briefing, remember that you play LotC to have fun, and so does your peasant worker. So make sure it is fun for both of you OOCly, otherwise you’re going to be a noble who has to dress up like a peasant every once in a while to do farming work. ;)
 

“Greetings peasant. I am in need of more folks like you, why not settle in my household and work for me? You’ll be rewarded handsomely.”

 
Characteristics:

• Heavy workload.
• Powerful authority.
• Kind/Friendly or Inconsiderate/Rash, depends on personality.
• Active in politics. (Whatever they may be).
• Cautious and careful. (Murderers).
• Possibly lots of followers.

*Nobleman Billy orders three peasants to work on a farm. As time goes on he pays them absolutely nothing but takes the fruits of their work. Later, the peasants revolt and Billy is killed*

 
Inadequate Noble RP:
 
Billy Bob has decided that the community needs to see him perform wonders as a noble. He decides to start off by approaching random peasants and declaring himself their lord, before he wakes up with the Monks.
Okay, well Billy has sort of overstepped it and missed the goal. To become a noble, you’re going to need to spend time with the nobles themselves and gain their trust. Once that has occurred and you’re about a semi-noble, then you should ask those you find politely, but at the same time exercise your power near them so that they do indeed know you’re important.
 
Billy has managed to acquire two peasants to work under him. He decides to instantly let peasant one manage his political things for him, and peasant two do all the farming work and material gathering. As time progresses, Billy gives them no compensation and is killed by peasant two. Peasant one later completely fails Billy’s plans with his garbage politics and Billy becomes a peasant himself.
Now there are three peasants, one more than before! Billy has managed to royally and miserably fail, but why has this happened? Well Billy sat on his buttocks while he let the peasants do the work, and he let a dumb peasant manage his political manners. As for the no compensation, the workers wouldn’t want to work for him anymore. Good work Billy!
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet the Bard
Unfortunately, you can’t be the epic sax guy. There aren’t any saxophones invented yet.

Meet the Bard

Unfortunately, you can’t be the epic sax guy. There aren’t any saxophones invented yet.

“Greetings friends, have a seat and get comfortable, I’ve got a tale to sing.”

 
Briefing:
Firstly, before reading this guide thank the experienced Hex37 for his valuable assistance, it could not have been done without him.
So, you have decided that the way of the bard is the path for you? Hopefully this guide can help you achieve that! A bard is someone who travels the lands and arrives at various cities and taverns; they brighten the mood with music and singing. Although they are uncommon in LotC, they are most of the time experienced players. Becoming a bard is not a simple task, and lacking grammar and spelling can be very unappealing to those around you.  Playing one successfully can also be difficult, because a successful bard is one that provides enjoyable entertainment for those near enough to hear. There are three main ways for a bard to sing. Firstly, the usage of a YouTube link, which requires a little previous work, but people can actually hear the music you are playing. Keep in mind that you should be playing the same instrument that you link, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense in roleplay. Secondly, this can be done with a premade song that you or someone else wrote. Type the song out beforehand, and keep it in a text file. When the time comes, you can simply copy and paste the lines to LotC and you’re good to go. Thirdly, you can use a method which requires the most skill but the least preparation work. This one is just making up the whole thing on the spot, which can turn out either good or bad, although you would have to be an absolutely astounding writer to be able to pull that one off. This kind of roleplay is excellent, but you must know when the time comes to do it, and must always remember that being a bard revolves around providing entertainment. What does a bard do when he isn’t singing? Good question. You can roleplay sitting down occasionally and writing lyrics or spreading interesting news. Keeping a light-hearted spirit and generally being passive is crucial, your character will visit many areas and it is incredibly detrimental if you acquire any enemies during your travels, make everyone your friend. On another note, remember that you need to fit in with the lore and have proper instruments. That would include lutes, lyres, drums, pianos, and possibly horns, if you are not sure what one of those is look it up and do some prior research. Quoted from Hex37: “-definitely no banjos, guitars, or anything else that bad***es like to strum to feel cool.” As a final note, remember that a bard isn’t going to become extraordinarily rich, because you aren’t there for the money, but there to provide LotC at its’ heart, entertainment.
So, I wish you best of luck in becoming a bard, it’s going to be a difficult journey, but in the end an enjoyable and fulfilling experience.
 

“Keep your ears open and listening folks! I will sing you all an Ode to Baked Taters.”

 
Characteristics:

• Large collection of YouTube links and text documents.
• Not knee deep wading in cash.
• Often an experienced LotC roleplayer.
• Quite friendly and charming, but can be a serious bard as well.
• Very avid traveler, moving all over the continents.
• Often very informed on various news and information.

*Billy the Bard walks into a tavern and begins to sing. His singing is criticized so he smashes his instrument against a table and punches the critic in the face*

 
Inadequate Bard RP:
 
Billy Bob the inadequate bard has entered into a courthouse to perform what he believes is going to be the next big hit single. While a verdict is going to be passed and there is a raging OOC river, he decides to spew out tons of musical spam with grammatical flaws and spelling mistakes.
Alright, I guess there weren’t any bad intentions here, I’d say Billy is doing mediocre. There is a place and time to perform. A tavern usually has a more bright and cheerful atmosphere, and pick a time where there are a few people and nothing too exciting is happening. Provide the peasants and nobles alike with some cheer, it is really appreciated. As for the grammatical flaws and spelling errors, although it is unfortunate people will adapt a very low opinion of your bard roleplay as a result. At the very least run it through a word processor and get the spelling checked and fixed.
 
Billy Bob has found a great tavern to begin his works but Freddie the Other Bard is already occupying the area. Billy scowls and stomps inside through the tavern doors loudly, and begins to spam his singing and music overtop of Freddie’s and a big OOC spamfest ensues.
Bad idea! There was an excellent opportunity here and you may or may not have noticed. When you meet another fellow bard, you should instead combine your instruments and work together. A well sought-out YouTube video posted in L-OOC can help the situation incredibly, instead of bickering over-top of each other and getting nothing solved.
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet the Innkeeper
The kind soul who provides you with a room and services… for minas.

Meet the Innkeeper

The kind soul who provides you with a room and services… for minas.

“Hmm… So you have no place to live? I’ll lend ya’ a room for a day.”

 
Briefing:
What kind of town doesn’t have a tavern or an inn? The wrong one.  A inn can be a valuable asset to a town, and they are generally a hub of roleplay. Be sure to include a place to eat and discuss, a storage area, and cozy upper floor where you can order a room. Something that I must add, make sure your inn has a fireplace to stare inside, it can provide a generally warm and friendly atmosphere which is crucial to a successful inn. This sort of job can be rather difficult, and it requires you to stay online for extended periods of time. First of all, placing is an important aspect of an inn; make sure that it is near a road, and far from housing that people could purchase for themselves.  Making an inn near spawn area or on a long road leading to a popular hub is generally a good idea, although keeping it in a very popular area/city is also good. As an innkeeper you’re going to have to be a little tough too, because with the amount of people, discussions, and ideas, conflicts are bound to arise at some point. You need to be able to deal with such conflicts using calm, dominant, and convincing actions. Hiring a few people to work at your inn is not a bad idea either, get people to attend the tables and sell the food, hire a guard or two as well. Remember that an innkeeper is going to have a wide selection of foodstuffs, so keep your stocks filled to the brim and always available. Pricing is also an important factor because people won’t choose to stay at your inn if it costs too much. Inns are a hub of roleplay when positioned properly, and can provide many enjoyable and entertaining memories. An innkeeper and people who visit inns regularly can become smart on a lot of varied topics, as people like to boast about that time they slayed dragon or just converse about various topics and events in general. If you want to become an innkeeper, I’m going to personally give you a few of everblue2er101’s cupcakes, and wish you a great experience. And as last advice, keep your ale stock filled to the brim. ;)
 

“Come in ‘ere and get some of Otik’s Famous Spiced and Fried Potatoes.”

 
Characteristics:

• Hearty and welcoming demeanor.
• Cheerful with a round belly and a lot of minas.
• Hard working and dedicated to their tavern.
• Friendly and knowledgeable on many topics.
• Has a large supply of alcoholic beverages.

*Billy Bob the Inadequate Innkeeper spots a shady-looking cloaked figure seeking shelter and foods enter into the inn. The unwelcoming Billy quickly orders his guards to arrest him*

 
Inadequate Innkeeper RP:
 
Billy Bob has decided to make an inn, and so he constructs it in the far reaches of some random desert beside an Orc camp. And ultimately, he concludes that it will be best that he made a rule that denied Orcs entry and made them unwelcome.
Good job Billy! You’ve given yourself the smallest possibility for roleplay, and at then canceled and blocked it out. You won’t be able to play a normal innkeeper this way as you are going to have way too many conflicts with the Orcs beside your inn. Although, that does provide for roleplay... have fun with that.
 
After a while, a bruised, beaten, and sliced up Billy Bob heads near the spawn, determined to construct his inn. He hires a few workers, and then sits back and relaxes for the rest of his career.
Nope. That is not going to happen. Firstly, you are going to run out of materials and foodstuffs/drinks very quickly. Secondly, that is going to lead to your inn gathering an infamous status. Thirdly, your business is going to eventually collapse and your workers are going to leave. If you are going to maintain and manage an inn, do it to the best of your ability and do not falter. 
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet The Drunkard
A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.

Meet the Drunkard

A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.

“You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on. “

 
Briefing:
So you have decided to have your character participate in some drinking activity. Well, prepare for your intelligent and experienced scholar to temporarily become the worlds’ most brainless and nonsensical moron. So what will happen in LotC after your character has a few alcoholic beverages? After just a few, your character will not be able to perform as a good decision maker, and neither will he be able to do things with incredible precision. As your character drinks more and more, their abilities must decreasingly worsen. Typically during the effects of alcohol characters will become rather more depressing, as opposed to what some may think. Things like thinking about their spouse leaving them or whatnot, and having to be reassured by everyone around them. But really, in the LotC environment it is a lot easier than that, because you play to have fun. Make sure that the effects of the alcohol are not incredibly detrimental to the roleplay, and maybe even add to it a bit. It can also be used when your character is cold, the alcohol has a warming effect as it rushes over, but it is merely an illusion.
Remember that there is a thing called over-dosing and your character may die from it, but still be revived by monks. Have fun having your character drink in LotC, and good luck… you’ll need it.
 

“Wha’ did’ye jus’ say? Aym com… completely fien… completely. An’ aym nut’ drunk at all!”

 
Characteristics:

• Incapable of complicated thought.
• Unable to walk in a straight line.
• Unable to perform complicated actions.
• Slurred and dumbed down speech.
• Occasional hiccupping.

*Billy Bob the inadequate drunkard has decided to write a novel and participate in some swordplay, which he does perfectly after several bottles of vodka*

 
Inadequate Drunkard RP:
 
Billy Bob has had a multitude of drinks before his big speech because he’s quite nervous. He then approaches his position to speak with confidence and delivers the speech perfectly.
This is a difficult thing to do, incredibly difficult. Because firstly his motor skills would be much slowed and more than inadequate he will find it difficult to even walk. Secondly, your memory deteriorates under the influence so he shouldn’t be able to present his prepared speech fluently, and should have many mistakes.
 
Billy Bob is in a very sorrowful period in his life, he has decided to drink as much alcohol as he can to feel good. He begins to chug down bottles, and barrels, and basements full of alcohol before going to sleep.
Sure, Billy goes to sleep. Forever. I’m not really going to touch on the fact that consuming more liquid than the entire mass of your body is kind of just impossible, his belly won’t it. However, he can’t just go to sleep after something like that, he’s going to die of severe alcohol poisoning. No worries, monks can still heal him to health obviously, but he won’t remember what led to his death.
 
Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet The Medic
The medieval medic, the one that pokes around in the patients rib-cage before pronouncing him dead.

Meet the Medic

The medieval medic, the one that pokes around in the patients rib-cage before pronouncing him dead.

“Hmm let me just try… oops!“

 
Briefing:
After a long, large-scale battle, the troops are heavily wounded, not all can be saved, but some certainly can be helped and their lives spared. It is now up to the medics and healers to take over. Medics are the most useful asset after battles, but they are also so incredibly difficult to roleplay well on LotC. Because, a medieval doctor was not actually as helpful as you think. There wasn’t any heavy medical equipment or medicine, so you can’t give your patient an aspirin for headaches. Medics actually made people bleed out the ‘bad blood’ if they were diseased, and that is ridiculous! Although over time, a medic does acquire some general experience like knowing what herbs to apply, when to apply alcohol, and the like. Knowledge doesn’t come to you instantly, but if your character does want to know there are experienced medics that can help, mostly elves. Keep in mind something extremely important, a medic cannot salvage every situation, and cannot fix up every patient. There is always going to be that situation where the medic fails, and it can be a saddening experience. If someone had his limb torn off, you can’t just apply some ‘medicine’ and have it re-grow. However, you can do a lot more if you are a cleric or a magic-wielding medic, in which case, you’re good to go. What can be some of the requirements?  You need to know at least a few details on the human body, the rest are somewhat similar to humans, so don’t worry about that. You need to carry with you physical supplies on your character, things like paper, string, bone/stick(crutch) and a few herbs(various dyes). Lastly, you need to know your boundaries, who you can heal, and who would be completely unreal to heal, because your patient is at your full control. Medical roleplay in the realm of LotC can be quite difficult, but it is a necessary and requested position to fill. It can be very fulfilling, and ultimately entertaining if you enjoy roleplaying as a medic. I suggest you acquire some experience roleplaying in LotC as something else before beginning on this journey. As always, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours!
 

“Yes, would you mind holding your ribcage open? Yes just like that, good.”

 
Characteristics:

• Limited medieval knowledge on body.
• Different behaviour when working doing their duties. (i.e. Usually calm and reserved, but loud and commanding when working on a patient).
• Can’t do all of the healing by their self, commonly need assistance.
• Always carrying adequate supply of bandages, threat, needles, rags, and basic herbs.
• Knows that they can’t heal -everything-.
• Can be wealthy depending on if they charge a fee.
• Well trusted.

*Billy Bob looks at the bleeding and injured Freddie before fixing him up and sending him on his way*
 
Inadequate Medic RP:
 
Freddie the Warrior has had his skull brutally smashed in by an angry dwarf utilizing a massive steel hammer. Billy Bob approaches him with a smile on his face, and then proceeds to apply some basics herbs like Rose Red and Cactus Green to the splattered gray matter and Freddie is as good as ever.
Wait! What in the nether… Well this situation is completely preposterous and impossible by any stretch of imagination. Firstly, you absolutely need to acknowledge that Freddie is done, and that is the end of it. Secondly, just because you’re a medic doesn’t mean you can smile about a wound, it still looks gruesome and horrifying.
 
Freddie has come to Billy Bob with a terrible fever and complains about a headache. In response, the calm Billy Bob pops open a bottle of Aspirin and gives a few to Freddie, while giving him advice which details to eat lots of gold nuggets to preserve his state.
Well, I’m going to address the Aspirin part first. This is a fantasy-based but still in a medieval setting, so you can’t have any modern medical equipment whatsoever (i.e. Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, Cyanide, etc.). Secondly, try to avoid giving people in-game advice that is incorrect or you are not sure about. There is an important reason as to this, because if they do not know better OOCly, they will actually roleplay the false information working! If you feel this is necessary for your character to tell him IC, then inform them OOCly of the situation prior.
 
Seeking further assistance?
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/71564-medical-roleplay-the-chaqery-way/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/67731-medical-rp-and-you/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/80560-medical-rp-and-you-2/

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/80197-lore-blissfoil/

Meet the Warrior
You know how to wield a sword, axe, polearm, and warhammer, all at the same time? Nope.

Meet the Warrior

You know how to wield a sword, axe, polearm, and warhammer, all at the same time? Nope.

“Take this ye’ bloodeh green basturd!”

 
Briefing:
Where might all these master swordsmen be coming from in Lord of the Craft? The answer is simple, people want their character to be good at something, and they decide that being the world’s swordsman is a unique and innovative idea. Unfortunately, that is the case for everyone, and if everyone in LotC is amazing at wielding a weapon, it’s not unique anymore. If you are a Halfling that spends his spare time plowing his fields and chatting with his buddies, you can’t be a swordsman. If you are a knight, but you never practice your weapon, you can’t fight in a battle. There is a common misconception that your ranking in the nobility dictates your skill in combat, but it’s terribly wrong. A recruit can be better than a knight given the recruit has more prior experience. However, you can’t instantaneously become a good warrior, it needs to be roleplayed properly. Just because there is nobody to witness you doing these emotes, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Find a likeminded character and roleplay sparring, and training with or near them, it can actually be fun to see your character progress in skill over the days and weeks. If you still believe your full-time farmer can be a master warrior, please reconsider keeping the stubborn attitude. This kind of roleplay is extremely discouraging to the community that witnesses and it can be very disappointing to hear that a knight engaged combat using a steel blade, and was defeated by a peasant with a wooden fork. If your peasant can do that, he is a bad character, and you become a master powergamer. Have fun playing as a warrior, and if you acquire this skill, enjoy it responsibly. Good luck playing as a warrior, and do not be hesitant to strike report people who god-mode their characters.
 

“Yes, I am a master of all the weaponries, except for everything other than a sword or dagger.”

 
Characteristics:

• Spend much of their time training.
• Work on toning their muscles or sparring in spare time.
• Take joy in showing off their acquired strength.
• Generally best at one weapon, able to wield others after much practice.
• Skill not instantaneously acquired, but over time.

*Billy Bob swings his sword, cutting Freddie’s legs off and his head too for good measure in one clean slice*

 
Inadequate Warrior RP:
 
Freddie unsheathes his sword, bellowing his war-cry and sloppily charging at Billy. Billy masterfully sees through his sloppy charging and begins slashing him like a scholar counting from one to ten. Billy then emotes chopping Freddie down, and killing him in a final powerful blow.
Incredibly power-gamey, Billy would most likely be striked or banned for those actions. You cannot dictate the actions of the enemy, and neither can you be the one to emote their death. Remember that the only real control you have is over your character.
 
After miraculously returning from his tenth perma-ban, Billy decides that he will actually roleplay bringing his character up and working on making him a warrior. He chooses a good day to practice his weaponry and spams out 50 lines of emote and speech when “Nobody heard you.” Then, the day after his eventful practicing, he has become a master swordsman and is ready to take on three dragons simultaneously.
Nope. Do you think it is possible to choose a single day, pick up a children’s book on space, and then become the world’s most renown astrology professor the next day? That is impossible. Firstly, Billy has spent minimal time and effort training, and used very little time. Secondly, how can Billy teach himself the art of swinging a sword on his own? If your character is going to teach himself a skill, it is going to take a very long time. Just, pick a teacher, it brings more roleplay and general entertainment.

 
Seeking further assistance?
http://sleepyglow.net/tbd/fightguide.html
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/80659-benbos-big-guide-to-combat-roleplay/

Meet The Maid
It's a maid for LotC's sake! How she knows how to wield a sword is beyond me...

Meet The Maid
It's a maid for LotC's sake! How she knows how to wield a sword is beyond me...

“Good morning milord, what would you like prepared today?”

 
Briefing:

A maid is somewhat close to being a peasant, but most of their time is spent cleaning and preparing meals instead of plowing the fields. Generally, this task is filled in by women because in the medieval ages it was felt that the sort of meager thing would be handled by them. If you wish to be a maid in LotC it is not that difficult at all, and neither is it stressful. It is more of a relaxed activity to take part in if you rarely log on, it is for the casual gamer that doesn’t want to participate in much. What does a maid do in the perspective of a roleplaying server? A maid is there to provide an ambience to a household, in their surroundings you can expect emotes that include cooking, cleaning, and other activities. This sort of ambience can be crucial sometimes, and it can add a warm feeling to a house and generally improve roleplay. Emoting the occasional dusting of a cupboard, or the placing of a cake in the furnace is what that may include. Of course, that doesn’t mean you need to emote when nobody is around, that is pointless.

Now to the personality, a maid should be at least somewhat gentle, sweet, and respectful. They shouldn’t speak out too much unless necessary and have a calm and reserved demeanor. A maid is usually paid a hefty sum so maintaining those kinds of qualities can help you stay in the household for longer.

As for the combat, it can be very disappointing for the attacking party when a maid suddenly presents a fearsome challenge. If you are spending most of your time mopping the floor, dusting the countertops, preparing meals, and sleeping, when would you find the time to swing a sword for a few hours? Best of luck playing a maid, and remember that this is not a demanding activity at all, and that your main responsibility is just providing some ambience for a home.

 

“Would you like another sweet roll? We’ve got quite a few.”

Characteristics:

• Gentle and kind.
• Quiet and reserved.
• Not much of a temper.
• Usually cleaning or preparing foods.
• Poor combat ability.

*Billy Bob the inadequate maid promptly stands up in front of his master, and unsheathes a battleaxe to defend from the oncoming orcs*

 
Inadequate Maid RP:
Billy Bob has decided to cook up a big cake, he’s never cooked up a cake before, but he has decided that today is the day. He places a few ingredients on a crafting bench, and then he’s got a cake.
Nope. Billy Bob is going to need some prior experience first, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it can actually be fun to roleplay burnt food, or a failed attempt at something. Try it out, and after a few attempts you can make yourself pretty good at cooking, because if you can bake a cake once, you can bake it twice. Things don’t change as much as in a combat situation, the environment is much more static.

Billy Bob begins cleaning the house when nobody is around, he picks up a broom, and sweeps at the dirty, muddied floor one time using a single emote. Billy then emotes that the floor is perfectly clean and good to go.
Being a maid can sometimes be tedious work, but you don’t have to emote when nobody is around. Therefore, if you do decide to start cleaning and someone is around, write it out well, and make it descriptive. It can be enjoyable to read through sometimes when you put some good effort into an emote.

Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Written by Ford, edited by Telanir.
Meet The Lady
An image of perfection, it's the pretty woman that the knight chases after in children books.

Meet the Lady
An image of perfection, it's the pretty woman that the knight chases after in children books.

“Why, thank you, courageous knight! If you hadn't come to my rescue, that thief would've gotten his hands on everything I have on me!”

Briefing:
Noble women are role-played well on LotC, but not all the time. Even though we live in a fantasy world, that does not mean that human women are to act any differently than how they would act during medieval times. Noblemen would usually spoil their wives with lavish items and gowns, who would rarely help their husband on the more political issues and barely made any decisions for their husbands in general, but suggestions were allowed to be made at times. They have a regal tone of voice and presence and can be easily spotted due to their colorful dresses and ‘ladylike’ hand gestures.
To start off, when roleplaying a noble woman, you could begin by recruiting a bodyguard to protect you personally, because if a thief, or a murderer lays eyes on you, it’s going to be a tough situation. If your noble woman character decides to go solo and take a dagger, (I doubt your woman could get her hands on a sword) she would still lack adequate training, being untrained and too much of a lady to really use it. And also, since you are a noblewoman and can not be meddling with the affairs of lowly peasants, you will usually be around other wealthy women, gossiping about various events and just engaging in casual chats.

“Another red velvet coat, my love? I swear, you spoil me so!”

Characteristics:

• Wouldn't carry around weapons of any sort, though occasionally it would be possible for her to carry a tiny dagger if it was necessary.
• Doesn't participate in battles whatsoever.
• Would wear elegant dresses and strong, expensive perfumes.
• Appears to be well educated for the medieval times and her vocabulary is extensive.
• Loyal to her man.

*Noblewoman backs into a dark alley, with a murderer advancing towards her. She quickly pulls out a very large battle axe that happened to be concealed under her dress. She jumps into the air towards the criminal and slashes downwards, slicing him into two even halves*

Inadequate Lady RP:
*Billy the Lady notices two dark figures approaching her from behind. She quickly pulls out a dagger from a sheath that was strapped to the side of her dress and plants herself into a defensive stance. “What do you two want? It’s not nice to sneak up on a lady!”*
What? First off, even if this woman was trained to fight with a dagger to defend herself during the night, she would still run away in fear and shout out for help, most likely.

*Billy takes a seat near the corner of the tavern, raising her hand up high in the air and shouting for a pint of the bartenders finest ale*
Well, this is somewhat wrong, but sort of right. You see, the thing that’s wrong about this is that someone as rich and prim as Billy wouldn’t be in a tavern for peasants, nor would she ask for a large mug of ale. The one thing that is right about this scene is that she’s asking the bartender for his(Or hers) finest ale, only wanting the best as all proper ladies deserve in these times.

Seeking further assistance?
None I can find unfortunately.

Meet the Wizard
It's okay, LotC has its' share of Gandalf's too.

Meet The Wizard

It's okay, LotC has its' share of Gandalf's too.

“Where there is no mystery, there lies no wonder.”

Lengthy Summary:

This briefing and guide won’t be short at all, lean back and relax, but most importantly, enjoy, for I have spent all of my characters history and my experiences on the writing of it.

The mages in LotC can be a rare find, but quite a spectacle to behold when they actually use their powers. Magic itself in the world is a very rare thing, and quite difficult to acquire. Yet when you pass through the weeks and months of training, all of your hard work pays off very well. Magical users are among the most entertaining aspects of LotC because of the sheer power you can acquire. But you need to remember, that not everything in magic is combat-oriented. There are over 15 magic subtypes that you can apply for, and each one has their own purpose and is applied differently to the LotC environment. I am not going to provide too many specifics on wizards in this guide because otherwise it would become the size of this entire series, magic has a lot of ground to cover. If you seek to become a wizard/witch yourself, be prepared to spend hours on the forums, in-game, and on the wiki. You will need to read on the magic lore, delve into your subtype more closely, and inquire various magical experts to become an able magic caster. Now, let me touch up on a very important subject regarding teachers of the magical arts. You must keep in mind several extremely important aspects, this includes being humble, respectful, and not excessively intruding. Why is this so? This is because contrary to popular belief, teachers of magic on Lord of the Craft are not Skyrim vending machines, and the server does not revolve around your character unfortunately. Sadly, I have committed this very same crime that I’m not too proud of. Approaching a teacher out of the blue and asking them to teach you in the ways of magic is incredibly rude, and pretentious. You should greet them daily, and slowly become a part of their life by visiting occasionally. On another note, discovering that so-and-so is a magic teacher from the forums and then approaching them in-character is one of the worst and most powergaming situations out there, avoid it at all costs. Now, to continue, if the teacher does not welcome you, unfortunately that is the end for you, continuing to approach them is not going to make it better for you, but instead worsen the situation altogether. Seek out someone else or find a way to gain their attention, it is best for a magic teacher to choose you first, and not you choose them. But that is actually the second step folks, not the first, because the first, is actually acquiring an interest in magic. Well, where are you going to acquire this interest? Because you certainly can’t decide OOCly and have your character suddenly wish to learn the arcane arts or something. That is serious metagaming, and very heavily frowned upon. Your character should find a book about it, or be approached by a friend, or at least have it written out somewhere in their biography. Even when they find out, unless they very much like to explore new ideas and concepts, are going to refrain from pursuing the subject. It’s a very special matter, and your character should be able to list the reasons for their searches on the spot. Now, let us say that you are one of the very few that has successfully found a willing teacher, and is prepared to become a magic user. Now begins your real journey to acquiring skill in magic, ahead of you lies a treacherous and dangerous path, fraught with peril and difficult, deathly encounters. While you tread this path to becoming a powerful wizard, you must keep in mind several things. Firstly, learning how to summon magic at all is very difficult, and your first attempts will not succeed, but after trying hard and persevering, the first success will completely drain you of energy for a while. After this, you will progress to greater heights as time goes by, but learning even an individual spell will take at least two or more weeks to become adept at casting. As the learning experience progresses in time, you will become a wiser, and more intelligent LotC player, because of your exposure to magic teachers, who have been around for long periods of time. After months of training, it will pay off and you will know what to do with your character. But how will your character act, what does a wizard generally do? There really is no direct answer for this, because a wizard is still based on his original personality. Generally, a wizard is very wise, having passed through a multitude of tests and character-shaping events. They can provide insightful details and support when it is required, but they also have their occasional crazy moments. Because of the drawbacks of casting magic and studying so long in solitude wizards can sometimes become a little odd in the head. Otherwise, a wizard will often engage in activities outside of their personal bubble. Because of their large collection of knowledge and many years of studying they often seek to expand themselves even further, and sometimes get involved in events greater than themselves in an attempt to fix the problems of the world and make it at least a somewhat better place. Some wizards make it their duty to uphold the balance of the world, neither choosing what some may consider the good side, or the evil side. Most likely, wizards will work with the losing side and try to maintain a level playing field for both parties. That is about all I have to say on their personality, it will take your character a while to become such a wizard. But until then, I very much so wish you good luck on becoming a wizard, it’s going to be difficult, but one of the most enjoyable experiences you could have on the server. Remember, roleplaying learning, and seeing your character progress can be just as fun, if not more entertaining than casting the magic itself later on. You will find out that if your character has become too strong, scaling your power down according to your enemies, and their number, can prove to bring a challenge, and improve both yours and the victims experiences. Something incredibly relevant to wizards in LotC are two topics known as powergaming, and undergaming. They are both detrimental to roleplay, but powergaming is usually the worse case. There is no black and white in magic and power, it is more of a gray faded area and it is up to the wizard to decide most of the time. This creates a situation where the wizard sees fit to undergame themselves to peasant level so that they won’t be called powergamers by the average player. But hold on a second, why do players even call wizards powergamers in the first place? There is a reason for this, and that is lack of knowledge and understanding. If you are a wizard do not be afraid to use your characters abilities to their fullest extent, because you have spent months learning this magic and your enemy has not. Since they are clueless behind their keyboard they will call you a powergamer, instead, have a few forum pages and wiki links ready at your disposal to toss at them when they get squirmy. If you can prove to them that your wizard is indeed as powerful as you emote or say, they will eventually quiet down and play the game calmly and respect your powers. If that doesn’t work, unfortunately the only thing you can do is take a few pictures and bring it over to a strike report, let the event be handled by the GM’s. There always needs to be a certain amount of respect towards both roleplayers as this is a cooperative story, nobody is the main character, if that certain amount of respect is missing, there is going to be powergaming and undergaming unfortunately. As a sort of guideline to follow, if you’re not a mage, don’t even try to report experienced mages, because they have acquired that position through their hard work and proving of their abilities and maturity as players. I wish you the best of luck becoming a wizard or progressing your wizard to new heights, and pummeling your enemies into oblivion with fireballs!

“Magic in truth is understanding of the world around, many see it a tool for power, such people will never achieve the full potential of magic.”

Characteristics:

• Physically weakened due to extensive research and little time exercising.
• Very knowledged on magic, especially on their topic as it is required.
• Power is vast, and very capable. Able to defeat many various foes effectively.
• Mostly useless in close combat, untrained in any sort of weapon.
• Excellent providers of entertaining roleplay.
• Usually don't use flaunt their powers too much and use only when required.
• Occasionally absent-minded and strange, magic wears away at you eventually.

*Peasant Billy whooshes his magical staff and everyone around him catches fire, promptly burning to death*

 

Inadequate Wizard RP:
 
Farmer Billy Bob’s good ‘ol friend Blacksmith Freddie approaches Billy at some random point in broad daylight, and tells him about a recent witchcraft incident. Billy gasps, and becomes quite frightened, he tells Freddie that there needs to be another witch burning event at the stake, to warn the future witch heretics. Freddie passionately agrees, and then heads off into the sunset, through a prairie filled with roses and dandelions. Billy then decides that it would be prime time for him to become a witch himself, and approaches the witch during the night using shady maneuvers, and promptly asks her to teach him witchcraft.
I’m hoping you have noticed the unlikelihood of an incident like this happening. If Billy is so afraid and against witchcraft he wants witches to be burned, why in the nether would he approach a witch? And then he would ask for instruction on magic? Apologies for the strong wording, but that is an example of pathetic roleplay ability, and no sense of control and maturity.

Billy Bob somehow received a single instruction lesson on magic, where he was told to meditate and be at peace with himself. Later the same day, Billy encounters a small grouping of murderous bandits, and they are about to attack. Billy swooshes his finger at them and the targets are quickly consumed by a raging firestorm, and the flame bursts them apart with the intensity and force. Billy smiles to himself and continues his journey to his house.
This is embarrassing. Billy will definitely get his privilege to magic revoked, and he will be blacklisted. This is not acceptable, before performing a spell of this caliber, you should be training for at least a real life year on the server! Being a magic user at all requires some serious dedication and skill, don’t flaunt your abilities like that either. Next, after casting such a powerful spell, Billy should be so tired he couldn’t walk, he should fall asleep next to a tree or something, he needs to regain his energy before continuing. And lastly, just because Billy is a magic user and able to incinerate them, doesn’t mean he’s going to smile and be happy about it. Death is a tragic experience to behold unless you are completely insane.
 
Freddie the master illusionist casts his magic on Farmer Billy, causing him to see a wall of flame between the two. Farmer Billy chuckles and tells Freddie that he knows about all his tricks and magic, and promptly steps through the imaginary flames and punches Freddie to death.
This kind of blatant metagaming is a very serious violation of the Lord of the Craft law, and you will definitely be banned for such ridiculous actions. Billy is firstly a farmer, he’s going to yell witchcraft and run away, clinging on to dear life! Secondly, in order to perform that action, you would have to be completely insane, or have to have a lot of knowledge about the caster, and wholeheartedly know that they cannot cast such a spell.
 

Freddie casts his powerful fire magic, propelling a searing jet of flame that flies directly towards Billy. Billy quickly catches fire and it spreads all across his body as his flesh begins to burn severely. Billy unsheathes his sword, and quickly jabs at Freddie's neck, effectively killing him. Billy then jumps in a pool and the fire is gone, he pats some water away from his clothing and quickly runs off to tell the news.

In this situation, Billy is a powergamer. The flames should have made it too painful for Billy to do any further actions, he would instead lose his footing and crumple up in a ball, screaming in pain. Just because he jumped in a pool and the fire disappeared, it doesn't mean his wounds disappeared too. Severe burning can cause the body to drop into a state of shock, effectively killing Billy as well. Formally, either Billy should have died, or both, otherwise a strike report may be at hand.

Seeking further assistance?
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/60411-magic-rules-and-application-formats/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/79530-teachers-guide/
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/58139-qa-with-the-magic-team/page-1
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/60219-magic-guide-101/

Written by Ford, edited by Telanir.
Meet The Knight
A valiant and proud warrior, the main combatants of an army.

Meet The Knight

A valiant and proud warrior, the main combatants of an army.

“You came to the wrong neighborhood, heretic...”

 
Briefing:
Ahh, the knight. An empires backbone and main military force, defending their land and killing any enemy who dare cross their paths. Whether it’s burning heretics at the stake or purging traitors of the Holy Oren Empire, these courageous men won’t hesitate to put their lives on the line to protect their country and their emperor. Rarely are knights ever women because, in these times, most views were seen from a mans point of view, which was rather sexist.
To begin, when roleplaying as a knight, you are usually sworn in to knighthood first by your monarch or emperor, so you cannot start a character off as being a knight. You first serve under a knight as a squire, then from there you work your way up. When practicing with your sword or crossbow, (In LotC, most knights use those two weapons instead of riding on horses, it seems) it will actually take real roleplaying practice rather than just backstory training. Knights would often fall for women that they saw as beautiful, chaste, and pure.

“May the Creator’s light shine down upon you this day, my brethren.”

Characteristics:

• Very loyal to their kingdom, empire, or country's ruler.
• Highly trained warriors that are usually equipped with a bastard/arming sword and arbalest(crossbow).
• Strong belief in God(The Creator) and are extremely religious as well as having a very strict demeanor and attitude.
• Very hostile towards heretics, traitors, and enemies, believing that God was always on their side, guiding them when in battle. This usually increases the troop morale.

*Billy the Knight sees that the heretic saying that "God doesn't exist" is actually just a little peasant girl. He spares her simply because she's young and ruffles her hair, walking off into the sunset heroically*

 
 
Inadequate Knight RP:
 
*Billy the Knight watches in horror as a tall Uruk approaches him, it’s battle-axe out. As soon as it gets within at least nine feet of him, he runs away, screaming like a little girl, and leaving his emperor to fend for himself*
Now, don’t get me wrong knight’s, like all human beings, do have fears and emotions, (They aren’t emotionless androids, mind you) but in this scenario, the knight would still charge into battle, even if he realised that he was going to die that moment. He would still believe that God was at his side, guiding him and assisting him in purging the disgusting Uruk from the world. Since he is also loyal to his emperor, I doubt he would abandon him too.

*Billy the Knight raises an eyebrow as he sees a very beautiful woman pass by. He quickly takes a step forward and taps her on the behind, grinning.*   
Ehh. Knights weren’t always so crude as this, and even though they did say some pretty rude things at times, their actions were not so...raunchy when it came to noblewoman.

Seeking further assistance?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight
http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/80427-house-silverblade-updated-for-25-30-spots-open/?hl=knights

Meet The Halfling
A delicious meal served with good mead under a jolly atmosphere. What more to wish for?

 

Meet The Halfling

A delicious meal served with good mead under a jolly atmosphere. What more to wish for?

“Never as a Halfling will you find yourself in poor company.”

 

Briefing:

Halflings are a race that originally originated from cross-breeding of Humans and Dwarves. However, over time they have become unique in their culture and ways and they differ greatly from either race. The Halflings mostly spend their lives at home enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the Vale and the good food and ale. Playing a Halfling is an excellent option if you wish to have a relaxed time playing LotC that involved less spam-clicking and more roleplay. The players that play Halflings themselves are often the most friendly and helpful players you may meet, so you shouldn’t have much trouble settling in their company. If you encounter any problems they would be sure to help you out. Halflings do not care for loot, minas, and weaponries, but the roleplay is just centered around fun, and enjoying LotC.

So how does one go about playing a Halfling? Well generally Halflings like to stay in the Vale, near their homes. Since Halflings enjoy good food and ale, there is bound to be some conversation while they’re at it. They like to discuss various tales, talk about that time that they saw an orc destroy a village, or when they saw a giant sea creature in the ocean, and when it breathes out it creates tidal waves. It doesn’t even have to be realistic or true, as long as the tale adds to the merriment and entertainment, it is worthy of being told. Most often though a Halfling would prefer sitting down in front of a cozy fire with some good broth and book. But aside from being lazy, Halflings are also excellent farmers and cookers. They can prepare some of the best meals, and given their peaceful nature resort to making very large farms. Their lifestyles aren’t particularly busy and are mostly centered around fun. So if you want to become a Halfling, props to you and best of luck, you’re going to have bucketloads of fun.

 

“The Halflings of The Vale are a generally quiet and industrious people, with little or no desire to travel or experience the hardships of the outside world.”

 

Characteristics:

• Merry and jolly
• Enjoy farming, drinking, and cooking.
• Honest and kind.
• Often scared and frightened at threats.
• Occasionally mischievous.
• If forced to fight they are often agile and dexterous.

 

*Halfling Billy runs up to the orc parent and swiftly stomps on him from his great height, effectively killing him*

 

Inadequate Halfling RP:

Billy Bob the Halfling has decided to build his house in the Vale. He begins by constructing a square with random dirt, cobblestone, and wood stuck in various places.

If you’re going to roll a halfling, do a little bit of research on how they construct their burrows, check out the LotC hobbit holes and try to replicate something along those lines.

 

Halfling Billy has encountered an uruk brute who is about to smash his face in. Billy makes a face at the uruk and then stabs him in the face with a knife to death.

Halflings are extremely short, usually coming at 3-4 feet when fully grown, he would never be able to reach that high up. Secondly, Halflings are deathly afraid of the ‘greenskins’ and would run off terrified if they even saw one from a distance. It comes from a history.

 

Halfling Billy is having a dispute with Halfling Freddie, so he brandishes his iron bastard sword and cleaves Freddie in two.

No, if Halflings had any weapon at all, they would use a shovel. And this situation wouldn’t happen in the first place either because Halflings don’t resort to combat ever when arguing or the like. Right, and they’re too small and weak to wield a bastard sword.

 

Halfling Billy smirks as he sees his neighbour Freddie pull out his crummy shovel. He turns around and heads back into his home.

No! You have missed out on a great opportunity to pull out your superior shovel and flaunt it to that peasant Freddie. His shovel is no match for yours so go brag about it!

 

Freddie the Kind Human decides to give Halfling Billy some bread. Billy walks up and takes the bread while muttering a word of thanks and then leaving.

Incomplete. Billy the Halfling should have ran his hands through Freddie’s pockets while he offered the bread and then ran off. Halflings are mischievous little fellows and are also most likely going to need a minor-VA for 1a.

 

Seeking further assistance?

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/70130-the-official-halfling-guide/

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/60630-why-you-should-be-a-halfling/

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=halflings

Meet The Druid
Shaping trees, forests, and vines, the keepers of nature ever since Laurelin.

Meet The Druid

Shaping trees, forests, and vines, the keepers of nature and upholders of balance.

“Hmm, you want to build a fortress? Nope, I think a few trees would look better.”

 

Briefing:

Greetings reader, I present to you a guide on playing a druid, utilizing tips from the very best.

Firstly, let us familiarize ourselves with the purpose of a druid, why do they exist? Often when there are problems, people cooperate and fight to help prevent those problems. In this case, the problem is lack of respect and the absence of nature. Druids are there to follow the will of the Aspects, to protect, nurture, and uphold nature and the balance of the world. In order to preserve balance they will heal the wounded, regrow blights where nature couldn’t normally grow, care for critters and beasts alike, and most importantly, to plant a great deal of trees and woodland all across the landscapes. If you could say the druids had a religion, it would be nature, and they will spread information on Druidism, nature, and the aspects. Generally a druid is passive, and they will not meddle in political affairs, and could care less about someones personal matters. If the event in question doesn’t have much to do with nature or balance then they won’t have anything to do with it. It is truly a neutral job, as that is their purpose, protecting nature and preserving the balance. As a part of that, druids have daily responsibilities, and other sorts of things they do anyways. What does that include? A very large part of their daily life includes planting trees, which happens to be an important part of their job. You might see them traveling to spread knowledge, meditating alone in silence, and communing with the Aspects. Providing teachings to aspiring druids and dedicants is also common, as that would increase the number of available assistants. Seeing one of these tree-huggers talking to animals and trees is normal because they spend much of their time near them.

Well, what about their personality? For the most part, druids are very intelligent, wise, and often selfless. They are prone to being a little crazy sometimes, but that has to do with them usually preferring solitude amongst the trees as to the busy lifestyle of a city. Druids are often selfless and willing to put others before themselves, and to devote their lives to a cause. However, they also have little care about getting permission from a nation to plant a few trees, flowers and various shrubberies, and if they find even the slightest chance to help nature settle in an area, they will take it. Otherwise, druids are kind and friendly, and wouldn’t mind offering you some mushroom broth or some tasty apples. That is all I can provide on this topic, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours in becoming a vital contributor to roleplay in LotC, as playing a druid can be one of the most entertaining activities to take part in on the server.

 

“What? You said you wanted me to improve your home, so I added a few trees, shrubs, flowers, and vines... so what if it is in your living room!?”

 

Characteristics:

• Intelligent and often very wise.
• Prefer spending time in solitude.
• Enjoy reading and introducing more nature to various areas.
• Often calm and reserved, but with occasional wacky moments.
• Dedicate much of their time improving growth of nature and making sure it flourishes.

 

*Druid Billy goes into the forest, returning a few hours later with a vanished forest and a bundle of wood logs*

 

Inadequate Druid RP:

Billy the Kind Druid decides to go out on a hike in the forest, unfortunately, a deer seems to have fallen wounded and will die without the proper care, and it lies directly in his path. Billy kicks it out of the way and continues walking, joyously skipping off into the sunset.

A successfully roleplayed druid should never hurt an animal for no good reason, he should have immediately stopped what he was doing and helped nurture it back to health.

 

Druid Billy walks into a grove and frowns as he sees the lack of trees. He sighs as he brings out his axe and chops up the remaining trees, heading back to his company Lumber Co. headquarters to sell the rest. 

This was just painful to write. If a druid spends most of his time creating and growing trees, why in the nether would he own a lumber company and chop trees as his job in the first place?

 

Druid Billy heads over to his weeping uruk friend Freddie, it appears that Freddie has just been robbed by a few halflings and they stole his favourite gold nuggets. Billy scowls as he hears of this and runs off to brutally murder the halflings.

A druid is not going to waste precious time that could be used on progressing his career and lifestyle as a druid. If something does not concern nature and the balance of the world, he will not interfere to such extents, if at all.

 

Billy the Political Druid has heard that Oren decided to persecute people who fall of their beds at night and snore loudly. He signs the petitions and joins in the rallies to stop the madness, and helps with the riot, violently breaking everything he sees. Later he heads over to his other druid friends and tells them of the horrific news, and that he would never let Oren do such a thing.

Druid are not supposed to engage in political matters at all. That would most likely be their last concern if any concern at all, and they deem it rather a waste of time. There were more important things he could have done using that time!

 

Billy the Tree Planting Druid encounters an empty and boring prairie which obviously lacks trees, he scowls and moves on, having more important things to do, like haggle for better prices with his local merchant.

Nope, not happening. Billy is going to stop right there, and violate the prairie with hundreds of saplings and various flora. He’s going to make it beautiful, and filled with nature and its’ various critters.

 

Seeking further assistance?

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/65004-the-druidic-order/

http://www.lordofthecraft.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=The_Druids

Meet The Thief

The art of having your hands in too many pockets.

 

Meet The Thief

The art of having your hands in too many pockets.

“Oh yes, look that way, can you see that mounta- Dammit! You’re dirt poor!”

 

Briefing:

A thief is a type of villain, albeit a petty one. Thievery is something that is very common in LotC, but I believe needs to be properly roleplayed more often. A thief can range from many different personalities, it is an extremely broad category that you may fall into. You could be a poor peasant with a large family to feed, so you have to do some occasional stealing from the richer. Or you could be a kleptomaniac who just can’t help but have their hands swiping across every item they come in contact with. Those are just two out of very many that you could be, because you don’t necessarily have to be evil to commit thievery.

Well, let’s say your character has a reason to be villainous for a bit, and decides to go out and steal a few things. For this you will require a mini-VA for 1a, but if you want to break into housing to steal then you will need a full-VA for 1b. Firstly, make sure that the victim of your thievery is online at the time of your thievery, and then you can decide on how you wish to proceed. If you want to steal things from them directly, then you’re going to need to be a few things which are charming, cunning, and quick. Firstly, your character is going to need to engage them in a conversation, and make sure that they are fully entrenched, pick an interesting topic. If it is a noble, you could probably interest them with some fake politics. Next, you’re going to need to find a way to get close, like your character putting their hand over their shoulder. After this is done, you might as well slip your hands through their pockets and retrieve a few minas, at this point it is the full courtesy of your victim to give you the items. The one who is being pickpocketed is the one who determines your success, remember to be polite and courteous in OOC as well to ensure the best experience. If you succeed, great, you can abruptly leave if you like, or introduce an ending to your conversation. If you failed, might as well run as quickly as you can, and maybe next time introduce a hood over your head so you won’t be remembered. But perhaps you want to steal from someones house? There are ways of doing that, but remember that roleplay is key here. You’re not stealing from them to gain items and become rich/powerful from their hard work, but instead take just a few useless items. If you came in there looking for food, might as well grab some food, and quickly leave, because you don’t want to spend too much time in the house, because the owner might return. A word of advice from myself would be to always bring a multitude of signs with you, a stack at least. How come? Because that way you can place a sign down that details muddy footprints, or glass shards on the floor, it can be an interesting experience for the victim to see how you went along doing your actions. If you see a table, grab some silverware off of it, it doesn’t exist as an item, but remember that roleplay is more important here. Afterwards, don’t cover up your tracks, otherwise the victim is just going to arrive and notice missing items and be disappointed, which leads to unnecessary ban reports. Well, a rather lengthy guide but I hope that it has helped. Remember to always steal less than 25% of the items in a chest, and be a responsible thief. Always let your success be determined by your victim, and don’t let it lead into lengthy OOC arguments.

 

“Greetings fine sir... heh... oh here, let me just deposit a few minas in your pocket for your kind history.”

 

Characteristics:

• Tries to be interesting and innocent-looking.
• Rarely tries to steal from the person directly.
• Usually not professional, leaving behind a lot of evidence.
• Purposefully misleading when questioned about crime or conversing while attempting.

 

*Thief Billy runs up to Freddie in front of a large crowd, and knocks him out cold with his fist before scooping up some minas from his body*

 

Inadequate Thief RP:

Thief Billy rocks back in forth in his chair, reminiscing of an event that happened in his history, he had ran up to Emperor Godfrey and thrust his hands in his pockets before they emerge with various gems, unfortunately then waking up with the monks. Oops.

When you are playing a thief remember not to act suspiciously and not approach so violently out of the blue. Take the pacing slow and your character will eventually get a few items out of it.

 

Billy the Bad Thief throws a rock through someone's window, and quickly enters inside. He leaves behind no signs, steals all the items he can get from the chests, and randomly breaks furniture and glass.

One-way ticket to a ban, Billy would be convicted of griefing. Just because you have a villain application for 1b, it doesn’t mean you can destroy buildings completely. Smash a single window and then simply jump back out through the same one. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

 

Seeking further assistance?

None I can find unfortunately.

Meet The Upcoming:

Meet The Priest
The Religious Zealot that prays to something. That could possibly include a shiny rock... or a ring. You never know.

Meet The Cook
Taters! Boil 'em, Mash 'em, Stick 'em in a stew.

Meet The Insane - Help Requested
Those who may or may not have been dropped on their head at birth...

Meet The Scribe
The retainers of the past, the keepers of history.

Meet The Librarian
Collecting, storing, and preserving the books and texts of the world.

Meet The Blacksmith
Iron against iron, blacksmiths are hardened folk, and the experienced create excellent goods.

Meet The Jester
Fools chosen to provide entertainment for the nobility. But really, provide entertainment for everyone.

Meet The Sexton
The workers of the dead, and creators of a place where the dead may collect, and rest.

Meet The Tax Collector
He comes to your door late at night... and kidnaps your money, legally.

Meet The Cannibal
Hide yo' kids, yo' wives, yo' husbands, 'cause these guys gon' gobble 'em all up.
 
 

Meet The Credits
Those who are on this list have done something regarding this guide to deserve placement in the credits.

Hex37

As I was incapable of writing a bard guide with my lacking experience, this helpful gentleman has provided his sharp understanding and quite a few insightful details on "Meet the Bard". Be on the lookout and ask him a few questions if you aren't exactly sure of how to perform as a bard or need some assistance. Thanks again Hex!

snowshovel

Due to my lack of experience regarding medical roleplay in Lord of the Craft I was unable to write a guide for it. However, snowshovel stepped in and provided some insightful details and quite a large PM on "Meet The Medic". Thanks snowshovel!

Ford

Contribution 1: Ford after inquiring of his own accord, decided to help me out with the series. He has already now written a wonderful guide, Meet The Lady, and has done quite well. Thank you Ford, I await your next work with bated breath.

Contribution 2: Ford has accomplished yet another excellent piece of work, Meet The Knight. Thank you so much for your contributions, it won't be forgotten.

Contribution 3: Ford has given a base to start off with when I wrote the guide Meet The Exceptional. Thanks yet again!

SortedJarhead

SortedJarhead has provided valuable assistance regarding the Meet The Jest guide. Thanks Jarhead!

Blundermore

Blundermore has provided a multitude of amazing quotes to use for Meet The Wizard. Thank you Blundermore!

Saviordude

Thank you for getting an entire party of people to help with giving tips for Meet The Druid, I was taken by surprise there, thanks so much for all of the insightful tips as well! :D

Arik

Thanks for helping out and providing some valuable information for Meet The Druid, it is very much appreciated! :D

Rittsy

A big thank you for all of the useful tips that you provided for Meet The Druid. I found one of the comments you added quite hilarious. :3

Callax

Thanks for throwing in a comment for Meet The Druid in the Skype chat from Saviordude. Haha xD

Billy Bob

He has been placed in the credits for his excellent contributions as an actor. His outstanding failures and epic ban evades have been quite helpful to the series... No he doesn't actually exist.

I hope that these guides have helped you progress your roleplay to greater heights.
Feel free to give constructive criticisms, and assist me in making these guides even better.
Keep in mind that some of them are more of an opinion than others, and I request that you do post if you see and discrepancies, mistakes, and if you believe something should be added/changed/improved or removed please post below and I will make the necessary changes. Thanks for reading them! :D
If you like the guides and would like to encourage me, feel free to +1 the guides and add a post below.

Argus Tallesborne was born in Asulon to a simple family of farmers in Salvus. All was well in young Argus's life until he went to market one day with his dear mother and father. This would not have been a bad thing in itself were it not for the warband of Orcs that were waiting for them in the bushes nearby. In an eyeblink, the savage beasts leapt forth from their hiding places and butchered poor Argus's mother and father, revelling in the carnage. As Argus himself was about to be slain by the 10 strong pack of greenskins, he reached for the only possession he had to his name; his father's ornate sword. Strengthened by rage and a need for revenge, young Argus set into the group of burly Orcs, killing them all in a savage frenzy. The Orphaned Argus trudged home with his paren't bodies to an uncertain future.

Thirty years later, Argus has devoted himself to hunting down and slaying every last Orc in the world. None would stand before the strength that his grief had-

Wait, wait wait! STAHP! Are you saying that a simple farm boy murdered a 10 strong group of Orcs with nothing but his dad's sword? Aside from the probable lack of training this kid had, where did his father get the sword? I doubt that a farmer would be able to make or afford such a thing. And how would grief and rage fuel a murderous rampage through a heavily armed group of giant green warriors? More likely, little Argus would be paralysed with fear and grief, soil himself and be promptly dispatched. And then there's the Orcs themselves! LotC Orcs aren't the common pillage-and-burn variety - okay, maybe they are, but there's always a reason for it! Packs of Orcs don't roam the Orenian countryside looking for children to turn into orphans and farmers are slim picking compared to what they could go for elsewhere.

Sadly, this type of biography is becoming more and more common. At least a good third of applications use these exact words: 'My parents were killed by Orcs'. These applications are almost universally denied, mostly due to the fact that they're flat out badly written, but also because the 'Parent-Killing-Orcs' story is so overdone that it borders on a ridiculous cliche. These cliches and many others can get your application insta-denied. Here are a few pointers on why they're so cringe worthy how to avoid them:

'My Parents were Killed-By-Orcs'

• Unoriginal - This has been done to death.
• Unlikely to happen - Orc attacks are surprisingly rare.
• Unlikely that your character would survive if they were present.

Avoiding it:

• Consider having your parents still around, or dying of natural causes if you really want to play a parentless loner.
• If you want your parents to be killed by something try having it done by wild animals or maybe a group more relevant to your racial choice. An elf of over 100 years might have had their parents killed by the Undead in Aegis, or more recently, the Order of the White Rose, an anti-elf human knight group. Dwarf parents could be killed by cave-ins.
• If you insist on having your parents killed by Orcs, you'd better make sure it's well written and fitting with lore. Dwarves are the most likely to have their parents killed by Orcs due to their long blood feud, but even then it had better be well written.

Parental Weaponry

• Unoriginal - Less so than being orphaned by greenskins, but you'd be surprised how many farm boys have ancient swords.
• Unlikely - Unless he was a soldier before he turned to farming, your peasant father is unlikely to have a treasured sword. Even if it's an older heirloom he wouldn't have the proficiency to train his child in its proper use.

Avoiding it:

• If you have an heirloom weapon, make sure you spell out its history clearly in your bio. Is it your great-grandfather's sword from the days of Aegis? Was it won in a bet? Make sure you have a reason for your weapon.
• If your character is a peasant, consider not having an ancestral/parental weapon. Think carefully about their reasons for having one and if they don't make sense, don't do it.

Orphaned Hero

• Being orphaned is a psychologically damaging ordeal, especially to a young child. Being an orphan is unlikely to inspire you to feats of greatness. In fact, petty crime and poverty is far more likely.
• If you were present at your parents' death at the hands of lawless brigands/orcs, why wouldn't they kill you as well?

Avoiding it:

• If your character's been orphaned, write more about the emotional impact of it rather than a burning desire for revenge.
• Darkjames wrote up a wonderful guide on orphan RP in the Tutorials & Guides subforum. It has a few good pointers in it for those determined to play orphans of any age: http://www.lordofthecraft.net/forum/index.php?/topic/85832-orphan-creation-small-guide/

Mighty Warrior/Chosen One/Farmboy Rambo

• Unoriginal - Everyone wants their character to be special, but the best characters are often just regular people who fit nicely into the world.
• This is not an RPG - Conventional games lull us into a 'chosen-one' mindset, where we are on some all consuming quest that hordes of enemies can't stop you from completing. In LotC you are one amongst many, a single soul in a massive world. Rarely will the actions of an individual change the course of history.
• A simple lad raised on a farm all his life will be nowhere close to the sort of godlike fighter that would be needed to take on a mob of muscle-bound warriors.
• Playing an all powerful character is Powergaming.

Avoiding it:

• Consider not creating a warrior. Many of the most interesting characters on the server are not soldiers but regular people carrying out their jobs and socialising.
• If you are going to be a warrior, make it clear in your application that you are not an all powerful hero. Instead of mentioning your unparalleled swordsmanship talk about how you were taught some things by an old friend once. Keep it simple.

Well, I hope at least someone will read this and take note. No-one likes an application that's a carbon copy of half of the apps in the Denied sub-forum. Take some time with your application and have fund doing it. I hope this has helped and good luck with applying ^.^

 
Introduction
 
I’ve seen many applications that follow the same pattern as following; People who have Orphan characters, or simply characters whose parents were killed in a violent murder, this guide should lead you on the right way to make a logical character with this path, and avoid a cliche character.

Defining The Parents

This is something usually skipped. The characters are often “Perfect” until the murder occurs. This is to be avoided, almost completely.
 
Your character’s parents should be flawed. Perhaps your father wasn’t the “best” farmer? Why can’t he be an alcoholic drunkard who happens to beat your character’s mother daily? Why can’t he be a kind man who tries to cope with daily issues, yet, like any other “Poor” farmer can not spend the time he requires with your character. Your character could develop zealous about these sort of things. He should be moulded by all of these events. I myself have a very absent father, and I often feel rage towards him, even if he IS caring when he is around me. Yet those events that I consider major where he was not there, have moulded my personality.
 
Your mother. This figure is vital, just like a father, but in a more life-marking way. She nurtures you and basically is always going to be the one who will care more for you. How can you make her “Human”?, Quite simple. Most mothers are over-caring, quick to anger, or very patronizing, these can make your character grow slight rage at her. Remember that ALL of us at some point have become angered at our peers, we’re humans. And even if your character is a Dwarf, an Orc or an Elf he should still be affected by hormonal changes throughout his aging, and actually, the races named prior are even burdened with greater hormonal charge.

Defining the aftermath

After your character’s parents, sisters and pretty much all of his relatives are dead but him, for some magical reason , you have to define the moulding of your character upon this. Will he grow out of it, and enbrave upon the situation? Will he embrace guilt and live by the shadow, weeping for his lost loved ones? Does he adopts villainy to cope with the feelings and guilt? Does he suicide? (This one defeats the purpose of the character...)
 
I dislike seeing new applicants making their characters extremely brave upon such a situation, yet desiring vengeance. This means they are quite bipolar, and are not, by any chance, a stable character you want. Your character is a mortal being who feels. He cries, he laughs, he enjoys and he angers, just like you and I.
 
An example would be “Tom”, after losing his parents and siblings, decides to go on hermit life, living by the shade of isolation, rarely speaking to anyone. Or, what if Tim decided to face the death of his loved ones and grew out of it, become a lot more self-confident as he finds himself fit to surpass death burden? It’s all open for your imagination, but having characters that “Want vengeance.” And that hate a particular racial group because of it, is stupid. (Seriously, applicants. Don’t make an app where you hate all orcs. IF you were an orc, you wouldn’t want new applicants roguing on that they hate your race. This is also because the people who say “Marauding” orcs killed their parents have not read one inch of the Uruk’s lore.)

Conclusion

This was a short guide, but hopefully, you can use it to further flesh out your character. Just think about the points I made, and tell me if you want to add anything to it.

Addon

How to make a completely parent-less character

If your character is one of those abandoned by their mother or father, you can easily come up with a story where he is moulded by the fact his life goes through enclosed walls, with no motherly or fatherly figure to follow to. To start with, if he was never adopted (Case being he is in an orphanage), how woud he feel? Wouldn't he feel very resentful against pretty much everyone, blaming his mother for everything, or his father, even if they don't know them? Think about it. How would YOU feel if you suddenly were dropped off by your parents, and they never returned for you, and carried on with their lives? Would you be the same? No. You would be completely different. This applies to the cases above, where you can adapt to the situation differently.