New Player Guide

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Welcome to Lord of the Craft. Here you will find lots of information that will help you in your journey to join this large server. There is a lot of information in this guide.We do not expect you to read every word but we do ask that you at least take in as much as you can so that when you have joined, you can integrate more smoothly into the server. A table of contents has been provided to that you may find your information easier.

I. Introduction

- Server Information

- Rules

- Staff

- Joining the Forums

II. Creating your Application

- Application Team

- Application Process

- Application Format

- Definitions

- How to Create a Great App

III. Joining the Server

- The Server IP and Settings

- Where are you now

- Nexus Persona Set-Up

- Locations of RP Hubs

IV. Integration of Roleplay

- Mentor Project

- Chat plugin

- Making Friends

VI. Useful Links

- Racial Guides

- Rules

- Other Guide Links

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Lord of the Craft is a fantasy based Roleplaying server that has many elements of various fantasy worlds in it. While many confuse Lord of the Craft as a Lord of the Rings server, it is not. Much of the server is based on fantasy found in Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Dungeons and Dragons, and many others. While there is much similarity between these and the server, Lord of the Craft is one of a kind. With nearly a hundred players on everyday a various hours, we can reach our cap on weekends, holidays, and vacations.

Server InformationGuides

The server ip is mc.lotc.co. This IP allows you access onto the server. But before you wonder why you are in creative right away, let me explain. Before you can join the server you must join our forums, make a server application, get the application accepted and implemented, then relogin to become a full member. While the process is very daunting, its actually a lot easier than you may think. Just follow the rules and if you have any questions, the staff here is more than willing to help you on your journey.

Rules

To make your time on Lord of the Craft function smoothly, rules have been added to help keep the environment as friendly as possible. The following links will take you to the rules you need to know. All rules are subject to change and modification, so please check back often. Breaking or loop-holing through any of these will result in appropriate punishment as deemed by the moderating or administrative staff. Reading these rules is mandatory, and it will save you some confusion in the future, we also do not accept ignorance to theses rules as an excuse. Moreover, different subforums have their own guidelines, please remember to follow their respective formats and instructions, as they will be subject to rule-breaking repercussions!

1. Global Rules - These rules apply to all mediums of Lord of the Craft (server, forums, TS) Everyone is expected to follow them, wandering souls included!

2. Region Rules - These rules apply to the many claimable regions throughout the world.

3. Villain Rules - These rules are for the villains of the server, it is mandatory you read these before committing any sort of villainous act. These rules apply to all mediums regarding to Lord of the Craft and its roleplay, and are expected to be upheld.

4. Roleplay Rules - These rules apply to all roleplay mediums of Lord of the Craft (server, forums). Everyone is expected to follow them.

5. Combat Rules - Everyone will get into combat on this server sooner or later.

6. War Rules - These rules apply war-like conflicts in game.

Rule BreakingGuides

At any occurrence of a fellow player breaching the rules, the first step is to screenshot the situations. This evidence will be invaluable in your ban report, or appeal. The next step is always to resolve any conflict without staff involvement, in a polite manner, e.g. message the offender privately. However, before actually posting a ban report, please do consider the circumstances. Often a ban report results in hate and flame, which should be avoided if possible.

If by any chance, you have accidentally infringed upon a rule, then think back to the incident if the report has left any details out. State your defence with evidence or in a logical manner. If you realise your mistake, just be truthful and accept responsibility.

In the case of actually being banned, think first “do you deserve to be back on the server”?

- Am I really in this for the role-playing?

- Do I have other priorities like pvp?

- Do I know what I did wrong?

- Have I taken steps to ensure this won't happen again?

- Have I waited a fair amount of time since I was banned?

After those reflections, write a report demonstrating your sincerity of rejoining the server. Presentation does matter (grammar whatnot).

A few reminders, do not “bump” your reports or appeals, do not post on reports or appeals unless you are involved directly (or have permission from OP).

StaffGuides

The staff of Lord of the Craft are here to help make things run smoothly. During your time here you will find forum moderators, admins, global moderators, and various other smaller teams. The staff list is always updated and constantly changing. You can always find a copy of the staff list in the link provided.

Joining the Forums Guides

To join the forums you must first make an account. Once you have done so, make sure your account is validated using the email sent to you by Lord of the Craft. Once you have validated your account you are able to post and interact on the forums. If you have having any issue with the forums, contact a global moderator through the Private Messages either in game or on the forums. They will help you validate your account. Feel free to go ahead and personalize your settings and profile!

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Creating Your Application

Application Team Guides

Application Team Lead
Readicti

GM Support
ski_king3

Team Managers
Man5791
Lita

Application Team Members
James27049
Eladriendil
GoldenSaint2
Jonhan2
DrunkenSnuggles
MrGreene
_Jandy_
Aislin
Liam McLeod- Connor428

Mentor Members
Dakirennis
Magicpastry
Nalatac
Heff
Hugothechamp
MrGreene
HBrules
Nug
Birdnerdy
ThumperJack
Liam McLeod- Connor428

Application Process Guides

Applications go through three steps. Some only go through two. The application is first put Under Review. This means that an application team member has taken your application and is currently reading it over. Then if the application needs to be fixed, it will be put on Pending. Pending means that there are some errors you need to fix. These are usually minor and can be worked through with the application team member who is reviewing your app. Finally, you will either be Accepted or Denied. Now, if you were accepted, this means you are ready for whitelisting and will need to wait a short bit for a Global Moderator to add you. However, there is a chance of denial. If you are denied it is one of three reasons. Plagiarism. This means you took someone else’s work and used it as your own. This is cause for an instant denial. Failure to Complete the App. This means you did not get the application format, filled in completely, or just pasted the app without work. Failed to Complete Your Pending. If your app was put on pending, you get 24 hours to fix your application. If you are not able to, your app will be denied. It is best to PM the AT to confirm.

Application Format Guides

The Application Format is self explanatory. You need to copy and paste the application into a new thread. It is best to name the thread after your MC name so that the team can sort through it. Make sure you fill in the entire application without altering it in any way. This means do not remove the questions and do not leave questions blank. The application itself is very easy.

Definitions Guides

What is roleplaying?
This question is asking what the definition of role-playing is in your own words, a good example would be “Taking the role of a different persona and basing your decisions and actions upon the persona’s personality and traits”, a good thing to add to your application is an example of roleplaying, although it is not needed, it gives the AT member reading the application justification that you understand what roleplaying is, for example you would write the definition of roleplaying in your own words then add an example such as “For example, if a thief type of character saw a rich merchant they would try and rob him, whereas if a bandit type of character saw the rich merchant they would most likely kill him instead of just plain out robbing him”

What is Metagaming?
This question is asking what the definition of meta-gaming is in your own words, a good example would be “Meta-Gaming is the use of Out of Character information In Character to further enhance ones goals”, yet again an example is always a good thing to be added, such as “For example, someone is being robbed and tell his friend to come help him over skype, the friend shows up and helps his friend, yet that persons character has no reason to go there as he does not know his anyone is being attacked”

Metagaming is when you use any OOC information IC. Meaning if your character wouldn't know something, do something, or feel something normally then don't let that character do it.

Metagaming, contrary to what seems to be popular belief, isn't simply calling for help while you're being attacked OOCly to your buddies or somehow magically knowing with no real reason the identity of a killer or something. I'll break it down in more detail.

Physical Knowledge Metagaming

This form of metagaming is fairly simple and incredibly obvious to point out in most cases. It's what I've listed above. It's when your character knows something about the role play/"in character" world that they shouldn't or have no way of knowing, at least at the moment! Examples for this subtype of metagaming are fairly cliche. Things like helping out a friend who's being attacked when your character would have no knowledge of the events happening to your friend by any stretch of the imagination, or pointing out someone in an illusionary disguise that you would be unlikely to know, even if you know OOC because of the name plate or some other reason.

A slightly more subtle version is "investigating" a player In character that your character has no real reason to investigate. If someone is disguised, don't just go up to them because of their nameplate. You have to have an actual reason other to go up to that well disguised character other than "I'm a really good judge of character" or whatever. So is everyone and their grandmother in LotC, it seems. If they do something to draw attention to themselves, then you'll probably have reason to investigate, especially if you're a guard or something.

Personal Bias Metagaming

Hey, see that guy over there? He stole my cookies...let's ruin his fun today by metagaming his location, identity, or coming up with some bogus accusation/reason to kill him or something for no real reason, just because I don't like that guy in particular!

This is harder to prove, but still a horrible thing to do all the same. If you don't like someone, try to steer clear of them - not piss them off or otherwise ruin their time on LotC by subtly attacking them via various means ICly repeatedly for seemingly no reason.

If your character wouldn't do that sort of thing to that person then don't do it. Simple. this also can fall under harassment after a while, and can get you banned for longer than metagaming can at times, depending on the severity.

What is Powergaming?
This question is asking what the definition of power-gaming is in your own words, a good example would be “Forcing actions upon another person and giving your character god-like abilities”, an example being given always helps, an example such as “For example, someone gets into a fight and emotes *stabs the knight or *kills the knight, or if someone dodges four arrows being shot at him at the same time” would suffice.

Powergaming has two basic forms that are the most common, like metagaming. You can find plenty of examples for each.

Force Emoting

Force emoting is when you emote the outcome of an action your character does on another character. Never will you have this right. You control what happens to your character and what they do only. You don't control another player's character or what happens to them directly. You can have your character TRY to do something to them, such as

Bill attempts to stab Joe in the chest.

and that would be fine and dandy. But if you do something such as

Bill stabs Joe in the heart, killing him instantly.

or

Bill cuts off Joe's [insert body part here] and [insert severity of injury or declaration of besting opponent here].

then you're forcing your will on their character's. There is no situation where you are allowed to do this. Not even if you win a /roll 20. You don't emote for other players. Other players emote for themselves and decide ultimately what happens to their character...that being said, that brings me to the other form of power gaming.

God Moding

No, this isn't the /god command OP's of servers have. This refers to when your character is far too strong to be reasonable. Are there always going to be people who are more powerful than each other by leaps and bounds? Of course. Will they have an actual reason that doesn't break rules or lore? Most certainly.

It's when it breaks lore or you don't have approval to play something overpowered or "godly" that it becomes a problem. If you get into an even matched fight, and you don't' take a single hit...you're doing it wrong. You're powergaming, unless you both agree to go on a /roll 20 whoever rolls highest basis and you get really freaking lucky with your rolls or there's some other reason that the character who's fighting you can't hit you. If you assume your character can deftly and easily dodge every attack thrown at them, you're mistaken.

This isn't a single player RPG. You are not the hero, or the anti-hero, or whatever. You aren't going to be the most powerful man in the realm. You aren't going to single handedly slay all the orcs (who don't even deserve to be killed anyway why would you do that!? D: ) or single handedly slay the massive dragon. And you aren't going to jump, leap, backflip, and dodge every attack one or more people are throwing at you without a damn good reason.

Nor are you going to be able to do incredibly strong and powerful things with ease. Your human can't punch that 9 foot tall armored orc so hard that he flies back into the wall twenty feet away. You can't, save for the use of claws or something, punch your hand into someone's chest and rip out their still beating heart like it's mortal combat. You can't karate chop someone's head off, or instantly take out, draw back, aim and fire your bow through someone's forehead with pinpoint accuracy in half a second. You can't make a spirit bomb like in dragon ball Z and crush all your enemies in one fell swoop.

How to Create a Great AppGuides

What is the name of your character?
The name of your character can be anything you want it to be, however, try to fit the race. Pick something that fits the character, who they will be forever called. This decision can come after you start the biography as sometimes a name will reflect the person’s life. Elven names can even be used to describe the character, or for added effect, can be the exact opposite of who the character is. Play with the names, choose several names, just make something you feel connects to the character.

What is the race of your character?
It never hurts to read up on the lore of your character. The race can be a deciding factor in who your character is. If you have a character who will be quiet and soft spoken, being an Orc would not be your best idea. Race can play a lot in the development of a character and even help decide how they would act. Always take this into account when making your character.

What is the gender of your character?
This is the easiest question on here. Do you want to be male or female? Do you want to mix it up? Read up on different types of gender labels. This could add to interesting roleplay. Are you a girl who thinks she is a man? Well, then she may be a transgender female. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box.

What is the age of your character?
Again, another easy question. However, this can also be tricky. Read the lore on your race before putting your age. It is never recommended to start as a fifty year old human or an eighteen year old elf. It just means that there is more restrictions on your character and less ability to grow. Read the lore and understand the ages of the race you wish to be. This will help you in the long run.

What is the background story of your character?
This is what more players have trouble with. Its easy to make a background for your character if you read the lore, understand the timeline, and have a character in mind. Before you write, decide how your character is. Is your character the baker who wanted to save enough money to pull himself and his family out of poverty or is he the wannabe knight who struggles to get the recognition he feels he deserves? Once you know where your character stands presently, its easier to figure out where he came from. The baker had been born a farmer where his family lost their money due to a famine, leaving them sick and in poverty. The knight was the runt of the family, ridiculed by his brothers for being the weakest in the family. The possibilities are endless. However there is caution here. Try to avoid cliches. This can cause you to be denied. Avoid revenge stories, murdered parents or villages, and avoid any mary sues/gary stus. Write as much as you can, their childhood, how they got to where you are now, what cities they lived in, what lands they visited. Quality is preferred over quantity, but having more to your story gives you more lore and shows you have fleshed out the character.

What is your character’s personality?
Again, another question to think about. Being just “Nice” or “Mean” shows little character development. Try putting in a little more. Don’t be afraid to add in fears, likes, dislikes. Add enough to your character to give them depth. They could be the knight who is so scared of his own shadow that he would flee, yet is brave enough to tackle the bandits of the land to save a bunny. They could be the baker who is so afraid of going back into poverty he becomes obsessed with money in every aspect. Think about what your character went through, how this would make them, how this could change them. Every detail counts in the character development.

What are your character’s ambitions?
Is your character the knight who was bullied or the baker who was in poverty? Think of what your character went through and what goals they want accomplish. The knight could want to gain the courage to show his family they can be proud of him, or they can be the baker who wants to create a name for himself and his family. Think of the infinite goals available to your character and pick something that will fit who they are and what they can achieve.

What is your character’s strengths?
Does your character have something they are exceptionally good at? Lets look at the earlier examples. The Baker could be great at making pastries, able to pull old family recipes out of his head and create the greatest pies and custards ever seen, but secretly he has skill with a blade, able to create beautiful wooden sculptures that can be sold for a pretty penny, yet he is too nervous to do so. The Knight, although scared of his own shadow, could be great at befriending animals and people. He could also have a great skill with a bow, but is too afraid to shoot because of an accident in his past. Never try to apply as a master of something. Be adequate to advanced, but never master. Make it so you can expand, roleplay and grow more into the character. You could be the knight and find that you feel he should become an medieval vet instead. Leave yourself room to grow and roleplay.

What are your character’s weaknesses?
Is your character terrified of moths? Is your character physically handicapped? Find something that your character has to overcome in roleplay. Make it something worth a challenge. Be the knight, terrified of his shadow. Someday he will have to face that fear to save the rabbit from a hunter. Be the baker who is so blinded by greed he has to try and change his ways to keep the family that has become so special to him. Remember, there are many possibilities to choose from and many you can go for.

What does your character look like?
This is personally my favorite part. Sit down and describe what your character looks like. From the color of their hair to the scars on their body. Appearance can tell alot about a person. From the scraggly beard of a elder knight, to the scarred face of the butcher. Describing your character helps you imagine what they will look like. Here is also where you would post a screenshot of your Skin. This shows that you have something to represent your character. Make sure their skin matches the theme. Do not be afraid of being unconventional, it might result in more roleplaying opportunities, when you realise all the humans around you are blonde and fair skinned.

What is your Character Skin?
Obtaining a screenshot of your skin is the easiest part of the whole application. There are two ways of doing it. First way is by going in game and pressing F5 to get a different view of yourself, then pressing F2 to get a screencap. You can then find the screencap by going into your minecraft folder found. C:\Users\NAME\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\screenshots (on PC). Second way is going to Novaskin and uploading your skin to that site, clicking the photo button and saving the image. After you did either one of the two ways, upload the picture to any image site such as photobucket.com, imgur.com, or prntscr.com. Copy the link and post it into your application. Just make sure your skin fits the world and is not a copyright character such as Link, Honeydew, or any lord of the rings characters.

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Joining the Server

Server IP and SettingsGuides

Lord of the Craft is a minecraft roleplay server. In order to interact in game you must first apply on the forums. Once you have an accepted and implemented app you can begin your roleplay journey. First thing you need is the IP. The server IP is mc.lotc.co. Make sure you set your minecraft to disable server resource packs. This will make your game a bit less laggy.

Where are You NowGuides

When you first start, you will be a wandering soul. However, once implemented you will begin your journey inside Cloud Temple. Cloud Temple is the player spawn. It is located X ( 143 ) and Z ( 292 ). Your journey will start here. From here you are introduced to the Nexus Persona Plugin.

Nexus Personas Set-UpGuides

When entering the server you will be met with an inability to move and bright yellow text, which may be confusing at first. This stage it is simply asking for your soon to be characters name. In this case we will be using Jade.

Soon after this stage you will be met with some pretty basic questions; the first being the gender of your character be it male, female, or other. In this stage, the gender iscase sensitive, however if you scroll your mouse over top of the gender you can simply click it and that will register it as your character’s gender.

Next it is time for the best part! Choosing your character’s race. What you see here is a basic idea of the races.

If you wish to delve further into your character type in chat “more” to pull up the subraces of each race! It will look something like this.

Once you have chosen a race it is time to decide your character’s age (due keep in mind you can’t play a character less than 5). Simply type in char your character’s age and you will be on to the final step.

The final step is an easy one. It is asking if you want your character to age automatically. You /don’t/ have to autoage. If you wish to auto age type “Yes” and if not type “No”.

If you chose yes, then your character will automatically age a year for every in-game year. Which I believe was decided at every one/two weeks.

Now once this has been completed and to know you are good to go on your way you should get a notification that looks similar to:

After having set your persona and preparing yourself for the world there are a few commands that you should know so you may edit it as you go.

Tutorial IslandGuides

Upon exiting the spawn location you have a chance to go through Tutorial Island. This gives you an in depth ingame tutorial. Pay close attention to the chat as it allows you to complete the tutorial. It is highly recommended to go through the tutorials and touch everything. The staff who worked on it took a long time to make it run well. Check out the introduction thread for more information.

Locations of RP HubsGuides

Athera has many wonderful sights to see. The following coordinates will take you to the main cities of each race. As well as some of the more famous roleplay hubs.

* Cloud Temple - Spawn - X ( 143 ) ; Z ( 292 )
* Cloud Tavern - Cloud Temple Tavern - X ( 240 ) ; Z ( 372 )
* Trog - Oricish Capital - X ( 322 ) ; Z ( 474 )
* Kal’Varok - Dwarven Capital - X ( 445 ) ; Z ( 560 )
* Standing Tree - Standing Tree Inn - X ( 595 ) ; Z ( 529 )
* Haelun’or - High Elven Capital - X ( 627 ) ; Z ( 595 )
* Cerulin - Wood Elven Capital - X ( 518 ) ; Z ( 943 )
* Ker’nor - Dark Elven Capital - X ( 756 ) ; Z ( 809 )
* Caliphate - Kharajir Camp- X ( -337 ) ; Z ( 1118 )
* Petrus - Human Capital - X ( 881 ) ; Z ( 253 )

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Integration of Roleplay

Mentor ProgramGuides

Mentors are a group of volunteers working with the AT to create a more welcoming environment for new players. They reach out to newly accepted players, as well as a few denied that need lore help, to help them understand the lore of the race they want to play and introduce them to the server. Mentors will also be present in game, being available to show new applicants around and point them in the direction of where to get jobs and how to get a house.

Chat PluginGuides

Lord of the Craft has a chat plugin that allows players to interact with each other and roleplay. The follow are basic commands to help you get started.

/rp - This command allows players to roleplay and join in interacting in the commutative story.
/ooc - This is the global OOC channel. Players go here to chat out of character
/looc - This allows players to clarify locally what is happening in character. Do not clog up roleplay with OOC.
/join help - This command allows you to join the help channel
/h - You need to use /h to speak in help chat
/w - This makes your emotes a whisper. Whisper is only 3 blocks.
/s - Shout allows anyone within 64 blocks
/join <channel> - This allows you to join other channels such as Help, Wandering Soul, and Global OOC
/leave <channel> - This allows you to leave other channels.
/ws - You must use /ws to talk in the wandering soul chat
/roleplay chatstyle - This changes your roleplay to either require “ “ to use speech and the rest as emotes
/roleplay customcolors - This turns on the custom colors of roleplay emotes.
/roleplay emotecolor <color> - This allows you to change your emote color to any of the listed. Dark_Green, Dark_Aqua, Dark_Red, Dark_Purple, Gold, Blue, Green, Aqua, Red, Light_Purple, Yellow

Making FriendsGuides

Now that you have joined Lord of the Craft, your final task is to make friends. The best way to make friends is to start roleplaying with those much like yourself. If you are a human, join petrus. If they are not your fancy in roleplay, wander around till something peaks your interest. Roleplay brings people together and forms bonds. Good luck and have fun.

[MamaBearJade 2090]

Useful Links

RulesGuides

Global Rules
Claimable Region Rules
Villain Rules
Roleplay Rules
Combat Rules
War Rules
Roleplay Post Guidelines
Lore Creation Rules
Magic Application Rules

Racial Guides

Dwarf Guide
Elf Guide - Current Guide in Works
Halfbreed Guide - Current Guide in Works
Human Guide - Current Guide in Works
Kharajir Guide - Current Guide in Works
Orc Guide - Current Guide in Works

[Kim 1328]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.