CA Race Groupings

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CA Race Groupings

 

We have made groupings based on a few factors, primarily their accessibility/abilities/purpose. These groups should clarify what types of creatures there are, and what criteria we look for in each. The more abilities/capabilities a creature has, the heavier the required criteria will be. At the end of the day we wish to ensure that people are not grabbing creatures simply for the sake of empowering their character without any change otherwise to their roleplay. 

 

You do not need to mark your CA as following one of these groupings, but you should take their criteria as gospel, not deviating far from the criteria presented.

 

 

Grouping A – Starter Creatures

This grouping serves as the grouping that has the “starter” creatures. Anything in here is capable of being picked up by anyone, so long as they fill out the app. Creatures here should be more focused on theme and aesthetic rather than combat. These creatures can range from, at their most basic, Kharajyr or Hou-Zi, and at their most complex, Ghosts or Epiphytes. The most core part of each starter creature is the fact that it is easy to understand and easy to work with. Write these submissions with new players in mind, and from the perspective of someone who has never had a CA or a Magic before. These may be transformative, but also brand new characters.

 

There are some things to note however.

 

“Beastial” CAs have been historically very problematic. In every circumstance, they may play on for a couple weeks, but ultimately always burn out and become inactive. Kharajyr, Hou-Zi, Wonks, Musin, always end up inactive only a couple months after release, with often less than 3 or 4 active players.

 

Beastial CAs suffer from the idea of being “Cultureless”, or “Playerbase-less”. Beastial CAs are most of the time wanderers and vagrants, and while interesting, often lead to players not integrating with player groups and quitting. These CAs are under extreme scrutiny, and are unlikely to be accepted.

 

Another thing to be cautious of is how complex a CA is, or how it can be difficult to represent mechanically. An example of this is Ghosts. Often, ghosts are considered a “Trap CA” which often sets roleplayers on the wrong foot with CAs. A CA should have its abilities extremely concise, easy to understand, flavorful, and fun for everyone to interact with. Both someone with and without the CA should have fun with the CA. 

 

A Starter CA needs thoroughly fleshed out, succinct, plain writing as to maintain a simple composition in order for there to be little to no way of roleplaying such a creature incorrectly. Starter creatures require simple aesthetics, a short list of abilities and traits, and overall straightforward concepts.

 

Grouping A Appendation - Application/Minor Races

Adjacent to the idea of a Starter Creature is the idea of an Application Race. These are races, often subraces of descendants, that while not bestial or necessarily magical, require a thorough understanding of their foundational lore to play. The primary historical example of this idea is the Mori’Quessir, a subrace of elves who maintained a very distinct culture, and existed under circumstances that separated them from the other primary races, including other elves.

 

These races may or may not have unique benefits or detriments by comparison to the core races or beast-race CAs, but will never vary such that they possess an extreme advantage such as to be more suited to a more rigorous CA status. By way of our chief example, Mori were uniquely capable of seeing perfectly in darkness, but would be largely blinded by sunlight. 

 

In short, this grouping is one which should be used for races that are more demanding to accurately represent, and are more subdued mechanically than most true CAs. To use our example once again, a Mori who integrated easily with other descendants or knew much of their culture would have been completely unrealistic when they were released, as would one lacking a clear grasp of their own culture, and thus an application was used to ensure that their own unique place in the setting was understood. 

 

 

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Grouping B – Constructs/Creation Creatures

This grouping is for creatures that need to be created IRP before a player can play it or a controlled transformative being. Typically these creatures serve their creator in some fashion if they are constructs.

 

Traditionally these have been reserved for lorepieces such as Animii, Golems, Darkstalkers, Eidola, and Atronachs. Animii and Golems both may be created, and also “Transfer” ones soul from their character to a golem, or Machine Spirit animii. These constructs should have a few things taken to note when writing them in your lorepiece.

 

A construct should have more depth and substance than being a “Slave” or “Task” creature. While interesting and certainly a core theme, we often see from these creature types that can be uninteresting to play, or feel “Limiting” to do. Of course, not all CAs are for every player. But keep in mind how limiting a CA can feel to play, and how reliant it may be on it’s creator. While it is understanding a created CA should owe some loyalty to it’s creator, manifest that through roleplay, or some other method, rather than trying to force the CA to be at a creator’s full whim.

 

Take this into account: If a CAs creator goes inactive, what happens to the CA? Give it purpose, give it something to do, and ways to deviate. 

 

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Grouping C – Standard “Standalone” Creatures

This grouping serves as a grouping that has powerful creatures which are not meant to be wide-spread. Most of these are transformative, meaning that your character needs to be made one by someone else and is not capable of being played otherwise. This grouping is meant to be a standalone creature that is most often, but not always, unrelated to another magic. For reference, traditional pieces of this field are Frost Witches, Azdrazi, Siliti, Demi-Djinn, etc.

These pieces transform one another to spread, or can even have a method of “Trial” akin to Heralds of Azdromoth where a player slowly develops and learns the fundamentals of the culture/traditions of the CA, then transforming into that CA themselves.

 

A creature should have always some standard form of weakness. These should be both magical weaknesses, and mundane weaknesses. While advantaged, a descendant should not automatically-lose and be hopeless to fight a Creature. 

 

Take into account knowledge-locks on weaknesses too. Typically these have been a nightmare to enforce, and difficult to follow. We do not recommend writing hard knowledge locks on your lore’s weaknesses, and instead, potentially increasing situational usefulness or a weaknesses effect overall. An example of a hard-knowledge lock is saying that your new creature is weak to Aurum, but that nobody knows it and has to find out IRP.

 

Another thing to take into account is purpose. As with lores in general, CAs too should not be “Replacements” or “Upgrades” to other lorepieces. A piece should not usurp or be a straight upgrade, or even take direct spells from another lore. Generally this can be negatively received, almost as a cheat to skip the progression and learning that goes into progressing through a magic, rather than simply acquiring a CA.

 

Another thing to concern about is disguises with CAs. Disguises should be tasteful, and have ways to break them, or otherwise detect them. As well, disguises should not have full freeformity. Full free form disguises (Being able to have multiple, or completely body-changing disguises) have been very poorly used in the past and often lead to a lot of confusion for everyone but the CA holder, including the ST. While not disallowed, we highly recommend being tasteful with disguises.

 

Be cautious too on interactions with your lore. Does your CA change a character’s soul? Does it make them ineligible for certain magics? Can they “drop” the CA and take on another, or revert to their descendant forms? Take these into account when working on your lore. 

 

Be wary on power boosts, either active or passive. Take into account how a character could change mentally and physically, and what these things do. Be sure to make sure there is purpose behind your creature, and that it adds something unique and interesting to the server. It is recommended as well to look at Explanation: Disconnection to get some further info on what this can do to a magic.

 

Grouping C Appendation - Advanced Creatures

When working on a standalone creature, consider how it may progress. This can be minor, like knowing certain spells or rituals, or major, like giving them more abilities and changing their effects. We recommend looking at Explanation: Connection & Disconnection regarding this concept too for some thoughts.

 

Standalone creatures can have advancement, absolutely. They should be modified to become more developed toward their roleplay, and narrow their opportunities for other CAs/Magics/Interactions, but to increase others opportunities. Ritual leaders, cultural figures, arbiters of a culture or spell are all ideas one can go for with Advanced Creatures. Advanced Creatures on Standalone CAs should be something that is a bit difficult to get, and should not have a CA revolve around them. Think about what could make for interesting progression, learning, or goals. In effect, goals are what drives a character and drives roleplay. Give an Advanced Creature a goal to work toward to learn and earn something which makes them feel validated for the roleplay they’ve done, for them and for their group. Involve others, as much as possible, and make sure it’s fun and thematic all along the way. This is the golden rule for roleplay. 

 

 

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Grouping D – Magic End-Games

This grouping is meant for magics that have a creature “end-game” in their progression. These creatures exist for the sake of enhancing the rp within that magic, and should not be used as gatekeepers of the magic. These creatures should not be significantly more powerful than whatever the regular version is at the end of their progression.

 

The abilities that these creatures have should be a sort of “all encompassing theme” of this magic, if not, some form of potential offshoot or spin-off which differ from the standard magic. These creatures may not be necessarily the “Highest” part of a magic or feat, but simply a part of it; potentially even moving onto a progressing branch of the original magic.

 

Traditional magic endgames have been seen in darkmagics like Necromancy, Mystics, and Naztherak. Zar’akal, Liches, and Wights. Even other magics like Druidism have Tree Lords, which are a good example of an optional endgame. You may heard there is some negative connotations around these, or perhaps problems with them in the past- which is certainly a truthful part one should consider in regards to a magical endgame.

 

In previous times, Mystic Wights suffered from an issue where the magic relied on Wights to make the magic work. Traditionally, in lore and in culture, Wights are absolutely necessary, and are the single person responsible for keeping the mystics active and up to work. This puts an insane amount of stress on the Wight player, who may have just wanted a different avenue for Roleplay rather than trying to lead the entire magic. 

 

Be cautious with gating too much behind an end-game, and be careful with how much sway they’re given over a magic. It is recommended as well to look at Explanation: Connection & Disconnection to get some further info on what this can do to a magic.

 

Be careful of making a Endgame stronger, if not outright better, than a standard MA. While empowerment is expected, to “perfect” or otherwise remove or make up for a Magic’s weaknesses can be very unfair to play against. While your character may undergo a long journey for an endgame to be created, this does not justify them having an automatic-win against anyone. While of course, it is expected and encouraged for an endgame to be significantly more powerful than a standard descendant, or to have some form of boon which grants them an advantage otherwise, one should be deeply cautious with how much this may make an endgame invincible, or otherwise, unkillable.

 

Be cautious and consider Group C’s ruling on Disguises also. As well, consider how much a lack of a disguise can be detriment with your lore. Try and not make the CA unplayable in day-to-day roleplay, but do not make the CA a mary-sue which can blend in or successfully do their day-to-day roleplay without flaw. 

 

These should serve as a means of creating unique rp for the magic that the creature is apart of. This should be something that they do not necessarily benefit off of directly, as we want to avoid these creatures being only powerboosts. Abilities should focus on synergy between the creature and the magic using counterparts. It should serve to create rp between the two that can then reach out to those outside of the lore in a creative fashion.

 

Grouping D Appendation - Advanced Creatures

When working on an endgame progression, consider how it may progress. This can be minor, like knowing certain spells or rituals, or major, like giving them more abilities and changing their effects. We recommend looking at Explanation: Connection & Disconnection regarding this concept too for some thoughts.

 

Endgames creatures can have advancement, absolutely. They should be modified to become more developed toward their roleplay, and narrow their opportunities for other CAs/Magics/Interactions, but to increase others opportunities. Ritual leaders, cultural figures, arbiters of a culture or spell are all ideas one can go for with Endgames- but be wary, for how this effects. This was covered in the paragraph above, how the “All eggs in one basket” mentality can be heavily damaging and detrimental to roleplay and to the CA holder.

 

Advanced Creatures on Endgame CAs should be something that is a bit difficult to get. Think about what could make for interesting progression, learning, or goals. In effect, goals are what drives a character and drives roleplay. Give an Advanced Creature a goal to work toward to learn and earn something which makes them feel validated for the roleplay they’ve done, for them and for their group. Involve others, as much as possible, and make sure it’s fun and thematic all along the way. This is the golden rule for roleplay, and how to make a beloved timeline and progression that feels rewarding, and interesting.