Roleplay

Roleplaying is required in Avendar. Any time you are logged in you are expected to remain in-character and respond to things as a character within the setting of Avendar would. This page will go over some of the basic commands, etiquette, and suggestions.

All areas of roleplay, including backgrounds, are subject to our rules; please ensure you are familiar with them.

Any time you are logged into Avendar, you consent to your communications being logged and potentially read by staff; see privacy for more information.

Interaction Basics

Communication

Communication is the most essential part of your interactions in Avendar. You may communicate with others in a number of different ways, to express yourself in the role you have chosen. All communication should be in character (in other words, in the role of your character), unless you are using the OOC chat channel.

Unless noted, being asleep will block most communication channels, barring the use of certain skills or traits.

Speech Commands

say, '	Basic speech. Everyone in the same room as you can hear what you say.	say Hello!
esay	Basic speech paired with a freeform emote; please see the esay command for usage.	esay 'nods and says' Yo.
tell (person)	One person will hear what you tell them. You can use tell from any distance.	tell Elanthe Hello!
reply	Sends a tell to the last person who sent you a tell. Note that this works even on NPCs or people you cannot see.	reply Who are you?
grouptell, gt, ;	The people in your group can hear you. Your group will hear you even if they are asleep and from any distance.	gt That guy has a nice hat. Let's take it.
yell	Everyone in the same area (as shown in the where command) will hear what you yell, even if they are asleep.	yell Oh no, a lion!
think	Only staff members and certain classes will be able to read what you think.	think Damn, she's hot.
pray	Praying to the gods. Only staff see this. This can be either in-character or out-of-character; please be clear about which you intend.	pray Oh Aeoleri, please notice me...
house, ht, .	If you are in a Great House, everyone in the house will hear this message, even if they are asleep.	ht Hey everyone, come to Earendam quick so we can jump that Champion.
ooc	This channel is for out-of-character chat with a specific player. OOC works at any distance.	ooc elanthe Gotta run, sorry!
oocreply	Like reply, this will send an OOC message to the last person that sent you one, even if you cannot see them.	oocreply No problem!
newbie	The newbie channel is for out-of-character chat with everyone online who has the newbie channel turned on.	newbie Can someone tell me how favoured blade works?

Actions

In addition to verbal communication, you can use various emotes to convey actions or motion. Like speech, you may freely use these in a variety of ways to express yourself in your chosen role, including performing minor magical or supernatural acts such as levitating a small object or making a flame dance on the tip of your finger. Actions may not force behaviors or feelings on other characters unless everyone in a scene has agreed upon this result. All actions must be in-character.

Other characters in the room will see all actions unless they are blinded or sleeping.

Action Commands

emote	Displays an action line that begins with your character's name.	emote taps the side of their head.
smote	Displays an action line that can begin with anything, but must feature your character's name in the action.	smote Leaning nonchalantly against the wall, Elanthe twiddles their thumbs.
pmote	Like emote, but when using another PC's name, they will see themselves as the recipient ('you'), while others in the room will see the name.	pmote directs a sly wink at Aeoleri.
esay	Prepends your speech with an action. See esay for more detailed syntax.	esay 'rolls his eyes and says' No way I'm giving you Tsyaegn.
pose	Sets what others see when they look/scan into your room, prefaced by your name and current position (standing, etc). See pose for detailed syntax.	pose juggling.

Socials

Socials are pre-written emotes or verbs that may be used to interact with other characters or objects. These are intended to be useful shorthand and inspiration.

Description

When you create your character you will also be asked to write a description for them. Your description is what people see when they look at you and should physically describe your character's appearance. They should be as general as possible, so as to be appropriate in the widest possible range of situations, perspectives, emotional states, etc. Descriptions must be appropriate for the setting and the lineage you are playing; please see those pages for more details.

You can also add keywords to your description, allowing people to look at a particular thing you reference. This is called an exdesc, short for "extra description"; please see that page for more details.

A description is mandatory by level 10. If you do not have a description by this time, you will cease being able to gain new experience until you write one. Entering a placeholder (e.g. "desc goes here", "will write later promise") in order to bypass this is not acceptable and may result in your character being denied.

Tips

Start with the basics of a person's appearance: their height, build, skin/scale/feather/hair/eye colour, facial shape, etc. Get an idea of what the distinguishing features of each species are and how those would be incorporated into a person's overall look. Then you may consider what kind of cosmetics, jewelry, tattoos, dyes, or other accessories may be appropriate. All of these things together will allow you to convey something personal about your character to those who look at them.

Descriptions should not tell people about your character's history, background, thoughts, current emotional state, what actions they are currently performing, etc. As a rule of thumb, if you could not infer it about a person who is standing across the room from you and not looking at you, you should not include it in a description.

Background

Your background is a brief summary of your character's past and origins. It should be short (<500 characters; even a single sentence is fine!) and may be nearly anything provided it conveys salient information about your character's history and personality. Only staff can read your background.

The purpose of a background is twofold: to prompt yourself to give some thought to your character's past and motivations, and to provide staff with a brief overview of what your character's vibe/deal is so we may better incorporate your character into staff-run storylines.

You are required to have a background by level 25. If you do not have a background by this time, you will cease being able to gain new experience until you write one. Entering a placeholder (e.g. "bg goes here", "will fill in later") in order to bypass this is not acceptable and may result in your character being denied.

Tips

Backgrounds are great for hooks, but they should not be the most interesting thing about a character; the most interesting things about your character should happen in play.

Your background can touch on family or important relationships but should primarily focus on your own character.

People come back from the dead in this setting. You should probably avoid backgrounds about parents dying tragically and orphaning your character unless you're prepared to answer questions about why they didn't come back for you from the altar.

Player Character Roles

In Avendar we wish to extend as much freedom as possible to players when crafting their characters and take a "yes, and" approach to interaction. Player characters may come from nearly any background and aspire to nearly any goal they wish (though no one is guaranteed to succeed). We enjoy and encourage players improvising and extrapolating new facts about the world, and if a concept is interesting and fits, we are likely to accept it as canon. There are three restrictions we place upon player characters:

• Your character concept must fit and make sense within the setting, lore, and genre of Avendar.
• You may not assume a role that requires or demands exceptional development effort or resources from staff.
• All player characters are adventurers that have graduated from the School of Heroes.

Within the boundaries of those restrictions, your character may be as mundane or exceptional as possible. Your character may be a figure of destiny whispered of by Kyanans or an impoverished soul from Var Bandor that decided they would write their own legend instead of being next in a line of shopkeepers. The School of Heroes accepts those of any background, from simple farmboys to Harrudim princesses, and makes them into adventurers.

Staff-run Storylines

At any given moment there are likely to be one or more staff-run storylines happening in Avendar. These storylines may be focused on a player or group of players, a Great House, a deity or religion, a city-- whatever one or more people has taken an interest in and where we feel like a fun story might be able to happen. Anyone of any skill or knowledge level is welcome and encouraged to participate. You do not need to be an incredible writer or know tons of things about the lore and setting of Avendar, you just need to be willing to lean in and have some fun with us. Some basics to keep in mind:

• Only characters who are hero-level will be approached for or integrated into storylines. Sub-hero characters may still participate in scenes (happily!) but further or more in-depth engagement will wait until you reach level 51.
• Players may have only one PC at a time involved in a staff-run plotline.
• Players who show a tendency to churn through PCs quickly or delete/shelve their PCs upon running into setbacks will need to demonstrate a commitment to not doing that.
• Any and all plot and character development must take place in-character and in-game.
• This is a fundamentally cooperative medium. There is no such thing as a solo storyline.

Expectations

Storylines are run for the benefit of both players and staff; we also enjoy roleplaying, storytelling, and crafting mechanical challenges to delight and torment our players. Storylines require dedicated staff time and often involve receiving in-character mechanical rewards. We expect players to reciprocate through engagement with the game and story.

Here are some examples of what we consider engagement:

• Interacting with other PCs, both cooperatively and antagonistically
• Interacting with an NPC actively being played by staff
• Interactions that explicitly involve Avendar's setting and themes
• Undertaking mechanical challenges with other players
• Writing and sending thoughtful notes to all, other PCs, NPCs, or gods

Here are some examples of things that we do not consider engagement:

• Solo emoting/speeches/etc, including interactions with NPCs not being played by a staff member
• Logging in to idle
• Writing a background
• Chatting in Discord or OOC, including about characters or plots
• Soloing bosses or other supermobs

Tips

If you'd like to get involved but you're new or not sure how, here are some tips to keep in mind.

• You get what you put in! If we see you talking to a lot of other PCs about things, pursuing threads, asking interesting questions, etc you are much more likely to get us engaged.
• Be proactive about participation and coming up with ideas to solve problems. We aren't there to simply serve you a solution; we want to hear what you come up with.
• If you see an NPC being played by a staff member, feel free to reach out to them and interact. That's what they're there for! Not every NPC is involved in every story however. Sometimes they won't know anything "useful," but you can still chat!
• Use notes! Write to houses, PCs, NPCs, or gods.
• Think about what your PC actually wants, and do your best to express that.