Player Guide

The goal of this page is to help players join and acclimate to Kingdoms of Kahara. At the beginning this will cover basic things and eventually cover more advanced topics.

Beginner

What is roleplaying?

Roleplaying is the act of portraying a character. At the basic level for a game like Kingdoms of Kahara this means creating a character (a Player Character or "PC") and portraying what they're like to other players. There's a wide range of possibilities for the kinds of characters you can make so long as they fit within Kahara's setting. While ideally players can agree on what should happen next should there be a conflict or should there be a need for randomness results will be based upon your character's relevant skills and abilities.

What is the setting of Kahara?

Kahara is (to use real world terms) a late medieval/early Renaissance era setting where many can't help but feel like the past was more grand. The empires of old have crumbled, there's magic that has been lost, and the there's now places scarred in ways they weren't before. But it's also an age of discovery to rediscover that grander past, where brave characters can delve into ruins to recover tomes and artifacts, where scholars can translate what's recovered, where while magic of the past has been lost magic is accessible to everyone. Kahara is the story of the various PCs as they navigate the hazards and rewards of these adventures or support those who do.

Connecting to the game

<Insert client instructions>

What kind of character should I make?

Make a character that will be interesting to you!

To give a longer answer, characters who succeed on a game like this are those who are willing to have strong opinions, take action, and are able to work with other characters. That lone wolf character you have in mind may sound cool but if other players have a choice between trying to interact with that character and interacting with a character who is more approachable they will almost always choose the latter. Roleplaying is a cooperative exercise so characters that work well with others work best in the overwhelming majority of cases.

You can even take inspiration from characters you like from more established fiction, change them a little, and you have a character to play. Keep in mind in some cases due to how skills work your character may not have all the capabilities of your inspiration, but the concept can be similar.

How do I make a character?

At the login screen type "create <character name> <password>"

From there enter the character creation room. Then you need to provide a character pitch to staff. This isn't a full character bio that requires in depth knowledge of Kahara, this is only about 25 words or so. Tell us the most important parts of your character idea. You're not trying to prove to us you're a setting expert right away, you're trying to show us why your character will be a great addition to the game. For characters that don't start out with any special authority these are considered on a "shall approve" basis, which means unless we have a reason to think your character wouldn't be a good fit we will approve it. That means approval for new characters is the default. If we think a character won't work we'll tell you why or we may ask for a couple changes. This approval process can sometimes be very quick but often are resolved within 12-24 hours.

You also need a character description. This means type out what another PC will see if they look at your character. Stick to objective observable facts (which is to say don't write "he is so handsome" in your desc since that imposes an opinion on the reader) and be mindful of proper spelling and grammar and this isn't too hard. For a practical description writing technique you can write the physical attributes of your character (like height, size, race and so on) in the first paragraph and use the second to describe what your character is wearing.

After that you can set up your character skills, which define the rough capabilities of your character when conflict between players happen or randomness in result is required. Characters start with 650 Build Points ("BP") to make a character. For many new characters this means they will start off being able to be pretty good (Rank 4 or 5) in their main skill with some supporting traits to let those skills do more (like gather information, use that skill in combat, or maybe use a skill to do something it might not normally be able to do).

Basic Commands

1. :<text> - This puts your character's name at the front and adds what you wrote after that for everyone in the room to see. So if Cai types, ":writes a guide for new players." All other players would see, "Cai writes a guide for new players." The most basic command to roleplay in character.
2. ;<text> - This puts your character's name at the front, however it eliminates the automatic spacing afterwards, allowing you to do contractions. So if Cai types, ";'s hand is tired after writing so much." All other players would see, "Cai's hand is tired after writing so much."
3. @emit <text> - This sends the <text> to everyone in the room. So if Cai types "@emitAfter writing the guide, Cai stands up from his chair." everyone in the room will see, "After writing this guide, Cai stands up from his chair."
4. OOC <text> - This says the <text> in Out of Character, or OOC mode to the entire room. This is useful if you want to talk to other players rather than other characters.
5. page <player>=<text> - This sends a private message to that player with the text after the =.
6. +sheet - This views your character sheet.
7. +roll <skill> at <modifier> - This rolls a skill on your character's sheet. This is used when there's conflict between players where an outcome can't be agreed upon or there's a need for randomness in the scene. The die type is a single 10 sided die and you add how many ranks in a skill you have to it. So if I have 3 ranks in Agrarian "+roll agrarian at 0" will roll 1d10+3.
8. +spendfocus <number> - Spends the <number> amount of focus. This is used to activate a range of special abilities.

Roleplaying Basics

While many of these topics have spawned large conversations on the internet in general, this will focus on what works when playing Kingdoms of Kahara.

IC vs OOC

IC is "in character" and OOC is "out of character." What your character does with other characters is IC, what you as a player do with other players is OOC. A major consideration is a player should separate IC and OOC knowledge. I as a player may know Edward is a thief, but my character Noelani doesn't necessarily know that. So when playing that character interacting with Edward, Noelani shouldn't take actions that rely on her knowing what Edward is without other in character information to work off of.

Third Person

When writing your poses write in the third person, which means avoiding "You" or "I" in text that isn't speech.

Powerposing

Don't do this. Powerposing is where when you write a pose (or @emit) it dictates what another character does. It's rude since it takes agency away from other players.