Althanas FAQ

Welcome to Althanas.com, the Internet's most exciting fantasy play-by-post role-playing game. Althanas is a community dedicated to innovative role-playing and to improving the writing of its players. As a new member of the forum, we recommend reading through this guide as you create your character and explore Althanas's features.

Althanas, a Play-by-Post Role-Playing Game (or “PbP” for short), was founded in January of 2002 as a sister site to AllRPG.com. In a PbP, you create a character and write stories from that character’s perspective, as you would in any piece of fiction. Often in a PbP you’ll work collaboratively with other players, teaming up to write a story together. Wikipedia.com's entry on PbP offers a quick summary of this process:

"The first message posted onto a thread of that nature is usually one person laying down the scenario, starting a story about their character and inviting others. If successful, the thread then becomes an ongoing story in which players periodically advance the plot by reading the latest reply and then typing a short paragraph or two about what their character does and how the environment changes in response. These replies are often open-ended so that other players can continue."

Althanas is no different. What separates us from other forums, is our emphasis on improving the writing of our players. At the conclusion of each role-playing thread, Althanas staffers offer advice and comments on how the story could be improved through a process called "Judgments". This follows a point based grading system called, “Althanas Rubric”, and is discussed in this section of the rules.

(Note: This section explains how to register on a vBulletin - most players will already know how to do this and should move to the next chapter, "Character Registration.")

The first step in becoming a member of Althanas is to register your user name - with this registered account you will fight battles, participate in quests, and enter tournaments. Most of your role-playing on the forum will involve your character, so registering a user name with your character in mind is the first step towards making your stay at Althanas a worthwhile experience.

Once you click the registration link, you’ll be taken to a page asking for your date of birth (your own, not your character’s). You will then be asked to agree to the forum rules.

Next comes a page which asks for your user name. Your user name does NOT have to be your character's name, but it his highly recommended. The rest of this page is self-explanatory, although we call your attention to the profanity filter at the bottom. This allows you to select words that you would like censored on the forum.

The profile page serves as part of your character sheet for Althanas (it appears to the left of your posts), and filling this out correctly, as well as maintaining your Realm of Greeting thread (detailed later), is key to your character's success on the forum. Remember, the most important rule about your character is that he or she (or it!) must be your own work - you cannot role-play as Luke Skywalker, or Legolas, or Elton John. However, you may borrow or use parts of your favorite character, meaning that you can make a character that is based loosely off of him or her, provided you use an original name and make it so that the character you are registering isn't recognizable as a character from another setting.

Let's go over a few tips for the profile fields:

1) Full Name: The first field of your profile is Full Name. As mentioned before, your forum user name does NOT have to be your character's actual name. It's recommended to have your user name relate to your Full Name. It makes it easier for the other players to remember you, and lends credibility to your character. As fun as it might be for your user name be "Enter Sandman," after your favorite song, and your character's Full Name "Lord Deathwin," it would probably come off as more silly then cool.

If you have trouble naming your character, try using one of the internet’s fantasy name generators, such as the one found here.

2) Race: Althanas has no required race for your character, so he or she can be can be any common fantasy group (Human, Elves, Dark Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, etc.) or species you want, even one of your own creation. Keep in mind, though, that the regions which make up the world of Althanas are each dominated by one major race (the exception is the island of Coroné, where populations are almost equal). Below is a small chart of the predominant race of each region:

• Alerar: Dark Elves/Dwarves
  
• Berevar: Orcs
  
• Corone: Mixed
  
• Fallien: Humans
  
• Raiaera: Elves
  
• Salvar: Humans
  
• Deathain: Draconian/Fae

3) Age: For normal humans, this one is quite simple. When dealing with races that have extended lifespans, feel free to include an approximate human equivalent. Your character's age should be an accurate representation of his physical abilities. Most players, wanting a character that is somewhat realistic, will select a starting age when their character would be in his or her physical prime.

4) Gender: Male, female, it, or maybe even both?

5) Hair Color, Eye Color, and Height/Weight: These fields involve aspects of your character's appearance. For example, if you create a Human that is 8 years old, they shouldn't be very strong, unless you justify it in some way. When it comes to hair and eye color, be creative - any combination of colors is possible. Finally, like age, height and weight should reflect your character's physical attributes. A 6'0, 400 pound man isn't likely a long-distance runner, and a 2'4, 80 pound man won't have the farthest jump, unless of course your character has some quality about him or her that you will be describing later.

6) Language: The language your character speaks, whether it is Elvish, Dwarfish, Dark Elf, or your own created tongue. The common language of northern Althanas is “Tradespeak.”

7) Occupation: If your character had a job before he or she was an adventurer, list it here. If not, then “Adventurer” is fine.

8) Weapon, Armor, and Skill/Item: Your character’s favorite weapon, favorite armor, and a few of the skills or items that make him or her different from other characters. You will go into more detail about these choices when you make your Character Sheet in the “Realm of Greeting” forum.

9) Location: His or her hometown, or a fequented Althanas region.

10) Power Group(s): Leave this alone for now. Once you’ve started role-playing on Althanas you may join one of our player Power Groups – on other forums these organizations are sometimes called “clans” or “guilds.”

That’s all there is to your profile page. Next we will discuss how to get your character approved so that you can begin to role-play on Althanas.

After filling out your profile , your first stop should be to the forum near the top of Althanas, the Realm of Greeting. There you will make a thread (called a character sheet) detailing your character and the skills he or she starts with. You will also be asked to provide your character's history and any equipment he or she starts with. Once you have posted the thread, a moderator will look to approve your character.

Here is the format of the character sheet and some tips on filling it out:

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Name:
Age:
Race:
Hair Color:
Eye Color:
Height:
Weight:
Occupation (Optional):

Personality (Optional): Give us an idea of your character’s traits. How does he or she interact with other people? What does he or she think about themselves?

Appearance: Describe your character as he or she would appear to someone else. Links to reference material is allowed, but a text description is preferred. Do not use [IMG] tags to display photos.

History: You should make your character's history as detailed and as creative as possible. The more history your character has, the more interesting stories you will be able to write about him when you begin role-playing. However, be careful not to use clichés, or other commonly used plotlines. It seems that every other character's parents were killed in some accident or murder, and that their death was what led the character to become a hero. A detailed history is not required to play, but you'll find that building one helps you to immediately jump into your story on the forums. It will also help give direction for future character growth.

Skills: Please clearly define and list every skill your character has. Skills are subjective abilities, based solely on your character's knowledge, that can have an indirect affect on another character. Common Althanas skills are swordplay or marksmanship. You may include adjectives to describe your skills as well. For example, you can make your character a "master swordsman," but realize that your equipment quality and your tangible abilities might be too low to make this claim true. Skills are not moderated by the Realm of Greeting staff on Althanas. Instead, they are moderated by the judges who read your threads. We allow you to have as many skills as you want, so long as you don't power game.

Abilities: Please clearly define and list every ability your character has. Abilities are tangible actions or traits that have a direct affect on another player. They includes magic, speed, strength, etc. Racial traits, like elfish reflexes, are also considered abilities. When considering racial traits, the moderators will ask you to compare them to a human. Each ability must be written individually on your profile. Characters can begin with three (3) abilities. This number increases as the character's level increases. Note: Control over magic of a particular type will be considered a single ability, however you will be asked what your character can do with it at each level.

Notes on Ability Combination. Recall that characters only have a certain number of abilities at each level.

-- "Stacked abilities," or individual abilities that combine to enhance the affect of the abilities, will be considered a separate, unique ability at each level. For example, a fire tornado created by combining wind and fire control would be considered stacked and would have to be listed separately of the fire and wind entries. Passive abilities (abilities that are always "on") that intentionally combine with active abilities are considered "stacked" as well. An example of this is the ability to see in darkness combined with the ability to create darkness.

-- "Sequential abilities," or individual abilities that are used one after another to create a combination result, do not count as a separate, unique ability at each level. For example, if a character uses the wind to trip a character and then throws a fireball at him while he's on the ground, this "wind-trip-ball" is not considered a unique ability and does not have to be listed. This will be moderated by typical powergaming rules (which prevent the use of too many attacks in one post).

Equipment: It is not necessary to list all traveling necessities, but if you have items unique to your character, you should describe them under this category. Remember that you will be able to purchase more equipment for your character in our market forum, the Bazaar.

Familiars (Optional): A familiar is a minor adventuring companion, usually a small animal, demon, or humanoid of some sort. This section may be skipped if you do not have one.

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Once you’ve made this character sheet, copy/paste what you wrote into a new thread in the Character Registration Forum. One of our Approval Moderators will then read your character sheet, and if they feel it needs anything added to it or taken away they'll ask you to modify it. When a moderator determines that your character sheet is acceptable, they will then approve you and you may begin role-playing at Althanas.

Approvals are vital at Althanas because they prevent players from creating overpowered characters. Getting your character approved is a short process, and you can expect a waiting time of only a few hours. Please remember that YOU SHOULDN'T START A BATTLE OR QUEST BEFORE YOUR CHARACTER IS APPROVED. If that rule is violated, a moderator will close the thread until you’ve been approved, at which point the thread will be opened.

That's all the information you need to start role-playing on Althanas. If you want to jump right in, feel free to do so - but if you'd like more information on how to introduce your character into the Althanas community, please continue to the next section. Also, if you'd like to learn more about Althanas's many unique features, you can do so by moving to the section entitled "Battles and Quests."

Those looking to jump directly into Althanas role-playing often start with The Peaceful Promenade. The Peaceful Promenade is an in-character forum where you can create open threads and introduce your character to other players, and have your role-playing there judged (and EXP and GP awarded of course!). It is typically a place without violence, but occasionally a disagreement can erupt to so much more. The Bazaar is the Althanas marketplace - your character can buy almost any item there to use in role-playing threads. Finally, the Introduction Forum is an Out-of-Character chat where you can introduce yourself to the members of Althanas. Tell us everything that's interesting about you, so we can welcome you to our forum.

On Althanas, when you complete your first quest or battle thread, you will then submit it for judgment. This means a team of staff members will read your work, offer you feedback on your writing technique, and reward you for your efforts in Experience Points and Gold Points. These points can then be used to power up your character sheet later for further threads and stories.

When submitting for a judgment, it is important to know what you are requesting. On top of being given to option to choose a preferred judge, you can also choose how to get your feedback. Take a moment to look at the descriptions below to help you select the proper feedback for you. Just remember, you do not need to submit your character sheet for judgment. The Realm of Greeting Staff are already keeping an eye out for new profiles to approve.

Full Rubric:
This offers the writer the most feedback and is typically handled by more experienced staff. The judgment is graded using the Althanas Rubric and commentary is given under each segment. It will be common for the judge to pull out specific quotes to illustrate a point or single out errors. This judgment is the most time consuming, and wait times are estimated to be between two and four (2-4) weeks.

Competitive writing, such as battles, tournaments, and quest league entries, are always Full Rubric.

Condensed Rubric:
Instead of commentary for every category, the judge will only score and comment in the four master categories of the Althanas Rubric: Plot, Character, Prose, and Wildcard. Quotes and specific examples may be used, but are less frequent than in Full Rubric Judgments. These typically take around two (2) weeks to complete.

Basic Judgment:
This Judgment shows point totals in the four main groups (Plot, Character, Prose, Wildcard) only, but the commentary is just three strengths and three weaknesses in the overall content. Previous basic judgments are referenced on additional basic judgments to discuss improvements. Improvements will be additional commentary after the three strengths and weaknesses on the additional judgments. Please note to the staff which thread was previously judged in this method. This Judgment can be completed in one to two (1-2) weeks.

Workshop:
Judging staff posts an entry into the Writers Workshop forum. Then, the thread receives rewards from an automatic score based on the community's upper average. The rewards are posted immediately and peer feedback is open for 30 days. This option is best for quick rewards and group input from your peers instead of a single judge. The wait for rewards on this Judgment is within 48 hours. Feedback is open for 30 days.

No Judgment:
The thread is given rewards only based on a flexible average. No feedback or score will be posted. This is the best method for quick turnaround. These will be tended to by the judge administrator and awarded within 48 hours.