G'day!

[Berzerkersaurus]

If you hadn't already guessed, I'm from Australia. I'm not sure where to go from here, I've been busy with work or study so I haven't signed up for a forum in years :confused:

I played table top RPG's during school and for some years afterwards, about ten years in total. But my friends moving away and me not having time or desire to run games any more meant that my RPG career just sorta drifted away. I started out playing Paladium's RIFTS, if you've ever played, you will know that I got power gaming out of my system early! lol. From there we mostly played Cyberpunk and Vampire: the Maquerade. Despite playing sci-fi/cyberpunk/vampires in my RPG games, fantasy has always been my love when it comes to reading - I always wanted to play fantasy games with my mates, but they really liked Cyberpunk and who can blame them? I played a couple of games of D&D but the campaigns were either poorly run, or in the case of one campaign, overly biased towards sibllings.

I've played a couple of PBP's in the past that have either died, or work/study/family problems have gotten in the way on my end. But I've graduated, have a new kick arse job and plenty of time up my sleeve so I'd love to get back to writing and have a place to put my over-active imagination to use. A quick Google search lead me to you guys and here I am, all registered and shiny. I don't really have an idea for a character yet. I used to like to start with a race I like the sound of, a region that fits, and then wherever my imagination takes me. Which is likely to be a warrior of some description, I've never really enjoyed playing mages much. I haven't seen much of a races list apart from "whatever you really feel like", so I might just go with Human I suppose, or maybe a dwarf, I do like to play tanks in MMO's, I dunno? I get torn between the typical sword and board kind of character and something different, but I haven't RPed in any sense of the word in so long that I'm not sure if I could pull off something not stereotypical. Sorry for the stream of consciousness there, hopefully I'll settle on something soon enough.

As I said, I haven't registered on a forum for so long, but you have at least my RPG/PBP history, if there's anything else you wanna know, ask away?

Cheers.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

Welcome aboard, cutter.

I'm a massive fan of Masquerade, but much prefer Shadowrun to Cyberpunk- much more elegant, easy to learn system.

If you have any questions about the board, feel free to ask. They may all look like dicks, but the people here are friendly enough, and usually willing to help in return for grotesque sexual favours.

Me included. ;)

[Otto]

Grotesque sexual favours, or just cat gifs. Either's fine.

Welcome to Althanas, mate! It's good to see another Aussie on here; now I won't feel so horrendously outnumbered. As for a character - so long as it's not overpowered (and as you say, that shouldn't be an issue), it's pretty much anything goes here. Still, there is a fair bit of history and lore, so if you get fed up of reading through it all, you can just send us a message, or pop into chat, and shoot some questions in the direction of us staff (or just post them here). We should be able to give you some general details and point you in the right direction, in that case. I'll say it again, though - you're free to indulge your imagination.

As for questions for you, well, I dunno. What PBPs have you written for in the past? What part of Australia are you from? Is a berzerkersaurus a real dinosaur? Please tell me it was.

[Luned]

Welcome! As Otto and Aure said, don't hesitate to ask questions, we're generally a friendly lot and eager to help out the new guy. There are a lot of options, but the material can be a bit staggering at first. A couple tips:

If you're thinking dwarf, check out Alerar. That's where most of their population resides and there's some background info on the race worked into the wiki.

If you're thinking tanky, sword-bearing human type, maybe check out Salvar. There's a group of humans from Skavia who're pretty much vikings, at least as far as physical appearance.

But, of course, the world is very open and flexible, so those are just recommended starting points. If neither of those things are up your alley, I'm sure there will be something else. : ) This site's been around since the dawn of time (~2000?) so hopefully it won't die on you this time around.

[Letho]

If you hadn't already guessed, I'm from Australia. I'm not sure where to go from here...New Zealand maybe? It looks like really close on the map and they have Hobbits and Orcs and shit. :P

Yeah, welcome.

[Dissinger]

Leave it to our red head obsessed Croat to call an Aussie a kiwi....

Welcome to the board my Austrailian friend.

[Witchblade]

Bad Letho, the Aussi's and the Kiwi's don't like it when you mix them up! I learned that the hard way. Kind of like when you call a Canadian an American. *shudders*

I hate it when people do that.

Anyway, welcome to Althanas!

*offers you cookies*

[Berzerkersaurus]

So, before I went to bed last night I came up with a general idea for a character - I'll go for something not in my usual wheelhouse in hopes of playing something entertaining that will increase my writing skills. I'm thinking he will be a charming gambler who thinks he's better than he is, but happens to be lucky. He'll enjoy drinking and generally being in taverns. He loves to boast and tell tall tales, to the point of almost any story he tells you'll have to take with a grain of salt. As for a race, I've been using D&D 4e as a starting point and I think I might go with Tiefling - is there much of a presence of them around here?

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, the prospect of cat gif's certainly sound more favourable than grotesque sexual favours so here you go:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/945bdeaa8575a6f21859f8bb04f64a6d/tumblr_mlhb8k4Oyi1s9mzito1_r1_500.gif

@Aurelianus: I prefer my cyberpunk to be dark and dirty and lacking in elves and magic. But I never played Shadowrun so I never got to experience the system.

@Otto: Hopefully he turns out to be not overpowered, but I may go overboard in making him how I picture him in my head. So if I do, it's not out of a desire to make him powerful, just how I see him in my head so I may need reigning in, who knows? I honestly can't remember some of the boards I tried to play in, a HDD crash lost most of the characters I had written up. I'm in NSW. I wish the Berzerkersaurus was a dinosaur, but only if it was also a viking!

[Luned]

Aure is a Tiefling, there might be others that are inactive. Looking forward to seeing your character!

[Otto]

Your offering is adequate. You are now one of us.

I wouldn't worry about making your char overpowered, because the character approval/realm of greeting staff (read: Letho) will rein you in - but, obviously, you can make them stronger as they level. Still, a better reward for good writing is the story itself, I've found.

NSW? Cool! My brother's working on his PhD there at Macquarie.

I think you should scratch the tiefling, and RP as a berzerkersaurus.

Addendum: looks like Letho didn't call us Aussies kiwis, New Zealand really is close to us, and I'm also pretty sure they do have hobbits and orcs, so I think his suggestion has merit.

[Mordelain]

Welcome Berserk,

I'm a little late to the party it appears - hangovers and being mortified by The Rains of Castamere do that to a man...

I love how all the Americans completely missed Letho's joke, rofl.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

Shadowrun has the ability to be dark and gritty, and depending on the GM, lack both elves and magic. My last one for example, had black market organ trading, and child murderers. :P

Also, aye, I'm a tiefling. There were some people who came in as half-demons a few times, but never saw one using the name "tiefling" for it.

So I was the first. ;) Though I would point out- 4th ed? Ewww!! 3.5 was definitely the better system, and story.

Oh, and Letho, if you want to see tiny people with hairy feet, or creepy people with green skin, come to Scotland. Glasgow on a Friday night will satisfy your desires... if you desire to be knifed and raped, anyway.

[Mordelain]

I have a Changeling, as an aside, so there's that option too.

Vampires and Werewolves are overrated, anyway.

[Zook Murnig]

Though I would point out- 4th ed? Ewww!! 3.5 was definitely the better system, and story.

Pathfinder. Best of both worlds, and a little extra to boot. That is all.

Welcome, Berserker.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

Zook, couldn't agree with you more mate.

Three characters in Pathfinder, and counting.

[Berzerkersaurus]

Having never played Pathfinder, Imma take your word for it. 4e was the easiest for me to get my hands on in terms of a good description of a tiefling's appearance, which is why I'm using it - not out of any preference for the system, I really haven't played either at all.

I'm still working on a history, these things take me forever to write :(

[Berzerkersaurus]

Oh and I do have another question... What region would be the easiest place for me to join a story?

[Otto]

Possibly Corone, but there's stuff going on in every region as far as I can tell. If you're interested in joining a thread, you can keep an eye on the recruitment forum (http://www.althanas.com/world/forumdisplay.php?170-The-Recruiting-Forum) - or, if you have an idea for one, make a post there and see if anyone's interested. The benefit of this is that you can choose a region which appeals to you, then see if anyone else is interested.

As for Corone, think a medieval Europe setting. The place has just gotten over a civil war, which makes things interesting, but convoluted (especially since the canon has yet to be worked out, but apparently, winging it seems to be good enough for now). The wiki regions page is easily found (here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showwiki.php?title=Regions)'s a convenient shortcut), and the contentious results of the civil war are given here (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?24593-The-End-of-War). As for the latter, I would recommend ignoring much of the info about the war in the wiki and Corone region forum, since as far as I understand it, most of that is outdated.

I've just given all that stuff about Corone since it's easily the region I am best acquainted with - it's possible that other people might volunteer info about other areas which are much more appealing to you.

[Krausus]

Heya. Nice to meet cha. Im Krausus. Better known as "that guy" Id be happy to battle or quest you once you get a character!