Suggestion: Registration Guidelines for New Members and their Characters

[Ataraxis]

@ Chris:

The above categories interest me, but I'd like people's opinions on them. Is it getting too specific or will it help RoG and the players understand their characters and that of their fellow writers better? It simplifies things with clarity, but I'm also hoping it doesn't complicate things in an unforeseen way.

Basically, if we do go with these categories, I would want everyone to know which ones are purely flavor, which ones are summaries of the character, and which ones should be considered towards this new way of balancing (and I use the term loosely since it's more understanding what the player wants while preventing obvious cases of powergaming than actual balancing).

I see it this way: Attributes are summaries (so a giant with x3 strength would have an ability somewhere stating he has the strength of three men, I guess). Talents are flavor (eidetic memory, perfect pitch, uber taste-buds, etc.) and Skills and Special abilities will play in the overall 'balance'.

At least, that's just how I see it working, if we all did agree on having these categories.

If we do go for this, though, RoG mods would need a thread of their own in the mod forums with bullet points of what they need to consider whenever tackling a profile: overall concept, cohesion of skills and abilities, being careful of balancing the right categories while leaving the fluff alone, etc.

@ Shadai:

As I said in the Resume thread, I agree with you whole-heartedly. I'm actually glad you got here at that time and decided to post your explanation, as it literally jump-started everything (though I'm sorry you had such an awful first impression of Althanas). For one, I agree about the skill scales of average/above average/etc. That problem has been bouncing around for ages and we still have to see its ugly face daily. Christoph says he'd like to see people use actual examples to describe skill levels, such as: capable of fending off a trained soldier with a sword, or of fending off multiple unskilled attackers at once or something like that. I personally use the descriptor system (average, etc.) alongside the comparison one, just for good measure.

As for abolishing the average, I'm all for it once everyone agrees on using an alternate system like the comparison one, for example.

And the consistency is something that I think we're all gunning for as well. We've been taking about streamlining information for ages, but basically there's only been superficial reorganization of the forums (and kind of a sloppy one for the FQ forums) and new threads that are just condensed versions of older ones. I personally would like to see more summaries and bullet points around OOC informational threads.

And oh, edit! New idea to get info directly to new players. Someone would need to write out a very clear and straightforward automatic PM for all newly registered members. In it, they would be linked to every thread they need, including RoG ones (for example, this guideline if it becomes accepted) with all of the information they have to know to make a profile without going through that unnecessary back and forth.