<div align="center"><strong>Welcome to the World of Ora</strong></div><br/>(Please do not post in this thread if you are not a participant.)<br/><br/>This small group roleplay is my first excision into running a table-top style game on a forum, so bear with me a bit. As this is a roll-free story, the standards for participants are higher than normal. I expect members to be fair without "God Moding;" no one is immortal, anyone can die, even if it is rare. No powers are infinite or utterly overwhelming.<br/><br/>The post cycle will be free-form when people<strong>separate</strong>but<strong>in turns when PCs are all together</strong>. Everyone should try keep track of how much time is passing in other posts if characters separate. If one character goes to sleep at night and another does not, it may require more posts from the waking character than the sleeping one. Basically, everyone needs to be on the same logical page. Players should feel free to ad lib the world a bit; this is a very well flushed out setting, but the nit-picky details aren't all hammered out. I don't need to name every merchant you barter with and I don't need to tell you what happens between player interactions; feel free to take some creative licenses. That said, anything involving combat that is not between characters or actions that you may want to have<strong>plot</strong>consequences should come from me. Please indicate areas where you want me to step in and control someone with a marker, such as<strong> (GM Interaction Requested)</strong>.<br/><br/>To keep everything clear and all my reactions separate from the character I'll be running, I'm going to add prompts to each of my posts, indicating what information, if any, I need from each player, along with timing updates and so forth. For example, one of my posts might look like this:<br/><br/>Player A<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Player A, you encounter a troll in the alley you've wandered down. He looks like this (insert description) and acts like this. &lt;- This is a player prompt based on actions taken and a<strong> (GM Requested) prompt for an encounter of some sort. </strong>. </div></div>Player B<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">You discover the location to the tomb is in the south-west desert. Feel free to do what you want with it. (plus flowery details).  &lt;-Same as above, a prompt based on actions that may further plot.</div></div>Player C<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"> You are asleep and cannot act at this time, given where the other players are. &lt;- Time constraint. </div></div>Players D and E<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"> The two of you continue to converse and fornicate. Have fun. &lt;- PC interaction with no GM prompt, requires nothing from me </div></div><br/>-<br/>Followed by what my character does.<br/>-<br/><br/><strong>Player Requirements:</strong><br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li>Everyone should be comfortable writing 250+ word posts if called upon to do so. I expect descriptiveness and detail, without bogging the group down too much. Anything over a page, unless appropriate, would be too much. Please use proper grammar and punctuation whenever possible. If I feel like one player's posts aren't meeting the standards of others, I'll speak with them privately and see if something can be worked out prior to bouncing anyone out of a game.</li><li>Participants should be able to post twice a week and expect me to respond at least four or five times, to keep things rolling. Because I won't be including rolls, I expect everyone to play fairly and would prefer players willing to discuss questionable moments during conflict via some form of chat service. For example: if your character is not very strong and you're engaged in a contest of strength with a monster, either bow to the situation and lose, or send me an IM to discuss the outcome. I want to run a game where player death can happen, but it should be fairly rare. </li><li> I've written in the setting of Ora in some of the stories that I've had published. I promise to refrain from using any of your characters or actions in any stories that I write without explicit consent to do so. However, characters that I create, events that I mold, and so forth, may appear in future publications. If you have a problem with this, I suggest you not participate. </li><li>Finally, I run what I consider to be a "living" world; I run a table-top game in real life and the events of that group and groups before may influence the world around the forum and vice-versa. The idea of weaving the stories together (albeit separately) intrigues me and I hope anyone interested in playing would feel similarly piqued. There may be cameos from other E players, depending on the scenarios.  </li><li> Posters should use the following tags beginning their posts: <br/><div align="center"></div></li></ul><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">Time of day beginning post:<br/>Time of day ending post:<br/>Location beginning post:<br/>Location ending post: <br/>Characters currently interacting with:<br/>GM Intervention Request\Required? (Yes/no)</code></pre><ul class="bbc_list">[/center] [/li]<br/></ul><br/><br/><strong>Fetishes Explored:</strong>Obviously, because I come to E for erotic roleplay, I expect there to be far more opportunities for sexual interactions and magic than in a standard table-top game.  I don't want to limit any fetishes in this scenario. That said, I don't want something that turns into Bible Black or ubah-smutty Hentai.<br/><br/><div align="center"><strong>Setting Summary</strong></div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"><br/>Ora is a world of high magic with a massive background that will not be entirely divulged here. If you'd like to discuss possible character backgrounds and how they would work in the world, please message me privately so I can fill you in on what you should know, rather than info-dumping you. <br/><strong><br/>Level of Magic</strong><br/><br/>Ora is a world rich with magic. The Creation Stone (a powerful and holy magical item that resides in the city of Accord) allowed a multitude of unique types of supernatural to spring into existence, some of which overlap with arcane/divine magic and some which do not. That said, the vast majority of people have no special powers (other than those native to their race).<br/><br/>Players can expect there to be the traditional D&amp;D tropes: wizards in towers, clerics in temples, psions in meditation, etc. On top of that, there are individuals who have been Gifted with unique powers from the Creation Stone. These powers can be as unique as knowing the maps of all the oceans, or Bloodline Gifts that influence an entire family, granting them unique insight or abilities. Some, rare and powerful, Gifts unlock entire new types of power, such as the awesome Exo-Mage.<br/><br/>On top of this, the world’s proximity to the Elemental Plane has given rise to a whole series of elementally-touched races and classes.<br/><br/>At times the cities of the world have known great prosperity and amazing enhancements: messages that automatically traveled from continent to continent for a small fee, and so forth. Vast wars and chaos has changed that, bringing much of the state of the world into what we might consider a typical fantasy setting, with evidence of ancient wonders and high magic lurking here and there.<br/><br/>The Gods of the world are Distant and their influence is felt only through their Clerics, who are often guided by Prophets. Prophets alone have the ability to somewhat communicate with the Gods, and even then, the results are often murky.<br/><br/><strong>Level of Technology</strong><br/><br/>Ora’s technology level varies widely. Reclusive Gnomes and Dwarves have access to some of what we might consider “modern” marvels, and the Lords of Hell created space ships. Most technology is kept close to a races’ vest, though: Dwarves don’t share their information and Gnomes are well-known to be insane. The Lords of Hell and all of their technology has been suppressed or destroyed. Humans and Elves rely mostly on magic, not technology. The Dulosians rely on art and creativity and, as such, have some advanced technology, but most is backed by supernatural influence. The Force Lords use the Altrichar to fuel mechanical devices that do amazing things, and the Jun use potential and mystic thurgy to empower artifacts that should not work.<br/><br/>Overall, the racial disconnect and reliance on magic has kept the broad technology of Ora at the late middle ages with a few caveats: Most people in civilized cities can read, disease is relatively uncommon, and health care (via common magics) is at an incomparable level. If not for all the wars and evil in the world, Ora might grow to become a truly great place with a fusion of technology and magic.<br/><br/><strong>Commoners</strong><br/><br/>As stated above, the average commoner could expect to live a long and relatively comfortable life (albeit without magic or wealth) if not for wars. Though they are poor, most commoners expect a solid level of care from local Druids, Clerics, or simply Gifted Healers. Not all care comes without a price, of course, but it is available. In addition, because the world is so old, knowledge of anatomy, biology, and chemistry is at a level several hundred years past the typical middle ages fantasy locale – healers can do much more than set bones, especially with a little magic to aid them.<br/><br/><strong>Distribution of Knowledge</strong><br/><br/>Most knowledge, like wealth, resides in the large cities and among the mercantile and wealthy class. The Bardic College, various Arcane Universities, and traveling scholars facilitate a broad availability of learning, provided commoners have the time and wherewithal to learn. Most communities of note are big enough to have school teachers of some sort within them; as a result, a certain (very basic) knowledge is known to most. This includes the basic laws of the land (don’t steal, don’t kill, etc.), along with how to read and write and some knowledge in the commoner’s area of life (a commoner might get advanced training in farming, for example).<br/><br/>Most people of a given race will know the dominant Gods of the geographic area they are from, along with a few specific laws. Because the Gods are considered Absent, however, God Worship has fallen into extreme disfavor among the mass populace. In cities with a temple or Cleric stationed there, this trend is reversed, but primarily because the Cleric can display real power, and not because the commoner’s genuinely love/admire the God the given individual represents.<br/><br/>It is not uncommon for someone who worships X God to enter a city and find out no one there has heard of the deity in question.<br/><br/><strong>Trade</strong><br/><br/>Trade is dangerous but very profitable. Most trade is concentrated among a few very wealthy merchants who guard their wagons well. Travel along long roads almost guarantees some form of assault, either by homeless bandits (from recent wars), rogues, or some sort of monster.<br/><br/>The least dangerous and most profitable form of trade has normally been by Sea, but there are troubles with that, now.<br/><br/><strong>Racial Distribution</strong><br/><br/>The majority of people in the Alliance are human, though the most populace race on Aeyun is the Shadow Legion, closely followed by the Chosen. No numbers are known of the other continents, though it is known that there may be as few as 100 Force Lords left alive, of which 20 or fewer are of the original stock.<br/><br/><strong>Dangers</strong><br/><br/>Ora is a world with a history of a series of evils, most of which were banished or suppressed but rarely defeated. Curses, ancient catacombs and lairs, unique and chaos-touched monstrosities, and impossibly tortured animals litter the landscape, in addition to the normal bandits and naughty “civilized” races.<br/></div></div><br/><div align="center"><strong>Character Template</strong></div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>Name:<br/>Race:<br/>Class:<br/>Age:</strong><br/>I'm going to use an "effectiveness" scale to determine what situations will challenge your character and to show me where the characters should shine. Don't think of the numbers as "hard and fast" but guidelines that help everyone feel useful. <br/><strong>Melee Combat Effectiveness:</strong> (Scale of 1-12, how capable is your character in a brawl or with weapons and armor?) Your character's total effectiveness should not exceed 27 between all four variables. <br/><strong>Ranged Combat Effectiveness:</strong> (Scale of 1-12, how capable is your character with ranged weapons and in defending against them?)<br/><strong>Magical Combat Effectiveness:</strong> (Scale of 1-12, how capable is your character with magic and in defending against it?)<br/><strong>Healing Effectiveness:</strong> (Scale of 1-12, how capable is your character at healing?)<br/><strong>Appearance:</strong> (An image will work at first, keeping in mind that I expect descriptiveness from participants and not reliance on image files)<br/><strong> Exceptional Strengths:</strong> (How strong, fast, wise, intelligent, charismatic, durable, and lucky is your character?) Please have no more than 3 times the strengths as you have weaknesses; this campaign is not intended to be "God Mode"<br/><strong>Notable Weaknesses: </strong>(What areas is your character weak in? Does he or she have a limp, an addiction to a rare drug, or are they weak willed, or slow?)<br/><strong>Skills: </strong>(Standard D&amp;D skills apply (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/skills.htm) with a few caveats: because we're writing and not actually playing D&amp;D, I allow players to be flexible, to create skills, and to allow them to do things they would not otherwise do. Spellcraft, for example, could be used to identify magical items or other wonky things)<br/><strong>Special Abilities:</strong> (Please make these reasonable and of moderate power)<br/><strong>Background: </strong>(Your background is personal and private; there's no need to share all the details of your career so far here when you can convey that in character to the other players. Include only a rough outline, along with reasons why you are adventuring.)<br/></div></div><br/><div align="center"><strong>Main Continent (Aeyun)</strong></div><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div align="center">(http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad295/Dariusfallenstar/Rp%20Scenario%20Pics/AeyunForum.jpg)</div></div></div><br/><div align="center"><strong>Starting Location</strong></div><div align="center"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad295/Dariusfallenstar/Rp%20Scenario%20Pics/DulonLandingForum.jpg)</div></div></div>