GETTING STARTED - compiled by the RPG staff of the Seibertron RPG With special thanks to Shrike A frequently asked question is how to play the RPG. Here's our attempt to answer that question. Note that the following is not intended to be a mandatory checklist, more like a guideline how we think it's best to get the hang of this. This type of RPG could also be called an interactive fanfic as we do not use dices to determine anything, because of that we ask you to play with responsibility.
First, read the rules. It's a bonus if you try to think why the rules are what they are... that should give you some idea about the objectives of the RPG. The most important rule is the one about not controlling anyone else's but your own character, that somehow tends to get ignored by newcomers. Nothing helps more than reading existing game posts to learn how things work by observing other players.
Create or choose a character for yourself. You can have more than one character, but it is advised to only pick a single one in the beginning, one which you are confident in being able to play well and contribute to the game with. Remember, a few characters played win depth and with substance is worth thousands more than a horde of drones. The game is all about the original generation 1 Transformers but fan-created and in some cases characters from other Transformers series are allowed to be played although usually heavily edited. Japanese G1 series characters are also available without their gimmicks are powers to some degree.
You can see which characters are taken in the
Role Call! List the characters you play here! and the
Canon Roster Lists topics. If it is unclear whether a character is taken or not, feel free to PM the Moderators. After your application for a character is approved, the Moderators will move the character’s profile to the appropriate thread.
Remember to list your character or characters in
Role Call! List the characters you play here! topic.
The stats aren't as important in a RPG like this when compared to RPGs pen and paper RPGs with dices, but you need to explain the main traits of the character, its weaknesses and strengths. This way, others will know what they're dealing with, which makes it easier for them to react properly, and to help you out in whatever you want to do with your character.
If during the previous steps someone tells you that the characters you want are taken, or that they are too powerful, don't make sense, or don't fit into the continuity, please don't get mad. They're not criticizing you just for spite or trying to get rid of you, it's just that everyone wants the RPG to be as good as it can be and thus point out a lot of things that (unfortunately) are not documented anywhere. Everybody can make mistakes, just take the comments as friendly advise instead of insults.
Now, you should have a character ready, and all is set to start playing. Where to start?
If you don't know at all what is going on, you can just ask (in the
Questions about the RPG thread, or from the mods). It might help to read the few latests threads, or at least the latest pages in latest threads. You can either contact players of other characters in ongoing stories, or ask authors of stories waiting for approval to see if your character could fit in. Or if you just wish to try some random interaction, you can head out to the Free For All area.
Sooner or later, you have to start interacting. That is not a rule, but it is very boring if your characters just float around in their own world. The RPG is all about different characters and players reconciling stuff together, it's like writing a fanfic in collaboration with dozen other authors. Don't get too concentrated on your own storylines and agendas, be flexible! At first it is perhaps easier to just think of your characters personalities and "go with the flow", react to whatever the others are doing, than to plan an elaborate epic storyline for yourself.
There will be conflicts. Everyone controls their own characters, and inevitably at some point some characters/players will have conflicting interests. There are two ways to reconcile these situations: either publicly between the characters, or privately between the players. In the former case the players just react to each others posts and try to stick with the rules and common sense. Personally, I think this is more fun because you never know the outcome of your actions, and you are reading the story as much as you're writing it. On the other hand, in some cases it is justified that you wish something to happen, but you need to rely on other players to help you: thus, you can PM the player in question and try to negotiate how to resolve a situation ("Can you not notice when Windbreaker deploys the chemical weapons? I have some ideas I want to try.") Many big one-on-one battles are solves like this in the past, and basically the "big stories" we're doing are based on all of us collectively accepting that some stuff will happen.
Finally, what's the point? I can't answer that for you. Personally, I like developing my characters and their personal storylines, and to make it fit seamlessly with the rest of the continuity. Like I said before, this is much like collaborative writing: it's an epic story of a kind, and everyone has the chance to give their contribution to it, be it a little personal sub-story or an event that shapes the history of Cybertron. It's all up to the players."
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A DESCRIPTION OF STATS:
Strength: Determines how much your character can lift, how much weight he can carry and the damage they can deal in melee combat. Strength varies quite a degree so there's no definite average here but 5 to 6 like with all stats should be close to the truth. Stat as high as ten is often preserved only for the extremely powerful characters like Trypticon, Omega Supreme and combiners.
Intelligence: Covers a range of mental traits from how creatively the character can use new information to how high their problem-solving capacity is, to how much pure memorized knowledge they have at their disposal. Also used for unraveling complex equations, formulating plans (tactics/strategies), scheming, developing new weapons and other technologies and so on. In general, an intelligence stat of 9 should be reserved only for true geniuses, with the average for your typical Decepticon or Autobot warrior lying approximately around 5 or 6. For stat as high as ten, your character better be truly a mastermind. One should never neglect intelligence for too low one makes your character rather limited.
Dexterity: Dexterity measures a character's hand-eye coordination, agility, reflexes, balance, flexibility, close-range reaction time and ability to dodge incoming attacks in any mode. It is also an indicator of how fast your character is in robot form and how quickly he/she can react to any given situation - due to agility. Note that large, bulky, heavily armored or strong characters are not likely to have very high dexterity; again, there's that trade-off.
Speed: An indicator of how fast your character is and how quickly they can react to any given situation. Speed of 10 should only be given to exceptionally fast transformers, usually with space flight capabilities. For example Skywarp who is able to reach speed of Mach 3+ but lacks ability to reach Earth's escape velocity has speed of 9. Of course, speed is a relative stat. A car with speed of 9 might be able to reach speed of 300 mph but a jet with speed of 9 can reach Mach 3. Note that you have to give the speed of your character in his fastest mode in mph/kphs in the Abilities part of your character profile.
Endurance: Determines total amount of damage your character can endure before losing consciousness or gets killed and also determines how long the character can maintain extended physical exertion. Note that this is a physical stat, not a mental/emotional one. For example rating 10 tells that your characters armor is nigh impenetrable. Stat as high as ten is often preserved only for the extreme powerful characters like Trypticon and Omega Supreme. Standard armor value for both factions is 5 to 7.
Courage: Determines how brave your character is - how threatening a situation can they endure before running in fear, or howling in terror. How they react to the threat of physical harm or death, overwhelming odds, unknown situations. Note that while courage is usually considered "the absence of fear," it can also be thought of as the determination to proceed in spite of fear. 10 for example tells that your character is most likely a lunatic daredevil without no understanding of his own limits or being so determined that he simply pushes fear aside no matter how grave the situation is and proceeds to continue on his mission. Then again a character with courage of 1 is scared of everything, no matter how insignificant the threat may be.
Firepower: Determines the power of your character's ranged weapons. For example the arm mounted lasercannons carried by Decepticon seekers have a rating of 7 while standard Autobot laser scores 5. 10 is meant for Transformers of gestalt size and more with few exceptions like Megatron. It is to be noted that firepower lower than one's endurance rating can still cause damage. A concentrated full power blast from weaker weapon may be able to hurt or distract even more durable foe.
Accuracy: How accurate the character is at hitting something from a range, be it short, medium or long. This applies to all ranged weapons, from a laser cannon and throwing weapons to dropping bombs onto targets from great height. The stat of 10 applies only to the most capable sharpshooters like Sureshot or Optimus Prime. Even snipers shouldn't generally have an accuracy above 9. Keep in mind that already a stat of 7 makes your character a pretty accurate. Average should be below 6.
Melee: How well the character fights in melee, with or without weapons. This includes bladed weapons of all sorts, clubs, fists, teeth & claws for appropriate characters, etc. Martial art techniques like Metallikato or Crystalocation fall mostly under the melee category, although they are dependant upon dexterity as well. For an example, a melee stat of 8 means that your character is an expert melee fighter. Average warrior should have melee stat of 6 or so.
Tech Skill: Skill in technological, computing, and/or scientific matters. This must include knowledge of the subject as well as actual applied ability. A specialized medic or a research scientist should both have quite high tech skill, while a warrior would be less likely to have such talents. Soundwave, Scrapper, Hook and Wheeljack are good examples of characters with high tech skill while Skywarp and Cliffjumper have quite low tech skill.
Charisma: Charisma measures a character's persuasiveness, personal magnetism and natural leadership ability; ability to inspire others to follow them, trust them, and willingly do their bidding. This is not necessarily synonymous with Rank. The likes of Megatron and Optimus Prime have high charisma while someone like Huffer or Gears suffer from low charisma. Bullying and intimidation in general do need some charisma as well or you won't be very believable! Charisma of 4 is the minimum requirement for any character that does not want to be portrayed as a bumbling fool and wants to be able to intimidate others.
Rank: The character's standing in the hierarchy. Determines in part who they have to obey, and who has to obey them; who they're responsible to and who they're responsible for, respectively. This stat will be set by the RPG staff after the character is approved, but you're welcome to make a suggestion. Keep in mind that most characters will enter the scene at low rank, and have to work their way up; this can make for good RP. For example stat of 10 means the character is the leader of the whole faction, while a stat of five means that your character is a normal rank and file soldier. Keep in mind that the way ranks are set in the game may differ from original G1 character tech-specs ranks. The 0 rank should apply only to someone who is totally outside the command-structure hierarchy, and thus would be very rare. RPG moderators assign ranks.
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THINGS TO BE NOTED:
About Infighting Following is written from Decepticon point of view but applies to Autobots' less aggressive behavior as well with somewhat lesser degree.
Given the aggressive warrior nature of the Decepticons, some conflict among the troops is to be expected. However, these are most definitely not anything like their conflicts with an enemy. The Decepticons will often test each other in the manner of a wolf pack, attacking without the intent to cause serious harm. This has the overall goal of keeping each member sharp and alert for real conflicts. Sometimes this will happen in planned sparring sessions and other times one Decepticon will surprise another. Generally this sort of activity is not taken seriously by the characters, and players should be careful not to overreact. It should be noted also that players should not be taken by surprise even if their characters are. When RPing such a scenario, players should communicate and keep the concept of consensual RP in mind.
Aside from sparring, characters might also find themselves contending for recognition or the same position. Each Decepticon wishes to advance in the ranks and improve themselves and the team. The only way to accomplish this is to prove you're the best Con for the job. However this is competition between teammates and NOT backstabbing or treason. Players are free to RP out this competition, provided it's consensual and doesn't go too far. Players should keep in mind the overall goal is the advancement of the team. Yes, one character could let the Autobots gain a major victory and blame it on one of his fellow Decepticons. But that would mean harming the team as a whole, and personal ambition doesn't justify that.
A Decepticon would resort to seriously injuring or killing a teammate only if he or she was causing serious harm to the team as a whole. Being a weak or ineffectual leader certainly causes harm to the whole and leaves the team more vulnerable to harm from the enemy. So sometimes honor duels or assassinations take place. Generally, such things require an RPG moderator's or faction leader's attention. Challenging the authority of one's superiors is not recommended for it often leads into difficult situations."
All Actions Have ConsequencesExamples of what actions by your character may cause: (which is why some thought should be put to what you are doing before acting)
• Insulting someone more powerful than you may result in painful beating, even death in some cases especially if these actions are repeative. Some Decepticons, especially the more higher ranking ones do not shy away from teaching respect by pain and fear if they think someone of lower rank is acting out of line.
• Infiltrating enemy base or/and staying in a fight to the end of your endurance may lead in capture and interrogation, perhaps even execution. Such actions are not recommended. Sometimes infiltration missions can take place but they are carefully pre-planned and checked through the RPG moderators.
• Disobeying orders, creating problems for your faction will propably cause some of following consequences: Demotion. A stay in the brig. A stay in prison colony. Being kicked out of faction. Defection by comrades and superiors. Perhaps even execution or getting hunted down and killed as an example.
• Going insane may lead to following consequences: Being mindwiped, being reprogrammed, being brigged, being packed off to a mental institution, in some cases even execution.
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HOW TO JOIN THE ACTION First of all, you need a character... selecting an existing one should be a piece of cake. Just look up the stats for said character from SEIBERTRON.COM's database or simply in the RPG Profiles threads, if the character is there. We emphasis on canon characters which is why custom characters have more limited stat table. Why would the likes of Ironhide or Jazz be considered as Autobot elite if every other fan created character beats them in stats? For fancreated character you need to create everything by yourself... in both cases, please use the following fill form, don't alter it:
Name: Name of your character.
Allegiance: What group your character belongs to, Autobots, Decepticons or Neutrals (other factions are currently not available).
Function: The function of your character. Eg. Warrior or engineer.
Alt. mode: What your character transforms into. Every Transformer needs to have an alternative mode.
Weapons: List the weapons your character has. One main weapon and one or two additional weapons recommended. If you wish to carry around many weapons, you need to have high strength and firepower rating.
Special Abilities: List the special abilities your character has (eg. cloacking device). If character doesn't have any, leave this part out.
Height: The height of your character both in feet and meters. Max height of fancreated characters is 32 feet at the moment. Please do not apply for bigger characters as your first character.
Quote: 'Write a motto that tells something of your character's view of life.'
STRENGTH: 1-9 (10*)
INTELLIGENCE: 1-9 (10*)
DEXTERITY: 1-9 (10*)
SPEED: 1-9 (10*)
ENDURANCE: 1-9 (10*)
COURAGE: 1-10
FIREPOWER: 1-9 (10*)
ACCURACY: 1-9 (10*)
MELEE: 1-8 (9*,10*)
TECH SKILL: 1-9 (10*)
CHARISMA: 1-9 (10*)
RANK: Assigned by RPG moderators.
Profile: Write a profile for your character which tells something of his personality and possible history.
Abilities: Tell others what you character is capable of. List top speed and range without external fuel tanks. Explain the effects of your character's weapons.
Weaknesses: Every character has somekind of weakness, write it here.
Sample Post: In here you can let your creative talents come to a boil. You've put all this time into building up your character (or compiling the info for a canon), now show us what you can do with them. Write a sample post for your character. Have them in a combat situation or a non-combat situation. Just remember that grammar and characterization counts. Sample posts must be at least 3 paragraphs long, with a paragraph defined as at least 2-4 sentences.
Below you can see few of the most essential rules regarding character creation:
Rule #2: You must post your character's abilities and weaknesses, alongside with their profile. This way, other players know what they are up against and vice versa. Posting the character profile can be delayed if the player wants to keep his newly created character as a mystery for story telling purposes, but even then the strengths and weaknesses of the character must be made visible for others. However players are not allowed to use their OOC (out of character) information of characters against each other in the game unless they have learned that information IC (in character)! The full character profile has to be shown to RPG mods before starting playing regardless of how one wishes to introduce his character.
Rule #3: Fan created characters: When creating a fan made character the sum value of skills counted together (excluding rank) can be 70 at the highest, lest a permission is given by moderators. Fancreated characters cannot have a value above 9 unless a permission is given by RPG moderators. Also they are limited to one stat of 9 unless special permission is given. It is possible to achieve better stats by playing but it is not easy and shouldn't be expected to be something automatic. Higher than normal stats come to question only with experienced, proven players. If you want your character to have an ability such as cloaking or ability of escaping Earth's velocity for example, you will have less points than normally to distribute between the stat values. It is also to be noted that your first character can have only one alternative mode. In addition, fan created combiner teams are not allowed to be brought into the RPG. Use of a human, transformer or etc. superheroes/heroines, ghosts and other powerful entities also need permission from RPG moderators!
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Here's a speed helper of sorts for characters that can fly in alt. mode. Decepticon flying ability in robot mode allow approximately speeds from 100 mph to 300 mph depending on their design with the seekers being even able to reach speed of sound in robot mode. This robot mode flight however, is not the stat to be given for the speed indicates your character's alt.mode speed.
10 - Character is fast enough to reach escape velocity and can travel in space with extremely high speeds
9 - Speeds from Mach 3 to the limit gaining of escape velocity.
8 - Mach 2 to Mach 2.9
7 - Mach 1 to Mach 1.9
6 - Flying speeds from Mach 0.5 (~370 mph) to Mach 0.9
5 - Speeds from 250 mph to Mach 0.5
4 - Speeds from 150 mph to 249 mph
3 - 100 mph to 149 mph
2 - 60 mph to 99 mph
1 - Speeds less than 60 mph
And here's a speed helper for ground and seabound characters that can't fly in alt. mode. 10 - Speeds higher than 500 mph.
9 - Speeds from 350 mph to 500 mph.
8 - From 250 mph to 350 mph.
7 - From 200 mph to 249 mph.
6 - Speeds from 150 mph to 199 mph.
5 - Speeds from 100 mph to 149 mph.
4 - Speeds from 60 mph to 99 mph.
3 - 40 mph to 59 mph.
2 - 20 mph to 49 mph.
1 - Speeds less than 20 mph.
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When this part is done, post the character applications to the
Post your NEW character applications here! thread where it will be decided by RPG Moderators whether or not your character is allowed. If there is nothing wrong with your character, the next part is to bring him/her into the game.
There are several things to remember however... 1) First you must read through the RPG rules and guidelines and respect them. We have put much of time and effort to this game so don't ruin it from us and other players. 2) Then read the summary topic for what has happened before and proceed to study the currently running topics. It is impossible for the RPG staff to brief every new poster what has happened before. We are only humans as well. Understand that not everyone who applies will be successful. Lastly, DO NOT POST ON BOARD WITH YOUR CHARACTER BEFORE THE CHARACTER HAS BEEN APPROVED in the Post your NEW character applications here! thread.
Also to be noted: RPG moderators generally observe how one plays for a while before allowing a player to bring in characters that exceed the sum of 70 stat points. This is because there has been trouble with new/unexperienced players bringing in powerful characters in the past. Both your rank, additional transformations and how powerful your character can be, depend on how do you roleplay.
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The following special abilities cost you ability points: (Unless RPG moderators decide otherwise) •
Shield Generator -> (-8) Average. The negative bonus here depends the strength of the force field.
•
Teleportation -> (-15) And a good explanation why your character should have this ability.
•
Triple Changer -> Fanmade Triplechangers are not allowed at this point.
•
Quad Changer -> Fanmade Quadchangers are not allowed at this point.
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Six Changer -> Fanmade Sixchangers are not allowed at this point.
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Robot mode flight ability -> (-4 for Autobots, no penalty to Decepticons)
•
Cloaking Device/Invisibility -> (from -6 to -12)
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Weapons we determine to be more than typical -> (Penalty is variable)
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Radar/Sonar -> (-2 each) All transformers have a limited radar. This is about long range ones.
•
Above average sensory, includes audio, visual, touch, smell -> (Penalty is variable)
•
EMP weapons -> (-5) (variable depending on the power of the weapon)
•
Nontypical offensive and defensive abilities -> (Penalty is variable)
•
Targetmasters -> Fanmade Targetmasters are not allowed at this point.
•
Headmasters -> Fanmade Headmasters are not allowed at this point.
•
Powermasters -> Fanmade Powermasters are not allowed at this point.
•
Pretenders -> Fanmade Pretenders are not allowed at this point.
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Combiners -> Fanmade Combiners are not allowed at this point.
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Ability to create multiple holograms or large scale holograms (á la Hound) -> (-6)
•
Being able to reach the escape velocity from Earth's gravity field -> (-5)
•
Low fuel consumption á la Bumblebee -> (-4)
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RPG's TRANSFORMER SIZE CHART This has been published to give some kind of a direction when it comes to height of Transformers in this RPG setting. Keep in mind that Starscream is larger than regular sized TF at 31 feet - the average height being roughly 25 feet. The heights are in feet, you can transfer the height to meters by using the following formula; ft x 0,305. Just for clearness sake, 65 ft = 19,8 m, 60 ft = 18,3 m, 55 ft = 16,8 m, 50 ft = 15,3 m, 42 ft = 12,8 m, 36 ft = ~11,0 m, 30 ft = 9,1 m, 24 ft = 7,3 m, 18 ft = 5,5 m, 12 ft = 3,6 m, 6 ft = 1,83 m.
The characters in the size chart are (in no particular order): Laserbeak, Rumble, Ravage, Overkill (all 4 casettes having two different sizes shown which they can obtain through mass shifting), Optimus Prime, Cliffjumper, Ironhide, Arcee, Bombshell, Jazz, Scrapper, Elita-1, Motormaster, Prowl, Brawl, Soundwave, Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Starscream, Astrotrain, Shockwave, Grimlock, Razorclaw and Scorponok.
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GENERAL GAME RULES LIST 1. Always use attempts instead of definite hits when not fighting against your own characters. Only RPG Admin/Moderators have the right force hits or temporarily use characters of other players in order to have the story moving to right direction.
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2. If you are being hit, you decide if the attempt succeeds, and how much damage you take (unless one of the RPG staff use their right to determine the damage your character takes). This is a give and take relationship. Constantly not being hit is extremely annoying and unfair towards other players. You need to use common sense in this: an explosion is more likely to hit many people than a stray laser beam; a fast and/or agile character can dodge blows more often than slow/clumsy ones; Megatron's cannon leaves a bigger scratch than Wheelie's slingshot... etc. A character with high accuracy skill is more likely to hit your character than one with low accuracy skill. An exception is to be said though, Megatron - while one of the best marksmen in the galaxy uses a fusion cannon as the weapon of choice and the fusion cannon itself is not an accurate weapon by any means, hence one could say Megatron's accuracy with fusion cannon in robot mode is rather 8 than 10. Same in melee, a character with high melee skill is more likely to hit and cause serious damage than a character with low melee skill. And please, do remember that a laser beam moves much faster than a bullet or plasma stream.
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3. Roleplay responsibly! This means not making a joke of the RPG! We have put much effort to this game, so we expect you to follow our rules. If you dislike us, please keep it to yourself and don't ruin the game from us. Suggestions to make the game better and constructive criticism is welcome. Develop your characters so that others are more familiar with their abilities and personalities. We can not stress this enough. A well thought out, developed character is preferable to a slew of drones!
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4. No character is a god. Posting as Primus, Unicron, Liege Maximo, Vector Sigma, the Oracle, the Vok or any comparable entity is strictly reserved for the RPG moderators and players who have direct permission given by the moderators. The only exception is that these figures can be used in background information and as simple plot devices: a character may state that "I was forged by Unicron 4 million years ago", but he may not (truthfully) claim that Unicron actually did that unless the moderators allow it.
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5. You control ONLY your OWN characters! The only exception to this is when arrangements are made with the other players or if an RPG mod feels he needs to assume the control of your character to get the game moving.
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6. Munchkining is not allowed. This is defined as "never being hit and never taking serious damage from an attack". Also see Powergaming. If your character continues to go undamaged, expect a mod controlled character or NPC to nuke him/her down hard.
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7. Powergaming - calling in big guns for the heck of it is not allowed in regular situations. Don't abuse your power. If you have a powerful attack, don't use it all the time! Also try to avoid mismatching you character against a weaker or more powerful character unless they ask for it, or knew the risk before the encounter. Like if Wheelie shoots his slingshot at Megatron right in front of his face. The controller of Wheelie should have known the danger in the first place. But if Wheelie is in a different part of the battle field and Megatron hunts down Wheelie just to destroy him, that's powergaming. Remember that attacking enemies that outnumber you or assaulting a gestalt alone is fool's work. Also remember that the player decides if his/her character gets heavily damaged or destroyed. If one wants to retreat, let him! You can chase him but eventually let him get away.
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8. Be careful. If you want to infiltrate an enemy base, you need to clear it with RPG Mods first. With high risk actions you have to understand that you're very likely to be burned or caught and brigged for who knows how long.
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9. Refrain from having your character swear EXCESSIVELY. The "****" or "****" are prohibited. Occasional "damn" is allowed. You are a giant robot from another planet and most likely would not use Earthen slangs and profanities. Though English is not in the Transformers' native language, they DID spend a lot of time on Earth, and they must have learned something. But remember the Transformers have curse words of thier own: Slag, Frag, Spawn of Unicron, etc. We are more forgiving with human characters.
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10. When your character is speaking, seperate this from the main action text by breaking it off using "quotation marks" also separate thoughts by writing them in italics. This will make it easier to read and follow the posts. If you want a certain character to respond to your post, put their name in bold to attract their attention...it helps. Use << >> to mark transmissions.
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11. Please try to read all the responses in a thread to keep the story coherent. Also avoid performing too many actions with one character in your posts especially in combat situations. Give others a chance to respond to the posts and stay with the story. Your characters are important, but not more so than anyone else's or their storylines. Yet if a certain player makes you wait for more than two weeks (the rather long waiting time per character is set because of relatively small player base is spread upon numerous characters over the years, if you wish to post more often, we encourage you to pick more than one character) for a response, you should move on or ask a moderator to help with the situation. Read all the responses in a thread to keep the story coherent, this is being overlooked too often. Furthermore, use location tags in all character posts so that other players know where the action is taking place.
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12. Private Messages: USE THEM! They are a great way to set up battles and discuss plans for characters, develop stories, etc. Or in the case you have communications programs like ICQ, MSN, AIM or Yahoo Messenger use them if that is possible to contact other players.
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13. Keep in mind that if player doesn't post in the RPG with his/her claimed canon Transformers characters (like Ironhide or Soundwave) for 30 days without making an announcement of absence, the moderators have the right to put the character up for grabs. Before doing so, the moderators will sometimes notify the player of the character about exceeding this 30 day limit. But, if the player does not return to regular posting, or continuously posts only after a warning is sent or a period of 2 months has passed without any posts or an explanation for the lack of them, the character will be taken away. Remember, just keeping a character for yourself and not posting with them is unfair towards other players.
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14. Old topics get removed occasionally, you are the only one who is responsible for backing them up. Moderators will also close topics whose storylines are "finished", so that newcomers will not mistakenly post in wrong places. Old closed topics are moved to RPG Story Archive but how long they will remain there is eventually up to webmaster.
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15. No signatures AT ALL in any RPG forum. That means IC ("in character") or OOC ("out of character"). This is because signatures dramatically increase the download time of users with slow connections and are a nuisance to the flow of the story. It's simple to do, just unselect the "show signature" box when you post. Please note that RPG moderators may use sigs from time to time because of the links to RPG rules and other important areas within their signatures.
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16. Players are not allowed start their own threads without expressed permission from one of the RPG moderators in the game forums, this excludes RPG discussion forum.
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17. No spaceships unless a permission from mods has been gained. Also a creation of a character with spaceflight abilities is not allowed without getting permission from the MODs first. Interstellar travel in general is not be allowed, unless it is a bunch of characters going at the same time and permission from the MODs has been gained. Example: if there is a battle to be fought on a different planet, every character WILL NOT go with their own shuttle, because that is ridiculous. Everyone should ride in groups. Supreme Commanders of each faction (the top 2 guys in the group, like Optimus and Rodimus, or Megatron and Shockwave) are exceptions. Because they are leaders, they can take a shuttle to themselves if they need to go stop a disaster from happening far away. The people controlling the above said leaders aren't allowed to abuse this privilege. Please don't think this is unfair. Leadership comes with responsibility, but it also comes with priviledges.
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18. Only those characters whose profiles specifically reflect their having enhanced sensors/radar/etc. (and those fancreated characters that have paid the necessary penalty in stat points) are able to detect other mechanisms at a distance. Even then, generally speaking, they can only distinguish between friendly and unknown signatures. So, for example, a Decepticon warrior with additional sensory equipment would be able to tell if an approaching signal were a fellow Decepticon, thanks in part to various passive ally-recognition protocols, but not if it were an Autobot, Unicronian, or neutral. Having dealt with each other for many millions of years, both Autobots and Decepticons have become quite skilled at avoiding—and sneaking up on—each other when they need to. This is the reason that high power sonar and radar and such require an additional investment of stat points, as such devices make a given character far less vulnerable to surprise attacks, and far better at tracking a fleeing enemy.
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19. Note that users that cannot/do not follow the rules will lose their right to play the game. Of course everyone can (or is destined to) make mistakes. This rule is directed towards players who intentionally break the rules.
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20. Remember that rpg MOD(s) is your lord and master. Do not argue with the decisions made by a MOD unless you have a really good reason and something to back it up (like another RPG moderator). Again, suggestion to make the game better for all of us and constructive criticism is welcome. Also to be noted that RPG admin/moderators having the right to remove canon characters from players if their play of them is lacking against the standards given by the moderators (this goes mostly for high ranking characters and serious lack of posting of any canon character).
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21. Use common sense when applying to the rules! If someone breaks them, you are entitled to ignore his post (or the parts that contain the violations) and it may be deleted/edited by the moderators without further notice. RPG moderators have the right to break the rules if the story or situation (ie. discipline) requires it.
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CHARACTER CREATION RULES 1. Want to join us? Then post an application to the
Post your NEW character applications here! topic. There are several things to remember however... 1) First you must read through the RPG rules and guidelines and respect them. We have put much of time and effort to this game so don't ruin it from us and other players. 2) Then read the summary topic for what has happened before if available and proceed to study the currently running topics. It is impossible for the RPG staff to brief every new poster what has happened before. We are only humans as well. Understand that not everyone who applies will be successful. Lastly, DO NOT POST ON BOARD WITH YOUR CHARACTER BEFORE THE CHARACTER HAS BEEN APPROVED in the Post your NEW character applications here! thread.
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2. You must include your character's abilities and weaknesses, in their profile. This way, other players know what they are up against and vice versa. Addition of the character profile to the corresponding profile thread can be delayed if the player wants to keep his newly created character a mystery for story telling purposes, but even then the strengths and weaknesses of the character must be made visible for others. However players are not allowed to use their OOC (out of character) information of characters against each other in the game unless they have learned that information IC (in character)! The full character profile has to be shown to RPG mods before starting playing regardless of how one wishes to introduce his character.
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3. Fan created characters: When creating a fan made character the sum value of skills counted together (excluding rank) can be 70 at the highest, lest a permission is given by moderators. Fancreated characters cannot have a value above 9 unless a permission is given by RPG moderators. Also they are limited to one stat of 9 unless special permission is given. It is possible to achieve better stats by playing but it is not easy and shouldn't be expected to be something automatic. If you want your character to have an ability such as cloaking or ability of escaping Earth's velocity for example, you will have less points than normally to distribute between the stat values. It is also to be noted that your first character can have only one alternative mode. In addition, fan created combiner teams are not allowed to be brought into the RPG. Use of a human, transformer or etc. superheroes/heroines, ghosts and other powerful entities also need permission from RPG moderators!
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4. As for distributing the stat values for a fan created character or a character that doesn't belong to G1 canon: if you want your character to have a strength/endurance of 9 or 10 it means your character has to be bulkier than average. Your character will also suffer two point penalty to his/her maximum dexterity and one point penalty to speed. Same goes other way around, a fast, lithe character suffers a 2 point penalty to his/her maximum strength and one point penalty to endurance. Tech Skill attribute can be only 2 higher than character's intelligence at maximum. Yet, an intelligent character is not necessarily technologically skilled. Melee skill is limited to 8 due to over use and can be only 3 points higher than character's Dexterity skill.
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5. Character Limits: A new player may have no more than 3 characters under their control. If the player proves himself to the staff with 3 characters, additional characters may be allowed. Characters from other continuities and / or Japanese series will be decided on by the Moderators, if they would be allowed in the game, and if yes, as a canon, or as a fanmade.
If you reach the limit, you will not be able to add any new characters without giving up an old character. The maximum number of characters allowed per player is 3 unless moderators are convinced that the player in question is able to handle additional characters.
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6. Gestalt teams are only available as multiuser teams where each character of the team are controlled by different players. This provokes users RPing gestalt team to concentrate more upon using every character of the team instead of giving the spotlight to couple of characters. The combiner itself will be either controlled by group effort or by the player of the team leader. For convenience, Head/Target/Powermaster components and other unit that intuitively belong together are not counted as combiners. While one player can't have more than one character in a specific combiner team, he is allowed to apply for a character that belongs to other gestalt team. It is to be remembered that in the game there are gestalt teams controlled by only one player. These are relics from the past when the rules were different.
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7. NPC's or Non Player Characters. One could control a possibly infinite amount of NPCs temporarily. But a player can keep around 2 Personal NPC's. Personal NPC can be kept for as long a the player wants, and may be exculsively used by that player. But the player is expected to give up a personal NPC if a new Player who has not exceeded his/her character limits, wants it. You can use non-player controlled characters freely, but keep in mind that it is not polite to kill fan created NPCs without asking a permission, or killing popular G1 characters just for spite of it.
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8. No new Transformer factions are allowed without permission from the RPG staff. Acceptable factions to which you may belong are as follows: Autobots, Decepticons and Neutrals. Neutral characters are discouraged, but allowable in certain cases with moderator approval. All applications for Neutrals will be heavily scrutinized. Neutral characters tend not to last terribly long in a war zone.
