Getting started

Getting Started

 * New to Black Sands Mud? This guide is to help you get comfortable with setting up a character here. This mud is an RPI mud, meaning roleplay is enforced and expected and the first step in that is having a role and a character that fit the world. This guild helps you through our online char approval process and gives you some ideas on the history and things they might know.

Step 1: Your name

 * Your name is completely optional to you as long as it is not something clearly disruptive to the role-play environment or the name is obviously a fantasy character from another existing world. Bad name examples that will be rejected: (Killer39, PoRnKiNg, Frodo, Gandalf, Dragonman, HandsomeDevil, Julius Caesar, etc.)

Step 2: Your gender

 * Choice is yours, though most people find it easier at first to play their own gender

Step 3: Your class

 * The basic classes at the moment are Warrior, Ranger, Thief and Assassin. There are other classes, but those are limited until you have earned Role Play Points (RPP). A warrior or a ranger will easily find the most jobs and have the best chance of surviving, while a thief or assassin usually needs to be lucky and have a good knowledge of the area to survive.
 * An important thing to note here is that we do not have sub-guilds, or sub-classes to choose oocly during creation. New characters can expand into a subclass through learning skills in the actual game. For example, to if you wanted to be a well known weapon crafter first you'd simply need to learn it in the game from someone else, or from NPC skill trainers.


 * A warrior could technically learn to Ambush and Backstab like an assassin learns naturally. The assassin class in turn could learn to to bash like a warrior, etc making all classes able to blend uniquely. Just because you see someone use a skill, you will not be able to tell what class they are oocly, while permitting characters to grow and change in an IC manner. Depending on your race/class/intelligence and other factors, you can only learn a certain number of extra skills ICly.


 * Does this mean your noob warrior could technically learn sorcery if he was taught it? Yes. Yes it does.

Step 4: Your race

 * The only races open to new players are Humans and Elves. Humans are the easiest to get into as they have the most job opportunities, the most political support, as well as you probably are a human yourself and know how to role-play one. Elves in black-sands are not small sized fairy elves, and new players should read about them fully before picking one. Elves are usually roaming, gypsy types with strong cultural and tribal ties.


 * A list of Races can be found here.

Step 5: Your starting area

 * The entire world has been overrun and 95% of it destroyed by a horde of magically twisted slave soldiers called Mora who are driven to fight by a ruthless and black sorcery wielding Warmage, the very man responsible for the destruction of the world. The only place left protected from the Mora in the world is a single Valley, captured within huge walls of rock that make up a barrier region of cliffs. A gap within those huge walls is where the city of Bal-Travas stands. Across the gap an enormous barrier gate has been built by humans which is now the only thing keeping this seemingly endless army at bay.


 * Starting locations are limited for new players to this city, Bal-Travas, or if you are of Elven blood you can start in the Elven tent camp. These are only coded locations for your IC beginnings however, most characters are born in either the refugee camps in the valley, the farms north of the city, or in the city itself. It is very- unlikely that you came from the desert to the south, as that is where the army of Mora are, and where little or no life is known to still survive from the dark war mages twisted black magicks and plans.

Step 6: Your age and Stats

 * Pick what age you would like to be, along with what traits are the strongest in your char. Options are:


 * str: Strength - The physical strength of your character.
 * dex: Dexterity - The hand/eye coordination of your character.
 * agi: Agility - The natural agility of your character.
 * con: Constitution - The health and stamina of your character.
 * wil: Willpower - Your character's mental fortitude and faith.
 * int: Intelligence - Your character's reasoning ability.
 * aur: Aura - Your character's affinity for magical energy.


 * You can choose what order your want your stats, from the highest to the lowest in priority.

Step 7: Your descriptions.

 * These must be purely physical traits only. That means there should be no actions, objects or ideas in them.

Example lines that will get you rejected:


 * 1) This man smiles and jokes to all those around him, looking happy and easygoing.
 * 2) This evil man looks like he is about to kill you, and has huge swords in his hand.
 * 3) This girl looks at you with green eyes that make you think about her home in the forest.


 * Your goal is to put your char in purely physical terms. Meaning, exactly what a person could describe just by what they are seeing.

Good examples:


 * Sdesc: the withered old elven woman


 * Ldesc: The withered old elven woman is here.

Full Description:


 * Creased and wrinkled with canyons of folded skin on every inch of her body, this emaciated elder elven woman has likely reached a centennial of years if not more. The vivid violet of her eyes is still strong though a slight milky haze of white does cloud them. Beaded hair running down both shoulders is knotted up into dreadlocks which part around the tall and impressive piercing ears that dominate the sides of her skull.


 * See how the description is only about what she physically looks like? That is exactly what we want to see, with a minimum of three lines required for approval.

Step 7: Background

 * You should read and understand our History first.


 * Your background should include any basic information about his or her past, things like: where your character came from, how he came to be where he is now, what his plans for the future are, etc. etc. It can include a lot of information if you want, or just enough to get started and then you can expand on it later. As long as your background fits in with the game world in even a simple way you will be able to play.


 * Remember, your background info can be expanded and added to in the game as your char grows and learns.


 * Bad Examples that will get you rejected:


 * 1) This man comes from arkoroth in the lands of midzam, the last prince of pulloa.
 * - None of these lands are from our game, and we don't have princes. Sorry.


 * 2) This man is actually the king of Bal-Travas, he runs the government here behind the scenes
 * - Well.. he might think he does... but he actually doesn't. If you want to be the king of Bal-Travas you'll have to put in more work than that.


 * 3) This girl studied under a wizard and knows powerful and deadly spells.
 * - Just because you put something about how powerful you are in your background does not mean you will actually get any of that in the game.

Good things to focus on:
1) Where was he born? 


 * Main choices are the city, the farms, the refugee camps, maybe even in the forest or wild. It is extremely unlikely he was born anywhere south of the city, and anyone who was would likely be figured as an enemy spy or Mora demon.

2) Occupation and lifestyle


 * At the moment most of the jobs in the city are hunting, gathering or working as a soldier. We will continue to work on getting more options available like merchants and crafters in the near future as well as mining, herbalism and other surprises.

3) Interests, hobbies and quirks: 


 * Does he like to rob people? Why, cruel parents? Orphaned? Beaten by bullies? Grew up in the sewers? Does he like to help people? Why? Was saved as a kid? Likes soldiers? Had good parents? Is he afraid of spiders? Why? Fell into a nest of them as a kid? Does he like to drink? As you can see, there is endless fun material here to work with. Come up with weird quirks and issues for your char to deal with, and have fun with it.

4) Social status choices: Commoner, Beggar, etc.


 * Our game allows any character to rise in power to the highest levels of government or renown. This all happens ICly however, and new chars will not be starting with any special rank unless they have RPP and we open any special roles.


 * New players should start as a commoner, and although slaves exist in great numbers, they will require RPP due to special set up circumstances. There are currently no recognized noble bloodlines or great merchant house bloodlines at the moment, all wealth and power was wiped out during the great fall. This leaves a nice gap for players to build and create noble or merchant houses in game that will become part of history. So though your char may be a distant bloodline to nobility or wealth, they have none of that old power now.

5) Other information:

 * The world has been effectively cast into dark ages. Though at the height of power during the golden age the world was something like the Greeks or Romans with knowledge of maths, metallurgy and impressive construction methods, little of that technology remains aside from some of the building knowledge the humans saved. Most of the populace is ignorant and cannot read as military academy training has long taken precedence over schools and arts.