[MONTHLY DISCUSSION]: Role playing. Welcome Arath Faringal!

[Niniel]

As I said in the Announcement thread in the Farmhouse, from now on we will have a discussion each month. The discussion will be led by a secret guest. Today I have the pleasure to welcome our first guest.

 

Have you ever clicked on a BT thread in New Content just to realize that you have come to the wrong place? You did come to the Black Tower but not this Black Tower. Right, because there is also a role playing group called the Black Tower here at DM. Today I welcome Arath Faringal, Black Tower RP Leader. Arath came to DM 11 years ago and from day one he started to role play in the Black Tower. Three years ago he became it´s leader. Arath has also been a member of our social group and was once a staff member here.

 

Arath will tell us all about the role playing world at DM and especially how it is to role play in the Black Tower. He will be here all week to answer any questions. Feel free to comment, ask questions or tell us about your experiences of role playing. It can be table rping, on line rping or live rping.

 

Welcome Arath!

 

(Please wait for our guest to post before you write in this thread.)

[Arath Faringal]

Hello all. As my social counterpart said, I am the RP leader for the Black Tower Division. And I've been involved in the RP for a very long time; since the time where there was no division between RP and Community sides actually. I've seen a lot of changes all over DM in the several different incarnations it's been through.

 

The RP at DM is quite enjoyable if you enjoy writing. Even if you don't care for writing as much, reading it can be a blast. The RP has a number of differences from the actual book story line. Things that we had to change due to copyright issues (RJ wasn't a huge fan of fanfic ... we had to change a bit for him to allow this), and changes that we made so that our characters can play a larger part in the events of the world. For example ... the Black Tower was formed well before the Dragon declared amnesty. It was created by a false Dragon about 3 years before hand. After gaining enough strength, he marched them to Tear in an effort to claim Callandor. He happened to arrive at the same time as the ACTUAL Dragon ... so the BT pledged allegience to him.

 

There are many opportunities to influence the events in the world with your characters. A good example of that is my own character, Arath Faringal (original, I know ...). He was lucky enough to have the opportunity to kill one of the Forsaken in Illian. A long drawn out battle, but a most satisfying story to write.

 

I suppose this will all be much easier with some input from all of you. So questions, concerns, comments ... I'm here to answer them all.

[Niniel]

Your character have slaughtered one of the forsaken! That I want to hear more about.

 

How far are you in the time line? What is the biggest differences from the books?

[Lenlo]

So ive been looking into the RP side of DM and I have to ask, how difficult is it to get started? I havnt RPed in a forum, purely text based format, before. Only in things such as Larps or similar events.

[Arath Faringal]

Well, due to the differences in our story it can be hard to peg exactly where we are in the book timeline. For the most part, we are somewhere around Winters Heart. The bowl of winds has been used, and we are getting ready for the cleansing of saidin. However, we jumped ahead a little and we've entered into an agreement with the WT for mutual bondings. My Storm Leader bonded the head of the Red Ajah as his warder. And she volunteered for it :D

 

As far as differences go, there are a number of subtle changes and a few big ones. For one, we had no civil war in the WT, and another big one is that the Shadow has overrun Shienar and Arafel. Our shadow is very active and largely successful in what they do. Lots of chances for battle.

 

Getting started is pretty simple. All you need to do is come up with a character concept and write up a biography. A bio gives a physical description of the character, maybe a few personality traits, and a brief history. After you submit it, it is checked over for any mistakes or oddities (like a 6'8'' 280 lb Cairhienen) and you're ready to start. You begin as a soldier but requirement for raising can go by quickly. It's really quite easy, and a lot of fun.

 

In order to keep things a little more fair, you are assigned a base one power score when your bio clears. You get to choose how your elemental strengths breakdown within those limits, but in the BT you may be able to increase that score over time.

[Nyanna al'Meara]

Woooow holy guacamole, 11 years??! Can I get your autograph?

 

My brothers pay their own kind of tabletop RP, with files of paper, dice and whatnot. I never really joined in because I think they restrict actions too much with "whether or not you can do this-and-that depends on the number the dice rolls*. But listening to them us hilarious :P You can hear the laughter late into the night from their rooms at weekends lol.

 

I joined the DM RP side a bit over a year ago I think, because I love writing and leapt at the chance to play a character in the WoTland :D I had loads of fun writing up a bio, but have only recently got started with RPing really. I've got a traditional novice at the White Tower, and for some reason they made me the White Ajah head over there >.> Elgee must have had oosquai in her kaf But yeah, we're trying to get the RP White Ajah active again and I've got the First Reasoner 'NSW' character, (which is a character owned by no-one and everyone) at my disposal for RPing there :)

 

Its really fun roleplaying with others :D At the moment we're starting an RP break my novice/wilder's block, it's exciting

[Ithillian Turambar]

I must admit that when I first joined DM I did look over the RP Boards. It all seemed very confusing though and I didn't really know where to start. There were bios and tests to deal with also. Was it really a lot easier to get started than it looked?

 

How many people do you currently have actively posting in your BT at the moment? Is it very busy in the RP Boards? Do you have any Asha'man who are RPd by girls?

[Arath Faringal]

Our activity is down a bit right now, mostly because we're in between big events and people tend to fall away. We've recently had a number of old-time RPers return to us though, so there is a lot of potential for interesting RP. We have 5 active and posting Asha'man, and 2 new recruits that are ready to start. We also have a number of inactive Asha'man, people who have full rank characters and are floating around the RP in other Divs. Channelers aren't the only characters we have either. We also have had a number of civilian characters in the past. Wives and families of Asha'man, people fleeing from all the chaos in the world and settling in the BT of all places for refuge ... as long as your character isn't a Seanchan, an Ogier, or a female channeler, we'll take it in.

 

At the moment, no, none of our active RPers are girls. We've had several in the past though, both civilian and Asha'man. One I know was an Attack Leader before she decided to kill off the character. We make no OOC gender descriminations at the BT.

 

Ah yes ... In honor of this little visit, I'm making a special offer to my BT org brothers and sisters. Anyone who decides to join up on the RP side and submit a bio will be given a free pass on 2 of their raising requirements. Normally there are only 9 RP's required to reach progress up to full Asha'man rank, so this takes out a substantial chunk of that. The two passes can be used on whichever RP you feel like.

[Niniel]

That is indeed a nice offer.

 

I have been role playing for a long time. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons and LotR. I still remember my first elf hunter who decided that it was a good idea to steal a dragon´s egg and bring it back to the village. I have tried a lot of other tabletop games after that. I actually have the WoT game and have had some fun with it. I have also been into live rping for a while. Me and some friends made the most hilarious adventures for our friends - aliens, trolls and demons.

 

Last year I decided to try the rping here at DM. I play a poor girl that has been captured and made a damane by the seanchan. It´s a lot of fun but I´m a bit frustrated that I don´t get the time to write more. Since English isn´t my first language it takes me forever to write a tiny post. I get what you are saying Ithi, because I also thought it looked like I had to do and learn a million things before getting to play but it wasn´t that much. Everyone is happy to help. Writing a bio is a lot of fun.

[Songstress]

I like to write, but I'm horribly indecisive and don't think I could settle on a character bio

 

While I've played a text MUD and World of Warcraft in the past, I really didn't get into RP'ing my characters. The little bit of roleplaying I've done with the OP battles here has been a good deal of fun, so I may eventually decide to try.

[WildTaltos]

Role-playing does look interesting but I have trouble with it - English is my second tongue, and I do not like sharing any sort of creative writing with anyone unless I think it is very nice. It takes me awhile to write something I consider very good in English, so it is more a time issue I have with role-playing than anything else .

[Kudaran Dragon Blooded]

I had no idea the role-playing was an ongoing storyline like the books! That looks very interesting indeed. I shall put together a bio as soon as I have some time.

 

By the way, does the character have to have the same name as your Handle?

 

It's your second language, Taltos? You speak it very well, I never would have noticed.

[RandA lThor]

I have seen RPing, but I am too scared to get involved because it seems like after creating a bio, you have to know the current storyline and have to read back to see what was happening. It seemed like too much work for me.

[WildTaltos]

 

It's your second language, Taltos? You speak it very well, I never would have noticed.

I write it well; you ask me to speak it and hahahahahaha turns into a big disaster because I cannot immediately think of what to say in a conversation. Writing I can sit and think it over for a bit, unlike a conversation.

I have seen RPing, but I am too scared to get involved because it seems like after creating a bio, you have to know the current storyline and have to read back to see what was happening. It seemed like too much work for me.

That is another reason for me - I have yet to do a complete reread and so I am afraid my WoT knowledge is on the rusty side, too much for role-playing.

[Netbattler11]

How much crossover do you have between the different RP boards? For instance, the White Tower and the Black Tower? Are all the RP boards set in the same world? Who decides what the Shadow does? How active do you expect people to be? One of the reasons I never joined was because i wasn't sure how much effort i could put into writing on a constant basis. I enjoy playing dnd a couple times a week, but being in character all the time would get exhausting very fast.

[Arath Faringal]

Well, don't let English being a second language put you off of joining. There are a number of RP members in the same situation, so we're pretty understanding of it. And honestly, it gets pretty hard to read some of the stuff that native English speakers write ... nobody will notice.

 

Lets see here ... Knowledge of the RP storyline, and even the books, is not that big a deal either. Obviously you will be better off having read the books entirely, but we have a lot of experienced staff members who are more than willing to help. Like was mentioned earlier, I've been RPing here for 11 years now, and reading the WoT since 1995. If you ask me, I probably know the answer. And if I don't, I know where to find it. The RP storyline CAN be very confusing, especially if you look at our Shadow timeline. We have an entire division devoted to the Shadow (Congress of the Shadows) which encompasses shadowspawn, dreadlords, and darkfriends. You're free to RP as a trolloc or a myrdraal there, or as a Dreadlord ... maybe even one of the Forsaken if there is a need for it.

 

Crossover between the boards? We call our RP world the Portal Stone World. All our boards are part of this PSW, and crossover is very much allowed. Even encouraged. Required in some cases. As I said earlier, my main character is a Storm Leader at the Farm. Recently though, most of his RP's have taken place in the White Tower where he's spending time with his cuddly new bonded sister, Zarinene, the head of the Red Ajah. Their most recent adventure has been a trip to Arad Doman for chinese food. It's an ongoing thing, and their both getting pretty drunk. It will be interesting to see where that one ends up. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/69149-meh-its-not-really-a-date-attn-elgee/

 

No, your character does not have to have the same name as your DM handle. My first Asha'man happens to have the same name, but I have a second Asha'man character by the name of Daevis Thelandran. I also have an Aes Sedai character by the name of Rochel Dion. And a random blacksmith-turned-assassin in the Freelanders Division named Esyndor Renethil. You are allowed to have up to 3 characters per division, though most people don't. The only person I know who hit the limit within a division was Elgee, with her three Aes Sedai.

 

So if you're really ambitious, you can have quite a large number of characters. I would highly recommend starting with a single character (in the BT of course *wink wink*), but honesly you can create any type of character you want. Maiden of the Spear, Damane, Ogier mason, Cairhienen noble, Suldam, a manipulative Grey/Black ajah sister, Shienaran Asha'man, Domani barmaid, or a traveling peddlar named Bob. Or a trolloc with a cookpot and a mission to fill it. Or maybe even pull a Valan Luca and start a menagerie traveling around the Westlands. I think there's one person who plays an innkeeper in Tar Valon.

 

There is no required level of activity. People do prefer a timely response to their RP's, but there are some stories that stretch on over a year or more. And sometimes things get wrapped up in a matter of hours in a furious exchange of posts. However active you choose to be is perfectly fine. We understand that real life happens, and while we don't like it, we adapt to it. The only time you may be 'required' to post on a schedule would be if you are taking a significant role in a major RP. Say you're leading a circle of defenders or a Forsaken at the Cleansing of Saidin. Your post may be needed in order to advance the storyline, so we would ask you to make it in a timely manor. Other than that though ... we're pretty lax on requirements. That being said, people are always nagging eachother to hurry up and post something. I think I'm behind on a few actually ...

[Nyanna al'Meara]

Role-playing does look interesting but I have trouble with it - English is my second tongue, and I do not like sharing any sort of creative writing with anyone unless I think it is very nice. It takes me awhile to write something I consider very good in English, so it is more a time issue I have with role-playing than anything else .

This. Yeah, I too always doublecheck my RPs to see if they make sense, I'm an obsessive perfectionist with creative writing in english... >.> So I end up taking a long time to reply to a RP :P

 

But I've found RP "practice" i.e. the OP battles, and other random crazy fun stuff all over the DM social side have really helped develop my writing skills. Then again, I’ve always loved reading too, and grew up mostly in an English speaking country

 

Arath, at the BT, what are the RPs about generally? I mean, we have novice life, class reqs, etc at the WT RP, but what are some of the things the BT characters get up to? Do you have battles, and a M’Hael/Logain kind of intrigue too?

 

 

[Arath Faringal]

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/36901-welcome-to-the-black-tower-read-first/

 

Just below the PSW rules are the rank requirements. It contains a list of all the RP's that are necessary to cruise through the ranks.

 

Our RP's can have a surprising range of diversity. Most people do an arrival RP, showing up at the Farm for the first time, learning that they can channel, or being discovered by the Asha'man ... some way to get started. We also do a lot of basic Saidin classes, learning to touch the source, flame and void, random acts of spontaneous combustion. After that, you kind of develop the character however you want to. Some people focus more on the training itself, others go for more personal RP's. The psychology of a man doomed to go mad, and what he'll do with the short time given him. BT characters also tend to keep on doing whatever it was they did before they started channeling. My Arath character was a blacksmith/jeweler before he sparked, so he does that as a hobby. It also led to him discovering a talent to create ter'angreal. We've had a number of different backgrounds to draw from, such as soldiers, nobles, philosophers, merchants ... we've even had an Aiel. A lot of what we do is trying to fit in among such a wide range of backgrounds. It can be pretty interesting at times.

 

We do not have a M'Hael/Logain type intrigue at the BT. Mostly because we no longer have a M'Hael. There's a fairly large story behind that, but long story short, the M'Hael fell to taint madness, and we were forced to kill him. Our BT is now led by the Guardian Council, which is made of 7 Storm Leaders, and they defer directly to the Dragon. We made this decision because even though the M'Hael we had was a NSW (non specific writer) character, the people who created him left DM and those of us who remained couldn't really get into the character. Plus he was an Illianer, and none of us really liked the accent. I know I can't write Illianer 'do be' talk to save my life. :P

 

Battles. Oh, we have battles. In our PSW, the shadow has overrun part of the borderlands. This link is the Battle of Shienar, where the Shadow beat back the Asha'man who came to liberate the country. This thread won an empy a few years back.

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/27762-answering-the-call-bt-cots-interdiv/

[Ithillian Turambar]

I know what I've always wanted to ask an Asha'man - and you are probably the closest thing I will get - but can ALL Asha'man sense when an Aes Sedai is Channelling, or is that a special skill you have to include on your bio?

[Arath Faringal]

Nothing special about that. All Asha'man can sense Saidar being channeled. Another interesting ability is that all channeling men are also immune to compulsion while they are holding Saidin.

[Netbattler11]

I'm kind of a perfectionist when it comes to creating characters, so where would you recommend for more information on the WoT world, RP and general?

[Tiinker]

Well, due to the differences in our story it can be hard to peg exactly where we are in the book timeline. For the most part, we are somewhere around Winters Heart. The bowl of winds has been used, and we are getting ready for the cleansing of saidin. However, we jumped ahead a little and we've entered into an agreement with the WT for mutual bondings. My Storm Leader bonded the head of the Red Ajah as his warder. And she volunteered for it :D

 

As far as differences go, there are a number of subtle changes and a few big ones. For one, we had no civil war in the WT, and another big one is that the Shadow has overrun Shienar and Arafel. Our shadow is very active and largely successful in what they do. Lots of chances for battle.

 

Getting started is pretty simple. All you need to do is come up with a character concept and write up a biography. A bio gives a physical description of the character, maybe a few personality traits, and a brief history. After you submit it, it is checked over for any mistakes or oddities (like a 6'8'' 280 lb Cairhienen) and you're ready to start. You begin as a soldier but requirement for raising can go by quickly. It's really quite easy, and a lot of fun.

 

In order to keep things a little more fair, you are assigned a base one power score when your bio clears. You get to choose how your elemental strengths breakdown within those limits, but in the BT you may be able to increase that score over time.

 

I'm not usually into this sort of thing but that sounds absolutely epic!

[Basel Gill]

I've thought about getting into the RP sometimes, but not having finished the books has held me back somewhat. Part to avoid book spoilers and part to keep from looking like a fool for not knowing some vital bit of info that doesn't come up till Book Number So-and-So. One thing I have wondered when looking through the RP areas, though, is there are forums a-plenty for all the assorted Orgs, and also forums for each of the areas of the continent. How is this organized? When you write stuff for your characters, what determines whether you post in whatever Org you belong to or in the forum for the section of the world you are in? Should a BTer in Cairhien post in the BT or in Cairhien? (Just as an example... the same question could also apply to Aes Sedai, or Banders, or whatever Org or location.)

[Lenlo]

Is there a timeline or something similar for people who dont know the PSW's story to look at so they can catch up and stay up-to-date? I have mostly put off making a character because I dont know the story and dont want to write this whole character's history and find out that it was all for nothing because I didnt know that say the entirety of the Borderlands had been taken or something.

[Arath Faringal]

The RP staff has been working on a consolidated timeline for a while now, and it's almost ready for public use. It contains all of the major events of every division, and where they sit in relation to each other on our timeline. Until that is ready, most of the divisions maintain their own history which contains most of the information relevant to that specific div. Here is the BT history. It doesn't have dates, but all our events are in chonological order.

 

http://blacktowerdiv.wordpress.com/getting-started/tower-history/

 

Until the main timeline is released, the best thing to do is just ask questions. The RP staff are more than willing to help out.

 

Basel Gill, yes, that is correct. The majority of your RP's as an Asha'man will take place in the Farm board, but if you feel like travelling somewhere else your RP will take place in whichever board contains that location. To make things a little less cluttered, we divide the main continent up into four cardinal directions. The borderlands are North; Cairhien, Mayene, and Tear are East; Altara, Andor, Far Madding, Ghealdan, Illian are South; and pretty much everything else is West. Those four boards are clearly marked so it's easy to figure out where to write.

 

Sometimes an RP will take place in multiple locations, such as my characters trip to Arad Doman for chinese food. It started in the Tar Valon boards, but since it's only a single RP, we didn't carry it over to the West board. Other times, for larger RP's, you'll wrap up the thread in Tar Valon and start a new one in whatever board you Travelled to, like we did for the Battle of Shienar.