3. CHARACTERS
3.1 Creating a Player Character

DragonLands has a variety of strange, unusual, and creative characters. Don't consider any character concept off limits until you've proposed it to the world admins and they've rejected it (unless it involves some ability that is expressly forbidden by the FAQ/Worldguide, such as precognition or non-DL-telepathy).

First of all, the DragonLands is a developing world. The existing towns and guilds will be compiled in a constantly-updated list ("constantly" means when the Admins have time). Feel free to use one of those locations in your character's background, or create one yourself.

First, you have to come up with a character concept. A few good starting frameworks for your new character would be:

A) An existing dragonrider at a PC Warren
B) A transfer to a PC Warren from an NPC Warren
C) A Searchling recently brought to a PC Warren from the surrounding Landbound communities.
D) A member of the unjoined warrenfolk who is a candidate for joining.

Give some thought to the abilities and disadvantages your character will have. Since this isn't a hard-and-fast gaming system, you have leeway to create anything you think you can write about, without any class or point-system restrictions to keep all PCs equal. However, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea to create a powerful, flawless characters. Those characters aren't much fun to write, and they're no fun to write with. It's a good idea to give your character at least one serious disadvantage and a limit to his/her ablities. Players have been required to tone down their characters' special abilities if they are too powerful, so be forewarned.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

3.2 Guidelines:

Read the FAQ/Worldguide and abbreviated suggestions on the Venture pages *first*! This can't be stressed enough.

Remember that you are creating *2* characters, in effect: a Human and a Dragon. Usually the Human has the complicated history, but don't neglect information on your Dragon's appearance and personality. Dragons are important too :).

Don't spend a huge amount of time coming up with your Human's combat skills. Dragonriders don't spend a huge amount of time in man-to-man combat. Think of them as fighter pilots of another age.

Players are generally not permitted more than 2 "superpowers" per human-dragon pair. A superpower is an ability that is not natural to ordinary Humans or dragons. Usually, superpowers are magical/psionic abilities, but it can also be a flawless swordfighting skill or the like. Most superpowers come with a debilitating side-effect. If you have given your character (Human and Dragon equalling one "player character") more than 2 superpowers, you're probably going to need to rethink your idea.

Precognition is NOT allowed in any character in the game. Your character can have uncanny instincts or even a second sight that gives information about the present (so long as it's unreliable), but the ability to see the future restricts players in a free-form game such as this one to adhere to a structure of the future already provided.

There is only one type of telepathy in this world. Please read the World Guide for more information. Other varieties of telepathy, no matter how neat, are not going to be approved. Note: the bond between rider and dragon is *not* telepathy, so even non-telepathic humans have no difficulty communicating with their own dragon.

Only Dragons have magical abilities, but most intended magical abilities can be revamped into something psionic for the Human half of your PC.

Here's an example, to give you an idea of what to write:

NAME: Joe the Barbarian AGE: 25 GENDER: Male EYES: Close-set , brown. HAIR: Shoulder-length, scraggly HEIGHT: 6'7" WEIGHT: Heaven knows how heavy APPEARANCE: Perpetual unshaven stubble; Very powerful, muscular build; Intimidating. ABILITIES: Can crush large boulders, bend metal pipes, and frighten large animals by looking at them. The effect usually works on Humans, too, but Dragons don't particularly care. HISTORY: Joe was born on a farm outside of Ralengarde. When he showed at an early age that he had promise of being both horrendously strong and stupid, his proud parents sent him off to the Barbarian's Guild in hopes that he could make something of himself. He s tudied there with distinction, and was on the fast-track to becoming a Master Barbarian of Rock-Crunching. When he was 20, the unexpected happened. He visited Ralengarde and decided to stop by the Traveler's Rest tavern. There he met the woman of his dreams, Rita the Barmaid. He also found himself in a terrible barroom brawl with a dragonrider from Keldarra Warren, who was also interested in Rita's attention. At the end of the fight, Joe married Rita, and the dragonrider put himself together and invited them both to a Hatching at Keldarra. At that hatching, Joe met eyes with a phenominally large and stupid Dragon hatchling, and the most perfect match in the DragonLands was born. Joe became a dragonrider, and Rita quit her job to join him at Keldarra. They have lived there ever since. Joe's stone-crunching techniques have been especially useful in Warren apartment design. PERSONALITY: Joe is devoted to his wife Rita and his Dragon. He still isn't quite sure what to make of Warren society, especially since they insist that his marriage to Rita isn't legal, but won't tell him how to marry her legally. He is still stunningly stupid and horribly strong, even though he has now left the Guild. He tends to be a pushover, and the dragonfolk make good use of him. RACE: Dragon NAME: Bork AGE: 5 GENDER: Male COLOR: Chartreuse with flame-orange eyes. APPEARANCE: Very above average in size for a Dragon. Very big, toothy mouth. PERSONALITY: Bork is very large, strong, and stupid like his Human. He is always willing to help. He has discovered that he can't distinguish the ally from the enemy in combat, so he has become strongly pacifist.

Standing out:

Everyone wants their character to stand out, so they look for some character "hook" that will make them different than the other characters. Some suggestions and comments:

Some ideas have been overdone. Wild riders (a dragonrider joined to a wild dragon, instead of to one hatching in the warren) are quite common. Characters from the wastes or outside DL, who have spent much of their lives removed from and/or are unfamiliar with DL society, are common. Telepaths and empaths are fairly popular. While any of these can make interesting and unique characters if you have a character idea that incorporates one or more of these ideas, don't do them just to be different-- they've been done before.

There is no colour of dragon that hasn't been done someplace. You can either pick a color you like or check out the warren you will be going to and see what's more unusual there.

Many people write characters who are very, very attractive. This is, after all, an escapist pasttime. Being drop-dead gorgeous won't make your character unique. This doesn't mean that this type of character isn't fun to write, but it really isn't a good hook for being unique. Being ugly or scarred is much less common, for obvious reasons, but has been done here and there.

The awesome combat monster will be largely useless in a DL setting-- Dragonrider society is very peaceful and you can't swordfight from dragonback.

Neato-keen superpowers, impressive abilities and so on don't make for an interesting character in and of themselves. How the character feels about these abilities and how other characters react to them may be interesting.

The main way to stand out as a character is to make a *personality* you will enjoy writing, who has some interesting human foibles, and then write them. Do make sure it's someone you feel comfortable with and will enjoy writing. A character written by someone who enjoys bringing them to life is much more likely to stand out than one you're not sure about who has been designed out of some desire to be unique.

A final point to mention, always respect the other writers' storylines with their characters. Never kill, maim, make major life-changes (like having them become parents), or create backhistory for other people's characters -- PCs and NPCs (see below) -- without their permission. Likewise, do not start a romantic or sexual relationship with another player's character without permission. This includes not only long-term relationships, but also one-night stands, mating flights, seductions, and rapes. These are sensitive topics. Treat them with respect.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

3.3 Non-Player Characters

Non-Player Characters (NPCs)are created during role-playing, usually to fill a specific need within the unit. NPCs can be of two types. There are general NPCs that are free to be written by any player.

A Secondary Character, also referred to as a Protected Non-Player Character (P-NPC), is created by a player during role-playing with a specific role in mind. This character should be treated with respect when written by other players, in a similar fashion to PCs.

RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE

3.4 Guest Players/Characters and Villains

Guest Characters are characters that are PCs for a finite period of time. They are played by people who are not normally a part of that gaming unit. Guest Players are placed on the Warren mailing list, then removed when their character has run its course.

An example of a Guest Character might be one that is specific to a storyline: an example might be a traveling merchant who brought word of a strange kind of wraith attack that he witnessed, making him the chief source of information for a new mission. Once the mission is over, the merchant travels on.

The most common form of Guest Player Characters (or GPCs) is the villain. Villains are like any other kind of GPC, except that it is agreed that the villain will lose in the end. The player's permission is required to KILL a GPC villain, just as any other type of PC or secondary character. The player may choose for the villain to escape to plague someone else another day.

Even with the pacifist Dragon society described in the World Guide, it *is* possible to create a dragonrider villain (tho villains don't have to be dragonriders by any means). Use your imagination.

GPC bios must be submitted to the Admin and approved, just the same as regular PCs. The permission of the Warren Administrator is required for a GPC to enter play.