[Discussion] What was your process when joining Mizahar?

[Jorin Ertihan]

So this is just sort of a corollary to Gossamer's Why Are You Here thread. But rather than asking why you are here, I wanted to know what peoples' process was when they joined. This is both to get an idea how new players get generally introduced to our family, and also to show the new players that yes, even our veterans started out much like they did!

So I would like to pose a series of questions, and I hope both veterans and newbies alike would answer them!

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet?

2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else?

3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city?

4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them?

5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them?

I hope that the answers to these questions will give everyone a great insight into how to get introduced. As for my own story:

1. I lurked for nearly a month, reading up as much lore as i could, and reading threads from as much as I can.

2. I didn't post my character sheet because I was intimidated. I was worried I'd get it wrong, and that the admins would come down on my poor newbish head like a ton of bricks. As it turned out, the CS was, while a lengthy and demanding process, not a difficult one, and what I'd been so afraid of turned out to be nothing at all.

3. I chose to start my Mizahar career in Sunberth, because I always liked the idea of a violent, aggressive city where anything could happen, and what would happen if you plopped a smart, canny, but physically unimposing man in the middle of that. I wanted to see if I could survive on my wits alone, or whether Sunberth would chew me up and spit me out.

4. About a week. For the initial week, I was not able to find anyone to RP with, until finally another player came along. Sunberth at the time wasn't very active, so I ended up private-messaging a bunch of people asking if they were interested in starting an RP. Finally, someone agreed, and the rest was history.

5. No, unfortunately, I had to play a lot of it by ear. I made a lot of mistakes that first week, but I learned to correct them! Finally, I discovered chat, and I realized the people there were helpful and friendly!

So that's my story. I hope to hear yours!

[Rathe]

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet?

Mizahar is my first real attempt at RP. I lurked for ages, sweating over my keyboard, terrified to join. I can't even begin to imagine how long I spent doing that. lol

2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else?

Never. Ever. RP'd before. And I mean ever. Also, everyone here is an intimidatingly good writer, which is why I really wanted to join in the first place. I wanted/still reaaaaaaally want to be a good writer. The people here challenge me and force me to dig deeper and try harder. Plus practicing every day helps tons.

3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city?

Wind Reach for the win! Those fiery red-heads are something else.

4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them?

A couple of days maybe? Once I got here, I was anxious to get started and lose my cherry already. Once I was ready, there was a steady stream of partners, but my poor little Alyeah's life was a short-lived one. I loved her concept, but she wasn't the right fit for me.

5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them?

Everyone was incredibly friendly and encouraging to me, but Phoenix and Gossamer were especially welcoming and helped me more than you can imagine. And they continue to be beyond helpful in all of my adventures to this day!

These were great questions. I can't wait to see everyone else's response.

[Khida]

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet? It took me two days from deciding 'this is my character' to getting her entire sheet posted. I spent probably a good part of a week reading the lore before that. 2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else? Time, inasmuch as anything. I've written much more involved CS-equivalents than these, so I found that the least worrisome part of starting. 3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city? I originally planned on Ahnatep, because the desert environment appealed to me. Also, Khida's prior incarnation on another game had been Egypt-born, so it seemed very fitting to put her there. But, see #4 below, I was very slow to post there and ultimately diverted her to starting in the Sea of Grass. 4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them? That part's what slowed me down... it took about six weeks. Four weeks of hesitation, between being new to Miz and to forum-style RP both, then two weeks of plotting and 'let's wait for season change, it's so close'. Finding an RP partner wasn't hard; bucking the strange-environment social anxiety was. I hadn't found Chat yet, which would have helped! 5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them? I had no real help getting started with my character, just with getting into RP, and that came about when I responded to a matchmaking thread.

[Alea Davenport]

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet? As long as it took me to read the rules and write up a CS. So... about 2-5 hours. (Or maybe it was 2-3 hours to post a CS and 5 to post my first thread? I don't really remember.) It probably helped that I didn't worry too hard about having a detailed character history. Really, just pretend your childhood was "normal" for whatever race you are, and your history doesn't have to be that long 2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else? Nothing really. Like I said, I found the site and had a CS up within a couple hours. By the time I finally went hunting for a role-playing site, I was pretty desperate for a fantasy world. 3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city? Avanthal. So, my clever strategy for joining Mizahar was to create a PC who knew almost as little about Mizahar as I did, to cleverly minimize the amount of Lore I would have to read at once. That way she and I could learn about the world together! So I picked Denval for her birthplace (since it still existed back then), because it was secluded and had only just started having contact with the outside world. But I wanted her to basically see the whole world eventually, so I had a choice of going to either Wind Reach or Avanthal first. I forget what my exact criteria were for choosing Avanthal, but I did, and the rest is history. 4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them? I think I had at least 3 threads going in my first weekend, and I even finished one, because I remember being anxious and impatient for grades in the first week. I think my first attempt at finding an RP partner was from looking through the city's character registry/matchmaking thread and PMing someone from there. Only after that did I notice the big friendly "CHAT" button at the top of the screen, so I jumped in chat and made friends. That was where I figured out you're allowed to have more than one thread at a time. 5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them? The people who helped me get started I definitely met in chat. The best ways to get threads are first to ask people in chat, and then if that doesn't work, PM someone in your city whose CS makes you think they'd be fun to roleplay with. The first person I started a thread with was a polar bear cub kelvic named Bijou, who might be better known on the site as the Symenestra Shai. But within a day, I'd also made some other friends (mostly kelvic), one of whom was Yuros, who later became Mirage (that's right, I knew him BEFORE he was an ST!). Yuros ended up as my bondmate for a while, so if anyone helped me get started it was probably him, but really, I mostly got myself started, just by going out and relentlessly hunting for threads from anyone I could find in Avanthal.

[Tsaba]

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet?
Probably about a month. I wanted to make sure I understood the Lore related to Tsaba thoroughly, and besides, I wasn't entirely certain how to get started or where to put her. By the time I was ready, it was near the end of a season, and seemed neater to wait for the next one.

2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else?
Nothing prevented me, beyond not really being sure what the protocol for starting was. I just really enjoy character creation and took my time with it.

3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city?
Zeltiva, mostly because it had the University and seemed to pose very low prejudie-related danger to a Nuit. That it was easily reached from Sahova (good for backstory-related reasons) was a nice bonus.

4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them?
I just PMed people. It was fairly easy.

5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them?
No, not really, but chat was an excellent resource fo answering questions I couldn't find in the Lore.

[Eadon]

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet?

Probably about 2 or 3 hours. Just long enough to read through all of the lore I could get my hands on, and then write up a respectably in-depth character with a history and concept to fit into the world. I never have been one for long periods of lurking...

2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else?

Nothing. I got straight into it. Then again, I am not the type to delay in joining something if it interests me.

3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city?

Wind Reach. I guess I chose it because the lore appealed to me - I have always been a fan of eagle rider concepts, and the eagle rider concept for Wind reach was really cool.

4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them?

A couple of days. Finding someone to RP with was a little tricky, but on the same token I was being a bit impatient. I hate waiting around to find a person to thread with once i have a character all written up and ready to go. I wanted to sink my teeth into things, as the saying goes.

5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them?

Not really. The chatbox was a useful sounding board for some of my character concepts, though. They gave me some useful feedback on whether or not my characters development in his history was believable or not, and some other ideas for things I could incorporate. Also Harrier. She got me hooked up with a storyteller secrets/job allocation and gave me some cool RP ideas.

[Wanda Endust]

1. How long did you 'lurk' before posting your first Character Sheet?
   
   Ah, probably around 15-ish days or so before I decided to make Wanda.
   
   
2. What was preventing you from doing it? Fear? Anxiety? Not enough time? Something else?
   
   I was never anxious about submitting my CS -- it kinda took the easy road by making a straightforward, average-person kind of character! But I just wanted to make sure I knew everything I wanted to know before I took the big plunge. I needed to feel out my PC, to make her come alive in my mind before I bothered starting. I actually made a previous PC about two weeks before this one -- he got all the kinks out of my system. I wasn't able to finish creating him because I couldn't shake the outline of Wanda from my mind.
   
   
3. When you posted your first character sheet, which city did you choose to begin your Role Playing in? Why that city?
   
   I chose Syliras because it just seemed to fit with my PC. When I picture the city in my mind, it's all golden and bustling -- the perfect place for an extroverted, optimistic, naive gal. The subtle oppression just pulls it all together.
   
   
4. How long did you wait for your first RP experience? Was it difficult to find RP partners? How did you find them?
   
   I didn't wait that long, maybe a day or two after my CS got the go-ahead. It wasn't too difficult to find folks to rp with! I just responded to a couple posts in the Introductions, set up some scenarios, and got crackin'! Chat really helped too.
   
   
5. Did anyone help you get started? If so, how did you come across them?
   
   Haha, everybody in Chat! The Liaisons were also so supportive. Really, everybody's so great, it would be too difficult to list all the awesome folks. Specifically, all the people I've RPed with have really helped me get goin', so a big thanks to all of them! Ah, guess that not really specific. But y'know.
   
   Anyhow, these were really great questions, and I hope that any new players find encouragement from them!