Are you new? Don't know what to do? Read me!

by **Indigo** on May 10th, 2012, 9:19 pm

On the upper left hand corner is a messaging system. You get your first explanatory PM right away to answer all your questions and help you. Please don't disregard the PM as it is crucial to understanding how this forum works.
Every single person on the forum gets the same PM in their PM inbox. It explains all you need to know to get started right. I have copy pasted it here, just for you to read. Please just read it:

Hello New Player,

and welcome to Mizahar! This PM is a short guide to starting out in our community. All the information here (and much much more) can also be found in the Mizahar Lore. Since the Lore is so big, however, this PM is a good starting point for new players.

The first rule is: don't panic! There is a learning curve, but also plenty of help along the way.

Are you new to forum roleplaying? Click the button! :

You picked a name and a race for your character when you registered. You can change your name at any time, and your race until you start playing. Remember that some names are forbidden: those taken from books, TV shows, movies, etc. ("Harry Potter"), as well as names of real-life personalities ("Benjamin Franklin") and real-life religious figures ("Buddha"). Mizahar is not Earth, and we are strictly original.

Editing your name and profile :

This is a good time to start reading up on the Lore. How much information do you need? Well, you need at least enough to create a convincing character. The Starting guide is your friend here, and we recommend that you read it very carefully. It contains everything you need to set up a character, post a character sheet and start playing. Most of it involves coming up with an idea for your PC and then choosing a Starting package - his or her starting skills, knowledge and possessions.

Some things to remember when you create a background for your character.

Mizahar is a fantasy world that was almost totally destroyed 500 years ago by a cataclysm called the Valterrian.
It is a very dangerous world. The world population is merely 250,000. People cling together within a small number of fortified settlements. Traveling is hazardous. Strange monsters roam the lands. Imagine spending weeks without any trace of civilization around you - except the occasional slaver caravan!
Most fantasy cliches do not exist, including elves, dwarves, orcs, vampires, werewolves and demons. Mizahar has a very different feel from your average D&D-like world. You can play those everywhere. Here you can experience something different.
There are no 'nations' in modern Mizahar, only cities with some control over their immediate surroundings. Syliras is the largest city and the closest to civilization you will find on the continent.

What if you get stuck on your character concept? Your best bet is to ask the community! You can post in the Introductions forum to introduce yourself and ask questions while you're at it. Also, the Q&A exists for this. The fastest way to get answers is Chat. We pride ourselves on being a friendly and mature community, and chances are you will find someone with the answer.

You do not need anyone's approval to start playing. This is a firm belief of ours. However, if your character is not appropriate ("girl with a machine-gun") a staff member will post in your character sheet and ask you to edit before you can continue playing.

Want to see more useful links? :

Mizahar exists for the pleasure of its players and staff, so without new folks joining our community, we cannot grow and thrive. So please be reassured you are welcome here. Do not worry if you are new to roleplay or to our site's form of roleplay because there are people everywhere on the site willing to help you. Just remember, we work to maintain a friendly open community that strives to integrate creative writing with roleplay. So far, this is working well for us. We hope it works as well for you.

Sincerely,

The Founders

I will bump this occasionally to keep it fresh.

by **Indigo** on May 12th, 2012, 4:54 pm

-Installment one- Names!

All of the information in your starter PM is essential, but I'll go over the most urgent and sometimes trickiest of them to get you going more quickly. Let's go over this together shall we? First link we see is in unmistakable orange. It looks like a lot on there but there's so many links to help you when you to go through the page. I'll bold them here so you can run and see those subject on the true page right away. Go ahead and click on it with me because it's important to look at:

Mizahar Lore

Mizahar
A Geographical View Of Mizahar.

This page is the entry point to Mizahar's lore, a wealth of information on the setting as well as the nature and structure of the website.
Contents
[hide]

1 General information
1.1 What is Mizahar?
1.2 What kind of fantasy do you write here?
1.3 What is the storyline like?
1.4 How do I start a character?
1.5 How much do I need to know?
2 Browsing the Lore
3 Contributing to Mizahar

General information
What is Mizahar?

Mizahar is a dedicated, friendly, free community where we write stories set in our original fantasy world. It is an open-ended roleplaying game, a writing environment, and a place for creative minds to hang out together. The general concept is that you make a character and write about him or her by posting in a forum. Other characters or moderators will respond to your posts, thus progressing the story (Collaborative storytelling).

There is room for the entire spectrum of writers and roleplayers in our community. Some people write to see their characters become stronger. Others love the story itself, the feeling that nobody knows where it's going next. Some hone their writing skills, yet others want to develop the world. You decide what you want out of the Mizahar experience.
What kind of fantasy do you write here?

Original fantasy, meaning fantasy that does not borrow from Tolkien. No Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits and Orcs. No emo vampires or other overdone themes. See Theme and Creative Manifesto for more.
What is the storyline like?

There is no single storyline in Mizahar, though some story arcs are more overarching than others. All fiction here takes place in an open-ended world detailed in this wiki. Mizahar is the name given to a continent on the northern hemisphere of a planet orbiting a single sun. This continent was once the home of a vast and advanced civilization. An endless war between two great empires led to divine cataclysm known as the Valterrian that reshaped the continent and killed most of the inhabitants.

Now, some five centuries afterward, Mizahar is at a pivotal point. In the city of Syliras, a group of knights seeking to restore order to the world have made their headquarters -- but they are not the only ones with an agenda. A dizzying range of peoples, tribes, and organizations also seek to make their mark, from the savage Myrian warriors to the anarchists of Sunberth, the wandering tribes of Eyktol, and the undead wizards of Sahova, as well as many, many others. All have competing goals, philosophies, religions -- and opportunities.
How do I start a character?

It's easy, but if you are totally new, we suggest that you read the Starting Guide. There is also a Questions and Answers forum where you can have your doubts resolved. You will need to register an account first. Remember that your account name is your character's name.
How much do I need to know?

Mizahar's lore can look daunting at first, but you do not need to be familiar with the vast majority of it. However, there are a few quick points that will better help you understand the world and figure out if Mizahar is the place for you. These can be found in the Things You Need To Know section.
Browsing the Lore

Mizahar's Lore uses the same wiki software that powers Wikipedia. There is no right way to browse it, though there are some important articles you may want to peruse first.
Out-of-character resources

Starting Guide
Skill Guide
Starting packages
Rules
Chat Rules
Character sheets
Definitions and Terminology
Terms of Use
Creative Manifesto
Help Desk
Theme
Storytellers
Maps
Storyteller Guide
BBC Code Guide

In-character resources

Geography
Magic
Gnosis
Magic list
Money
Monsters
Races
Religion
Skills
City list
Price list
Calendar
Factions
Timestamping
Map of The Cities of Mizahar

You can also get lists of articles sorted by number of views, length, creation date or just alphabetical order. Finally, you have access to the list of all categories.
Contributing to Mizahar

There are three main ways to contribute to the game world of Mizahar, and of course, dozens of secondary ways of lending a hand. People can be helpful just by offering a new player some advice or answering a question in the Question and Answer Forum. But to get the best of the Mizaharian Experience, contributing surpasses all else.

First and foremost anyone who helps in the collaborative storytelling process is a considered a valuable contributor to Mizahar. If you create a character and contribute by roleplaying in an interactive way with others, you are donating your time and energy towards the overall fun of the group (even if you are evil!). As you promote and advance your character's stories, you will help others promote and advance their characters stories. Each character adds depth and color to the game, adding a wealth of diversity and dimension.

Secondly, new world development is always welcome. Elaborate on a Mizaharian Concept by adding a new skill, lore, or helping to develop a faction, or flesh out a city or other domain. The wiki section of Mizahar is a vast growing resource that depends on contributions to keep its organic nature diverse and growing. We have elaborate development sections (religion, geography, race, skills, etc) within the Forums which are always open for discussion. So, feel free to start a discussion in one of the Development Forums and ask the collective group what they think!

Mizahar is also a haven for writers, musicians, and artists. Please feel free to post up your work - anything from a chapter in a novel you are working on, to a poem, to a piece of artwork and request some feedback even if it is just a work in progress. Because we are a community, Mizahar also hosts periodic (usually once a season) contests in various genres. Some of these will be related directly to the Mizahar game, others will be simply 'In honor of Valentines Day, submit a poem!' type situations. Winners will be awarded medals showcasing their award and their work will be displayed in special galleries or threads designed only for Contest Winners.

Within Mizahar's pages, people are encouraged to participate however they feel comfortable and as often as they like. Feel free to suggest, at any time, other ways we can draw the community closer together and enrich the Mizaharian Experience for all.

So this thread is a helpful add on so you can explore what you want, to 'get to the point' that most players are ready to jump into-Role playing! You still have up the wiki page right? No? Go back and put it up again. Ok. When we hop on here the first time, we wanna jump in and rp don't we? Well hold on there a sec and hear me out!

If you don't understand the guidelines for RP here, it could be a sad, miserable and/or frustrating time in trying to start your very first character. We'd like to save you from that ugly experience get you going on the right foot, yes?

The 1st thing encountered is names--purely standard character names with no titles please! We really get into our RP so we start out with our Personal Character names. So no '22_bunnyhop_4eva' or things like that, ok?

I see hands up over there-you-yes you--you started an account with 'LordVampireSlayer' and now you know it's not for this site? Don't panic--go to your user control panel and you can 'change account name' to something more appropriate. See? It's fine. We've got it covered.

There's a lot in this welcome PM, but I'll go through it with you so don't worry. I'll add more and more as we go through it--together. If you have a question about this welcome PM found in your inbox(and right here) then speak up and I'll help you out.

Good luck on your Miza Adventures,
Indigo

P.S. Thanks to DS Fallacy for suggesting a walk through like this! Brilliant!

by **Fallacy** on May 12th, 2012, 7:22 pm

-Installment 1.1: Changing Names-

Hello there,

I am Fallacy and Im going to be helping out with this little project by clarifying some points brought up in each additional post.

Changing names. Yes, it can be confusing, but it is essensial to know how to do it, especially when you are just starting out and made a boo boo by creating an invalid username. Most people you ask will tell you that to change your username you have to go to the user control panel. As a once newbie myself, I didnt find this nearly helpful. So Im going to outline the process below in simple, easy to follow steps.

First, you want to go to your User Control Panel. It is located on the very far left hand corner of the screen, right below the Mizahar banner and right above the main forums/page you are looking at. Click on it.
Second, you will see a new page pop up. This is your User Control Panel. If you take some time to look it over you will see a bunch of tabs on the very top of your personal panel. You want to click on the tab called "Profile"
After you have clicked on that you will see a bunch of fields presented to you. Things for like your AIM address, Website, Location, Interests, birthday, ect. We are not interested in any of that. Look at the little box to the far left hand corner of the screen. It should have options like "Edit Profile", "Edit Signature", "Edit Avatar", and "Edit Account Settings". Once you find that, you need to click on "Edit Account Settings".
Once clicked it will bring you to a page where you can edit your username, email, and even change your password. For the purpose of changing your username all you have to do is click in the "Username" Field and change your name to the desired name according to naming rules*.
Now you have your named changed, you have to confirm the change by going down to the very last text field called "Current Password" and type in your current password. Once that is done you click submit and your name has been changed (assuming you typed in your password correctly).**

I will add step by step pictures too so we all can be on the same page!

Now that we have done that, changed your name, I would advise all new players to look around and play with the user control panel. Click on things and go crazy. Exploring is a great way to figure out the layout of the site, and really doing this on your own work now and just having fun figuring out the technical aspects of the site will help you out in the long run.

* Please be aware and read the rules thoroughly. Also be aware of the Terms and Conditions.
** For your username to change in chat you must completely log out of the site and log back in.

Cool Links :

That is all for now,

Fallacy

by **Indigo** on May 14th, 2012, 3:35 pm

nudge