Greetings from... China

[Fabell]

Hi all. I found Mizahar the other day while looking for a fantasy RP forum using PbP format, and I'm glad I did. I guess this time I just typed the correct meta tags into Bing and found you guys, and I'm very excited.

I'm an English teacher (among other things) who has been living in China since around 2003 (originally from California). I did a lot of PbP back when I was in college and after, but after the community folded up as people started families and didn't have the time to post as much, we lost touch with each other.

I started back in the old Utopia forums, which then moved onto the Haven forums, which then evolved into the New Haven forums, which then transformed into a much more involved forum that seemed similar to what Mizahar is today, but then after that forum disappeared I had a hard time finding another community that was consistent as well as energetic about writing for fun (rather than writing for publication, or on the other end gaming without paying much attention to grammar and style).

As for myself, I'm one of those types - lots of novels in my head (and lots started on paper), but never disciplined enough yet to carry them through to the end. Not saying it won't happen in the future, just isn't a huge priority with family and work these days.

I've been having a fun time reading through some of the threads, and I've been quite impressed with the professionalism exhibited by some of the mods, as well as the passion that active members post with. I hope this will be a community I can invest in, while perhaps making some friends from abroad.

[Pluckett]

Hello!
It's always good to see someone new and excited to join, and you're right about our mods being very devoted and professional. Most of the regular players here are just as passionate in my experience, and the writing that many of them produce is downright incredible! Have you had any character ideas yet?
I'd suggest joining the Discord to get to know the community and be able to ask questions/get advice and all that, it's a fun chat and there's almost always someone online (there's a lot of timezones covered here) to talk to.

[Antipodes]

Welcome!

From the sounds of it, I have a feeling you'll do well here. We're all about sharing stories.. and seeing characters grow. You're excitement makes me excited and I very much look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I also second Pluckett - both in wanting to know if you have any concepts or ideas in mind and to encourage you to make use of our discord. It's a wonderful way to connect with out community and to get real-time answers and feedback If you're able to access it, the join link is here.

And, of course, if you have any questions or concerns at all then do feel free to ask <3

[Fabell]

Hello!
It's always good to see someone new and excited to join, and you're right about our mods being very devoted and professional. Most of the regular players here are just as passionate in my experience, and the writing that many of them produce is downright incredible! Have you had any character ideas yet?
I'd suggest joining the Discord to get to know the community and be able to ask questions/get advice and all that, it's a fun chat and there's almost always someone online (there's a lot of timezones covered here) to talk to.

I am beginning to form some ideas for a character. I want to stick with what I know at the beginning and move out from there. So I am going to make a musician (most likely) with some exotic tendencies. I like the idea of the Benshira mostly because they seem the most apt to be wanderers (being quite adept at traveling and making a home in extreme locations) while at the same time having a very interesting "return to home" experience, especially if you are Benshira but don't find yourself truly accepted in your home society (something that fits closely to my own personal situation). So it would be quite easy to write this.

At the moment, as I don't know the intricacies of how Benshira society works though, I need to keep reading what I can to get a better grasp. How would they handle a Benshira who leaves their society? Would he be accepted back with open arms when he returns to visit? Is it common for Benshira to have "outcast" types? Would a typical Benshira lean more towards divergent viewpoints or traditional viewpoints, and how extreme would either of those divergences go?

I also have some ideas for combat-related stuff, but I don't know how deeply combat actually goes in Mizahar. I don't want an overly strong character, but I do want an overly unique one, so I am trying to think of creative solutions to that which would allow me some levity in imaginative writing while at the same time staying rooted to the pure character drives of a character (rather than relying on tropes as a vehicle to gain power, as in most fantasy fiction).

Sadly, I can't use Discord (I am in China, and the government here disallows the use of Discord) so I am hoping that won't disadvantage me too much. It would be a huge handicap if most of the character building sessions and relevant discussions were happening on a banned site I didn't have access to. I have done workarounds before for this kind of thing, but since I would primarily be using Mizahar in my lunchbreak and off-hours in my office (which is a highly monitored government office) I wouldn't be allowed to install VPNs in order to access Discord for most of my activity in the forum.

Welcome!

From the sounds of it, I have a feeling you'll do well here. We're all about sharing stories.. and seeing characters grow. You're excitement makes me excited and I very much look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I also second Pluckett - both in wanting to know if you have any concepts or ideas in mind and to encourage you to make use of our discord. It's a wonderful way to connect with out community and to get real-time answers and feedback If you're able to access it, the join link is ---------------.

And, of course, if you have any questions or concerns at all then do feel free to ask <3

Are there any guides on the forum about how to do the fancy borders you (and others) use? I've been doing PbP a long time, but I have never seen anything quite like that. It looks fascinating but can't for the life of me (I'm almost 40) figure out how to pull up those kinds of fancy BB-codes. I'm hoping I don't need to be a code monkey to master it, because I'm all toes when it comes to that sort of thing.

I also don't appear to be able to post URLs (even if I quoted you when doing it). Is this something that I am able to do later once my post count goes up?

[Antipodes]

Alrighty, let me do my best to address what I can

Firstly, you won't be able to post urls until you've hit ten posts. It's an anti-spam measure and the best workaround is posting your Character Sheet and breaking it into multiple sections/posts.

As for coding, there are premade Character Sheet templates here as well as the odd freebie posting template in this thread (alternatively, you may also use that thread to make template requests). If you'd rather try your hand at making your own codes, there is a BBCode primer here that is a great guide.

Benshira is a great race for a musically-inclined character (and it's Benshira, not Benshiran, but no stress!) They've recently been rewritten and I believe the information you are after should be within the race lore page. I want to say that how a returning member is received would be based mostly on the beliefs of the departed's family as the race, as a whole, has a mix of those who are more forgiving and those who are more traditional. It would be your call.

Benshira 'outcasts' seem to be what are called 'Tiach' - but those are individuals who have been enslaved for crimes committed. I'm not sure if Tiach would cover other sorts of 'disowned' Benshira -- as they are stripped of their status -- so this could be a good question to ask in the Questions & Answers thread

A small note regarding the potential for return: Ekytol is currently closed for play and slowly being redeveloped. You will not be able to write there as a result. Please keep this in mind if that is something you are heavily relying upon as you will need to alter your concept. Writing may not happen in closed cities at this time; we prefer rp to occur in cities that are open and have moderation, that way STs aren't overwhelmed or stretched thin and players get attention they deserve.

In regards to combat and a character's 'strength', I ask that you please familiarise yourself with the game mechanics we use. Each character starts out with a set number of points to be spread across whatever starting skills you choose... however, there are limitations and no starting character will ever be particularly adept. Everyone starts out green and has to build their PC through writing and gaining points and knowledges along the way. Your welcome PM should cover character creation as well as game mechanics.

Combat is a big part of Mizahar. We welcome it. We also have a resolve system and dice guide to keep things realistic and help keep things fair. You can find both by using the search function in the wiki.

I had a feeling that you might not be able to access discord due to your location. This is not a make or break thing but you will, unfortunately, miss out on a lot of community chat. We do word challenges (see who writes the most in a set time frame) and talks plots and toss questions around there but it isn't mandatory to join - just a definite bonus. You can still utilise the ooc forums in your city to interact with others and plot as well as PM.

[Solstice]

Welcome Fabell! I love your character idea! Have you read about gnosises yet? You might be interested in looking into Bards. Their writeup is here. Since you mentioned musicians I thought that might catch your interest. You'll also want to start looking into open cities to decide where you're going to play. Currently Lhavit, Wind Reach, Syka, Ravok, Sunberth, and Zeltiva are open, and Syliras is expected to open next season (in December). Sunberth and Zeltiva are without moderators, so receiving help in those cities may take longer than with cities with dedicated moderators. You may want to keep that in mind. Welcome, and let us know if you've got any more questions!

[Fabell]

Welcome Fabell! I love your character idea! Have you read about gnosises yet? You might be interested in looking into Bards. Their writeup is here. Since you mentioned musicians I thought that might catch your interest. You'll also want to start looking into open cities to decide where you're going to play. Currently Lhavit, Wind Reach, Syka, Ravok, Sunberth, and Zeltiva are open, and Syliras is expected to open next season (in December). Sunberth and Zeltiva are without moderators, so receiving help in those cities may take longer than with cities with dedicated moderators. You may want to keep that in mind. Welcome, and let us know if you've got any more questions!

That... is such an interesting way to think of bards! I love it!

I don't want my character to start with any kind of "super powers" (as they seem to operate). I'd rather start by just telling a really human story, and see where it goes from there. But wow, the idea of someday achieving a gnosis from Rhaus and actually becoming a bard...

As a character goal or hope, it's incredibly exciting.