Starting Guide

Forum Roleplay

Antarok is a forum roleplaying game - a Forum RPG - where stories are facilitated over forum threads using a character sheet (CS) to represent your character, who they are, and what they can do. This is somewhat analogous to tabletop roleplaying games, but without dice. The game is freeform; you come up with goals based on what your character would want, and write about them with respect to the setting of Antarok and its lore.

It's encouraged that authors write in third person, but first and second person are allowed.

Character Sheet

Character Sheets are posted in the Character Sheet forum using a template from that forum.

All characters begin with 300 XP, 1000 Gold.

• XP is spent on Merits or obtaining Skills and Arcana.
• Gold is earned through Careers and spent on the Price List.
• Characters may speak any languages they have a good reason to be fluent with.

 Rebirth: You may apply to use some of your earned XP from other similar Forum RPGs. See Rebirth.

Thread Types

Prefixed to a thread may be one or more tags. These prefix tags indicate what type of thread it is, and the author should do their best to properly tag their threads.

Solo

A story written by oneself. Minimum 450 words total to submit for review and earn XP from them. On Antarok, there is no pressure to collaborate with others, and you may write by yourself for as long as you wish.

Collaborative

A story written with others. Each participant must write a minimum of one post, the minimum word count being 150 words per post. They must each reach 450 words total to earn XP. Threads in roleplay boards without the Solo or OOC tags are assumed to be collaborative.

Open

A story where anyone with a character nearby can join, without prior permission. Take care to read the thread and contribute to the overall plot instead of derailing it. A thread without the Open or PM to Join tags is assumed to be 'closed' to new characters the author hasn't invited.

PM to Join

A story where anyone with a character nearby can PM (Private Message) the person who made the thread and ask permission to join.

Memories

Memories are stories taking place before the current season, marked with the Memory prefix. They allow characters to play in differing periods within their lives, sometimes in other locations they’ve been to prior. Memories do not allow for the gain of material possessions, and care should be taken not to violate the causality of the timeline.

Dream

A story taking place in a character’s dreams, marked with the Dream prefix. Anything within the character’s imagination can be explored without consequence, but memories of these events are fuzzy without lucid dreaming. See Sopor.

Non-Canon

A story that never happened, marked with the Non-Canon prefix. While XP can be earned from these, they are not considered valid canon and cannot be referenced in-character. Some stories with poor lore or causality interpretation may be declared so until specific changes are made. These should still be in some way related to Antarok, whether it’s Antarok with Sci-Fi elements or something more subtle like playing from the point of view of a historic figure. If it’s completely unrelated to Antarok, it cannot be reviewed for XP.

Mature

A story with mature themes, marked with [M]. Mature content refers to excess violence or blood, horror, vulgar language, or tasteful adult material. This does not refer to 18+ content such as smut or gore which have their own private board covered placeholder:here.

Job

Job threads have to do with earning seasonal wages from a career. They pertain to some aspect or complication of your job. See Careers.

Limited Metagaming

Characters on Antarok operate on liquid time with an assumed level of understanding for their skills and the world they live in. They may have heard about the public aspects of another character’s exploits prior to meeting them, and they might know a good deal about the local gossip in town and its establishments. A character will also be able to talk at length about their skills, recent activities, and occupation in a manner that makes sense for their level of understanding without having formed those theories or experiences in-character. They might even know a few basic words from a language they are not fluent in, else assume they are fluent if they've lived or traveled with those who speak the language for long enough.

Limited Metaging does not grant someone the license to know everything about another character or a skill they have no experience in. Use discretion, and ask for a second opinion if you aren’t sure.

💭 Coming from tabletop, is there another way to understand this?

It's a lot like passing a skill check from tabletop, except everyone you're writing with is simultaneously the DM and the player, and reason is used rather than dice - remember to make mistakes, they make characters more interesting!

Power Play

It’s always your choice whether you will accept an outcome in the story. Nobody can force you to accept an action, and the thread can be reviewed as non-canon - for you - after a certain post if you wish to say, play out a theoretical situation where your player character has died or avoid unwanted consequences while still preserving some of the story. With that in mind, we do not care if someone grinds experience, connives ‘powerful’ characters, et cetera so long as it is done fairly without clear exploitation. The only permissions that must be sought are for plots which would severely influence established locales authored by others, and entire regions.

The Unreliable Narrator

In the event you write something that does not match the lore, perspective of another character, or the timeline, you are considered to be operating as an unreliable narrator, meaning the story as written is not considered entirely factual as to what really happened. This is perfectly fine.

• If you write the wrong dates and times, your skill or magic use is somewhat incorrect, you've given the wrong name to something, or you've portrayed an NPC personality incorrectly, you are assumed to have used these correctly as if you had written them in line with the referenced material, even if they were not written so in your story.

• If you must remind someone about lore accuracy, please quote the article directly to avoid confusing matters.

• Everyone writing on Antarok should strive to understand its lore and systems, but we recognize that it's simply not feasible to ask this of someone new to the setting and Forum RPGs in general. This is an environment that caters to all above the age of sixteen, not just grizzled writing veterans.

Time Causality Breaches

Allowing some degree of real-time flexibility will inevitably lead to a breach in causality of the timeline. There may be a scenario where two characters never should have met because one came up short on their travel time. When this happens, space and time themselves are considered to be unreliable, but those two characters have still met - somehow.

• A Lorekeeper may intervene if this causality breach was in excess of a few days, as characters should not be able to teleport without magic or be in two locations simultaneously. In this scenario the Lorekeeper might offer a solution, such as rendering part of the thread non-canon for the one who is breaking causality or else offering to deduct an Exodii fee for their teleportation if it makes sense for the region they came from.