[Kitten4u Only With A Long Name]

Welcome to Beyond!

This thread will guide you through the basics of the site to figure out whether it's a good fit for you. This section will go over the basics of the site and talk about the threads that are important to read to see if the site is something you'd be interested in. From there, it'll walk through character creation to make that as easy to understand as possible. If you've already decided to join and want to skip to that part, skip to the section called "Character Creation."

Beyond is a modern fantasy RP with a heavy exploration element. The city the RP is set in has roughly the same tech level as the western world. Unlike the real world though, there are a couple of dangerous areas to explore. Magic exists, but it's weak in humans and getting the ability to use magic causes mutations in humans. It helps them fight the monsters in the areas outside the city, but the monsters are stronger than the average human, so they have to work together to fight them and explore. Outside the exploration, characters are free to roam the city and make connections there, so the game also has a slice of life element. The feeling is intended to be somewhat similar to that of the later games in the Persona series, where half the game is fighting and half the game is making friends. To get a better understanding of the setting, read these threads:

Plot and Setting
Magic
Organizations

As a community, there are a few expectations. The big one is to treat everyone and their characters well. Don't be a jerk OOCly, don't try to pressure people into plots they don't want to do, and don't try to make their characters do things. Basic roleplay etiquette is all we're worried about, so don't worry too much about stepping on peoples' toes. We're pretty laid back. If your worried something might be controlling someone's character a little or that they may not like it, talk to them about it before posting. Communication is key and will lead to better experiences for everyone. Read through the Rules for these expectations.

Besides those, it's useful to keep in mind some minor things to make the RP experience more pleasant for everyone. Even though this is in the rules I like to emphasize this one: make sure in threads with more than 3 people you have some kind of post order. The purpose of this isn't to have some kind of strict way people need to post that can never be broken, it's to be polite to slower posters and not leave them behind. It can be difficult to get back into a thread if people have been going back and forth for a page without letting the other character do something. Similarly, if the OP of an open thread has already responded back to someone that joined their open thread, ask both players before jumping into the open thread yourself. Sometimes there might already be something happening and they don't want more people involved, or it may be awkward to get another person to join. Further, it can make the post order difficult to follow leaving people confused on to whose turn it is to post. Again, don't be afraid to talk to people! It make the experience better.

In terms of community, Beyond has no word count or the like, but that's because it's nice not to have to worry about the number of words posted and that some posts just require less words. Beyond allows one liners and will not reprimand people for posting them. That said, it's important to note that Beyond is not intended to be a rapid-fire site. People who are interested in rapid firiing with someone are free to, but it's not the norm in the community. Most people post at least multiple times a week, but posting in every thread multiple times a day is less common. We also understand that life happens so there are no strict activity requirements. Periodically, there will be an activity check to free up claims, but the only thing you have to do to meet that is say hello. You don't have to prove that you're posting if you're busy, you just have to let the staff know that you're still interested in the site.

Beyond has a simple system for dungeon crawling. You can find the rules for it in this thread. Don't be daunted by the length. A lot of it is flavor text to contextualize the rules to hopefully make it easier to understand. Actual exploration is pretty straight-forward. That said, if you really don't like systems and don't want to deal with them, this site may not be for you. The system is tied heavily into overall site progression (not individual plots necessarily) and is required for character creation. Its purpose is to keep everyone on the same page and make it so exploring has actual agreed upon fail states. It helps keep everyone on their toes and can even cause unexpected events to happen. It's not meant to restrict creativity in any way, and people can still explore the areas without using the system if you have a specific plot you want to do. Those threads just won't contribute to the mechanical aspects that help push the site-wide plot forward.

If you have any questions about anything don't hesitate to contact a staff member or say hello in the chatbox!

Staff

Currently, Beyond only has one staff member and that is Kitten4u Only With A Long Name . She is basically always at the computer and works from home, so she has way too much time on her hands and will typically be around to help when you need it. Sometimes she does sleep though, so she won't be around 24/7. If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to contact her. As a note, she has a straight-forward way of talking that some people mistake for irritation. That's not what's happening, she's just answering the question and often does it in very few words. Her personality is very straight-forward and honest as well, so if you have to wonder if she's irritated at you she almost certainly is not.

Character Creation

So you've decided to make a character? Great! Make sure you read everything in the required reads section before doing so. It'll make creation go a lot more smoothly. The threads are posted in order for recommended reading, and are also listed in order in the table at the top if you want to go directly to the threads. Beyond also has a great deal of optional setting information to read, which can be found here. It's a lot to read through, so while it's recommended to read all of it, it is not required. A lot of the things may not be relevant to most characters, but if you see a topic that may be relevant to your character then consider taking a look at it. For example, if you want to make a student, it might be worth reading the section about schooling. If you want to make a police officer, it might be worth reading the one about law enforcement. Here's a quick list of the threads and the topics that can be found in them:

Growing Up

• Conception (covers courting, birth control options, adoption and orphans, what happens when a baby is born)
• Toddlerhood (covers early life and childcare)
• Schooling (covers the function of school, what's taught, how it's taught, what's important in school)
• Entering Adulthood (covers what a young adult can expect when they leave school, brief mention of societal pressures)

Daily Life

• Waking Up (talks about job hours, housing, what's provided by the government in regards to housing)
• Transportation (talks about common methods of transportation, lots of talk about trams)
• At Work (talks about common experiences and beliefs about work, job expectations, government interventions)
• Leisure Time (talks about societal pressures, entertainment, hobbies, shopping, and money)
• Surveyors (talks about common experiences for surveyors, both jungle and wasteland)
• Death (talks about common causes of death and what happens to the body after)

Law and Crime

• Government Structure (talks about the structure of the government, the reason for it, and some of the effects)
• Law Enforcement and Security (talks about the role of the police in society and what they do)
• Media (talks about government media control and the extent of it)
• Punishment (talks about what happens when people break the law, from minor crimes to major ones)
• Organized Crime (talks about the structures behind the organized crime groups in the city)

Science

• Biology (talks about current biological research, mostly agriculture, environment and medicine)
• Physics and Engineering (talks about current engineering challenges, mostly building height and transportation)
• Anthropology and Archaeology (talks about the current role of historical sciences, they used to be dead and are now seeing a resurgence)
• Sociology, Psychology, and Social Engineering (talks about current social engineering goals)
• Computers and Technology (talks about current technology challenges and security)
• Space (talks about what the space program has accomplished and what they hope to do)
• Magic (talks about how difficult magic is to research and what people try to do)

Miscellaneous

• Demographics (this is about demographic information and how minorities are generally treated)
• Language (this gives a little info about the New Sumatran language and how people name their children)

Hopefully that'll make it obvious which threads are worth taking a read through for your character. Once you have a good idea of the setting, take a look through the Character Sheet. Each field is explained, so hopefully expectations are clear. For the non-mechanical sections, the only thing that's looked for is a solid, well thought out character concept. We understand that a lot of people like to discover their character through play, and that's perfectly fine! Your profile does not need to be several thousand words long and don't need to cover every minute detail. The profile just needs to have a solid starting point and character concept. Beyond does not care about the length or word count, only the details, so just focus on what needs to be said to let people understand the character.

For magic, keep in mind that this is a low power setting in that regard. Magic should be simple and people can only have one power. In terms of the power level, a good rule of thumb is that someone without the ability to use magic should be able to give them a good fight if that non-magic user is a good fighter. There is a Power List to give you an idea of the powers that are currently active. That list isn't a list of powers to choose from, rather it's a list of powers people are using. Duplicate powers are allowed, so even if you see one similar to yours it's no big deal.

For the mechanical parts, don't sweat where to put your stats too much. Is there one that resonates with your character when you read through the description? Maybe make that one 15 and the other two 10. Do you like the idea of using a specific type of skill? Then consider making its linked attribute 15 and the other two 10. Do you want to use a lot of utility skills? Then the attributes matter less. Don't know what to pick at all? Ask in the chatbox to see if there's a specific skillset that would be useful to have. In general, it's recommended to make sure all of your character's attributes are at least 10. If they're lower than that, it may end up hurting the team more than helping it.

Beyond also gives people the option to keep parts of their profile hidden from other players so that you can keep secrets OOCly. If you want to play someone with a double life, or someone that looks really pleasant, but is really mean underneath it all, you can keep those things secret. As outlined in the notes in the character sheet, every character is expected to make two posts for their character sheet. One is for the public information that everyone can see, and one is a secret profile that only the account that posted it and staff can see. Everyone is required to have both, even if you don't want to keep anything secret, so that there is at least a possibility that there might be something hidden to keep people guessing. The purpose of the secret profile is so staff can make sure your character fits the setting while still keeping secrets from the rest of the playerbase. The purpose of the public profile is so that people can at least see enough info about your character to plot with them. It should be noted that this means that the public profile doesn't have to be entirely accurate, but the secret one really should be.

Once your character is done post in the Notification Thread with BOTH the public and secret profile. Staff will not go hunting for your profiles, so make sure to link them both! Your character will not be reviewed until both profiles have been posted in the notification thread. Please do not harass staff about approving your character. They will get to it as soon as they possibly can, and if it's taking a long time it's because they have a lot going on and are probably already stressed. Stressing them out further will not make them get to it any faster. If your character hasn't been looked at in 48 hours, feel free to PM a staff member and make sure everything's okay. If your post in the notification thread has been deleted, but your character hasn't been approved or pended, contact a staff member because something went wrong. If your character is pended, a comment will be made in the secret profile. Remember that only the account that posted the secret profile can see the thread, so don't forget to check with the right account!

Getting Started

Once your character has been approved you're free to start RPing! But sometimes it can be hard to get started, so here's some suggestions on how to get started.

Start or join an expedition! Visit the Dungeon Group forum to try to find a group. There might also be some open threads in the exploration areas if you take a look there.

Start or join an open thread! There are lots of areas. Read through some of the board descriptions to get some ideas for threads if it helps. If you take a look through the forums there might be some open threads around for you to join as well. If you ask in the chatbox people will probably be more than happy to advertise some threads for you as well.

Read through some of the other character profile and start plotting! Everyone's OOC name will be in their mini-profile, so if you see some good plot opportunities don't hesitate to contact people. They probably want plots just as much as you do. There's also a Plotting forum for plotting.