Quests, Roleplaying, and Reputation

Quests are where gameplay occurs. Quests may take days, weeks or even months to complete and numerous player characters can be involved, while roleplay occurs freely throughout the forum and characters come and go as their stories unfold

Roleplay is the core of any RPG, and particularly CVD, where you'll find RP your RP ability is far more important than numbers or levels. Outside of quests you are welcome and encouraged to Roleplay as much as possible. Roleplaying in the various areas of the forum helps to develop your character's story, and improve your rleations with other characters.

When in RP there are two ways you can go about it depending on your intention. If you strictly want to interract with other players and advance your story then you can simply roleplay the traditional way which is private RP. The other way is a newer style of gameplay called "Official RP". In an Official RP you can accomplish gameplay advancing things such as raising your levels, aquiring new things, or making money. These official RPs have official gains and do influence gameplay. As such they require attention from the staff, but they are less involved than going on quests, because the actual pace of the RP is still determined by the player.

Private RP
Private RP is simply normal roleplay that only advances story and does not influence gameplay. Calling it private RP doesn't mean it's closed to other players, it just means that staff don't have to be involved in descision making during the course of the RP, it simply plays its self out. It is what you'll likely spend most of your time doing. Private RP helps to build a more interesting character. If you want to RP with other players it's recomended that you either include the word "open" in the title of your RP or at the start of the text in the post, or join another already started RP thread that is open.

You may also want to consider privately contacting other members via the board's private message system in order to arrange more in depth roleplay sessions. Cooperate with other players and you'll find the game far more enjoyable. You may even roleplay elsewhere while your character is questing. To do this you simply set the timeframe for the RP as occuring prior to the outset of your quest. Such as if the QM states that the quest occurs on December 21st 1860, you may freely roleplay by stating that the roleplay occurs some time before that.

Official RP
In order to start an official RP you must visit the "Official RP Applications" subforum in the Hunter's Guild and put in an application. This application will include a description of what you plan to do during this RP and the rewards you're seeking. A member of staff will reply with a list of challenges you must face during this RP and a total word count required for completion.

An official RP doesn't usually reward as much as a quest but you may be able to gain one of the many rewards questing would give you, such as, but not limited to, money and level-ups. When your RP advances to the point of reaching these goals, contact your staffer again and report in. The staff member will check your RP and if it covers all the requirements you can collect what you wanted to achieve, such as having made some money, or gaining a new rune. The more powerful the reward you seek the greater the requirements. However the advantage of official RP is, although it requires work, and for the player to do some intense writing and story advancement it also allows the player to control the pace and risk involved.

More than one player can be involved in an official RP at which point it's also considered a collaborative official RP. In collaborative official RPs each player will be given a word count requirement, and only that player's posts will contribute to his or her word count requirement. Depending on each player's role in the official RP, their word count requirement may be different from one another, or if that character is strictly acting as support, and stands to gain nothing in that CORP, then they might not be assigned a word count at all. At the conclusion of an official RP include an Out of Characther section which should be inclosed in double parentheses and start with the letters "OOC:" which includes the words "END" any other comments you'd like, and your final word count. Such as ((OOC: END, that was hard. Word Count: 2453)). Any OOC sections such as that will not contribute to your word count. You'll need to meet a writing standard as well, which is the same level required for character aps. As such, no abbreviations or acronyms, no internet slang, shortcuts, and try to keep the grammer proper unless intentionally within a character's dilogue. Minor punctuation and spelling errors are forgivable. Many word processor programs offer a word count feature, or you may find a word counting script online.

A quest will consist of journeying, unfolding storyline, puzzles, and battling in order to reach a set goal determined by the Quest Master. A QM starts a quest by setting up a story that the quest will follow, as well as stating the difficulty, number of players who can participate (Slots), and rewards. Sometimes this may be very exact or you may just wing it until you reach the goal, depending on the prefference of the QM. A QM then either posts an opening with the guild to which players may choose to join in or selects characters he/she would like to join in. A person can also join after the beginning of a quest if they are invited by the QM to join. Often the guild will keep a reserve list of applicants who were not initially accepted into a quest in the event of a drop-out.

During a quest players take turns posting their actions. Each player posts once, then the QM posts the outcome of their actions, and things continue like this. If a battle is not occuring a person can post more than once per round for things such as conversation. If a player doesn't respond in a reasonable amount of time the QM continues the story and assumes they follow along quietly without doing anything. If the quest continues for several days without any response from the player, it will be assumed that member left the group and returned to the villaige. It is important that during a quest you post as quickly as possible. Once you see the QM's judgement from the previous round you should make your move. There are no turns in Disharmony and order is not important. Do not wait for others to post before you, post as soon as you possibly can. Furthermore talking is treated as a free action. When players are simply in conversation, the QM will not post until they have taken some physical action to continue the quest. Simply continue the conversation until you are ready to move on. If conversation stagnates, please take action so that the quest can continue.

During a quest the QM will determine the time in two aspects. The QM determines the exact date on which the quest occurs. This should be noted in the signup or at the quest signup by the QM. The QM may freely choose any date within the game's current set timeframe, (typically a one month period of time). Date is important as this will determine world events that may influence the goings on of the world in which the characters are playing, as well as things such as weather and phases of the moon. Phases of the moon are particularly important to some characters. It is advised that the QM make use of a historic lunar callender. The other aspect in which a QM controls time is controling the flow of time within the quest. Time passage per round is not set by the game system, but should rather be whatever amount of time is needed for the actions taken that round. During a fight for instance, a round may only cover a few seconds, while traveling may cover several hours within a single turn.

Once a day a character will need to sleep and eat. Should they neglect to they will risk weakening physicly and mentaly. Since both of these activities may leave you vulnerable it's recomended to secure an area before you rest. For instance the middle of the woods is a bad place to sleep, unless you build a fire, make sure any monsters there may have been nearby have been destroyed and set up a ward. Keep in mind in terms of food more physical cahracters will need more food than averabe people, to perform at their maximum. This includes zoanthropes and all combat classes, though the amount varries depending on the amount of exertion. It is not always necessary to cover every meal a character eats in individual posts. If a party is traveling for a certain amount of time, the QM can simply state that at some point during their travels the party took a moment to eat, and instruct the players to remove some of the food from their inventory. Unless the party states specifically that they did not stop to rest. This may be necessary when pressed for time, but will cost the party in terms of exhaustion limiting their physical ability.

During the course of a quest a QM may employ several more advanced techniques to control the pace, such as Railroading, Response chains, and free action. Railroading is the simplest of these. When there is only one possible course of action, the QM simply assumes the party took that course and will continue until such a time as a decision needs to be made. This is particularly significant for traveling, but may also include certain events where the story simply requires that one and only one thing be done, such as a party member reflexively dodging a surprise attack, the party being captured and taken to a dungeon, or fleeing a dangerous situation. There's no need to ask a party to do the obvious, so railroading simply eliminates waiting for unnecessary posts.

The second technique is the antithesis of railraoding, chain responses. This is a situation where only one member of the party needs to post, and as such the QM may post rapid responses with the single party member involved. This particularly comes into play when one member is holding a conversation with an NPC, but also may come up when the party splits up, and one or more members are acting alone, as well as in close up combat where small micro movements are essential.

Free Action is the most obvious, but often overlooked QMing technique. Simply put free action is a case where the QMs response to the players actions is not needed because they did not accomplish anything in their turn that would require the QM's attention. Typically this is talking or minor interplay between party members, leading to the phrase "Talking is free action." During free action players may continue and post again as many times as they wish until they have done something that warrants QM attention. A player may contact their QM when they believe a response is needed, however this shouldn't be abused. The QM may respond with "talking is free action." If they feel that members are waiting for an unecessary QM post.

A quest ends when the listed requirements are completed or all of the players fail or drop out. Success is determined by the QM on how well the objectives were completed. At the end the QM will provide all players with upgradable abillities with the peramters by which they will improve. When a quest is over the QM returns all control of players their actions and their condition to the player. When a quest is over so ends the QM's control over the fate of player characters. A quest should not be ended with the fate of a player left unknown. All quests should continue with the player returning to town be that victorious, in failure, via their salvation stones, or as a ghost, but a player can not be left in the field or held captive. They can however return with different status or race than that which they left.

NPCs in Quests

NPCs may also be involved in a quest. A QM may create and use as many as he/she desires in order to guide the plot. If a Player has any NPCs their NPCs may also participate but can only be there to further the story not aid in combat. However only one NPC per player is allowed. In some cases a situation may call for a player participate with only their NPC and leave their Player character out entirely. This will be handled on a case by case basis by the QM. However this means that their player won't gain any rewards for the completion of quests.

All quests are rated by difficulty according to the following Parameters.
Very Easy: It is almost impossible to lose this quest even if you make massive errors. The rewards are often meagar though. Typically only beginners are allowed to accept these.
Easy: These quests are a simple matter to win for begginers, and a walk in the park for experienced players. You'd have to be trying to lose these quests.
Moderate: A medium level quest. It's not so tough for experienced players but you can lose if you mess up. There will be challenging foes and puzzles along the way.
Hard: At this point it's more likely that an inexperienced player fails than succeeds. The fights will be intense, the puzzles will be brain benders. They are however still possible to complete with a powerful character and a clever player. Not for beginners.
Very hard: These quests will host some of the strongest monsters out there and/or some of the most mind twisting puzzles the QM can imagine. It's not unheard of for players to quit these quests out of pure frustration. It will take not only a powerful character but also a very good player to complete.

Consecutive Quests and Campaigns
Some quests don't simply end when they reach their conclusion but are a smaller part of a larger campaign. These are Consecutive Quests. When a QM runs multiple back to back quests, starting where the previous one left off. Combined consecutive quests form a campaign. The individual consecutive quests still behave like normal quests and will have postings in the hunter's guild. Furthermore they all have individual rewards and level-ups at the end. However unlike normal quests, at the end, the party members have the choice to continue on to the next quest in the campaign. Between consecutive quests, the party members can recouperate and replenish supplies. In the case of a long dungeon crawl teleportation can be used to extract and return the party to where they left off. Party members can choose to take up the next quest in the campaign or leave the party. New members may also sign up for the next consecutive quest, allowing party members to rotate to fill gaps. For the members who manage to participate in every quest of a campaign they earn an additional reward at the end of the final quest. Campaign completion comes with a double level up. in addition to all quests completions in the campaign the player receives an additional quest completion and rewards added to the final quest.

Odd Jobs
These are posted by the guild on occasion, and consist of minor, single player tasks which are less involved than most quests. They're intended to be done quickly, and earn only small rewards, but they keep money coming in, and there's always the chance of finding some loot. Odd Jobs only count as half of a quest. Completing two Odd Jobs results in one quest completion being rewarded. Classes that level up based on finding things rather than quest completion will find the most rewards in their second odd job.

Bounty Hunting
Bounty hunts are not quests, and they do not dispatch party members. Bounties are simply posted at the guild, and should be kept in mind. You may encounter a bounty head during the course of a quest, odd job, or simply in normal roleplay, so keep an eye out. Bounties are a quick way to earn big money. Some bounties require capturing the bounty alive, others are Dead Or Alive, some are "Prefferably dead", and others are listed for objects rather than people, and will offer a reward if the object is returned. Some of these requirements may overlap.

Reputation

At the end of a quest, not only do you collect a fee, you may also aquire a reputation depending upon your actions within the quest. The QM will give you a reputation in the final summary post. You should keep track of your reputation in your sig. The most significant action you took during your quest will typically change your reputation. For instance "The puppy kicker" may stay with you but if you later aquire a reputation of "the giant clam slayer" the second one would override the first as it's more signifficant, thus you'd be known as something along the lines of "Dorf the giant clam slayer." Sometimes though you may aquire a reputation for your actions in RP if they're well written or for joining with a very well written bio.

Among the reputations you aquire you have the option of setting one of them as your dominant reputation. To do this simply list it first and in bold text in your sig in the reputations area. This will reflect how your character is percieved by others and how you personally carry yourself. The dominant reputation overrides all others and will be the first thing your character becomes recognized as. In some instances though you may be stuck with an overriding reputation by a QM. Overriding reputation, sticks its self forcefully as your dominant reputation and can not be changed by the player. The only way to get rid of an overriding reputation is to break out of the role through skillfull roleplay. Alternately, for those with money, the black market may offer a way to buy good reputation. In some events your reputation may not change at all during a quest, in which case you are simply upholding your existing reputation. If you do this long enough some supurlatives may be added such as "The truly excellent giant clam slayer."

Finally remember there is no wrong way to play. This RPG isn't about winning and losing it's about the story. You can take story in any way you want.