So you wanna be a forum member? Then follow these simple steps.
Part 1:Character Creation
Step 1:Create a general concept for your character.
Step 2:Decide how powerful your character is.
Step 3:Choose a name for your character.
Option 1:Create a "sidekick"(Daryl's Eirol and Mintaka, my Daryl Villin) using the above three steps.
Part 2:Entering
Step 1:Choose a thread that looks interesting to you.
Step 2:Determine what the stor in the thread is so far.
Step 3:Continue the story with a post, which should probably include your character appearing.
Sort of like a character description, but more specific.Sort of like a character class. For example, Daryl's wolud be "Demigoiddess of Harmony, patron of bards". Reako's would be "Magician", even though he calls himself a Psionist. Mine would be "Demigod of Magic". By the way, you don't have to follow my 6-step process; it's just a guideline.
Cosmetor, your dead wrong on what you say about Reako. There is a hell of a lot of difference between Psionics and Magic. If someone says their character is a certain class, don't start calling it a different class, it'll confuse people. And incidently I think it's safe to say that none of us that have been around for a while used anything resembling a guideline for creating our characters.
A) I came up with a basic sketch of my char (name and class) then...
B) Made the rest up as I went along.
But really, the way I see it, there's a bit too much concern here about character design. I'll grant, it's an easy trap to fall into, I fell into it when I started to some degree, and still do as well. But, the goal here being to tell stories and have fun, characters aren't the be all and end all. What I find matters most, is writing and role playing.
For a great example of writing and story telling, check out what Daryl and Liquid X did in the Underworld thread. It's great writing with a very touching ending. Heck, I still feel bad for sullying that story with the seperate Excal/SYE storyline that's there as well.
As for roleplaying, I don't even need the old hands for good examples. Most of the new crowd are doing a great job with Flake, Lowell, and Moria being three particularily good examples. They're humourous (granted, not always a good thing, but for the tone of their chars, it's perfect), staying in character, and they do their actions while leaving plenty of room open for others to do what they want.
Really, the only advice I have for beginners is to stay away from stuff that detracts from the experience for everybody. And really, there's only been a few things that've happened here that fit in that catagory.
A) Obcenely strong char with no weaknesses. For an example of this, just ask any longtime poster about TallPanzer. Not only was dealing with him less entertaining than dealing with the other people, but his antics tended to set us back far more than they ever helped us. Granted, this may not be a bad thing, if that's the way your char is designed to be. Unfortunatly, his char was not...
B) Taking control of other peoples char. This doesn't apply to the small stuff like giving them lines as that's necessary at times in order to move the story along. However, taking people and commiting them to a quest without their getting a chance to say anything about it (Reako did this once about a year ago, and very recently Cosmetor did this to Flake and his crew. Something which I reacted to IC with Excal's little rant.) is quite definatly a bad thing. And if you do it to certain people, expect bodily harm to befall your char. this also applies to simply making big choices for another persons char. After all, what's the point of role playing when somebody else is playing the role for you.
I'd also include one about not dissapearing without warning if you're likely to be expected to provide a post in the thread, but I don't wanna be hypocritical, and my posting in the Intro Quest has been far slower than I'd like. Besdies which, that seems to only be a problem recently with most of the old crowd suddenly being on less.
Ah well, that's enough out of me for right now. Especially since most of these newbies are doing great without any help from those of us who've been here longer.