Last updated 2018-08-04 22:20 UTC.
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See this page for definitions of the terms used.
Primary authors: Caleb Johnson and DimitriB1.
In August 2016, some goofball named Dazl created the Crystal Cafe, a server for small-scale Freedom Planet RP. As time passed, its membership grew, and a handful of tabletop campaigns started.
In July 2017, it was rebranded to Avalice Online to fit its nature as both a freeform and multi-campaign group (it also sounds more like a MMORPG). Shortly afterwards, Dazl transferred ownership to its current owner, Caleb, and began a self-imposed hiatus from most social media for personal reasons. We welcome the day when he returns.
After the transfer, new rules were written, more staff were selected from applicants, and the server's channels and roles were reorganized into what they are now.
Currently, Avalice Online is the only known freeform and multi-campaign Freedom Planet roleplay community. We also have many of the same standards as, and share some staff with, the official GalaxyTrail community server.
What we have is a bit too much to fit here in the FAQs. Check this document for the official FP canon. Any important AO-specific changes or additions to the official canon are listed on this wiki page.
For FFRP, as stated in #rules, post your character's bio and information in #character_bios and wait for two staff members to approve. Note that characters with more detail and which show more thought put into them are more likely to be approved. Your post should contain the following information, or a link to a document with it.
Fields marked with an asterisk are required.
Character name*: (Your character's full name and how you want them be called)
Race/Species*: (Which anthro animal/species they are)
Gender*:
Element*: (This is somewhat related to personality, see below)
Character age / Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Planet/Universe of Origin*: (if not Avalice native, see below)
Height / Weight:
Character Appearance*: (required, unless you have a picture handy)
Character Strengths and Weaknesses: (Keep it balanced)
Special Skills and Abilities*: (Doctor, ace pilot, etc; or if they have any abilities, which level?)
Core Motivations: (What motivates them? What do they truly care about? See below.)
Bio / Personality:
Backstory:
Other Info: (Anything that doesn't fit into the previous fields)
As per the FFRP Code of Conduct in #rules, players are required to have a native Avalician character before they can submit any alien or naturalized alien characters, and can have no more aliens than they have natives.
Campaigns are a different matter. To join one, first confirm that the campaign is open for new party members. If it is, work with the GM(s) to write or port your new or existing character to the system being used.
Spectating is another option. To mark yourself as someone who's just here to watch things as they happen and not play just yet, go to #dice-n-bots and type !spectate. This will prevent you from being kicked due to inactivity.
First, review BOTH the FP Canon and AO Canon. These will tell you what you need to know about birthplaces, available races, elements, and more.
A great resource for fleshing out your character's appearance, mannerisms and personality is QuietBadger's list of assorted OC questions. To use it, simply make a copy and start filling in answers.
Regarding character attachment and self-inserts: a good rule of thumb is that unless you're okay with the possibility of losing a character, you shouldn't use them. In the venerable words of Punchy: "don't self-insert unless you're content to kill yourself off."
More suggestions can be found here.
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and most of us have more weaknesses than strengths. Those we think of as great figures are no different, but they learned their weaknesses, slowly overcame them, and developed their strengths, all through hard work. It's the same whatever world you're in, and no matter what level of technology or magic is present: being a professional adult is hard work.
Remember: Your character is, in many ways, just one performer in an ongoing symphony Even the most talented among us can't become true jacks of all trades without decades of practice, so either narrow your focus and find one thing your character truly loves to do; or don't, and play with them having numerous interests but nothing in particular they excel in.
Sometimes a character can be written with an interesting and unique concept, but still fall flat when used. Why? For any character to be believable, they need to have more than just mannerisms, habits, hobbies, or skills. They should also have ideals, ambitions, ways of thinking, and long term goals that all work together to drive them and make them who they are. These are sometimes called Core Motivations, and people can have any number of them. A good rule is that at least three should be in play at any given time.
For example: Carol Tea's Core Motivations might be "rather a traitor than a murderer", the belief that upholding morals is more important than completing a task or preserving social standing; "I just want to hang out with my best friends", representing her persistently playful and not always serious nature; and "teenage gang biker" for her goals: become rich, become famous, and collect even more sweet rides. A code of conduct, something that describes her personality, and her future ambitions.
To keep track of important things in a way that everyone can explore and contribute to, we use the Avalice Online Wiki. Characters, campaigns, and important non-canonical places or events should all be documented there in order to be considered an official part of the server. Currently, all users are required to log in to Wikia before contributing. This means no anonymous edits.
We also use a public spreadsheet to keep a record of notable FFRP events.
Not at all! You should only keep up with important things that affect or shape your characters, plot, and the world in general. Unless you really want to document what they had for breakfast every day…
Your wiki-specific user page will be located at http://avalice.wikia.com/wiki/User:YOUR_USERNAME. Use this as your player page. Most player pages are relatively simple and easy to copy and adapt for new players. Simply go to edit another player's page and use the Classic editor to copy its source into yours before making the necessary changes.
If not copied, you need to insert a Player infobox first, and fill out the necessary details. For the time field, put {{Time widget|<YOUR TIMEZONE CODE>}}. Then add text to the rest of the article using the editor. The most important section is Characters, which will contain a list of your characters. Make them [[links]] to the desired page name, as the page need not exist to make a link. You will create your character pages next.
It is also permissible to create a redirect page for an alias. Example here.
Follow the instructions on this page.
Yes, but modifications needs to be re-approved, as well as make some sense. Changes which may have far-reaching implications in the past will need to be carefully considered, as a retcon of this scale needs either a very good reason that staff agree to, or consent from everyone who would be affected, on top of being re-approved.
You don't need approval to retire characters, so long as they're not in the middle of something involving other players. Leaving loose ends by abruptly pulling out of a plot is inconsiderate, so please don't do that. If you must, find another player to give your character(s) to. You can also write their endings however you want—not all characters have to be killed in order to be retired.
In Freeform, there is no GM. In other words, the RP is guided entirely by the players. If you don't feel comfortable being your own director, then perhaps freeform isn't for you. Because you don't have to just go along with what's happening; In fact, doing that usually makes it boring.
Through experiences, decisions, and hard work, just like in real life. These can be part of scenes, or done offscreen, within reason. A character is never done changing, because that's just how character development works. What many people don't understand is that when people say that, they're referring to skills and personalities.
Characters continue to grow and change in the same way people grow and change, but they can't change their base concepts any more than actual people can. So don't tack on new abilities, skills and properties that don't have any place in the original concept of the character. It comes across as lazily done wish fulfillment—because it almost always is. Instead, make a new character and implement your desired changes properly, complete with a fitting backstory and new personality.
Overpowered characters have unreasonably powerful abilities such as Chaos Control, time manipulation, unlimited magical power, Jumper-style universal teleportation, etc., and are generally prohibited. You might be asked to nerf or limit anything that is seen as overpowered by staff.
The preferred format is Character1, Character2 [username/alias]. If you play as more characters than will fit in the character limit (32), swap in the names of the characters you're using at the current time and, optionally, append (+n) where n is the number of additional characters you have. Example: Wade, Seth, Abby (+3) [Parzival].
Write however you want, but please stick to one style for the duration of a scene. If you're not sure, or don't have a favorite style, the following is commonly used and easy to understand:
Dialogue goes in quotes: "like this." If you need to speak out of character, use parenthesis on each end, (like this).
To specify an action, put it *in italics*. Quotes in italics are used for when a character is thinking to themself.
**Bold** can be used for yelling or otherwise emphasizing something.
Telepathy or text messages usually go in backticks to make it `monospace` or triple backticks to make it a
code block.
- @Admin: Server management staff. Don't ping them unless a mod can't handle what you need.
- @Moderator: Supervises all IC and OOC activity. Ping them if any issue needs attention.
- @Advisor: These members contribute and discuss ideas with the server staff, but are not moderators.
- @Game Master: Someone who has GMed or is currently GMing a structured campaign.
- @Player: Members who roleplay or are interested in doing so. Sub-roles:
- @Active: Players who have been in any scene in the past month.
- @FFRP Live: Players interested in being notified of FFRP group events.
- @RP Ready: Players who are ready to RP right now!
- @Student: Players who would like extra attention and feedback from Tutors.
- @Spectator: Members who intend to "just watch" for the foreseeable future.
- @Tutor: Experienced, friendly players who you can count on for advice.
- @Writer: Fanfiction or other authors. Can post in #txt-draft and #txt-finished_works.
The @FFRP role is given to members who have at least one approved character.
Campaign roles (such as @SatPM) are assigned when a player joins an established campaign, and grant the ability to post in that campaign's IC channel.
Timezone roles can be listed with !xorole list timezone and selected with !xorole <role>. If you're in a timezone that isn't in the list yet, let me know and I'll add it. These roles are useful when coordinating a time for something, since the offset is part of the role name.
Active time roles show when you're usually online in YOUR time zone, and are as follows:
- @Night AM: Midnight to 6AM
- @Morning: 6AM to noon
- @Noon: Noon to 3PM
- @Afternoon: 3PM to 6PM
- @Evening: 6PM to 9PM
- @Night PM: 9PM to midnight
Eventually, the bot might use these roles to identify users who might be available either immediately or at a specified time.
- #rules, #server_faqs, #announcements, #dice-n-bots: Self-explanatory.
- #suggestion_box, #server_qa: For public server suggestions and questions.
- #rp_discussion: Any RP-related discussion should take place here.
- #moments: Post screenshots or just talk about memorable scenes here.
- #masters_dungeon: a GM channel for talking about GM things. Only GMs and staff can see it.
- #general-vc: For posting messages relevant to a VC conversation.
- #creative_corner: An artist/creative type discussion channel.
- #art, #links_media: For original art and fanart and links to cool stuff, respectively.
- #memes: Your local memeposting outlet.
- #txt-draft: Drafts of and discussion about cutscenes, backstory, fanfiction, etc go here.
- #txt-finished_works: Writers can post their completed works here.
- #rp_news: Summaries about what's happening in your campaign or in freeform go here.
- #rp_ideas_lfg: A place to discuss and develop new RP concepts, adventure ideas, or scenes.
- #character_bios: Discussion about characters and approval requests go here.
- #approved_characters: Approved characters will get posted here with a mention of their player.
- #tutor_chat: For questions and discussions about character design, writing, or RP in general.
- #mod-log: A log of moderation events such as mutes, bans, kicks, etc.
- #basement: If you're being disruptive, you might be brought here to talk about it.
- #ffrp_news: Post anything that would appear on the news anywhere on Avalice in here.
- #rp-crystal_cafe: A safe, friendly and neutral café/bar in Shang Tu (but close to the other two kingdoms); used as the FFRP "hub" here. Open to all citizens, but no combat allowed.
- #rp-cafe_bulletin_board: Post quests and quest-like things here! Cleaned up on occasion.
- #rp-studio-[N]: Generic RP channels. Anyone can start a scene in one when it's not in use.
- #rp-scarves_hideout: For roleplaying scenes focused on members of The Red Scarves.
- #rp-noncanon-1: Reserved for any RP that's independent of AO canon.
- #rp-au-fter_hours: A whimsical "after-hours longue" for the "actors" playing the characters. Usually ends up breaching continuity and/or the fourth wall.
These channels are targeted towards structured RP with a GM.
- #rp-tabletop-[N]: For long-running tabletop sessions that don't necessarily belong to a campaign yet.
- #rp-tabletop_oneshots: For quick oneshot tabletop campaign sessions.
Established campaigns each have their own channel category and self-explanatory title. See their descriptions for more information.
- Dice: the
!dicecommand supports many operators, which are listed here. - Random choice:
!choose thing_1 thing_2 thing_3 "Thing 4" - Flip a coin:
!flip
!srp, !erp, !prp, and !rrp are for marking when you start, end, pause and resume a scene.
!srsand!ersare variants of start/end which but are targeted at campaigns.
- Player / Spectator:
!spectate/!player!xorole remove <role>to remove
- FFRP Live:
!subscribeto toggle - Student:
!studentto toggle - RP Ready:
!readyto toggle!rpfor <TIME>to add and then remove later. Example:!rpfor 2 hours.!cancelrpforto cancel the timer.
- Active times:
!selfrole <time> / !selfrole remove <time>!selfrole listto see all options
- Timezone:
!xorole <TZ>/!xorole remove <TZ>!xorole list timezoneto see all options
- Writer:
!writerto toggle
Try to describe a scene people can freely explore without being overwhelmed with options. Examples of good elements are: things to watch unfold, situations to become directly involved in, or even schemes to provoke. Leave things open-ended, but not completely directionless.
Remember: most fun comes from having choices to explore. That can be anything from "look for the fusebox", to "light a candle and continue on", to "go home and take a nap", as long as there's a chance for a character to be themselves.
The code of conduct has some suggestions:
- Ask, observe, and investigate;
- Give others a chance to react before continuing;
- React to the situation as your character would. If you need more info, ask.
Present vs. future tense writing: either is fine, as long as events make sense and are in order. Readability is more important than a rigid writing style.
To prevent the need to roleplay every time instant, it's fair to say "if x happens, I would do y, otherwise z." Just keep it realistic and don't use this for metagaming.
E.g. "He holds the filled cup to out Eric, stepping around to sit at the table if his silent offer is taken. If that fails, he'll just go ahead and leave it nearby."
People talk a lot unless there's an efficient plan in action. Sometimes talking something through in-character can inspire new options.
- Try not to make a scene purely dialogue, unless it's meant to be a conversation.
- Non-verbal cues and odd tells can be good ways to spark off more hesitant topics.
- Above all, try to keep things lively, so long as it doesn't get in the way of storytelling.
It may also help to step back and consider your character's goals:
- What did they tag along to accomplish or gain?
- Are there any opportunities to work towards their non-immediate goals in the present scenario?
- Consider their core motivations, and how they can fulfill them in the present.
- If your character doesn't have a clear purpose in the scene, how can they naturally shift things to a new topic?
Unless there's a clear storyteller and throwing a curveball would derail their narrative, you can add anything to to scene to make it interesting. Don't use this to turn your character into the "protagonist" or unfairly benefit them. Also, take responsibility for fleshing out your contributions.
- NPC interactions
- Sudden events
- Background details that hint at more to discover
Remember that so long as a scene doesn't need to serve a specific narrative, every player has an equal part in moving the scene along. Each character is equally important to the story, and giving attention to a character stuck in the background often makes things more interesting.
If you know your character's abilities well, you don't need dice or a system to act out a fight. Just describe what happens in as much detail as possible, and let the situation work itself out like any other. If you're worried about things getting out of hand (or if they already have), flag down a staff member or tutor to act as a referee or arbitrate an outcome.
Links:
- Character Creation
- How To Do Stuff (Pangu's
!dicecommand supports Fudge dice withdF) - Challenges/Contests/Conflicts, Damage/Stress/Consequences
It's dangerous to go alone, take these:
- Random scenario generator, for when you don't know what scenario to RP
- The Avalice Archives, a wiki for the canonical Freedom Planet universe
- The official, verified GalaxyTrail community Discord server
- Our DeviantArt group for character art, stories and more!
- Springhole's tips for Writing, Roleplaying, & Worldbuilding
- Character makers, for quick and easy visualization of characters:
- Scheduling tools:
- NeedToMeet: No signup, and everyone can see each other's slots. No timezones.
- When2Meet: Per-event signup to change your availability. No timezones.
- WhenIsGood: Slots by hours and shows when more are free. Supports timezones.
- Doodle: Powerful scheduling, date and timezone aware. Requires registration.
In general, you can always DM a staff member, but you'll probably get a faster response by asking in a public channel.
If you have any questions about character design, writing, or RPing in general, drop a question in #tutor_chat.
If you have a general server question, ask it in #server_qa.
Finally, if you have a suggestion for the server, post it in #suggestion_box.