ESRP talks

Having Played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, I know fairly well the landscapes of Cyrodil, Skyrim, and Vvardenfell.

As such, I believe these three areas are exploitable. Skyrim and it's Boreal forests and Tundra terrain and it's mountains, Cyrodil and it's plains and swamps, Vvardenfell and it's Tropical-swamp and large volcano (although it's been mostly destroyed, so parts would be a barren wasteland.)

But, We'll need a unifying plot, something that brings the characters together. To defeat some great menace to the world of Mundus, or a war in the now split nations that once made up Cyrodil.

-If you didn't know: Cyrodil, after the Oblivion Crisis split up. Each town, from Bruma to Bravil, became their own independent Nation. The Imperial City being at it's center. Though the Imperial city is no longer quite the same. During the Great War, the white-gold tower was sacked. It was looted and burned. The Imperial City is no longer the same power it once was. The Kings that now rule it are not Dragonborn or have the blood of the Dragon in there veins.

So, Leyowiin, Bravil, Skingrad (still led by the vampire), Kvatch (which has long since been rebuilt), Anvil, Bruma, Cheydinhal, and Chorrol are all separate nations.


Geography
Cyrodiil has a varied environment, and is divided into several regions:
The Nibenay Basin: This vast region dominates Cyrodiil, containing all the area that drains into the River Niben. The area around the Imperial City and the Upper Niben is often known as "the Heartlands". East of the river, the region consists of mostly open fields while to the west and north it is more wooded. The Imperial City covers the island in the center of Lake Rumare, the source of the Niben, and the city of Bravil is located on the banks of Niben Bay.
The Great Forest: An immense woodland area just west of the Imperial City.
Colovian Highlands: A hilly, forested region of western Cyrodiil with the town of Chorrol as its main settlement.
The West Weald: The open countryside of southern Cyrodiil that is well known for its vineyards. The city of Skingrad is located here.
The Gold Coast: The western coastline of Cyrodiil that is dotted by farms. The main settlements of the region are the port city of Anvil and the city of Kvatch inland.
Jerall Mountains: A mountain range in northern Cyrodiil on the Skyrim border, containing the town of Bruma.
Valus Mountains: A mountain range in eastern Cyrodiil on the Morrowind border. The city of Cheydinhal is located at the foothills.
Blackwood: A swampland in southern Cyrodiil east of Leyawiin, along the Black Marsh border

Now, Leyowiin, being closest to Elsweyr and Blackmarsh, it thus has features from both surrounding it, the Marshes like those in Black Marsh and the evergreen forests like those in Elsweyr.

Bravil is an interesting city. It had one of the sanctums (long since destroyed) of the Dark Brotherhood, in fact the Night mother herself was kept in the very center of town. the area around Bravil is similar to Leyowiin's only it's more water, really. The castle has a moat (filled with water from the nearby lake). And, well, personally I think it looks a bit like a shit hole.

Skingrad. A high-up town, most of it is way above your paygrade. Ruled by a vampire (for the past 500 years or so now, jeez, that's quite some time.) It as an upper and lower part, sort of separating the upper and lower classes. Though, everyone goes to the same Tavern. It has large farms on the outside.

That's all I feel like doing. Look it up on the UESP wiki if you want to know the rest: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Cyrodiil


If you want to explore the map yourself without buying the game, or replaying it: http://www.uesp.net/maps/obmap/obmap.shtml


there are things we need to chunk out before it gets started. Things like who won in the Skyrim Civil War. The Actions of the Dragonborn. ALthough no one will know the name of the Dragonborn, so he'll be solely referred to as the Dragonborn or the Hero of Skyrim or whatever.

Also, this is a long read, but I feel that this will apply here: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/747418-so-you-think-you-can-rp/

It's quite long, but if you're serious about an Elder Scroll RP, you should read it.

Another thing, Classes

We should utilize the classes that already exist and have been written out.

For example:

Spellsword: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Spellsword

Battlemage: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Battlemage

Nightblade: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Nightblade

Assassin: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin

Sorcerer: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Sorcerer

Mage: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Mage

Warrior: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Warrior_(class)

If you want your character to be a mix, you have to make sacrifices, you won't be able to get everything you want. Remember, a good character has flaws and setbacks

Nick wrote:

Another thing, Classes

We should utilize the classes that already exist and have been written out.

For example:

Spellsword: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Spellsword

Battlemage: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Battlemage

Nightblade: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Nightblade

Assassin: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin

Sorcerer: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Sorcerer

Mage: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Mage

Warrior: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Warrior_(class)

If you want your character to be a mix, you have to make sacrifices, you won't be able to get everything you want. Remember, a good character has flaws and setbacks

Though Specialization is certainly a good thing, I believe we should leave out the set classes, and instead pursue something more custom and in-betweeny, like what Oblivion and Skyrim have us do.

For example, my character in Skyrim as it sits now is a straight-up Wizard, using Destruction magic to Nuke his foes, Conjuration to call forth aid from the aether, and Restoration to keep himself healed.
---When he's Solo-ing.

In a group situation, he switches to a more Defensive roll, using a mixture of Conjuration to call forth Atronachs and Zombies to aid in the fight, Restoration to keep himself and Allies healed up, and Alteration to keep allies buffed and Enemies Debuffed.
---It's worth noting that he is not by any means perfect in what he does, as he's only level 12.

He also wields a variety. He uses his enchanted Sword in CQC, his spells nearly all the time, and his Staff when the need arises. His garb consists of a mixture as well, combining the Robes and hood of a Mage, heavy armor Gauntlets and Boots, and amulets and rings to provide buffs to Magicka, Health, and Defense.

This particular setup does not fall quite into Battlemage, Mage, or Sorcerer, but to say it is a crossclass of the three would also not be quite right.

I suggest we not follow strictly the set classes, though to lean towards one is certainly a good thing. Here's my thoughts:

We could go about it almost the way Fable does, in the sense that there are three main class types:

Warrior
Ranger
Mage

Spoiler:

Then the character simply leans in the direction they want to go in. You could almost draw it like the Color Wheel.
All of this is basically fluff to my main point: I think we should make our characters by the same conventions as we do in Skyrim or Oblivion.

I might have made a doozey when I mentioned the classes, I meant the descriptions of the classes themselves. I'm not entirely certain that makes sense to people that are not me.

Anyway, Xazhi, I like how you put it, it's what I was thinking. I'm really vague.

=voice-over=
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0ymAXTNVkBb
(turn the volume down)

So, on the topic of characters, I'm going to list some things used in the character sheet.

If you play skyrim, take picture of your character, or screen-cap it if you can.


Name: Try to have match your characters species

Race: you can't make one up

Age: don't be ridiculous here

I really want to say this is optional
Birthsign: Add a birthsign.

STOP RIGHT THERE!

If for any of these categories you would have put 'Unknown' it is not too late to change your ways! Understand that that is the height of stupidity. Your character sheet is not for other people's characters. It is for other people, and for you, so that they know who they are dealing with. Putting ridiculously vague stuff on there is redundant.

Whether or not your char, or anyone else, doesn't know your char's age, the players all should. If there is a particular reason you are withholding such information, then only put what they appear to be, and perhaps reveal their actual age at a later date.

Your character should know his name, or at least have a given one, and if he can't work out his race or birthsign, I'll be amazed, on account of all the bonuses and the distinctive appearances. As for their gender� I don't even want to get into that.

Continuing on, the other essential categories are:

Class: These can be custom, but if you call it Ninja, then you don't deserve to RP. End of story. A nice add on for Class is Class Description, which allows a nice bit of background for your class and fleshes out your sheet.

If your character does not fit a particular class, I would suggest either putting a multiple class that covers it, (scholar/thief) making up your own, or else substituting class entirely with class description, to give an idea of what they are capable of. (You know, writing what they are good at and their style of fighting.working...) Also, past professions might be a good choice- Ex-Soldier, that sort of thing. Or even their occupation or hobby- Artist or Maid.

Skills: Keep it reasonable. Certainly no more than seven skills from the oblivion set, and ten from the morrowind one. There was a reason they only allowed you so many skill slots. And that reason is BALANCE. Too many skills make you too powerful.

Also, I wouldn't take skills from all three different specialisations (Combat, Stealth, Magic for those who knows�), because it seems unlikely that someone would be able to study all three easily. Also, there are skills, normal, everyday sort of skills, other than those you find in the games. Perhaps substitute one or two from the game with these, or add one or two onto the end. But it has to fit the class.

General Appearance: As in, what your char looks like. Put it all in (not clothing, but physical appearance) Other categories such as Height, Build, Eyes, Skin and Hair Colour help flesh out the appearance and make your char sheet easier to navigate, but they should not stand alone. General Appearance is the biggie.

Clothing/Armour: Don't be unrealistic with this, and once again, feel free to go into detail. Detail is good. Everybody likes detail. Detail detail detail�

Weapons: Right, don't go too powerful with these, or someone will skin you alive. Legendary items are, as a general rule, off-limits, or they are if you're with anyone sensible. Also, the itty bitty bosmer mage cannot wield the massive warhammer. It would probably rip his arms off to try.

Biography/History: Your character's history. No heroes of Kvatch or Nerevarines here if it can be helped, mm'kay? These aren't necessary, but they are nice. Don't right essays for them, just give the basic overview."

nutshell

Name:
Race:
Age:
Birthsign:
Class:
Skills:
General Appearance:
Clothing/Armor:
Weapons:
Biography/history:

This is a Guide I wrote a while back with some inspiration from others, and some stuff I pulled out of my ass.


If youre going to do something insane, explain that shite. Add lots of detail so that people know what the hell you just did.

Start small. A character that grows and developes into a powerful one is MUCH more interesting and fun than one who starts out that way.

God. Dont try to be it. Its general knowledge that if you have some sort of godly abilities that can totally pwn faces, or you are nearly (or totally) Un-killable, NOBODY is going to want to RP with you. It just. Isnt. Fun. Another good, yet minor, point on that note is that its also totally not fun if youre omniscient (You know everything ever). Its not as bad as being omnipotent, but still.

Battles. Now, this is something that almost nobody seems to do, but makes RP just SO much better. Let your target determine the outcome of an attack against them. If you throw a knife at them, for example, let them decide if it hits.

Which leads to my next point. On that same note, dont be some sort of ninja at avoiding or blocking attacks. This also goes with the whole "Dont be God" point. Another good thing to take into account is that its really, REALLY bad when someone does something, and you go ahead and negate it by doing something else. It breaks immersion.

Lastly, and this is another rather general-knowledge point. DETAIL. HAVE IT. This doesent mean write a great-wall-of-China of text every time you make a move, but its nice when you explain things, even if they never come up in RP. Give your character a backstory. Give him/her emotion, strengths and weaknesses, flaws. These are all things that just make for so much better of an RP experience, for everyone. It also never hurts to read up on other people's stories, so you can get a feel for who youre with.

I hope this doesent fall on deaf ears (or more accurately, blind eyes). Take these into consideration, and watch as everything becomes so much better.




============================================================



Now, I've said some of this before, and some of it is new. But i felt the need to share some more RP-tips. Again, nobody is obligated to follow it at all, and you shouldn't feel that way. It's just some general stuff that tends to make RP a lot more good. No names will be named in my examples, nor do i mean to call anybody out. They were just good and relevant examples.

That said, lets move on to the first point. To quote my previous textwall,
"God. Dont try to be it. Its general knowledge that if you have some sort of godly abilities that can totally pwn faces, or you are nearly (or totally) Un-killable, NOBODY is going to want to RP with you. It just. Isnt. Fun. Another good, yet minor, point on that note is that its also totally not fun if youre omniscient (You know everything ever). Its not as bad as being omnipotent, but still."
I wanted to elaborate on this a bit, because i feel I left out a key detail: Being a "Big bad". Everybody likes a good badguy from time to time, and they often have the ability to indirectly drive a story or RP forward, and can add a nice twist to the usual hangout. But it seems most people who play Baddies don't really... get it. So here's some protips from a dude who plays the big bad of like every RP:

1) Its good to be super beefy. Not necessarily in a Physical way, but just being strong in general. You want someone who can really give the heroes a run for their money.
2) You should never be a 'Nice Guy' badguy. That's not a thing. If you're going to be a big bad, you've got to go all-out.
3) Have a trump card. Something you keep in your back pocket at all times that will pwn faces. It SHOULD be hinted at that you have it, but not outright said. This makes it seem like you didn't pull it out of your arse just then, but still keeps it a surprise. Also a good thing to keep in mind is that it should be Overcome-able by the heroes. This leads me to the next point.
4) As a bad guy, you simply ARE NOT meant to win. You may take the battle, but you can never win the war. That's just not a good thing. Eventually, you have to get killed, preferably in a big epic bossfight with the heroes where everyone goes all-out, etc etc. Then, you pass your badassness onto the next badguy (Which can even be your own next OC if ya like.)


There was another point I wanted to cover, which also calls back to my last wall-o-text.
"Battles. Now, this is something that almost nobody seems to do, but makes RP just SO much better. Let your target determine the outcome of an attack against them. If you throw a knife at them, for example, let them decide if it hits.

Which leads to my next point. On that same note, dont be some sort of ninja at avoiding or blocking attacks. This also goes with the whole "Dont be God" point. Another good thing to take into account is that its really, REALLY bad when someone does something, and you go ahead and negate it by doing something else. It breaks immersion."

What I really mean to draw attention to her is the second bit. I've seen it far too often.

Guy1: *Punches*
Guy2: *Avoids it easily* You really don't know how to fight.

Right there. See that? That's a load a' shite. If Guy 1 in this scenario had been more like

Guy1: *Throws a punch, not putting a lot of thought to Accuracy*

That'd have been aaaaaaall fine an' good. But given that there was no detail to the weakness of the punch, implying it was at least fairly accurate, that's just being a taunt on Guy 2's part.
While I'm on this note, another scenario:

Guy1: *Punches in the face*
Guy2: *Grabs Guy1's arm*

No. No no no no no no no. That doesn't even. Its already been determined that the punch hit, now you have to roll with it. 0/10, try again.


Now there's one last thing I'd like to cover before I wrap this up and let those of you who've read this far go do what you were doing.
When you go to do something to something or someone else, take at least a second or so to determine what it is, or how it works. A friend of mine was in an RP the other day with a Winter Spirit that feeds of of hatred and argument, etc. There was a fight going on, so the spirit kept making things colder. From what I was told, everyone was going with it, except this one guy.

Right there is another good sidenote, don't just ignore something that everyone else is going with. It makes you look really dumb...

Back to the main point, the dude clearly had no idea how this spirit worked, as he proceeded to use a warming spell or something of the like. From what I was told, the spirit was a Wendigo. You cant kill those. Look it up.
Another guy then, from what I was told, proceeds to fire a gun at it.
No, dude. I'm pretty sure that doesn't work either. Try again.


Well, that's all I've got for now. If you've actually read this whole thing, first of all I salute you. Second, I do appreciate feedback, as I bring these tips to RPs I participate in all across the great wide Interwebs, and any improvements benefit everyone. For those select few of you that i foresee even taking any of this into consideration, I offer you a badge of honour. You've earned it.

*Generic end-of-a-War-Movie music plays as the screen fades off to blackness and the credits roll*

This thought just occurred to me:

When we list spells and things, should we list them as Adept level or Novice level? I'm a bit torn on this

This is an Idea I had for what our Story could be.

Theres a dude, probably some sort of evil wizard or the like, who really REALLY wants to take over the world. Recently, he's come into posession of one of Four ancient artifacts, those being the Crown, the Ring, the Sword, and the Shield, each with its own unique and near godly power. He has come into posession of the Crown, which has given him the ability to raise a small army of Demons (Daedra) and invade Skyrim (or morrowind, or somewhere). Once there, he recruited a fuckload of people, like seriously 3/4 of the province, to his cause (having the crown and all). After this, he begins his invasion of Cyrodil Luckily, the Sword and Sheild are somewhere in Cyrodil, though where is totally unknown. The Wizard now seeks the Ring, which is rumored to be somewhere in the south of Skyrim, and gives the power bind people to him (Basically making them eternal slaves). Now, the hunt begins for the Shield, which is said to have the power to repel any attack, and prevent the Wizard from finding the Sword, which is said to give the power to destroy anything with a flick of the wrist, before it's too late.

Nick wrote:

This thought just occurred to me:

When we list spells and things, should we list them as Adept level or Novice level? I'm a bit torn on this

i think adept would work gives u some leeway for spells

Map of Tamriel::::Warning:::: It's big

Spoiler:

Riverwood: Needs updating

Embershard Mine exterior (updated)

Thick black lines: Walls, fortifications

Straight line with arrowhead: Road to Riverwood (main road)

straight lines: Mountain rock

Dash-dot line: path from mine to stairs

Thick dashes: path

Small circles: Barrels

Just found this, thought it was coolio.

That's pretty cool.

Time:

There are 12 months in Tamriel's calendar and anywhere between 28-31 days in each, as well as seven days in a week.
* These three months are variously referred to as one word or two words.
§ Hearthfire is occasionally referred to as Heartfire, the name given to said month in TES:Arena. In Skyrim, "Heart Fire" is used exclusively on the game calendar, although it appears as "Hearth Fire" (as one or two words) in some books.
† Morning Star was not present in Morrowind, most likely omitted by accident.
‡ Except on a leap-year, when it's 29.

Ignore: Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Calendar#Holidays

i was wondering is high hrothgar still intact cause i'd assume so since they're really powerful and no one would be dumb to mess with them

TALK

AGAIN

<.<

[quote="zeru"]i was wondering is high hrothgar still intact cause i'd assume so since they're really powerful and no one would be dumb to mess with them[/quote]
In all probability it would still be intact, it's held with such religious significance to the nords that I can't see it not existing, especially within the time that has passed.

Magic.

<.<

Magic.
Alteration: Mage Armor Spells

You know how there are spells like Ebonyflesh and Stoneskin and Oakflesh etc. When cast it would be visibly apparent as to what sort of mage armor spell they cast,

for example,

if the oakflesh spell was cast the caster would appear to have oak-bark all over his body, similarly for ebony-flesh; the casters body (skin only) would appear to be ebony, or have ebony like visual along with the armor the spell grants

The spell visual effect will only be applied to the actual skin of the caster.

So, here are some more examples

Spell	Visual description
Oakflesh	Casters' skin appears oaken. The Bark of an Oak tree appears to cover the Casters' body, provided additional protection.
Stoneflesh	Casters' skin appears to be a hard stone. The Casters' body appears to be made of stone, providing additional protection.
Ironflesh	Casters' skin appears to be solid iron. The Caster looks like an iron man, he must be able to take more damage than usual.
Ebonyflesh	Casters' skin appears to be ebony. The Caster looks black, like ebony metal.
Dragonhide	Casters' skin appears to be covered in dragon scales. The caster looks like he's covered himself in dragonskin!

[Xazhi approved.]

Alright,

so those of you who have lvl 100 skills and are thus "masters" of the art.

Well, here's a news flash for you, you aren't masters of that art.

True masters of the art are, for the sake of RP, lvl 200.