With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Sept 29, 2009 16:30:06 GMT -5
Common Sense Stuff
This should be pretty much common sense, but apparently, we've been getting a lot of applications recently with people either neglecting the Application FAQ, or the Powers FAQ. As such, this has been placed in BOTH sections since it is of great importance.
-Strength-
No single application will determine their own power. No application will state that it is stronger than a Captain, Lieutenant or the like. The Moderator reviewing the application will determine the strength Tier of the application, end of story.
-Hierarchy-
No application will state in its history what Seat they currently hold, or if they are a Captain, or Espada number unless otherwise determined or discussed with a Staff Member.
-Canon Interaction-
No application will hold any reference to a Canon Character, specifically any sort of history involvement, or force a Canon Character player to acknowledge the history of an Original Character.
-Canon Siblings/Family-
No application will hold any blood relation to a Canon Character unless specifically determined by a staff member for storyline purposes only, and even still, it would be VERY VERY slim for such an occurrence to happen.
-Application Process-
Do not bump your application, or mention in the Xat that your application is finished. The staff have lives outside of the internet. A constant flow of applications arrive each day, and we handle them with oldest to newest. Thus, bumping your application will only force it to be looked at later. Mentioning it in the Xat chat will force us to neglect your application as punishment for being impatient.
-Editing and Revisions-
Post a Reply to your Application when you have made the proper Editing required/asked for by the Moderator. That will inform us that you have finished your editing, and are ready for a secondary review.
-FAQs-
READ THEM ALL; that's pretty much common sense! Check them for updates, as they are updated every now and then.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2009 18:41:49 GMT -5 by Shinigami Kyra
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Sept 29, 2009 16:34:34 GMT -5
Craft of Writing Guide
Craft of Writing
Note: Somethings may be repeated here, but most are simply either in reference, or additional elements were brought forth for that particular subject.
Rules for General Role Playing and General Tips for Writing (The normally unwritten rules)
1. Third Person, Past Tense.
This is a common rule. What this means is that all forms of post-writing should be written in the Third Person, Past Tense formula. What does this mean? Do not understand different point of view writing, or tense style of writing? Well! I've included some examples!
Good Example - Third Person, Past Tense -----
Rukia unsheathed her sword and forced her spiritual aura to rise drastically as she called forth its powers. With a firm grip upon the hilt, she began to rotate the blade ever so slowly as it underwent a drastic transformation.
"Dance... Sode no Shirayuki," Rukia spoke the command phrase that forced her Shikai to awaken. With those dark hues focused upon her opponent, she launched her body forward, sword wound back, and delivered a slash to his midsection.
----- The example stated here is that there is no 'I' or 'me' located in it. Such words would describe a 'First' person point of view. The words 'Rukia' and 'her' or 'she' normally replaces those words.
Now, there are 'second-person' point of view, where the words 'You,' 'your' and the like would be used. This is also not used in the example, though they would be replacing the 'opponents' and 'his' in this example.
As for the 'past tense,' notice how all the verbs are in their respective past-tense format. Verbs end in -ed, or instead of '...force her Shikai to awake/wake,' it's '...forced her Shikai to awaken.' That is a prime example of the differences between 'present' tense, which is the here and now, and 'past' tense, which is something that has already happened.
Most stories that people read are almost ALWAYS done in third person, past tense. It is the easiest style of writing to both read and write, and allows a reader to understand the actions of your character.
2. General Writing (I can't come up with a post! or Why is my post so short?!)
This has been a common subject brought up by several members, both new and Veteran! So, do not feel embarrassed when you can't seem to come up with anything more than just a paragraph. Remember; quantity does not always equal quality!
When coming up with a post, remember your character's personality. Also; not all posts should require 'Shinigami to be Fighting Hollows' or anything like that. Remember, character development is usually the core sense of Role Playing. To be able to develop your character through various types of interactions should be your goal as a player role playing a specific character!
Remember the five senses:
Sight Hearing Taste Touch Smell
All (or at least most) of these can be used in your posts! Your character can see the scenery that is displayed. They can smell the freshly cut grass, or the salty ocean scent. They can feel the wind blowing against their skin. They can hear the crowds of people, or the waves crashing along the beach. Perhaps they can even taste that salty scent, or, if your character is at a restaurant, you can describe the meal in which they are eating. With most characters on this board, you also have most likely acquired the 'sixth' sense, which in the Bleach Universe, is the ability to sense spiritual pressure, or reiatsu. This can also be described in a post.
Good Post Example - Initial Post -----
She felt the winds caress her skin as the four winds blew strongly atop the cliff edge in which she stood. Dark crimson strands danced along to the soundless tune of the air's element. A small, frail hand moved to part those long bangs from her field of view as a somber expression fell across those feminine features. Dark scarlet hues focused upon the horizon, where the sky met the edge of the water. The fresh scent of the ocean filled the area, as the sounds of waves crashing against rock seemed to echo from several hundred meters below.
Kyra Rounin breathed in the ocean air as she felt a sense of relaxing calm fall over her body. She felt at peace, both physically and mentally, and quite possibly, even spiritually. The events of the previous day had drawn her body to near exhaustion, though with the one simple act of heading out toward the shoreline of Karakura Town, this scene alone was enough to wash the worries of yesterday from her shoulders as her bare feet felt the freshly cut grass below.
"I've always loved this part of the city," Kyra's voice was aimed at no one in particular; perhaps simply the wind was her audience for the day. She smiled briefly as she let out another calm, relaxed sigh. Her eyes became half lidded as her head tilted ever so gently to the side. "It just seems... so peaceful at this time of the day."
-----
So, not much going on, right? The only thing I did here was set up the scenery. Something like this can be used for an initial post. The original poster of a post can normally set up the environment, as well as the flow of the thread as a whole. When making a reply to an initial or original post, a player should respect the original poster's environment, as well as their possible plans for the post.
One should try not to derail the point of a thread by unnecessarily adding elements to a thread. For example, if an original poster has their Shinigami in a Gigai walking down Karakura Town, looking to go shopping, someone should just burst into a thread, let's say, a Shinigami, and suddenly alert the person that there's a Hollow, or even worse, just start fighting Hollow's in their thread.
General Respect for the Original Post goes without saying. The original poster may or sometimes, may not even have a plan for their thread. Thus, one should always ask for permission when changing the subject of the thread, or turning it down a different path. If you are confused by any of this, or do not understand some elements of the original post, always feel free to contact myself, a staff member, or the original poster of the thread for more information.
Coloring Text
Notice in the post above that I have decided to color a certain part of the text? That is completely up to you, as a player. Normally, we ask that you keep your coloring to a minimum; verbalized text, or dialogue can be colored. Some people may even color the entire thing if they so choose; we're not too picky, but please keep it to your posts in general, not in your applications. Also, make sure your entire post isn't one big rainbow color.
My suggestion is to look over what others are doing. I'm not saying to 'copy and paste' their style, but become accustomed to how they use their colored text. For myself, I only recommend coloring the dialogue of your own character. I started doing it the moment I had more than one of my characters involved in the same thread. Though sometimes it isn't that confusing to tell two characters apart, I decided it may be easier to interpret who the speaker is when you stick to a certain color for each character.
List of my characters, and their respective colors
Kyra Rounin - Light Blue Kyra Rounin Inner Hollow - Light Blue Bold Momo Hinamori - Red Ichigo Kurosaki (Admin Share) - Orange Rukia Kuchiki - White Yoruichi - Purple Kaiko - Royal Blue
When it comes to text coloring, I try to use colors that represent the characters themselves. Momo's spiritual aura is usually red, so I use that for her font color. Kyra's is blue. Rukia's sword is white, so I use white for her. Yoruichi's hair is purple, and Ichigo's hair is orange. Kaiko's skin is a light bluish gray color, so I went with Royal Blue. You don't have to follow this formula at all, but this is just something I do myself, and you're free to follow this type of example.
When making a reply post, always keep the original post in mind. There are a variety of ways to reply to a person's original post. You want to try and keep the same environmental structure. Not only that, but it should be wise to understand the goal of the original poster's thread, rather than just assume. If it's meant for just character development or interaction, then bringing in a hoard of hollows wouldn't be the best idea. It's always smart to keep in contact with the player that initiated the thread in order to develop both your characters and fulfill a profitable role playing experience.
Keep in mind that though you have the ability to edit your thread, it is unwise to do so after someone else has posted directly after you. Such actions can actually be considered Godmoding, depending upon the actual post itself. We'll get more into Godmoding later.
3. Sample Post
This can be found in the Applications Section, when you are first creating a character, or are simply adding to your collection. Sample posts are, in short, a 'sample' of how you will be playing the character you have chosen. It also allows us an understanding of how skilled a writer you are. Now, we're not looking for epic novelists, but if one can properly conduct a good paragraph or three for a sample post, then it's likely that you have already come that much closer to getting your character accepted.
For both Original Character and Canon Characters, we would like to see a variety of things within a sample post. First, let's start off with Canon Characters.
Canon Characters
For Canons, since most information that will be needed in the application can be easily found via the internet, or a Bleach Wiki site, the sample post is pretty much all we have to go by in accordance to accepting or denying an application.
For Canons, we feel a player must be able to portray the character's personality well enough to consider them a proper suit for that character. The stronger the Canon Character, the more we will look for in a Sample Post. Applying for someone like Chad versus applying for someone like Ichigo, the Chad application may be reviewed with a bit more lenience, where as an application for Ichigo may require some heavy work.
For Canons, we would like to see a good amount of their personality brought out. You may feel free to NPC some other canon characters briefly, for conversational purposes, but try not to dwell too much into those other characters; remember, you're applying for this character, not the others. Also; try to not just copy/write down things you see in the episode. We're hardcore Bleach fans, so if you just write down a replica of a scene from one of the manga/episodes, we'll know. Try to be creative and come up with your own scenario. Be original; don't limit yourself to just fighting Hollows for Shinigami, or the like.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2009 18:42:59 GMT -5 by Shinigami Kyra
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Sept 29, 2009 16:35:27 GMT -5
Character Apps FAQ
Greetings and Salutations, my name is Kyra, and if you're reading this thread, that means you'd either like some help with your current application, or you're just browsing the site. In either case, welcome to the board, and if you have any questions at all, you may PM me or any of the other moderators/staff members.
For those of you new to Role Playing, or if your a veteran that would just like to learn as much as they can, feel free to browse through this thread, as it is here for the purpose of helping to teach you and guide you into having the best Role Playing experience possible.
Writing In General
For this forum-based RPG, the standard, average writing style expected of players is third person, past tense, and in some cases, third person, present tense, though the latter is somewhat more difficult to pull off at times.
A good example of a standard, third person past tense style of writing:
Ichigo brushed a few strands of hair from his field of view as his tired eyes gazed upon the horizon. Several days had passed since the last Hollow attack, and though things had remained quiet, he could not help but feel the clouds start to gather in the skies above. He felt as though he had to constantly look over his shoulder, or ask for an update from Rukia, just to make certain that no Hollows were around.
A brief example, but one nonetheless. Note that the verbs are all in past tense. There is no "I" or "Me" written in; that is third person. It is usually a pronoun/Character's name, He/she/it, and so forth.
I feel this section should be placed here. As stated above, if you are going to go with a certain style of writing, please stick to it. Do not start off in third person, then shift to first, as it will be far too confusing for other players, as well as the reviewer of your application, to under stand your actions.
Space after all punctuations; Periods (.), Commas (,), Exclamation Points (!), and so forth.
Speakers and Dialogue
For the average writer, we recommend creating a new paragraph between action, and the start of dialogue, or your character's speech. Some advanced writers can pull off working dialogue in the middle of a paragraph, or just at the end. But, for most, it would be best to keep a new course of dialogue as a new paragraph. Remember to state the speaker, if necessary, and to use proper quotation marks. If there is action between the start of dialogue, and a new sentence of dialogue, then after the close of that speech/dialogue, prepare a new paragraph. When a new person, or dialogue is used in your post, please create an entirely new paragraph.
For example:
"Ichigo! Where's my money?" Renji shouted as he slammed his palms onto the table. "You better pay me back! Rukia lent me that money last week, and now she's asking for it!"
"I don't have your money," Ichigo barked in reply. His brows lowered in frustration, as he fought the urge to flip the table right then and there. "If I did, don't you think I would have called you already?"
"Of course you wouldn't!" Renji shook his head and waved a hand.
"What kind of person do you think I am?"
"A cheapskate!"
"Bastard..." Ichigo muttered under his breath.
There are several examples of what's listed above in that quote. Notice how when each new speaker talks, a new paragraph is used. There are times when you can state 'he said, she said' and so forth, and there are times when you don't need to at all, so long as the reader of your posts or threads can understand and follow the dialogue.
As stated above, we would like to keep most writing fairly similar, in the aspect of point of view, and current tenses. Thus, the standard for the board, as well as nearly all Freeform Role-playing websites, is third person, past tense. From there, you can be as creative as you'd like.
Freeform Role-playing
Unlike Role-Playing Games, such as DnD, or other types of table-top RPGs, Freeform is far less constricting. The usage of dice has been removed, and players are normally free to conduct various actions beyond that of a Game Master/Dungeon Master. However, that does not mean that rules are completely nonexistent. For the best possible experience one can have, we expect the rules that are currently in place on our site to be held by everyone, and for all players to treat one another with a certain level of respect. Here's a quick explanation of what exactly Freeform Role Playing is, as quoted by Wikipedia.
"Freeform" can also refer to online text-based role-playing games which lack rules, instead relying on the player's acting abilities and commitment to a good story. (In MUSH settings, these are often called consent-based, because what happens to a character is influenced by a potential "veto" from that character's player.) These systems must either rely on carefully selected individuals or strict moderation, in order to prevent less mature players from taking advantage (god-moding) of the rule-free environment, for example by unrealistically shielding their characters from the consequences of their actions.
Similarly, "freeform" can refer to online forum and email-based role-playing games which lack rules or which lack statistics by which to judge a character's abilities. As with freeform MUSHes, those running the game rely instead upon the players' writing talents and use of description to determine outcomes--if a GM is used to control the game at all. Some online freeform games closely resemble collaborative fiction, while others have much more structured rule sets, such as the Role Player's Creed.
These online freeform games are subject to criticism, namely for their frequent childishness (as exemplified in chats around the Internet). Others note that they are based upon the idea of elite roleplay, and take value in being professional about what they do.
In short, players are free to create their own stories for their characters. Freeform Role Playing is the best way to truly write out a story of your desire. So long as you follow the rules and respect one another, you can expect a great experience in return.
God Moding/Godmoding
Godmoding (often incorrectly spelled as "godmodding") is a term used in role-playing games to describe two behaviours of players. The term comes from the "god mode" found in many video games, allowing a player to activate features such as invincibility, unlimited ammunition or lives, or similar power boosts. Godmoding is almost always frowned upon by other members of the game, because it is regarded as a form of cheating against the game's tacit rules.
Passive Godmoding
Godmoding can occur when a player describes an event or a series of events his or her character has taken against another character or interactive object, most often with the purpose of rescinding negative effects previously encountered or granting some other effect inconsistent with an objective view of the narrative. This is sometimes also termed "powermoding" or twinking. For example, a character may be afflicted with a disease only curable by rare ingredients, yet another character is "lucky" enough to find these ingredients in ten minutes. Godmoding is thus often used like a "Get Out of Jail Free card" when things don't go the way a player wants, rather than working with previously unfolded events.
It is also used to describe the act of creating or playing with an invincible character or using "perfect" equipment (such as unbreakable armor or weapons), possessing limitless power, or extremely powerful skills and attacks, etc. Some players will create a brand new character, and that character is automatically gifted with skills, and nearly impossible to take on right from the start. In many cases, this happens when a newer character goes against an established one: the newer player may roleplay his or her character as if it were equal in power and rank to the more experienced one.
Another type of godmoding involves deciding how a character who is not your own feels about your appearance or equipment. This technique is frequently used by the Mary Sue, and would apply in situations where a character has usually spectacular physical or supernatural qualities and, in the description of the character, forces observers to feel a certain way, such as 'You are awed by her beauty,' or 'You are terrified by his very appearance,' without taking into account the opinions or abilities of the observing character.
Active Godmoding
Godmoding can also refer to the case where a player definitively describes the outcome of their own actions against another character or interactive object. For example, if player A states, "A strikes B and B takes damage", they could be considered to be godmoding. Another example of this might be where a character is facing multiple enemies, and they redirect one foe's attack onto another. For example, Player A states, "B misses A completely, and strikes C instead." This form of godmoding is also referred to as "autoing". Active godmoding can also take the form of controlling characters that belong to someone else. Godmoding of this variety is also known as powergaming.
* Player A: Character A throws a punch at Character B. * Player B: Character B dodges the attack, grabs Character A and throws him out of a stained glass window. Character A flies at Character B, who warps behind him and slashes Character A in the back.
Godmoding on the board, or for many web-based, Freeform Role Playing websites, is highly frowned upon by both players and staff. Disciplinary action will be taken if such an occurrence proceeds after warnings are given.
Canon Characters
If you decide to take up a Canon character, make certain that it is not already taken, or not already being apped for. The person who first posts an application for a Canon Character will be the first one to place that character on reserve. If that application is either denied, or needs editing, and after fourteen days, there has been no activity by the player who is applying, then the application will be placed in Archives, and the Canon Character will be available to be applied for. For all canon characters, you may find generic information on them through a Bleach Wikipedia; [ur;]http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
[/url].
Because all of the information we look for in Canon characters must be accurate to the Manga, there isn't much in the application that has to be judged. There for, reviewing staff members will be focusing more upon the Sample Post, as well as making sure information within the application is accurate. Please refer to the Sample Post section for more information.
Cannon Character Limitations
The current limit on the amount of Canon Characters a single player can hold is Two (2).
Creating a Character
Some people may already have a character in mind when thinking of an application. However, one should always remember that picking the most powerful character possible is not always the best option. A team is only as strong as their weakest link, and people tend to always underestimate the weakest characters. Also a note to remember, if you do in fact choose to decide in making a very strong character, be warned that the stronger you make your character, the more judgmental the staff will be upon reviewing your application. More responsibility will be placed upon the player of such characters, and as well as a high expectancy of not Godmoding.
Choosing a Race
As most people know, Vizards are one of the strongest of Races, and has come to be one of our most popular in applications. As noted above, with the strong rise of Vizards, reviewing staff members will be far less lenient in application review than if someone were to apply for a Shinigami, who had just recently graduated the Academy, is unseated, and holds no Bankai. The more power you put into your character, the more work you must put into your character.
Quincy are a rarity, it seems, however they are very unique in abilities. Holding no real sides between Shinigami and Hollows, they are a race of their own people and own unique powers that have not yet been dipped far into by the Bleach Universe, which opens players up for a variety of original characters, original plot lines, and of course, original abilities.
Arrancar are the opposing elements to Shinigami. They are considered the villains of the Bleach Universe, but of course, that does not always mean that applying for one makes you an instant Villain. One can apply for a Shinigami who is evil, similar to how Aizen had worked, and one could apply for an Arrancar who is good or holds no sides, similar to how Neliel acts.
Shinigami are the standard issue characters. You can apply for a character fresh out of the academy, or a high ranking, seated officer. However, remember that in applying for a more powerful character, we will expect far more originality out of your application.
Canon-Copies
Copies of moves, names, Zanpakuto spirits and their abilities will not be tolerated. The application will be instantly denied, and moved into archives. In some cases, a warning may be given by the reviewer, though it is up to the person reviewing the application whether or not the application can be fixed or not.
Age
Of course, it would depend upon your race. Most Shinigami can live far beyond human years; the same with Arrancar. Humans generally live up to about 80 - 120, depending on their spiritual energy, Quincy's quite possibly living a bit longer.
For Shinigami, please keep in mind that your age should reflect your experience. The average age for a Shinigami would be around 100-200 years of age, some younger, some older. These ages are normally for Shinigami who have acquired Shikai, and possibly, seated characters. (Remember; Rukia states she's around 100, round up to about 150. Renji's around the same age, probably a bit older; 200 rounded up) Arrancar; it's anyone's guess, really! Be creative!
Personality
I've noticed lately that a lot of people are having trouble with this section in particular. The best route to take is to try one or two basic personalities, and smooth out the edges. Arrogance, and evil, let's say for example. You wouldn't say in his personality that he cares for his friends and respects authority, would you? A lot of people have been making contradictions in their explanation of the personality, and I believe it's due to players wanting to put in too much into their character. Tone it down to about one to three aspects of a basic personality, then expand from there. This section should roughly be 1 to 2 paragraphs; five to seven sentences each.
Appearance
Pictures are always helpful, but they should not be a replacement for appearance. A picture cannot tell how tall someone is in comparison, nor the weight. Still, things like this are not alone in this section. Use pictures as a guideline if you have to. As above, this section should be roughly 1 to 2 paragraphs; five to seven sentences each.
Powers
Everyone's favorite section! Because we have such a variety of races, I've decided to break it down into different sections; Arrancar, Quincy, Human, Shinigami, and Vizard.
Human
Humans, who are deemed the weakest, usually start off at Low-Level. Obviously, they have a limited amount of abilities and powers they can choose from. However; one should NEVER count a human out! Orihime is a human, as is Chad, and the two of them have pretty amazing powers. Because Humans have no real added bonuses, like a Zanpakuto or transformation, feel free to be creative as you'd like, but remember to limit yourself. Make your character too strong, or don't express some sort of limit to your powers, we may see your abilities as a possibility for future Godmoding.
Quincy
As with humans, Quincy are limited in their abilities. They'll have some form of bow-like weaponry, to answer to the Shinigami's Zanpakuto, but no real 'transformation,' like a Bankai or Resurrección. Thus, you can feel free to be creative here, but as stated above, don't forget to limit your abilities. If you make your character too powerful, the less likely it will be that they will become acceptable to the board.
Shinigami
Considered normalcy in the world of Bleach, Shinigami have a variety of techniques, abilities, and power ups at their disposal. As such, we recommend splitting up your abilities into the designated sections; Shikai abilities, Bankai abilities, and so forth. Remember; most normal/average Shinigami have one to three abilities in Shikai, and normally the same amount in Bankai. Please do not stack your character with seven abilities or more. However, if one were to make unique, small abilities that are properly categorized, and they happen to add up to the limited amount, it could be considered.
For example; let's say someone wants to use a Fire-based Zanpakuto. They could have the normal Shikai, which would activate their Fire abilities.
Now, one attack could hurl just a normal sized fire-ball. Another attack, however, could allow the fire technique to be used defensively, as a shield, perhaps (remember, limitations). That's two. Let's say that the fireball can become a stream of fire; that's three for Shikai. Now, the player could express that all these attacks could be considered very weak, basic attacks. They could then state that the Shikai also has an ability that allows for physical attacks to express a burst of flame, i.e., a combination of a physical attack and the fire-ball attack. That's four. Combining attacks of a Shikai can be considered, if they are limited and unique, in a sense. Already, we've met more than half. However, considering what we've got listed, this could quite possibly be a strong candidate for a possible acceptance, so long as a limitation is expressed in the descriptions.
Bankai; everyone's favorite ability. For those attempting to achieve Bankai, the staff will be more judgmental upon your application, since Bankai will obviously make your character stronger. Remember; every Captain-level Shinigami has a Bankai (various exceptions are made; Kenpachi, etc.). We expect players who would like to apply for a Bankai to have experience on the board, and known a bit by the staff, so that we can come to understand the way you play, as well as understand if you are able to handle the responsibility of a character this strong.
Arrancar
Most of what was said for Shinigami can be said in the same sense here, for Arrancar. Bankai are equivalent to Resurrección, so remember the same rules, standards, and expectations apply.
Vizard
These characters, as of late, have become the main attraction of the board. Many people have been attempting to app for a Vizard, with numerous abilities, as well as a Bankai. Players who apply for Vizards will be the most judged, since they can be considered one of the strongest races among all, in a standard/average basis. They have both Shinigami and Hollow abilities, and two transformation possibilities; Hollow Mask, and Bankai. Thus, please try to spread your powers out among the various groups. If you used the same abilities for the Shikai example up above, it might not be considered for a Vizard, just because there are more ability potential.
Shikai - We would like you to limit yourself to one ability. Almost every canon character in Bleach has one ability. We are somewhat lenient, and may allow two or three. Some exceptions may be made, depending upon the abilities themselves, and the one who is reviewing the application.
Bankai - The same as above.
Hollow Powers - Remember that your Inner Hollow will also have these abilities when they take control of your character. Thus, the standard powers can be expressed here, like Cero, or the standard increase of normal abilities; reflexes, strength, speed, agility, etc. Again, do not say for one ability that all your stats are increased, and another, you can do a bunch of other crazy stuff. If you would like the standard increase of ALL stats, then you should limit the next ability, or simply keep it as that.
Inner Hollow Abilities - Sometimes, when an inner hollow takes over, it's possible for another ability or two to pop up. HOWEVER; this should not be another section for you to just start adding more abilities. This section is more for creativity. For example; Ichigo's inner hollow uses the cloth wrapping to attack, whereas Ichigo does not. An attack like that can be listed here. Normally, simple attacks like that can add up to three or so here, but if it is an actual 'ability,' than it should be limited to one or two at MAX.
Remember; the stronger you make your Vizard, the more we will expect out of your application as a whole.
Skill Level
As stated in the application, there should only be TWO levels that are labeled as Advance. For Canons, there are some acceptation. You may feel free to ask a mod, or state a note in your application, if you have any questions regarding this section.
History
For original characters, it would highly depend upon your race. Quincy and Humans would have a limited history, obviously being up to about 100 years or so to cover. Birth, parents, childhood, maturity/puberty, teenage years, adult life, schooling, friends, training, etc. Everything in terms of what goes on in one's life should be placed here. Now, that's not to say that you should be writing epic novels. However, key points, like the first time your character witnessed a spirit, or had their spiritual abilities discovered should be listed; key points in one's history and so forth.
For Shinigami, it's expected for a player to describe their character's history in full, however, their previous life as a human is certainly not needed, as they will be impossible to be remembered. Nevertheless, the same can be stated for Shinigami as stated above; birth, parents, childhood, schooling, etc. Things that can be added is the discovery of their Zanpakuto, graduating the Academy, their first initial step into a Squad, any friends they may have made, NPCs and such. We recommend keeping Canon character activity to a minimum, as it could create a conflict with a player who currently plays a Canon to recognize your Original Character as someone he or she already knows through your history. Arrancar, you can start off with the birth of your Hollow, and their first step into becoming a Menos, or an evolved Hollow. For Vizards, a bit more can be added, describing how they acquired their Hollow mask. Please, try to be original in this aspect.
Seven Day, One Week Rule
Any application that holds a review by a moderation staff will have seven days to make the proper editing needed and reply with a statement stating that they have done so. This is to help keep the flow of constant applications that we have on a daily basis under control, as old applications that have been abandoned have been coming to fill up the boards recently.
This also applies to Works in Progress. Any application that has not held an update for seven days will be assumed to have been abandoned or forgotten.
Any application as such will be locked and moved to Archives. Should you wish to retrieve your old application, you must PM a staff member with the link to your application in the Archives folder.
This rule is effective immediately, 10/24/2009
Rules for Updating your Character's Application
All applications will now be locked upon acceptance to prevent application tampering beyond the view of the moderation staff. Should you feel the need to edit something within your application, i.e., something minimal that would not effect the character's power tier, you will need to contact a staff member in order to do so. You must first receive permission by a staff member if you wish to make minor changes to your application. If they are considered more than minimal, you will have to apply for a character upgrade, which means, applying for your character all over again. (More on this is listed below).
These changes are limited to the following:
- Name - Age (only slightly; maximum of 50 year difference) - History (only slightly; no major differences from accepted version) - Personality (only slightly; no major differences from accepted version) - Appearance (only slightly; no major overhaul) - Shikai/Release Phrase
Rules for Applying for a Character Upgrade
All applicants will be limited to ONE Character Upgrade PER 3 Months. This is effective the moment the Upgrade's decision has been discussed. Even if you are denied the upgrade, you must wait another three months before you can apply once again, after the initial date of the Staff Member's last post.
Character Upgrades are a privilege to members to help build their character not only in strength, but in personality and character as well. Throughout stories, characters naturally develop, and as such, we allow Original Characters to hold minor upgrades, i.e., learning Bankai.
Guide Lines
- You MUST Make a new application for your character as you would if you were making a new character all together. - Please place a link at the bottom of the application, under the Sample Post Section, to your old profile. - Please differentiate the changes you wish to make (i.e., color changes). - You MUST abide by the Powers FAQ rules, as well as all normal rules of the board. Character upgrades should not give you reason to suddenly over-stack your character.
Helpful Hints
Involve your Character in story lines BEFORE applying for an upgrade. The more stories your character is involved in, the more likely they will be expected to develop. The less active you are, the less likely you will receive an upgrade.[/blockquote]
Last Edit: Dec 7, 2009 20:44:03 GMT -5 by Shinigami Kyra
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Oct 22, 2009 21:14:52 GMT -5
Powers Guide and FAQ
Hello! We, the staff of this board feel this FAQ is necessary to help you, the hopeful Human, Shinigami, Vizard, Arrancar, or possibly some variation of those groups (I.E. A simple Hollow) create...
POWERS!
Yes! The stuff many love, and crave, wand want more of! The ability to have aid in combat, and enjoy battle! You know who you are!
Unfortunately, some, but not all, lack the common sense to make powers that aren't power-play/Godmode. I.E you make powers that make your character unstoppable, or close to it.
Bear with me, this will belong, but worth the read! Before we begin the list of powers you cannot have, I offer this sound advice.
Think, yes, THINK about the people you're going to be fighting, and how they will feel when faced with your character.
You're likely asking yourself:
"Why would I give a crap about the people I'm just going to own with my powers that make me near unstoppable?!!"
The answer is simple!
1:First, and foremost if your powers are deemed too powerful they simply won't be allowed, and your application will be forced to be changed, or denied.
2: Imagine you're someone else's character that doesn't have godmode powers that make them near unstoppable. Now imagine you'll be fighting your creation. Would you want to fight someone with the powers of the person you created? If the answer is no, then why would anyone else wanna fight your character?
Exaaactly! You realized it, didn't you? If you're too powerful no one will want to fight your character! Their reasons are their own, but it boils down to simply this: you're not going to get fights, and you're stuck playing with yourself, or doing solely what the board is geared more towards. Playing your character outside of combat, and developing their character!!
Heaven forbid that you murder machines, corpse junkies, and cold hearted killers never get to fight!
So you can relax! No one is going to start pumping out disposable characters that you can slaughter, nor will most try and trump your character with a new character of their own geared solely to kill yours.
This board isn't about the never ending arms race to defeat one another. Again, this board is about life, and character development in every facet, not just becoming more powerful. Combat is only a part of that life, not the end all, be all.
Locked Powers
These powers are completely unable to be applied for. They are too easy to be manipulated into being 'OP' material, and will not be accepted for abilities or powers in any application.
Creation/Manipulation of Matter and Anti-Matter --Creating a simple weapon out of nothing is fine, but nothing like making bricks appear in peoples lungs.
Immortality --This means you can't be unable to die or unable to die unless killed in a certain way.
Power over life and death. --This means that you can't suddenly make people die or resurrect them among other things.
Power to use other people's powers.
Mind-Reading --This is to prevent people from mentally going into a person's head and reading all their secrets like an open book.
Time Powers --No abilities over time, or quickening your movements i.e., super speed. See Super Speed for more details.
Summons --When we say summons, we mean things like Final Fantasy summons. Things that come in, deal a crap-load of damage, and poof away.
Photographic Reflexes --Seeing an action and instantly being able to copy it perfectly.
Power Negation --Being able to make another character's power completely useless.
Super Speed --Shunpo, Sonido, and Hirenkyaku are the only means of using a variation of 'super speed.' Having an ability that trumps this is not acceptable.
Interracial Abilities/Powers --Quincy can never use Shinigami or Hollow abilities, and vice versa. Abilities are strictly for the races they were made for.
Necromancy --No bringing souls back from the dead. Once someone dies, they are dead, unless otherwise determined by a specific storyline, or administrator's approval.
Illusions --This steps into Aizen's territory, and can be easily abused; as such, it is unapproved for an ability.
Direct Copies or Clones --This ability has been a common one. No 'shadow clones.'
Creatively Locked Powers
These are abilities that are not specifically locked, but will take a some originality into obtaining. Specifying a limit to each ability would also aid in getting these types of abilities approved.
Healing --You can heal yourself, you can heal others, but it can't be done instantly, or by any means quickly. You're not going to heal as fast as Ichigo, or Ulquiorra. Nowhere near as fast.
Energy Absorbing --In short, this needs a serious limiter. One can perhaps absorb some small attacks, but as stated above, a limiter is heavily needed to obtain an ability like this. Energy absorbing on the level of a Bount to rip the spirit particles out of stuff to become stronger, or heal yourself, etc. won't fly. You can, however, absorb power to redirect it later. There has to be concrete limits to this though! You're not going to absorb a lot of power at once, never mind the attacks of someone stronger than you. You're not going to send out accumulated power+ your own like Nel, either.
Poison --This ability requires a heavy limit. Stating you have abilities similar to Mayuri won't fly, considering he's pretty much the master of poison.
Multi-Theme/Elements --This requires an obvious limit. Two elements are rare to find in any Zanpakuto, or Arrancar ability. Thus, it would require a good limit, as well as a good application overall. Originality is always the key.
Telekinesis --This power can be used on inanimate objects only, and of course, with certain weight limitations. Obviously, we're looking for a bit of originality with this ability.
Zanpakuto Types (Mostly for Shinigami and Vizard)
Melee-Type Zanpakutō: Are typically designed for various forms of armed melee combat rather than magic-based abilities.
Kidō-Type Zanpakutō: Are designed around a special ability rather than close combat potential.*
*Kido Altering Zanpakuto powers/abilities will no longer be accepted. Read more on this at the end of the Bankai Section.
Projectile-Type Zanpakutō: When released separate into many air based blades that the owner can control freely.
Defense-Type Zanpakutō: Are designed around defensive capability with little or no offense.
Elemental-Type Zanpakutō: A large amount of the Zanpakutō are classified by elements, generally utilizing their respective elements as forms of attack. (It could be said that elemental zanpakutō are all Kidō-type which have an element based as noted by Kenpachi Zaraki and Maki Ichinose during their battle, but as this was only mentioned in the anime Episode 98 it cannot be stated as a fact.)
--Fire-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to manipulate fire for various forms of attack or defense.
--Ice-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to manipulate ice for various forms of attack or defense.
--Earth-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to manipulate the ground for various forms of attack or defense.
--Wind-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to manipulate wind for various forms of attack or defense.
--Water-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to manipulate water (and related effects) for various forms of attack or defense.
--Plant-Type Zanpakutō: Designed for the manipulation of plant growth for offense or defense.
--Light-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to manipulate light for various effects.
--Poison-Type Zanpakutō: Designed to administer poison as a form of attack.
--Electricity-Type Zanpakutō: Designed for manipulation of lightning for offense or defense.
Sub-Types
There are a few "sub-types" of Zanpakutō classification such as:
Constant-Release Type: Zanpakutō that are always in Shikai form because of the strength of their wielder's spiritual energy, or, more importantly, their lack of control over it. --These will not be approved by any means. Zaraki Kenpachi and Kurosaki Ichigo are the only known people to have a Constant-Release type. As such for this rarity, no other applicant will have a constant-release type Zanpakuto.
Dual-Blade Type: Zanpakutō that feature more than one blade in Shikai release. It is decidedly rare for one to possess such a weapon and therefore it says a lot about the uniqueness of its wielder's spiritual power. --This is more creatively locked, but still almost equally as hard to obtain. As stated above, it is very rare for someone to hold two Zanpakuto; either of separate or single spiritual entity. Because of this rarity, it will require the staff to both know and understand that the character applicant will not abuse the ability to wield with this power, but also understand the responsibilities and characteristics of dual Zanpakuto. It would require a beyond excellent application, and one who has proven themselves prior to the board that they can handle such a rarity.
Shikai
The Shikai (始解, Initial Release) is the second form (or first "upgraded" form) available to a Zanpakutō. To activate it, the Shinigami needs to learn the name of their Zanpakutō. This is not as easy as simply picking a name, as the living spirit of the Zanpakutō already has its own name. Therefore, the Shinigami must be able to communicate and harmonize with their Zanpakutō effectively, which requires being able to speak to the spirit within its world.
Achievement of the Shikai is a mark of control of a Zanpakutō, and it appears to be a requirement for advancement within the Shinigami ranks, as presumably most seated officers are capable of Shikai. It is also required in order to achieve the rank of lieutenant; it is a requirement most captains look for. After first learning the Zanpakutō's name, the Shikai can be performed at will simply by speaking a command followed by the Zanpakutō's name. The commands vary between users and range from a simple imperative verb to a short poem. They often relate to the Zanpakutō's signature ability, or hint at the nature of its spirit. This step may be bypassed by expert Shinigami who have learned how to use their Bankai. In rare cases, a Zanpakutō, once released, will remain in that state indefinitely. This is due to the vast amount of spiritual energy the possessor has that cannot be finely controlled upon initial generation of their Zanpakutō, as such the Zanpakutō is described as a constant released form. The only known Shinigami with Full-Time Release Zanpakutō are Ichigo Kurosaki and Kenpachi Zaraki. By the nature of this type of Zanpakutō, a Shinigami with a constant release form doesn't need a release command nor is it necessary to even know their Zanpakutō's name. However, not knowing the name of one's zanpakutō can put you at a disadvantage in terms of power against those who do know their Zanpakutō's name.
Once the Shikai is activated, the Zanpakutō will change form to access whatever special abilities it is capable of. The special abilities of the Zanpakutō, like the Zanpakutō itself, have specific names that usually must be announced to fully activate the effect. As Ichigo's Zanpakutō, Zangetsu, explains, knowing the name of an attack and not knowing it makes a very drastic difference in the amount of power that attack utilizes.
Unreleased
Most Zanpakutō look like regular katana, with slight variations between them as one would expect between different swords. There variations are commonly:
* Katana (刀): The term katana may be applied to the standard-size, moderately-curved, Japanese sword with a blade length of greater than 60 cm (23.6 inches). The katana is characterized by its distinctive appearance: a curved, slender, single-edged blade, a circular or squared guard, and a grip long enough to accommodate two hands.
* Wakizashi (脇差 (わきざし); meaning "side insertion"): A short blade between 30 and 60 cm (12 and 24 inches), with an average of 50 cm (20 inches). It is similar to but shorter than a katana, and usually shorter than the kodachi (小太刀 (こだち); meaning "small sword"). The wakizashi was usually worn together with the katana. When worn together the pair of swords were called daishō, which translates literally as "large and small". The katana was often called the long sword and the wakizashi the companion sword.
* Nodachi (野太刀 (のだち); meaning "field sword"): The nodachi was more difficult to wield due to its size and weight. The length of the nodachi's hilt varied between twelve to thirteen inches (30 to 33 centimeters). Its cutting capability and range exceeds that of a katana, due to its weight and size.
Shikai Abilities
A maximum of Three abilities may be granted. Offensive, defensive, or neutral abilities. There are, of course, limitations on these abilities. Just like any other power, a limitation must be placed on your abilities. Otherwise, we will assume that you are attempting to create an overpowered character. Most to almost all Shikai that are known in the Bleach universe hold changes only to the blades themselves.
Bankai
The Bankai (卍解, Final Release) is the second and final upgraded form of a Zanpakutō. To achieve it, one must be able to materialize their Zanpakutō's spirit in the real world and subjugate it, giving the Shinigami full reign over the zanpakutō's power.
According to Yoruichi Shihōin, the power of Bankai typically increases a Shinigami's power by a factor five to ten. Because such an act usually takes 100 or more years of combat experience beyond attaining Shikai for even the strongest Shinigami to achieve, it is rare and almost exclusively limited to the thirteen Captains in the Gotei 13. Byakuya Kuchiki claims that among the four noble houses of Soul Society, only one person in several generations will be born with the spiritual power necessary to achieve it. Even with this, several years of special training are needed to achieve Bankai, plus the experience needed to master it. Ichigo Kurosaki and Kisuke Urahara are the only known individuals that have mastered Bankai through a far shorter, yet much more dangerous method. Using a special device created by Urahara, which forcibly materializes a Zanpakutō spirit (thus bypassing a large portion of the training), they were able to attain their Bankai within three days instead of the normal hundreds of years. After successfully testing the device and achieving Bankai, Urahara stated that training by using this method for more than three consecutive days could prove to be fatal, which is why Ichigo was also forced to achieve his own Bankai within three days.
Besides Ichigo Kurosaki, the only non-captain Shinigami known to have achieved Bankai are Renji Abarai (Lieutenant), who finalized his training at about the same time as Ichigo (although he did not use Urahara's device, but rather perfected it while Ichigo was training), and Ikkaku Madarame (3rd Seat), who did so through his own years of training.
After a Shinigami is able to materialize and subjugate their Zanpakutō's spirit, the Zanpakutō can assume its final and most powerful form. Unlike the Shikai, there is no command phrase to activate Bankai, though the user will usually say "Bankai" beforehand.
There is no 'age minimum,' but we do expect an average of at least 100 to 150 for Shikai, and double that for Bankai. Of course, there are obvious exceptions, but acquiring both abilities MUST be listed in the history.
Bankai Abilities
A Zanpakutō's Bankai is often a manifestation of the spirit itself, usually creating a massive creature or a powerful effect to aid the user in battle (Ichigo's Bankai is an exception, becoming more compact instead). The Bankai itself will receive a different name in addition to the ordinary Zanpakutō (for example Ichigo's Zangetsu becomes Tensa Zangetsu, Byakuya's Senbonzakura becomes Senbonzakura Kageyoshi). Certain Shinigami also change with their Zanpakutō, gaining clothing similar to what their Zanpakutō's spirit form looks like. Most Zanpakutō will also gain additional special abilities, or a more enhanced version of the usual one. Like with the Shikai, most of these abilities have an associated name. Maintaining the Bankai is taxing for the wielder, and it is difficult to maintain it for long periods of time for most Shinigami, with the exception of Ichigo, as it becomes more compact, thus allowing him to hold it for long periods of time.
The power that comes with Bankai tends to be similar to the Shikai's ability/theme but amplifies it to much greater levels of power. Some simply increase the original ability, such as Byakuya's blade count multiplied, or Sajin Komamura, who instead of only getting pieces of the giant, summons the giant itself. While other Bankai follow the theme of the sword, such as Renji's remains a whip while containing baboon and cobra features, or Mayuri summons a monster with the same face (Jizō) on his trident, but kept the theme of poison that came from the monsters breath.
That being said, it is very rare for the Shinigami to actually acquire any sort of physical changes. The only appearance chances that should happen in Bankai, if any, would be gaining some unimportant piece of clothing that materializes in accordance to one's Zanpakutō spirit. Gaining any sort of armor, or actual physical changes is not accepted and will no longer be tolerated in applications.
Any physical changes that are wanted MUST be a bankai ABILITY, not part of the bankai transformation itself. Do not include physical alterations in the Bankai description, and expect us to overlook it.
*Kido Altering Zanpakuto
We have been receiving a lot of applications where people would like Zanpakuto that enhance their Kido, not only by double, but by triple. This in and of itself will no longer be acceptable. If you think of it this way; Hado 30... tripled would be a level 90 spell. Hado 90? That's off the scale! That's FAR too powerful. A level 90 Hado spell, with a skipped incantation by Aizen was enough to bring Captain Komamura down.
There is a reason why Kido is not mastered by everyone. In fact, Lieutenant Momo Hinamori, despite being well known for her manipulation of Kido, as well as both combining and skipping incantations, is only known as an Expert; not a Master Level Kido user. Kido is a demanding ability to have, and can wear down in the spiritual power of a person. It's supposed to be that way, and not to be tampered with. Those who want their OCs to suddenly be Kido Masters with their Zanpakuto, as well as have ridiculous Swordsmanship skills? No. It will no longer be accepted.
Kido is an intensely powerful tool used by Shinigami, and Vizards. It has many elements behind it, many functions, and it can easily be abused. We as staff see this potential and thus have decided to deny Kido amplifying abilities.
Kido can be channel through weapons (I.E. As in Shuhei's fight with Allon), but it will not be enhanced, made easier to cast, etc.
Resurrección
Arrancar possess Zanpakutō and can perform a technique similar to a Shinigami's release called Resurrección (帰刃(レスレクシオン). Unlike a Shinigami's Zanpakutō however, an Arrancar's Zanpakutō is simply the Arrancar's Hollow powers sealed into the shape of a weapon. By releasing their Zanpakutō in the same manner as a Shinigami, an Arrancar can release his or her Hollow powers. Most known Resurrección give the Arrancar user an animal-like appearance. While most unreleased Shinigami Zanpakutō take the form of a katana or wakizashi, there is a significantly broader range for Arrancar (such as a sai, axe, a more fictionalized weapon like Nnoitra's Zanpakutō, or a (piece of a) body, like Aaroniero Arruruerie's Zanpakutō, or Lilynette Gingerback).
Because their powers are sealed in their Zanpakutō, an Arrancar's release will usually transform their body into a Hollow-like form, allowing them to use their abilities freely. This form usually reflects what the Arrancar looked like as a Hollow, although to highly varying degrees. A Resurrección restores an Arrancar to its "true" form, resulting in significantly various increases in speed, strength, stamina, durability and spiritual power, as well as allowing access to both more powerful variations of previous techniques and completely new abilities. Arrancar normally only return to their human form when they reseal their Hollow powers; doing so without resealing, though possible, is a permanent change comparable to amputating a limb. There are two reasons Arrancar go through such trouble to seal their power: it allows them to maintain human form and to conserve their power in times of inactivity.
In most cases, Arrancar "lose" their Zanpakutō after performing their Resurrección. By which, they no longer carry any kind of one or two handed weapon - the sword is replaced by other natural weapons such as claws (Shawlong Kūfang), pincers (Findor Carias), tendrils (Szayel Aporro Granz), or just plain fists (Choe Neng Poww). However, there are some exceptions - nine to be exact; seven out of these nine have been Espada.
1. Coyote Starrk has a pair of black pistols. He is the 1st Espada. 2. Barragan Luisenbarn uses a double-headed axe with attached chains. So far, its the only weapon that vaguely resembles his Zanpakutō in its pre-released form. He is the 2nd Espada. 3. Tia Harribel uses a pata-like weapon shaped like a shark tooth. She is the 3rd Espada. 4. Nelliel Tu Oderschvank uses a white double-sided lance. She is the former 3rd Espada. 5. Ulquiorra Cifer carries a white "spike-blade" that he can seemingly generate from his body, which can also be used as a projectile if necessary. He also possesses a second released form, but he loses the weapon. He is the 4th Espada. 6. Nnoitra Jiruga can wield up to six separate scythes with yellow tassels on each end. He is the 5th Espada. 7. Aaroniero Arruruerie wields Kaien Shiba's Nejibana alongside his own octopus-like Zanpakutō, GlotonerÃa. He is the 9th Espada. 8. Mila-Rose uses a large two-handed sword after her release. She is a Fracción. 9. Rudobōn carries a bolt-like staff in place of his Zanpakutō. It is unknown if the staff has the ability to cut. He is the leader and creator of the Exequias.
As Ulquiorra Cifer, the 4th Espada, has demonstrated there is a second form of Resurrección called "Segunda Etapa"; however, he claims to be the only Espada with this ability, and that even Aizen had no knowledge of the transformation. Since he states it as another level of power, it can be assumed that any Arrancar can achieve it.
All applicants for the Segunda Etapa will be denied, as it is only a Canon transformation, and very little information aside from what Ulquiorra has given is presented.
Human Limitations
Humans have a specific limit to their powers. As such, we'll allow for some originality on powers, but as stated with everything, there should be a heavy limit to their abilities and powers. This will be on an application process, meaning the Moderation Staff will judge which powers may be too much for humans per application.
Commonly Asked Themes (Aka: The Mary Sue Section)
Wings We can understand wings for humans. Humans can't really fly. Every other group can, some how, though, so they do not need wings. If you have wings for purposes other than flight, or trying to look badass, that's awesome! Work wings into something meaningful beyond aesthetics, and you've got some redemption, but because they're so popular, the cool factor is low for wings.
Scythes We see a lot of people wanting scythes. We don't have much against them, but scythes are pretty commonly sought, so you won't be the first, or last.
Multi-Spirit Zanpakuto One Spirit per Sword; not two, not five, not a million. Zanpakuto are simply a manifestation of the Shinigami themselves, and normally, manifest into a single entity. Only with rare canons to they hold more than one spiritual entity, or a secondary persona.
Dual-Wielding Zanpakuto Odds are if you want one, your application won't be good enough to merit wielding more than 1 Zanpakuto be they part of a matched set, or 2 different Zanpakuto with 2 different spirits.
Dual wielding includes any 2 weapons that have hilts/grips on them. Swords of all sorts, axes, hammers, dual fans, daggers, knives, spears, lances, etc. even if they're connected by something.
Now, there are ways where the staff will allow a person to have 2+ weapons.
1: If they're gauntlets with short blades on them, items like claws. Metal guards on a person's body that work like gauntlets, or kicking amplifiers.
2: If anything other than the Zanpakuto is mundane. I.E. Stark's sword. It's simple steel. It's not special. It's just a weapon you'd pick up anywhere. It's not charged, it's not anything Zanpakuto like. It has to be within reason though.
3: If you use your Zanpakuto's scabbard as a weapon, which is handled on a case by case basis. If you make it into an axe, or a sword, odds are it'll be shot down!
4: If both ends of the weapon can be used as an attack, Like Ikkaku's Shikai, and bankai, or a weighted chain, or bladed nunchucks, or a dire weapon (Both ends of the weapon are bladed).
Assumed Abilities
Shinigami, Vizard, Quincy, and Arrancar are assumed to have the following abilities in one way, or another: Flight The ability to sense spiritual pressure Their equivalents to Flash Step Increases in physical ability with each transformation/release.
Arrancar are assumed to be able to use, aside from the before mentioned: Garganta
Shinigami are assumed to be able to use, aside from the before mentioned: The gate to the Soul Society
Vizard are assumed to be able to use, aside from the before mentioned: Mask Shield: This ability allows them to fight in a berserk state that allows them to not feel the pain of injuries
Humans have no assumed powers.
Common Mistakes
There's one more thing that needs to be covered as it's a common problem with powers!
We, the staff, will commonly ask for more details in your powers. If we do that does NOT MEAN ADD MORE POWER, it means to explain how the power works, what it looks like, the range of it, the diameter, the -weaknesses- of these powers.
WEAKNESSES?!! Why, YES! We need to know the limitations, and shortcomings of one's powers. We need to know if they tire the user when utilized, if there's a time limit, etc. Use your imagination to make creative weaknesses! Adding weaknesses will make it easier to accept them. Especially if you want a particularly powerful ability.
The powers section needs to be detailed, yet, preferably, -simple-.
In the end of all of this, you're likely asking yourself this.
"But Staff! How do I get stronger?!"
The answer is two fold, mainly.
1: You make a great application! You don't leave us wondering about anything about your character! No wondering about why their personality is the way it is, why they look like the way they look, what their Zanpakuto looks like in all forms, what the powers do, the events of their history, and what the heck is going on in the RP sample!
Details are key! The more details you add the more likely you are to get a higher spot in the power Tier. Naturally your powers have to fit in the guidelines above, too. If you make a good application the tier will likely counteract what ever fears you might have of being weak.
We like passion, and effort to go into every application!
2: Once you're approved you make RP Threads for others, and contribute to the site with excellent posts (At least a few paragraphs long!) and don't break rules! Doing this will increase your chances that a staff member will approach you and offer you more power.
Alternatively, you can apply your character once more with the changes you want. They, too, must be in reason, and you will be tethered to the original application so promotions will not be guaranteed as you want them. If the upgrade application is denied, however, you will not lose the current version of your character.
Neither method will be quick. Only made more likely with activity. Post counts no longer count towards your upgrade time. It's all about quality over quantity.
Power Tier
The Power Tiers will be given in accordance to the application. There are two ways in which a staff member determines a Power Tier.
1. Overall Abilities and Powers of the Character. --This doesn't mean to stack your character with abilities in order to obtain a more stronger character. Someone with general limitations and an obvious sense that they will not Godmod will result in a higher Tier level.
2. Player's overall production of the Application. --This translates to the actual work that was spent in the application. The more research you do for your character, the better. The more work you put in, the more the staff will understand how determined you are to play this character; not only that, but if you work with the staff in an according fashion when fixing your application to fit the standards, then it will show us that you are dedicated in simply playing the character, and not simply wanting a strong character.
Of course, these are just the two 'MAIN' things we tend to focus on overall. There are little aspects that we also make certain to review, as apart of the full reviewing process. If you have any questions on this, please ask the staff member who is reviewing your application in the application thread for more details.
Last Edit: Nov 30, 2009 20:27:55 GMT -5 by Rebel Raven
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Nov 5, 2009 18:45:42 GMT -5
Kido Guide and FAQ
Welcome to the Kido FAQ!
This is a rough draft to give an idea of what one can expect when using a character who has the ability to use Kido. There are a lot of mechanics that go into the idea of Kido, especially when it comes to fighting and battle-based threads. We will be going over several aspects of Kido, including but not limited to;
- Who can use Kido? - How often can one use Kido? - How skilled do you need to be to produce Kido without an incantation? - Can I make up my own Kido? - Can my Arrancar use Kido? - And much more
1. Kido Basics 101
Kido Mechanics
Each spell is graded on a scale from 1 to 99, the latter being the most powerful and the most difficult to perform. The scale is a measure of difficulty, as there can be multiple spells which share the same level. To use Kidō, a Shinigami must recite the specific incantation for the spell, which is often long and requires a few seconds to speak.
This weakness can be negated by Shinigami capable of using Eishohaki, a technique that releases Kidō without a spirit chant. While it decreases the time needed to release the Kidō, it drastically weakens the spell[2] While anyone well versed in Kidō can use this technique, it is most effective when done by a skilled practitioner, otherwise the spell could utterly fail. The most skilled experts are capable of using this technique to amazing effect.
The power of a spell relies on the power of the user, as even a low-level spell can be utterly devastating when utilized by a high-class Shinigami.
Kidō Types
There are three main types of Kidō: binding spells, destruction spells, and healing spells.
* Bakudō (Binding spells): are a broad category of defensive spells which block or repel attacks or freezes enemies in place.
* Hadō (Destructive spells): refer to offensive spells which harm an enemy or cause damage.
* Healing spells: do not have known names, numbers, or incantations to cast, and simply heal the target. As the user holds his hands above the patients wounds, his/her palms glow with green spiritual energy to facilitate healing.
Kidō Combat
Though Kidō is commonly used by Shinigami in combat, it has several weaknesses that make it difficult to use for that purpose. All of the spells have fairly long incantations and require concentration; because of this, the person using the Kidō leaves themself open to attack during the duration of the incantation. In addition, if an opponent is familiar with Kidō, there is the possibility of them identifying the spell by its incantation before it can even be used. However, highly skilled Kidō users can use various techniques to counter these weaknesses, such as Eishohaki and Double Incantation, which involves mixing the incantations of two or more Kidō spells together to save time and confuse ones opponent. A rarer use of Kidō is mixing various spells (such as Bakudō and Hadō together) for unique effects, which is the mark of skilled user. Kidō is commonly seen used in instances of surprise attacks rather then all out assaults, being most effective when one's opponent doesn't see it coming.
Kidō List
A proper list for the board of all types of Kido techniques can be found here:
Shinigami and Vizards are the only ones who can use Kido from this list. However, that's not to say that Arrancar cannot produce Kido of their own. We'll get into that a little later.
2. Reiryoku
Reiryoku (霊力, Spiritual Power) is a power aligned with the spiritual sensitivity and willpower of the user. It is used by Shinigami to provide power for their various feats and to effectively channel the powers of their Zanpakutō. It can also be used to cast Kidō, magic spells created by the Shinigami. Reiryoku can even be coalesced into a physical form and thrown or shot as a projectile. As a display of potency, spiritual beings have the ability to incapacitate the opponent's movement and simultaneously frighten them, by means of dispersing Reiryoku into the air. The aforementioned ability is known as Reiatsu (霊圧, Spiritual Pressure), possessing power that could be literally felt within the atmosphere.
Overview
Every spiritual being and every human has a certain amount of Reiryoku. If this amount is higher than a certain degree, it grants the person superhuman abilities. Those with such an above-average level of Spiritual Energy are very rare among living humans. It seems to be that the most basic ability that humans with a higher level of Reiryoku have is the ability to see ghosts: Pluses, Shinigami and Hollow alike. Shinigami are essentially departed souls in Soul Society with very high levels of Reiryoku who receive special training to utilize their powers. Hollows, if they make active use of their Reiryoku, usually do it to catch their prey or to evade Shinigami more effectively, the extreme case being the Arrancar, who have an amount of Reiryoku equal to Shinigami, and are able to use it just as efficiently in combat.
Spiritual Power
This level of spiritual power corresponds to those possessing an average level of spiritual power. This level of power is common among those of significant spiritual awareness and may even possess powers of their own but the power levels can vary among individuals. This is also a common level of power for a regular seated and non seated member of the Gotei 13 or lesser power individuals.
High Spiritual Energy
This level of spiritual power corresponds to those possessing an above average amount of spiritual power, which is finely controlled. This level of spiritual power is common amongst those of an average lieutenant rank.
Great Spiritual Energy
This level of spiritual power corresponds to those possessing a large amount of spiritual power which is finely controlled. This level of spiritual power is common amongst those of an average Captain rank.
Immense Spiritual Energy
This level of spiritual power corresponds to those possessing a huge amount of spiritual power which is finely controlled. This level of spiritual power is reflected in its ability to enhance a user during combat as well as its ability to affect the surrounding environment on a controlled level, allowing the wielder to use it in combat to startling degrees.
Vast Spiritual Energy
This level of spiritual power corresponds to those possessing a huge amount of spiritual energy which is wild and untamed. This level of spiritual power has a possible tendency to leak from a person or when released can affect the surrounding area in a destructive way. Those of this level have no real masterful control over their spiritual power, as it can effect those around them unintentionally.
Sensing Reiryoku
Another basic ability that beings with higher-than-average levels of Reiryoku have that they are capable of sensing other spiritual beings without relying on their five basic senses. This is possible because every spiritual being emits a certain amount of his/her own Reiryoku, which can be sensed. This ability apparently requires some innate skill, but can be increased with training. Ichigo Kurosaki can sense the spiritual energy of others very poorly (mainly because his own abundant supply drowns out that of others preventing it), but he can sense a few of his close friends (most notably Sado), and he gradually becomes more adept in this skill.
Every spiritual being has a unique pattern to his/her emitted Reiryoku. One can recognize the pattern of his friends and acquaintances after some time, being able to sense their presence and their physical and mental state from relatively great distances. Sudden changes in Reiryoku pattern can mean that the person in question is in great stress (e. g. fighting) or has received a grave wound.
Different types of spiritual beings have greatly different patterns, the Reiryoku pattern of hollows for example is easily distinguishable from that of Pluses or a Shinigami. The Vizard are a special case, because when their hollow mask is donned, their pattern of Reiryoku rather resembles to that of a Hollow, in contrast to that of a Shinigami.
There are a few possibilities to block Reiryoku. One is the usage of Death Stone, a special kind of stone that completely blocks Reiryoku from both sides. The walls of Seireitei, and the walls of the Tower of Punishment are built from this stone. As Death Stone blocks even the strongest Reiryoku emissions, it does not just inhibit the sensing of one's Reiryoku pattern, but effectively closes out most unwanted visitors in the case of Seireitei, and prevents the escape of even the strongest prisoner from the mentioned tower. This stone also prevents the ability to gather Reishi underneath your feet to walk in the air whist within Seireitei.
Another means of blocking Reiryoku is a special garment invented by Kisuke Urahara, which completely hides any emission of Reiryoku coming from the wearer, enabling him/her to escape from somewhere or approach someone while being impossible to notice via sheer sensing of Reiryoku.
Controlling Reiryoku
The aforementioned emission of Spiritual Energy is a common and natural phenomenon, but a spiritual being can also control the degree of this emission, this usually requires a certain amount of skill and training. By completely blocking his/her Reiryoku "pouring out", one can completely hide his/her presence from other spiritual beings and spiritually aware humans. On the other hand, amplifying this emission is known as Spiritual Pressure, and is considered a show of force, or even an attack in itself, and it can indeed paralyze opponents, and cause direct damage to the surrounding individuals and inanimate objects alike.
Aside from controlling the amount of emitted Reiryoku, most spiritual beings and some of Ichigo's spiritually-aware human friends are capable of performing many superhuman feats with the help of their Reiryoku. These feats usually require a certain level of concentration, and they tend to tire the person after some time, or after performing some of them in quick succession. It is also known, that after excessive usage of Reiryoku, Shinigami and other dwellers of Soul Society need food to replenish their strength, while on the other hand, they do not need to eat anything to sustain themselves during everyday activities.
* Aside from Spiritual Pressure, Shinigami and Vizard generally use their Reiryoku to o cast spells - Kidō o increase their speed and their height of jump, or float in the air - Hohō o use the special abilities of their Zanpakutō o increase their physical strength and power * Hollows and Arrancar have other abilities, Cero and Bala, these are condensed Reiryoku fired towards the opponent. In the case of the former it is done in a flamethrower-like manner, in the latter case, the fired Reiryoku is bullet-like. Hollows and Arrancar can also increase their mobility like the Shinigami above, and the usage of their Zanpakutō also relies on the usage of Reiryoku, albeit in a different manner. Hierro is also a move that uses an Arrancar's Reiryoku for defense.
* Quincies can also increase their mobility, and form a weapon (usually a bow) with their Spiritual Energy. In their usage of Reiryoku however, there is a fundamental difference from spiritual beings - they primarily rely on collecting reishi from the environment, and use this collected reishi to fight. They can even collect and store Spiritual Energy in various special items.
3. Power Tier
Understanding one's Power Tier is the first step in understanding just how many spells your character can learn or produce, and how often. To make things as easy as possible, I have written up the following chart.
Confused still? Well, here comes some more charts!
Weak - +0 Average - +2 Strong - +5
That should be all of them, right? Well, for those who aren't able to keep up, this chart is basically asking for information of your character. Kido-Level is the most important, as it adds the most to the overall number. Oh; what are the numbers for? What do they mean? Well, they're a point system! Will we be making certain that everyone runs by this system? HELL NO! That would bring a Stat System into the mix, and we don't want to do that!
This is a Free Form Role Playing Website, which means, no stats. Still, this table should be used as a rough guideline to let you know who can do what. Now, onto what the numbers mean.
Point System
As stated above, there's a rough guideline point system. Now, let's use my application for Momo as an example.
So, in points, that would be a total of 30 points. Now, what does this indicate? Well, it is your 'Kido Level,' i.e., the amount of spells you can produce before you run out of spiritual energy.
Now, of course, because 'Spiritual Energy' is not simply used for Kido alone, this sample is just for Kido based battles only, which is why it is a rough guide overall.
So, roughly, it takes X amount of points to produce an X level Kido spell. The Guide is mostly used to determine just how high a level of spell your character can use.
Too confusing? Well, let's break it down for an even simpler level of understanding!
1- 35 Medium Level Tier Application 1-75 High Level Tier Application 1-99 Master Level Tier Application
As stated several times, these are just guides. Exceptions to the guide may reveal themselves for storyline purposes.
Obviously, someone who's approved at Mid-Strong will not be producing high level Kido Spells. Anyone approved at Master level can probably dish out low-level spells repeatedly; get the picture?
4. Incantations and Multi-Casting
Kido Spell Incantations; if spoken, produce the spell at full power. Now, only skilled level Kido apprentices can perform such a task. If your character has Kido Advanced, it's likely to say that they can perform Kido spells quickly, without the incantation. Normally, this would weaken the spell, however, doing this is normally faster, and allows for multi-casting.
Incantations
Skipping the Incantation of a spell will, obviously, weaken the spell. Just how weak would it make the spell? Well, it's a judgment call, really. For the most part, you can cut the full strength of the spell by a third or a half, depending on the spell itself.
Why would you want to do something like this? Well, to cast another one quickly, or to take advantage with a quick follow up attack!
Multi-Casting
Multi-casting Kido spells is a very difficult task to accomplish. Only the most skilled Kido Masters are able to accomplish this task (it is noted by Rangiku that Momo combining Kido spells is something of a Mastery Level). As such, this would normally be for Kido-based characters only.
It is perfectly fine to combine spells, or summon more than one Kido spell in a single post. Spamming 8 Kido spells in one post, however, will be considered Godmodding. Thus (as I always state in almost every guide I've made here), you should always remain in contact with the person you are fighting with. Make certain that you discuss your plans with them, so that the other player isn't completely surprised, or does not understand your post.
The most Multi-Casting that has been seen in Bleach, thus far, is about three Kido Spells consecutively, by Rukia during her fight with the 9th Espada. Thus, we will allow only up to three spells per post, unless discussed otherwise by the person you are writing with.
5. Other Races
Arrancar
Arrancar, though they do not have spells, have projectile-based attacks that can be considered their version of Kido. Thus, it would determine how powerful their version of a Cero is, or their Bala.
Thus, someone who is Mid-Level, Strong and an Intermediate with Kido for an Arrancar would have no chance at learning the Gran Ray Cero (at least, not yet).
Types of Kido Spells for Arrancar
Bala (虚弾 (バラ), bara; Spanish for "Bullet", Japanese for "Hollow Bullet") is an Arrancar technique that hardens the user's reiatsu, and releases it from their hand like a powerful bullet. This technique is not as powerful as a Cero, but is about 20 times faster. Its power also varies with the Arrancar and Espada.
Cero (虚閃 (セロ), sero; Spanish for "Zero", Japanese for "Hollow Flash", 'Doom Blast' in the Viz translation) is a form of attack used by Menos, Arrancar and Vizard. Basically an energy blast, it consists of firing a blast of concentrated spirit energy at the target. While in most cases it is fired from the mouth, some Arrancar and Vizard are capable of firing Cero from their hands, fingers and other parts of their bodies. This often requires the user to under take a specific pose, with Starrk being the only exception. The power, force, speed, and blast area of the Cero is dependent on the strength of the user (i.e., the stronger the user, the stronger the attack), and there are some Arrancar and Vizard who have come up with their own variation.
Gran Rey Cero (王虚の閃光, (グラン・レイ・セロ), guran rei sero; Spanish for "Grand King Zero", Japanese for "Royal Hollow Flash") is an extremely potent higher-level Cero, allowed to be used only by the Espada. Gran Rey Cero is performed when an Arrancar draws blood from the Cero firing appendage with their zanpakutō and mixing their blood with their original Cero. The result is a Cero with a much greater attack power, size, speed, and force, as well as a change of color. This Cero is also many times more powerful than a normal Cero, and is capable of disturbing the fabric of space. When fired, it spins like a razor upon release and compress and decompress, due to the sheer speed and raw power. Unlike most Ceros that mainly take the shape of a sphere created by user and released in a huge blast wave, the Gran Rey Cero, when fired, keeps its sphere form, even after being fired in a huge blast wave. It is a drastically potent Cero and Grimmjow claims that only Espada are allowed to use it. This Cero is in fact so overwhelming that one of the only two rules the Espada have, according to Ulquiorra Cifer, is that that they must never use it underneath the dome of Las Noches as the sheer force of just using can cause Las Noches to be destroyed.
Cero Oscuras (黒虚閃 (セロ・オスキュラス), sero osukyurasu; Spanish for "Dark Zero," Japanese for "Black Hollow Flash") or more gramatically correct Cero Oscuro, is a full-powered black Cero that can only be used by Ulquiorra Cifer while in his released state. When using this technique, Ulquiorra Cifer concentrates his vast spiritual energy with only his index finger into an condensed jet-black Cero with great might. The result of being used in his released state is a much greater Cero, possibly rivaling or exceeding even Gran Rey Cero, the ultimate Cero, and has been referred to as a "fully-powered Cero." When fired, it covers any exposed light into absolute pitch darkness. Ulquiorra Cifer told Ichigo Kurosaki "This is an Espada's fully powered Black Cero." The Cero Oscuras's range is vast, and is mighty enough to completely shatter Ichigo Kurosaki's Hollow mask (something Gran Rey Cero couldn't do), critically injuring him in the process, and strong enough to destroy half of the dome over Las Noches.
6. Quincies
Quincies has a variation of Kido as well, called Gintō, or Silver Tubes. Silver tubes (銀筒, gintō) are small silver cylinder capsules that store spiritual energy in a liquid form, and are used by Quincy for spellcasting in the same way that Shinigami use Kidō. Like Kidō, they are activated by calling out various commands
List of Gintō Techniques
Heizen (聖噬 (ハイゼン), haizen; German for "Heating", Japanese for "St. Zei") This technique creates a transparent, rectangular beam of energy from silver tubes which slices through the opponent. It is activated by the command "Feel the wrath of battle and accept this sacred chalice - Sacred Bite!"
Gritz (五架縛 (グリツ), gurittsu; Japanese for "Five Construct Limit") This technique forms a man-sized pentagonal Quincy cross which envelops its target. It is activated by the command "A silver rod strikes the five-fingered stone bed - Quintuple Restraining Frames!"
Wolke (緑杯 (ヴォルコル), vorukōru; German for "Cloud", Japanese for "Green Cup") This technique uses a silver tube to create a large blast. While it may not be intended for use as such, Uryū uses it to cushion the impact of a fall. It is activated by the command "Tilt the goblet to the west - Emerald Grail!"
Sprenger (破芒陣 (シュプレンガ), shupurenga; German for "Explosion", Japanese for "Ripping Grass Formation") This technique uses five Seele Schneiders to create a pentagon-shaped seal, which when activated causes a massive explosion within its borders. When an object or a person stands within the middle of the Pentagon can the placement of the fifth Seele Schneider trap them by wrapping and binding their legs to the ground with dense spirit particles. The Seele Schneiders function as accumulators, gathering the necessary amount of spirit particles to create the explosion. The liquid inside a silver tube acts as the trigger. The preparations for the technique combined with the charging time for the Seele Schneiders make its use in battle impractical unless the user has a partner that can stall to buy time.
7. Custom Kido and Quincy Spells
Customary Kido and Quincy Spells can be applied for at the link below. Please use the proper template, and make certain that you have a character approved before applying. Also; make certain the number that you are applying for (in accordance to Kido) is not already taken.
Please remember that you may only limit yourself to a maximum of three spells per application. Also note that any spell you do, in fact, apply for does not necessarily mean you can or cannot use it. You are simply applying for a Kido Spell to 'exist,' meaning that anyone can use it. Applying for your own, personal Kido spells is not allowed. You may, however, remark that you were the one who created it.
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Nov 5, 2009 18:51:12 GMT -5
Sample Post Guide and FAQ
Within the application, you will find a section at the bottom indicated as Sample Post. As it reads, it should be an introduction of your character and include exactly how you will portray him or her. Basically, this will be the focus of how the staff will determine whether or not do accept, deny, or ask for modifications, as the rest of the information can be easily copied and pasted.
Because we have found that players are having some difficulty in coming up with proper sample posts, I have decided to break it down to the best of my ability.
First and foremost, we strongly recommend writing in third-person, past tense. It is the easiest format to both read and write with.
This sample post should be, at minimum, three paragraphs. As indicated in the link, a full paragraph should include, at very minimum, three sentences. We would like to ask for five-sentence paragraphs.
Dialogue should either be placed at the start or at the end of each paragraph, or in some instances, it can be placed at both the beginning and the end. When a new speaker is indicated, then a new paragraph should be instated. You may add other characters into your sample post, though it is highly recommended that you keep the point of view through your character; do not switch to omniview, i.e., viewing the thoughts of a second character.
That being said, there may be contradictions; if you have a majority of dialogue, then your paragraphs may not be 3-5 sentences a piece. If that is the case, then we ask that you go a bit further, and instead of going 3 paragraphs, lengthen it to 5.
Many things can be stated within a sample post. What should be included is how you will be portraying your character. How he or she will act in certain situations, how he or she feels toward certain characters, or how he or she reacts to various environments; so on and so forth. There are many things you can do with your sample post, but we ask for canon characters that you try your best to stay true to their personality and how they are portrayed in the series. Personality is a big thing, and that's a good portion of what we'll be looking at as moderators in accepting a character.
Below are some samples of my own creation, based from another board. Read them, learn from them, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask any of the staff, as they would be more than willing to help.
Yoruichi Sample Post
The sound of another plate being placed rather harshly upon the over stacked pile on the table to her right seemed to be deafened by the chattering of chopsticks against a soup bowl. Despite her size, it seemed Yoruichi could eat for ten times the amount any other within the Urahara shop could hold. And, as the ninth serving of ramen was placed atop of a stack of seventeen or so dishes, she moved on to the next helping.
"Sheesh, you sure do eat al-"
A piercing gaze as her meal suddenly stopped forced Jinta to halt further discussion. The suddenly shocked and scared expression forced him to cower back a bit more against the wall. When that was settled, the violet haired woman continued on with the meal Urahara had set out for her.
"You know, if you ate while in your cat form, I would have to go to the grocery store before and after every visit of yours," a familiar, overly relaxed voice called out from behind and to the right. Yoruichi paused momentarily in her attempts to finish the meal in her fastest time yet, and her expression hardened when the dish was placed in front of her.
"I forgot how much energy I use up while in this form," the ex-Commander of the Secret Mobile Corps stated as she wiped her lips some. "Thanks for the meal."
"Don't mention it," Urahara stated with a wave of his fan as he took a seat to her right. "It's the least I could do considering I still owe you one."
Yoriuchi's head dropped a bit, as though in deep thought. After nearly a hundred years, Aizen had finally made his move. With a hand placed to her chin, she pondered exactly what would come next for not only them, but of Soul Society, and this world as well.
"Why the serious face?" Urahara asked. "We don't have to worry much until winter anyhow; we've got plenty of time to worry then."
"You're right," Yoruichi nodded, setting her worries to the back burner for the time being. "For now, though, I think I'm ready for desert; what's on the menu?"
At the sound of that, Urahara's face dropped.
Neliel Sample Post
It was a hot day... which barely made sense considering night always filled the skies of Hueco Mundo. Currently, the short, child-form of the ex-Espada laid on her stomach, mouth fully opened, and barely-grown teeth attempting to chomp on some sort of root sticking out from the ground.
"Nel?" came a familiar voice from behind her. "That's a tree root..."
"Waaaaah!" Nel instantly spat the root out and flailed her limbs about. With a roll onto her back, her screams seemed to echo harshly against the soft winds of the night, and more likely than not, carried into the depths of Las Noches. "Bu-bu-buh I'm Huuuuungrah!"
The girl sniffled twice in order to prevent the elongated snot that hung from her nose from reaching the sand beneath her; a feat that could probably be considered for Guinness Records.
"Do not fret, Nel!" Pesche came to her side in a formitable stance that could only render the profile of a super hero. With his hands on his hips, he stretched one arm out and pointed it to the darkened skies. "For we shall acquire a feast of all feasts! We shall no longer burden you with the pain of hunger; no! We shall fight! We shall fight! We shall fight against it!"
"Haha!" Nel, sensing the excitement of her comrade, hastily subsided the hunger and clapped her hands together, like any child with a short attention span would.
"P..Pesche," Dondochakka came up from behind a tree, assuming his large body would be well hidden against the twig-thin structure that lifted from the sands. "I was only able to grab this-de ariusu."
"Whaaaaa?!" Pesche immediately leaped away from the small, scorpion-like hollow whose tail was caught between the excessively large index and thumb fingers of his larger counterpart. His composure was quick to return, however, as a quick stroke of his chin sent the strategist hard to work. "Hm..." "Pesche, Pesche, Peeeeescheeeee," Nel began to whine as a dazed look came over her, obvious that the hunger had once again settled over the man's attempts to divert her attention.
"Then..." Pesche's eyes narrowed as his tone became deathly serious. "It has come down to this..."
Within moments, Nel was screaming for her life, her arms wailing about, as she attempted to run as fast as she could. The sounds of her fear-driving screams could be heard throughout Hueco Mundo, as an abundance of heavy-set pounding could be heard from behind her.
And thus, the great battle of Eternal Tag continued...
If you have any questions at all regarding Sample Posts, please contact myself, or any of the other Moderation Staff.
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Nov 5, 2009 18:52:19 GMT -5
Character Acceptance: Now what do I do?
"So... I've got my character accepted... now what do I do?"
What now? Well, you post! Depending upon the character that you've chosen, now that you have a character, you are free to post a thread in varied sections of the board. Please keep in mind that Arrancar won't openly be posting in Soul Society, and vice-versa.
Placing 'Open Thread' or just 'Open' in the title will alert other players that your thread is open to join. The Xat Chat function is also a great place to introduce yourself to other players of the board. The In Character Discussion sub-forum can be used as well. You may post in the 'Who Wants to RP Thread?' if you're looking to just a single thread to post in, or ask to join a current storyline, or if you're creative enough, post your own storyline idea to get others to join. Still, it's always better to introduce yourself to other players first, before trying to get people to join your storyline. If people aren't familiar with you, they may be weary about suddenly joining a plot.
Please be patient when awaiting a response from a player. Remember; this is simply a hobby for most of us, a pass time if you will. Everyone has a life outside of the internet, so not all of us can be online twenty-four seven. It may not be quick, it may not be the same day, but if you are patient, you will come to enjoy your experience more.
Personalities and Sample Posts
Didn't we already discuss these aspects? Yes, in the application. However, now that you have gotten your character accepted, you must uphold what you have provided in your application!
Let's start off with personality. You should always stick to the personality that you have listed in your application. The sample post that you provided should have already given you a bit of what most people call, your first step, in initially bringing your character to life. If your character is a lazy bum, don't have him acting all hyper and running around all crazy in some random thread. If your character is a melancholy-type of person, don't have them acting like a ray of sunshine, or attempting to cheer others up. Try to remember to stay in character! You have created the personality for your character! Don't break that personality!
Now, moving on to the sample post. As stated before, the sample post should normally be a minimum of two paragraphs. This sample post is used for us to judge how you will be portraying your character throughout the board. Now... making a two paragraph, bare minimum sample post is fine by some (though it won't get you very far). However, when you do get your character accepted, you shouldn't be using any less effort than you did for your sample post.
What I mean by this is that when you make posts; either starting threads, or reply posts, you shouldn't have two-sentence long replies, or initial opening posts. The two paragraph is normally the bare minimum for any thread. If you're truly having trouble coming up with a thread, then you can go back to the 'Sample Post' section.
Thread Title Rules
Believe it or not, there are some standards that we have when it comes to Thread Titles. Below is a list of common guidelines in accordance to titling your thread properly.
Title - A general title for the thread. This pretty much doesn't state whether or not it's open. More information could be found within the thread itself. Generally, we are attempting to steer away from these Caption-less threads.
Title [Open] - Captioned as Open, this informs players that the thread you have created is Open for other players to join. Of course, you may make OOC notes inside the thread itself, indicating what may or may not be necessary, i.e., no fighting, or Shinigami Only, and so forth. However, when stating Open, it generally means that it's open for everyone. When one is first starting off and has not yet gotten to know many people on the board, it is suggested to create Open threads for others to join, or join in a thread that states that it is Open.
Title [Private/Invite] - This caption indicates that the thread is for certain players only, whether it be a storyline thread, or something privately discussed, this type of thread is pretty much closed off to the general player, unless otherwise discussed. You may contact the player in charge of the original post, but aside from that, these types of threads are generally reserved for specific players.
Title [Open, No Violence] - The original poster is indicating that this thread is indeed open, however, restricts the use of a player attacking another player's character. NPC fighting, i.e., Shinigami fighting off Hollows, may be allowed, but only by the original poster's lead, or unless otherwise discussed.
Event: Title - Event threads are Board-Wide storyline events that are normally thought up by staff, and usually open for all players. Of course, each chapter will have its own thread. There is usually a post within the Announcements Section, or in the Plot section indicating what each thread and chapter will be holding, and what characters are needed for which plot. If you feel lost or uncertain of character placement, please contact the original poster of that thread, as they will most likely be the ones behind the flow of that particular chapter.
Other Thread Titles aside from what has been listed may be used. If you are confused in anyway by these terms, please contact the Original Poster to inquire the restrictions he or she may have on the thread they have initiated.
As always, please respect the Original Poster's wishes. If they do not wish for violence, do not introduce it to the thread. If they have a specific reason for the thread, do not derail it by introducing some other element. The original poster is normally the one who controls the flow of the overall thread. It is up to them to help guide the posts in a certain direction, though not necessarily control the entire aspect of the story being written by the combination of players in general.
As stated already, if you have any questions regarding this subject, feel free to contact a Moderator or fellow Staff Member.
Rules for Updating your Character's Application
All applications will now be locked upon acceptance to prevent application tampering beyond the view of the moderation staff. Should you feel the need to edit something within your application, i.e., something minimal that would not effect the character's power tier, you will need to contact a staff member in order to do so. You must first receive permission by a staff member if you wish to make minor changes to your application. If they are considered more than minimal, you will have to apply for a character upgrade, which means, applying for your character all over again. (More on this is listed below).
These changes are limited to the following:
- Name - Age (only slightly; maximum of 50 year difference) - History (only slightly; no major differences from accepted version) - Personality (only slightly; no major differences from accepted version) - Appearance (only slightly; no major overhaul) - Shikai/Release Phrase
Rules for Applying for a Character Upgrade
All applicants will be limited to ONE Character Upgrade PER 3 Months. This is effective the moment the Upgrade's decision has been discussed. Even if you are denied the upgrade, you must wait another three months before you can apply once again, after the initial date of the Staff Member's last post.
Character Upgrades are a privilege to members to help build their character not only in strength, but in personality and character as well. Throughout stories, characters naturally develop, and as such, we allow Original Characters to hold minor upgrades, i.e., learning Bankai.
Guide Lines
- You MUST Make a new application for your character as you would if you were making a new character all together. - Please place a link at the bottom of the application, under the Sample Post Section, to your old profile. - Please differentiate the changes you wish to make (i.e., color changes). - You MUST abide by the Powers FAQ rules, as well as all normal rules of the board. Character upgrades should not give you reason to suddenly over-stack your character.
Helpful Hints
Involve your Character in story lines BEFORE applying for an upgrade. The more stories your character is involved in, the more likely they will be expected to develop. The less active you are, the less likely you will receive an upgrade.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2009 19:21:18 GMT -5 by Shinigami Kyra
Post by Shinigami Kyra on Nov 5, 2009 19:14:46 GMT -5
Fighting Guide and FAQ
((OOC: For your enjoyment, I have done this all IC, while breaking the fourth wall, so enjoy))
Brunette strands bounced with every step she took as the Lieutenant of the Fifth Division entered the large squared structure, which seemed vacant of life, save for a single female figure that stood several meters away. Momo Hinamori smiled happily as she clapped her hands together, and waved for the other figure to join her in the center of the squared Dojo. There were some mild cursing let out, followed by several censored expletives. Eventually, however, the long, crimson haired Shinigami began to make her way over toward the Lieutenant, Captain's Haori draped over her shoulders and arms crossed over her chest.
"I really don't want to do this," Kyra Rounin, Captain of the Fifth Division replied dryly, obvious frustration upon her features, having been recently wakened from a rather blissful nap just for this stupid lesson.
"Well, it's your duty as a Captain to fulfill such roles," Momo inclined the woman with a sly grin. "So, Rounin-taichou, would you do the honors?"
"Gah, I hate that honorific," Kyra sighed heavily, before facing a non-existent crowd, and breaking the fourth wall. "My name's Kyra Rounin, Captain of the Fifth Division. It has come to my attention that some of you idiots suck at fighting."
"Kyra!" Momo shouted, brows pinched inwardly in a bit of annoyance. Momo quickly waved a hand, apologizing quickly for the Captain. "Please excuse my Captain; she just woke up from a nap, so she's a bit cranky. Anyway, we have been informed that some people may not know some of the common aspects of a proper Fighting Thread, or Sparring Session. And for that, we have come to help you understand the proper process of a battle!"
The pair of women entered the arena, where Momo extended her arm for further explanation.
"First, I would like to point out to you that on this forum, you will find an Applications FAQ," the woman spoke softly. "While this was first created to help aid those finding difficulty in creating a proper application, more has been added to the Applications FAQ, to the point where it has simply some general tips for proper Role Playing!"
"Read that shit to a T," Kyra pointed a finger outward with an arched brow. "Moderators and Staff hate pointing out the Applications FAQ repeatedly, so read all that shit first, then come to us with questions. Otherwise, the staff will just be repeat'n itself, and they hate that shit."
"Kyra, language!" Momo hushed her Captain, fighting the urge to smack the back of the girl's head. She then focused her attention upon the reader. "Moving on, the first thing you should come to understand is the different aspects of fighting when it comes to Online, Forum-based Role Playing."
"There's Players versus NPC," Kyra announced, standing next to Momo, as a few Hollows appeared before them. "NPC stands for Non-playable Characters, which for this website, can normally be considered Hollows for Shinigami, or stray Shinigami for Arrancar. Basically, they're characters who are brought up by either player, or a staff member, that hold no real application, and are basically just there to create drama for you."
"In more detail," Momo elbowed her counterpart in the side, her brow twitching in annoyance. "They are person or persons, or sometimes, creatures, that arrive in a specified area to create a conflict with a player's character. As stated, they could be hollows for Shinigami. This is considered a PvNPC type of battle."
Drawing their Zanpakuto, the two Shinigami rushed toward the appeared Hollows, each dispatching the would-be attackers in their own fashion. When the opponents faded from existence, the two women sheathed their swords and turned back to the reader.
"Such battles are normally conducted with a team of players, or simply one player fighting against an opponent, normally controlled by another player," Momo explained. "However, there are times where players can fight one another. That is called PvsP, or Player versus Player."
"Here's where the godmod questions start," Kyra began to rub the sides of her head as she collapsed to the ground, cross legged, not really wanting to get into the conversation at the moment. She suddenly spoke in a rather high-pitched, child-like voice, filled with a mocking tone. "Wtf, my kido attack hit you! Why are you dodging? Wtf, my character is one level tier above yours, wtf, my wah wah wah, freak'n wah."
An elbow sharply connected with the top portion of the Captain's skull, forcing tears to build up in an instant as her hands attempted to rub away the excessively large bump that appeared from the strike.
"What my Captain is trying to say," Momo forced a smile, despite the obvious frustration breaking through that plastic expression. "Is that a lot of you may want to jump right into a fight with your new Shinigami or Arrancar, but before you do, you should take some things into consideration before doing so. First, you should find a player that you can contact regularly, or at least, speak with outside of the thread, whether it be by Privately Messaging the player, using the Xat chat located on the main page, at the bottom, or by some other means of Instant Messaging."
"Oooooo! Staaaalkerrrr," Kyra muttered, her hands moved up by her head in a ghost-like manner, as though to scare the girl. "Doooon't give out your ceeeeelll numberrrrrrr. Crazy stalker person!!!"
"Kyra, be serious," Momo shouted, slamming a foot down on the ground. "We're supposed to be teaching these people!"
"Yea, yea," Kyra rolled her eyes, along with a single hand, as she took a few steps away from Momo. "Next on the topic, like she was say'n, is a Player versus Player fight. This would obviously be where two players have their characters, battle it out. Like she was say'n, you should keep in contact with the other player. Normally, it'd be smart to dictate the victor of the battle in advance, unless y'er just do'n a spar'n session or some shit. Then, who really cares who wins, right?"
"What you should do," Momo delivered a rather uncharacteristic drop kick to her Captain, launching her far across the arena. "Is talk it over with the other player; decide what type of fight you would like to have in advance. Planning things out is the best way for both players to truly grasp the proper experience of Role Playing. If you plan things out in advance, then you won't have to worry about surprises erupting within your thread, or having it suddenly run off course!"
"WTF HAX!" Kyra shouted, holding a hand to her newly bruised cheek. The woman held a furious expression while hurling an accusing finger toward her opponent. "AUTO-HIT FTL!!!"
"Thank you for bringing that up, Rounin-taichou," Momo bowed her head to her injured Captain, then returned her attention to the reader. "Auto-hitting is highly frowned upon, as it is simply too close to Godmodding to have accepted on this board. Kido-based attacks, Zanpakuto-based attacks, or even physical attacks should never be assumed to automatically hit your opponent. Your opponent should always have a change to dodge, parry, or counter the attack dictated in your post."
"I didn't get no freak'n chance," Kyra whined as she wiped her swollen cheek, tears welling up in those crimson hues. Wiping the tears away, she turned to the reader. "A fighting post should have certain things within it; like all posts. Your character, obviously, some form of the environment; most likely, their location, some dialogue, if you so choose, and a course of action. With fight threads, dialogue is minimal to nonexistent, in some cases, so we'll stick with mostly action."
Kyra moved herself in front of Momo, drawing her Zanpakuto.
"Now," Kyra continued. "Normally, if you don't plan your threads in advance, then you should limit the number of actions you have in a thread. Drawing your sword can be considered one action, and quite frankly, releasing it can be considered the same action, or a secondary action. Those two can happen in the same thread, followed by an attack."
Kyra built up a good amount of reiatsu, cobalt blue aura swirling around her frame. With both her swords held out in front of her, she summoned forth her Zanpakuto's spirit.
"Burn Blue, Kagutsuchi!" In a fiery blue explosion, her blades took on their Shikai appearance; twin pure dark blue blades, guard removed, with a light aura of blue flame engulfing both blades.
"Now, I unsheathed and released my sword, and this could be done all in the same post," Kyra announced as she turned toward Momo. With a quick step, she lunged toward her Lieutenant, with an arm extended outward. "Hadō 1, Shō!"
The scene paused, the build of of Kido surrounding Kyra's hands literally frozen in time as Momo broke the time space continuim and stepped forward toward the reader.
"Normally, this is where one post would end, and the counter post would start," Momo stated. "Kyra released her Zanpakuto, then made one physical action; in his case, a Kido-based attack. Notice how she didn't say that it had hit me, but simply left it in mid-process. This leaves me open to either accept the hit, block it, parry it, or counter it. Leaving such openings allows for more possibilities for the other player, which in the end, results in more possibilities for the thread in general. Now, let's get back to the action."
With a lowered brow, Momo quickly unsheathed her Zanpakuto, both hands gripping the hilt firmly as she called forth her companions name.
"Snap," Momo cried out. "Tobiume!"
As her Captain came rushing in toward her, Momo released her Shikai and quickly used her Shunpo ability to side step the Kido-based attack, the blast just partially connecting with a piece of her robe, which forced her balance to alter slightly. With a quick shift of her weight, however, her feet slickly landed several meters away, a single hand pressed out to assert her balance, as she skidded several feet back.
"Tobiume!" Momo cried out and slashed her sword vertically, forcing a build up of her own spiritual pressure to collect. From the tip of her blade, ignited a fiery ball of heavy reiatsu, spiraling toward her Captain. Again, the scene froze, and this time, Kyra was the one to inform the reader.
"Now, Momo released her own Shikai, and parried my Kido-attack," Kyra announced, arm extended toward her frozen-in-time Lieutenant. "She also came up with her own counter attack. Notice how, like me, she didn't assume the strike had hit. This sort of fight is normally a very slow-paced fight, where one action occurs every post. Of course, not all posts within this thread can be like this. This is why you should always be able to converse with your sparing partner, so you can discuss how to differ your thread in a variety of ways, instead of just having action by action posts. Otherwise, just imagine how many posts you would have if you had that Grimmjow, Ichigo fight in Hueco Mundo..."
With that, Kyra turned back to the place she had been during the fight, but paused for a moment and turned back to the reader.
"Before I forget," she said as she pointed her sword skyward. "You should also keep into consideration of your Power Tier."
At that moment, the words 'Master level, Weak' appeared above the Captain, and with an extension of her other sword-wielding hand, she pointed above Momo; above her, 'High level, Average.' Kyra lowered her arms and rubbed the tension that started to build between her eyes.
"Before you start questioning and whining about 'I'm stronger than you, blah blah blah' bullshit," Kyra started out, knowing she'd be able to get away with saying it while her sparring partner was frozen. "You should understand that the Power Tier is a representation of your character's strongest point. Now, I for one, have Bankai, and a Vizard Mask. If I were to go Bankai and draw out my Inner Hollows abilities, I would represent the Master Level, Weak Tier. However, I am simply in Shikai, so I am not yet at that level. Thus, you could say that Momo and I are on even ground at the moment."
Above her head, the Master level, Weak fades, and High-level, Average shimmers into existence.
"Now," Kyra quickly altered her stance. "Most Original Characters who don't have Bankai won't receive a High Level Character. So, in Shikai, the highest point you can have is normally Mid-Level Strong."
And with that, the Power Tier above Kyra shimmered down to Mid-Level Strong.
"Thus, right now, you can even say Momo's stronger than me," Kyra announced with a roll of her hand. "Normally, Canon characters will be stronger than their Original Character counterparts. If we didn't have some sort of limitation on Original Characters, than we might as well run the Bleach Universe over with Original Characters, right?"
Kyra shrugged a single shoulder and spared a glance over her shoulder, noticing Momo appearing to tremble in her frozen state.
"Kyra," Momo whispered, attempting to talk while not moving her lips. "Can you hurry it up? My arm's falling asleep..."
"Right," Kyra nodded her head, then got back into her previously frozen stance. That fire-based attack from Momo was hurled toward the Captain, and with a quick motion of her blades, she launched a quick counter attack. "Konpeki Shakkahō!"
The two blasts collided, canceling one another out, and forcing a burst of spiritual pressure to explode, creating a large cloud of heavy smoke. Momo came out of the smoke, which again, seemed to freeze time, waving her hand in front of her face, coughing madly.
"Ahem," Momo attempted to regain her composure. "Kyra's counter attack nullified my own attack. Neither attacks seemed to outdo the other, so instead, they clashed and dissipated. Now, should one person be a higher level Tier than the other, let's say, Mid Level Average versus High Level Strong, you might say that one attack may over throw the other, though that attack may still be weakened from the previous blast."
Time suddenly sped up and Kyra appeared out of the smoke, swords drawn and ready to attack.
"Konpeki Shakkahō!" Kyra shouted, then rushed in for a vertical strike of her sword, then launching a hand outward. "Hadō 54; Haien!"
"Kyra, what the hell?!" Momo shouted, attempting to parry or at least block all of the sudden attacks drawn upon her. The second blast from the woman's Zanpakuto was quickly dodged, a quick step forcing the Lieutenant high into the air. The oncoming slash was parried by Momo's blade, but the sudden attack of Kido was too much. The blast of violet spiritual energy struck her in the chest, forcing her high into the air, where she froze momentarily.
"I sped things up," Kyra announced with a bored expression. "Notice how I threw in three attacks instead of one? Now, normally, this can be considered Godmodding, as I didn't really give her a chance to react to the first attack, let alone the second one before throwing in a third. However, if you talk to your fellow player, you can speed the fight up if you like, by adding in more than one action per post, but leaving each one open for the other player to decide how they will react to each action."
Time sped up and Momo quickly rolled her body, flipping it in mid air, and pressing a firm hand to the groundless surface, collecting a bit of spiritual energy beneath her feet and hands, skidding to a stop.
"That was cheating!" Momo shouted, while Kyra shrugged a single shoulder.
"Things are moving too slow," Kyra announced as she turned skyward. "We need to speed this shit up; this thread's already considered several posts in, and we haven't even got to the main portion of this FAQ."
"Fine then," Momo wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead, taking the moment to recover from the kido blast. "Let's move on!"
Momo charged forward, sword drawn, and clashed blades with her Captain. The woman, still in Shikai, was easily able to parry the blast, though Momo was quick with a horizontal swing. She watched as her Captain easily leaped backward over the swing, back flipping a good safe distance away. Momo charged forward with a thrust of her blade, only to have it parried by her Captain. With a quick swing, Momo charged another burst of her spiritual energy.
"Tobiume," Momo cried out as the fiery burst of energy exploded from the tip of her blade and shot toward her Captain. Again, time froze as Kyra extended an arm to her Lieutenant.
"Notice how she dictated action there for a bit," Kyra asked. "I wasn't the one actually doing the 'posting' of my actions. This can be considered 'Godmodding,' but if you talk it over with your fellow player, and allow slight access to your character, you can include more action that would normally just go back and forth, and skip straight to the main attacks that will either hit or miss, or dictate the flow of the fight in general."
With that, Kyra quickly slashed her sword upward, a hand trailing over her face. A powerful amount of Reiatsu collected as she moved her index finger to her lips, then began to draw a heart shape over her face, which in turn, forced specks of white to materialize over her face. The heavy cobalt aura that surrounded her started to shift to a more dark, violet hue as she summoned forth her Inner Hollows powers. Her sword slashed in the air and cut straight through the fiery blast, severing it into two pieces that exploded several meters behind her.
"Now, Kyra activated her hollow powers," Momo announced.
"Power Up Mushroom!" Kyra chimed with an arm pump. "Where's the Raccoon Tail?!"
"We can safely assume now, that in Shikai, and with her Inner Hollow powers, that she's slightly more powerful than I am now," Momo nodded her head. with that, the injuries and smoke all faded, and the two reappeared at the center of the squared dojo.
"This battle could go on for several more threads," Kyra stated, her voice doubled over by her inner hollow's. "But since this shit's already ridiculously long, we'll just chalk it up and say I won. Oh hey, my font color change! So did my voice! Helloooo! HELLOOOOOOOO! ECHO!"
"You are a Captain after all," Momo replied dryly to winning, forcing a bit of a plastic smile. She quickly shook the tension away and turned back to the reader.
"Now, for characters who are fairly good in Kido, we've received a lot of questions of just how much Kido someone can produce," Momo stated with a roll of her hand, both their Zanpakuto sheathed. "Or how high a level one can produce a spell, with or without the incantation."
"While I hate really stating 'you can do this, but not this,'" Kyra stated out with a roll of her hand. "Since you're all wanting to know the limitation of your characters; which is a good thing, don't get me wrong, I'll break it down for you."
"Those with intermediate level of Kido, in the Mid-level category, I would say, have a basic understanding of Kido," Momo nodded her head, then extended her arm to the suddenly appearing large list of Kido-based spells. "They can summon, maybe up to mid-level Kido spells. Skipping the incantation may make them weaker. However, if an incantation is not listed, that does not mean your character cannot recite it; you can just say they recited it, and not actually have it in as dialogue. But, remember, reciting the incantation does require time. So, make sure you have enough of that before producing your spell."
"For those High-level, advanced, or High-level Intermediate," Kyra took over, pointing to the list. "They pretty much have a really solid grasp on Kido. While they don't have the mastered level, they do have a full understanding of Kido, and can sometimes skip the incantations to produce quick-casting Kido combination spells."
"Combination spells?" Momo arched a brow.
"Right," Kyra nodded her head. "Let's say you wanted to produce a Way of Binding, along with a Way of Destruction."
"We didn't go over Bakudō in the fight, though," Momo pressed a finger to her lip, in deep thought. "Perhaps we should have."
"Bakudō should be taken as similarly as Hadō," Kyra nodded her head, then turned to the reader. "Remember; do not assume that you have suddenly captured your opponent in your Way of Binding Spell. Give them an opportunity to either accept the attack, or counter it if possible. Way of Binding, automatically hitting, would just be ridiculous."
"That would make me almost as HAXXOR as Ichigo," Momo threw a hand sheepishly behind her head while letting out a chuckle. Kyra nodded her head in confirmation, cowering in fear of thinking Momo's unique Kido being an auto-hit maneuver.
"Anyway," Kyra shrugged off the feeling, returning her attention to the reader. "To make things more interesting in a fight, someone who is advanced in Kido, and has a high Power Tier, lets say, High-Level Average and up, can normally start to use combination of Kido, and the more higher level Kido spells."
"Does that mean I can use forbidden spells?" Momo chimed, clapping her hands, Kido of course, being her specialty, and the thought of being a super uber character enough to knock her out of character. Kyra let out a hesitant laugh while shaking her head.
"No," Kyra shook her head, but then paused. "Well... maybe you... but not someone like me, or other Original Characters; we pretty much suck when it comes to that. Then again, depending on your Power Tier and background, I suppose it could be possible. If you spent time in Kido Corps, or have in your background that your character has studied a lot of Kido, or something like that, then maybe you could develop your own Kido."
"We have a section for that!" Momo raised a hand and pointed to the board. "Custom Kido and Quincy Spells!"
"Yup," Kyra nodded her head, then blinked as she lifted up her Vizard mask. "Wait; when did our personalities change?"
"My bad," Momo blushed, bringing her hands to her cheeks. "I get like this when I talk about Kido..."
"Moving on," Kyra shook her head, then returned to the Kido List. "One should always take into consideration the amount of Reiatsu it takes to summon various amounts of Kido Spells. Remember, being in Bankai also takes up a good deal of Reiatsu, and the more power you use, the more power you've drained."
"That means I can't just start firing Sōren Sōkatsui after Sōren Sōkatsui?" Momo blinked, turning to her Captain with a finger pressed against her lip in question.
"Nope," Kyra shook her head. "You should likely estimate your own character's level; how many spells they can produce consecutively, so on and so forth, in accordance to their Kido level, their Power Tier, and their over all background and abilities."
"So everyone's unique," Momo blinked, to which Kira nodded her head. "Well, that's pretty much it for Kido. You can expect similarities between Kido abilities and Quincy, or the Arrancar's variety of Kido, being Cero and their Natural abilities, and so forth."
"Do we need to tell them that they shouldn't kill their opponent?" Kyra blinked, turning to Momo. The woman seemed a bit shocked and let out a gasp.
"Kill?" Momo gasped again, then turned to the reader, eyes filling up with tears rather quickly. "You wouldn't do that, would you?"
"There are a variety of conditions that must be fulfilled in order to 'kill' the character of another player," Kyra confirmed with a nod. "First, it must be 'OKed' by the player, then a fellow staff member, so that the application can be readily moved to archives after the bout. Of course, there are other circumstances where a character will unwillingly die, either by sheer stupidity or storyline reasons..."
"What else," Momo pressed a finger to her chin, then looked to Kyra. "Should we take questions?"
"That sounds like a good idea," Kyra nodded her head, pressing her fist to her palm. "I think we've covered a lot thus far, and anything that we may have missed, we can answer now."
"So," Momo smiled as she turned to the reader. "If you have any questions for us, let us know by either replying to this thread, or asking a fellow staff member."
"Don't ask me," Kyra waved a hand with a shake of her head. "I'll just bitch slap ya."
"Kyra!" Momo shouted, then slapped the back of the girl's head. "Feel free to ask ANY of the staff members, including Kyra; she will be HAPPY to answer ANY questions you may have."
"No matter how stupid they may be," Kyra forced a plastic smile while rubbing the back of her head.
Stepping through the shatterred remains of the 4th Wall, Era winced as he looked back at the broken hole of Undimesionalization, then turned his attention to the two ICs of the Fighting FAQ for today.
"Wow... I really learnt something today. Never knew that the Power Tier actually meant for the maximum level of power one could reach... anyway!" He hopped over the broken shards on the ground, and stepped nearer towards Momo and Kyra, raising his hand like a naive schoolboy.
"Me! Me! I'd like to ask some questions before I get back to my miserable and unfruitful quest to locate the !@#$% Swords. Anyway... Grapples! Throws! Armlocks! Here we have a tentatively sensative and touchy topic about fighting. Such moves are hard to execute, with squabbles breaking out whether or not the initial grab is or not considered an autohit, and how exactly to work such an attack out without crossing the godmodding line... Of course, the best solution would be steer away totally, but dumbass that I am, some of us idiots like to stray back to these more unorthodox techniques in H2H combat. (Why though? It's not like you hardly ever use them practically in Rl... but that's beside the point) Anyway, can you clarify about this doubtful gray area?
While the kid seems to have the two girls distracted, a familiar blue-headed boy decided to slip in from the sidelines of the field, slinking up to the trio with some amount of stealth.
Hey, sneaking around with bright blue hair is hard, okay?!
Still, somehow he managed to do it. Somehow, the blue-haired vizard known as Remer Ather slinked up beside Himamori Momo and lazily draped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to his form.
"Ohaiyo, Momo-chan." He practically purred out into her ear before giving her a light peck to the cheek. The rather energetic vizard then looked over to the captain and waved shyly, not really knowing how the girl might react to him.
After all, he had never really had the chance to talk to Kyra Rounin or really meet her. "Eh... Ohaiyo, Rounin-taichou."
Raising an eyebrow at the younger boy before him, he simply gave the boy a skeptical look before looking over to Momo and Kyra. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this one!" He assured them with a giggle.
"Grappling and grabbing is absolutely fine!" Remer smiled at the younger vizard for a moment, before it slightly faltered into a pout. "However, what isn't fine is when someone uses that grapple to create an auto-hit!"
"Take the battle between you and Rinpo, for example." Remer giggled and waved with his free hand a motion-picture miraculously appearing behind him.
"In one post, I noticed that you began by grabbing the Shinigami's leg with both hands." Remer started, the picture moving to where Era grabbed Rinpo's leg after being kicked. "This was okay!"
"However, when he reacted by drawing his sword and slicing at your arms, somehow you were able to simply break his shin with both of your hands."
The movie played as Rinpo attempted to draw his blade, swinging it at both of Era's arms. However, before his blade could reach the kid's arms, the vizard somehow found the strength to break the shinigami's shin in two.
"This is what we call... auto-hit." Remer's frown grew as a big red cross began to blip over the screen behind him. "No good!"
"Essentially, grappling is just fine, as long as it doesn't lead to something fatal." Remer smiled and took a hold of Momo's hand with his free hand. "See? I just grabbed Momo-chan's hand, which is alright, as long as I don't harm her... well... actually that really depends on how she chooses to react."
With a ghost of a blush, the blue-haired vizard stole another peck on Momo's cheek before turning his attention back to Era.
"You see, even though we are not in combat, the same basic rules apply." Remer commented offhandedly, "It's a grapple that has no real catastrophic affects on her... I hope. Therefore, it's allowed."
Smiling to the vizard once again, he bowed his head slightly. "I hope I have answered your question!"
With a giggle, he turned his attention back to Momo and Kyra. "Perhaps you two should inform our friend about the etiquette of posting order in a battle?"
Era took a shrug and sighed, shaking his head haplessly. "Hey, don't look at me. I hate autohitting as much as the next Rp-er. But I hate noobish RP-ers who Gary Sue half their lives away and come up with illogical dodges more. Aka Rinpo-san. As you said, my attack was to break his leg in that first post, but I didn't go further than grabbing his leg and stating that I tried to do so. He, however, countered with...slashing with a sheathed SCIMITAR (quite a cumbersome weapon, hmm?)... which of course has no way in hell to make it. Distance-wise, Time-wise...no. No, jose. Since I deemed it an invalid dodge, and seemed from experience Rinpo's personal deity Honaki is by no means an RP-er who RPs fairly (his response to fights he cannot win is to leave them unfinished; something he has twice done so now) , I autohitted out of sheer pettiness. Of course, that in no ways justifies that I am right... But if I have to be prosecuted for such a tiny deed of indulging myself, then so be it. *Shrug* Note, I did allow him to slash me, though..."
With annoyed sigh, Kyra brought her Zanpakuto down, forcing a burst of blue flames to erupt throughout the fighting Arena. With a war cry, she attempted to shut everyone up at once.
"ALRIGHT!" the Captain shouted. "This is for 'questions' only, not to point out when someone is auto-hitting. Names should not be brought up here. Examples maybe, but keep the names out of it."
"That's correct," Momo hesitated, attempting to throw on a smile, despite the nervous drop of sweat that appeared on the side of her head. "Names should certainly not be brought up in this section of the board, as it is only questions in relation to situations that MAY arise. If one has come up, and you have a question about it, it would be best to contact a moderating staff member, as this thread is viewed by everyone on the board... oh, and Hi Remer!"
"Great," Kyra pinched the bridge of her nose as Momo trailed over to the teen, hearts following her in every which way. "More fangirling..."
"Anyway," Ichigo appeared from above, landing promptly in front of the women. "While the girls are flustering out their female emotions, if you have any actual questions about fighting, please bring them here. I'll be more than happy to-"
"Hey, who brought testostrone into this thread?!" Kyra shouted, foot planted on Ichigo's head as she attempted to yank the hair from his scalp. "Tits or gtfo!"
"HEY! What the hell?!" the substitute Shinigami shouted. "You're stepping on my face!"
"Remer," Momo cooed rather school-girl crush-like, hearts evident in her eyes.
"Ahem..." Rukia appeared, covering her mouth with her hand as she attempted to gain attention from the viewer. A cloud of smoke lifted around Kyra and Ichigo, while a variety of colorful language and blood came flying out from the carnage behind her. "If you have any true questions, please, don't hesitate to ask."
Poking his head through a hole in the dome-like ceiling of the fourth wall was Hanataro. His black hair fell down, forced by gravity, but a moment later he stuck his hand through the hole in the ceiling weakly, saying, "Um... I have a question about he-"
Before the vice captain could finish speaking, the rest of the ceiling collapsed beneath his weight, and he went crashing into the ground. A moment later he picked his head up, holding his nose in his hands. He looked around for a moment and then he put a hand on his zanpakuto. "Ub. I hab a question about healing," He said, holding his now-bleeding nose in his hands.
"No one can understand you!" Called a very impatient Sora from one of the rows in the audience. Her feet were up on a chair and she had her hands stuck somewhere in her long and oversized sleeves. Her blue eyes were looking somewhat bored, as if she was about to ask for popcorn. She sighed for a moment, and hopped into the arena. "I think what our cannon friend here was trying to say is how does healing work in a fight? Now if someone is out of action, say, from a konk on the noggin, or loss of blood... Yeah... Loss of blood... Anyways, how does healing work with that?"
"Dat's what I was trying to say," Agreed Hanataro sheepishly, his voice barely comprehensible due to the way he kept his nostrils clamped together.
Ignoring him, Sora continued. "For instance, our non-fourth-division kido users. Say, our kido corps members. Say our fourth division goers without healing type zanpakutos. How is their healing? How fast is it? How many posts for a wound like a cracked rib, or a deep cut? And how do the tiers affect it?"
Hanataro stood up for a moment, nodding to Sora and then removing his hands from his nose, shaking some of the blood off of them. "And what about something like Hisagomaru? Um... If I hit someone with it, it heals their wounds and the gauge fills... But-"
Hanataro was rudely interupted by an impatient Sora, who rolled her eyes and cut him off. "But what about how that works? Does he leave a space for the wounded guy to get out of the way in a moment of confusion or does he hit the wounded guy and heal their wounds?"
"I wanted to ask that! You're mean!" Hanataro whined, looking at Sora with his eyes sunken.
"No one ever accused me of being nice," Sora said with an angelic smile. Suddenly she appeared to have a thought pop into her head, and the imaginary lightbulb popped up above her head with a ding! "Oh! What about tripping and bumping into someone? Do you have to say "was falling at so and so" or can you just go ahead and knock heads as an introduction?"
Hanataro took a step away from Sora as she started to go on with her own question. Hell, he got into enough clumsy mishaps as it was, he didn't need Sora initiating one on purpose.
Akio walked through the, at this point, completely demolished, and newly redesigned fourth wall, smashing through the ceiling and landing in a heroic pose. Unfortunately, he didn't realize the fall was that high. He stood up, realizing that his legs hurt like hell right now. "I was here to say something..." he said, thinking hard, then realizing what he had come here for. "Oh ya...." the yellow haired shinigami continued, drawing his zampakuto. "Shoot out, Kusari Gaika!" he yelled, spinning his zanpakuto on his side. Suddenly, a dual bladed polearm replaced the former blade, and one of the blades shot out of its position, revealing some of the long chain. "With all that grappling stuff..." he said, spinning the blade around on its chain, "What are the rules with grappling with something like this? Not talking bout the blade part, the chain, more specifically.."
Akio was about to make an INCREDIBLY witty pun about how another part of him that extends, when an flew past his head, nearly decapitating him.
"I was heading to the shop to find some new thread, but since I'm here," Uryu Ishida said, pushing his glasses into place, "I do have a question involving fighting..." In that moment, the Quincy took a Seele Schneider out from behind his back, shoving it into the ground. "My Sprenger technique would require me to take time to work on it, and, out of fairness to my opponent (even if they are Shinigami), I would need to at least tell them the general location, but it seems that no one would want to walk into it willingly. What are the rules of this technique?" he said, shoving the fifth sword into the ground.
Last Edit: Nov 5, 2009 19:17:06 GMT -5 by Shinigami Kyra