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Welcome to the Creating a Character guide! This guide will show you step-by-step how to create a character for Shadows of Isildur: Laketown.
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Accessing the In-Game Character Generator
You must connect to the game and enter in your account information. If this is your first time connecting to the game, please use the information here.
Name
Choose a good Fantasy name that your character will be known as codedly (and potentially in role-play). Make sure it's appropriate for Tolkien lore. Use these helpfile options here and here. Use of well known characters from Tolkien, other fantasy formats (such as but not limited to books, movies, shows, anime, games, etc.) or immersion-breaking names will be declined. Use of names used previously on your account are also prohibited.
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In some cases having your true-name being hidden, such as with dwarves, you should choose your true-name at creation and the name to which you will go by in public you would 'set keyword <alias' once in game.
Race or Role
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After naming your character, it is important to figure out what role and race your character will possess. There are several automated roles that are options depending on your RPP status.
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After reading up on each race available to your RPP status you can decline it and go in a different direction if you are not excited with it. Similar goes with the roles below, you have the ability to read up each option and decline should you not want it. It is important to note that the boosts in each RPP role are best handled before commencing into game.
Physical Traits
Once you're all set on choosing a race, now it's time to choose the physical traits your character will have. You have several traits to fill out, which are: age, height, frame/build and attributes.
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Your size will play a part in how you are seen from others. A dwarf will always see a human taller than they, though an elf will see a human as smaller. It is important to note this in character descriptions. More information on that is below.
Eyecolor is now a set category in character creation. You are limited to that which is below. You are welcome to expand upon it in your description but do note that if you deviate from the options below in said description your application may be declined. After picking a number in the options, you can specify with further options. Do note that option 6, mixed, is not solely heterochromia and in that can mean flecked, ringed, dappled, etc.
Description
Descriptions are how your character is seen. It is important to note that descriptions should not contain objects, emotions, actions, or subjectivity. Let's break this down:
Objects: Nothing that is not immediately part of your character's body should be in your description. Even if your character has worn this earring or ring for 20 years, that is not a part of their body. If in the description, the application will be declined. There are objects in game that you can wear to fulfill this history and some are available in pre-game shops. What about ribbons because my hair is always braided? They too need to be acquired in game and cannot be in your description.
Emotions: No one is happy 100% of the time, 24 hours of 7 days in a week. The same goes with unhappiness, anger, etc. We all do have blips of change and different days in our lives so too do our characters It is important to leave emotions and thoughts a blank slate in description writing so as to ensure that you as the player and your character can be versatile to various situations and scenes that may come up. Would your character be 'happy-looking' at the death of their loved one? Probably not. It is best not to write yourself into a corner.
Actions: Similar to emotions, the actions that are born from them such as smiling, frowning, grimacing, etc. are not things physically possible to do all the time. There are situations where someone might have a scar that puts them into a perpetual frown-like state but that can be describe and explained in the description to help out your fellow players. The action of your walk, your bearing, your grace or lack thereof should not be in your description. These are things you can support, give flesh and bone to with travel strings, voice strings and dmotes.
Subjectivity: Everyone has different ideas of what is beautiful, handsome, comely, perfection, ugly, unattractive, turn-on, turn-off, etc. We are all vastly different as are our characters. In this, it is vastly important that your description does not force the opinions of another character or player. Instead of telling them your character is pretty or ugly, show it and let them decide what they think or feel.
Let's look at how to enter in our description;
Now with sdesc and ldesc, is important to remember to also not use objects, emotions, actions or subjectivity. It is also good to remember that you might be tall or short for a human, but will you be tall to an elf, will you be short to a dwarf?
Description
Descriptions are how your character is seen. It is important to note that descriptions should not contain objects, emotions, actions, or subjectivity. Let's break this down:
Objects: Nothing that is not immediately part of your character's body should be in your description. Even if your character has worn this earring or ring for 20 years, that is not a part of their body. If in the description, the application will be declined. There are objects in game that you can wear to fulfill this history and some are available in pre-game shops. What about ribbons because my hair is always braided? They too need to be acquired in game and cannot be in your description.
Emotions: No one is happy 100% of the time, 24 hours of 7 days in a week. The same goes with unhappiness, anger, etc. We all do have blips of change and different days in our lives so too do our characters. It is important to leave emotions and thoughts a blank slate in description writing so as to ensure that you as the player and your character can be versatile to various situations and scenes that may come up. Would your character be 'happy-looking' at the death of their loved one? Probably not. It is best not to write yourself into a corner.
Actions: Similar to emotions, the actions that are born from them such as smiling, frowning, grimacing, etc. are not things physically possible to do all the time. There are situations where someone might have a scar that puts them into a perpetual frown-like state but that can be describe and explained in the description to help out your fellow players. The action of your walk, your bearing, your grace or lack thereof should not be in your description. These are things you can support, give flesh and bone to with travel strings, voice strings and dmotes.
Subjectivity: Everyone has different ideas of what is beautiful, handsome, comely, perfection, ugly, unattractive, turn-on, turn-off, etc. We are all vastly different as are our characters. In this, it is vastly important that your description does not force the opinions of another character or player. Instead of telling them your character is pretty or ugly, show it and let them decide what they think or feel.
Let's look at how to enter in our description;
Now with sdesc and ldesc, is important to remember to also not use objects, emotions, actions or subjectivity. It is also good to remember that you might be tall or short for a human, but will you be tall to an elf, will you be short to a dwarf?
*Note to Players: Please remember that you sdesc and ldesc should match. They should not have descriptive keywords the other lacks.
The Allowable Noun List:
HUMANS | ELVES | DWARVES | ORC WARG |
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How to enter in your description:
How to write your description:
Remember that the words you use in your sdesc and ldesc should be supported by your description, if they are not, your application will be declined. There is a pretty easy algorithm you can follow in description writing that can help you out: The first word (not a) in your sdesc should be the first you describe in their desc, the second is second most important and so on.
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a yellow-skinned, bug-eyed female goblinorc
Skin the dark yellow of ocher sheathes the bulbous, hunched-back figure of this female goblin orc in a sagging heap of too-much skin, as though either having lost some weight too quickly or having crawled into a skin too big for her otherwise small build. Long-limbed, her arms and legs are scrawny, skin draping off their bony structure, whereas her torso is quite rounded and shaped much like a wasp with a thick chest, narrow waist and over-sized rear. Bug-eyed, her grey eyes protrude from her frog-like face, the irises dappled in sickly shades of green. Warts line the thin lips of her too-wide mouth, some known to weep and seep fluid. No hair crowns her bald head though a few bristle-like whiskers protrude off the flat, wide-nostriled excuse she has for a nose.
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Lank of limbs and concave-chested, this male orc is a study in opposites. Thick white-ish hair has been hacked off crudely and unevenly, providing slanted coverage of a pair of yellowed eyes. His jaw does not boast a strong chin, disappearing in his jowls. Gangly limbs stretch too long, with their joints just below where they ought to be. The nails of his hands and feet are mostly blackened with dirt.
Skills
Now it's time to choose the skills your character will have when they enter the game.
DISCLAIMER: Please note that every character has a static skill point pool that will be shared among all the skills you choose. Therefore, if you choose the minimum four skills, your character will be fairly skilled in the four skills you choose. If you choose eight, they will be a little better than a beginner at all the skills you choose. Some skills require RPP.
Background
Now for one of the most important parts of your character: your character background.
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Good backgrounds will solidly ground their character in the game's lore, and introduce open plot lines that your character can explore in their journey through Middle-Earth. For example, if your character is hiding from loan sharks after taking a hefty loan for medicine due to an ailing family member, resulting in an interesting character arc with the guilt/fear/alienation that comes with moving away from family members and settling in a new location.
Overview
Review, make any changes you need to and then hit submit. Do not log in to the Guest Lounge after submitting your application and petition for it to be reviewed.
