Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

[Lily]

Lady Cin, would you like to post your excellent detailed explanations here?
Please keep this thread to Q and A about how to find your way around Critters Forum, I'm sure it will be a great help to newbies

[Lady Cin]

Awwww, thank you Lily, I most certainly will.

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Explanation for Critter Newbies

Lemme see if I can sort things out for ya

There are two basic types of hatching/bonding/impression threads...

1) The Pick a Number Bonding - The person holding the event will announce the bonding of a particular type of creature. The person holding the event will post a list of numbers, each number representing one or more creatures. The person holding the event will say to pick 1 or more numbers. Anyone who wishes to attach one of the creatures should reply to the note and request one of the listed numbers. Numbers are given out on a first ask, first given basis. If multiple people choose the same number due to confusion or just request any available number, the person holding the event will decide who gets which number. When all the numbers have been taken, the person holding the event will announce the results. The lucky winners then reply back to the note with the name of their new bondmate. It is wise to keep a note of which creatures you bond with, either in the Critter and Bonds List thread, in your signature (if there aren't too many), or on a personal website or other location.

2) The Role Play Bonding - The person holding the event will announce the bonding of a particular type of creature and state that the impressions will be role-played out. Anyone who wishes to bond one of the available creatures needs to reply to the note In Character. If you do not understand how to role play, you should avoid this type of hatching until you figure out how to play.

There are also other ways to receive new creatures...

1) Request a Creature Thread - Anyone who wishes to impress a particular type of creature can look through the Creature Encyclopedia thread and then post a request in the Request a Creature thread. Be sure to make your request specific; example - Lady Cin may I please request one of your Unicorn Dragons?

2) Give the Next Poster a Critter Thread - This is the fun one. Someone posts that they are leaving X creature(s)...the next poster can claim that creature(s), then they leave another creature(s) for the next poster. If you do not have any original creature creations you may leave one of Anne McCaffery's creatures (firelizard, wher, dragon, pern feline, pern canine, etc.) There is a note that lists all/most of AMC's creatures.

3) Totally Unexpected Bondings - Sometimes people will give you a creature for who knows what reason...birthdays, holidays, or even just because you are new and don't have many creatures.

Always remember to say please and thank you and never, ever, never give away creatures that were created by someone other than AMC without permission.

Hope this helped,
Lady Cinnamin

[Lily]

In order to make it easier for folks anxious to adopt one of your critters to find them, could you please put in the title whether it's a role play or adopt by numbers thread.

[Bane]

Here's my contribution. I have a world template somewhere, but this is the basic idea:

How do you create a world?
World Template

Name of your World:

General Description: describe the world here in general terms.

Specifics--

Races: describe any sentient beings here.
** name of race, description, good or evil, heirarchy, political system, traditions, laws, etc. **

Geography: describe the geography of you planet here.
** names of landmass, forests, rivers, mountain ranges, oceans, etc. **

Plantlife: describe the plantlife of the planet.
** flowers, trees, fields, anything unusual about the flora of the planet **

Places: describe cities or villages.
** size, population, races that inhabitate the area, etc. **

Schools and Religions: describe the education and religion of your planet.

** the education of certain people, the different religions of the planet **

How do you create a character?

Character Creator Sheet

Path of Change:

PHYSIOLOGY
Sex:
Age:
Height and weight:
Color of eyes, hair, and skin:
POsture:
Appearance:
Defect:
Heredity:

SOCIOLOGY
Economic Class:
Occupation:
Education:
Home Life:
Religion:
Race, nationality:
Place in community:
Political affiliations:
Amusements, hobbies:

PSYCHOLOGY
Sex life, moral standards:
Personal premise, ambitions:
Frustrations, chief disappointments:
Temperament:
Attitude toward life:
Complexes:
Extrovert, introvert:
Abilities:
Qualities:
IQ:
Quirks, mannerisms:

[Something Evil]

Here's another FAQ. It was originally written by Sylversmoke, but has been updated and rewritten for the KT by me.


How Does Posting Work?
Here, we generally use a round-robin posting style. This means that I will post something about my character, and other people will respond to it with their characters. There's certainly room for full posting and co-posting as well however. Full posting is where I would write a complete story line for my character, start to finish, and post it all at once. I've written it entirely myself, with no interaction with anyone else's characters. Coposting is where 2-3 people (or more, but usally just 2-3) will write a storyline together off the forum, then post the completed storyline for everyone to see.

How Do I Start?
You can jump into the posting whenver you're ready. The purpose of this FAQ is to give you the information you need to get started right away, but if you feel more comfortable simply observing for a while first, that's ok too. You start by choosing a character and maybe writing a little bit of information about that character. This can include the character's name, race, how old he or she is, a description and a bit about his/her personality.

Tell Me More about Creating a Character.
Some may use their name at the KT for their first character, while others may pick another name. You don't have to get your character approved by anyone, so you can do pretty much anything you want with them. Some people choose to make a character that "is" them, that is, the character is very much like they are themselves. One example may be my character Grey One, even if she doesn't show up much anymore, she "is" me(with creative differences).

~ Name, age, and physical description
~ Personality
~ History or Background
~ Magical powers and how well trained you are.
~ Bonds (the creatures we Impress are called bonds.)

What World is this Set In?
The RPs here is actually set in several different worlds. Some of our people live on Earth, some live elsewhere, and there's always visiting going on between different worlds. There's various versions of Pern for example. What? With so many people using it for RP, it would hardly be fair to heap in all on just one Pern. Imagine such a uproar that would have been ;-) You can make up your own world, or find your own place on someone else's (just make sure it's ok with them first.) A few worlds you'll see references to are Sjirra and Lentheas(property of Something Evil), the Kyolis Islands (property of Tygress), Pern (no one actually lives there, but some characters come from there). Everyone else are free to make up their own worlds as well, for their characters and creature creations to live in.

How Can I Impress/Bond with Creatures?
Go to a Hatching - there's nearly always one going on - and try to attract one of the hatchlings. It's as simple as that. If you've ever attended a Hatching at the KT, it works much the same way. Some are relatively simple, while others may include a sub-plot or more(some at the KT are notorious for that). If you haven't attended a KT Hatching, don't worry. Attracting the hatchlings mostly consists of offering love, acceptance, and food, and sometimes other incentives if the hatchling seems interested.

Now I Have Some Bonds-- What Do I Do With Them?
There's always interaction going on between the bonds, as well as the characters. Have them show up at other RP Hatchings with your characters, or even write a few stories about them.

Speaking of bonds - there's an awful lot of them! What are they all?
Good Question! There's the Creature Encyclopedia of-course, although that may be a bit much to search through. Some people have also make webpaged for their creations, and the links to those can usually be found in their signature. Then there's the Creature Page; http://creatures.freehostia.com/ , that contains info about a even larger number of creatures created by people at the old and new KT. Some of those people are still around, while others have long left for various reasons.

What's the difference between a bond and a companion?
Basically, the names explain it all. A bond is bonded to you for life - a Pernese dragon is a very good example. A companion is more of a friend, and free to leave at any time. They also tend to be more intelligent and independent, and may even have bonds of their own.

[Sharon]

Very nice Something Evil, I'm sure that will be a tremendous help to people who are new to Critters & RP. :ok:

[Lady Wolf]

Here's another FAQ. It was originally written by Sylversmoke, but has been updated and rewritten for the KT by me.

Speaking of bonds - there's an awful lot of them! What are they all?
Good Question! There's the Creature Encyclopedia of-course, although that may be a bit much to search through. Some people have also make webpaged for their creations, and the links to those can usually be found in their signature. Then there's the Creature Page; http://creatures.freehostia.com/ , that contains info about a even larger number of creatures created by people at the old and new KT. Some of those people are still around, while others have long left for various reasons.



The above link no longer seems to work - does anyone know what happened to the Creature page.

Also I'm I correct in thinking there is/used to be a Yahoo or MSN group?

[Wolfegar]

Maybe whoever had the account for http://creatures.freehostia.com/ no longer wanted or perhaps could no longer pay for the account.

As to MSN Groups, the only one I'm aware of is the Clan Fiend (http://groups.msn.com/ClanFiend/) group.

[Lady Wolf]

I can remember a group where you could list what flits you had, and I'm pretty sure it was on MSN - it had a green background.

[Something Evil]

This what you are looking for?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KT_draconics

[Lady Wolf]

Yes, that's the one. Thank you very much.

[GinnyStar]

Thank for the information. I have a RP for SSW in the OCC section I need help to see if he well past the ok need to join in the fun, its my first one here. I would not like to have it muck up!
Here is the link to him http://annemccaffreyfans.org/forum/showthread.php?t=18642