New Roleplayers' Guide
Welcome to the Roleplayer's New Player Guide. This page serves to help new players as they traverse the lore of MassiveCraft and the world of Aloria, conceptualize characters and get into the roleplay community and acclimatize. This page assumes you have no prior experience with MassiveCraft and/or roleplaying. If you have any question or curiosity about MassiveCraft or its lore, the MassiveCraft Roleplay discord is a good place to get answers.
What is Roleplay?
In the context of MassiveCraft, roleplay is an activity where the players portray fictional characters within the shared setting of Aloria and interact with like minded roleplayers. It is a collaborative writing exercise in which you may create a story of your own full of its own twists and turns. By using Minecraft as a medium an environment is provided that provides more visual aid and immersion than a pure text based setting.
Good roleplay has immersion. This means that you as a player really feel into it, being drawn in, just like a good book where you can't stop turning the pages, and hours might pass without you realizing it. Good roleplayers create immersion and situations that promote it. A big part of immersion is the ability to believe what is going on. To this end, the lore and adherence to it are important to not only entertain yourself, but others as well.
Common Roleplay Terms
- IC: In Character. This encompasses everything in-universe and acting as a character. In practical terms, if someone is IC they are able to be interacted with. One of the most important facets of RP is that anything IC stays IC. Your character may hate another person's character, but you can still be friends with that person OOCly.
- OOC: Out of Character. When players are aimlessly jumping around and not roleplaying they are OOC. This term encompasses everything that isn't inside Aloria or in roleplay. Gameplay mechanics and systems are largely OOC. Even if they may place restrictions and rules to roleplay, they are not concepts IC.
- Powergaming: Also known as Godmodding, is the act of performing an emote (explained later in this guide) and saying what happens to other players during the emote. This is often used as a catch-all term for acts where characters are doing things they realistically should not be able to do.
- Metagaming: Metagaming is the use of knowledge outside of your character to use in game. As IC information and OOC information is separate, it often refers to the act of using knowledge gained OOCly ICly. For example, the first time you meet someone's character but suddenly knowing their name is metagaming. This also includes performing IC actions because of OOC motivations. For more information, refer to our Metagaming page.
- For other information regarding different roleplay terms, and the rules behind them, visit out Roleplay Rules page.
The Setting
The recent history of Aloria, and specifically the story of the Regalian Empire, begins after the apocalyptic event known as the Cataclysm that brought an end to the Fifth Void Invasion, as well as to the hegemonic Allorn Empire that reigned supreme until then. Entire territories were swallowed whole as flooding, earthquakes, and volcanoes tore up the land and created new formations, all while countless numbers of people perished in the ensuing chaos. Magic was greatly weakened by this event, which meant that in the aftermath of the event, the Allorn Empire was unable to stop their former slaves who broke free and scattered across Aloria.
In the wake of chaos left behind by the fall of the Allorn Empire, nation-states emerged along racial and cultural lines. Among the states that came to prominence was the Ailor-controlled Regalian Empire, which over the course of the three centuries rose to become an undisputed hegemonic power, spreading far and wide and subjugating lands across the continents. This Empire of Ailor was largely united in purpose thanks to the religion of Unionism, which centered their Race as supreme and conferred near-divinity onto the Regalian Emperors.
Yet the Empire is not alone in Aloria, being beset by threats both internal and external throughout its history. Regalian Imperialism comes at the expense of peace abroad, and from within racial tensions and insidious threats from malicious entities threatens homefront order and security.
The setting of the server takes place in Regalia, the capital of the Regalian Empire. Positioned in the Regalian Archipelago on the centrally located Crown Isle, the city is the jewel of the Empire. The city enjoys amicable conditions and prosperity from all corners of the Empire. People of every Race and Culture make up the demographics of this city, and it is the political centre of the Empire. Not only does the city house the Imperial Court, but nobles from all the Archipelago and beyond congregate here, vying for political power and dominance.
For the commoners of the city, the city isn’t as utopian as it is made out to be. Subversive elements such as criminals, cultists, and worse plague sections of the city, such as the Sewers, where whispers of beings with supernatural natures and esoteric happenings are acknowledged to be more than mere human. Even with these hidden dangers, people flock from all over the world to live within the walls of the capital, for the city offers opportunities found nowhere else in Aloria, ranging from humble desires to attain wealth, to ambitions to shape Aloria geopolitically.
Character Creation
There are countless philosophies and methods of creating good roleplay characters, this section is intended to advise on creating characters that are successful in finding roleplay and getting started in traversing the lore.
One of the central tenets of MassiveCraft is equal opportunity. Regardless of experience, position, or seniority, the character constraints around a character are the same. MassiveCraft is not a roleplay setting where you are expected to start from a blank slate and have to attain everything (including an actual interesting backstory) through in-game means. Another concept that may strike someone as a surprise coming from other RP mediums is that revamping characters, changing the character from the ground up at a moment’s notice, in either appearance or archetype is commonly accepted within reason.
To get started with roleplay, all you need is a name, a Race and a purpose. MassiveCraft Lore has a diverse roster of playable Races and subraces/Cultures, and while one is not forced to adhere to racial inclinations perfectly, it may help to choose a Race that fits your thematic interests.
The full list of Races can be found here: Races Each Race and Culture has its own physical constraints in terms of looks, builds and height and often naming conventions. Some of these constraints and character creation rules can be found on the Proficiency page, which also explains certain skills your character can learn. When you are done deciding these parts about your character, you are ready to get started roleplaying on MassiveCraft with a lore complaint character.
The Chat System
The MassiveCraft chat system differs from most roleplay mediums. While MassiveCraft boasts many commands and plugins, for a roleplayer the commands described here are the most important. For an exhaustive list on the chat and their instructions on the system go here: Massivechat
Channels
When you first join MassiveCraft you are subscribed to a few channels by default. A single letter followed by a colon typed in the chat is used to switch between channels
- l: Local, this is the Roleplay channel
- g: General, this is a server-wide chat
- t: Trade, mostly pertinent to Factions
- r: Recruitment,
- h: Help, ask for help here
You can leave and join channels through /ch join or /ch leave Doing /ch leave g will make you leave general for example. This is important to reduce chat clutter during roleplay.
Roleplaying
The Local channel on MassiveCraft is very versatile, by default any text spoken in this channel is spoken word by your character. By finishing your line with a chat modifier, you are able to express your roleplay in more detail. Here is a table of all of the chat modifiers for roleplay.
| Modifier | Name | Range |
| No modifier | Say | 11 |
| + (Important) | Emote | 20 |
| * (Important) | Whispering | 3 |
| )) (Important) | OOC | 20 |
| ? | Ask | 11 |
| ! | Exclaim | 12 |
| !! | Yell | 26 |
| !!! | Scream | 35 |
| # | Environment | 20 |
| $ | Mutter | 5 |
| _ | Mutter range emote | 5 |
| @ | Announce | 70 |
| = | Announce Emote | 40 |
| > | Sing | 26 |
| & | Command | 26 |
| +1-9 | Coloured emote | 20 |
Favoriting
A key tool to both see when your friends are logging on and colouring the names of your friends a different colour (Or even your own!) is the favourite command.
- You can add a ‘favourite’ by typing: /fav add NAME
- Access your list of favourites by typing: /fav list
- And finally, remove favourites by typing: /fav remove NAME
The Server Environment
The in-game roleplay environment is a single large city that can be split into three major regions: New Town, Old Town and the Sewers. New Town encompasses the lion's share of the city and is usually considered the ‘normal’ city environment. Old Town is a part of the city that is dominated by it’s older buildings from the capital’s earlier years. Lastly, we have the sewers: An underground cesspit reserved for the most dispossessed of society. Citizens who are not allowed to own housing on the surface, or even have a right to exist are commonplace here, as well as those practising activities that can not stand the light of day. Each of these environments has its own RP hotspots, dynamics, and playerbases.
Many of the buildings in the city are houses, which are rental regions that one can rent, decorate and call your own. Due to the server’s population and high demand, vacant properties can be rare. Housing is often auctioned on the forums, though this might be expensive for a newer player. Alternatively, one can acquire housing through roleplay by becoming one's roommate or becoming part of a group with barracks.
MassiveCraft has many organizations that look for new members to join their ranks. Joining any group is a good method of finding players and roleplay to participate in. The server knows three consistent playerbases that most organizations fall beneath:
- Law Enforcement: Guards, inquisitors and other charters that are permitted to maintain the peace within the city. Conflict roleplay mostly takes place in the form of fighting organized crime and petty thievery. The law enforcement of Regalia are often militaristic, and the social dynamics within vary from chapter to chapter.
- Crime: Gangs, cults and other organized subterfuge organizations, often with their own specific goals and niches. They most commonly feud against other gangs and the Law Enforcement for control of their sections of the underworld.
- Nobility: Noble Houses of Regalia, these are usually family units and their retainers. They mostly interact with one another, and take part in higher stakes Noble RP. While those starting out are usually unable to join OOCly as a family member, it only takes some IC interactions with these characters to see yourself become a member of their retainer forces.
These three umbrella categorizations that most groups of MassiveCraft fall under have their own culture and systems that they adhere to and are usually open to joining through application on the forums. While it is not required whatsoever to join an organization, it is a good opportunity for new players to learn roleplay with a dedicated support base.
How to get started with Roleplay
Getting started with roleplaying is often a daunting experience if you are completely new and have no pre-existing connections on MassiveCraft. Regardless of what previous experience you have, the best way to get started is to join the [https://www.MassiveCraft.com/discord-roleplay MassiveCraft Roleplay discord and state that you are new and looking for roleplay or for groups.
There are two methods of getting started roleplaying on MassiveCraft. The former is to simply interact with random people on the street. While it may seem daunting, approaching people throughout the city or messaging individuals who run by whether they want to RP is a surefire way to have organic interactions. A good method of doing so is making up reasons to interact with people beforehand. This can range from wanting directions so specific places to roleplaying that you somehow got injured and need help. Do not be scared by roleplays that are short or people that are busy, name recognition and repeated interactions are the most natural ways on how friendships develop in real life and such is also the case in RP.
The other method is to visit a tavern hotspot and sit around. While making up reasons for meaningful interaction can be more difficult, they are often populated and a lot less intimidating than interacting with someone on the street. Activity of these establishments vary from timezone to place, and we encourage you to ask in the community Discord if you are unsure how to find locations in Regalia.
Where to Continue
Once you believe you have acclimatized to the server sufficiently and have a good feel for your character, you can make a character application to ‘canonize’ your character on the server. This means that you can use the character for progression events and ensures your character is lore compliant backstory-wise. You can do so on this forum:
Remember that a roleplay character is a living document, one which you should continuously expand on both personality and backstory. By having a rich backstory, certain events and traits may coincide with other players which result in interactions that are natural. Try to appeal to yourself by creating a character you can love. While you should avoid making a character that is too perfect (also known as a Mary Sue) or a character that is too edgy (defined as having an excessively grim and dark backstory for no purpose) there is a fine balance that should be struck.
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