Cantr II Discussion Forum

As a new player, my characters are all relatively inexperienced. They look around them and see others who have found direction and purpose in their lives, but they have little idea of what it takes to get from Point A (newspawn) to Point B (having the tools/resources/status to perform a certain role or activity). I know that I could spend OOC years playing just to reinvent the wheel. However, it might be nice to get some tips from experienced players so I and other newbies have some notion of what is needed to achieve particular goals. I will go first and give what I think might be an efficient path for a career.

Town Leader. To become a town leader, find out who the current town leaders are. Tell them that you would like to be in a leadership position too someday and that you are ready and willing to help with whatever needs to be done. (How long would this typically take? 5-10 years perhaps?)

Other possible career advice could be given for Trader, Explorer, Soldier, Pirate, and whatever else you can think of.

Well you wanted a NOOB guide, so I figured I would write one on a type of character that I have played many times. It is a very simple guide, but I think it will be sufficient for NOOBS.

Trader:
Every character will be different because some will run into better opportunities for advancement than others. However, I will give a short guide on how to become a trader on your own.

1. Find Wood
The first thing you need to do is study a map and find the closest place(forest) with wood. You need to travel there, and start gathering. I suggest that you start out with a longboat since they require no metals, and can carry a large quantity of resources. You will need a hammer to build it, so as you travel to the forest keep your eyes open for some stone to use on the hammer. You probably will be able to get one from a resident in the forest though if you can't find any stone.

2. Build the Ship
This step is pretty self-explanatory, but just remember to put a professional-looking name if you are going to be a trader. It can help out in various ways.

3. Gather Wood
Wood is a widely used resource, so while you are in the forest, go ahead and gather some more wood for trading. If there is anything else valuable there, gather that too.

4. Gather other Resources
Now that you have your boat, study your map and find resources that are not very abundant around the world, but that are useful. Travel to these towns and gather many of them. Also, you will need to build yourself a large food supply and also some healing food. Never know what you will run into out on the seas. Building some sort of cooker on your boat is ideal since it will give you something useful to work on while travelling. If you are near a location that has salt, I suggest you build a salting barrel and salt meat. That is a very productive source of food.

5. Trading
Now comes the final step. Once you have gathered a decent amount of resources, start traveling from coastal town to coastal town trading. Make a list of what you have, and drop it in the town when you arrive. Make an announcement that you are a trader, and tell them that your goods are on the note. If someone wants some of your resources, make sure they are trading you something that will be useful in re-trading. For instance, don't trade wood for dung. Finally, you always need to throw a small fee onto your trades for the transportation costs. That is how you make your profits as a trader. Usually a 10% fee is fair.

6. Collect Orders
One last step, is collecting orders. When you arrive in each town, ask if there is anything that they need, and write it down on a note with their names and town. Then when you are out trading, you will know what to look for as well. If there is a resource in their town that you want, let them know before you leave so they can gather it while you are gone. That will ensure that you do not have to wait a long time when you return.

Chris wrote:Town Leader. To become a town leader, find out who the current town leaders are. Tell them that you would like to be in a leadership position too someday and that you are ready and willing to help with whatever needs to be done. (How long would this typically take? 5-10 years perhaps?)

That really depends on the town. Some places you will be killed for posing a threat to their position.

... um don't become a clothier..... nuff said

I don't think theres an answer to the question....I would say it greatly varies in accoradance to the town you spawn/settle in. I currently have 13 characters and they all have different roles in the society they call home. How they got those roles varied greatly though.

One just said hi what needs doing and through time worked his way up and after years of work had influence

Antoher one literally drove into town and said I'm in command here and every agreed and is now king. (and this is one of the old established islands not a new one where people aren't well off)

Antoher town I spawn in is a true dictaorship so unless someone dies you haven't got a chance of getting highter in society. He had to trick and kill his way to where he is today.

I had one a thief walk into a town and was instatly asked if we wanted to join the army. He's now very close to running the entire thing.

I've had people setting off to find unclaimed areas and calling it theirs or slowly killing everyone till your on top to working 40 years to be called a 'senior member' or antoher who has after 50 years still has no say what so ever.

You just have to be flexible and play it by ear.

Religous Leader
Here's how i'd go about starting a religion. Obviously, in this example the religious leader knows his claims are fraudulent, but it's quite possible to roleplay situations whereby he truly 'discovers' the 'truth' and believes all his theory himself.

1. Witness a Miracle
The first and most important step of any religious leader's rise to power is to witness a miriacle, or to make some form of contact with the god or gods of the religion. This can be part of the game mechanics, for example a disappearing body, or a miraculous change of animals in the location the character is in, or alternatively it could be partially RP'd, for example someone taking mushrooms and hallucinating a 'vision', or someone being so close to starvation or death to do so. The third way to witness a miriacle is to completely make it up.

Whatever miracle you see, whatever contact you have with the gods of your new religion, it must be believable to other players and (more importantly) they must have sufficient material reason to want to join your religion. It's best to try and start a religion with a reasonably wealthy character, or in a reasonably poor location. Newspawns who start preaching the second they're out of the proverbial womb often fail to cause a serious stir because of this fatal omission.


2. Write some Religious Literature
Once you've witnessed the miracle, you must of course write it up and distribute it amongst many towns, gathering followers along the way. In your religious ramblings you should be able to explain three main things:
1-The creation and purpose of the world
2-The creation and purpose of man (this should include a preferrably never-ending mission for followers of your religion)
3The purpose of your god/s
There may be overlapping issues or ideas amongst these three points, but they must all be explained somewhere in your religious texts. Once again, the writing should be convincing and hold at least some logic to it.

3. Construct a Religious Building
By now you have hopefully gathered at least a few followers. You shouldn't expect the masses to stop what they're doing and follow you - they've got better things to do and don't need you anyway. You should aim to convert newspawns, as they should be hungry for any company and any interesting story line that crosses their path. Together you should work on constructing a building. Ideally a hall. The town you build it in should have a simple food, stone or wood and an iron making resource. If it's fairly large and rich already you'll probably grow faster, but it might be harder to gain the first foothold there.

Ply your recruits with stuff to keep them loyal and speed up the work. They'll want a wooden shield and some kind of iron or steel resource gathering tool at the least. Once the building is made, proceed to build lots of extensions and other buildings inside it to create an illusion of wealth and power to visitors. Most of the rooms can stay empty or locked.

4. Get Richer
Once you have your HQ, you can now send your young deciples out into the world to gather iron making resources. You should probably give them a tandem, or some other vehicle, if you can afford it. Make them go in twos to increase the chances of one of them returning laden with goods. Of course it's also important to impress on them the importance to keeping converting more people as they go on this pilgrimage. If your religion has ranks, you can make keep your new recruits competing against each other to gain promotion and your favour.

You should stay with your religious building, although keep outside as much as possible to grab any newspawns in the town. You can send them inside to work for a while, but make sure they have the chance to go on resource gathering missions and other pious journeys to keep their interest up. From here, you've pretty much made it. Just keep awake and active enough and pretty soon you'll be able to construct buildings in other resource rich towns until you have conquered the whole of the civilised Cantr world. [/list][/b]

Well, that Religion guide was pretty interesting. That is about the only type of character I have never played, but it does seem... interesting. However, for that to work out right, and for you to get to step 3 and 4, it will take a whole lot of time and luck. It is hard to get large movements in Cantr to work. I am not saying it isn't possible, but it is definetly not a career path a newspawn or new player should attempt I don't think.

Thanks for that guide though. It will keep me thinking of new RP ideas when I get some stornger and richer characters.

Sunni Daez wrote:... um don't become a clothier..... nuff said

I have a char that spawned, was good at tailoring and became town tailor right away.
Been having so much business with that char that I spent some years inside working.
Of course, the trick is to also be useful in other ways (make string, bowstring, suggest ideas to the town on how to make sailcloth... as someone who had a natural knack for working any material related to yarn and clothing, my char seemed to fill a huge gap there.

However, spawn in a region where the main play revolves around slaying tortoises and building cars and upgrading roads, or political intrigues, and that same char might have ended up sitting on the corner of a building, holding up a sign that said "Will wear dress and dance while newspawns tug my beard for food" heh...

It's difficult to say exactly what woks, as every location differs and each time differs as well. I've seen people act the same way as I have both before and after I did and the results vary greatly.
My most economically succesful chars have used their surroundings wisely. But I've heard it said more than once that the most fun comes from unexpected things, so if you find someone that seems interesting, ask to join them.

Here are some options:
Wage slave. This can be tedious, but you'll be off to a good start with the metal you earn. You could even be promoted and be the manager of the operation in a while. This is more likely if you have some good suggestions and are active and alert. This may be a good first step regardless of what you plan. Keep your eyes and ears open for what's happening and use that information.

Resource gatherer (outgoing). It will take a while to show the town you are trustworthy and awake, they probablay have been burnt by sleeping sickness and heart attacks too many times to hand over tools and possibly even vehicles to a fresh newspawn. Coming with good suggestions may speed this up (either on what to gather or where, tools or machines to improve things among other things). You may have some influence in this line of work, as you are the eyes and ears of the community. Upon return you may be promoted or asked to go again. If you never get promoted, you atleast have the knowledge to become a trader.

Resource gatherer (incoming). Study the maps, listen to travelers and traders. Is there some resource here or nearby that could be useful for someone else? Walking into a town carrying needed resources may be a good way to get a position or possibly trade for something else and repeating the process. If this fails repeatedly or you find very good profits early on you should consider being a trader instead, as you should have knowledge of some profitable goods by now.

Salvage. Works best at the edge of known lands. Get a dinghy. Get lots of food. Get a crowbar* Sail out and try to find abandoned ships. Break into them and hope to find valuable goods. If not you could try to bring the ship back and sell it. Keeping it and becoming a trader is also an option.

General tips:
Keep notes on everything. It's a pain to look up things later in day reports.
Make plans, but don't be afraid to change them.
Know your surroundings.
Know the game mechanics. I suggest studying the wiki. (surprise, huh ).

My advice would be to either:

* Find yourself a niche (but not so niche that only a couple of people ever want your services

* Work for already successful businesses / organisations / town rulers. It's so much easier to piggy-back into something else by first working for an already established organisation - you're likely to get access to resources and tools that would take years otherwise. You can always do your own thing at a later stage, that's if you don't end up running the organisation you joined as a newspawn...

Cooperation is the name of the game...

Find someone who's successful and latch yourself onto them. Eventually, they will die, and you'll inherit their stuff. It takes patience, but everyone dies sooner than later in Cantr.

Town guard/soldier:

1) Apply. Usually get starter equipment, such as wooden shield and low damage weapon. Practice on a few wildlife animals, assuming your town allows it.

2) Stay active. You don't have to do a whole lot here, just keep up at a minimal one or two lines of text a day. Try to show you're awake and ready to stop evil lawbreakers or enemys at any given time.

3) Watch as you eventually get promoted. Enjoy the new gear and pay as you get higher in rank. Maybe even boss around those under you. Eventually get keys to vehicle in said town to chase down enemy's/thiefs. Live the highlife.

4) Purely optional... Get yourself and a few others you highly trust that will do what you want at a request and get promoted to King/townleaders personal guard. While under the cover of a building, plan a military Coup, and leave the body in a safe place, like a bedchamber. After a couple of days, go in to "check" on the body to tell everyone the person died of sleeping sickness. At the same time, Give some of the leaders personal belongings to one of the people that you trust. Immediatly drag them out into the open, declair they are a thief and a possible murderer.... Kill said person. Claim the town needs a strong Military influence. Proclaim yourself leader, with your remaining trusted soldiers as your muscle. Run empire.

Chris wrote:Other possible career advice could be given for Trader, Explorer, Soldier, Pirate, and whatever else you can think of.

Being that I have Hobbes under my belt, I guess I can say a few weightful things on the matter of "explorer". And a lot of this logic applies to the other character types. (But don't pin a character necessarily to one trade, either. You can be a lumberjack who sings, a guard who sells stolen goods, etc)

First, think of real life (or in-game) examples and adapt those traits that you want the character to have. Of course, allow the game to influence your character, too. Be dynamic, be multi-dimensional. Have several sides, have depth. Like an interesting character in a novel.

As Sarah wrote in the second Zine tips and tricks, keeping a record of things is key. Distribute the record. Think of what Hobbes did with the Encyclopedia. Show you did it first. Spread the word.

Make contacts and be friendly to people. Share your sugar and spice and whatever you found. You're an explorer, you just need food and some basic gear. The karma will repay you tenfold. Be grumpy if you want. It makes you more memorable, though less liked.

You don't have to be the first person ever to come across a piece of land, field of study, etc, to explore it. But if something's already thoroughly mapped out--make sure you're making a crucial improvement (or else your feat is useless). There's a lotta country to explore. Go for the most mysterious of things. Think big!

And not all explorers are sea captains either. Hobbes started his encyclopedia as a record of necessary ingredients/items to build complicated items--before the Find Out in Game Rule changed and the wiki replaced it. Go by foot (if you must), follow Frost and use the road less traveled. Take a companion along with you. Hobbes nearly always had one. Not necessarily a screw-buddy, either (Thomas died a virgin, in case you were wondering). This ain't Moby Dick.

Again, don't forget--keep that record: In Cantr, you are writing the history books. You're your own victor.

And oh, read what's around you, too, in game and out. Play off what's there already, you needn't start from scratch. Take a look at what I have done (sig link, particularly here: http://www.cantr.net/e107/e107_plugins/ ... ontent.132). Go ahead, take a page and make it your own.

The one trait a lot of my characters had in common and served them well is have stories to tell. Whether write them down, sing'em (John D Locke's style) or tell'em orally (Angus MacGregor's style).

Embelish if you must, but usually you won't need to. Cantr, like life, is full of stories.

As a relative new player too I'm finding it difficult or let me say my characters are finding it difficult to advance in some sort of career. I'd venture to say half of my charries have thus far settled into what I would like to call the freeloader career track. They just hang around town collecting food and other resources but not so much that burdens them. Otherwise they just sit and wait for something to happen. Others probably think they are sleeping or maybe they are just waiting for that oppourtunity ?? I dont know they are all individuals. We'll just wait and see but don't blame me if they freak out and become mass murderers.

Proudmonkey wrote:As a relative new player too I'm finding it difficult or let me say my characters are finding it difficult to advance in some sort of career. I'd venture to say half of my charries have thus far settled into what I would like to call the freeloader career track. They just hang around town collecting food and other resources but not so much that burdens them. Otherwise they just sit and wait for something to happen. Others probably think they are sleeping or maybe they are just waiting for that oppourtunity ?? I dont know they are all individuals. We'll just wait and see but don't blame me if they freak out and become mass murderers.

You need to RP your characters frustrations and just RP to RP.
As far as the skill strengthening. It is not all that hard.
Only need to work hard.