Pre made Characters

[Alladinsane]

Cantr was not designed to be a Role Playing Game. The only reason it's become a RPG is because the game it was designed to be failed over time, and there was nothing left to do other than RP. If Cantr was designed to be an RPG, the 20 year pre-spawn period would have an official explanation coupled to an official in-game religion system. It was left unexplained because it was irrelevant to a game of political brinkmanship and state building.

***That may be exactly where I was confused. When I first joined in March, there was a somewhat heated discussion on this forum with several people debating with Dudel about what good RP was within the Cantr environment, I don't remember whether you were involved in it or not Doug.

So it was 'designed to be failed'? hmmm...

I had a character spawn in the blaman region, totally desolate apart from the skeletons of long-ago abandoned buildings. I am sure that there once was an empire or state present and the game worked exactly as designed. I still re-iterate my confusion regarding the shrinking rather than expansion of this world, it just runs counter to everything I have been led to understand about the net. I only ask this for the sake of understanding as I want to be part of a growing player base and wish there was something I was able to do to help. I kind of floated something to snake, waiting response on that.

Well, lets have some fun!

Be well

[Marian]

I had a character spawn in the blaman region, totally desolate apart from the skeletons of long-ago abandoned buildings. I am sure that there once was an empire or state present and the game worked exactly as designed. I still re-iterate my confusion regarding the shrinking rather than expansion of this world, it just runs counter to everything I have been led to understand about the net. I only ask this for the sake of understanding as I want to be part of a growing player base and wish there was something I was able to do to help. I kind of floated something to snake, waiting response on that.

I believe there were some massacres in the Blaman region awhile back, around when I first started playing. But towns and empires can fall over a few years of game time for much less dramatic reasons. The big issue right now is not even that there are signifiicantly less players, but just the way their characters are spread so thin. The world is just too big, even if we doubled or tripled the number of players you wouldn't be able to populate a place like Fu, and every new little frontier outpost, even if actually planned out and built with the best of intentions, only makes the problem worse.

I don't know, maybe it would help if the spawning system were tweaked a little? Hasn't there been some discussion of that?

[Doug R.]

It wasn't designed to fail. It failed to perform as designed.

[Surly]

So it was 'designed to be failed'? hmmm...

No. The game it was designed to be, failed. As in the game was originally a society simulator, but didn't do very well at that (for various well-documented reasons).

EDIT: Damn it Doug, did I really take so long to write my post?

[gejyspa]

Actually, Doug, I fully approve of your character throwing a newspawn would-be pirate in jail. That's what that person gets for claiming to be one. No problem there (assuming of course piracy is against the law in that town, or if it's in any event within your character's personality).

Incidentally, here's the ONLY thing the Cardinal Rule says (according to the wiki):

There is one rule that governs the interaction among the characters in Cantr II.

While each individual player is allowed to have multiple characters, those characters MUST be separate and distinct individuals.

In then goes on to give some examples, explain the four day rule and so forth. But at base, that's IT. It covers what happens if you have multiple characters, or with a single character, using information sources from outside the game. It does not say you can't make things up.

[Doug R.]

As I said earlier, it's the PD's interpretation of the CR that matters. Hundreds of players in trouble have have tried the "but it doesn't say I can't X" excuse, and none of them has succeeded yet.

[EchoMan]

Maybe the current PD interpretation of the rule should be posted on the wiki then?

[Surly]

Maybe the current PD interpretation of the rule should be posted on the wiki then?

PD never were all that keen on transparency.

[EchoMan]

Inquisitionists weren't that keen on accepting the world was round, and not the center of universe either. Maybe it's time for change?

[Surly]

Inquisitionists weren't that keen on accepting the world was round, and not the center of universe either. Maybe it's time for change?

I absolutely love that analogy!

But, seriously, this is a GAB discussion not a general discussion.

[Joshuamonkey]

This is a funny thread.

The wiki has a nice explanation of the rules, http://wiki.cantr.net/index.php/Game_Rules, but nothing about backstories, so I added this:
"Your character should not have a background story describing the time before they spawned. They can have set personalities, and you can even have them act as if they have a back story, but this should not be made public to the other characters. If it is, your character will likely be treated as insane."
There, problem solved.

[offtopic]

I keep meaning to create a Spanish character, but I don't know the language well enough yet. I might be able to navigate the interface after plugging a few things (resources and items mostly) into Google Translate, but I'd only know maybe half of what you all say.

It's recommended that you know a good amount of the language before playing a character in it, I should say, but I think my old Spanish character was created after one year of middle school Spanish. It's educational. You may find some players may know how to emote in English, at least, but yes, you wouldn't want to automatically know English. In fact, my character still doesn't know English, but they do know a couple other languages. I used Google Translate a lot.[/offtopic]

[gejyspa]

This is a funny thread.

The wiki has a nice explanation of the rules, http://wiki.cantr.net/index.php/Game_Rules, but nothing about backstories, so I added this:
"Your character should not have a background story describing the time before they spawned. They can have set personalities, and you can even have them act as if they have a back story, but this should not be made public to the other characters. If it is, your character will likely be treated as insane."
There, problem solved.

Perfect. Thank you.

[phoenixannwn]

I need help with this. Sort of. And I don't know if there's a forum for this, but I'm kinda lost as to what search terms to use for it and I couldn't find it all in the general forum place thing....anyway.
I'm kind of stuck. I want to start a new character. I like my characters to be unique, with unique names and whatnot.
So, as per my usual, I gathered a list of names that I like, associated descriptions and basic attitudes and in some cases personalities/an idea of how I want them to turn out.
My problem now is I can't choose one. I figured I'd just spawn and decide based on where I landed in, but it's such a versatile place...it's driving me nuts, and the clocks ticking, 'cause my character's going to have to respond to people and stuff.
How do I pick one?

[CrashBlizz]

Flip a coin

[phoenixannwn]

There are like 12 of them.