What is role playing?

One definition for the word role is to play a part or act out the part of a character. A definition for playing is to occupy oneself in amusement, sport or other recreational means, to take part in a game. If you put the two together you have the basics of what role playing is and what a role playing game is: to take on the role of a character and act as that character for fun within the game. Role playing is not everyone's cup of tea, and many hear about it and think "that's silly, why would I do such a thing?" however many of these same people end up trying it out with an open mind and often find themselves enjoying role play.

What is our world on bloodletting like?

In essence the world of Bloodletting takes place in the modern world as we know it. T.V., Video Games, Car's, skyscrapers, anything that exists in our world, also exists in the bloodletting game world. If you specifically know of a place in the cities that exists outside of the game, such as a cafe, bar, park, or museum it will also still exist within the bloodletting game world. You can interact with everything, don't be afraid to try different things, do research for stuff in an area if you run out of ideas or not sure where to go or what to do.

A general thought amongst many of the players within the game is that most average people don't know that the mythological races exist and players do their best to and portray that, and keeping that way in their role play. Witches are kinda odd in this sense as different kinds exist, those from myth and those of faiths known today. Average people in our modern world consider them somewhat taboo while others accept them; it all depends on their faith and whether or not they believe the witch to be a modern version of paganism or voodoo. Our creatures of course know they exist. Slayers are often times' people or other creatures that exist in our world that have learned in some way about vampires and witches, and often choose to hunt them or just specific ones. However if slayer approached an average person on the street and announced to them they were a slayer they might be thought crazy.

How do I create a character?

When creating a character you don't have to put everything about them in your bloodletting profile, however it's always good to come up with some sort of concept for your character that defines them for yourself to make it easier to role play them while posting in the game. Such things that are good to consider are: name, gender, height, weight, hair, eyes, description, personality and history. If you take a piece of paper and fill out these things you may feel the information is a little shallow at first, at that point you may wish to expand on it a bit more by adding things such as likes, or dislikes, how you felt about certain things in the history.

The two most important areas are description and history. The description allows you to flex your writing abilities and place more detail on how your character appears in your mind and in others when you post in the game. Your history is a brief synopsis of who your character is. When another character meets your character, they will not necessarily know your history but it may affect your appearance and attitude giving depth to your character. A character with a hard life may have an appearance of being tough, or someone who led a simple life as say a librarian may have soft hands and may or may not wear glasses. Once you have these factors down you realize you have just created the basis for your character. Depending on the race you chose you may wish to add things, such as angels have wings and the ability to fly. Vampires have fangs and a need for blood.

A character you come up with in essence will be easier to play and more respected then one picked out from another game, book, manga etc. the reason for this is many people like originality, and with what's said above it shouldn't be too hard to come up with something. A character you create is also easier to play because you don't have to mimic someone else's personality that is well known, if you mess up a little with the personality of your character or slip it will be less noticeable and a lot easier to correct.

How do I find a good RP name?

There are many ways to find a good role playing name depending on the type of character you create. Do you want your name known or is a secret according to your back story? If so you can come up with an alternate name, or just chose something you wish to be called. You can do searches on the web for sites that talk about names and their meanings; there are also name generators out there that allow you to search for fantasy or modern names. You name in essence is up for you to chose. If your name is not available for some reason try shortening it, change the spelling or adding a unique last name.

What races can I choose to be from in bloodletting?

There are five playable races in bloodletting, those five races are: Vampire, Slayer, Witch, Werewolf, and Angels. It's considered poor taste by many to play anything beyond one of the five listed races. Slayers for the most part are considered human, there may be a few who play a half blood of one of the other races offered but their racial abilities will never be fully on par with those of a full blooded vampire, witch, werewolf or angel.

Other creatures of myth are generally thought to either no longer exist, never existed, or are very minor compared to how myth holds them to be. If you wish to chose a creature such as: a pixie, small dragon, zombie, or regular animals like rat, toad or cat as a familiar it is welcomed and encouraged. Minions are generally set by what the game mechanic's allow you to have a minion as.

How do I balance a character I create?

Balancing a character is very important; you don't want your character to powerful or seem to know everything. A good way to balance what your character might or might not know is to look at the history you wrote for them. This isn't to say a character couldn't have somehow learned in their history to know something outside of what they are, only that it's unlikely a character such as a librarian is obviously not a doctor, and if by chance your somehow playing a retired doctor who became a librarian later in life they are also definitely not a computer programmer. You also have to take into consideration the amount of time it takes to learn a particular skill.

True, long lived characters have endless amount of time on their hands, but when you make your character it is a good idea to choose an age, and knowledge for that character that can be played well. If you chose an age long ago such as one-hundred years or more you should go and at least learn some things about the history when they lived before and where they were so you're not altering history horribly and confusing other players. I will state the older the character is the longer the back story should be, covering where they were, and what they were doing during major events in history. Having a character to old isn't really recommended starting out for being extremely hard to play and remembering that knowledge when things in role play arise. Not every long lived character that gets created needs to be hundreds of years old for any fun to be had.

Of course the above also applies to abilities or powers with a slight difference. A good rule of thumb is for every power/ability that a creature possesses there should also be a flaw, sometimes major flaws can make up for a strong power, but for the most part stick to the one vs. one ratio and you won't likely get laughed at behind your back. If a power you have goes against typical legend and gives you a great advantage there should also be a flaw in your character that gives it a great disadvantage. For example: A werewolf with a great advantage like being able to change forms quickly and fluidly might have a problem with their claws where they break easily and have to grow back over time.

How do you determine time?

Time is determined in a few different ways. You do not always have to act like the time of day or night is the time the game is listed as. For example let's say you play a nocturnal character but can only get onto the game in the hours that's considered daytime by most people. That would be rather unfair for you to never be able to role play your character if their always asleep when you can be on wouldn't it? Especially since bloodletting is played internationally by many different time zones. Instead the time should generally be set by the first person posting in a thread, if it was not done so by them, then at any other point someone can state though their role play what time they perceive it to be, such as early morning, late morning, middle of the night, and so on. Using descriptions to set a time is the perfect way to establish a time period in the thread and communicate to others when the thread is taking place.

People now and then refer to something called 'Realm time' in their role play. 'Realm time' is simple to determine, it's the game's listed time. For role playing purposes all the creatures of our world know of a clock that our secretive world goes by, to make things simpler. Such as if you're a slayer and a vampire and you fight, you can simply tell someone else it happened at whatever time it happened at by the game and simply say it happened at that time 'Realm time'. An example might be 'We fought all over the streets of London and it went on for hours but we met and crossed words at six o'clock realm time.' 'Realm time' also makes it easier on the creatures of our world because when an event is held different times don't need to be noted for each city since there in technically different time zones, one time given is enough for everyone to understand easily.

Bloodletting is considered a real time game, the time lines for the most part are considered to take place in real time, and if you alter that time line it can upset someone else's time line. If you say something happens a week later but that person is still role playing like it's the next day/night or believing that their only one day older it changes someone else's story unfairly. In essence you are controlling other characters around you and not necessarily with their expressed permission. For example you play a character that can feasibly get pregnant, by having your character give birth within a week or even a couple of weeks dramatically alters timeliness for those you interact with, they now have to just accept that the proper gestation period for a child has passed even if their currently in an ongoing time lines where that time has not passed. It's a larger and often not noticed version of bunnying as it technically ages all you come in contact and even those that just know about you. If you wish to know more about what bunnying is check out the question 'what is bunnying?'

How do you do actions and speaking in posts?

There are three main types of separating action and speech in posts on bloodletting. There are numerous ways to do this and no specific one is more correct then the other. Below are some examples of styles more commonly used. You could go with style one below and use symbols to separate your actions, style two has symbols and quotation marks to separate action and speech, and style three below has just quotations around your speech. Style two and three are obviously the easiest to read but whichever one you chose will help define your character to others, once a style is picked its best to try to stick with that style.

Style 1: Action markers, no quotation marks around speech.
::Walks down the street, whistling a merry tune. Upon seeing his friend, he holds up a hand and waves.:: Good evening, friend! How are you?

Style 2: Action markers and quotation marks around speech.
*Stalking the shadows, the predator follows its prey. Silent movements carry it swiftly to pounce on the unsuspecting victim. Within moments, the corpse thuds to the ground, the blood completely drained away. Eyes flashing red, the vampire smirks down at the corpse.* "Such a sad end, to die alone."

Style 3: No action markers, quotation mark around speech.
While driving down the road, David sang along with his favorite music station. His attention not as focused on the road as it should have been. Suddenly, the blare of a car horn pulls his focus back on the road, swerving to avoid a collision with another car. Pulling off to the side of the road and breathing heavily, David looks to his passenger. "Wow that was close wasn't it?"

How do I properly approach a person to role play?

There are several ways you can approach people to role play with them. You can mail them and start a conversation, if they're not into role playing with you at the moment they will either inform you of that or not respond. You can ask them politely if they mind role playing with you... or if you see a group of people in a thread you should feel free to join in. Sometimes asking someone in the thread if it's not a public place is a good idea so you can role play entering the thread better.

Can I close off a role playing thread?

No, you cannot close any public threads off to other players, if a crew leader chooses to close a thread within their crew forum that is up to them. If a player chooses to end a thread they started because it continues elsewhere that is fine and should be respected. However you can't tell other players they can't join an ongoing thread. If you wish to state they ask before joining so they can be worked in that is fine, but they need to be allowed to join. If you as a player were not allowed to join a thread please inform an admin though in game mail with the name of the thread, the forum it was in and the documentation of them denying you access to the thread. Admins also reserve the right to close as in end a thread at any time. When a thread is closed by an elder it means it is over and no more posting should take place.

Can I carry out more than one conversation at the same time?

Of course you can, the bloodletting site allows it to be possible to be role playing in a thread or multiple threads and game mail all at once. It is suggested though if you do this you do your best to try to make sure the thread or threads and mail don't pertain to one another to avoid confusion of when you found something out, or discussed something. The key is to try to remember a time line for when everything is happening, know what's happened before or after. It's also good to know that while game mail can be role played in, it is also used for letter style correspondence.

Does good grammar and proper spelling really make a post better?

Yes! It does help a lot. If a person can't understand what you posted then how are they going to be able to respond to you? Now everyone understands typos happen, no one's perfect but in essence your helping write a story. If you have a problem with grammar or spelling try using a writing program to pre-write out your posts then copy and paste them into the thread you are posting in. If this isn't enough try doing a search for grammar rules, or a dictionary and thesaurus. There are many resources on the net that can help you. You'll notice with time you'll improve and have fun doing it.

Is there a proper perspective to post in?

You can post in first, second or third person perspectives. There is no specific perspective you must post in. So using words like I, She, or Selene when doing actions is fine, however, speaking is generally done in first person. We suggest though when using a perspective to post you stick to that perspective instead of mixing them up so as not to cause confusion.

Can I use pictures in posts?

Sure you can, but you must leave something in text. If your using a picture to help describe a place its best to leave some text as to what it looks like on the outside or inside at the very least, maybe even a little history about the place or tell where it's at or whether the role play is taking place inside or just outside. For example you may place a picture up showing where you live, but you still want to describe the inside, if you spend a lot of time there, or if it's an old house or newly built. You still need to set a scene so others know where to go with the role play taking place there. I will note just posting up pictures and saying "this is my house", "this is the living room" etc and no form of role play will be treated as spam.

How can I be more descriptive when role playing?

What is a non-player Character?

Non-player characters also known as an NPC, populate the fictional world of the game, and can fill any role not occupied by a players' character. Non-player characters might be allies, bystanders or competitors to the characters on the site. Often a story teller employs non-player characters for various reasons. For example they might be used to represent the police if your character and friends are up to mischief. If you look in the black rose dance club forum, the bouncers, bartenders, band and waiters are all examples of non-player characters. The normal people we rarely see in our world that don't know our creatures exist are considered non-player characters. If you role play having a pet this is considered a non-player character.

When referring to a non player character it is often done in the third person. An example is shown below.

Michael Corvin: ^As the eldest of the weres wandered down the street, he glanced at his watch and grimaced. He was late, and now apparently lost. Looking around at the street and nearby buildings, he realized this couldn't be the right place. Flagging down a nearby citizen, one of the normals of the world, he smiled pleasantly and asked the man for directions to the opera house, informing him that he was very late for an important date with the most beautiful creature in the world. The man smiled and pointed further down the street, before flicking his hand this way and that while the directions were spoken. Nodding with a smile, Michael Corvin thanked the man and went off to follow the directions, hoping they were the right ones!^

Do all things I do within the game need to be role played?

Doing things in the game such as the dirty deeds, attacking, stealing, and going to the market, hitting up the Forbidden City and minion battles are examples of game mechanics. Not all game mechanics need to be role played all the time, at first it may seem kinda fun to test your skills role playing wise, eventually though it will grow tedious as many find they do all of these things quite a lot. Things such as when your agility is low or your health is low you don't have to role play that you've been attacked or are weak all the time, your agility and health will drop many times over the course of your characters life on bloodletting. It is suggested though if you go to place a bounty or accept a bounty either person placing it or claiming it has some sort of role playing reason as to why they did it.

What does In Character or IC mean?

IC is the abbreviation for in character. All role play takes place in character, it is the character that is saying or doing things not the player. When you role play you go into your characters mindset, like acting out a part. You think of the motivations for that character, why they are the way they are, and what choices they would make. What the character does is in character, you may as a player decide that's how your character might do something but you base if off of previous factors in that characters history and personality, just because you chose something for your character doesn't mean the player would always agrees with what was done.

For example as a person or player, I wouldn't likely drink someone's blood, but a vampire would. I have no way to fly other than a plane but angels don't need one. Therefore it comes to the agreement that while I might paint or enjoy reading, my character might not. While I wouldn't kill someone in reality because they made me mad, if they made my character mad they might. If a character acts against another character it does not mean it's an attack on the player, only that is how the character is that way. In character or IC should never be taken personally against the player behind the character.

The Realm Forum, Black Rose, Neighborhood, City and Racial forums are all for role playing use and are considered in character only when posting in them. If you click on the word Forums it will take you to a page that explains a little bit about each forum

What does Out of Character or OOC mean?

OOC is the abbreviation for out of character. It means when you the player are speaking to another player. A no time when speaking out of character does that players character receive the information. It is extremely important to role play to keep what the player and what the character knows separate. Everything not on the bloodletting site being stated by someone should be considered out of character communication, such as instant messengers or out of game mail unless it's specifically stated by all parties involved in the conversation that it is in character. It's important to try not to use out of character terms in role play, such as stat terms, admin, or rank. Mortal thoughts, Help, Contests, Book Club, Interviews and Game idea forums are generally considered for player use. If you click on the word Forums it will take you to a page that explains a little bit about each forum.

There are a few correct ways to determine out of character when speaking with other players on bloodletting and all are accepted as an understanding that the text is to be considered out of character and out of character only..

OOC: out of character text shown here.

(Out of character text shown here)

((Out of character text shown here))

What is God Moding?

God Moding is creating a character that is of an invincible nature and can do anything. They can hurl massive fireballs and level entire cities, they can sneeze and kill people. They basically can do anything they want to anything and nothing ever happens to them because they can somehow magically avoid everything. Basically it's acting as powerful and all knowing as a God, and on bloodletting, the elders are really the only ones who should be able to have a god complex. Doing this in role play will likely get you ignored or possibly get you killed. A way to avoid doing this is never playing at being stronger then another person that is above rank to you. If you wish to know more ways to avoid doing this, check out the question 'How do I play to my rank?'

What is Power Gaming?

Power gaming is very similar to god moding. A power gamer creates a character of little to no value other than to grow stronger and more powerful. It is one thing to have a character whose goals are to become more powerful but actively seeking power-ups and tweaks for your character is generally frowned upon in role play. Role playing is supposed to be about the story, not about how strong you can make your character or how quickly you can rank up. Doing this in role play will likely get you ignored or possibly get you killed. A good start to avoiding this is by remembering the elders are technically the strongest and most powerful people on the game, making a character stronger than them is a version of power gaming. If you wish to know more good ways to avoid doing this, check out the question 'How do I play to my rank?'

What is Bunnying?

Bunnying is when one player tries to take control of another players' character, though actions they do or even ripple effects of time lines. Most often it's found in a role played fight scenario however it can be found elsewhere. You must at all times try to remember a player controls their own actions, you control yours and they control theirs. Taking control of another person's character is unfair towards that player.. A couple examples of bunnying are as follows:

Example 1: Dr Van Helsing: *I chop off the evil vampire Dracula's head with my big axe*

Example 2: Dracula: *I take Dr Van Helsing's hand and drag him over to a chair *

Both of these are examples of Bunnying because in both examples the person didn't get a choice. Looking at example 1, Dracula basically had no choice but to get his head lopped off and in essence die. Looking at example 2, Dr Van Helsing seemed to have little choice on whether or not he wanted to go over to the chair or not. Better ways to possibly do this and suggest to the other player what you would like to happen are as follows:

Example 1: Dr. Van Helsing: *I swing my axe towards the evil vampire raising it to about the height of his neck*

Example 2: Dracula: *I offer my hand to Dr Van Helsing and motion to one of the nearby chairs *

Bunnying another player should be avoided at all costs, it's considered rude and you can find that other people might not role play with you so easily anymore. There are some exceptions to this, such as if you are the storyteller and its agreed upon by all involved, if a player gives you their express consent to 'bunny' them, or if a game mechanic makes it obvious its gonna happen. However, you do want to avoid doing it to others as much as possible.

What is Meta Gaming?

Meta gaming is also known as crossing, for crossing information. Put simply any information you receive as a player is not also known automatically by your character. If you learn something that you could benefit from, give you a great advantage or cause your character great detriment but your character didn't somehow learn about it, only you as the player know it. You cannot use that information for your character. One example of this is you found out though reading a thread that character A is dating character B. unless your character was specifically there, and active in that thread your character has no clue they are dating.

Another form of Meta gaming has to do with alternative characters. An alternative character is when a person has one character they play all the time and another character they go on now and then. If you learn something on one character though the course of role play then you as a player obviously have that knowledge, but you cannot use that knowledge for the second character. Unless the second character was also in the same place at the same time to learn the same information as the first one there is no reason for the second character to know anything the first one does. Sometimes a character is created to enhance a story line with other players who role play with the main character, if this is the case a player must do their best to try to make sure they know what information each character knows and not get confused. The best way to avoid crossing or meta-gaming in this instance is to avoid your characters interacting with each other as much as possible.

One last major form of meta gaming needs addressed. Accusing another players' character of being an alternative character or having more than one character is a form of meta gaming. You as a player are looking for these alternative characters and treating them like a spy, therefore changing your characters attitudes towards them biased on what is considered player information. Either it prompts you to constantly be more wary of them, treat them with indifference, or perhaps ignore them entirely and refuse to role play with them. This change in attitude is considered meta gaming because you are now altering how your character would react for better or for worse. The best way to avoid meta-gaming is to stop looking for alternative characters and role play as you would trusting someone or not. If they give you reason not to trust them then its simple, don't. All information within the game, whether for tactical advantage or just role play purposes can be obtained with one character alone. Not all people with alternative characters are spies for someone, many if not most are simply because the player wishes to explore a different aspect of role play.

How does Death relate to role play?

Death can come to claim a character in different ways on bloodletting. Going in active, though a bounty or by war can all result in your characters death. The in character term coined long ago by a player on the site and most use today for going inactive is called 'red death' because you were likely plagued by a disease that comes along from not being active. The disease is called the 'red plague' and no one but the active on bloodletting are immune from it. If you die in this manner you can either create a new character or come back and role play a reason to how you are back or survived. Of course no matter what this plague has weakened you, thus the loss in ranks. This is generally acceptable because you weren't killed for a reason, only that you weren't able to login for a certain amount of time.

If your character dies though being bountied or by war you character is considered dead, your character is then placed in the graveyard. Now if you donate to the site and die, you will only lose five ranks. Most role play this as an attempt to kill them but instead the one attempting it failed in actually killing the character but it weakened the character. By doing this the character explains the loss of ranks as losing strength.

Your characters died, now what? You have a few options, create a new character, bring your character back as an angel provided they weren't one already or have a way role playing wise they are brought back. If you let the character die and create a new one more role players on the site will respect your choice in doing so. It's hard to start over but many respect the player a lot more for it. It's the sign of an exceptional role player if they can start over.

To bring your character back as an angel there's a few things you must determine first. There are of course different types of angels, and you must decide what type of angel the character is to be. What's the story behind bringing the character back? Was the character worthy of becoming an angel for some reason? Did the previous beliefs of the character work for the character coming back as an angel? Or did death suddenly bring them a new perspective about life? The key to bringing your character back in this way is how you are going to role play them. A word from the wise though, be careful with this, vampires and witches now returning as an angel will have to join sanctuaries instead of covens and you might just be standing next to someone you were fighting with before you died.

If you decide you want your character to come back from death there is a few things you must understand first. Not role playing them coming back in a feasible way will look like a real cheap way to escape the death feature that has been built into the game. Also if you bring a character back that character has the same problems they had before they died, it is possible for the same characters that killed your character to go after them again for the same reason's they chose to in the first place. Nothings' changed, your just a lower rank now and role playing wise weaker them before.

If you decide to try to bring your character back as the same as it was before they died then we have a few suggestions for you. Don't remake for a week or at the very least not as that name, and let others who want you back try to figure out how to bring you back. You character is dead, they can't feasibly bring themselves back, only those that have survived beyond the characters death have any chance at bringing your character back. A role play such as this takes time and should not be done in just one night if it's to be role played properly. The surviving characters must first find out what happened to you, then they must determine what those characters can do within their abilities to bring you back if possible.

In any case it's suggested any role play involving the bringing back of a character take place in a public forum somewhere, more likely a city forum, so people can see that the proper role play has been done for it. More often than not there is no way to return from being dead, just like in the real world death is permanent and a good role player on bloodletting will understand that.

What is 'playing to my rank'?

Playing to you rank means playing your character for the level they are. Such as if you playing a rank three character they are not considered as powerful as a rank five character and are by certainty no means more powerful than an elder. As your character grows in strength you can have them seem to grow stronger, they can seem to learn new things from time to time. Try to keep the balance though. If you gain a rank that doesn't mean your character suddenly can torch an entire city to the ground by lobbing a fireball at it. It just means that they have grown somehow. Maybe they understand a new aspect about whom and what they are a little more fully, or perhaps they learned a new technique to a fighting style they know. The key though is to remember not to overdo it by trying to seem stronger than those of higher rank then you, if you couldn't beat them in a one on one attack its very unlikely you'll beat them in every role play scenario.

What is playing for Rank?

Playing for rank is a version of playing the game for power alone. There are two ways a player plays for rank, they either role play to gain ranks and power and not for character growth, or they don't role play at all and just try to rank up then act all powerful. Both are things as a player you wish to try to avoid, the story is the important part. Sure we all like to click buttons but that should be secondary, if you play for the story, you will rank up just find in time by clicking the buttons in between doing things. This is not to say that if a person seems to rank up fast with little role play are they playing for rank, only the player behind that character can truly know this for sure and it is very rude to suggest it to someone who may just not have a whole lot of time for role playing.

How do comments work within role play?

Comments are just that, comments. Role playing scenes should not take place in comments. Their more like a board you pop by to leave a note to someone on, or say a quick hello. Any role plays that move beyond two comments from the same person in the same day should move to mail as it is developing into Role play and not just commenting people.

How do you role play profiles?

Simple, you don't. Most people display knowledge about their character on their profile but it primarily is considered player knowledge only and is just a basis for how the character might be.

How do you role play a fight?

Role-playing a fight can be one of the easiest or most difficult things to master, depending on your abilities as a writer. There are 2 primary types of fights that are role-played on Bloodletting; pre-planned, and unplanned.

For pre-planned fights, many of the players on Bloodletting will use the Attack system to judge how well they will actually do. Typically in this situation, one player attacks the other with normal attacks and notes the results, and then the other player, after healing up at the clinic, will do the same. After both players have gathered their information, they then compare notes. Using those notes, the players determine how each round of the fight would go, and who would be the winner, or if the fight would be a draw. This sort of pre-planning does allow for some bunnying of each side, as it is agreed upon by both parties prior to the actual posting.

Another pre-planning method does not involve the use of the attack system, and is typically done by players who know each other well enough to understand what their characters can and cannot do. In this pre-planning method, all of the players involved are usually communicating either before the fight, or during the course of the fight, in order to understand what's going to happen so their characters can react appropriately. Bunnying in this version is sometimes acceptable, if all parties are generally consenting to it.

With unplanned fights, however, this system runs into problems. Since you're not usually working directly with the other player to control the flow of the fight, you can't control their actions or reactions as you might in a pre-planned fight. Typically in this version of fighting, the players have to do their best to be creative, and flexible enough to take hits where they deem them appropriate. This sort of role play can be extremely fun, but it does require a bit more skill in the writing department. It should be remembered though if the two characters role playing the fight are not within a couple of ranks of each other, such as a rank three character verse a rank five character, ultimately the one of higher rank will win. If the opponent is one rank above or below you, there is still a good chance they may win. This is not to say the person of the higher rank can deflect or dodge every move their opponent makes, only that the ultimate winner of the fight is predetermined.

With unplanned fights it gets a little more complicated when dealing with two characters of the same rank or within one rank of each other, you can role play it that neither wins or they end up in a tie, if a winner must be determined you can try contacting the person role playing the character by mail and see if they wish to try to determine who would win by attacking each other, once the winner is determined the fight can continue normally without the 'pre-planning' if that is the players choices. Remember not to dodge or deflect everything, it should look like a carefully choreographed dance.

There are two major things to avoid when role playing out a fight; bunnying and god-moding. Both of these actions will get your character ignored quickly; see their sections of this FAQ for more details.

Bloodletting Lexicon

A quick reference for terms used in role play. This is only a small guide, hopefully seeing how some of these are used will allow you to eventually incorporate your own terms when referring to OOC things that sometimes get brought up in role play.

Elder ~ Site Administrator "I spoke with the elder Glenda this morning"

Normals ~ the normal population of the world that remains clueless to the creatures that exist. "I just don't get how the normals make it though the day clueless"

Realm ~ The underworld that our creatures know about that 'normals' don't. "So you know the truth now? Welcome to the realm."

Caste ~ Refers to one's rank.. "I'm a higher caste then you, I'm rakasha." Note any rank name can be substituted.

Strength ~ refers to one's rank. "I've gained strength since last we met"

Expire ~ death for those that are not living.

Bug ~ sickness, refers to game glitches. "I had a bug that caused me to not leave Cancun for a while"

Red Death ~ in reference when someone goes IA and dies. "It's sad, I saw that Jose was killed by the red death"

Red Plague ~ In reference to when a character is going to go inactive. "I'm afraid Jose will be inflicted with the red plague"