New Player Page
From TCWiki
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What's the New Player Page For?
This page is for evangelizing the game-- i.e. getting new players interested. It's also for getting players into the mood of the world, preventing common new-player mistakes, and saving older players the work of explaining stuff that everyone's going to need to know. It can also serve as a refresher for older players and a place to get ourselves into better habits.
Please don't be intimidated by the size of this page-- there's less reading here than some DISC threads require for an established game.
What is Megatokyo: The Clans?
MegaTokyo: The Clans is a roleplaying game set in the fictional city of MegaTokyo, which is located on a version of Earth most commonly seen in anime, movies, TV, books and on the internet. It only has slight ties to the reality we live in. The city of MegaTokyo is much like that seen in the comic sharing the same name. The city of MegaTokyo has become a sort of a locus for the weird things in the world. It's a place for weird people (sometimes called meta-humans) to hide, live, survive, socialize, and accomplish missions. It's a battleground for those who want to control the power that runs through this city. It's also the home of the Idols, who are not-at-all coincidentally the very characters of the MegaTokyo comic strip. The difference from the strip is that the Idols are given vast powers, resources, and abilities that make them like unto gods, completely with the Factionists, their worshipers.
The world of MegaTokyo does not operate by standard laws, but by anime laws. The most salient of these are: -Extreme violence leads to extreme property damage, but people die only very rarely, and only for symbolic reasons. -"Heroes" can handle arbitrary numbers of faceless enemies, unless it would be dramatic for them not to. -"Villains" (note capital V) can be arbitrarily powerful, and yet are always thwarted. -People get very worked up about very silly things like Miho blankets, and are very calm about very serious things such as nuclear annihilation. -Swords win out over guns. Cuteness wins out over strength. Silliness wins out over everything.
The Factions are several groups of fan-persons who idolize, imitate, or generally admire one particular character beyond all others. Not all MegaTokyo, the Clans characters are factionists, but factional behavior drives much of the city's activity. Factionists are often violent, but usually non-fatally, due to anime laws. Factional violence sometimes breaks out as real fighting, but often as "prank wars" where the main weaponry is pie or spraypaint.
The city government of MegaTokyo is an odd thing. Though some political leaders struggle to gain control over the chaos that is the city, mostly the city functions on its own, rolling along like a self-propelled juggernaut, kept within the lines of reason by the endless labor of the Megatokyo Police Cataclysm Division, who carefully schedule earthquakes, demon invasions, and the like so that most citizens have plenty of warning before something earth-shattering happens. Not that most citizens pay attention-- they continue about their unremarkable lives, oblivious to the insanity around them and threatening to consume them.
This tension-- the obliviousness of the citizens, the craziness of the factionists, the chaos of the city maintained and exploited by the forces of the city's order is the heart of what makes MegaTokyo such an interesting place. Where PiroVision and LargoVision can come together with only minimal conflict, where point of view really is everything, is a world where some very real people live, go about their lives, and occasionally are very, very stylish.
What MegaTokyo: The Clans Is Not
(Because some people get confused sometimes)
It's not a pissing contest. Some people think the purpose of a stats-less RPG is to be the biggest and most powerful. It isn't.
It's also not a power struggle, at least out of character. It's a collaborative creative work. In character, of course, many of us are planning WORLD DOMINATION! Because plotting world domination gives our characters something to do that will never, ever succeed.
It's not an FPS game or other kill-fest. Don't try for a high body count-- most people don't want their characters that they've spent years developing dying to satisfy someone's blood-lust. If you want to slaughter NPCs, I guess you can make up and slaughter some NPCs, but it won't have much meaning. They were NPCs, after all. And frankly it doesn't make sense in the setting.
It's not one-person game. There's no point playing if you never interact with anyone. If you want to write without having to deal with other people, put fanfics up on the wiki. If they're good some of us will read an comment on them. But the game's for playing, and playing's with people.
Current Events and Themes
For the most up to date version of current events, see the Current Events page.
The current thread is Of B33r and Ph34r. The FGTL is celebrating its 4th, or possibly 5th (they're too drunk to tell) anniversary. The Legion of the Dark Goddess is conspiring with a demon named Mokushi. The OCSB is holding Free Food Day, where you don't even have to pay for their horrible food to Eat You. Erika Multinational is doing all kinds of interesting magitechnological experiments. The Temple of Ping wants Plot! Talk to Hibiki and entertain him!
Looming over all, a massive invasion of demons is scheduled to begin at midnight. Ancient heroes of the city will fight, and fall. Will you fight for the fractious faction forces, or the decimating demons of an alien dimension?
Join the thread now! Events are about to start heating up. Literally.
Current Factions
Active Factions
These factions are sorted in order of number of active members.
Followers of Great Teacher Largo (FGTL): These b33r drinkin', l337 speakin' Largoists are out there to protect the city from 3vil in all forms. Especially those filthy deadies, the Mihoists. A very straight-forward faction, the Largoists try to emulate Largo himself. They somewhat succeed. Their leader Andrew Lazyass keeps getting hit by the plot-stick, poor fellow. They're very welcoming of newcomers, provided they can survive some really weird initiation rituals. They live in a low-rise tech complex with 16 sub-basements.
Legion of the Dark Goddess (LDG): These are Miho-interested folks. Most don't quite worship her, though you can if you want. Usually, if you're a Mihoist, you are similar to the Dark Goddess or you at least admire all that she is/stands for/causes endless speculation about. But they're creepy, and gothy, and Mahou is their leader, though she's also a Piroist. They also have many hangers-on who aren't actually members but are sufficiently like the rest of the people that it's hard to tell if they're members or not. Sometimes they taunt the Largoists, because it's fun, and easy. They live in a big creepy haunted mansion so, despite them never locking their front door, its still the most well-defended faction HQ in the city.
Erika Multinational (EM): This faction follows Erika by supporting her (their CEO)'s excellent business acumen in investing in medical and military technology, especially magical-technological fusion. The fanpersons in MegaTokyo make a nearly insatiable market. EM is housed in a big research facility in the middle of the city, complete with an artificial mountain for containing weapons malfunctions. Contact: Himoto Kitsuko, head of Research and Development.
Order of Rent-a-Zilla (ORAZ): These guys had a reputation for monstrous misbehavior, much like their idol, Rent-A-Zilla. However, after Asimov left for parts unknown, most members have left the city or joined other factions. Its famous restaurant, the Oraz Cathedral and Snack Bar, famed for the city's least edible food, is still running. Contact: Ameryll Windwalker
Netwide 133t Ninja Junpei 4dmirers (N1NJ4): This faction worships Junpei. Only active member is Sabin, the leader. They're about being badass, and killing bad things. The N1NJ4 dojo is a heavily defended temple on Mt. Fuji, with turrets and walls and stuff.
Recurring Villains
Microsoft is not just a monopolistic company, it's a monopolistic EVIL company in this game. They have a whole page devoted to their evil plans.
While most of the city government of MegaTokyo is neutral, councilman Sato has been making a political career of opposing the factionists.
Mokushi, Tallic, [[Lord Karlaack], Sithicus, Vas'tion, and several others have allied themselves with the demonic horde invading in the current thread.
The United States Army has conducted secret eeeeevil experiments in the back-stories of several characters. While your average soldier's just a normal guy, there are certainly secret villainous cabals within the ranks dedicated to military supremacy at any cost.
The Instigators are a relatively inactive group of secretive Villains dedicated to destroying the factions by pitting them against each other and massive external forces, hoping to fill the power vacuum when the carnage ends. They're most good for starting plots.
Current Important Places
General Geography
The geography of MegaTokyo is somewhat amorphous-- no maps have ever been made of the city. Generally if there's some place you need to go, you write it, you make up a distance away, and you go there. Once a place has been written, other people tend to re-use it and/or modify it. Due to rampages and rebuilding, this is ok, since the city's face is constantly changing. The city's general landscape is densely packed, with areas of high rise, industrial, and port, with suburbs more distant and a forested areas within a half hour drive of the city. Main means of transportation are foot, car, bus, high speed train, and subway, though low flying aircraft and magical creatures owned by private persons exist as well.
All of the places in the MegaTokyo comic exist in the city of MegaTokyo, but people generally tend not to write there, since one of the rules of the game is not to contradict the comic.
Faction HQs have both a public and a private face, and many faction HQs build underground for both defensive advantages and because land is expensive.
See also: Category:Places.
Tokyo Tower
This most famous landmark of all MegaTokyo is frequently destroyed during rampages and dramatic fights. It features a dueling level above the tourist level, so tourists can watch overpowered ninja battles, monster mashes, and the like. It looks more or less like the real Tokyo Tower.
Oraz Cathedral and Snack Bar
Though currently destroyed by two incidents with a giant mecha, it'll be back next thread. The OCSB serves inedible food that is considered highly dangerous by the city health department. However a talk with the OCSB's legal department (in the form of over-armed Kimiko fanboy Snow) convinced them not to shut the place down.
Super-Contracted History
MegaTokyo, the Clans has run for scores of threads, each dozens of pages long. Reading this history is optional, but I think it's good to know your roots.
Author's note-- User:BozoCat hasn't read anything prior to U.S. vs. Them in completion, and so much of the early history is hearsay. Some help from the older authors would be much appreciated to flesh this out, without bloating things too much.
The formative Years
There was the Great Fanboy War. It was terrible, and cataclysmic, and blood ran in the streets, and it was written very disorganizedly. But it was full of cool stuff. The earliest factions were formed, alliances made and broken. Kimiko was made sad. There were conspiracies and plots and so-forth. Dom planned to kidnap Kimiko and was foiled and banished to the lands of the comic Strange Candy.
There was a thread called A Normal Day In MegaTokyo. It started out normal enough, but an evil villain named WolfDead took over the city using the city's council of werewolves, used his Reality Crystals to gain phenomenal power, and he was Villainous and very silly. And he was eventually defeated by a plucky band of unlikely heroes, as typically happened.
There was the end of the world, Norse style. This turned out to all be a simulation done by Microsoft to take over the city and destroy it. It was a lot like the Matrix, which had just come out at the time. WolfDead turned out to be involved too, but he was foiled and then banished from existence.
The Glory Days
Church of Miho: New Blood happened here. I have no idea what it was about. Someone should put something in this paragraph. Everyone who played in the thread loved it.
There was a series of threads called The Miho Files, which was about all sorts of things, including and escalating prank war between the Mihoists and the Largoists, a not-a-penguin, defections and plots and that sort of thing. The Pingite faction Temple of Ping appeared, and an old Pingite faction was destroyed. ORAZ became very active in this thread as well, leading to much random havoc, for that's what RAZians do best.
There was a side thread called Of Light, Shadow, and Love, which was very well-written. There was some saber rattling about how people didn't like how exclusive it was, and social favoritism, which made some people very bitt0r. OLSAL was roughly about a Largoist and a Mihoist becoming obsessed with one another, and finding out that they'd been closely involved in each other's past. It also had lots of bishies, wings, and light/dark imagery.
Things Get Messy
There were increasing amounts of author-space tension. A MegaTokyo Faction Battle Arena was made to create a virtual fighting space to try to relieve some of this. It didn't work. Lots of people got bitter over the fights.
U.S. vs. Them happened. It was the first invasion of the 'sticks', an india-ink-soaked, Dom-derived, TrackBall-created menace to all creation, intent on spreading their evil, poorly drawn, 2-dimensional ways across the world. All they touched, they infected, all they could touch, they did. Though there were some measures to slow them, the people of Megatokyo knew no way to stop them, as more and more heroes fell under the sway of evil trackball magics, further swelling the ranks of the Sticks and depleting that of the uncorrupted (relatively) people of Megatokyo.
Eventually, uneasy alliances were made, factions declared temporary ceasefires, rescue operations were mounted for people deemed necessary to survival, and the Sticks were pushed back, if only for a while.
The peace between factions didn't last, either, and the old in-fighting and tension returned quickly. While waiting for OLSAL (mentioned in the previous section) to finish up and bring some of the other authors back into general circulation, the remaining players made a thread called Battle for Continuity, which was a series of alternate versions of MegaTokyo. This thread lost all its energy and trailed off after a few months, largely because Asimov had way too many characters. People got tired.
It was pretty quiet for a while, with the authorspace badness chewing up energy that had formerly been devoted to writing. Finally, in frustration over relatively minor stuff, two key authors who wrote for the Church of Miho faction made the faction destroy itself; this was hereafter known as the "Fall". Because these authors were quite charismatic, and because of the multiple authorspace tensions/alliances and whatnot, most of the noted tC players left the game, killing off their characters or just resigning them to unknown fates in distant lands. This exodus left only a few young folks, a few stubborn old folks, and a few opportunists.
After the Fall
The surviving players, and a few new ones who saw their chance to jump in and shape things, set up the Rise of the Dark Goddess arc of threads. Sabyr took up a leadership sort of role known as "plotkeeper", though this office no longer exists. The arc detailed the rise of the Legion of the Dark Goddess as a darker, more antagonistic faction, trying to spread influence through the city through political maneuvers.
After the game was more or less on its feet, Mahou yoinked the Legion out from under Sabyr's leadership in a surprise power bid. Sabyr stepped down and drastically minimized his TC activities. The game continued to have plotkeepers through a zombie invasion, an computer game taking over the physical space of parts of the city, and Miho's Endgames character manifesting and trying to take over the city. Eventually, some recalcitrant authors bitched a lot about the person who was plot-keeping at the time. A lot of reasonable authors threatened to quit if they didn't shut up (and some of those reasonable authors did quit, and we'll miss them). The recalcitrant authors left, as did the plotkeepers of the time, and the office was disbanded.
Recent History
Old author Thale returned and sort-of-established (he went MIA in the middle of the plot) a new Mihoist faction called Knights of the Black Ribbon. Their opening ceremony became a focal point for Mihoist-Largoist conflict with a staged kidnapping, an attempt to impersonate Miho, and a massive magical battle between the True Necrowombicon and the C00l Th1ng. This all turned out to be the result of a shadowy plot by the evil Instigators, but the Mihoists pulled a fast one on the Instigators and subverted one of their high ranking Archons and all his men into turning Mihoist instead.
Old RAZian Erden Edgewood, embittered by some of the nastiness that took place shortly after the fall of the CoM from departing authors, formed an anti-clans faction called Edgewood Defense Technologies, which attempted to destroy all clan-related activities. His plot was foiled with the betrayal of Vavrek, who defected from EDT and warned the Clans, giving them time to put aside their differences long enough to combat the threat. EDT was defeated in a mighty battle and Erden was sent to prison.
The Largoists' leader Lazyass got himself embroiled in a conspiracy with an ancient order of evil cultists called the Shadow Mages, but after using him for their dark purpose, they left him for dead, and he was rescued by his fellow Largoists. The United States military has been mounting covert operations in the city lately, possibly in pursuit of escaped supersoldiers Skorpion, Sareth, magical girl Arella and likely others.
The next plot is going to involve demons. Lots of demons. You have no idea how many demons. It's going to be awesome.
Some Help From AuthorSpace
How to contact
Generally we folks aren't too hard to find ((Unless that pesky real life decides to intervene and whatnot.)) PMing us from the MT forums themselves is generally a good way to get our attention insofar as I think everyone checks back there at least once a day as they're able to. Barring that, you can delve into the hive of scum and villainy that is the Megatokyo: The Clans Official IRC Channel(tm) through your neighborhood IRC program. The login point is irc.irchighway.net, and the channel is #mttc. Most of the time someone should be on hand to talk with, and it's a good way to get to know the authors behind the characters.
Who to Contact
Major Factions
For faction affiliation, contact the leaders of the various factions. I list the ones with two or more active authors here.
Lazyass is in charge of the Followers of Great Teacher Largo. If he doesn't answer, try Skorpion.
Kitchan (Mahou) is in charge of the Legion of the Dark Goddess, but her network connection is flakey. Try Canto Anathema (Shiri'janta) if she's not available or responsive. Kitchan's character Kit runs Erika Multinational.
Plots
User:BozoCat is the self-appointed new-player-contacter-person-thingbag. He's been around about two and a half years and generally tends to know some of everything, though he isn't too specialized.
Lazyass is the go-to guy for the demon plot, but Sayt, Skorpion, Sabin, and Canto Anathema are all helping him.
Smaller Factions and NPC Groups
BozoCat writes for the Instigators. If you need shadowy villains to start something going and then leave, these guys are a good choice. They rarely expose themselves enough to get damaged, but they love being at the starts of plots.
Ameryll Windwalker writes for ORAZ, owners of the Oraz Cathedral and Snack Bar, home of hazardous food and popular hangout spot.
What sort of character should I make?
This is a character sheet I wrote up for a new player recently, to help poke the brain into fleshing out a character. It's only an outline. Feel free to ignore some questions, and go into mind numbing detail on others, as you think your character out. Also note that after making a character and being used to the game, you may want to think about character creation in a different way. This was written with first-time players in mind.
Character Sheet (empty)
- What's my character's name, and is that the person's real name? (Try not to intersect with other people's names for clarity's sake)
- Why is my character in MegaTokyo?
- Why is my character involved in/aware of the world of the Clans and not in the world of boring people who don't realize their city is full of giant monsters, undead, mecha, and sad girls in snow? If my character's not involved in this world, how is s/he going to become involved in it?
- What does my character think, if anything, of the Idols (i.e. characters who appear in the Megatokyo strip)?
- What important things happened in my character's past that affect present outlook? (backstory)
- Does any of this backstory involve other people in the thread? (It's a good thing to do so, but can be difficult to swing. PMs and IRC are very useful here.)
- What's my character good at?
- What's my character bad at?
- What makes my character interesting to read about and write for?
- What does my character look like? Including clothing, size, distinguishing marks, as far into detail as you want to go.
- How does my character speak, and in what language? (Most TC characters speak English and Japanese, because not being able to RP with someone due to language barriers suxx).
- How does my character act or react to unusual or dangerous situations?
- What groups in the city is my character affiliated with, if any?
- What will pull my character into interacting with people when first injected into the game? (plot hooks)
Character Sheet Filled In With Example
I filled this in for existing TC character Ash the Instigator as an example.
- What's my character's name, and is that the person's real name? Kimura Aiko is her real name. However she goes by Ash most of the time because "Kimura Aiko" is wanted for murder by the MegaTokyo police department.
- Why is my character in MegaTokyo? She was born there.
- Why is my character involved in/aware of the world of the Clans? Ash got involved with the weirdness of MegaTokyo when she started dating a fallen angel named Esha'shama'im, who wanted to marry her and cut patterns into her skin with knives. She was saved at the last moment by a group of would-be heroes and has been stuck in MegaTokyo's underworld ever since.
- What does my character think, if anything of the Idols (i.e. characters who appear in the Megatokyo strip)? Ash idolizes Largo and would probably try to sleep with him if that wench Erika hadn't gotten in the way first. She used to idolize, and has lingering feelings for, Miho's Endgames character (frequently called Niho in the thread). She distrusts Miho a great deal. She finds idolization of all other main characters somewhat pathetic.
- What important things happened in my character's past that affect present outlook? Besides the bit with the demon sacrifice, Ash killed her parents. She has a warrant on her for their premeditated murder and is constantly on the run from police. Fortunately her natural weirdness makes normal people forget her, which has so far allowed her to elude capture.
- Does any of this backstory involve other people in the thread? LDG member Allanon was involved in rescuing Ash from the demon. Aneko was Ash's adoptive mother after Ash killed her own parents.
- What's my character good at? Ash is good at social manipulation, minor necromancy, and setting fire to things and people. She is immune to the effects of fire herself.
- What's my character bad at? She's a terrible shot, a terrible cook, and has trouble with certain hi-tech gizmos. She's bad in most kinds of fights, though she's trying to learn better.
- What makes my character interesting to read about or write for? She has probably the most intense case of fan-girlism in the thread. She generally feels things more intensely than other people, leading to comical over-reactions.
- What does my character look like? Including clothing, size, distinguishing marks, as far into detail as you want to go. Ash stands five feet tall. Her basic features are Pakistani in origin, but the interrupted demon sacrifice altered her appearance. She has thin gray stripes all over her skin. and her hair has streaks of bright red over the generally dark brown color. She wears her hair down, sometimes in a pony-tail. Currently she favors slightly darker versions of the kind of clothing Largo would wear. Loose t-shirts, cargo pants, boots. Ash has been said to have "anime" proportions-- though in the real world she would be unrealistically curvy for someone as skinny as she is, it's normal in this city. Males generally find Ash attractive if they can get over the weird stripes.
- How does my character speak, and in what language? Ash speaks English and Japanese fluently, preferring English (even though it's a second language). She is starting to learn l337, and has been observed speaking the Language of the Dead when talking to zombies.
- How does my character act or react to unusual or dangerous situations? Ash's default reaction to most things is to run away, which has served her well for keeping ahead of the authorities. When there is opportunity, she will try to manipulate or take control of a situation verbally. When meeting certain people, she will flip out and attempt to kill them, or at least plot horribly convoluted revenge against them. In normal circumstances, she is cheerful and good-humored.
- What groups in the city is my character affiliated with, if any? Ash is a card-carrying member of the Followers of Great Teacher Largo. She is a former member of the evil and mysterious Instigator cult.
- What will pull my character into interacting with people when first injected into the game? Ash came into the game with descriptions of four different plots to attempt to infiltrate and exploit on behalf of the Instigators. Each time she was rebuffed, she moved onto the next, offering her services.
What should I do with my character now that I've made it?
- Don't post your character sheet in the thread. We don't want to see it!
- Do make an article on the wiki. Note that the wiki's software is hard to use, so if you're not used to MediaWiki, you may want to get someone experienced to guide you through it. It can be hard to find out how to make new pages, etc. If you can access the IRC chatroom, try asking in there for help. Some of us are always happy to lend a hand. It's often best to steal an existing page and change the contents while keeping the format.
- For the all-important first impression, you should try to establish why your character is in the city, that you can write well and coherently, (Please, please, please have good spelling and grammar. If you're in too much of a hurry to write with good spelling and grammar, we're in too much of a hurry to read a post that doesn't have it.) and where you're planning on going from here. In character. The shorter the OOCness, the better.
- Don't be afraid. We're all nice people, and most of us love new players. Those who don't love new players will be mercilessly paddled with a +2 paddle of vicious paddling. Ahem.
- It can be hard to get other players' attention and make them interact with you. Most people already have stuff their characters are planning to do. Don't lose heart-- just find ways to make interacting with people happen, and it will happen. I have a page below for ideas on getting into an existing character group.
- Don't give up if the thread moves slowly. Sometimes it does. Generally the slowest it moves is four days between posts, the fastest about seven posts in a day.
- Do pay attention to the forum rules.
Some Final Advice
The point of this game is to have fun. Different people have fun in different ways-- showing off, being silly, being dramatic. The thing that makes the game work is recognizing the different ways people have fun, working with it, and making room for it. If you have a problem, talk it out in IRC or by PM. The community has the final call, but everyone has the individual right to, if possible, have some fun.
Don't be afraid to jump into things you don't know about. At worst, all that will happen is some convoluted explanation will be made up to explain any inconsistencies. But if you jump out into the open waters and create something really interesting, you just might find yourself with half a dozen people eagerly jumping in to find out what's next. Or maybe they won't. Everyone's taste is different.
It's very, very, very hard to get more than two people on IRC at the same time to write a post in a timely manner. I highly recommend borrowing of existing characters if you know approximately how they sound, or creating the post via PMs or short posts to avoid trampling. Waiting for person X to be online is the number one cause of slowness in the thread, and slowness in the thread is the number one cause of people leaving. So if you find yourself waiting for someone, I'd recommend going ahead and putting something, anything up.
Other Useful Things for New Players
This is stuff too lengthy for this page. I'll flesh them out eventually.
Introduction to combat in a systemless, GMless RPG, with examples of what's good and bad from the past.
Conflict resolution in authorspace.
How Not To Get Ignored-- a guide especially made for new players, but also for people who find themselves in the margins.
