Beginners Guide to Layonara: Difference between revisions

This is it. You've found it. An online community of role players who play the game old-school, pen-and-paper style. "But wait? I thought this was a video game," you say. Well it is. And it isn't. Or rather, it's ever so much more.

We use several tools in order to create our stories, to field our words. They include the Layonara Website and Forums, Layonara's Discord server, and of course the multiplayer version of Bioware's Neverwinter Nights video game client. Let's chat a little about each:

===The Layonara Website and Forums===

The forums aren't just for character creation, though. You can create your own journal to chronicle your character's story in the Character Development forums. You'll find that for many ongoing events / stories / campaigns / organizations, a forum exists for IC interaction. Our community has found many creative ways to use this resource to both show their originality and to illustrate more about their characters. Tavern scenes, quest discoveries, research and just idle sharing are just a sampling of what takes place IC. In other words, a great deal of role play takes place on the Forums.

===Neverwinter Nights===

We've added dozens of systems to enrich the environment and role play. We've also provided a massive source of information regarding the mechanics of Neverwinter Nights right here on the Wiki, from the [[Feats]] list to a Glossary of commonly used terms. Any questions you may have regarding game play on the Neverwinter Nights client can be posted in the Ask A Gamemaster forums, and someone from our team will reply within the day, if not a few minutes.

===Discord===

==Terms and Methods Used==

Now that you know what tools you have to work with, let's talk about some of the terms and methods used in Layonara to create stories through role play. Layonara sees all kinds of players, from former/current PnP (pen-and-paper) players, to those that have only played video game RPGs (role-playing games), to those that have not played much or any of either. Maybe you [[haven]]'t even played through the single player client of Neverwinter Nights. Or maybe you're wondering why you're even bothering to read this with the fifteen years of role playing you already have under your belt. Either way, Layonara is both for experienced players as well as people brand new to role playing, and we strive to utilize the mix of experience to teach the new players about story telling and role play in an interactive and safe environment. And if you haven't read the [[Role Players Guide to NWN]], you should.

===The Gamemaster===

===The PC===

The Player Character, or PC for short, is the character played by you. It's not just your avatar; it's an entity much like the character from a book, with quirks and emotion, ambition and history. In fact, it's not you at all, but rather an entity controlled and given life by you, and while that inherently means at least some of who you are will be infused in your characters, your PC should not be you turned into a pointy-eared archer. When playing your PC, try to imagine what someone with your character's personality and background would do in response to a given situation; don't just have your PC do what you would do.

===The NPC===

You may already be able to see this, but the kind of mark your character leaves on the world primarily has to do with the latter two manners of advancement mentioned above, character and worldly advancement. However, sometimes one can't complete his/her personal and political goals without some level of mechanical advancement, whether that be advancing one's swordplay or developing better techniques to search for hidden objects. Quests provide the opportunity to gain advancement on all accounts, and at a balanced speed, so that you don't end up having the 30th level character that only five people in the world, PC or NPC, actually know.

==Wrap Up==

That about sums it up! The Game of Layonara in a nutshell. The rest is a wild ride of danger, intrigue, magic, and mystery. Create your own character and help us write the story of Layonara. We guarantee you the memories made playing here will be unforgettable.