New Player Guide

Welcome to the LotC new player guide! This document will take you through most of the major points in settling into the server, chat commands, roleplay, staff and major settlements in Arcas.

Welcome!

If you’re reading this guide, it means you have successfully applied and been accepted into our server! This will take you through some important information and tips to help you adjust and settle in. LotC is incredibly complex, and the most important thing to understand is that is okay to struggle a bit at first -- we’ve all been there.

If you ever need any help, or have any questions whatsoever, reach out to a Community Staff Member!

What is LotC?

LotC is a unique roleplaying experience, utilizing Minecraft as its primary platform. The server launched over seven years ago and naturally has accumulated quite a substantial basis of players and history. We’re a fairly serious roleplay community, but love to see new faces on the server, whether new or experienced!

The server incorporates both medieval and high fantasy elements, including a few mundane races (Humans, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, etc.), magic, fantasy, creatures, and much, much more! 

Rules

LotC has a few different pages of rules for different aspects of gameplay, forum use, building, pvp, and general community guidelines. It is very important that you read and understand all of these, ignorance is not an excuse for rule breaking.

If you’re confused about any of the rules or have any questions about them, reach out to a Community Staff Member or a Moderator.

Core Three

• Server Rules
• Forum Rules
• Community Guidelines

Raids

• Heist Rules
• Raid Rules

War

• War Rules

Introduction to Roleplay

What is Roleplay?

Roleplay is the portrayal of a unique character (separate from one’s IRL self), and is the main feature of LotC. To roleplay is to interact within a fantasy world, different from our own, by means of the thoughts, actions and speech of your ‘character’, otherwise referred to as ‘persona’. While roleplay has no clearly defined goal, its purpose could be defined as immersing into your persona, and through that developing a unique character by further shaping their personality, and fostering their unique characteristics.

On LotC, roleplay can involve your in-game speech (or emoting), as well as forum posts and skins. The most important thing to understand is the difference between Roleplay (RP) and Out-of-Character (OOC). Though you control and portray them, you are not your character! Things that happen through roleplay are not personal OOC slights, nor are they the be-all and end-all.

Character Development

One of the most significant parts of roleplay is the development of your character. Everything they see, do, hear, or experience, adds to their overall appearance, personality, health, and mindset. The more things you do on a certain character, the more that they are able to be developed into a unique and individual person within this fantasy world. Allow experiences to shape who your character becomes — you do not always control what happens to them, and that is one of the best ways to roleplay! Your character does not know everything you know, so allow them to learn things through interaction with other characters, events, and the world around them (magic, books, and etc).

Roleplay Tropes

Protagonist Complex One of, if not the most important things to understand, when roleplaying on LotC, is that you are not the server protagonist, and you are not the main focus of all roleplay. Yes, your character can have good traits, however in the overall scheme of the server, they are not the central ‘hero’. Allow your character to make decisions that are not right, allow them fail, and struggle, even if they ultimately succeed.

Evil Characters Playing good-aligned characters, and even those who are relatively neutral, can get boring sometimes, or maybe the ‘evil’ side of the spectrum is just more your speed. Villainous characters are a major part of most stories, and can be a lot of fun to play, and to interact with. With that in mind, however, it is important to remember that it is okay to lose, and being the unbeatable Lord-of-Evil isn’t fun for anyone but the person playing that part. Similarly, bandit roleplay can be good, but going out of your way to keep the rp short and choppy makes the whole experience bad for the person you’re robbing.

Marysue-ism No one is perfect, and the best characters are those who have depth and development, those who change and grow over time. Perfect characters are those who cause people to sigh and roll their eyes, no one wants to deal with Mr. Know-it-all, or Mr. Master-warrior who can parkour with unmatched grace across rooftops, not to mention that the latter borders on power-gaming. Remain open to creative ways to display flaws in your character, one eye or a disabled limb might seem off-putting at first, but once you get into it you realize that it can be a really enjoyable character quirk.

Mental Instability While this type of roleplay sometimes goes hand-in-hand with villainous roleplay, having a mentally unstable character doesn’t mean that they’re a cunning psychopath or murderous monster. Have you ever crossed paths with someone who just seems a little. . .well, off? Characters with unique and well-thought-out mental hindrances can add a lot to a roleplay situation, and can prove to be some of the most enjoyable story experiences. The biggest point to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t dramatize it, remain subtle but open to allowing the craziness to flow when the time is right, just don’t overdo it, or people won't take you seriously.

Getting Involved in Groups

There are many, many, many ways to get involved in roleplay groups across the server. Groups are a fantastic way to introduce you into active and continual roleplay — a great way to develop characters! From nations, to businesses, to guard forces and schools, there’s something for every character.

For an updated nation list, check the LotC Wiki.

Check out the #rp-opportunities channel in the New Player Discord to find roleplay opportunities and groups.

Creating a Persona

When creating your first persona, the server will take you through the simple process of putting down basic character information on your ‘card’. These are some useful information commands to use after you have created your card.

Character Card

This is the way in which people can see your persona’s basic information to roleplay off of. These are the visible features of your character, (age, gender, race, and desc) the only exception to this being the name of the character, which you must find out through roleplay.

These are some other good things to add to your card once you have created your basic persona:

/persona age This will add the age to your character card, as seen above. Your character’s age will change automatically as the time on the server progresses. ‘/persona clearage’ will remove this.

/persona addinfo This will add another line of text to your character card. It is here where you can describe other physical details of your persona. ‘/persona clearinfo’ will remove this.

/persona prefix You can also add a prefix to your persona, which will show up before your character’s name in chat. These are commonly used to very briefly list an injury, major physical detail, accent, or title.

CEX Additions

CEX persona additions add more information to your card, and will show up under ‘click for more’. You can view the full CEX menu by using /cex, but here are a few helpful ones:

/cex art <url> This will link your character artwork on your card.

/cex bio <url> This will link your character biography on your card. People commonly create documents to fully describe their characters.

Channels and Commands

These are the channels in which you do your roleplay, through dialogue and emotes. It’s a relatively easy system, but don’t worry, everyone takes a little time to adapt to it.

Roleplay Chat

What is an emote and how do I make one? An emote is what you write to describe your character’s actions. Emotes can take place at the same time as speech or can stand alone.

If you want only to use dialogue, begin your text with a quotation mark, “, type what you wish for your character to say, and then finish it with another quotation mark, ”.

E.g.,

“I’d like to bake a pie today, John.”

To make an environment, or 3rd person, emote, which begins with [!] instead of your character’s name, start your text with **, before typing.

E.g.,

**As she pulls the pie from the hot oven, she gasps at the burning sensation on her fingers.

If you want to use both an emote and dialogue at once, begin with either an asterisk, *, or a quotation mark“. Here are two examples:

If you begin with dialogue, you should type with this format in your text bar:

“I’m very tired,” She says, turning on her heel to make her way to her bedroom.

If you begin with an emote, you should type with this format in your text bar:

turns on her heel and begins to make her way to her bedroom, “I’m very tired.”*

Roleplay Commands

Here are the commands to enter each roleplay channel.

#Rp This is the most common roleplay channel, which has a radius of 20 blocks.

#Quiet or #Q This is often used for roleplay with small groups in a public setting. For example, you’d use this if you were sitting with a small group in a busy tavern. It has a radius of 8 blocks and can NOT be heard through walls or other solid blocks. Quiet is also known as Undertone in-game.

#Whisper or #W This is mostly used for 1-on-1 roleplay in public or private spaces. It has a radius of 2 blocks. It can NOT be heard through walls or other solid blocks.

#Shout or #S This channel is used when your character is shouting, or something loud happens. It has a radius of 64 blocks.

Out-of-Character Commands

These are the commands to enter all of the OOC channels. Other chats

#ooc This is the global, entire-server, OOC channel. You can use /leave OOC to stop receiving notifications from this channel.

#looc This is the local OOC channel. It has a radius of 20 blocks.

#qooc This is the quiet (aka Undertone) OOC channel. It has a radius of 8 blocks.

#wooc This is the whisper OOC channel. It has a radius of 2 blocks.

#sooc This is the shout OOC channel. It has a radius of 64 blocks.

#ws This is the Wandering Soul OOC channel, where new players can talk to Staff and players before applying to the server. These applicants are identified with the [Soul] prefix.

Playable Races

LotC’s freely playable races that players can apply as or play at any time.

• Humans
• Elves
• Orcs
• Dwarves
• Halflings

Creature Application Races

LotC’s special races, these require a Creature Application to play. Some of these cannot be outright applied for, because you need to be made into one in-roleplay. Kha, Hou-zi, Ologs, and Ghosts can be applied for without prior roleplay. Creatures like Golems, Atronachs, and etc require prior roleplay to be applied for (e.g., the golem needs to be made in roleplay by a golemancer).

• Hou-zi
• Kharajyr
• Ologs
• Ghosts

And more!

Conflict in Roleplay

There are systems in place to ensure combat and pvp work in a fair and roleplay-friendly way. When you enter combat, the defending party is able to choose whether the fight will be carried out in combat roleplay or ordinary minecraft pvp. This is called defender default. It’s important to note that the defender is the one that did not initiate the fight physically. The only exception to this rule is if one of the parties is on guard duty in their own city or settlement, and you have broken a law in their Nation. This is called guard default.

Combat Roleplay(CRP)

Combat roleplay (often referred to as ‘crp’) is a type of roleplay scenario in which two parties are physically fighting. It is very important during crp to be mindful of powergaming. You must always roleplay fighting ability according to your character’s age, ability and health.

In the end, combat roleplay is only enjoyable for both parties if it is done fairly. Do not expect to be able to dodge every attack, and be sure to emote any injuries sustained.

If you find yourself in combat roleplay and are unsure if you or the other party are powergaming, please make a /modreq for assistance from a moderator.

Player-Versus-Player(PVP) and Commands

If pvp is called by the defender or guard, you will mechanically fight to determine the outcome. PVP can be on larger scale (e.g., raids, battles, wars, and et cetera), or as little as two people.

Statusing

Using a status allows you to prevent friendly fire between your allies and recognise who is on your side during pvp. Your status appears as a coloured symbol that hovers beneath your nametag in game.

To use a status, simply type /status [status name] in chat. Choose one of the statuses shown in the image below. Please note that all of your allies will have to use this command and pick the same status as you in order for this to work properly. You can’t hit somebody who has the same status as you, so make sure to choose a different one from your opponents.

Parties

The party system is also a great way to group up in combat. Parties allow for text in game as a group! To invite people to your party use ./party invite username. You may also explore all your options by doing /Party ?

Countdown

/countdown allows you to set a five-second countdown timer. This is useful because it gives players a fair way to know when pvp begins. Please note that the defender gets to choose whether or not combat will be fought in pvp or rp combat.

Showhealth

Another useful command is /showhealth. This will display other players’ health bar underneath their name tag.

Character Death

When your character dies in LotC, you have more than one option. While many players feel that it is a point of honour to kill their characters off permanently after they get killed, this is not required under normal circumstances.

Permanent Kill

Many players choose to PK (Permanently Kill) their characters if they die during roleplay. If you PK your character, you have only Seven days to reverse your decision before the character is dead irreversibly. The only exception to this is if the death resulted from lore enforces a PK clause or if your character commits suicide. In either of those cases, you cannot reverse your character’s death.

Nobody is allowed to force you to PK your character other than Moderators or Admins. Although if you agree to a staff PK clause, you are consenting to your character being PK’d. PK clauses agreed on with other players are not enforced by staff. However, it is usually frowned upon to break them.

Monk Resurrection

If you don’t want to PK your character, it’s entirely acceptable to let the monks resurrect them. In this case, your character re-spawns at Cloud Temple after the monks have nursed them back to health with no memory of what happened in the last real-life hour.

It’s important to note that you are not allowed to reference that the monks will revive your character before your character has died. For example, you can’t tell someone when you’re dying that you will see them again once the monks have revived them.

Resources and Building

Building and gathering resources is not at all necessary for the average player because things such as food, weapons and even houses are generally bought or traded for, much the same as in real-life. If, however, you feel that your character would rather go off into the wild to build their own house or you just need to grab a few items to make something, you might find this section helpful.

Gathering Resources

Most resources can be gathered using the resource pits provided at Cloud Temple. The resource pits are located inside the cave at the end of the path directly to your right as you reach the bottom of the stairs on your way out of the main temple building. Within the cave are two caverns. Most blocks can be found in these. If the resource pit you need to use is empty, then make a /modreq stating which pit needs to be refilled.

Ores such as iron and gold can be gathered in the cloud temple mine. The mine is located to the right of the top of the staircase as you enter the first cavern. Wheat can be harvested from the farm at cloud temple.

Resources that cannot be found in the mining pits can usually be bought from the cloud temple marketplace. The marketplace is on the left of the road that runs out of cloud temple.

Building

Free building is limited to an area known as ‘the wildlands’ on the fringe of the world. The wildlands is a place where anybody can build anything (as long as it complies with the server’s rules) and it isn’t ruled by any nation or government. Note that builds which are inactive or do not meet LotC’s standard of quality will be removed after a warning.

Gathering resources within the wildlands is allowed, although you cannot leave things like floating trees or physics defying blocks around the place. Its best to avoid mining in the wildlands if you can, and use the resource pits at cloud temple instead.

Once you are a resident in a nation or charter, you can ask a steward or region owner (RO) of that settlement for building permissions. This means you can make minor changes within the area such as adding furniture to the house you live in.

Banks

Banks are the fundamental way to store your well-earned minae on Lord Of The Craft! It is vital to ensure your Minas are safe, as you lose all the Minas your persona is carrying on them upon death.

Banks, just like auction houses, are controlled by NPC’s. These NPC’s can be found in every nation, and also look different depending on what nation you are visiting. Must Bank NPC's are located by signs near them, stating as such. If you are ever unsure about where your national bank is, try asking a steward!

If the Npc bank is not there, try standing by or on top if the area and use /bank

Auction Houses

Auction houses are a great feature found on Lord Of The Craft! They allow for items to be sold be traded between players without the use of regular shops. Much like bankers, Auctioneers are found in the form of an NPC! Should the NPC not be visible, you will be required to use the /auctionhouse command at the location the NPC is supposed to be, in order to access this feature.

(Section WIP, as of 11-Jul-2019)

Friends

On LotC, we have a neat ‘Friend’ system which allows us to see who our friends are and are not online at any given time. This system allows us to contact them with ease.

/friend Shows a list of all the friend commands.

/friend list Pulls up a list of all your friends that are on or offline.

/friend msg <mcname> <msg> This allows you to message a friend that is on your friend list.

/friend add <mcname> <msg> This allows you to request to another player to be added to your friends list. They must accept the request for them to be added. /friend accept This allows you to accept a friend request from another player /friend deny This allows you to deny a friend request from another player /friend remove This allows you to remove a player from your friend list and remove yourself from theirs /friend broadcast <msg> Broadcasts a message to all of your friends who are online /friend settings This gives you a list of all of the friend settings you can change.

• /friend settings invite
  • Toggles the ability to receive party requests from your everyone or only those on your friend list.
• /friend settings message
  • Toggles the ability to receive private messages
• /friend settings broadcast
  • Toggles the ability to receive broadcasts from your friends
• /friend settings offline
  • Toggles the ability for you to be seen as online or offline to those on your friend list
• /friend settings friendrequests
  • Toggles the ability for you to receive friend requests

Soulstones

Soulstones are a system in LotC which allows us to quickly travel between different places. It’s a form of teleportation, utilising an item called a soulstone (Sometimes abbreviated to ss)

Soulstone Commands

You can bring up the soulstones command menu by typing /ss. When you shift and right click whilst holding your ss, it changes between the various different pillars. You will unlock more ss slots as you play more upon your character.

/ss claim Claims your soulstone, placing it into your inventory.

/ss bind <slot #> Binds your soulstone to a pillar. You must be looking at the pillar to do so.

/ss release <slot #> Releases your soulstone from the selected slot.

/ss block Blocks nearby players from using their soulstone, commonly used when people are attempting to escape roleplay or disputes because using your Soulstone to leave roleplay is not allowed unless agreed upon OOCly.

/ss study Tells you the name and members of a soulstone pillar you are facing.

/ss banish <name> Removes a player from a soulstone pillar you own.

/ss revoke Removes your soulstone from your inventory, can be brought back at any time using /ss claim. Alternatively, throw the item out of your inventory manually.

Time Progression

• Wednesday -- Snow’s Maiden
• Thursday -- Malin’s Welcome
• Friday -- The First Seed
• Saturday -- The Grand Harvest
• Sunday -- Sun’s Smile
• Monday -- The Amber Cold
• Tuesday -- The Deep Cold

When referring to IRL time passing in-game, players use the term Elven Day, or Elven Week, and so on, given the knowledge that Elves age much slower than Humans, despite the passing of an IRL day not actually being equivalent to a day in the life of an Elf. Humans refer to IRL time passing in-game using the terms Saint’s Day or Saint’s Week, and so on.

Staff Teams

LotC was once a platform operated by a significant number of staff teams, each with their own specific and nuanced duties. Following a staff-wide reform in late 2018 and early 2019, LotC staff has been condensed into five well organized teams with slashed bureaucracy and some shared responsibilities. The teams as they are today, save for the Admins and Mods, are broken up into subsections that each have their own specific set of duties, though this does not mean that a team member is incapable of helping you just because it isn’t directly their job to do so. You are free to ask any member of staff for help, because if they cannot assist you correctly they will pass on your request to someone who can.

Administration

Admins (identified with the prefix [Admin] in-game) are the topmost staff members of LotC. They handle all the server administrative duties, care for the welfare of the server, and are the leaders of the staff teams, respectively. The Admins shouldn’t be one’s go-to staff to contact immediately, as due to their responsibilities they only handle special-circumstance issues.

Moderation

Moderators (identified with the prefix [Mod] in-game) are the primary staff responsible for rule enforcement and general player assistance. They aid with a wide variety of additional matters, including warclaims, raids, heists, forum moderation, ban report reviewing, and much more.

To report a rule breaker, mediate a dispute, or generally ask for help, issue /modreq in-game.

Community

Guides (identified with the prefix [C] in-game) are the creators of informative pieces on roleplay, mechanics, and any other information deemed useful to the community. Server-side they are responsible for leading new players to active locations, explaining the state of in-game nations, politics, and roleplay in general. Additionally, they are the gatekeepers of LotC, aiding in the handling of applications.

Mentors (identified with the prefix [C] in-game) are the mentors of new players, especially those who are unfamiliar with roleplay or the style of roleplay and lore that LotC utilizes. They are there to answer your questions, give detailed explanations concerning gameplay, and otherwise simply to try and make your transition into our community as best as possible. Additionally, they are the gatekeepers of LotC, aiding in the handling of applications.

Content Creators (identified with the prefix [C] in-game) are the creators of digital content for LotC. Their work comes in many forms, and is used broadly to aid in the work of other staff teams, and the community in general. Typically, Content Creators make YouTube videos for warclaims, teasers, trailers, and otherwise, as well as creating art for the forums and wiki. Additionally, they are the gatekeepers of LotC, aiding in the handling of applications.

For questions about Community-related matters and concerns, or help as a new player, issue /creq in-game.

Development

Technicians (identified with the [Tech] prefix in-game) are the creators of our plugins and the overseers of the technical aspects of the server. It is their duty to maintain our various plugins, making changes and updates where necessary while otherwise handling bug fixes when issues arise.

Designers (identified with the [D] prefix in-game) are the world-developers for large and overarching changes to the map, and otherwise are the creators of significant, grand-scale builds on LotC. Unlike Builders, Designers have a much broader canvas to work with, and typically do not build for story purposes, but rather for world-wide events and map changes.

Builders (identified with the [D] prefix in-game) are the designers of minecraft creations for event and non-event purposes. Whether this involves builds for server-wide or Story-lead standalone events and event lines, adding onto Cloud Temple, or otherwise, our Builders are a capable group of creative people who consistently work to be innovative and unique in their work.

For concerns with malfunctioning plugins or other technical issues please make a post under 'Support' on the forums.

Story

Writers (identified with the prefix [S] in-game) are the providers and moderators of server lore. Their duties are split between the creation of new lore, reviewing of, and changing of existing lore, and the moderating of and enforcement of rules for existing lore. In addition to the aforementioned, these staff review and track player Magic, Creature, and Teaching applications.

Actors (identified with the prefix [S] in-game) are the providers of highly detailed and quality story based events designed to provide an added immersive experience to the playerbase. Storylines and long-term events will be handled by teams of Story Event staff who will work to give the players involved depth to go along with each encounter they experience.

For questions about lore, magic-item creation, events, and the wiki, issue /sreq in-game.

Voting

Voting is a helpful way to contribute to LotC’s growth and public image, as well as a way to benefit yourself in-game. For each time you vote, you gain fifteen (15) mina, LotC’s in-game currency. In addition to this, the first vote each day gifts you with free Monk Bread to aid with your hunger on those long treks from city to city. As you vote consecutively, you will start to earn voting milestones, which gift you with something special a few times along the way. Issue /vote and /vote milestones to help out LotC and yourself!

Glossary

• RP

Stands for roleplay.

• IC

Stands for in-character.

• OOC

Stands for out-of-character.

• CT

Short for Cloud Temple, a popular roleplay hub and the spawn-point for the server.

• SS

Means soulstone. This is like a waystone - you can use it to teleport to a place once you have binded it to a soulstone pillar there. Issue /ss in game to find out more!

• PK

Stands for Permanent Kill, the alternative to being resurrected by the monks when you die. It’s…. Permanent.

• d40

Means damage 40. This is the amount of damage needed to kill a player on full health. If you lose in rp combat. the victor might ask you to run the /d40 command.

• btrp

An abbreviation for ‘back to roleplay’. This is often used when people get stuck in an ooc conversation in the middle of rp.

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Last Revised: 02 - 04 - 2020