A newbie with questions (the best kind, innit!)

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Jehuti

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Hello! I'm a new person! I have a person-name, but per the upstanding internet tradition, I have arbitrarily decided to be called Jehuti. That's pronounced jeh-hooty, but that doesn't matter to me, so you can call me Jay, or Judy, or whatever wacky gender-neutral nicknames you can come up with. Pleased to meet you!

I've been roleplaying for like 11 years. I've weathered one-liners and napped my way through novels, but never quite found my comfortable perch. I'd always either be left wanting more from the other participants or feel looked down upon from huge walls. Or just actually be looked down upon, because the community decided that post length determines power level and a long enough post might even justify the godmodding equivalent of a zero-to-death fighting game combo. I'm actually not even kidding, I've seen that.

Keeping my roleplaying to a small group of tight-knit friends remedied that somewhat, but those communities always died so I decided to go somewhere bigger this time. Iwaku stuck out to me because of the emphasis on creative freedom and focus on content rather than word count, which lines up with what I'm used to quite nicely. It also helped that the site was on the first page of Google and didn't burn my night-owl eyes, yeowch.

My favorite genres are modern fantasy and sci-fi, preferably blended together. I nerd out over technological magic and magical technology. Sometimes people worry about me derailing their medieval elves-and-orcs fantasy because of that, so I usually leave those alone unless I'm invited directly. Sometimes my characters are a bit overpowered, and sometimes (actually almost always) my plots are convoluted. Just flick me on the forehead if things get too metaphysical, or if you wanna be extra efficient, just invite me to your RP instead!

I'll probably be going to work right after finishing this post, so if you think the weird bird newbie's writing style is up your alley, feel free to have at me like a door-to-door sales representative on a three day weekend, and I'll get back to you post-backpain. I live in weird person land, work weird person hours, and always multitask on the computer like a weird person so I'll prefer forum or inbox-based RPs over lightning round chatbox stuff.

Before I scratch together anything too crazy I have a few questions (yep, I'm finally getting there):

1) Just to be ab-so-lute-ly sure: using images I found on the internet is okay as long as I credit the original artist and source? Even if only as a placeholder for a character sheet? If so, where does the community lean in terms of taking the appearance of mainstream, recognizable characters and making their personality and history your own, vs. taking some obscure, nameless original NPC, and doing the same? In the past, I've usually leaned towards the latter, but I could see valid reasons why you wouldn't want to allow that.

2) Do I have to fill out a full character sheet, or can I make a "teaser" with just the image and short summary, and fatten them up with details as the story goes on? I know that spoiler tags exist, but I also know that peeps generally can't resist clicking them, and I am a bird of many plot twists, and characters that wear many faces.

3) How does the community feel about music? Places I've been to (and been admin of) in the past all made liberal use of YouTube links to help set the mood. I've never been part of a community that thought using it was "cheating" per se, but I know they exist, and I didn't see it in the FAQ, so I just thought I'd mention that.

4) The hard question, but one that must be addressed before any fun can be had. Cinnamon or butterscotch?

That's all for now ♪ :raven:
 
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welcome to iwaku, jay! ^o^

as for your questions, i will say that you are free to express yourself however you'd like; fill out as much or as little of a character sheet you'd like (some only do name, age, gender, and appearance, others have gone the full nine yards), and crediting original artists and sources is definitely encouraged on here, so feel free to use whatever images you'd like, so long as they're kept tasteful and within compliance of the image guidelines found here at number fifteen: Terms of Service and Rules | IwakuRoleplay.com

music is also highly encouraged; many rpers put their youtube links in little player codes created with bbcode to help achieve some sort of effect or mood for that particular post and/or roleplay.

i think you'll fit in just fine and the staff are definitely willing to answer any questions you may have, as well as possibly more detailed and efficient responses to your current questions. if you have any more questions, you can always head on over to the help desk located here: HELP DESK ^o^
 
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Hello Jehuti :) Welcome to the site! It's very nice to meet you.

As for your questions... We have no real 'rules' about images, except that you can't plagerize - so as long as you aren't taking credit for work that doesn't belong to you, or removing signatures/copyrights, you're fine to use any image you want. Same goes for images of characters.

Character sheets tend to vary based on which RPs you join and what the GM wants - you can also add a bio to the character gallery, if you'd like to utilize that as a placeholder for characters.

We love music and you can use as much as want :) Just be sure you're not using too many media links at once, or if you do, give a heads up, cause it can slow things down.

And cinnamon :)
 
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Welcome Jehuti! Since Elle answered your questions, I won't repeat that (you're welcome). I will invite you to visit the Newby Care package for your free goodies to newcomers.

Also, I think you'll find may people with your style and genre preferences here. Have a great day/evening at work and hopefully when you return you feel as if you've been showered with warmth and welcome. And above all...HAVE FUN!!
 
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Heya Jay, welcome to Iwaku. Let's get right into your questions! :)

As has already been said, you're allowed to use any image, so long as you don't plagiarise and the image isn't pornographic. It's worth noting that GMs may set extra rules specific to their roleplay though; some common image rules GMs set are "images of real people only" or "anime images only". So while the site wide rules are pretty free, some roleplays may have more restrictive rules about images.

Your second question depends on what you're doing with the character. If you're posting a character in the character gallery as a character available for roleplays, then all you need is a name and image. But if you're joining another person's roleplay, then you'll have to follow the GM's rules. Usually GMs will provide you a blank character sheet which details all the information they want about your character. However if there is something you want to keep secret about your character, such as part of their history, you should discuss what to do about that with the GM.

Musical expression is forbidden! We're chill with music. Different people will have different preferences, but I know many people around here enjoy weaving music into their roleplays.

Cinnamon or butterscotch? Hmm... Both! :P
 
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I return, hoot hoot. Thanks for the answers, everyone! And thank you Elle for answering the most important question, whew!

I try to do as much research as I can ahead of time, so I don't smack right into the rules on day one. I didn't seem able to access the character gallery as a guest, so I wanted to be sure. Don't worry about repeating information, multiple opinions are useful too!

Those answers are just what I was hoping for, and the welcome is even better! I definitely feel showered with love and gifts ♪ :raven:
 
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