Chapter One -- Getting Started

Section One: Philosophy and Purpose

Kingdoms and Honor strives to be the best play-by-e-mail role-play game on the Web. It is an Internet community in which devoted, talented, literate, and inventive gamers create rich, long-running characters and lands. Kingdoms and Honor welcomes gamers with an environment in which all can write passionately and role play realistically with others who have the same desires.

The Kingdoms and Honor rules system is designed to be used for turned-based Internet play. It is ideal for e-mail, message boards, Yahoo clubs, and even Play By Mail through the Post Office. It is not intended for Face To Face play, Internet chat, Instant Messenger play, or MUDs. The deliberate pace of turn-based RPGs allows Players to assume other roles easily and to take the time to write thoughtful and considered turns. That's perfect for Kingdoms and Honor because this game encourages play that is literate, sharp, and inventive.

There are some excellent role-play gamers out on the Net, but these gamers often become frustrated and lose interest in their games. Sometimes thoughtless, undedicated individuals drop into a game, posting randomly, carelessly, and destructively. Sometimes players and game masters lose interest and drift away, abandoning devoted gamers and the energy they have put into the game. Sometimes real life intrudes, and a campaign comes to a premature end. Kingdoms and Honor offers an answer to these hurdles.

In order to realize the vision that we have for Kingdoms and Honor, the game masters, known as the Creators and Administrator, promise a lot to their Players and demand a lot in return.

Of course, the Creators and Administrator want to enjoy the game and be proud of it. To do that, we are committed to making Kingdoms and Honor:

In return, we expect Players to be devoted, talented, and enthusiastic. They should be decent writers, keen strategists, clever puzzle-solvers, and engaged role players. There are a number of rules for Players later in this chapter.

And if Players wish to move beyond traditional RPG towards gaming that encourages story development and thematic considerations, Kingdoms and Honor offers a chance to do so. Here is an essay on Literary RPGs that describes these options and how to pursue them.

Section Two: Roles

Administrator

The Administrator is the ultimate authority in Kingdoms and Honor. He provides the vision, enthusiasm, and impetus for the entire game. He is the only person with full and complete knowledge of the entire Kingdoms and Honor world.

The Admin interacts with Creators on several levels. He provides feedback and direction for the creation of each Creator’s Land, approving all development and in-play details. He helps Creators resolve complex or problematic role-play situations, offering advice and another point of view. He introduces unknowns and surprises to the different Creators’ Lands, giving Creators themselves challenging situations with which to interact.

Although each Creator controls a unique Land, the Administrator has particular places and situations directly under his control. The Admin interacts with Players as a game master when the Player enters into such an Admin-controlled area or situation. The Admin may also interact with a Player to answer questions, offer encouragement, and make comments.

Creators

Creators are inventors, since each one is directly responsible for one of the Lands in Kingdoms and Honor. A Land is generally a large island, continent, or large part of a continent. There may be one kingdom or many in a Land, but generally there is one dominent power in each Land. Creators invent history, culture, flora and fauna, weather and climate, geography, political systems, and people for their Lands.

Creators are the game masters of Kingdoms and Honor. Players whose Characters are physically in a Creator’s Land intereact with that Land’s Creator to play the game. A Player can try other game master styles by travelling to other Lands. Creators control the events and most Non-Player Characters in their Lands (a few NPCs might be controlled by the Admin, or more rarely, as Associate Characters controlled by a Player).

Creators are participants in the game as well. They control almost everything in their Lands, but they are personified by a particular individual -- usually a King, but perhaps some other authority (Theocrat, Guildmaster, Hero, etc.) This individual is in some ways the Creator’s Character -- as the Administrator introduces startling events to the game, the Creator responds to these challenges through this individual.

Players

Being a Good Player

The best Players take pride in the game and the enjoyment playing it. They are excited and can’t stay away from the game. They are immersed in the fantasy world of Kingdoms and Honor. They carefully plan their posts and write each one passionately. They are creative, lovers of literature and expression, perfectionists, and descriptive storytellers.

Good Players earn interesting positions in societies and groups; they achive goals and complete quests. One Player might obtain a crew and a fine ship. Another might create works of art and earn the sponsorship of a patron. Important NPCs interact with good Players.

Rules

There are certain rules that are intended to shape Player behavior to fit the philosophy of the game. These rules govern the conduct and etiquette of play. Players who violate these accidentally will be corrected. Players who violate these rules intentionally will be removed from the game.

1) Write passionately. Do not short-change your character with one-line responses.

2) Write correctly. Use good grammar. Check your spelling.

3) Post regularly. Keep on schedule.

4) Stay in character. Only use information that your character would know.

5) Write actions only for characters you control.

6) Although questions and comments are always welcome, accept the Creator’s decision as final.

7) Be courteous to Players and Creators. If you are insulting in character, make it clear that your Character is being rude, not you.

8) Keep Player vs. Player conflict to an appropriate level in the game context. A Player whose Character seeks out other Players’ Characters and assaults them is likely to be expelled from the game.

9) Be responsible about sensitive topics such as language, sex, violence, real-world religion, and so on. Moral choices between good and evil, romantic love, sex without details, and descriptive combat (including blood, guts and gore) have a place in the game. Rape, torture, extreme profanity, and pornography do not.

Player Levels

By following these rules, by being creative, engaged, clever, and active, Players demonstrate that they can contribute substantially to the game and are make it better.

To recognize Player contributions, Creators assign a Level designation to each Player:

Basic: A Basic Player posts at least twice a week. The Player has adventures that affect only himself or herself and minor NPCs. Basic Players start out at this probationary Level and stay at this Level only if the Creator thinks there is a need to improve skills in some way: poor writing skills, infrequent posts, responses that lack richness and detail, etc. Usually, new Players graduate after a week or three of play.

Intermediate: An Intermediate Player posts at least four times a week. This Player has adventures that affect other Players’ Characters and important NPCs. An Intermediate Player is mature and possesses a good writing and roleplay skills. This player may earn more resources for his or her Character to use. A Creator may start an exceptional Player at this Level instead of at the Basic Level. These players graduate after three to twelve months at an Intermediate Level.

Advanced: An Advanced Player posts just about every day. This player’s character may have a significant influence in the Creator’s land and may earn control over substantial resources. The Player may take control of some NPCs to enhance his or her game play experience. This person should be very mature, dedicated, passionate and realistic, almost as much so as a Creator. Players usually do not graduate from this Level.

Master: Only the Administrator can graduate an Advanced Player to Master Level. This Player’s Character will greatly influence worldly events, and the Character will have information that Creators do not have. This Player will have earned NPCs and many other resources. The Administrator acts as game master for this Player. There will not be many Master Players, and maybe no more than one.

Demi-Creator: An Advanced or Master Player may also earn the title of Demi-Creator if the Player making a significant creative contribution to the game or game system. A Demi-Creator might develop a significant area -- a city-state, island, tribe, guild, and so on. And a Player may earn Demi-Creator status by contributing art, writing, editing, Web page design, and so on.

Remember, Player Levels do not promote Characters, but Players. An Intermediate Player’s Character may advance in Skill Ranks rapidly and grow in power, while an Advanced Player’s Character might be comparatively weak.

Player Levels are a useful tool for Creators when a Player’s Character moves from one Land to another. Creators can also change a Player’s Level for minor infractions of the rules listed above.

Section Three: Game Conventions

Posting

[This is where we will put info on how to submit Character Concepts, how to post turns, how to talk with the Creator, with NPCs, with other Player’s Characters.]

Time

Calendar

Kingdoms and Honor works on an earth-like calendar, but a little neater. Seconds, minutes, and hours are just as in the real world. 24 hours make a day, 30 days make a month, and 12 months make a year. That's a year of 360 days.

Weeks are problematic, and vary from Land to Land. Some Lands have five six-day weeks in a month, some have three 10-day weeks, and some use the real world's seven-day week, although that is not nearly as neat.

But any date in Kingdoms and Honor can be represented as dd/mm/yy. The names of the days and months change from Land to Land, but using numbers, it is easy to figure what different characters in different Lands are doing on the exact same day.

For the K&H Playtest, the dates all start with year 00. For the Playtest, a very bright comet appeared in the heavens earlier this year, brighter than any ever recorded. No culture of Land knows what the comet's appearance portends, but all cultures know what you mean if you count time as years before or after the Comet.

Synchronicity

The Player Characters in K&H may adventure alone or in groups; they may join one group, leave it, and join another. And the things that Characters do in the world can affect each other. If one Character burns the Running Stag Inn to the ground, a couple days later another Character won't be able to order a beer there -- unless the beer is served among the charred ruins!

So the game requires a mechanism to keep everybody more or less on the same page. So twice every real-world month, all Players are set to the same game time, in Synchronicity. Every Synchronicity represents the first day of a game month, so that two new game months go by every real month.

Players don't have to worry too much about keeping track of time. It is enough to know that a game month begins on the first and fifteenth of the month.

Of course, with each Synchronicity coming but once per game month, keeping events on track can still be a challenge for a Creator. Here are some thoughts on how Creators can keep time straight, explained as best case and worst case examples of a Creator handling time.

Community

[This is where we talk about the Kingdoms and Honor community. How to post to a general Player’s board. How to connect with other Players, Info on using the Web site, e-mail newsletter, using chat services, accessing turn archives, and so on.]

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This page last modified: October 10, 2000