Introduction and Character Questions

Hello there Knight Realms!

My name is Kevin, and I'm interested in experiencing your game this summer.  I live in Saratoga Springs (its just north of Albany), I'm a recently graduated college student, and I have been doing a variety of different types of LARPing for a few years now.  My friends Mary and Nadi both encouraged me to try this game out, and I'm excited to meet you all. 

I have a couple of specific questions regarding a character concept I have that, despite my best efforts, I could not find answers to in the Online Rulebook. I apologize if they were in fact answered there.

1. I see that this game has an established nobility, especially within the Barony where this game takes place.  I know that I can not come in with a new character that is a member of the local social structure, but would it be allowed to be a noble from another country?  I was thinking of a Dwarven noble from the Kingdom of Calasvorin.

2. I have a latex sword that is painted gold.  I read that gold is a rare alloy that is a special damage type. I also have brass-plated chainmail that looks gold.  Would I be allowed to have an armor and weapon that appeared gold, but did not have the special in-game properties of gold?  Or, is it possible to somehow start with items of that property at character creation and sacrifice whatever coin I might come into game with, or even be in debt somehow?  I'm not expecting a yes on that last one, just throwing the idea out there if its possible.

3. How flexible is the world when writing a character history? If I wanted to say I came from somewhere in Calavorin, would I have to pick one of the locations on that map, or could I, within reason, come up with a new location within that kingdom?

I'm sure I'll have more questions when I think of them, but for now, thank you for helping me. 

Hi Kevin, welcome to the boards!

Let me take a stab at your questions.

1.) No, you cannot be start as anoble of any type in the game.  This keeps all players coming into the game at the same social level, at least technically, and keeps one player from trying to get special priveliges over another due to something they simply wrote in their history.  That being said, if you want to do anything different with your history (maybe not a noble, maybe the advisor to this or that noble, or something else...), write it up and email the history in and see if it can be approved.  Until these details are approved officially however you can not use them InGame (so if you came this weekend, but the history wasn't approved yet, you couldn't talk about the special points of your history).  For how to submit a history, go here:  www.knightrealms.com/forums/index.php?topic=1115.0

2.)  Its perfectly fine if the phys rep of your weapon looks different from what the actual weapon does, especially as a starting character.  Perhaps you can make it an InGame goal of your character to get a weapon made of real gold someday, and try to save coin to do that InGame.  There are a variety of ways to get special alloys, from using Service Points to get them to buying them InGame, but it all must be done through play. 

3.)  All the major towns are what are written on the map, but  if your dwarf comes from a little hamlet, feel free to make up an appropriate name and location for it.  You couldn't create a new capital or major city, but tiny towns and such are fine.  Of course, this would need to be approved with a submitted character history as well, as in question 1. 

Hope that helps!

Awesome, thank you Kristen! 

Does this mean that all of the nobles I have seen in the picture gallery were made that way through RP, and not from birthright? Or perhaps they were given special permission for their character history? Or maybe those were NPCs I saw? I'm just curious how it works.

On an unrelated note, does anybody have any tips for dwarven beard-wearing that makes it look good and authentic? My only concern with playing a dwarf is that any kind of fake beard I find will look fake and cheesy.

Does this mean that all of the nobles I have seen in the picture gallery were made that way through RP, and not from birthright? Or perhaps they were given special permission for their character history? Or maybe those were NPCs I saw? I'm just curious how it works.

All persons who are "Nobility" in the game have either earned it through RP, or are NPCs.

There is only one consistent NPC Noble, that being James who plays the Count (and who is also the Director of the game). All of the Knights, Lords & the Baron are all PCs who have earned the right to be Nobility is some form or another through IG action.

There are (occasionally) story-related nobles who will come into town, but this is a rare occurrence, and usually these roles are played by veteran players.

So,

where in Saratoga? It's my hometown.

Oh yeah? My fiancé and I are living on Hamilton street, right off of Broadway.  We both really like it here.  We moved here after we both graduated SUNY Albany, where we met.

Her name is Katie, and she's going to be coming with me.  She's stuck between being a gypsy, or being a dryad.  Both are very appealing to her.