Backgrounds
Overview
Players can submit additional details and background information about their characters and groups using the website. This information can be invaluable when writing plot - whether used as seeds to write plot from, or as a mechanism to target plot you have written at appropriate characters.
Any member of the plot team can access this information using the main PD website, but you will need your account set to give you permission. If any of the steps below are failing for you then PM Matt Pennington to get the relevant permissions added to your account.
If you have access to the crew area on the main website but can't work out how to use it to search for characters or groups then please contact Matt Pennington and he'll give further instruction. If we find crew are having trouble picking up the system we'll update this page to include with instructions on how to use the system.
Characters
When a player creates a character they are asked to submit up to 2000 characters of personal background. We limit the backgrounds to this length to prevent players submitting backgrounds so long they would become impractical to read.
In addition to this we ask players what their character's main IC goals are and then two simple questions based on their nation - for instance Dawnish characters are asked if they have passed a Test of Mettle and whether they have any personal heraldry.
Finally we ask the player to choose an archetype from one of the list of archetypal roles for that nation. For example, the Dawnish list of character archetypes includes things like Advocate, Earl, Enchanter, Seneschal, Troubadour, and Witch. Archetypes are optional, but it is one of the simplest ways to identify what kind of character a player is creating, particularly what role that character is likely to perform in the game.
The character's background and their answers to all these questions are available through the main website once you have logged in.
Character Search
The website includes a powerful character search system that allows you to search through the database for characters that match one of several different criteria. For example, you can use this system to quickly identify how many Dawnish Witches with the Mend spell are booked for the next event, simply by filling in the relevant entries on the search system.
Groups
In Empire there are three different types of group that a character can be part of, banners, covens, and sects, each with slightly different rules. Banners are intended for characters who fight together, covens for characters who perform rituals together and sects are intended to allow religious characters to cooperate.
Each character can be a member of one banner, one coven, and one sect at the same time. This means that when you are looking at the groups that a character is part of you will potentially see multiple overlapping loyalties.
Like characters, each group can have an archetype appropriate for their nation (for example in Dawn, the group archetypes are Knightly order, Noble House, and Weaver Cabal). We ask the player who creates the group to tell us what the main IC goals for the group are and ask them a nation specific question (e.g. for Dawn we ask if the group has any heraldry). Finally we allow the players to submit up to 4000 characters of background for their group.
When looking at a group it is important to see if the group is secret or not. Players cannot add their character to a secret group at character creation, they can only join later in play. It is usually best to assume that a secret group represents some kind of secret loyalty or conspiracy that a character is part of, whereas a public group represents their public loyalties.
Finally all groups are required to provide an oath. The oath is part of the setting, a piece of hedge magic that is required to create a bond between characters using magic. Like the main IC goals, the oath hopefully tells you something about the group.
You can read all the details about a group on the main website.
Group Search
There is no group search system in place yet. We will write one if there are sufficient requests from plot writers to justify the time required to write the system.
Further Reading
- Organization
- Writing
- Skirmish