Althanas (website)
From The Unofficial Althanas Wiki
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Conception and Allrpg Era
Althanas had its roots in the first allrpg.com roleplaying forum, known as the Interactive Village, which was created in 2000. However, it was an unstructured and undefined project with few rules or regulations, so issues such as flaming and powergaming were rampant.
To correct these problems, as well as define a stabilized world with some limitations, although few, Matt Spears suggested the creation of Althanas to the administrators of the site. On January 2nd, 2002, Althanas went live and officially replaced the Interactive Village.
After over the course of a year and a half, the website began to grow by word of mouth and its hosting under allrpg.com's wing. By the summer of 2003, it had received enough traffic to warrant its own domain name, and on August 6th, Althanas.com officially launched.
After a transitional period to allow any on-going quests to be completed, the allrpg extension of Althanas was closed down on September 11th.
[edit] Althanas.com, First Crash
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Overview
Althanas functions like many other play-by-post forums, in that it creates the sense that there is a persistent world that has been crafted, although it is subject to change and is only as immense as the author's imagination. By its nature, nothing is truly static about the world itself - cultures may vary, depending on the writer's take on it. However, there are usually guidelines and descriptions given for the various "major," regions of Althanas, although players are free to invent their own continents and lands to explore, as well as bring in characters from other worlds.
All characters start out at level zero. Players create their characters by registering them within the registration forum in the Realm of Greeting. There, a moderator looks over their write-up and decides what abilities may be too over-powered, or if anything in general should be changed to fit the rough guidelines that have been set in place.
Once approved, a character may begin roleplaying in any of the continents, or the Peaceful Promenade and Scara Brae forums. They may write up any form of adventure that they can imagine. Commonly, these take place in two major archetypes; Battles and Quests.
[edit] Battles
Battles tend to be short and quick fights between two characters, and they are scored individually. The player with the higher score is awarded a larger amount of gold and experience than the loser.
[edit] Quests
In quests, it is a collaborative effort between two or more people. Generally, they tend to be longer and much more complicated than battles, with a host of characters and an established plot. The score for quests is determined by the quality of the entire cast, rather than individual characters, and the rewards are given in relation to the characters themselves, rather than just one person.
