Character development:
1. I prefer bipedal races in the game and nothing that is inherently powerful like vampires
or dragons.
2. Common races are humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, ogres. The plot revolves around a
group that is trying to kill all non-humans so keep that in mind.
3. Come up with a general idea of what your character is like and write it up. I do have a character sheet that I use for my reference but I base it off of your description. I want you to create a character from your imagination, not from dice rolls. Add in a physical appearance, quirks, motives, hobbies and anything else that will flesh out your character.
4. There are basically 3 "classes" of character although I don't make anyone stick with a class so to speak. They are warrior, mage, and hacker. There is nothing to say that you can't have skills from all three but they will be diluted. It's a violent world so there are very few people that don't have some warrior in their characters. There have been quite a few mage/warriors and a couple hacker/warriors. I do give bonuses to people that choose to play just one aspect.
5. If you choose magic, choose what realm your magic will be from. Some kind of theme that ties your magic together. The list of spells comes from you imagination. You decide what your desired spells affects are and what it will look like. I take into consideration your level, how well the spell falls into your realm, and any resistance the target has and give you the effects.
6. If you choose to be a hacker, choose what you would like cyberspace to look like and how you would look in that world. Most hackers choose an environment that either makes it easier for them to relate to the data or that is exciting to them.
Game play:
1. List any action that you think would require a dice roll as an intention. "Lee will try to slice the orc's head off with his katana."
2. Use "OOC:" or ";;;" to denote out of character statements to the DM or other players. "Lee will try to slice the orc's head off with his katana. ;;; Will I have time to draw my Glock before the ogre gets to me? I really don't want to go hand to hand with the big guy."
3. Send email to only those characters that would be able to see or hear your actions. The group in this game regularly splits up to check out different leads. Don't send email to players that would have no idea of what you are doing.
4. Double check with me before sending out messages over radio or phone to make sure that the person you are contacting is on the same timeline as you. Sometimes, when the characters split up, time will pass differently for each character. I try to keep everyone close to the same time but if some characters go to bed and a couple get into a fire fight on the side of the city, several emails will pass for the fire fight group compared to the one to the sleepers.