< PARADISE INSTRUCTION MANUAL >

Introduction

Welcome to the Paradise Instruction Manual! This guide should help you with everything you need in the process of getting starting on the site while filling you in on some important lore at the same time. If this your first time here, it is highly recommended you read all of it.


Plot Summary


The afterlife. Heaven. Eternity. Call it what you will, but it has always gone by a title of grandeur, marking it as a plane of existence unobtainable to most. Only the most noble, honorable of souls which had been glorified in both life and death are granted passage to Valhalla, and even then they must prove themselves worthy by completing the trials of Purgatory. Such was the dictation of the first complete Pantheon, and so it remains to this day. All others were and are doomed to a meaningless existence within a soul well known as Tartarus.

Life in Valhalla was bountiful. The gods and warriors which made up the hierarchy did battle for sport and feasted daily. It was truly a glorious occasion with each passing day as more and more were added to the celestial plane's population. That is, until tragedy struck.

An event occurred which remains only in the memory of one of the pantheon's finest, Loki. The other gods were stricken down unexpectedly, the trickster only surviving due to the honorable sacrifice of a trusted companion. After this Loki fell into despair; but one god remained, and she took upon herself the title of Death, ruling Valhalla alone and with desires of sinister design.

Death wanted to bring the hall of the gods to its former glory, but required a means of testing those worthy. Without a test of some sort, even past the gates of Purgatory, no gods could truly say they earned their spot. And so, the goddess began a grueling tournament in which competitors would fight for their right to sit upon a throne fitting of a true lord.

Newcomers now find themselves greeted by a mysterious old man, welcomed into Valhalla with a tone of regret. They are granted shelter here, food, promises of luxury, but at the cost of their freedom. For if they do not participate in Death's game, they will suffer her touch, the Tartarus becoming their new home.

Soul Information

A soul is the mushy green energy that every champion needs to power their own lifeforce and magical abilities. These are the most unfortunate of those who ascend to Asgard, people who never made a difference, people who were simply not important, and generally weak-spirited people. They lose all will and power of thought, becoming nothing more than a glorified battery. These souls go to Tartarus by default, and are then sent out to inhabit the bodies of newly spawned champions when the time comes.

For reference, about 10,000,000,000 souls enter Tartarus each day, opposed to the mere 50 or so that manifest as champions each day.

Death Information

Believe it or not, a champion can actually die in the afterlife. This isn't exactly true death, as upon losing their last soul, they are turned into the same energy that they once used to power themselves and sent to Tartarus, or Genesis Park, depending on how many souls they have left in their body. Or, alternatively, if the champion was murdered by another, the victorious champion absorbs their soul as energy.

So, for example;

Barabras the Tyrant has 3 souls and Vigil the Peasant has 2 souls.

Barbaras slays Vigil.

Now Barabras has 4 souls, while Vigil only has 1.

Vigil is sent to respawn in Eden Park with his last soul.

Vigil foolishly gets into another fight with Goldenharl the Great, and is slayed again.

Vigil seizes to exist in a sense, and his final soul is absorbed by Goldenharl.

An interesting note is that bodies stay even if the champion is respawned, making Necromancy (magic explained later) a possible thing. Also, this means your champion has the potential to discover a corpse of themselves, something that may or may not be mentally traumatizing.


Plot and Character Advancement

So, you now understand what a soul is and why they are crucial for your character's continued existence. However, that isn't all there is to a soul, as they also serve as a bargaining piece for Death's game and are directly linked to the advancement of the plot and your character. Most of Asgard is locked up by the Mistress of Demise. New areas will only be unlocked when a certain number of souls have been slaughtered under the rules of the Death Game.

Additionally, they are relative to how powerful your champion is in a sense, which brings us to our next section.

Ranking and God Titles

Ranking up is what happens when your champion reaches a certain number of gathered souls and spends them. It is up to you to alert staff when you are ready for rank up. It is greatly advised to spend these as soon as possible as negative consequences happen to your champion if they horde too many souls. A champion's body is already being broken by holding more than one, so one can only imagine what could possibly happen if they stuff too many into their bodies.

A God Title is something earned by your character when they reach Rank 5. They gain powerful and exclusive magic and perks and may begin referring to themselves by their title rather than their name. These are chosen by staff based on your character's personality.

For more information about ranking and god titles, please refer to the full thread about the manner.

Combat and Stats

Combat, as one might imagine, is a central feature of Paradise. Most threads will probably involve some sort of fighting or battling, and so, there are some loose rules to follow that are meant to guide you and make things easier on you in the long run.

Stat Explanation

Paradise uses a simplified stat system based on RPG video games, as was in the inspiration for most of the site itself.

A champion naturally has 0 in every stat, which doesn't mean they're weak; it just means that they're average. The highest a stat can reach is 20, which represents mastery over that area of combat. The lowest a stat can reach is -5, which means they are very poor in that stat. The only way to increase these stats is to reach Rank 5 or buy equipment; the latter option being the more common and easy route. Stats normally only decrease through enemy spells. A stat greatly helps determine many factors in a fight, included who has the winning edge.

HEALTH - Determines how much damage a champion can take before dying. This is decided using this equation:
END+ 1/2 STR rounded down + Level Modifier
The base health cannot go below 5.

MANA - Determines how many spells a champion can cast. This is decided using this equation:
BAR + 1/2 Mag rounded down + Level Modifier
The base mana cannot go below 5

LEVEL MODIFIER - Your character level affects both your Health and Mana base levels. The level modifiers are as follows:
Rank 1 gives 5 health, 10 mana
Rank 2 gives 10 health, 15 mana
Rank 3 gives 15 health, 20 mana
Rank 4 gives 20 health, 25 mana
Rank 5 gives 35 health, 45 mana

STRENGTH - Determines a champion's physical strength. STR is most often used to determine how much damage an attack does or if a champion can lift an object.

ENDURANCE - Determines a champion's physical defense. END is most often used to determine how much damage a champion can take and physical wellness.

MAGIC - Determines a champion's magical strength. MAG is most often used to measure how powerful one's magical attacks are and their knowledge of the arcane.

BARRIER - Determines a champion's magical defense. BAR is most often used to measure how much magical damage one can take and how much they can resist.

DEXTERITY - Determines a champion's weapon handling. DEX is most often used to measure how quick one is with their hands and how swiftly they can dodge an attack.

SPEED - Determines a champion's general quickness. SPD is most often used for escaping situations.

Those are the basic stats, and are used to figure out how much damage you deal, how much you resist, your chance of dodging and if you can flee. These are decided using this system.

BASIC DAMAGE MODIFIERS

Physical Melee Damage: Attacker's STR+DEX vs. target's END. Physical melee damage cannot be fully blocked, and therefore 1 DAM will always get through when one soaks in a hit.

Magical Damage: Attacker's MAG vs. target's BAR.

Physical Ranged Damage: Attacker's DEX vs. target's END.

COMBAT MANEUVERS

Dodging: Dodging is moving out of the way of an attack completely, and uses the SPD stat as the primary modifier. You are allowed to dodge as many times per battle as you have SPD, so use them wisely. (ex. a character with 5 SPD would be able to perform 5 dodges per battle.)

• Dodging melee damage: attacker's STR+DEX vs. defender's SPD.
• Dodging ranged damage: attacker's DEX vs. defender's SPD.
• Dodging magical damage: attacker's MAG vs. defender's SPD.

(However, it should be noted that you still won't be able to pull off auto-hits with your sword when your character is 50 yards away from the target character, as your bullet will not curve around a corner, that simply doesn't make sense.)

Blocking (Requires shield, two-handed weapon, or guardian magic): Blocking can only be performed with a shield or a two-handed melee weapon. If performed successfully, a block shaves off the melee weapon's STR modifier or the shield's END modifier off of the total damage taken. Blocking magical damage is calculated differently, and uses the item's BAR modifier instead of the STR or END modifier, meaning that magical damage cannot be blocked with two-handed weapons. Temporary shields and barriers can sometimes be summoned from guardian magic to mimic the effects of blocking with a shield, however, how effective it is varies from spell to spell. Blocking cannot be done in the same post as an attack. (ex. a +5 shield would make a 10 damage attack do 5 damage if blocked.)

Countering: Countering is the art of counter-attacking and be performed with any weapon type. It is decided by the attacker's DEX vs. the defender's DEX. If the defender has more DEX than the attacker has, then the defender is allowed to perform an unavoidable counter attack that deals a true amount of damage equal to the defender's STR. True amount means that standard END modifiers do not apply to this damage. Countering additionally halves the damage taken from the countered attack, but cannot be done twice in a row, as repetitively doing so is painfully obvious. (ex. the attack is assaulting with 3 STR and 4 DEX for 7 damage, defender has 2 STR and 8 DEX, attack is countered and defender takes 3 damage, attacker takes a 2 damage counter attack. If the defender tried this same move the next post, it would fail.)

First Strike: First strike is the art of sneak attacking. It is determined solely by SPD vs. SPD and who makes the first move. If a champion with a higher speed makes the first attack in a fight, they will do +Rank additional damage for the first attack of the fight. (ex. the Rank 2 attacker has 5 SPD compared to the defender's 4 SPD, therefore their first attack does +2 additional damage. If it were the other way around, the defender would see the attack coming and therefore the additional damage would be forfeit due to the defender having more SPD than the attacker. Simply put, first strike doesn't always work.)

Critical Strike: Critical strike is a very rare phenomenon that only ever happens through random event. If one is lucky enough for this to happen to them, their damage could be doubled, tripled, or even quadrupled.

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Example

Jim is a level 1 character. His stats are 2STR, 2 END, 3 MAG, 2 BAR, 1 DEX and 1 SPD.
His health is 8 (5 base, + 2 from endurance, + 1 from strength.)
His mana is 13 (10 base, + 2 from barrier, +1 from mag.)
Jim punches a character with 4 SPD. Because this character has higher dodge value, he is able to dodge, and does so.
The other character shoots at Jim. He has 5 DEX, and hits Jim.
Jim loses 3 health, and has a cry. He then uses an AOE magic attack. The other character can dodge, but because his character wouldn't be able to dodge ICly, he gets hit. He has 1 BAR, and takes 2 damage from the spell, due to Jims 3 MAG.

If there is any foul play going on, mods will resort to this to decide what happens. However, if you want to RP the fight without using stats, as long as both parties are fine with it, that is allowed too.

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Combat Explanation


As a combat-centered RP, it makes sense that sometimes on Paradise things can get heated. The weaker of characters can swiftly attempt to escape when presented with a situation such as this, but a majority of characters will want to stay and continue the battle. However, as a majority of threads will be death-enabled, the stakes are somewhat higher.

Primarily there's one key rule when fighting: and that is to be realistic about what you can do. This is where your champion's stats come in. A champion with low STR isn't going to be able to punch with the force of a world renowned boxer, and one with low MAG isn't going to be able to cast very many spells. If you attempt to persist otherwise, rest assured that soon the staff will intervene and declare your moves illegitimate - and if you persist in such a manner we may just give automatic victory to the other player. Play to your strengths: not everyone is a jack of all trades.

The style of combat on Paradise is semi-freeform. This means you and your opponent are in control of the fight and are expected to act fairly with the rules and stat guidelines given to you. However, often times a staff member will intervene in your fights with random events. These include but are not limited to natural disasters, random creatures coming in, and general misfortune, or on the other hand, fortune. This is done to keep your experience on Paradise interesting and fresh.

Power-playing is absolutely not permitted, nor is God modded, and those who violate these rules will meet consequences.

Character Sheet Walkthrough

Even a braindead monkey should be able to do this, the template itself walks you through the process and links you to all the important links you'll need. That, by the way, can be found here.

Make sure to create a Soul Tracker thread as well.

Alright, so you might still be a little confused. The biggest question you're probably asking yourself is how much Hacksilver do you start with. Every Champion starts with 60 Hacksilver to spend on starting gear within the various stores. Go nuts, young Rockefeller.

It's also good to know that you can have as many Perks and Spells as you can buy, but are limited to one piece of equipment per available slot, sans accessories, which you can have three of.

When you're all finished and have read all the rules, post in the notification thread to let a staff member know you're ready for review.