What are your character's abilities? What are your character's strengths and weaknesses? What equipment is your character able to use? Your character should not be the best at everything... This isn't a MMORPG. Try to design your character to be interesting, not unbeatable. This is the only way combat will be interesting in DarkStorm: If creativity is more important than power.

Choose your character's race, leader, and classes based on what would be fun to roleplay. The classes are not balanced. They're not supposed to be! Just choose what sounds cool and you'll have more fun.

Then what about equipment? Your character can have any type of equipment that makes sense in the story. Even if you want a rifle-wielding illusionist, nobody will stop you. The suggestions that are made pertain to what is common, and are not what is required.

Lastly, keep in mind that as the Storm grows in power, so can your character. Check back now and then to see if that page was updated!

Abilities are basically divided between physical and arcane. I'll explain each by itself...

Physical abilities are intended to be improvised. In fact, all classes that are not arcane are intended to be improvised. All physical abilities that are provided are intended to be suggestions, and are by no means absolute. There is not a finite number of physical techniques in battle, and often the situation determines a character's options. If you want, you can even ignore the ability lists for physical classes, but I would at least recommend that they are checked so you understand what a class is fundamentally about.

Arcane abilities are absolute. Only a finite number of them have been discovered, so improvised abilities are likely to deviate from the story. The only arcane abilities that can be improvised would have an explanation in the description. Nothing stops an arcana-centered character from improvising physical combat... They just can't improvise the supernatural.

All you really need to know is that battles should seem logical, and death is considered permanent except for a rare form of resurrection. A battle would usually take place in one thread, where each reply corresponds to a character's action or response. Just be sure that you do not speak for another player's character. You may be tempted to post about a character's response to your action, but leave that up to the other player.

Also realize that you are in control of what your character attempts, and how successful the other player's attacks are. It's not up to you whether your character's attacks actually have the intended effect. Just don't block everything that is sent your way... Nobody will want to fight with you, and such a battle will be very boring! Allow yourself to be put into a bad situation, and be creative with it. The protagonist in a story is rarely unbeatable.

Indeed, a character can be resurrected. It's considered very rare in the story, but it's not limited for players. Heroic characters are known to sometimes exist in the Plane of Ages after death. This is a timeless realm that can be reached from various portals around the spatial realm. It's a confusing and sometimes dangerous place, but to resurrect a character, one must have another character travel to the Plane of Ages and search for his or her presence. You can do this with another one of your characters... There's no reason to depend on another player unless you want that.

When the fallen character is found, he or she can be brought back to the spatial realm. That character will experience memory loss and confusion for a while as his or her timeline catches up to reality. It's possible that unique items such as named weapons will be lost, but nothing stops you from finding them again unless they were actually destroyed.

Regardless of all this, you should roleplay as if death is permanent. It should be a big deal to kill another player's character. Unless your character is particularly wicked, he or she would not intend to kill every adversary. However, you should not ask for permission to kill someone's character. You can try as hard as you'd like, but since it's up to the other player how successful your attacks are, it's up to the other player whether his or her character dies. One may want this to progress another character's story!

Lastly, if your character is logically in a bad situation and you want him or her to live, you shouldn't make the character become invincible. Escape! There's nothing wrong with that, and you can get pretty creative with it. You may also want to consider a rescue.

In DarkStorm, time does not pass like real time. A situation can go on for days in reality, but still just correspond to a few minutes in the game. This is most obvious during a battle, which is why I mention it here. Often a battle will go on for many turns, and a player will get anxious for a reply to come. Try to be patient, because time zones may not match, and everyone does stuff in reality that could slow things down here. If you start bugging someone to post, he or she may avoid interactions with you later on. Just try to be understanding about it.

Not really, but it may be useful to know how powerful an adversary is compared to your character. It would logically change your tactics if someone can beat you at your own game, and indeed this inbalance exists for variety. While there are no limitations for players when it comes to classes, some of the most powerful are considered rare in the story. I'll list some of the classes that are normally the most powerful, and you can gear your character accordingly.

The following are considered RARE:

• Arcanist
• Warden
• Geomancer

The following are considered UNCOMMON:

• Myrmidon
• Phalanxeer
• Scion
• Ranger
• Convoker
• Wizard
• Warlock / Witch
• Bridge Commander

The remaining classes can be considered relatively equal in terms of average power. A character can be above or below average with his or her class, but this list just pertains to what is normal. Just remember that power isn't everything, and with intelligence, opportunity, or luck, any character can win battles against anyone else! Just be creative...