Welcome to Brave New Galaxy! A Techno-Magic Spacy Fantasy loosely based upon Hiro Mashima's work on Fairy Tail and Eden Zero, where magic, technology, space, and fantasy intertwine!
09/01/21: The first update and roadmap has been posted! By 09/07, there will be the start of monthly events again and a huge give away for those that join the site so stay tuned for more updates!~
Most recent updates and roadmap have been posted! Monthly events very soon!~
09/01/21
Basics of the site are done and we are up for the public! Still trying to learn html code though. Monthly events and SP/Credit give-a-ways will be up within the next week to hopefully get the site going again!
07/19/21
A new era begins!~ Be sure to check in for updates!~
Welcome to Brave New Galaxy! If you're reading this, chances are you may be new to the site, or perhaps you're just looking for a refresher on the basics. In any case, please make sure you've read our General Rules before coming here, as that outlines the OOC (out of character) and IC (in character) behavior that is acceptable on the site. This guide covers how to get started creating your character on BNG, and restates many of the topics found in Rules & Information in more simplified ways.
last edited Jul 21, 2021 1:48:25 GMT -8 by SilverRush
Before you can start RPing on BNG, you'll have to create a character. The character template can be found here. In any case, down to the meat and potatoes of it all.
Name: Pretty Self Explanatory.
Nickname/Alias: This category is optional, and pretty self-explanatory, a character's nickname or another name they go by. These can also include titles and the like, and can be earned via RP as well.
Age: Your character's age. Consider if they're human or not, what their past life has been, and the like. You may also put what their apparent age is, if you'd like, if the two differ. In general for age references, refer to this timeline. Things such as slowed aging or even biological immortality are allowed on the site without having to buy a technique, item, or the like to support it, however keep in mind that these things should be justified in some way in a character's history.
Gender: - Your character's gender. This can be male, female, or whatever your character identifies as gender-wise.
Height and Weight: In general, our site uses US standard measurements (pounds and inches) for these values, however the metric system is also accepted.
Race: This refers to your character's species and nationality. Generally, while humans are the standard race, other races also exist, and you are free to create your own race for your character if you'd like.
Organization: Organizations are groups that exist both ICly and OOCly for benefits. OOCly, organizations offer discounts on items, while ICly they allow characters to take up missions (which offer bonus rewards) and create a pathway to fame or infamy. A list of organizations can be found here, and a character can also be a member of their nation's military as a major organization. Note, to be in the ISC (Interplanetary Security Commission) you cannot have magic.
Rank: If you have a new character, fill out this category as D [0 REP] without the italics. Characters gain reputation as they roleplay, which helps show how much influence they have in an organization and as a whole, although a character's background may contribute to or even overshadow this. All characters start off at D-rank.
Alignment: Your character's morality. On BNG, we use DnD-style alignments, such as True Neutral or Chaotic Good. These essentially operate on a two axis box, with a Lawful > Neutral > Chaotic progression, and a Good > Neutral > Evil progression, nine alignments being possible. An alignment is just a general overview of your character, and in no way is supposed to encompass all elements of their personality, so pick whatever it is that simply best suits your character if their personality is rather multi-faceted.
last edited Sept 10, 2021 2:28:28 GMT -8 by SilverRush
A character's appearance and their personality are the two most obvious traits witnessed by other characters while RPing, and are therefore integral to creating your character.
Appearance: A character's appearance is divided into three categories, physical description, clothing, and accessories.
Physical Description: A character's physical description is the general overview of what they look like, including eye color, hair color, skin tone, and the like. On BNG, a minimum of 5-7 sentences is required for physical description, although you may always write more if you'd like. If you're having trouble meeting this requirement, consider several things. First off, what is their general body shape? How do they carry themselves, are they more likely to seem confident or closed off based on a first glance? Perhaps they have a scar or a tattoo? What is their specific hairstyle? A character's physical description should give some sort of insight into their personality, and it's important to think about the things you notice about a person beyond the basics of their appearance.
Clothing: This is a character's clothing. Granted, most people don't wear the same attire every day, but perhaps your character has a particular style, or an article of clothing they are rather attached to. On BNG we ask for a minimum of 3-5 sentences for clothing, however again you are free to write more. If you can't seem to make this limit, perhaps consider what your character would wear in different sorts of situations, maybe formal or when they're just walking around town, or perhaps when they know combat will be involved.
Accessories: This category is optional, and may be combined with clothing if you'd like. Perhaps your character has a certain place they always carry their weapons, or maybe they are always found wearing some jewelry.
Personality: Personality, what makes your character your character. Because this is such an important category, BNG requires a minimum of 10-14 sentences on it, or two paragraphs worth. A tip before I get started, I find it useful to write out your character's history, or at least have some semblance of an idea of what your character's history is, before starting personality. So, let's get into it.
A general rule to follow is to write a character like you're examining a real life individual. (WIP)
last edited Jul 22, 2021 2:19:09 GMT -8 by SilverRush
Equipment, Items, Stats, Sources, Skills, and Disciplines
The above categories help determine how good your character is at things, especially the physical varieties. While BNG is a freeform roleplay, we put it in the hands of our members to adhere to your character's items, stats, and skills, which will be explained below.
Equipment and Items: Beginning characters start with 5 items, 3 D-class and 2 C-class. Items in general refer to those with combat applicable effects, unarmored clothing or a pen for example would not count as items unless they have some magical effect. Beginner items do not start with any magical or significant mechanical effects - good examples are a sword or a gun, but something that would not be accepted would be a gun that turns into a sword in some way. Make sure that when you make your items you include weight, and length if applicable. Ammunition counts as a separate item from anything that is required to use it. See this thread for more details on items.
Stats: Stats, more formally known as statistics, are what define the physical aspects of your character. Note that on BNG we do not have anything like an intelligence, charisma, or wisdom stat, it is up to you to portray your characters as such if you choose. That being said, there are six stats on BNG, and we like to use the acronym TAPS-SF to summarize them. TAPS are oriented toward literal physical stats, while SF affect a character's magic. Stats are distributed by Stat Points, or SP, which is earned through threads, events, and similar - every character starts off with 100 SP. The references here are taken from this write-up, which I would highly recommend giving a read through as it is not terribly long."
Toughness: Toughness measures a character's ability to withstand both physical and magical blows, along with a character's ability to resist various effects. It is the directly "defensive" stat, and is comparable to a character's health pool. A character with low Toughness likely wouldn't be considered healthy, whereas a character with high Toughness would be practically immune to standard illnesses and the like. It also covers how long they can withstand physical attacks.
Acuity: Acuity measures a character's ability to aim and observe situations, along with their capacity to operate various vehicles successfully. With higher Acuity, a character is able to exploit weak points in enemies, both in martial and ranged combat, and pick up on more nuanced details of things, along with being able to operate ranged weapons to their maximum range precisely and ability to operate higher class vehicles competently. It also covers how long remain attentive for.
Power: Power measures a character's physical strength in terms of how much they can push, pull, lift, carry, and other physical exertions. It also determines how hard a character's physical blows are, both armed and unarmed, although the former also accounts weapon class. This includes the range of thrown weapons, although aiming such is not covered under Power. It also covers how long they can exert physical strength for.
Speed: Speed measures a character's ability to move and dodge quickly. It determines how quickly a character is able to react to attacks and other "fight or flight" scenarios, along with a character's raw speed. That being said, Speed does not affect a character's ability to observe more nuanced details, only those directly impacting them at any moment. It also covers how long they can perform feats of movement for.
Magical Strength: A character’s Magical Strength determines their Magic Rank, which in term determines how powerful their techniques can be. Magical Strength and Magical Fortitude are inherently intertwined, however Strength determines what a character is able to do pertaining magic. This stat cannot be buffed.
Magical Fortitude: A character’s Magical Fortitude determines how long they are able to use Magic for, given the rank of techniques they are using. With correlating Fortitude, a character is able to use their magic proficiently, and with higher Fortitude they are able to use it for extended periods of time. If one’s Fortitude is lower than their Strength, a character may find themselves easily exhausted from using magic or unable to properly control their magic, although the exact effect can vary.
Sources: Every beginning character starts off with one source, the 10,000 credits they get from character creation. Sources are essentially how the staff of BNG make sure your character has the correct amount of things earned by roleplaying, including SP, REP (reputation), credits, and AP (arc points). When you are first creating your character you do not need to worry about this, however once you acquire sources through getting a thread graded or participating in an event you'll want to make a modification to your character's profile.
Skills and Disciplines: Skills and Disciplines are pretty self-explanatory, they are things that your character is good at. When writing these up, always be sure to consider your character's stats, a character with 10 Speed, for example, isn't going to be a master martial artist. These skills should also be justified with your character's history in some way. Skills do not just have to apply to things that are combat applicable, they can be other areas or even straight up wacky things your character is good at. Generally, somewhere between 3 and 4 skills is what is seen as acceptable for a character, although this also depends on their past and how you write out your skills. Generally, we ask for 2-4 sentences to go along with each skill or discipline.
last edited Jul 24, 2021 3:44:43 GMT -8 by SilverRush
Magic: The world of Brave New Galaxy is a world where magic is abundant, and many different people possess magic within themselves and use it for various purposes. That being said, not every character on BNG is required to have magic, so if it is not something that interests you feel free to skip over this part of the Beginner's Guide. That being said, magic on BNG is handled in a rather individualistic matter, your character can possess almost any magic you can think of, so long as it is not ridiculously overpowered. One thing we like to stress when approving a character's magic is its basic mechanical function rather than what it appears to be, a magic that might first appear to be overpowered might in fact be balanced, and vice versa.
Magic, a power that, in its many forms, has existed far longer than human innovation. It has inevitably, however, been adopted, controlled, and shaped by humanity, from the wild power of Earthland to the refined nature of today.
Magic OOCly, and on character profiles, consists of the following -
Name: Type: Rank: Proficiency: Description(s):
Feel free to adapt this template/information slightly, although make sure it is all covered.
Name - This is, quite simply, what a character calls their magic. Note that ICly their magic does not necessarily have to be literal magic, it could a power gifted to them by a higher power or some sort or techniques they developed because of intense training. OOCly, however, these all function as the same. A character can also have multiple magics, although they collectively will cover the same amount of content as any single magic and this is simply a flavor choice, in which case you will put the names of each of your magics.
Type - This is what the character's magic would be classified as, or its "scientific" name. If your character is an elemental mage, for example, their magic type would be "Elemental Manipulation - Element" or something of the like. Likewise, if they are a summoner, takeover mage, or requip mage, you would put these classifications. If your character's magic is a bit more unique, it will be up to you to come up with a description, although you can certainly ask staff or experienced members for help. If your character has multiple magics, put all the types here.
Rank - A character's magic rank is determined by their stat in Magical Strength. The rank itself determines how strong one's techniques and cantrips can be -- more on those two things later. If a character has multiple magics, they will all be the same rank.
Proficiency - A character’s magic proficiency is determined by their stat in Magical Fortitude. This is a number value, and simply states what magical rank a character is capable of casting adeptly. This also remains the same throughout multiple magics.
Description - The magic description is the most important part of making a character's magic, as it tells in detail what a character's magic can do and what it can ever do. This is looked at when determining if a new technique created by a character is allowed and fits thematically with a character's magic. Along with that, if there are certain quirks to your character's magic, they should be mentioned here. A character's magic description should be at least a solid paragraph in length, but don't be afraid to ask to ask staff for help on elaborating if you're having trouble. If they have multiple magics, please make sure to write separate descriptions for each, and make sure to write what each can and cannot do. In general, if a character has multiple magics each will be less complicated than one full magic can be. While there is no theoretical limit on how many magics a character can have, one must make sure each is properly categorized as to not overlap with others.
More on Additional Magics: Still confused on how one magic versus multiple works? I’ll try to explain further with an example. Let’s say, Character Adrian has a magic called “Phoenix.” It is essentially a thematic version of fire elemental magic, and allows him to use flames for offense, flying, and healing/regeneration. This sounds like one magic, right, thematically? It is. On the other hand, Character Bartholomew possesses three magics, a light magic that can only heal, a darkness magic that can only attack, and a wind magic that can only fly. Separate and thematically, these two characters sound completely different, correct? However, taking a more mechanical look at the two we can see that they essentially will have the same magics, elements aside. They are equally balanced, even while their concepts are entirely different. That being said, we also have Character Cassandra, whose one magic is called “The Winds of Yin and Yang,” or something. It is a single magic that has three parts, wind that allows her to fly, light for healing, and darkness for offense. Thematically, this is tied together in the description and in perhaps a few techniques, however mechanically it is the same as Bartholomew’s, which is mechanically the same as Adrian’s. They are three vastly different themes, with the same mechanical results, which is how balancing your magic or magics should be carried out. This gets a little more complicated when dealing with Special Magic Systems, however the same general principles apply universally. If you’re unsure if your magic or magics would be considered balanced, please don’t be afraid to ask a staff member for help.
Techniques, Cantrips, and Aesthetic Spells Techniques - Techniques are magic spells that have been allotted TP, or technique points, to be used. They represent spells other than basic attacks or defenses and usually have durations, while they always have cooldowns. They are usually heavily used for combat, and can cause major effects in a battle if a high rank. A character gains 1 TP per every 10 SP, and they start off with 5 TP. For characters with multiple magics, they do not have to allot TP equally although they can if they would like. Techniques can also be passive, which will usually involve things like sensory or weak healing abilities. Passive techniques are always active, and do not consume Magical Fortitude nor do they require a matching Proficiency to be used. For every rank a character puts into a specific technique, they must spend 1 TP.
Addendum: (WIP)
Cantrips - Cantrips are magic spells that are basic in nature, and do not have TP allotted to them. While they can and often do have impacts in battle, cantrips represent basic attacks, such as a simple fireball shot at someone that just does damage; basic defenses that can block magical or physical attacks; or simple utilitarian spells. The amount of cantrips a character can have is based on their magic rank and tier, while the rank of said cantrips is based on one's magic rank. Cantrips do not have cooldowns, however they can only be used a limited amount of times per post.
-Mages start with 1 cantrip and get an additional one at ranks 3, 5, 7, 9, and 10. -For mages with multiple magics, they may choose to allot their cantrips however they would like, however once chosen they cannot change such. -A cantrip's rank is equal to a character's magic rank divided by two and rounded down.
Aesthetic Spells - Aesthetic spells can have little effect on battle, however they are assumed abilities of mages based on their magic descriptions. Examples of this would be a fire mage's ability to conjure fire for light or to start a fire, or a darkness mage's ability to darken a room to a natural degree. Other applications for this type of magic would be levitating small objects, summoning small and harmless objects, or anything that is considered "magical" but wouldn't warrant a full blown technique or cantrip dedicated to it. When in doubt, if something would have an effect in a PvP situation, it’s probably not an aesthetic spell.
