[GUIDE] Roleplaying Game Systems

This is a small guide for those who don't know or don't have yet a linear way to interpret game systems as a milletian (milletian is the way erinnians refer to those who were born outside Erinn). Following this isn't mandatory, yet can help uniformize the way we all deal with game systems and mark a milestone towards having a guild canon.

As we all know, there are a handful of ways used to communicate, besides "General" channel, and they're mainly OOC (out-of-character). But sometimes we use it to arrange rungeon raids and other enterprises that affect directly our IC (in-character) personas.

Orbs are used for long-distance communication. Every member of the Society receives a black orb upon joining. The black orb holds the Golden Flame inside, and is produced by the magical properties of the Guild Stone. If you hold it close to your ear, you will be able to listen a network of conversations interleaved where Society members usually ask for help, arrange meetings or just have some fun chatting together.

There are another kinds of orbs, and one of them are used for parties. They are red and are created by the basic word-spell karant, an ancient world meaning friend. Creating and handing an orb is the equivalent on Game Systems to let one join your party. Every member of the party will be able to communicate through the red orb. Red orbs are destroyed once the party disbands.

Notes are usually roleplayed as messages delivered by owls, but what do we have to say about conversations held within Secrets or Friend List's messages, specially to those who are in the Other World? Green Orbs, created by the same word-spell as the red orbs, but linking only two people.

Trade-windows are magically created drawing a circle with magical chalk in the ground and splitting it in two halfs, drawing an hexagram in the middle. If the circle is drawn correctly, it'll start to glow purple and the transacition can go on. Unsuccess of this procedure can explain lags and crashes.

Each involved part places the items they want to trade in their corresponding half of the circle. This bears some ancient magic, so the transaction can only be completed if both parts agree with it. Once the deal is finished, it cannot be reverted, unless a new circle is drawn on the ground, and parties of both parts are interested on undoing the trade. To express their agreement, both parts should say the magical word widalo, that means "Fair!" in our ancient language.

But one must be aware that some items cannot take part in such magic ritual, specially those sealed with fomor magic or magically sealed books. If placed within the circle, the protected item will start to glow red and will burn any other hand that doesn't belong to the rightful owner. This happens because magic seals bear an ancient type of bind-on-touch magic, making the right of property only passable to those who kill the previous owner, specially in case of fomor passes.

Useful informations like events and guides can only be found on our Forums, mostly because Mabinogi lacks a friendly guild interface and writable papers so far. So, how could we interpret from a character perspective the presence of such a magical interface like the forums? Simple, magic! Guild Stones (which are grow along with our erg - life energy) are very intrincate devices whose origins are still unknown. Besides sharing erg with the stone, helping it to create more black orbs and therefore, allowing more members to join the guild, it's possible to access a series of magical interfaces known simply as The Boards. To access them, guild members must simply hold their orbs in one hand and press the other hand against the guild symbol carved in the stone. This is granted by some ancient magic, and allows only guild members to access The Boards.

No one can be online all the time, and that explains some monthly (in game time) absences on Mabinogi. If one asks you about a friend whom you haven't see in a few days, or whom showed no IC reason to such absence (yet you know he or she will be off for a while), the best solution is to say that the person traveled and is dealing with personal issues, unless of course, people have already showed us an IC reason for such absence here in The Boards.

Pets are magically kept into another dimension, being summoned by the owner's will. Even though a pet can wander on his own regardless of the owner presence, they get tired very easily, probably because of the interdimensional change. When a pet is too tired, it can't be summoned, which explains the time limit inherent to each pet. Being magical creatures themselves, they origins are still unknown, yet the way they meet their owners is up to each character. Pets can't talk, which is expressed by their chat balloon being, in fact, a thought baloon.

The huge assortment of premium services are pretty easy to be roleplayed, yet it requires specific observations for each service.

Nao's Support is a personal deal between you and her, so it's entirely personal how you bribe her to get your gifts and her aid whenever you get knocked out.

Extra Storage Service is a more bureaucratic issue, involving papers and town offices, since it's pretty hard to convince Eavan you realy need all the extra space. Citizens who have this privilege are allowed to create guilds as well.

Advanced Play Service and the other Cash Shop items are bought from obscure merchants whose origins are unknown, or crafted by yourself.