(Orange = updated June 12, 2008)

Greetings, trainer! Welcome to Dragonair's Den RPG! Whether you are a member or a visiting guest, this topic is intended to give you an idea what Dragonair's Den is all about and how to roleplay. I am Joan, ruler of the mongooses and creator and owner of Dragonair's Den.

Text-based RPG
Dragonair's Den is a text-based RPG. In an RPG, or roleplaying game, you play the role of someone. In this case, you are a Pokemon trainer. Just like it sounds, a text-based RPG is based on words (text).

Journey
You, along with staff and possibly other members, will take turns writing the story of your experiences as a Pokemon trainer. This story is called your journey. Please keep a link to the most recent part of your journey in your signature so that the staff and others can find it quickly and easily. In your journey, you can only be in one place within the RPG section at a time. You cannot visit a Pokemon Center in town while you are on a route. A staff member replying to your journey will let you know when you can leave the route you are on.

A staff member will reply to your journey to move the story along since there are some things you are not allowed to control. You may have several different staff members replying to your journey. You can reply again only after a staff member has replied. An exception to this is if you have a partner, or in the side areas, which will be explained later.

You probably will not get a reply to your journey right away. Remember, our staff members are people, too, and they have lives outside of this site. You may have to wait a few hours or days. Please be patient. This RPG is not something you will finish within a week or two.

When you capture a Pokémon, it will be automatically healed whether it joins your party or is sent to your PC (profile). The advanced technology of your Pokedex also allows you to switch your party Pokémon with your boxed Pokémon at any time. To do so, you can simply ask a staff member to do so in your next reply (ex.: OOC: Could a moderator please switch my Pidgey with my Torchic?).

Starting
You will need to visit Professor Melinda's Lab, where you can find the RPG's background story and get your starter Pokémon. Reading the guides and the rules will also be helpful.

Now that you have your first Pokémon, you must choose a route where you will begin your journey. All the routes are labeled with the word route. [color]You may begin on any route except Path of Essence.[/color] The routes do not need to be visited in order. One route is not any more difficult than the other. The wild Pokémon and trainers you run into will be around the levels of the Pokémon in your party. Each route has a Pokémon type associated with it. You will run into that type the most on that route.

Willow Way - Grass
Tsubasa Kaze Trail - Flying
Cephal Ocean - Water (You do not need a water Pokémon for this route. You can use a boat free of charge.)
Pestilence Path - Bug
Venin Valley - Poison
Peccavimus Passage - Dark
Tamashii Trail - Ghost
Borealis Peak - Ice
Kaolin Mountain - Ground
Tamar Lane - Normal
Pachi Venue - Electric
Galvalume Gorge - Steel
Ninjutsu Valley - Fighting
Petro Ridge - Rock
Pyro Dunes - Fire
Ethereal Realm - Psychic
Path of Essence - Dragon (You must have six Elemental Spirit Guardians to begin this route.)

After completing a route, you may visit the town next to it, where you will find a Pokémon Center to heal your Pokémon. You will also be able to visit the Elemental Spirit Guardian altar for that route. Here is a guide explaining more about the Guardians. Your goal is to obtain at least six Guardians, plus the one from the Path of Essence, so that you may enter the Dragonair's Den.

The RPG is still under construction, so every route does not yet have an altar. If you complete a route with no altar, you may come back to it later without having to go through the route again. You may also choose not to visit an altar if it is there.

Writing
Since we use words to play this RPG, it is important that you try to write as well as you can during your journey. I realize that not everyone is a gifted writer, but do your best and try to improve. You are always welcome to read the journeys of other members. Just please do not plagiarize other people's ideas.

It is a rule that every post in your journey must contain at least 15 words. (Exceptions are Pokemon Centers, Pokemarts, and Professor Melinda's Lab.) Sometimes it may seem like there is not much to say other than giving your Pokemon its next command, and coming up with 15 words may seem difficult. This is where writing skills come in handy. Try adding descriptions. Add detail. Maybe add what your character is thinking or feeling. You cannot control other people, and you cannot control Pokemon other than your own, but you may make observations about them. (This will be discussed in more detail in the following section.)

Your Charmander is fighting a wild Pikachu. You want your Charmander to use Ember.

Bad: "Charmander, Ember!"

You've made your point, but it's only two words. That's not acceptable. Let's see what we can do with this.

Better: "Charmander, Ember!" I commanded. Charmander excitedly unleashed a small swirl of flames upon the unsuspecting Pikachu. As I watched Charmander in action, I knew that this was the beginning of what would become a lasting friendship.

36 words! Yay! We added an observation of the battle and the character's throughts. Adding details like this gives your journey more depth and develops your character along with the character of your Pokemon, plus makes it more interesting. I'd like to point out that more words doesn't necessarily mean better, however. But the 15-word minimum is a rule that was made to prevent posts like the bad example above. It is hard for the staff to give creative and interesting replies to your journey if you only post a couple words.

Godmodding
Godmodding is controlling things that you are not allowed to control. Please avoid this.

You are allowed to control your own character and your own Pokemon.

You are not allowed to control other trainers, other members, attacks used by Pokemon not owned by you, Pokemon fainting, items/money appearing, Pokemon appearing, making a Pokemon decide to join your party.

Examples of godmodding:

• As I was walking along, I found a potion! (You made yourself find an item.)
• I heard rustling in a nearby bush. It was a wild Oddish! (You chose what Pokemon appeared.)
• Charmander used Ember, causing Pikachu to faint. (You chose what happened to your opponent, Pikachu.)
• Pikachu used Thunderbolt. My Charmander fainted! (Even though this doesn't benefit you at all, it is still godmodding because you chose what your opponent, Pikachu, did, and you made a Pokemon faint.)

Let's fix the above examples so that they aren't godmodding.

• As I was walking along, I noticed something sticking out of the grass. (The staff member who replies may or may not cause you to find an item. It depends on luck.)
• I heard rustling in a nearby bush. It was a... (The replying staff member will decide what Pokemon appears.)
• Charmander used Ember!
• I awaited Pikachu's next move.

The above examples do not follow the 15-word minimum rule, so you would have to write a bit more to make them acceptable. These are just meant to be simple examples.

I did mention that you aren't allowed to choose the attacks of Pokemon not owned by you. You can, however, say that a Pokemon smiled at you or happily frolicked through the grass or things like that because they do not have any affect on a battle and do not cause anyone to gain or lose anything. But please avoid controlling any of the actions of a Pokemon that is not wild.

OOC
OOC means out of character. Please use this when saying something in your journey that is not part of your roleplay. It is not a rule that you must use this, but it helps keep things organized. Anything in OOC does not count toward the 15-word minimum requirement.

Example:

Side Areas
These have not yet been added to the RPG.
Most of your time during your journey will be spent battling your Pokemon. Side areas, on the other hand, are places where you can do pretty much anything besides battling. Your character can have a conversation with your Pokemon, play games with them, talk to other members, etc.

What is the point of that, you may wonder. First of all, this is a good way to boost your Pokemon's happiness. This is obviously important for Pokemon that evolve by happiness. Your Pokemon's happiness may increase if you spend some time with them.
It is also a good way to build trust with your Elemental Spirit Guardians. You need all the rapport you can get with them.
Interact with other members! You probably won't get much of a chance to do this during your journey.

You can do pretty much what you want in the side areas as long as it doesn't break any of the rules. For example, no excessive violence. If you are unsure whether something is allowed, please PM Joan and ask. You may be able to do some things in side areas that are normally not allowed, but you must have permission from Joan and only Joan.

Roleplaying in the side areas is a little different than roleplaying in your journey. You can cause people and wild Pokemon to appear, but you cannot gain any new items, Pokemon or money. Battles are not allowed. You may interact with Pokemon that are in storage in your box, also, not just the ones that are in your active party.

Staff members will not close or reply to your posts in the side areas unless you specifically ask them to. (OOC: Could a staff member please reply?) Unless you say otherwise in the first post, anyone is free to join your topic. If you do not want it to be open to everyone, please say at the top of the first post who you want to be able to post there: just yourself, only Team Rocket members, only girls, only people who own a Psyduck, only these three specific members, etc.

Unlike in your journey, you may reply to your own posts in the side areas. Please do not make more than three back-to-back posts in a single day in the side areas. You may have posts open in more than one side area at a time.

Ta da! You have reached the end of this guide! Hopefully your brain has not melted from all this information. If you have questions, please post them in the Questions forum. ^_^