How to Play

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Hello and welcome to EPIC! After you've put together a character, you're set to start playing the game. There are quite a few different things to do in EPIC, as will be outlined here. The game takes place in two different places: the forum and in the Epic AIM chat. At any time in the day, feel free to send yourself a chat invite. We're in Bluesdrivemonster at pretty much all hours between 2:00 PM and 4:00 AM EST.


In the Chat

In the chat, you can socialize with the other members. Talk about music, movies, games, or whatever else you feel like. We're there most of the day.

When activities begin in the chat, you'll find them much more fast-paced than on the forums. Here you interact with other players and characters in real time.


Free Role Playing

This is the most common event in the EPIC chat, apart from general socializing. Much like it sounds, Free RPs are pretty much unstructured and open to anything. There's usually no plot (apart from a setting given at the beginning of the Free RP, and anything ongoing in your character's lives), and no particular person in control. You can do pretty much whatever you want in a Free RP, just as long as you don't break any general rules.

Don't be shy about asking for help if you're confused or if you need someone to help you get involved in the existing story. Most people are more than happy to get their characters involved with yours.


AIM Questing

AIM Quests are similar to Free RPs, except, in these cases, a GM (Game Master) controls the events. AIM Quests almost always have a defined plot to them, and often this is how things progress in Epic. Generally, you get together with a group of other players and the GM controls the story, encounters, and NPCs. You're free to interact with others like in a Free RP, but remember that the GM sets the rules for his or her quest. The GM is god. If they want something to be done a certain way, that's their call to make. Quests generally have better gains than Free Role Plays, and are much more story driven.

Many AIM Quests contain battles, and usually at least one Boss Battle. These often take place on maps, and involve every member of the quest's party. Since several characters fight on the same side during these battles, the opponents you fight tend to be much stronger than they would be in a spar.

Most quests take place over the course of several sessions. In these cases, the GM usually dedicates a certain day of each week to their Saga. These sorts of quests also require signups, which can be found in the Scheduled Events board.

Anyone can start a Quest or Saga, so if you feel comfortable with the game system, feel free to start one of your own!


Sparring

A Spar is a battle between two characters, usually either for fun, or to settle a score. The two characters fight until one gives up or is knocked out (KOed). To start a spar, just ask around the chat for one. Chances are you'll find someone up for it.

Every spar has a Referee, who does the calculations and rolls the dice. If you find the Battle Tables, damage calculations, and dice confusing and overwhelming, don't worry! A ref takes care of that tedium for you. In a spar, your time can be dedicated entirely to strategy.

If you do want to learn to ref, for whatever weird reason, go ahead and ask people to teach you. It's not too hard once you warm up to the system, and it can be a nice way to gain some extra experience for characters.

For more information, see the article Introduction to Battle.

On the Forum

While events in the chat require multiple people to participate simultaneously, the forum offers opportunities to play the game regardless of what everyone else is up to. Furthermore, events on the forum allow you to acquire better Equipment, increase your Level, and gain you more Credits, without needing to participate in scheduled quests.


Shopping

Every character starts with 500 Credits, the standard currency in EPIC. On the Shops board of the forum, you can find a list of places to spend your hard earned credits. From consumable items, to equipment even specialty services and assassinations, you can find all kinds of things to spend money on. To make a purchase, post in the shop listing what you buy and how much it costs. To finalize the purchase, you need to have the right number of credits. If you're short, you can't add the item to your character's sheet until you can subtract the cost from their total credits. You may not have debts.

Afterwards, either post in your statsheet topic what you've purchased and how much you paid for it, or edit the changes in to your current sheet.

Once you get deeper into the game, you can make a shop of your own. Crafting skills (Blacksmithing, Gunsmithing, Engineering, Enchantment, and Chemistry) and Harvesting all allow you to make in-demand goods and services. When you make a shop, simply list what goods and services your character is able to supply, and set your prices. There's no official price that all goods must be sold at, but keep in mind that you'll probably have competition.


Board Questing

Board Questing is a great, and popular way to earn your character levels, credits, and rare items. Although all these things can be earned through Sagas as well, Board Quests can be done at any time, and even on your own. Whether you want to do a back and forth story with another player, or simply write a short story on your own, the board is just the place to do it. Just about any story concept can be a board quest. Your character could go on a long journey, have a short encounter with a friend or enemy, or even walk to the local pizza shop. As long as what you write makes sense within your character's story, just about anything is possible. You can have also have quests for multiple characters going at once, or even more than one for the same character. Just make sure you keep their timeline consistent.

To begin a Board Quest, go to the Chronicled Journeys board and post a new topic for your quest. If you're questing for a specific item or sbility, such as a Skill Plus, put a note to the staff at the top of your quest. Quests don't require any special formatting, just as long as they're readable. If you want examples, go ahead and read other people's quests. Several finished ones can be found in the Archived Journeys section. Don't worry too much about how good your writing is, just make sure to have fun with it. This is a game, not homework. Well, unless you're doing a Death Quest.

Quests also don't need to be written in one sitting. If you want to leave what you've made to be continued, you can go ahead and finish it some other time. When it's done, make sure to let a staff member know, so they can give you your gains.


Book of Fates

Book of Fates Quests are similar to AIM Quests, but take place on the boards. Because not everyone needs to be online at once to do these, they tend to take place over a longer period of time than AIM Quests, and allow for more detailed writing. Like Board Quests, you get gains for the number of paragraphs you write, but the GM is also free to offer unique items and such, based on the events of the quest. Like AIM Quests, Book of Fates quests will occasionally contain boss battles, though they tend to involve fewer small encounters, due to their slower pace.

Book of Fates Quests require signups, and can be started by anyone who happens to be interested in GMing.


OOC Boards

The forums also contain a number of OOC (Out of Character) boards, though these tend to take a back seat to the much more active chatroom. In these boards, you can post announcements, suggest changes for the game, place your input on other people's system suggestions, or just post in one of our more lighthearted, ongoing boards. For the most part, however, unless you're talking system, the chat's usually the better place to get out of character.