Newcomer's Guide

The new players guide to RoW.

Table of Contents

• Setting of Relic Lore
• Game Rules
• Creating your character
• Joining the Community

First of all, welcome to Ruins of Wildwood! Becoming a fully fledged RoWer and joining our friendly community is much easier than it seems—and this guide is designed to help you do that. Joining a game can be a confusing process but we want to make it as quick and painless as we can for you. However, please note, the information detailed in this article is only a small selection of information you can find about Ruins of Wildwood, the Library holds far more.

About the Site

Ruins of Wildwood is a realistic wolf roleplaying site with a lot of history. The original version was released in 2010 by Shadow and Tara and it entertained and brought together hundreds of writers up until January of 2019. This new release in 2021 hopes to simplify a lot of rules and game play to bring everyone back to the casual, writing-focused heart of roleplaying.

Follow the steps to join the Game!

Below is a list of steps to guide you on a easy route to join the Game. For a bit of fun, as you complete each step by following this article, why not tick them of?

Learn about RoW. The most important information for you to read is listed conveniently for you in this thread. However, while the rest isn't vital for you to learn straight away, we recommended that you browse through when you're a member to familiarize yourself with the game.
Plan your character. Now for the fun part—this is where you start to develop the character you want to play at RoW. Read further down this article for advice on creating a character, or alternatively you can always adopt a character from another member.
Create an account. Once you have read through this article you can register an account! When it is created fill in all the relevant fields pertaining to your character and yourself and make sure that your username is the first name of your character (e.g. Canis).
Request to join the game. When all of the above is done it's time to apply for the correct permissions to play the game. In your snazzy new account head over to the 'Join Relic Lore' thread and, following the instructions on that thread, post your application!

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 09:54 PM by Spirit of Wildwood.)

The Forest of Relic Lore.

Based in a fictional area of northern Canada, the Forest of Relic Lore is a sight to behold. As the name suggests it is predominantly forest and while it is broken up a variety of landscapes, such as huge lakes and expansive mountain ranges, it is the trees that dominate. Relic Lore is a incredibly vast setting and it can take over several days to cross from one side to the other and many find it easy to get lost amongst the tall, never-ending trees.

The forest is a well developed land; many stories, myths and legends are linked to the name and as time progresses more are most certainly likely to be found. However, the thing that every wolf would agree on is that there is an undeniable power emanating from the forest, with a sense of vitality, strength and spirit.

After being over-run by Coyotes in 2018 the land has been vacant. The pack and their wolves disappeared, leaving Relic Lore dormant, waiting for someone to return...

The Regions of Relic Lore

Relic Lore is divided into seven main regions that are as varied as they are fascinating: the north and south Eden, the Heart of Relic Lore, the Serpent's Pass, the Vale of Secrets, the Deep Forest and, most recently added, Snowmarch Expanse. Each of these regions can be researched in the relevant section of the Library and when accepted, your wolf is able to explore them all.

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 08:00 PM by Azra.)

Rules of the Game.

While RoW doesn't have many rules, and most are just common sense, we do require some guidelines to keep the game flowing as smoothly and fairly as possible. Detailed below are the most important principles and guidelines we expect and wish for you to follow while you're part of our community. Others are covered here.

Out of Character.

Activity is a key point to making RoW work—we require any active member to post at least once every 15 days with their character(s) to remain part of the game. Activity Checks are conducted on the 1st and 15th of the month, 12am UTC. If this isn't possible for you to do for a period of time you can put yourself on absence for up to three weeks or rejoin the game again at a later date. A full listing of our activity guidelines can be found here.

Civility and respect is also important in RoW, everyone on the game should be treated with politeness and courtesy whether they are staff or not and in return you should expect the same treatment. If any conflicts or disagreements do arise we ask you to keep them somewhere private (such as PM) and involve a staff member if necessary.

In Character.

Each character played on RoW can only be controlled by their player, that means that we don't allow any powerplaying or god modding to take place. This is where you either write what another character does without permission of their player, or when you play your character 'God-like', without flaws or error and have them be the best at everything. This applies to reading other threads as well—your character can't know something just because you read about it in another thread if they have no way to have known.

Note: Individual players may make exceptions to the powerplaying rule. If you are okay with your character being powerplayed, please indicate how and to what extent in your OOC preferences in your player blurb.

When posting in RoW please keep your posts in third person, i.e. "he/she/they howled", not "I howled", like you are writing a story about a character rather than being that character yourself. RoW has a 100 word minimum per post.

We encourage members to get creative with their plots while keeping them within the bounds of realism. However, we do not allow plots that include explicit adult material, including sexual assault and rape. If you're having trouble thinking of a plot for your character, check out our Grab a Plot! forum.

✓ off "Learn about RoW"?

(This post was last modified: Jan 30, 2022, 12:45 AM by Cyrrith. Edit Reason: added the OOC preference link )

Creating your Character.

Creating a character is one of the most important steps in the process of joining RoW. Without a character you won't have anyone to play. Sometimes it is hard to know where to start, or even to get the inspiration to do so and to think of ideas so to help you along we have a few suggestions that you could use to help you.

Creating a Name You can call your wolf anything you wish (a first and last name), but for name ideas try sites such as babynames.com and behindthename.com	Deciding the Gender Your wolf's gender is your decision, however check the game statistics and try to keep to the ratio of males to females even.
Deciding the Age Wolves are accepted from 1 year to 8 years of age. Puppies can only be born in game, but each year some go up for adoption that you can apply for.	Choosing their appearance The appearance of your wolf is up to you as long as it follows the appearance guidelines of RoW and matches their subspecies.
Developing their Personality Your wolf's personality can be anything you like, however to give you inspiration read the alignment descriptions we use at RoW for a basic idea.	Creating their history As long as your wolf's history is realistic (e.g. no falling from space) it is your decision, perhaps you could ask for a plot with current RoWers. Remember, only puppies born in game can be born in Relic Lore territories. All new wolves must have been born elsewhere.*

* Note: Characters who are the children of inactive characters (and born off-site) will not be allowed to join the game unless proof of consent from all players (of both parents & child) is provided in order to prevent powerplaying of an inactive member's character.

Picking your fighting stats.

Each wolf who joins the Game starts off with a set number of points for the fighting system. When you join it is required as part of your joining application to state which points you want for your character.

Starting Builds
Build	CON	DEX	STR
Power House	+1	-1	0
Tank	+1	0	-1
Ghost	0	+1	-1
Rogue	-1	+1	0
Sharpshooter	0	-1	+1
Glass Canon	-1	0	+1

✓ off "Create your Character"?

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 09:57 PM by Spirit of Wildwood.)

Joining the Community.

Now it is time to register an account with your characters first name, fill in your profile with the required fields you decided about your new wolf (see below) and then, finally, you can create your application to join the game. Providing you filled in the required details of your application and completed the relevant fields of your profile you should be accepted into the Community within 24 hours of posting your account.

You can create a character without fleshing out or writing down a detailed appearance, personality, or history if you would like. The only things that absolutely must be filled out in your character profile to get accepted are:

• A first name
• Sex (male or female)
• Alignment
• Birthplace
• Species
• Fur color
• Eye color
• Size
• Build

✓ off "Create your account" and "Request to join the Game"?

Getting started.

When you first join the game your character is automatically listed as a lone wolf, meaning that they are without a pack. As it is natural for wolves to be a part of a pack as they are social creatures it is strongly recommended that you try to find one that best suits your character as soon as you can. Listed below are a few helpful ideas and links to get you started at RoW.

Say Hello! Make a thread introducing yourself in the chat forum! We are a friendly bunch and would love to meet and learn a bit about you.	Check out the competition RoW always has fun games on the go, so why not get involved? From who can make the most posts in a month to pumpkin hunts!
Grab a plot! Looking for a juicy plot for your wolf? The best place to find one is right here! Make a post and let the scheming commence.	Join a thread Want to make your first post but not keen on starting threads? Look at our automatic thread listing for up to date threads to pick from!

As you begin to browse and explore RoW you will discover a variety of features and undoubtedly begin development on your character. Hopefully it will not be long until you're settled into RoW, however if you have any questions feel free to ask at the Genius Bar.

(This post was last modified: Jan 18, 2021, 10:00 PM by Spirit of Wildwood.)