Grand Opening

The Grand Opening of Dragon World RPG!
Campaign 1 Begins!
Hello all and welcome to the Grand Opening of Dragon World RPG!

After considerable effort to initially develop the vision of Dragon World, its game mechanics, and the Sgaas to come, we are finally ready to begin our first Campaign! Remember, Campaigns are expected to take years, and characters are expected to come and go, but those who join should do so with the understanding that they are committing to something long-term like any standard D&D Campaign. We want to tell an extensive story that allows us all to live at least a part of the Dragon Ball world that we all love, and we want you as a player to be there for all of it.

Currently, we are set to begin on August 7th, 2022, during Q1, Age 900.

Hopefully, by now, you have read through most of our rules and joined our Discord. If you haven't, make those items a priority, as they will become invaluable for anyone interested in joining our adventures! This should give you an understanding of the experience that we're going to try to provide to you and all of our other players. It is also strongly recommended that you join the Discord and begin mingling with other players as they find Dragon World and make the decision to join and play with us. Cooperation is intended and, often, nearly essential -- but no one says that you need remain with your initial allies forever! Competition is just as expected, as our characters will likely ally with, and betray, each other somewhat regularly.

You may begin discussing and creating your characters immediately!

To create a more compelling situation at the start among players, the usual starting Experience will be doubled to 2,000 EXP. As always, any Zeni acquired can be used to buy items at the base, Interstellar Market prices, and not the 50% markup on all other planets.

Another item to keep in mind: if you find some friends to work with early in the game, you may participate in team Activities with them, such as Sparring as part of your Training, to make better use of that initial 2,000 EXP.

Finally, let it be known: the first Events of our first Saga will begin no later than Q3, Age 901, and these events will be coming directly to you!

 

[Serak]

Introduction
With less than one week until the game starts, I'm going to begin to make posts here with some brief tips, tricks, and notices as we approach the start. I may make these daily, if I find enough to talk about over the course of this last week.

Getting Started
When starting out, I want to make something publicly clear: Everyone starts with 1,000 Power Level at the beginning of our Campaign, affected only by traits like Mutant and Gods of Creation. This will be changed by how you choose to spend your starting 2,000 EXP. You can spend this starting EXP at any point prior to August 7th. You can even spend it, change your mind, and then completely change your spend.

What I want to recommend for everyone: find some allies to start with. Even just one will allow you to do Basic Sparring as a Training Activity, for example, if you want to increase your Power Level as part of your starting 2,000 EXP. Being allied with a character with high Intelligence can be extremely useful as well, as it can be a great way to stack up Zeni.

Additionally, you can use any items from your Zeni collected via starting EXP on other tasks, such as Weighted Clothing, Special Contracts, or a Graviton Deck.

Another disclaimer for everyone: While Mutant, or even Gods of Creation, can appear overwhelming at first, keep in mind that the impact of Power Level advantages may not be as immense as it first appears. Additionally, these characters will likely gain unfavorable attention as our first Saga begins, a fact that I have warned those players about already. Finally, Power Level isn't something to obsess over. As Sagas progress, gaps will be closed, new ones will be created, and those who begin stronger than usual now may very well fall behind in the future.

Game Mechanics
As you have probably noticed, I am not a professional game designer! I have been on RP forums to some extent for the past eighteen years, and I have been helping write and design them for much of that time -- often poorly! I created Dragon World simply out of a love for a roleplay experience I had in the past that I deeply enjoyed and wanted to recreate but, or so I feel, in a way that fundamentally improves upon it.

In that foundational sense, I feel I have succeeded. What I know I haven't succeeded with are the details. I have changed large aspects of the rules many times throughout development, and there are likely artifacts of that strewn about the rules as well as simply oversights and mistakes on my part. While I never expect Dragon World to be "competitively balanced," as PvP competition is a secondary aspect of the experience here, I don't want certain things to be "must-haves", as having to make compelling choices is at the very core of my vision. If something is an obvious choice, with no alternatives, that's not exciting.

I want you, the players, to agonize over every little choice, and to wish you could play a hundred characters just to try out every combination of character race, build, Special Quests, and more, that you possibly can.

All this is to say that I will be changing game rules, often in minor ways, throughout this last week. After the start, changes will be documented. If you're worried something you plan to choose may be changed, just ask and I'll let you know. If it does change, and that makes you want to make a different choice, I will of course permit that.

Finally, to conclude: Remember that this isn't a video game, this isn't an e-sport. Just like in D&D, which I draw many structural components from, you can always talk to your Game Master here. I will listen and I like to consider myself a reasonable person, so never be shy about sharing your thoughts or concerns.

Beneath the stories and rivalries and alliances to come, we're all just people who want to have fun in a DBZ world! Myself included.