Erroneous

It's still undecided as of now, however your username or otherwise called display name here on the forum could and may be used as your character in-game's name. If you discovered this only just now, you are free to change your name to whatever you want, how frequent you want until you picked the name you wish to use when this role-play officially starts.

ucp.php?i=profile&mode=reg_details

Keep in mind however, the players and characters from the manga and anime of Sword Art Online have been blacklisted, attempt to use a characters name will prompt you with an error. And this does not encourage you change up the names like Kirito542 for example.

For those of you who are here and now helping develop this role-play, you will be the first given the Beta Tester status/group. Much like the anime there was a fine line divided by those who had early access and those who played on it's initial day launch. Until this site is up and ready to begin "officially", all users who join will be given Beta Tester status to their profiles.

Enjoy!

I suppose in the profiles or at registration a user can choose to opt in/out of having their account restricted if they die. The GM's are gonna have fun time on their hands.

Another idea as far as character creation along the lines of the avatar -- before RPing, create a profile of your character in a template like this:

In terms of character profiles, I was actually thinking about that being a requirement, maybe like a character approval system so people don't randomly make overpowered dudes. Thoughts?

Still debating where to put this information. Either in peoples profiles, edited by the user themselves or a GM only. Or have a topic posted for each player to update either themselves or by a GM only.

If my character dies, I still want people OOC to know me as Nevina. Newcomers who've never seen me as Nevina wouldn't know to call me this.

A compromise, we could have it they can not post (disabled) in the SAO IC and OOC forums/topics for that account. But can freely post in the General OOC forum with the dead account?

Feeling mighty lazy. Until we sort this out, I've uploaded a few avatars to the avatar gallery found in the UCP. The gallery link is below near Reset and Submit.

Also I've already setup the dynamic avatar software here incase we ever decide to use it, it's already installed and setup. Minus any content of course.

One of the major elements in SAO was a character's death was the end, there were no second chances and you'd loose that character forever much like Hardmode in Diablo. However this element was extended to not only the "character" but also the "player" behind that character, you lost it all big time.

How should this be established here in this role-play?

[*:3f4njh28]My favorite idea is that your "account" is both your "character" in-game and "player" in the real world. If your character dies you basically loose your account here on the forum. It will be locked (not deleted) and unable to post indefinitely unless suppose someone (a fellow player) wins the rare character resurrect and uses it within 10 seconds of your characters death. As it stands right now, I have enabled the use of multiple accounts per email on this forum. Meaning that I (Erroneous) can make multiple accounts on this forum with the same email used over and over again. Playing on as a new "character" in-game as a whole new "player" in the real world. Now you would have the option to build as many characters as you want whenever you like, not just be forced to do so when you died. So you could establish backstory and character development as much as you like. And when the unfortunate time came when you died you could use your next account and continue business as usual.

[*:3f4njh28]Other's have suggested having one account and role-playing in your posts as different "characters" and "players", all under 1 account and 1 display name. This to me sounds like it would become confusing, as you wouldn't know who the person was playing as unless they stated. Furthermore their display name may only tie in with one character and you'd forget their other characters. There wouldn't' feel much a sensation of death as the person just continues one with a new name in posts only. Whereas you could look back and see the dead players no longer posting and as if they struggled through an adventure and see where it ultimately came to a close if you read back. Not only this, but when we have "avatars" so show off a persons appearance, the same avatar would be shown for all characters and it be confusing to describe your other character's appearance and ignoring what's shown on the right.

So I put this decision to all of you in a vote, you can use the poll or make your statements in a reply.

Crunchyroll also has SAO on stream if you're looking for an official means of watching it.

Good point, here you go everyone who hasn't watched the anime.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/sword-art-online

Oh, and its on Hulu Plus!

http://www.hulu.com/sword-art-online

I've been thinking about skinning the site to fit the style and presence of SAO, so far here are a few of my ideas.

[*:t8egi9kr]http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/ca_halcyon/demo/
I like light themes, clean and crisp, the colors aren't hard on the eyes with this one. Width is fluid to fit any resolution. And the logo is centered, right where I'll put my SAO logo. The Rules over the rest of the topic view are very noticable. And that fade to grey at the bottom is sharp.


[*:t8egi9kr]http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/artodia_air/demo/
Everything is nice and rounded, and items appear out of nowhere when brought up.

[*:t8egi9kr]

http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/artodia_deluxe/demo/

Very intuitive, everything feels like it falls into place. Not keen on the Purple/Orange scheme though.

If you see one you think we should pick and focus on, voice your opinions here. Also, you are free to browse the demo to see other styles to recommend a new one.

Also if you wish to acquire a fansub of Sword Art Online, Google for the translation group "Hatsuyuki". They have a subbed copy of Sword Art Online for you to watch. I will not be posting any links but least now you have a direction and usually can find a torrent copy in MKV format.

Sword Art Online has dual meanings. First and foremost it is the name of a Japanese manga title, later aired as an Japanese anime with the same name. But the second meaning comes from the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online game the characters of the manga/anime series play in. So basically what you read or watch about the series is about the lives of players playing in a video game.

The plot of the story is everyone to logged in on the initial public launch of this game had their minds trapped in the video game itself as their minds was used as the game's controller through a system called FullDive to play the game through use of a helmet called the NerveGear. What the helmet and your brain transmitted was your 5 senses via microwaves to make it feel as if you are physically there in the game, while your body actually rests asleep in the real world. However when the players realized they were trapped in the game, they were unable to log out by normal means and anyone in the outside world who tampered, removed, or disconnected the helmet caused the game to send a lethal microwave frying a persons brain making them die. This also went a step further for players in the game where if they died in the game, the same lethal microwave was used to kill a person in real life, making the game and its consequences real and the threat very much tragedy.

This is an article from Wikia detailing what occurred and how the plot ended in the manga and anime series.

Prior to official launch, «Sword Art Online» Closed Beta was available to 1000 beta testers for a one month period from August to September of 2022. During that period, «Sword Art Online» was lauded as an incredible experience, and it received extremely positive reviews despite the actual difficulty of the game (over the one month period, the Beta Testers only reached the 8th floor). After the Closed Beta Tested ended, the Beta Testers were given the opportunity to pre-order the game. SAO Presale Hardcore gamers waited three days in line to receive the much-anticipated first issue of Sword Art Online

Only 10,000 copies were printed in the first batch of the game, and online sales sold out within seconds. Hard-core gamers waited in line for days to purchase the first few hard copies from stores.

«Sword Art Online» officially started server service on 1 PM of November 6, 2022 and obtained infamy when the creator succeeded in trapping 10000 people in the game, and making it so that death in-game would mean actual death for the player. During the two-year period the game remained active, «Sword Art Online» evolved into an innovative yet complex society of individuals with mixed feelings about the possibility of clearing the game.

Psychologically, many players experienced extreme despair, grief, and sadness during the course of the game. Of the total 3,853 deaths, over half occurred in the first month of SAO. Combined with lethal dungeon traps, PKing, crime, suicides, a slowly dwindling population, and increasing difficulty on the higher floors, the prospects generally looked very bleak.

The game was prematurely ended on the 75th floor (as opposed to the intended 100th floor), after the «Black Swordsman» defeated the final boss Heathcliff in a duel. A total of 6,147 people were successfully logged out on 2:55 PM (Aincrad Standard Time) of November 7, 2024. SAO serves as the main setting for volumes 1, 2 and 8 of the Sword Art Online series.

This is the world this site will take place in. Some people will cower and do nothing, some will attempt to beat the game, others will live an adapt to this world and live their normal lives the same in the game, others will find occupation and find a new life, and some may attempt suicide feeling helpless trapped in this kind of world.

How you play is up to you. What opportunities and consequences will come from us. And it will be you who determines, what fate or destiny befalls upon yourself.

I did this once long ago on a site called The World RP. I mocked the entire site to make it feel as if you were playing a game called The World. But with time, lack of interests, staff changes, and user requests it slowly moved away from feeling immersed in The World and more looking at a forum with sections to talk about everything from your day to sharing usernames and ID's for video game consoles.

Sword Art Online, everything from its name to how players see it I want to make it feel you are in SAO. That the year is 2022 and the game server has gone live and all of us players are now trapped in this game with the goal of getting to floor 100 of Aincrad, freeing all players from this virtual reality MMO.

This will how this site will be handled. Things like social networks, messengers, media, music, games, tv, books, cars, everything we know as people will be focused heavily on as us being characters. If you wish to engage in that sort of discussion, we will host chatrooms on the IRC network and on Skype for you to talk to other players outside this role-play site.

Hello users!

This is the early stages of our Sword Art Online RPG community and we will obviously need a well endowed staff to help build this project. What we need are thinkers, creators, developers, artists, team players, organized plotters, innovators, and fans to fuel this staff into creating a fully immersed SAO realm. This whole project is purely web only, meaning there is no game to download, no master programmers or coders needed, no software needed to help develop this project and move it forward. All we need is your wits, your skills and talents, your time and flexibility, your devotion, and your sense of fun and support. Now obviously artists will need a computer with some sort of drawing software and or a peripheral device to help them draw unless mouse is preferred; but you probably wouldn't have the skills and talent for that if you were already experienced, so nothing new for you to bring to our table.

There will be various positions laid out, however administrator which is the known term on the web and forums for "owner", "creator", "leader", or "founder" will not be given so easily unless you earn it or actually started it in my case. You'll have to work hard in one of the other non-admin staff teams to be noticed and chosen to be given administrator access and permissions.

You'll also note I've removed the forum standard coined term "moderator" from here, in SAO what we refer to as moderators on a forum, MMO's have whats called Game Masters or GM's for short. Here on this community GM's will serve as duo positions both moderation over the forum and its users, but also event coordinators and story leaders.

We will hold many opportunities for you to join our team, positions will be posted below and to apply you must contact myself or Shark, the position you are requesting. If you feel up to a challenge, you may apply for multiple teams.

 

Player Support Team

• The Player Support Team (PST) will be the group of people who answer all questions about the site. These are the first people you go to if you have any type of question at all. This group will prime players as future GM's and will be the first ones looked at if a spot is opened. However there are requirements to join the PST. Applicants must apply to Shark

Player Support Team requirements:

• Must help at least 5 people before applying
• Must be on the site for at least 2 months
• Must know how the systems are used and be able to correctly use them.
• Must be able to answer ANY question that players may have about the system and how things are done.

Game Master

• Responsible for the conduct and mannerism of each player on this site. Also handles the main story line and tone of the role-play, acts as the chief decider over players stats, establishes the game's rules all users must abide and enforces them. Develops quest or events for players to participate in to keep things fresh, original, and interesting. Works to give to the players, not to themselves; their position on this team will be determined by how happy and engaged they can keep the players of this feel as a whole.

Game Master Qualifications
GMs should:

• be with the site for at least 4 months
• not have any spam on record
• Must have been on the Player Support Team for at least 2 months

Graphics

• Assists with the forum's appearance, logo's, icons, and necessary imagery used both by the site itself and the game masters storyline, events, and background story or lore. Should be able to supply various artistic styles and formats to meet the needs of the site. (If we adopt a dynamic avatar system, will require to create image sprites for the avatar system).

Sword Art Online 2D

• The SAO 2D staff team is a separate team from SAO-RPG that is lead by Shark. The team builds areas for players to have fun and battle as well as be lazy. Events are also made and rewards are created. If you would like to be apart of this team, please contact Shark with the position you wish to have.
• Developer, Mapper, Moderator

I like to complete the immersion on my other RP sites by having users use character generated avatars through an avatar generator, i.e. use your post counts to earn spending money and use that money to buy new avatar gear. I have such a system and it will work here however it will lack sprites related to Sword Art Online. I have well known system used at my other site Integrability, but obviously those sprites convey clothing and gear related to the dothack series, another anime/game title altogether.

Or should we allow users upload or link to their own avatars elsewhere? Or perhaps make our own avatars and host a gallery for users to choose from?

How should we maintain a players stats? One feature we like in other RP sites is having a users post count equal out to what level they are. For example if I have a total of 320 posts, my level would be level 45, and obviously a higher post count of 730 my level would be level 80 or so and all the other numerical numbers in between.

Levels seems to be the easiest other than deciding the thresholds of each level per post count. But stats like One Handed, Sneak, Cooking, etc... how should we calculate this information and make it readily available for other players to see?

Who should be put incharge of keeping a players stats up to date? A posted chart, a member of staff, or the players themselves?

Rather than the "anime" logo which basically says Sword Art Online in Japanese text with American underneath it; I wanted to have the logo seen in the game itself shown here.

[attachment=0][Hatsuyuki]_Sword_Art_Online_-_01_[10bit][1280x720][948A7737].mkv_20130125_231229.234.jpg[/attachment]

If anyone with great illustrating skills can re-create this logo in PNG format with transparent background, we plan to use it in the header.

Hello and welcome to the Sword Art Online RPG. This site is purely a text role-playing community where every user will use their display name and play as that character in the Sword Art Online game universe. If you are unfamiliar with Sword Art Online, here's a brief description from Wiki about the series and franchise.

About the series

Wikipedia said:

Sword Art Online (ソードアート・オンライン S�do Āto Onrain) is a Japanese light novel series by Reki Kawahara, with illustrations by abec. It has been adapted into three manga, an anime, and a video game.

About the game universe

Wikipedia said:

In the year 2022, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.

On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world.

With this forum community, it is dressed and attired to make you feel immersed as if you were in the game of Sword Art Online. You'll find that the appearance, language, character customization, and events all relate to the anime series. Do note, much like the series progressed, if your character dies on this site, your account will be stated as "dead" much like the suspense and urgency staying alive. When you do die, you will not be able to log into your previous account, however you may create a new account with a new email and play as another character who is trapped in SAO.