Post by MESSAGE MODDOG, NOT ME on May 12, 2014 23:19:03 GMT
This is a must read.
Predators At War is a Roleplay with RPG elements. As such, each individual animal should be on an INDIVIDUAL account. Aka I am on my Admin account, if I were to roleplay an animal on this account it better be named Admin or else I'd be breaking the rules of the game. You're welcome to post in OOC chats as any of your animals or as a separate, OOC account.
Stats & Additional Stats & How they Work
Each animal has its own set of racial stats. ALL members of the species obey what they're given. However there are also Additional Stats, these are the stats you'll find underneath your Icon when you post on the forum. These will grow the more you post. How much your additional stats give you is The Additional Stat - 1. So if under your Icon it says 5, you get +4. If your animal naturally has 5 strength, then it is now 9 strength!
All of your stats are the following:
STRENGTH is, well, your strength! It's an important part in causing the most damage to another animal. Strength is also used to successfully carry large amounts of food.
SPEED how speedy your animal is. It gives a good comparison to how much an African Wild Dog can outrun a Spotted Hyena. If the difference is 1 - 2, the quicker animal is outrunning the animal but 3+ is when that animal is truly able to leave the other in the dust if they were racing. Speed can be rolled for to check if your animal evades an attack, it must roll HIGHER than the animal attacking's Strength + Dice Roll.
DEFENSE is, naturally, your defense against Strength. The true damage you cause is STRENGTH + DICE ROLL - DEFENSE = DAMAGE.
ABILITY is your ability to do something that takes experience for an animal to do. Ability can be used to justify your animal doing something lucky like jumping a ravine or weaseling away from being pinned under another animal. Rolling Ability instead of rolling Speed when already pinned is how you do that. Ability is also rolled for when using an Attribute (or outdoing a Flaw) where it applies. Ability is also used for swimming and climbing.
AGE isn't a stat that changes the sway of battle. The Age that appears on your profile is there to make it easy to mark when you give birth, how quickly you'll regenerate your health, etc. Age climbs faster than the others. Age is about 1 per 15 posts.
HEALTH When your Health hits 0, you are officially unconscious (but NOT dead), when your health is -2 you're dead. You'll regain health 5 per every Age gained since attack. The exception being if you're unconscious, if you're out cold you'll regain 2 health (and can wake up) within 3 posts made by other animals on the same thread as you OR once you're rescued by your own faction and are safe. Whichever comes first.
The Other Information on Your Profile
Since you only roleplay ONE character per account, your profile information is important to your character. Once your characters application is accepted (you'll post your character's application, using a skeleton given, to the correct board for accepting from staff) a staff member will put information on your profile regarding your character's current stat of things. Some of these may change while roleplaying, feel free to contact a staff member to have them changed if that is the case. These are:
FACTION
Faction is what "team" you're part of. There's Sunbaked (lions), Clapperclaw (lions), Barrens (sp. hyenas), Painted army (african wild dog), solitary and rogue. Solitary includes animals like leopards, cheetahs and brown hyenas that start automatically as solitary. Rogue is the status of an animal made solitary by being kicked out of a faction (ex. kicked out of the Painted Army).
SPECIES
Whatever you applied to have your character's species as.
RANK
Rank allows you to quickly tell who's where on the totem pole in your faction and in others. There's leading ranks like Alpha/Dominant/Queen, as well as Princess/Prince for those below a Spotted Hyena Queen, but the more common animal is going to be a "Commoner". There's also Lowly, which most common in Spotted Hyenas since males are very low rank with them.
Also listed is your:
Attributes & Flaws
You can choose to have and Attribute AND a Flaw or you can choose to not. Attributes/Flaws give a slight, usually stat-related, twist to your individual animal. There's a separate Thread in this "How To Play" board that has a list of Attributes and Flaws, they're pretty self-explanatory from there on.
Mating, Litters and Growing Up
You can mate with either an NPC or another player. With rare exception (lions x leopards) you must mate with your own species. Each faction too has a bit of their own rules about who can mate and who can't but it's completely up to the Leader if those are followed or not.
When mating occurs, please fade to black. Females, make a note of what your Age was at the "completion" of mating. Your pregnancy must last until you've gained 4 Age points since then (roughly 60 posts). You're welcome to make it last longer.
Each species has a size range and limit to their litters. Be clear on what yours are when birth arrives. When you give birth (try not to be too detailed about it, you're welcome to fade to black or have it happen off-screen) you will make a dice roll. The die roll is how big your litter is (0 AND 1 produce 1 offspring unless you pick Unfruitful as a flaw) so long as it doesn't go above your animal's litter limit. Aka Spotted hyenas can have a maximum of 2 offspring, one of each sex. If you roll a 5, you still only get 2 offspring.
Adolescents can have offspring too but they have smaller litter sizes than adult animals.
If someone wants to play as your offspring, then they must have your permission. Please have offspring look vaguely like the parents; aka if the parents were two golden lions, the baby shouldn't come out striped (though of course two golden cats can make a white cub)...Should someone choose to play as a Child or Adolescent, they can't instantly grow up. They're allowed to grow up every 4 Age points (they're welcome to stay young for longer if desired. So it takes 8 age points to get a child through adolescence to adulthood.
NOTE
If you are playing a hybrid, or your character's flaw is 'Infertile,' then you must roll an 8 or above to have successfully bred.
The Counter
The Counter, a very important piece to your faction! You'll find there's a counter for every faction (excluding solitary/rogue) that says "Counter: 20 Sunbaked Lions left". What this means is the amount of currently playable Sunbaked members can't exceed 20 and should one of those lions die, it'll go down to 19. If it hits zero, your faction has gone extinct. When an NPC in your faction dies, it WILL make the counter go down
Alternatively, if you have a litter of 3 offspring, your counter would go from 20 to 23! Meaning that having offspring is integral to your team's survival, just like it would be in the wild.
Eating & DAYS
You are (likely) a predator. You eat meat. Times are tough. You shouldn't be finding prey willy-nilly. The amount of prey in any given area will be picked every few "days", what that prey is and thus it's power and how much it'll feed. You must eat every 5 in-game days or you will starve. There's a section on how to post, in that section you'll have to list your hunger level as last ate Day #.
You're welcome to eat any of the other predators. But you MUST kill the animal to eat it. Attributes help you eat more stuff. If you aren't a hunting animal, you can have other animals in your faction bring you food.
Food will not rot. I don't expect you to keep track of when you killed it! However some food will just BE rotten when found and that food can only be eaten by animals with the correct attributes. A killed animal is never rotten, but along with prey that'll appear every few days, so will carrion (rotting food).
You can check where food is in the Day's thread but also in the NEWS at the top of the main page. It'll mention the time of day, any weather and where there's typical prey such as zebras or hippos.
Traveling
Your animal should no longer teleport from one side of the map to the other. You can cross short distances without posting in them but if you're crossing into enemy territories then you must roleplay arriving in their location in one of their regions close to the border you're at before storming into their homebase. Some factions boast that they guard their borders well, you teleporting in makes them look like they are poor guards even if they're actually doing their best! Even if you do not plan to cause them any harm and just want to cut through their lands to get to your destination, you must roleplay the areas your animal would logically be stepping over. This allows there to be time for that faction to react to the fact that they have a trespasser.
If your animal crosses past through two regions with a river or delta in it, then they must swim to get there. If your animal is Hydrophobic then they cannot go to places surrounded by water or require swimming. They must take advantage of dry land passages such as the Golden Bridge, The Hook and the Barrens territories.
Traveling (WITH FOOD)
After a good hunt, it's time to bring your meal back home! However traveling with food is its own ordeal. You must make a strength roll (your natural strength + a dice roll) in order to carry your food from place-to-place. For every 1 leopard share you are carrying you must have a strength roll of 1.
So if your natural strength is 7 and you roll a 2, then you can successfully carry 9 leopard shares that much further. If you fail your roll then a hunk of meat doesn't fall off (although you're welcome to roleplay carving off some meat to make the load easier!), you must take 1 point of damage to your health and then retry your strength roll.
For every region you must cross through, you must post twice with at least 2 successful strength rolls. If your strength is naturally high enough to carry the meal you hold, then you do not need to make the rolls and can travel normally. Child carcasses (ex. foals, cubs, puppies) never require a strength roll unless you are a Child yourself, in which case you must roll a 1 or higher.
So if you are carrying food from the ASHLANDS and are heading to your home in the HEARTLANDS than your path would be the following:
1. Two posts in the Ashlands, 2. Two posts in the Hogwash (or Underwood), 3. Two posts in the Pasture, 4. You are now home successfully, no need to roll!
If you are swimming with food you must make both your swimming ability rolls AND your strength rolls to carry the food. Fail your strength roll while swimming and you DROP your carcass. It'll either sink or eventually float downstream (towards the Painted Army territories), whichever the staff decide is more logical for the individual carcass you were carrying.
You do not need to strength roll to carry a friend away from battle. However if you're detaining someone and they're struggling to get free then you two may exchange blows as if it is a fight. The exception being if a vulture tries to pick up someone and fly away. Friend or foe. They must make strength rolls to hold them as if they were food. If the foe struggles with ability/attacks and they fail, they will be DROPPED. A dropped friend or foe will take 5 damage.
Traveling (SWIMMING)
If you cross an area with a river (or rivers) blocking you from your destination, you must swim across. You cannot teleport at all. Examples include traveling from Lushlands to Leopard Grove, Underwood to Crocodile Isle, Tallhair to Underwood, Bogfront to Morass, Waters End to the Camp, etc. You do NOT need to swim to enter the Bogfront, the Morass, or Water's Edge, unless you are swimming across the river or are coming from the Camp.
Swimming requires ability rolls (your natural ability + dice roll). You must make successful ability rolls, though not necessarily in a row, in order to cross into any river-blocked area. Your ability roll must total to a 7 or higher. If your ability is naturally a 7 already, then you can cross the river as if traveling normally without the need for two posts & ability rolls. The exception being if you are carrying food that requires ability rolls, then you must cross the river with two successful strength rolls for your food.
If you fail twice in a row, then your animal is washed back to the shore you started from and takes 5 damage from exhaustion.
If your animal is hydrophobic then you cannot swim. You must take an alternative route to your destination. If your destination is completely surrounded by water (The Camp & Crocodile Isle) then you 100% cannot go to that destination.
Crocodiles do NOT need to roll to swim anywhere. Dogs do not need to roll to swim if travelling through the delta, however they must still roll to swim across the river.
Traveling (CLIMBING)
This applies to Mountain climbing NOT tree climbing. Whether or not your animal can climb a tree is dependent on what species they are (ex. leopards, caracals, servals). Climbing up mountains only applies to two zones currently, both Vulture regions. If you are not carried there by vulture then you must roll to arrive and leave. Just like with swimming, you must ability roll 7 twice. Failure results in your animal tumbling down and taking 5 damage.
If you are leaving and have failing rolls, you will still leave but obviously not very gracefully. You will take 5 damage. If you are carrying someone and you fail your climbing rolls then you will be hit with 10 damage and you will break their fall, not causing any damage to them.
Traveling (FLYING)
If you are roleplaying as a vulture than you can indeed fly! You do not have to swim or climb. If you fail a strength roll carrying your food then you can react as if it fell or you needed to rest but you can immediately recover just as much as a lion traveling across land can.
You CANNOT fly if: You are currently pinned by someone in a fight. If your wing is injured by an attack that has done 10+ damage aimed at your wings (the attack must specifically state it was aimed at your wing) or 15+ damage is done collectively to your wings over the course of a battle. You will not be able to fly again until you've aged up at least once.
Vultures do not need to fear water (they can step in puddles or in the rain) but they cannot swim. If your a vulture with an injured wing and cannot fly, then you must not take a path that requires swimming. You must take an alternative path. This does indeed mean that if you are in an island location like Crocodile Isle, you are stranded until your next Age.
If a vulture tries to pick up someone and fly away, friend or foe, They must make strength rolls to hold them as if they were food. If the foe struggles with ability/attacks and they fail, they will be DROPPED. A dropped friend or foe will take 5 damage from the fall.
Playing a SCAVENGER
Scavengers fall into two different species: Vultures and Jackals. Both belonging to their own factions. They start with 0 stats and low health, even the adults! They need to eat in order to progress. Postcounts do not effect them. They only need to eat 1 Leopard Share to avoid starvation but when they eat 1 whole Lion share, then they can earn themselves a stat! Here's the catch: You can only eat 1 Lion shares per Age as a CHILD or ADOLESCENT, and 2 Lion shares for adults and can only eat 1 Leopard Share per post. If you play as a Vulture or Jackal, when you post you should also be keeping track of how many more leopard shares you need to eat before you gain a stat. Put it as something like the following: Stat Progress: 1/3. When you start your progress will be 0/3.
Until you've gained 10 stats, your body will not produce food should you be killed. At 10, your body will produce the same food as a cub's body. At 20 you'll produce 1 hyena share of food and then at 25 stats total you'll be worth 1 lion share. You'll never be more plentiful than that.
When you have eaten enough to gain a stat, you will roll the dice to see what random stat you've gained. Each number on the dice means you gained +1 of a certain stat. Here they are:
JACKALS: 0. Health, 1. Health, 2. Ability, 3. Health, 4. Strength, 5. Ability, 6. Defense, 7. Health, 8. Speed, 9. Health, 10. Strength
VULTURES: 0. Ability, 1. Health, 2. Ability, 3. Health, 4. Strength, 5. Ability, 6. Defense, 7. Health, 8. Speed, 9. Health, 10. Speed
Note that #10 is different for the two. Vultures have a higher chance of getting speed, Jackals have a higher chance at strength.
Scavengers do not have a stat-cap like the other species do.
Death
You might live forever without ever dying but you might also have animals that die every week! When you die, you are allowed to make a new application for a new character. You're welcome to have them act like your old character (but they shouldn't have the same past/memories) if that's what you're comfortable with! When your animal dies, contact a staff member. The staff member will change your post count, which will change your additional attributes so you aren't starting from scratch. You'll be given 50% of the post count you had on your old animal. Your new animal does not need to be anything like the old animal, it doesn't need to be the same species, etc.
You will die if:
1. Your Health is -2. (At 0 health, your animal is merely knocked out, and will regain consciousness if they are rescued/their attackers stop)
2. You haven't posted as that animal in 14 REAL days it'll be said you starved to death. (If you're going to be out of town or something, just say so and you'll be exempt from starvation).
3. Your animal hasn't eaten in 5 in-game days.
4. Of your choice. You can choose to kill off your own animal either because you're tired of playing it or for a plotline you like. Such as dying during birth.
*If your character starves to death then their body will be 1 lion share less than normal. Which does mean that some bodies, like Servals, will have no edibility to them.
Predators At War is a Roleplay with RPG elements. As such, each individual animal should be on an INDIVIDUAL account. Aka I am on my Admin account, if I were to roleplay an animal on this account it better be named Admin or else I'd be breaking the rules of the game. You're welcome to post in OOC chats as any of your animals or as a separate, OOC account.
Stats & Additional Stats & How they Work
Each animal has its own set of racial stats. ALL members of the species obey what they're given. However there are also Additional Stats, these are the stats you'll find underneath your Icon when you post on the forum. These will grow the more you post. How much your additional stats give you is The Additional Stat - 1. So if under your Icon it says 5, you get +4. If your animal naturally has 5 strength, then it is now 9 strength!
All of your stats are the following:
STRENGTH is, well, your strength! It's an important part in causing the most damage to another animal. Strength is also used to successfully carry large amounts of food.
SPEED how speedy your animal is. It gives a good comparison to how much an African Wild Dog can outrun a Spotted Hyena. If the difference is 1 - 2, the quicker animal is outrunning the animal but 3+ is when that animal is truly able to leave the other in the dust if they were racing. Speed can be rolled for to check if your animal evades an attack, it must roll HIGHER than the animal attacking's Strength + Dice Roll.
DEFENSE is, naturally, your defense against Strength. The true damage you cause is STRENGTH + DICE ROLL - DEFENSE = DAMAGE.
ABILITY is your ability to do something that takes experience for an animal to do. Ability can be used to justify your animal doing something lucky like jumping a ravine or weaseling away from being pinned under another animal. Rolling Ability instead of rolling Speed when already pinned is how you do that. Ability is also rolled for when using an Attribute (or outdoing a Flaw) where it applies. Ability is also used for swimming and climbing.
AGE isn't a stat that changes the sway of battle. The Age that appears on your profile is there to make it easy to mark when you give birth, how quickly you'll regenerate your health, etc. Age climbs faster than the others. Age is about 1 per 15 posts.
HEALTH When your Health hits 0, you are officially unconscious (but NOT dead), when your health is -2 you're dead. You'll regain health 5 per every Age gained since attack. The exception being if you're unconscious, if you're out cold you'll regain 2 health (and can wake up) within 3 posts made by other animals on the same thread as you OR once you're rescued by your own faction and are safe. Whichever comes first.
The Other Information on Your Profile
Since you only roleplay ONE character per account, your profile information is important to your character. Once your characters application is accepted (you'll post your character's application, using a skeleton given, to the correct board for accepting from staff) a staff member will put information on your profile regarding your character's current stat of things. Some of these may change while roleplaying, feel free to contact a staff member to have them changed if that is the case. These are:
FACTION
Faction is what "team" you're part of. There's Sunbaked (lions), Clapperclaw (lions), Barrens (sp. hyenas), Painted army (african wild dog), solitary and rogue. Solitary includes animals like leopards, cheetahs and brown hyenas that start automatically as solitary. Rogue is the status of an animal made solitary by being kicked out of a faction (ex. kicked out of the Painted Army).
SPECIES
Whatever you applied to have your character's species as.
RANK
Rank allows you to quickly tell who's where on the totem pole in your faction and in others. There's leading ranks like Alpha/Dominant/Queen, as well as Princess/Prince for those below a Spotted Hyena Queen, but the more common animal is going to be a "Commoner". There's also Lowly, which most common in Spotted Hyenas since males are very low rank with them.
Also listed is your:
Attributes & Flaws
You can choose to have and Attribute AND a Flaw or you can choose to not. Attributes/Flaws give a slight, usually stat-related, twist to your individual animal. There's a separate Thread in this "How To Play" board that has a list of Attributes and Flaws, they're pretty self-explanatory from there on.
Mating, Litters and Growing Up
You can mate with either an NPC or another player. With rare exception (lions x leopards) you must mate with your own species. Each faction too has a bit of their own rules about who can mate and who can't but it's completely up to the Leader if those are followed or not.
When mating occurs, please fade to black. Females, make a note of what your Age was at the "completion" of mating. Your pregnancy must last until you've gained 4 Age points since then (roughly 60 posts). You're welcome to make it last longer.
Each species has a size range and limit to their litters. Be clear on what yours are when birth arrives. When you give birth (try not to be too detailed about it, you're welcome to fade to black or have it happen off-screen) you will make a dice roll. The die roll is how big your litter is (0 AND 1 produce 1 offspring unless you pick Unfruitful as a flaw) so long as it doesn't go above your animal's litter limit. Aka Spotted hyenas can have a maximum of 2 offspring, one of each sex. If you roll a 5, you still only get 2 offspring.
Adolescents can have offspring too but they have smaller litter sizes than adult animals.
If someone wants to play as your offspring, then they must have your permission. Please have offspring look vaguely like the parents; aka if the parents were two golden lions, the baby shouldn't come out striped (though of course two golden cats can make a white cub)...Should someone choose to play as a Child or Adolescent, they can't instantly grow up. They're allowed to grow up every 4 Age points (they're welcome to stay young for longer if desired. So it takes 8 age points to get a child through adolescence to adulthood.
NOTE
If you are playing a hybrid, or your character's flaw is 'Infertile,' then you must roll an 8 or above to have successfully bred.
The Counter
The Counter, a very important piece to your faction! You'll find there's a counter for every faction (excluding solitary/rogue) that says "Counter: 20 Sunbaked Lions left". What this means is the amount of currently playable Sunbaked members can't exceed 20 and should one of those lions die, it'll go down to 19. If it hits zero, your faction has gone extinct. When an NPC in your faction dies, it WILL make the counter go down
Alternatively, if you have a litter of 3 offspring, your counter would go from 20 to 23! Meaning that having offspring is integral to your team's survival, just like it would be in the wild.
Eating & DAYS
You are (likely) a predator. You eat meat. Times are tough. You shouldn't be finding prey willy-nilly. The amount of prey in any given area will be picked every few "days", what that prey is and thus it's power and how much it'll feed. You must eat every 5 in-game days or you will starve. There's a section on how to post, in that section you'll have to list your hunger level as last ate Day #.
You're welcome to eat any of the other predators. But you MUST kill the animal to eat it. Attributes help you eat more stuff. If you aren't a hunting animal, you can have other animals in your faction bring you food.
Food will not rot. I don't expect you to keep track of when you killed it! However some food will just BE rotten when found and that food can only be eaten by animals with the correct attributes. A killed animal is never rotten, but along with prey that'll appear every few days, so will carrion (rotting food).
You can check where food is in the Day's thread but also in the NEWS at the top of the main page. It'll mention the time of day, any weather and where there's typical prey such as zebras or hippos.
Traveling
Your animal should no longer teleport from one side of the map to the other. You can cross short distances without posting in them but if you're crossing into enemy territories then you must roleplay arriving in their location in one of their regions close to the border you're at before storming into their homebase. Some factions boast that they guard their borders well, you teleporting in makes them look like they are poor guards even if they're actually doing their best! Even if you do not plan to cause them any harm and just want to cut through their lands to get to your destination, you must roleplay the areas your animal would logically be stepping over. This allows there to be time for that faction to react to the fact that they have a trespasser.
If your animal crosses past through two regions with a river or delta in it, then they must swim to get there. If your animal is Hydrophobic then they cannot go to places surrounded by water or require swimming. They must take advantage of dry land passages such as the Golden Bridge, The Hook and the Barrens territories.
Traveling (WITH FOOD)
After a good hunt, it's time to bring your meal back home! However traveling with food is its own ordeal. You must make a strength roll (your natural strength + a dice roll) in order to carry your food from place-to-place. For every 1 leopard share you are carrying you must have a strength roll of 1.
So if your natural strength is 7 and you roll a 2, then you can successfully carry 9 leopard shares that much further. If you fail your roll then a hunk of meat doesn't fall off (although you're welcome to roleplay carving off some meat to make the load easier!), you must take 1 point of damage to your health and then retry your strength roll.
For every region you must cross through, you must post twice with at least 2 successful strength rolls. If your strength is naturally high enough to carry the meal you hold, then you do not need to make the rolls and can travel normally. Child carcasses (ex. foals, cubs, puppies) never require a strength roll unless you are a Child yourself, in which case you must roll a 1 or higher.
So if you are carrying food from the ASHLANDS and are heading to your home in the HEARTLANDS than your path would be the following:
1. Two posts in the Ashlands, 2. Two posts in the Hogwash (or Underwood), 3. Two posts in the Pasture, 4. You are now home successfully, no need to roll!
If you are swimming with food you must make both your swimming ability rolls AND your strength rolls to carry the food. Fail your strength roll while swimming and you DROP your carcass. It'll either sink or eventually float downstream (towards the Painted Army territories), whichever the staff decide is more logical for the individual carcass you were carrying.
You do not need to strength roll to carry a friend away from battle. However if you're detaining someone and they're struggling to get free then you two may exchange blows as if it is a fight. The exception being if a vulture tries to pick up someone and fly away. Friend or foe. They must make strength rolls to hold them as if they were food. If the foe struggles with ability/attacks and they fail, they will be DROPPED. A dropped friend or foe will take 5 damage.
Traveling (SWIMMING)
If you cross an area with a river (or rivers) blocking you from your destination, you must swim across. You cannot teleport at all. Examples include traveling from Lushlands to Leopard Grove, Underwood to Crocodile Isle, Tallhair to Underwood, Bogfront to Morass, Waters End to the Camp, etc. You do NOT need to swim to enter the Bogfront, the Morass, or Water's Edge, unless you are swimming across the river or are coming from the Camp.
Swimming requires ability rolls (your natural ability + dice roll). You must make successful ability rolls, though not necessarily in a row, in order to cross into any river-blocked area. Your ability roll must total to a 7 or higher. If your ability is naturally a 7 already, then you can cross the river as if traveling normally without the need for two posts & ability rolls. The exception being if you are carrying food that requires ability rolls, then you must cross the river with two successful strength rolls for your food.
If you fail twice in a row, then your animal is washed back to the shore you started from and takes 5 damage from exhaustion.
If your animal is hydrophobic then you cannot swim. You must take an alternative route to your destination. If your destination is completely surrounded by water (The Camp & Crocodile Isle) then you 100% cannot go to that destination.
Crocodiles do NOT need to roll to swim anywhere. Dogs do not need to roll to swim if travelling through the delta, however they must still roll to swim across the river.
Traveling (CLIMBING)
This applies to Mountain climbing NOT tree climbing. Whether or not your animal can climb a tree is dependent on what species they are (ex. leopards, caracals, servals). Climbing up mountains only applies to two zones currently, both Vulture regions. If you are not carried there by vulture then you must roll to arrive and leave. Just like with swimming, you must ability roll 7 twice. Failure results in your animal tumbling down and taking 5 damage.
If you are leaving and have failing rolls, you will still leave but obviously not very gracefully. You will take 5 damage. If you are carrying someone and you fail your climbing rolls then you will be hit with 10 damage and you will break their fall, not causing any damage to them.
Traveling (FLYING)
If you are roleplaying as a vulture than you can indeed fly! You do not have to swim or climb. If you fail a strength roll carrying your food then you can react as if it fell or you needed to rest but you can immediately recover just as much as a lion traveling across land can.
You CANNOT fly if: You are currently pinned by someone in a fight. If your wing is injured by an attack that has done 10+ damage aimed at your wings (the attack must specifically state it was aimed at your wing) or 15+ damage is done collectively to your wings over the course of a battle. You will not be able to fly again until you've aged up at least once.
Vultures do not need to fear water (they can step in puddles or in the rain) but they cannot swim. If your a vulture with an injured wing and cannot fly, then you must not take a path that requires swimming. You must take an alternative path. This does indeed mean that if you are in an island location like Crocodile Isle, you are stranded until your next Age.
If a vulture tries to pick up someone and fly away, friend or foe, They must make strength rolls to hold them as if they were food. If the foe struggles with ability/attacks and they fail, they will be DROPPED. A dropped friend or foe will take 5 damage from the fall.
Playing a SCAVENGER
Scavengers fall into two different species: Vultures and Jackals. Both belonging to their own factions. They start with 0 stats and low health, even the adults! They need to eat in order to progress. Postcounts do not effect them. They only need to eat 1 Leopard Share to avoid starvation but when they eat 1 whole Lion share, then they can earn themselves a stat! Here's the catch: You can only eat 1 Lion shares per Age as a CHILD or ADOLESCENT, and 2 Lion shares for adults and can only eat 1 Leopard Share per post. If you play as a Vulture or Jackal, when you post you should also be keeping track of how many more leopard shares you need to eat before you gain a stat. Put it as something like the following: Stat Progress: 1/3. When you start your progress will be 0/3.
Until you've gained 10 stats, your body will not produce food should you be killed. At 10, your body will produce the same food as a cub's body. At 20 you'll produce 1 hyena share of food and then at 25 stats total you'll be worth 1 lion share. You'll never be more plentiful than that.
When you have eaten enough to gain a stat, you will roll the dice to see what random stat you've gained. Each number on the dice means you gained +1 of a certain stat. Here they are:
JACKALS: 0. Health, 1. Health, 2. Ability, 3. Health, 4. Strength, 5. Ability, 6. Defense, 7. Health, 8. Speed, 9. Health, 10. Strength
VULTURES: 0. Ability, 1. Health, 2. Ability, 3. Health, 4. Strength, 5. Ability, 6. Defense, 7. Health, 8. Speed, 9. Health, 10. Speed
Note that #10 is different for the two. Vultures have a higher chance of getting speed, Jackals have a higher chance at strength.
Scavengers do not have a stat-cap like the other species do.
Death
You might live forever without ever dying but you might also have animals that die every week! When you die, you are allowed to make a new application for a new character. You're welcome to have them act like your old character (but they shouldn't have the same past/memories) if that's what you're comfortable with! When your animal dies, contact a staff member. The staff member will change your post count, which will change your additional attributes so you aren't starting from scratch. You'll be given 50% of the post count you had on your old animal. Your new animal does not need to be anything like the old animal, it doesn't need to be the same species, etc.
You will die if:
1. Your Health is -2. (At 0 health, your animal is merely knocked out, and will regain consciousness if they are rescued/their attackers stop)
2. You haven't posted as that animal in 14 REAL days it'll be said you starved to death. (If you're going to be out of town or something, just say so and you'll be exempt from starvation).
3. Your animal hasn't eaten in 5 in-game days.
4. Of your choice. You can choose to kill off your own animal either because you're tired of playing it or for a plotline you like. Such as dying during birth.
*If your character starves to death then their body will be 1 lion share less than normal. Which does mean that some bodies, like Servals, will have no edibility to them.