Starting Out

## In-Character/In-Roleplay (IC/IRP)

Every person who plays UAO, before they could really start playing, they had to create an Avatar first. The Avatar is a digital/virtual body of their own creation, it does not have to look like the real life body does, it doesn't even need to have the same gender as the real life body, in which case the player's voice will automatically be converted to a gender appropriate version of it (but those using the same gender as their real life one, will keep their real voices). Ages also do not have to match, but the voice converter does not adapt to this, meaning if an 11 year old player uses a 50 year old avatar, they will still sound like they are 11 when they talk.

After selecting the gender and physical appearance of their Avatar, the player has to pick out their Archetype. This choice cannot be reversed once selected, but they are informed of that, and also have detailed explanations on what each Archetype does before choosing.

Though the player gets to choose what their starting clothes look like in terms of appearance, they are all basic basic quality and thus give no stat changes. More importantly, the colors of a player's clothing **always** match the official color of their chosen Archetype (example: Every article of clothing worn by a Brain Eater, is white, no exception). If a player has a 2nd Archetype, the clothes will have a mix of both colors, but with the main Archetype's color being dominant in the mix. Since players know about the clothing color schemes and the connection to Archetypes ahead of schedule, this makes it easier to discriminate against Hellspawns and low level Brain Eaters.

The next choice a player has to make is the starting weapon. This is not a mandatory weapon restriction, players can use all weapons they purchase/loot, this is just a free weapon they get to start off with for no effort/charge.

The final choice a player has to make before finally spawning into the game, is their username. That is what others will know them by in UAO, what is shown in appropriate menus and the like. With this choice concluded, the player will spawn in the City of Beginnings, Floor 1, main plaza, in their new avatar body, with their username... Their real body never to be seen in the game.

## Out of Character (OOC)

### Character Creation/Submission

You start out by simply accessing the ***#Templates*** channel in the Discord server, opening the UAO Character Submission Template, choosing "Make a Copy" option from the "File" menu, then right click on the image of Kirito, choose "Replace Image" and replace that with the image of your own character. Fill out the rest of the information like the template asks, then share the Google Doc you just created, to the ***#Character-Submission*** channel. Now just wait for it to be approved and you'll be good to go! Staff will ping you about it in due time.

Note: You don't have to use the template if you know what you're doing, but all the information requested there is mandatory, as well as the minimum limits specified there. If you make a custom template of your own but include all of the information the way the original template asks for, that's perfectly fine, even if it is extra work.

### Multiple Characters

As explained in the ***#Multiple-Player-OCs*** channel in the Discord, you can have more than one Original Character (OC) Player at a time, but there are some restrictions and limitations to it, so please read that channel for further information on it.

### Starter Packs

In order to help characters that are only created after the beginning of the server has already passed, we provide you with special Starter Packs, of which you can choose only one. The benefits of each pack scale with the amount of time the server has progressed, specifically, the values get multiplied by the number of the latest timeblock. This pack is entirely OOC and is meant to explain/account for what your OC has been doing since the game began, because they joined at relatively the same time as everyone else (since the news of the death-game spread worldwide IRL, making it so that new players wouldn't want/be allowed to join). Keep in mind that whatever your chosen Starter Pack is, will be directly related to whatever you had your OC doing in the time after the death-game announcement, but before you actually began to RP as that OC. This applies to every new character made post-launch, including that of pre-existing RPers who are making a new OC (be it multiple or not).

### Rebirth

If a player dies in the game but makes it through the monster resurrection system, all the way back up to player, they will receive 55XP and 50 Credits for each timeblock it took for them to achieve this.

### Dead Characters

If you have a character who died both as a player and as part of the monster resurrection system, then they are dead and forever gone. If you still decide to make a new character after that, the very next character (but not all future characters of course), will receive a special bonus in recognition of your previous hard work, on top of whatever your selected Starter Pack was. This bonus amounts to 1/3rd of your dead OC's Experience, as well as half of their credits, and half of all of the Work-Skill XP they had.