Questions about the Site

[Potential Member]

Hello! I've been looking for a RP forum for quite a while, and I'm happy to say that Enera has caught my attention. A lot of effort was put into this, and I personally find that the crossover is quite interesting (even though I don't remember much about His Dark Materials, as I've last read it probably six years ago).
I do have a few questions, though. Some of them are also from a friend, who is also considering joining.

1. What are the requirements/restrictions for catching Pokemon?
The forum I used to be on allowed RPers to catch whatever Pokemon they wanted, but the capture would only be approved by a staff if there was sufficient quality and quantity in the writing. (The rarer and/or more popular the Pokemon, the higher quality and quantity needed to gain approval.) Captures may be written in solo threads.
It seems you folks do things differently here, and I apologize if I had missed it in the rules somewhere. (I couldn't find anything specific about the catching process, only the rarity and locations of each Pokemon.)
From what I've guessed, the staff modding the thread selects the Pokemon and RPs the capture out with the RPer. The Pokemon encountered is solely based on location, rarity, and staff's selection, meaning that the RPer has no say in it.
Is this correct, or am I missing something?

2. About some of the "rare"/"unusual" species... (Things I'm usually against, but will cope with)
2a. How often are legendaries captured/given out? Is there usually some sort of justification for them?
I'll admit it: I'm not too crazy about the idea of legendaries being on humans' "teams", but I can most likely cope with it. A little clarification on this question would help me in deciding whether I join this forum.

2b. Fakemon. How many of them are there? And if there are any, how were they written that was deemed qualified?
I'm personally not a fan of them, but again, I'll cope, since it's not as if I'm being forced to use any of them.

2c. Pokemorphs. Is there a quality check on the profile for these characters? How strict is the control on such characters?
Same as the above two, really.

3. Are there any activity checks?
I don't know how often I'll be active, considering how I still have my education to consider, so if there are activity checks, I'd like a little more detail on it.

4. Is there an option for a different forum theme/skin?
This isn't too big of a deal, but this was something I was wondering about. I'm not familiar with Proboards, but on Zetaboards, admins can add multiple themes, and members can use whichever activated theme they want. If a darker theme could be implemented, that would be great, as I know some people might find the current one to be too bright- bright enough to hurt their eyes, even.

5. Are there restrictions on characters from regions outside of Enera?
I know there are some of such characters already, but I'd like to know if too many foreigners is frowned upon. That way, I know whether I need to create an entirely new character from scratch, or if I can retcon an existing character of mine.

This next one is more of a suggestion than a question, but have you ever considered having your forum listed on topsites to attract new members? I find that most people discover new forum through topsites, rather than affiliations or advertisements on other forum.

[Birdybot]

Hi, I'm really glad you're considering joining!

1. The staff modding the thread will generally RP as the wild Pokémon, having selected it to be encountered by the RPer. The actual capture is determined in a fairly similar way to the games, with weakened or fainted Pokémon being far easier to catch and different Pokéballs being more likely to catch things. We also take into account how much the wild Pokémon wants to be captured, and while it's not a huge factor if the RPer had been making high quality posts the mod would be more favourable to letting them capture a Pokémon.

You're mostly correct with how encounter threads go. Different Pokémon live in each route, and the rarity is determined randomly (with more weight placed on common rarities so that more common Pokémon appear more often). Within that rarity, the mod chooses whatever based on the scene that's been set, the RPers preferences, anything they like. The RPer can drop hints and depending how good their posts are they might get what they want (for example, ashesofthesun had mentioned they wanted a rideable Pokémon, and their writing is good so after generating the right rarity I made a Skiddo appear for them). In the Extra Areas category, the RPer can specifically seek out a specific Pokémon they really like - there's an extra area for each type of Pokémon (some have multiple types, since it would be odd to only have dragon types running about for example) and depending on how rare the Pokémon they're looking for it, the mod can make them work for it, going through a mini-plot to find it and having a rare Pokémon be a reward for hard work in the quality of their posts.

2. I don't especially like rare things either, but a lot of people do so I let them run about.
2a. Basically never. There was a legendary giveaway about four years ago on the old site (this used to be a much less thought-out forum on an old site a few years ago before I revived it on this one) where members could post a story of their character catching a legendary to justify it, and if it was deemed to be of a good enough quality they would be allowed that legendary. I'd never do anything like that now. I'd say an exceptional RPer whose character had got pretty far and achieved a lot would be allowed to see a legendary, but only characters who'd proved themselves, got a lot of gym badges, and were RPed to a highly impressive standard would be allowed to capture them, provided they could justify it convincingly and all staff members agreed. It's pretty unlikely to happen.

2b. At the moment, none. No one would be forced to use them, so don't worry. I'd accept fakemon if they fit in well enough with the existing Pokémon, and also would make sure the numbers balanced out so we didn't end up with twenty fire types but no water types or anything like that. I'd take care that they weren't overpowered, look through their moveset and their general capabilities, to be certain there's no great disparity between any aspect of them and existing Pokémon. I'd also hope they had a decent sprite, but I understand if the creator can't sprite well and try getting someone else to sprite them.

2c. I'm always pretty wary of Pokémorphs, since in my experience they can end up Gary Stus/Mary Sues. The Pokémorphs we currently have are all transfers from the old site, since people wanted to pick up where they left off. 'Morphs are supposed to be uncommon, so members have to have at least one human character before they can make a 'morph. 'Morph profiles are expected to be high quality and I'd rather people avoided clichés as well (eg ten-year-old miraculously escaping evil labs).

3. Currently no, but if there end up being a large number of inactive accounts, there might be. I'm very aware that people have to prioritise their education/work/family/etc, so as long as you make staff aware that you are busy and might not be on for a while, you'd be fine - even if it's just saying that you'll be gone sometimes without warning us when those times are. If I ever did activity checks, I'd only delete accounts that had been inactive for a long time and whom I knew weren't likely to ever come back, if that - I'd probably just end up cleaning up accounts that signed up and never posted or logged in again.

4. Not right now, but I've been wanting to make a new one. Since I was planning on making a new one anyway, I'll take that darker skin suggestion into account and work on it as soon as I can!

5. No, there aren't any restrictions on foreign characters.

Yeah, I have considered listing on a topsite but I've never got round to it. Thanks for reminding me, I'll try to do that if I have a spare moment today!

I hope I've managed to answer your questions. If I haven't answered them well enough or you have more, feel free to ask away!

[Potential Member]

Oh wow, thank you for such a fast response!

Everything sounds good to me. I like how everything is set up.

With any luck, I can work on my character profile this weekend and join the rest of you folks.



Another question, mainly because I've forgotten a lot of things about His Dark Materials:

For dæmons, are their forms purely for aesthetics, or are they allowed to use the same abilities as the Pokemon they have adopted the form of?



I think this is probably my last question- at least for a long while- but a friend of mine might have more.



Thank you again for answering our questions. We both see a lot of potential in this site, and it has definitely caught our interest.

[Birdybot]

Thank you very much, I look forward to seeing your character! The dæmons are pretty much for aesthetics, yeah, since it'd be unfair if some people have dæmons going round reading people's minds or whatever. They can still have minor abilities, though, like fire types could be warm or spit sparks, electric types might generate static electricity and psychic types might have more of a sense of people around them. Scales down versions of Pokémon abilities.