The aspect of Blood of Dragons that sets the game apart from most other MUSHes is the presence of pre-generated characters. While 99.9% of characters are drawn from the family trees created by the Admin, only a fraction of these characters are actually fully pre-generated. The rest only have the basic information decided, such as name, gender, age and position in the family tree and sometimes in society. These players have a great deal of freedom in setting up as they take the character through CharGen.
However, since that is a very involved process, many prefer to take up a pre-generated character that once was setup by another player and then returned to the roster. This is a great way to get started quickly, not the least if you are a little unfamiliar with MUSHing or with the theme, but it does come with its own problems. This article aims to clarify some of the common questions and stress the most important do’s and don’t's.
The most crucial aspect of playing a pre-generated character is to read through all the existing CDB information very thoroughly and to contact Staff if you have any questions about it at all. You will have been sent the information with your application and you can review it at any time on the game by typing +cdb/all NAME.
One other command is worth executing separately and paying particular attention to: +cdb/view NAME/counter. This command shows how many times the character has been in play and during what time periods. This will give you a great sense of how much history on the game the character has.
The second most important aspect is to stay true to the existing information. While characters can—and should—evolve over time, keep in mind that the game runs on a 1:1 ratio. Your cowardly knight is not going to become brave overnight and your pious, chaste maiden will not become an outrageous flirt just like that. If the first thing you think when you take a character is that you like aspect A and B of the character but you don’t like aspect C and plan to change that as soon as possible, then you should ask Staff to put the character back on the roster so you can choose another.
We want to stress that we have nothing against people switching characters if they feel one is a poor fit. It is much better to switch than to try and bend that character into the shape you want.
The base assumption, then, should be that the CDB information accurately describes the character in question. However, and this cannot be stressed enough, many players leave their characters without ever updating them. This means that you may encounter players who give you additional information about the character, information that you cannot find in the CDB. You may also find yourself wondering what on earth the character has done since it was last in play since the background and history may end with a mention of their recent arrival in King’s Landing or Sunspear.
If that is the case, please contact Staff with any and all questions. We are very willing to help you bring your character up to date and to work with you on what changes may or may not have occurred since the character was last in play. We do not, unfortunately, have the time to update every character as it goes back onto the roster, but to help players individually is much easier.