CoPaP

One of the good things about CoPaP is that I can play in a lot of servers using the same character, so I fulfill my need of changes and I keep the same RP.
I am planning my 2nd planewalker character that will be portalling around CoPaP. The first is a gnome from Avlis, and the new one is an aasimar paladin created in Rockhome.
For the aasimar, I was going to create him in Moonsea, but the server was down and I decided to create him in Rockhome (the only plane I know how to go to the Moonsea). That brings me to my questions:

Is there a place where I can find a policy for RPing custom races around CoPaP?
I know that a character from Avlis cannot be a celestial. But an Aasimar IS a celestial, or at least a half-celestial.

Is there a “manual” to RP these customs races? I know what is an elf, and I even know what is an aasimar, but other people don't, and I'm getting tired of being accused of cheesing when I say “My father is an angel!” or “I'm from Lunia, the 2nd montain of the Seven Heavens! But I've been lost in this world that you call Rockhome!”. And this character only has 2 days of age (way too soon to get tired of explaining I had read the boards).

What is supposed to be the origin of the character? And by that I mean: where has the character born; AND where was he raised. For my aasimar, I'm telling that he is from Mount Celestia (Seven Heavens) and that he was sent to Moonsea to help fighting evil, but he got lost and ended up in Rockhome, totally lost, without a clue about the local god of justice. Is it OK to RP that background? I would not consider saying he is an outsider if I haven't seen that outsider class there.

And a suggestion / appeal: Could you include the wings and tails for the custom races that could have them? Like angel wings for aasimar, or demon wings and tails for tieflings. Since they cannot have the special characteristics that defines an aasimar (sweet smell, aura of goodness, instant clean body, musical voice, or others) from the Planescape Campaign Setting, they should have something that identifies them as extra-planar beings. And wings would be nice for that. And it would make people think twice before calling me a cheeser because I say I'm from another plane.

Something else:

Is there a list of races avaliable around CoPaP? And in which worlds you can create them?

Drysh wrote: I know that a character from Avlis cannot be a celestial. But an Aasimar IS a celestial, or at least a half-celestial.

One little nitpick: an Aasimar is not a celestial, nor a half-celestial. The stats on either of those templates are very different from Aasimar. Instead an Aasimar is a planetouched being, meaning that somewhere in his ancestory there is a touch of celestial blood that's still strong enough to manifest itself.
This means he might be a quarter celestial, or so far removed that he can't even remember it himself, but half-celestial would be too much imho.


Other things:
- Manual: Most races have a reasonable to good description provided with them in the character creator. Avlis has the custom race descriptions on the website. This includes how the race generally acts and other striking behaviour and mindset manifestations. I suggest all worlds that offer custom races (and classes) do the same. Providing documentation to the playerbase is very important. Any questions you might have remaining about a race after that can probably best be asked specifically: how would a .... think about ...., how would he act in such and so situation... etc.

- Character origin: My personal stance, which I know is pretty much supported by most Avlis DMs: if you create your character on a certain world, then you should consider yourself a native there. Of course if the Autobic thingy is down on Moonsea and the people there tell you to use Rockhome, then I can have no issue with that.
On the other side doing such things as making an Drow on Hala just to play on Avlis with it has always annoyed me. You're basically doing yourself a disfavor, because you'll not know anything about the world you were born on, which is completely unrealistic. Plus it's disrespectful towards the world in question to treat is as some sort of glorified character generator mod imho.
Your specific background has nothing to do with Avlis, nor really with CoPaP in general, since it only involves Moonsea and Rockhome. I'll leave it up to the teams of those worlds to approve or disapprove of your character background. I have work enough nitpicking about Avlis characters.

- Not all Aasimar have wings (in fact I think most wouldn't). However it would be fun to have an option for PCs to have wings or a tail where appropriate imho. I just fear for a massive influx of new (and dead cheesy) characters that will want to play such just for the wings and have absolutely no idea what they're doing. The sad hard truth I'm afraid.

I know Tieflings from Hala have tails... Didn't cause a great influx of Tieflings there, so i expect and hope that the 'new'-effect will not be too great.

Khaelindra wrote:I know Tieflings from Hala have tails... Didn't cause a great influx of Tieflings there, so i expect and hope that the 'new'-effect will not be too great.

They do, and it really is great! Really cool roleplaying possibilities, my depressed monk char keeps staring at every tail he see's.... the reactions are pretty fun

And right, no real aflux of tieflings, I think I met three till now, and I spend most of my time in Rockhome

For my aasimar, I'm telling that he is from Mount Celestia (Seven Heavens) and that he was sent to Moonsea to help fighting evil, but he got lost and ended up in Rockhome, totally lost, without a clue about the local god of justice.

Generally (although this may be slightly different on different worlds) if someone starts a character on a world, that's where they are from - much like saying you're from the Abyss if you start a tiefling... your character might be deluded into thinking that, but the server you start on is your home.

Thanks for your answers.
I think this makes a policy for all CoPaP world: A character comes from the world it has been created, unless a DM from that world says it is not the case.
I'll create a new character with a better background (or wait for the outter planes )

I'll refrase one of my questions: Is there a manual explainning:
- How to create a custom race. I need to know that before I enter the world. How could I create a character using that base race if I need to enter the game first?
- What class is favoredd by that race.
- Is there a background for this race around CoPaP? Like: Drows are native from Faerum (I'm not sure), most common alignment CE, live in the underdark, etc. And with notes about how diferent world sees them (they may be killed on sight in Avlis, because they will by taken as the local race sereg by Avlis natives). This information would help to create a character that may travel from one world to another.
- Which world has this race and wich haven't. This will help to understand how other worlds would react to that race. And it would help to select a world to start if you want to play a different race.
I know there is one for Avlis. But I could not find anything in the other worlds forums. And something here would be nice, since the race descriptions (background) should be accepted by every world. If you help me with information about each world I could try to put it all together and write that manual.

Celestial stats? My definition:
Celestial — An intelligent being native to the Upper Planes. Includes aasimon, archons, eladrin, guardinals, and more.
Is it something else now?

I was looking for more information about an aasimar and I've found this.
This is from a 2nd edition book from the Planescape campaign, called Warriors of Heaven (TSR11361).

Warriors of Heaven (TSR book) wrote:Aasimar are the scions or descendants of celestials from the Upper Planes. More precisely, an aasimar is the mortal progeny or offspring of a celestial being — an aasimon, archon, eladrin, or guardinal — and a mortal being. However, the blood of a celestial courses through each aasimar's body, even if it's just a trace amount.
...
Though rare, aasimar are a powerful force in the Upper Planes, gathering armies for crusades and leading evangelical missions beyond the planes' boundless confines. They generally appear as a glorious beautiful humans with golden hair, fair skin, and piercing eyes. They might be mistaken for half-elves or even true aasimon. True of heart, courageous, and honest to a fault, their noboloty and goodness are legendary.
At least, that's how they're commonly portrayed. But as mortal being cursed with the subtle imperfections of their human parent or ancestors, aasimar aren't always the epitome of virtue. Some are reckless, headstrong types, while others are treacherous and deceitful, justifying their malign actions any way they can.

So they don't have wings, but they have golden hair, not silver.

Later on the same book there is a table to roll for special appearence for aasimar, including:
- silvery skin
- green-tinted skin
- blue tinted skin
- golden skin
- pointed ears
- ridged ears
- doglike ears
- perfect white teeth
- six fingers per hand (including thumb)
- animal horns on head
- silver or gold finger-nails
- feathered wings
- vestigial wingbones on shoulders
- small feathers rather than hair on 1d10x10% of the body

And some side effects, including:
- sweet, fresh odor surounds body
- surrounded by an aura of calm
- wounds inflicted upon aasimar heal twice as quickly
- Susceptible to fire
- Susceptible to cold
- unholy water inflicts 1d6 points of damage per vial or splash
- can be turned by evil priests

Just some thought about this custom race. Couldn't they have a standard description for CoPaP, and each world could add their own peculiarities?

Mystara, aka Rockhome, used to have a listing and description for each of it's custom classes.. however after an accidental deletion of our forums, we will have to remake it. As for the idea of descriptions of each thing (ie where they are from, not welcome here, there, etc) Some of that info is ok... however, imho, adding things like (killed on sight in avlis) is a bad idea... reason being.. there is no way that a Drow from Hala is going to know that it will be attacked on sight in avlis unless a character tells them. So they very well could waltz into Avlis thinking everything is kosher only to find themselves on the ground bleeding. as for where they are from... take some time to read up on lore in the worlds, look through forums.. a lot of these questions have been answered in the past That is my suggestion unless the teams want to put in that kind of information into their descriptions.