Ruthless Galaxy Race Creation Guidelines

[Darkel]

Note: this page is still under construction. Mods, feel free to add your own contributions.


How To Make An RG Race

Introduction
Hello. This thread was made to help you create a race that will fit in around here. It will improve your skills as a race creator! This thread will provide our rules, guidelines, and some hints, tips, and how-to's for you to go by. I will begin with the basics and work towards details.

Submission
Here is how it works. Simply come up with some creative ideas and compile them in the Race Entry sheet in the Race Entry section. Make a new thread in that section and post the sheet there.

Overpowered Races
Often the most common thing we see, your sheet will most likely be denied off the bat if the race is overpowered (OP). This means, they cannot have some sort of weapon that makes them undefeatable, they cannot have enormous territory, they cannot be unstoppable as creatures themselves. You must add in flaws to even the odds. Also, we used to allow large empires. But we did away with that because they took up too much room on the galaxy map. To make sure we have plenty of room for future stuff, we cannot allow big territories.

Our Rules on Size
When you start, your race can have no more than 15 star systems in its possession. However, this number can increase the longer you stay in RG and participate in the story. But overall, keep the number low and always a 2 digit number. Your race also can have no territory outside of Ravena (other galaxies, universes, etc.), this is because that often causes overpowering. And remember: we're trying to detail Ravena, not everything but Ravena.

Number of Ships/Sizes of Fleets
We do not currently have a specified limit of number of ships. However, we do know what is realistic and what is unrealistic or what is overpowered. Say over 40 capital ships (ships that lead fleets and such) is too much. Try to keep it in the twenties to thirties at the very most. The size of ships is a completely different question. Most ships in RG are enormous. That being said, we don't often calculate how big they are in exact numbers, but simply state something like "it was enormous" or use words like "massive". That being said, you can't just claim that your ship is the biggest and the best, since other ships could easily be a match for your own. It really depends on the empire as a whole. But also remember to be realistic when explaining the size of your ship.

Light Speed, Warp Drive, Etc
We don't use actual calculations for this. Usually in the RP we'll say a character goes into light speed and later they come out, usually us not having specified for how long. Now, you can do this, as long as it's not an immediate thing. Say, you can't just have your ship go into light speed and pop into the destination in a few seconds. It depends on the distance, but usually the standard is about a day to a week for the usual distances. A long journey may take several weeks.

Older Members vs New Members
As your time in RG goes on, your empire will gradually be allowed more territory, weaponry, and such. That being said, older members will have much, much larger empires than yours at first. So, do not whine when this news is brought to you. You will eventually get your time to have a big empire, if you can stay with the club long enough.

Rip-off Races
Inspiration is always a good place to start. Many of RG's greatest races were inspired by the races of video games, television, books, etc. However, when it get to the point that the race is a direct rip-off of the inspired race in question, we immediately reject it without further questions asked. All of RG's races are meant to be strictly original. Challenge yourself and make it your own!

Uniqueness of Your Race
We have had this problem many, many times. Firstly, I will discuss what I call the Uniqueness Factor. In RG, most senior members try hard to make their races stand way out there and be different from all of the others. At times, this can be hard, especially when someone suddenly mentions something about their race you didn't know, that matches your own. Please note that there can in fact be a few races that share a few similarities. For example, you might want to make a race that has the immediate title of "the big scary race". You can have a big, scary race, but you cannot have the big, scary race. If you and your friend happen to discover a very large amount of similarities, sometimes the right thing to do is to come to a compromise and decide (in a respectable way) what gets switched and changed.

EDIT: One new way of resolving this issue is to first post the idea in the Dibs thread. Be sure to read Dib rules before posting.

Copy vs Like
There is a boundary between something being like something else and being exactly something else. Since RG takes place in the galaxy of Ravena, we do not have Earthly animals/creatures/life. Now, you may want to make some form of rat creature. Sure, that's fine. But make sure that your creature is not a definite rat. It can be rat-like, but it can't be a rat. Same goes for everything residing of earth.

The "Feel" of Your Race
Sometimes we just have to deny sheets because they lack a feel to them that fits into RG. This can often be something that is hard to accomplish. To give you an idea of what we're looking for, look at some of the aliens in today's video games. I can easily think of several. Things like Halo, Dead Space, Star Craft, etc. See if you can duplicate the "feel" of some of those races. Often we are forced to reject some sheets due to a certain feel of immaturity to them. Notice that RG is a very mature story and a little fluffy alien that loved everyone will easily get killed. When members make their races display immature factors, to be completely honest, those members lose respect very quickly among the community. It's not any sort of clique thing, it's just that other people do not appreciate their masterpiece collaborative story being intruded upon by those types of things. Furry races are also not allowed.

Regeneration
Regeneration is allowed for your races, but there are certain limits. Limit the pace of regeneration to something slow, and maybe limit it to only a few places in the body, to keep from making your aliens OP. Several of RG's races exhibit regeneration abilities.

Magic
Magic is not allowed in RG. Our races use a great deal of science and logic applied to them and need to be realistic. Therefore, we ask you make your race logical. You don't have to be some science genius, but at least make it as realistic as you can. There are several members of the community that are science experts and could help you apply science to your race if you so desired.

Other Galaxies
Your empire cannot have anything to do with another galaxy (i.e. a galaxy that isn't Ravena). You may find that it adds mystery or a sense of foreignness to your alien empire. In truth, it usually does. But there is so much that comes with it that cannot be allowed in RG except in the most necessary of occasions. Realistically, an empire with the technology to travel across galaxies and colonize them would be eons ahead of the time compared to our standard races. So much so that this foreign race could push a button and watch half the galaxy burn away. Logically, any race with the power and the stability to colonize other galaxies would have that kind of over-powered capability. Such things we cannot allow.

Also, realistically, the race in question would have first colonized their own galaxy before moving on to another. This also drastically increases the over-powered capability. Not only this, but the same race would have no fear of extinction for the rest of their kind lies in a destination far away. They are also capable of calling reinforcements from this other galaxy, creating a never-ending empire and being quite unfair to other players.

You get the picture. It's not a good situation for anyone here at RG. Please do not mention other galaxies when creating your empire. They are not allowed, whatsoever. Your empire cannot have story ties to another galaxy nor can they inhabit one. The only present exception is the Eldraunn Architects race created by administrator Zaroas. This is because of the Eldraunn being a crucial plot element in the core storyline of RG. No other non-Ravena races are allowed.

Info Requirement
Once you have entered a race and had it accepted by a moderator, you must create a thread in our "Race Information" section. This thread should include all the facts collected in your original entry sheet, but should be greatly expanded upon. You may see examples of these threads in that section. The purpose of these info threads are to act as reference to your race's info as well as help you build, develop, and expand your race.


Things you should NEVER EVER DO

- NEVER EVER make a furry race (a race of creatures that are basically humanoid cats or other earthly animals). Furries are STRICTLY forbidden.
- Never blatantly rip off another person's race.
- Never have an attitude equivalent to that which says "my race is stronger than x". You will lose respect very, very quickly.
- Do not make your race extremely isolated and continue to RP as them. It just annoys people and fills the RP with your pointless subplots. To be very frank, after a while nobody will care. Get involved with other people or move the whole thing to the story section. Pic one or the other.
- Do not reference anything relating to Earth, it's history, it's animals, or various man-made products on Earth. (Ex: "coffee", "dog", "eagle", "human", etc.)
- Do not assume your RP is canon if you make one. Only ones which the admins approve become canon.
- DO NOT suggest your race originated from or has territory in a galaxy that is separate from Ravena (the fictitious galaxy that the RP takes place in).