Realism Guide

'Souls is not a fantasy-styled game: the only elements of the Supernatural are addressed in the related guide, and beyond this, most of the other elements that would be considered semi-realistic are relative to our Luperci. Even where it's relative to our Luperci, we have guidelines as to what is and isn't acceptable, and all players must adhere to the realism within 'Souls!

One place where you don't have to worry about realism is the LASKY forum -- you can do whatever you'd like in there, and roleplay your character exactly as you'd like! For canonical roleplay occuring in the regular IC forums, however, you do need to take realism into account!

No one expects you to have research-paper quality citations for every single roleplaying post, but if you want to do something particularly outlandish, you'll have to investigate and do a little bit of research. It's helpful to compile a few links when you research your ideas, as the administration is often made aware of instances of potentially unrealistic roleplay, and we do investigate! Being prepared with an explanation and links are quite appreciated. :) So, how do you roleplay realistically?

First Check...

When evaluating an idea for its realism, you should check a few different places. There are guidelines for specific situations below, but in general, the following ideas can be applied to virtually any question of realism you encounter within 'Souls.

Souls Resources

Firstly, check 'Souls resources. 'Souls offers them for a reason -- you're meant to check back on the RP Guide's Flora and Fauna guide when considering what prey to have your character eat. If something's not addressed in the RP Guide as specifically unrealistic, it's not necessarily forbidden. Much like Wikipedia, there are often further resources and reading on the bottom of each RP Guide page -- check those before you go anywhere else! We've already done some of the basic research for you. ;)

Wikipedia

Second, check Wikipedia. Regardless of whether or not teachers accept it as a valid source, Wikipedia is a great resource that provides quite a lot of basic information. If Wikipedia itself is not enough, the articles often provide sources -- scroll to the bottom of the article and click some links. Chances are, you'll find accredited sources and random web pages alike.

Google

Just google it! Scientists have studied some strange things, and you can find a scientific source for many things -- research papers, scientific journals, or e-zine articles. At worst, you'll find Question and Answer sites -- remember that anyone can provide answers on these sites, and they're not necessarily accredited sources. Many answer sites are also plagued with people bent on providing improper information for a laugh, so try to avoid these sites where possible.

Ask 'Souls!

Ask in the Questions and Help forum if you're really stumped. Chances are, someone will be able to assist you or at least point you in a starting direction for researching. Many are quite willing to evaluate the realism of ideas and can provide a quick, correct response. This option is great when you've determined if your idea is possible within a post-apocalyptic world, but you're not sure if it's something a Luperci would do, or if you're concerned about the idea's relevance to 'Souls in particular. It's helpful if you come to the Questions and Help forum with a bit of your own research already done!

Skill Considerations

If you're trying to determine whether or not it is realistic for a Luperci to engage in a certain behavior or whether they can have a particular skill, you can ask yourself a series of questions to help come to a proper conclusion.

Questions to Ask

• Does it make sense for a wolf to do this?
  Remember that our Luperci are canines at heart -- they don't necessarily enjoy the same things as humans. In some cases, human behaviors may be downright nonsensical for a wolf-brained Luperci. Remember that the Luperci aren't inclined toward extremely advanced topics such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. Their understanding of the world is far less than humans, and they may attribute some human "scientific" discoveries as false, reverting to more basic, primal explanations.
  
  For example, a Luperci capable of reading might pick up literature on germs, and reject said literature for a simpler explanation of "bad spirits" or "bad blood." A simpler example is a Luperci with no horse experience regarding a feral horse -- it doesn't look like a companion first, it looks like dinner! The Luperci who does not know horsemanship and has never encountered a horse with a Luperci rider or leftover human materials describing equestrian pursuits will see a horse as a prey animal.
• Are Luperci phsically capable capable of doing this?
  Some things -- such as wearing boots or human-made clothes without special and extreme tailoring, are simply physically impossible for a Luperci to do. Remember that your Luperci's size may come into play here: a freakishly tall, eight foot Luperci may not be able to safely explore post-apocalyptic ruins as well as a much shorter, lighter canine. The larger Luperci will also be unable to ride a pony and would require a larger horse, if they're seeking a companion horse.


Books are a valid way of learning, but receiving mentorship from a teacher is usually better! errol_51@Flickr.com

• Where did my character get this knowledge?
  Many Luperci can read; skills transferring from one Luperci to another via apprenticeship, spoken word, experimentation, and so forth are valid ways of learning. Magically acquiring a skill is not realistic: Luperci are born knowing how to suckle their mothers for milk and little else, like the modern wolf. Every skill beyond this must be learned. Though wolves are instinctually inclined to hunt, even these basic survival skills are refined by parents in their offspring.
• How advanced is my character's skill level?
  Reading, writing, language-learning, and so forth are skills that often require years of studious apprenticeship and study to master. Older characters have had more time to practice and thus have more experience -- they're almost universally better than the amateur just starting out. Usually, self-taught characters will not be as good as characters with a mentor figure. Natural talent and inclination to engage in a particular skill doesn't mean the character is instantly capable of comprehending everything about that particular skill -- even if the character is naturally good at something, they'll still need time to refine their skills and they should still make mistakes along the way.
• Is it technologically possible for Luperci to do this?
  Some human technologies are simply impossible for Luperci to use: there is no more electricity, and study of such phenomenon would be extremely limited. Canines who studied such extremely advanced techniques are highly unlikely to uproot and move to a relatively "backwater" place such as 'Souls -- they'd stay put and keep practicing their skills! So it's very unlikely a canine would be studying these things in the first place, and canines who do study these things are even less likely to show up at 'Souls.

Character Creation

It's very important to be realistic in the creation of 'Souls characters. Unrealistic characters may be rejected from the game by the administration, so make sure your character is realistic in its development and biography when filling out a character profile.

Questions to Ask

• Does their species make sense for where the character originates?
  Refer to the various species maps for quick reference. We aren't very picky with subspecies, but if a character is of a species not native to that continent (e.g., a Russian coyote, a Mexican dingo, or a Canadian jackal -- or, for wolves, an Iranian wolf from North America) we expect realism in the character's journey to 'Souls, or a reasonable explanation as to how their species survived on North America.
  
  For example, a character might have parents or grandparents who immigrated over from the other continents, or ancestry further back surviving from zoos -- however, note that in the latter case, surviving from a zoo population alone results in either severe inbreeding or hybridization. The descendants of a single pair of coyotes from a Russian zoo in 1988 will have to have reproduced with wolves at some point, or face severe genetic consequences from inbreeding.
• Does their description match their species?
  Another consideration with species is the character's description -- for example, a naturally white jackal or coyote would only occur with albinism or wolf/dog hybridization present. Again, we aren't very picky in this regard, but the character's coloration, size, and so forth should make general sense to their species (subspecies, we're not so worried about).
  
  Where natural character markings are concerned, we're generally lenient about this, to a point -- a black-and-white, zebra-striped character would not be accepted; a brown brindle character with some dog heritage would be accepted. Markings that naturally form a shape or pattern would are sometimes acceptable -- a blotchy black spot in a simple shape would be fine, whereas an intricate webbing pattern would have to be a tattoo.


This guy doesn't look like he's going to pick up swinging a sword anytime soon! just-stocks@deviantART.com

• Does their age match their behavior?
  Think about whether the character's age makes sense for its actions, feelings, and so forth. Refer to the age charts and Puppy Development Guide if necessary. A three month old puppy is just beginning to wander away from the den, and is not capable of surviving on their own. A teenaged one-year-old is not usually world-wise and experienced. Remember that Luperci are born in their four-legged form; they do not begin shifting until six months or later.
• Does their journey time and method make sense?
  For example, a character originating in Russia wouldn't get to 'Souls in two weeks by walking. Refer to the World Travel guide. Further note that there are usually only two boats that come directly to 'Souls per year from Europe -- boats to Freetown are slightly more common. Nevertheless, oceanic travel is not easy for Luperci, and many Luperci simply dislike the idea of spending a long time aboard a boat.
  
  Travel by boat is not only "expensive" in terms of a barter-based Luperci economy -- e.g., characters scrimp and save for most of their lives to afford passage if they do not own or captain their own boats -- but in the worst of scenarios, many Luperci boats sink and the passengers never make it to land! In terms of absolute realism, it makes more sense to have your character from the Western hemisphere, but we're not too strict on this!

Character Companions

There are a few main ideas you must consider when thinking about a NPC companion for your character. Evaluate each of these ideas with regards to your specific NPC animal, and you should be able to come to your own conclusion as to whether or not you can have it as a pet. If you're still not sure and you need clarification, as always, feel free to ask us in the Questions and Help forum.

This is also useful when considering playing a Creature on 'Souls.

Questions to Ask

• Are there precedents for tamed creatures of this sort?
  An easy way to figure out whether your character can have a companion of this nature is whether or not others have done it before you. Look around -- everyone has a horse! :) You, too, can have a horse, if everyone else does! Conversely, no one has ever had a pet Gorilla -- it's likely they would prove too intelligent and uncontrollable as adults.
  
  If you are interested in having a horse NPC, check out our horse guide for more information!
• Do these companions perform a function, and if they don't, how costly are they to capture, raise and tame, as well as keep alive?
  See Three Essential Questions for further information.
• Where did this creature come from? If it is not native to the area where my character acquired it, how did it get to that there?
  If your character is also from the area where the creature is native, you needn't worry about this. Remember, however, that some animals are very difficult to transport -- Luperci would find it hard to haul an elephant across the ocean, after all.
  
  Traders are an oft-used way to obtain animals, but do remember that traders are unlikely to deal in exotic animals with little to no purpose: they would deal with animals in high demand, such as horses, donkeys, livestock animals, domesticated prey, hunting or messenger birds, etc. They have the largest turnover and movement possibility and the greatest profit.
  
  Some animals may have survived due to zoos and human domestication: while this is certainly a possibility, it's important to evaluate whether or not the creature would survive the apocalypse conditions and find creatures of its own species to mate with. A very large pride of lions from a large zoo might be able to survive, but such large zoos are few and far between.


It takes time to train a horse and make it understand what you want it to do! jdan@Flickr.com

• If the animal did not come already broken or trained, did you dedicate IC time and threads to the subject of training the animal?
  This is an important consideration when capturing a native animal: you must dedicate the proper amount of time to the training of the companion before it acts domesticated. Your character simply cannot catch a hawk in a trap and have it flying messages around the next week. Capturing a stallion and riding it around the next day is not possible; these animals take time to break and train.
  
  Some animals also require more skill to train than others. There are also various disciplines of skill: teaching a horse to carry a rider is one thing, pulling a cart is a different skill, and charging into war is another thing entirely. Taming a horse does not necessitate that the horse will do everything you ask of it: it may balk when ridden toward an enemy Luperci, or it may find horseback hunting too stressful!
• Will the animal be controllable when it is grown?
  It's perfectly plausible to think a Luperci might be able to obtain a lion cub for an extremely high price in the northernmost cities of Africa as a rarity and a commodity, but if your Luperci had visited the area, they might have noticed none of the locals with adult pet lions, and perhaps even the snickers as they paid for their new pet. Why? Well, when the lion grows up and weighs anywhere from 330 - 550 lbs (150 - 250 kg) as an adult male and just a touch less as an adult female, it's very possible your Luperci will end up killed by their new pet!
  
  Cats are capable of understanding and speaking High Speech in particular, though the feline dialect is different from the canine one, and they may not like being treated as a pet so much. Cultivating a friendship with these creatures is possible, but even then it's a danger, as the adult members of these species would be able to overpower a even a Luperci, and they would likely be regarded as a danger to other canines.
• How difficult is it to capture one of these animals?
  If they are abundant and not very dangerous, they should be relatively easy to capture. Rare animals that are also dangerous would be very difficult to capture, especially alive! Again, younger animals should be easier to capture than adults, but they require time and patience to train and be allowed to grow.

Three Essential Questions

These are three essential questions you should ask yourself -- in detail -- when evaluating whether it's likely for your character to have a companion. It might be awesome for your character to pick up an Eclectus Parrot, sure -- but even though these parrots are frequently kept in captivity and gained their popularity in the 1980s, they're not very "functional" pets.

By this, we mean that they perform no task other than sitting and looking pretty -- they're incapable of hunting, don't assist with many Luperci tasks, and would be difficult to keep alive in many climates, as they are exotic or tropical or otherwise not adapated to surviving without special care by Luperci. The cost of keeping them is high, at little benefit to the Luperci: therefore, it's highly unlikely Luperci would keep these animals as pets, and even more rare for these animals to be transported out of their native habitats and across great distances.

Rarity

Check the creature's Wikipedia page -- you should be able to see in the sidebar where the animal stands on the IUCN Red List Endangered Species scale:

• Extinct: These creatures are no longer present in the wild or in zoos. You may not keep these characters as NPC companions or play them as creatures.
• Extinct in the Wild: These creatures are no longer present in the wild, but may exist in zoos and breeding facilities. You may not keep these characters as NPC companions or play them as creatures.
• Critically Endangered: This species has an extremely low population and is very likely to become extinct. It is unlikely a canine would be able to have a pet in this standing as a companion, but it may be allowed with a backstory plausibly and thoroughly explaining the creature's existence.
• Endangered: These creatures are clearly threatened with low population and faces a high risk of extinction in the near future. It is likely a creature in this status would be difficult for a Luperci to obtain as a companion.
• Vulnerable: These animals are becoming threatened and stand a risk of becoming extinct in the medium future. It is likely a creature in this status can be kept as a companion, but stocks of these creatures may not be commonplace.
• Near Threatened: These animals may become threatened in the distant future. It is likely a creature in this status can be be kept as a companion.
• Least Concern: This species has no immediate threats to its survival and is likely to be kept as a companion or played as a creature, other concerns nonwithstanding.

Checking out where your desired companion animal stands on this scale is a great way to determine just how hard it would be to find in the wild. Duly note, however, that the 1988 standing of the creature is the most important. If a creature was reintroduced in the wild after 1988, then it's even more unlikely that the species would still be alive today: at most, it would exist in hybridized form, if it was capable of interbreeding with a closely related species.

Raising & Taming

Generally, Luperci will want to capture young animals and raise them by hand -- adults are more difficult to tame, generally, and even when tamed may retain some of their wilder behaviors. You will want to evaluate just how difficult it is to raise these animals -- their diet, especially if it undergoes various changes from childhood to adolescence to adulthood to provide maximum nutrition, may require special care.

Additionally, you must evaluate how easy it is to tame your desired companion animal. Look for a human precedent: if people were able to tame the animals, Luperci may also be able to do this. It is important to remember, however, that some animals viewed humans as prey and others as predators: the same could easily be said for Luperci, and the perceptions may be different. Domesticated horses, for example, don't perceive humans as a threat, but they may think of Luperci that way -- and, as aforementioned, a Luperci who has no experience with horses might look at one and think about dinner!

Keeping it Alive

Another major consideration is how easy the creature is to keep alive. For example: a desert-living lizard would find Nova Scotia's winters quite cold, and without a heat source, would be very likely to die out over the winter. Another example is a bird with a very specific diet of worms and grubs -- if the grubs aren't obtainable in Nova Scotia, is it possible for the bird to survive on a different diet?

Still another example is whether or not the animal is an animal that would be perceived to be a threat to the other canines in 'Souls -- if it's a large bear companion, other Luperci may attack it if it gets too close, even if it's perfectly friendly! Note that no character in 'Souls could actually harm your NPC without your permission, of course -- you'd have to be present in the thread and the player can't powerplay your NPC any more than they can powerplay your character, but it is something to think about for plausibility's sake!

Setting

Territory Creation

Occasionally, 'Souls itself has a "create-a-territory" contest wherein new In Character territories are opened to the public. The 'Souls Assemblage evaluates all entries for these contests for realism, of course, but there are quite a few things you can do to make sure your territory descriptions are realistic before you submit them for contests! Ask yourself the following questions to make sure your territory is realistic.

Questions to Ask

• Does the territory make sense for Nova Scotia's geography, climate, and population?
  Check the Nova Scotia page on the RP Guide for information regarding all of these subjects. Halifax is the largest city in Nova Scotia, so it doesn't make much sense for another, much-larger city to "sprout up" elsewhere. Nova Scotia doesn't have any large mountain ranges (excepting the fictional Halcyon Mountains) or desert territory, nor would it have tundra or jungle regions. Such territories wouldn't be so realistic for our playable area!


Look to Gary, Indiana for inspiration as to how 'Souls might look! rickharris@flickr.com

• Does the territory reflect the 20 years of non-maintenance occurring after the apocalypse?
  Check the Post-Apocalypse guide for an idea of how just things would look so long after humanity's demise. It's a good idea to make sure to describe human areas of your territory as dilapidated or decaying, and it's important to avoid giving an appearance of pristine conditioning. After some time and effort, Luperci can of course make things look better, but this does take some time, and it should be fun to roleplay, too!
• Does the territory's animal species make sense?
  Some players like to mention the inhabitant non-canine species when describing their territories -- e.g., seals along the coast or a particular species of owl that is dominant within that territory. Some players even like to describe the tree and plant life within their territories, which is great and can add an extra layer of description to your territory.
  
  Make sure the creatures and plant species you pick are realistic to 'Souls -- check the Flora and Fauna guide for further information. It's not very realistic for a New Zealand-native parrot species to inhabit the 'Souls territory, nor would one find peyote cactus growing naturally within Nova Scotia -- both would have to be imports specifically cultured and cared for by Luperci! See the section on Character Companions for realism where these things are concerned.

Thread Starting

Adhering to the setting of the game is especially important. 'Souls already has a playable area and a specific description for much of this. If you have a small, random idea for a thread setting -- such as a particular hill; a old, forgotten burial plot in the woods; a particular stand of trees -- feel free to include it if it makes sense for the surrounding! Roleplaying in what seems to be a strange area not a part of 'Souls -- e.g., referencing your character trudging though desert sands and passing cactus trees -- isn't realistic! Unrealistic starter posts can result in your thread partner having a very difficult time formulating a reply.

Questions to Ask

• Does the weather make sense for the time of year it is?
  Blizzards don't happen in summer, and sweltering hot days in the midst of winter are unlikely. You can follow the @halifaxweather Twitter account for updates, but you needn't remain exactly adherent to the weather stated therein.
• Is it realistic for your thread partner to show up in the area you intend?
  For example, if you start a thread within Anathema, deep within the cave system, but it's intended for a character outside of the pack, you're putting your thread partner in an extremely awkward situation -- their character has to trespass deep into Anathema's territory to meet up with your character in the first place, which is actually against the rules of the game!
  
  In other, less-extreme cases, it just doesn't make sense for a character to be in a certain spot: e.g., for Inferni packmates Coyote and Jackal, Coyote might be hanging out in his private cave. Jackal looks like kind of a jerk walking into Coyote's cave uninvited, unless Jackal's player writes a boring, uninspired post about Jackal beckoning to come in. It's not strictly unrealistic for Jackal to barge in on Coyote's cave, but it does put the player in an awkward spot and might be avoided.