New Player Guide

Welcome to Midnight City Chronicles! You might be looking at all these pages and feeling a bit overwhelmed at all the information. This guide will walk you through the basics of the game and give you a good foundation to create your first character and start playing.

What is Midnight City Chronicles?

Midnight City Chronicles is a live/realtime play-by-chat RPG played over Discord. This game is intended for an 18+ community and takes influences from classic cyberpunk media like Neuromancer and The Matrix, video games like Final Fantasy VII and Deus Ex, tabletop games like Shadowrun and Vampire: the Masquerade, and more. It is set in a dystopian cyberpunk/fantasy world, where technology and magic exist side by side. Specifically, it is set in the Midnight City Free State, a sprawling metropolis in the Pacific Northwest. It's a city full of crime, corruption, adventure, and opportunity. You create an original character, throw them into this world, and RP their exploits as they climb the ladder from a nobody to a legend.

Characters have stats, skills, classes, experience points, and so on that determine what the limits of their abilities are, and can level up to improve their abilities and get new gear. Consider Midnight City Chronicles like a tabletop RPG (Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, etc.) but played over Discord.

Midnight City Chronicles offers both freeform (no dice) and moderated (dice) roleplaying. Freeform RP is available 24/7 - you just hop into the chat room and go, and don't need to wait for a GM to show up. Moderated RP occurs at scheduled times, where the GMs (Game Masters) step in and run events for the players to participate in.

Midnight City Chronicles is a jump in/jump out type of game. There are no requirements for activity. You are not obligated to show up or participate in every event that happens in game. If you're not a fan of dice, you can hang around and just RP freeform. Or if you're only a fan of quests and duels, you can just show up when it's time for an event. This game is a big sandbox and ultimately everyone can play in a way that suits them as long as it's within the rules.

How do I make a character?

First, read through our Community Rules and Roleplaying Rules.

To start creating a character, you'll need to know your character's Species (what they are) and Class (what they can do).

You'll notice on both the Species and Class descriptions that they mention stats, which define your character's physical attributes -- how strong they are, how fast they are, how well they can take a punch or control magic. To learn more about stats and what they represent, check out the Stats page.

When it comes to your character's background, we allow people to figure things out as they play. You can edit and add to the background at any point, and you can even leave it blank to begin with. You can create a character who is from Midnight City, you can create a character from any of the nations of the world, but you can also create a character who appeared in this world through a Nexus Gate (portal) which means you can adapt any of your existing original RP characters to this setting. If you need some guidance figuring out what kind of character you want to make, check out our Character Creation Guide.

We have a lot of lore on the site, but not all of it is mandatory. The recommended reads are: World Overview, City Overview, and if you are playing a character from any of the other places in the world, Nations. The rest of the pages you can peruse at your leisure.

Once you've figured out the basics of your character, head on over to the Create Profile page and sign up.

All new characters start at level 1 with ₾750 that can be spent in the shops on weapons, armour, items, or other equipment.

How do I play?

Midnight City Chronicles is played through Discord, so you'll need to join our server. You can either download the Discord app on your computer or phone, or you can just use the web client and not have to download anything at all. Never used Discord before? We have a short guide you can read here.

You'll see that our server has a few channels: #ooc-chat, #ic-chat, #quests, and #duels.

#ooc-chat should be obvious: it's for all out of character chatting. Shoot the shit with your fellow players or ask questions of the GMs.

#ic-chat is where all the freeform RP happens. You can jump in and start playing here. Most of the RP will be located in the roughest area of Midnight City known as the Zone. You can read more about it on the City Overview page. A good place to start would be to have your character pop into Lucky Sevens, the local watering hole, where they can easily mingle with other characters. Freeform RP is yours to play as you see fit, within the bounds of the rules. You can play personal stories with your buddies, jump into whatever action is going on in the city, or even write out some solo character development if you feel like it. The world of Midnight City is living and breathing and you can jump in and out whenever you like. Scenes are played live/realtime, meaning that if a player leaves it is treated as if their character has left also; scenes aren't picked up again later as though no time has passed.

As far as roleplaying style goes, we ask that everyone roleplay in 3rd person. Past or present tense doesn't matter, though GMs default to present tense. There is no mandatory word count, though we do ask that you try to keep your individual posts under 2 paragraphs (approx. 4 sentences per paragraph) because maintaining the pace and flow is important in a live game. Posting faster means scenes move along faster. We're not asking for the works of Shakespeare - as long as we can all understand what each person is writing, we're golden.

#quests is where the GMs run quests, which are basically like D&D sessions. They make full use of characters' stats. Quests allow you to gain experience points and money for your character.

#duels is where the GMs run duels, which are fights between player characters - sometimes friendly competition, and sometimes settling a score. Other characters can place bets on these duels. NOTE: Duels are still in development and their rules are not formalized yet.

How do I level up my character?

Characters level up and get stronger by gaining experience points, and get new gear and spells by earning money. There are a few different ways to gain experience and money.

-     participate in Quests

-     participate in Duels

-     engage in Downtime activities that meet requirements to be awarded EXP or money

Once your character earns enough EXP, they will reach the next level and get an increase to their stats. See the Experience & Levelling page for more information.

Quests and duels make full use of the Game System - stats, skills, items, dice rolls, and so forth.

What else should I know?

There is a lot more you can do in Midnight City, but not all of it may be applicable to your character.

Characters may form Crews, which are player-run gangs/factions that work together to earn money and gain territory. Crews may come into conflict with each other as they compete for territory.

Characters can also join pre-established Groups that are managed by the GMs, such as the Paladins, Wayfarers, or Azure Union.

[Hacking, Crafting, Heists, Enchanting TBA]

Beyond all that, you can always run any ideas past the GMs. We're always looking for ways to help players get the most out of the game and will work with you to make sure things are fun and fair.

That should give you enough information to start playing, but remember that if you have any questions or need any help with anything, don't hesitate to ask a GM!