Holgarde RPG Sign Up

There's no magic. Things that we would say are magic (potions, weapon elements) are implied to work through science.
Some things from in-game have been taken out though, like instant pitfall traps and farcasters.

The world is still being explored by land and sea. Most of the known world is a continent (the approximate size of which will not be specified).

The guild coordinates almost all monster hunting. The guild is present almost everywhere in the word. The guild also acts as the police (guild knights are policemen).

Blue suit guild knights are lower rank. Red suits are higher rank. Green is medical. Any other colors have not been decided (by the moderators).

Governments vary from place to place, such as monarchy, democracy, etc. etc. etc. The guild is kind of a world wide government, having more or less power in certain places.
Religion varies from place to place.
How "good" or "bad" the world is varies from place to place.

Elder dragons are EXTREMELY rare. There is probably only a single digit count of each of them, if they're not one of a kind (it's unknown). The big ones are likely one of a kind.
Sightings of the elder dragons are extremely rare as well. It's like a small historical event when it happens.

Monster Hunters almost always work in teams. The only (safe) reason a hunter would go solo is if he's on a very easy job (even then, though).
Monster Hunters are a very small part of the population. They make significantly above average pay, especially the higher rank ones.
Monster Hunters often times get around from town to town by escorting caravans (getting paid to do so).
Monster Hunters are like mercenaries. They're not obligated to take jobs, but they do need to be registered as hunters and such.

Wyverians are a very small part of the population. They can live for hundreds of years, but a thousand is when they're considered "old."
Most are about human height, but once they start to pass the century they start to shrink and wrinkle.
Giant Wyverians exist (like the one seen in MHFO), but they're extremely rare.
Wyverians naturally have longer ears.

Felyne have equal rights to humans. They live about as long too.
There are significantly less Felyne monster hunters, just due to human's being more physically up to the job.
Felyne don't serve as "comrades" like they do in game. They would be hunters like humans, just Felyne.
Racism varies from place to place (and person to person).

Monster Hunters need to register with a town/city before they can take quests from it. This is usually done somewhere in the gathering hall.
If they're going from town to town and happen to come back to a town, they'll need to re-register.
This helps the guild keep track of its hunters, for various purposes.
Hunters should have a guild card with their general information, with stamps from the town's they've been to.

HR (Hero/Hunter rank) is not done like it is in game.
How exactly it is done we're not really specifying. We'll generally refer to hunters as lower, medium, and higher rank, and then maybe extremely high rank.

Towns often times call on one another to lend each other hunters when needed, generally when a large monster has come their way.

You often times don't need to hunt multiple large monsters just to make one equipment set from it. Because they're large, they generally have enough materials.

Things like Japanese, African or Spanish do not exist. Those are real world things.
If you want to copy something like an African dish, that's fine, just don't refer to it as African. You could let us (the players) know that it's based off of something African though, out of character.

Old Wyverian is like Latin. Many of the current languages get their roots from this language. It's not really used any more, except for things like ceremony or naming weapons (if the smith likes to do that).
Lynian is a language of Felyne's. Human's could try to speak it, however many parts would be very difficult because of biological differences.

There are many other languages, just like there are in the real world.

All races usually have last names.

Armor spheres or improve spheres don't exist.

(A town is larger than a village but smaller than a city.)

Holgarde Region
A small region named after the Holgarde mountain range running through most of the land. There are four main settlements within the region, with more of very small population (around twenty) scattered around.

Holgarde Mountain Range
A mountain range that runs through most of the Holgarde Region from north to south. Because of how mountains sometimes are, the west side receives an increased amount of rainfall, and the east side is robbed in balance. This is to the point where most of what is to the east is desert and most of what is to the west is rain forest.
Numerous caves were discovered throughout the mountains that, in combination, allowed easier travel from the west side to the east side. Work has been done on these caves, and the areas between them, to make them more suitable for travel.

Doga Desert
A primarily sand desert to the east of the Holgarde Mountain Range, brought into existence by the precipitation blocked by the mountains.

Donoto Village (Think D for Desert)
A village on the east side of the mountain system, where the land is mostly barren desert. Because the skies are normally void of clouds, the days are burning and the nights are freezing. People’s clothing is either thick or thin, rarely in between.
On the other side of the Doga desert to the east are other towns closer to the rest of the world. Many technological advancements are passed over from the distant towns to Donoto, such as the recently invented air and sand ships.
The farming land is closer to the mountains where the soil is more suitable. Some lakes are nearby as well for irrigation.
This was the first founded settlement in the region, acting as a checkpoint during exploration, growing overtime.

Sontruma Town (Think S for South)
Located at the southern tail end of the mountain range. Because there is no surplus or deficiency of rainfall, the climate and environment is standard. The town is moderately mountainous in some parts.
Founded second among the settlementss in the region, as exploration went around the mountains.
Sontruma has the highest population out of the four settlements, however land area is uncertain compared to Rulbo (discussed below).
It also has access to each of the other main settlements, receiving the best of all trading. The others’’ influences are evident, with airships from Donoto and foreign crops and medical advancements from Rulbo.
These factors combined lead to the creation of an arena, where captured monsters are used for various kinds of entertainment, and also sometimes monster hunter training. Monsters from the other three settlements are often brought here, if they can survive the different climate.

Rulbo Town (Think R for Rain forest)
A town on the west side of the mountain system, where there is primarily rain forests and jungles.
Because of the larger availability and variation of vegetation, and also insects, the town excels medically. It also has a large amount of farming activity, and the farming land makes up the majority of the town’s land. Much of the crops are surplus and exported. Wood is often exported to Metke as well.
This town was founded third out of the four in the region, as exploration continued around and up the mountain range.

Metke Village
A village situated on the high side of a mountain in the range. From proper vantage points and when the skies are clear, other settlements in the region can be spotted.
Because of the altitude, temperatures are often freezing and snow and ice are never in shortage. Warmth is not hard to find either, however. The buildings are insulated and heated well, and thick animal hides are a major portion of people’s attire.
Further down the mountain, where the temperatures are more standard, is the villages’s farming land. Some travel is required to get here, but its only a few hours by any means. A small collection of people live down here. Some people consider the farming land it’s own village.
Snow and ice are main exports, plus thicker hides from monsters only in snowy areas (particularly to Donoto).
The village was founded after it was discovered that the caves throughout the mountains allowed easier travel from one side to the other. It was meant to be a checkpoint between Donoto and Rulbo, however travel to Sontruma is possible from Metke.
Traveling from Donoto to Rulbo is quicker through Metke than through Sontruma.
Despite being connected to all three of the other main settlements, Metke is less influenced by its neighbors than Sontruma. This is supposedly because of its smaller size and extreme climate.

Fancier map done by Jeffman:

This message would have been delivered by bird to each of the other three main settlements.
"Sontruma Town - URGENT
All of the arena monsters have been released into the city. Requesting immediate assistance and supplies.
Known monsters include: Azure Rathalos, Blue Yian Kut Ku, unknown number and types of alpha raptors, unknown number and types of pack raptors.
Statuses of local monster hunters are unknown."

This RPG will be completely free form (not even the stats that were going to be used in the first start).
Characters will still have inherent strengths and weaknesses (discussed later).
The general rule is; you can try to do anything, but the moderator posts the results.
Doing menial things like eating food you do not need us to moderate.
We (the moderators) will be mostly realistic with how we moderate. Mostly, because this is monster hunter. Think of how things would go down in real life, and that's about what will happen.

You can die in this RPG.
We (the moderators) will try to kill you when the time comes. This does not mean we are going to make it an objective of ours to kill you. The chance of your character dying will be proportional to the threat at hand.
We will try to give you an idea of how dangerous something is through description. Your own discretion should help with this.
Players can kill one another, if it comes down to it. Players can also get each other killed (waking up a Rathian as you steal her eggs).
If you're reasonably careful with things, you should be alright. We just don't want to have to go out of our way to keep a character alive if he really should be killed, no matter how careful he was.
If you really don't want a character to die, you're better off not taking the risk and not using them.
All of this also applies to permanent damage like losing fingers, limbs, eyes, etc.

There will be violence, but probably nothing extremely gory.
There will probably be some swears thrown around, and some unkindness in general.
Players are aloud to be unkind to one another in character (not out). If one of the players becomes significantly upset, however, the unkindness will need to stop.

You are to pick one of the four main settlements for your character to be from.
This does not mean that your character has to have been born and raised in the settlement, nor lived there most of their life.
This is just where you character was when the quest was sent out. However if you'd like to have it be more involved with their life (home town, been there some years, etc.) feel free to do so.
Being from Sontruma (the town where the quest will be taking place) is allowed, however some discussion with the moderators will be required.

Your character should have at least some monster hunter in them, as there will be monster hunting like we're all used to.
However, you can deviate from the straight up monster hunter. Roles like guild knight (police officer), bounty hunter, ninja, thieves, etc. should have a place in this RPG.
Some discussion with the moderators may be required for certain jobs (like guild knight).
We're going to try and build the RPG around the player characters we get. Again though, you should have at least some monster hunter in your character.

Regarding the monster hunter part of your character, you'll be around medium rank. This means stuff below things like Naruga Karuga, Rath', Blos', Lagiacrus, etc.

What I need to know about your character is the following:

Name: First and last.
Gender: Male or female.
Race: Human, Felyne (Melynx), or Wyverian
Age: Relative works (early twenties), however specific (exact number) is fine too.
Height: The same idea as age.

Build: Body type, what your hunter is made for. This should have inherent strengths and weaknesses (if not balanced so that there are no specific weaknesses). Over all it should be a positive result (as opposed to neutral).
Height should be taken into account with build.
Some factors to think about are strength, durability, and agility.

Other Physical Descriptions: Stuff like beards, skin color, hair styles, hair color, etc. etc. etc.

Goal(s): Stuff your character wants to accomplish in life.
As said earlier, we're going to try and build the RPG around the player characters we get, which includes trying to see their goals through.
Try to keep it reasonable though. Things like "slay elder dragons" aren't going to get much attention.

There's more.

Fairly self explanatory. A history of your character's life.
This should have influence on your character's goals. Something to think about is how your character got into monster hunting.
Though you don't have to, you may want to incorporate which settlement you chose.

If we see something about your story we're not okay with (father killed Fatalis, you killed an army) we will say so and it will need to be corrected.
Having killed any of the monsters above you ('Rath, 'Blos,, Naruga, etc.) or anything on par with such is not allowed.
No having soloed monsters, unless the monster in question was severely under classed (like Velocidrome).
No having any involvement (fought, materials) from elder dragons (or things of similar caliber, like Akantor or Shan Gaoren). This is because of their extreme rareness.

What armor and weaponry your character has.
You are limited to medium rank monsters for the materials you can have things made of. Things BELOW things like Rath', Naruga, Uragaan, Lagiacrus, etc. etc.
No ancient weapons either. Guild knight armor is only allowed if you are a guild knight.

Custom equipment is fine. This could mean just a custom generic weapon (Yian Kut Ku longsword), or it could mean a non-generic weapon type (chain and weights). Armor as well.
Keep it reasonable, however.
If we think that a weapon is not going to be very effective (from in-game or custom), we'll let you know. Basically if it's going to be extremely impractical (with leeway, because this is monster hunter).

Felyne equipment is presumed to be scaled down to their size UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE.
In the case of Felyne armor, if applicable, please specify whether it is a scaled down version of human armor or Felyne armor (head and torso, P3 mostly).

If applicable, please specify gunner or blade master armor. Mix and matching is fine, and it doesn't have to match up with your weapon (gunner armor with melee, etc.).
Also, if you want a modified version of in-game armor (or weapons even), please specify these differences.

You can take multiple weapons, however you should feasibly be able to carry everything you have. This deeply takes body type into account, and also your armor.
Something like six short swords is probably okay. Something like two great swords probably is not.
If you take a considerable amount of weapons, things like speed and agility will likely suffer. Heavier weapons like great sword, hammer, hunting horn, lance, will certainly slow you down.
Again, take into account body type, also armor (less so than body type).

It's assumed that everyone has a hunter's knife.
Feel free to specify what your hunter's knife is like. If you do not, it will be assumed to be like a real life hunting knife (google).

Cosmetic items like blood rags, water, whetstones, rations, compasses, potions, etc. you are assumed to have, and you don't need to bother listing (but you can if you wish).
It's significant impact items that I want you to list. For example, flash bombs, smoke bombs, binoculars, stun traps, ropes, throwing knives. Gunners should list ammunition types (only take a few), and archers should list arrow types (not just coatings).
This is so that people don't pull items out of their rears when it's convenient for them. If you are unsure if you should list an item, just list it.
You do not need to bother listing how many of an item you have, like x5 or x20. I'm not going to be keeping track.
However, if you spam flash bombs, or just repeatedly throw knives, you will run out. The same applies to powerful ammunition like clust or crag.
If you take a ludicrous amount of items, your agility may suffer (again, keep body type in mind).

No automatic pitfall trap makers like those seen in game. No farcasters. If you want to carry around a large barrel bomb like those in game, it will be a lot of work, very dangerous, and probably not worth it.
Paitballs are basically flares that stick to the monster and have a very noticeable smell.

Name:
Gender:
Race:
Age:
Height:
Build:
Other Physical Descriptions:
Armor:
Weapons:
Significant Items:
Goal(s):
Back-story:

Shock traps are allowed though. They're basically suped up tasers (see how they work for a better understanding). The monster needs to step on the disc directly though. The trap can be disengaged and reset if desired. A human will be affected much worse than just stunned if they step on it. The disc can be recharged back in the city, however it may need physical repair after being stepped on by a monster.

Name: David Woods
Gender: Male.
Race: Mountainous (Pale White).
Age: Early-Mid Twenties.
Height: A little over six feet.
Build: Large amount of lean muscle. More than the average monster hunter, but not absolutely massive. Favors strength.
Other Physical Descriptions: Straight, long black hair. Usually tied off at the end so that it drops and covers ears.
Thick but well kept full beard and mustache.
Various scars and callouses (not unusual).

Armor: Urukususu (Snow-bunny from MHP3). Has an open’able face mask (leaving the eyes) and removable insulated goggles.
Large Blangonga hide cloak with hood. Fits over the rest of his armor, down to his feet, but can be worn like a cape and rolled up so it doesn’t drag (has a few straps on it).

Weapons: Blangonga Longswod (Metal, wide blade, raw). Slung over back with quick release harnesses (not in’game sheath) outside of cloak..
Warsword (like a Chinese Warsword). Two handed but usable with one hand. Harnessed at the hip (right side) underneath cloak.
Large knife with basket guard. Sheathed at left shoulder outside of the cloak (attached to longsword harnesses).
Standard hunter’s knife at back waist underneath cloak.

Significant Items: Blood rags, whetstones, sharpening fluid, compass, clothesline rope, rations, potion canteen, water canteen, hot/cold drink canteen, all in one utensils (Swiss army knife like), goggles, gauze roll, whistle, kindling, flint, steel, fire starters.

Goal(s): Be as “great” of a monster hunter as possible (complete lots of quests, kill large monsters, serve the greater good).
Find a woman to have a kid or kids with.

Backstory: Born and raised in Metke, but he has gone to the other towns many times (few times a year, at least).
Besides that, he feels a particular connection to the town because one of his forefathers helped in settling the town. Being used to the climate (and not used to the others) helps too.

He is the latest in a relatively short line of hunters (a few generations). He intents to continue this line of hunters with at least one son, which is his primary motivation for finding a woman.

He was raised basically from the start to become a monster hunter, primarily by his father but also by others. As an only child, he got a lot of attention and developed very nicely into a monster hunter. The theory of only children having spoiled mentality has proven at least somewhat true with him.

He’s also a little bit of an elitist, because of his upbringing, but he keeps it under wraps for the most part.

Otherwise, he’s usually very down to business and dedicated to his job, if not a little obsessed. His morals are pretty straight, though he may be a little cold.

Name: Jack Dragos
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Age: Mid-Thirties
Height: 6'4"
Build: Muscular, built more like a tank than a man
Other physical descriptions: Short brown hair, blue eyes. Large, wicked scar running from his left shoulder to right hip. Tanned complexion.

Armor: (Gah, rank restrictions really kills the choices for desert players. Feck it.) Hunter's Armor
Misc Clothing: Basic hunter's garb, thin cloak to keep the sun off him
Weapons: Ravager Blade
Kukri

Significant Items: Whetstones, compass, cloak, canteen, collapsible tent

Goals: To shed monster's blood in exchange for money

Backstory: A previously-violent person, who has been arrested for assault at least twice. It was suggested years ago that he take up monster hunting to vent himself, and it has worked well. Whenever he gets frustrated (which is semi-often), he walks into the desert for a few hours. When he comes back, the population of the area has decreased quite a bit, slain Cephalos and Genprey bleeding in the sand.

His weapons reflect his fighting style: Slow, powerful, and with the intent on causing as much pain as physically possible. The teeth on Ravager serve only to fulfill that purpose.

Surprisingly, is very hard to actually annoy.