Dragonball Zensou Ad

[Aqua]

As per Rad's approval over AIM, I'm getting a chance to advertise my RPG to the members of Chubbs.

Just like Chubbs, Dragonball Zensou (Zensou Homepage Link) is a DBZ based role playing game where you get your rewards based on your writing. The time line is set up such that everything that takes place in the RPG is pre-dragonball. However, some of the main cannon characters are still present as NPCs (King Vegeta, Frieza, Guru, Kami, etc). The basic premise is that through your custom character (and all characters must be custom) you can alter the original time line of Dragonball.

For example, the current saga is determining who will be the next guardian of Earth. According to what we learned in the show, ?Kami? should beat out Garlic Sr. for the position. However, in this RPG, the PCs can directly effect (and possibly change) the story line of the show into our own unique story line. So we might very well end up with Garlic as the next guardian. Or perhaps the side of good will step up and put that DBZ's Kami in his original position. Or maybe a PC might even snag the position for him/ herself. There's no telling, and that's half the fun.

Another aspect of Zensou that I find particularly appealing is the way we mod threads. There we have a general concept of the game giving rewards based on work. Under that concept, we've determined work =quality + length. As such, we have the various types of threads broken down such that the different difficulty threads yield different boosts in accordance to said difficulty. Then, staff ?mods? the thread with an F-A grade. That grade determines the multiplier which we then apply to your characters (letters) typed in your finished thread. So, if you get an ?A? grade on a personal thread, we'd take the letters you've typed and multiple that sum by 0.2. The result would be added to your current PL and there's your reward. The reason we feel this is so great is because when you look at the rankings and see someone ranked above you, you KNOW they put more work into their character than you because they got their boosts based on a combination of quality and quantity. Because, after all, good writing is all good and fine, but someone who writes equally good and twice as much deserves twice the boosts. Sadly, we don't have the kind of coding prowess that Chubbs possesses, so modding threads is a more involved process for the staff there than it is here.

Zensou also takes a slightly different approach to role play. We do NOT allow the RPers to take control of other people's characters. That is to say, you are (in an interactive thread) only allowed to write what your character says, does, and thinks. You can never say you hit someone, or determine how another PC reacts to something you've done. The exception to this, of course, would be personal NPCs that are there for RP fodder only. From the off-set this seems like it would make creating lengthy posts rather difficult, but all it really does is focus on the development of your own character. It really puts an emphasis on inner dialog and self-reflection such that you are forced to consider why your character is doing the things he/ she is doing.

We offer a move learning system in which you can learn a new move every four days (unless you are human, than it is every two days). We also allow for people to create as many custom moves (within the context of staff approval) as they desire. We simply require that the player learn two board moves before suggesting/ learning another custom. Within that, we also have a very unique custom weapon system that I think differentiates us from many other DBZ sites. There are various quest-able levels for every weapon that increase the damage your weapon can do. Also, we have master systems in which your character can master a specific facet of fighting (ki, melee, speed, int, or a balance style of all these) or of weapon usage.

All in all, we take pride in the quality of work produced on Zensou and I know of many great RPers here at Chubbs who might enjoy themselves if they Rped there in their spare time. I would like to point out that our threads, due to the typical length of most of our players' works, take a little longer to finish than most sites. Thus, the general pace of the site is much slower than Chubbs. This could be a positive or negative aspect depending on your perspective.

Also, our use of stats tends to scare many newcomers. First, we have the stats so that we can stray away from the style of RPing other people characters because we believe that if you have a strong statistical reference, you can RP more accurately and don't need to take over a person's creation to progress the storyline a sufficient amount. Also, it is not required that you calculate stats after every post unless in a death match or saga situation. In personal threads, general fights, spars, NPC trainings, and move learning threads there is no need to sit down and crunch numbers. Further, it looks a lot more difficult than it is. Basically, you have your moves that do damage and have a certain cost to execute. When they do damage, it is subtracted from your opponent's HL, and when you execute the move the cost is subtracted from your ki bar (typically set at 100). It's all a matter of switching your perspective a bit as I had to do when I first started here. We just think that, contrary to popular belief, strong statistical reference increases creativity rather than limits it. I reference our move list as a simple example of this.

Though, let me also say I equally enjoy the style here at Chubbs where you are allowed, on occasion, to write what another character says or does. It gives you a chance to use some creativity, get to know other characters better, and interact on a different level. I'm not saying one is better than the other by any means, I just thought it would be important to point out the distinction for any who may be interested in joining.

I know many of you are very busy with other RPGs and real life, but I would love if any of you, in your spare time or otherwise, could find the time to come and role play with the community of Dragonball Zensou. As I said, there is a saga that just started that will determine the current guardian of Earth. Anyone can still enter. Another thing our site lacks is ooc activity. I feel like we have a bunch of serious writers who could use some people with a good sense of community humor to loosen them up. That's what makes Chubbs so great in my opinion, the sense of community.

Anyway, this post is already far too long. If any of you have general questions, feel free to post them here, on the questions board at Zensou, in a PM, or over aim. I'm also open to suggestions on how we might improve the site. We're pretty good in the way of systematic qualms (unless you just notice a friggin' huge loop hole we've over looked), but storyline suggestions are always nice.

Thanks guys for taking the time to read this post. Thanks to those who'll join and help us make the site better. And thanks Rad for letting me advertise.

-Roo: Co-Admin of Dragonball Zensou
Zensou Homepage Link

PS: Rad said that I could only post this here if someone from Chubbs were allowed to post a similar ad on Zensou. However it is that wants to do that, you can contact me and I can give you the link... or you can find it yourself. Whichever you prefer. Also, I told him I wanted to add chubbs to our affiliate bar, but he said he wasn't certain that the site had an affiliate button. If this is not the case, could someone PM me the button so that I can add you guys?