So now you know how to reach the Traveler's Hostel (and if you don't, stop reading this one and go to that "Path to the Traveler's Hostel" one). At this point, the question transforms into what you should do at the Hostel. This is the second of the two things that people fail to grasp about the Hostel. It's obvious that you should put your profile up there. But what exactly does a profile consist of?

Many people have personalized their profiles, with things ranging from the story of their character's past to even a list of and link to the majority of the posts they've made here in HA2. While there is no definite or perfect way to designing a profile, there are certain things that should be presented in some manner.

• 1. Your character's stats. A necessity of all characters is to know exactly how powerful they are. The stats that your profile should include are Strength (STR), Defense (DEF), Agility (AGI), Intelligence (INT), Spirit (SPI), Spell power (SPL), and Health Points (HP). Oftentimes, people will miscalculate those last two – or forget them altogether – which can lead to some difficulties during fights.
  
  2. Your race and alignment. This info is more for simple RP purposes, but it also influences what kinds of organizations you can join and what skills you can learn.
  
  3. Your base class and main class. These two pieces of information determine what your base stats are, the type of abilities you may purchase from the Rules Set, and in some cases how expensive abilities will be. Do keep in mind, however, that until your Main Class is declared by your Base Class' trainer (see the Rules Set), you aren't actually of that main class.
  
  4. The number of Talent Points (TP) you have earned and spent. It is exceedingly helpful to maintain a list like this so that you will know how much TP you currently have and can plan accordingly. It is also recommended that you list where the TP came from (which quests you have completed, etc.).
  
  5. The Abilities/Spells you have learned. This reminds both you and others what talents you can make use of in given situations. Some obstacles can be easily bypassed if you remember you purchased an ability a while back; it can also be useful to others who are looking for someone with a certain talent for their story.

A few other things are recommended, but not required.

• 1. Your physical appearance. C'mon, everyone wants to know what you look like, and it's a major part of RPing. If you consider your character to have extreme height, you don't want some Deku saying that he 'looks down at you'. (No offense, MG )
  
  2. Your character’s history. This allows other RPers to know parts of your character’s life story, so they can put you in or avoid situations that play off those facts. It's true that some RPers begin with a mystery-past, allowing pieces to fall into place over time until a clear picture has been painted. That's fine, and is useful if you haven't yet put a lot of thought into your character. But it's nice if you at least list parts of their past that have been revealed.
  
  3. A story summary. This is just for information purposes. I remind you again: this is not required! Many people don't have clearly defined stories; they just start random topics where a bunch of adventurers come together and fight a monster or two. But if you actually have a storyline that your character is following, this can be exceedingly helpful for new joiners to your story who wish to not read through thousands of posts to get the gist of the tale.

Following these guidelines is an important way make an impact on HA2. Oftentimes your profile shows more than just what your character is like – it may also tell people how serious you are about RPing. A well written profile says a lot to others – as does one that doesn’t list any of the aforementioned things.

So, when you join up with HA2, take some time to get to know your way around, write up a good profile, and talk to a few people. A lot of RPers are always happy to help out newcomers - in fact, the majority are actually waiting for new RPers to befriend.

Until the next article, happy RPing!

RG Draug Layor



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