New player guide
This is your entrance point
Welcome!
— by Meebee
Welcome to Canis Major! Canis Major is a wolf play-by-post roleplaying game set in a dreamscape. We built Canis to be a space where players are free to write creatively in collaboration with others with a focus on flexibility. Creating somewhere that we could be ourselves and help uplift others in the community has always been the driving force behind us!
Play basics
- We write in third person, always.
- One day in the game world is one day in real life.
- There is no human interference in the world of Canis.
- Canis is a world based in the genre of intrusion fantasy.
- The environment or setting may have elements of the fantastical and it is often ambiguous whether it is real or not. However, no character on Canis has magical or supernatural abilities or natures to them.
Respect
Please be respectful and courteous to all members and staff. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, provided that they are voiced with kindness. That means no personal attacks toward others. Issues that arise will be handled on a case by case basis. Harmful behaviour, including but not limited to: harassment, racism, sexual assault, etc., is approached with zero tolerance and the offender(s) will be permanently banned.
Mortality Clause
By joining, you acknowledge that in character actions should equal in character consequences. Characters are permitted to harm other characters without seeking permission of the player in very specific circumstances (for more information on this, see ICA = ICC).
How to Join
- Read all the Introduction portions of the Guidebook
- Register a main account. This can be an OOC account or a character account.
- Register your first character account (if different from your main)
- Fill out your character's profile, especially the required sections
- Apply to join
- (optional) Join our active community on Discord! We can't wait to get to know you and your characters better!
Your first in character post
You've joined with your first character! Now what? Our recommendation is to start an AW (All Welcome) thread in the place where your character "wakes up." In Canis, wolf characters always come from somewhere beyond — how they get here is anyone's guess. Some characters seem to just appear. Others wake in a weird place, or wash up on a beach. It's your choice!
Your character can start in Canis anywhere you want, though be aware that if they awaken in a claimed territory, they might be kicked out by the resident wolves!
Playing Fair
Metagaming/Godmoding are not permitted on site. Powerplaying is not permitted without explicit communication with all players involved.
- Metagaming: Using out of character knowledge to gain in character advantages without agreement of the other parties.
- Godmoding: Overpowering a character to make a situation extremely imbalanced without agreement of other parties.
- Powerplay: Taking control of another player's character without permission (includes mind-reading).
When in doubt, ask other players beforehand. If you feel as though unfair play is happening to your character, please reach out to the player first! More details on these definitions can be found here.
Questions?
Join our Discord and ask questions in the #ask-the-staff channel! You can also post questions in the Game Development forum.
Common Gameplay Terms
Nerds really like acronyms. You'll see these ones around often:
- Out of Character (OOC)
- When we're not actively playing our characters, we are "out" of character.
- In Character (IC)
- We are in character when we are writing our characters.
- All Welcome (AW)
- Anyone can join this thread!
- Private (P)
- Only the people invited to this thread can join.
- Read Only
- This thread cannot receive any replies.
- Content Warning (CW)
- The contents tagged with CW might contain content that is triggering or not safe for work.
- Board Wide Plot (BWP)
- A board wide plot is an event that affects the entire map.
