If you're interested in getting started in Rivendell, the first thing to do, obviously, is sign up for an account. Here's how to do this:

Like most other places, whether on the internet or in the real world, Rivendell has rules that must be followed. There aren't many, and none are unreasonable. Let's go through the main ones:

1. Be considerate of others!
   You should follow this rule no matter where you are, on the internet or off. Always think how your actions and words affect others. Being rude in character is one thing, as many characters may naturally be that way, but you should always treat the player with respect. General roleplaying etiquette is covered in further detail below. But remember, when in doubt, be polite, and always be kind and considerate when out of character.

2. Stay in character.
   Because Rivendell is a roleplaying room, the most important distinction you must learn is "in character" versus "out of character." A small amount of out-of-character (OOC) chat is accepted, but usually it should be limited to short messages like "Got to go, bye all," "Be right back," or "Sorry, booted," etc. If you must be OOC for an extended period of time, or if you are having an OOC conversation with someone, please take it to whisper or the Rivendell OOC room. (You can learn more about these features further down on this page.) If you are in one of the other Rivendell rooms or in a private room, the amount of OOC that is allowed depends entirely on who is there. If people are trying to roleplay and you are bothering them by carrying on an OOC conversation, you should take it to whisper or to another room.

3. Keep the medieval setting.
   Rivendell is a medieval fantasy setting. It tends to branch out a bit into other, related genres; for example, vampires are usually considered acceptable characters. But you should avoid bringing in characters or items that do not fit the medieval setting. No science fiction characters, no ray guns or atom bombs, no modern-day characters with cell phones and Britney Spears style clothes. (One of my pet peeves has always been characters smoking cigarettes.) This rule is just slightly flexible as well—my main character, Ariana Dreamstar, was once from the real world, and no one has complained. However, she has adapted into her new, medieval world and rarely makes references to her old world (nor does she talk or dress like she's from there), so she does not stretch the rule very much. Remember, when in doubt, stick to a clearly medieval character. If you absolutely must play another type of character, there are many other rooms designated for different styles like science fiction, anime, or cyberpunk. When he has the time, Smat is usually more than happy to make a new room if you request it.

4. No fighting in the common room.
   There is to be no fighting in the common room. This is so other patrons can enjoy a quiet drink without be dragged into a tavern brawl. If your character antagonizes another, or vice versa, you may go to the arena to fight. Other rooms are also fair game for fighting, if you feel the need for a different setting.

5. Abide by the service agreement.
   Remember that service agreement you were asked to read before you signed up for your account? Mostly it is just the usual legal stuff, but there is a section that discusses what images and text you may or may not post. Please note that you may not post any image or text that is "indecent, obscene, or pornographic in areas that are considered public by TTR." This means your character image! (Consider the drop-down menu of "personal rooms" to be public; anyone may access them, even though they were created by personal request.) Sometimes a picture may be offensive but not technically obscene; however, if someone asks you to remove it, please do. Some machines, after all, are unable to turn off images (for example, some public computers at libraries and universities (like the one I'm using now!) and WebTV), and roleplayers using such machines are often in public places and would be very embarrassed if a computer lab assistant or friend walked up behind them and saw someone using an almost-naked character picture. Be considerate of others! A good rule of thumb—never post anything you wouldn't want your mother to see.

Before you can begin roleplaying, you need to create a character. Here are the basic steps:

1. First you should decide what type of character you wish to play. Assuming you have roleplayed before, whether on the internet or off, this should not be difficult. You need not assign statistics, only come up with a basic description, personality, and background, and the only place you need to keep the information is in your own head, so long as you can remember it. Remember, your character should have weaknesses as well as strengths. Beware of power gaming! If you have not roleplayed before, you will soon catch on; Rivendell has a fairly easy system to follow (i.e. no system, aside from common courtesy and following the rules listed above).

2. Choose a name for your character. Before you begin to play, you will need to change your user preferences. Click on the link above the text box at the bottom of the page. You may enter in a handle (the default is "New_User"), which should be your character's name. You may also give the URL for a character picture, though you do not have to have one. If you need help finding a picture, continue reading; there are hints in one of the sections below. And please, do not use a huge character picture! If the picture you wish to use is larger than 400x400 pixels, or more than about 60K (even this is a bit much), please use an image editing program to shrink it, or ask someone else to do it for you. (And no, specifying a smaller height and width after the URL of the image does not actually change the file size, and it will still take just as long to load and likely freeze up some computers.) If you would like to input a quote as alternate text, simply add a space after the image URL and type: alt="" In the quotes (""), enter your character's quote. You will need to re-enter your password before you can save your new settings.

3. Come up with a good entrance, and you can start roleplaying! See below for instructions on how to use the room's features, and for more tips on character creation and roleplaying.

1. How to chat:
   To chat, scroll down to the bottom of the page and type your message in the large text box. Then click the "chat" button. To see if anyone else has posted, click the chat button again after a minute or two. (If you have not typed anything in the text box, you will not post again.) However, beware of reloading. If you type a message, click chat, wait a bit, then reload the page, it will also repost your message. If you are coming up with double posts, this may be the reason. If you make a mistake, just click the "reset" button to clear the text box. To scroll back and see previous messages you may have missed, type a number in the little text box (below the message text box) and click chat. (It will scroll back up to 40 posts at a time.)

2. Customizing text styles:
   Many people like to be creative with their text in order to reflect their character's personality. Smat has recently added more colors in a drop-down menu (20, count 'em!), and there's also a menu of different font faces. To read these font faces, you will have to have them installed on your computer, but they are available for download if you click the link to the left of the font menu. (Don't worry, you'll still be able to read posts in those fonts if you don't have them installed; they'll just show up as your default browser font.) You can also use the check boxes to customize your text; you can select bold, italic, quiet, shout, and/or blink. Quiet will change your text to font size 1, and shout will make it size 5. Be careful! Shout and especially blink should be used very sparingly, as they are quite annoying—so think carefully before you use them. You can also input html codes in with your message in order to customize your text even more (e.g. font size and color), but you cannot display images or embed midis. To make a link appear (it will be called "button" or "picture"), just type in a URL starting with http:// but you can't make a link by typing a href= as you normally would. And please, always close your html codes! Otherwise it messes up others' screens. If you have troubles with html, either refrain from using it, find a website on html codes, or politely ask someone in Riv who seems to know (like me, if I'm around).

3. Reply, block, and whisper:
   Every time a chatter posts, three radio buttons appear below their handle: reply, block, and whisper. Here's how to use these features.

   • Reply: Click the reply button, and you may reply to that post. This means that underneath your post, the post you are replying to will appear in small text. The replies will cascade up to four posts. After the fourth post has been made, you should designate who you are replying to in your message text. Otherwise, there will be nothing to show who you are talking to, so be careful.
   • Block: If you select the block button on a chatter and then click the chat button, that person will be added to your block list. To activate your block list, you must check the "Enable Blocking" box above the message text box. After this, if anyone on your block list has posted in the room, their posts will not appear on your screen. This can be useful if someone in the room is being belligerent, profane, or consistently OOC and will not stop when asked politely. It is not polite to block someone if they have not done anything to upset you, however, since it means you are effectively ignoring them. Blocking can also be useful if someone's picture is broken and is messing up your computer, or if they continually use html codes without closing them. You can edit your block list by clicking on the "User Preferences" link at the bottom of the page.
   • Whisper: When you click the whisper button of someone's post, your post will only appear on that person's screen, and no one else will be able to see it. This is a good way to hold private conversations. As far as I know, there is no way for people to eavesdrop on a whispered conversation, although there have been minor embarrassments when someone intends to whisper something but forgets to click the button. If you reply to a whispered post, your reply is automatically whispered.

4. The Rivendell OOC room:
   You can get to the Rivendell out-of-character room by choosing it from the drop-down menu of public rooms, at the top of the page, or you can click the "List Conferences" link at the bottom of the page and select "Rivendell-OOC." Here's how the room works: Anything that is posted in the Rivendell common room (except of course for whispers and, if you have blocking enabled, users on your block list) will appear in the Rivendell OOC room. However, anything you post in the OOC room will only appear there. So this is a good way to hold an OOC conversation and still keep tabs on what is happening in the common room.

5. Other room features:
   To navigate around the city of RavensDale, you can choose a room from one of the two drop-down menus (both public and personal rooms) at the top of the page. (For example, my Waverunners room can be found under the personal menu.) Or you can click the link at the bottom of the page that says "List Conferences." The "Who's Where" link will also tell you the handles of people who have posted in public rooms in the last ten minutes or so, when they posted, and in which room. At the top of the page there are both in-character and out-of-character message boards where you can post and read important news and issues for roleplayers. There are other links scattered around the page that you may find useful, including Rivendell help and administrative pages.

Besides the official rules, there are also several unwritten rules that most roleplayers try to follow. Rivendell roleplaying is freestyle, meaning there are no statistics, no dice, and usually no GMs (gamemasters). I like to describe it as interactive storytelling, with each player contributing a piece of the story. Because there are so few rules, common courtesy is necessary in order to make roleplaying fun for everyone. Here are a few basic guidelines that I recommend you abide by.

Here's a list of commonly used terms, acronyms, and their definitions in Rivendell. These terms are specific to roleplaying; any other commonly used chat acronyms, like BRB (be right back), etc., you can probably figure out on your own.