You clicked the link, now begin your journey. You will enter this guide as a Newb, but you will leave it as a slightly more informed Newb. This guide is currently updated to Version 3.4 of CowRP.
Contents- Da Basics
- Construction
- Housing
- Food
- War!
- RolePlaying
- Classes
- Modes
-----------------------------------------------[Da Basics]-------------------------------------------------You want to play CowRP? Great! it's a sweet game. What? You don't know how? Well, that's why we have this guide! In this section, you'll learn the basics of the world of Cow RP.
Equip: To pick up something you want to have, double click it. To equip it, go to the clothes or tools tab and click it. It will then magically appear on your character.
Resources: Resources are needed to build and trade with the community. The current resources are: Wood, Stone, Gold, Clay, Gems, Hides, Wool, and Food(Disclaimer: Food will be covered in the food section.)
How to Get:- To obtain wood, equip your axe or saw and click a tree. A saw will fell the tree with a single strike, but will only give you one(two if you're a gather) wood for it.
- To obtain stone/gold/clay/gems, equip your shovel, go to commands tab, and click 'Dig Hole'. You will dig a hole to the underground. Enter the hole and you will be standing on automatically built stone staircase(Unless your hole is over a preexisting tunnel) with dirt walls surrounding you. Simply click them with your shovel or pickaxe to dig them out. Stone, gold, and gems will appear sometimes when you dig out a normal wall. Clay has it's own deposits. If you dig with a pickaxe, you can dig from a wall multiple times before it disappears.
- To obtain an animal hide, slay an animal(preferably not someone else's tamed animal) and the hide will appear automatically in your inventory.
- To obtain Wool, simply kill a sheep, or drag a knife onto a tamed sheep and you will shear it's wool without murdering the poor defenseless lamb, you horrible horrible person, you.
Combining Items: In order to combine two items to create a new item, you have to go to your commands tab. Click combine, and drag one item onto another(An easier way to combine is to drag one item onto the other in your item tab, but you must use the combine verb if you wish to combine two of the same item[such as combing two stones together]).
Making Tools: If you check your tools tab, you'll see your inventory of tools and weapons. The tools and weapons you begin with depends on your class. If you want more tools, you'll have to make them. To do this, you'll need stone and wood.
- Sharp Rock: Combine two stones. Used exclusively to make tools.
- Pickaxe Head: Combine two Sharp Rocks. Used to make a pickaxe.
- Axe: Combine a sharp rock and a piece of wood, then select axe in the window that appears. Used to chop wood, wooden objects, and traveling salesmen.
- Saw: Combine a sharp rock and a piece of wood, then select saw in the window that appears. Used to fell trees in a single stroke.
- Shovel: Combine a sharp rock and a piece of wood, then select shovel in the window that appears. Used to dig holes and mine underground.
- Pickaxe: Combine a pickaxe head and a piece of wood. Used to mine more space-efficiently for resources.
- Sledgehammer: Combine a stone and a piece of wood. Used to smash stone objects to dust.
- Knife: Combine a sharp rock and a piece of wood, then select knife in the window that appears. Used to inscribe words into signs and shank prisoners.
- Hoe: Combine a sharp rock and a piece of wood, then select hoe in the window that appears. Used to till dirt paths into farmland.
- Fishingpole: Find and kill a sheep for wool. Now combine the wool and a piece of wood. Used to stealthily hunt the unsuspecting creatures of water.
- Churn: Combine a bucket with a piece of wood. Used to make butter and cheese.
- Torch: Make a fire(See Construction) and drop a piece of wood onto it from your inventory.
Sleep: See the 'Zzz' icon in the top-right of your main window? The numbers next to it is your wakefulness. When it reaches 0, you fall asleep. To go to sleep manually, click the icon. To wake up, click the icon. It rises while you sleep, and will rise twice as fast if you double-click a bed.
Tailoring: In order to tailor, you need a hide. To get a hide, find a wild animal(Or one you've tamed/bred) and kill it. The meat and hide will automatically enter your inventory, even if you kill it from afar with a bow or spell. Double click the hide and select from the window that pops up the specific hat/rug/article of clothing you want to adorn.
Forging: In order to forge coins, necklaces, and keys, you must have a furnace(Which is under the masonry tab. It requires one stone, read 'construction' to learn how to build). After you have a furnace, acquire some gold. When you have gold, go to your furnace and drag the piece of gold from your inventory and place it on the furnace. Select the corresponding golden item you wished to create. You can also combine a gem to this necklace via combine tab to really impress that girl who is turned on by a guy wearing a bejeweled necklace.
Dyeing: Hair just not the right shade? Think your clothes are kinda dull? That's cause they are. Brown was so last patch. Add some color to your life by dyeing the crap outta them! To do this, simply get two berries. Then combine them. This will create dye. Double click the dye, and a window will pop up asking you what to dye. You can only dye cloth that isn't already dyed. Combining two different berries will mix their colors(i.e. blue and red=purple, black and blue=dark blue, etc.).
Painting: You can paint epic designs and graffiti with black berries on walls to show shop owners what YOU think about their prices, and on pet rocks to give them that bloodthirsty grin you know they always wore inside their hearts. Or just on black counters to show off your artistry. Simply obtain some black berries, right click what you wish to paint and select the paint command that shows up. You can wash away graffiti by using a bucket filled with water. Bovine takes a pointer from Henry Ford when it comes to painting. You can do it in any color you like so long as it's black.
Jobs that concern the basics: All of them. That's why they're called the basics. Why do I even bother with you goddamn MOTHER FU-
-----------------------------------------------[Construction]----------------------------------------------There you go! You know the basics of CowRP! Now time to complicate things. In this section, we'll talk about how you can build things. Anything from mansions to a shabby bed in an alley are all possibilities!
Wooden Structures: Fires, wooden floors, walls, doors, statues, figurines, paper, chairs, tables, beds, trapdoors, and chests. Chop some wood and go to your carpentry tab. Select what you want to construct, then
hold down 'ctrl' and click where you wish to build it. The location must be adjacent to you.
Stone Structures: Ovens, furnaces, stone floors, walls, doors, statues, and figurines. Same as wood, but you need stone instead, and you use the masonry tab.
Clay: Double clicking the clay in your inventory will allow you to build a clay figurine; a new key mold that you can drag pieces of gold onto to make a specific key shape(Can't recreate keys by simply naming them the same thing, don't even try unless you're trying to switch a cell key with a fake); and duplicate a key's shape to make copies of it.
Stairs and Heights: Staircases can be made of wood or stone, so the one you use will be whatever looks cosmetically best in your home, or the one that you actually have the resources for. The world has 5 layers, in ascending order: Underground, Ground Level, Second floor, Third Floor, and Fourth Floor. In order to build on a higher level, there must be a floor or wall immediately below it.
Roofs: To make a roof, climb up to the story immediately above your last story, and start making a floor over it. If you don't, you don't technically have a building. Just a couple walls connected to each other. Walls can be climbed, don't think they wont be. Make. A God-damned. Roof. Or I will steal all your stuff and sell it back to you for twice the price.
Locks: If you have a key in your possession when you construct a door, chest, or trapdoor, you are asked if you wish to set that object to a key. Simply select which key you want for it, and it's set for life. Changing the locks on something is sadly impossible, so you have to completely replace the door or chest.
Boats: Boats are used to traverse over water. They are constructed in classes. The higher the class, the bigger the ship, but also the greater the cost of wood. A Class 1 costs 10 wood, Class 2 costs 20, and so on up to the breathtaking greatness of a Class 5 Dreadnaught. Now sail the seas like the bloodthirsty, pillaging pirate you are!
Deconstruction: To destroy wooden floors/walls, equip your axe, then double click what you want to destroy. To destroy stone floors/walls, equip your sledgehammer, then double click what you want to destroy. With this skill mastered, you become...The Demolition Man.
Jobs that concern Construction: Peasant, anyone wishing to expand/construct a building/room.
---------------------------------------------------[Housing]-----------------------------------------------Now that you know how to build, lets make a house for you to live in. There are many different kinds of houses that are only limited by your imagination and your ability to copy other peoples' imaginations, so I'll list a few possibilities.
The Hut: This is a common house. It's wooden, and usually built either along the main road or one of the side roads. It consists of one room, a front or back garden, and occasionally a second story and/or basement/cellar. It has windows along the walls, and a nice cozy feel. The diet of the owner is usually from vegetables that he grows in his garden, or food he buys in town. Owners of huts are generally hunters, lumberers, miners, or fishermen who need a place to stay while on land.
The Farm House: This home can't be built immediately in town, as it requires a deal of land for fields. This home is wooden and consists of a ground floor that has a kitchen, a dining room, a living room. These don't have to be walled off from each other, but can merge together quite nicely to save on resources, time, and space. The second floor has the master bedroom and the one or two guest bedrooms. Outside the farmhouse is a porch(if the builder is ambitious), the entrance to the cellar blocked by a locked trapdoor, a barn, a possible orchard of apple trees, and a field or two of wheat/corn/vegetables. The owner's diet is entirely of the crops he farms. The surplus of which he sells in town for income to pay taxes and buy materials.
The Manor: This is a grand home made of sturdy stone. It has halls with statues, a dining hall, a kitchens, an entrance hall, servant quarters, a stable for horses, a ball room, perhaps a sparring room, a great Master Bedroom with it's own key, and multiple guest bedrooms in the second floor. The basement is used mainly for storage. This masterpiece may have one or two hidden compartment/secret passages if the builder is clever enough.
The Fort: This is made mostly of wood, and is a large structure, but not as large as the castle. This generally has a large storage area underground, a room filled with bunks for people to rest, a central courtyard near the gate, a dining hall with connected kitchens, a war-room for discussion, and the commander's chambers. This is obviously a group project.
The Underground Bunker: This is a common choice among cultists and conspirators. The majority of the base is made from stone and is underground. The builder can go out to the woods, mine a hole, and construct it with stone mined out during construction, or they can make it a hidden basement Headquarters in their home connected to secret passages in an underground network. The owner's diet usually composes of food farmed underground, as they don't want to leave the base due to fear of discovery.
The Boat House: This mobile house is constructed on a ship and consists almost entirely of wood. The good of this is that the owner can move his house as he needs, but risks his house getting stolen if he ports for supplies. The owner also risks attacks from pirates. The owner's diet consists mainly of fish or food obtained before setting sail, as farming would require regular lengthy stops at land.
--------------------------------------------------[Food]---------------------------------------------------Mmmm, cake. Tasty, right? You can find out for yourself by reading this section.
Hunger: Look at the top of your screen. See that apple icon? Stare into it's hypnotizing red properties of fruity goodness. The magical numbers next to it is your hunger. The higher the numbers, the fuller your stomach. If they fall down to 0, you eat yourself, gain damage, and your hunger goes back up by 5. To increase the numbers, eat food(Or if you have a healing spell, simply heal yourself every time you eat yourself. This is why most wizards are skinny).
To Eat Food: Click it to pick it up, then double click it again to consume it. It's a miracle.
The Hunt: To hunt, enter the woods and run around until you find a wild animal. Click that sonuvabitch until it knows the full might of your index finger and falls dead from shear fear. If an animal finds food in the woods, it will head towards it and eat it. You can use this knowledge to create traps out there involving pitfalls(holes made in the commands tab) and fencing. The animal's food and hide(and wool if it's a sheep) will be added to your inventory automatically upon death. Swords, hunter spears, and arrows will kill animals in one hit. Most tools will require two hits unless you're dual-wielding.
Somethin's Fishy: In order to fish, you must first have a fishingpole(in order to make this wonderful contraption, combine a wool with a stick). Simply equip the fishingpole and double click fishable water. A window will appear with a sideview of your hook in the water. Simply click the hook when it turns red, and you'll have caught that unlucky servant of Aquaman. Protip: Moats are made of sewage. They do not have living fish in them, and if they did the fish would probably kill you slowly and painfully after being digested.
Types of food: - Plant: Corn, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Apples, Oranges, Wheat, Strawberries, Cocoa Pods, Grapes
- Meat: Meat, Fish
To Cook: To cook, build an oven(requires stone) or a temporary fire(requires wood) from under the masonry or carpentry tabs, respectively. Next, turn it on by double clicking it(Note: campfires are constantly on). Now drag the food you want cooked onto the oven/fireplace. If it is meat/fish, you must use a campfire(As ovens are only for baking), and wait while it cooks. Then you must pull it off when it becomes cooked. If you wait too long, it will burn.
Recipes: To fill a bucket with water, drag it from your inventory into a water source(lake, moat, etc.).
To fill a bucket with milk, drag it from your inventory onto a cow.
To make a churn, combine a piece of wood with a bucket.
- Flour: Combine a stone with wheat.
- Dough: Combine flour with a bucket of water.
- Biscuit: Combine dough with a bucket of water.
- Bread: Combine dough with a bucket of water.
- Cake Layer: Combine dough with a bucket of water.
- Chocolate: Combine the cocoa bean you harvest from the cocoa plant with a stone, and then combining the powder you get with a bucket of water.
- Chocolate Cake layer: Combine a bar of chocolate with an uncooked cake layer.
- Raspberry Cake Layer: Combine a raspberry with an uncooked cake layer.
- Double Cake Layer: Combine an uncooked Cake Layer with an uncooked Cake Layer of the same type.
- Triple Cake Layer: Add another one, gosh.
- Butter: Drag a bucket of milk onto a churn to fill it. Click the filled churn 60-99 times(Or double click it 30-49 times, same difference). Now right click it and click empty. The butter will appear in your inventory.
- Cheese: Drag a bucket of milk onto a churn to fill it. Click the filled churn atleast 100 times(Or double click it atleast 50 times). Now right click the churn and empty it. The cheese will appear in your inventory.
- Pizza: Combine a tomato with an uncooked cake layer.
- Cheese Pizza: Combine cheese with an uncooked pizza.
- Meat Pizza: Combine meat with an uncooked cheese pizza.
After you make something, don't forget to bake it in an oven, or you wont be able to eat it.Berries: There are five berries. Black, White, Red, Blue, and Yellow. There are five effects that are randomized every round. Tiredness, Weakness, Hunger, Poison, and Healing. Last round, Red healed. This round it could be Hunger. Who knows what it'll be? The Chemist does. Find him and befriend him. Or find something he values and hold it ransom. Or just pay him his fee for a healing apple and stop trying to manipulate everyone, I mean damn. Berries are used for dying clothes and hair(See Dyeing under Da Basics), poisoning apples for maidens living with dwarves(See Snow White by Disney), and also painting(See Painting under Da Basics).
Potions: To make a potion, you must first obtain a vial(Only three per round are spawned, and they spawn in the chemist's inventory). Drag the vial onto a water source to fill it, and then combine berries into that. You can add more than one to increase the effects or add multiple effects. Mixing a healing berry into a potion of poison will make an antidote for the poison. You can pour a potion into a piece of food to apply the potion's effects to it.
Jobs that concern food: Chef, Chemist, Peasant(start a diner, farm, Poison-R-us partnership with Chemist, etc.)
--------------------------------------------[The Farming Life]---------------------------------------------Tired of hunting, fishing, foraging, and spending gold just for a bite to eat? You want to settle down in your house and only have to go out to the garden for food? Then the life of a farmer is for you!
What you Need: You need a shovel, a hoe, seeds, and ownership of some land(If you smash the throne room floor and start farming in front of the statues, you'll likely see your name on a bounty list[Getting your name on a bounty list is a near sure sign of meeting Jake Smith at the other end of a sword that is conveniently sheathed through your chest]).
Seeds: To obtain seeds, simply combine a knife with or eat a food that can be planted; and no, you cannot plant and grow cake. You can grow wheat and strawberries to make strawberry cake, but you can't actually grow cake from the ground.
Getting Started: Find yourself a nice patch of land, preferably next to your house(If you have one. If not, you might want to build one, or just make a temp farm in the woods to check on when you come back from hunting. Or you could secretly live on the third story of some guy's house). Take out your shovel, and dig a path. Now take out your hoe and double click said path. After you tilled the path, stand on top of it, and double click the seed that you wish to plant. Different plants take different amounts of time to grow.
Guard Thy Crop: There you are. Your crops will grow and ripen and be able to be picked. By anyone. Guard the product of your hard work. Those fruits and vegetables are your property! Don't let those bandits and thieving cur steal your hard work from the earth you tilled! If everyone steals your food, who will you sell it to? And what will you even have to sell? Erect fences around your fields, and if food is scarce perhaps even hire a sellsword to guard it for you.
Livestock: Not into raising plants to grow up into veggie tales? Want to raise something that can move around, get into trouble, and cause all kinds of silly shenanigans? Grab some animals and start a ranch. If you didn't start off as a hunter or farmer, you'll either have to buy the animals or buy the traps and trap your own. Or you can make a small trap from the carpentry tab, but it wont catch sheep, goats, pigs, cows, deer, or horses.
To Trap: Go out in the woods, and double click your trap in your inventory. It's THAT easy! Now just wait for some clueless hobo-I mean sheep or cow to trip your trap. They don't have to be baited to work, but baiting them lures animals near it, unless your scary mug is in view. If so, they'll run as fast as they can from you.
Raising: When you come back to the trap and discover you managed to snag an unlucky herbivore, right click it and click command. Feed it something tasty and it'll love you for life. Feed it a shirt and it'll chew its own leg off and run to freedom in the depths of the forest. The animal will belong to the first person who feeds it, so check your traps frequently. Now you that own it, you can rename it, tell it to breed with a nearby member of its species, or even change its ownership all through using the command verb. Horses can be mounted, sheep can be sheared by dragging a knife onto them, and cows can be milked with an empty bucket. Not goats. Just cows. Cows are special in Cow RP.
Jobs that concern farming: Peasant(Farmers, thieves that steal from farmers, etc.), Cook(gotta farm to get wheat to bake, or buy from farmers), Chemist(Gotta grow berries by farming. Easier than foraging for them for hours.), anyone that feels like making a farm, or purchasing from a farmer.
Good, you have yourself some crops. Now what? You can eat it by using the fabulous eating skills gained from the previous section, or you can sell/trade it in a farmer's market for supplies/merchandise. But the life of a farmer is a dangerous one. Rouges and bandits are common in the woods, and they like to take food and raid crops. The next section deals with how you take those thieving cur down and out.
--------------------------------------------------[War!]---------------------------------------------------Sweet, you can farm, build, eat, and live. You're set in life. But what do you do when a guy charges you with a sword drawn? In this section, you'll learn all about battle and war. HUH, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing except defending your people from pillaging bandits, keeping the global population down so not everyone turns out like China, and supplying a decent income to blacksmiths and coffin-makers. But I digress.
Intent: When you strike someone, your blows can have one of two intents:
- Attack: Harms the target with the full power available from your weapons.
- Blunt: Slightly harms the target, lowers your defense stat for a short time, but knocks the target out for a time based off of the type of weapon you are using and their helmet.
Attacking: In order to attack someone, double click them. (Note: You need a valid reason to attack someone. You cannot RP a psychopath, so someone sneezing does not count as a valid reason to physically assault them).
Shackles and Rope: Shackles start in the inventory of guards, knights, and archers. Rope can be created by combining two wool together. Combining two ropes together can create either rope-shackles, or rope-leg-shackles. Shackles prevent someone from using their arms. Leg-shackles prevent someone from moving. All shackles are preset to the universal shackle key(Which can't be copied by using clay...It's...erm...enchanted? Yeah let's go with that). Rope shackles can be cut with a knife by dragging the knife onto the shackled target.
Armor: Armor comes in multiple classes. In increasing general defense: Wooden, Guard, Knight, King.
Health: Your health is the numbers on the far left of the top of your screen. When it reaches 0, you die. You loose health every time you take a hit. To regain health, you can eat food, have a healing spell used on you, or eat a healing berry/potion. Once your character is dead, he wont be able to live again until the priest revives him(Being a zombie does not count as living due to you being forced to mindlessly obey the necro's will). So wait for the priest or necromancer to get to your corpse, or the three minutes until you can abandon mob via commands tab(Note:
Just because you can abandon mob does not mean you should take death lightly. People do not want to die. Death is feared. It is that darkness which is the end. Do not go gentle into that good night. Surrender if the odds are against you so that you can live to fight another day.).
General Combat: Preferably not entered. You don't want to have to fight someone, try and talk things out with them swords are sharp and can kill you. But if it is unavoidable, if this is something that means the world to you and you are ready to stand and fight and possibly die for it, then here are some pointers. Blunting is the key. When your opponent is KOed, he cannot strike you, nor can he resist being shackled. Once he is shackled, the fight is won. However, everytime you blunt, the time he is KOed is decreased as is your defense, which leads to your quick death as soon as he gets a single Blunt in on you instead. The key is to know whether you are aiming for their capture(which is generally the preferred goal), their death, or your escape.
- Capture: The goal is to blunt them, and shackle them. Try and use the surroundings to your advantage and block them in so they can't escape from your shackle attempt. If they have a good helm and you are using tools, this isn't going to work. Either change your strategy to killing them, or to escaping the fight.
- Killing: The goal is to end their measly existence. While blunting them and shackling them is an easy path to this end-goal, you may not have shackles. The key here is to blunt them, and then switch to attack and repeatedly assail them with blows while timing how long it takes them to awaken. Be ready to leap back, switch to blunt, and go for another head-strike. Now you know the general length they'll be asleep, be ready to blunt them again shortly before how long it took them to awaken last time. Repeat until they're a cold, lifeless corpse. And pray they stay that way.
- Escape: Hit them on the head and run for the woods. You are not allowed to dig holes or build walls behind you, nor are you allowed to build stairs out of thin air to leap over walls. These should all be in place beforehand.
Jobs that concern fighting: King, Knight, Guard, Priest(He has to revive them), Peasant(They'll probably be mugged, assaulted, robbed, taking part in a revolution, etc.), and Necromancer(A good necromancer can take out his prey before they alarm the guards).
-----------------------------------------------[Roleplaying]-----------------------------------------------Cow RP is a Roleplaying game. This section will inform you what Roleplaying is and how to do so.
What is Roleplaying?: Basically, it is Playing the Role. In Cow RP, you play the role of a person living in the medieval ages. You create a character whose ideals and desires are up to you to determine.
Your character cannot be psychotic. Your character should speak and act as if he were a person from the medieval ages. Please keep in mind that a player's personality, morals, and motives, are not necessarily shared by the character they decided to create. A good player can RP a noble saint one round and a selfish thief the next.
IC: Stands for "In Character." Basically means everything concerning the RP world. Everything you say using the "say" verb will be heard by every character within range, should concern IC matters, and should be written and spelled correctly(Grammar does not have to be correct, as this is spoken by your character, who could have shitty grammar themselves).
- Correct Use: John says: Hi there. I'm new to Bovinia. Do you know who owns this shop? I'd like to purchase some of their goods.
- Incorrect Use: John says: lol y r u all cows?? how do i attack u? wut do u meen i dunt no ur names????
OOC: Stands for "Out of Character." Basically everything that does not concern the RP world. This is where you can chat with others about regular stuff in real life. This is
NOT where you talk about matters that concern the RP.
- Correct Use: Bazuka OOC: You guys see the Hobbit? Movie was great man.
- Incorrect Use: Bazuka OOC: Dude, where the hell is Jon Snow? That bastard griefed me near the mage house. Arrest or kill him! He's a criminal! Also, I have dibs on his stuff!
OOC in IC: Anything your character says should be in character. But sometimes you may need to ask another player something specific that you can't say over OOC but you need to know for RP purposes. In this case you would type the OOC information inside parentheses. Anything and everything that is not inside parentheses will be viewed as if your character just said it.
- i.e. John says: Hey now, no need to do anything rash. We can talk this out!(Are you holding that knife to the king's throat, or do you just have it in your hand standing next to him?)
IC in OOC: This is strictly against the rules as it encourages people to metagame.
Grief: Grief is internet slang for doing something without RP reason. Generally, it is used as a verb to specifically refer to murdering another character without a valid RP reason.
- Grief: Seeing a man walk past you and murdering him with an axe for no reason(Being a psychopath is not a reason and is against the rules.)
- Not Grief: Seeing your close friend being beaten to death by a corrupt guard for not being able to pay taxes, and exacting revenge.
Metagame: Metagaming is having your character commit an action based on information you know, but he would have no access to. i.e. sailing to the exact location of an island he's never been to, but you saw in a past round, or knowing the people in the mage/necromancer equipment are mages/necromancer. Your character just sees them as ordinary people who choose to wear weird clothes and does not believe they can use magic unless he sees them use it.
Godmodding: Trying to control things you have no control over. i.e. controlling other characters in your emotes. You can control your character and choose how he reacts to certain things. You cannot control other people's characters, or things that are outside of your abilities.
- Godmodding: John slaps Jane, making her cry and beg his forgiveness. Then he raises his hands to the sky and summons rain that drenches everyone.
- Not Godmodding: John slaps Jane, then waves his hand to the sky as if he was beckoning rain.
---------------------------------------------------[Classes]-----------------------------------------------Good, you know how to play Cow RP. Now comes the decision; what will you be? Will you be king and rule over the lowly peasants? Will you be a mercenary, and fight for the highest bidder? Will you be a humble priest, healing weary souls and giving advice? This section will help you see what classes do what, what's expected of them, and even some possible ways to interpret them.
King: The king is the monarch. He spawns in the throne room with royal garments, the crown, the royal key, his armor, and his trusted blade: Excowlibur. The king can do whatever the crud he wants. Funny thing about monarchy: The King's word is law. Now, that doesn't mean, however, that there wont be consequences to his actions. If the king doesn't rule well, but is instead a tyrant, the people he rules will probably revolt from him and dethrone him. As king, you can pass laws, recruit new guards, order the construction of buildings, boss around your minions, collect taxes, and anything you want. But remember that a king without a people to rule is only king of himself.
-Notes: All castle personnel know each other's names without having to be told. The two knights are loyally bound to the king, but the other personnel may rebel against their lord if given enough reason to, such as excess cruelty, heresy against the church, or simply not paying them.
Knight: The knight is the heavily armored warrior bound to the king's will, and spawns in the northwestern corner of the castle. Knights are of the upper class in society, and have taken vows to protect the king and follow his orders. You usually have a high sense of honor, and work by the code, but you could be a bloodthirsty destroyer who won his rank from sheer skill by the blade. The knight follows the king's orders to the letter. If the king orders the knight's death, or acts in such a way as to insure a revolt, a knight could decide the king has become mentally unfit, and is a danger to himself. He would then place the king under house arrest in his royal chambers.
-Notes: All castle personnel know each other's names without having to be told. The knight cannot rebel against the king, or try to kill him. No matter what.
Guard: The guard is the foot soldier of the king's army and spawns in the barracks connected to the bridge control room. He gets the lower jobs of security, patrol, tax collecting, etc. He isn't as high up in society as a knight, but he does have a sword, and has a certain level of authority to the common peasants he protects in the village. The guard protects the people and follows the king's orders. He does police duties and sentinel duties. A guard could be just and exact the king's law to the letter, or he could be corrupt and accept bribes to overlook certain activities.
-Notes: All castle personnel know each other's names without having to be told. A guard can rebel against the king if given enough incentive, but has to have good enough reason. He can't just do it for the laughs.
Cook: The cook is the chef of the castle, and spawns in the kitchen across from the barracks in the castle courtyard. He bakes the food that the king eats, and should always have a biscuit on him. He can amaze people with buffets of delicious wonders, or he could join a conspiracy and sneak a poisoned berry in the king's next meal if the king has forgotten a paycheck. Never bite the hand that feeds you.
-Notes: All castle personnel know each other's names without having to be told. The chef should tend to the garden outside his kitchens and should be responsible for feeding all the people who reside in the castle, not immediately abandoning his job to meander through the village.
Jester: The bumbling fool of the castle. He spawns in his own room near the entrance of the castle with his trusty hat, mandolin, and trumpet. He is expected to be hilarious and constantly telling jokes and spreading good chear to all near him, trying to lighten the mood when something bad happens and keeping morale up.
-Notes: All castle personnel know each other's names without having to be told. Also, remember that there is a fine line between being funny, and being a annoying. Telling japes and miming exaggerated reactions behind someone's back? funny. Stealing the king's crown and running around yelling you're the king of motley while blowing your horn in people's faces? Annoying. Annoying jesters turn into not-so-annoying skeletons chained in the dungeons.
Priest: The priest is the holy man of Bovinia, and spawns in the church in the village. He can heal others and revive the dead(Though these powers are not known by others unless they witness it), and hold services in the church. The priest chooses the religion of Bovinia, though the default religion is generally Christianity. The religion the priest chooses is then presumed to be the standard religion everyone practices, and those who decide otherwise are godless heretics who should be burned. The priest, like the king and his knights, does not start with tools. He is to convince others to build and work for him and the favor of his god(s). You never know when you'll need him to revive your hard, cold, murdered corpse, so you should generally comply.
-Notes: The priest could be RPed as a gentle, warm-hearted soul trying to get everyone to be nice and mediate between conflicts. Or he could be a cold-hearted man who sees all sin should be burned, and not forgiven. Possibly calling for human sacrifices as well.
Mage: A mage is one who practices magic in their house of the elements at the southwestern edge of town. The Ice mage can heal and shoot ice bolts. The Fre mage can shoot fireballs and summon meteors. The Lightning mage can make walls of light and shoot lightning bolts. Sometimes a mage is a powerful master who exacts respect from those around him, sometimes a wizened old man who finds a spot on a council and advises those who need him, and sometimes a bumbling apprentice trying not to set the town on fire. Generally, mages want to keep their craft a secret to all but their closest friends, as the church(Unless otherwise stated by the priest[since he can choose the religion, but the default is Christianity]) frowns on witches and witchcraft.
-Notes: Noone knows magic is real except mages and the necromancer(And possibly priest if he is old and experienced with dealing with heretic witches). You cannot know someone is a mage and can use magic simply because you see them with a pointy hat and a walking stick. That is metagaming(See Roleplaying) and will get you banned.
Chemist: The chemist is that one shady fellow who forages around for berries and spawns in the Chemist House in the village. He's the only person who knows which berries do what. He comes equipped with a sweet robe, hood, and three vials(See Potions in the Food section). By using the inspect verb under the skills tab, he can know what effects potions, berries, and altered food will have.
Necromancer: The infamous necromancer is the class of the dark arts. He can be good or bad, though generally black magic such as his is a corrupting force. Why he took up his robes is up to you. Is he trying to figure out how to bring back a loved one lost long ago? Is he trying to find a path to immortality through undeath? Does he merely want 100% loyal servants to do his bidding? Does he seek to commune with the dead to learn their secrets? Whatever the case, he would do well to keep his magic in the shadows, as those who dwell in the light of day are usually not very understanding. He has the ability to resurrect the fallen into mindless zombie servants, kill unruly minions who have brought him anger, and communicate telepathically to all his minions who are still undead.
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Zombie: If you are resurrected by the necromancer, you MUST obey him. You are bound by dark magic to fulfill his every order without the hint of disobedience. Even if he is the one who killed you, once you're a zombie, you changed sides.
Wolf: The wolf is a rogue. They can unlock doors and chests, see through the veils of night, throw down a smokebomb to cover their escape, and brand two other people to join their ranks. They also have a pretty nice robe and a shadowknife, which gets a critical hit with every strike so long as it's midnight.
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Notes: Characters cannot "know" you're a wolf or thief simply because of your robe. They can, however, use common sense and come to the conclusion that if one guy they captured was a thief and had a cloak that had a unique symbol on it, that other guy he always hung around with who had a similar cloak may be his accomplice and should be interrogated.
Peasant: The lowly peasant is the most versatile class, and spawns in the main road of the village. A peasant can be anything. He could be a farmer, a carpenter, a miner, a hired worker, recruited to be a guard, be a mercenary, an apprentice to the mage/priest/etc., a fisherman, a hunter, a hermit, a builder, a tavern keeper, a barman, a cultist, a professional thief, a poet, a ferryman, a servant, or even an emotional tree hugging hippy. He is ruled by the king and protected by the guards, unless he's part of a conspiracy, or doing something unlawful.
- Hunter: The hunter starts with a fashionable headband and three trusty traps. He can then use these traps to capture and tame animals, or to capture and eat animals. A hunter is usually a decent woodsman. With his traps, he can successfully create baited trap spots in the woods and drive animals to the baited trap, or leave it be and come back later in half an hour to check it. He can then tame the trapped animals and create a ranch or animal farm. By breeding the animals, he can easily create a steady supply of mounts, hides, and meat, and even milk and cheese and wool.
- Gatherer: The gatherer starts with a gathering robe, which shows that he is the supreme forager. Gatherers gain twice as many resources from mining and chopping wood than normal peasants. Because of this, they are the best suited to gather supplies for a construction job, or to sell to/start a miscellaneous shop.
- Farmer: The humble farmer begins the game with his trademarked farming hat, and a couple livestock. Any plant that is grown by the experienced hand of a farmer sprouts up more quickly than normal plants. This allows the farmer to produce crops at much more rapid pace than others, making them the ideal...well...farmer. They can then sell the produce to a restaurant or to the chef in the castle. They are ,unfortunately, occasionally hit by the wandering thief, so they shouldn't make their farms too far from the protection of the town guards, or else they'll face the consequences.
- Fisher: The fisherman starts with his hat and pole, ready to set sail or make a camp next to the lake. He could supply a restaurant with his surplus, or perhaps take to the seas and make his living by exploring and mapping the world.
- Woodworker: The crafty carpenter can carve wood better than all else, to the extent that he can create armor and weaponry from his lumber. True, they are not of the same quality as trusty steel, but they put up a much better fight than cloth and tools.
---------------------------------------------------[Modes]-------------------------------------------------Currently, only three modes are in existence.
- Kingdom: The normal mode of CowRP. In this mode there is the kingdom of Bovinia. Complete with its Castle, village, and all the classes that belong within.
- Peasant: In Peasant mode, Bovinia does not exist. Neither do any of the classes save the peasant classes. There are no buildings. The players spawn with only the clothes on their back, and the tools in the belt. In this mode, the players create their world. Whether it is a great town with an elected mayor, paid guards upholding voted laws, and shops and inns; or a lawless wilderness with separate groups led by powerful warchiefs. The limit is the imagination.
- Kingdoms: In this mode, Bovinia is spawned, but so is the rival kingdom of Cowmalot to the south. The main continent is split by a river that has a single bridge. When you join this mode, you are given the choice to spawn as a Bovinian, or as a Cowmalotian. However, this round is generally only viable when there is a minimum of 20 or so people logged in.
---------------------------------------------------[Credits]-----------------------------------------------Bazuka who painstakingly wrote the guide
Masterdarwin88 who updated the guide for a year or two during my absence.
If there are any errors in the guide, or something was left out, please PM Bazuka through the forums.
Cow RP Guide, The unsuccessful attempt to stop boredom
