(Please note that this is not the only guide available, other guides by other players will soon be able to be found on the site)

Character Selection - The trick is to pick a character who will allow plenty of scope for creativity, but isn't so complex that you have to spend all your time having to justify their simplest actions.

Tradtional characters (like a Human Thief) are great to start with as they take no time to generate and allow the most freedom to play. Also, they will normally end up being more powerful than complicated characters in the long run.

My first Beyond character, Stumpy, was a Dwarf Fighter whose skill was "Adventuring" (i.e. a bit of thieving skills mixed with the type of knowledge an experienced adventurer would pick up in his travels). This simple combination was fantastic, as it was simple to play, but allowed plenty of room for growth as the character developed.

More unusual character types need very careful consideration and I would recommend discussing them with other players and Andy before going ahead. They can often turn out to be quite underpowered due to the restrictions of their specialisation. For example an Alchemist may sound like a good idea, but he would be useless on an adventure, as his strength would be restricted to a lab! The secret is to plan the characters future and try and figure out how they will develop. It's also worth trying to balance any strengths they have with some weaknesses.

My second character is a specialised chap. He is a V'garnian Necromancer who is moderately insane (in a Hannibal Lector kind of way). His power is based around the dead and undead. His powers in this area exceed priests who are double his power. This seemingly immense power is balanced by the fact that he has little or no power over the living and the fact that he must engage in sacrifices to collect souls for V'garn if he wishes to increase his power. Believe me, these more than balance his primary power!

 

Turn Writing - The style of turn writing varies enormously from player to player. Some people complete a turn in a dozen words while others can write several hundred. I tend to veer towards the latter style, but this is only because it suits my naturally verbose nature.

A longer turn does not mean you are performing more actions. You are part of a party who will be acting in concert - there is no point putting 15 actions down in one turn - there wouldn't be time! As a rule of thumb I limit myself to a maximum of five actions. In truth there is only time for 3-4.

I have included an example of a turn I sent to Andy the GM below. The results before had seen the death of a party member who had spent a lot of time forming mind links with Maurice while he was communing with V'garn. I was on the look out for a hand (a long story which Grob is better served telling). The other party member mentioned below is Salinaar who is a T'gellenite Paladin. Needless to say the truce between himself and Maurice is very uneasy indeed. When the turn started up Salinaar was blessing the dead character in T'gellen's name.

Before I start to write a turn I generally make notes on a scrap of paper while reading my previous turns results. These could in themselves be used as a brief turn. E.g. for the below turn I probably wrote.

1. Get dead characters hand and preserve.

2. Mock Salinaar

3. Collect headbands

4. Go to temple

This would be fine if you are in a hurry, but it doesn't add much texture to the game. It's always worth adding in some dialogue and decriptive text. Remember Andy can always cut this out of the turn results if it isn't appropriate.

My final turn orders were as follows:

1. Maurice claps mockingly at Salinaar's devotions "Oh very good Salinaar. I'm sure that makes him feels much better." Maurice puts on a squeaky pious tone and dances from foot to foot "Oh Mighty T'gellen, take this mighty warriors soul, so he may lick your boots for eternity." Maurice turns back to Phils corpse. "Perhaps he could still give me a hand though." With that Maurice brings his axe down across the wrist of Phil's corpse, severing the hand from the arm. He then carefully picks up the hand at waves at Salinaar with it, before popping it into a jar of preservative fluid.

2. Once Maurice has finished mocking Salinaar, he collects a couple more head bands from the corpses of the lizard men and gives the bodies a quick search. Once complete he proposes that the party cautiously move off to the building Dracalas suggested. As they leave the room Maurice pauses, turns and looks back at Phils corpse. Smiling to himself Maurice mutters "Devote his soul to T'gellen indeed. Credulous fool, his soul belonged to my master since the day he first linked his mind with mine"

 

The final turn results came out as follows:

Maurice - Turn 48

Maurice claps mockingly at Salinaar as the T'gellenite gets up from beside the body of Phil, he has just laid out. "Oh very good Salinaar. I'm sure that makes him feels much better." Maurice puts on a squeaky pious tone and dances from foot to foot. "Oh Mighty T'gellen, take this mighty warriors soul, so he may lick your boots for eternity."

Salinaar takes a deep breath and ignores Maurice for a moment as he moves over to Remagen and asks, "Lady, are you wounded? I have powers to heal you if you wish." Remagen politely declines, pointing out that she has no injuries, before she goes back to checking the chamber and its contents. Salinaar turns to look back at Maurice and says, "You being evil probably have your own ways to cure yourself, though as you are currently working towards T'gellen's greater glory at the moment I can cure you. You will however eventually see the light!"

After attending to the injuries of Dracalas, Salinaar heals himself before then returning his attention to the body of Phil. There is a bloody stump where the right hand was only recently and with a growl to himself, Salinaar grabs some robes from the dead and places them over Phil's body before setting it all alight. "Rest in the flames of T'gellen so that the evil things dwelling here cannot desecrate your body further." He the gives Maurice a dark look, the V'garnian priest smiling back and waving with what appears to be a severed hand.

Popping the hand into a jar of preservative fluid, Maurice turns to Remagen who has just finished looting the bodies. She has, in addition to masks, crystal headbands and normal weapons, collected the following;

Six crystal amulets

One ornate silver ring

Three ornate silver daggers

One ornate silver bracelet

As Maurice takes a couple of the headbands, Remagen declares, "As we are all anxious to return to our own time and location. I think we have no choice but to find this dragon's home." Dracalas nods in agreement, "That beast will feel the revenge for my brother!"

Almost as if he has not been listening to the others, Salinaar announces dramatically, "I shall go and smite this evil dragon creature that is the root of this places evil!" He then looks around at the others, as if noticing them for the first time, and adds, "and of course you can help too!" He kneels in a short prayer to T'gellen and finds himself blessed with the power to 'See Aura'.

As the group eventually leave the chamber, Maurice pauses, turns and looks back at Phil's corpse. Smiling to himself Maurice mutters, "Devote his soul to T'gellen indeed. Credulous fool, his soul belonged to my master since the day he first linked his mind with mine." With that he descends the staircase after the others.

 

The group have moved along back alleys and mainly kept to the shadows until they eventually reach a point from where they can observe the great cathedral. The two front domes and large rear dome make the building rather unmissable and from their position, beside some broken crates in a dark alley, Remagen peers around the corner. She can see the entrance to the place, which lies some three hundred yards away. It consists of a pair of truly massive iron bound doors that stand about fifty feet wide by at least sixty feet high. They are closed but within the left door is a much smaller entrance, a door measuring some four feet wide by six feet high. This door is open and is flanked by four armed and armoured dragon warriors.

There are strangely no windows to this great construction but Dracalas nudges the others and points to a large crack in the stonework of the left dome. To reach it though would require scaling the side of the ninety feet high building, with only hideous stone gargoyles are various points to aid the climb. "Well?" asks Dracalas looking for some sort of lead to come from either Remagen, Maurice or Salinaar.

 

Personality - As you can see from the above Andy has used most of the dialogue etc, but has adapted it to fit in with what the other players have done.

Remember that role playing forms a large part of Beyond - your character will therefore need a personality of sorts!

Without a personality, your character will be dull to play. Don't worry about making it too complicated to start with, you will find that the personality will develop as you go along.

A warning - avoid wildly xenophobic characters, or characters who have a "smite the unbeliever" approach to any who do not follow their god. Beyond characters are on the whole mercenaries, who need to be able to co-operate with their fellows. Mercenaries may well have beliefs etc, but they need to be able to keep a reign on them.

Enjoy Beyond as I and many others have over the past fifteen years but remember, if Maurice asks if you want to become immortal - just say no!