Movement and Helpfiles
Information about all the game’s systems and lore is available in helpfiles. You can see a full list of them at: https://havenrpg.net/newsite/index.php/game-info/helpfiles
To look at a helpfile type help (file name) If there is more than one match you can use help 2.(file name) etc. You can use helpsearch (argument) to look for any helpfile that contains that text.
You can also type commands to see a list of commands, and then use help <commandname>
To move about the game you’ll use the cardinal directions, north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest, up, down. Simply type one on a new line and hit enter, you can also use the shortcuts, n, s, e, w, ne, se, nw, sw, u, d.
In each room you’ll see the available exits, in this room the only available exit is to the north. Type n and hit enter when you are ready to proceed.
Using the map command out of combat will list the game’s maps, while if you have a phone phone gps will show your current location inside the town. In combat the map command shows you your immediate surroundings instead. If you are in a property you can use map level to see a layout of the nearby area.
If you would rather not see descriptions automatically when you enter a room you can use the brief command.
Communication
If at any time you have a problem or issue you can ask for help OOCly from other players by typing newbie <message>, for example, newbie How do I set my title? This will send a message to everyone on the game. You can also write people notes OOCly, see help note for more information on how to do that.
When in the game you can talk ICly with the say and whisper commands, you can also use say to <person>, or whisper person to direct them to someone in particular. The say command also accepts brackets to change the way in which you speak. So you could use say (while laughing) That’s a good one. And it would appear as <Your name> says, while laughing, ‘That’s a good one’
The emote command allows you to convey in game actions, for instance emote laughs hard. Would appear like <Your name> laughs hard. Some simple emotes are pre-written as socials, you can see a list of these by typing socials, and use them by just typing their name and any possible targets afterwards. The emote command can be used in a variety of ways, best explained in help emoting
To communicate with members of your faction, society or cult you can use the fsay, ssay, or csay commands respectively.
Your character will also likely have a phone you can use to text or call people, see help phone.
Concept and Character
The most fundemental part of your character is their archetype, there are various supernatural and mundane characters types, you can see them all in help archetype.
Higher tier archetypes are more powerful but also inveitably more evil as in this setting power always equals corruption. You can alter the tier of a character by taking a positive or negative modifier. Note that you generally cannot change your archetype once you leave newbie school, but you can change your modifiers. You should look at help moral tier to understand how to play your character’s level of corruption.
Your character also came from somewhere, type history to enter an editor and write your character’s history. While you don’t have to do this now, it eventually will become compulsory to have a history if you keep playing.
Characters also require some secrets, you can use the secrets command to write a description of yours. These are generally invisible to most other players unless they have a specific legendary power.
You should also consider your character’s drives, in Haven drives are either fears or ambitions. When your drives negatively impact your character you have a chance to gain a bonus, see help cdrives for more information.
Your character also likely has habits, use the habit command to set these to represent the sorts of things your character does while ‘offscreen’
When in the game you also may wish to form coded relationships with others see help relationships.
All of these fields can be seen by typing lookup self, and your basic information can be seen with score.
Setting
Haven is a modern, paranormal horror game set in the city of New Haven, a city that exists in the liminial space between worlds with an unclear origin.
Haven is a horror setting in which the foundational principle is that power equals corruption. It is not just a saying that power corrupts in this world it is an unbreakable metaphysical law. All the most powerful individuals are corrupt and so are most of the more powerful organizations.
The two primary themes of the game are Heroic Horror and Gothic Horror.
Heroic Horror is a term that refers to horror settings in which heroism is still possible and, at least somewhat, effective. Unlike in some horror genres where characters can only hope to survive their antagonists in heroic horror it is possible to defeat them and improve the state of the world. It differs from standard heroic fantasy in that the victories characters achieve are small scale and the overall state of the world is never meaningfully moved to a just or orderly standard. In heroic fantasy characters generally protect a basically just and moral world from being corrupted, in heroic horror they are just trying to stop an immoral and corrupt world from getting worse. The aesthetic of heroes in heroic horror is much closer to resistance fighters than soldiers or police.
Gothic Horror is a term that refers to a genre of horror in which supernatural elements function as metaphors for real world psychological or social conflicts. It also has a heavy emphasis on conveying a general feeling of unease or haunting. In Haven all the Demons, Gods, Fae etc used to be human, and many supernatural elements function as exaggerations of real human traits or what-ifs that can function as the basis for psychological exploration.
It’s important to keep these themes in mind while playing, as all the mechanics and lore are written with this in mind and you will find your play experience frustrating if you are constantly trying to fight against the design of the game.
Training and Development
In order to customize and develop your character you can train various stats, powers and disciplines.
Stats are bought with roleplay experience earned through roleplay of all types and can vary between -1 and 5. You can use the command stats to see what stats you have, and stats cost to see what ones you can buy. Each level of a stat costs more to raise than the last, level 1 costs 10, 000 RP xp, level 2, 20, 000, 3, 30, 000 and so on. So the total cost to raise a stat from 0 to 5 is 150, 000 RP Exp. You begin the game with 150, 000 newbie RP exp to set up your character. To raise a stat just type train (stat name) You can do this anywhere. If you make a mistake you can use negtrain (stat name) to return the stat for a refund. But keep in mind that once you’re out in the game world this refund won’t be the full cost of the stat. (See Help Training Methods for more information.)
Powers are the same as stats, but represent things related to the supernatural world or abilities. Use the powers command or powers cost to see them and train them in the same way.
Disciplines are a statistic that’s used specifically in combat, they can be ranged, melee, or defensive. Disciplines are raised with experience earned by engaging in combat. They cost 200 experience times the level it’s being raised to. So to raise a discipline from 0 to 1 costs 200, from 1 to 2 costs 400, from 2 to 3 costs 600 etc. You start the game with 150, 000 newbie combat exp to use to set up your character. To raise your disciplines just use train (discipline name) if you make a mistake, negtrain works for them the same as it does for other stats. You can use the disciplines command to see your current disciplines, and use disciplines cost to see the cost of raising any of them.
Descriptions
Characters should have a description. The simplest way to describe your character is to simply type describe self. This will put you into an editor where you can write a few lines about what your character looks like. If you are feeling more adventurous however, Haven has a much more detailed description system you can make use of.
To do this type describe (location) to start writing a description of each part of your body. Whatever parts of your body are exposed then will be shown when people look at you, just remember to add a space or a newline at the end or beginning of different parts that are displayed next to each other. You can customize the order in which these parts appear with describe order (location) (number), with lower numbers appearing first.
You can use ddesc create (keyword) (location) to create dynamic descriptions for different body parts that you can switch on and off to update your description.
You can also use detail (location) (over/under) to describe parts of your character’s body in greater depth. This won’t be seen by anybody looking at the character normally, but will be if they decide to look at that part of you in greater detail with look (person) (location). Over details are always displayed, while under details are displayed only when that part of your body is exposed.
You use look (person) to see their description and clothing. You can use glance instead to just see the parts of their appearance that have changed since you last looked at them.
You can use glance (person) to see more basic information about them. You can use qlook (person) for a quick overview of what they look like.
There is no need to describe every body part of your character, you should aim for short, readable descriptions wherever possible.
You can use talk (string) to set up how your character normally sounds when using the say command.
Clothes and Tailoring
It’s relatively important for your character to be dressed before you proceed on grid. In this room you can buy clothing and customize it to suit you better. Type list to see everything that’s available, and then buy <number> to purchase something. Once it is purchased you can wear it by simply typing wear <object> or customize it with the customize command. For instance, buy 1, wear shorts. Would purchase and then wear a pair of white cotton shorts.
You can look at help customize for a full list of options, but at a basic level simply using customize <object> to enter an editory to change the details of an item. The shortstring is what’s used when the object is in messages, longstring is what’s seen when it’s worn or on the ground, and names are the words that can be used to target it.
When giving an item a wear string you can enclose it in brackets () to make it show up in front of the item instead of behind.
It’s important not to use the customize command to make something more expensive than what is actually paid for it, in these cases you can use customize cost to increase the cost appropriately. Over time you’ll assemble several outfits, which can be managed with the outfit command, help outfit.
The wear command can take layers and locations as arguments, see help wear for more information. You can also use the expose and unexpose commands to manipulate worn clothes, help expose.
(This room is a universal stash, see help stash)
Organizations
Much of what happens in New Haven is a political struggle between different organizations. While you don’t have to join one of these organizations it is generally harder to find things to do or purpose if you do not.
Factions are groups that are worldwide, player leaders of these groups have an NPC boss. Societies are groups that are more local, they might also have chapters elsewhere but PC leaders do not really have a boss. Cults are secretive player made groups that worship a spirit known as an Eidolon, help Eidolon
Characters can be in up to one of each type of these groups.
You use faction list to see a list of these groups, faction info (name) for more information on each of them or faction join to join one. See help society commands for all the commands.
Another important organization in the city is Windermere University, this is a traditional university but also offers classes in the supernatural. Students can also be in factions/societies but will be considered interns and of lower rank. Being a student is often a good idea if you are a new player. You can view help college for more information.
Additionally there are certain families which are particularly famous in the supernatural world, known as famed families you can see a list of them in help famed families. To join one of these families you just need to change your surname to match them, you can then use the commands in help family.
While not a group PCs can join there are several other organizations that players can work for while on plots and the like, you can see help associations for a list of those.
Combat
There are three types of combat in Haven. Fast combat is real time and what will happen if you type attack (target) Slow Combat is turn based and what will happen if you type spar (target) RP Combat is semi-turn based and more of a coded support system for narrative combat that is not very dependent on combat specific stats or abilities. You can start a rpfight with rpfight (target)
The simplest move in combat is to simply type attack <target> this will pick the best discipline for the job an use a basic attack against that opponent with it. You can combine this with the move command that allows you to move towards someone with move <target> charge, or away from them with move <target> retreat and it will allow you to engage in simple easy fights.
If you want to get involved in more complex fights however, you will want to set up and use custom attacks, with their own strings and special effects. Help custom attacks for more information about them, you also might want to view help move for more information on other types of battle movement.
You can find NPC enemies to fight and earn yourself combat exp by heading towards the part of the city within the mist. You can use the weather command to see where the center of the mist is, but it’s not a good idea to go straight to the center, head to a few blocks away and head slowly towards it until you start to see mist.
You can use the speed command to alter your default combat speed when fighting NPCs, see help speed.
Rules
Haven is an IC enforced game. That means once you leave newbie school and enter out into the game world you will be behaving as your character at all times. Most of the rules are simply about ensuring everyone is playing ICly and preventing common internet abuse. See help rules for a full list.
You should also familiarize yourself with our policies, please use help policies.
If you need to contact the staff of the game for any reason, you should use a petition, see help petition.
Roleplaying
Haven is a roleplay enforced game, that means at all times while in the game your character should act like a real person, a fictional character with their own identity and actions, and not simply as a video game avatar. You can think of it like writing an interactive story. If you’ve never played a RP game before, look for someone to help steer you around the curves.
Many people have different definitions of what makes good Roleplay and good roleplayers, but it mostly boils down simply to not being too selfish, and giving some consideration to the enjoyment of others while writing a believable and interesting character. If you’d like to read a long guide on roleplaying, type help roleplaying guide.