How do I Join?

1. To start, you'll want to read the rules. They're very important in the joining process.
2. Then, you want to create statistics for your horse. The stats are the information about your horse - its name, gender, color, breed, height, etc.
   • Name: First, I’d pick a horse name. Names on Beqanna are typically one word, and can be anything from an everyday word to a Celtic name. Your name can be any length, and can be more than one word if you wish. Once you pick a name, you'll want to make sure that name hasn't already been used in Beqanna. We believe every horse is unique and plays an important role in the game's history. Thus, we want to prevent potential confusion that may result if multiple horses have the same name. To check that your name hasn't already been used, click on the Member Database link in the main header (above). Then click on the middle link to search. Type in the name that you want to use in the Horse Name box and click Search. If no results return with your horse's name, it means that there has never been a character with that name. However, unfortunately, it may be reserved by a current player. To check for that, you'll want to go to the Name Reservations forum under OOC: Character Resources. At the bottom of the forum, type in the horse's name under Search this Forum to see if it's been reserved. If the name is either used or reserved, you just have to pick a new name and check both the database and reservation forum again. If not, it's yours to use! Congrats! You have your first horse's name!
   • Gender: Next, you'll want to select the horse's gender, which will be either male (stallion) or female (mare).
   • Breed: Next comes the breed of horse. If you don't know horse breeds specifically, you can always put mutt or hybrid, which basically means it's a mix of more than one breed of horse. If you're interested in what horse crossbreeds Beqanna recognizes in our members database, please click here. Please remember that mythic horses (ie. pegasus, unicorn, etc) are not breeds.
   • Color: Color depends on your personal preference, but please remember, there are no yellow, pink, polka-dotted, etc. horses! You can only join a horse that is naturally colored.
   • Player Name: You can choose to use your real name or a fun one. Just be sure to check the Member Database to make sure your player name hasn't been used yet either.
3. Now you're ready to join!

The Joining Process

Joining is a two step process:

1. Forum Accounts: You'll first need to create a forum account for yourself. This will be your OOC (out of character) account and is required. All OOC posts should be posted from your OOC account. You can then create additional forum accounts for each horse to post from and link them to your main OOC account, or you can post all in character horse posts directly from your OOC account. Both are acceptable, though most players choose to create an account for each horse. It allows them to customize each character better.
2. Joining Post: Once you have your forum account(s) created, head to the Join forum under Explore (it's the first forum on the list). Read through the information on the page (most of it is reiterating what's already been said in both rules and this page, but for easier access) and then click Post Thread to officially join. In the message, you'll then want to post the stats you've decided on. Remember though, you cannot join a mythic/traited horse without prior permission from the owners. A mythic is a horse with wings, mind reading, immortality, or any other sort of mythic trait. You can, however, join blind, deaf, dumb, slow or fat horses, or even ones with different colored eyes (any normal eye color, like blue, green, hazel, etc. is acceptable). Let's pretend that my horse’s name is Fawn. Here’s what my joining form might look like: Name: Fawn Breed: Arabian Hybrid Age: 5 Color: Grey Gender: Stallion Player: Kortnee

I joined...now what?

Typically, once you join a character, you want to post in the The Field next. The field is a big open range where homeless horses go to find homes. Just like in the joining board, we're going to start a new message. Click Post Thread. The subject can be anything you want, but often people use taglines (such a pieces of quotes, song lyrics, etc) that they associate with each horse as their subject line. If you're not sure what to write, read other posts below for inspiration. A good place to start might be your character’s history, and how they ended up in the field, along with a description of the weather or your character’s appearance. While there is not word count requirement for posts, usually players in Beqanna write to write a couple of paragraphs for each post. Within a few hours or a few days, someone will reply, either a stallion from a herd (if you play a mare) who wants to claim you or someone from a kingdom recruiting you to join their kingdom.

From here, there are two paths you can travel down. Click on Kingdoms and Herds to learn more about each, and how you can get involved.