[Information] Tutorials

[zerglin9000]

Okay, so if you are using the advanced posting options, then the format will be given to you, however if you don’t have the drive enough to go into that thread and click some buttons, you can use the commands (without the @);

*note* ALL of the command letter (such as dice) must be entirely lowercase or uppercase, uppercase is the standard.
[@DICE]xdn[/DICE]
[@FIELDSET=(hero!)]your text here[/FIELDSET]
[@SPOILER=title]your spoiler, WHICH IS NOT SECRET, its just minimized. For secret, see below[/SPOILER]
[@SECRET=username, or username]Your secret text[/SECRET]
And also I have a NEW personal favorite, the spoilerbutton!
[@SPOILERBUTTON=OOC]Wow, I really love this thing[/SPOILERBUTTON]

Bold italics and underline are also as important, but much simpler;
[@B]OMG ITS BOLD TEXT![/B]
[@I]ITALICS TOO!!![/I]
[@U]You get the idea…[/U]

*remember for this to work you need to remove the @*

[zerglin9000]

OK, here the adventure begins! First thing's first, the boring stuff.
What is play by post?

Simply put, the game takes place on this gaming site via the form of a post. You will post your character's actions in response to posts made by the DM and other players (it helps to use your characters name, as this will be your identity in the game thread). The game, in many ways, reads like a book that each person in the game helps to write.

So now you have an idea what play by post basically is. I guess the next thing to do is tell you a little about posting and what makes for a good post. Many of the people that start out on this site finally get into their first game and post things like:

"I swing my sword at the orc."

"My character will check for traps on the door."

"Yes."

“I attack him.”

“I listen check.”

Each of those may answer the DM’s post but they don’t make for very exciting posts for others to read. Once again I want to stress you are posting for others to read and they want to enjoy the posts that you write as much as you want the DM’s posts to be full of neat stuff for you. Be descriptive in your post but don’t feel you have to write an entire book. This also helps the game become more fun than just staring at each other using monotone voices, it gives you imagery of what’s going on and what that person is like.

GOOD examples;

"The half-orc barbarian swung his bastard sword in an attempt to separate the goblin's head from its body."

"Darius moved to the door and pulled out his thief's tools. He started to carefully inspect the door and the lock in search of traps that might impede his progress."

“Slowly Mariùs creeps through the door, trying not to awaken or be seen anybody left alive inside. (move silently check)”

You'll note that these ideas are written in 3rd person. Almost all of the roleplaying on this forum is done in third person, and this is the tense that you should use for this game.

The more you post the easier it becomes to write a post that is interesting to read. I hope that helps to give you enough of a general idea about posts and posting to allow us to move to the next thing, character creation. Feel free to ask any questions you want at any time during this game!

[zerglin9000]

Okay, so combat should go a lot faster if we follow this format;

*EDIT* Please post your combat in a spoiler button, roll in the roll thread, and link your rolls in the roll thread to the corresponding numbers. Your combat posts should now look like in the spoilerbutton example.

Okay, so we have roll rooms, right? These are for your rolls! You can roll in the corresponding roll room for your thread, and then link it to where it needs to go.
To link a specific post (as you should do) you can click on the little icon next to the silver scales, the number icon. It should open a window for you containing that posts adress, and that will be your URL.
EXAMPLE;

 

Attacks
attack rolls- #1-11 and #2-4
Damage rolls (hehe I missed!) #1-7 and #2-5

Any time a possible combat round occurs or you plan on being involved in combat you should make a differently formatted post. My method will be for you to have HP posted with AC at the top, attack rolls AND damage in the same post, to reduce rounds and quicken combat. This eliminates unnecessary time spent on multiple inconvenient posts.
EXAMPLE!;

I attempt to gouge out one of the centaurs gleaming eyes.

Combat actions HP- 8/8 (current/total) AC- 15 Attack roll Dice [rolls will change when post is finalized] : (as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code) d20+2: (18) + 2 Total = 20 Damage Dice [rolls will change when post is finalized] : (as this is an older post, these rolls are interpreted by the older (more basic) dice roller code) d6+1: (6) + 1 Total = 7

That way I can keep track of the happenings a whole lot easier! ^_^

Remember, HP is current AND full, however as time goes on we may not need the letters AC or HP, and the numbers may eventually looks like 14/21-17 and although this may look like a date and time, we will know what it means!
Also, if you post it in a spoiler button, that makes it much more space efficient, I would like for you to do that, but it wont be too strict there! ^_^

REMEMBER! DO NOT EDIT ROLL POSTS! ^_^

If you have any OTHER time saving tricks, please post (here at this forum) about it.

Warning: rolls have been deleted from this post.