[Information] Posting Etiquette

[goatmeal]

Posting Rate Most games start out quickly, which I’m anticipating for this one as well. After that initial excitement wears off, I’m expecting we’ll settle into something around two posts a week. If you don’t get a post up in that time frame, expect the story to move on without you, even if it is in a dramatic situation that your character would really enjoy being part of. For prolonged absences, I recommend selecting one of the other players to take actions for your PC. If you don’t select someone I will likely do it for you. If you disappear, your character will slowly move into the background: this may or may not involve character death, depending on the scenario of the game when it occurs.

Posting Protocols Write your posts in the third person. Use bold to indicate speech. Use italics to indicate thought. If other languages become an issue, we’ll have to figure out the best way of indicating them. Post in-character things in the game thread. Put mechanics and any other things that are out-of-character inside of a spoiler button.   like this. One of the mechanical things that you should always include in your spoiler button is a brief table of relevant character data to include Hit points, AC (all of them), Saves, any current conditions, and a link to your character sheet.   Name HP AC Touch Flat Status Fort Ref Will Hero Milton 32/32 21 vs. 1st attacker20 12 16 Mage Armor, 1 drink +8 vs. poison, spells, or SLA+6 +8 vs Spells, or SLA+6 +8 vs non-fear mind altering, + 9 vs Spells, or SLA, +10 vs both+7 4 Each post should contain a fieldset box titled with “CHARACTER NAME, RACE, CLASS” that contains a picture that you will use to represent your character. The picture does not have to be a perfect representation of your character, but it will help others to identify that character with your post. This is especially true if we have many characters with names that are unfamiliar to typical speech: they can become easy to confuse at times.   Milton, Dwarf, Monk(Drunken Master) Rolling: should be done consistently by all players. I have methods I prefer, but you will be the ones using the dice publicly, so once the game starts please discuss whether you’d like a separate dice thread, roll in the game thread itself, or some other option. Try not to post too often or not often enough: don’t always be the first to post or the last to post. Think carefully about whether someone else might want to respond to the current situation before posting multiple times in one day: I’d rather not have this game be about whichever one of us is hitting the refresh button the most. On the other hand, don’t slow the game down by waiting two days after everyone else posts before getting your post up. Use the OOC thread to help gauge whether or not you should post if you are not sure. Secrets:I’d like to avoid using secret tags in the game as much as possible. There will be times for it, but I think missing out on large swaths of the game can make it less enjoyable for everyone, particularly those following along in the stands, as it were. What I would hope is that everyone is mature enough in their gaming to not have their characters considering player knowledge in difficult situations. If things become a bit too tricky, we might have to temporarily secret some things, but hopefully this doesn’t come up too often. I will include some posts that do not include character knowledge that I think might help to raise the suspense a bit around certain aspects of the game. Quitting:If you ever decide to leave the game, make sure to let us all know so that we can keep having fun without you. No offense will be taken by it.

Experience per Post I’m going to try this again, though in my last game I discontinued it after the first story arc. If nothing else, it will get you through level 1 faster. You will be awarded some amount of experience for each post that you make. I will compile these as the game goes by, and announce them to you via your private threads at breaks in the storyline (usually at the close of a particular thread). These will be on a scale of 0-20 in five point increments. You will earn experience per post equal to the APL for that thread times your points on the scale. The scoring and examples of each are given below. All examples are from posts that I myself have made. 0- Will include some combination of excessive shortness, poor grammar and/or spelling, sloppy formatting, misunderstanding of rules or misunderstanding the current scenario of the game. I interpret such a post as not caring enough about the game to put in the effort to make a decent post. 5- Will have some of the qualities listed above, but overall appears to be a legitimate attempt at making a decent post. I may on occasion give a 5 to what otherwise would be a 10 based on slowing the game down without notification. Not the finest work you’ve ever done, but an attempt nonetheless. We all have those days. 10- A good solid post: well written, either moves the story along or develops character background, displays a clear understanding of the rules and is formatted correctly. I’m hoping most posts will fall into this category. 15- An above average post. Displays all the characteristics of a 10 post, but takes it a little bit farther. My standard for a 15 is whether or not I think it is deserving of an RPXP award. I might be more conservative in that regard in this game than I am in general. 20- An exceptional post. A post that I would nominate for a post of the month award. This may happen at some point, but it might not happen for every player and it might not happen for every thread. If someone does win a Post of the Month award, they will receive 100 x APL XP for that post. If someone wins Post of the Year, they gain a level. Don’t feel as if you have to write to win Post of the Month with each post, or actually ever, for that matter. You’ll accumulate more XP by having regular posts in the 10 to 15 range than by taking longer on each post because you’re shooting for a 20 or more. Write how you like to write: it should take care of itself if I selected you for the game, after all.