It's no secret after our last LARP that even our local players can benefit from being involved in the online stories we run here on the forums and at chatroom game events. Not only is there a whole section of story to be seen here that you won't find at our local games but, perhaps more importantly, the forums and chat events offer a place for you to flush out your concept and build in character relationships that there just isn't time for at our 6 hour LARP night events. But, how do you get involved? That's the subject of today's Game Organizer's Blog.



WHAT KIND OF ROLEPLAY ARE WE DOING?
If you don't know what kind of roleplaying goes on here on our website it's offically refered to as Play-by-Post or PBP (Story Format), you can read a paragraph about it & it's origins at wikipedia by clicking here. Now, we do have some similarity to Real Time Human Moderated roleplaying (namely that we get most of our rules from books and that our ST Staff plays NPCs) but generally that only applies in certain posts (those related to the monthly story arcs) and chatroom game nights all of which will be labeled so no one is confused. However, the majority of what occurs here on the website is PBP (Story Format) Roleplaying.



I HAVE A CHARACTER, NOW HOW DO I PLAY?
In traditional roleplaying games you wait for a storyteller to set the scene, telling you where your character is and describing the world around you. Usually, once the storyteller does that, you and your friends' characters will hang out until something happens to drag you off on an adventure where you'll say what your character says and does and roll dice to determine if you're successful or not.

In PBP roleplaying, you must determine what night you want your character to first appear... then choose a setting from those that are already described for you on our setting page (you'll note that in all the forums' descriptions there is a link to the description of that location on our website.)

Next you'll want to decide what they are doing there and you're going to make a post setting the scene with yourself as the star. Then you can invite others to join you *or* you can wait for someone else to find your post and join in on their own. Your characters will interact with one another and, in most cases, will build their own social conflicts and play them out to their natural resolution.

Sometimes, however, a storyteller might join the scene with a supporting cast character (NPC aka Non-Player Character) to help spice things up or to drive plot forward. As with any storyteller or game master, there is no telling our evil motives for joining your threads or not joining them (as the case may be.)



HOW DO I AND THE OTHER PLAYERS RESOLVE CHALLENGES?
There are three ways that challenges are resolved online, they are as follows:

Story It Out. In the case of a scene started by players and joined by players there is a strict rule of "no challenges" what this means is, you can only do something to someone's character if they are accepting of it. This is true for big things (such as shooting a character) and for smaller stuff (a slap to the face) - if two players can't agree on what occurs then the attempted action should fail (a gun misfires or the slap is a miss) or some other resolution needs to be reached that doesn't force players to go to challenges. We strongly encourage players to work together to write great stories with each other where conflict occurs (even combat) so long as both players involved agree on the outcome and the story being told. Remember, you're working together to write the most entertaining story possible both for yourselves and for the other people on the site who are your readers (and ideally fans - I mean, who doesn't love hearing, "You're such a creative person and a kick ass writer, please do a scene with me!")

Storyteller Resolution. In the case of scenes that are labeled "Month/Year Story Post #x" - you will declare in the post what you'd like to do and wait for a storyteller to inform you of the results of your attempt. Example: You are playing a character named Bob who want to hack into a computer system, so in the post you'd write "Bob types madly away and tries to get past the firewall security system on the computer. ((ooc: Attempting to hack into the computer))" ... see the (( )) that let's the storytellers and other players know that you're talking to the storytellers and making a challenge. A storyteller (who has access to your stats can determine the level of success you'd have) will reply in a post back to you and let you know if you were able to do it... or if you failed.

Throwing Chops In Chat. - Online Game nights are, ideally, mostly social events... but occasionally there will be a need to resolve combat or determine the level of success for things. In these cases players should private message a storyteller (by double clicking on their nickname) and tell them what they'd like to do and to whom. The storyteller will then contact the other player (the target) and ask both players to tell him/her if they would throw rock/paper/or scissors. They will also ask the players to tell how many traits they are willing to bid. The storyteller will ask for retests as necessary as per Mind's Eye Theatre (Revised) rules. Once the challenge is completed the storyteller will write the results in the main chat window so that all the other players will know what they see.



WHAT KIND OF STUFF MAKES A GOOD SCENE?
No one wants to read about a vampire sitting around staring at the walls watching paint peel so... rule #1 of writing a scene - always try to have a goal in mind when you sit down to start writing. What I mean by that is, know what story you're telling to your readers and with your fellow RP'ers. Sure, your character might go somewhere for the shits and grins of it... but more than likely they felt a certain way, were thinking about something, had a goal in mind. Likewise, maybe you're writing this scene to try to talk to the Toreador Harpy about getting back at a Brujah Anarch... or maybe you're writing the scene to finally show some of the other players a little about your character history by having him/her go back to the place he was embraced... or maybe you want to explore the horror your character feels when he/she feeds. Just have a plan and rest assured people will want to join you and they will enjoy doing so.



SHOULDN'T I WORRY ABOUT CHEATING WHEN I WRITE ONLINE?
In short: No. Granted, if you write your character's most intimate secrets in a blog post or a forum scene there is a chance that some unscrupuleous players will try to find a way to learn those facts in character (and some folks are really good at doing this in such a way as to be legitimate in doing so) but ... the flip side of things is, not sharing and isn't the point of writing a cool story to share it?

My advice to players is don't share anything TOO juicy until you're ready to hear players talking about it out of character and for it to possibly eventually worm it's way into the story. While the staff will call players on blatant meta-gaming (the act of using knowledge you have as a player, as your character) it's very hard to prove in large games so, use common sense and try to relax a little. The game is about storytelling personal horror... you can't storytell anything without sharing and you can't storytell something personal about your character without revealing personal details eventually. Worry less about cheaters and more about how to entertain folks so much that they never want to screw your character that badly and you'll really enjoy the ride a lot more.



CAN WE DO STUFF IN FORUM SCENES TO ... FOR STORY?
Some players like to show off how inhumane their characters are, some like to show how tough they are, some just want to tell a neat story that will have "collateral damage" (and by that we mean no-name NPCs who populate the world such as an average human at a night club or some random drug dealer that your character would beat up) and want to know if we allow such characters to be hurt or injured despite the fact that there is no challenges on the forum scenes. The answer is Yes... within reason.

A few things to keep in mind: every death, no matter how small, will come up again in game. If you leave a prostitute dead in an alleyway, expect to see it in the IC newspaper at the game... if you go on a killing spree, expect to be hunted (maybe by cops or hunters, maybe by kindred, maybe by the freakin' archons) but there are always repercussions for actions taken and just because you're storying out an action, doesn't mean that the NPCs who serve as "collateral damage" to up your "cool factor" didn't have lives and people who will miss them and want a piece of you. That's the danger of being a vampire. Please be reasonable... if a storyteller notices you writing scenes where you're going all Jackie Chan or Chuck Norris and you have crap for stats on your sheet... we may ask you to tone things down a bit or require you to spend exp on stats to make up for you online uberness.



HOW DO I JOIN A SCENE SOMEONE ELSE STARTED - DO I HAVE TO BE INVITED?
First off, you can always private message the player and ask if it's okay for you to join. However, unless there is a "Atn: Character Name" in the title... it's generally accepted that the player who started the post is welcoming anyone who wants to join, to do so. Joining a scene is really an easy matter, typically it's easiest to say that your character enters the scene (via a doorway - be sure to describe your character's appearance) or (if the room is VERY full and it's plausible you wouldn't have been noticed by the first player) state that your character was there all along. You an simply describe yourself and wait for the other characters to approach you but typically it's considered polite for you to insert yourself politely into the scene by introducing yourself to the other characters present.



HOW LONG SHOULD I WAIT BEFORE POSTING AGAIN?
It's considered bad etiquette (rude even) to reply to your own post. It indicates that you're not willing to wait on others whose lives may be busy that day/week. Because forums allow us to reply when time is best for us to do so... cut folks some slack and if you don't get a reply within a day or two, feel free to write a polite note to the other player and ask them how things are going and maybe remind them about your post. BE KIND... you never know when something bad has happened to them in real life and imagine how much of a jerk you'd look like if you were rude to someone who was having a real life crisis. Real life before game... always.



WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST MISTAKES I COULD MAKE?
Nothing kills a post faster than these three things:

1. An invincible, anatomically perfect, immune-to-contempt, know-everything character who can't seem to ever fail or have a bad day. No one wants to roleplay with Little Miss Mary Perfect... not because she's cooler than all the other kids but because she's damn boring. Think about it... if you had to watch a movie where no one ever failed or had a bad day, how boring would that be? Wolverine: bad ass with a bad/sad past - Dresden: uber wizard with major life issues, Blade: yet another bad ass whose life is utterly lonely and full of angst .... the point is that all these guys would look like Mr. Rogers with guns, knives and spell books if they didn't have such crap-tastic pasts and problems.

2. Failure to read other people's replies. Okay so some folks have less than strong writing skills and can't put sentences together to save their lives... others have no idea what make a good story and so it's a struggle to read through their posts. However, there is nothing more distressing (and insulting) than having put together a few paragraphs or even sentences into a scene only to have your partner(s) completely disregard everything you said and write something completely different than what you'd set forth. For example, if your writing partner's character trips and falls, your character should offer to help them up, or at least notice that they did it (and you need to write that in your reply - don't assume that it's assumed... never assume.) Character interaction is essential to the anatomy of role play.

3. Failure to give them something to work with... we call this act, "One-Lining Them." This refers to the player whose reply to a great post is a one word or sentence reply (usually something like, "yes." Or "no.") that doesn't give anything for the partner to reply to. Do this often enough and eventually your partner will just give up on you and quit posting all together. Always try to end your post with a question or an action that requires a response by the other person(s) in the scene... at least until you're ready to wrap the scene up.


Got questions? Drop me a line! I'd love to hear from you!


Until Next Time,

DeAnna Ross
Game Organizer