Post by Oomori Aya on Nov 12, 2003 17:23:24 GMT -5
Please follow these rules or be frowned upon. =P
Thread = Forum topics
Note = Uh, notes within the forum topics. Also known as posts.
- Do *not* post an over abundance of topics. We seriously do not need 11 threads going at one time, it just makes it more difficult for everyone to play. Naturally, everyone should be involved, but threads that involve 2 people are generally frowned upon except in special occassions. Only create a new thread for the following reasons:
a) to move the plot along. If you're an arc moderator, then you should make all the threads you need to make people get into the right places and introduce whatever concepts or characters you need.
b) When you have ABSOLUTELY no way to introduce your character, but seeing how that's almost impossible....
c) All the other threads are dying out and/or non-relevant to you. But please, use your best judgement.
I *want* people to post new threads, because we need lots of fun locations and times and such, but one should use their best judgement on whether or not we *really* need another thread that three other threads already cover. In the beginning of the RPG, I'll post a few to get people started.
- Please do not waste space and waste people's reading times by having your characters and another players characters having insignificant conversations. Think of this like a fanfic, in a fanfic, characters don't sit there and jabber about the weather and what not. Why? It's boring! =P Our normal life conversations don't always make the most interesting things to read. Of course your characters can talk with one another and talk about irrelevant things, just make sure it isn't this endless post after post banter of "Hi!" (next post) "What are you doing?" (next post) "Going to the movie." (next post) "Oh really, what are you watching?" etc etc ad nauseum.
- This goes with the above rule, but please combine your posts. Please don't post seperate notes for every character you have. Just put them all together and seperate the paragraphs with stars *** (like I do in my fanfics) or a nice 'Meanwhile at blahblah...' will do just fine.
- Do NOT play god characters and do not control other characters. I swear to you, you'll be seriously warned for doing it. Naturally, some characters ARE more powerful than others, more attractive, more everything--but you cannot make other people's characters fear your character, fall in love with your character, etc. Just like you can't speak or move another character to excess, you definately can't make thought choices for them...UNLESS you have that players consent.
- This also goes with the above, but please take note of the character's special virtues. Some characters ARE devastatingly attractive, so please, acknowledge that--that was the point of the special virtue =P (You should probably be able to guess what the special abilities are.) If someone's character is admired by practically everyone, then it's completely bizarre for you to decide that you're character wouldn't be. Of course some characters wouldn't be.
- For those who start threads, please date each thread with the hypothetical date of the thread. For example, "7:00 am Thursday." As time progresses, one might want to keep the players informed of the current time...sometimes its necessary...but most people figure it out just fine.
- Don't post too many notes. Its better for you to post like 1 or 2 really deep, insightful, descriptive things than 50 useless babbling posts. Remember, this is like a shared fanfic.
- Spelling & Grammar. I'm not insisting that you use spell check, or that every single word you have is spelled properly, but please, do make an attempt to make sure that we can easily read your posts. No psts taht look liek this. Its not only annoying to read, but it really lessens the entire quality of the RPG--not to mention the quality of your posts. Its really not that difficult to reread your note for mistakes. If you're too lazy to do that, then type up your responses on Word and make Microsoft spellcheck for you =P
- Tenses. This goes with above. Please write in third-person, past tense. What is that? It's "Mary walked down the street." instead of "Mary walks down the street." or "Mary is walking down the street." or "I am walking down the street." This is for flow, once again. If English is not your first language and this is actually a difficult concept for you, then let me know, and we'll help you out as much as you can.
- Types of posts you can post. The only time you're allowed to write completely non-sequitur stuff that doesn't further the storyline are in threads like Daily Life or Night Life, basically threads that are stated to be sections where you can go off and do your own thing and it doesn't have to do with anything else. Otherwise, you're basically expected to interact in SOME way in threads either with the main plot, subplots, or with other characters...otherwise, you're just wasting space on my server, and the limited time that many members have to read the board. When reading a book, would you want to read a scene that had NOTHING to do with the rest of the story? Of course not, in fact, books don't have those things because they're telling stories.
Okay, that's enough for rules...Finally, I'd like to try and describe how the RPG works for those who are completely unfamiliar with this style.
This basically works like a fanfiction, NOT an RPG. Every character gets to add their own little piece to the story. The intention of this is to be very freeform and very spontaneous. You're supposed to *WORK* with what people throw at you (as long as that isn't completely ridiculous.) Each thread is like a seperate part of the story that may very well be happening at the same time as another thread. For example, one thread might be called Sarayashiki HS and its place in time might be Thursday at 10:00 am. Another thread might be called Meiou Gakuen that also takes place at the same time. These are obviously two locations at the same time and your same character can't possibly be at both places. =P But lets say that the players at the Sarayashiki thread decide to go to the mall after school. Your character from Meiou Gakuen could happen to *bump* into the Sarayashiki characters (in that case, you'd simply hop threads.) Because there is almost no time, it allows players to play whenever they can.
Yes, with this system it is quite possible to have a thread stretch out for months but still be on the same day (thus making a person be writing in the past, compared to all the other threads.) That makes it rather interesting, personally, since if you come up with an idea and you want to implement it, you can simply go to threads in the "past" and stick hints in.
Confused by the chronology of the fanfic? Oh well, you'll figure it out soon enough, trust me. ^_^
Thread = Forum topics
Note = Uh, notes within the forum topics. Also known as posts.
- Do *not* post an over abundance of topics. We seriously do not need 11 threads going at one time, it just makes it more difficult for everyone to play. Naturally, everyone should be involved, but threads that involve 2 people are generally frowned upon except in special occassions. Only create a new thread for the following reasons:
a) to move the plot along. If you're an arc moderator, then you should make all the threads you need to make people get into the right places and introduce whatever concepts or characters you need.
b) When you have ABSOLUTELY no way to introduce your character, but seeing how that's almost impossible....
c) All the other threads are dying out and/or non-relevant to you. But please, use your best judgement.
I *want* people to post new threads, because we need lots of fun locations and times and such, but one should use their best judgement on whether or not we *really* need another thread that three other threads already cover. In the beginning of the RPG, I'll post a few to get people started.
- Please do not waste space and waste people's reading times by having your characters and another players characters having insignificant conversations. Think of this like a fanfic, in a fanfic, characters don't sit there and jabber about the weather and what not. Why? It's boring! =P Our normal life conversations don't always make the most interesting things to read. Of course your characters can talk with one another and talk about irrelevant things, just make sure it isn't this endless post after post banter of "Hi!" (next post) "What are you doing?" (next post) "Going to the movie." (next post) "Oh really, what are you watching?" etc etc ad nauseum.
- This goes with the above rule, but please combine your posts. Please don't post seperate notes for every character you have. Just put them all together and seperate the paragraphs with stars *** (like I do in my fanfics) or a nice 'Meanwhile at blahblah...' will do just fine.
- Do NOT play god characters and do not control other characters. I swear to you, you'll be seriously warned for doing it. Naturally, some characters ARE more powerful than others, more attractive, more everything--but you cannot make other people's characters fear your character, fall in love with your character, etc. Just like you can't speak or move another character to excess, you definately can't make thought choices for them...UNLESS you have that players consent.
- This also goes with the above, but please take note of the character's special virtues. Some characters ARE devastatingly attractive, so please, acknowledge that--that was the point of the special virtue =P (You should probably be able to guess what the special abilities are.) If someone's character is admired by practically everyone, then it's completely bizarre for you to decide that you're character wouldn't be. Of course some characters wouldn't be.
- For those who start threads, please date each thread with the hypothetical date of the thread. For example, "7:00 am Thursday." As time progresses, one might want to keep the players informed of the current time...sometimes its necessary...but most people figure it out just fine.
- Don't post too many notes. Its better for you to post like 1 or 2 really deep, insightful, descriptive things than 50 useless babbling posts. Remember, this is like a shared fanfic.
- Spelling & Grammar. I'm not insisting that you use spell check, or that every single word you have is spelled properly, but please, do make an attempt to make sure that we can easily read your posts. No psts taht look liek this. Its not only annoying to read, but it really lessens the entire quality of the RPG--not to mention the quality of your posts. Its really not that difficult to reread your note for mistakes. If you're too lazy to do that, then type up your responses on Word and make Microsoft spellcheck for you =P
- Tenses. This goes with above. Please write in third-person, past tense. What is that? It's "Mary walked down the street." instead of "Mary walks down the street." or "Mary is walking down the street." or "I am walking down the street." This is for flow, once again. If English is not your first language and this is actually a difficult concept for you, then let me know, and we'll help you out as much as you can.
- Types of posts you can post. The only time you're allowed to write completely non-sequitur stuff that doesn't further the storyline are in threads like Daily Life or Night Life, basically threads that are stated to be sections where you can go off and do your own thing and it doesn't have to do with anything else. Otherwise, you're basically expected to interact in SOME way in threads either with the main plot, subplots, or with other characters...otherwise, you're just wasting space on my server, and the limited time that many members have to read the board. When reading a book, would you want to read a scene that had NOTHING to do with the rest of the story? Of course not, in fact, books don't have those things because they're telling stories.
Okay, that's enough for rules...Finally, I'd like to try and describe how the RPG works for those who are completely unfamiliar with this style.
This basically works like a fanfiction, NOT an RPG. Every character gets to add their own little piece to the story. The intention of this is to be very freeform and very spontaneous. You're supposed to *WORK* with what people throw at you (as long as that isn't completely ridiculous.) Each thread is like a seperate part of the story that may very well be happening at the same time as another thread. For example, one thread might be called Sarayashiki HS and its place in time might be Thursday at 10:00 am. Another thread might be called Meiou Gakuen that also takes place at the same time. These are obviously two locations at the same time and your same character can't possibly be at both places. =P But lets say that the players at the Sarayashiki thread decide to go to the mall after school. Your character from Meiou Gakuen could happen to *bump* into the Sarayashiki characters (in that case, you'd simply hop threads.) Because there is almost no time, it allows players to play whenever they can.
Yes, with this system it is quite possible to have a thread stretch out for months but still be on the same day (thus making a person be writing in the past, compared to all the other threads.) That makes it rather interesting, personally, since if you come up with an idea and you want to implement it, you can simply go to threads in the "past" and stick hints in.
Confused by the chronology of the fanfic? Oh well, you'll figure it out soon enough, trust me. ^_^