Tonight (12/17pm EST) as I was working on adding description to information on my Zeitgeist campaign's Campaign Information Tab (NPC description information for the campaign), I discovered to my surprise that the site was automatically deleting the bottom-most text information from the tab! I'm assuming it is due to size limitations on the tab, but there were absolutely no warnings given about clipping text, nor were there any errors given in saving the tab with updated data. The bottom-most text of the Campaign Info tab has simply been culled and cut out.
This is very frustrating, as I have lost written material the GM and players refer to without even knowing it. In times past I thought that hitting a size cap on a profile tab would simply error upon saving, but in this case the save occurs without issue and the system simply cuts off a portion of text arbitrarily. Is this normal and expected for the Campaign Info Tab of a PbP game? If so, how does a GM know when they are approaching a theoretical limit to avoid losing precious material added over time?
Greetings PbP enthusiasts! I am running an active Zeitgeist campaign, currently in its first AP module with the third of three chapters about to begin. I am seeking two-to-three quality players to add to an existing group of four players to maximize the potential of this campaign.
What is Zeitgeist?Zeitgeist: The Gears of Revolution is a full-fledged AP by EN Publishing, representing a unique world where magic, technology and industry meld together to create a mixture of classic fantasy and Renaissance-to-Victorian age elements. The setting provides a backdrop of mystery, conspiracy and skullduggery, with the characters acting as loyal agent “constables” with special authority for their home nation, working to protect their country and their king from threats both foreign and domestic. For a fuller description of Zeitgeist and the campaign “world” of Lanjyr, you can find a free download of the Zeitgeist Extended Player’s Guide here on the Paizo site, which is a must-read for any applicants for my campaign.
Who is Vorduvai? I am a long time RP enthusiast and Pathfinder GM/player, coming to Paizo’s PbP boards in 2011. As a PbP player I have been involved in a long-running Kingmaker campaign by DM Barcas, and applied to/joined a fledgling Zeitgeist PbP campaign by Celeador in 2013. Though that campaign did not last, there were several of us who loved the Zeitgeist campaign style and story, and in late 2014 I initiated a new campaign that paid homage to the original one, using some of the original characters as NPC’s but with my own take on the Zeitgeist campaign world. Zeitgeist is my only PbP campaign as a GM.
Are You Interested in an In-Depth Zeitgeist PbP Campaign? If so, please take the time to read my requirements and recommendations below, and put forth a character that can join my Zeitgeist campaign as a somewhat experienced constable of the Royal Homeland Constabulary! Due to the current progress of the current storyline I am attempting to give newly arrived characters their own mini-arc and backstory context, looking to time a merging of all characters at a particular point where it makes sense in the storyline.
Recruiting Timeframe:I am looking to keep recruitment open for about a week – closing submissions after Friday, December 11th and making final selections that weekend of the 12th-13th. This should give enough time to work with selected players to fit their characters into the campaign and give them proper context before joining a dire mission already in progress!
Expectations for Zeitgeist Character Creation:
* Read the Zeitgeist Extended Player’s Guide, as you cannot make a proper Zeitgeist character without it.
* Refer to the Campaign Info Tab for additional information not found in the guide, as well as references to the existing active characters (their classes and theme feats).
* Create a character using the guidelines on my DM Vord Profile Tab – it covers all essential elements: attribute point buy, extra skill points, extra Zeitgeist character theme feat, alignment restrictions, race preferences, hero points, modified automatic bonus progression and guidance on the required ‘Ten-Minute Background.’ Wealth and gear selection is not necessary for character submission.
* Special Note: As a standing constable of Risur’s R.H.C. with unquestioned loyalty to king and country, you have to have a character concept that fits that mold, or else he/she would never have been admitted to the R.H.C. in the first place. While I can work with you on fitting the story to some degree, this is not an “anything goes” character concept game.
* Paizo-published classes and feats please. Refer to pg. 4 of the guide on limitations to certain classes in order to fit the Zeitgeist world. Some classes such as Barbarian or Summoner don’t make sense in the campaign. Cleric, Inquisitor and Paladin classes are possible but difficult as there is no clear pantheon of deities to serve. Please take the time to ensure your class fits thematically with the campaign.
* Character submissions should complement the team and not exactly duplicate the classes and character themes already chosen. Example: There are already two Gunslingers with the ‘Gunsmith’ character theme. With respect to Zeitgeist character themes (pg. 6-14 of the guide), I do not want more than two characters with the same character theme.
* Characters can either be 1st or 2nd Level for submission, whatever is easier for you, your preference. Note that selected characters joining the game will be advanced to 2nd Level, to be consistent with the rest of the group as well as to reflect the constable’s prior experience in the R.H.C.
* Characters should have a proper alias and be in a standard Pathfinder format – refer to the campaign’s Character Tab for examples on stat blocks and stat header lines.
Expectations for Player Consideration:
Forward: I am very serious about this Zeitgeist PbP game having a very high degree of quality and immersion, and the pursuits of writing and role-playing are very important to me. This is my only PbP game as a GM, with only one other PbP as a player. I have players with similar dedication, and am looking for more. Unfortunately, this game has suffered twice now (at the outset and more recently) with players that disappeared without proper communication and false commitment. I am looking to rectify that in recruitment, and bring the campaign to its full potential for all involved.
* Player Primer: My original expectations for this game can be reviewed on the very first post of the Discussion Tab. Please review this post, and if you disagree with what is outlined there, please do not apply to this game.
* Posting Frequency: Three times per week on average, or roughly every other day. Sometimes the frequency is higher (when working through a combat for example, or characters are having shorter dialogue posts). Sometimes it can be less (in an interlude when characters are doing lengthy exposition or narrative of time passing). I do not require weekends, though posting on the weekends is certainly fine. Proactive communications on being out for vacations or RL disruptions is highly desired. This is not a multiple-post-per-day game, nor is it a once-per-week game – while those styles are valid in PbP, it is not this game’s frequency.
* Posting Depth: Players will need to write a combination of third-person present-tense narrative, first-person “inner-thought” insight text, spoken dialogue and even past-tense flashback narrative. This is not an expression of one-liner posts. Paragraph-type posting is the norm.
* Time Involvement: Following/reading the campaign posts should be at least every other day. It takes more than five minutes to follow and post to this game. There is a lot to read with a focus on immersion, characters, storylines, description, etc. While every player absorbs and writes material at different speeds, this game requires a quality approach. If you only have a few minutes each week to add another PbP game to your repertoire, please do not apply to this one.
* Team-Play and Inclusion: This game has a team-based approach and needs harmony with its players to work well. While in-game character differences/disputes can make for exciting drama, the players must all be on the same page with that beforehand, and must play inclusively with one another. Though there is spycraft in this game, the characters are not solo agents. Player rifts and open criticism of player actions will not be tolerated. If you often find in your games that everything other players do is stupid and you need to correct them or constantly dole out “advice” in discussion tab, please do not apply to this game.
* Briefly Review Campaign Before Submitting: I encourage you to review not only the Zeitgeist Extended Player’s Guide, but also read both the first and last full page of the Gameplay Tab to see if you dig the narrative and feel of the game. Do you like what you see and want to participate with a developed character in a full-fledged story? If not, why are you submitting for this game then?
* PbP History and/or Writing Samples: As part of the selection process, I will be not only reviewing your submitted characters with their Ten-Minute background, but also taking a look at your history with other PbP games here on the Paizo boards. If you have little history here I may ask you for a writing sample.
Requirements if Selected to Join:
If selected to join this campaign, I will need you to:
* Thoroughly familiarize yourself with the Zeitgeist Extended Players Guide, as well as the game’s Campaign Info tab.
* Read the Gameplay posts from beginning to current. Yes, all of them. Your character will (mostly) know the events that have occurred in the game to the point they join the story.
* Tailor your Ten-Minute Background to match your character’s story placement as a R.H.C. Slate or possibly R.H.C. Bole constable, with roughly 3-5 years in the R.H.C. at that position.
* Get your PC to 2nd Level and gear up accordingly, using the specifics of wealth and stipend allowances that R.H.C. constables are provided.
* Familiarize yourself with how combats are run in this game – you’ll need to post actions with a round-by-round statblock, and I place more emphasis on players being able to post their successes/failures in combat (as opposed to doing a GM round summary of all actions).
If you have any questions, concerns, items that need clarifying, etc. – please post them to me or PM if you prefer. I will be checking daily in the evening time (Eastern Standard Time), and should have time during the weekend as well. Cheers!
Winter, 499 A.O.V. – after dark (A warehouse in Pine Island District)
The injured woman runs for her life.
She is dressed in simple workman’s shirt and trousers, with a small woolen cap and scarf, her face and arms dirty and soot-stained. She could pass for any number of young lean men here working the sordid docks and shanties of Pine Island. In fact that was her disguise. To be an outsider woman alone in these parts was more than dangerous, it was unproductive. To be one of hundreds of barely-fed laborers afforded her the freedom she needed to move around. It almost worked too.
In by boat at dusk, out by boat by the shine of Maiden’s Moon. I got in easily enough didn’t I… And she had at that. The dual run-down warehouses connected over two spits of land barely above high tide. Nothing surprising about that here in the Pines, but what was surprising was that it had its own personal covered boat slip, when larger and better docks were so close at hand. It was the place she had the description of. There was no mistaking the warehouse from her Docker informants in Bosum Strand, but no word of its operators either. No connection to Kell’s Guild or the Family, yet it was lot of hardened men and supplies for local Pines smugglers. For two days and nights she watched the men go in and out at night by rowboat or small barge, bringing in supplies. No men guarding the landside doors, or even coming and going by that route. Then just past the morning they brought in a woman – covered and shrouded from sight, but a woman just the same. The woman wasn’t a prostitute or slave either, not the way she held her posture in the rowboat with the rowers giving her wide berth. Imperious almost. Something was going down, and so she had to get in there and uncover the mystery, reveal the threat. She was very good at that after all. It was easy to sneak on the last barge when some of the men were coming back from getting food from Tortle’s Row, contorting herself to hide under a burlap tarp covering two barrels of pickled fish. Getting inside was easier than she had expected.
I got more than I wagered too…damn if that stupid wretch didn’t look up in the rafters right at that moment I was shifting my weight, I’d be well and gone by now… She winces in pain at the burns along her left arm and shoulder, the workman’s clothes burned through in two places revealing blistered and burned flesh underneath. A bruised rib – probably cracked – from a club to her side when she took the first three zealots down in combat just outside her mark’s doorway. A wave of nausea threatens to overtake her but she pushes it back down with a grunt, putting a hand to her middle as she struggles to pick up her pace in the open space of the cavernous rear warehouse. She loses her torn woolen cap but it doesn’t matter now, her lustrous black hair starting to stream out behind her. She could hear the labored breathing of the nearest man just a half-dozen steps behind her, strong but not conditioned, running hard in as direct of a line as he could manage. He didn’t know it but he was no match for her, even with her wounds, yet the mysterious woman who scorched her with nimble precision just moments ago was a very big problem. She had to evade that female spellcaster and her remaining zealots and get out on the landside to have a fighting chance to disappear in the alleys and warrens. Of course they knew that too, so the race was on.
The warehouse wall ahead comes towards her fast, with clearly marked double doors that are closed and barred. No chance to open before they close in… Next to the doors are a series of wooden shelves packed with crates and barrels, the rows of shelves disappearing into darkness. Too risky to get trapped in there and the darkness won’t be a problem for the woman… Above the farthest shelf by the wall is a flimsy shuttered window, a clear climb to the shelf-top and the window two feet above it. Take it! She leans forward with her right shoulder and takes a sharp turn right before the double doors and towards the shelves, surprising the man who assumed she was making straight for the doors themselves. His mistake and forced correction gives her enough time to make a running jump to grasp the shelves – she bites her lip in pain from her wounds but carries her lithe dancer’s body up and over the shelf to stand atop it, her skill in acrobatics clearly evident. The shuttered window reveals a wooden beam over pungent bayou water which has been enclosed with now rotting wooden planks, connecting the rear warehouse with the front warehouse and blocking access to the outside. The water underneath could have a way out under the warehouses which were elevated on log posts, but there was no way to tell. Not going to get trapped and die down there. Across the beam to the front then…
She turns back and kicks the pursuing man trying to clamber up the shelves right in the face; he yells and falls back to the ground hard in a spray of blood that suggests his nose was badly broken. Movement of several others approaching in pursuit is clear in the dim light; just as she kicks the flimsy rotted shutters out and prepares to cross the wooden beam, she is hit from behind by two azure bolts of energy from the woman that threaten to knock her off the wooden shelves – yet they absorb into a leering feline brooch pin that she concealed under her shirt. She laughs in relief and balance-walks across the plank to the other side and into the window of the adjacent warehouse. Halfway there.
What I wouldn’t give for a sending-scroll to alert the others, but no time to send a message right now anyway…stupid mistake…I have to warn them! When she gained her way inside earlier in the afternoon she found quickly enough the men were not part of a small-time smuggling or slaving operation, but a true terrorist cell. Casks of firedust were everywhere, along with weapons, uniforms, maps and detailed timeframes of the event. And pouches of gold-dust on a table. The men were all set to task without the usual complaints one would expect of criminals - fairly disciplined zealots, so not the crime syndicates. Was it Gale’s hand showing again? Probably. That would explain a great many things, though she knew the mysterious woman was not Gale herself thank the stars. The uniforms, maps and timeframes gave her understanding of the target, but she wanted to overhear the woman and whomever she was meeting with in the closed off dockside warehouse office. Admittedly, she got greedy. She wanted to crack the conspiracy wide open, leave no stone unturned. So she shifted her spot in the rafters to get closer to the office, and by chance she was spotted by a man that never should have seen her otherwise. Embarrassing really – she could have done the same thing thirty other times and not have noticed her once. Still, he did. She had been discovered. Oh she dispatched the fool and the two other zealots nearby in mere seconds, but lost her rapier and earned a cracked rib in the exchange. Then the door swung open and the mysterious woman appeared, with what seemed to be a boy and another possibly feminine figure beyond him, shawled in green silk, rising from a comfortable chair. Also a man – if one could call his kind “human” that is. The mysterious woman acted first and burned her horribly with a fiery ray that she couldn’t dodge. A similar ray from the man-that-was-not-a-man that she barely ducked under. Then she ran, and the life-and-death chase was on.
Landing on the dusty floor of the front warehouse, the smell of decayed fish clinging to nets and dried barnacles on the hull of a dry-docked fishing barge reveals what the cover of their operation is. A slight creak of wood from the beam rafters above draws her sharp attention, but she sees nothing above her. Probably the settling of the ramshackle warehouse as the night draws colder, but further scrutiny is dismissed as she hears angry pounding from the double doors nearby followed by the iron bar being thrown aside. No time.. She draws as deep of a breath as she can painfully manage and pushes herself onward around the barge hull towards what she surmises is the front of the warehouse. It is as she expected, with a darkened hallway just ahead of her, something that leads to front offices and the front door to the outside. Yet a large guardsman comes towards her from that direction, blocking her potential escape route, a wicked-looking heavy axe in his hand. Behind her she can hear the bar coming down and the double-doors about to be pushed open. Behind her with several toughs and at least two arcane casters that can burn her with fire. Behind her is death. She has to confront what lies ahead of her, wounded and without her rapier.
Yet she is not without weapons or resources. As the large guard seems to spy her in the dim light and warily moves to close, she pulls a rare Drakran metallic ball from an enchanted pouch at her side, a gift from one of her friends and associates. She utters a quick incantation of her own to ignite a flame upon a wick at its top – the flicker of light alerts the guard to her presence and he begins to run forward at her but this is what she expects he would do. Taking a step back and to the side by the hull she sets the sphere down and hastily wedges it by a supporting sawhorse. Just in time too. The hulking axeman comes around the hull’s edge and takes a wild swing at her head, but she nimbly ducks into a crouch and tumbles aside to his flank, popping up into a graceful leap forward that carries her just past his returning stroke by a fingerspan. He turns to face her and charge…
…and the metallic sphere detonates at his feet, the force of the blast throwing him violently sideways into a stack of barrels several feet away even as shrapnel from the Drakran grenade rips through the lower half of his body. Lamb eats wolf this time… With gleeful satisfaction she sees part of the barge hull is torn away in a heap, helping to obscure and block the floor between herself and the double doors behind her that have now just been thrown open. But she isn’t done yet – she draws her finely engraved and enchanted Drakran steel pepperbox pistol, taking shot at a male underling nicely silhouetted in the doorway between the warehouses. The cry of pain and muffled curses signifies she connects with her target and sends others behind him diving for cover, yet he stumbles forward into the wooden hull debris in attempt to close the distance. Stupid. He thinks I have to reload… She fires two more shots in quick succession before the zealot underling realizes his fatal mistake at the kind of pistol she carries, the last shot ripping away his cheek and eye socket before he collapses. Feminine voices uttering mystical arcane words can now be heard just past the doorway’s edge, but she used the one Drakran grenade she carried. Only three shots left and my dag against the rest. Time to run. So she does.
At a full sprint she reaches the entrance hallway even as the voices behind her reach an eerie arcane crescendo. She pushes the intent of those spells out of her mind and focuses all efforts on the doorway ahead of her, now just twenty paces away. It doesn’t look barred or reinforced, so she has a chance still. The arcane words end behind her but she doesn’t feel any effects. Did they miss me? Fifteen paces. Out of range? Ten paces. Who cares just GO! Five paces. If locked I’ll shoot it out then its straight across the road to the alley with the bridge and my…
She is halted in her tracks by a wrenching pain in her abdomen, looking down in horror as the haft of a harpoon sticks through her, the braced weapon materializing into view in the hands of a crouched figure set in the corner by the doorway, invisible no longer. The boy. No…not a boy…of course not…how did he get past me…the rafters maybe? The dimpled halfling leers at her with a gleeful malevolence, knowing he inflicted terrible damage to her due to her own haste to reach the front entrance, running right into his braced weapon. Brilliant really, she had to admit. She coughs up blood involuntarily.
Yet she’s not dead from it. She can pull this off yet. Her beloved pepperbox is in her hand still, and she aims it right at the halfling’s forehead. His smile turns to fear, for he’s wedged in the corner between the hallway wall and the door, and has nowhere to go, the harpoon keeping him from drawing dagger and closing in. Three shots are left but one is plenty to finish him off easy.
”That’s right guttersnipe! A kiss for a kiss!”
Her arms feel heavy now as she is about to pull the trigger, but she never gets the chance as the floor falls away beneath her feet, plunging her into a smooth-walled shaft with a bottom that is impossibly deep. She lands with a sickening thud in foul-smelling water, her pistol and the shaft of the harpoon landing in the water beside her. The water is only waist high and she knows she has broken one of her ankles from the fall. How…did I miss the trap in the hallway? Yet with one look upwards she realizes she has fallen well over forty feet. Impossible… No chance a pit trap would be this deep in the muddy basin of the Pines. It’s magic.
A moment later when she starts to scream, she realizes too late that the foul-smelling water is not water, but acid. The acid burns through her worker’s clothes, sears into her flesh, eats away at her hair. Her Drakran pistol bubbles in the corrosive brew, the haft of the harpoon already turning to slag. She screams again and nearly passes out from the shock, but somehow manages to lift herself up out of the acid and cling to the smooth wall by sheer determination and skill. It’s bad, and she isn’t sure she has the stamina to try and climb out of it. That is when magical light illuminates the shaft of the pit from above. Four faces peer over the edge of the pit and look down upon her. The boy who is a halfling. The mysterious woman who is not a human woman. The man who is no mere man. And the fourth figure, the verdant-shawled woman who was seated in the comfortable chair, who is now seemingly floating effortlessly by the pit that most likely she conjured. That woman moves aside the silken shawl and reveals her face…
”No…NO!” The stench of the acid fumes mixed with the smell of her own flesh prevents her from speaking further. Her vision blurs and she nearly falls back into the pool of acid, but she holds on and just glares upwards, tears forming in her eyes.
”I’m sorry dear,” says the shawled woman, sighing but seemingly with little remorse or emotion. ”You see, you think you protect Risur, but you blindly serve that which leads to our destruction. I have seen it. Millions will perish if I do not act, and so what must be will be.” With another sigh and shrug of her shoulders, the shawled woman looks to the others. ”This untimely business has taken resources from us. Can you find replacements?”
”Not as smart or capable as our own, but enough to see my diversion through,” says the man who is no mere man.
”It will work,” chimes the mysterious woman who is not human. ”It must work.”
”Too much planning went into this to call it off now I’d say,” says the halfling.
”Indeed. We will not get another chance, and the stars will go against us if we delay. We keep to our timetables. Regrettable this one and a waste of talent, but the greater good must take precedence.” The shawled woman nods to the others and raises her hands. ”Ready?”
She has no more time and no more tricks left. All she can do is meet her end with courage. She hurls her last defiant insults at those above as they summon their magics, until five scorching rays of fire pierce and burn through her body. Then she screams, and falls…
_______________________________________________Z E I T G E I S T
_________________________________________ACT I: PORTENTS OF A STARRY SKY
______________________________________________ISLAND AT THE AXIS OF THE WORLD
Player selection as you know was closed to recruitment, so this Discussion Tab (OOC) represents the first area to formally start up our new campaign. The purpose over the next week or so is to get all characters worked out and materialized into fully realized aliases for the players on the Paizo boards, including full stat blocks, backgrounds/history/personalities, starting gear, etc. Once all player characters are up and running (or mostly there), I’ll start up the Gameplay (IC) Tab with a prologue to set the tone, and then drop all of you in the R.H.C. where you’ll be able to pick one of three areas to interact with NPC’s and each other prior to the first mission.
Please use this tab to…uhhh….say hello to me and to each other…and work out anything you need to with your characters in an OOC context, as well as ask me or the group any questions you have on your mind. An upcoming post here will put out some Zeitgeist-specific details on character building, including some of the uniqueness of gear in a Zeitgeist setting, firearms, character wealth-by-level as a “salary” model and such. More on that soon. In the meantime, refer to my DM_Vord profile for general character creation rules I prefer to use.
Chaotic Shiny Fantasy Language Converter Site (great site for quick blah blah language – several types so if you use one, perhaps OOC everyone what you’re using for a specific language for consistency).
Risus Monkey Fantasy Language Converter Site (my favorite for Elvish-looking text which I recommend highly – unlike Chaotic Shiny it only has the one language type).
As we have at least one of us new to PbP on the Paizo boards (and its never bad for all of us to have a refresher to refer to), here is a quick summary on the way to post in the game.
The Mechanics of Posting:
In-Character (IC) posting is largely preferred for third-person, present-tense narrative (to describe your character in the “now” of the scene), with third-person past-tense narrative the next widely used option (to describe character actions in the recent past or provide background context). This is done in normal text as seen here.
However, other narrative types are desired to add richness to the game and allow you to fully play your character off the page. Here are methods and examples of other posting elements:
* First-Person Dialogue – Use (“ “) quotes to indicate directly spoken speech as usual, but also bold the text between the quotes, so that it stands out from third-person narrative. Bolding text is performed by [ b ] without the spaces shown, and then a forward-slash [ / b ] at the end (again without spaces).
Dialogue doesn’t have to be grammar-perfect, but generally speaking if you’re going to run dialogue between a PC and NPC in your own post, you want to separate the dialogue in separate paragraphs or lines. Otherwise we don’t know who’s speaking. Other elements of dialogue etiquette are discussed later.
Ex: ”Hello, I’m Constable Devinn LeMont! Your names are…uhh well nevermind it isn’t really that important to me…now go be dear lads and lasses and fetch me some tea if you wouldn’t mind terribly much.”
* First-Person Inner Thoughts – Use italics to describe the inner thoughts of your character, so that we can see what’s going on in the mind of a character but can’t react to what they are thinking (unless Detect Thoughts is running on them, but that’s a different topic). Italicizing text is performed by [ i ] without the spaces shown, and then a forward-slash [ / i ] at the end (again without spaces…you get it right).
Ex: I really wish these newborn underlings would get out of the way and stop crowding the tea room…really Delft should raise his standards as to who he brings into the outfit…
AND ALSO
* Flashback Narrative - Italics can also be used to describe an entire flashback memory scene of the character. In this case you want to italicize the entire paragraph(s) and separate that from any other text in the post – don’t mix flashback narrative in the same paragraphs as other narrative types, as it’s jarring and just confuses everyone on what you’re attempting to do.
WHICH LEADS TO
* Messaged or Telepathic Conversation – This is a fun one! It’s performed usually by having two colons (::) at the beginning and end, with the text both bolded AND italicized between them.
Ex: ::I am whispering to you…can you hear this? You are a ponce you know that? Oh I guess you CAN hear me after all!::
What About Language?
* Dialogue involving different (non-common) languages is cool flavor but tricky, as you need to post the actual spoken language as standard dialogue, and then [ spoiler ] the translation text below it, so that those characters which can speak the language can see what the translation is. A spoiler is achieved by using [ spoiler = language type ] with no spaces…the language type after the equal sign is Elvish or Danoran or Drakyr or whatever. Put in the text after the bracket and then close the spoiler with [ / spoiler ] without the spaces.
For a good representation of fantasy language converters that are active, refer to the top where I have links to Chaotic Shiny and Risus Monkey sites (my two favorites after Tilansia went offline).
*Out-of-Character (OOC) Text – This is the text in blue that is used to convey player notes as opposed to in-game text. It is used for skill checks needed in-game (along with dice expressions discussed below). It is used most often in combat posts, but is a useful way to convey an OOC question/comment/request to the players. It is also used as a header in a post to denote “FlexTime” posts, which are highly useful to separate different conversation threads going on at the same time in the game. Similar to other bracketed methods above, you start with [ ooc ] followed by the OOC text in between, with a [ / ooc ] at the end of the text.
Ex: I really don’t know if my Disable Device is good enough to disarm this trap – can someone aid me in this?
Ex: Perception1d20 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 1 = 10Woot?
Ex: Back At the Dreamy Deva Tavern (Bosum Strand District, previous night)
*Dice Expressions – This is the text in green that calculates your dice rolls for you – also called the random-number-generator (RNG). Use a [ dice ] followed by the type of die roll (d20, 2d6, 1d8, etc.) followed by a + or – for modifiers, then close the expression with [ / dice ].
What’s important to note here is that you can “roll” your dice for a skill check or save or combat by previewing your post before final posting, and the die roll will “hold” for you. That also prevents unscrupulous types from trying to roll repeatedly for different results prior to posting. Just don’t move around your dice expressions once you start previewing and you’ll be fine.
******************
For examples of all of these posting types and what is expected, please browse DM Barcas’ most excellent Kingmaker PbP for reference and inspiration.
******************
YEAH BUT HOW DO I EDIT ONCE I POST?
* Editing Posts - You’ll have sixty minutes once you post to edit it – including changing the avatar if you posted the wrong one, or correcting a spelling or grammar mistake, or correcting a text-type bracket problem, etc. Once the sixty minutes is up however, that post is locked for all-time and cannot be changed – the DM does not have the ability to edit or modify it either. So preview your posts and proof-read it once even after posting and make sure it’s good.
YEAH YEAH BUT HOW DO I KEEP FROM LOSING ALL MY POST IF THE SITE RESETS?
* Copying to Clipboard Before Previewing or Posting – This is one of the most frustrating things to occur on a posting site, and can really ruin your day if you’ve been working on a long post and lose it at the end because the site blips or resets. You have two ways to avoid this…and I highly recommend you do one of these for your own sanity!
1) Type your post in a word processing program, and then when (mostly) done you can copy-paste into the site’s section for posting.
OR
2) Type in the post section as normal, but still copy (ctrl-a, ctrl-c) to clipboard prior to hitting any buttons for preview or submit. That way if the site blips you still have your text in your virtual clipboard and can quickly paste it to a word program or notepad editor, and then try again when the site cooperates.
YEAH YEAH YEAH BUT HOW DO I DO COMBAT POSTS?
* Posting Actions in Combat – This requires the greatest amount of planning and prep on your part…and it helps to have a few encounters under your belt to get right. In the documents section there is a notepad template example for you to download and adjust for your needs. It often helps to keep a running word document on combat posts for reference and ease-of-use – you don’t want to type the entire combat blocks out every round.
The best reference I can provide you is an excerpt from DM Barcas’ Skull & Shackles PbP where he discusses how to do it properly – he summarizes it better than I could. We’ll have an opportunity to go into the combat posting later on when it actually is about to happen in-game.
That’s it for now – once you get posting and see how it flows, you’ll find your stride.
I’ve put down some thoughts on the “spirit of posting” for the players to consider, which I believe good players follow (and which I’ve seen in other games). Sort of a posting etiquette set of pointers. Because of the nature of PbP and the fact that posts cannot be edited after the one-hour mark, it’s important to post in a way that doesn’t cut off other players’ actions or limit how they would respond, or otherwise confuse the way the story reads for everyone. PbP takes a little getting used to with a new group, but follow these guidelines and you’ll be fine.
Spirit of Posting in PbP:
* Try to Keep Narratives Present-Tense Unless You Are Intentionally Trying Not To: Huh? What this means is to keep your third-person narrative in the present tense as the normal narrative style, as your character is “in the scene” at that moment in time, and you’re not writing a historical narrative. Past-tense should be intentionally applied when you’re describing events that…well...happened in the past, such as when you’re calling up past events to provide background context. Which is fine, but if the current scene is in the council chamber for example, you want to post as if your character is there at that moment in the council chamber. Sometimes when you’re writing longer narratives you’ll unintentionally slip into a past-tense, but a proof-read of your text prior to posting will help.
* Try Not to Cut Off Characters’ Actions or Responses By Moving the Scene Prematurely: PbP threads are mostly linear (unless using FlexTime but that’s not ideal), with each post of a scene adding to what came previously. If your character gets too far ahead of the scene because you change the subject matter or snap the scene forward in time, you’re cutting off other characters who may have wanted to respond to a scene in that moment, forcing players to use FlexTime to post in the past to make their point. This can especially happen in dialogue – someone asks a question or raises a point to the group, and then the next poster answers the question AND then changes the subject, thereby cutting off anyone else who wanted to respond to the prior dialogue. Some of this is unavoidable, but be mindful of not closing off other players because you wanted to summarize or move on to something else.
* Don’t Rip Characters to Different Scenes or Speak for Them (unless you clearly discuss it first with the player): A main PbP faux-paus. Typically the DM sets the scenes and where the characters are, so that everyone knows who they can interact with. Unless you know a character is to be somewhere in a scene with you, don’t “rip” them from another scene to put them in your scene, because the player can be thrown off of what they were writing or going to do. Likewise, don’t speak for the character as if you controlled them – it’s not your character. Sometimes you have an idea in your head and you want to have a dialogue or reaction and that’s great BUT discuss it in OOC Discussion or PM the player privately to discuss first. Maybe they have something in mind you didn’t think about, or were spending a full day on a super post that would be voided if you rip them someplace else or speak for them prematurely. Not only can that mess with the character in question, but it can throw the rest of the players off as they don’t know if they need to “retcon” the action or assume the change needs to be played as-is.
*Use FlexTime Headers for Past Scenes or Multiple Scenes: This really helps the flow of the in-game posts – either in situations where you wanted to “wrap up” a scene in the past that you really wanted to participate in but couldn’t get to in time, or you are attempting a flashback narrative post for character development purposes. FlexTime means you put an Header at the top of your post with the place and time to distinguish it from any current scenes running. That really helps to prevent confusion from reading along in the story and jumping from scene to scene without context. It is also used in cases where the party may split up or be in several different places at once, allowing for multiple mini-scene threads to be going on without confusing the heck out of everyone.
*Interact with Player Characters (and not just NPC’s): It will be my job to provide lots of interesting non-player character personas to interact with, and I truly enjoy attempts to provide immersion of the characters into the world through interactions with other NPC’s. But if you only interact with NPC’s and not each other, you’re essentially asking the DM to sustain lots of mini-threads all the time in addition to setting scenes, planning encounters and moving the plotlines forward. So don’t just interact with NPC’s – take time to find ways to interact with the other PC’s and generate great moments that way. After all, you’re a team. And you keep me from having to reply to six posts with six different NPC’s every day. And your PC interactions will inevitably generate interesting elements in the story that I’ve never thought about, which then gives me new ideas and keeps up the creativity.
*If You Play Up Character and/or Party Conflict, Play Inclusively: What does this mean? Remember that your character is in this campaign as part of an overall team, and some fundamental loyalties have to be in place for the story to work. You don’t have to have a character that loves everyone and gets along with everyone they meet or work with, but fundamentally the player has to ENSURE the character is played with enough motivations and hooks to logically exist in the party/team structure. Otherwise, this would be a collection of player solo stories, which is not what this is about. So when thinking about your character motivations and what drives them, be sure to build in enough hooks and personality elements to stay with the group and participate.
Sometimes a player gets a “cool” concept for their character and has a strong identity with it, but then finds the concept puts them at odds with the rest of the group…to the point where the character would logically go off and do their own thing. Even Wolverine had reasons for staying with the X-Men. In other words, don’t be Batman.
*If You Play Up Inter-Character Conflict, Fully Discuss with Player(s) First: A corollary to the prior point. Inter-character conflict or an adversarial relationship can really make for great drama and interesting stories, but if not handled right the players can draw the wrong conclusions about the intentions of what each other is doing. Or get their feelings hurt. Or think the player is just being a jerk. Or all of the above. So if you’re wanting to develop or play out an adversarial relationship or conflict, make sure you discuss it fully ahead of time with the player(s) in question. You can PM another player on these boards and have a private conversation, if you want to keep the conflict private and exciting for the other players. Bottom line is to communicate, and not let player feelings get hurt by mistake or actions misinterpreted.
And Finally…:
A PbP game (well a good one anyway) requires for every player to check the campaign thread frequently, post fairly-frequently and find ways to be creative and add to the synergy and momentum of the game. Everyone here was selected because they could do that, and I have a trust factor that we ALL will keep our end of the social bargain. I was in a Zeitgeist game last year that was going to be positively brilliant, but early on some players just did not post with any degree of frequency or consistency. Once you don’t trust that a player is really “there” it becomes very hard for that character to live off the (virtual) page and not be flat or contrived. Too many players do that, and the game itself becomes flat and uninspired. Eventually the game dies off. I need for everyone to put their creative energies into this game and make it shine, and I promise to do the same.
Please Check the Campaign Boards Every Other (if not Every) Day. Checking the thread once or twice a week ain’t gonna cut it, because doing so will mean a loss of context to what’s going on, or create a wrinkle where you’re always one step behind the current scene discourse.
Please Post Frequently, Even If the Posts Are Short. Frequently is subjective, but ideally that’s 2-3 times a week. Sometimes more if we’re in combat or the party is in some solid back-and-forth dialogue. Sometimes less if a scene is wrapping up and transitioning. I’m looking for an average commitment here. You don’t have to knock it out of the park with your posts every time and have it perfect (sometimes that’s what holds players back), or have a long and complicated post all the time (sometimes wall o’ text is counterproductive for the scene anyway). Posting, however, shows interest – and the more players add to the story, the more exciting and creatively interesting the story is.
What If I Don’t Have Anything to Post? The answer is – try harder. I’ve heard this a lot over the years, and the problem is that if NO ONE POSTS, THERE’S NO GAME. Sometimes you’re not directly in a scene, or you’ve said what you wanted to say and you’re waiting for someone else. Well that’s fine, but you can still post an internal thought process, or a flashback that might be relevant, or start up a sideline dialogue with another character that may not be plot-moving but still entertaining to read. Not everything has to move the storylines and plots forward. Try to find an angle and put something out there, even if it’s small. You never know if something you post spawns a fresh idea from another player or the DM to take the scene in a new and interesting direction.
What if I’m Sick or on Vacation? Sure that happens, so just post what’s going on with you in the Discussion (OOC) Tab. That way we all know what’s going on, including if there’s a need to DMPC an action or tailor the scene to make the character more of a bystander. More communication is better, and lack of knowledge leads to speculation or misgivings.
What if I Have Writer’s Block? That happens too, oftentimes because of RL events. It’s fine, but communicate to me privately if you’re having an issue. That way I know what’s going on and can adjust the story a bit. Perhaps your block is because your character needs a tweak or new story development to give you renewed fun – I’ve seen players unintentionally put their characters into a corner interactions-wise, and then don’t know how to write themselves out of it. Talk with me and I’ll work with you to help as much as I possibly can.
Okay, enough talky-talk! Next post from me in OOC here will be on some Zeitgeist-specific character creation elements. Think about what you want to be and do in this intriguing campaign world!
