Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello Nima! I'm standing next to a very intellectual Delmor resident who clearly cannot be as intelligent as people think he is because he is still wearing pants! His name is something like William Bradford XXIIV and he works for Al Gore. So William, Do you mind if I call you 'Willie'?

Uhh...Whatever floats your boat, Brian...

Great. So Willie, would you consider yourself an expert on superheroes and their lifestyles?

Well, having studied extensively in Al Gore's library, I have procured a copious amount of knowledge on superheroes, including but not limited to the type of lifestyles they lead and their roles in the community of Delmor. So yes, I would consider myself an expert.

Uh-huh... So what can you tell us about the way superheroes interact in Delmor?

In our quiet little town of Delmor our local heroes interact through what is known as "role playing." Specifically, this is Online text-based role playing in a play-by-post format. I understand that some of these terms may confuse you, Brian, so I will elaborate.

Role playing, according to Wikipedia, is a game where a participant assumes the role of a fictional character and collaborates with others to create or follow a plotline, or story. The player determines the actions of their characters, improvising their actions and thus shaping the nature and events of the role play.

Online text-based role playing is exactly as it sounds. The participants, or players, have joined the online role playing game The League of Special Individuals (that's the online part) and use text to describe what their character is doing at a given moment (that's the text-based part).

Here in Delmor we follow a play-by-post format, which caters to players with an interest in role playing and creative writing skills. In Play-by-post role playing the players will post some text describing what their character is doing, interacting with characters, pondering alone, starting a fight, etc, and then another person playing another character will come along and post after that person. These two players may then begin interacting. They will continue on like this, each taking turns posting their actions in relation to one another (this is called turn-based role playing as well) and carrying on a plot somehow.

Wow.... You sure do say a lot.... Tell me Willie, for these players, does the line between role playing and reality ever fade?

Brian, role playing is just like acting. You choose to act as a different person for the time that you are on the stage, or in this case posting in Delmor. You can admire a character, sure, but unless you already have a psychological disorder and don't know the difference between dream and reality, you shouldn't have a problem. Role players are actually some of the most well-adjusted people I know because of their ability to see things from many points of view. Not one of them has ever believed that they truly were their role-playing character, and moreover not a single one of them has become that character, gone crazy, and started killing people.

I would say that yes, the line between reality and role playing does fade a bit for everyone, but only a very very small minority has any real problem with not knowing when to stop the fading. And by small I mean miniscule, that group barely exists at all. Nearly everyone that role plays knows when to stop being their character, and for them role playing is just a bit of fun to be had with a group of friends in a time-period and circumstances that they never would have been able to experience in reality. Role players just generally have really good imaginations.

So if I start role playing I'm not going to go crazy and start killing the people that role play as my enemies?

Chances are high that you will remain a perfectly normal human being, Brian. There really is nothing terrible about being a role player.

Phew! Okay, I was worried there for a minute. I might even want to get into this role playing thing, as long as i don't have to wear pants. Is there any special registering process to becoming a superhero in Delmor?

Actually there is Brian, and if you decide you don't want to wear pants, Brian, then that is up to you.

In order to become a superhero in Delmor you must go through an interviewing and application process. First you must make your way over to the Recruiting thread and start posting that you are interested. There are always contests going on in the recruiting thread, and both new and seasoned super heroes are welcomed to join in the festivities. If you are interested in becoming a super hero in Delmor, start by getting to know the crew and members of the guild. Find out what sorts of super heroes already exist so that you can find your own special niche in Delmor. Once you think you have a character idea, you can start brainstorming a profile for you character. Crew Members are always willing to lend a hand in this aspect of registration, and may suggest minor changes before you are allowed to join. This is indeed the most crucial step in registration. Once you have a profile you may post it in the recruitment thread, where you will then be reviewed by crew. If your profile is cleared for admittance, you will be sent an invitation to The League of Special Individuals. No join requests are accepted and you can be granted access to the hallowed halls of LoSI through invitation only.

Once you have been accepted into LoSI you must post your profile so that other super heroes can be alerted of your recent selection into the group. Once you have posted your full profile you can begin to role play in Delmor, staying in the inn or an apartment or making your own home thread in Delmor, and getting to know the other people in town. Go exploring and familiarize yourself with the town, it's really quite spectacular.

Sweet! So when i design my character can I have special powers?

To a point, yes. Your super hero can have skills like magic, elemental powers, psychic powers, healing, or something oddball like duct tape or blinding white pastyness. Oddball skills are sometimes the most fun to role play with, and the crew enjoys reading these characters much more. You can have pretty much any power you want as long as your character is not immortal and the special powers sometimes fail and/or there are ways to defend against your power.

Aww, so I can't have total-ub3r-l33t-m3g4-D34th skillzors?

No. No you can't. Especially not if you are going to talk like that.

Aww, okay... But hey, Willie between you and me, I have an alias... My name is BubblesMcGee, can I duel register another super-hero with my alias too? Can I even join LoSI with my alias as well, or do i have to stick with my main account?

The League of Special Individuals does not send invites to mules, because posting the same character with two accounts may get a little confusing for some people. Between you and me, Brian, that Nivedita Vidula girl is none too bright, and she won't know who you are if you start posting the same character with two accounts... She already has enough stress in her life; we find it best to keep things simple around her...

In addition to this you should know that most players are only allowed to control one superhero character, excepting Crew and members in good standing who have asked permission for a second character. Think about it this way, if you wanted to be a super hero, you would be most effective if you were just one, that way whenever you went around doing good things, people would start to recognize who you were. Crew and some members are allowed to role play as more than one character, but usually these characters are for plot-related events only. Members who want a second character must always ask permission first before joining the creation workshop.

Thank you, Willie! I feel like I’ve learned a lot, and my head certainly hurts from all the big words you use! I imagine yours must too, but I know how you can help such things. You need to have a lack of pants!

Now that you mention it...Whatever you say...Ahh, that is so much better, I think that I may see what you have been saying about this not wearing pants thing... I feel liberated...and.... blusterous....

Exactly. Whatever you just said! Thank you again Willie for the interview, back to you Nima, and we're still not wearing any pants!

I'm doing well, Nima, thanks for asking.

Okay, so, you viewers out there know a little bit about some of the broader role playing terminology, but there are some more specific ones that you might want to know. I've compiled a list, alphabetized it, defined concisely each term, given examples, and prepared a presentation for you! So lets get started, shall we?

The first term on our list is Avatarism. This is the type of role playing that occurs when players use their own personalities as inspiration for characters. The term is derived from the word "avatar" which in religion is something they use to refer to incarnations of gods in human form. Some famous avatars are Jesus and Buddha. I'm actually a form of Avatarism, and so is Captain Pasty. Our personalities are not purely based on the people playing us, but there are some significant things about our characters that are related to ourselves. I think it might be because our players are insecure, but that's just me...

Fire-Walling, or Metagaming, is keeping seperate the knowledge that you as a player have and the knowledge that your character would have. This can be used if you as a player read about events in another thread, but your character was not around to see it or hear about it. When you role play, Fire-walling is a good idea, or else you can spoil the whole plot.

A Game Master is someone who runs a roleplay. They are in charge of the overall plot of the game, and in this game the game masters are the crew, all of whom answer to Atrox Saint, but not really. More specific terms for these people are Thread Masters (for our specific form of roleplaying) or Dungeon Masters (for Dungeons & Dragons).

A Gamist is a roleplayer that enjoys overcoming challenges in roleplays, and for them facing obstacles is the prime source of enjoyment. There are also Narrativists and Simulationists. Narrativists most enjoy creating a good story, and simulationists most enjoy simulating real life.

God-Mode is when a player takes control of another player's character, or formulates attacks in such a manner that there is no defense against them. God-mode is not realistic, and not looked at as a good thing. Ever. Not because it is unrealistic, but rather because it is just a pain in the a**. There is a lot about roleplaying that is unrealistc, but more on that later...

The type of roleplaying which has a central focus of defeating enemies in combat is called Hack and Slash. The term originated in role playing games that use melee weapons like swords and axes and describes the use of such weapons. A Mad Slasher is someone who takes Hack and Slash to the extreme. They would rather solve problems by killing everyone involved than actually working on any real interaction. Such people usually God-mode as well.

When all characters are giving roughly the same importance in the plot, this is Homogeniety. LoSI is a mostly Homogenous role play.

A Mary-Sue, or Marty Stu, is the type of character that everyone hates. Think about the stereotypical soap opera. Now imagine trying to roleplay with a character like that. Such characters are perfect, generally in love or infatuated with the character that the game master controls, have some dynamic connection with that character, etc. They are a pain. Just don't create one. For more on Mary-Sue's, click here.

Min-Maxing is generally associated with table-top roleplaying games like Old school Dungeons and Dragons, D20, or Exalted (all of which are tremendously awesome). This is the practice of minimizing negative traits and maximising positive ones. If a character focuses on just one skill they must sacrifice the advancement of all others. This is Min-maxing.

Someone who enjoys getting to the very core of their characters and truly understanding the idiosincracies of each one is a Plumber (named as such because they enjoy "plumbing" the depths of their characters). Such players can tell you everything about the characters; bad habits, nervous twitches, secret desires, how the characters moods shift and change and how the moods affect their decisions, etc. They usually post a lot o finternal thought process of their characters, and if a plumber is successful their character starts to become something that can be easily related to by other players, even seeming to a real person at times.

Power-Gaming is where a player focuses on developing the most powerful character possible. Depending on how this is done, this can either be an okay thing or a very very bad thing...

A Rule's Lawyer is something else that mostly relates to table-top games. These players have memorized all the gaming rules (or think they have) and use this knowledge to try to outdo a game master or sabotage other players, giving themselves an unfair advantage. They try to control the plot and other characters, therefore rules lawyering is a form of god-moding.

The Troupe System of roleplaying is where the game master abilities are spread over several or all players. Because each crew member of LoSI holds sway over major plot occurances, and each member can create their own plot lines as well, LoSI can therefore be considered an example of the Troupe System.

Under-Moding is the opposite of God-Moding. If a character Under-mods, they play in such a way that they can kill their chracter at the end of every post. This type of player is difficult to work with, because seriously, who wants to have to deal with suicidal characters all the time? This is not a common role playing event however, as people are generally more concerned with the acquisition of power than they are with a constant loss of it.

Perhaps the most important roleplaying term is Suspension of Disbelief. This is the phenomena that occurs when someone lets a little bit go of reality and accepts new information into their understanding of things. It is through suspension of disbelief that people can enjoy movies or fantasy books. This is how crazy things like blinding people with bright white pasty skin can be accepted as a super power.

There are also some miscelaneous abbreviations that are also useful as well, and these are as follows:

• IC - In Character
  
• ICD - In Character Description
  
• IRL - In Real Life
  
• 1337 - leet. (this is when someone types what appear to be letters with numbers and symbols) Don't do it.
  
• MMORPG - Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
  
• NPC - Non-player character
  
• OOC - Out Of Character
  
• PC - Player Character (the opposite of NPC)
  
• txt tlk - text talk. Typing void of vowels. Don't do this either.

Yes, well, thank you for that... introduction, Nima. As we all know, time is money, so lets get right to business, yes?

The first Genre we shall discuss is Fantasy. Fantasy contains elements of other races of creatures (elves, werewolves, halflings, etc) possessing magical or psionic skills. Such skills are highly valuable to me and can be used in creative ways. The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel, Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy role play.

Science fiction is the next important genre, including space elements, futuristic settings and technologies, and aliens. If you have any information on such things, please contact me.

Historical role plays are formatted such that significant plot elements are taken from history. There is a more common multi-genre of Historical Fantasy, this would be something like being a WWII soldier with magical powers, etc.

Horror role playing games, like "Dawn of the Dead," are intended to scare or frighten players and usually have things like vampires, werewolves, and zombies. Horror role plays are heavy on "evil" elements.

Mystery Role Plays are just like mystery fiction; the characters must solve a problem through a series of intricate clues eventually leading them to the solution to their problem. Think of Sherlock Holmes.

Espionage role plays involve spying, or obtaining information about an organization or a society that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. To truly be espionage, one must have access to the primary sources of information, people and first-hand documents. James Bond is a common character in the Espionage genre.

Finally, we come to the most important genres: Superhero and Satire. Superhero role plays are pretty self-explanatory; super heroes (or villains) wander around saving the world from impending doom. A superhero is a fictional character who is noted for feats of courage and nobility, who usually possesses abilities beyond those of normal human beings. Many superheroes have a colorful and distinctive name and costume.

Although satire is usually witty, and often very funny, the primary purpose of satire is not primarily humor but criticism of an event, an individual or a group in a witty manner. Parody, burlesque, exaggeration and double entendre are all devices frequently used in satirical speech and writing – but without an ironic (or sarcastic) undercurrent of mock-approval.

I like to think of Delmor as a lovely blend of all of these types of role plays, containing elements of each type, though it is primarily a super hero role play. This is called a multi-genre game.

Ahem, thank you Nima.

Ethics are a very important part of super hero work. When the choices you make are depended upon by people’s lives, there is a tremendous pressure to do the right thing. Therefore, I have compiled an ethical list to rival the Ten Commandments.

First off shall be basic posting procedure. Remember that all superheroes must register, the final step being the posting of a profile in the character thread. Again just a reminder that only crew are allowed to control more than one player character, so you may not post a second profile for a second character.

Once you are registered you will want to begin saving the world right away, but you want to make sure your deeds to not go unnoticed. Therefore, posts should be in a dark color and of an easily readable font. Try to stick with blue or black for colors, and normal as a size. Text alignment is up to you, and we do understand that there are some instances when color and size guidelines will need to be broken, but try not to make a habit of it. The general idea is to be easy to read, because in a text-based role play, a lot of reading has to happen.

Also along the lines of readability, spelling and grammar are paramount. If you know you are weak in these areas, please try to use a spell checker. Further resources on these topics can be found here: Online Spell Checker and Garbls Grammar Resources.

Furthermore, posts should all be in third person past tense point of view. This means you use pronouns like "he" or "she" or "it" to talk about your character, and verbs should all be past tense (Cait walked, he ran, it shot, etc). This can be broken if you are posting a character's thought process (generally posted in italics), because characters do not think about the present moment in past tense.

Two things that should be obvious when role playing, but some people fail to do them, are putting quotation marks around speech and not posting actions as *sigh* or -looks around-. Quotation marks are obvious things that some people simply need to be reminded of, but what of this second thing? First of all they are in first person present tense rather than the prescribes third person past tense, and they are not complete sentences. Of course, such things as complete sentences can be ignored in special instances, but such things as actions should be in sentences, and things formatted as above will not be tolerated.

For identification purposes, please post your character's name in each post at least once. This makes you easily identifiable and people can easily discuss the great things you do without having to look very hard for your name.

If you are going to post a new location in the role-playing sub forum, please do so without polls. Also check to make sure that the location you want to post, or something like it, does not already exist. If you want to post something like an abandoned warehouse, check anything that sounds like i t could possibly be an abandoned warehouse, and see if the building description says it is an abandoned warehouse. They make things awfully cluttered... If your location does not exist, the first post of the location should be an out of character description of the location. This is the only instance when you will be allowed to post OOC in the roleplay, so make it good.

Like posting threads with polls in a role-play, another confusing cluttering thing to do is to post "out of character" in an "in character" thread. Do not do this as it is simply annoying and unnecessary. If an OOC comment is really necessary to communicate with another player, PM them. It is not all that difficult.

Also, when you move from one location in Delmor to another, it is necessary to tell people where you are going so that people you are interacting with can follow you. This can be done by saying "Afterwards>>>" or something like it and linking the text to your next post. This should also be repeated in your first post in the next location, but with "<<Cait Kassidys house from the last incarnation of LoSi and follow her around. It's very easy to see her plotlines with this addition to her posts! In addition to this, when you post as your character for the first time, link back to your profile. This also helps for identification purposes.

Once you have gotten to your new location, please do not double post. double posting is where you post as your character and then make an addition to what your character has done by making a new post rather than simply editing your original post. Please try to avoid double posting, it is annoying and makes things cluttered.

Along the lines of double posting, please do not quote the post of the character that you are replying to. The person you are interacting with should be able to tell that you are speaking with them by the content of your post, thus rendering a quote completely unneccesary and irrelevant.

Posts should be substantial, but not novels. A good paragraph will usually suffice, though no defined post length is set. Post enough so that people will enjoy reading about your character, get into their thought process, what they feel, what they are reflecting on, as well as talking about what they are physically doing at that moment. This makes for a much more colorful role playing experience.

Finally, in order to get any sort of attention in Delmor, you are going to need to post in the role-play at least once a week. This is so that the registration bureau can track your actions as a super hero, so that they know that you are still alive. If you do not post at least once a week you can be kicked out of the league due to inactivity. This is a necessary evil in order to keep the plot rolling and characters interactions at slightly more than a stalemate. If you feel you will not be able to post in the role-play for the required once a week, you may post your absence in the Extended Absence thread giving dates of absence and a reason for it.

Why thank you Nima! I guess I’m here to tell you a little bit about myself and explain the process of how I filled out my profile to register with the Bureau of Heroes. Since you have to apply to join the guild, you are going to want to have a nifty character right? I’ll help you with some tips on how to create a good profile.

The first thing you have to do to join is to go to the recruitment thread in Registered Guilds forum. (Hey wait, that’s me posting in that thread!) In the thread you can see a rough synopsis of the events of the role play so far, some sample profiles/characters, and some further instructions on how to join, so we’ll just focus on the actual profile, as it is the largest factor in your admittance.

Now, when you first scroll down to the “How to join” post, you may be a little overwhelmed by coded entry form that is in there. It’s really not as bad as you think though, I swear… I’ve posted it again below so that you can have a point of reference.



See, when it is uncoded it looks so much simpler! I always figure that the beginning is a good place to start, so, let’s start there, okay?

It’s pretty self explanatory from the “name” down to “Date of Birth (DoB)”, especially with the hints that I’ve already posted in the application, so we’ll pick up at appearance and costume.

Appearance and Costume are both very imant and sadly overlooked aspects of character creation. They are not at all the most important details and one can usually get by with a crappy appearance description, but it makes things much nicer if you have a good one. Standard information is height, weight, eye color, and hair color. But what does your character really look like? How do they dress? do they have any scars or tattoos? give us a little background. Talk about it as if you were trying to help someone find this character in a crowd, and ask yourself if your description would be sufficient enough for that person to identify your character?

Costumes are fun to talk about and have a lot to do with the sorts of powers your character has and their personality. If a character is into Kung Fu then it doesn't make much sense to be dressed in a bunny suit. Have some fun with this one though, they often make for humorous situations.

Primary and secondary powers are one of the more difficult parts of this particular profile. Elemental powers are good bets, but try to put a new swing on them because otherwise everyone will have the same powers. Besides, elemental stuff is generally boring to read about. If you, as a person, were a superhero, what would your superpower be? You don't have to be any different than you are now, but what aspect of your personality/appearance makes you a hero? Think about things like that and play around with ideas.

Your primary power is what your character specializes in, something that no one else in the guild may have. This is also generally what your character will use most often, unless other circumstances arise such as a recharging period, only being able to use it a few times a day, or it just taking a ton of energy/concentration. If the character is not able to use the primary power, then a secondary power can mirror the primary power, complimenting it somehow. A specialization in hand to hand combat, speed, agility, defense, etc can all be secondary abilities. Take one of these basics and tweak it to better suit your character.

A weakness can be the opposite of your primary power, but it doesn't have to be. For example, If your primary power is control over shadows, then a sensitivity to light could be a weakness. Also, my friend Duct Tape Girl's power is use of duct tape, and her weakness is seeing cute things and narcolepsy. You character also doesn't have to have any out of the ordinary weaknesses, and in this case you would just say "normal."

Personality is going to be the most important thing that you think about in a role play. It affects how your character acts and reacts, how they speak, how they dress, and how they deal with stressful situations. Some people choose to work on this section first before doing anything else, basing the rest of the character on personality. If you do not have a well defined personality set up in your mind at least your character will not have a well defined story either (seeing as events are based on characters reactions, which come from their personality. Cait told me that!) If you honestly cannot come up with a personality different from your own, base your character on your own personality (Cait said this was called Avatarism). This has its own problems too, because you have to be very very in tune with your own personality and how you truly react to things to do this well.

Anyway, if you choose the noble thing and create a well defined personality, there are a lot of things to think about. Some of it is going to sound kind of dumb, but it will help you get some good tidbits into your posts. It isn’t necessary, necessarily, to post ALL of this in your profile, but it’s good to at least ponder.

Sandra Miller has some good ideas about how to well develop characters. She has sets for both basic and in depth character development. Nevi highly recommends that everyone check out these sites and thinks about some of these things. If you haven’t got an idea for a character quite yet, start with something close to your own personality. If you were a superhero, what kind of a super hero would you be? Think about the questions Sandra Miller asks, and others like them. How does your character treat others? How do they treat your character? How has others treatment of your character affected their personality? What does your character think of themselves? Do they have low or high self esteem? Are they introverted or extroverted? These are all good questions, but they are not the only questions. If you were reading a book about your character, what would you want to know about them?

For further development of a personality, these exercises can help you see how your character would react in certain situations.

Like I said, there are some people who begin a new character profile by developing a personality and basing everything else on the personality but there are some people who feel that a character has to have a story before a personality can develop, and they create a biography first. (There is a third group of people that can work on both the personality and biography simultaneously, but we don’t talk about them very much…) Anyhow, what was your characters childhood like? Do they know their parents? Do they have siblings? Did they go to school? If they are younger, how do they like school? If they are older, did they go to college? Do they have a job? Do they like their job? Why or why not?

This is all great background as to why your character may be the way they are, but what about the superpowers they have developed/are developing? How did they discover their powers? How much do they know about their powers? What do they think about having their powers (do they like having them, or is it a burden?) What do others think about their powers? How do others react to them? Why did they decide to become a super hero or villain? What is their goal/motive? Why do they pursue that goal so strongly? Your bio is meant to change, so don't forget to keep updating it as your character's story progresses. It should be like a version of "the story so far" for just your character. This helps other people better follow your character's story.

And now for the grand finale…. Drum roll please…..

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about your character?

Good! Well, now that you’ve done some good searching of your character’s inner being and reason for existing, you can put together your profile! I’ll show you mine for reference. Also check out the character workshop, where other members have developed characters for Delmor as well!



There you go future heroes and villains of Delmor! Happy character creation! Back to you, Nima!

Woot! Thanks Nima, boy is it an honor to follow the Great Captain Pasty himself in this production! I’ve watched a lot The Earth Channel here on Krutia, and I love what you do, Nima! After studying Humanenomics extensively on Krutia, I feel well equipped to discuss the primitive Human Interactions with you!

As was previously mentioned, Wikipedia is a gold mine of great information for all purposes, and our primary source on Krutia. Wikipedia defines Interaction as “a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another.” That is a very good summary of what role playing is: it is the story that happens when two or more characters interact and effect each other. It is an imagined interaction.

But what does this mean for all of you? How does one actually interact? Wikipedia, in all its wisdom, is a bit vague on the details. I will do my best to fill you in where Wikipedia left off.

Zerlina already got into the…What is it you humans study? The…Psychology of posting and how to talk about your characters reactions to things and how their mind works, so we’ll jump right to how to apply relate this to events and interactions with other characters and setting.

Interacting with other characters if a bit more involved than interacting with a setting, and I believe that starting there is the best place. The most basic form of interaction between characters begins with a greeting, or at the very least the acknowledgement of the other characters existence. Depending on your characters personality, this can be a wave, a glare, a frown, or a vocal greeting. Or if your character is the one being greeted, you can either acknowledge or ignore the other person. On Krutia, we greet each other by bashing head together, but humans seem to like much tamer greetings… Very strange indeed.

After you have greeted a character, you may choose to start a conversation. Ask a question or make a statement that they can respond to, and give them a chance to do so. On earth it is considered rude to put words in another’s mouth, so do not godmode, allow them to respond, and do not speak for them. An example of doing this badly and godmoding the conversation would be:



Will is the character being posted as in this post, and the player of Will has taken control of Jack’s character and answered for him. Suppose Jack did not want to respond? Maybe Jack is wildly angry at Will and wanted to punch him instead? Because the player of Will was rude and took control of Jack, the player of Jack is now stuck as to how to respond. He may send off a rude and angry PM out of character back to the player of Jack reprimanding him for god moding, and that is how major conflicts begin. You peaceloving earthlings seem to shy away from violence, so it’s probably best to not do this at all.

What the player of Will should have done is wait for Jack to respond, so the series of posts would have gone something like this:




Do you see the difference? The Player of Jack was allowed to respond in his own way! An all is right with the world… Except maybe for Will, who might wind up dead at the end of the encounter. What fun!

Because the Player of Jack decided to respond to Will, these two players have a conversation going. This is where things can get interesting! From here on in, if you follow the things I’ve already said, conversations are pretty easy, but I’ve brought along my friend Ron Bruise to help show you how a conversation should flow. Hello Ron, how are you today?

HEY Zark! I’m just GREAT! Whoo! And LOVING LIFE! Have you seen my BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER? Boy, things are just GREAT! YEAH!

That’s good, Ron. (notice that I gave him a chance to respond on his own?) I haven’t seen your daughter, but I bet she sure is beautiful.

She sure is! WHOO! Just like my LOVING WIFE! YEAH!

Seems like things are going pretty good for you, then. Do you have any plans for your next movie?

Not yet, Zark. It’s going to be hard to outdo “Operation: Unlikely III” out on DVD NOW! Don’t forget to pick it up! WHOOHOO!

I’ll be sure to go buy it, Ron. See you later, thank for helping me out!

No problem, Zark! It’s my pleasure to show everyone how much I am LOVING LIFE and how happy I am with my WIFE and DAUGHTER!

Unless you have been…how do you say it? Living under a rock your entire life, this communicating stuff should not be new to you, and it’s just a matter of not taking control of someone else’s character when you are trying to talk to them. This is great for face to face conversing, but what about phones, text messages, emails, Instant Messanger? For these purposes there is a General Communications thread in Delmor.

Unfortunately for all of you, talking is not the only means of communication on earth. You as a player should also observe your character’s body language as well, and the body language will be easy to figure out if you get an internal monologue of your character going. Tone of voice is also important to note and will affect how some characters react to yours, so it should also be mentioned. Something like



is not going to cut it. How did she say it? Sarcastic? Angrily? How are they standing? Relaxed? Defiantly? Where is this extra information?!!? It makes me want to bash the players skulls into Oxnard 16! If this information is added, the post would sound something like this:



This is better, it gives some clues about the character’s body language and tone of voice, and it is a sufficient post. It can be better however, to include information about what is going on in the characters head and some reference to past events. When posts include these things, they are more interesting to read, and make your character more personal for other players to read about.



Now that was a good post! A few more details can be stated, but this comes from the depth of character development and your own personal effort. If this is where the post ends, the character would then have to wait for her captors response (or a hero to burst in rescuing her) to post anything more.

Interacting with the setting is much simpler than interacting with other characters, and usually is mentioned secondarily to a regular post. It usually is simply comprised of personally reactions to time of day, weather, and location. Such things, if you can post them without it feeling too out of place, also make for more interesting posts.

Well, Nima, that my….Oh, what do you humans say again? That’s my…Spiel? Yes! That’s my Spiel! Hope I was helpful to some of you!

There are many types of fighting. You can fight in hand to hand combat, sword play, magic, other weapons, etc. There are some basics that apply to all fighting, and that’s what I’m here to discuss.

Fighting is the most difficult part of roleplaying in some respects, and it is without a doubt the easiest to go into godmode because people desire control over others and feel they have to win out of the shame of victory. Godmoding is a shame worse than death. If you fight, do not assume that your punches will always land. Even the best fighters miss a few. Give your opponent the opportunity to respond to your actions against them. Because of this, fighting posts are usually made quick and short, much like an actual fight.

If you are involved in a hand to hand combat, remember, punching is not the only offence. Be resourceful. Duck, crouch, jump, kick, jab, swing something at them, whatever it takes. Victory is just a measure of how quickly one can think on their feet.

If sword fighting, there are many types of moves depending on the particular style. Melee fighting, which is where slash and hack comes from, is pretty much just slashing and hacking. However, in fencing there are lunges, retreats, pares, advances, even a move called the pacman.

If your character has a magical power, figure out how their particular style works and make sure you do not god mode. Magic always has some form of recovery time, and doesn’t always work immediately. So don’t pretend it does. Your magical powers will fail you sometimes, especially if your character is just developing. Don’t expect your character to recognize their powers and immediately be able to do the most powerful spells. If they can, you better have a damn good reason.

There is no retroactive premonition or anything. Nothing like “Oh, I saw your punch a second ahead and ducked to get out of the way.” Is going to happen. Elemental powers are not absolute either. No one has perfect control over the elements, and NOTHING you do is going to work perfectly all the time.

It’s your job as a player to study up on whatever particular fighting style your character has, and to decide how advanced your character is, these are only suggestions. If you want general fighting tips, All Style Fighters has some good ideas. Just google “fighting tips” and see what comes up.

Also, don’t post anything even remotely like “HAHA! I PWN j00 with my +3 poison dagger!” If you want to say something like this like a normal human being, say “He sliced him with his envenomed blade” or something. Be creative. It’s not all that difficult. Fighting is what you make it, just avoid god moding at all costs. It’s annoying and rude and will get you a ration of hell from Atrox.