Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'm a very easygoing person and I won't kill you for anything, I promise! But in the interests of getting everyone into good habits, please observe the following rules! They will make everyone's lives much easier, and make you a better writer, at least from a technical standpoint.

Formatting & Grammar Rules

1. We will be writing in third person past tense.
- Otherwise it doesn't make for a pretty compile. Everyone should use the same tense. If someone suddenly switches to present or first-person, it's jarring and hurts the overall story. We could also all write in third-person present tense, but my preference is for past, and we're in my group. smile

2. Space your paragraphs a line apart.
- For readability. Otherwise everything runs together because the web doesn't like tabbed paragraphs.

3. When you end a quote and the next word describes the quote, use a comma, not a period! This is a grammatical rule that for some reason a lot of Gaian writers are totally ignorant of. It's not a question of style. It's a question of whether or not you know how to use the English language. For example:

WRONG: "I am going to the mall." Julia said.
RIGHT: "I am going to the mall," Julia said.

The only reason you should use a period at the end of a quote is when the following sentence is not describing the quote.

WRONG: "Julia smells like fish," Max looked around.
RIGHT: "Julia smells like fish." Max looked around.

This simple, simple little thing will make your writing loads more professional.

4. AVOID THE ELLIPSIS. . . . IT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.
- The ellipsis, when properly used, is used sparingly. It does NOT indicate a pause in speech. It indicates an OMISSION. It can be used when a character or train of thought trails off.

WRONG: "Well... I think she wants the blue one," Jack said.
RIGHT: "Well, I think she wants the blue one," Jack said.

If you find yourself using an ellipsis, ask yourself: could this be a comma or a period? If you think maybe, it probably should.

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6. Roleplay Suggestions
Some of my peeves and things I advise against. These aren't really concrete rules, just things I think it's good to keep in mind.

1. Do not write past a point where you would expect another character's response or reaction.

BAD: Angela kicked the ball to the Andrew. Then she went inside.

GOOD: Angela kicked the ball to Andrew.

Why is the second one better? Because it gives Andrew's player a chance to react to Angela's action, which was directed at Andrew.

2. Limit times when you address multiple characters at once, particularly when they are played by different players.

BAD: Paul handed the car keys to Regina. "Do you want to go to Porky's?" he asked. Then he turned to Eugene and said, "If you want, you can have the leftover asparagus pie."

GOOD: Paul handed the car keys to Regina. "Do you want to go to Porky's?" he asked.

This harkens back to 1 -- whenever you ask another person's character a question, you should stop and let that character reply. But at the same time, who posts next after the bad example? Regina or Paul? Usually it ends up being whoever gets there first, and it ends up not working. Say Eugene's player responds first with Eugene going, "But I hate asparagus pie!" and then Regina's player answers the Porky's question. From a story perspective, why did it take Regina so long to respond? The transition from Paul to Eugene works, because Paul was talking to Eugene, but the transition to Regina does not. She just sort of pops up out of place.

3. Post order is EVIL and BAD. While it's important to make sure everyone gets a fair chance to interact, when you use post order, you end up with example 2 -- suddenly character A addresses character D, but characters B and C post before D, so by the time D gets around to responding to A, it's late and awkward for the reader.

Instead of having a concrete post order, just be conscious of when the last time each person posted was. If someone hasn't posted in five or six posts and there are only three people, you might want to pause, or make a post directed to that person.

4. Description = good. Action = bad.
Actually, both description and action are really great, but when you're roleplaying with a bunch of other people it's important to not have your character do a lot of actions at once. This is because action involves the passage of time -- the more action your character performs, the more time you say no one else's character is doing anything. It's a form of godmoding when you think about it.

Description, on the other hand... feel free to describe the area, try and give it atmosphere. If you can, avoid long descriptive paragraphs about your own character. It's not very interesting to sit and read someone else go on for five paragraphs about their own character, but it IS very interesting to read a couple paragraphs about what the room looks like, how dirty it is, how it's got water stains and piles of rotting trash lying about.

Obviously you want to describe your own character to some extent, but keep it on the brief side. An introductory paragraph, maybe two, is fine. If you feel the urge to write more than three introductory paragraphs, please stop yourself. It's kinda stealing the spotlight.

5. Stay off the soapbox.
Long speeches have the same problem as writing a bunch of action. You're preventing other characters from doing or saying anything and you're also taking away chances for other characters to actually respond and interact.

6. Don't steal the scene.
If you're in a scene with three other characters and your character leaves the room, do not continue with your character off in the other room. Once you leave a room, that's it. You're out. If you take the story with you, you're preventing the other players from smoothly continuing with the scene in the other room (because you've just changed the setting and now they have to change it back), and you're kind of saying "my character is the main one and this is her story."

BAD: Mary decided she was tired of this charade. She got up and left the room. There was a chair in the next room and she sat down to think.

GOOD: Mary decided she was tired of this charade. She got up and left the room.

The good example allows the rest of the characters to make remarks about Mary's leaving and continue with whatever they were doing in the original room. Of course, if everyone is going to the next room with Mary, it's fine to change the scene, for example, if Mary is leading everyone around the house. She can take the scene and the characters following her. But if she's going off by herself, let the scene stay with the majority of the characters.

7. There's nothing to see here. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along!
If you miss a chance to reply to something you would have really like to and your character would have replied under the situation and it was four posts ago, let it go. Try and always build off of the last post made. Don't go back and reply to everything in the previous five posts. Don't resummarize all the events and insert your character's reaction. That stuff already happened. It's gone. You missed the boat. But that's okay. There will be plenty more chances for you to reply as the roleplay continues! Always look ahead, never behind! And always remember, there's no need to dwell. It's really -just- an RP.


Anything else I come up with. XD

8. Plot Developments

I've already started by writing the setup for our little scavanging session, now it's your turn to contribute! Design any of the following plot points and PM the details to EmperialTeal. You can be as descriptive as you like and treat it like you're writing it in the story, or just give details and either write it when the time arises (I'll poke you) or let someone else type out the details.


The Illusion Into the Library
The Library is capable of generating illusions to discourage entry. What kind of illusion has it created to try and keep our little party of adventurers out? Design the problem! (You can also design a solution if you want, or leave it to be figured out during RP by the other players. It's totally optional.)


The Lost Items
Not only have the items gotten lost, the Library might have hidden them in strange places. Figure out a strange place for the item in question. You can do more than one. If you design the hiding place, you get to find the item.

Please note that while you'll get to find the item, in the interest of spreading things out between people, I'll prompt you for when you can find your item. smile Else one character might find four things before anyone else finds one.

- purple umbrella with gold tassel trim
- green suitcase with London sticker
- metal bowl with a hole in the middle
- airplane propeller
- some sort of moving slinky spring (it ran away) - reserved for special GM use :3
- bag full of white powder
- chain of square links
- three silver balls
- brass plate with numbers "4 3 5 7"
- pendulum with funny writing on it
- hockey puck


The Library Misbehaves
Possibly that weird deivce in the wall had something to do with the Library, because the thing's really being mean today! Come up with something the Library might to do to scare or confuse our intrepid explorers. I'll spring your surprises on the group at large!

JIC

JIC

Reserveh!