Evil Bob Campaigns

Per Evil Bob's request:
The Newbie Topic

raise both hands in the air if you are a newbie!

Roop-roop!

I'm new in the sense I neved did pbp.

That is, in fact, the sense I mean.
Now, raise your hands in the air!

Pass

Raising your hands betrays your position, giving your enemy valuable intel on your position.

Anyways, I am also a newbie, and quite frankly have absolutely no idea (besides what I been searching) regarding PBP. Maybe a Knowledge Transfer would be in order.

If you want to ask questions about PbP play I'd be happy to answer them.
Some frequently asked stuff or things that can get confusing:
The day has changed yet I still have open threads/scenes from previous days.  Is this okay?  Can I start new threads in the next day?
Yes, with one exception.  You can go ahead and continue old scenes as long as they don't interfere with new scenes that you create or join.  This is perfectly acceptable.  The exception would be scenes that could possibly disrupt all your future scenes.  The most notable would be combat.  If you die or lose an arm or something of that nature it's going to effect everything down the line.  Work to get your combats resolved as quickly as you can so everyone can get back to posting.

Does everything have to be out in the open?
No.  You can run private scenes via PM or IM without the GM being there.  I just ask that you save these scenes in case things come up later because of them.

Metagaming?
This is where your character acts with knowledge he doesn't know.  Your character DOES NOT know information from other scenes unless he was there himself.  Sure you can read those threads OOC (out of character), but just because you have read them doesn't mean your character knows what happened.  He will have to be told IC (In character).  The one exception is proclamations and orders.  If the governor of the city makes a proclamation, even if you are not there, assume word gets to you.  Same with orders from higher up, but only if those orders are blanket orders that effect the entire squad/company/legion.  If you are not part of that squad or company assume you didn't get the order.  Otherwise, enjoy reading other people's threads.  They can get quite interesting.

Any more questions feel free to ask.

What if a scene occurring during Day A is apparently harmless, but a revelation later (during the time of Day B) makes the aforementioned scene fairly important, with the chance of affecting the future scenes that occur in Day B?

Retcon?

That has happened, but it is a fairly rare occurrence.  Maybe once a game if that.  Each time the circumstances surrounding it are different and have to be handled in unique ways.  The most common way is to put all future scenes on hold until the first scene is ended, then start up each scene since then with the added information.  Sometimes entire threads just drop out of reality but we try to avoid that.

Not unless it would have legitimately come up during the Day A thread.

I think my english wasn't stellar there, I meant events during the scene of Day A, not in any scene of Day B, yet these events affect Day B.

In that case, yes - pause the Day B thread until A is finished. Also, if that happens, make sure you get ahold of everyone still in the Day A thread to make it their priority.   ;D

Some other tips:

Be aware of the tense you're writing the posts in, and try to be consistent throughout the thread. I realize it's harder for non-English as a first language speakers, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

If you're responding to a post you have questions about (and this goes for anyone), please PM the poster for clarity. Nothing like starting a blood fued over a bowl of rice because someone wasn't clear in their post and others took it the wrong way.

Be sure to clarify when you're speaking, when you're performing an action, and when you're thinking. The differences between speaking and thinking are sometimes nothing more than italics or a change in color for some people. Same goes if you have some sort of Haunted/Ancestor/kami that actually speaks to you.

No god-modding. You cannot force another's character to do something, so try not to say in your post: "I leave the room and Virendra follows me." Well, what if I don't want to follow you?

All the players should try to avoid such things, and if we work together it won't be a commonality. In general, I find these to be agreeable steps if you feel a scene from Day X might affect another scene from Day X+n

• Stop posting in the latter scene. Contact with the players involved there either by PM or IM so they know what's going on. It's okay if the former scene is something their character wouldn't know about. Trust them to make the distinction between IC and OOC.
• Try to resolve the former scene as soon as possible. Inform the players involved that it might affect a posterior scene so that you can all work out the way to play it with as few retcons as possible.
• If retcons are unavoidable, contact the GM. If you feel like you're unsure of what to do, contact the GM.
• If your character is about to make an action in the former scene that would put the latter scene in danger of retcon, or just endanger another character, let their player know. Trust them to separate IC from OOC. This is the case of assassination attempts, for example.

Try to resolve any scene where physical harm can come to your character as soon as possible. Sometimes it's impossible to predict, but most of the times it is.

Also, you sometimes have to agree to an outcome for a discussion, even if you haven't RP'ed it out yet.

I had a couple where I had to agree that a discussion would end a certain way, just to avoid Time Paradoxes.

I rather enjoy time paradoxes, it gives me an excuse to use my sonic screwdriver.

Do not cross the time lines!

Love you all right now.

Oh noz, the precious Time-Space Continuum!

Also: yum, fresh blood for the slaughter.

Following your reference, are we neonates?

I are a newb. I admit it. Is this a support group for us? This feels so different from... table top, all in the same room, sort of RP. I am still struggling just to find stuff on the site. So bear with the newbs. We will try hard not to ruin the experience for all you veterans.

Feel free to ask questions here, or PM me if you don't want to ask something in public.

Best advice I can give to new players is don't be afraid to make new threads.

Sure they might not always have people jump in them but it's better to be proactive imo.

Agreeing with the Moshi. It quickly warms people up to you as they choose to hang with your character ^^

I think it's even more important not being afraid to jump into another players' scenes. Take your time. People here don't bite. Unless you ask them ;)

I don't bite;

but Miki might.

Which equals to, don't be afraid of negative IC reactions.  Some of just like to play bastards.  ^^   
Not everyone can be friends, and mutual hatred can be a good source of rp.

Or just friendly rivalry and perhaps conflicting goals!

Basically, new folks; just remember to keep IC and OOC seperate. It's really hard (I was pretty bad at it my first game) but the more you can do that, the more fun you can have, and the more authentically your character can act: if I wouldn't do something because I don't want to hurt someone's feelings, that can sometimes deny a perfectly authentic and correct action for my character; so the advantage of a PbP is that I can take those actions and not worry about it; because IC and OOC are two different things.

Just play your character, however they are; nice or mean, and don't carry IC troubles into OOC.

- An attack on your character is not an attack on you (the player). We are not our characters, and we leave IC-troubles in the OOC-world.

- If you're nervous about joining someone's scene, a PM goes a long way. Perhaps even use PMs to set up a scene for your characters to meet as well.

- Don't barge in on people who are having closed-scenes (they will usually be tagged with [Closed]).

- Don't stalk people OOC because you like their character. There's such a thing as being nice and talkative, which is good, but there's also a limit and its called being a stalker. It's unpleasant.

- Have fun!

This. This is one of the reasons I decided to play male being a female IRL.

Last game I really sometimes struggled to keep OOC/IC apart. This game, I have it covered.

Watch.

OOC --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IC

In the last game (I finished) the IC dribbled to my RL.  Trying to avoid it this time. ^^;;

I am sorta new I am new to this forum game but I have played in only two others.