BSS RPG -- Discussion & OOC

Survivors trapped in the dungeon, gone mad because of the restless spirits and such. Yeah... I like your idea, my sexy demon.

And building this dungeon in MC isn't as much work as you might think. With the fill command, I can do entire walls and floors in a few seconds. The real challenge will be coming up with an awesome design, something I have been known to have a knack for.

I'll begin working on it later tonight. This should be fun!

It's nice to see your minds at work guys, I swear I can almost hear the cogs turning.

Quote :

Nakia looks Zarak right in the eyes. Something about his power disturbed her.

Runa, for her part, seemed awed at the arcane powers Zarak just displayed.

Regarding that bit... I think you should be careful not actually playing other characters.

It's a slippery slope but if you start taking away the possibility for others to freely react to what you've posted you're limiting their possibilities and that's no longer RPing.

Hmm. That is a good point.

Mayhap this masked demon is a bit too sure of himself. I have made a post about what Nakia thinks. By the way when I say Nakia is old I mean that she has lived beyond the normal span of years allotted to humans. Enough said there for now.

I guess I got a little carried away I am not used to co-operative writing

No problem, This type of game play is tricky. I was involved with several on the old forum and so far I think you are doi8ng a good job. We all have to be careful. We need to react to each other with out over reacting. I think my biggest problem is waiting for others to post. Living in a variety of time zones and with a variety of offline life schedule we need patience.. Each person needs the chance to post.

As DM you do get some perks though in order to keep things moving.

Playing a sorcerer is new to me and I see Nakia as having some problems she will need to work out as the game progresses and how she does depends to a great extent on how others play the game.

Please don't wait for the character I've created to join in at this point - she'll join in when a situation comes along that fits her profile. She can happily sit back for a bit. Also I'm inundated with work, Dr and hospital appointments etc., right now which is tiring me, so I'll wait until I feel up to it.

I've had some experience with forum RPGs, you definitely want to set some sort of guidelines to avoid problems down the line. Let's just use common sense and not assume other players are going to respond in the way that we expect. After all unexpected reactions are what make this sort of cooperative writing fun.

Besides I think we should use OOC tags (for out of character) because if we take your last post:

Quote :

Sharing thoughts, excellent idea, grandma.

It should be obvious that it is Zarak the player and not Zarak the character who is speaking. Let's decide on a way to represent that visually in order to be able to tell the difference at a glance. What do you think?

BlackZarak wrote:

Survivors trapped in the dungeon, gone mad because of the restless spirits and such.

Or... hm, shall we say, descendants of said survivors, a veritable society of horrors? Twisted, hideous and deformed by years of inbreeding? Ritual cannibalism, anyone?

Carabas wrote:

What do you think?

I think that all OOC remarks could simply go into this thread, seeing that we are already discussing the plot and such here.

Good call. It would probably be better to just delete all OOC remarks then.

Hokay, majority rules. It is important that we communicate with each other We could also use italics to post what we are thinking as opposed to what we are actually saying. I am in favor of guide lines but they should not in my opinion be overly restrictive.

I am fine with anyone making assumptions about my character as long as they do not actually manipulate her without my permission. What our characters think of each other is opinion and may be true or false. Just like real people.

I am trying to present Nakia as a powerful socerer who at this time is trying to down play that, to hide her power from others. She could nuke the small village with a flick of her sorcerous hand but doesn't want anyone to know that. She wears clothing she has made herself, dark gray homespun robe and cape. She has enchanted it with runes and protective spells but those should not be visible to the naked eye. The skill of touch sight I have given her is limited and is a two way skill, if the other person also has the gift the touch can give information to both.

I think Rune,m Zarak and I have done a good job of playing off each other and setting up and interesting beginning. These three characters are not ones that would easily get along together. There are bound to be misunderstandings. Either by choice or circumstances they are loners and trust will not come easily. For Nakia at least Runa is from the same world but Zarak feels very alien and she is sure he is from another world unknown to her. This both intrigues her and repels her.

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

Hokay, majority rules.

I'm really for separating the in character story from the out of character stuff but I'd like to hear what Z and Sue have to say before coming up with a ruling.

Making assumptions is fine as long as it is clear that it is only the perception of a character and not the reality. IMO it's better to err on the side of caution because assumptions can lead to all sort of misconceptions and make it really hard to stick to the original concept surrounding a character.

For instance if a poster assumes another character will follow his or her character to another location it can really mess up what plans the other player may have had for his or her character (and that's just a very simple example).

We should also consider some rules regarding posting. I'm thinking about frequency and length. It's a bit complicated because we don't live in the same time zones but finding some balance is going to be necessary especially for people who really want to join in but find it difficult to post very regularly.

Last but not least, we could create a new subforum for this. We could also take advantage of the RPG module available in the forum template somewhere in the administration panel. At this point I'm not convinced it would bring much but that's a possibility.

Carabas wrote:

It's a bit complicated because we don't live in the same time zones but finding some balance is going to be necessary especially for people who really want to join in but find it difficult to post very regularly.

Aye, on a side note: I'll become one of said people in a few days. Why a length rule, though?

Rune wrote:

Carabas wrote:

It's a bit complicated because we don't live in the same time zones but finding some balance is going to be necessary especially for people who really want to join in but find it difficult to post very regularly.

Aye, on a side note: I'll become one of said people in a few days. Why a length rule, though?

Just common sense. If we want to keep the cooperative part in this thread we can't go for really long posts.

Descriptions are nice and bring a lot to the story, I just mean that we should try and keep some balance between dialogues, actions and descriptions.

I don't think we need a formal rule. It's just something to keep in mind.

PbP games are always tricky keeping a balance between allowing people a chance to post and keeping the game moving.

As the game progresses long dialogues/posts make it harder for for people to jump into the action IE: Say Triactus wanted to join in even now he would need to read through several pages of two threads to know what was going on. If his work schedule and acting schedule is heavy he may only be able to post occasionally so the more dialogue he has to read the harder it makes it for him.

As Cara has said it is a matter of common sense. I have made a post where Nakia is trying to establish an alliance with Runa. She makes a simple friendly gesture of sharing food and drink.Why shouldn't Rune have her character make a short response?

People can also post here if they need some space for entering into the game. Special requests can be made here.

I think the important thing is keeping in communication with one another.

Nakia the Rogue wrote:

I think the important thing is keeping in communication with one another.

Exactly.

The really tricky part is dealing with conflict between characters. I know it's not supposed to happen in these games but if it does it's better to get together and "script" it beforehand so nobody gets slighted.

On another note, when someone wants to join and is not up to reading what will definitely become a very long thread, we could always recap what happened so far here .

Especially considering that newcomers are not necessarily supposed to know everything that has been going on first hand.

Regarding OOC remarks, I am leaving it to the intelligence of the reader. Zarak wouldn't call Nakia grandma in the context of the story. If OOC remarks can contribute to the story then I am OK with it.

As far as rules and post length goes, I don't feel the need to tighten up the rules. I have long got used to the fact most of you are in a different time zone. I also don't mind long, descriptive posts if they can add to the experience.

In short, we know each other, and I don't feel the need to clamp down on the rules. If we were, say, a bunch of foreigners who do not know each other then maybe a strict set of rules would be needed, but from where I stand, I don't feel it's necessary.

However, I agree with the idea of relegating it to a sub-forum. TBH I wasn't sure how well this project would lift from the ground, if at all, but it is going well so far.

BlackZarak wrote:

Regarding OOC remarks, I am leaving it to the intelligence of the reader. Zarak wouldn't call Nakia grandma in the context of the story. If OOC remarks can contribute to the story then I am OK with it.

Fair enough, but it does break immersion and that's something worth considering.

After all we do have a thread dedicated to the OOC stuff (which is what Rune has pointed out before).

I like Rune's idea of a recap if one is needed.

How is the MC dungeon coming,m Zarak?

The main chamber is done but it is extremely barebones. I'll post a quick screenshot when I get home from work later tonight.

I will probably do a tower type build, with multiple levels. My idea is to have the souls guard a portal, which will lead to a subplane which will hold this massive tower.

Thought it would be fun to make some mention of the post that started it all (you know, the last one as of today in the 'Which D&D character are you' thread), so I referenced it in the char story. Just in case someone is confused about what the internal dialogue was going on about.

BTW, I think I'll take this opportunity to add an OOC note about what Runa looks like; it's hard for me to do so in any different way, as an unobtrusive in-character, first person mode description would be rather hard to do without the dreaded 'mirror scene' cliche. I decided to interpret the relatively high CHA stat as "convincing, well-spoken and good at what she does" rather than "easy on the eyes", so the character has yet another thing to obsess over/angst about. Anyway: Runa's taller and bulkier than an average human woman (yet smaller than most of her kind), but with a CON of 13 and STR of 14, her size is not much out of the ordinary. Her hair is black, straight and long, her eyes are dark blue, and the skin is gray. She has a lot of scars, though most of them are the result of tribal initiation rituals, at least for now. She looks rather brutish and coarse in general; low brow, protruding jaw, broad nose (it has been broken, and it shows) and tusks, of course - golden inlay and all because it seemed a good idea when she was sixteen.

Heh, I'm glad I did not find a way to describe it in my usual, purple style, because ye Gods, it could have ended up as rather horrible ten paragraphs.

Runa definitely has high charisma as both Zarak and Nakia are drawn to her.