Guidelines for Posting
From Ars Magica
Contents |
This page is in development
We are currently in the middle of our first story. Once we have had a chance to see how that story has worked, this page will be updated.
We have two main ways of submitting posts - via email, and via the wiki:
1. Wiki Posting
Wiki rules:
This list is not yet finished.
Things you can do:
- Write the part of the story relating to any player characters (PCs) or non-player characters (NPCs) under your control. This includes:
- Add dialogue.
- Detail a completed action which has a certain result, such as:
- Open a door that you know is unlocked.
- Detail an attempted action which has an uncertain result, such as:
- Cast a spell.
- Physically interact with another character.
- Anything action which ordinarily requires a dice roll.
- Revise anything you have already submitted to the wiki, provided that it doesn't affect the continuity of the story, for example:
- It doesn't require any changes to the story that follows the alteration, such as:
- Changing Red umbrella to Blue umbrella, when other people have subsequently mentioned red umbrellas.
- It doesn't alter anything that has been reacted to, such as:
- Changing "Hi, nice day, eh?" to "Good afternoon, what splendid weather we are enjoying, wouldn't you say?"
- Changing "Janet walked into the room," to "Janet burst into the room in a state of panic."
- Enhance the story by various methods, including:
- Adding detail to descriptions that merely make the story more interesting, rather than having any significant in-game effect, such as:
- Changing "The room had windows with blue curtains." to "The room had windows hung with long, plain curtains the colour of cornflowers."
Things you cannot do:
Write the part of the story relating to any player characters (PCs) or non-player characters (NPCs) not under your control. For instance, players cannot:
- Indirectly specify the activities of other characters, such as:
- "Janet entered the quiet suburban library and screamed obscenities, continuously, until it closed, eight hours later." - prevents characters responding to her screaming in a way that silences her, and prevents any action that removes her from the library (such as police being summoned to drag the mad woman away).
Write parts of the story which are for the story-guide to write.
- Dictate the results of actions whose results are uncertain.
- "Janet fired her gun at Jill," is good. "Janet fired her gun at Jill, killing her," is bad. Determining the result of uncertain actions is solely the province of the storyguide(s).
This includes dialogue and descriptions of the character's attempts
Any player can alter almost anything they like, and add anything they like. You can enrich descriptions, retroactively improve the story (without breaking the following rules), insert pictures, format, add hyperlinks, etc. If another player is consistently mispelling your name, or anything else for that matter, you can freely correct it. Players cannot describe the actions of other players, including things like their state of mind, unless it has already been defined by the player or the storyguide. e.g. You can write freely about companion's smile once it has been determined by the player, earlier in the post, that he is happy. Were you to describe the companion being happy when the player of companion had a half-written post at home in which they are depressed, and then rule 3 comes into force, then they are not going to be terribly impressed. Players cannot change something once other players have incorporated it into their additions and alterations, or chaos will ensue. e.g. If you describe your character as looking happy, and other players subsequently comment or act on that information, you can't change how your character feels, because that would force others to change their additions. Players cannot describe the results of actions whose outcome is in doubt. e.g. You may describe how you open your sanctum door and successfully wander through, but you can only describe how you attempt to open the sanctum door of another magus. You will often find that your posts end when you reach a significant action. The results of such actions will be described in the next storyguide post. Log in! If you have created a log-in, then players can leave you notes on your discussion page, in order to alert you to something, and we can tell who is adding what to the story. Your additions, whilst logged in, will be added to the player contributions page, and I will be using that for gauging things like adventure experience awards. I'm happy for players to have multiple log-ins, as this allows you to set an auto-login for each computer you use (work and home, for instance). In addition to every user having a talk page (you should recieve an alert when you log on if this page has changed), every wiki page has a discussion page. Please use the discussion page to inform the other players of OOC information regarding the thread. Well, I'm sure you understand clearly, but I have several hours of non-work to fill, so here's an awfully written, quick example of Wiki posting:
| J: There is a room. Angela and Betty are inside.
A: There is a room. Angela and Betty are inside. Angela says to Betty "Hi Betty!" B: Angela and Betty are stood in a well-lit room. Angela turns to Betty and says "Hi Betty!" Betty regards Angela cautiously. A: Angela and Betty are stood in a well-lit room. Angela turns to Betty and says "Hi Betty!" Betty regards Angela cautiously, noting her bright purple waistcoat and tartan trousers. B: Angela and Betty are stood in a well-lit room. Angela turns to Betty and says "Hi Betty!" Betty regards Angela cautiously, noting her bright purple waistcoat and tartan trousers with a sligth grin. J: Angela and Betty are stood in a large, ground-floor reception room. .... C: ... a slight grin. With a click, the door opens, and a man dressed in a white suit enters. |
So, as you can see... you can flit back and forth adding descriptions, elaborating, correcting, and so forth. e.g. At one point, player A has their character look at player B, and player B then embellishes player A's character's action by adding a description of what character B looks like.
2. Email Posting
Basically, the email editing section is currently irrelevent, as we are using the wiki. If it turns out that we all rather like the wiki style, then we may use it solely, in which case I'll delete this section; if not, then this section will be revised as needed, no doubt influenced to some extent by the group's experiences with writing stories on the wiki.
We also need to discuss email posting, as I've been looking at a few different PBEM games recently, and found quite a variety in posting styles.
Email rules:
No commenting. There is no need to replicate parts of another player's post, though you can describe the actions that occured in another post in your own words.
Players should be able to go from post to post, reading the story as though it were one big story, albeit skipping from viewpoint to viewpoint. It is far nicer this way, especially if you are reading a large number of posts at one sitting (and I imagine we will all have to do catch-up reading from time to time - especially those of us with busy jobs.) The following is good:
| J post 1: Andy and Bert are in a room together.
A post 1: Andy looks about the room, and notices Bert. "Hi Bert, how's life?" B post 1: Bert didn't give Andy's question a moments thought, and simply replied "Okay. You?" He didn't have the energy for small talk today. |
Player and player-run NPC posts will normally be concurrent rather than consecutive. Storyguide posts will normally advance time, and include the results of actions described by the players. In order that players don't get confused as to which post follows which, etcetera, it is important that players label their emails properly. An example title format is:
[Character name : Thread name] Location : Area e.g. [Longinus : The black mass] The Vestry : Church Stretton Church. - in this example, there is a sub-area in the description as some of the characters are in the Chancel of the church, and this format would not necessarily always require a sub-area.
Another example format: [Character name] Thread name : Year, Season e.g. [Bedo] The murder of Mnemosyne : 1220, Summer - this format is better for archiving, and presumes that the players are keeping tabs on the action, and there is no confusion over where the action is taking place.
Posts where the character name is "Various" are storyguide posts which sum up the events, detail the results of player and NPC actions, advance time, introduce new elements, etc.
I do not mind what format we decide to use for the email titles, as long as the format doesn't change inconsistently. Some games insist on a header at the top of each post which details location, time, etcetera, instead of including it in the title - however I have found it less convenient, and it acts as a perpetual perceptual shock, breaking your immersion at the beginning of every new post.
The only elements which must be in any format, are thread name and character name.
OOC information, comments, remarks : please do not put these in your in-character posts. Prior to starting our first play-by-email thread, I will create a new discussion group for IC posts, and this discussion group will be only for OOC posts and discussion. OOC comments can be posted here, on the wiki, or emailed directly to those concerned. Discussions regarding spell effects, dice rolls, OOC clarifications, etcetera should not be on the IC board, but are welcome anywhere else (on the wiki they are easily moved if posted in the wrong place).
Players cannot describe the results of actions whose outcome is in doubt. e.g. You may describe how you open your sanctum door and successfully wander through, but you can only describe how you attempt to open the sanctum door of another magus. You will often find that your posts end when you reach a significant action. The results of such actions will be described in the next storyguide post.
Players cannot describe the actions of another player's character, including things like their state of mind, unless it has already been defined by that player or the storyguide. e.g. You can write freely about a character's smile once it has been determined by the player, in an earlier post, that they are smiling. Well, I imagine I have forgotten one or more important things, so please feel free to comment on the above with additions, suggestions, and corrections. If there is anything you dislike, then please let me know.
