OVERVIEW of roleplaying

Play-by-post role-playing games or PBP rpgs refer to another type of text-based gaming. Rather than following gameplay in real-time, such as in MUDs, players post messages on such media as bulletin boards, online forums, Chatrooms (such as like AOL and Yahoo chat) and mailing lists to which their fellow players will post role-played responses without a real limit or timeframe. Of late such blogging tools and sites as LiveJournal have been utilized for this purpose. This includes such games as play-by-email (or PBEM) rpgs. The origins of this style of role-playing are unknown, but it most likely originated in some form during the mid to late 1980s when BBS systems began gaining in popularity. Usually it is played through 'Script' and 'Story' format, both styles are interchangeable and work well but it depends on which the player prefers, or which the human administrator insists upon. Script format is a simple stating of what each character is saying, post by post, with little to no mention of said characters' actions, whereas Story format requires that the character's actions be mentioned, including the surroundings and a general description of what is going on.

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Rules and Etiquette Systems
Though there are countless different rules systems and game-specific rules, there is a single universal criterion that separates role-playing from collaborative writing — there must be a variable under the control of one or more players that some other players cannot control. The most common example of this is for each player participating in the activity to have their own characters that no other participant may write dialogs or actions for. Most separate textbased gameworlds have their own set of rules or TOS by which all users must consent to abide. In addition to rules there is usually a universal set of mores and a terminology common to text-based role playing games, that more or less constitutes gaming etiquette.

Some common examples of these rules are:

Enforcing a specific genre or theme.
Sticking to a certain 'point of view'.
Observing correct grammar and spelling and use of a certain, default language.
Observing the rating of the game. Mature games may contain no restrictions on adult content.
Restrictions on or requirements to work together outside the story over plot and other elements.
Restrictions on:
who can contribute, and how often, when the work is being put together in an open area such as an online forum or mailing list.
Killing off or otherwise permanently changing a major character owned by another player without their consent.
Powergaming, twinking and/or godmoding.
Creating Mary Sues or characters with a set of characteristics or stats too beneficial to the player as to give them an unfair and unrealistic advantage over others.
Various forms of gaming that developed within these media, such as sparring (see below), have garnered their own cult following and developed their own sets of norms and subcultures over time.

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Sparring
Sparring is a form of online role-play that deals with combat between two or more characters, usually conducted on play-by-post media. Two or more players take turns in writing a joint-narrative battle, each one attempting to defeat his or her rival. The battle ends when one participant acknowledges defeat or one is judged the victor by an unbiased arbiter after a review of all related posts. In the context of Internet-based role-play, sparring retains its traditional meaning of play or practice combat, but is limited to written interaction. It is different from role-play in that sparring usually contributes little, if nothing, to a story or character development and participants are subject only to the rules of an agreed on role-play fighting system.

These fighting systems fall into two categories, speed-based and turn-based. Of these, the former is such that the involved parties seek to outmatch one another via superior typing speed and stratagem, and thus is usually left for websites or programs that support an instant messenger or chats. The latter has no emphasis on typing speed, but focuses wholly on strategy, and are thus usually based on forums and message boards. Both systems are further divided into explicit and implicit subsets (also called open and closed), which refer to whether the outcome of an attack is stated by the attacker or assumed to have happened in the flow of battle.

There is a large rift of ideologies within the community of sparring. It comes from the basis of the spar's purpose and intent, and divides sparrers into two categories, being roleplayers and fighters. Roleplayers are grouped as "orthodox" combatants, where no "autos" are acceptable, and it is a mutually respectful practice. Orthodox matches are completely based upon the honor system, and are held more to the ability of the character than the mechanics of the system. Explicit guidelines and rules apply to the fighters, in an "unorthodox" system. Unorthodox spars tend to use hit claims, as discussed above as open and closed.

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Format
Play-by-post games are usually written in the third person perspective. This allows the players (and gamemasters, if any) to write in the personas of their characters. This is the best way to separate the player character from the person playing the character (the typist), and it makes the game more readable. Sometimes online game terms such as OOC (Out of character) or OOG (Out of Game) are used to differentiate character vs. personal posting.

The first message posted onto a thread of that nature is usually one person laying down the scenario, starting a story about their character and inviting others. The thread then becomes an ongoing story in which players periodically advance the plot by reading the latest reply and then typing what their character does and how the environment changes in response. These replies are often open-ended so that other players can continue.

Depending on the rules established on the forum, roleplaying and story can be pushed forward through moderation by a gamemaster, specific rules (often existing role-playing game systems), or by mutual agreement between players.

Role-playing by mutual agreement does not rely on statistics or dice; any combat is usually written in entirety by one or more players. In some games, players will be allowed to include the actions of another player in their post, but this practice is commonly considered cheating in more established play-by-post games, where players are responsible for their own characters. Any form of this cheating (automatic hits and controlling another player's character) is commonly referred to as "power playing" or "God modding". However, one player may temporarily hand over control of their character to another player if they cannot play for a while, rather than dropping out entirely.

In certain play-by-post gaming circles larger-scale boards exist where the entire board is devoted to advancing a single storyline, rather than many different stories proceeding in separate threads. They vary in organization, but many include a full set of rules governing roleplaying and combat between players, threads detailing a set storyline (often contributed to by plot-advancing, staff-organized events, or player roleplays), character approval forums, and a full staff with admin(s) and moderators. These types of games then vary from that groundwork; some games go as far as to include a virtual "world" to roleplay in, by cutting up the entire game universe into separate forums, each based on locations within that universe. All games set in a particular setting are played in the corresponding forum.

Many message board based games establish a hierarchy of moderators to manage plot flow and continuity. To keep story threads organised the message board is often organised into forums based on geographical location within the game setting.

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YAAAAAAAAAAAY.

Where do you get this stuff?

Wikipedia.

^ Win.

Cool.

Umm...what am I again? XD

Oh Mai. wikipedia is win

It'll help if we have a thread where everyone knows who's who and what role they are playing otherwise, I'm going to get confused of what roles can be played...

Sorry, for the trouble... =_="

Good idea. We can discuss it during a club meeting after the break.
We're still working out the kinks.

BTW. We've only got a few characters figured out so... we're getting on that.

character skeletons would be a good idea, then.

Motion seconded.

I think we should make a compendium of the members and their characters, and also the characters they control. It would make things a lot easier. If someone so desires, they may also post a brief character sketch.

so it is written, so it shall be done!

Ho!

I wanted to know if there's any Catherals in this?
I could be a preist of some kind. XD

It'll be funny (I think) and interesting, My Queen (meaning you ANGELA!)

What is this, anyway? reading the rules was a bit like trying to play dnd with just the second half of the player's handbook

LOL ZOMG you're another one of those dnd people >.>

Is that a bad thing?

Okay. OKAY *word vomit ALERT* ANGELA! you cannot. CANNOT! JUST OPEN A NEW THREAD FOR EVERY SINGLE FLASBACK. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE find a way to bring them into the main story tastefully! Secondly, you cannot be in two or three places at once! Are you in two places at once? no? thats what I thought! I understand how dragging on a story and making others wait for a while could seem relatively, I dunno, mean, I guess. But in the end it will most likely do naught but confuse them - as it did with me. Confusion nation... :S...

serena cut me off... no offence btw...

>.> I don't really see what the big deal is.

Dragging on what story? I'm sorry. I don't really understand what point your trying to make.

And of course not. They're flashbacks... which means I'm not in two places at once. >.>

Nawww, i meant the thing with the whole taking serena somewhere else. but nvm. Sorry. I twas mildly frustrated... I see why it isnt a huge deal... :S

Oh and... I'm finished all the other scenes? So I'm kind of doing my own thing right now... namely because I've had a scene with pretty much everyone... and there's no one else to roleplay with at the moment.

Taking serena somewhere else?
Oh. You mean the escapade threat?
Hm... sorry. Well, I don't really see you that often... and I'm sorry we didn't discuss it with you. You've been kind of absent, so we just took it from there....

HEY. Let's do a scene.

Oh and... if it helps... I'm going to order them chronologically, once they finish up.

kay

Scene? Yes? Do you have time right now?

mhm, lets do one!

my character is in the chambers

... so I should go there?

yeah, i guess :-S. no, I'll go back to the ballroom or whatever. i gots a good idea.

Okay. Let me know when you've posted.

Or... actually, can you start a new scene?

It will make it easier to order chronologically if they are separate... since things have happened in your absence... >.>

waaah. i already posted, sorry. I'll copy and past it. sall good.

ok. thanks.

K, we're good :-)

Mmk. I`m just going to change the title to an actual-named room in my Palace.