Post by grievous on Sept 30, 2006 17:41:19 GMT -5
This is something I used to do on a forum I frequented long ago. Basically, each player designs a character and tell his or her story a long with a bunch of other people who have their own characters. Kinda like a roleplaying game with out the dice and Game Master.
Here's the rules:
Rules
1- no big names allowed -except for cameo's and mentionings- for example: Mara Jade, Prince Xizor, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Leia, Luke, Obi Wan, etc... etc...
2- Use original characters! This should be obvious but no using Luke Skywalker. Make a brother, a clone, or whatever but no playing as Luke Skywalker himself.
3- You must submit a character profile to be a part of the story, no exceptions, also, please follow the format listed below.
character name:
dark, light, or neutral:
species:
height:
weight:
eye color:
weapon(s) of choice:
ship name: (optional)
general description: (try to keep em reasonably short)
4- Moving from place to place is okay but not just in order to do so. In other words, if all the action is taking place on Tatooine, don't fly off to Coruscant just to drink in a cantina.
5- No killing other characters without their consent, same with capturing or critically injuring them. Please PM the other person to decide on whether or not to do this. Also, Personal Message someone if you're going to do something hugely important with their character.
6- No "god-moding" AKA basically never letting your guy get hurt, always winning battles, and generally being Superman.
7- If you need to say something in this thread, type it like this "OOC: blah, blah, blah." OOC stands for Out Of Character and tells everyone that this is a non-gaming post. If you're doing this and then following with a gaming paragraph, type "IC:" before it, meaning In Character.
8- Keep each segment of the story a decent length. Three or four paragraphs is okay if you're character is alone, but if you're interacting with another player, keep yourself concise, around one or two paragraphs. However, never, never, never, post one sentence segments. If you're speaking with another character, either make the other person's character say something that he or she would probably say or just fill in with detail.
EDIT 9- Always follow the forum rules. You know, no swearing or content that wouldn't be considered kid friendly. Basically, think of whether or not it would be in the Star Wars movie and then work from there.
EDIT 10- Not a rule but just a rule of thumb. Before you post the next part of a big, climactic, three character fight scene, do a really quick check to make sure someone didn't just post something that completely ruins your piece.
EDIT 11- Restrict your posts to no more than four or five a day. We don't want to overwhelm this story with too many posts per day.
EDIT 12- Try not to edit one of your earlier story posts unless it is adding minor description or it is absolutely necessary.
A few good tips on these sort of things:
1. Always keep to your character. My guy is incredibly sarcastic but can become serious in a blink of an eye. If your character is a hyper evil Sith Lord who has been silent the entire story, don't have him crack a joke in a cantina.
2. When in combat, do not be afraid to give blows to another person's character. Punches, kicks, and even mild lightsaber wounds are not banned by Rule 5. Only when your going to paralyze a person's arm or something else that is moderately important should you PM the player first.
3. Now, I almost broke Rule 5 in one of my posts when I knocked out Niphtus. However, if I wouldn't have done that, is it believable that he just sat there while Raxen played up to the camera? No. Use good judgement on things like knockouts. Basically, if a player can recover in a single post, everything should be fine.
4. Conversations can get unwieldy at times. With players bantering back and forth, it can get a bit long on the posting. An idea on helping with this is to PM the person you are conversing with what you're going to post, have them PM back what they would post in return, go back and forth a few more times, and then put all up at once. This not only allows "shorter" conversations but also allows a post to seem more... refined I guess. So rather than one paragraph bursts, suddenly someone is posting a big conversation.
5. Never be afraid to let your character get injured. If I feel like it, I'll make an opponent turn me permanently blind in battle. Does that make my character weak? No, it makes him realistic. No one ever goes through life without having lemons thrown at them. Make sure you let your character get beaten down everyonce in a while.
Now that that's out of the way, the details:
Story Outline
I. The story takes place after Episode IV. We'll kick things off with the Imperials attacking a supposed Rebel headquarters.
a. I'm going to need at least one Rebel to lead the defence. Jedi ARE allowed as long as it is explained how they survived the Jedi Purge.
b. I'll be needing some Imperials to attack. Dark Siders are legal.
We'll start as soon as we get a few people. You can sign up while the game is going.
Here's the rules:
Rules
1- no big names allowed -except for cameo's and mentionings- for example: Mara Jade, Prince Xizor, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Leia, Luke, Obi Wan, etc... etc...
2- Use original characters! This should be obvious but no using Luke Skywalker. Make a brother, a clone, or whatever but no playing as Luke Skywalker himself.
3- You must submit a character profile to be a part of the story, no exceptions, also, please follow the format listed below.
character name:
dark, light, or neutral:
species:
height:
weight:
eye color:
weapon(s) of choice:
ship name: (optional)
general description: (try to keep em reasonably short)
4- Moving from place to place is okay but not just in order to do so. In other words, if all the action is taking place on Tatooine, don't fly off to Coruscant just to drink in a cantina.
5- No killing other characters without their consent, same with capturing or critically injuring them. Please PM the other person to decide on whether or not to do this. Also, Personal Message someone if you're going to do something hugely important with their character.
6- No "god-moding" AKA basically never letting your guy get hurt, always winning battles, and generally being Superman.
7- If you need to say something in this thread, type it like this "OOC: blah, blah, blah." OOC stands for Out Of Character and tells everyone that this is a non-gaming post. If you're doing this and then following with a gaming paragraph, type "IC:" before it, meaning In Character.
8- Keep each segment of the story a decent length. Three or four paragraphs is okay if you're character is alone, but if you're interacting with another player, keep yourself concise, around one or two paragraphs. However, never, never, never, post one sentence segments. If you're speaking with another character, either make the other person's character say something that he or she would probably say or just fill in with detail.
EDIT 9- Always follow the forum rules. You know, no swearing or content that wouldn't be considered kid friendly. Basically, think of whether or not it would be in the Star Wars movie and then work from there.
EDIT 10- Not a rule but just a rule of thumb. Before you post the next part of a big, climactic, three character fight scene, do a really quick check to make sure someone didn't just post something that completely ruins your piece.
EDIT 11- Restrict your posts to no more than four or five a day. We don't want to overwhelm this story with too many posts per day.
EDIT 12- Try not to edit one of your earlier story posts unless it is adding minor description or it is absolutely necessary.
A few good tips on these sort of things:
1. Always keep to your character. My guy is incredibly sarcastic but can become serious in a blink of an eye. If your character is a hyper evil Sith Lord who has been silent the entire story, don't have him crack a joke in a cantina.
2. When in combat, do not be afraid to give blows to another person's character. Punches, kicks, and even mild lightsaber wounds are not banned by Rule 5. Only when your going to paralyze a person's arm or something else that is moderately important should you PM the player first.
3. Now, I almost broke Rule 5 in one of my posts when I knocked out Niphtus. However, if I wouldn't have done that, is it believable that he just sat there while Raxen played up to the camera? No. Use good judgement on things like knockouts. Basically, if a player can recover in a single post, everything should be fine.
4. Conversations can get unwieldy at times. With players bantering back and forth, it can get a bit long on the posting. An idea on helping with this is to PM the person you are conversing with what you're going to post, have them PM back what they would post in return, go back and forth a few more times, and then put all up at once. This not only allows "shorter" conversations but also allows a post to seem more... refined I guess. So rather than one paragraph bursts, suddenly someone is posting a big conversation.
5. Never be afraid to let your character get injured. If I feel like it, I'll make an opponent turn me permanently blind in battle. Does that make my character weak? No, it makes him realistic. No one ever goes through life without having lemons thrown at them. Make sure you let your character get beaten down everyonce in a while.
Now that that's out of the way, the details:
Story Outline
I. The story takes place after Episode IV. We'll kick things off with the Imperials attacking a supposed Rebel headquarters.
a. I'm going to need at least one Rebel to lead the defence. Jedi ARE allowed as long as it is explained how they survived the Jedi Purge.
b. I'll be needing some Imperials to attack. Dark Siders are legal.
We'll start as soon as we get a few people. You can sign up while the game is going.