What are the rules for playing a pbp? What is not allowed? Thanks!

Basically, just follow what the others are doing. There aren't really any hard and fast "rules" to posting protocol. It also depends on the style of the group. For some, posting rolls and OOC information IC is verboten, but for others it is simply a matter of course. If you read through the existing pages of the relevant PbP, you should be able to get a pretty good idea of "the rules."

If you have specific questions, I can try to answer them for you.

Knowing when to use spoilers.*

Particularly useful if the post will otherwise become a wall of text/dice rolls or - if the group style allows it in the IC thread - to hide the game mechanics/OOC portion of the post.

* Theres a small bug on this forum which makes it impossible to write non-spoilered text after the spoilered section.

Also - and this is just common sense - it's usually good manners not to assume what another character's reaction/opinion will be.

Rules: If you mean here in the forums, it’s basically just follow the forum guidelines and don’t be a jerk. There are no specific rules regarding PbP. Several of us have reached out to the admins with no response. It’s basically just “have fun.”

Rule of thumb: For the GM, avoid railroading language like “you all do this and then this other thing happens,” and use optional/inclusive language like, “if you do this, you will see that this other thing is happening.”

Rule of thumb: For players, try and match each other’s style and posting frequency. Use proper syntax like quotation marks for speech, punctuation when appropriate, and parentheses for OOC speech (or spoiler tags for long OOC ramblings). Make it easier on your poor GM 🙂

Suggestion: use the beautiful Orokos dice roller and post up the BBCode dice image results IC. Don’t hide your dice rolls with a spoiler or in some OOC thread. This game shines when the dice take center stage alongside the RP.

20 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

Suggestion: use the beautiful Orokos dice roller and post up the BBCode dice image results IC. Don’t hide your dice rolls with a spoiler or in some OOC thread. This game shines when the dice take center stage alongside the RP.

I agree with almost all of what you said, but I disagree on this one point. I like being able to read the thread like reading a book or watching a movie and not be interrupted/distracted by dice rolls. I prefer to separate the dice into the OOC thread.

On 4/5/2020 at 12:04 PM, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

I agree with almost all of what you said, but I disagree on this one point. I like being able to read the thread like reading a book or watching a movie and not be interrupted/distracted by dice rolls. I prefer to separate the dice into the OOC thread.

I would suggest that this approach would work on a game that doesn't focus on dice so much, instead of a roleplaying game with a dice pool as THE central driving mechanic. The dice in this game drive the narrative so much (and players are encouraged to collaborate with each other in interpreting the dice pool) that it can be more jarring, in my experience, to have to go somewhere else to look up the dice rolls and then relate them to the "narrative."

But to each their own!

46 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

I would suggest that this approach would work on a game that doesn't focus on dice so much, instead of a roleplaying game with a dice pool as THE central driving mechanic. The dice in this game drive the narrative so much (and players are encouraged to collaborate with each other in interpreting the dice pool) that it can be more jarring, in my experience, to have to go somewhere else to look up the dice rolls and then relate them to the "narrative."

But to each their own!

For PbP, it can be pretty hard to collaborate on interpreting the rolls anyway without bogging the game down. Having a quick exchange of "player-GM-player posts IC" works much better than "player 1-player 2-player 1-player 3-player 2-GM-player 1-player 1 posts IC."
When I read through a PbP, I often don't go look for the dice rolls at all. In the event that I do want to, I simply have both tabs open.

Fair enough though. Like you said, to each their own.

For die rolls that directly correlate with the narrative, I very much like for them to be included in the IC post, but in spoilers.

Thanks everyone!

One more thing which I forgot to add to the list: use the Follow function for all the relevant game threads (IC, OOC, Misc, etc.).

This will help to keep you updated about new activity on the game threads. I've been surprised at times by who is not following some of the forum games in which I'm participating (and sometimes by who is following!).

On 4/5/2020 at 8:42 PM, awayputurwpn said:

... Rule of thumb: For players, try and match each other’s style and posting frequency. Use proper syntax like quotation marks for speech, punctuation when appropriate, ...

This.

I am often honestly puzzled by some of the mobile/cell phone SMS abbreviations which some people use on the forums. " Its q high cse i hv" ... means what, exactly? *

Some abbreviations are more common than others. "IIRC" I find understandable because it's also used in emails, but not the example given above.

So another rule of thumb: use proper sentences instead of a hash of alphanumeric soup. Not everyone can read 133t-speak or however it's written.

* ETA: I did eventually figure it out ("it's quite high because I have") - but that took time ... which defeats the purpose of clearly understandable communication.

23 hours ago, Bellona said:

I am often honestly puzzled by some of the mobile/cell phone SMS abbreviations which some people use on the forums. " Its q high cse i hv" ... means what, exactly?

Im going with they are having a stroke.

@jhh3 The rules are what the Game Master want them to be, with common sense and decency in the mix. You have many PBP campaigns here are as examples, like a couple others have said before me.

If you are looking to join one of those as a player, try to find the "recruitment" threads (most have that word in the title), where the Game Masters of that campaign often post and discuss any special rules they intend to use. Stuff like "I expect at least one post every week" or "Please use a different color when your character speaks something out loud and include that text in quotation marks". Some might want you not just to join, but also activate notifications, so you get a message when the threads are active. If there is no dedicated recruitment thread visible or to be found with the Search function, such rules are often also in the first couple of posts of the Out-Of-Character (OOC) threads. Another thing also mentioned before (and handled differently by different groups, or even different players within a group) is to keep In-Character (IC) descriptions of actions and situations and 'spoken' text strictly in an IC thread, while everything else goes into the OOC threads. As I said, this might even differ per player. In one campaign I play in, I strictly conform to putting dice rolls from Orokos in the OOC threads. @Edgehawk has important rolls to the IC description in the IC thread, hidden with Spoiler tags (he mentioned this above, too). The Game Master accepts both ways of handling this. And that's fine - in that campaign. In others, maybe not so, depending on the rules for that campaign - as defined by the Game Master (maybe with help from the players who might be able to contribute).

And then there is that common sense thing. Simple stuff like no swearing and cussing. No sexual remarks and inappropriate descriptions on this public forum, which somebody's child might also be reading. Complete sentences and (barring dyslexia) as much care for correct spelling and grammar as you can, opposed to deliberate leet-speak or SMS-language. Try to use proper English (or whatever language you choose to play in), only using slang forms of words or ideas if that is a thing your character would - IC - use. Again, this is where quotation marks and colors are often used best.

Then there is the possibility to start a game online - PBP - as a Game Master yourself. Then what are the rules? Easy, what you want them to be. You decide, and may get some suggestions from more veteran online PBP players who might want to join your group. But, handle with care. Think through your rules carefully. You will lose players quickly (or not even find them willing to play) if your campaign rules are restrictive, or absurd, or simply not realistic. On another forum, I once saw a person trying to start a PBP game, thinking the forum was some form of live chatroom, starting to kick players from the group because they didn't respond within the hour. People have lives beyond the forum, even with the cough-crisis going on world wide. During a combat I can imagine you would lke to have somebody respond within 24 hours after you sent them a message that it's their turn, or something like that. And even then, this might not be possible every time . I can't respond within 24 hours, even if it is the rule you set for your campaign, when I go out hiking and survivalling for the weekend, coincidentally during that big fight. Of course, common decency would have me send the group a heads-up about that weekend. Simply informing the others I will not be online at all in that weekend will clear up that possible mess.

Time to start finding those examples? Start to read them and get an idea?

And if you still have questions then, feel free to return here, ask them. I have found by far, that most people here are very helpful.

Cheers.