Running and Playing in Official Missions

Lord Scourge · Last edited by Lord Scourge on Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:13 pm; edited 1 time in total

This forum is created for two kinds of roleplay threads:

1. Masters training their Apprentices
2. Approved multi-player RPG games that count for one or more missions

Part I: How to run a training mission

Little has changed. A Sith Master creates a thread in which to teach Sith powers and techniques, and to help develop the roleplaying demenor of their Apprentice. Simply follow the basic guidelines to explain the rules of the thread - one option is already covered, as the Sith Master will decide on any conflicts or dice rolls. However, the system used can be as precisely or openly defined as you want. More important is to state who is involved.

The basic options available are:

No one is allowed to post except the Master and the Apprentice;

Anyone is allowed to post, to encourage or taunt the Apprentice as they like;

Other Sith have agreed to help in the training, and they are the only other(s) allowed to post;

While the mission is ongoing, no one else is allowed to post, but once the Sith Master announces that the mission is complete, comments are welcome.

Once you get that out of the way, explain to your Apprentice the situation where they are starting out, what you hope to teach them, and what you expect of them in the mission. Of course, we don't expect you to reveal anything that needs to be kept secret until the right moment... but some Apprentices have very little roleplay experience, and will need clearly defined expectations if you wish for them to perform well.

Lord Scourge · Last edited by Lord Scourge on Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:15 pm; edited 1 time in total

Part II: Running an approved RPG mission

This is more complicated. First, RPG missions have to be planned. Make a thread in the Announcements and Feedback forum describing the adventure you would like to run. You will have to be very clear regarding what rules you are using, such as D20, D6, diceless roleplay or our in-house D20 Project (or something else - it's your game). You will need to say how many players you are looking for, both minimum and maximum you can have and still be able to run that adventure.

Expect at least a few days, perhaps a week or more, to properly plan a RPG mission. You need to find enough people to play, address all their questions and concerns about the adventure, create stats for all the players involved, and determine the timetable for playing the game.

You will need some kind of timetable to run a RPG mission successfully, and creating one will depend on the availability of your players. Some roleplaying can be done fairly randomly, with the players and GM posting whenever they're on the board. However, the moment a real fight breaks out, there needs to be a time when everyone involved can be on the board at the same time. This is really the only way to effectively run a RPG session that will involve a lot of dice rolling or decision-making - to have everyone agree to a certain block of time that they will be logged in and engaging in the game. Otherwise a simple fight that takes 20 seconds in game time will take two weeks to complete. Therefore, before starting the mission itself, you will need to decide on one or more blocks of time each week that players can agree to gaming, if their player is involved in that particular portion of the story.

For example, you could have game time be every Sunday afternoon, 1-4 PM PST. Between those game times, a number of things can get done, but every player needs to be logged in during that time, or arrange ahead of time with the GM that they won't be there (because they can't make it, or because they do not need to be). If you can all make it, you could have more than one time per week - or alternately, if no one can make it at the same time, there could be more than one game time so any hectic activity can be covered between those two times.

To run a RPG adventure, everyone will need character sheets and the GM will need a copy of everyone's sheets. It is up to the GM what criteria to place on each PC - what species, classes, levels and powers are allowed. In the long run, we hope to have the D20 Project to the point where everyone can have ongoing characters that can be used from one game to the next. For now, you just need to make sure everyone has a character sheet that is suitable for a particular adventure.

Once you have established what system is being used, who is involved, their character sheets, when gametime is and any other important factors that need to be considered, create a new thread in this forum for gameplay, that includes all the rules. You will probably want to include a link to the planning thread, and another to a comments thread as a RPG thread should not have anyone posting except the GM and players.

You may notice the word "approved" for RPG missions. This is not to say you need approval to run the game, but you need the approval of a Sith Master if you wish to have your game apply to the number of missions an Apprentice must complete (and some adventures could well apply for more than one mission, if a Sith Lord or Lady approves).

Lord Scourge

Part III: Playing in Official Missions

If you are not running a game, but participating in a mission that a GM is running, please keep a number of factors in mind:

1. Just because you say you do something, doesn't mean you automatically get to do it. Whatever system is used to control gameplay, from D20 system to diceless arbitration, you need approval from the GM to continue. If your GM allows, you can make a long post with many actions, but if the first action fails, it will affect everything that follows. For this reason, a GM may require each post to only contain a single action, or the actions for a single round of combat (in the D20 system you get two attack or move actions, a 2 meter "step" and as many free actions as you can manage in each round).

2. Know the rules that are being used. One of the reasons we are developing a system which adapts both the D20 system and the KOTOR games into a set of highly customized house rules, is so we can post all of those rules to the D20 Project forum, and you won't need to own particular gaming books to play. However, even using the D20 Project (once it's functional) will be greatly aided by having the original WOTC sourcebooks at hand, and if you've read the Player's Section of the Revised Core Rulebook, you'll have a much easier time understanding our house rules.

3. Obey the GM. Don't argue about interpretation of the rules, it just wastes time, derails the game and annoys everyone involved. If you think you have a valid objection to a ruling, you can raise that objection once, preferably over PM or in a comments/feedback thread for the main RPG thread - if the GM says they have taken that into account in a way they can't reveal yet, or that they decided to ignore that rule, or even if they say they don't have that supplement and aren't going to interrupt a game so they can find a copy and read it... then drop it, and get on with the game.

4. Wait your turn. Whenever combat is involved, everyone gets to do something before you get to take another action. If the roleplay is not involved in combat right now, it may just involve you going back and forth with the GM for a bit, or it may involve you not posting while someone else does so. If you are trying to do something, you may need to wait for a GM ruling before you continue. Be patient, not everything happens immediately. Remember to refresh the page before you post, to catch up on the current action, and don't interrupt the flow of the story by posting out of turn.

5. Learn to use the Edit button. You can go back to any post and change what you said. Don't use this to destroy the flow of the story, but instead this can be very useful to take a GM ruling and make it so that you accurately describe what happened. Some GMs may choose to have very few posts - those with Mod powers may edit your post for you, and describe the result of your action within the same post - others may make a post describing the outcome, and if you edit your post, then delete theirs to reduce the number of total posts.

6. Keep OOC to a minimum. Out of character comments can get in the way of telling the story. Players and GMs can post in a comments/feedback thread as easily as anyone else, and there's nothing wrong with making an IC post to the RPG, followed up with an OOC post to a comments thread - in fact it works a lot better than posting two sentences of in-game action followed by two paragraphs of making jokes about what is happening.

These guidelines are in no particular order, as they are all very useful to keep in mind during a game. They are also not rules, as the GM may decide to do things otherwise - for example, if the GM likes having OOC comments in among the IC gameplay, go ahead and follow their lead.

But in general, keeping these points in mind will make for a better game for everyone involved.
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Lord Scourge
(( Main Administrator ))
Dark Sith Lord of the Council, Historian to the Empress
Master to Vulpine, Sith Apprentice
Under the Dark Patronage of Lady Lumiya

"You truly are evil."
-Abel Peña, Star Wars EU writer, to me

Darth Zero

Or probably someone should be moderating this so everyone follows the rules.
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"The goal justifies the means"
"Hate or Love" and the "A sith and Jedi tale" are registered trademarks of Supremus

Lord Scourge

Yes, we will have plenty of moderation - currently I'm asking any existing Mods who have roleplaying, and preferably GMing experience, to step forward so we have plenty of Mods who can make sure GM decisions are enforced at any given time.

-Scourge

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Lord Scourge
(( Main Administrator ))
Dark Sith Lord of the Council, Historian to the Empress
Master to Vulpine, Sith Apprentice
Under the Dark Patronage of Lady Lumiya

"You truly are evil."
-Abel Peña, Star Wars EU writer, to me