Campaign Guidelines
- Game Time and "Turns"
- Writing Style
Game Time and "Turns""
I've never quite figured out how any kind of "Turn" can be more
than marginally useful in an RPG. There are some exceptions, of
course, such as combat, but mostly I'm not sure it's a great concept. I prefer
to let things move at their natural pace, with occasional prodding.
Having said that, let me contradict myself and give some guidelines about
turns in this campaign.
In general, there are three basic kinds of time in the campaign:
combat, adventure, and weekly. Both combat and weekly time will be
sort of turn-like, for different reasons. Adventure time is not likely to
be turn-like, but rather conversation-like.
- Combat Time
- At the start of each round, I'll roll initiative and inform everyone
of the results. If the bad guys win, I'll also give you their
initial actions or lack thereof. When the player's turn comes up,
I'll ask for your actions. You should give me as much information
as you can, including conditionals if necessary, so I can process
as much of the round as possible before coming back for more info.
Fortunately, GH combat is pretty straightforward, so even if we find
ourselves in complex situations where conditionals would be silly,
we'll be able to move pretty quickly.
Oh, and your actions should be sent to me alone, not to the list. This
may be changed if you develop powers or skills that allow you to co-
ordinate your actions better. I would just like to keep as much
in the pipe as possible so we don't bog down.
- Adventure Time
- Unless you're fighting, any time in the adventure is adventure time.
Any activities which are either taken as a group, or which would
be known to the group, and the like, can simply take place on the
mailing list (gh@gh.avigne.org).
Especially when you are planning or talking, just ramble on freely
on the list, and I'll watch, and when you've decided what to do
I'll start Supervising again.
I would expect most of the stuff to go over the mailing list. The only
things which really wouldn't, would be things that one of you would
like to keep secret, or that I think should be kept secret. Whether
this includes secret ID stuff is up to you. (If you guys want to
be voyeurs into each other's Secret ID lives, even if your characters
don't know each other's IDs, that's fine by me.)
- Weekly Time
- This is more turn based, since there should be less character
interaction. This is when DUPs are spent, and individual actions
take place.
I'm a believer in down time between adventures, so this will happen
pretty regularly.
During the down time, I will want people to get stuff in quickly
and in discrete chunks (weekly turns?), so I can run it through
and we can move along.
Of course, none of this is set in stone at all. These are just my thoughts
at the moment, and they will probably change as the campaign begins moving
and we develop a style that suits us all.
Writing Style
It is my intention to post the results of this PBeM campaign on this
web-site. In order to make my life as easy as possible when htmlizing various
mail messages, I'd like to make a few suggestions concerning format
for mail. These are just suggestions, mind, not requirements - although
they are pretty strong suggestions; the more editing I have to do
the less fun I'm having.
These guidelines are really only for in-game discussions and things, not for out of
game things like telling me your combat actions or what have you.
- Write in the third person. Starburst said, "What do you think?"
Not I said, "What do you think?"
- Write in the past tense. "Should we investigate," Starburst said.
Not "Should we investigate", Starburst says.
Following those two guidelines insures a more or less consistent style and lets
me drop postings onto the website with a minimum of trouble.
