Sep 1, 2025 8:37 am
This is a read-only thread. If you have any questions or wanna change anything, please use the OOC thread and we can discuss this
THE BASICS
This post introduces some key concepts in roleplaying and Gamersplane, and how they are used in our game.
GOLDEN RULES
Be courteous, respectful, and avoid offensive or derogatory posts. Communication among all should be polite and one of mutual respect.
This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. All other rules are only to help us know how to work together to have fun. If it isn't fun, something is wrong and we need to fix it.
PLAYING SAFELY
In PbP games, you are largely in control of the story, and with this comes responsibility. The player characters will face great danger and difficult challenges, but no player should find the situations they experience unpleasant or offensive. It is important that everyone around our virtual gaming table is having fun and feeling safe. Before starting the game, feel free to talk things through in the OOC thread and see if someone wants certain subjects to be kept out of the game. We will always respect a player who wants to pause and discuss what is happening in the game, or even leave the game if the player so chooses. And you may also want to talk about what happened in direct messages (DM).
TOOLS OF THE GAME
Play-by-post games typically give you plenty of room for improvisation and creativity. Yet they also provide a number of tools to help you create your own story.
CHARACTER SHEETS
To document your character, you use a character sheet. The GM will provide you with a character sheet template, but you're free to add sections, change the layout, and improve it as you see fit.
DICE
As a character in our game, you will have to take risks. Sooner or later, you will end up in situations where the outcome is uncertain, no matter how skilled you are. It’s time to break out the dice. Unlike in a regular tabletop game, feel free to roll anytime you think there is a risk or interesting result in failure. Feel free to do so even before I ask, so the game keeps moving. If the roll was not absolutely necessary, I'll simply hide and ignore the dice, allowing you to perform whatever action you wished and described.
If you don't know how to roll the dice in Gamersplane, there is this helpful guide from Naatkinson.
FORMATTING CONVENTIONS
I use the following formatting conventions. Of course, you don't need to follow that in your own posts, but maybe by knowing my conventions it will make it easier for you to notice what I'm highlighting.
- "Character communication is in bold and within double quotes"
- Character thought is in itallics
- Dice results and combat actions are usually underlined
- Sometimes, I use colors for additional emphasis, like on a characters name. In general, I use the following colors:
-- I use blue for people and factions
-- I use green for relevant places and locations that you can go or may want to know about
-- Finally, I use red for other stuff like relevant risks, issues, challenges, problems, loot, rewards or special situations that the group is facing or may face in the near future.If you don't know how to format your post, there is this helpful formatting guide from Adam. Moreover, the "quote" button underneath most of the posts can help you learn new tricks and formatting tips by copying other people's BBCode.
Game Rules
All rules that we are using, except the house rules below, are in Draw Steel Core Rulebooks and the free Steel Compendium. It is available here
House Rule: Accumulated Director Turns
In Draw Steel, turns normally "zipper" between sides—one hero, one monster group, one hero, one monster group, and so on—until everyone has acted. On the heroes’ side, the players decide which hero acts next, planning turn order together, or simply letting whoever posts first go first.
In PbP, pacing slows if players must wait for the Director after each individual post. To keep things moving, when a PC finishes their turn, all players may still take theirs (one each) even while Director turns are pending. As soon as possible, the Director resolves all accumulated monster turns together in a single post. Occasionally, the Director may even play a few monster turns in advance to help balance things out and maintain flow.
THE BASICS
This post introduces some key concepts in roleplaying and Gamersplane, and how they are used in our game.
GOLDEN RULES
Be courteous, respectful, and avoid offensive or derogatory posts. Communication among all should be polite and one of mutual respect.
This is a game. It is supposed to be fun. All other rules are only to help us know how to work together to have fun. If it isn't fun, something is wrong and we need to fix it.
PLAYING SAFELY
In PbP games, you are largely in control of the story, and with this comes responsibility. The player characters will face great danger and difficult challenges, but no player should find the situations they experience unpleasant or offensive. It is important that everyone around our virtual gaming table is having fun and feeling safe. Before starting the game, feel free to talk things through in the OOC thread and see if someone wants certain subjects to be kept out of the game. We will always respect a player who wants to pause and discuss what is happening in the game, or even leave the game if the player so chooses. And you may also want to talk about what happened in direct messages (DM).
TOOLS OF THE GAME
Play-by-post games typically give you plenty of room for improvisation and creativity. Yet they also provide a number of tools to help you create your own story.
CHARACTER SHEETS
To document your character, you use a character sheet. The GM will provide you with a character sheet template, but you're free to add sections, change the layout, and improve it as you see fit.
DICE
As a character in our game, you will have to take risks. Sooner or later, you will end up in situations where the outcome is uncertain, no matter how skilled you are. It’s time to break out the dice. Unlike in a regular tabletop game, feel free to roll anytime you think there is a risk or interesting result in failure. Feel free to do so even before I ask, so the game keeps moving. If the roll was not absolutely necessary, I'll simply hide and ignore the dice, allowing you to perform whatever action you wished and described.
If you don't know how to roll the dice in Gamersplane, there is this helpful guide from Naatkinson.
FORMATTING CONVENTIONS
I use the following formatting conventions. Of course, you don't need to follow that in your own posts, but maybe by knowing my conventions it will make it easier for you to notice what I'm highlighting.
- "Character communication is in bold and within double quotes"
- Character thought is in itallics
- Dice results and combat actions are usually underlined
- Sometimes, I use colors for additional emphasis, like on a characters name. In general, I use the following colors:
-- I use blue for people and factions
-- I use green for relevant places and locations that you can go or may want to know about
-- Finally, I use red for other stuff like relevant risks, issues, challenges, problems, loot, rewards or special situations that the group is facing or may face in the near future.
OOC:
- Player thoughts/comments are in OOCGame Rules
All rules that we are using, except the house rules below, are in Draw Steel Core Rulebooks and the free Steel Compendium. It is available here
House Rule: Accumulated Director Turns
In Draw Steel, turns normally "zipper" between sides—one hero, one monster group, one hero, one monster group, and so on—until everyone has acted. On the heroes’ side, the players decide which hero acts next, planning turn order together, or simply letting whoever posts first go first.
In PbP, pacing slows if players must wait for the Director after each individual post. To keep things moving, when a PC finishes their turn, all players may still take theirs (one each) even while Director turns are pending. As soon as possible, the Director resolves all accumulated monster turns together in a single post. Occasionally, the Director may even play a few monster turns in advance to help balance things out and maintain flow.