From talorina@deathstar.org Wed Jun 24 17:16:23 1998 Date: 24 Jun 1998 14:00:47 -0000 From: Becca Ward To: undisclosed-recipients:;;@hammurabi.nh.ultra.net Newsgroups: alt.dragons-inn Subject: Quasi-FAQ: Are you new here? Last updated: June 9, 1998 [This is a completely unofficial FAQ, offered free of charge, without the imprimatur of the newsgroup administration, the Justice Department, or my mother. If you disagree with, take issue with, contest, disbelieve, or despise anything written herein, feel free to write me an email. [Recent revisions -- current #2 has been revised; #3 and #11 are entirely new.] *********************************************************************** 1. IS THIS A NEWSGROUP FOR AD&D TYPE ROLEPLAYING? Not really, no. As it is described in the FAQ, role-playing in ad-i can be described as "collaborative storytelling." We don't use character stats or roll dice; the events that happen in the stories are determined by the players. The role-playing here is not competition, it's cooperation, and there are some basic rules governing how role-play should be conducted in this newsgroup. The Beginner's FAQ, etc., can be found at http://www.dragons-inn.org. 2. SO WHAT ARE THOSE BASIC RULES? a. NO FIGHTING IN THE RED DRAGON'S INN: The Dragon's Inn exists as a place for new characters and old to meet and interact. The Dragon's Inn and Montfort itself are considered "public areas," and anyone can write their characters or stories in those locations. (Other places, such as Jord or Rosehaven or Grimmalka Keep "belong" to their creators and cannot be used without their permission.). In order to avoid the bar-fight scene that some people are fond of (hey, I've done some of them myself), the proprietors of the Inn have established strong magical wardings to prevent fighting in the Inn itself. You can't attack anyone in the Inn, and if you do, you'll find yourself wrapped in a magical bubble. PLEASE NOTE: This is an ABSOLUTE rule. It is not optional. It cannot be altered. It doesn't matter whether your character otherwise has the power to warp the very fabric of the universe. It doesn't matter if you think it would be dramatically more effective for a fight to break out. If you want a barroom brawl, take it down the street. For more details about the Inn's wardings, read the Beginner's FAQ and explore the Web page. b. DON'T DO ANYTHING TO ANYONE ELSE'S CHARACTER WITHOUT THE OTHER PLAYER'S PERMISSION. This principle is the heart of ad-i. It doesn't matter if your character is the most powerful deity ever to exist and mine is a lowly ditch-digger -- your deity can't hurt (or brainwash, or capture, or rob) my ditch-digger without my permission. Likewise, you can't invade a city or country created by someone else, or co-opt their NPCs, or anything similar without clearing it with the other person first. In short, contact the other person via email and ask if they'll agree to your idea. If they decline, then you will have to find something else to do. 3. BUT I REALLY WANT TO WRITE SOMEONE ELSE'S DIALOGUE/ACTIONS/THOUGHTS ... THAT'S HOW WE DO IT AT ALT.ROLEPLAYSTUFF, AND IF IT'S ALLOWED THERE, THEN, BY GAWD, IT SHOULD BE ALLOWED IN AD-I. Other roleplaying venues have different rules. Here, the default rule is that each individual player decides what his/her character says, thinks, feels, does. Note I said default -- you can interfere if the other player gives his/her consent. Gratuitous example from my own experiences in ad-i: Cathy Mosley and I have been writing various storylines together almost since my first participation in ad-i. We're involved in a number of threads currently -- some Cathy admins, some I admin, and some are admin'ed by other players. On occasion, when one or the other of us will be away from the computer for several days, or for purposes of moving a scene along, Cathy will let me make small additions for her characters. In turn, she on occasion will describe some action by my characters. But that is done with the permission of both of us. And it's not our normal method of operation. Even in those instances, I would *never* write dialogue for Cathy's characters, or describe their thoughts or feelings. Those characters are not my creations, and it isn't my place to presume to take control of them. Now, *if* you want to admin a thread where you as admin -- or even the other players -- have the leeway to write things for other people's characters, AND EVERYONE AGREES TO THAT APPROACH, then you are perfectly free to run a thread that way. But please realize that this method is *not* the norm in ad-i and you should *not* assume that it is acceptable. As always -- *ask* the other players. And please be gracious enough to respect their decision *not* to adopt that method. For greater elaboration, see the Beginner's FAQ, which can be found (along with many other FAQs) on the Web page at http://www.dragons-inn.org/ 4. WHAT SHOULD I DO FIRST TO GET INVOLVED? The first thing you need to do is read the Beginner's FAQ, which will give you the basic information about how the newsgroup works. The FAQ is posted a couple of times a month to the newsgroup itself, and also is available for reading and down-loading on the Web page. The Web page address is: http://www.dragons-inn.org/ The folks responsible for putting it together have done a terrific job (huzzahs and all that to Dave Womack and Johny Enright). You'll also find tons of information there, including listings of characters, and ASCII and GIF maps. Next, you should lurk for a bit to get a feel for how things work, and to see what possible storylines might be opening up for you to participate in. 5. WHAT DO THOSE WORDS IN BRACKETS IN THE SUBJECT HEADERS MEAN? There are a number of storylines going on in ad-i at any given time. In order to indicate which storyline a post to the newsgroup belongs to, the players put a title in the subject headers of the posts. Some of the on-going storylines in ad-i at this time include [Coliseum], [Throne], [GRIM], [Sapphire], [Tower Guard], [Caravan], [Silver], [Saga], [Warrens], [Politi] and many others. Each storyline is called a "thread", and all posts concerning any storyline would include the thread's name in brackets in the subject header. Some of the threads are connected to one another, and a post might concern characters involved in more than one thread; thus, you might see a subject header with [Throne/GRIM], indicating that both threads are involved in that post. Likewise, [Bounty/Bards] indicates a post involving those two threads. This makes it possible for players and readers alike to follow the storylines. 6. WHAT TYPES OF PLOT-LINES EXIST IN AD-I? Risking over-simplification, I would say that ad-i divides into two basic types of storylines. First are the more traditional "quest" stories. These generally are started by someone who has a goal they want to achieve -- overthrow an evil king in a distant country; explore a mountain for treasure; seek a cure to save the comatose beautiful princess; find a magic chalice. The "lead" character comes to the Dragon's Inn to recruit adventurers to help in the quest. Everyone gathers, then leaves Montfort on the quest, making up whatever geography is necessary to get them from Point A (the Dragon's Inn) to Point B (wherever the target place is). (The Web page has both ASCII and GIF maps with rough outlines of Claremont's layout and greater surrounding areas). These generally require no more coordination than with the players actually involved in that quest itself. Such threads currently going on are [Star Dreamer], [Sapphire], and others. Second are the more complicated storylines where a number of threads are inter-related. The events in each thread are, to a certain extent, tied to the events in other threads. Stories based in Montfort which intersect with one another are [Coliseum], [Tower Guard], [newsbeat], and many others. Some also are related at least tangentially to a number of threads based in the Elven kingdom of Tynntangial and the on-going war between the Elves and the Dark One: [Throne], [GRIM], [DB], [CEF], and [Dark]. These stories involve literally dozens of players, most of whom play multiple characters. Characters can appear in more than one thread, and events in one thread affect what happens in another thread. Because of this, these stories require a lot of behind the scenes coordination. 7. NOW I KNOW ALL THIS, HOW DO I GET INVOLVED? First, if you don't already have one, you need to create a character. The Beginner's FAQ has some pointers on how to go about this task. Now you need to get that character (or characters, if they come in a matched set) involved in a storyline. The "traditional" way to do that, and the method used by most newcomers to the newsgroup, is to introduce the character in the Dragon's Inn itself. Write a post under the subject header of something like "[Inn] New Character," in which your character shows up at the Inn looking for adventure. If you have an idea for your own storyline, have your character make an announcement of some sort for people to join him or her or it on his or her or its quest. Keep your eyes open for other people posting in the Inn itself; if another person's character asks for companions for an adventure, have your character approach them. (It's probably best to send your response via email, also, since some news servers can be incredibly slow). Also, read the Bulletin Board, posted by Boyd Boedeker couple of time a week, which lists the email addresses of people looking for other players. Most importantly, don't give up. It can take a while to get a character or new quest launched. People will disappear after a few posts when they find that ad-i doesn't hold their interest, or they don't have time to stay current with it. You may have to make several attempts to find a storyline that actually makes it out of Montfort and on its way to fulfilling its quest. The thread might peter out for lack of participation after it is launched. Another way to get involved is to find an existing thread that interests you and ask if you can join in. Yes, you have to ask -- don't just jump in without warning, because you might very well be disrupting pre-planned scenes. Send an email to someone in the thread with a proposal of how your character can get involved. It helps to have an idea of what your character could add to the storyline. Some in-Montfort threads that usually are open to new characters are [Tower Guard], [Council], and [newsbeat]. Other threads may or may not be accepting applications, but it doesn't hurt to ask. I post something called "FAQ: Thread Directory" in both long and short versions; these include synopses of some of the current threads in ad-i (unfortunately, as of the summer of 1998, the directory is outdated; one of those things where I bit off more than I could chew). The summaries were prepared by the various thread "admins" -- those folks who are responsible for thinking up the storyline and running it. Each admin has indicated whether the threads are open to new players or not; if you're interested in a particular storyline, and it says it is open to new players, then contact the person who is identified as the admin. 8. I REALLY WANT MY CHARACTER TO BE AN INCARNATION OF RAISTLIN/VANYEL/RAND AL'THOR. Um, well ... You should realize that the characters and worlds created by Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman, Mercedes Lackey, Robert Jordan, and many other popular fantasy writers are copyrighted. And such writers are -- and must be -- vigilant about protecting their material from unauthorized use by others. And, in fact, we have occasionally received posts to the newsgroup from published authors requesting that their copyright be respected. So, what does this mean? Think of Weis/Hickman, Lackey and Jordan are fellow players in ad-i, and apply the same rules that must be observed regarding other ad-i writers' characters -- DON'T DO ANYTHING TO ANYONE'S ELSE'S CHARACTERS, STORYLINES, OR CREATIONS. It is simply a matter of respecting the integrity of a character or concept created by someone else. Besides, it's much more creative for the writer, and much more interesting for the reader, to come up with an original character. 9. WHAT ARE THE MECHANICS OF WRITING A THREAD? There are two ways to actually go about writing a storyline. First is the free-for-all "post-directly-to-the-newsgroup" method. When you want to make an addition to a story you're in, you reply directly to the newsgroup, and maybe send an email cc to others in the thread. [Czaerana] and [Sapphire] are examples of threads which use this method. Smaller bits and pieces of the story appear more frequently on the newsgroup as a result. The other method, and the one I favor myself, is the "draft via email" method. This works by having all the players in a thread circulate among themselves a continuing draft; when it reaches a suitable length, an entire installment is posted to the newsgroup, and everyone starts working on another draft. This allows greater coordination, eliminates inconsistencies, and makes it possible for readers to see a sizable portion all at once -- i.e., they get to read a scene as a whole rather than in snippets across several days. Or even weeks. (Of course, they have to wait longer between installments.) Examples of threads using this method: [Star Dreamer], [Bounty], [Priestess]. So, which is better? Neither, really -- all that matters is that the people in the storyline decide which one *they* prefer. Personally, I like the draft, both as writer and as reader . . . but I've written through the direct posting method. And I'll continue reading [Sapphire] even though it uses the direct post method (though Greg Charles also does a great job of compending and posting the storyline on his Web page ... I have the URL around here somewhere...) 10. IF I WANT TO SET A STORYLINE IN MONTFORT, DO I HAVE TO GET ANYONE'S PERMISSION TO DO THAT? WHAT ABOUT THIS [COUNCIL] THREAD? Montfort is a "public" role-play area, as is the Dragon's Inn. There are a number of long-standing storylines set in Montfort, most of which developed directly from [Church] (a long story, but if you're not familiar with it, I would be glad to fill you in on the general outline -- okay, maybe not "glad," but at least "willing"). If you want to set your thread in Montfort, you are free to do so without asking anyone's permission -- as long as you follow the basic rules, set out above, about not trying to affect or change another person's storyline without clearing it with them first. For example, you can set up a Mage's Guild without having to acknowledge the existence of any other such organization in Montfort. But you can't say that your mages blow up the Grey Mansion (another set of mages) without clearing that with the creator of the Grey Mansion, Chet Hamel. Likewise, if you want to run a criminal character -- a thieves' guild or a serial killer -- you can ... but don't say that your criminal was such a genius that he managed to elude the "Tower Guard," because then you would be using someone else's characters/storyline without prior clearance (and Boyd Boedeker would be the person you need to talk about for that one). So what is the [Council] thread? [Council] is one of the storylines that grew out of [Church]; after Montfort had been levelled for what seemed like the 15th time in a six week span, Grand Inquisitor Blayne set up a tent city to provide shelter to those who had been left homeless. A group of civic-minded characters came together to attempt to coordinate self-governance in the tent city. After [Church] ended, the Council continued to try to put together a civilian government for Montfort. A number of players who run storylines in and around Montfort are involved -- myself, Cathy Mosley, Joao Marum, Patrick Ocampo, Boyd Boedeker, Blake Sinclair. The Council is a mechanism by which we can try to coordinate our particular threads. Those threads include, but are not limited to, [Grey Mansion], [Bards], [Sh'aljien], [Tower Guard], and [Coliseum]. There is one important thing to keep in mind, though: The players in [Council] DO NOT CONTROL MONTFORT. Though we welcome input from, and interaction with, the characters of other players who aren't already involved in Montfort, we do not have (and frankly, don't want to have) any power to veto what you want to do in your storylines, except to the extent that you can't do something to interfere with *our* storylines. (Likewise, [Council] can't do anything to impose on *your* storyline.) If you want to set your thread in a Montfort where the Council does not exist, that's perfectly fine. If you want to set a thread in Montfort where the Council *does* exist, that's fine, too. You can recognize or ignore the actions of the Council as you wish within the constraints of the general rules of ad-i. In fact, there may very well be times where the players in [Council] will have to ignore events in one another's threads -- in the end, [Council] doesn't even have veto power over the members' other storylines. So if anyone tells you, "You can't do that!", make sure you have them explain why. The answer can't be "because the Council said you can't." The only valid reason is because it violates one of the basic rules of the newsgroup -- don't interfere with someone else's characters or plot development (and don't fight in the Dragon's Inn). 11. I WANT TO BLOW UP MONTFORT... Okay. Be forewarned, though, that Montfort has been levelled at least three times since *I* joined ad-i (and probably several times before I joined ad-i). Montfort is a public roleplay area, so you can blow it up if you want. (You cannot, however, blow up other players' places, such as Jord or Havenwood.) Another thing to keep in mind -- in blowing up Montfort, you *cannot* say that you blew up the Dragon's Inn. Furthermore, you cannot touch (or even refer to, without permission) other player's Montfort-area establishments -- such as, the Coliseum, the Bard's Hall, the Healers' Hall, the Paevels' Ranch, the Grey Mansion, the Inebridee Brewery, the Montfort Mime, etc. Nor can you insist that any other player writing in Montfort take even the slightest notice of your explosive plot twist. For you, Montfort -- or even all of Ifreann -- might now be nothing but a pile of dust. For the rest of us, in an alternate reality, it's business as usual. 12. I HEAR THERE'S A VIRUS ON IFREANN . . . Only in those storylines that want to acknowledge it. This again arises from the end of the [Church] storyline, and has led to a spin-off thread called [Selkies], in which the characters look for a way to cure/eradicate the virus. Other storylines that are at least tangentially involved are [Politi], [Company], and [Bounty] (simply because the writers/characters overlap with [Selkies]). Strangely enough, however (okay, it's not "strange," since it is simply a function of ad-i's basic rules), the virus has no effect on other threads -- it simply doesn't exist. 13. CAN I POST ADS TO THIS NEWSGROUP? Well, yes, I suppose you can. After all, it's not possible for anyone to stop you from hitting that "send" command and spamming the newsgroup with off-topic garbage. The newsgroup administrators do try to catch advertisements and delete them before they propagate, but it isn't always possible to catch the trash before it makes it through the mailing list or hits a few news-servers. In short, off-topic material is not welcome. If it isn't role-play, or "admin" about the newsgroup, then it doesn't belong here. If it's something you feel the need to cross-post to other newsgroups it probably doesn't belong here, either. 14. I REALLY FEEL THE URGE TO FLAME SOMEBODY ... Don't we all, eventually? The long-term participants in this newsgroup pride themselves on creating and maintaining an environment for entertaining roleplay -- an environment where insults and shouting, if they occur at all, take place only in private email. There is no need to advertise private disputes among the players on the newsgroup. I, for one, don't want to be an eavesdropper on anyone else's debates. I also realize there is a certain subculture on Usenet which delights in jumping into a "target" newsgroup and starting a flamewar for no other reason than they can. That sort of person isn't going to care less about whether the rest of us enjoy that type of "entertainment," so I won't waste my time asking them to take their amusements elsewhere. 15. I REALLY DON'T THINK I'M A GOOD WRITER ... It can be kind of scary to put your writing out on a public forum where it is open to criticism (both valid and invalid). The point of ad-i, however, is not to produce publishable material (though there are some folks on here who can come pretty close to publishable quality). On ad-i, the goal should be (in my opinion, anyway) to have some fun writing with other people, to develop characters, and to concoct plots to entertain one another. Yes, you may very well be criticized by some people who don't think your writing or characterization is up to snuff. Don't let that scare you off -- the more you do it, the better you'll get. And though there will always be those who will feel the need to throw their two cents worth in, remember that it isn't your job to entertain those folks -- if they don't like the job you're doing, they should (1) simply not read what you write; and (2) do their own writing and impress us all with their superior skills. 16. MY NEWS SERVER IS UNRELIABLE ... As a final note, ad-i also is available via a mailing list that is much more reliable than the average news server (though the listserv has been known to take an extended vacation). I read ad-i thru the mailing list myself -- I get everything posted to the newsgroup echoed to my mailbox, and post things to the newsgroup by sending an email to the mailing list mirror. If you would like to subscribe to the mailing list, send an email message to: majordomo@Orb.Nashua.NH.US The body of the message should read: subscribe ad-i (To unsubscribe, send an email to the same place, saying "unsubscribe ad-i"). There also is a second newsgroup/mailing list for ad-i, designed for out-of-character discussion. To subscribe to alt.dragons-inn-misc, send a message to the same address as above, with the only text: subscribe ad-i-misc (and unsubscribe by sending a message saying "unsubscribe ad-i-misc"). You will receive a "confirmation" message from the automated majordomo, and a request to respond with an "authorization" (which will be supplied to you by the system) in order to confirm that you requested a subscription. Just follow the directions. Once you have subscribed, you can post to the ad-i mailing list by addressing an email to un.ad-i@Orb.Nashua.NH.US, and to ad-i-misc by addressing an email to un.ad-i-misc@Orb.Nashua.NH.US 17. I HAVE SOME MORE QUESTIONS... Send me an email at talorina@maniac.deathstar.org. I may not know the answer, but I probably can point you in the right direction to find it.