PORTAL TO THE MULTIVERSE
by Cerillium
Reprinted section from Lamoni's "Learning How to Roleplay on NS" guide
WHAT IS P2TM?
We are a growing community of role players who enjoy bringing our own worlds to life and playing in those of others. The preponderance of our roleplay games are not NS nation-related; however we do see recycled II and NS characters, and players have taken to recycling their nation-related worldbuilding as a backdrop for non-nation stories.
Roleplaying threads operate in much the same way here as they do in International Incidents and NationStates. Where Portal To The Multiverse (P2TM) Roleplay differentiates itself is that these threads do not directly involve your nation itself. RPs in P2TM tend to move away from the game of NationStates and back into the real world, or shoot further into the realms of fantasy. Common themes include alternate history, various war reenactments and spin offs, franchise based RPs (such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc.), fantasy and sci-fi, and zombies, just to name a few. In summary, your imagination is the limit.
COMMUNITY CULTURE AND SOME COMMON PRACTICES
Let's be clear here: these are not RULES. These are standards or practices you will encounter in P2TM. The community, as mentioned above, operates like many roleplaying forums found on the net. If you are not familiar with these things, or if your only RP experience has been on NS in the N&I subforums, some of this might seem odd or foreign. Don't fret. You'll get the hang of it soon enough, and our denizens and Mentors are always willing to help you settle in.
THE OP AND THEIR COOP
In P2TM, "OP" stands for "Original Poster". They are usually a game's GM, and "own" the thread which they create. "CoOP" is slang for the OP's assistant, though it can also be viewed as "co-author" or "co-producer" depending upon how a thread is set up. We have a guide to help OPs and CoOPs gain a better understanding of the responsibilities involved in running a thread.
Most OPs will choose a CoOP they have worked with before, or else will choose a friend to be their CoOP. There's nothing wrong with this practice. What the community does not tolerate well is a sense of entitlement, whereby a person believes they should be chosen as a CoOP solely based upon their post count or length of time on NS.
OOC AND IC THREADS
Threads tend to be divided into the categories of “out of character”, which encompasses interest threads and sign-ups, and “in character”, which is primarily story threads. The difference is straightforward. Just like on NS or II, “out of character” threads will generally be denoted with the (OOC) tags in the title while “in character” threads will sport the (IC) tags. Remember that thread ownership does apply to roleplays and that, if the original poster (OP) asks you to stop posting in his/her thread, it's advisable (read: mandatory) that you heed that request. Regardless of the reason, or lack thereof, you should quietly leave with your dignity intact. The only thing worse than a dingbat domineering a thread is two dingbats fighting in a thread. Players refusing to adhere to OP requests to leave the thread may result in a Moderator coming in and enforcing said order in a far more stern and thread-disrupting fashion.
Your OOC and IC threads should have some organization to them to help players participate. Some things found in an OOC are the game's premise, rules, character applications, setting descriptions, character roster and so on. Players have come to expect some of these things and tend to select games with nicely defined OOCs. You are not required to have both an OOC and IC thread for your game. However, if you choose to combine them, you should make some effort to keep OOC and IC posts distinct in your IC thread.
Some of the best advice regarding OOC threads and game pitches comes from an old post buried in time:
"Outline your idea in an OOC thread and what you expect from payers joining, and see if anyone is interested. Please refrain from unwarranted or repeated “bumping” of posts, it looks tackier than an emo Hallmark card. Trust me when I say, if people are attracted to the idea, they’ll post. If your idea flops, don’t be discouraged! Not every idea is a winner, but, in general, the P2TM RPing crowd is diverse enough that nearly any idea will find a fan or two. And, hey, maybe it just wasn't the right time for your Magnum Opus. Let is simmer, let it grow, bring some friends along, and try again in a few months. It might be better for it!"
GOALS
P2TM games are often set up with goals in mind. These goals are often what distinguish a P2TM game from an F7 game. Goals are the purpose for a thread.
If the goal is to play a mechanics RP game whereby each week the OP posts an advance to the story and the players all have a week to respond for their character/faction, the goal matches P2TM's community conventions. If the goal is to play a story-telling RP game (98% of P2TM RP is this), the goal matches P2TM's community conventions. Games can be "light" or "heavy" but they should have a goal. Goals are met through objectives, which themselves are manifested as the plot unfolds.
To give an example of the above, in a story-telling RP the goal might be to kill a fire-breathing dragon. Objectives which present themselves during the plot to achieve this goal may include finding a mage who knows the dragon's weakness, acquiring armor and weapons, earning money to fund said acquisitions, or helping out locals in exchange for food and other supplies.
The ultimate goal of having a goal, so to speak, is to focus a thread and its posts to ensure the roleplayers involved have a satisfying experience and the OP and CoOPs involved can run the game efficiently.
POST CONTENT
These community practices grew over time as we worked to establish our community. Again, these aren't official rules. Most people follow these guidelines, however:
- Check for post length: Always check with your OP/GM to see what they require. Some want a three-line minimum for IC posts. Others are fine with one-liner posts. As Trans put it, "Remember, roleplaying is about telling a story, not idly chatting with friends". Threads that involve only idle banter amongst the players may be subject to closure based upon Moderator ruling.
- No asterisk play in IC: Asterisk actions are not an accepted convention in publishing. Sorry. There is absolutely no point in using them -- quotation marks are the punctuation tool used to separate dialogue from other action. There's a key difference between: ["Dammit!" Tom took a sip of beer.] AND [Dammit. *Tom took a sip of beer*]. One is proper grammar in the English language, and one is not.
Asterisk play is acceptable in IRC chats, and on 4Chan. It's fine in an OOC thread. If you want to be taken seriously as a gamer, please do not do this IC. There is no OSRS rule against it here. It's a matter of proper Roleplaying Etiquette. Please respect that. - Shy away from colored or specially formatted fonts to denote the speaker: Some players choose to differentiate between their characters by using different colors rather than a simple "they said". Players using a dark setting sometimes select colors that don't display well on a light setting. At times, the colors chosen are garish. Colored dialog font is mainly utilized in Chat Location, Chill or Blitz threads. PRO TIP: Telepathy is frequently denoted by italics. [example: "What do you mean?" she conveyed to his mind.]
- Substance is important: The majority of our roleplay games are storytelling, meaning that players work together to craft an adventure. Good storytelling is like a good steak - not so fatty that the texture and quality of the meat is lost, but no so lean that the texture and flavor are lacking. A post that lacks details simply isn't compelling for another roleplayer to respond to; conversely, a post with too many trivial details can make a roleplay feel more like slogging through a novel-writing session and less like collaboration between friends.
- Proper spacing: Please try to not make "text walls". A good trick to use is to add a space between paragraphs. Treat character dialog in the same fashion, inserting spaces between each character's lines. Many OPs expect players to do this, so you don't often see it in the OP's rules list, or else it's covered under "good grammar and punctuation".
TYPES OF THREADS FOUND IN P2TM
ROLEPLAY GAMES
- Storytelling Narratives: As the name implies, they tend to resemble campfire storytelling where each person in the group takes a turn - sometimes ordered, other times not - writing their piece of the narrative and weaving together an adventure.
Examples include AD&D, Cyberpunk, X-Men, SCP, Middle Earth, Alt History, or player created worlds. - Strategy / Mechanics-Based Narratives: These range depending upon rule systems, and sometimes bleed into storytelling. These are usually played in formal rounds, and the GM might opt to roll dice or assign modifiers. In some forms, the GM posts and players then write up a description of their faction/character's reaction.
Examples might include: faction-based RPs, Civil War reenactments, 40K battles and so on.
OTHER KINDS OF ALLOWED THREADS
- Chat thread: There can be only one. It is Mod Sanctioned. It can be found here. Please do NOT make your own chat thread.
- Discussion/Brainstorming/Advice thread: One official one, found here.
- Official Guides: Our guides are often housed their own thread.
- Organization Threads: These vary depending on topic. We have Tolkien and Warhammer groups, writer's support groups, gamer's support groups, and etc. People are strongly encouraged to not allow their group's thread to turn into a generic chat; keep the thread focused on RP-related topics.
- Subforum Newspaper Threads: Self-explanatory.
- Megathread Archives: Megathreads are long-running games with multiple, consecutive IC and OOC threads that have too much gaming data for one OOC thread. An example of an archive can be seen here.
THOUGHTS ON WHY THE COMMUNITY IS WHAT IT IS
There are many theories regarding why P2TM strives to distinguish itself as a polished community. One theory many (of us older people) ascribe to is that we had to prove ourselves to Moderation.
Forum 7, from which we came, does not retain threads beyond a certain time. In addition, F7 contains forum games, light-hearted word games, nation trivia, church threads, and other fast-paced endeavors. Our slowly-moving games would vanish to back pages, or autoprune would gobble up our work. We worked very hard as a roleplayer community to earn our own subforum in 2012. We had to work even harder to keep it.
This resulted in a lot of self-policing. Many of our denizens at the time learned to roleplay in real life settings. Huddled around tables or draped over couches, we spent our youth working pencil-and-paper games or pushing figures across a battlefield. Many of us started online roleplaying using BBS (Bulletin Board System) and PbEM (Play by E-Mail) groups. Some of us came from larger PbP (Play by Post) forums which are now dead. Gamers are nerds at heart, after all.
We brought our experiences with us, but also our maturity and willingness to help others. And, most importantly, we began teaching our community the methods necessary to keep our shiny new subforum from degrading into one-shot post material. We didn't set the bar at "elite". Rather, we encouraged each other to put out material (game ideas, posts, stories, concepts, etc) that met Mod approval while also entertaining our community. Or, to put it more bluntly, we were scared witless at the thought of losing our subforum, so we had to work together despite our differences.
P2TM MENTORS
Many of the P2TM Mentors became Mentors because they were actively improving the community and teaching players. In the early days, we weren't even part of the Mentor Program.
The first Mentors were veteran rolplayers striving toward maintaining the polish that kept our subforum alive. More came on board, each chosen for the efforts they made to help the community.
Mentors aren't the most popular people in P2TM; Mentors are the ones that love the community enough to volunteer their time toward preserving its integrity as a whole, and toward helping new generations learn the art of storytelling. You have to be patient and humble. You're here to serve.
Each Mentor has a different approach. This is because each player approaches gaming differently. We work as a team. This allows us to match players and Mentors whose personalities click well. We don't want you to do it "our way". We want to help you find your own way, and for you to gain the confidence you need in order to pass your knowledge on to the generation that follows. Considering every summer hails a new generation, we have a lot of mentor-players teaching a lot of noobs every year.
There's a strong Mentor team in P2TM. We've recently added two more members, bringing our ranks up to eight. My fellows - Esternial, G-Tech Corporation, Giovenith, Mincaldenteans, Swith Witherward, The Armed Republic of Dutch Coolness, and Zarkenis Ultima - make the subforum (and site) a better place to visit each night. I'm eternally grateful to all of them for their dedication and volunteered time.
HOW CAN I BREAK INTO P2TM?
We're a very welcoming community: the easiest approach is to dive right in. Join a game or two that interests you. Start off as a player to learn how things work here. Get some exposure, make some friends, and then launch your first game. You'll have support the whole time, if you find a group that offers it. To be fair, some won't. It's impossible to escape cliques on the Internet, though we try our best to cultivate an atmosphere against that sort of thing.
You can also stop by our chat, or ask for help in our Cafe. Reach out to a P2TM Mentor, also. We welcome TGs.
Roleplay and roleplayer resources listing: Here!