Technical Issues
Greetings and Welcome to the Wold, The first portion of this document describes how to logon to WoldianGames and what to expect when you are logged in and other technical details.
Enjoy!
Finding Your Game:
To find your game, logon to the site by going to the games page at: https://www.woldiangames.com/games_index_career.htm
Choose the game in which you are playing. At the top of the screen you will see a LOGON button. When pressed, this button will take you to a screen where you can enter your logon and password.
Logging In
Logon Screen
Note: cookies must be enabled to logon to the site. Some browsers also have a "session-only cookies" option that must be enabled. I will send you your logon information. You may have already received it. It should look something like:
- Logon: santac
- Pword: reindeer
Note that this is not a real logon or password, but just an example. Type in your logon and password in the proper fields. Note that the logon and password are case sensitive.
Below these fields, there is a toggle option to "Logoff when browser is closed." When this option is selected, you will automatically be logged off, once all your browser windows are closed. You may deselect this option. This causes a cookie to be stored on you computer. The next time you visit WoldianGames.com, this cookie will be read and you will be automatically logged on.
If anyone else in your household is a member of WoldianGames, please carefully consider whether you should have your logon remembered. Even if you choose to have your logon remembered, the site may periodically request you to verify your identity by logging on again.
Forgot Your Password?
If you've forgotten your password, you can enter your logon name at the bottom of the logon page, and we will see if we have an email address for you. If we do, we'll email your logon information to you. If we don't have your email address on file, you'll have to contact the PTB to find out what password has been assigned to you. (See the "My Profile" section below for instructions on how to specify your email addresses).
Posting
Basic Posting Fields
When you view an active game in which you have permission to post, you'll see a set of forms on the bottom of the page. These forms are where you enter your turn.
Post Name:
Enter your character's name here, your name, and any other stats that may be useful to other players or the DM. You should also include a link to your PC sheet here.
Example: [link href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfqwer2phb"]Tericus the Brave[/link] (John) -- AC 22/13/19 -- CMD 20 -- HP 94/100
Die Rolls:
This field contains the results of die rolls made using the buttons below this field. Obviously, you should decide what your character will do before you roll the dice and not let temptation cause you to change your actions when the dice don't land your way.
Message:
Enter or "post" you character's actions here. There are instructions and advice below about posting. Read them carefully. You may write your post in paragraphs, however, such long posts are sometimes frowned upon depending on the situation.
Post Formatting:
All HTML within a post is ignored. However, everyone can use special tokens to perform basic text formatting and to insert links or email addresses.
The format statements are shown in the following examples.
- Bold text
- [b] Bold text [/b]
- Italics
- [i] Italicized text [/i]
- Underline
- [u] underlined text [/u]
- Center
- [center] this text will be centered [/center]
- Blockquote
- [blockquote] this text will be blockquote[/blockquote]
- Links
- [link]http://www.woldiangames.com[/link]
- Hyperlinked text
- [link href="http://www.woldiangames.com"]Visit the Wold[/link]
- Email
- [email]jtklinger@noname.com[/email]
- Spoiler text
- You can create hidden text (which includes the precursor "Highlight to display spoiler") that is only revealed is someone highlights it. This is particularly useful for codnditional information, ie a DM can post a spoiler text for players who make a given skill check.
- [spoiler]Spoiler text[/spoiler]
- You can create hidden text (which includes the precursor "Highlight to display spoiler") that is only revealed is someone highlights it. This is particularly useful for codnditional information, ie a DM can post a spoiler text for players who make a given skill check.
Private Posts
If the "Post Private to DM" option is selected, your post will only be visible to you and the site DMs.
Submit:
When you are done entering your "post," simply click the Submit button. A "you've posted" screen will load letting you know that your turn has been entered properly.
Notepad++ Syntax Highlighting:
Many Woldians compose their posts in a word processor or text editor before posting it on the site. This protects them against accidental page refreshes or errant back clicks. Notepad++ is one such text editor. A custom user language has been created by the Wold's IT team that formats text according to the Wold's format standards. The language file can be downloaded here. It can be imported by selecting Language from the top menu bar, selecting Define Your Language..., and clicking the button labeled Import. It will import a language named "Wold" that can be selected from the Language menu from the top bar.
My Profile
Within the gaming arenas of WoldianGames, you can access your profile using a link provided at the top of the page. The "My Profile" pages allow you to review and modify your logon, password, and personal information.
Your Name:
This field contains your first an last name and is only available to the Campaign DMs, Site Administrator, and Master DMs. It is not viewable by the public.
Your Logon:
This field contains the logon name that must be used with your password in order to gain entry onto the site.
Your Password:
Your password is used with your logon to gain entry onto the site. For security reasons, your password will never be displayed to you. If you lose your password, use the "Send Profile" button, or see the "Forgot Your Password?" description in the "Logon Screen" section.
Your Public Name:
There are portions of the site where an individual is identified to other members of WoldianGames. In these places, your public name will be used for your identity. Your public name can be your first and last name, or anything else that can uniquely identify you to other players.
The Date You Joined:
This field shows when the day you first became a member of WoldianGames
The Number of Posts You've Made
This field shows the number of posts you've made on WoldiaGames, including public message boards like the Loot 'n Booty and the Red Wyrm Inn.
Your Email Adresses
You can associate up to three email addresses to your account. When you request your profile or logon information to be sent to you, they will be sent to these email addresses.
Editing Your Profile
For security reasons, you will be requested to provide your password whenever you make modifications to your profile.
The Wold Die Roller
What is it?
The die roller is a pretty simple thing actually. It simulates the rolling of dice in the real world. We have simple click buttons (d100, d20, d12, and so on) and we have the Multiroll which allows for multiple dice to be rolled at the same time and with an optional modifier.
How does it work?
Now, this is the part that a lot of people are curious about. In the real world you get to watch as the dice are rolled and can see the results with your own eyes. In the Wold this is not the case. You click a button and are asked to trust the results.
This section is about to get very technical with how it all works. Feel free to skip this part if you're not an egg-head.
So how exactly does it do this? With just one simple coding function known as mt_rand. (If you've got your geek on, check out the Mersenne Twister Random Number Generator, which is what mt_rand uses)
The mt_rand function is very simple actually: you tell it you want a number between a certain range and it gives you one. BAM!
We use the standard implementation of mt_rand. We haven't changed it in the slightest. Buried deep in the Wold code it looks like this: die result = mt_rand(minimum_sides, maximum_sides) + modifier.
So if you wanted to roll a d6, the formula would read die result = mt_rand(1, 6) + 0. That will give a result of between 1 and 6 inclusive.
If you wanted to roll 1d20+6, the formula would read die result = mt_rand(1, 20) + 6.
If you wanted to roll 4d100+20, the formula would read die result = mt_rand(4, 400) + 20.
Is it random?
There have been a few theories thrown around in the Wold boards. Some people say that you get better results in the morning, some say that you get better die rolls on certain boards, and others think rolling on odd numbered days is a guaranteed winner.
Sorry, but I'm about to burst all of those bubbles!
The mt_rand function (using the Mersenne Twister Generator) has passed all of the Die Hard tests. This does not mean it can quote Bruce Willis, or tell you the true meaning of "Yippie ki-yay". It means that it has passed all 12 statistical tests to determine whether the results are truly random. It has the tick of approval and a gold badge to say that the results are as random as possible.
Testing of the die roller
You might say to yourself: "No way. I still think it's biased. I've been getting a lot of low rolls lately."
Well, in February 2020 we took a sample of 6 months worth of single d20 die rolls from across all of the boards. That means each individual d20 roll with modifiers. For example: d20=17, d20+5=15, d20-1=6, d20+20=40, and so on. In those cases you can work out what the d20 roll was (ie: 17, 10, 7, 20)
Multiple d20 rolls couldn't be included in the sample as we couldn't be sure what each d20 was. eg: 7d20=70.
That left us with 7,125 single d20 die rolls. The mean (average) value? 10.3635. That's pretty close to what you would expect from a sample of this size.
So... what does all this mean?
What it means is that your click of the die roll all comes down to luck. Time of day, the board, the color of your socks - all of these things are irrelevant. It really does come down to luck.
