Difference between revisions of "Posting for newbies"

Latest revision as of 15:45, 21 November 2014

Let's talk a little about posting. First of all, players are expected to post daily, five times per week (usually Monday through Friday). DMs are also expected to post daily. Players should try to limit themselves to one post per day, but they can do more than that if they need to.

But what goes in these posts? What are they like?

First, the basics. We prefer your posts to be in the third person, present tense. (Grammar nerd says what?) Yeah, for those of you who don't toss grammar words around like that, third person means you use your character's name and "he" or "she;" you don't use "I." Present tense means you describe what your character is doing as if it's happening now (moves, shoots, looks, says) rather than in the past (moved, shot, looked, said).

Most of your posts will be purely role-play posts. That is, you don't have to worry about game-rule things like attack rolls or skill checks. All you have to do is decide what your character would do in a particular situation, and then describe it.

So, an example that will not happen in your game. :) You have come to visit the Duke, to warn him of an imminent goblin invasion. You came directly from the field, so you're a little grungy. In my DM post, I describe how the Duke's chamberlain ushers you into a small room, looking down his nose at you the whole time. He departs to inquire whether the Duke will see you, adding on his way out, "and try not to touch anything!"

You get to decide what your character does next. Do you sit meekly and wait for the chamberlain to return? Do you make a wisecrack as he leaves? Do you say something nice to try to smooth things over? Do you explore the room? Do you draw your weapon and prepare for an ambush?

All of those are valid responses, and if you decide "this is what my character would do," then nobody, not even your DM, can tell you that you are wrong. Just describe your character's actions to the best of your ability.

What you cannot say is what happens as a result. You can't say: "Gunther draws his axe and prepares for an ambush, and everybody looks at him as if he were crazy." You don't know what everybody else is going to do. Just as you get to decide what your character does, they all get to decide what their characters do. Sure, they might look at you as if you were crazy. On the other hand, one of them might just roll her eyes and say, "Gunther, must you whip that thing out everywhere we go?"

Similarly you can't say: "Evaris apologizes profusely to the chamberlain, and wins him over." You can certainly try to win over the chamberlain, but whether you succeed or not is going to depend on game-rule stuff. In this case, you would need to roll a Diplomacy check, and the DM would interpret the results.

To recap, most of your posts will be pure role-play; all you need to figure out is what your character would do; and it's important to limit your posts to your character's actions, not the results you want from other characters.

Return to Posting Guidelines.