Posting Guidelines

Welcome to our site. This is the place where you will find our "Getting Started" guides on how to do play-by-post, character creation, and our house rules. Have a look. if you have any questions feel free to PM our site administrator: Venatus Vinco or Daniel. Also, Join our community channel on Discord. Start building your Character by checking out Character Creation.
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Posting Guidelines

Post by Venatus Vinco »

Posting Guidelines

The Medium is the Message
SavageRifts.com is a Play-by-Post (PbP) website for role playing games. This means we use dedicated internet forums, or discussion boards, to creatively describe our world in writing. In this medium all of our character sheets, adventures, in-character, and out of character interactions happen in dedicated threads to help keep our collaborative enterprise organized and enjoyable.
One of the reasons players turn to online gaming is lack of time. PbP gaming is great for those who have real lives (abbreviated on the forums as “RL”). Rather that sitting down for three or four hours at the gaming table or in an online chat room, PbP games happen asynchronously - meaning people post a different times as their schedules permit. This also means PbP games move much slower than tabletop or live chat gaming. At SavageRifts.com we make up for this in two very important ways: High quality writing and well enforced site standards.

High Quality Writing
Everyone on the site, players and GMs, are writing together to tell a story. We use the Savage Rifts universe as our setting and their rules for resolving certain conflicts but ultimately we’re writing a story. A story in which your character is a major player. To this end we look for well written posts that describe not only what your character is doing but what they are thinking and feeling. This usually means posts are more than one line long and, depending on the circumstances, can be very involved. We encourage character introspection and dialogue with other players. We also encourage the use of proofreading and spell check. Our site features a handy “Preview” function that lets you view your fully formatted post before submitting. This can be a very helpful tool for reviewing a post before hitting send. If you do notice a mistake, don’t worry, players can usually edit their posts too (except the dice rolls, we lock those bad boys down tight).

Protip: Before hitting submit use the “Select All” function and copy your post (either to hold it on the clipboard or paste it in another app). This way if the boards freezes or your internet connection suddenly drops you don’t lose all that hard work.

Style
In general, we prefer the third person, present tense format of writing. This tells us what the character is doing now, as opposed to what has happened. The sites following this. Also, be sure you don't take too many liberties. You are in complete control of what your character wants to do, but it is the GM's job to mix everyone's actions into a coherent whole. Don't try to control the actions of others (unless given explicit permission). For added insight, also see this post from the GMs and players of our site for hints as to content.
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Re: Posting Guidelines

Post by Venatus Vinco »

The SavageRifts.com Style Guide:
  • - All in character posts are written in the 3rd person present tense
    Example: John walks into the bar and says "Ouch."

    - Spoken text must be written inside quotes and bolded.
    Example: John says "Hi there young man, how are you?" (Please note that the quotes are inside the tags used to bold the text.")

    -Italicized text is used to convey a character's thoughts/internal monologue.
    Example: John sees an out-of place concession at the airport. Well, that's strange...a shaved ice stand in Alaska?

    -Telepathy is italicized and light blue in color (color=#0040FF).

    - Verbal speech conducted via electronic means like radio, is bolded and colored dark blue (color=#0000FF).
Certain GMs will ask for different formats, please understand that these are the default requirements for use on this website.
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Re: Posting Guidelines

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Site Standards

In addition to good writing we require active participation - within both the in-character and out of character life of your group. The site-wide minimum post rate is once per week to avoid penalties. Some groups have post rate expectations that differ from the minimum and those will be noted in the forum subtext/group description.

A big issue for PBP games both big and small is quality and regularity of character involvement. As such it is important that you at check the site at least once every other day to see if you should post. If for some reason (we all have lives here) you're gonna be away for an extended period...notify the GM and/or make an announcement to that effect in the Account Status Tracker. In such cases your character will be on "Auto" and not unduly mistreated by the GM. If you do not notify an absence via the Account Status tracker and fail to have any in-character activity for a week your GM will give you notice. It’s good to know our GMs won't kill your character without trying to save you. However, If you fail to post with regularity or show a lack of commitment no one can guarantee what happens to your character in the hostile and dangerous world of Rifts Earth.

The more frequently everyone in a game posts, the better. Having said that, everyone's real-life situation is different. We try to balance posting requirements such that games remain active and viable, without expecting everyone to spend ridiculous amounts of time on the site. With that in mind, the expected minimum for all Savage Rifts groups is one post from everyone, every week.

People whose accounts get deleted through unannounced inactivity get 1 "strike" as a flake. If you flake twice, you're permanently banned from SavageRifts.com. No exceptions. Please have the common courtesy to at least notify admin when your life has hit the bricks or whatever. Be considerate, post as often as you can, communicate well with admin, your GM, and your fellow gamers and everybody will have a good time.
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Re: Posting Guidelines

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How to do Play by Post

Standard Posts
Describe your characters thoughts, feelings, and actions. Include any die rolls requested by the GM.

Combat Posts
If combat is required the GM will include initiative cards in the previous post. Players will then post their intentions for their action(s) during that round. The GM will reconcile all actions in order (rolling for any mooks or Wild Cards as necessary) and post a narrative interpretation of the results.

Fast, Furious, Fun: Please note this procedure is slightly different than table top combat where players act in turn and those with lower initiative have a chance to respond to what has previously happened. However, posting and reconciling combat with each player taking a turn and the action being resolved will slow things down. It also recognizes that just because someone has higher initiative does mean they have the ability to reply quickly. Therefore, allowing anyone to pot as they are able - then reconciling the initiative order at the end.

Actions Post your characters intended actions for their turn, describe it in narrative form but also include an occ declaration.
Nathan Foxwood wrote:
How did those grunts find us? Someone must have sold us out, Nathan concludes as the black skulled soldiers close on his position. Moving quickly, but carefully, Nathan closes the distance toward the GS grunts. Stopping behind a large tree trunk for cover he takes in everything with his targeting eye and marks potential targets with a cross hair, especially officers, so he can pick them off with his Wilk's 447 laser rifle once they get in close.

Actions:
Move at Pace to fallen tree at map grid A3 (free action)
Use Targeting eye to calibrate Wilk's laser rifle (+2 to shooting rolls next round)
Notice, to ID officers
Holding If you choose to hold describe it narratively, as well as the contingency that will prompt your action. Holding allows you to wait to act until lower in the initiative order.
Nathan Foxwood wrote:
GM wrote:Seeing the battle field with alacrity Foxwood notices not only officers and non-coms but heavy weapon operators too. In fact, a two man team is barely visible behind cover while they load a CR-1 rocket launcher!
"Look out boys, we got heavy weapons behind cover at two o'clock," Nathan reports casually. With his weapon calibrated Foxwood waits until the CR-1 operator pops up from cover then opens fire to smoke him before he has a chance to loose his heavy weapon.

Actions:
Hold until CR-1 Operator pops up his head
Shoot with Wilk's 447 [dice:23iamacp]17:11[/dice:23iamacp] Wild Die: [dice:23iamacp]17:8[/dice:23iamacp]
Damage: [dice:23iamacp]17:9[/dice:23iamacp] AP: 2
Contingency Remember, you are posting your intentions without always having the benefit of seeing how others before you will respond. So sometimes it is a good idea to include a contingency plan: a simple "if" statement that gives your intentions if the first course of action goes bust.
Nathan Foxwood wrote: Contingency: If the CR-1 operators stay behind cover Nathan will move up to their location and draw his vibro-sword, "Sometimes it is better to bring a knife to a gun fight

Contingency Action
Move at pace to CR-1 operators in cover
Draw vibro-sword
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Re: Posting Guidelines

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A “Standard” Post

Cory looks around the room at the heavily armored group. She wonders at the "management's" funny idea of team building. We haven't been on a mission yet, so maybe this will be great. she ponders. Qoat's questions are very astute, and she grudgingly nods in agreement. She has a question of her own, and says just a bit snippy, "So do you know what ley line activity in that area is?" She's thinking both of her boost in magic along the mystic powerlines and of her ability to travel via wingboard. Wingboards are pretty dang cool.

She stands up on her tip toes to take a better look at the presentation map. She runs her hands along the river and the roads. There's no forests or groundcover shown on the map. "The map doesn't show the plants. Why not? What's the plant life like around here, is it, uh, foresty?" she asks, seeming a little annoyed. She seems to be on a natural feature kick, she asks yet another question, "Do we have a weather forecast?"

Returning to her seat at the table she plops back into the chair. Her feet dangle several inches above the ground. She looks to Qoat, and asks him a question, "Can you strap my wingboard could strap to your vehicle? What kind of 'vehicle' is it anyway?" She pauses, that question apparently lacked enough teenage angsty sarcasm, so she lays it on thick, head tilt in full effect, deadpan voice: "Got big nasty monster hunter guns? Blam!"

As the juicer bolts out the door, Cory laughs, then rolls her eyes. Well, he's not wrong, she thinks standing up and grabbing her gear. She follows him out to the vehicle bay.

"I'm ready, so what's keeping the rest of those guys," she half says to Fell, half to the world at large. It's not a question. She pulls the magic flyer from it's rack and waits for the others, impatiently tapping her feet. She rubs her rosary in her hands, quietly mumbling prayers. She might talk to Fell, but probably not.

Finally when no one else arrives, she sets the wingboard back down and goes to see if Qoat needs help with the gear. Gawd. What would they do without me.

"Hey. Do you have this under control, because I could go back to the bay and just stand around if you do," she says to the Quick-flex, again, her tone and inflection don't indicate a question.
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