OngoingWorlds blog

News & articles about play-by-post games, for roleplayers & writers

Jun
18

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Calling all Nominees for the 2024 Tournament of Simulations!

Category: Advertising your game, Awards, Competition, Events, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: Leave a Comment

Image by Willvoy

Now that the 2023 competition is in the books, it’s time for us to hold the next Tournament of Simulations (ToS): this tournament will feature entries from last year, 2024.

For those who might be unfamiliar with ToS, this is where you can enter your role play or sim to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from across the community go through all of the entries and evaluate them on story, characters, and readability.

As has been our tradition for several years now, play-by-post games will be graded on 10 consecutive posts while chat games will be graded on a single chat session. All sims will be considered regardless of club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The sims that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?

Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…

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Jun
5

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2023 Tournament of Simulations Concludes

Category: Advertising your game, Awards, Competition, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: Leave a Comment

Image by Willvoy

The nominations were received and evaluated, and now we have some winners! Before we announce those amazing sims, in case anyone is unfamiliar with this program, the Tournament of Simulations (ToS) is an annual competition, sponsored and run by Ongoing Worlds, that is open to all sims and online role-playing games, regardless of format or genre.

This year we had 60 unique entrants, which resulted in 23 different winners. As it is seemingly every year, the participation and excellence displayed is a true testament to the ongoing strength of our simming and online role playing community, despite the naysayers.

As I frequently remind myself and others: evaluating sims is a subjective art, and this is certainly true with ToS.  We’re not here to identify the best games as this is impossible.  Instead, we’re here to identify what we think are outstanding sims that exude excellence.  A different set of judges might very well chose a completely different set of winners.  And that’s okay! If you’re interested, this is how we select the winners. With that on the record once again, here are your 2023 Tournament of Simulation winners:

Play-by-Post

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Feb
23

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Where to Advertise Your Game: 2025 Edition

Category: Advertising your game, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Billboard that says join my play-by-post game

It’s been nearly four and half years since our last advertising update. While the billboard above might be the same, the landscape has certainly changed!

Check out our lists below to find the best places to advertise your play-by-post game.

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Nov
25

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2023 Tournament of Simulations open for nominations… Finally!

Category: Advertising your game, Awards, Competition, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: Leave a Comment


Image by Willvoy

It’s long past time for us to hold the next Tournament of Simulations (ToS)… before it’s 2025! Speaking of years, ToS is the oldest and longest-running award in the simming and online role playing community.

For those who might be unfamiliar with ToS, this is where you can enter your role play to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from across the community go through all of the entries and grade them on story, characters, and readability.

As has been our tradition for several years now, play-by-post games will be graded on 10 consecutive posts while chat games will be graded on a single chat session. All sims will be considered regardless of club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The sims that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?

Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…

Read More

Jan
16

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2022 Simulation Cup: Enter Today!

Category: Advertising your game, Awards, Competition, Roleplay Systems, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: , Leave a Comment

Image by Malkfan

With calendar year 2022 in the books, it’s time for us to formally close it out with the annual Simulation Cup. Wait, don’t I mean the annual Tournament of Simulations aka ToS? Yes, they are one at the same!

According to our records, the 2012 tournament was held under the Simulation Cup banner. In honor of that event 10 years ago, we decided to use its name again today. And we think it makes a pretty cool poster too!

The mechanics of the game remain the same: Here are a few tips on how to win. For those who may be unfamiliar, this is where you can enter your role play to potentially win a prize at no cost or risk to you! Judges from across the community go through all of the entries and grade them on story, characters, and readability.

As has been our tradition for several years now, play-by-post games will be graded on 10 consecutive posts while chat games will be graded on a single chat session. All sims will be considered regardless of club or fleet affiliation. We then present awards to the top-scoring games. The sims that don’t place are not announced. That’s right: you’ve got nothing to lose, so why not enter?

Okay, enough on that. How about we get on with the nominations…

Read More

Mar
3

By

Independence Fleet: Star Trek Play-by-Post roleplaying

Category: Advertising your game, PBEM games, Roleplaying community Tags: , , Leave a Comment

As David wrote a few months back in his advertising piece, Ongoing Worlds is open to publishing articles promoting the different clubs and groups out there.  A few examples are here, here, and here.  So why not shamelessly plug my own group?

I ended my term as President of UCIP last August.  Man, what a great group of role players!  If you’re into some serious writing and simming, you can’t go wrong with them.  However, as much as I love and respect UCIP, I was recently given the opportunity to finally return to my home club, Independence Fleet (IDFleet.com).  It was simply too much to pass up.  Yes, I’m back with IDF for my second stint as its Chief of Fleet Operations.

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Oct
20

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7 Great Places to Advertise Your PBEM or Roleplaying Game

Category: Advertising your game, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , 2 Comments

Billboard that says join my play-by-post game

We’ve posted several articles over the years on how and where to advertise your games:

However as most things do, websites and resources come and go. Given that our most recent article on the topic is now over 4 years old, we thought it would be a good time to provide an update. Here are 7 areas to think about when it comes to advertising and promoting your games:

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Jul
25

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Outpost 42 News strikes again!

Category: Advertising your game, Events, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay-related projects, Roleplaying community Tags: Leave a Comment

The satire role playing news blog Outpost 42 News recently hit us again with this article:

https://outpost42news.com/2019/06/03/ongoing-worlds-sim-about-simming-nearly-breaks-the-internet-and-causes-a-rift-in-the-spacetime-continuum/

For the record, OngoingWorlds still does not accept responsibility for the internet outages of June 2nd or the asteroid that buzzed by Earth that same day. However they are correct that anyone can create any game they like on our website, including one about role playing itself!

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Mar
16

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THE BEACONS ARE LIT! TIBERIUS CALLS FOR AID!

Category: Advertising your game, Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Character Development, Competition, Events, Inspiration for writing, OngoingWorlds guide, OngoingWorlds site news, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplaying community, Website Improvements Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

beacons1

DID YAH MISS ME? WELL I MISSED YOU!

Hey-o Ongoing Worlds! It’s been a while hasn’t it? Don’t answer that, we’re not actually talking and you talking to a screen with no reply really isn’t flattering. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. The beacons are lit and I do call for aid! YOUR AID! Why? BECAUSE THE CHAT BOX NEEDS OUR HELP! Read More

Oct
4

By

Recruiting: The Lifeblood of Role Playing

Category: Advertising your game, Behind the scenes - running RPGs, Play-by-post discussion, Roleplay Systems, Roleplaying community Tags: , , , , , , , , 16 Comments

Fish joining others in another goldfish bowl

No single factor plays a greater role in determining the success of a sim or club than recruiting. Read More

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