OngoingWorlds blog

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

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How to be a good moderator

Angry teacher

I cannot, for the life of me, remember quite where, but somewhere, someone once said, “Hey, someone should write a blog article on being a good moderator.” No-one did, to my knowledge. And, yes, I know that I might not be the best moderator in the world (or on the website) but this is my opinion of what’s right and what’s not. Sort of. Read More

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The end of Flashback week

Flashback week write and roleplay about your character's pastI’m posting this on the final day of Flashback Week 2013. We’ve had loads of fantastic entries submitted so far, but there’s still some time to submit yours if you haven’t already as the deadline is midnight tonight (7th September). And you still have a chance of winning! Submit your entry here.

I’ll be contacting the judges and collecting votes to find the best story, which I’ll announce asap but most likely next weekend. If you’d like to be emailed with the announcement, subscribe to our blog (if you aren’t already), and you’ll be the first to know. Read More

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The story of New Worlds Project: #2 – Crafting an Original Setting

patton-class600

Written by Kim Smouter, Co-Founder of New Worlds Project. See part 1 of the story of New Worlds Project here.

What we did in 2003

When New Worlds Project was launched in 2003, Alex and I were both excited, and relieved to have passed the development stage of the initiative. Developing an original setting is no small feat but it is a deeply rewarding experience which became a central unique selling point of the initiative in its heydays. What I want to do in this chapter is to really go through the ingredients and approaches that really made this work at the time to enable you to have a recipe that could be followed by game-masters looking to launch an original concept. Read More

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NAME of thrones

Zoidburg pronouncing character's name wrong

Admit it, you’re used to seeing your character’s name written down that you’ve probably never even said it out loud. Read More

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“Do it or lose it!”…the bullies code…

This blog article is an account of real-life bullying by roleplayer Jan De Brett. Jan contacted us through the Facebook page asking if we’d run an article about bullying in roleplaying. Shocked that it existed at all in our community which is normally so friendly, I encouraged Jan to write about the experience to educate & help others. Here’s Jan’s article: 

depressionRPG bullying may not seem like something that’s real, but it is. You may ask yourself, “How can I be bullied in a non-fictional setting?”, and the answer is very simple, bullying takes on a number of forms.

It can range from someone forcing you to write something you’re not comfortable with, to someone forcing you to write with one person or others that you’re not comfortable writing with, otherwise ‘you’re out of them game’, to being verbally abused (if you use skype say) or abused in written form (a text, email or PM through a game web site). Read More

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Applications now being accepted for FallFest ’13 host & chair

2012 FallFest logo

That’s right, host/chair applications are now being accepted for the biggest simming event of the year: FallFest 2013!  That statement immediately begs two questions:

First, what is FallFest?

FallFest is short for the Simming Fall Festival.  It’s an annual one-day extravaganza sponsored by Ongoing Worlds that’s dedicated to everything about or relating to online simming and role playing.  It takes place over the course of several hours in IRC chatrooms and will feature chat role plays, interactive games, and topical discussions & workshops.  Participants get to meet other role players from around the globe, learn more about their craft, and have fun all at the same time. Read More

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The story of New Worlds Project: #1 – 2001, a Space Odyssey

New worlds project

Written by Kim Smouter, Co-Founder of New Worlds Project.

From successful launch, to project failure, to reboot – my journey as a co-founder

In 2001, the world was a very different place, the idea that a mixed-race man would become the next President of the United States was a dream we all thought would only become a reality in a century, and I was still years away from graduating from school. The term ‘social media’ to represent weirdly named sites like Facebook or Twitter did not exist in the English language. Read More

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Story summaries for games with over 100 posts

Unlockable perks

Here’s a new feature you’ll unlock when your game gets over 100 posts (the game also needs to have been around for at least 2 months too). Read More

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Flashback week 2013

Flashback week - write and roleplay about your character's past

Flashback Week is a week-long writing event where writers and roleplayers were encouraged to think about something that happened in their characters past. The event doesn’t have a physical location, there’s no fee, and there’s barely any rules – only to write a flashback about your character and your story and tell everyone about it. Oh, and to have fun! There’s also a competition for the best flashback story (see below).

The competition is now closed. The winner was announced here. Read More

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4 websites all roleplayers should know about

RPG DirectoryRPG-Directory.com

RPG-D is a social network for roleplayers. There’s a directory section where you can place an advertisement for your game, which will slip down the list over time, so it’s worth coming back once a month to bump it back up to the top. You can do this by simply writing “bump” or anything tbh, but I find this a bit tacky, so what I do is write a short summary of events that’s happened since the last time I posted, which is much more interesting to read, and useful for any users reading the advert. What I usually do is copy the summary from my game’s featured story summary. RPG-D also has a popular discussion forum where you can discuss all aspects of roleplaying with other interested roleplayers. Read More