OngoingWorlds blog

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

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SciWorld starts Thursday

SciWorld

Don’t forget about SciWorld, the online chat convention for roleplayers starts thursday (tomorrow) at 23:30 GMT (7:30pm EDT).

The opening ceremony will be hosted by Chas Hammer, followed by hour-long chat events.

SciWorld is spread across 3 nights, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, each starting at different times so make sure you see the schedule so you don’t miss your favourite events.

The events range from chats about TV shows, specific topics about roleplaying and actual roleplaying sessions. Read More

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Spellbound: Taking inspiration from fantasy

DavidOne of the games I keep noticing pop up on the homepage occasionally is Spellbound, a fantasy game created last November, and had a very popular time over December and January. Spellbound has a good compliment of character,s each with a consistent Japanese anime style image. The game’s pace unfortunately slowed over February- March but made a comeback in April and has been on the homepage (or not far away) ever since.

I spoke to the creator of the game Phantasmagoria and asked him about Spellbound.

Have you played play-by-post games before?

phantasmagoriaI regularly play a few play-by-post games on-line – we usually use special forums such as Myth Weavers to play. Since they are designed to play games this way, and contain a load of features that make a game easy to manage and play for both the game master and the players themselves. Most of the games I play I usually tend to be the game master. I like having that ability to create a world. It’s where my user name comes from. Phantasmagoria could be described as a magical illusion of changing imagery, and considering with each new play-by-post game is a different world and changing story, I think this suits rather well! Read More

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SciWorld

The SciWorld Online Convention is approaching!

Join us from Thursday May 10 to Saturday May 12 for three days of gaming, discussions, and events focused on the simming and online role-playing community.

Held in irc, OngoingWorlds, in conjunction with the TRCP Alliance is proud to sponsor this years convention.

For more information visit us at sciworldonline.com or at our event page on Facebook.

See you at SciWorld 2012!

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The FFS Approach To Problems

DavidThis article was written by Chele on her RPG-D blog, I asked if I could repost it here because I think it’s got some really useful tips for GMs and moderators of roleplaying games who have to deal with difficult members, and how to handle problems correctly. You can see it’s original incarnation here. Chele is a moderator of the Interitus RPG.

Chele

Chele has been roleplaying for over 10 years

When we get a problem with a member, it can usually lead us to going oh FFS! It’s a normal reaction, we would like everyone to get on, and for things to run smoothly with epic plots and interesting characters. When somebody disturbs the equilibrium of this by causing OOC drama, it can really tick us off.

However, in this case, the FFS approach does not stand for For F***s Sake, but instead Fair, Firm, Smart, and is a method for dealing with these issues from a staff point of view. Read More

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New mobile style

Samsung Galaxy S2

Have you noticed how you use your mobile phone differently to a computer? Because of the small screen of a smartphone, apps usually push content into one narrow column that you can scroll down through.

When I originally created the OngoingWorlds design, I hadn’t thought of this, so never created a mobile specific stylesheet until now. Read More

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World Wide Sims April Fool’s day joke – interview with Charles Star

World wide sims

On April fools day this year, many sims took part in a shared April fools joke that is probably the most widely spread in simming history. You can see the threads about this on Band of Brothers here and Before the Mast in the screenshot below. The joke was orchestrated by Charles Star from Independence Fleet who I’ve interviewed him about the joke. Read More

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Chat box added to OngoingWorlds

Screenshot of the new chatbox

A few weeks ago I created a poll asking users what feature they would most like to see added to OngoingWorlds. The results were pretty clear and most people wanted an instant chat box. Read More

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What will be… hits 200 posts (and shows no sign of stopping)

DavidOne of the most successful games on OngoingWorlds is What will be, will be… created by Izzy Stuart, it was the first game to reach 200 posts (and as it’s taken me a while to publish this article – it’s now well on its way to 300!), and has been running for 9 months. I asked Izzy the creator and GM, some questions for this article.

Izzy

Izzy created the game 'What will be, will be...' in June 2011

In What will be, will be… there has always been a lot of drama! With the first section introducing us to characters such as Evangeline Turner, the nervous young girl, who finds herself diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, to Natalie Sans, a girl living in a foster home with an abusive carer. The section sees Evangeline’s situation with her aneurysm through, whilst looking into the lives of surrounding teachers and students who find themselves all wound up in it all. The next section expands more on the lives of students from all round the school, with everything from high school dates and dances, troubled students doing crazy things, to illnesses, pregnancies, fires, and much more! The third section was kick-started with the anticipation of the Halloween dance, as well as the two expecting mothers within the school. Read More

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For GMs: 5 things to say to your members OOC

A microphone in front of crowd

OngoingWorlds is a great place to post chunks of story that you can share with your other members, but there’s no reason you can’t use it to send OOC (out of character) messages to your entire group. In a forum you might have a separate thread for this, but as you’ve noticed OngoingWorlds is a bit simpler than this (which in many ways is better – it’s intentional!). So when you post an OOC message it’ll get sent to all members just like your normal story post. Read More

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Simming Prize Winners 2011

Simming prizeOngoing Worlds is proud to announce the newest winners of the Simming Prize (officially the Ongoing Worlds Prize for Simming and Online Role Playing in Memory of Seth Cotis). Winning either for their efforts in 2011 or in recognition of their career in total, our five newest laureates join a long line of proud winners who have shaped our gaming community for the better.

  • Elena Vasilescu of Before the Mast RPG: For her creative use of social media to support a small, thriving role-playing game set during the Golden Age of Piracy.
  • Independence Fleet: For its outstanding efforts to facilitate community; internally fielding a wiki, newsletter, and group chats; and externally hosting the SciWorld Online Convention, organizing Fall Fest, and pulling the Super Space Command 3000 April fools day joke.
  • Mike Bremer of Ninth Fleet: For his exemplary leadership within the simming community. Having founded or nurtured clubs as diverse as Tango Fleet, Bravo Fleet, and now Ninth Fleet, Mike stands as one of the most successful and influential figures in the history of simming.
  • Otherspace: For its innovative mix of MUSH and role-playing to create a dynamic, engrossing gaming environment.
  • UFOP: Starbase 118: For its exemplary community, which for over 15 years has consistently offered detailed, high quality sims, and a welcoming, friendly gaming environment.

Congratulations to the newest Simming Prize laureates!