OngoingWorlds blog

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

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Interview with Elena Vasilescu, from Before the Mast RPG

Before the Mast posterLast week I interviewed Elena Vasilescu from Before the Mast RPG, with a few questions left over, I wanted to ask how the game came about, and how someone from Romania who speaks French and Spanish, and with players across the world ended up creating a roleplaying game written primarily in English.

Before the Mast has been running since the 6th of August 2010, and has been very active using social media, especially on Twitter and Facebook. I interviewed their moderator Elena Vasilescu and asked her about the game. Read More

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Spotlight on Pure White Moon's character: Piper Keller

Piper KellerPure White Moon is a roleplaying game set in a parallel London, where Vampires and Werewolves prowl the streets at night. But the twist is, that these are the good guys, killing only the true madmen lurking the streets and keeping the population safe. However, people known as “The Hunters” are hunting down these immortal creatures.

Players of this game are encouraged to create a character as either a Vampire, Werewolf or Hunter. So far the game has been going since October. I asked Izzy, a member of Pure White Moon who plays Piper Keller, a trained Hunter who doesn’t understand the immortals, and wants only one thing – to destroy them all. Read More

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How to give awards to members of your game

Award trophyWhy not reward the members in your game for taking part, and writing great posts? Some players work really hard to create an interesting storyline, and write great dialogue between characters. It’s time you gave them a little something for their effort!

We’ve been testing a new awards feature that has previously only been available for a very small amount of games. To have the ability to give awards to your members you had to sign up for it here (but now they’re available to everyone! Read More

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Don't turn new members away!

Go away floor mat

Recruiting new members into your roleplaying game can be very difficult. Roleplaying is quite a niche hobby, and not everyone has the patience and the writing ability to roleplay properly. Also it’s sort of difficult to get your head around understanding what roleplaying actually is, unless you’ve done it before. Read More

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2011 Tournament of Simulations

Trophy

Two months and 27 sims later, the best games – the winners of the 2011 Tournament of Simulations – have been announced.

The Federation Sim Fleet (FSF) and the Starfleet Legacy Alliance (SLA), both venerable clubs noted for their chat sims, captured top honors in the chat sim category, with the USS Lionheart of the SLA winning as best Star Trek chat sim, and the Paragon of the FSF named the best Star Wars chat sim.  Starbase 27 of the SLA and the USS Providence of the FSF also earned marks, with Starbase 27 noted as the most creative chat sim, and the crew of the Providence named the best chat sim crew. Read More

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Before the Mast, roleplaying in the Age of Sail [Interview]

Before the Mast sailing ships

Before the Mast is a forum-based roleplaying game set in the ‘age of sail’, a term I’ve only recently learned – I’ve previously just called it “pirate times”, but it’s clear there’s a lot going on at this time in history, which is where Before the Mast RPG comes in. Fixing itself firmly in history, this is a roleplaying game (or “writing community” as Elena prefers) for history fans.

The game has been running since the 6th of August 2010, and Before the Mast has been very active especially on Twitter and Facebook. I interviewed their moderator Elena Vasilescu and asked her about the game. Read More

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Streamlining the games list

Streamlined trainI bet you’ve seen hundreds of websites claiming to be an awesome play-by-post game, and you might have even got excited about the game and wanted to join – but then realised the game stopped running 5 years ago (or maybe even longer in some cases!).

Some play-by-post games fail, it’s a fact that we have to live with. Some are fun for a while but then go stale and close due to inactivity, maybe the members had an argument, maybe they all went on holiday or moved house and forgot about the game until it was just a distant memory. Or maybe the game just wasn’t attracting members, maybe it was too complicated, or maybe it wasn’t advertised enough to new members. Read More

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Godmodding: The Q effect

Q from Star TrekThere are many types of godmodders in roleplaying games, but for me it’s Q from Star Trek who represents the most dangerous type. I love Star Trek, and I especially love the character Q. He’s funny, he’s playful, and he’s all powerful, which is a very dangerous combination for a foe. But it’s the all-powerful that’s most dangerous to the integrity of the storyline on Star Trek.

When I was younger I would watch many Star Trek episodes where they got into danger, and used to wonder, what if Q showed up right now and just saved them by clicking his fingers – wouldn’t that just be awesome?

But no, it wouldn’t be awesome, it’d be boring. If that happened, the Enterprise would never really be in any danger, and the characters would never be in any kind or peril. There would be no tension or drama.

In roleplaying games you need that same sense of danger, which adds drama to the story.

Read More

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Using social media for your roleplaying game

Social Media

Social media is a massive thing at the moment, and it seems like everyone is using either Facebook or Twitter. TV programmes, radio stations, companies, products, and even your local gym will want you to either follow them on Twitter, or ‘like’ their page on Facebook. Here you will get a best kicksta review to generate a traffic to your social media platform.

You might hate social media, but you’ve got to admit it’s damn useful! Using Twitter or Facebook is a way that you can easily talk to people, and that’s great, but the most obvious value to your roleplaying game is that it makes it easier for people to find and talk to YOU!

Recruiting new members to your roleplaying game is difficult, and you want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to help people to join. Think about how someone will find out about your roleplaying game. If you’re using a forum website, or OngoingWorlds, think about how someone will find you. Many people believe that if you create a website, you’ll automatically be seen by hundreds of visitors – but this is like building a shop in the middle of the desert – who will go there, unless they know it exists? Read More

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Halloween story competition 2011: Winner

PumpkinsWe ran a competition in October where we asked you to send us your scary Halloween stories. The winning entry is a short story called A Dream so Real it leaves Scars by Addriey Jones. Thanks very much to Addriey Jones for entering.

We’ve included her story here for you to read: Read More