Welcome to One Second Chance RPG. We're a little bit-- okay, a lot-- different from the majority of RPGs out there, much like our predecessor, Oh My God! Harry Potter. We're borrowing some gameplay elements from our dearly departed previous game, so in order to reduce confusion for new players as much as possible, we've created this FAQ. Well, that, and we're still different. On to the Gameplay FAQ!
01. How do I roleplay in this game?
A good question. Here at O2C, we don't follow the standard "[Character] makes a journal entry in a magical notebook/computer/journal/binder/piece of parchment/bound papyrus/buffalo skin/etc. that is linked to other magical items of various assorted properties, and other characters magically reply" model of Harry Potter RPGs. Why? Because it's harder to have lots of interaction that way, and long threads that do little except contain pure dialogue are extremely difficult.
I'm sure you're all familiar with IM asterisk tags -- for example, you *squee* when your friend comes online, and when you IM them, you *glomp* them. We use asterisks to express actions, thoughts, humor, and more, the same way you would in an instant message with your friend. Easy, right?
Say you roleplay Character A, who is in Ravenclaw House. You want to update their journal. Here's an example:
*Walks into the Great Hall and looks around, then settles into an empty spot near his/her friend on the bench at the Ravenclaw table.*
Yup, it's that simple. It's exactly like asterisk RPing on AIM, except it's on a website, and you don't use "my" and "your." If you wish to say "*Character A walks into the Great Hall...,*" then please feel free! Also, if you want your character to think out loud, like this:
*Walks into the Great Hall and looks around.* Huh, where's... Oh, there they are! *Settles into an empty spot near his/her friend at the Ravenclaw table.*
then that's all good!
Occasionally, you may want to write up a post in third person, as if you were writing a story. In this case, you would update the journal like this:
Character A walked into the Great Hall and looked around, then settled into an empty seat near his/her friend on the bench at the Ravenclaw table.
If you want to have your character think out loud, then simply put the dialogue inside of quotation marks, as you would while writing a story.
You can also comment in threads using first person asterisks roleplaying or third person paragraph roleplaying.
If you're still confused about how to RP, then take a moment and look through posts made by players who are already in the game. Very few of us had an FAQ when we first started and we all caught on very quickly. :) In the application, where it asks if you read the rules, write "It's superspecialawesome!"
01A. Also, please note that while some RPGs may allow you to occasionally control other characters, we do not. This is known as "godmodding" and is against the rules. In short, you only control your own character, and you have no say over what anyone else's character says or does. The exception to this rule is if you have been given permission by the player to use their characters if needed.
Sometimes, players who have more than one character will put two or more of their characters into a post. This is not considered godmodding because the player is only using their own characters.
02. What in the name of Merlin's spleen is timewarping and how do I do it?
Well, it's not a pelvic thrust that drives you insa-a-a-a-a-ne. ;)
We do not have linear gameplay -- that is, we abuse the time-space continuum on a daily basis and we feel no guilt about such an act. Timewarping is a device of convenience, and sometimes, a way to assuage the guilt of players like myself who have, on occasion, completely forgotten about the anniversary/birthday/coming of age/some other important event in the life/lives of my characters/my character's friends until the day(s) after.
Say you're in a post with someone already, but in the middle of this post, another player calls ATTN to your character with an ATTN tag (see 'How do I tag posts?' below) in their post. How can your character be in two places at once? Timewarping! It's as easy as one, two, three.
To make a standard timewarp tag, simply use the strike-tag like this: *Timewarp!* The punctuation and capitalization is really up to you, though. No pressure.
As you may notice, some players that have been around for longer may timewarp in different ways, such as:
*It's just a jump to the left...*, a reference to the Time Warp from Rocky Horror. We seem to like that here.
*Only cool people can timewarp!*, which is just a friendly, silly way of indicating a timewarp.
Another usage of the timewarp is to skip past boring things. For example, if point A is very exciting, and point C's awesome, but point B's something like walking down to the lake, you can feel free to skip it. Of course, you don't need to timewarp through point B, but it is an option.
If you're unsure about whether or not a character is actually timewarping into your post, don't worry. You can always ask the player, or one of the mods, and we will be more than happy to clear up any confusion for you.
You can timewarp all you want, although I personally recommend not timewarping yourself to more than two or three posts. It gets really confusing sometimes, especially if you're timewarping very late at night or very early in the morning. Also, until you become familiar with timewarping, try to stay in only one or two posts at a time. :)
02A. NOTE: Strike-tags are made by using the following HTML: < s > blahblah < / s > Simply remove the spaces and change "blahblah" to whatever you want, and it will look like this: blahblah
03. How do I tag posts?
There are three elements to tagging a post that are used. These tags are to identify the location of a post, who can reply to the post, and the time of day/night during which the post is taking place. The tags can be labeled in the following ways:
[Location: Great Hall.] [Open to: Ravenclaws.] [When: Lunch.]
Or,
[Great Hall, Ravenclaws, Lunch.]
Or even,
[Great Hall] [Ravenclaws] [Lunch.]
We do require that you use these tags in all posts, as they keep things nice and orderly, and prevents people from entering posts they're not supposed to. When you want to keep your post open for anyone to reply, but would like it if a certain person replied, you would tag it this way:
[Great Hall, anyone ATTN: Ravenclaws, Lunch.]
Or,
[Great Hall] [Anyone, ATTN: Ravenclaws.] [Lunch.]
Following? As previously stated, you can punctuate the tags as you please, and you can tag whomever you want, but please do not forget to tag your posts.
Now, if you're sending an owl/floo message/etc. whatever to someone, you would follow the same general theme, like so:
[Letter, (Name of recipient), (time the letter was sent.)]
So, if you're sending a letter to Oliver in the evening, here's how you'd do it:
[Letter, Oliver, evening.]
04. What's with all the strike-tag conversations, and comments in parentheses?
Strike-tag conversations are mostly used for humor purposes. You don't need to use them, but you're free to throw in a couple every now and then to crack a semi-OOC joke.
The comments in parentheses are comments by the players. They are most commonly used for humor purposes, random thoughts, or to inform the other player that you have to go to school/work/eat/sleep/save your grandma from getting run over by a reindeer, etc.. All we ask is that you do not take up an entire post with OOC comments. That's what the OOC community is for. :)