Gameception! [OWTINAG main OOC thread]

[cucumbersome]

This is the main OOC topic for the roleplay "Oh wait, this is not a game"

[cucumbersome]

Because a bit of roleplay is worth a thousand words (erm...), I wrote an initial post that should give you some idea of what the virtual reality part will be like.

[cucumbersome]

Interesting, a character with a game avatar that is a magic user. I hadn’t considered that possibility for cheating the system ^^ .

There will have to be some limitations to in-game magic, guess we’ll make it up as we go along.

[SweetPonine]

I figured there would be limits, but I wanted to make him different! :D

[cucumbersome]

I like unexpected things.

By the way, please think about reasons why Raith might want to sabotage the FTL and comms of the ship, and PM me about that (if you don’t want to be the saboteur you can mention that in the PM). The character with what Thomas and I consider the “best” reason will get one of the most important roles :) .

Even Andromeda has a reason. We’d really like some everyone-accuses-everyone paranoia in phase 2 of the roleplay.

EDIT: I just noticed that you’re new. You can PM me once the site allows it, then...

[freemixer25]

what are the boundaries for the characters? This seems very interesting.

[cucumbersome]

Characters have to be more or less the size and shape of humans, they're on a ship designed for humans after all. The game expects the same from their avatars. Characters cannot be completely robotic, machines don't need hypersleep. There will be no magic in the real world (and magic for avatars will be very limited, we still need to think about that). It's a big universe and the far future, different planets are ruled by different governments, so almost anything is possible.

The puzzles in the game have been designed by and for humans, a lot of them will revolve around putting things in the right places to disable obstacles. That means the ability to fly cannot be allowed.

While the game is entertaining and we don't feel it's time to crashland the ship yet, the plan is to stay only one step ahead of the players. I know the basic idea of the next puzzle, Thomas might insert one before it, and that's all we have right now. We can adapt the puzzles to the players, within reason.

If your character wants to make their avatar match the theme of the game, consider a pirate or explorer. The characters created so far didn't do that, which is fine and makes it easy to distinguish them from NPCs.

Avatars start their game with almost nothing, just clothing, something to carry things they find, and something to communicate with the computer (Andromeda has a datapad, which is the most obvious way, Raith is a magic user so might use a spell).

Characters can bring anything in their luggage, within reason. Don't try to import live elephants, and weapons cannot go in the hand luggage.

[cucumbersome]

Hmm, I shouldn't GM while sleeping. It wasn't certain that Raith would get into the canoe without studying the puzzle a bit more. OTOH "there isn't supposed to be a paddle" is a really big hint that a boat will move by itself if you do something clever, and I really wanted to show what would happen if that thing wasn't done.

Sorry about that, I will solve it a different way next time.

Once you recognize what I set up here, it should be pretty easy. And if nobody gets it, there will always be the GM-owned characters to get bright ideas that might be hints.

[cucumbersome]

Added a rule saying that special abilities like flight and magic will be very limited for virtual reality avatars. (The ability to fly is acceptable in reality, whereas magic is nonexistent there)

If you want special abilities, it's probably a good idea to explain them in the character profile. I'll add to the character skeleton for that.

[cucumbersome]

Guys. I set up multiple places/locations in this RP to help keep track of who is where if the group splits up. The system roleplaygateway uses for that is a bit confusing, so we may end up deciding not to use that feature, but for now let me point out that it exists :) .

I was stupid enough to already add places that aren't supposed to be accessible yet, fortunately nobody claimed to be in them.

"stuck in space", the place containing all others, is always correct
"Sunnyside" is the ship, meant to be used once we're awake
"The Game" and everything inside it can be used now, "Trail of Trials" is the only part of it that has been seen so far.
"A Planet" is a place we haven't arrived at yet

[Colonel_Masters]

Sorry for not posting so far. Currently I am busy with activites for Independece day so posting will have to wait for tomorrow.

[cucumbersome]

No worries.

By the way, when a roleplayer who is part of the action disappears for much too long, I might claim they left the puzzle to go play minigolf ^^ .

[whscorbin]

hey, I saw an ad in roleplayers wanted. You guys are accepting right?

[cucumbersome]

Yes we are!

Characters are checked for making sense before being accepted, but in principle... oh just submit your character already ;) .

[cucumbersome]

I cleaned up the introduction and rules a bit.

The only meaningful change is that there no longer is a phase 0, since we started playing without deciding who would be the saboteur. We will make that decision after giving some more people the chance to discover us and join.

I like the ideas that have been PMed to me. I wonder how many different reasons there could be to sabotage a spaceship!

[freemixer25]

So um...should i come in after this first puzzle or would you prefer after?

[cucumbersome]

You're welcome to appear at the shore where the puzzle began, or to appear at the town square and then take the path to the first puzzle. After a puzzle is completed, it's not recommended to appear at a point before it, obviously.

There may be some talk among characters/avatars walking the path from the current puzzle to the next, so I wouldn't wait for the next one ;) .

By the way, once the first puzzle is solved, anyone will be allowed to use the canoe, no need to put on sticky masks that require a minimum number of avatars to try to cross the river.

[gukky]

Thanks for the invite - I submitted a character. Let me know what you think..

[cucumbersome]

You're welcome!

Looking good. If you don't mind, appearance descriptions in words are helpful at those times images won't load (they did load now).

Personally I'm a fan of keeping everything about my characters that isn't secret as text in their profiles, but that's not required.

Now, why would Kuroro make a ship appear to be a dead stick and/or hijack it to go to an uninhabited planet? PM me your reason! Best reason wins a prize... to be the bad guy/gal in an exciting roleplay, woooo!

[cucumbersome]

@Mimiminite:

OK, looks like you're VERY new to roleplaying. No worries, we'll teach you what the commonly accepted etiquette is without shouting at you ;) .

One thing you should never, ever do is write the effects your character's actions have on other characters. So you can make your character bump into another one, but you can't write that this caused them to fall. Similarly, you can make your character grab the hands or clothes of another character and pull and write where he's trying to take them, but you cannot actually drag them to a different place.

Everyone controls their own characters. Always. Controlling what happens to other characters is called godmoding.

There are two exceptions to this rule:
1) When you've used PM to agree on something complicated with another player, and together you decide it's easier if one person writes all of that complicated part.
2) Sometimes the game masters (in this roleplay that's me and Thomas), who are in control of the roleplay world, set traps from which no escape is supposed to be possible. This should be avoided as much as possible.

I know the more innocent types of godmoding are very difficult to avoid at first, because it feels weird when you're used to writing stories alone. (Not striking other characters with lightning, on the other hand, is very easy ;) )

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godmoding ... le-playing

Another, less important thing, is to adjust your style to that of the other players - when everyone writes in third person and past tense, it looks better when you do the same. You're currently writing in third person present tense (which is what most people use for character profiles, but not for the story itself).