2. GETTING INTO THE GAME

2.1 Basics of Online Roleplaying

DragonLands is an RPG, a role-playing game. We call it interactive fiction roleplaying because the entire game is played through writing interactively with the other players.

The game is run through e-mail, but the posts are also sent to the newsgroup alt.shared-reality.sf-and-fantasy and archived on the DragonLands pages on the World Wide Web. You do not need access to Usenet news or WWW to play. All you need is an email account.

A few terms of note:

PC: Player Character. This is a character created and written by one of the players in the game. A player may only have one PC in a given unit. The game story centers around these PCs, and the creation of any other type of character is to help or hinder the PCs in some way.

Let's say you want to play Joe the Barbarian. You come up with an appearance, personality, and background for Joe. Then you write Joe meeting up with the other PCs and joing the story. Joe is your *Player Character*.

NPC: Non-Player Character. The opposite. A character created by anyone that anyone else can use in the story for whatever purpose. NPCs are often incidental characters that appear once or twice in a story, though there can be more involved recurring NPCs. There may be any number of NPCs in a game.

Let's say that you bring Joe the Barbarian into the game, and you decide Joe needs a new sword. You write him walking into the local armory and meeting Doc the Weaponsmith. Doc's whole purpose in the story is to sell Joe a sword. If someone else in the game wants to buy a sword, he can do whatever he likes with Doc.

Secondary Character or Protected NPC: This is a more difficult definition. Secondary characters are somewhere between Player Characters and Non- Player Characters. Basically, these are characters that are created by a player and are not PCs, but other players do not have complete leeway in using them. Secondary Characters usually are very recurring and are largely played by the original creator. Oftentimes, they are friends, relatives or loved ones of the PC. Other players are free to use secondary characters, much as they would a PC, but should not do anything drastic to them without permission from the creator. There's no set limit to how many Secondary Characters a player can create, but it's usually not more than 1 or 2.

Let's say you'd like Joe the Barbarian to settle down. You write him marrying Rita the Barmaid from the local tavern. You've created Rita. She's a Secondary Character. Other players are free to write their characters interacting with Rita, but they shouldn't write Rita: dying, having an affair, turning out to be a spy for the enemy, losing her job, leaving her husband, etc. without your permission. After all, you'd like Joe to have a happy home life.

RPG: Role-Playing Game. When used in a post, this marks parts of a post that are written in-character as part of the game.

NRPG: Non-Role-Playing Game. When used in a post, this marks discussion that is not written in character and does not necessarily further to the story.

Thread or Storyline: One sub-plot going on at a particular play-unit. For instance, a unit may have mysterious poisonings going on, a romance between George and Martha, a misunderstanding between Bob and Joe, and a wraith attack. Each of these are threads in the larger tapestry of the story at that unit. They will very likely touch on each other (George and Martha may have to interrupt their picnic to go fight wraiths) and change each other (Bob and Joe decide to settle their differences when Bob nearly dies in one of the poisonings). Some threads (the wraith attack and poisonings) will affect a whole unit, others are personal threads (George & Martha or Bob & Joe) and only affect a few characters directly.

Tag: You will sometimes find in an NRPG at the bottom of a post a comment such as "Tag, Joe!" This indicates to Joe, in case he didn't notice it, that there was a personal thread involving his character (private conversation or event) left dangling in the post. While the expectation is that Joe will finish up or at least add to that event or conversation, it does *not* mean that no one else may interrupt that event or conversation. It is merely an expression of an expectation. Feel free to interrupt a 'tag' if it seems appropriate.

[NOTE: The key to this is "as it seems appropriate." If someone is writing a dinner conversation in the middle of the Dining Hall and you want to join them, go ahead by all means. If two players are writing a climactic confrontation alone in the woods, interrupting could sabotage or disrespect their storyline. Use your best judgement.]

Bio: (Or Biography) This is a description of your character's appearance, personality, background, and abilities for other players to use as a reference.

Biofile: The collection of character bios for a specific gaming group. Most biofiles are posted on a web page for that writing group to access, however, each player should keep a copy of the biofiles for reference.

Crosspost: Two or more stories that have mutually exclusive events. For example, one story depicts Joe the Barbarian eating luch with Rita at the Dining Hall and another one says that Joe skipped lunch to go hiking in the woods. There are a variety of reasons crossposts can occur. The three most common reasons are 1) posts written and sent out simultaneously, 2) a given player not receiving a post due to mail problems or being left off the recipients list of a post, and 2) players not paying attention. Crossposts happen from time to time. Try to avoid them, but don't panic if they happen. We do have ways of dealing with them.

Part of what makes interactive-fiction roleplaying unique is the fluidity of the story. In traditional roleplaying, all challenges, NPCs, and details are set up by the Game Master. In interactive-fiction, the Administrator does not have that kind of absolute power. It's up to the players to add plot twists, expand on the story, provide solutions to problems, and the like. It's possible, even *desireable* for one player to introduce a problem, another describe it, and a third and fourth work out a way to solve it. This is a unique and wonderful way to game, but it it does not appeal to everyone. If you think that interactive fiction roleplaying is a type of game that would interest you, continue reading to learn how to join and play in the world of DragonLands. If the idea of interactive fiction appeals to you, but the specific DragonLands setting does not, please consider the possibility of joining another setting within our parent club, World Weavers, by writing to the World Weavers head administrator, Chris Weeda . If this description of interactive fiction didn't immediately turn you on, that's OK. You don't have to keep reading. We won't be offended :).

2.2 Joining DL

Joining DragonLands is easy, but let's divide it into steps anyway.

Step One: Just send an email to the World Administrators at dlands@hotmail.com and say that you'd like to join. They will add you to the DL world mailing list, so you will get any updates involving the entire game. Please be aware that in order to properly place you and credit you in the game, we require a full, REAL name and your age. If you do not provide these on first contact, you will be asked before your character will be considered.

Step Two: They'll write you back and welcome you to the game. Now it's time for you to create your character. You need to submit a complete bio for your proposed character for their approval. They'll need to discuss the character with you and tweak it to fit the world (if necessary). At this stage you should have read the World Guide. If you create a character without having read the World Guide, odds are that you're going to end up spending weeks honing that character down to something that is consistent with the world.

Step Three: Once your character is approved, you will be asked to participate in a roll playing simulation called Venture (http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Galaxy/7713/venture.html).

Step Four: After participating in Venture, a decision will be made as to where to assign you. DL has several gaming units, called Warrens, and each one has a distinct flavor. The admins will suggest which unit they think your character would fit into best, but you are free to suggest other ones. If your preferred unit is not closed to new players, we'll be glad to place you there. Once you've been placed in a unit, you'll be added to the mailing list and begin to get roleplaying posts.

Step Five: Introducing your character. It's not a bad idea to mention your idea for bringing your character into the group to the Administrators and your Warren Administrator. We can make suggestions; we're here to help.

From the point that you write your first post, you're fully a part of the group. Good luck and happy roleplaying!