Gaius Julius
09-06-2009, 07:05 PM
Hi everyone!
Greetings Astronites! Welcome to the Chronicles of the Astronomican, otherwise known as TCOTA. This is a role-playing game where participants take on their Astro persona in a fictional universe where the Astronomican is an actual place inhabited by YOU, the members of Astro! The storyline is set sometime in the future of our website; Adders has been mysteriously murdered, causing chaos on the streets of Astro. Some Astronites have banded together to solve the mystery and restore order to Astro!
TCOTA is what I like to call a fiction-based RPG; unlike some RPGs which involve statistics and dice rolling and the like, this RPG revolves around participants typing up their character’s actions, thoughts, dialogue, and so on.
Myself and Hawke are the two Games Masters (GMs), who are in charge and help to progress the story. We are the dictators of TCOTA; by signing up, you recognise that we have the final say over the direction of the RPG, and it is our prerogative to delete or edit posts which conflict with the general direction of the thread or RPG in general.
Rules of TCOTA (http://www.astronomican.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13565)
Beginner's Guide
The way it works is quite simple. The action takes place in Acts, like the chapters of a book, and each Act will have one or more forum threads where the action takes place. Myself or Hawke will usually make a starting post that sets the scene, what characters are involved, and, if necessary, introduce any enemies that the players may have to face. The player’s role is usually reactive; your job is to react to what myself or Hawke say by writing up a short piece which shows your character’s reaction to the events we throw upon you, be they in the form of actions, thoughts, dialogue, or all of the above.
Let’s take an example. An introductory post may look something like this:
The arena crowd clapped, cheered and screamed for more as the body was dragged out of the arena, a trail of blood following him. The victorious gladiator stood in the centre of the auditorium, blood smearing his smirking face, revelling in every moment of his glorious victory. The next challenger stepped confidently into the arena.
Alpha turned to face this new threat, a hint of bloodlust in his eyes. Beta drew his sword and charged at the gladiator, swinging his weapon wildly.
Suddenly, explosions rocked the arena. Gamma, Delta, Omega and Epsilon rappelled in from the ceiling, guns blazing. The arena erupted in terror, frightened spectators frantically trying to escape. Beta dropped to the floor with his hands over his head as Alpha turned to face this new threat.
Now, that’s the set-up. If you were, for example, playing as Beta, you might write something like this:
Beta kept his head down on the sand, avoiding the tracers racing across the arena. He dared not look up, for fear of getting hit. He slowly started to crawl across the arena floor towards the stands, where he could find cover from the firefight.
Pulling himself up onto the stands, Beta surveyed the carnage the reinforcements’ arrival had wrought. Most of the spectators had already fled, although some blood splatters indicated that some hadn’t been so fortunate. Alpha, the gladiator Beta had been about to face in combat, was dead on the sand, his arm torn off by a fragmentation grenade. Several guards had made their way into the arena now, and were engaged in a fearsome gun battle with Gamma’s squad.
“Episolon, throw me a weapon!” called Beta from the stands, eager to get stuck into the action.
That’s a simple reaction thread to my introductory post. Notice that the person playing Beta did not take control of Episolon’s character but rather left it for the person playing that character to respond. This is general RPG etiquette, although sometimes it may be necessary to take control of another person’s character, otherwise it would take an absolute age to get anywhere. It is often a good idea to simply PM the relevant player before taking control, just to make sure it’s okay and to maybe ask how their character would react to a certain situation. Again, this is just proper manners.
A thread will continue in that manner, with the GM posting every so often to advance the action. For example, there may be a sequence where all the players are fighting a horde of enemies. It will usually be up to the GM to declare when that horde has been defeated. Most RPers leave their posts open-ended (i.e. they don’t show the result of their actions), to give the GM the chance to show the result of their actions, and also, if that result involves another character, it means that the player isn’t taking control of another person’s character.
Participation
TCOTA isn’t actively seeking new participants. Although we believe in “the more the merrier”, it is also a fact that the more people there are involved, the more difficult the RPG is to run. If you are eager to get involved, PM either Gaius Julius or Hawke and we will see what we can do.
If you have any questions, check out the TCOTA Q & A Thread (http://www.astronomican.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13198) or send us a PM!
Greetings Astronites! Welcome to the Chronicles of the Astronomican, otherwise known as TCOTA. This is a role-playing game where participants take on their Astro persona in a fictional universe where the Astronomican is an actual place inhabited by YOU, the members of Astro! The storyline is set sometime in the future of our website; Adders has been mysteriously murdered, causing chaos on the streets of Astro. Some Astronites have banded together to solve the mystery and restore order to Astro!
TCOTA is what I like to call a fiction-based RPG; unlike some RPGs which involve statistics and dice rolling and the like, this RPG revolves around participants typing up their character’s actions, thoughts, dialogue, and so on.
Myself and Hawke are the two Games Masters (GMs), who are in charge and help to progress the story. We are the dictators of TCOTA; by signing up, you recognise that we have the final say over the direction of the RPG, and it is our prerogative to delete or edit posts which conflict with the general direction of the thread or RPG in general.
Rules of TCOTA (http://www.astronomican.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13565)
Beginner's Guide
The way it works is quite simple. The action takes place in Acts, like the chapters of a book, and each Act will have one or more forum threads where the action takes place. Myself or Hawke will usually make a starting post that sets the scene, what characters are involved, and, if necessary, introduce any enemies that the players may have to face. The player’s role is usually reactive; your job is to react to what myself or Hawke say by writing up a short piece which shows your character’s reaction to the events we throw upon you, be they in the form of actions, thoughts, dialogue, or all of the above.
Let’s take an example. An introductory post may look something like this:
The arena crowd clapped, cheered and screamed for more as the body was dragged out of the arena, a trail of blood following him. The victorious gladiator stood in the centre of the auditorium, blood smearing his smirking face, revelling in every moment of his glorious victory. The next challenger stepped confidently into the arena.
Alpha turned to face this new threat, a hint of bloodlust in his eyes. Beta drew his sword and charged at the gladiator, swinging his weapon wildly.
Suddenly, explosions rocked the arena. Gamma, Delta, Omega and Epsilon rappelled in from the ceiling, guns blazing. The arena erupted in terror, frightened spectators frantically trying to escape. Beta dropped to the floor with his hands over his head as Alpha turned to face this new threat.
Now, that’s the set-up. If you were, for example, playing as Beta, you might write something like this:
Beta kept his head down on the sand, avoiding the tracers racing across the arena. He dared not look up, for fear of getting hit. He slowly started to crawl across the arena floor towards the stands, where he could find cover from the firefight.
Pulling himself up onto the stands, Beta surveyed the carnage the reinforcements’ arrival had wrought. Most of the spectators had already fled, although some blood splatters indicated that some hadn’t been so fortunate. Alpha, the gladiator Beta had been about to face in combat, was dead on the sand, his arm torn off by a fragmentation grenade. Several guards had made their way into the arena now, and were engaged in a fearsome gun battle with Gamma’s squad.
“Episolon, throw me a weapon!” called Beta from the stands, eager to get stuck into the action.
That’s a simple reaction thread to my introductory post. Notice that the person playing Beta did not take control of Episolon’s character but rather left it for the person playing that character to respond. This is general RPG etiquette, although sometimes it may be necessary to take control of another person’s character, otherwise it would take an absolute age to get anywhere. It is often a good idea to simply PM the relevant player before taking control, just to make sure it’s okay and to maybe ask how their character would react to a certain situation. Again, this is just proper manners.
A thread will continue in that manner, with the GM posting every so often to advance the action. For example, there may be a sequence where all the players are fighting a horde of enemies. It will usually be up to the GM to declare when that horde has been defeated. Most RPers leave their posts open-ended (i.e. they don’t show the result of their actions), to give the GM the chance to show the result of their actions, and also, if that result involves another character, it means that the player isn’t taking control of another person’s character.
Participation
TCOTA isn’t actively seeking new participants. Although we believe in “the more the merrier”, it is also a fact that the more people there are involved, the more difficult the RPG is to run. If you are eager to get involved, PM either Gaius Julius or Hawke and we will see what we can do.
If you have any questions, check out the TCOTA Q & A Thread (http://www.astronomican.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13198) or send us a PM!