OngoingWorlds blog

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

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Characters who give you quests

Cat Knights of nYour characters need something to do.

They might have their own personal quests, but likely at some point they’ll need soemthing else to do – which is why it’s useful to have an NPC who tells them what to do. Maybe it’s a boss, a client, someone who’s holding their loved ones captive, they’ll set out a challenge that needs completing before the story can move on. Read More

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Do people freak out too much about godmodding?

someone's godmodding

I recently created a new discussion thread on RPG-D to see how many people have heard of open roleplaying, and how popular it is. There’s a description of open roleplaying here, and a great article here which makes a great case for it being awesome. Read More

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If I toss you out an airlock, yes, you will die. Alternate Ideas for Dealing with Mary Sues and Godmodders

This post was written by Andrew Facemire who runs the USS Excalibur RP. 

Highlander

Recently, like earlier this week, while reading some of the great work David has been doing with role playing here at OngoingWorlds, I was reminded of my own dealings with various godmoders and Mary Sues over the years. Read More

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Keeping your players in the loop & developing your community

The guild cast

Roleplaying is great. Characters, story, worldbuilding. Great!

But what also makes it great is roleplaying with friends. People we like and trust, and enjoy chatting with. This is why it’s often important to develop your community outside of the roleplay too. Read More

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Need to write characters with cancer, ADHD, epilepsy or are horses? RPG-D has you covered!

horse

The basic anatomy of a horse for roleplayers. You need this in your life!

I know this is a bit of an edge case, but sometimes you might be writing about a character with an ailment which you don’t have much experience with. I noticed recently that the RPG-Directory forum has a reference section called ‘D-pedia which has the following guides:

Read More

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How to write a newsletter for your roleplaying game/site

DavidRecently on our Facebook page I asked what sort of articles you’d like to see on the blog, & several people asked asked for more helpful advice for roleplayers & game owners. Elena (who runs her own roleplaying site “Before the Mast”) volunteered to write us this article. She talks about a game as a “site”, but this is totally relevant if your game is part of a larger site, like games on OngoingWorlds.

Woman with newsletter

How to write a newsletter for your site

The marketing concepts would tell you that newsletters are one of the least expensive – and most effective – public relations tools that exist for drawing attention to a website. I’d say it is very valid for the RPG world too, as it happens on sites. Read More

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Some secrets for an effective villain

Final boss

I saw these tips in the newsletter RPT#624 by Johnn Four. Read More

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Need a Scifi Avatar for your character? There’s a website for that!

Last week I discovered a website that seemed very useful for people roleplaying in a scifi setting. Called Sci-Fi Avatars, it’s a large database of Photoshopped character images you can take and use as your character.

Star trek avatars website screenshot

With photos of loads of different aliens from Star Trek, Klingons, Andorians, Bolians etc, you can just pick one and use it to represent your character without having to trawl the internet or attempt some dodgey Photoshop yourself.  Read More

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11 things to think about before starting a time travel plot

Downton Abbey Primeval time travel

  • Make sure you mention or include a way of the characters getting back to their own time. Think about this before taking them on a one-way trip. Read More

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How to tell a Mary Sue to stop Mary Suing

Self-insert comicIt’s a common problem, someone joins your game with a character that’s far too overpowered, or way too “awesome” (or so the writer says). They’re a Mary Sue (Or a Marty Stu, or whatever – there’s actually loads of names for the same thing. Click here for an article explaining the different different types). Read More