OngoingWorlds blog

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

Dec
24

By

What's your RP doing for Christmas?

Category: non-PBP roleplaying, Play-by-post discussion Tags: , Leave a Comment

 

Christmas tree

I’m writing this on Christmas eve, eagerly awaiting a fantastic Christmas day tomorrow with my family. This month I’ve been wondering if December is a good time for roleplaying, as many people will be travelling to spend time with their parents over the holidays and might not have much time for roleplaying – but at the same time many people will have days off work so might have even more time than usual to spend writing and roleplaying.

I’ve been asking some other roleplayers what December is like in their own games. Read More

Dec
15

By

In Breeding – Simulation Style!

Category: Play-by-post discussion Tags: , , , 3 Comments

DNA

Inbreeding: When closely related individuals mate and produce offspring, which tends to increases the number of individuals that are homozygous for a trait and increases the appearance of recessive traits.

In online roleplaying, as in life, inbreeding is a dangerous state.  When your game comes to rely on the same core of individuals ideas become homogenized, energy becomes stale, and the recessive dominates.  How can you identify inbreeding in your game?  What can you do before it’s too late to reverse? Read More

Dec
11

By

Interview with Tristan Wolf from Starbase 118

Category: Interviews, non-PBP roleplaying, PBEM games, Play-by-post discussion Tags: Leave a Comment

We wrote an article about UFOP: Starbase 118 back in October (you can see it here). I was able to recently ask some questions to the group’s founder Tristan Wolf. Here’s the interview: Read More

Dec
8

By

5 dystopian worlds in science fiction

Category: Inspiration for writing Tags: , , , , , Leave a Comment

Blade Runner city

Science fiction can show us many different worlds, and I don’t just mean different planets. check this site for more information related to the science and technology .Different governments and different ways of living are interesting too. One of my favourites is the dystopian world, showing a parallel or future world where things aren’t quite as nice and rosy as they are now.

Here’s some examples of dystopian worlds in science fiction. Read More

Dec
6

By

Interview with Elena Vasilescu, from Before the Mast RPG

Category: Interviews, non-PBP roleplaying, Play-by-post discussion Tags: Leave a Comment

Before the Mast posterLast week I interviewed Elena Vasilescu from Before the Mast RPG, with a few questions left over, I wanted to ask how the game came about, and how someone from Romania who speaks French and Spanish, and with players across the world ended up creating a roleplaying game written primarily in English.

Before the Mast has been running since the 6th of August 2010, and has been very active using social media, especially on Twitter and Facebook. I interviewed their moderator Elena Vasilescu and asked her about the game. Read More

Nov
23

By

Don't turn new members away!

Category: Play-by-post discussion Tags: Leave a Comment

Go away floor mat

Recruiting new members into your roleplaying game can be very difficult. Roleplaying is quite a niche hobby, and not everyone has the patience and the writing ability to roleplay properly. Also it’s sort of difficult to get your head around understanding what roleplaying actually is, unless you’ve done it before. Read More

Nov
16

By

Before the Mast, roleplaying in the Age of Sail [Interview]

Category: Interviews, non-PBP roleplaying, PBEM games Tags: 1 Comment

Before the Mast sailing ships

Before the Mast is a forum-based roleplaying game set in the ‘age of sail’, a term I’ve only recently learned – I’ve previously just called it “pirate times”, but it’s clear there’s a lot going on at this time in history, which is where Before the Mast RPG comes in. Fixing itself firmly in history, this is a roleplaying game (or “writing community” as Elena prefers) for history fans.

The game has been running since the 6th of August 2010, and Before the Mast has been very active especially on Twitter and Facebook. I interviewed their moderator Elena Vasilescu and asked her about the game. Read More

Nov
10

By

Godmodding: The Q effect

Category: Play-by-post discussion Tags: , Leave a Comment

Q from Star TrekThere are many types of godmodders in roleplaying games, but for me it’s Q from Star Trek who represents the most dangerous type. I love Star Trek, and I especially love the character Q. He’s funny, he’s playful, and he’s all powerful, which is a very dangerous combination for a foe. But it’s the all-powerful that’s most dangerous to the integrity of the storyline on Star Trek.

When I was younger I would watch many Star Trek episodes where they got into danger, and used to wonder, what if Q showed up right now and just saved them by clicking his fingers – wouldn’t that just be awesome?

But no, it wouldn’t be awesome, it’d be boring. If that happened, the Enterprise would never really be in any danger, and the characters would never be in any kind or peril. There would be no tension or drama.

In roleplaying games you need that same sense of danger, which adds drama to the story.

Read More

Oct
21

By

USS Providence, a chat-based sim

Category: non-PBP roleplaying, PBEM games, Play-by-post discussion Tags: , , 3 Comments

USS ProvidenceContinuing our theme of Star Trek sims (we’ll stop and cover a different genre soon, I promise!) here’s an interview with Josh from USS Providence, part of the FSF (Federation Sim Fleet). Fleets seem very popular with Star Trek sims, it’s easy to unite games when they stare the same theme and same universe. Like I’ve already mentioned in the article about Star Trek Freedom, the sense of community in fleets can make it a great experience, which is probably why many Star Trek sims seem to have existed for a very long time.

The USS Providence sim began February 22nd, 2003. It has run continuously since then. I chatted with Josh Hrach, who is the GM for the USS Providence. Read More

Oct
14

By

Starbase 118 – serious Star Trek simming

Category: Interviews, non-PBP roleplaying Tags: , 1 Comment

Federation Starbase

Star Trek is one of the most popular genres of play-by-post games, some having been played way back since the 80’s when PBEM games really started. If you want to roleplay in the same universe as Captain Kirk, and Captain Picard, you’ve got plenty of choice of games to join. Many of these Star Trek games have organised themselves together over the last few decades into fleets, allowing many games to be run in parallel sharing the same resources, members and sometimes sharing the same stories.

One of these fleets is UFOP: Starbase 118, which is a fleet of 7 games, each game set aboard a different starship or starbase, and one set on a planet.

I interviewed Miles Unum from Starbase 118, asking him about the fleet. Read More

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »