OngoingWorlds blog

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

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Simming Prize Nominations Now Open

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The Simming Prize Image by Jack Carter

It’s that time of year again! Time for us simmers and roleplayers to put down our D-20 dice or autosave our posts on OW and nominate for the biggest award in simming, The 2014 Simming Prize! (The Simmy’s if you prefer)

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Does Everybody Need A Character?

Army peeps

It’s not about the diversity. It’s because JIM DOESN’T KNOW WHEN TO STOP CREATING CHARACTERS!

The title may seem misleading, like “does every member need a character?” Well… yes they do, if not what’s the point of being in the game? But this is about something I’ve actually done before and I’m still a culprit for sometimes in game development. What I’m talking about is creating a character for everyone [not members] that seems to get involved in the story. Like creating one for a guy that will only be used once in a while or once, period. Doing this can lead to a giant list of characters you created that end up either forgotten or just deleted. Read More

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10 places to advertise your PBEM roleplaying game

Billboard that says join my play-by-post game

Sometimes it can be difficult to get new members, especially if you’ve only just created your game. People won’t join your game if they don’t know about it, so you’ll have to promote it as much as you can (as long as you do it the right way). Read More

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Contest Time! The 2014 Quote Competition!

Xanadu Crest

Today, my fellow Kazon, we stand on the precipice of what may very well be one of the most tragic failures of peace in the history of our world. As I speak, the gears of war are turning, drawing us closer and closer to a conflict that will no doubt kill thousands and devastate the region for years to come. God have mercy on us all

Kal Verner, State Radio Broadcasting Network Anchorman – The Steam Age

Who doesn’t love a good quote? They can be tragic, like the one above, inspirational, like the speech before a big battle, or monumentally ignorant, like a person making a speech about a topic they have little knowledge of.

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Will typos & bad grammar bring about the world’s end? (Hint: No it won’t)

Roleplay apocalypse

A few weeks ago I posted an article about spelling and grammar, asking the question how much should you care about grammar in posts in your game. There was a frenzy of comments, some in disgust at the deliberate typo I’d made in the article’s title (I really know how to make writers wince!). Read More

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We’re 100% funded this year – And here’s who I’d like to thank

100% funded Hello you lovely roleplayers! I’m in a good mood today because I just did some maths (and those who know me, know how much I hate maths, and how terrible I am at it!), and I calculated that you – the lovely members of OngoingWorlds have funded the entire year’s server costs for 2014!  Read More

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Flashback week competition runner-up – James LeChance from ORIGIN

Here’s the runner up for the Flashback week competition 2014, written by MrXanadu. You can see the winning story by clicking here.

3rd place – “James LeChance” from ORIGIN

james lechanceKirrath Prime, Orsai System
June 25th 2353….two years before the ORIGIN expedition

The Archaeology Department at Earth University had finally gotten permission from the Kirrathian Government to unearth the Ironian ruins along the Ukar River basin. It had been a tedious process, but the government finally caved and lifted their restrictions. Read More

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Flashback week competition runner-up – Savis from Nova Lux

Here’s the runner up for the Flashback week competition 2014, written by Tib. You can see the winning story by clicking here.

2nd place – “Savis” from Nova Lux

SavisWritten by Tiberius Creations

The morning rose over the mountains, the wind whipping the sand around like mini tornadoes dancing to nature’s barren ballet. The sun peeked through the small window and into the basement that the inhabitants of Defiance called home. It eventually reached Savis’ eyes, blinding him and waking him up. He sat up and grumbled “over ninety million miles away and it has perfect aim.” Savis stood up off the bed and moved towards his closet. Read More

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Announcing the winner of the Flashback week competition – 2014

Flashback week - write and roleplay about your character's past

A few weeks ago we ran a week-long event called Flashback week where we encouraged roleplayers and writers to think about the backstory of their character and write about a flashback to a different time in their lives. We held a competition for the best story, and our team of judges have voted, and the scores have been calculated! Read More

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How to create believable characters – use the 2:1 rule for flaws vs awesome

Doctor who saying I'm brilliant

I found an article that gave some simple advice on creating characters recently (you can see the article here). Most of the points are to prevent you from creating Marty Stu or Gary Stu characters. One of the great points was that you should use a 2:1 rule: Read More