The End of Antu'Rah OOC

Hi guys,

Words gotten back to me that some of you are a little uneasy / unsure with forum based RP, so I thought I would share my experiences with you, to help you along with things. Would have done this, this yesterday, but I was involved in a car accident and have had unnecessary delays.

Anyway, a while ago I ran a couple of forum based RP’s set in the Warhammer 40000 universe for a bunch of like minded Chaos Space Marine players. Now while the setting is different the way to handle it is the same.

Firstly, just relax and enjoy it, it is going to be slower paced than “Live” RP in game, so chill.

Secondly, make good, full descriptions. You might know where your character is, what they are wearing etc, but the other players and more importantly the GM does not. Complaining afterwards that the GM doesn’t know where you are, won’t let you use your flame thrower, etc will just upset the GM if you did not explain yourself properly in the first place. If you think the description is over the top, do it anyway just to make sure your intentions are clear.

Thirdly, play your character, and no-one else’s. We all hate God-Moding when it happens to us right? Well it is quite easy to do it in forum RP, you know what your character wants / needs to do and may need to interact or talk to another character to achieve this goal, but even if you have to cut your update short because of it, wait for their reaction before proceeding. If you think it is taking too long then PM the GM to organise a work around or acceptable story progression.

Fourthly, you are the player not the story teller. This point was perhaps the most frustrating to discover as a GM in a forum RP. Sure your players may think it is cool to get ambushed by Orcs whilst scouting the jungle, but the GM undoubtedly has other plans for both you and the story, so let them tell it. If you really want something to happen them PM the GM and ask nicely, if they are alright with it, you’ll get an inclusion in a “World Post”, if not then I am sure the GM will have a good reason why they want to hold back on something big.

Fifthly, OOC. Littering a forum RP with out of character conversation is messy. I know you might want to tell another player their action was cool, you might want to give some clarification that can only be explained out of character-ly, or you might want to ask a question, that is important or general enough that does not merit a PM. I found the best way to handle this was to have a separate thread specifically for the OOC interaction for the plot, so feel free to make use of the replies for this thread to handle OOC for the destruction of the valley, or make a separate one, at your discretion.

Lastly, communication. I hear several comments of “Aww but I wanted to interact with your character, but the plot moved away too quickly” with the response of “It’s been two days and you have not posted anything”. Don’t wait around for others to make the first move, because otherwise everyone will. If you want to have your character lead into it, or want a specific thing to happen to allow a certain interaction, then PM the other player and see if they are ok with it, and set something up that will work for both of you. If you just leave it to fate, then you have nobody but yourself to blame when what you want does not happen.

Hope these few points help you in having fun with this RP, and don’t be afraid of asking questions if you need to.

Nice guide, thanks.... You heretic

I have a question.
When this forum RP started, I just decided to bring Snicka back to RP. I had a half-planned plot for him about getting his spirit healed, but I didn't know in what stage it will be when the Cataclysm hits Antu'Rah. And now I am afraid it is too late to introduce him to the plot, as it has already advanced and there was no mention of him being there (as I didn't mention him).
Should I assume he was not in the Valley for some reason when the disaster shaked the world?

I think it is largely down to how you want to get written into the plot if you want to be there. You could for example, have been thrown into a wall, had a rock hit you on the head at the very moment the start of the cataclysm happened, thus been unconscious until now. You could be out in the jungle hunting / foraging and could relay the events of the outside world back through the link (like the whirlpool opening up), you could even be out in Northrend (where the effects are hardly felt) or Outland and be confused / concerned by the happenings through the link while making your way back.

Its up to you about where you want to go with it. However I would recommend discussing what you want to do with Malin OOC to make sure you can be written in properly, and with potential to have interesting things happen plot-wise.

Mmm... What about the rope bridges? Are they still intact?

I seriously doubt the bridges could withstand the devastation .. and even if they are would it be suicide to go out on one.

I plan to point out specifically when things fall apart, such as bridges and buildings. Without going back to check, and with a brain half shut down by fever, I think the only things I've pointed out so far is the huts collapsing and the temple on the hill above the town hall collapsing and thus crushing the town hall.

If they were they arent anymore... Zulzinjin cut the first after walking over it

sorry ry didnt see your comment... i can remove that part

One more question then. How were people getting up to the entrance if the bridges are gone and what's the current condition of the river below?

Also it might be a good idea to update the destruction status somewhere with the map.

Ry just said the bridges aren't broken?

At least one of them is now (or not?). And my bad, Zor actually passed it before it was cut down. The river part of the question still remains though.

To clarify:

She gulps and looks below her - to the water she so liked to jump to. Right now she wouldn't dare - shallow river was full of sharp, huge stones and rubble.

This one suggests there isn't much of a river left below.

Hadunka slides down the vertical cliff towards the ledge Ziri is on, just as Lahni looks up towards their daughter.

And does this mean Lahni is actually standing in the middle of the riverbed?

As I understood it is Lahni standing close to the river about were Euphs hut is looking up at the ledge Ziri is on. At the same location is Chajnka. This would be next to the river bed on the way from the second bridge (counted from the entrance).

and I take it the river is still there ... but so full of roks you can not jump in to it without getting injured. So ye .. had was a bit to rash in getting on to the ledge I have a way to get him and Ziri. I guess me Kaz and Lahni should discus this this evening before we write any thing about it.

Ass for the briges .. well Ry have not said any thing of it realy. So they have not bin destroyed by the earth at least. But Euphs dark herald have cut down one of them (the one closest to the entrance what I understand).

Well, firstly, i really don't remember ever discussing doing this forum rp...but, as this is far more likely to be down to either a lack of attention or plain drunkness on my part, i'll not mention it further.

Secondly, i'll hold my hands up, i'm not a fan of forum rp. I find it very stilted and not conducive to creativity. Again, this is probably just my problem, so there you go.

With regards to complaints about things moving too fast, i found that (due to my snail paced typing and anally retentive need for things to be 'just so' when i write) i'd see something i wanted to respond to but by the time i was ready to post, things had gone past the point where my reply would have made sense. Why didn't i just re-write it?....same problem again until i simply give up because i have better things to do...like actually logging to WoW for some rp

Also, depsite the fact that i can veiw the forum anywhere on my phone, i may not actually be able to post. My phone is a bit hit and miss on that score and it takes me even longer...so yeah, it may be some time before i'm actually able to respond to something up in the thread.

I guess i could have simply stayed out of it, but when people who aren't even in the guild are getting involved, i kinda felt obliged and i'd be missing out on things again...

Having this thread to ask ooc questions or perhaps plan some of the interaction a bit so things flow better is a very good idea though. It is another bugbear of mine with forum rp that they do usually get cluttered with ooc stuff when people try to do just that so thumbs up for that one.

Finally, just to clarify, I'm not posting stuff 'for' Kaz. We rp'd our intereaction in /w and i just wrote it up. It suits me better tbh and i'm planning to continue to do it that way.

I guess I'd better explain my choice of forum rp again then.

There are two main reasons for this.

1: This is something we can't really rp out in the valley, since I'll be changing the world itself (just you wait, I'm just getting warmed up so far )

2: We'll need to do this ahead of time, since I very much doubt everyone will be around and available on the day of the cata release.


A third one would be that I thought it'd be interesting to explore other expressions of rp for the guild. I know that for example Ashen Order work a lot with other ways to rp, mainly customized channels where they can create and control settings not normally available in the game, and I think the Heritage might benefit from exploring different options.

I know that all kinds of rp has it's ups and downs. Forum rp is slow (though the main complaint seems to be it's too fast.. Funny, isn't it?). It ends up being large amounts of text. But on the other hand, I can work as a gm and control things we can't normall affect in the game. And we have a chance to be far more detailed and descriptive in our own rp, thus expressing ourselves in a way not normally possible.

Seeing as I came from a forum rp background (namely the past decade of my life have been spent pottering from one site to the next and still am along side Wow!) I like this approach, it's interesting to see how other people react to it that aren't normally used to it

As for the other methods of rp for the guild...I agree, it's nice to have something different for a change as opposed to simply having to hunt down people ingame...Kind of like the House, their /g chat is a guild hall on what is seemingly a different time line. For example say I was off in ICC (where I seem to live these days) and Thugha was in Orgrimma doing other random ooc stuff, you could use the /g chat to rp...Now I'm NOT saying we should change the /g chat from the link to a guild hall...I'm just meerly pointing out another alternative we might like to consider for another channel or something.

with the risk of messing things up ... but sins we do have a OOC channel we could make the /O channel guildhall(ish). Sins HoZooc was made have I nearly never used /o any more for OOC stuff. Only if some one else have started the conversation with me in there.

as for forum rp .. I have never don it. But I have with some friends' bin playing over g mail and it is a similar thing Id believe. The thing for me is similar to Julie, I take time to make the post. I also spend most of may day working on my family hotel (unless I am sick). And the time I am free for computer Id like to spend on-line in wow. Then again I find this forum rp to be a fun read. Problem for me is that the ideal pace of progression would be to write one post every 2 or 3 days. In this case have I also two chars and a number of panthers to think of (my own fault there I know).

Meeeh this fells a bit like a whine and is not what I had in mind. *Sigh*. I think that once I get more used to this It might get better for me. I still remember how hard I found it to Rp in wow with the text chat (having a spelling disorder and not used to how it is commonly don). But I fell fairly confident now even if my fellow rp:ers have to decode my text at times ^^

Any way .. I will make best due of it and press my typing and imagination a few levels to try and keep up with the pace ^^

Meh, i'm not really keen on that either tbh. Why pretend you're in a guild hall interacting with the other characters...when you're actually in Orgrimmar and available to rp with somebody there? I just don't get it...

Sorry....my problem again. I know... i suck

That you do...But we love you none the less ^^

Because you might, for example, want to be able to rp while you're doing your boring dailies and heroics.


And as for forum rp.. Sure, the posts are longer than regular rp. But if a thread that updates once every few hours, just a few times a day, how one earth do you deal with real time rp?

Ryleen wrote:Because you might, for example, want to be able to rp while you're doing your boring dailies and heroics.

i can;t do that. i suck so badly at typing that i have to stop doing those things to take part in the channel rp. Also, if i found them that boring, i wouldn't be doing them anyway

And as for forum rp.. Sure, the posts are longer than regular rp. But if a thread that updates once every few hours, just a few times a day, how one earth do you deal with real time rp?

easy, because i'm sat at the pc doing it...the rest of the day i'm working, and when i get home i have stuff to do around the house so its sometimes 12 hours in between the times that i can post

Edit, i'll elaborate a bit here. ToC had the 'guild hall' style rp in /g and i often found people logged in, started to rp in there, then got angry because i didn't respond (usually because i was getting my ass handed to me in AV) and accused me of ignoring them

Well, I'm not saying everyone must enjoy and take part in everything. But there are people who might like it, and I want to open up more options for them.

After discussion with Ry, Zulzinjin is off for now. All things he have done... nevevermind em.

Well i find the forum rp is quite fun though. trouble is the misunderstandings and two persons respond on same thing at about same time, which has been common in the few forum rps i tried. It has then also been the main reason i stopped forum rp, the lonely few i tried.
If several ppl try to do same thing at same time disputes may occur.
As i became little annoied on hads attempt to rescue Ziri, as it ignored mine... but understood we just started writing at around same time, i just finished before him.
We do still have to be more precise where we are at map, me too yes, as im unsure where several of you are, even where myself/Nimnir are on it. Now we are about 5 chars there and several more closeby... i think

It might help to do what I'm doing at the bottom of your posts...Make an OOC note of where you are It helps everyone.