Welcome to the Playground, where you can invoke your imagination and play "Let's Pretend" for a while! I'll go over the process for not only how to participate in an on-going role playing game, but how to create your very own game here on Prismatica! But first, let's actually spell out what's here.
Each game has a brief introductory description, that's hopefully designed to at least pique some curiosity to lure you into reading the first couple of posts within the game world. Who knows? Maybe you'll be absorbed into, and become the latest isekai?
Every game is based in a set of genres-- the primary setting for the game. Whether it's something futuristic or historical or maybe just a Slice of Life, cozy game, these keywords will help to set the mood you're about to invoke. Any genre you can think of from Hollywood or literature can be role played!
Because we're an anime fan-site, it should be totally expected that most of the games hosted here would be set in an established anime setting. Maybe it's Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, or Ah! My Goddess, the primary setting(s) that you'll need ot have knowledge about will be listed to help you have a more immersed, fun time.
Player comfort is one of the highest priorities here at Prismatica. Some players don't care if their imagination is a billboard for others to laugh at. Other people, though use role playing as a means of working through deeply buried trauma or have intimate emotional experiences that are shared among the fictional characters we portray. Therefore, each game's Accessibility Level is declared at the front door so that you aren't hit by a brick wall, folding chair, or the random flying dining room table of emotional baggage that's being experienced inside. There are three different Access Levels: Public, Members Only, and Private. These will be detailed down below.
Finally, if the game is using a published rule set, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Role Master, etc, it will be listed here. Rule sets are used to keep games balanced and fair. However, not every game will use a dedicated game system, in fact, many players prefer not to be restricted to a mechanical rule base.
There are hundreds of published role playing games in the world today, and each one of them has a few guidelines for defining your Character Concept. Many will use an Archetype system, like Dungeons & Dragons. You flip through the book, decide which Character Classes look interesting and then you build your Character Sheet with the options presented for that Archetype. I feel that more Narrative based games, like FATE or Cypher System really have emphasized this process. In FATE, you define a critical Aspect that describes your character in a statement. While in Cypher System, you build your concept using a sentence of three key terms: A Descriptor, a Type, and a Focus. Regardless, defining your character concept clearly is crucial to knowing how to portray your character in game.
After you design your character it's time to role play. Role playing using Play By Post (PbP) is a little different than playing around a table, because around a table, initiative is one of the most important aspects of gameplay because without it, the game devolves into chaos. Forum play, on the other hand, posting consistency is paramount, but even more important is the content of your post. Every time you participate in a forum role play, you should always include some hook that other players can latch on to. This is important because hooks have the capability to increase the amount of posting that happens in a game. And the number one killer of forum games? Stagnation. A lack of fresh posts will kill a game faster than a misinterpreted rule. Preventing stagnation is why I always recommend creating at least two different characters that can interact with one another.
Now that we've covered the most important thing about forum role play, you should know how to make a post. And, this is surprisingly easy. Typically, you'll want to include some scenery description, some dialogue, and at least one action beat. All too often, I've seen games devolve into one-liners, and that's usually a player inserting their character to either do something, or say something, and that's usually answering another character's question. If you try to provide all three, description, dialogue, and action beat, that will usually guarantee generating a hook for other players. Let's take a quick look at each one of these three crucial parts.
Scenery description: Typically, whenever you enter a scene, you'll want to describe what your characters sees, hears, smells, feels, and possibly tastes. Most people tend to default to only relying on their character's vision, but trying to include the other senses, only makes your post more inciting to other players. Even if you're starting with details that everybody knows-- the sky is clear and blue... the hallway echoed my every footstep, there was a stench of death hanging in the air,.... Whether you're reiterating something somebody else has already or you decide to create something new to add to the scene, initial description added to your post will give extra details for other players to use in their own posts.
Dialogue: Usually, characters aren't going around talking to themselves, which is why I recommend playing with multiple characters. Other characters may not have the ability of Telepathy to read your character's mind, but they could certainly overhear a conversation you're having between two characters you possess. Dialogue naturally invites other characters into the scene, regardless of their intentions or motivations. Again, just try not to fall into the trap of only replying to a conversation. Yes, I'm guilty of that too. I'm workin' on it!
Action Beats: These are simply your character doing something, anything. They help to move the plot forward. They introduce complications to your character and anybody else around you! These give reasons to roll our fancy Math Rocks. Actions are the entire reason why we're role playing, right? At least I do. There's just simply some things that I can not physically do in my meat suit. Role playing is a way to scratch certain itches. Anyway, as mentioned before, this is when we get to roll the dice, and depending on the system that's being used, the rules will dictated if you manage to do the thing or not.
Basically, that's role playing in a nutshell. You take turns posting, to create a wonderful story that may or may not be read ever again! See above for the graveyard of stories for some examples of how to play-- and not to play!
First, you'll need a basic plot. If you don't have one, this is going to be a very difficult process. Go sit in a dark room, with no stimulation of any kind and think. What movie do you see in your head? What's the point of the story? To help you, here's a quick and dirty list of the seven plots that every movie, book, and story boils down into:
Your game may fall into several genres, and that's totally cool! You don't have to pick just one. Just pick the ones that are the most important. You also don't have to commit to any specific genres. These are merely guides to help potential players find games they'd be interested in participating in.
If your game uses the fictional world from a known anime, please include it! It'll result in less work for you when you go to do the entire World Building part of your game. This makes it fast and easy for people who already know an anime to join.
Prismatica offers three Visibility modes for each game that's created. These are present because some people would prefer their imaginative work to be safe-guarded. Unless you determine a Visibility, the default of Public will be assumed. Quickly, the three Accessibility Levels are defined:
There are a group of special topic prefixes that are encouraged for use. These help to identify topics that could become lost, especially in very busy games.
But beyond that, once you actually have players, you should attempt to pay attention to your player's scheduling needs. Keep in mind that forum based games tend to operate much slower than other mediums of gameplay. You must have patience if you're going to run a forum game. While I'll admit, I loved seeing the back and forth, rapid-fire posts of a decade ago, I'm usually content with players posting once a week. We're all busy adults now with lots of other commitments.
You're the rules master. You're also the primary moderator of your game. If players are having arguments in-game, you should proactively move that drama outside of your game into another topic with the appropriate message prefix attached.
Role Playing 100: Where in the [redacted] am I?
The first thing you'll notice with this area is a bunch of sub-boards. Each one of these is a dedicated role playing game, that allows you to be completely immersed in its own fiction. I've tried to keep these ordered alphabetically to make it easier to locate your favorite game, however, sometimes my dyslexia acts up and gets grumpy. You've been warned!Each game has a brief introductory description, that's hopefully designed to at least pique some curiosity to lure you into reading the first couple of posts within the game world. Who knows? Maybe you'll be absorbed into, and become the latest isekai?
Every game is based in a set of genres-- the primary setting for the game. Whether it's something futuristic or historical or maybe just a Slice of Life, cozy game, these keywords will help to set the mood you're about to invoke. Any genre you can think of from Hollywood or literature can be role played!
Because we're an anime fan-site, it should be totally expected that most of the games hosted here would be set in an established anime setting. Maybe it's Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, or Ah! My Goddess, the primary setting(s) that you'll need ot have knowledge about will be listed to help you have a more immersed, fun time.
Player comfort is one of the highest priorities here at Prismatica. Some players don't care if their imagination is a billboard for others to laugh at. Other people, though use role playing as a means of working through deeply buried trauma or have intimate emotional experiences that are shared among the fictional characters we portray. Therefore, each game's Accessibility Level is declared at the front door so that you aren't hit by a brick wall, folding chair, or the random flying dining room table of emotional baggage that's being experienced inside. There are three different Access Levels: Public, Members Only, and Private. These will be detailed down below.
Finally, if the game is using a published rule set, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Role Master, etc, it will be listed here. Rule sets are used to keep games balanced and fair. However, not every game will use a dedicated game system, in fact, many players prefer not to be restricted to a mechanical rule base.
Role Playing 101: Invoking your imagination!
Table top role playing is very much like the game you played as a little kid, Let's Pretend. But there's typically more rules involved. But before we get into that, there's one very important question that you must answer: Who do you want to be? We, as a society are inundated with fictional worlds and people. Role playing gives us the opportunity to try on that persona for a while, in a safe, mostly comfortable environment. So, the very first thing you need to do, either before jumping into a game, or immediately after the initial exploration, is to define your Character Concept.There are hundreds of published role playing games in the world today, and each one of them has a few guidelines for defining your Character Concept. Many will use an Archetype system, like Dungeons & Dragons. You flip through the book, decide which Character Classes look interesting and then you build your Character Sheet with the options presented for that Archetype. I feel that more Narrative based games, like FATE or Cypher System really have emphasized this process. In FATE, you define a critical Aspect that describes your character in a statement. While in Cypher System, you build your concept using a sentence of three key terms: A Descriptor, a Type, and a Focus. Regardless, defining your character concept clearly is crucial to knowing how to portray your character in game.
After you design your character it's time to role play. Role playing using Play By Post (PbP) is a little different than playing around a table, because around a table, initiative is one of the most important aspects of gameplay because without it, the game devolves into chaos. Forum play, on the other hand, posting consistency is paramount, but even more important is the content of your post. Every time you participate in a forum role play, you should always include some hook that other players can latch on to. This is important because hooks have the capability to increase the amount of posting that happens in a game. And the number one killer of forum games? Stagnation. A lack of fresh posts will kill a game faster than a misinterpreted rule. Preventing stagnation is why I always recommend creating at least two different characters that can interact with one another.
Now that we've covered the most important thing about forum role play, you should know how to make a post. And, this is surprisingly easy. Typically, you'll want to include some scenery description, some dialogue, and at least one action beat. All too often, I've seen games devolve into one-liners, and that's usually a player inserting their character to either do something, or say something, and that's usually answering another character's question. If you try to provide all three, description, dialogue, and action beat, that will usually guarantee generating a hook for other players. Let's take a quick look at each one of these three crucial parts.
Scenery description: Typically, whenever you enter a scene, you'll want to describe what your characters sees, hears, smells, feels, and possibly tastes. Most people tend to default to only relying on their character's vision, but trying to include the other senses, only makes your post more inciting to other players. Even if you're starting with details that everybody knows-- the sky is clear and blue... the hallway echoed my every footstep, there was a stench of death hanging in the air,.... Whether you're reiterating something somebody else has already or you decide to create something new to add to the scene, initial description added to your post will give extra details for other players to use in their own posts.
Dialogue: Usually, characters aren't going around talking to themselves, which is why I recommend playing with multiple characters. Other characters may not have the ability of Telepathy to read your character's mind, but they could certainly overhear a conversation you're having between two characters you possess. Dialogue naturally invites other characters into the scene, regardless of their intentions or motivations. Again, just try not to fall into the trap of only replying to a conversation. Yes, I'm guilty of that too. I'm workin' on it!
Action Beats: These are simply your character doing something, anything. They help to move the plot forward. They introduce complications to your character and anybody else around you! These give reasons to roll our fancy Math Rocks. Actions are the entire reason why we're role playing, right? At least I do. There's just simply some things that I can not physically do in my meat suit. Role playing is a way to scratch certain itches. Anyway, as mentioned before, this is when we get to roll the dice, and depending on the system that's being used, the rules will dictated if you manage to do the thing or not.
Basically, that's role playing in a nutshell. You take turns posting, to create a wonderful story that may or may not be read ever again! See above for the graveyard of stories for some examples of how to play-- and not to play!
Role Playing 200: Starting your own game.
Okay, so you want to play a game, but nothing that's currently listed strikes your fancy? Don't worry. We got you! Just create your own [redacted] game! And it's surprisingly simple to do.First, you'll need a basic plot. If you don't have one, this is going to be a very difficult process. Go sit in a dark room, with no stimulation of any kind and think. What movie do you see in your head? What's the point of the story? To help you, here's a quick and dirty list of the seven plots that every movie, book, and story boils down into:
- Comedy
- Overcoming the Monster
- The Quest
- Rags to Riches
- Rebirth
- Tragedy
- Voyage and Return
Your game may fall into several genres, and that's totally cool! You don't have to pick just one. Just pick the ones that are the most important. You also don't have to commit to any specific genres. These are merely guides to help potential players find games they'd be interested in participating in.
If your game uses the fictional world from a known anime, please include it! It'll result in less work for you when you go to do the entire World Building part of your game. This makes it fast and easy for people who already know an anime to join.
Prismatica offers three Visibility modes for each game that's created. These are present because some people would prefer their imaginative work to be safe-guarded. Unless you determine a Visibility, the default of Public will be assumed. Quickly, the three Accessibility Levels are defined:
- Public: Anybody on the Internet can read all of the posts, characters, and behind the scenes table talk that happens in the game.
- Members Only: Only registered members who are actively signed into Prismatica can read the games' contents.
- Private: Only specific registered members can read the contents of the game. This may be individual members, or a designated member-group of members. Only a Staff Member can add a member to a Private game, so keep this in mind-- also the fact that Staff Members can see all messages, regardless.
There are a group of special topic prefixes that are encouraged for use. These help to identify topics that could become lost, especially in very busy games.
- Character: This topic indicates that it defines a character, which may or may not be formatted in a specified look.
- Discussion: This topic is general Out Of Character table talk. Discuss the process of the game, rules, player absences, etc.
- Idea: Use this tag if you have an idea you want to present to your player group.
- Information: This topic includes lore about your world or setting that's important for the game.
- NPC: This topic is a special type of Character, that is controlled by the Game Master of the game. Typically, you'll want to include NPC information so that your Players aren't necessarily waiting around for you, the Game Master to make a decision, ability, or motivation regarding this specific Character.
- RPG: An In-Character board. This is your actual game's progress.
- Rules: Denoted by a red tag, this topic includes any game specific rulings that the game creator wishes to impose. These are not necessarily rules derived from any core rule book when using a System.
- Update: Use this for important game updates, summaries, or rule changes.
Role Playing 201: Responsibilities of a Game Master.
Perhaps responsibilities is the wrong word to use here, but I think it does illustrate how important your conduct is as a Game Master. After all, it's your world, without you, the world dies. Believe me, I've see this happen more times that I care to admit. Anyway, a part of your job is to ensure the game continues moving forward. That means that initially, you'll probably be the only person adding to your game. Do note that this may become rather boring, but keep at it anyway-- another reason why I suggest creating multiple characters. You'll be playing with yourself... A LOT.But beyond that, once you actually have players, you should attempt to pay attention to your player's scheduling needs. Keep in mind that forum based games tend to operate much slower than other mediums of gameplay. You must have patience if you're going to run a forum game. While I'll admit, I loved seeing the back and forth, rapid-fire posts of a decade ago, I'm usually content with players posting once a week. We're all busy adults now with lots of other commitments.
You're the rules master. You're also the primary moderator of your game. If players are having arguments in-game, you should proactively move that drama outside of your game into another topic with the appropriate message prefix attached.
