rpg_critique

When creating a site, one of the most important aspects is a layout. Naturally, content becomes more important once you have players on board, but the layout is the first thing to grab wandering eyes. That said, does you layout need to be updated? This article will consider layout updates. A future article with contain some of the other important aspects of building a good layout.

First things first – are you competent with HTML? Do you want images in you site layout? If you do, are you a competent manipulator or do you require studio help?

As you consider these questions, also bear in mind that you want your layout to be aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. This ensures that advertisers don’t get annoyed because they can’t find your advertisement board, and it also ensures your players can successfully locate where they’re trying to go. Showing off how complex you can make your HTML is not necessarily where you want to be headed with your layouts.

Once you’ve decided a layout style that best suits your site and ambitions, run checks on it before it’s launched. That is to say, do not let a site go up with broken HTML. It looks sloppy and the broken HTML could lead to problems with viewing on certain browsers – and that is something you definitely don’t want! Potential players with layout problems are not likely to remain potential players.

Now onto the main points, having gotten the nitty gritty out of the way.

Do I Need to Update My Layout?

Simply stated, no, you don’t.

Sometimes you come up with a layout that is simple, unassuming, and makes you happy. It is entirely your decision to leave it that way. Make sure that, as you/if you add links, they still fit where they need to, and that the site looks good on a variety of browsers and screen sizes.

If you’re like me, you like a little variety. That said, while you don’t need to update your site’s layout, it does add variety. I’ve had numerous players say to me that they were ecstatic because of a new layout I’d made because it helped boost their muse. One thing we, as writers, hate to hear about in our RPs is writer’s block. Of course, we can’t be mad about it, but it does happen. As layouts do provide a possible break from this, I encourage new layouts.

Other advantages of new layouts for the owners, you ask? How about taking up some time. Experimenting with new HTML actually can be very involved and rewarding. Deciding to undertake a new layout gives you that opportunity without asking for you to completely come up with a new game. Moreover, it might save you from doing something drastic – like creating three new characters, or beginning a drawn-out thread to yourself. (God forbid you get that bored.)

When Do I Update?

If you’ve decided that you want to update your site layout, bear in mind that not every player gets on seven days a week. Some can only make it on during weekends, or three nights out of the week total. Even if you have the stamina and initiative, do not update a layout more than once a month, especially if you’re experimenting with different styles of HTML. That just ends up confusing players, making them annoyed at you, and in general getting them lost on the site.

I find that every two months is a good time span for layout life, especially if you enjoy making them. If you’re not sure you have that kind of time or dedication, try seasonally. In the case of Species, I tend to update about every two months, sometimes a little more (holidays seem to require new layouts in my book).

All in all, layout updates are completely up to the owner’s preference. Hopefully I’ve added some tips on when/how frequently layouts might be updated, or the usefulness of new layouts.

Comments are entirely welcome, as always. If anyone has a specific topic they’d like to see covered, please comment or email me your idea.

The long and the short of it aside, Roman was a delight to interview, and very gracious. Below is transcribed for you a bit about 1776, her role-playing game.

Q. In a few sentences, can you give us a description of the plot in 1776?
A. 1776 is an American Revolutionary War RPG primarily set on Manhattan Island (New York City and nearby settlements and villages) and the surrounding areas in what was then known as the Province of New York. The plot is mainly centered around the events that span the war, both before and after the invasion of New York by the British in-- you guessed it-- 1776. Despite the "historical" backdrop of the game, most of the action is driven by character interaction and conflict. The historical accents not only lend authenticity to the game, but they lend depth and context to the characters of 1776. They also open up lots of delicious plot opportunities and help give shape and direction to things to come.

Q. Could you give any insight into the key inspiration behind 1776, and your desire to create the game?
A. I have always loved history, especially the colonial/Revolutionary War era. Over time, my desire to RP characters in this setting grew stronger until I could no longer contain myself-- I had to make 1776. I had investigated "historical" RPGs in the past, but I never joined any of them. Most seemed to lack any real desire to emulate the period, preferring to woo potential members with parties and pretty dresses rather than satiate the need for a solid structure that accurately reflects the time period. My goal with 1776 was to strike a balance-- create something that could be fun, but also true to history and God forbid-- even a little educational! I wanted something that was as true to life as possible, but that also allowed for creativity and opportunity. The toughest part was deciding to set the game in New York [City]. Oh yes... and the research.

Q. I guess the next question, logically would be, how long (approximately) have you been involved in the RP world?
A. Approximately 8 years.

Q. And you said you’ve owned other RPs in the past?
A. I have.

Q. Comparatively, would you say that putting the research into constructing 1776 has made it more or less interesting to you? (Or/additionally, does the time you've put into it make you more hopeful it will succeed?)
A. Putting research into 1776 has made it infinitely more interesting to me. Not only have I learned facts about events, clothing, and historical figures, but it’s given me a real sense of what the period was like-- people's attitudes, homes, businesses, families... It's been nice to be able to weave that into posts; it's a great feeling to try and "break into" the psyches of people at the time.

Naturally, after all the time and effort I've poured into research, I really do hope that 1776 will "succeed", but it depends on the definition of "success". I would love to have lots of active, talented writers on the game that have a reasonable (or dare I say exceptional!) understanding of history, but being realistic-- I would like 1776 to last, but not at the cost of its origins. I want the game to remain true to its roots. I don't want to sacrifice the integrity of the game for a few members and a handful of posts. To be honest, if I had a small band of reasonably active, skilled writers/history buffs, I would be satisfied to no end. However, I do hope those interested in the game will join and if they ever need a little direction-- I am more than happy to share the fruits of my research with them!

Q. Do you think that (from your players' perspectives) the work you've put into the research for the site has impacted their play? (I would assume in a positive way.)
A. In regards to the player prospective: I think, or like to hope, that the research I've put into the game has helped the players, whether its helping them find the right context for their characters or developing a plot idea based off of actual events or even teaching them something about the period... It rubs off in their posts somehow I guess. In truth, that's all I can ask for in terms of the impact of my research. Who knows, maybe I've inspired someone to do some research of their own! (I can dream, can't I?)

queen of HEARTS: I think, as owners, we always have to hope that our sites impact the people we attract - after all, why would they keep coming back?
Roman: That's so true! It's wonderful when someone tells you that they love your game or that they are "addicted"-- it gives you the "warm fuzzies". It's also fun and I think on some level it has to do with ego, we like knowing we're doing well!

Also, many RPG owners start RPGs they themselves want to play on; it's not necessarily about attracting members (on some level anyway), the owners would simply like to see an RPG like the one they start. So I think that there is also a self-satisfying, personal aspect to it, but no doubt it brightens my day at least, to know that my work is appreciated and that someone else really enjoys it.
(Readers may note that this was one of the points mentioned in the entry The Basics of Owning.)

Q. But, I digress. So, if I may, how does 1776 accept members? Is it on a character-by-character basis, or more of a 'once you’re accepted as a player, all your characters are in' concept?
A. 1776 uses a mixture of the character-by-character system and the "all for the price of one" system. After the first accepted joining post, we no longer require a sample, but we will still scan the information to make sure everything is period-appropriate. If it is, we give the green light, if not we'll point out things that need to be adjusted. Players are welcome to contest certain qualms we might have provided that they can back-up their claims with legitimate historical evidence.

Q. And within the realms of the RP world, what level play would you categorise 1776 as gearing towards?
A. 1776 is geared more towards upper-level intermediate role-players and advanced role-players. Often more experienced role-players tend to be older and more mature; history not being 100% squeaky-clean, especially wars, there might not be some content that isn't entirely appropriate for younger audiences. We have a low words-per-post minimum because we have the expectation that most members can and will easily surpass that without "trying" to; however, with our busy lives, we want to allow people to be able to both reply and do what ever else they need to do without sacrificing much time. 1776 is also the sort of RPG that requires people to handle themselves maturely and write clearly and literately, something a lot of beginners struggle with due to not fully understanding "RPG etiquette". Intermediate-advanced writers are also more willing to accept "blows" to their characters-- disease, loss of property, "unpopularity"-- things that aren't "pleasant", but add depth; often, accepting these things accompany experience. To clarify, we don't have anything against those starting to role-play, we were all there at some point! But 1776 isn't the best place for beginners to test their skills; it’s more for veterans to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Q. As an owner, do you feel it is important to also take a part in playing your game? If so, what key benefits have you personally found by joining characters into 1776?
A. If an owner isn't active, usually the game tanks, that's an unwritten basic truth of the RPG world; I don't want that to happen to 1776. As an owner, I do feel that it's important to participate. It's no fun to just update and advertise of the time (although those are basic necessities of ownership). I think joining in shows that an owner cares about the game and is interested and engaged in what's going on. Frankly, I am more than an owner, I am a role-player too; I enjoy role-playing which is what has spurred me to open my own RPGs. By joining characters on my own game, I get to take part in one of the primary reasons I created 1776-- a decent historical RPG-- and I get to put my research into practice and I'll say it again: I get to have fun.
(Again, readers may note that this also has been something brought up in The Basics of Owning.)

Q. I guess, in closing, if you could offer something to a reader that might entice them to take a closer look at 1776, what might that be?
A. To any one who's interest we might have quipped during the course of this interview: if you like history or simply like an active, engaging, and creative realistic human RPG with a supportive, talented set of writers, then please consider joining 1776. At this point, nothing I say can sell the site better than what I've already said, at best, I can offer traditional advertising points and I don't want this statement to be that. If you are interested and want to join, wonderful! We look forward to seeing you soon! If not, that rests solely with you. We hope to offer an human RPG set during the Revolution, not a paper doll play that so many historical RPGs seem to become, for those who have been turned off of historical RPGs by that very notion, we beg you to reconsider. We are writers, we are researchers, we are role-players and we are proud of what we have wrought and we hope that you will join us in continuing to make 1776 such a wonderful experience to participate in. With that, on behalf of the members and staff of 1776, I would like to thank queen of HEARTS for choosing to feature 1776 and thank all of you for reading! Hope to see in the 18th century soon!

queen of HEARTS: Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview you about the site! And certainly, if you have any other comments you'd like to make... But I think that’s everything!
Roman: I think so! I honestly can think of anything that needs to be added; what needs to be said has been said!
queen of HEARTS: Excellent. And thank you again for your time!

As readers can see, many of the points covered in the opening entry of this blog were key points in RPG management. However, that’s not entirely the point of featuring an RP. The real reason is simply this:

Furthermore, giving interviews with owners gets a bit of an insider-opinion on the game with the added flair of the personality that controls the game. While owners aren’t necessarily the greeting party, we tend to be very involved with new players simply because we’re so excited they’ve chosen to join.

If Roman is any example, owners who spend the time to create games are also more than willing (eager, even) to give you details or background information that might not be found elsewhere. As a resource, owners are probably your best one; it is my personal opinions that owners are a game’s best Game Guide – after all, they created the game, didn’t they? Moreover, she had a great sense of humour – even turned the questions back on me! (Roman asked, ‘If you don't mind me asking, why 1776? Surely there must be a lot of other great historical RPGs out there!’ to which I responded, ‘There is one other one I've seen, but it's colonial (re: 1600s) and it seems less interesting to me. Overall, I liked the storyline of 1776 better. It's closer to something I'd join, if I were into playing humans right now.)

That said, readers who are interested in role-playing human characters – especially in fun time periods! – should definitely check out 1776. With an approachable owner, friendly members, and a unique plotline, the game definitely would be welcome to working new players into a plot.

Well, that’s all for today. If anyone wants to suggest some questions for my next interview (which I wouldn’t say no to by any means!), an RPG owner/RPG to look into interviewing, or any other topics you as a reader would be interested in reading about, leave me a comment on the journal, or drop me a message for an AIM or email to contact.

Interestingly enough, in the past few years the methods of joining games have gotten harder. This might be because more intermediate/advanced RPGs have popped up that want to filter ‘substandard’ players out. However, the times have changed since people plugged a password into the bottom of their joining post to automatically get in.

This is not saying that a password isn’t useful. If you set it up properly, carefully giving instructions through your rules, you can go about ensuring that people have actually read the rules before attempting to join. (That is always assuming that your rules aren’t short and sweet.) More than that, games are now requiring one of two things: character acceptance, or player acceptance. The latter of the two is still relatively new even in 2009, but is a tremendously effective way to monitor who’s playing the game, particularly if you are concerned with post quality.

Character Acceptance

Character acceptance is usually defined as this: every new character posts their joining stats on the join board, including a sample post and maybe a password. To both parts of this criteria there are some issues and benefits.

        1. The Sample Post

Using a sample post is useful in two ways.

First, by having the player write out a sample piece the character might post offers accepters/owners a chance to gauge their skill level. Of course, if a player does it right, they can simply recycle a post and beat this issue no sweat. Additionally, many people – myself included – find sample posts to be annoying because you are not interacting with anything. You are simply writing how your horse/wolf/human/creature entered their new location, looked around, and set off towards the meadow/den/cafeteria/battleship. Those posts are boring. Of course, if owners are in love with sample posts, they can always offer a post for new joiners to reply to, but even that gets old.

Second, a sample post is useful because it lets the owner know that the player has given thought to their character. Asking for background information is another great way to get players to give characters depth. The Fifth Element required minor and major objectives for characters, although this correlated more to the plot, as well as strengths and weaknesses. At least in this way characters were required to have more thought put into them than a name, age, colour, and sex.

Some of the downsides of sample posts are hefty, especially when compared to the benefits. While sample may allow an owner to gauge the level of skill the joining person has, if the user has recycled a post from a few months ago, their skill level may have decreased. That’s not to say this person shouldn’t be accepted as typically just being around higher-quality players will help people to improve their writing. But it is always something to consider when opting for this ‘sample post’ criteria.

Additionally, using sample posts as proof that the character’s been thought out does not necessarily mean it has. Player may edit a previous post from another character with the new character’s name and post it. This may not be an issue with some owners, but given the time I’ve spent around RPGs it’s important to note that even the most accomplished player may not mesh well with a character they create. Some characters simply drain muse, while others are awkward to express correctly. These sorts of characters typically speak to the nature of the player in that they can come up with such individual creations, yet recycling posts to get the character accepted is usually a bad way to start with a new character.

One of the most important things to consider about sample posts is this: if you request one on the joining board, demand one. If the person already plays a character on the site, that’s fine and dandy, they still need one. Otherwise, it becomes less about accepting character-by-character and more about person-by-person (as you will come to see later).

        2. The Password Approach

Some sites prefer to use a password embedded in the rules as a go-by for admission, or they might use it in conjunction with a sample post. As passwords are typically straightforward, I’m not going to go into detail about how to effectively hide them in the rules and so on. Instead, I’m jumping straight to the cautions of using passwords.

For starters, people who have joined once already know the password. Therefore it is imperative to change the password for joining every time you tweek your rules. If you don’t mess with your rules to much (believe me, I understand, we all know they are the longest, most arduous part of making the site to begin with), then consider adopting a policy of changing the joining password around once a month. That ensures that you can monitor that new members have read the rules, as well as ensuring the re-joining players have at least brushed up.

Another thing to note is that if blatantly advertise on your joining board that all joining posts require a password, there will be some people who will skip the rules altogether and just click on a post that got accepted before them. Creating a username/password (as is an option on Boards2Go message boards) is a great way to ensure they’ve gone through some of the rules to find said login information.

This leads to the final downside of passwords. Anyone computer savvy knows that Ctrl+F opens a ‘find’ window. They can simply type in ‘pass’ or ‘password’ into this search bar to find where you’ve hidden the password on your rules page. To avoid this problem, you might lead them astray in your rules page by changing it up a few times. On top of that, rather than saying ‘the password to join is albatross’ you can reword the sentence to lose the word ‘password’. For example, ‘to get in, type albatross’ or ‘include albatross when you post your stats’. There are dozens of ways to curb this issue, so get creative, and you’ll be fine.

Player Acceptance

Now that we’ve gone over character acceptance, let’s talk about player acceptance. The idea of accepting players and not characters actually stems from the concept of sample posts and ‘oh, well, I already play here, this is just another character’. Because many sites took to this method of admitting characters, a new train of thought emerged from it.

Player acceptance typically includes the submission of prior posts to the owner/accepters to read and review. Sometimes they simply request a joining post for the first character you join. Once the owners/accepters have reviewed the post you’ve sent them, they’ll either admit you or ask you to kindly work on your skills and return later to reapply for admission. Typically, once you – as a player – have been accepted to these sites, you can join as many characters as you please, so long as you keep them all active.

Another addition to the player acceptance method has also come up in the last few years. The only site I’ve yet to see with this method is Species, and it was ASiD (the original founder) who came up with the concept. ASiD decided that, after submission of a previous post, to give the players trial weeks to prove that they were active and prolific. At the end of the trial week, the player would then receive the yay or nay as to whether they were accepted. Should the player be accepted, they could then join as many characters as they desired, and so on and all the rest. If they were denied, naturally they were invited to return and try again at a later point. As you may imagine, trial weeks are better suited towards advanced games, since they are truly the games monitoring quality, activity, and the like.

As you can see, both styles of acceptance are pretty straightforward. The downsides to player acceptance have been, in my experience, far less hazardous in terms of the downsides for character acceptance. As always, this is just one more thing to consider if creating a game, or joining a new one.

And of course comments are entirely welcome. Should anyone have a desire to see a specific topic touched upon, either leave me a comment or send me a message with your idea. If you happen to know my AIM, hit me up there.

Enjoy,
-qoH

As many people know, owners are the key to keeping a game going. Of course, without players, there is no plot progression and a site is simply a pretty website with no action. But even with players as a lifeblood to keeping a game going, owners are strategically important to updates, moderating, and questions concerning the game.

Do not confuse my statements by thinking that I have said owners have the right to be arrogant, stuck-up, or power-mongers. They do not. They have presented something that you, the player, can look at, choose to interact with, or can dismiss as not worth your time. It is by your graces that their games flourish. (On the flip side of this, don’t let that knowledge go to your head as a player. RPGs are a delicate balance.)

To continue, owners also do not have the right to make their friends favourites within the game. In certain situations – see Species after all – people may be pre-assigned prominent positions merely because the owner knew said players before the game opened. Whether or not these positions are then up for grabs is based on the owner’s feeling of plot progression. Owners who favour certain people are generally kind-hearted people, but at the end of the day, this practise typically causes more harm than good. Players can feel underappreciated, or like they are being told what to do by those who don’t necessarily have the authority to do so.

With all of this in mind, it is also important to realise that owners do a great many things for a site. They are, as I personally like to say, the ultimate Game Guide to wherever you are playing. Not only are the owners likely the individuals to create the site-wide plots, but they also are the people who spend the extra hours updating the site, creating images for a layout, and advertising (because we all know everyone hates advertising). This kind of time is put in because of one simple thing: love for what they’ve created.

As players, it is also important to remember that good owners are only considered good owners because they’ve had the opportunities to become good owners. Just like sports, or taking tests, or public speaking, to gain experience as an owner is the best way to improve. It is only through experience that people are best able to get the feel for running a role-playing game. (Indeed, this also helps some people to realise they simply aren’t cut out for being the hard-nose that owners sometimes need to be.) This is why content is not the only thing many people look at when joining an RPG. While discussing this article with SongDragon (a player at Species) she imparted to me something that many other role-players unconsciously consider: do they know the owner? Have they played games owned by this person before? Have they even seen this person at another RP? When I invited SongDragon to join Species, her initial reaction was, ‘Well, it says advanced, but I’ve played at other games queen of HEARTS has owned, and she’s always been good about running things’. Because I’d build up a solid reputation in the past, not only did SongDragon join my game, but she brought two other people with her.

This brings us smoothly into our next subtopic:

Becoming a Better Owner

Fortunately for everyone in the role-playing community, there are methods to becoming a better owner. In a future article, we will discus this more in depth. At this point in time, we are going to consider two key factors: 1) reputation, and 2) experience.

       1. Reputation

People can go to whatever dictionary they want, and they will find the same thing: loosely that reputation is an intangible something that you have earned through actions either good or bad. For owners, the better your reputation, the better you will be received.

Unfortunately, our actions are going to be scrutinised constantly. It is a sad reality of the world. In high school and college your teachers, professors, and peers all pass judgments about you. In the work place, this is also true. In the internet community, this is also a reality. Some people come online to become a part of the void that is Anonymous, and they do some pretty horrific things. Whether their name is on it or not, the products of their actions will be judged.

Within the RP community, we are all privileged to think up whatever name we want and use it on the OOC boards. Some people stick to their RL names, as I originally did and as some of my friends still do. But many people realise that it’s far more entertaining to think up some aspect of themselves that might otherwise go unnoticed and concoct some semblance of their name out of it. (No, I’m not saying that I’m a card in a deck by using the name queen of HEARTS; personal connotations mean a lot when considering names.) And because we’ve chosen names, we are accountable for what we do – not to mention most owners can access the IP addresses of people posting on their boards.

If you do something at Site A that puts a smudge on your name, later on down the road, someone at Site C or D might recognise you and the whole matter will be unearthed again. For people who have been around a while (like myself, for example) something I may have unwittingly done as a n00b that potentially smeared my name can be brought up again. Fortunately, the role-playing community is also a very forgiving one – particularly to new members – and they are often willing to give second chances.

Do Note: There is a difference between making a mistake and asking for a second chance and deliberately doing something (stealing a character, a layout, an image, and so on) that you know is wrong. The fastest way to make yourself hated is by deliberately doing something and then lying about it. I have, on a few occasions, been forced to ban otherwise-nice players for this very reason. Mature players do not tolerate immaturity in those around them when it comes to matters such as these. (This topic will also be expanded upon in a future article.)

Bearing all this in mind, don’t freak out about the little things. If you’ve been, in general, a welcome, kind player, you will probably be well received as an owner. Overall, some of the best rules to stick to are:

       2. Experience

The second crucial factor of an owner is their experience level. Some people decide they want to open a site after playing at one or two games. Usually these sites do not go far (although it does happen) because of a variety of reasons. One key issue with people who jump the gun and grab ownership is that they are unreliable. The thrill of something new, both in terms of finding RPGs and then owning one, is an adrenalin-fuelled motivation. In this aspect, trust me – I opened Lunar Eclipse about a year after I began role-playing, and I was as flaky as snow. Fortunately for me, the learning experience was well understood, and the players of L.E. were more than willing to help me where I fell short. (It helped that L.E. was a beginner-intermediate game.)

That said, anyone reading this who is thinking about opening a game might now be concerned with how to gain experience. There are a couple options for you, all of them with a root in observation.

Observing an owner you like, their style, their presence, is a great way to get a feel for the job hazards. If you have questions about what it’s like to be an owner then why not ask for a bit of their time and ask some questions? After all, ‘there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers’ (Professor Amy Cohen, Randolph College, January 2009).

After you’ve explored the possibilities of a q & a session with an owner you like, there are two options for you. One would be taking a huge gulp of air and sucking it up to roll with the punches of opening your game. If you have a few solid friends in the RP community, odds are that you’ll at least have a small pool of players that join. Activity, at that point, is something you have to help maintain.

Another option is to become an administrator, or admin – a bit like an apprenticeship to the owners themselves. Some sites offer the opportunity to become an admin, and thus gain valuable experience without actually being called upon to make some of the toughest decisions which owners themselves must decide. Admin are usually active, well-thought of individuals within the community or game they have joined, and take on added responsibility by choice (much like site staff, and site owners). Because admin are that step beneath the owner, they are likely close with the owner but hopefully have not gained that position through said friendship.

If the site you’re playing at doesn’t have admin opportunities, but you think it would be a good asset to the game, why not suggest it? Of course, some sites are simply too small to need administrators and generally speaking the owner does most (if not all) the work. However, places like NSHC have dozens of admin simply because of the traffic volume that site receives. For those of you on ProBoards, you may find more opportunities to become administrators, simply because monitoring forums seems to be more time consuming than monitoring site-based RPGs. Some of the bigger RPGs – like Ilius, 5E, and Abaaya – had a couple of admin floating around because, like NSHC, they had high traffic through the site. At all three of those sites, the OOC boards were known to change pages in a day or less (meaning that if you posted something at 8:50 AM it would be on page 2 by 6 PM the same day). Because of the post volume and the number of players to keep track of, admin were thus necessary to ensure order OOC/IC and keep track of update requests.

The Owner Resource

Now that we’ve gone over what is required of a good owner, the last thing to consider is what your owners do for you. Just like mothers and fathers have Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, owners need to be shown appreciation because – simply put – we put up with a lot of shit from players who may not have any idea how much work we actually do. No, I’m not calling players ungrateful. I would be blunt about it if I were.

As already mentioned, owners are the ultimate Game Guide to the RP you’re playing. If you’re confused about the rules, they should be the first person you go to for clarification. Odds are that if you’re having a problem understanding a rule, someone else is too. Questions about how characters can interact if they’ve been stolen by another harem, or are injured from a fight or accident can also be answered by your friendly site owners. This does not mean that they should be giving out different answers if the person asking is their friend or not. They simply are the person on-site with the most knowledge about the game.

Owners are also the best people to go to if – God forbid – someone has offended you or caused an issue, either IC or OOC. In the past 11 years I’ve dealt with everything from PMS hormones getting a hold of people to power-playing to issues of characters being stolen. (Heck, I even had to create a login on Abaaya when we started getting spammed by friends of people who had been banned for those things.) Players who have stuck at my RPs over the years know that, if I need to, I have absolutely no problem being a bitch if necessary. I don’t like OOC drama (who does?) and if I can put a stop to it, I will. However, the same players who will attest to my being a bitch when necessary will also tell you that I am a reasonable person and quite slow to anger, especially when dealing with sorting out she-said/she-said issues. The reason for this flows nicely into the next resource owner’s provide.

In a nutshell, owners are responsible for the site atmosphere. The layout, sure, someone might have made that for them. But the atmosphere of the OOC boards and the ease – or discomfort – players may feel when getting involved on the OOC usually spawns from the owner. If the owner is crabby and uptight, players are going to be far more timid when asking for clarification, help, whatever. Moreover, they’re going to be afraid to sit back, relax, and be themselves on the OOC boards – they won’t start joking with other members, or plot threads, or anything else of the like. So if you find yourself comfortably joking with the people around the site you’re on, let’s face it: you have the owner to thank.

Finally, owners are a great source of plot information. Whether you’ve been away for a while because your parents hauled you off on vacation or you’re classes have put you a bit behind, if you inform the owners, they’re more than cool with catching you up. What’s more, owners are also probably some of the best people to plot-in game with. Why? Because they want to see progression in their RPG. Activity is what they’re looking for, isn’t it? Even if an owner perhaps has too many threads going with their characters at current, they can still probably point you in the right direction.

The long and the short of it is this: owners are useful and you should not be afraid of them, or of using them to better understand their site.

That said, any and all comments are appreciated. If you feel I’ve left something out, or didn’t adequately cover a particular portion of this topic, drop me a note and I’ll see what I can do for you.

Any suggestions for future topics are welcome, either in the form of a comment or a message via LiveJournal. (And hey, if you know my AIM, then have a field day. Sorta. Within reason.)

Don’t forget to give your owners some appreciation!
-qoH

Special thanks to SongDragon for her quote and input.

If you’ve just opened an RPG, or you’re having problems attracting members, have you considered your advertisement? Given that this is usually the very first thing prospective players see from your website, the impression it makes could decide whether or not you get a new member. (Of course, other factors must be taken into account, but in general, ads are like a good opening sentence – they can grab the audience or put them to sleep.)

As someone who has spend around a decade going site-to-site, board-to-board, posting advertisements for whichever game I was into at that point, I have noticed a certain trend that lingers between an advertisement and the actual site: if the ad looks well put together, with a nice image, and functioning HTML the site reliably is just as well put together. If the ad is a few lines of plain text slapped onto a page, without even a click-link back to the site… Well, let’s just say I don’t hope for much.

Despite this obvious stereotyping, the results have clearly shown that there is a correlation between well put together ads and well put together sites.

Beginning with Name and Subject (or ‘Slogan’ as many of us consider it), ads should be unique, but not obnoxious. If you make the subject a marquee across the screen, people will spend more time trying to click the damned link then actually reading the information within the ad itself. No marquees. Really. (After all, they really went out of style around the time 2001 rolled around – or about the time we all graduated to intermediate/advanced RPGs.) But really, even in beginner RPGs, players get distracted and aggravated by things that move across their screen. It’s not like they don’t already skim the posts to begin with – don’t give them another reason to ignore what you have to say!

So, to make it simple, the best solution for the Name is simply the title of your site. Maybe make it a nice cyan colour to give it a little ‘pop’ (watch out for boards with red backgrounds…) but other than that, don’t fuss with it. For the Subject/Slogan, you have a little more opportunity to get creative. Think about the basic, underlying theme of the site, and try to put that in 15 words or less. Usually you’ll find something worth using as a slogan. If nothing else, use the version number your site’s currently in, and what the version’s called. Example: Name – Species; Slogan – version 3.0 [clash]. Simple enough?

Do remember when thinking up a slogan, though, that many people browsing the advertisement boards are either there because they are posting an ad, or returning the favour on your site. Members who are satisfied at their games don’t usually have incentive to leave them. That means that if you are dealing with people who are just clicking every ad, something should stand out about yours. (This does not mean that you should insert JavaScript into someone's board and attempt to get snowflakes to start falling across you ad. This definitely does not mean music should be playing in the background. For many people those sorts of ad-ons are not only annoying, but they could make your ad slower to load, or completely screw up the page. Angry ad-viewers are not likely to become members.)

Fortunately, if you’re attracting advertisers, they will be clicking your ad to get your link back. This is where all that HTML you’ve fought with, or the image that took you 4 hours to finish will really make a difference. As a general rule, always centre your ad. Let me repeat that. Always centre your ad. Of course there will be some exceptions to this rule, but 99.9% of the time, a centred ad is more aesthetically pleasing than a justify-aligned ad.

For the simplest explanation, the human eye is designed to pick up patterns. Symmetry is a key aspect of patterns. When the eye sees equidistant black/yellow/[insert board background colour here] strips on either side of your table, the eye will be happier working with the human it’s attached to. Even if you are not using a table, centring your information creates a symmetrical hourglass shape with your text, once more providing the eye with a happy piece to look at.

That said, consider the content of your ad carefully. Will you use an image? How much plot are you going to give away to hook your reader? Will the ad work universally on boards with other background colours? All of these things are important to consider when designing an advertisement to attract new members. One of the best ways to create the body of your ad is by taking the opening blurb you might have on your main page of the site. The practise of including such a blurb has gone through its phases of popularity, but overall this blurb is invaluable. After all, a synopsis of what people have just clicked into is pretty important – otherwise all they see is a pretty layout and some clickables to the side/top/wherever.

Sometimes members are more than willing to help owners out when it comes to creating/updating an advertisement. If people are willing to help you, why not let them? Sometimes they may come up with ideas that you never would’ve dreamed of. It doesn’t pay to be elitist with your players. (Although…that probably should go without saying.) So take help where it’s offered, and don’t rule out any ideas. Glad we got that covered.

Finally, make sure you don’t overstuff you ad with information. Ads that go on for the length of a battle post are going to make people scramble for the ‘back’ button. There’s no easier way to deter people than making them read a lot upon introduction. Of course, some people may just go ‘ooh, nice layout, great picture’ and scroll to the bottom of you ad and click your link. Speaking of links, I guess I wasn’t quite done.

When you design your ad’s content, always always ALWAYS include a written-out link to your site at the bottom of your layout. I don’t care if you have ‘click for new’ or ‘click image’ on your ad. If you’ve fucked up the HTML in any way, that link could be damaged. The last thing you want is for a prospective player to not join because they can’t find your site. Another negative that could backlash from dead links in an ad is that you’re post will be deleted from the advertisement board by a moderator who can’t return the spam favour. As mentioned before, getting banned from other games is a bad way to publicise. Seriously. Don’t be stupid.

The last thing to note about advertising: be respectful of other people’s boards. Even if you think everyone writes the same rules at the top of the ad boards, read them anyway. Some people add that you need to put what type of site you’re advertising (equine, or human?) in the subject, along with your slogan. Others might require you to only post once within a certain time limit. By double checking their rules, you’re less likely to be banned from advertising there. And if you do make a mistake, just reply to your own ad with a note saying ‘Oh gosh, sorry!’ and promise not to make the mistake again. As I’ve said time and time again, the RPG community is very willing to forgive.

As always, comments are entirely welcome. Should anyone have a throbbing desire to see a specific topic touched upon, either leave me a comment or send me a message with your idea. If you happen to know my AIM, hit me up there…although spam is not my friend or yours.

That said, until next time everyone,
-qoH

Fortunately, site hosting is relatively simple. You may find that the best way to learn about which hosts you like are by looking at RPGs you find are most attractive. Where are they hosted? Usually this information is easy to find by looking at their URL.

Another thing that is important to consider is through what venue your members are going to communicate with each other? Boards2Go provides an excellent service with their message boards, which many have RPGs have taken advantage of in the past 10 years. They are easy to set up, accessible even if you don’t understand too much about HTML, and easily modifiable if you do know HTML/CSS style codes. Another option that has become popular in the last three or so years is called ProBoards. These boards are far more forum like, and provide less of a venue to create dynamic HTML for your layout. For beginning owners, or those who have less understanding of HTML, these may be your perfect option.

Be warned! Those who play at the intermediate and advanced level (especially the advanced) seem to be less likely to want to join a ProBoard site. This is because, typically, such members will have HTML for characters they’ve used in the past, or have grown fond of, and don’t want to take the time to change the HTML to meet the ProBoard mark-up language. Moreover, if you advertise a ProBoard-hosted RPG to gain more members, many owners of other RPGs will refuse to join your forum just to post a return advertisement. This means your ad is likely to be deleted. The third disadvantage is to other owners, again trying to advertise a return advert on your board: they also have to change their HTML to meet your boards. Even though you may be saying ‘oh, well, whatever, that’s their own issue’ it goes back to point number 2 – many people don’t want to take the time, and will thus ban ProBoard-hosted sites from advertising on their boards. This, again, leads to fewer people seeing your ad and possibly joining your site.

Edit: An anonymous reader suggested that I add in a few alternative methods of member communication, which I agreed would be quite useful. For some, Boards2Go is a bit much for their purposes, or they would simply like a different look. In those cases, BoardHost is another great, free alternative message board site. In addition, for people who are not entirely sure they like the look of ProBoards, there's always the up-and-coming Acorn Rack which offers the same, forum-like services. That said, thanks goes to the reader for this addition information. XD

3. Site Layout

This is the part that tends to escape novice owners. For starters, let’s consider the layout. Are you going to create something out of frames, or tables? Will there be images? Species, the RPG I own, is a combination of tables and images. People with little or no experience with HTML would look at the design of Species and be shocked to learn that the site was constructed off a table. Meanwhile, a site like Elanthia was created using frames (not to be confused with iframes, which are typically used within tables) to create the link and target windows. I am not going to get into the finer points of HTML in this blog (actually, I’m hardly going to touch it at all). If you are interested in learning more about HTML, Google is an amazing resource. Also, for true beginners, Lissa Explains is a great place to learn the basics of colour, links, and so on.

When considering your site’s layout, be realistic with yourself. If you’re going to use pictures, consider what they look like in comparison to those that come out of studios like NSHC, or images that are manipulated at advanced-level games. Many players simply cannot manipulate images. Usually there are two or three people in an active game who offer to create images for those who are less abled. These people likely have access to tools like Adobe Photoshop and have spent years grasping the concepts of photo-manipulation. Even in my own photo work, I realize now that the work I once thought was stunning is really not all that spectacular: Holocaust was an image I created (an never ended up using) back in 2004. When I finished it, I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Now, in 2009, I created images like Hoax, which far outstrip what I was capable of years ago. This reality is definitely something to consider when designing your layout. If you know, simply, that your images aren’t enough to pull people in (and despite what everyone says, images make the first impression and can either draw new members in or deter them) you should consider a studio to help you, or a friend whose work you’ve seen. As Raptor, the owner of Elanthia, said quite well, ‘I can't do graphics for the life of me, so I'm glad my members can’. So, never rule out the resources available to you!

The same is to be said for HTML. Sites that are poorly constructed look poorly constructed. Anyone who’s been around RPGs for more than a few minutes can tell the difference between beginner craftsmanship and someone who really knows what they’re doing. (Broken links non-withstanding – ALWAYS check your site for broken links BEFORE you launch – many people don’t realise that foolish errors can be caught if you just have another person check your HTML.) If you’re concerned about your HTML skills, there are also plenty of studios – and friendly people, for that matter! – who would be willing to help you out if you would but so much as ask.

This about covers the basics of owning a site, storyline aside. (After all, if you think you want to own a site, you should have the imagination to create the plot – that’s what RPing is about, after all!)

Any inquiries are welcome as replies to this entry, or as a message to the user on LiveJournal. Interest in having your link placed in the links section should be directed in the same manner, preferably by message.

For individuals with ideas concerning possible topics to be included, please send a message to rpg-critiques within the LiveJournal network for an AIM or email to contact.

As always, happy role-playing!
-qoH