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A lot of us have Discord servers to go with our roleplay sites - in fact, a lot of roleplayers play on Discord. With that in mind, how do you use integrations with your Discord server? Integrations with your site? I know the Initiative has a bot that notifies us of new posts, so that's one example.

And here I am, back with another question for all of you. Once again, this is a what would be your preference as a player. 😉 Seriously, you'd think I had not run RPGs for more than 30 years! At my two IPS sites, I have a mod installed that allows me to create forms to fill out that then magically create a "scene/thread header" at the top of the very first post. Filling out this when you start a new IC thread, Creates this! Thinking as a Player, would you prefer to have this form or to have the first topic prefilled with an adjustable amount of information to fill out? For example, you would click on Start New Topic (we're IPS) and that topic would be prefilled with "header" information that you can alter easily. I am considering making the topic starter posts at our site the "header", then we start the IC posts. In this manner, the opening post could contain images, etc. relevant to that scene. Help me out please! I want us to consider making player informed choices as we consider revisions and updates to the site.

Do you have special rules for wanteds? How do you handle it if someone takes a wanted and never plays them? Do you moderate wanteds in any way? How do you have the wanted ads forum organized?

I may be putting this topic in the wrong place. If so, am sure Morrigan will tell me to move it. Here's a little background: In the past, as a Game Manager/Admin, I have had nightmare players slip through the chinks in my character applications/bios. By that, I mean suddenly adding all kinds of things not accounted for in the bio (powers, skills, abilities, etc). When taken to task over it and told to rewrite, there is an all-out fight because the bio/app did not ask for that information. As a result, I have gone the paranoid Admin route and tried to cover everything in my bio forms. I am upgrading my three RPG sites and want to revamp my character applications/bios to be as minimalist as possible without shorting the information needed and without leaving us open to truly major issues. Each site is different: American Wild West (1870s), Modern Cinematic Real Life Action Adventure/Mystery, Swords and Sorcery Fantasy (I know I will have to keep some info on magical powers in the bios). Please provide suggestions and feedback. I really need help! I know my current bios are too long and involved and out-of-date. However, please, please, give me ideas, suggestions, and feedback without the I hate applications side of things. I know there are players that simply loathe doing apps. I am never going to eliminate them completely. I do sincerely want to make changes though. Help me! Below is what I consider to be a bare minimum, but if I can shave more off it by maybe expanding character rules or something, hit me with it! Here's my rough draft / revisable minimum list of information fields. Basic Stats / Information Relationship Status Appearance stats (height, hair, eyes because the playby might vary slightly from the character). Short fields for job info, etc. Skills, Abilities (fantasy / magic site) Personality: Need most detail here. Background: Relevant family, friends, foes; timeline of major life events. Here is an example of what I have now for the action/adventure: Bio Template (it's similar to the western). Thank you all!

The Issue: I admin my own game and while I have wonderful staff helping out, things haven't been going so well lately. I’ve been going through some heavy life stuff which has been getting worse. Recently I was dealt another major blow that's going to make my life even more hectic in the next few months. So essentially life’s a mess and I have no energy, time, or even interest for my game right now. So I’ve been debating the question: should I close up the game or offer it to someone else? Should I just try to weather this rough period and hope things will improve? Also, trying to figure out how I break this news to players and staff, if I do leave and pass on to someone else or close the game. The questions: As an admin, how did you know it was time to leave a game/possibly close the game? How did you break the news to staff and players? How did you deal with the guilt? Anonymous poster hash: 227ba...512

People in the rp community are always shocked when I tell them that I put my roleplay experience, namely my staffing positions, on my professional resume. So I'm wondering - does anyone else do this or is it just me? I'll be honest and say that the last rp site that I helped run actually got me the job I have now. Granted, I work at a magazine so "writing" in general is a skill you need to have. But being able to link the site to my interviewer is what made me her top candidate. It's my hobby, something I'm passionate about, and she was really into that - it was something different that made me stand out, and a tangible qualifier for a lot of the "skills" section of my resume. It helped show her not only my writing skills (writing/editing all the documentation, including rules, lore, etc.), but my management abilities, community engagement, ability to collaborate, web design...though I have since left that particular community, I've encouraged my fellow former staff to do the same thing, since we all collaborated and published that material together. Have you ever done this? Why or why not? What's your experience with doing this, or the hesitation that keeps you from putting it there?

Hey there! So, ever felt like there were some site leaders who were just a little over the top? I haven't had to deal with that kind of thing for a long time, but I have a friend who's currently suffering one. They're a staffie on said Admin's site, and has pretty much busted themselves trying to find things to do to get members more involved, greater numbers, some fun going. But now they're dealing with being a scapegoat due to the Admin basically having a dislike of particular members. Basically, this Admin has this bias, and expects all the staff to be just as cold toward particular members as they are. And because my friend won't do that, because they think there shouldn't be a personal bias when it comes to doing staff duties, they're getting the whole 'you're no good for this' treatment now, as well as being told that they've caused problems. Why do people feel the need to be cruel to others? Why not just tell the people they don't like exactly how they feel and to leave their site, instead of trying to force others to be awful to them as well? And furthermore, where does one get off telling someone how they should treat another person? My friend is so stressed out atm, and being told that they do everything wrong and have caused problems, when all they've done is tried to remain unbiased and treat everyone fairly. It's pure, simple bullying. Ugh, I don't understand people who think it's okay to act like a tyrant. My friend became a staff because they wanted to help their friend. But as soon as they refused to bully members, they were the worst person ever. How does that make any sense? I get the feeling that this Admin doesn't want people to see just how biased and mean they personally are, so they try to shield themselves behind the rest of their staff and therefore make it look like it's the member who is at fault for whatever it is their problem is. Which is really chicken if you ask me. What would you guys do in this situation? I mean, resignation of being a staff member seems like the only way, but then there's the possibility of dealing with being the new person that the Admin has a problem with. How do you deal with this kind of behind the scenes bullying? Is there really a way to deal with it? Or is it just better to leave it behind and hope that it all catches up to them one day? I don't like seeing my friend feeling like they have to hide, or like they're going to be targeted next. It's a horrible feeling. Anonymous poster hash: b08c9...ca7

Y'all. Please. Trust me on this one. I would be more than thrilled to show everyone how to export 2x versions of their graphics and tweak the html to control the display size. Why? Cuz these graphics are fuzzy as shit. I had no idea until I started using my work computer (a Macbook) to browse RP sites during my lunch break, but damn. Damn. Retina be ruinin' all y'all's buttons. All my buttons. It's ruining everything. I can't go back to a regular monitor. I've seen the future, and it's drowning in pixel density. I'm never making 1x graphics for my RPs ever again.

Usually I'm pretty good at giving advice to other staffers when it comes to handling problematic members, but this whole situation has me at such a loss that I'm curious to hear the opinions of others. Basically, for the last two (going on three) YEARS, this one guest has appeared on every single site I've had or been on (all the same genre) and asked the same questions in the cbox. These are always things that.. don't really work, i.e, asking if they can use artwork instead of a playby, asking if they can make their own kingdom even though it's blatantly stated in the lore that the current lands are the only ones playable at the moment, etc etc. The kind of questions that make you scratch your head and wonder if they bothered to read anything about the site at all. They never get the response they want but the questions literally have not changed, in years. Occasionally they'll get to the character creation stage but that's only happened twice I think, and they never finished the character. They just constantly lurk, asking these questions. It's gotten to the point where when I started my current site, I thought 'right, __ is gonna appear soon so I'll just ban in advance right??'. Doesn't work because their IP changes. I tend to let them fade out or else tell them the site probably isn't for them & their style of writing won't mesh well with the forum's, or whatever excuse I can think of to ask them to leave. But the entire thing just baffles me so much. They've appeared on my current site again and I don't know what to say to them other than to repeat the cycle of hoping they'll lose interest ... So I guess my questions are: how would you react or handle this kind of situation and has anything like this every happened to anyone else? Anonymous poster hash: 2c9d7...702

So. This is something I am currently experiencing at the moment on my site. And I have seen it elsewhere in other places too. Sites I have been a member on rather than staffing. So far it is not a major issue. But I was just wondering whether any other people have had similar issues. How you have dealt with them etc. Or even if this sort of behavior concerns you too. The issue is as follows. There is a particular member. Who just constantly seems to want to pick an argument in chat. Or undermine people. Anything and everything people say, they have to put in their two cents worth, always, always saying that what everyone else has said, staff included, is wrong. Constantly implying that they know better than everyone, and are better than everyone. It is very off putting and draining. And sometimes it is hard not to snap. But I also get the feeling on occasions, that snapping is also a reaction that they want. So I do not bite. Obviously, there are no rules against people having an opinion. That would be ridiculous. But it does concern me. Especially as I worry if it is getting to me this way. Is it/will it affect other members the same way too and drive them away? What are people's thoughts on this? Anonymous poster hash: 381a7...e44

At what point is it fair to ask someone to leave the board? Does there need to be a major inciting incident? Specifically, what if there are no recent rule violations exactly, but passive aggressive behavior that is frankly even more stressful to deal with because it keeps coming up, but is not as easy to determine intent and is sort of the I know it when I see it type of thing. The staff wants to be fair but the attitude (the disdain for the board seems seems pretty clear) has gotten extremely uncomfortable and makes some of other board members uncomfortable as well. He isn't particularly active on the board, but is in some key places which means there could be an effect on site plots. I certainly know it would be a sigh of relief to the staff and a few members if he left, but that also seems a bit of a terrible thing to even think. It feels a bit like the member is towing the line deliberately, but I also worry I am no longer able to be rational about it due to my own discomfort with conflict. My other staff members are in agreement about our interpretations of this behavior, but even so we are all at a loss of the best course of action because our board in general has always been quite pleasant and drama-free and we wish to be as fair as possible. I am not comfortable nor do I think it is fair to provide any more detail so... this situation aside, when is it okay to ask someone to leave? Or In what situations have you asked someone to leave? Anonymous poster hash: d7e19...f2f

So we have a member I will just call Dude. This person has been a member of our site for a long time and he was probably one of our leading members. Very active. Super creative and we adored his characters SO much. Within the time-frame of a month, they had several characters and were very in tune with what what happening on the site. Jumped into plots. Kept up with their small army of characters. Seriously, they were the best member ever. Until he took offense to something one of our staff was doing... The issue arose surrounding Dude waiting for posts. Which this is why we have relaxed activity requirements and no activity checks, some of us are slow and others don't post in a certain order. Dude had an issue with someone not responding to threads in order, sort of taking it personally that one other person was posting elsewhere while Dude was waiting on a tag from them. (Which Dude messaged ME about instead of the person he was waiting on, I advised them to message them and two days later they got a tag. Assumed they talked it out, guess not come to find out.). Fast forward a few more weeks. Dude flips his lid when someone else admits to forgetting a thread after he rudely told them '-cough- we've been waiting on you', in spite of not being a committed participant to a group thread because she said she might add her character to the thread but never got around to it I believe? It turned into a fest of sarcastic remarks of 'you should use thread trackers, that IS what you have them for...' and then saying 'you have granny memory but its cool, i'm just an ass', and 'i don't really like the notion of someone's post/thread being forgettable'. Really it all smacked of them taking something entirely too personally. They got really passive aggressive and it ended abruptly when we told them to stop. Staff labeled that incident as an emotional meltdown (it was seriously THAT off the wall) and shrugged it off. Since this incident they have shown less desire to be active. Perpetually busy which spiraled into having trouble keeping up with what is going on. Even after seeming to patch things up they are almost never around, when previously they were checking in on discord every day even on their busiest work days. They popped in to say they had real life get in the way and would be slow. Then they pooffed. They have rarely visited the site and we are considering archiving all of his characters on the basis that activity in the past three to four months have been less than minimal. Maybe one or two posts from each character, one of which is an important role. We tried reaching out to him to check and make sure he was okay because straight up vanishing was weird for him. No response. Only a few weeks later did we get a member that was interested in one of Dude's wanted ads. I informed them that Dude was having a rough patch and probably wouldn't respond but to message him and ask, to which this member says 'oh we already chatted about it'. So... -shrug- And after that another week of continued silence and inactivity. We are considering reaching out the check on him one more time and if no response then to just archive all his characters until he returns. To us, that seems like the most logical thing, even if they return within a week of archive the laundry list of posts he owes in threads that are MONTHS old, is a hard climb to make plus everyone else has sort of moved on... so it would probably be easier and less stressful for him to return and sort of start fresh with a bit of a time jump. All he has to do is show up and resubmit his characters. At this point I really don't think they will return, i feel it in my gut but who knows, he might surprise me. Anonymous poster hash: 332f8...f16

So, our site is kinda big when it comes to features. We have hubs that can play in different countries (there's only one at the beginning, though) and which are the usual play-by-post like all of us should be used to. We also have an IC social network that runs on an actual sn software and can be used by characters only. We also have campaigns which are kinda similar to stuff like DnD. You know, finite, there is a goal and some mechanics. We didn't use hard stats but rather talents to keep things a bit simpler, like if you have a high talent level in persuasion you can persuade others more easily. So now I'm wondering how we should play campaigns out. Either with play-by-post or we use Discord. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, like how play-by-post feels more comfortable, allows you to have a character avatar (I doubt anybody is going to chance their Discord avatar just for this - I wouldn't) and it's easier to find old postings while Discord is faster, makes it easier to have a group session (since a campaign kinda requires everyone to be there), we have more variety and can attract more different types of players, and it makes my work as GM a bit easier since I can quickly post results. So, what do you think would be better? And would the fact that we have different types of RP scare players off? (Which doesn't make much sense since you could just join the one you like and ignore the others)

I DO care about my site. I love it, and I am glad that our interactive swashbuckling story is already eight years old, and counting, and that I can also count on a few people since six- eight years ago. This is an important achievement. BUT I DON'T CARE ANYMORE if some people think it's not active enough (it is, just way slower than it used to be). I don't care if those newer members decide suddenly a long time investment isn't worth and they leave. I had to accept the idea that these are who we are, this is our current rhythm and that we won't get new staying members unless our members bring their friends, to stay for writing with them. (Which they don't, because most of our members don't have friends interested in our setting, or writing - at all or in English). And when I see on the resource sites all ask for "active sites, not dying ones"... and that slow = dying for most people, I get angry. We aren't dying, even if our story is progressing way slower than a few years ago. Just that we have other commitments or health problems which don't allow us be as prompt as we used to be. Our main quality is of being reliable. We finish most threads we start (no matter when, but we do). Our story is coherent and consistent, and progressing. I let it lower with the advertising, knowing that I have to resign with the few members we have and with some of them quitting due to lack of interest, to the site being slower and slower and being able to do nothing to change it. All the advice on the resource sites are things I have tried in vain, one or another time. This is who we are, and I don't care if someone thinks it's a dead site, when we know we aren't. Just posting once at 2-3 weeks on average. We are welcoming. There is always a possibility to interact with a character or another, given that we are writing in liquid time. As for events... it's normal that some plots are for certain factions (nobility only, commoners only, seafarers only). On most sites it is the same. We are also flexible and willing to integrate anyone. The problem is that most people want replies at least every week, if not sooner, and only 2-3 people might be able to post as quickly. We aren't playing pretend with our characters, and this is also one reason to find less new members interested. Historical fiction is a niche, and there aren't many people who like doing research. In my opinion, the coherence of the plot is a bonus, it is something good, but others might not like that they have to... pay attention (even if it is required for any writer! ). Also I am shocked how little creative are most people. When I ask them, upon joining, "What stories do you feel more inspired to write? What stories have you created this character for?" the reply is usually a variant of "I don't know, anything". (which means "you think it for me, and I am just riding along... or not even). I used to believe that I, as administrator, have to be an example, to promote the activity I want to see. Now I don't care anymore about it. There had been too many years when I did it, without any result. I mean, I can control only my activity, and "activity begets activity" is not always true. People will post when they have time. And no matter how many replies are piling up into the OWED section, they would reply only when they are available. I learnt it the hard way. Lately I am in the same situation, having lowered my activity significantly, just because I can't do it as I used to, anymore. I am not flaky, and I still am going to finish everything I started, but it will take more time. I just have difficulty writing lately. Having half a day taken out and returning home unusually tired and mentally exhausted doesn't help. Having to spend some of the other part of the day cooking, shopping for our household or attending literary events adds to the lack of time for writing. And I have to split my writing between novels (and short fiction too, especially for certain contests) and the two RPG sites I am on. So... I do what I can. There are days when I can't write at all, and days when I can do only one writing thing (usually correcting/ editing what was already written). I don't care anymore if I don't meet self-imposed deadlines, because I simply can't. Sometimes I think (I might be wrong or I might be right) that if I was somewhere in the countryside, so that I could write outside, and have no other daily worry, I would succeed to do it. But as I can't go anywhere, that's only an excuse . Or a dream.

So, there are members that don't post sometimes, right? And you/we have a whole LOA system and are really flexible and we understand, real life is real, and sometimes you just cannot because of stress from real life. But then there are some members who seem to rarely post, even though they may chat, and writing partners are waiting on them for weeks at a time. When you reach out to them they seem to always have a different illness or be moving or have a death in the family or have connection problems or something... Now, it's not so much about whether I should believe this person or not, after all, who am I to say their life isn't totally forked. My question is more about how you guys might handle members like this. Does it matter if they have an important character or not? Does it matter if they make activity check all in one day? Am I just wigging out over nothing? Your thoughts, please.

There is a member on my site who just does not listen. We're constantly asking them to change their posts because they often godmode or write their characters as over powerful or perfect. And despite what we tell them, they kind of change the posts, but on their own terms, which sometimes requires us to again contact them and ask for edits. The other staff and I have had it up to here. We don't feel like we need to constantly be on this member's case about this stuff, but at the same time, they're not playing fairly and despite asking them to change their posts often, they don't seem to be understanding why. Punishment (or consequences) really need to happen... but we just don't know what kind would be appropriate for the situation. We don't want to ban them (I feel like that'd be more appropriate for a last resort thing), we just want to get the message across that they need to think about their character's actions, read our rules and specific thread stipulations, stop writing their character as all powerful / unable to lose or be injured, and apply realistic factors to their posts. So, I open this up to you ~ has anyone else ever dealt with a member like this? How did you handle it? What do you think is the best approach? Anything, at this point, will be useful! So, I thank you in advance! Anonymous poster hash: bfc46...d56

I know it's not the greatest title in the world, haha, but it's a problem I've run into multiple times now xD How do you guys go about handling new members that give you a suspicious feel? For example, I've received a member before that felt the need to have their character have the best weapons, a dragon (which is supposed to be pretty rare) and magic, all in the same go (which is immensely powerful in the RP world that we play in, and we felt there was no need to put a cap on it because people typically realize "hey wow that's a lot of stuff"). Not to mention, they've tried to add things to their inventory that you would need to buy but they never did, all in the name of, as my staff team and I believe, to be more powerful. Of course, those are the vibes we get, but may not be the case, but how would you guys go about handling a situation such as that? There are always other cases such as ones that may be probing for information, or other things as such, lol. But I wanted your guys' opinions on it as well XD Anonymous poster hash: 3a789...0d0

It was @Rune's topic here: And because of it I have a related question, BUT specifically for the people that DO like word counts. I want to know: WHY do you like having an official minimum word counts? As staff, how heavily/what method do you use to enforce said word count? Do you like, go wordcount every post that's made? Is there like, a soft range of "close enough" that you accept? things like that. If somebody fails to make the cut, how do you go about getting them to write more? Is it a 3 strikes thing? What's the punishment/frequency.

There was an old thread but it was locked and, obviously, old. Things change! Time for the new hotness! What're your favorite discord bots? Which do you find most useful? I only really have Rhythm. You can name songs, it hunts them down and plays them in a specified voice channel for everyone in it.

I tagged this staffing but I'm happy to hear both sides of this. Anyway! So, I know (I think? there are at least a few still running) there's a relatively extensive ani-manga/art/cg faceclaim/playby circle left in RPdom. And I'm kind of looking to hear from that corner for a few reasons. I'm starting a board that really, highly lends itself to art/anime/cg characters rather than real life pbs, and I want to keep the feel and I will probably keep animanga pbs. But that led to some discomfort, and I say that because I grew up when no one paid much attention to art that was being used for characters, but I've had my eyes opened to it a lot more in recent years, and it's kind of a thing, art theft in rpdom. I'm not 16 any more and I can't really just look away from that particular issue because I know better now. How do you guys vet to avoid art theft? Like obviously you can create a rule against it but what about enforcing it? Do you just insist on official art from whatever the claim is from? Which is all well and good but people do draw their own characters or commission others to do so for them...and I don't want to exclude those people but I'm not sure how to go about making sure that it's not actually someone else's that they don't have permission using. How do you guys go about doing that - if you do? So as an admin now do you vet to avoid art theft? Or do you as an admin just leave it to the artist to claim the work and ask it to be taken down? I'm genuinely curious for perspective here - from members who've seen it handled and what sorts of rules/guidelines/etc they find helpful, to what worked if/when you were staffing a board using animanga fcs. (I do just want to say here, please don't turn this into real life claims versus animanga ones. I'm not looking for 'reasons' to go RL instead, just advice on how to handle this particular issue).

Do you use post icons for anything? CW has a few. All are optional and the "warning" ones were requested, so we added them in. M - A mature thread S- Sex. V - Violence L- Language A star! - An event related thread. + - Open thread. x - Finished thread.

Have you ever had a player that was over eager for replies to the point that they were harassing other players? How did you deal with it?

So one of the imperative consensus of the role play world is that what happens in character does not have any impact on out of character events or relationships. However, on the flip side there are many sites where characters in threads, entirely IC speaking, are forced to behave in a wholly politically correct fashion – they can’t express any sort of racial or gender bias without that reflecting badly on the player. In my experience sexism in character is totally fine, but the moment LGBT+ or racial slurs etc are used it becomes an ooc issue. So how do you as an administrator or a player handle in character actions for characters “bigotry/racism/sexism” etc ?

You know all the stuff that every site has in their rules or those trends that can hurry up and die already... Like saying that "powerplay" and "godmode" is against the rules. Of course it is. It's something everyone should know. "No politics or religion discussed." Again: Everyone knows. These things are, more or less, the Golden Rules of forum RP... So we should be able to do away with them, right? What do you think we can toss out with the trash? (Bear in mind that this isn't a thread for arguing why these things are still in every rule set. But more so a look at what gets redundant when we've seen it fifty thousand times.)

A little background: I’ve run boards before so I’m comfortable with managing that aspect but this is the first time I’ve run a game with a discord. So far I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying it because I use to hate AIM, Skype, and IM in general but still getting use to how to manage it from a staff point of view so I thought I’d ask around to see how others manage their discords. Is it for players only or guest friendly? If it is guest friendly, what do you do with guests who join the server but never join the board? How much / when do you use the @ everyone tag? --- This one’s been on my mind, I worry about over using it/annoying people How many channels do you typically have? Any method for keeping track of who is who? Or does it matter? – In the case were alias/handle doesn’t match the discord username