A Land Far Away

Are DM's interested in posts about PC activities related to current plots they are running? If so do they prefer a forum thread or a PM?

Various groups have been RPing around the current TSM crypt plot and I was wondering how or if the DMs would like to be kept up to date.

I'm not involved in any of the DM events right now, so I have been PMing the DMs about important goings-on I've been involved with/initiating. I wouldn't want to deluge the poor things with PMs from everybody, so I'd think a thread would be appropriate if there are many people involved. Especially if the topic is fairly public knowledge.

A rumors thread that PCs can update would be helpful. I believe WD had a news style thread of sorts that was quite entertaining.

In one of my past projects, we had defined this thing called 'street knowledge'. Players could post in a forum thread about rumours and gossip going around in the PW. The idea behind it being that their characters started these rumours by speaking to NPC's such as tavern patrons and shopkeepers.

Basically it was information for other characters, which was obtained through meta-gaming. Our characters didn't actually find out in-character in practise, only in theory. This information would be common knowledge in-game as rumours being told by the non-player characters.

Important was that they were considered rumours and gossip. It was stuff that was told. It didn't make it true. And always would a rumour lead back to the PC that started it. This made it impossible for people to create their own roleplay bubbles and at the same time, keep room for intrigue.

We were pretty strict about this. Players could only post rumours and gossip if their own character began telling it.

Allowing players to post street knowledge and rumours would be very helpful. I've found it to be useful in the past. Heck, it's a pretty common thing, even if it isn't defined. It is happening now in ALFA too.

It does mean that the players can do something that is actually DM territory, namely a bit of control of NPC's. But considering the nature of on-line roleplay, it's neccesary I think. This is not table-top P&P and if well-defined, street knowledge can help players andDM's tremendously.

Demson if you want to start a rumours thread, start it off with the rules for posting and I'll sticky it.

Larger plot-related updates can be pm'd to one of the dms and we can then add it to the appropriate thread in our forum.

Meh, I don't know. We've found it to be useful in the past, but how do others here think about it? It's a nice idea but if no one here cares...

I did something similar for the OAS2, that effort went down the drain.

Who would use such a thing?

I certainly would, my character is supposed to be a professional taleteller. He's a rumour machine.

I'll make the topic but it does need some effort to get it of the ground..

Though I wonder if anyone will ever notice it. At the moment there are already 11 stickies and 3 announcements.

Whoa whoa, hold on. There are DMs?

I'm pretty sure they exist, somewhere.

There are DM's and they are doing a damn good job, too. There is allot of stuff going on and there are only so many DM's... I'm sure they'd appriciate any form of support we can offer.

The topic is up here. Now please go give it some posting love. I don't want another embaressment.

Stickied the rumourmill.

Could a DM please clean up the thread?

I've added some explanation and two examples. I hope it helps. I should have done it at the start, sorry for the confusion this caused.

Threads like this are not easy to get going smoothly. I hope it works out. I'm still skeptical to it's use in ALFA, considering the dominant attitude on the forums (and also mIRC). But it's worth the attempt.

Demson wrote:
Threads like this are not easy to get going smoothly. I hope it works out. I'm still skeptical to it's use in ALFA, considering the dominant attitude on the forums (and also mIRC). But it's worth the attempt.

Uhm ... I think I must be missing something. Its just a forum thread, and one for rumors at that. What's all the fuss about?

oldgrayrogue wrote:

Demson wrote:
Threads like this are not easy to get going smoothly. I hope it works out. I'm still skeptical to it's use in ALFA, considering the dominant attitude on the forums (and also mIRC). But it's worth the attempt.

Uhm ... I think I must be missing something. Its just a forum thread, and one for rumors at that. What's all the fuss about?

Did you read the stickied thread? Not the 'rumours', but street 'knowledge'.

Uh huh I read it and I still don't understand all the fuss.

oldgrayrogue wrote:Uh huh I read it and I still don't understand all the fuss.

I was talking about it (see: bitching) in IRC, and I think I finally realized why the thread itself irks me. It's not a matter of the information being spread in there, even if some of it (like the undead) has been covered and clarified as to what the actual source is... but rather, it's the amount of specifics that are going into some of the posts.

It's a rumour. It's knowledge being spread around. Remember that game children used to play, when they'd say something and it'd go around the room and the final message would be distorted and messed up? That's how street knowledge happens and goes around. I think Amar hit the nail on the head with his "fixed" post in how certain rumours should be posted -- some specifics in how information is spread/gathered just don't seem fitting for that manner of conversation.

That's how I feel, at least. It may also prevent the "no u!" argument that the specifics already formed within the first few posts.