Introduction

Alright folks, I’m delighted to go over some new features that should make roleplaying much more accessible. Existing sessions that use the old logging system will be allowed to continue where they are until they wrap up, but new sessions should use the new system.

RP Lobby and Creating a New Session

Right around the time this report goes live, you should see #rp-lobby under the General/Society Chats category. You don’t need to do anything to gain access. This channel is for two things. First, it’s for DB-relevant roleplaying discussion (40k and D&D stories will still live in #tabletop-gaming). Second, RP sessions will be created as threads in this channel.

Any member can create and configure an RP session using bot commands, similar to how you can make a party for gaming. To get started, just type /rp. On mobile or desktop, Discord will offer you autocomplete options so you don’t have to memorize all the different commands. To make a new session, you’re looking for /rp create. Once you input the create command, the bot will make two threads for you: one tagged [IC] and one tagged [OOC]. [IC] is for the in-character narration and dialogue. This is what gets logged and reported for clusters. [OOC] is for everything else: questions, banter, dice rolls, planning, memes, etc.

Once you’ve created the session, you’ll want to add some details to it so that potential players know if this is something they’d be interested in. You do that using /rp set in the session’s [OOC] thread; Discord’s autocomplete options will let you select which field you want to edit. Your options are:

• Description: This is what shows up under the session title. It’s the best place to cover the basic premise.

• Target Audience: Is your session open to anyone? Only Journeymen or NFUs? Only members of your clan?

• Start Time: If you’re not starting immediately, you can let people know when the action will kick off.

• End Time: If you’re going to cut the session off at a particular date or time, you can say that here.

• Rules: If you’re using a particular rule system, this is where you tell people what it is. I linked to a few guides in my last report if you’d like an example of your options.

Dice Maiden

Most DB sessions use dice to some degree or another. The session organizer will have the option to add the Dice Maiden to the OOC thread. Dice Maiden is very powerful and you can see the full documentation here, but if past sessions are any indication, you will generally be typing !roll 1d20 + X or !roll 1d10 + X commands. But if you want to do the d6 system, D&D, Fate, etc. Dice Maiden is capable of handling all that.

It’s up to the session organizer to determine what you should roll. That Rules field in the session description should give you a good idea of what you’re getting into, though.

Joining and Playing a Session

Once the organizer has the session set up, there are two ways to get players into it. The first is the /rp advertise command. It’ll advertise your session, using all those details you put in with /rp set, in the channel of your choice. For club-wide open sessions, this should be #rp-lobby, but if you’re doing a session for e.g. your battleteam, you could choose to advertise in the BT channel. You will need to fill out all the /rp set parameters to advertise a session. The advertisement will have a big blue button that people can click to join the session.

You can also add people to threads by mentioning them (e.g. @Archenksov); mentioning someone in either the OOC or IC thread will add the person to both. You don’t need to fill out any of the /rp set parameter to do this.

Needless to say, it’s possible that you can be very annoying with advertisements and tagging people in. I ask that you be courteous and defer to channel owners (i.e. summits) about if and how often you can advertise sessions in their channels. Likewise, don’t tag people who don’t want to join your session. If it becomes a nuisance, we will restrict or disable these options, so be nice.

Once the session starts, which could be immediately or after everybody has had a chance to get settled, it’s up to the organizer to keep things on track. This includes keeping the story going and deleting any content that shouldn’t be submitted for CIs from the [IC] thread. As a reminder, RP sessions must use your DB characters in the DB setting to qualify for CIs. Dice rolls, out of character comments, etc. do not count towards clusters and should stay in the [OOC] channel.

The Cov also applies to RP sessions, so make sure everybody participating is comfortable with the session content.

Reporting and Record Keeping

Once the session has wrapped up, the organizer can push the red Finalize Session button in the [OOC] thread. It’ll be right at the top so you might have to scroll up a bit. This does a few things.

First, it archives the [IC] thread. Second, it spits out a link to an HTML version of the session log. You can use this link to refer to the session on your character wiki or keep it for you or others to read in the future. Finally, it submits the log and wordcounts to me. For the time being, I will be manually verifying that everything is in order and submitting the counts and logs to the Voice staff for them to award CIs. In the future, this will hopefully be automated, but we want to make sure everything is going well before we take human review out of the process.

If you’re curious during the session, there’s also a Show Running Word Counts button in the [OOC] thread. This does not submit anything and is just for your awareness.

Troubleshooting and Credits

If you’re having issues or questions, feel free to tag me (@Archenksov or @Exarch) in your session threads or #rp-lobby and I’ll see what I can do.

Finally, credit where credit is due. Thanks to my working group (Wally, Erinyes, Blade, Anubis, Revak and later on Appius, Teebu, Atty, Xathia, Raleien, and Bentre) for helping to design a good system, Evant and Bubba for making the project possible, and James for doing, well, all the actual work on these systems.

Now that the system is live, several of our experienced DMs also plan to roll out sessions over the next week or so. Hopefully you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get in on a session or run one of your own.

Now go forth and do cool stuff with each other.

Alethia Archenksova,
Exarchissa