OOC: In order to catch Shawna and eventually John up to speed we'll do some solo adventures by post. Perhaps even in chat though I doubt it. Really Play by Post is simple. I'll post something to get you started. You react using your awesome writing skills. Or mediocre writing skills which ever you have. In Play by post it is slower but it also gives you time to put some flair into your adventure. We'll be using this as a way to introduce your character to the game itself. You'll know things that the other players won't and vise versa.

So when using this posting system, write OOC: before anything that applies to the game but is not part of your character's actions and such. Put qoutes around all speach, and italicize all thoughts. Otherwise write in the style of most books, Third Person Past Tense. Here is an example...


Shivering a bit at the cold Torani sat as dignified as possible upon her beautiful black Arabian. Dressed quite warmly, fortunately, her nose was a bit red but otherwise you could barely tell she was chilled. The simple black saddle and saddle packs blended well with the horse's haunches making it difficult to tell where saddle ended and horse began. With her cloak pulled around her, the enchanting elf guided her steed along a cart path.

{Sylvan} "Still alive down there?" She seemed to be speaking to her stomach. The cloak wrapped around her front moved a bit unusually and croaked, {Sylvan} "Yes, Yes, smells good here." A grin slid to the enchantress' face, {S} "That's not what I asked but I'll take it as a compliment."

She had been staring at another set of hooveprints mostly covered in snow for quite a while. A few glimpses of a lone rider had met her eyes a few times in the distance but she wasn't sure she wanted to catch them. Looking up she noticed a farm and a few humanoids standing in a field. Reigning in she watched a man pretend to be a flightless, and rather awkward, bird. She shook her head and decided to see whether he was bewitched or just crazy. Pulling the hood off of her head she urged the horse towards the house yet not completely approaching stopping a good 15 yards away from the house but within plain sight of those in the field.

{S} "Why stop, why stop? We wants warm and food." Torani looked down and pulled open her cloak revealing a black raven sitting on her thigh. {S} "Take a look, that man is pretending to be you." A small chuckle escaped her lips and she sat smiling while the raven pulled the cloak shut again and croaked somewhat like a mumble.

OOC: As soon as I receive a character sheet which I will make a thread for you to post it to we'll start if you'd like. Let me know in the General Chat Threads.

So since most people still don't get how cool and uber-awesome play by post can be I've decided to write up a guide...

This is an opportunity for you to make some major gains in the xp department and perhaps push you over the edge for a new level.

ANATOMY OF A POST

Okayfine, so you start out with a post from me the DM.

{ You enter a room filled with gold and silver coins, treasure of all types and a few nice peices of artwork to boot. The room is rather large and you can't see the walls because of the treasure. It is stacked to the ceiling in bags overflowing, loose on the floor beneath your feet and all around you. As you take a few steps into the room a door you did not notice slides shut behind you.}

So what's up there? I described a room to you basically correct?

Now you get to react to it. Write out feelings, thoughts, sensations and the like as well as any actions that you decide to take.

Here is how I would have reacted...

{ Verin, being the greed-filled half-elf belly-dancing bard that he is, stood staring in awe at quite possibly the greatest horde he'd ever seen. He could feel the "energy" rising from it and was blinded by it's beuty. The bard didn't even notice the door sliding shut behind him.

I think I'm going to cry.

Verin reached down and picked up a few coins just revelling in thier feel. In bliss he put one of the coins in his mouth and began to suck on it, choking a bit in the revelry. It took a few minutes for him to realize he was trapped.

"Um let me out dude!"

Walking over to the door he banged on it a few times and listened at it for any sound of response.

OOC: Rolled an 11 + 5 listen ranks total is 16 for listen check. }

Now there's a lot to take in here.

1. Third Person Past tense- this is the style of writing he used to convey his actions.

2. Color and Italics - Pick a color besides red or orange to be your thought/speech. It can be any color besides those two and it will remain the same at all times. This is to set off the speech from everything else and give the post some flare. Any thoughts should not only be colored but italicized.

3. OOC: All actions/rolls/info that does not pertain directly to the story but is a part of it should be orange and have "OOC:" in front of it.

4. DO NOT: Post one line, be creative and give me something to work with.

5. DO NOT: Use the {} at the beginning and ends of your post it's unneccesary and I was using it to set it all apart.

So that's it except that at this point I may interject with something like this...

{Before Verin could get to the door he had turned into a coin. You see a curse was laid on this treasure that whosoever licked a coin would join the horde. This had actually started as just a few coins in a purse but as you can see many people like to lick coins...coin-licking fools.}

Hope this helps!