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| World of Chaos World of Chaos Portal Image Gallery FAQ Application Contact |
| FAQ |
| What do you want to know about World of Chaos? |
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What kind of Sim/RPG is this? Cathy: This is a collaborative writing role playing game. It is similar to a PBeM (Play By eMail) RPG in that there is a GM and other writers/players who work together taking turns writing posts to create a story that is guided in the plot development by the GM. This particular RPG uses a forum instead of email. It is very loosely based in the Rifts RPG with elements of Cyberpunk and other Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror genres all blended into one game world. The premise is very versatile. Stories and characters can be dark and violent or funny and light-hearted. We have power-armored soldiers, psychic vampires, trolls, sorcerers, werewolves, cyborgs, mutants, aliens and, of course, humans. You can travel through time, to other dimensions or to other worlds. Magic exists alongside highly-advanced technology. Aliens co-exist with Vampires and Wizards. The world is Earth, but hundreds of years into the future. Why post on a forum instead of email? Cathy: Email sims often run into problems with lost mails due to incompatible email systems or delayed mails, resulting in story splits that then require reposting and editing to fix. A forum sim allows for the author to edit his own post, or the GM can edit it if it happens to conflict with a previous one or the GM requests a change for plot dev reasons. The forum allows for posting images, music and formatting text. It also provides one place where all the members can go to read, write and carry on OOC discussions too. It is much more of a social community on a forum. How seriously do you follow the Rifts universe? Paul: Think of the Rifts Universe as our template. We don't exactly follow it by the letter but we do abide by the basic framework of the universe. We think this allows for more creativity and lessens restrictions on those gamers who really want to work with their imagination. For example, we use the Rifts slang word of "Dee Bee" which means Dimensional Being. Dee Bees are found throughout the Rifts universe in it's many stories and games. In Worlds of Chaos you can be any Dee Bee that you want to be. If you came from a world in which you were a wizard, then you can be a wizard. Cathy: Honestly, I had never heard of Rifts before I started playing this game. We were talking about trying out a fresh premise and we went through several ideas before Cyberpunk led to Steampunk which led to Rifts. The perfect fit. Sci-fi and horror and fantasy! Who can't love that? But only one of us had ever played the actual tabletop version of the game so we chose to go easy on the canon and leave lots of room for the writers to create the world as they wanted it to be. This might make things a bit disorienting to anyone who is well-read on any of these various genres and games but if you are tolerant of flaunting canon a bit here and there, then it should be no problem. As time goes by, we are learning more and more of the details of the Rifts Universe and plan to incorporate them into the game world. Rifts Universe is more of a jumping off place than our canon. We tweak, flaunt, embellish, alter and create what we want. No one is going to go canon-nazi on you if you don't stick to the source books verbatim. Nor will we be annoyed if you choose to follow the canon for the most part, as long as it doesn't conflict with currently established WoC canon and characters. Such as, Paul has created a race of mutants that live on Mars. Werewolves and Animorphs are canon in Rifts, but not the specific kind that Paul created. So if you wanted to create an Ascendant character too, you would need to follow Paul's canon for that race and their abilities. Wow! I can be a superhero if I want to be then? Paul: Yes, but with limits. We do expect some limitations with your characters. Just like Superman had his kryptonite and Batman was useless without his utility belt, we expect your character to have some drawbacks. How much fun is a character who can break down every door that gets in his or her way and can deflect every bullet without bleeding? In WoC we like character driven stories which means the more suffering the better. Cathy: Rifts is rife with imbalance. No one expects an unaugmented human to be able to stand up to a Glitter Boy. Realistically, such incidents would occur. But for game purposes, we have to be creative and manipulate the scenes where the team would otherwise be easily decimated simply because they didn't have equal equipment or abilities. We assemble teams based on the parameters of the missions or situations. Some plots evolve with surprising twists and characters just need to manage to stay alive. Just keep in mind... if your character is so powerful the rest of the team is not needed, then you negate the reason you would need to be on the team in the first place. What do you mean character driven stories? Paul: If the first thing that you thought of was "soap opera" then you were mistaken. We just like for our characters to be as real as possible. For example, Max Hauer, the team physician in WoC, is a recovering alcoholic. Max has plenty of surprises up his sleeve in that he can hold his own in a battle and use a shotgun in the same surgical manner as a scalpel. Max, unfortunately, has his demons. He is a womanizer and once was an alcoholic. He serves on our team only because it is his last chance to redeem what was once a promising career. How Max deals with this problem not only makes him more human but makes his character more interesting. This doesn't mean your character has to have deep flaws that you must keep referring to often but he or she should be interesting as an individual. Cathy: We want the stories to be more about the people in them rather than the events happening to them. Your characters should have depth. A background, some personality, some problems. No one is perfect and no one is all work and no play. We spend a good deal of time on character development, not just during down-time between missions, but during missions too. Dialog, character quirks, pets, apartments, friends, family, etc., all fill in the details of your character's lives. We don't want to see just what Joe does while on duty. No one's life is on hold until it's time to post, "Joe detonated the C-4 and the entire complex imploded." We want to know your character, not just see him flex his muscles or his brain. What kind of writing format do you use? Paul: We use the novel approach. Think of your post as a chapter in a story. We don't use a script format as some forums use and we do expect the spell checker to be run. We're not going to single you out and make life miserable if you have a few typos or left out some words but we do expect a comprehensible post. If you know that you are a good writer and you find writing to be a wonderful past-time, this format is not a problem. Cathy: Most posts are written in the third person point of view, where words like he, his, himself, and the character's name are used to reference that character. Preferred is third person omniscient, where you can not only show a character's actions, but also what they are feeling and thinking. First person and second person PoV are common in tabletop role playing games, e.g., "I could have sworn I saw her do that." Or 2nd person PoV, "You move your mage to the otherside of the river." Another common version for these sims is the script format, for example: "She lifts her soft shoulders in a small shrug and smiles up at him." Similar to a narrator describing to the readers what your character is doing and thinking. Don't write like that. It makes me cringe. If you are not a great speller, or use the wrong word or fractured grammar or have some typos, or don't know when to use a semicolon instead of a comma, we are not going to complain about it. As long as we can figure out what you meant to say, everything is fine. I certainly am not going to discourage a good writer simply because they can't spell. Spelling isn't writing. Grammar isn't either. Many people write just like they talk. That's fine with me. Don't let the worry over mechanics get in the way of imagination. Do you use dice? Paul: I didn't hear that. I'm not too familiar with your characters? How do you expect me to participate if I don't know them too well? Paul: When I join these kind of games, including this one, I take the cautious beginning. I read the bios carefully and when it came to a point that I needed a character's response, I left the post hanging. It will be obvious to anyone reading the boards that you are waiting for a response. This is perfectly fine. If you are confused or afraid, please don't sit in silence. Always ask. None of us will rip your head off. It is always better to ask than sit and stew in frustration. I know. I have done that. We want you to have fun. We want you to marvel us with your imagination and we will gladly write JP's (joint posts) with you to get you into the game. We also ask that you not be afraid to take the initiative. Jump forward. Blow something up! Shock us! You will find, as I have, that you will come to know our characters and eventually you'll be able to write them into your posts. We ask that you don't have our characters act or behave as we would not want them to act or behave. Also, if you must write an extensive post that our characters need to be used very thoroughly that a JP be arranged or that you use the "tag" method...that is leave the post off for the other writer to carry on. If you have a crazy idea that you want to follow, just ask. Cathy: Keep in mind, meeting and interacting with new characters is not as hard as in real life. In RL, do strangers walk up to you and hand you a bio for you to read before they will talk to you? Nope. But you still manage to interact with them, yes? Yes. At least here, you have character bios to have a peek into their secrets and histories. But for the rest of it, as in chapters written before you joined (If you did not read them so you know what's going on and why and how we got to where we are now...) then it will be like RL. You will find out more about everyone as time goes on. That's what char dev is for! We go with the "roll with it" system, where whatever happens, try to live with it and keep going. You will not always love what someone had your character doing or saying. Edits can be made, but only for major issues. Please don't shock us with a major plot development though. Those kinds of moves are for the GMs. If you think your post might be a major plot altering factor, get it cleared with one of us first. Do not do things like jump sim time ahead or change location. Do not ever kill off another player or one of their NPCs without permission. Do not use another player's character to any great extent without permission, and certainly try not to have them doing or saying things that are out of character. If you are not sure, write that player and ask them about what you have in mind, or offer to do a JP. Especially if it's a post that will use a lot of dialog. Those are always better as a JP. Can I have more than one character? Cathy: Yes! We encourage you to create and play more than one main character. We have a few we consider full-time mains and some we consider part-timers. And then another set that are just occasional NPCs. How do you manage alternate characters and storylines? Cathy: We usually have one main plot and a few subplots running concurrently. The main plot is the current mission and the subplots might be character development or subsidiary events that may or may not relate to or interact with the main plot at any time. Some subplots may simmer in the background for weeks before they blow up and emerge as the main plot. Some subplots are just revisited every time we are in The City instead of on the road. Multiple subplots allow us to use several characters at once or to side-line them as needed. Like in a novel, the story is never about just the protagonist. It must be filled out with other characters to make the world come alive. As a small sim group, we want to allow room for multiple characters and stories to be occurring at the same time. Not all the characters and stories have to be within the main plotline. They can exist as their own subplots within the overall story arc. How do I
join this sim? Contact one of the GMs if you have questions about joining. If your application is
approved, we will begin the process of adding you to the group via a few Q
& A emails.
How Does the Image Gallery
Work? How come most of the char bios and posts were
posted by you?
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