PBEM Guides

The nature of this game - a relatively small, enclosed vessel hurtling through space with infrequent stops to stretch our legs - necessitates some conflict. And we wholeheartedly encourage it! The following are some guidelines to help avoid in-character conflict becoming an out-of-character problem. 

Good Conflict

Conflict is necessary for fun, interesting gameplay, but good conflict is necessary to avoid problems between players. 

Good conflict is collaborative. It requires solid communication between players, and give-and-take between characters. One character should not always be coming out of every conflict on top - that isn't fair, and it isn't fun, either! So make sure that when you engage in in-character conflict, you're talking with your fellow players about how to best craft this conflict into a fun result for everyone. 

Otherwise... 

Bad Conflict

You get bad conflict when assumptions are made, and bad conflict usually leads to problems between players.

Bad conflict often results from overestimating your character's abilities, or underestimating the abilities of someone else's character. So rather than do either - talk to your fellow players, and figure out how your characters stack up against each other. 

"Autoing" is a form of this assumption - when you take your estimations about another person's character and turn them into assertions in your posts. This is strictly not allowed by our rules, but sometimes mistakes happen and we don't always see what we're doing as autoing. 

Autoing IS

• Saying in your post that someone else's character is doing or saying something that was not specified in their post.

• Deciding in your post that your character's attack lands, or how an attack affects someone else's character.

Autoing IS NOT 

• Talking to the other player before posting to decide that your character's attack does hit, or how it affects that other character.*

  • *Please note that the mods do not know this is or isn't the case unless we're told or see the conversation ourselves in chat. We will usually err on the side of assuming that any autoing was agreed upon beforehand, so if that's not the case please let us know so that we can help work things out!

• Someone else's character thinking or feeling some kind of way about yours.

• Someone else's character saying your character did something they did not, or did not mean the way it was interpreted.

That said, those last two? Perfect examples of when communication and collaboration would help! If you know your character is misinterpreting something another character is doing, or feels some kind of way about another character or something they're doing, please talk to each other so it's clear, OOC, that any misunderstandings are IC.

Another way to avoid autoing is to simply write with intention; this is especially helpful with physical altercations. Write what your character is trying to do, rather than as if it's already done and dusted. It can be a little tricky and awkward at first, but it goes a long way toward avoiding headaches! JPs (or mini-JPs) can also be helpful here, as they can be collaboratively  edited before posting.

Just remember that at the end of the day, the goal here - and with all of the rules and guidelines we provide - is to help everyone in the game have fun with it. Working together to create fun conflict is a big part of that!

NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS

Anyone can make an NPC, but unlike player characters, not all NPCs are created equal. Some are made for plots, some are made to drive a given scene, and some are just to provide character background. Unless you are asked by a mod to create an NPC for a game-wide plot, your NPC will likely fall into one of the latter two baskets. That doesn't mean they aren't important, but they aren't as important and may or may not need to be fleshed out to the point of a bio on the site, for example - and will not take precedence over PCs.

Normal NPCs, or NPCs made by you for a scene or your character's background, can generally be used as you see fit. If they need to be roughed up or auto'd, that's your prerogative as the person who made the NPC. If the NPC is not yours, normal or otherwise, please talk first to the person who made the NPC before manhandling or controlling them in any way.

Plot NPCs, unlike normal NPCs, have a larger part in the game and may even show up repeatedly. If you have mod permission to rough them up, then you may, but please limit this to when it's appropriate for the scene.

That said: While NPCs can be offed as needed, please remember to consider the consequences. As with breaking any law in plain sight, shooting someone on a busy street in broad daylight is not likely to go well for your character. We can only bend reality so far before your character has to face consequences for their decisions, so please don't force our hands here. 

And absolutely no killing someone else's NPC or a plot NPC without permission.

Our characters may live in the vacuum of space but they do not exist in a vacuum. As we touched on above,  there are consequences to in-game actions - and just like conflict, there are good and bad kinds! 

Good Consequences

These are the consequences you, as a player, want. Whether they're positive or negative for your character, they're consequences you intended with your character's action, inaction, etc. 

This requires - you guessed it! - communication. Between you and the mods, as well as you and other players in your scene or plot. Good consequences often tie directly into a plot that you're setting up for your character or can even create an unexpected plot for you to dig into.

An example of good consequences is: Say your character has the chance to shoot an adversary in a busy street. You communicate your intentions to your scene-mates, or mods, and through discussion it's decided that the best thing for the situation would not be for your character to kill them here. 

So before your character can take the shot, the adversary gets away. This could then extend the plot by giving the adversary a chance to turn the tables on our characters and/or allow the characters to finally kill them in a place where it's safe to - potentially even uncovering more information than they would have initially.

Bad Consequences

These are the consequences that you didn't seek out but they found your character anyway, likely through choices your character made in-game. If this happens, the mods will work with you to see what we can do to help but if the action is extreme enough, there may not be anything we can do. 

An example of an extreme situation is similar to the one given above: your character has shot someone in the middle of a busy street. There is likely to be panic from bystanders and authorities alerted, which puts your character in the unfortunate position of having to either run from the police, fight the police, or surrender and be arrested. Now your character is looking at a potential murder charge and maybe even prison. Even if they managed to run and get away, the authorities are likely to be looking for them.

All of that said, the best way to avoid bad consequences is to take a second and consider your character's actions before posting. Think about the current setting, who else is around or involved, the extent of your character's knowledge as of that moment, the logical events that could follow your character's actions. 

If you need help with this, a mod is almost always available to give feedback and taking a second to slow down and head off any issues prior to posting is always preferable to scrambling to pick up the pieces.