As the rules change, I will tend to first create an announcement (to get everyone's attention) but then add the new rules to this post so that everything is in one place for easy reference.
Guild Ranks
The ranks will be as follows:
Captain: Me, of course. The GM. I doubt anyone else will ever GM, but if it ever did get handed over to someone else, they would take the rank of Captain.
Vice Captain: Also me. More specifically, NPCs. These are given this rank so I can use them to edit posts and do all the things I need to do myself.
Crew: This is a newly added rank. The Crew are there for one reason: Pick up a little bit of slack in the department of post-editing. I would generally like this place to be spelling-error free and (ideally) grammatical-error free as well. However, some people are not that great with the English language. I'm not bad with it, myself, but even I make mistakes. With me as the only editor, mistakes are going to slip by, and I'd rather that not happen. Crew are people who have shown an active interest in keeping the guild tidy, language-wise, and I'd like to give them editing power. They are to edit posts only for spelling and grammar errors, and never change the content of the post. Abuse of this power will result in immediate Demotion back down to Member.
Member: Everyone else. The players. The people who havn't started yet. All those sorts.
Posting Guidelines
As the title implies, these are only guidelines. If you wish to do things differently, there are alternate methods. As long as everyone knows what you're trying to convey, I will probably accept it. At this time, the only other acceptable format is used by Revenant and Mercy; find some of their posts to see what I'm talking about. For most people, I'd suggest using the methods listed here.
Talking normally:
Simple. Keep the "Post Style" on say and don't modify the text at all.
Raising your voice:
If the spoken part of an entire post is a shout, change "Post Style" to shout and just type out what you're shouting. If part of your post is talking and another part is shouting, you may use Large text size to indicate you are being louder. Please refrain from using X-Large text size. The only time X-Large will be used is by those with voices so loud, they can be heard for miles. It is very uncommon for a character you create to be capable of such things.
Lowering your voice:
If the spoken part of an entire post is a whisper, simply change "Post Style" to whisper. Whispers are assumed to only be heard if you're intentionally whispering something to someone, or if someone decides to role a listen check (with a very high DC, determined by me based on the situation). To simply lower your voice to a lower level, but something everyone around can still hear, use Small text size. To lower it to a whisper that requires a listen check to hear unless your mouth is to their ear, use Tiny text size. As you can see, Tiny can only be seen by copy/pasting the text into notepad or something similar.
Thinking:
If an entire post is in thought, you can use the Think style. Anyone without psychic ability cannot hear what you say in this post, but sometimes it's handy to capture your facial expression. If you wish to insert a thought into the rest of your text, use italics.
Acting:
If you want to indicate your character is doing something, enclose it in *stars*. Try to post it so that your name could be put in front of it to make a full sentance, such as:
*picks up the pen and starts playing with it*
Actions such as these are the only place where capitalization and punctuation don't matter, though you should still capitalize names and such. Also note that you can do this as part of any other post, even a thought.
Clarification:
Your text, when using an action like this, should be written so the stars could be replaced with your character's name (for the first one) and a period (for the last one). I'll show you an example.
*chases after Nebula*
This would be read as "Zetan chases after Nebula."
Some other examples:
*runs around in circles*
*laughs at the pitiful humans*
Here are some examples of what not to do (and why):
*Kills him* (capitalization is not needed here, since "Zetan Kills him." is incorrect)
*Zetan runs away* (No need to add your character's name; it's assumed)
*moves into the room. Zetan draws his sword* (Although this is technically correct by my definition, these should be separated into two separate actions. Try not to use punctuation inside these "action stars;" just add another set.)
Tone of voice:
If you are using a tone of voice that cannot easily be described with the things I mentioned above, such as sarcasm or anger, use (parenthesis) with an -ly word. For instance, (Sarcastically) or (Angrily).
OOC:
OOC can be used to clarify rules and such, or when you need to go Away From Keyboard for a few minutes. Please keep any text in these situations to a minimum, and use ((double-parenthesis)). By "to a minimum," I mean that you should say you're going away and for how long, but not why, or anything else bound to start up conversation. For instance, avoid ((My dog just pissed all over the rug! Brb)). Instead, simply write, ((AFK, probably for about 5 mins.)) Depending on how crucial you are at that point in the game, the GM (me) will indicate whether we should continue without you or take a short break to wait for you.
Rolls:
Anytime you are doing something you know requires a roll, such as an attack, you can make the roll as part of the post. At the top of the post (so it will appear right under the roll) add any modifiers in [brackets]. If you attempt to do something that requries a roll but don't make one, I will ask you to roll.
Experience Points
Every time we get to the end of an adventure (which is defined in my head by the ending of a certain string of events; in the first one, the destruction of the robot marked the end of the adventure) I will award XP. XP will usually be about equal to the number of sessions the adventure took, plus an extra 1-2 depending on how well everyone played. Anyone who missed some sessions will likely get that much fewer XP than everyone else.
When you recieve XP, go to the background tab of your character sheet and scroll down to PL & PP. PP will need to be changed. The new total should be the previous total, plus any experience. To avoid confusion, I will probably post everyone's new total; feel free to double-check with me to see if this is correct.
At certain times, I may also raise the PL. When this occurs, I will announce it. Do not change this number otherwise; I will let you knwo when the PL has gone up.
You have two options as far as what to do with your newly earned points. You may spend them right away or save them for later. Obviously, if you want to add more ranks to the powers you already have at max, you will want to save the points so you can use them when the PL goes up to add another rank.
You may not do anything that would add points to your pool (such as getting rid of feats, lowering attributes, lowering power ranks in a power, add weaknesses, etc.) without my permission. In addition, you cannot add any new Super-feats or completely new Super-powers without my permission. All of the above would usually need a plot-related reason to occur. Among the things you can do without my permission are:
Increase your ability acores (up to the 20 cap - going above this is considered superhuman and requires permission just like any superhuman power)
Increase base attack/defense (up to the level cap)
Add points to any skills, whether you have them or not.
Take any feats you are able to (assuming they're of a non-super nature; something a normal human could do).
Add ranks to any powers that aren't yet maxed out.
Anything else you wish to do in advancing your character, just ask. I'll probably say yes, but I'll also probably want to give a plot-related reason and work that in.
Most important paragraph (that's why it's bigger than the others):
Whatever you decide to do with your points, you are requried to make that decision and email me an updated character sheet sometime between the end of the session I give you XP and the start of the next session. Otherwise, they will be assumed to have simply been banked and you won't be able to spend them until the next time I give them out.
Casual roleplaying
Any player who wishes to may roleplay on the side, making his or her own thread. He or she may invite other players, and may play it out over long or short periods of time, with or without the GM present. Popular scenes will probably include conversations between characters during downtime, training, and other relatively mundane, day-to-day things. For purposes of setting the scene and such, the player who started it is considered the GM for the duration of that thread.
When you create it, you must decide if you are attempting to keep it as part of the official storyline or not. If you are, create it in the Official Storyline subforum. If you are not, make it here, in the main forum. If a thread in the OS subforum gets too outrageous and doesn't fit in with the storyline anymore, I may move it. In almost all cases, I'll rename it to dictate where it fits into the "comic book universe."
What is the upside to all this? Well, other than practicing your roleplaying and getting to know your character, I will also give XP awards for doing these well. These rewards will not be huge... probably no more than 1-2 XP... and will be given out along with the rest of the XP at the end of an adventure. For instance, I may say, "Everyone gets 5 XP, except for Amethyst, who gets 6 because of her side-adventure." This XP will be given out to anyone participating in any side-thread, even if it doesn't become part of the official storyline, as long as I like the thread. A storyline that involves aliens coming down and taking over NYC, while it doesn't fit into the storyline, is still rather entertaining and you will be rewarded for creating it.
Critical success/failure:
I am using a completely different critical success/failure system in this game. You don't really need to worry about it, since I'll be taking care of it all myself, but in case you're curious, the details of it will be listed here. First, let me explain why I'm implimenting this rule.
Basically, here's the dillema I've been thinking out: If you make it so a 1 always fails and a 20 always succeeds, there is a 1 in 20 chance to do anything. An average guy off the street with no base attack bonus and an 8 strength can still hit a super-fast character with a defense of 30, and he can do it 1 in 20 times. And that same hero, with a base attack bonus of 10 and a total ranged attack roll of +25 will still miss that average guy 1 in 20 times. That just seems wrong. But it also seems wrong to say there is absolutely no chance of it happening.
So here's the way it will work. Whenever you roll a 1 or a 20, you will make another roll. This second roll gets a +20 or -20 modifier. Success or failure is then determined based on this new number.
So, for instance, a task with a DC of 65 requires you to roll a 20 3 times, then roll a 5 or more on the next roll. Very, very unlikely (A 1 in 10000 chance,) but still possible. Much more reasonable a number than 1 in 20 for something that insanely difficult.
If you roll a sequence of 1's and 20's, they naturally cancel each-other out; you continue re-rolling until you get something that isn't a 1 or 20. So in the unlikely event that you roll 20-1-1-20-20-19, the final result of the roll is 39, since the final result is modified by all the previous rolls (19+20-20-20+20+20=39). Hopefully this isn't too difficult to understand. I think it is a nice way of dealing with a world where nothing is impossible, but some things are very, very unlikely.
As to how this actually occurs in the gameplay, I will roll the second (and third and fourth...) roll(s) on my own. The extent of your success/failure will not be completely evident to you, though I may tell you the number OOC.
