1.// Beginner's Guide

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Rin

Feb 8, 2018 22:48:30 GMT -5

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Post by Rin on Feb 8, 2018 22:48:30 GMT -5

Part One: Understanding the site.

Welcome to The Game of Life! As you know, we are a semi-realistic wolf role play based around two packs at war with one another. The minimum word count is 250 words, we are rated PG-13, and we are open to role players of all levels! Knowing this, if you'd still like to join, make sure you familiarize yourself with how the site works.

The board "How to Play" contains the plot, rules, setting, rank explanations, dark and light pack members, in-character (IC) history, other important info (like time/age progression, how to obtain mates and pups, etc.), and a facts-and-questions thread in case there's anything you still aren't sure about. You will also find a sub-board here where site wide announcements will be made.

The board "Join the Game" has all the info you need to know to create a character, such as what wolf sub-species are permitted, how many characters you can have, what characters are allowed to look like, the bare minimums for your character apps, etc. as well as the application itself. There are also two sub-boards; "Adoptions", which is where members will post character's that they'd like to have other people play, and "Apply for a Litter", which is where members whose characters have bred can apply to get pups.

Lastly, the board "Character Record Books" is where you'll find accepted bios for all characters currently in game, in character events, thread trackers, plotters, wanted ads, and a list of members and what characters they play.

Part Two: Joining.

If you've read through all of the important info and have decided you'd like to join, great! Hover over the site banner, hover over the large guest icon (should be a picture of a pawn), and click the "register" link, then fill out the necessary information. This account will be your OOC or out of character account, so make your username whatever nickname you want to have on the website. All of your character accounts will be linked back to this one. Once your account is made, log back into the site with this account (if you are not already).

Now that you have your OOC account, it's time to think about what you want your first character to be! You should have already read through the important info for this step, but feel free to comb through it again to make sure all of your ideas are allowed. Give it some time and thought until you've at least got a name and gender, then create your first character account.

We want to have it linked to your OOC account, not a new account altogether. ProBoards allows you to make numerous linked accounts with the same email, but not an entirely new ProBoards account. To do this, you will need to click this

icon in the bottom right hand corner of the page. If you don't see it, click the gray box with the arrow in it, and you should see the mini toolbox that has this icon in it. After clicking the icon, click "create a new account on this forum" and only enter your character's first name as the username; no numbers, nicknames, first and last names, etc. Click continue and congrats, you've made your first character account! From here onward, any time you want to make a new character, you'll repeat this process.

Part Three: Creating Your Character.

Now that you have your character account, it's time to actually create the character itself. As aforementioned, you should look through the rules and such to make sure your character idea is allowed, and if you are joining a pack, make sure the rank you have chosen is available. Head over to "Join the Game", copy the Character Bio form, and create a new thread. The Character Creation Guideline thread will have told you how to properly title it, as well as what is allowed and what isn't allowed when making your character(s). Paste the form in and only change the info that is in CAPS.

Once your bio is complete, create the thread and wait until a staff member posts and either says you are accepted or there are things you need to change. Remember, you cannot role play your character until they have been accepted. You don't have to wait for them to be moved to the proper board or added to the pack rosters though. If your app has not been replied to within a week, you may PM a staff member to ask them about it. In regards to how many characters you can have, there is no limit, but we do ask you try to keep genders even (you can find the census here) and stay active with all of them.

Part Four: Getting Into the Game.

At this point, your character has been accepted and you are ready to begin role playing! Here are a few things you should do to finish getting set up though:

One, go to "Profile", click "Edit Profile", go to the "Personal" tab and fill out the appropriate information, such as Rank, Age, and Sexuality. The background image is the large avatar in your mini-profile (i.e. the picture i have that's a black and white chess board); it's dimension are 200x350, and should be your character on your character accounts. Remember to save this info before leaving. Now, go to the "Avatar" thread and upload a 150x150 image of your character. Lastly, go to "Settings" and enable posting drafts; this means the forum will save your post in case you close the tab or your computer crashes while making a new thread.

Two, go to the "Player Record Books" board and create a thread tracker and plotter for your character. Your thread tracker is basially where you keep a log of all of your characters role plays in IC chronological order. These can also be used to track relationships and to store coding of your character. A plotter is where you post your character or characters (you can make one plotter with all of your chars in it) and have other people offer to make plots with them. It's probably best if you give some info on the character to help others out, like a list of their personality traits and how they'd fit into various kinds of relationships like friendships, rivalries, romances, etc. If you already have some plot ideas and are just looking for people to play the parts, you can post them in "Wanted Ads"! You can also go back to the "Personal" tab in your profile and add in links to these things.

With those things out of the way, you can now get to making an rp thread! You can wait until someone replies to your plotter/wanted ad, work something out on the plotters/wanted ads of other people, create an open/pack only thread in an appropriate area for your character (as in neutral lands for a loner or the pack lands of your character's pack), or reply to someone else's thread if your character is allowed to join! Just make sure that if you are creating a new thread that you properly mark it as either Open, Pack Only, or Private. Also, we have a tag system, so if you want to notify someone else when you've posted, be sure to tag them @theircharacter'susername. Happy roleplaying!

Still Confused?

If you've followed all the steps, read all the info, and still aren't sure about something, head over to the F&Q and ask any questions you have there, or PM a staff member! We are here to help!

Edited Apr 23, 2018 15:41:54 GMT -5 By Rin