Addition to "New GP Members Guide": Leaving a Game

Hey Everyone,

After seeing a discussion on the discord, I thought it might be worth having a section in the "New GP Members Guide" about "How to Leave a Game." Initially, I had thought this would be "Section 5. How to Leave a Game." But then I re-wrote it because I thought it might be worth mentioning upfront. I'm interested what everyone thinks. Here's a first draft. I'm definitely open to edits/suggestions. It's probably a bit long, so feel free to cut the excess as well. I hope this is helpful for the community!

Chal

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The Zeroth Law: How to Leave a Game

You may think it is strange that we discuss leaving a game before we discuss how to join a game, but one of the biggest problems with anonymous Play-by-Post gaming is gamers who stop posting and replying to messages without telling anyone that they have left a game. Many GMs here are very considerate and wait awhile before replacing a player in case the player just got delayed and is coming back, but this can cause major unnecessary delays and even cause a game to die completely. So we ask before you join a game, please consider how you will leave it.

Leaving a game is inevitable. There are tons of reasons why:
-Circumstances in your life change the amount of time you can commit to GP.
-A game turns out to be different than you thought when you joined.
-During the course of a game, it evolves in a way that is no longer interesting to you.
-The game comes to a natural conclusion, in general or for your character in particular.
-etc.

Because of all these various reasons, leaving a game is completely acceptable on Gamersplane. We only ask that you leave in a respectful way so your fellow gamers can continue with as little disruption as possible.

If you are a player, then the best way to leave a game is to Message the GM and let them know you need to leave. If at all possible, do this before you are unable to continue posting, so that the GM can adjust before you actually leave. However, even if you need to leave immediately, sending a quick Message is so much better than leaving without telling anyone.

If you are the GM, then let your players know. Maybe one of them will step up as GM, or you/they can find an replacement GM by advertising the game in the Games Tavern, for instance. Then you can pass over any materials they might need and you can give them "GM control" over the game forum before you leave so they can gain access to the full functionality of the forum to continue the game.

Most game forums have an Out-Of-Character (OOC) thread so you can post there too in order to let your fellow players know that you are leaving.

If the reason for leaving is sudden and you do not have much time, then you may not have time to Message the appropriate person in every game you are a part of. In this case, please post in the Absences thread. Gamers will see the post and can adjust immediately instead of waiting for you.

As a last resort, if you have joined the discord, text a quick message to the #general thread. For example: "Sorry, I can't continue to play on GP, please pass on the message." This should only take a few seconds. An active user will then post the message on the Absence forum so everyone else knows.

As this is a very supportive community. If you let people know that you are leaving, they may even invite you back into some of the games that you left if you are able to return to GP in the future.

So please have a plan for how you will leave any games you join. Everyone involved will be very appreciative.

Now go ahead and introduce yourself and jump into some games!

I think that's well written.
Two games I was in as a player ended because the GM wasn't able to continue. Both had the courtesy to declare their absence so no hard feelings.

Maybe add a sentence like this:
Otherwise I think that everything that needs to be known about leaving is included here. Good job :)

Thanks for the input Scrol! I've added your suggestion. Anyone else have any thoughts?

The only thing I see is a minor typo and grammatical issue the first is easy the second is the rule that one should never use contractions in any sort of formal documentation which this appears to be.
You may think it is strange that we discuss leaving a game before we discuss how to join a game,

Thanks! I've fixed it.

If you are cutting out contractions, then the two instances of "you're" also need to go. And what about acronyms (GP, MIA, PM, GM, PbP, OOC). Honestly, I'm not sure I agree that we need to be so formal, but IF we're editing the "it's"-es, then for consistency, we need to look at the other stuff as well.

IMHO, apart from the typo, (already fixed) it's fine as it is.

Yeah, even if we're considering this a formal document, it's still just for a hobby site. I don't think we need to make it meet academic standards xD

Sorry that I missed the you're contractions but I concur that all contractions and acronyms out to be removed or referenced once like GamersPlane (GP) so that it is clear what GP stands for.

Note while one does not have to adhere to more formal writing standards they are used to reduce confusion as well as enhance readability -- both of which I would think one would want to put into a presentation document as this creates that first impression and clarity is always a good thing in any form of communication. Personally I do not care what you all end up using I was just trying to provide some minor assistance as I write user documentation a lot of the time in my profession.

I think that level of formality is not only unnecessary, it's both off-putting and pretentious, neither of which qualities are indicative of GP generally. If we're concerned about first impressions, a document so ridiculously stilted that it refuses to use contractions isn't very inviting.

WotC uses contractions in their D&D rule books, as do Paizo in PF and White Wolf in VtM. I see no reason for a site devoted to playing those games should be more formal than the games themselves. As for abbreviations and acronyms, every specialist group has its own argot that requires a learning curve from new members.

I'm disinclined to press people to adopt one style over another. If your document is readable by the general population that visit GamersPlane, that's commendable and I am appreciative of the effort. I'm not saying I don't have standards, but I won't force anybody to meet mine. So let's not dive into formatting or the use of Oxford commas or anything else that detracts from the main subject.

I really like this addition to the New Members Guide.

LOL okay Moonbeam we can agree to disagree, I have never had a single individual read a bit of documentation that I wrote that every commented that it was off-putting, pretentious , nor ridiculosly stilted. In fact they thought it was really good because it was clear, concise, and easy to read all the things you want when creating documentation but hey what I do I know aye ;) whatever have fun I have been insulted enough by you for one day but I am sure no one will do a thing about it -- so I will no longer be posting to this thread and you can congratulate yourself that your trolling did what it was meant to do because this forum allows it

And McDunno your logic is called the Lemming Affect -- so becareful when those lemmings jump off the proverbial cliff because your logic would have you follow them and nothing wrong with that if that is what you like to do I suppose just becareful

CancerMan I did not say anyone had to use any form of writing style, I simply noted the ones that would fail on a normal english paper on formal documentation writing and said do what you want to do as mine was just a suggestion and I stated why I suggested it and that was because doing so leads to a document that is clear, concise, and easy to read.

Bye bye

Looks like we need another set of instructions about how to leave a discussion.

Word.

The important thing here is:

You did a great service to the community with this, Chalrytharendir. Thank you. It’s well-written, thoughtful, and it fills a niche that I don’t think many of us realized might be important until you filled it.

It’s a great example of a great community, and you’re to be commended.

^^THIS!^^

Thank you, Chal!

Thank you, Chalrytharendir, for your hard work. It is a great piece of writing.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all your comments and feedback!

I think it might be worth writing out some of the abbreviations for newbies, while others are common knowledge given the site:
GP: self-explanatory
GM: common
PM: I'll change this to Message since that is both more general and what it's called in the drop down menu from your avatar
PbP: I only use once, so I'll write it out for newbies
OOC: same
MIA: in hindsight, I think this might be confusing to some, so I re-worded to avoid this term.

I'll contact Naatkinson to see about getting it added to the New GP Member's Guide.

Great piece, thanks for writing it.