TFW: Rules & Expectations

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for accepting the invite to my game. Please give this thread a read before getting started anywhere else! This thread will go over the Out Of Character Rules for this game, as well as a bit of what you can expect from me as a GM.

OOC Rules

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What to Expect from the GMAfter reading the above, please respond here letting me know if you agree to the above rules and expectations, or if you have any questions or need clarification on anything.

I acknowledge and agree to everything mentioned above! :)

I have read and agree to all of the above.

I've read and agree. It's a great set of guidelines and expectations. I think this is a great way start a game!

Below is a bit more detail about my level of commitment. I had posted it in the Games Tavern, but thought I'd highlight it here too in case anyone missed it. Sounds like you're flexible enough to make it work and I'm very comfortable if you need to move the story forward without my response or by NPCing my character briefly, so I think we're on the same page. But if not let me know.

Also wanted to mention that I don't know the Wildemount setting, so if I say something that doesn't fit the setting just let me know. I'm always happy to edit/revise my posts if necessary. I'm assuming it's pretty close to generic D&D. If there's anything majorly different that you think I should know about, let me know.

Also, I have an anxiety or paranoia (not sure what the right word would be) about harm to the throat/neck area. I would appreciate if everyone tried their best to avoid describing choking, slitting throats, or beheading in any kind of detailed way, as I very easily get uncomfortable, lightheaded, and nauseous when I read or watch something like that depicted. :)

Yep, that works fine! As long as there's communication, I'm satisfied! Though the 24 hour time is based on my GM post, not any of the other players. There is some time-creep that goes on because I try to give people the full 24 hours to post before responding, but it should still be roughly once per day.
No worries! I'm taking quite a bit of creative liberty with the setting, so knowledge of the canonical Wildemount is unnecessary. Generally Wildemount is (fittingly) more wild and mountainous than the Forgotten Realms. It also has a more diverse demographic, with dwarves and elves and humans (in that order) being the most populous residents of any given village in the Greying Wildlands region (region we're currently in), with the nation to the East being home to several monster-races (notably the Drow) and the nation to the West being human-populated.

The place we're headed (the Eiselcross archipelago) has no permanent settlements, but there are reports of nomadic tribes and yeti civilizations indigenous to that area. Eiselcross has only become a point of interest for explorers and researchers in the last few years, due to the discovery of ancient magical artifacts that indicate an advanced magical civilization existed there some centuries ago. It's mostly unmapped, though the Colbalt Station Research Center (where the disease was first identified and the cure synthesized) is near the heart of the largest isle.

I'll post a more clear and concise write up of the setting today!
That's good to note! I'll be sure to keep that out of the campaign on my end.

If anyone else has anything in particular that bothers them that might still show up in a PG-13 rated campaign, please let me know and I'll be sure to avoid it!

Thanks for letting us know Aquafina! I will make sure to avoid those.
I can't think of any boundaries for myself off the top of my head, but sometimes things can develop in a way that you don't expect that make you uncomfortable. Also, given the time course of PbP games, we can forget about boundaries set at the beginning of the game, so I think it's a good idea to have a tool in place to address anything that comes up in game. I know Data made it clear that we can contact him privately about anything that makes us uncomfortable, but it might be good to have a mechanism that lets us all contribute to a discussion. I've played with the Script Change tool before and recommend it.

Data, thanks for the setting info. That's a great intro summary to help me get started. I appreciate it!

I appreciate the suggestion, but I would far rather all conflict resolution go through me. I think these rules would be fantastic for a IRL game or one where all the players are familiar and comfortable with one another, but for online pick-up games they could be disastrous. Tone is hard to parse in chat, which can turn a 'discussion' very quickly into a debate or argument. Writers can also be very sensitive about their writing - that's the reason I don't allow even constructive criticism. I think the longer we're at it the more we take it for granted, but posting up your writing for other people to read takes a lot of courage, and depending on the person, any kind of public discouragement could potentially be really devastating. I also don't think that the person overwhelmed necessarily owes the group a discussion about it - I would much rather the person contact me so I can resolve the issue than feel like they're expected or required to have a discussion over what exactly triggered them.

In a sense, all situations should be 'Pause'. If something in the game overwhelms, upsets, or confuses you, please just send me a PM. I will respond back with any clarifications needed, then work on resolving the issue, whether that is editing a post, speaking to another player privately or making a new general rule. When I resolve issues, I always keep the person who had the issue anonymous, because in the end, I'm the one who makes the final call. It also keeps people from feeling self-conscious about reaching out.

Once the issue is resolved (post edited, rules added, etc.) I'll PM you again and let you know it's safe to return to the game.

I agree with your points and definitely wasn't trying to replace the private and anonymous solution. I have seen a lot of misinterpretations before, so I understand your perspective and why you want to avoid those.

My idea was to have it as an additional tool because it can be useful in certain situations to openly discuss if everyone is comfortable at that time. But I don't think it's necessary, just a suggestion, so I'm happy to proceed with just the private mechanism.

Another quick thought, can we have a thread (I've seen it titled Lines and Veils or something similar before) that lists the current boundaries and can be added to as we play (by PMing you), so we have an easy place to reference when we need to remind ourselves instead of digging through threads to find where everyone mentioned their boundaries? That way we can quickly check it before writing a post if we can't remember off the top of our head.