Basic Posting
When participating in a Play-by-Post game, you will eventually have to actually make a post, and this part of the guide will tell you how. To make a post you really have two options: Reply to an existing thread or make a brand new thread. Most of the time as a player, you'll only be replying to threads, but there are times (such as when you are in the general forums) where you may want to make a brand new one. Either way, they are essentially the same process.
Reply to an Existing Thread
To reply to an existing thread, click on the name of the thread and it will open the first page of the thread. You also have the option to click on a page number to jump directly to that page, or click the down arrow to jump to the most recent post in that thread.
Down near the bottom of the page you will see a section labeled "Quick Reply"
In this section are several important features:
1. Post As: You can select if you'd like to post as yourself or as your character (Note: You will only see this option if you have a character submitted to the game). Posting has some major benefits: It will display the avatar of your character to the side of the post for others to see, you can click on the avatar to access your character sheet at any time, and you save others the trouble of having to remember exactly who plays which character.
2. Text Box: The text box is where you will type the message you'd like others to see. Above the text box you will see a number of options:
In order these are: Bold, Italics, Underline, Strikethrough, Line Break, Format (with more advanced formatting options!), and Text Color. These options are pretty easy to use, so we won't go in-depth with them here. After these basic text formatting options come the more advanced posting and formatting options:
Image: If you click directly on this button, it allows you to put in a URL for an image hosted online and it will display directly in your post. Alternatively, you can hover over it and get several more options:
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By URL: If you click this, you will be able to enter the URL for an image hosted online and it will insert it into the post
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Upload to Imgur: This will allow you to select an image file on your device. It will automatically upload it to the image host of
Imgur and then inserts it into your post (Alternatively, if you have "Copied" an image, you can paste it directly into your post and it will upload automatically)
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Youtube: This allows you to paste the "Share" link from YouTube and embed it into your post
Link: Add a link to a URL in your post
Quote: Allows you to put in a quote, which shows up and displays in a dark gray box to make it obvious that it's not part of your original post
Note: This allows you to send private notes or notify another player that there's something for them to see. If you hover this, a dropdown will appear:
In this dropdown, you can select the usernames of the players that you'd like this to apply to. This will turn the - into a check mark and then you can click on what you want to do
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Add Note: This will send a note to other players that only they can view (as well as the GM of the game). It will also show that a note has been sent, even to other players who aren't tagged in it
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Private: This will show the text to only the indicated players. It will not alert anyone that this text is private, not even the recipient.
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@ Mention: This will color the text to make it more visible to the person you mentioned. It will also put a notification on the front page of Gamers Plane that they have been tagged in a post
OOC: Makes the text inside the OOC tags formatted differently (light blue, indented, with an OOC indicator) to make it stand out as something that it out of character.
Spoiler: This will insert a collapsible box, allowing viewers to see the information on demand without taking up a lot of space by default.
Once you have completed typing your message, go ahead and click the post button below the text box and it will post and take you to view what you have posted.
Make a New Thread
Very similar to replying to a thread, you also have the options to allow (or not) adding rolls and/or deck draws to the post's replies. In addition, you have the ability to add a poll to the new thread.