Character Writing

In-Character (IC) posting and tagging lies at the heart of any roleplay, no matter the venue it is played on. Sagas is no different. We want to encourage everyone to write. It can be free-form (i.e. solo posts about your character), one-on-one threads, multi-player threads, whatever suits your current plot bunnies. We do not concern ourselves with word counts beyond asking that players cut off JPs at around a 1,000 words and start a new reply (not a completely new thread).

Sagas offers two methods of in-character posts.

Post-by-Post (PBP)

This is the most common style of forum RP posting. It simply means that each player in a thread replies to the previous post(s). In this style, our forum software is very user friendly as far as sending notices and allowing for tagging specific people.

Joint Posts (JP)

The benefit of JPing is that it allows for shorter responses and makes the thread flow more smoothly if the posts have a lot of direct character dialogue in them. In this style of play, a player edits their character's response into their writing partner's post. After around 800-1000 words, they would start a new reply (not a new thread).

Starting an IC Thread

Create Your Topic

Go to the forum where you want to post and click on Create (upper right).

Fill in the Topic Fields

1. Post As: This field only appears to Admin.
2. Use Character: Choose from a dropdown list of your characters and NPCs or choose one of the Shared NPCs.
3. Title: Create a meaningful title to your thread.
4. Description: This field can be used to set time of day (i.e., early morning, etc.), to narrow down location if, for example, the thread is taking place in a specific place within a larger area. A good example here is if you are posting in the Lost Lake Ranch forum, you might want to narrow it down to Main House or do a combination such as: Early Morning, Main House. If none of that applies, you can leave this field blank.
5. Timeline: There are three fields here, Month, Day, Year. You must choose month and year! It is preferred that you choose the day (middle field) as well, otherwise, the system will assign a random day. If you are not sure of an available date or want to make sure your event happens before or after another one, click on Timeline in the main menu, choose the month and year from the right hand column and scan the threads and their date listing. The system automatically puts them in date order for us.
6. Editor: Write or copy/paste your post into the editor, make any format changes needed. Note: If there is already text in the Editor, it is simply a saved draft from the last time someone posted. Delete it and add your post.
7. Mature Content*: If your thread will contain content that you consider to be NSFW (Not Safe for Work) or that has graphic content that you deem inappropriate for someone under the age of 18, then toggle the mature content button on.
8. Thread Tags**: In the This Thread Is dropdown, you will need to choose Open, Tagged, or Complete. Unless the thread is open for everyone in the RPG to tag into, choose Tagged. The Player that adds the final post to the thread should choose Complete.
9. Post: Click the Post button to save and activate your thread.

*Mature Content: If you have not enabled Mature Content and added your birthdate to your profile, you will not be able to see content that has been marked mature. This means, if you mark a thread mature, you won't be able to see it!

**Thread Tags: Ninety-nine percent of the time, your thread should be marked as Tagged. This means that you and another Player have agreed to write the thread and it is not open to random Players to join in. Only use Open if anyone can join the thread.

Replying to Tags

Post-by-Post

1. Post As: Only shows for Admin.
2. Use Character: Choose from a dropdown list of your characters and NPCs or choose one of the Shared NPCs.
3. Editor: Write your post directly in the editor or copy/paste from a post you've written elsewhere.
4. Mature Content: If your thread will contain content that you consider to be NSFW (Not Safe for Work) or that has graphic content that you deem inappropriate for someone under the age of 18, then toggle the mature content button on.
5. This Thread Is: You only need to choose a thread tag IF the tag is changing from what the thread creator used. For example, if you are replying to an open thread, you would change your thread tags to Tagged.
6. Post: Click Post to save and activate the post.

Joint Posting (JP)

Joint Posting or JPing works a bit differently. On our site, editing an IC post automatically sends an alert and flags the post as new. For this reason, if you are editing for errors, you may want to add an OOC at the bottom that states "Edited for grammar" etc. Of course, most people already know if they are in a JP thread or not plus our Discord will flag a JP post as Saved Post rather than New Post or New Topic.

It is preferred that you agree with your writing partners prior to starting a thread if you are going to JP or not. If there is more than one player in the thread, some of the posts might be JP'd and some might be post-by-post replies.

Opening a JP Thread

1. Create Topic: Player 1 will open the thread as normal, setting up and introducing their character to the scene.
2. Reply to Opening: Player 2 will reply to the opening post by introducing their character into the scene.
3. Start the JP: Player 1 or Player 2 can then reply and the JP starts in this post (usually the 3rd actual post in the thread). Click Edit at the top of the post to add in your reply and click Post when you're finished to save it.
4. Tagging: You can either add an @[player name] mention at the bottom to indicate where to respond or assume when your writing partner sees a Saved Post notification on the thread, they know to respond.
5. Optional: You can click on Use Character when it's your turn to edit/save the JP so everyone can see at a glance who replied last.

Shared NPCs

Sagas allows everyone to post with Shared NPCs. Our site's Storyteller NPC is to be used for writing a scene-setting narrative (i.e., no character, just a narrator telling the story) or for writing NPCs that have no site profile (i.e. they are one-offs, do not belong to a particular Player, etc.). 

1. Choose from the Non Player characters in your Use Character dropdown list.
2. Storyteller: If you choose The Storyteller, then add the following to the top of your post: NPC: Character Name | Written by @[Player Name] (replace Player Name with your OOC Displayed Name).
3. Write and save post as normal.