I've Been Accepted into a Game - Now What?

When you click on the Adventurer Options button at the top of the Portal page, the left Menu Bar (Adventurer Options) will open up and display all the Worlds in which you currently have characters. Each campaign you play in will display a gray title bar with the Campaign Name in bold text, with that games' options underneath. All the game have the same options;

Campaign Title: The bold text in the gray box is the Campaign's Title (the World Name you applied for). While this may seem self explanatory, Players do mistakenly post to the wrong game from time to time. Make sure you are in the correct campaign!

Message System: Most games are played in the Message System, the Referee posts, the Players post responses and on and on it goes. When you click on the Message system it will open the Message window. Across the top will be the Campaign name and the Message header Bar.

The brown Message Header, above from left to right, offers the following functions:

• Deselect Box - this blank gray box will uncheck the Select box in every message on the current page (up to 25).
• Select Box - this blank gray box will place a check in the Select box to the left of every message on the current page (up to 25).
• Message Date shows the date and time the message was sent (RP Time = Eastern Standard Time).
• Sender is the Name of the person who sent the message.
• Subject displays the contents of the subject line in the message, if no subject was entered 'No Subject' will be displayed.
• The Trash Can (Waste Bin, Refuse Container, etc.) when clicked will delete any message that currently has a check mark in the Select box. You will prompted to confirm the deletion, press Yes to delete the message(s) or No to cancel the action.
• The Floppy Disk when clicked will save the selected message(s). You can save messages to the Saved-Messages group.

Below the message header bar is a list of the current messages, displayed in groups of 25 messages, with the newest messages displayed first as 1-25. In bold type will be displayed the current range of messages that are being displayed. Clicking Previous 25 will take you to the previous group of 25 messages, unless you are already at the latest 25. Clicking Next 25 will move you backwards towards the beginning of the adventure to the next 25 older messages. You can also navigate quickly to a certain area by typing in a number in the Jump To box and pressing enter or clicking on Jump To.

To open a message simply click on the Message subject and it will open in the message window. The Select box to the left is used for deleting or saving messages. When you click on a message it will open up, looking like this:

The Message Subject will appear at the top of the message in bold type. Underneath this will be the Date and Time sent and the people to whom the message was sent. If the names appear in red, those people have not yet read the message. Names appearing in black (which the sender's name will do by default) have already opened and hopefully read the message. To the right of this is the Name of the character that sent the message and the Character Portrait (which is uploaded by the Referee). The Message Options are:

• Reply - Click this to respond to the current message.
• Save - Click here to save this message to your Saved-Messages group.
• Delete - This will delete the message from your lists, not the other players, only the Referee can delete messages that have already been read.
• UnReadDelete - This will delete a message from any player that has not yet read the message.

The message is displayed below the dark line in the body of the scroll. If this message is a reply, all the messages in the current thread will be displayed, each response separated by a gray horizontal rule line. Below the last entry in the message scroll are two Navigation arrows:

Clicking the left arrow will take you to the Next (Older) message while clicking the right arrow will take you to the Previous (Newer) message. If either arrow shows up gray, you have reached the end of the message list (either the beginning or the end). Below this is the Message Button Bar:

This bar is used to navigate the entire Campaign Message System. You can access saved messages, chronicles, list current messages, create new threads, roll dice and search through all messages. The function of each button is explained below:

• Create - Use this to create a new message thread. At the top is the Campaign Name and below and right is Create Message in bold. Private Message? is used to send a message that can not be viewed by Lurkers who are watching the game. Message Formatting? gives you the option to format your message in HTML or use Rondak's AutoFormat feature, which I recommend using unless you have a driving reason not to. If you wish to code HTML into your message you may want to use the HTML formatting, but most commands will be correctly displayed by the Portal Message system. The Subject box is used to give your message a name that will show up in the Message List, if you do not type in a subject, your message will be delivered as 'No Subject'. Below this is the message body, where you can type your message. The Recipient List shows you all the people you may send the message to. If a box is grayed out, then you may not change that selection (usually the Ref box is grayed out and checked so that all messages must go to the Referee) but in some campaigns, you may not change any of these. This is a Referee option. If you click the Red Check Mark next to Recipient List it will change the status of the Select boxes. If the box is checked, it will uncheck it, or visa-versa. It is handy when you wish to send a message to the Ref only, by checking this box, it will deselect all the other checked boxes. The boxes are all checked by default. At the bottom right are Send and Preview buttons. Click Preview to check how your message looks before sending (useful for spell checking and also when you insert pictures, sounds or other HTML tags). When you are done previewing the message, click the Close Preview button to return to this screen. Click Send to send your message to the Selected Recipients.

• List - Clicking the List button will return your view to the list of messages you see when you first open the Message System window.
• Saved - Displays the messages in the Saved-Messages group.
• Chronicles - The Referee has the option to chronicle messages, to contain part of the story, or a scenario for easy reference. Clicking this button will display only message that have been chronicled.
• Roll Dice - This button opens the dice roller window shown below. Under Die Type: you may select the type of dice to roll, or use the boxes to specify a number of a certain type dice, or a number range, even a fudge roll. Under Roll Type: you can choose Practice which sends the roll only to you, or Real which sends the roll to all the selected people in the Recipient List. There is a box for an adjustment, type in the positive or negative adjustment to be made (you can use the Special Instructions: to apply this to each die if you wish) or also arrange to Drop the Lowest or Highest Die, Roll Dice Separately, Add or Subtract the value in the Roll Adjustment: box to each each die, Re-roll Ones or Round up should the roll or adjustment cause fractions. Using Roll Destination: you can choose to send the Dice Roll into the Campaign Chat Room, E-Mail or the default, the Campaign Message System Click Roll Dice at the bottom left to send the dice flying!.

The Search button allows you to search through messages, should you need to find a particular message for some reason.

In the Search For: box type in a word or phrase you wish to search for. Use the Scope: to narrow the search to look for All of the words, Any of the words or to search for and Exact Phrase. You can also use Look In: to search in the Message Body or the Message Subject. Type your words or phrase in the box and click the Search button to initiate the search.

Chat Room: The Campaign Chat Room can be used to play out scenarios, conversations, or just for the participants in the campaign to talk in a private place that only they can access. While Adventurers can access the chat room at any time, the game can only be played out when the Referee is present. The Campaign chat works just like the Portal chat room, with the ability to whisper too other Players or the Referee The Referee can also save a log of the chat and post it in the Campaign Message system, if they so choose.

E-Mail Digest: You can click this function to send a complete digest of ALL messages to your Portal Registered E-Mail address. These can be very, very, very long.

View Character: By clicking the View Character function, you can look at your character sheet on one page. This is great for quick reference to your inventory, spells and skills when you need a piece of information in a hurry.

Export Character: Click this to send a copy of your character sheet to your Portal Registered E-Mail address. You can currently choose between HTML and Plain Text formats (Rondak Portal format export is currently under development).

Maps: Any campaign maps uploaded by the Referee that he has granted you access to can be viewed here. Use the Select A Map pull down to view any of the maps contained in the list.

World Homepage: If the Referee has created a Homepage for the Campaign, click this to display the page. Not all campaigns have Homepages, in fact, the majority do not.

Party Roster: Click here to view the visible characters in the campaign– NPCs and Players. The User Name, Player Name and Character Name are displayed for each person, including the Referee. Clicking on the Player Name will bring up an e-mail window with that persons e-mail address. Clicking on the Character Name will bring up the Character Description unless you click your own, which acts as if you clicked the View Character function.

Non-Party NPC Roster: This will display the descriptions of any Non-Party NPCs that are viewable by you.

Roll Dice: This works exactly like the one in the Message Window, in fact it is exactly the same dice roller. Please read the instructions given above .

Drop Out: By clicking this button your character will be deleted from the game and you will no longer be able to participate in the campaign. You will be prompted to confirm this choice.

Adventuring Tips: There are several things you can do as an adventurer to make the game more fun, both for yourself, the other players and the Referee as well. The most common complaint I have heard, both from Players and Referees alike is:

I Hate One-Liners! People who routinely post using one sentence make the game boring. Is that really all you have to say? Be descriptive, what kind of facial expression does your character have when they say what they say, what body language. Describe what they do in some detail, not just, 'I make camp.' or 'I swing my sword.' Here is a post of mine from a recent game, and I am not saying that I am the Gods' gift to Role Playing, but I do try to keep my character interesting:

"Oh I found him," Kaja sighs, "but he's a full grown tiger who does not remember being a horse, I could see it in his eyes. I would have had to fight him, or worse." Kaja shakes her head wearily, only the tightness of the skin around her eyes betrays the tension that she feels, "If there were some way to bring him back I would. I have marked the spot in my mind, I will find him."

"Someday," she says, there is the unspoken tone that calls to mind a vow, "I will come back and I will find him." Kaja knows she will not forget the place where she left him, but she dutifully takes out her map and marks the spot where the cave lies.

How you do something or say something is every bit as important as what it is. On the other hand, if every time you post, it is a short story, you may want to trim it down a bit, unless you are a fabulous writer that the other people enjoy reading (do not take this for granted - I thought I was a really good writer until I tried to get some stories published. I am still unpublished, though I now know enough to rectify my mistakes, the work involved is more than I care to tackle.)