the quick reference guide to everything WoD: Denver [REQUIRED FOR NEW MEMBERS!]

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Welcome to the World of Darkness: Denver!

In an effort to make things easier for new players, this thread will consolidate the majority of all the things you need to know about this site.

• The Rules: Includes character age restrictions, how to handle harassment, and site role definitions.
  
• Sitewide Rulings: Rules that affect the site overall are rare, but they'll be in here when they crop up.
  
• Admin Contact: Includes links to Admin contact information and contact preferences
  
• Systems: Where to go for Setting and Character Creation information for the systems offered on Denver. Judgement Calls are particularly important as each system has been customized for an online environment in general and this site in particular.
  • Cast Demographics: Not sure what to play? See what's already in play. I try to keep this list as up-to-date as humanly possible.

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Denver's Mission Statement

Because it's kind of a faq...

A few of you have asked me what my goals are for this site.

My goal in setting up this site is to create an environment that encourages creativity in gameplay. You may have noticed that no one on Denver is titled a Storyteller. This is because their roles are going to be so much more than that. Admins will set the tone and create the backdrop of the stories that the players will tell, facilitating and enriching those tales with the occasional storyline. They will also set the rules and the structures within their systems, making judgment calls and clarifying rules at their discretion.

I feel I will best help out the system admins by setting up their areas, and then getting the hell out of their way. How creative can they be if there's someone standing over their shoulder saying, "No, you can't do that because I don't like it?" The fact that I created the site is a non-issue. My role as Site Admin is that of support. I'll help by doing the boring back-end stuff that can slow admins down, like uploading content and keeping demographics information up-to-date, or any other organizational site-related things they don't want to do but I would love, because organization is my jam.

I also want the games played here to be as fun and open as possible. As far as settings go, I know most scenes will take place in the Denver Metro area. That's okay, because Denver Metro is a pretty awesome place. That's not all there is to the area, though, and it's certainly not all I want there to be for the games. I've included a large swath of Colorado because I want players to take their characters out on adventures. See the world! Use the World room to go do cool things in cool places and come back and tell your friends about it.

So there you have it.

The tl;dr version:
Maximize system admin freedom to maximize creativity.
Maximize fun time.
PROMOTE SYNERGY.

Addendum: 6/22/2013

A common thread has revealed itself in the Introductions, a thread that I have noticed and I want to make an official part of the site's Mission Statement, particularly because a lot of the Site Rules are already geared to encourage it. That common thread is this:

This site is a fresh start for all of us. We've all had our dramas in the past. We've all been jerks to people or had people be jerks to us. Basically, shit has happened, sometimes on purpose, sometimes due to misunderstandings. Now it's time to let it go.

Which isn't to say if something from the past is still bothering you about another player you should just get over it already. If you think there might still be some bad blood between you and another player or players, I hope that you'll talk to them about it. Everyone here has already shown that they're willing to set aside old grudges for the sake of the community.

And WHAT a community we have created here on WoDD! There is a lot of love and respect and peace here. Everyone just wants to play and have fun and tell awesome stories together.

If you think you'd like to get in on that, sign up yesterday!

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How to Use the Jove Chat

• Display Name: Pretty simple, this'll either be your name, your handle, your character's name, or some people like to get creative when lurking on scenes.
  
• Tagline: This shows up on the Locations page when you hover the cursor over someone's login name. Players use this for a few different things.
  Example: [open! fireside books] no no don't rescue me
  • Closed/Open: I encourage people to put these in their tags, since it'll let people know, "HEY COME PLAY WITH US," or, "Nope stay out." (though if you really want your scene closed, maybe create a new room and set a password)
    
  • Locations: This gives other players a heads up as to what to expect in your scene. Putting in something like 'coffee shop' or 'Auraria' lets other players pinpoint PC locations so they can post in accordingly, or alternatively decide to set up a different scene elsewhere.
    
  • Quotes: A lot of us put in neat or appropriate-to-our-character quotes (I tend to use lines from songs on my PCs' playlists)
• Text Box: This is where in-chat communications go (duh, I know).
  Note: If you're in a scene, I CANNOT recommend strongly enough that you type up your post somewhere else and then copy and paste into the chat. My heart breaks a little every time someone says they lost a post, because there's no retrieving it.
  • Options: These are in the dropdown to the right of the dialogue box and are pretty self-explanatory.
• Private Messages: Checking the box next to another person's name enables you to send messages that only they can see. This is good for posting the results of rolls to individuals or, say, RPing a quick combat scene in the middle of the OOC room with none the wiser. Not that I have ever done this - or recommend it.
  

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Moved this from the Don't Freak Out! thread so that info for new players remains a tidy little package.

Forums Accounts
This is more of a note for any new players who may create an account for the forums, because I like to be as transparent as possible about my decisions for WoDD.

The reason why new forums accounts require Admin activation is that we have been mother-freaking inundated with spammers lately. More and more of them are somehow making accounts, and one has already gone so far as to actually post in the forums. Now sometimes we'll go for days and days without incident, but then all of a sudden three spam accounts go up within a thirty minute time period. It's insane, and it is driving me crazy.

Changing to an activation requirement means I can relax and stop compulsively checking the forums every five minutes to make sure we're in the clear.

What does this mean for you?
Hopefully nothing! I will still check the forums frequently because that's what I do when I'm bored, but bear in mind if you create an account in the middle of the night you may not be able to post into the forums until the morning. Even Directors gotta sleep sometime, yo.

If however you somehow go a few days without your forums account getting activated, drop me a note in the Director's mailbox [director(at)woddenver(dot)com].

This does not have any bearing on your ability to make an account on the main site.