Rules of Time

From Tazlure Gaming System Wiki

Time, both in the game and in real life, is of vital importance to moderating.

[edit] Time in PBP

As human beings we are used to absolute linear time. It moves forward, never backwards and always in the same pace. Time is always a given and it never turns confusing. At most we want time to run slower, but alas.. the gods wait for no one.

Now consider a book, with chapters. Each chapter is the thread of a PC, or a complete adventure. In order to highlight only the interesting bits a chapter in a book may skip uninteresting days or hours. It may allow time to run fast, moving through years even. And when the action requires it the story will describe what happens second by second. So already in a book time is a flexible quantity.

Finally consider a Play by Post game. Some scenes take ages to play out in real life, so players move through several scenes, or even chapters at once. Not to mention that different characters may move at a different pace. Time becomes mixed up, like a bowl of string, because players play out different parts of their timeline at the same time, as well as moving on different parts of the timeline in relation to each other.

The first obvious solution is to declare that henceforth all time will move completely linear. However.. that is no way to run a large scale Play by Post game with interwoven plots. It would force all players to wait for the slowest posters among us, or for each of us to have individual threads that are not related to each other.

[edit] Semi Linear Time

A PBP game in the Tazlure Game System is one large tapestry, the weaving of loose storylines into one big whole. To make this possible it is essential that the TGS doesn't allow fluid time, but puts everything in a clear timeline instead. It is a plotting tool for the mods.

Fluid time is the system whereby in a free form game all players are allowed to participate in any thread they fancy as long as they themselves can keep an inner logic in their threads. This is likely causing many, many timeknots (see below). This is great for a game that has no interconnected threads, and is aiming for as much posts as possible. It gives the player great freedom.

The Tazlure Game System is going for semi linear time. What that means is that while we go for a timeline (hence our timestamps) we still allow fudging of threads to a degree. This means players may have threads on several moments of their own timeline, provided they are close enough together to make sense. When creating thread 1, 2 and 3 the only rule is that you must keep moving forward.

Because it is very easy to let in game time slow down when you are in very involved threads we are employing several tools to make sure that time keeps ticking.

[edit] Time Stamps

The Timestamp is an important tool in keeping the timeline straight in a multi player game. A timestamp provides a date and time of a thread, so that you know where it fits in the timeline. You must maintain a logical and forward moving timeline. You can only create threads at a forward point in time, never on a date before an older thread where you play. You cannot join older threads either.

[edit] Continuation Threads

When a chapter in the story between two characters (PC or NPC) has not yet finished, but merely changed scenery a PC can ask for mod permission for a continuation thread to stay within the same timeline. Continuation threads are not intended for the next chapter even if it is the same subject.

A continuation thread would be for example:

a coach ride home
a promised meeting immediately after an event (like an assignation in the garden)
moving with same PC or NPC to another part the city.

This rule of thumb however is not to be abused by creating endless continuation upon continuation. Separate threads should be separate threads. Remember that we encourage players to move forward in time and not write about every minute in the day.

[edit] Impassable Threads

There can always be a moment when it seems wise for a PC not to move forward in time. He might not be surviving the present... In these cases you have to ask your players not to move forward beyond the thread they are in. Of course if you have them travelling from one place to the other or something like that it is already obvious that they cannot move beyond that point in time. It is advisable to keep the number of impassable threads to an absolute minimum. While exciting, it also holds up the whole game and limits PC's in what they can do.

[edit] Sync Events

Linear is very realistic, so once in a while Tazlure does try to get all threads caught up with each other again. We call that a Sync Event. It is a point in time that becomes a fixture. No new threads can start before the Sync Event, and existing threads are supposed to catch up as soon as possible by using time jumps.

A Sync Event is an important turn in one of the major plotlines. When a Game Designer declares it is a Sync Event all threads need to catch up with the time of that turningpoint in history. This means that no new threads can be posted before the timestamp of the Sync Event and all old threads need to be finished within one or two weeks real time.

The goal of a sync event is to make certain that plotlines in the game will not diverge to far away from each other and move beyond the span of mere days. Only by promoting speed can we have large hugely impacting plotlines. What ever happens in just one week? Remember that players who do not keep up with Sync Events will become isolated in their content and unable to interact with other players till they have caught up.

Sync Events, while not completely unique in RPG, is something that is very distinctive to the Tazlure Gaming System in the PBP community, and something we provided leadership on. It does require discipline in moderators and players to stick to the system.

[edit] Suggested Time Window

An alternative to the use of Sync Evnts is having a rolling window of time in which players may create new threads. This includes suggestions which threads should be winding down. Players are thus stimulated not to isolated themselves in timestamps that run behind on everybody else. This system is in use at AoI.

[edit] Time Jumps

A Time Jump is simply stating something like "And the next two days nothing noteworthy happened. On day 3 our heroes awoke to the sound of a howling wolf." In other words you skip the mundane bits with a few simple words.

A Time Jump is a lapse of time that moderators and players do not play out in full detail, but instead summarize shortly in one post. The time lapse can be anything, with the normal average being between a tide and a day. A moderator can use a Time Jump as often as he considers necessary in a single plotline.

We use time jumps to force a storyline forward. Our biggest problem are players who try to do too much in a day and who hug every second of game time for fear that they are going to miss something. They will be resistant to Time Jumps.

[edit] Season & Recess

A Season is the period of game play this time round. The Recess is a very large jump forward in time, to the next season. The system allows injuries to heal,pregnancies to take place, characters to age and stories to mature into an epic scale. It improves realism & coherence and allows the game to regularly refresh itself. A Recess becomes an evaluation for both PC's and moderators of their current position.

A Recess needs to be announced far in advance so players know how long the current season will last and can plan accordingly, keeping a focus on their goals. Both the season and the recess can vary in length.

At the end of the season players are asked to submit a Season Summary and a Recess write up. As soon as both are approved they can move on to the new season. Players will be limited in their Recess write up to a fudge of what has been previously established IC, or a wrap up of events helping them and everybody else jump, without introducing new content that gives an unfair advantage. Think of what we would allow as background on your character sheet as an acceptable amount of assumption, corrected for your character's level. As a Recess write up is similar to Summary RP, under the same rules skill might be awarded.

[edit] What is a Time Knot?

A play by post Time Knot is the same as a sci-fi Paradox. Something in the past is changed, and so the present must change as well, unless somebody does some fast thinking. A time knot also appears when the timelines of players have been running out of sync, something which should not happen in Semi Linear Time but may occur when a moderator slips.

In other words... the strings of wool that are the timelines of players get tangled and knotted up. A time knot.

[edit] How to work around Time Knots

When we foresee that a Time Knot might occur because for instance a PC might die or face life changing story twists the current thread the PC is in will be declared impassable. No new threads beyond that point in time may be created, lessening the threat of time knots.

Most of the time however, preventing time knots is up to the inventiveness of the mods, bending storylines just in time so the different threads meet up with each other naturally, even though it might be a thread by a different moderator. Keeping notes for each other as staffmembers is essential and our webmaster has designed a feature called plotnotes for this, showing up below each post of a PC so a mod can add a few words whenever it is convenient.

A natural reaction of moderators may be to keep the same players with the same mod for a prelonged period of time, sometimes even prefering private threads, locking a player in place. This should be treated with caution. The Tazlure Game System is based on the fact that players move between moderators and have several threads going. It gives them a freedom and creativity that is part of Player Fun.

[edit] When time ticks too slowly

So now that you understand how time works, what do you do when time in your thread seems to slow down?

Don't think this will never happen to you. Some players appear to me what we call "Flicker-huggers" (or second-huggers). They are so afraid to miss an opportunity to advance their PC that they want to play out every possible moment of their game time. This is especially the case with so called Hyperposters, who simply have a lot going on in their life. Not playing out every second would mean they would have less chance to Hyper Post. It could also be a simple case of very slow posters who take ages to resolve a plotline. You have to push them every once in a while with a time jump so they do not get isolated.

There are some lessons to be learned to keep your storyline on track and don't take forever to finish a plotline.

The number one trick is to keep a lot of action in your moderator posts. Don't let your players slow you down too much. Be relentless with applying a ticking clock. Post, whether or not they all have posted a reply.

Another tool, that remains underused because often players are resistant to this is the Time Jump. Like stated above a Time Jump is simply telling the players that the next two days nothing but the purely mundane.

[edit] Posting Rate

See Also Hyper Posting and Slow Posting

Vital to any PBP is that you are up front about the expected posting rate. Make this too many times a week and you will exclude a large audience because it will be too much of a burden to keep up with the game. Keep the rate too low and players will start to loose interest because they don't feel involved with the story. Posting Rate is also a very important deal between players and moderators and not keeping to such an agreement will make the players feel neglected. They are dependent on moderators so will on the surface perhaps express understanding for a prolonged absence, but in the end they will vote with their feet and disappear.

A normal posting rate for a PBP is two to three times a week, though nearly daily posting by moderators can often generate a bigger crowd of players (even though they themselves will post less) and in general create a sense of immediacy and excitement. It goes without saying that a moderator needs a great deal of discipline to keep up with this.

Normal tools include:

Post a mediocre post if you must, but post. See Grant's Three-Word Snog Trick
Do not post a book in every thread. It is the fastest way to burn out. Instead aim for three to four paragraphs, shorter if there is some action going on.
If you run many threads divide them into groups and post to a group every day. Because this rotates everybody gets a decent posting rate
Help fellow mods by providing tie overs if they are absent for longer than a few days. Their burden when they return will be less.
Hyper post on occasion but rotate that over all players equally. Sex scenes and action threads are best hyperposted to keep the excitement going.
If something keeps you away from the internet, or staying online for too long is expensive, but you have access to a laptop or writing pad, copy the posts you need to reply to and prepare your posts offline that way, then post in a single posting spree.