A Guide to Self-Moderation (Solo and Collaboration)

First off, what is self-moderation? It’s simply a situation where the player or players are working on writing a story involving their PCs. This can be as simple as a social meet-and-greet thread, a picnic, a grand adventure, a robbery, or anything in between.

With a simple social thread where not much happens other than two characters meeting each other and possibly NPCs, there’s not too much that needs to be worried over. The PCs both arrive at the chosen setting for their meeting, and have their interactions with each other, whatever that might entail. It’s when the plot begins to involve external aspects of the setting or NPCs that don’t belong to either PCs as Personal NPCs that things can get a bit more complex and seek out moderator input or advice.

When it comes to more adventurous stories, they’d be boring without some form of antagonist, whether it be a grand villain, a gang of ruffians, or just the environment throwing obstacles at you. If that antagonist isn’t a PC or a weather pattern (usually described in the calendar’s list of weather events and dates of a moderated city), then you’ll need someone or something that can provide enough of a challenge to your PC that will make for an interesting story.

Usually for newer/less-skilled characters, flavor npcs will be enough to provide them a challenge, as their skills haven’t developed quite yet. Flavor NPCs can have up to one competent skill and the rest are novice. That ought to give them enough power that they can challenge even some advanced characters, supposing that you have many Flavor NPCs ganging up on them.

When you want one big head honcho NPC with higher than Flavor NPC skill levels, you can devise one of those through the local dev forum of your city or the creating the world forum. This is where you’d typically contact your local moderator, the one assigned to your city, and see how an appropriate antagonist might be created for your plot.

For the purpose of unmoderated cities or regions, we've set up an NPC Registry in order to develop needed antagonist and ancillary npcs that can provide significant challenge or help as the case may be.

Self-Moderation and Magic

Magical adversaries and allies, such as those having domain magic or those that are marked, must always have explicit development entries, and also permission from a local mod to be using their powers. Even then, their use of magic and marks are to be agreed with by the local moderator, after they’ve checked how you will use them.

Thralls and magical constructs devised by such magic adversaries and allies fall under the same umbrella as these adversaries, and they must also be given the okay by a local moderator.

An Addendum for Un-moderated areas/spaces

In the case of cities that lack a local moderator, your options are slightly more limited. Ideally, every location would have resources available. Such as beasts local to that area to hunt, or NPC gangs devved that one may draw upon for their stories. In some cases the NPCs offered aren’t enough, or you’re looking for more expendable quarry. In that case, you’d be advised to send a ticket to the Prophet Support Forum, in order to develop the NPCs you’ll need for your plot. Once you’ve devised a basic plot idea, and have gotten a proposal written for how to pursue it, you can now post it up as a ticket to the PSF. There, a moderator will get to it in its turn, after other tickets ahead of that one have been settled by Staff.

Alternatively, you can go ahead and write threads if you feel confident that your story will be reasonably lore-friendly and adhering to the local lore of your area. For that purpose, we've set up an Impact Tracker so that plots that get renown can influence the evolving story of unmoderated spaces.

Knowledge

What is a proper Skill Knowledge?

I’ve noticed there are a lot of skill knowledges being given that seem very vague and out of place for that particular skill. On top of this, these vague pieces of knowledge sometimes don’t provide any support to a skill, especially if that player manages to get said skill to GM. A GM skill means that your character knows how to operate within all areas of that skill, and if the proper knowledge is not there to back it up, then it makes no sense in RP.

A proper skill knowledge is something specific, relating to the skill, that you have done in roleplay.[/color][/b] A Skill Knowledge must have an obvious tie to whatever you are doing in your thread. If it does not, we will not approve it for you to have. Listed below are example passages from threads with proper Skill Knowledge attached to them and explanations of why they are listed how they are.

"Handstand, forward flip, leap, roll, backflip, spinning turn, spinning kick, rebound, recovery, slide," he went through terms, words, motions. "Let us start with 
a Shadowdancing fundamental: the spinning turn," he said. Then, motioning for Jimbob to be still, he moved towards him. When in front of Jimbob, he gestured for 
the warrior to lunge. After doing so, Keanu stepped to the side, before twirling past Jimbob to his blindside and kicking lightly against his back. "Try now. 
After doing so, shadow sweep," Keanu commanded, his apprentice nodding. Jimbob complied, waiting for Keanu to strike. The man did so at a fair pace, and Jimbob 
strafed diagonally, before spinning behind Keanu. He did well, only his spin lasted slightly too long, and he had a difficult time straightening his form 
afterwards. The man turned around and swept him off his feet.  

Acrobatics: Strafing into a Spin (Before spinning, Jimbob strafes to provide himself space for extended mobility) Acrobatics: Timing an Acrobatic Maneuver (Jimbob learns he must time his acrobatics, in this case spins, properly in order to execute them without failing)

"Show me the skill. Don't go easy." With those words, his master nodded, and he got into battle stance. So too did Jimbob, though his legwork wasn't perfect, and 
he knew. Spreading out his legs somewhat evenly and holding his spear in both hands, he took a breath. The master jumped from the ground and began to spin mid- 
air, doing singular three-sixty degree turns with each jump, feet meeting the ground time after time. Jimbob observed, and decided that he would dance with him, 
attempting to do the same. It was incredibly difficult, and certainly acrobatic, but after a time he managed the spinning turns with only few faults. 

Polearms: Spear - Even Stance (Jimbob focuses on properly evening out his weapon stance before performing the acrobatic spin) Acrobatics: Spinning Turn (After some practice and application of other combat procedures, Jimbob properly performs a spinning turn)

She gasped and tried to kick, tried to punch, and claw, and fight, but it was all in vain. Tara was choking and while she attempted to free herself, Gale simply 
tightened her grip, “Just die, sarding foul-born...” She grunted.
Tara's green eyes slowly blackened, her vision tunneling to the bookshelf in front of her as her gaze landed on a letter opener. It must have fallen out of some 
nook when her head hit the shelf, and it was within reach! Desperate hands clamored for the opener, grabbed a hold, and sank the thin metal into Gale's thigh. A 
cry escaped her as she threw Tara away from her, the woman falling to the floor in a fit of coughs and gasps. 

Strength: Fighting Against A Chokehold (Even though Tara didn’t succeed, she was still demonstrating strength by attempting to bash against the other person to be released.) Tactics: Using Whatever Is In Reach To Fend Off An Attacker (Tara uses a letter opener on the bookshelf to get away from Gale.)

So how do you know what skill to use for a piece of knowledge?

Well it’s based off your own interpretation of the text and what skill knowledge you’re trying to get. If you think the knowledge leans toward one skill, list that. It is up to you to decide as the player since that is what you’re requesting to receive.

Of course, it has to make sense to what’s happening in the thread. If you’re cooking stew and you’re asking for the knowledge, Cooking: Baking A Potato, but you didn’t actually bake a potato… Obviously, that knowledge will not be approved. If you’re cooking a stew and you request, [i]Cooking: Dicing Vegetables, Cooking: Seasoning Stew Meat, Cooking: Handle Knives With Care[/i], these are all proper skill knowledge that can be awarded for RPing cooking stew - but to get those three knowledges you need to demonstrate that you wrote a sufficient amount and were explicit when doing all those things. It’s specific. It’s straightforward. It’s obvious.

What about knowledge that can be used for another skill?

You cannot have duplicate knowledge. Please let me repeat, no duplicate knowledge. That being said, in the example I used above, I’ve listed: Cooking: Handle Knives With Care, which is a proper skill knowledge because knives are used a lot in cooking. However, one can argue that the knowledge could also be: Baking: Handle Knives With Care. It is up to YOU to decide where that knowledge falls because it can go into either skill. It is based off of personal interpretation at this point, therefore we as mods cannot dictate one way or the other.

You may also choose to rewrite the knowledge like so: Cooking: Handle Knives With Care, Baking: Use Caution When Cutting With A Sharp Blade.

You MAY NOT do this: Cooking: Handle Knives With Care, Baking Handle Knives With Care.

You MAY NOT do this: Cooking: Handle Knives With Care, Cooking: Use Caution When Cutting With A Sharp Blade.

The above is considered duplication, the first being a repeat knowledge and the second, being that you are talking about the same thing for two separate knowledge. Each knowledge should be unique within the list you will collect. Otherwise, your character isn’t learning anything.

Overall, moderators and peer reviewers have the right to deny or modify knowledge given if they feel you're attempting to abuse the system. Players may not dump the entirety of their skill knowledge granted from a thread review into one skill.

Keep in mind that this restriction is only placed on Skill Knowledge. That means, if the skill is NOT on the skill list, you may request any amount of knowledge relating to that thread. Examples of this would be location knowledge, religion knowledge, language knowledge, NPC and PC knowledge: John Doe: Likes To Drink Whiskey, Ne’haer: Legend of the Sandstone Beaches, Aukari Occult: Worshippers of Faldrun, Moseke: Immortal of Life. These kind of knowledge are NOT restricted by any number.

What if the skill I want a piece of knowledge in isn’t on the skill list?

If it is an appropriate skill, request that it be added and why. You can do this by going to the suggestion forum or PMing a prophet.

Do I have to account for these kind of knowledge? Why?

Yes, the reason being is because if you try to say that you know the best route to Uthaldria that’ll get you through all the monsters and mayhem unscathed, we will throw down with you. If you know something, you know something. If you don’t, you don’t. Having your character knowing something when they don’t actually know it is a form of godmodding, which is not tolerated on ST. Your thread will be locked if we see this happening.

The reviewers checking over your thread will also nudge you to add these kind of knowledge if they feel you skipped out on them on purpose. Example being, you’ve had a conversation with a pretty girl at a bar. You know her name is Sara, her favorite drink is Vodka, and her eyes change color. But the only knowledge you list is, Seduction: Suggestive Eyes and nothing about Sara. Sara needs some attention too, buddy, come on. She didn’t just appear and disappear from your memory. If you just met the PC/NPC, you should have some listed knowledge about them. However, if you’ve been RPing with a partner for some time, and you don’t learn anything new about them in thread, then it’s fine not to have anything listed.

Magic Knowledge

Magic knowledge is considered skill knowledge. Therefore you may only request as much as the word count of your thread allows.

Rewards, Loot, Injuries, Overstepping

This is what our reviewers will still be keeping an eye on. If you’re requesting loot from your thread, we will be making sure it’s well deserved. On top of this, if your character was injured in any way, or inflicted by something, or affected in some way, we will be expecting you to notate that. How long will an injury take to heal? Well, if you can’t figure it out, or our reviewers feel that the duration should be longer, we will specify that when your rewards are approved.

This includes overstepping. If you know you’ve used your magic to a point where your character would get nose bleeds, headaches, shakes, or worse, please do not attempt to skirt the rules by not putting that in your submission. We will still be reading over your thread to make sure the requested rewards are well earned.

Along with this, if we feel you’ve included skill knowledge that was not earned in thread, or is a duplication, we reserve the right to not award it to you. In many cases, we will ask you to revise the knowledge, but in extreme cases, we may simply remove it from the list of rewarded knowledge and you will not have a chance to get it back.

Overplaying Skill Level

This is written in the TOU so I feel like I shouldn’t have to repeat this here but don’t do it. We have written skills that outline where your character should be at what rank of the skill. If we see you overplaying your skill in a particular thread, we reserve the right to not approve its rewards.

Credit for Guide: Jade with additions by Pig Boy.