How to Start, to Play and to Leave

[Maeve]

How to get started

Here are some steps that you can take even before you create a sheet:

1) Read up on the details of the area in the World Guide. You will find material here that you can use IC, and even for your background. There may also be additional stickies in this forum!

2) If you are a native of an area, you have the following opportunities:

• You could be a family member of once of the existing non-artistocratic NPC's. Area's may have a sticky with more details in this forum or PM a mod for more details.
• You can ask a mod to add a house to your inventory (a sum of money will be detracted). This modest house you can describe yourself.
• You can decide on a modest job for background purposes. Contact the mod beforehand to check if it is appropriate.

3)If you are a senior player returning or moving to your hometown please PM the coordinator to get a few interesting extra's as a reward for the position you gained in other areas. Options include owning a business, a position at one of our institutions etc.

4) When you start playing in the area there are two options

*If you are a foreigner to an area please enter via the gates as listed in the location thread stickies.

* If you are native to the areyou can create a thread where ever you want, but be sure to PM the mod so we know your thread needs coverage.

[Maeve]

How to Play

In Tazlure we use event orientated moderating. This basically means players move from thread to thread as they move through our world, and what they do influence each others storylines. We do not "storyboard", or keep players in a single story in a single thread. You may always move in whatever direction you want.

Ultimately, you can post wherever you like, whenever you'd like. All you need to do is walk in, declare the time, and you're off and running. You can even start your own threads, if you'd care to do so. In effect, you typically set your own timestamp. We've provided a list of public locations in the forum for your use (these are the sticky topics): feel free to copy and past this into your first post to start a new thread, if that location hasn't yet been started for the appropriate time. Please note the city you are playing in your topic as well as the date/time.

Rules of Posting

1) Never be in more than three IC threads at the same time. To help us deal with mod burden you can only be in three threads at the same time. Need to open a new thread? Time to close another.

This does not include any Aether Realm threads currently active. You can have as many dreams in one night that you want. Just allow for a full 8 marks of sleep.

2) Never be in two different threads at the same timestamp. For those of you unfamiliar with the Tazlurian reckoning of time, read up on it! And know the calendar as well: we don't need you to be exact about the time of day, but pay attention to when your pc is for each thread, and don't overlap.

3) Never open a new thread or join an existing thread timstamped with a time prior to another you're currently in or have visited. We're all moving through time, both in RL and in Taz. And without exception, we move forward in it. Never go back in time.

4) Never open a thread or join a thread timestamped with a time prior to the latest synch event.If the current synch event is for Samheen 16th, then no threads prior to this day should be started. You can read about sync events in our rules. We will also ask you to finish with threads before a certain timestamp.

5) Never open a new thread or join a thread timestamped later than one your pc is in if your current thread is been marked as 'unpassable'. This means that the thread is most likely life-threatening or pivotal, and if you posted beyond this, you could create time knots. Of course, time knots can happen even in passable threads: you never know when trouble will find you. But for those particularly tense threads where someone will most likely die, it's a good idea to let it play out before you commit to anything in the future.

6) You cannot join threads marked as "Closed". Those threads are by invitation only, and you'll have to come up with a way your pc could possibly be there. A good example would be a ship at sea, or a hidden room, or a secret location. These threads will be marked with the word "Closed" in the title.

So what does this mean to you as a player? Well, you could very likely be forced to skip days. That doesn't mean your pc didn't exist on those days t just means you didn't do anything threadworthy. You can certainly describe your pc's actions for those absent days in your next thread, if you'd like, or you can forget that those days ever happened...the choice is yours. After all, not every day needs played out so carefully: we're writing adventures, afterall.

In conclusion, it's largely up to you to know and understand where each thread is in the calendar and post to them accordingly or, if you prefer, to start new threads to narrate your pc's adventures in this location. Your character's timeline is easily more important than his/her location. If you ever get confused about where and, more specifically, when you should post, don't hesitate to send the moderation a message, and we'll hook you up properly.

Expectations for players

In Tazlure we expect our players to co-write their stories by taking initiative and explore opportunties. If you do not do anything, nothing will happen either.

The methods behind which Tazlure is currently structured is one of total liberty. At this point, you need expect no OOC push or direction from your moderator for your content: we wil point you to a thread to call your attention to it either through IC devise or impassable requirement, but these are nothing more than direct IC consequences applied as a result of yours or another pc's actions. In other words, don't ask the mods where or what thread your pc should go next: frankly, we don't know. A better question might be "if I wanted to explore law enforcement, how would I get involved?", and we will tell you. Whether or not your pc actually goes there is your business.

Plot Direction : Your pc can pursue what plots that involve him or her in whatever fashion he or she wishes. That's your responsibility as a player. Plots in Tazlure are living things that continue with or without pc involvement, but they can be shifted, changed, adjusted, and even capitalized by a clever PC.

If you're worried that your PC is following content you don't want...then stop following it! If you are concerned your PC is being rather inactive.. go do something.

Mortality: Yes, PC's can die, and they will. Moderators are not out to get you, but we apply the logics of the environment, a concept called Applied Physics Enforced. If we can see it in the tealeaves in time we'll warn you by making the thread impassable and serve you a mortality notice, however death can occur at all times. If the scene warrants it, death will knock on your door.

Location Development : what will happen next? We don't know. Maybe the Merchant Council of the Mouth will rebel against the king and start their own state. Maybe enraged by the death of their leader Lord Graylock the nobles will return with large mercenary armies and retake the Mouth. Or the Pirates of the Mer will burn down the city.

Are they possible? You bet. Like any living system, Tazlure moves and changes by virtue of the forces that interact with it...and the greatest forces interacting with Tazlure are you, the players. Naturally, some goals will be harder than others...and some will be virtually impossible. However nothing is static. Everything from the stamp of local coin to the name of a certain street are all subject to change...and if you don't stay awake, you just might miss it.

[Maeve]

How to Leave

If for some reason or other you'd like to find new content for your PC outside of the area you are now in please contact your mod. We could:

• Send you through a portal
• Put you on an airship
• Set up a "wilderness" thread for you

I do hope there are no OOC reasons for the departure of your PC. If you are not getting coverage of threads, or are not enjoying yourself, feel free to contact the coordinator in PM and discuss your whole characterconcept to see if it can be solved in some way. This is a quicker and more satisfactory way than keeping it to yourself or posting it in the forums.

Please note that due to an increased use of portals you can now interact with several locations on the same continent provided you keep posting linear!

[Maeve]

A word on IC pretense and assumptions.

We have a lot of themes in Tazlure that depend on secrecy to work. Yet players reveal their plans in their thoughts or in secret meetings that everybody can read. It makes it more fun for us, the readers, to see the big picture. It is however essential that we do not use this OOC knowledge to seek to foil the plans of other characters or to gain an advantage. I will expect your characters to behave to their own inner logic, according to what they know IC even if that means somebody gets away with something, or your character may be heading for disaster. You absolutely must have a good reason to act upon another characters actions and you can never act upon another characters thoughts. In other words you must always have enough IC pretense to guide your characters actions. This is what keeps the game fun

Regarding assumptions in your posts I am a very lenient mod. As long as you only create NPC's as a nameless, faceless backdrop to existing locations that have been described elsewhere I'm fine with it. I will even allow you to make educated guesses as to what you can find at locations or the reactions of the people around you.. such as mingling in a crowd or a bartender or wench serving you a drink without waiting for moderation. No need to hold up a thread for mundane things.

However it is essential that you do not assume anything that gains your character an advantage or for any bigger role in the story. You may not create a NPC to continue to rob him or pick a fight. You may not create a bartender that will whisper all the secrets of other characters and Tazlure in general. This is the field of moderators and lets face it.. it is more fun for us to take care of that, creating tension and uncertainty

[Maeve]

Exported Content

Hear ye, hear ye!

Your loveable, kindly coordinator (that's me) would like to take a quick moment to remark to you all about a concept known as "exportable content" and what, as a game mechanic, that truly means. Go on, ask: "what is exportable content, Grant?!? And how can this affect my pc?" Well, I'm glad you asked! And here it is.

Exportable content is just that: stories, scenes, plot development, or events that require international involvement to continue. Exportable content is not designed to be permanent or deliberate: it just happens, with the next "clue", "development", or "evolution" of some plotlines occurring in another forum (somewhere overseas). Exportable content does take pcs out of the Citadel. It does not shift pcs permanently. It will happen for some plotlines to be successful. In fact, most of the plotlines in the Citadel at current absolutely require plot development in a foreign location.

Why is this important to us in the Citadel? Well, here it is: It's an ISLAND. That means no great ruins to search, no foreign lands, no caravan routes, no vast, dark forests to explore, no haunted keeps or towers to inspect, and no great battleground: after all, you gotta have ground to have a real battle. If you rent a horse from Kersan and ride it for a full tide in any one direction...you'll get wet. As an island, I will not be introducing any material along those lines, either...so if they must be had, they'll be had...elsewhere. The Citadel is a very small, confined, focused area...so exportation will affect all pcs at least once in the next year or so.

It's also important to us because the Citadel is the capital of the Empire. A great deal of time and effort has gone into building the rather unusual political setting of the Citadel, a setting of international intrigue, politics, conspiracy, and government in the fragments of the (more or less) broken Empire. As many of you might have guessed, those very plotlines will take you out of the Citadel, and it's already happened on numerous occasions:
• Who went to Kislovan during the Caesar's Procession? It was a shameless, simple way to meet the Queen of Kislovan...and I think many of you came home directly.
• Who went to Pan's Isle to investigate or take part in the fighting there? Oh, the political pcs might be in the Citadel...but war is what happens when politics fail!
• Who must travel to distant, exotic Amun Rah to investigate events there? I've had a glimpse of a future when that information returns to the Citadel...and it's breath-taking!

Those exports have already happened. And what exports can we see happen for the future? Well, you'll just have to hope it'll happen again. Without exception, plotlines that run exportable content are very potent in terms of global impact and opportunity...so cross your fingers and hope! Here's the best hint I can give all players, a hint taken straight from Grant's infamous tea leaves: the War of the One won't be fought in the Citadel...so if it'll be fought at all, and won, it'll happen through exported content.

So that's what I mean if you ever hear me say "exportable content"! Remember: it's a big world out there...and the Citadel is only the center of it (arrogant smile here). Your pc is ultimately under your control...you can always refuse content that might see you exported for any amount of time...but you can be certain that you'll be passing on content that has considerable impact, content that you just might miss.

-Grantly