New Player Guide

New to the Traitor Games? Intrigued enough by the concept to post in the sign-up thread but intimidated by the onslaught of posts once the game has actually begun?

Don’t despair- and please don’t quit! Bear with us through that initial and oft-confusing portion of the game, and we can almost certainly guarantee that you’ll have a really satisfying and fun-filled roleplay and gaming experience.

In the meantime, here are some suggestions as to how to get started. Bear in mind, these are guidelines, and not rules.

We're All In This Together
What you post should reflect why we're here in the first place--the Traitor Game itself. The Traitor Game is part whodunit game, part collaborative fan fiction. The operative word being “collaborative.” The TGs involve many players writing different characters, all interacting with one another. If your only goal is to write a piece of fan fiction about your character(s) specifically, you can be guaranteed that the presence of other people will affect the story you want to tell. Don't let your storytelling plans get in the way of the game itself. However, if you enjoy having a few curveballs thrown your way, and like the element of uncertainty that comes with collaboration, then this game is for you.

In other words- Develop your character, but do so in a way that joins him/her with what's happening overall. Write posts that are relevant to the story. Don’t keep your character in a box; make them interact with the other characters. Have them react to the strange situations they find themselves in.

Pacing
New players should also feel free to do any IC bits at their own pace. Voting is really the only thing that is a regulated act (set according to the schedule of the host, and normally laid out in the first page of the game thread). Sometimes, especially for new players, they could be intimidated with a group of folks all yammering on at once.

Recaps
Occasionally, hosts will attempt to provide recap posts, so that people can quickly catch up on what has been occurring in-game since their last posting. Check with your host for the policy on recaps. They may not always be there, and they may not always be easily accessible from the first page of the thread, but if you make a polite request in the OOC Thread, someone will usually be able to assist you in getting up to date.

Particularly eager persons are usually more than welcome to volunteer their efforts at assisting the hosts with Recap posts.

No Godmoding
As this game is collaborative, it is highly frowned upon to have your characters “God Mode”. Give other players a chance to have their characters react to your activities, rather than taking it upon yourself to determine their reactions. Don’t force others to interact in your scenarios, but leave it to them to choose to respond. At the very least, expect instances of Godmoding to result in a stern negative reaction from other players.

Questions and Discussion Thread
Try to keep all posts limited to In-Character responses. We do have an Out Of Character Discussion thread for the Traitor Games for things not related to the ongoing game. Questions, proposals for new games, suggestions for character roleplay and development, etc. are all things that are discussed in the OOC thread.

Thread Tools
The Comic Book Resources forums have several tools that can be especially useful for the purposes of roleplaying in a Traitor Game. Among them:



Quotes
An incredibly useful function of the CBR forums, for purposes of roleplay, are the quote and multiquote buttons at the bottom of each response in the thread. Use these buttons liberally to respond to specific things that other characters have said and/or done. The multi-quote button, in particular, can be very useful if playing “catch up”, when several pages of posts have gone by before you had a chance to respond.

A nice side-effect of the quote buttons is that they provide a link back to the original post, so that players can follow the thread back to the relevant sections, without having to wade through several pages of posts looking for context.

Another note about quoting- please quote only the relevant portions of the posts you are replying to. Don’t haphazardly quote the entire text (and pictures) every time. Not only will this help to keep the page count lower, but it will provide a more concise and directed flow to the game. It is also a general rule of netiquette that will serve you well on any forum you are posting to, in any context.

Private Messaging
Private messages (PMs) are great tools for use in the Traitor Games, particularly for those players with special roles (Traitors, Agents, Vigilantes). Traitors always PM their correspondence to one another and their kills to the host; Agents PM their guesses to the host, etc. Essentially, they provide a means of communicating with other players and the host that won't be viewed by other players.

This need not be used only by people in special roles. Players often PM one another about special scenes they want to have played out in the In-Character Thread; coordinating their efforts for a more "cinematic" post, rather than a series of actions and reactions.

PMs are also especially useful for discussing and settling conflicts that arise in either the IC or OOC threads.

However, if you have an "Agent" role in the game, there is one rule you might want to follow faithfully: Do not trade "inside information" about players you've unmasked as Traitors. This is frowned upon and will likely result in a huge backlash from players. If you've learned a Traitor's identity as an Agent, the burden of swaying the popular vote in public posts lies on you.



Thread Subscriptions
Both new and veteran players alike might find it useful to use the "Subscribed Threads" function located in the "Quick Links" drop down menu. This will allow the user to subscribe to the game threads so that they are notified of changes in the thread, can quickly access the thread via their User CP (particularly if it falls off the first page of the forum), or jump right to the newest post since their last post.

Using Images
Images are an optional playing aesthetic that adds an artistic element to a portrayal. A CBR post allows a maximum four images per post, smileys included. They are typed as urls contained within [img][/img] tags.

An image can convey a character's reaction to a certain scene, set the stage or create dynamism in a fight scene, or simply be a placeholder to separate walls of text. Some users tend to incorporate dozens of images for use in one portrayal.

When quoting another player, it is generally advised to remove the image url and [img][/img] tags from the quoted text, as it prevents the thread from being cluttered with reused images.

Image Hosting
Free sites like Imageshack and Photobucket are commonly best for hosting and sorting images, unless a player has their own site for hosting files. Alternatively some have used the Wiki itself for image uploading to aid in the convenience of hosting.

Image Manipulation
From time to time a player will edit an image or series of images to place a character of their choice into a new background or to appear that he/she is fighting another character. Alternatively, they might be creating a video-game inspired Select Screen of the characters in their stable. This can be done with the use of programs ranging from Microsoft Paint, Irfanview, GIMP, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, or any combination thereof. An inexperienced user can feel free to request a manipulation from a veteran player at their own discretion.

Research
It helps to have a deep-rooted familiarity with the character you're deciding to portray. This can be attuned by simply viewing or reading the material they appear in with a degree of diligence. Having a knowledge of a character better enables a roleplayer to get "into their head" and know how they would react to certain people and things.

Voice
Using a variation of fonts, font sizes, and color codes, your character's speaking voice can be made more distinct among plain text and other characters' dialogue.

Style
Over time players tend to develop their own individual style of roleplaying. Often times they may also break tradition to try something new. (i.e., Deadpooligan] wrote [[Silver Surfer|The Silver Surfer's dialogue and narration in a voice reminiscent of Stan Lee penned Silver Age comic books.)