Storytelling Practices

Different storytellers should be free to take on their own approaches and styles, but there are certain policies that need to be kept in order to stick to the sort of game we want to be: a game that is accessible to casuals as well as the 24/7 crew, and a game that does not punish people for OOC circumstances.

Handling Unfinished Scenes And Timestops

Sometimes you run something and we have pause a scene because it's getting late or a key player needs to bounce, et cetera. The cliffhanger still looms, but realistically the storyteller can't follow up for a while, and things are in the air.

Players May RP With Unfinished Scenes

When you are in an unresolved scene, you can do the traditional 1990s WOD Timestop thing and idle OOCly until you can resume, but you are not obligated to do so. So long as you agree to treat the unresolved scene as if it has not yet occured, you may RP while you wait for everybody else to show up.

If you choose to RP, you must strictly delineate the cliffhanger from whatever you're doing. You cannot use the option to RP to do anything related to the unresolved scene: no commenting on it, no making preparations for it, no spreading or pursuing any IC knowledge/gains regarding it.

This is because your ability to RP through what is normally considered a timestop is an OOC courtesy to how you should be able to spend your leisure time and that courtesy should not be taken advantage of or cause IC consequences for other characters due to their OOC availability.

Players who misuse or abuse this courtesy will lose this option. When a cliffhanger happens, they can be forced into a TmS (Timestop), which means they'll be locked away in a separate room until everyone is available to resume play so that they cannot actually RP.

Resolve Unfinished Scenes In 10 Days

If, after 10 days, the unresolved scene still remains in the air, this scene is a candidate for being resolved asynchronously or OOCly so people aren't left in limbo for too long. This can be by handwaving or running something through a +job so people can communicate asynchronously.

If a PRP runner doesn't have time to resolve a scene within 10 days, ideally the player(s) should directly reach out to the PRP runner first, but they can ask staff to make an executive decision on resolving the cliffhanger instead. When this occurs, staff will first approach the PRP runner, give them 24 hours, then if there is no response, go ahead and resolve the cliffhanger as they see fit and deliver the results to the PRP runner. Staff will make the least invasive decision possible.

Handling IC Deadlines

OOC Factors Should Not Be IC

If you have a time-sensitive deadline IC, any +request or @mail stating a character's IC actions to be completed by that deadline are valid so long as the request is sent in before the day of the IC deadline.

The action should be ran as if it ICly commenced the day of the +request. If the action described would take too long to pull off and there's a reasonable chance the character would know this based off of their sheet, advise the player and let them pick something simpler. After all, it's not like their character would realize, "I can't accomplish that in time" and then spend the remaining days paralyzed in indecision.

Do not proceed with a time-sensitive situation if you are aware that someone put in a +request to do something before the deadline. If you need to crunch it into handwaving and dicerolls instead of a scene, do so, but do not skip a player's request to do something.

Proactively Confirm IC Inaction

Sometimes you'll be running a plot (as staff or a PRP runner) and go "damn, jimbo should have tried to do something by now." If you find yourself thinking that, reach out directly to the player(s) and ask them if they're interested in taking action. Do not assume that their lack of engagement is due to deliberate negligence or disinterest.

Usually the reason why they haven't said anything until now shakes out in the conversation. When investigating why someone hasn't done something by now, try asking players if they would like some guidance. Sometimes they just don't see the clues and hooks you lay out in front of them.

When offering this guidance, you can give it outright or you can gatekeep an IC epiphany behind a knowledge roll. If you choose the latter, disclose the nature of the roll so they still have a clue. Like, "Well, you get a hunch that maybe this weird picture might be some kind of message. Roll <X> to try to decrypt it." Say they fail, they still have been given the clue that this weird picture maybe some kinda' message.