Post by TF Sparks on Mar 7, 2018 0:23:14 GMT
Welcome to TF Sparks!
Here we've provided all new members a few items to help get you started. Firstly, what is TF Sparks? Our role play forum was created by and for Transformers fans and role players. Contrary to the toxic atmosphere of many fan communities online, this one was made to be a safe, healthy environment where personal growth and learning through cooperation with others is encouraged. There's no room for excessive negativity: here, we should all get along and work together to create the most enriching role play experience for everyone. If you have an interesting character you want to develop, an interesting plot you want others to contribute to and participate in, or some creative world building elements you want to explore with the help of others, this is the place for you!
One unique attribute to TF Sparks is how the staff approach structuring the role play's rules. While the standard rules for role play etiquette apply- rules regarding things such as metagaming, powerplaying, godmodding, etc.- this site has no ban on any character archetypes or plot and world building elements. Instead, creating an interesting story is a priority for us, and the staff will work with you to the best of their ability to make your ideas work in a way that's fun and fair for everyone. Of course, sometimes things just don't work out, so patience and understanding are needed from both sides when trying to work out the details of an idea, and if a resolution can't be reached in some cases, those ideas might have to be put to rest.
Rules
With regard to rules, all common rules and standards of good roleplay etiquette apply on the Transformers Sparks forums. They are as follows.
Aside from these, however, there are no other rules. We haven't banned in-universe materials like Dark Energon, Red Energon, Synth-En, or other alternate forms of Energon, triple changers or six changers, combiners, outliers, point one percenters, etc. Instead, we encourage people to be creative when they're coming up with plots- but also inclusive! Plots don't have to be kept secret to be fun or interesting, and can be even more fun for everyone else when they're kept involved with the planning process.
For those of you who might be new to role playing, here's a run down of some of the above terms that warrant further explanation.
No flaming
“Flaming is a hostile and insulting interaction between persons over the Internet, often involving the use of profanity. It can also be the swapping of insults back and forth or with many people teaming up on a single victim.”
No metagaming
“Metagaming is a term used in role-playing games, which describes a player's use of real-life knowledge concerning the state of the game to determine their character's actions, when said character has no relevant knowledge or awareness under the circumstances.”
No godmodding
“Godmoding refers to several types of bad roleplay as an umbrella term. All godmoding attempts to shift the roleplay in the godmodding player’s favor. In essence, godmodding is any attempt at giving a roleplaying character an advantage that does not normally exist in-game.”
No powerplaying
“Power playing occurs in role playing, and it's when you control someone else's character, as well as your own, without the other person's permission”
No nsfw content
"NSFW"="not safe for work." Do not post anything on the forums that contains subject matter intended for an 18+ audience. This includes erotic rp, suggestive language in your rp, and the posting of any nsfw images.
With a run-down of the rules out of the way, let's get into how to get started rping.
1: Choose a character.
Whatever type of story you plan to tell, the obvious first step to starting your rp experience is choosing a character to play as. You can play a familiar canon character, or an original fan character. They can be either Cybertronian, or some other alien race: the choice is yours. (Canon characters from any continuity are allowed, though only one version of each character will be allowed in the rp at a time.)
2: Introducing your character
Now that you know who you'll be playing as, find a way to introduce them to the rp. For this, talking to other rpers ooc for planning is highly recommended. Either you can find a way to put your character at an existing location, or you can create a new location for their intro. No matter your preference, you'll want to find a way that makes sense for the story of the rp continuity.
IE: are there Autobot reinforcements joining the faction in an upcoming event? If there are, your character could be among the troops being sent. Are the Autobots planning to attack an old Decepticon outpost that hasn't appeared in the rp before? Perhaps your character could be one of the Decepticon troops manning the outpost.
In many other Transformer rps online, people have fallen into the habit of defaulting to one specific character introduction method: landing on a planet in an escape pod. You don't have to hop on the band wagon. Be as creative as you'd like to be! Talk to your friends and see if they'd like to do something special for your introduction; unless it involves something against the site's rules, the staff loves to see new and unique ideas used by the site's writers.
3: Begin!
Hop right in! Introduce your character, and take things from there. Do you get caught right away by the enemy? Do you join your allegiance's forces? Where your character goes and what they do after their introduction is up to you. Your character has a story to be told, and you're the only one that can tell it.
4: Complete a character application
You've introduced your character, and now you've spent some time getting yourself familiar with the site and interacting with others; writing stories, developing your character, and coming up with plots for the rp. Now, there's one final step to take: you have to complete an app for the character you're rping as.
The Story
Everyone new joining is naturally going to be curious about the backstory to TF Spark's rp! The rp takes place in an ambiguous continuity, sometime during the war (prehuman era) in a Decepticon-controlled region of space. A group of Autobots has been sent to retake the territory, but lacking the resources to challenge the Decepticon occupation head-on, have resorted to guerrilla warfare tactics. On top of the brief, intense strikes raising tension between the present factions, other, non-affiliated groups are caught in the crossfire, and whether or not they will rally and strike back remains to be seen.
Here's a few additional details about the plot!
We sincerely hope that this thread will help you to get started on the site with an easy transition into rping here! Soon, we'll also have some threads for helpful guides with the intent of further enhancing your role play experience in the community.
Lastly, the staff would like to formally welcome you to TF Sparks!
Here we've provided all new members a few items to help get you started. Firstly, what is TF Sparks? Our role play forum was created by and for Transformers fans and role players. Contrary to the toxic atmosphere of many fan communities online, this one was made to be a safe, healthy environment where personal growth and learning through cooperation with others is encouraged. There's no room for excessive negativity: here, we should all get along and work together to create the most enriching role play experience for everyone. If you have an interesting character you want to develop, an interesting plot you want others to contribute to and participate in, or some creative world building elements you want to explore with the help of others, this is the place for you!
One unique attribute to TF Sparks is how the staff approach structuring the role play's rules. While the standard rules for role play etiquette apply- rules regarding things such as metagaming, powerplaying, godmodding, etc.- this site has no ban on any character archetypes or plot and world building elements. Instead, creating an interesting story is a priority for us, and the staff will work with you to the best of their ability to make your ideas work in a way that's fun and fair for everyone. Of course, sometimes things just don't work out, so patience and understanding are needed from both sides when trying to work out the details of an idea, and if a resolution can't be reached in some cases, those ideas might have to be put to rest.
Rules
With regard to rules, all common rules and standards of good roleplay etiquette apply on the Transformers Sparks forums. They are as follows.
- no flaming
- no metagaming
- no godmodding
- no powerplaying
- be polite to others
- no nsfw content
Aside from these, however, there are no other rules. We haven't banned in-universe materials like Dark Energon, Red Energon, Synth-En, or other alternate forms of Energon, triple changers or six changers, combiners, outliers, point one percenters, etc. Instead, we encourage people to be creative when they're coming up with plots- but also inclusive! Plots don't have to be kept secret to be fun or interesting, and can be even more fun for everyone else when they're kept involved with the planning process.
For those of you who might be new to role playing, here's a run down of some of the above terms that warrant further explanation.
No flaming
“Flaming is a hostile and insulting interaction between persons over the Internet, often involving the use of profanity. It can also be the swapping of insults back and forth or with many people teaming up on a single victim.”
No metagaming
“Metagaming is a term used in role-playing games, which describes a player's use of real-life knowledge concerning the state of the game to determine their character's actions, when said character has no relevant knowledge or awareness under the circumstances.”
No godmodding
“Godmoding refers to several types of bad roleplay as an umbrella term. All godmoding attempts to shift the roleplay in the godmodding player’s favor. In essence, godmodding is any attempt at giving a roleplaying character an advantage that does not normally exist in-game.”
No powerplaying
“Power playing occurs in role playing, and it's when you control someone else's character, as well as your own, without the other person's permission”
No nsfw content
"NSFW"="not safe for work." Do not post anything on the forums that contains subject matter intended for an 18+ audience. This includes erotic rp, suggestive language in your rp, and the posting of any nsfw images.
With a run-down of the rules out of the way, let's get into how to get started rping.
Role Play: How to Get Started
1: Choose a character.
Whatever type of story you plan to tell, the obvious first step to starting your rp experience is choosing a character to play as. You can play a familiar canon character, or an original fan character. They can be either Cybertronian, or some other alien race: the choice is yours. (Canon characters from any continuity are allowed, though only one version of each character will be allowed in the rp at a time.)
2: Introducing your character
Now that you know who you'll be playing as, find a way to introduce them to the rp. For this, talking to other rpers ooc for planning is highly recommended. Either you can find a way to put your character at an existing location, or you can create a new location for their intro. No matter your preference, you'll want to find a way that makes sense for the story of the rp continuity.
IE: are there Autobot reinforcements joining the faction in an upcoming event? If there are, your character could be among the troops being sent. Are the Autobots planning to attack an old Decepticon outpost that hasn't appeared in the rp before? Perhaps your character could be one of the Decepticon troops manning the outpost.
In many other Transformer rps online, people have fallen into the habit of defaulting to one specific character introduction method: landing on a planet in an escape pod. You don't have to hop on the band wagon. Be as creative as you'd like to be! Talk to your friends and see if they'd like to do something special for your introduction; unless it involves something against the site's rules, the staff loves to see new and unique ideas used by the site's writers.
3: Begin!
Hop right in! Introduce your character, and take things from there. Do you get caught right away by the enemy? Do you join your allegiance's forces? Where your character goes and what they do after their introduction is up to you. Your character has a story to be told, and you're the only one that can tell it.
4: Complete a character application
You've introduced your character, and now you've spent some time getting yourself familiar with the site and interacting with others; writing stories, developing your character, and coming up with plots for the rp. Now, there's one final step to take: you have to complete an app for the character you're rping as.
The Story
Everyone new joining is naturally going to be curious about the backstory to TF Spark's rp! The rp takes place in an ambiguous continuity, sometime during the war (prehuman era) in a Decepticon-controlled region of space. A group of Autobots has been sent to retake the territory, but lacking the resources to challenge the Decepticon occupation head-on, have resorted to guerrilla warfare tactics. On top of the brief, intense strikes raising tension between the present factions, other, non-affiliated groups are caught in the crossfire, and whether or not they will rally and strike back remains to be seen.
Here's a few additional details about the plot!
- The rp's story starts during the Autobots' insurgency. Autobot activities IC will be organized so that they attract as little attention as possible while subtly undermining the Decepticons. Because of this premise, there will be fewer Autobot npcs than Decepticon, and the Decepticons will possess an inherent advantage over the Autobots.
Autobots will later gain additional forces to even the power of the factions when it seems appropriate to the story. - The first faction leaders of the site will only be temporary. New leaders will be appointed sometime in the future either through a site-wide vote, or through some as-of-yet undetermined means.
- No rper on the site is permitted to play as either Optimus Prime or Megatron. It's been determined that as the powerful characters they are, no rper would be able to play fairly while maintaining an accurate portrayal of them and their abilities. Furthermore, as two of the most well recognized characters in the Transformers fandom, it would be unfair to rpers playing as fan characters who have to work to gain themselves a reputation, which either a Megatron or Optimus Prime player would have automatically from the moment they started rping.
- According to the rp continuity, Optimus Prime and Megatron are still the faction leaders. However, their part of the war (along with any canon characters not accounted for in the rp) takes place elsewhere, in a different part of the universe; making the rp separate from any major canonical events, and thus allowing us to maintain our setting of the rp taking place in an unspecified continuity.
- As can be inferred by the above history to the rp, non-affiliated groups have a chance of playing a big part in the rp's story, depending on how many active rpers of non-affiliated characters there are.
We sincerely hope that this thread will help you to get started on the site with an easy transition into rping here! Soon, we'll also have some threads for helpful guides with the intent of further enhancing your role play experience in the community.
Lastly, the staff would like to formally welcome you to TF Sparks!
