OOC Thread and Chatroom

[everyone]

2) LAY-OUT : anything that is NOT your characters speech, put it in italics. Anything that is SAID by your character, put it between parenthis and "in bold"
special remarks : when you are storytelling something that your character is thinking, you can use single parenthis (lucius cornelius was walking and thought to himself: '[flower] i need to get laid. Where's are my slaves!' He then walked against a cart unloading amphoras).

actually, the 'bold' part is commonly ignored; I just dump whatever my character says inside inverted commas, and use bold to make it a bold statement. but I find myself using Italics less though.

[mini]

I know, but the bold would be quite nice to distinguish the speech. You can add extra emphasis by underlining or caps.

Just trying to create some posting etiquette, which is badly needed when i glance over the latest posts.

[SwissBarbar]

OOC:

Guys, guys. I know it is not in the rules of this PBM (another proposal i will have to make) but please..

UNIFORM ROLEPLAY ETIQUETTE !!!


1) Roman family names: Always use the 2 parts of the name. WHen speaking of yourself in third person / when speaking to someone alse directly / when talkign about someone else in third person. ALWAYS use 2 first parts of the name. You can include the third part if you want to emphasize about who you're talking (for example if there are more than one Lucius Cornelius'ses)

2) LAY-OUT : anything that is NOT your characters speech, put it in italics. Anything that is SAID by your character, put it between parenthis and "in bold"
special remarks : when you are storytelling something that your character is thinking, you can use single parenthis (lucius cornelius was walking and thought to himself: ' i need to get laid. Where's are my slaves!' He then walked against a cart unloading amphoras).


I know it's not in the rules in this PBM (There are PBM's where it is) but still, it would make posts a lot clearer.
The Roman name thingy is something I stress because it enhances historical immersion. It makes the game a whole lot more fun, trust me :)

If anyone needs any more roleplay tips as how to say certain things or how to address in particular situations, do not hesitate to ask me.

Yeah, you're right, but 2 questions/points:

1. If I say sth like my last post: "Good luck, tribune" - I'm sure in such a good wish or whatever, you don't have to mention his first 2 names, but can call him "tribune", and he won't be offended. I just can't imagine, that Romans went around and spoke like

"Hello, Marcus Claudius, how are you?
"Well, thank you, Cnaeus Iulius."
"Good to hear. Let's go for a drink, Marcus Claudius"
"Great idea, Cnaeus Iulius."

and so on.



2. The "bold" part should be turned into "italic", because during the sessions we emphasize our proposed edicts, CAs and "seconded-posts" in bold letters, so you see them at once.

Besides that, I'm always for accurate Roleplay and stuff

[/Bean\]

Yeah, the bold has always been for parts peeople need to take notice of, like an order or something that changes stuff. Since we started, most of us have always used Italics for 'stage directions' if you like, and then normal stuff for speech. It's never bothered me. To be honest, and I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think we should all write how you want us to just because you don't like how it looks. I'm happy with the way I've always done it.

[mini]

Yeah, you're right, but 2 questions/points:

1. If I say sth like my last post: "Good luck, tribune" - I'm sure in such a good wish or whatever, you don't have to mention his first 2 names, but can call him "tribune", and he won't be offended. I just can't imagine, that Romans went around and spoke like

"Hello, Marcus Claudius, how are you?
"Well, thank you, Cnaeus Iulius."
"Good to hear. Let's go for a drink, Marcus Claudius"
"Great idea, Cnaeus Iulius."



Besides that, I'm always for accurate Roleplay and stuff

Actually, that's exactly the situation how it was in Ancient Rome. Atleast during the Republic.
Calling someone by the 3rd part of his name was considered quite rude and never done in public. Also when speaking of oneself, they used their names as I stated.

As we are roleplaying Roman Senators, it would be nice if people actually tried to stick atleast a bit to reality, especially on this name part thingy as we do use eachothers name very frequently.


In the current situation, addressing him as a 'tribune' would be incorrect. I suggest that when using someone's rank as to indicate whom you're talking about, only do it when it's in 3rd person (I heard the consul has crucified one of his slaves)
If you insist on using the rank directly, best to add his name behind it ("Dear Consul Gaius Julius, you rock!")

Yeah, the bold has always been for parts peeople need to take notice of, like an order or something that changes stuff. Since we started, most of us have always used Italics for 'stage directions' if you like, and then normal stuff for speech. It's never bothered me. To be honest, and I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think we should all write how you want us to just because you don't like how it looks. I'm happy with the way I've always done it.

I'm not offended as I know you do not intend to be rude. But you must understand than I did not make the remark because I simply 'dont like the way it looks'.
Check the rules of the LOTR PBM if you don't believe me, there they do have layout etiquette. And I for one, find that if people all post by the same rules, it's so much easier at first glance to read the posts.

And I mean come on, it's not like thàt much effort?
I am willing to forgo the speech-in bold part.
Just everything in Italics, and IC-speech in normal text between parenthis is good enough for me.

But atleast SOME form of etiquette would be nice, instead of everyone just typing randomly, one time this way, the other time that way.. Combined with one person this way and the post below him another person types everythign exact the opposite.

I don't want to be a pain, but you got to admit it would look a lot better and would be a lot more efficient if we have uniform guidelines as to how-to post.

[/Bean\]

Then lets do it the way we original BtSHers always did; italic OOC and normal for speech, bold for notiable parts

[The Celtic Viking]

Mini, I will not write anything your way. I really don't like it. The italics is unnecessary, the bold is "making big of something small" (for lack of a proper word ) and quite simply I find your way of "asking for it" to be very rude.

I'll continue doing it my way, thank you.

[mini]

what do you mean OOC in italics?

When telling an IC story, without speech, describing what your character is doing (walking somewhere i dunno) and you describe what happens, the scenery, his clothing whatever... that should be in italics, right?

basically: Everything in italics, except SPEECH, which is in normal between "parenthis"


(anythign that is actually REALLY ooc, should be between brackets with ooc in front)

EXAMPLE


My senator walked to the forum, wearing nothing but a tunic. He stole 5 appels and got clubbed to death by the store owner.
"Jupiter!" said his companion, and ran for his life.


(OOC: i am hungry)

[mini]

Mini, I will not write anything your way. I really don't like it. The italics is unnecessary, the bold is "making big of something small" (for lack of a proper word ) and quite simply I find your way of "asking for it" to be very rude.

I'll continue doing it my way, thank you.

Well it's in the rules in other PBM's and sorry if you find this rude, but I can see why they have it in their rules. Reading some of the posts recently made, take quite an effort to read.

It should be instantly clear what is being said and what not, easier to distinguish etc. I didn't say it HAS to be the way I said, as my discussion with Bean proves that I'm open for other suggestions. Simply stating that 'everyone at will' is just not clear enough and measures should be taken.


If you consider that rude, ok then. Sorry for trying to make the Curia clearer and neater.

[SwissBarbar]

You mean they mentionned the name of their interlocutor in EVERY sentence? I don't believe that

Conversation between Marcus Claudius Cicero and Cnaeus Iulius Caesar:

C. :"Hello, Marcus Claudius, how are you?
M. :"Well, thank you, Cnaeus Iulius."
C. :"Good to hear. Let's go for a drink, Marcus Claudius"
M. :"Great idea, Cnaeus Iulius."
C. :"How is your wife, Marcus Claudius"
M. :"She suffers from pestilence, but apart from that fine, Cnaeus Iulius"
C. :"What's her name again, Marcus Claudius"
M. :"Aemilia, Cnaeus Iulius"
C. :"A, right. And your son's name is Tiberis Claudius, Marcus Claudius?"
M. :"Yes, exactly"
C. :*cough* *cough*
M. :"Oh, sorry, I meant: yes exactly, Cnaeus Iulius"
C. : "It's ok, Marcus Claudius."
M. : "Thank the gods. Haha"
C. : "Again you did not mention my 2 names, you pig.... CICERO"
M. : "Whhaaaat??? Only my 3rd name? you...you..... CAESAR!!!"

they go in different direction and swear


C. : "CICERO"
M. : "CAESAR"
C. : "CICERO"
M. : "AARGHHH ... CAESAR"






No, I don't think so.

[mini]

You mean they mentionned the name of their interlocutor in EVERY sentence? I don't believe that

Conversation between Marcus Claudius Cicero and Cnaeus Iulius Caesar:

C. :"Hello, Marcus Claudius, how are you?
M. :"Well, thank you, Cnaeus Iulius."
C. :"Good to hear. Let's go for a drink, Marcus Claudius"
M. :"Great idea, Cnaeus Iulius."
C. :"How is your wife, Marcus Claudius"
M. :"She suffers from pestilence, but apart from that fine, Cnaeus Iulius"
C. :"What's her name again, Marcus Claudius"
M. :"Aemilia, Cnaeus Iulius"
C. :"A, right. And your son's name is Tiberis Claudius, Marcus Claudius?"
M. :"Yes, exactly"
C. :*cough* *cough*
M. :"Oh, sorry, I meant: yes exactly, Cnaeus Iulius"
C. : "It's ok, Marcus Claudius."
M. : "Thank the gods. Haha"
C. : "Again you did not mention my 2 names, you pig.... CICERO"
M. : "Whhaaaat??? Only my 3rd name? you...you..... CAESAR!!!"

they go in different direction and swear


C. : "CICERO"
M. : "CAESAR"
C. : "CICERO"
M. : "AARGHHH ... CAESAR"






No, I don't think so.

Sorry, but that's exactly how it went.
I understand it is hard to understand, as in modern days this seems ridiculous. But your story nailed it :)

[Iskander 3.1]

Were you there?

[The Celtic Viking]

Well it's in the rules in other PBM's and sorry if you find this rude, but I can see why they have it in their rules. Reading some of the posts recently made, take quite an effort to read.

It should be instantly clear what is being said and what not, easier to distinguish etc. I didn't say it HAS to be the way I said, as my discussion with Bean proves that I'm open for other suggestions. Simply stating that 'everyone at will' is just not clear enough and measures should be taken.


If you consider that rude, ok then. Sorry for trying to make the Curia clearer and neater.

Oh, please! The rude part is of course you coming here and telling us - not proposing anything, but telling us - how to do things. That is what I don't appreciate. If you had asked us to standardize it, and simply proposed your way, I would only have rejected it on the simple basis that I don't like it. But what you did was to instruct us on how we should write it.

I'm not against standardizing the way we write in the Curia, absolutely not. It might be a good thing, though I really don't care much either way. We already do make distinctions between when our avatar talks and when he's gesticulating or whatever, and it works. If we are going to standardize it, I would not like having it with bold being anything else than to point out some important information, such as when a session is started. Having it in each and every post cheapens that effect a lot. The way things I do it is:

Something that happens, is shown through body language or of that kind, I simply type it out.

Something very important is written in bold. (So far I've never used it.)

"When something is being said, it's put in quotation marks."

Italics is used to denote a special tone in my character's speech, like when Pvblivs sarcastically called Blasio King.

[/Bean\]

TCV, take a breath and calm yourself. I agree with you, but we can't afford to have splits in the OOC rather than the IC. Fair enough?

Mini, the best way is as we've always done it. Italics for non-speech and for emphasised speech, normal for normal speech, and bold for notable sentences or words. I'd be interested if you could post quotes of 'the posts recently made, that take quite an effort to read.'

Frankly, I hated your first posts in the Curia with the speech in bold. Blocks of bold are horrible to read and actually harder than normal text, in my opinion.

[Tiberius Claudius Marcellus]

it is. and be reminded that you can't add units to retraining. only CoL can, but I intend to add the principes to Arpi's retraining anyway.

Oh, I know - I only moved them into the city, didn't click "retrain" or spend money.

*******************************

I commented in the Curia (poor form on my part) but Mini; you MUST edit your post there to prevent a moderator either censoring you or shutting us down. Your use of curse words in the post is unacceptable. Personally, I do not care; but the people who run this place do and will hammer us all with you.

Additionally, in my post in the Curia, I provided two links from the website of the organizaion "Nova Roma" regarding proper usage of Roman names. They are a modern day real life role playing organization who live like romans, especially when they get together for re-enactments. I would trust their word over anyone save a historian or college professor of ancient Roman history. They are a true authority on the subject.

[mini]

Mini, the best way is as we've always done it. Italics for non-speech and for emphasised speech, normal for normal speech, and bold for notable sentences or words. I'd be interested if you could post quotes of 'the posts recently made, that take quite an effort to read.'

EXAMPLE


My senator walked to the forum, wearing nothing but a tunic. He stole 5 appels and got clubbed to death by the store owner.
"Jupiter!" said his companion, and ran for his life.


(OOC: i am hungry)

What you said, perfectly fits the example I wrote, no? Which is absolutely fine by me :)



as to a few examples:

Almost EVERY post on the last page :)
No parenthis, bad disctinction between speech and events etc

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This random smiling has got to stop, if anything we should have a emergency session just for that.

I do not believe it would be correct politically or indeed practically if the victorious General needs to return to Roma in order to request to return to Roma in triumph. Corlucius smiled.

I agree with Quintus Fulvius, since I presume he meant "change" in the sense of having the courage to improve. That's always been our strong point

Lvcivs Cornelivs Scipio rose, ignoring Corlucius' interjection.

It wasn't due to fickleness but due to the ideals and laws passed down from our forefathers that we were able to make the Res Publica into what it is now, you should know this best, Quintus Fluvius. It is not change but preservation that keeps us from becoming "irrelevant".

L. C. Scipo made a short break before he continued:

Anyway, I do not want to start a discussion on principles now.

I agree with the triumphus being requested by an official messenger and with the voting outside of the season as well - there's a difference between preservation of the law and foolishness.

Do you perhaps mean this letter, old friend? Corlucius asked Quintus Fulvius.

I believe messengers are sometimes required to carry these letters, and read them out for us all to hear at once. He smiled kindly at his companion, meaning no malice in his joking sarcasm.

Don't be modest, some of the elder senatores already gave their opinion, and besides: are you talking about the same senior senatores, a certain "mere Tribune of the Plebs" intended to throw from the Tarpeian rock? Your opinion is most welcome, you should share it with us. But I don't want to force you. If you first want to hear other's opinions to form your own conform to them, that's ok.

TCM's post are always a bliss to read. They're so easy to read and interpret, and you instantly know which is said and what not etc.


About name usage on your site TCM:
"In everyday use, people are referred to by either a combination of the praenomen and nomen, or even more usually by just their cognomen. "

use of the cognomen was not unusual in the empire. Yet during the timespan we (and the game) are taking place, use of cognomen was generally thought of as rude and poor form :)

[The Celtic Viking]

TCV, take a breath and calm yourself. I agree with you, but we can't afford to have splits in the OOC rather than the IC. Fair enough?

I am calm. Here's a silly face to prove it:

[/Bean\]

Mini, whats wrong with all those posts. People just did not all include non speech...if you quote them they all end up in Italics, which is why it jumbles together. The only one there is Tolq, who has only just joined and no one has told him. Even that I didnt really have trouble reading...

[mini]

Since there is no standard, and ppl just type in a kind of spurr-of-the-moment way, you have to read it to know it's speech, for example.

It would just be a lot nicer if everyone would type his posts like TCM.
But nm, i'll just try harder when reading :)

[/Bean\]

You have to read it anyway!!

If people were writing really small, or with no puncuation, or every other word a different font style, I could understand, but quite frankly I see nothing wrong. So maybe some people need to concentrate a bit more and make sure they italicalise some of their sentences, but thats hardly a big matter; its still readable.

[mini]

never said it wasn't readable.

but a simple thing like parenthis for speeches would do much :)

[navarro951]

I WOULD ASK THAT ALL PLAYERS WITH STORIES NOT CURRENTLY ENTERED INTO THE HISTORY THREAD PM THE LINK TO THE SINGLE POST AND THE YEAR AND SEASON IN WHICH THEY WOULD LIKE IT TO BE POSTED. DUE TO THE PREVIOUS WEEK IN WHICH I WAS UNAVAILABLE IT HAS BEEN HARD FOR ME TO TELL WHICH STORIES GO WHERE.

THANK YOU, NAVARRO

[Mooks]

Mini, are you perhaps a english major?

[Mooks]

A great milestone has been achieved....the first house of BTSH has been established.

I couldnt find a adequte name though. I tried to find something that rolled off the tongue, but latin isnt good for that as I found out. Maybe I shouldve went for greek, o well.

o, and a for the first person to post the english translation of the house name.

[navarro951]

Mooks who sponsored your house???

4.5 Forming a House/Family

Once you have been granted a Provincial Governorship, and gained the rank of Quaestor, you will want to befriend a standing Praetor and create a family/or house. A house must consist of at least three members including the Quaestor. To form a house, you must be given a Praetors “sponsorship”, announce the name of the house and which region it hails from, and what it stands for. Have your sponsoring Praetor announce the fact that he is sponsoring your House/Family in the senate and then you can get creative. Explain what your House/Family will stand for politically, militarily, and economically.

A house will create huge advantages for the players in it. You will all be able to vote more powerfully during Congressional Sessions and also will be to place your members in better seats of power through your influence. Each house will have its own thread to discuss its own agenda.

[mini]

I'm not even english :)

I do quite read a lot, but that's it.

I was just trying to achieve a little bit of order in everyone's layout :)

[Mooks]

Mooks who sponsored your house???

4.5 Forming a House/Family

Once you have been granted a Provincial Governorship, and gained the rank of Quaestor, you will want to befriend a standing Praetor and create a family/or house. A house must consist of at least three members including the Quaestor. To form a house, you must be given a Praetors “sponsorship”, announce the name of the house and which region it hails from, and what it stands for. Have your sponsoring Praetor announce the fact that he is sponsoring your House/Family in the senate and then you can get creative. Explain what your House/Family will stand for politically, militarily, and economically.

A house will create huge advantages for the players in it. You will all be able to vote more powerfully during Congressional Sessions and also will be to place your members in better seats of power through your influence. Each house will have its own thread to discuss its own agenda.

Someone in this very thread said all that was required was a Quastor sponsorship. Wasnt there a edict vote on it?


This pisses me off, im taking a break from this game. All that hard work for nothing.

[mini]

I have no idea about the edict or anything.
But it seems to be clear in the rules.


I know it's hugely frustrating if your hard work is for nothing.
Yet nothing is lost, your house will only have to wait a little bit longer..

Just take a small break for a day, and you'll feel a lot better.
I felt the same way when all my reforms were rejected. But I'm still here and it still is fun.

So relax a little :)

[SwissBarbar]

In the Fourth Congressional Council - Legislation Voting he have voted upon this matter:

CA 3.10:
4.5 Forming a House/Family

Once you have gained the rank of Quaestor and have been granted a Provincial Governorship, you will want to befriend a standing Praetor and create a family/or house. A house must consist of at least three members including the Quaestor. To form a house, you must be given a Praetors “sponsorship”, announce the name of the house and which region it hails from, and what it stands for. Have your sponsoring Praetor announce the fact that he is sponsoring your House/Family in the senate and then you can get creative. Explain what your House/Family will stand for politically, militarily, and economically.

A house will create huge advantages for the players in it. You will all be able to vote more powerfully during Congressional Sessions and also will be to place your members in better seats of power through your influence. Each house will have its own thread to discuss its own agenda.

(Confirmation with the dictator removed from rule 4.5)

The rule is the same, it only does not need the confirmation of the "Dictator" anymore.


And in the Fifth Congressional Council - Legislation Voting we decided this:

CA 5.2: That if there is no standing praetor to give sponsorship, a Quaestor may start a family/house with a voting by the senate.

A vote of the senate would be necessary. But however it is, you must be a Quaestor to form a house in any case.

[everyone]

Could you tell me the name of my wife? So i can rp it a bit :)

darn. I forgot. I just saw the announcement and the long-ish looking name.

@ mooks: don't worry, the Congressional session is only 2 days away, by then you can probably get potocello to propose (or propose in the name of potocello) that you're forming a new house.