StC: Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I join?
A: Actually making an account here is relatively simple. You simply click on the 'Register' link in the main navigation bar under the header banner, read and agree to Forumotion's terms of service, fill in an account name (which must be unique to you), fill in your email address (so that you will receive your activation email) and choose a password, which you confirm on the following page.

We are an account-per-character (APC) RPG, which means each of your characters should have their own account. When registering a character account, we would like you to register with a first name and second name, both properly capitalised (George Thompson, for example, not george thompson or GEORGE thompson or any other variation.) You are more than welcome to make an out-of-character (OOC) account, which will then be put into the Players group by an admin. OOC accounts do not need a first and second name.

There are issues with assigning more than one account to the same email address at registration, which may be overcome by registering with a second email address and then changing it to the same email address once the account is activated.

Q: Is there a minimum age for members?
A: Yes. Due to our setting and the types of storylines found here, we do not accept members under the age of 13. If you are under 13 when you join and we subsequently discover that, you will be asked to leave and your character profiles will be archived.

Q: What is StC's rating?
A: StC is rated PG-13, or 2/2/2 according to the RPG-Rating system. This means that we have certain restrictions on the levels of Language, Sex and Violence depicted in RP threads.
a) Language. Broadly speaking, we try to have the same approach to swearing as the Sharpe novels: Mild infrequent swearing, such as 'bloody' is allowed, and we will accept the very infrequent use of stronger words. We do not drop the F-bomb all over the place, although very infrequent uses of that word are allowable.
b) Sex. Certain references to nudity and the sexual act are permitted, but we do not go into graphic detail. We practise the fade-to-black option on this board.
c) Violence. Generally speaking, violence in posts is more acceptable than graphic sex, but we do not go overboard, and we warn at the beginning of a post if the rating increases in that post.

Q: What kind of characters do you need?
A: We currently have Army and Navy characters and some civilian camp followers. We would be interested in sailors, redcoats of the 2nd Guards and 33rd Foot, cavalry troopers for the 15th Hussars, Riflemen of the 60th or 95th or more camp followers. We would recommend that you do not make a soldier in, for example, the 9th Foot, because the style of play here would limit your interactions with other players and characters on the IC boards.

We also have French characters in two different French groups: various soldiers in the 86th of the Line, and a Voltigeur officer in the 17th Régiment d'Infanterie Légére, so if you wish to make a French character, you are more than welcome to and we would invite you to make a character in one of these groups so that your character will automatically have other characters to interact with.

Q: Do they have to be characters from books and movies?
A: No. You are very welcome to invent your own character/s – at the moment, the majority of characters on StC are original to their players.

Q: Do they have to be characters we invent ourselves?
A: No. Although the majority of characters here are original to their players, we also have canon characters and historical characters. If you wish to make a character from an AoS book, movie, or TV series, so long as their canon is from the same period, and the character is not already played by someone else, you are welcome to make that character. We would not accept, for example, Sherlock Holmes as a character on this board.

Q: Do I have to know much about the army or navy?
A: No. There is a list of resources here which you may refer to, or you may ask questions about something. You must be willing to learn and do a little research of your own, which need not be a chore. Even watching AoS films and TV shows such as Master and Commander, Waterloo, Hornblower or Sharpe will give you a 'feel' for the period. We will accept minor errors – we all make mistakes. A refusal to learn from mistakes made, or consistently making the same mistake or asking the same questions, will annoy us, but we are generally very laid-back and are willing help those just starting out. After all, we were all new to the period once.

Q: Where do I post my application?
A: Your completed application should go into this board, as a new topic with your character's name as the topic title. You want the code found in the white box in this topic. Copy and paste it into a Word (or equivalent) document and fill it out, using my guidelines (the stuff in italics in the main body of that topic). Make sure your writing comes after the [/b] tags (I have done the code so that each section has a bold heading, to make it easier to fill out and to read). Accepted applications will be moved into the Accepted Characters board.

Q: Can I edit my application once it's accepted?
A: Accepted applications will be locked and moved to Accepted Characters. If you need to edit it for any reason (if you've spotted a typo, for example), PM myself, Latin or Keiju, who will unlock it for you so that you can make your corrections.

Q: What if English is not my first language?
A: Don't worry. We have members here for whom English is a second language. Your English will improve as you practise, and as you read posts and reply to them, you will find that your language skills improve almost without you noticing. One thing we would request, however, is that you use the English " " marks to indicate speech, rather than the Continental « » symbols.

Q: How do I find threads or plots where I can join in?
A: Ask in the Cbox, or post a request thread in the Despatches board to see if there are any threads you could join in – a lot of our threads are open, meaning any character in the area can join – or if anyone would be willing to RP in a thread with you. If someone else starts a thread specifically for your character, it is polite to acknowledge it and post a reply. If you start a thread and want a specific character or player, please let that person know, and don't make a thread at a point in game-time when that character is already occupied.

If your character is new to you and you want to RP in an informal setting, we have the Crown, which we visualise as an English country pub – possibly something like an old coaching inn, as it has private rooms upstairs – with modern amenities. The Crown is also a place where characters who would not normally meet (such as the Riflemen and sailors from Terpsichore) can interact.

Q: Can I make a plot myself? Should I talk about it with people involved or 'lead' the course of the storyline in my imagined direction without telling them?
A: Of course you can. I recommend you post in Despatches (linked above) to let people know about your thread or plot, and let them know in the Cbox (although please don't keep posting there or it will be treated as spam). Talk about it with people involved – that's what the Despatches board is for. If you have a particular outcome in mind for your character, say so – and bear in mind that you can only plan for your own character, or you will be god-modding. One thing that we have found over the time StC has been running is that although planned plots are fun, it is also fun to leave some things to chance. Some of the best plots and threads simply happened because we didn't force them.

Q: Can I be involved in more than one thread at the same time? How does time work on this board?
A: StC operates 'liquid time' which means that one character can be in several threads at the same time, as long as those threads don't take place at the same time. A character can move from one thread to another so that those threads run consecutively (one follows on from the other), but he or she cannot be in two threads at the same time. In other words, one character cannot be in two threads that both take place at eleven o'clock on Monday May the 22nd.

Q: What is a Mary Sue?
A: Generally speaking, in both RPG and fanfic terms, a Mary Sue is a female character who does male activities (such as riding, fencing, sailing, shooting and the like) and does better than the men. She is usually depicted as very beautiful, very accomplished. AoS Mary Sues may well wear men's clothing, despite the historical impossibility of doing such a thing. She may be depicted as madly in love with a canon character, or the writer may say she is the wife/sister/lover of a canon character. They may be invulnerable, allowing nothing to hurt them even in the direst of situations. They may be written (especially in fanfic) as coming to the rescue of a particular canon character. The male equivalent is a Gary Stu, or Marty Stu.

Q: Can I play a female character that joins the army/navy?
A: No. StC is a historical RPG, set during the early years of the nineteenth century. At this period of history, women were supposed to remain in the home and bring up the children. Working-class women did work, but usually engaged in cottage industries, working from home. They were not expected to go out and engage in what was, at the time, a man's world. Upper-class women shopped, sewed, read books, took music, French and drawing lessons, went to balls and generally were expected to marry and marry well, which did not necessarily mean for love.

However, having said all that, there were women who followed their men to war. The Regency Navy did not allow women aboard ship when the ship left port, but the Army allowed up to six women per company (6 women to every 100 men or 60 women per regiment), to accompany their husbands abroad. Such women were expected to make themselves useful in cooking, cleaning, laundering and other tasks. Married officers were allowed to take their wives with them, at their own expense.

Q: Can my original character be in love with/married to a canon character from a TV show, movie or book' or be the son/daughter/brother/lifelong sweetheart/long lost relative of such a canon character?
A: No. You may RP your character and if a relationship develops in the course of Rping with them, that is fine. You may not post an application stating that there is some prior relationship with a character, because that encroaches on them and whatever back-story their player (if the canon is a character here) may have already established in the course of their time on the board, or may choose to post if such a canon character becomes a Player Character (PC) in the future. The only exception to this is if you have discussed it with the player of that character prior to posting your application and that player has agreed it - and the staff will check.

Q: What is modding / god-modding?
A: At its simplest, god-modding (also known as 'power-playing') is dictating another character's reactions to something your character does, for example saying that your character hits someone else. You are allowed to say that your character swung at the other one, but it is the other character's player who determines whether the hit connected.

God-modding also includes assuming other characters' inaction. You can't post a novel-length post in which your character takes all the action because that will leave other characters with nothing much to do apart from stand around and look like lemons, and nobody wants that.

RPing at its best is collaborative writing: we write something that other people can respond to, and they write stuff in reply that we can respond to, and together we build a story.

Q: What is meta-gaming?
A: Basically, meta-gaming is using OOC knowledge for in-game posts. If you know that another character, A in this example, is nervous, but they haven't specifically said so and their player has written that their character is hiding it, you cannot have your character (B) ask what A is nervous of. You might know, but your character B doesn't.
Other examples are:

• Adjusting a character's actions based on foreknowledge of the long-term intentions of the gamemaster.
  
• Using certain types of attack or defense based on the strengths and weaknesses of an opponent that the player's character is unaware of.
  
• Acting on any knowledge that the character is not aware of (such as Napoleon creating or having access to nuclear weapons, or a character wearing a wristwatch).
  
• Adjusting your character's behaviour towards other player characters based on your OOC relationships with other players.
  
• Using knowledge of the game's mechanics to gain an advantage in the game by having the character do something incompatible with that character's personality.
  
• Assuming that something that appears to be wrong or unlikely in the game world is a mistake of the gamemaster rather than something that could be investigated. (This does not apply to situations where the mistake appears in the gamemaster's depiction of the world rather than in the world itself, which can cause a player to become aware of something which their character is not aware of.)
  
• Deciding on a character's course of action based on how the game's mechanics will affect the outcome without more significant regard placed on how the character would actually behave.
  
• Any action that is based upon the knowledge that one is playing a game.

(Further information is available here on Wikipedia.)

Q: What if someone is already (or was previously) playing a canon character I want to play?
A: If a person is already playing the character you want to play, I'm sorry. They got there first and that character has been claimed. If someone used to play a character you want to play, and that player is no longer on StC, you may post an application in the same way as for any other character.

Q: Is fantasy/magic allowed?
A: No. This is a historical board. While there are fantasy stories with an AoS setting, StC is based in straight history, without dragons or magic or any other fantasy element.

Q: Can I play French, Portuguese/ characters from other nations as well?
A: Of course you can. Again, I would ask you to bear in mind how StC works, and I would recommend that your French soldier is not the only character you have in the game, as we have so few characters from nationalities other than British at this point in time.

Q: I registered an account but no longer wish to play. Can I delete my account?
A: Players can't delete their own accounts, but if you wish to leave the board and have your account deleted, please contact Sharpie who will do this for you.

Q: How do I upload a userpic/avatar?
A: At the top of the page, under the header banner, there are a bunch of different links. Click on the one that says Profile, then select the tab that says Avatar.

Then you have three options: upload from your computer, upload from a url or link to an off-site avatar. You want either of the first options.

If you choose to upload from your computer, click Choose File and then browse your folder/s in the window that opens to find where the pic you want is stored. Double-click it to open it, then click Save (if you don't click Save, it won't upload.)

Or, if you want to upload from a URL, just fill in the url - the http address in the address bar at the top of your browser window - and click Save.

Allowed images are GIFs or JPG/JPEGs.

Q: How do I upload a signature pic?
A: We cannot host pictures for signatures, so you have to link to a picture on an external image hosting site, such as Photobucket. Again, click on the Profile tab at the top of the page, below the header banner. Select the Signature tab and put in what information you want in your signature. If you want to link to a picture, you need the URL in between [ img] [/ img] tags (I've only included spaces there to get the code to show). Select Save.

Note: Our banners are limited to 500px wide by 100 px high.

To get your signature to show up, select the Preferences tab and scroll down to Always attach my signature and select Yes.

If you have any questions not answered here, please feel free to start a new topic in this board to ask them.