Advice

How to be a Beginner

The easiest way to avoid any sort of problem roleplaying here is to make a character who is not powerful and to avoid fighting people you aren't friends with out of character (OOC). Once you have learned the ropes and gotten to know the players here you can propose changes, help develop the world, and make more powerful characters. Don't start criticizing us and arguing with decisions as soon as you join. Until you have made a contribution to our community, you are a guest. We will try to accommodate you and we are here to be your friends, but first show us that you have the same goals in mind.

We like to see that you're using your head when you make your character. Powers really don't accomplish that. If you look over the existing character profiles, you'll see how few of them are actually powerful. Bringing an 8 foot killing machine into here is usually not appropriate (though sometimes it can be fun, it should not be your first character).

All new players here are treated the same way. It doesn't matter to us how much experience you have role-playing online or writing fiction in general. Some of our best writers had no experience at all prior to joining Thar Shaddin.

Think Long Term

Please don't join unless you intend to be in this for the long haul. You can expect to be posting, on average, about once a day or once every other day with each character you have. This pace could speed up in theory if you agree on it, but in practice it tends to go no faster. It can take time for things to get off the ground, and for a plot to reach fruition.

If you have an urge to post more frequently, you can create more than one character, up to as many as you can handle, but please work within your limits. Burnout can happen if you start too quickly. Take it easy, take your time, and good things will come.

Proof Read Your Writing

This is a writing forum. Readability matters to us. One huge paragraph, devoid of punctuation and wrought with spelling errors will not go over well. Firefox has a built in spell checker, and this is recommended.

It's a good idea to know how to properly use apostrophes and commas. It only takes a few minutes to review how to use them, and if you pay attention it should soon come naturally. Know the difference between "your" and "you're" and your writing will read much better.

We like to stress that what we do is not exactly a roleplaying game, it is cooperative fiction, or interactive fiction. Be Proactive

Get out there and introduce yourself when you join. Exchange contact information with writers you like. Join us in the chat room or use the OOC forums to talk.

Take charge of your character and, if a place to join isn't immediately obvious, come up with a plot and invite others to join you. Sometimes it's a good idea to write your character's history with a plot in mind, so that when you start playing you know what you're going to do, and where you want things to go.

Don't be afraid, we won't bite. Much.

Use a Good Browser

Your web browser is the main tool you use to surf the web. Notoriously poor and outdated browsers like Internet Explorer 6 have many problems that you may not be aware of unless you've tried an alternative or tried to make a website. Why not update one of the programs you probably use most? They're free and you have nothing to lose by trying a modern one.

We highly recommend using Firefox because it has a built-in spell-checker and because if it crashes while you're writing, it will save what you had. For writing online, those two features are indispensable.

If you don't like Firefox, try Google Chrome which performs even better in some cases. There are technical reasons why we don't recommend Internet Explorer. It's just bad. That's all there is to it.