RolePlay and Character Questions

Why aren't humans allowed?
• This is first of all just a "thing" we have going that sets us apart from other fantasy roleplays. But it's also to encourage you to be creative when making up your character.

I want to get to RPing in the Forest and surrounding areas right away, but I have to join at the edge first! What’s the point of joining threads?
• See, this way, a character already knows forest dwellers by the time they enter the regular RP forums. It's that character's chance to flesh out their personalities and work out kinks before getting tossed into the regular rp forums. That means that the thread really belongs to the person who's joining, and it isn't fair to them to make your own character the main focus of the entire thread. We're all partners here.

How long until my character is accepted?
• The acceptance time varies from character to character, so please be patient. One of the Edge mods is called “Hawkeye” for a reason, and the other is by no means any less sharp—trust me, they haven’t forgotten that you’re there! The joining process takes a while, to give you a chance to polish and refine your char. And though you are allowed to enter other joining threads with your character prior to acceptance, focusing on your intro will allow you to join to main board faster. Have fun! Get to know the characters who were nice enough to welcome you to the forest, and maybe make some friends or enemies.

Do I have to be a member of a species living space in order to post there?
• No. Anyone may post in the species living space areas and treat it just like any other RolePlay forum. There is however a chance an inhabitant of that area decides to approach you, and whether it'll be a friendly encounter or not is anyone's guess!

Why is (insert character name) just as powerful as my character, but I have to add Disadvantages and they don't?
• Because the "disadvantages" section was added at a later stage, and as such many profiles didn't have it yet. To compensate members have not been required to add a disadvantages section to their older character profiles, though it is apreciated.

Why do I have to change my character's appearance when (insert player name) character (insert character name) looks like a human, too, and they don't?
• Because as time went by we started to enforce this rule more strictly. We however did not want to force older members to change their already accepted characters.

What is IC?
• This stands for In Character. This is everything you write down while RolePlaying your character, his speech, thoughts and actions.

What is OOC?
• This stands for Out of Character. This is everything you write outside of RolePlay, and could be a comment in your RolePlay post, or just a general conversation away from the IC forums.

What is God Modding and why is it forbidden?
• God modding means you are taking control of a character (or situation) that is not your own. You are deciding everything that is happening, not giving a chance to the other player(s) to contribute or even object to something they might not wish to happen. The most common form of god modding is a roleplayer making his or her character so ridiculously strong or smart, that he/she solves everything instantly in the roleplay, or always knows the answer to whatever is going on, or is aware of information that he/she could not possibly have ever attained. Thus the situation is "solved", and there is nothing left to roleplay about, and all the other roleplayers didn't get to do anything at all. Basically it is an immature way of spoiling everybody's fun by "playing boss". Some people however, usually people new to roleplaying, aren't aware they are spoiling everybody's fun, or even hurting people's feelings when they do this. It is wise then to calmly let them know you don't apreciate what they are doing, and to ask them to be a bit more considerate of the other people in the roleplay. After all, you can't roleplay by yourself, so you need to share the fun instead of hogging it all, or you'll run out of people willing to play with you.

What is a Game Master?
• A Game Master, or GM, is a person who has set up either a plot story, or just a situation in roleplay. This person will dictate the events happening, and the effect the characters in roleplay have. You could say that he is a storyteller who is the only one that knows how the events will unfold, but with the roleplayers playing the characters in the story. The Game Master will have the power to change certain events and affect the environment to keep the storyline going.

I want to run a scenario as an omnipotent Game Master but the timeline and character limits hinder me! What should I do?
• The character limit does not apply to a game master leading an aproved plot story at UV. He or she is allowed (after asking for permission, see the rules) to use extra characters to help the storyline along. The timeline however will not be changed for anybody in the RP forums. There is however the Hidden Visions Reflected forum where the timeline continuity can be ignored in order to make certein events happen. It would not be seen as a forum wide plot then however, as you'd only be using one thread, and not use the actual RP forums so fewer people will most likely get involved.

Can I be a Master Plotter?
• I don't know. Can you? The term "Master Plotter" is a title given to the member Barbannis to indicate the many plots he has organized in the past. If you however wish to host a plot yourself, then look at the rules and read what is needed to start such a thing.

How is chat based RP different from forum based RP?
• The main difference between chat and post rping is that more thought and detail can go into a post. In a chat, you have to type fast to keep up with the action, and generally more happens in a shorter amount of time, plot wise. Because of the fast pace, characters tend to be somewhat exaggerated, in order to make the impression you want in a limited amount of time. You also can’t count on the same people to be in the chat at any given time, thus limiting how much character interaction you regularly have with any other given character. At a place like UV, however, there is a lot more leisure to post, and people put a great deal of thought into what their character says or does, with an eye to how it might affect things later on down the line. There are many regulars to the site, people you can usually count on being here unless otherwise announced in the Deep Forest Spirit forum. Your character has the chance to interact with the same characters repeatedly and really get to know them. This makes things complicated, especially when there are people who have been rping on this board for five years straight.

How do chat replies differ from posts?
• Structure
  First of all, most chat based RP requires you to bracket your non-verbal action in symbols, most commonly an asterisk (*), colons/semicolons (: ;). In forum RP, nonverbal description isn’t bracketed, and speech can denoted with quotation marks, bold-type face, and colored text. Italics and bracketing of speech commonly indicate mindspeech.
• Posting Order
  To minimize confusion and respect the other rp-er's own complex plots, we wait for each other to post, and then respond to everything there, including more detail. There is no rule strictly stating who is allowed to post when, but courtesy dictates that you allow the people RPing with you to be as much a part of the thread as you are. Forum RP isn’t much fun if it’s just one character stealing the show!
• Depth
  Forum RP is paced slowly enough that the action can be drawn out as long as the players want to. A tapestry of interwoven plots is the result. Whether your character is good, wicked, or somewhere in between, there are countless opportunities to get involved in a long standing plot with the current players’ permission. Such complexity requires more depth in a single reply. Here’s a quick example…

  Example of chat reply: *Jah-Lila looked from one elf to another, wondering what they were thinking.*

  Example of same reply, forum style: Jah-Lila looked from one elf to another with evident confusion. What could be going on in their heads to make them behave in such a fashion? The mare snorted and tilted her head to the side, wordlessly asking for clarification as her tail swatted an irritating horsefly from her flank.

  The same information is communicated, but with slightly more elaboration on thought process and environmental factors. More depth gives your fellow rpers more to respond to, or just makes it more interesting. Maybe an interesting scent drifts in on the wind, or the other character might remind yours of a former teacher or a sibling. Is you character's fur clean or dirty from long travel? What are the first impressions? Does your character pick up on latent romantic tension between other characters? Does (s)he note the peculiar markings on another character? It's necessary to read a thread before you join it, just so you know what's going on, and checking the other chars' own bios will help you for the same reason. It’s also important to remember which season it is, as stated in the announcements on the main Forum page. If it says Summer on that sign, your character would not realistically be wandering through a blizzard.

Forum Questions

What is a board?
• A board is the whole, that which houses all of the forums, all of the threads, everything. It is most commonly referred as "the forum" however. The "UV Forums" link on this site leads to the UV board.

What is a forum?
• A forum is a section of a board that houses a group of threads. An example at UV is "Away from the Woods".

What is a thread?
• A thread is a new topic created in a forum. That first post and all to replies to it are together called a thread.

Help! I can't find my character's joining thread, where can I find it?
• If your character was accepted, then it most likely has been moved to the Deep Forest Inhabitants forum, where we keep all accepted character profiles. If you have been absent for a long time however, there's a good chance we moved your joining thread to the Old Joining Threads forum, where all profiles can be found that are no longer in use.

Help! I can't find one of my old RolePlays, where can I find it?

You can find those in the archives. The old RolePlay threads can be found in the Plays of Old forum.

Where can I find information about the past plots and history of the Deep Forest?
• You can find most of the threads written during plot stories in the Plots of Old forum. More information about the storylines during these plots will eventually be put up as well.

Can I be a Moderator?
• If a new moderator is needed, and you appear to have the right qualities to become one, you'll be asked by Gaeva to join the staff. Asking for it however is a pretty sure way to make sure you'll never become a moderator. We need people interested in helping, not in a fancy title.

Can I be an Administrator?
• Maybe, but not at Unicorn's Visions. There only is one administrator, Gaeva, and that will most likely remain as such. Moderators however are given different amounts of responsibility and power on the site and board.

How do I put up pictures?
• You must first of all host the image somewhere on the internet yourself. An example where you can do this is Photobucket.com.

How do I link to another thread or image?
• You do this by copying the url of either the thread, or of the image (right click on it, then select properties to see the url of the image) you wish to link to, and then paste it in the following manner: [url=http://www.theaddresyoucopied.com]write a nifty description[/url]. That is the best way to do it, though you can also use html if you wish.

How do I change my profile?
• You go to the link "profile" at the top of the board. It will take you to your profile where you can change anything you want.

How do I change my avatar?
• You can change this in your profile. See the question above.

How do I change my signature?
• You can change this in your profile as well.

How do I center text?
• You can do this by using html: < center >The text you wish to center goes here.< /center > (just remove the spaces around the word "center").

Site Questions

Gallery Questions

Why can other people get comments on their pictures and I can't?
• Because you need to change the permissions on your Gallery album to allow people to make comments. You do this by selecting "edit permissions" from the dropdown menu below your album thumbnail. This will take you to the permission page for your album only. Once there you go to the box called "New Group Permission", where you can add permissions for different user groups. If you want registered people to be able to view and add comments to your images, then fill in "authenticated user" in the textbox, and give them permission to "[comment] Add comments" and "[comment] View comments". Now people can comment on your work!

This will be added on to as we get more questions about this webiste.

Miscellaneous Questions

Gaeva is supposed to be purple, so why does everyone call her pink?
• Don't listen to the people who call her pink, they are jealous and delusional liars! (...when I first made pics of Gaeva the resolution of my computer screen was a bit off, so even though she appeared to be purple to me, I had actually made her pink. Five years later they still won't let me live it down -.-)

If you still have any more questions after reading this, don't hesitate to ask.