So you’ve created a game or been given co-hosting rights and now you’re looking at the Manage Roleplays screen wondering just what it is you’re looking at. It’s true that hovering your mouse over each icon gives you a some idea of what the buttons are for, but in case you’re not sure what does what, this guide should help you out!
Co-Hosts will find that very little of this applies to them, but it doesn't hurt to read up on all of this regardless!
How to find “Manage Roleplays”
Clicking on most tabs (Roleplays, Character Pool, My Roleplays, and My Characters) will open a list of links under the tabs and above Featured Roleplays where you can find “Manage Roleplays”.
The “Manage Roleplays” Screen
Before we get to the fun buttons you can play with, let’s examine the screen in general. (Screenshot.)
By default, it will list only the roleplaying games you are a host of. If you are a co-host only, it will be blank. To view the games you are a co-host of, next to the “New Roleplay” button is a drop-down menu titled “show”. The choices are “Yours” and “Co-Hosted”. (Screenshot.)
If you are the creator or co-host for a lot of games, the Search bar may come in handy.
The games listing is laid out in the following order, left-to-right:- A check-box for use along with the drop-down menu.The checkbox is there in case you wish to use the drop-down menu to “Open”, “Close”, “Set as Adult-Oriented”, “Unset as Adult-Oriented”, or “Delete” multiple games at the same time. You may, of course, use the checkbox for a single game, or use one of the shiny buttons instead.
- The title of the game.
- The creator of the game (that is to say, the game host).
- How many characters with bios are in the game.
- How many places are in the game’s Game World.
- How many posts have been made to the Game World.
- Shiny buttons.
Clicking on the title will take you to the game’s Overview section.
Clicking on the creator’s name will take you to the member profile for the game’s host. This is more useful for co-hosts than hosts since it allows you to more quickly contact the game host.
Clicking on the number of characters will take you to the list of character profiles for the game.
Clicking on the number of places will take you to the Game World for the game.
Clicking on the number of posts will take you to the game’s Game Log (which displays all the posts made to the Game World, regardless of character, player, or location, from oldest to newest post).
The next section will cover the shiny buttons.
The Shiny Buttons (Part One)
If you show me a person who doesn’t like shiny buttons, I’ll show you a person who... just... doesn’t like shiny buttons. ...Yeah.
Joking aside, the list of buttons can be a little intimidating looking at first. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to be a bit concerned that if you clicked the wrong thing, you’d ‘break something’ with your game. This section will show you the button and tell you just what it does. Thankfully, there is a confirmation screen for every button, so if you accidentally clicked on the wrong one, you could cancel it.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/open1.png / http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/open0.png Open/Close Roleplay
This is the button you click if you want to “Open” or “Close” your game, respectively. That is to say, if you are or are not accepting new players. You can “Close” your game and continue gaming with your group as long as you like. It will not restrict whether new characters can be made by existing players.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/age1.png / http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/age0.png Change Age Restriction
A red icon indicates that your game is for Adult access users. A grey icon indicates that your game is for general audiences. Clicking will change it from one to the other. If you are not an Adult access user, but set it for Adult access users only, you will not be able to view your own game. Thankfully, you can change it back (or join the Adult access permissions group, if you’re old enough).
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/a.../transfer1.png Transfer Game
This button allows you to choose which of the members of your game to transfer the game to. To rephrase: this eliminates you as “game host” and makes the person you choose the new “game host”. That means they have full control of the game once you have selected the user. They could decide to transfer it to someone else in the game, or delete the game. Think very seriously about using this feature. There is no “un-delete” feature to fall back on if the new host decides to just dump it. If you can’t take care of the game properly, consider whether choosing a co-host or multiple co-hosts may be a better option for you and your gaming group.
There is no confirmation button other than the “Select” button.
PS: If a member of your game is staff, nothing will happen if you try to transfer the game to them.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/pm1.png Send Mass PM
This will send the same PM to every member in your game. This is useful for things such as important announcements. You will probably wish to use this sparingly. PM inboxes aren’t very large and if someone is a member of several games, their inbox can be filled quickly. Your OOC thread may be a better place to announce things. Since you’re allowed more than one OOC thread, you may consider an Announcements thread instead of mass PMs.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/delete1.png Delete Game
If you click this, the game is gone. No take-backs. The staff cannot recover your game if you’re upset and delete the game in a fit of madness, only to regret it later. The only things that will stay after you click Delete are any OOC or Journal threads that had multiple posts in them.
Continued in next post...
The Shiny Buttons (Part Two)
Continued from above...
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/char1.png Manage Characters
Clicking on this button will take you to a “Manage Characters” screen. This screen allows you to Enable, Approve, Orphan, Transfer, or Delete a character either by clicking the shiny buttons, or by selecting the characters from the checkbox and using the drop-down menu.http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/key1.png - Manage Keyshttp://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/active1.png / http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/active0.png - Enabling a character allows it to show on the Characters list. Disabling a character is useful if you want to unclutter your character page, but don’t want to delete the bio in case you need it. However, Disabling a character will remove the player as the “owner”, so it’s probably not what you’d like to use often.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/approve1.png / http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/approve0.png - Clicking on the Approve button will allow that character to be used in games. The grey icon means the bio is Pending. If you do not require approval for bios for your game, you will not see these options as every bio is automatically “approved”.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/a...hardisown0.png / http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/a...hardisown1.png - An Orphaned character is a character that has no player. This happens automatically if a player leaves a game (all of their characters become Orphans and remain within the game), but you can also do this manually if you need to (for instance, if you create bios for the game, but want other players to play them, you can orphan all of those characters). An orphaned character can be Adopted by any player in the game. If there is no approval for bios, the character will be automatically given to the player who adopts them, otherwise, the host or co-host must manually accept the player as the new owner. You cannot “un-Orphan” a character using this button.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/a...chartrans1.png - Transfer Character allows you to transfer anyone’s character to any player in your game (except WTF RPG staff). This allows you to assign unplayed Orphans to players. We recommend using this power wisely. A sure way to cause drama in the game is to take someone’s character away from them.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/delete1.png - Delete does exactly as the button implies. We recommend you use this only at last resort, such as if a troll gets into your game and makes trouble. If someone has left the game, you may choose to Disable the character instead.
In your Game World, you can lock the different locations individually, in two different ways. This is where you go to manage who has keys to which location. Each key is set individually by both location and player.
The screen is laid out like this:
[Checkbox] - LOCATION NAME (Room Visibility) - Player Name - [Delete]
The [Checkbox] lets you select multiple keys and delete them all at the same time.
The location name is the name of the location within the Game World that the key belongs to.
The (Room Visibility) is whether the room is “Visible” (the fact that it exists is visible to everyone, even if players who do not have the key cannot see any posts made there) or “Invisible” (visible only to those who have the key to that location).
The Player Name refers to which player the key was issued to.
The [Delete] button allows you to revoke access to that room to that player.
To let a player view and post within a locked room, click the “New Key” button and type in the player's name (not the name of their character(s) you're giving the key to). You will not be able to give a key to a member of the site staff (they can see inside locked rooms automatically - which will seriously ruin surprises if you’re waiting for your players to figure out that there’s a secret room if they search properly, so plan and discuss accordingly if you have a site staff member in your game).NOTICE: Co-hosts, unlike site staff, will not be able to see invisible locked rooms that they don't have a key to. This holds true even if they are granted the permissions to manage keys! If you give a co-host permissions to control keys, you will want to give them a key to all invisible rooms you wish to have them be able to control. If you choose not to give them access to the invisible rooms, they can still give themselves access to a room if they know or guess what it's called.http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/ban1.png - Manage Bans
This is most useful if you have a game that has no character approval process, but want to make certain that users you’ve had problems with don’t create a character in your game to troll it. Click on this button and it will take you to a screen where you can type in the username of the person you wish to ban from your game. If you change your mind, you can always return to this screen and click the red Delete button to delete the ban. You cannot ban site staff from your game.
http://www.wtfrpg.com/roleplay/img/actions/cohost.png - Manage Co-Hosts
You may make up to five players in your game co-hosts to the game. Click “New Co-Host” to bring up a screen to allow you to type in their name and select which powers you want to give them. They will not have all of the powers you do over your game (such as edit the game information), but on the bright side, they won’t be able to delete your game either. You may give each co-host different powers, and you’ll be able to see which powers a co-host has. You cannot make a site staff member a co-host (because they already have co-host powers).