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A Cheyenne storyteller once said, "Stories are gifts. It us up to us to GIVE and receive them.

Guide to playing by E Mail, Spikey style


OK, my number one rule. Giving a character her 15 minutes. If a Character has a high score in a skill, or comes across as an archetype. Please pander to it. If the Character is Charismatic and attractive, and especially if it is hinted at well in their posts, please be impressed by them. You should get a feel for what Characters are good at in the eyes of their players, always take this into consideration. I warn you now, nothing pisses me off more than someone whose character has been designed to be large and intimidating, with all their points spent to accentuate this and all the posts written to illuminate this, only for people to talk to them like a piece of shit. You wouldn't like it if the Brujah ignored your enchanting voice and 5 dots in performance when you sing, so don't ignore her 5 dots in intimidation and 27 facial piercing. As a rule of thumb, if a Character is damn good at something, I expect reactions that match. If a character has an intimidation of 4, I expect everyone to be bloody intimidated. If a singer has 4 or 5 in performance, you WILL stop talking and be impressed by her singing. If a character has high scores in melee, he will make you look like a fool in a sword fight. Thats stat!

Ok the rest is standard PbEM stuff, cribbed directly from the wonderful Eugene [storyteller of London by Night] and the Godlike Alex [storyteller of Minneapolis by Night]. why change perfection I say!! Check the Links page for the URL to both these games.

1)No meta-gaming:
which is to say, no using information that you have but which your character doesn't. This also means no posting: "I shoot Dave in the head five times and kill him." What should be posted is, "I draw my gun and aim at Dave's head," which gives Dave's player a chance to respond in his post. Sodium Noir trusts you all to be able to read cut scenes and other peoples stories and keep that separate from what your Characters know. I treat Sodium Noir like a film so very little is kept secret from the players, even the plans of the bad guys are out in the open. Nobody likes to have thier Characters thwarted by a nemesis they had never even heard of before it eats thier face, thats just unfair in this medium. This is to make the game interesting to read and to play, but trusts you all not to twink out. Just because you know there is a man with a gun beyond the door doesn't automatically follow that your poor dumb Character does.

2) Dice rolling:
This is an online game so there's gonna` be no dice rolling, we're going to do this purely off abilities, so if you have brawl 4 you'd probably be able to beat some guy with brawl 1. Probably. Anyway, whenever you would have rolled, just write the two traits used: (OOC: Dexterity 3 + brawl 4). Also do the same for any Powers (Disciplines, Gifts, Spheres, Arcanoi, Arts & Hekau). The mood and theme of an action is more important than the cold hard dots however. If you have a high score in something, be good at it. If you have no dots in the skill, be crap at it.

3)Willpower:
you can spend a point of Willpower when you really want something to succeed. A real automatic success if you like. If you have no idea of the difficulty level or opponents skills but you character makes a supreme effort to succeed you can spend a willpower point and 99% of the time, I will let you win the conflict or test. I suggest you inform me of this in a private communication so as you don't warn the other players of this effect.

Addendum: Dice pools can be raised by a single point with the expenditure of Chi (Blood, Rage, Quintessence, Pathos, Glamour or Sekhem). No Dice Pool can ever be raised or lower by more than one from its unmodified total.

4) Powers and Disciplines:
Most Gifts, Rotes, Cantrips and Disciplines such as Dominate, Dementation and Presence and any other similar powers can work automatically on mortals, unless they have True Faith (see my house rules on Faith later on) against other players (which, hopefully, will happen only rarely), just say what you intend to do and write your stats (say, Dominate 1, Command: Manipulation 3 + Intimidation 4). And the victim can post their stats in response. If their resistance trait/s (in this case willpower) exceeds your stats, then the power doesn't work; so, if the victim had willpower 8, he could walk away unaffected. If your stats are higher than his resistance traits, then the power works. If the effect can be countered or resisted, post the required stats in case your oponant does not have the relevant books. The use of any trait is your responsibility!

5)Experience Points.
Stolen directly from Eugene, but I like it, so I hope he takes it as a complement. Experience: for each week's worth of play, you get one experience point, so at the end of every month, everyone gets four experience points. Which makes for some pretty slow maturation, I know, but it is better than too fast maturation. If you consider that that the average Night in Sodium Noir takes between six and eight weeks real time to play for this is a guaranteed 6-8 XP each Night of your Characters lives. My TT players will tell you this is like Christmas and Birthdays in a Spikeyverse game as the most they would usually get is 2 or 3 for a session/night. However, if you write really good posts, advance the storyline or pick up on the little clues I leave lying around, more Experience points are handed out at the end of each night. on the other hand, if your Posts start drying up or you hold up the game by being out of the loop, you might get penalised.

I can be a bit slap dash with XP, so feel free to ask for them. IE: if you really played in character along with your nature or demeanour etc, give me a nudge at the end of the night or in a private mail. I am always willing to discuss my decisions. I have been convinced in the past by good arguments to allow all sorts of outrageous things. To me story and continuity take precedent over Rules and system.

6) regaining Willpower
ASK ME! tell me, "oi spike, I get Willpower back for painting cats orange and I did that last night, can i have the point of Willpower back i blew on resisting the grand high pubah of whatsit last night?" I can't keep track, so this is your job. Nobody said this was a democracy =;)
Phwoar!
6) Humanity and Virtues.
I want EVERYONE to have these traits. not just vampires. For this project to work, we need a little common ground between systems. Path's, which in my opinion should be considered as a guide to a characters Philosophical outlook, are ideal way to do this. Games such as Call of Cthulhu worked to revolutionise Roll Playing into Role playing because of Ideas such as Sanity. Paths and Virtues are our basic system wide version of this. You all have Courage, and thus I can tell how much viscera wrenching bowel loosening terror your Character can stand up to. If you have Conviction rather than Conscience, I know you're a bit of a cold bastard who has the ability to do what needs to be done. You're a Shadow Lord or a Lasombra more than a Child of Gaia or a Ventrue if you like. You get 3 virtues, Conscience/Conviction, Self-Control/Instinct, and Courage. each has one dot in it, and is measured on a one to five rating. and now back to Eugene's words.

Right, there's going to be no dice rolling, so how are we gonna` handle Humanity loss? Well, basically, Humanity in this game is going to serve as a guideline as to a character's behaviour. So, you have a character with Humanity 10, I don't want to see him blowing away civilians without even a twinge of conscience. Well, he can blow away civilians, but expect me to point out an impending Humanity drop.

Humanity and non Human/Vampires. Well you might be asking, 'what does a Garou need with Human morality?' the short answer is bugger all squared and half a mars bar. But Garou, or Changelings have their own code of conduct. Their own yard stick of what is and what isn't the right way to act. Consider Humanity or Path as the basic guidelines for this. Maybe Garou should act as if on one of the other Paths. I will work on this at a (much) later date. It's not my intention to write a cross over rules system just because the currant WW staff are a bit lax.

POSTING

7) Threads
OK the first rule of posting is to not change the Subject/thread name. This is to make it easier to follow the Story. We have players who only read the digests or follow the games on the message boards. Others do not have time to read plots that are not part of their game. If we all follow this rule, their lives are made easier. (Although I must advise you that I spread the clues and the Plot liberally around the game and if you only read your own Threads you may well miss out on much of the Story.)

8) Format
second rule is the setting out of your post. The heading being most important (lines 1, 2 & 4 are manditory). Your headings should always be there, be in Bold Typeface and look something like this;

Line 1 = Name: Always identify who you are. If you are playing sneaky just a quick identifying description will do. Names of others in post.
Line 2 = Splat: Not mandatory for those playing Enigmas, but preferable.
Line 3 = Title: If you're the Sheriff, feel free to remind others at every opportunity
Line 4 = Location: Usually made obvious by the Thread subject. However you might indicate being in a certain area or room.
Line 5 = Time: that slippery lil temporal bugger might need defining.

After this, it is always useful to include a little part of the previous post (assuming there is one) so people can get a jump start clue as to what you are responding to. Try to keep this to a minimum as you don't need to Copy and paste the entire previous post into your own reply. That only irks people when they have to read it all again. I suggest you differentiate between your responses and previous posts by the use of Italics.

9) MSN Message Boards
How to post to the list. MSN being the piece of cock sucking shit that it is, Posts can get lost or mislaid quite often if sent from your E Mail Client rather than the MSN Message boards. For an explanation of why by Davros our friendly neighbourhood Web master check out the MSN Help page on this site. As he says, we suggest that you post messages from the MSN message board.

10) Perspective and style.
Posts should be from a third person perspective as this is not only the PbEM norm, but it is far less limiting than first person perspective.

'Severin/he/the man/our hero takes the card from the deck and stares at it with concern.' is good.

'I take/took the card from my deck and stare at it, concern on my face.' Is Bad.

11)Using NPC's and other Player Characters.
With the detailed use of Bios on the Sodium Noir site we have the tools to keep to NPC personalities. I have no problem with you all writing with and for NPC's so long as you keep to their Stereotypes and don't run off at the wrist. The same is true of Player Characters. Its not a Crime to describe movements and actions of each others Characters, or the well defioned NPC's, in response to your actions. A nod here or a sip of a drink there keeps the game moving. Remember not to take control of the character and to remain true to their ethos within their own guidelines under their respective Bios page. It is bad form however to make major choices for them, NPC or Player.

As for creating NPC mortals to fill your story? Go for it. Victims, house mates, the paper boy, you can create these walk on parts as necessary for your story. Vampires, for example, are encouraged to create and then extinguish extras for feeding etc without waiting for me to give permission or reaction. But remember that if you leave an exsanguinated corpse in the public toilets, you'll have to face the Sheriff in a future post. As a rule of thumb, if the NPC is not going to effect the game beyond a single scene, he or she is yours to do with as you will. However if they are planned to be recurring Characters or to impart information, best check with me first.

The same thing goes for Location

In many ways Gotham is designed to be a generic city, and a large one at that. This allows players to assume that any typical location will be in existence even if it has never been mentioned. Should you require a launderette, a hotel, a sauna or Tattoo parlour, just invent one. All cities have train stations, Airports, Gun shop's, bar's, coffee shop and anything else you see on TV or on your way to work. Sodium Noir is intended to be a collection of stories in a defined environment. Player's stories will go on to shape the city and become part of the whole. For this reason we actively encourage the creation of vinaigrettes and descriptive diorama for the players to visit.

As with all things, use your common sense, unique buildings like the zoo or the football ground need to have a degree of storyteller control and you should check before making any major events transpire at such places, but that doesn't prevent your characters from visiting these listed places. Having the museum flood or the police station blow up is a definite no no. Such events have a city wide effect and need to get Storyteller approval before they occur.

12) Post length and regularity.
First and foremost this is a game to be enjoyed. I have no problem with post lengths. If you get it in you to write pages and pages of introspective self analysis, go for it, I'd love to read it. If you can only jot down a sentence or two as you nip in from work, that's fine too. I would like to say a minimum of two posts a week would be nice, but no way am I going to exclude people whose real life situation can't support that. All I ask is that if you have trouble with regular posts that you refrain from inserting your Character into busy threads if possible. If the unexpected happens, I reserve the right to jump in to your character and make minimalist posts to keep things moving.

12) Turns & Combat Turns
Actions often have to be split into turns, and this can bog the game down if we're not careful. So in Sodium we're going to be arbitrary. A turn is elastic, a combat Turn is NOT. First the basic Turn.

MOVEMENT: your character can walk seven yards (21 feet) a turn, jog 12 + dex yards a turn and run 20 + (3 x dex) yards a turn. So, someone like me who is really unfit and could be considered to have a single point of Dex can effectively run 23 yards (that's 69 feet, 21 metres) in a basic Turn. your average person (Dexterity 3) could cover 29 yards (87 feet).

Now, a Combat turn is the time it takes to take a short action, a maximum of three seconds perhaps. For ease, here is a list of things that can be done during a combat turn.

* fire a Crossbow, rifle or a shotgun once
* fire a Hvy. Revolver (44 Magnum) twice
* fire a Lt. Revolver (.38 special) three times
* fire a Glock 17 four times
* Close from melee distance to Brawl range
* Make a Brawl attack (or block one) and recover from the blow in readiness for the next round
* Make a Melee attack or parry a melee blow and recover from the blow in readiness for the next round
* Speak a short sentence (give a warning, a command with Dominate)
* Conduct a simple Bunk or Foci requirement
* Spend a point of Chi (Blood/Rage/Gnosis/Quintessence/Glamour/Sekhem/Willpower) to activate a power such as Feral Claws, Celerity, a Rote, Cantrip or a Gift for the following round.


MOVEMENT: During a combat Turn your character can walk [5 + dex] feet. Double it for jogging and treble it for running. Athletics traits where the speciality is running or Track can add an extra dice to the pool. Then obviously supernatural abilities (like Celerity, Rage Time Magic and the Wayfare Art) allow you to do all this more than once each turn. From a standing start your character must accelerate and thus go from jogging to running over two combat turns. Clunky, yup, but also balanced and fair.

EG: a Character with Dexterity of 3 can run [15 + 9 =] 24 feet in a turn. If the Character had activated Celerity 2 in the previous round, they can manage an amazing 72 feet in a single round. Even from a standing position she could cover [10 + 6 x 3=] 48 feet in a single turn.

13)COMBAT
Now we come to the way a Combat is handled. The moment any character, player or NPC, takes an action that can be considered a combat action we enter a 'combat round'. Time slows and every action in that scene is considered to be in Combat Turns as explained above. Even if your elsewhere in the scene and only talking, you have to follow the flow of time. Your average punch up will take less time than a single post of medium size.

The first order of business in a Combat turn is your Initiative. Initiative is figured by adding Wits and Alertness and should be included with every post you make in a Combat Turn. Its not my job to keep track of your health track and how many dice you are down. Any action you take requires you to post the relevant traits also. Dexterity and Brawl for hand to hand attacks or defences, Dexterity and Dodge for evasion etc.

The usual way combat Turns are handled are thus; I will begin by declaring the start of the round, will give the general intensions of the NPC's and their Initiatives. All player Characters involved can then post their intended actions, being aware OOC that there action will happen in the Initiative order (highest first). At the end, after everyone has had the opportunity to act, I will post the conclusion to the Turn which will describe how the round worked out. This might be slightly different to the original post because just like player Characters, NPC's get the chance to react too.

14) Complaints procedure. If you feel someone has over stepped the mark or that you have not been given a fair crack of the Whip, please Contact me Off list. Or better still, talk to each other Off list. I think that we are all grown up enough to deal with each others faux pah's without it creating bad feeling. Sometimes our gaming styles are different and there is friction. Remember the only important fact is 'Spike is GOD! Spike is always right! Only Spikey's views are important!'. In other words, I'll follow your style in your games, you follow me in mine.

15) LOA and Drop outs.
Real life, like shit, happens. We understand that. But we appreciate some warning if you have to take a break from playing. In the face of Exam's, holidays (Vacations to you Colonials), unforeseen events, we will bend over backwards to help you if you can give everyone a heads up on the OOC threads and perhaps give me a clue about what your Character planned next just in case. If you don't tell us your going to be on Leave of Abscence (LOA) then you will be listed as a Drop out or MIA

Now for Drop outs and the MIA, those people who just quit posting and leave the game without the decency to inform me that Sodium doesn't fit their style. This is guaranteed to hurt my poor widdle feelings. I put a lot into this and while I don't expect everyone to enjoy it, I do expect the minimum of common courtesy. There is a set way in which we handle Drop outs. When a Character hasn't posed in a while he is listed as MIA, I will send them a mail asking if there is anything they need. If I get no reply to this within a week, I'll try again and warn them that they are approaching the point of no return for their characters. If again I get no reply within a week, the Character becomes an NPC and is highly likely to be killed by the current Bad guy de juer to keep the balance of the game. I have all the NPC's I really need and don't particularly want to be swamped carrying ex player Characters.

Storytellers Rant

Things that piss me off
 1) Having to play the role of strict storyteller. I really hate having to tell players off, its requires a complete reversal of my nature. Because of that players get away with quite a lot in Sodium Noir. If You behaviour is so bad I have to pull you up on it, you have already pissed me off in a major way and should be wary. I suggest you not argue with me to much, that will only mean I have do the thing I hate for longer. Be considerate of others, listen to what I say when I make light hearted comments and don't fucking power game!

2) Whining about how other Games or other Storytellers did things. I don't care how you did it in a different setting, I don't care that your Storyteller allowed you to do such and such. I don't even care about a great many of the things printed in the actual Rule books. This isn't the World of Darkness, this isn't your poxy little table top game of werewolf, this is Sodium Noir and I am God!! Sodium Noir works MY way, end of story. If you don't like how things are interpreted in the Spikeyverse, check out PbEM.com and find another game.

3) Power gaming, mutual masturbation, Twinkyness and downright Cheating. If you have some kewl powers or some non canon abilities because of my generosity, Don't fucking flaunt them. If you wave your over balanced super kewl powers in the faces of the other Characters you make me look weak and stupid for allowing them and thus invoke No 1 of this list.

4) Bad fucking manners. Posting etiquette is not optional! One of the worst crimes of eager and frequent posters is to steamroll over less frequent and less confident posters. Don't do it! Be polite, allow your time, experience or confidence to nurture and aid other players. Be patient and if you speak to a Character, damn well wait for a response until I say otherwise. Trust me, I have Characters who can and will kill you without the chance of defence or reprieve if you spoil the game for my other players. Just think about Angry Garou, over protective Mages and spiteful Ravnos if you don't believe me.