BGAs DUE TOMMORROW [THURSDAY]
Kirt Dankmyer
As a reminder, here's the site to enter them:
http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org
As I said, BGAs close on April 15, 2010 at midnight EST. That's
TOMMORROW NIGHT, kids.
BGAs are a major way that writers gauge interest in plots! Don't make
your favorite writer feel unloved.
Here's the instructions again, for reference.
REGISTERING FOR THE NEW BGA SYSTEM
Most of you should have done this by now. If you're new, this is the
first thing you need to do. If you're not new, as I said, you should
have done this already.
This may seem to take a bit, but it actually doesn't take very long at
all in practice, and you only have to do this part once. Do it now and
get it over with.
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl
(2) Click on the "Need to Create an Account?" link.
(http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/addeditplayer.pl)
(3) Fill out the form and then click "Submit". IMPORTANT NOTE: The
form is asking for your information as a PLAYER, not your character's
information. Put your real name and email address in the system. Don't
make the same mistake Eric Smith did. :)
(4) You'll then be back at the login page. Enter the username and
password you just created and click "Submit".
(5) Click on the link marked "Click here" and then fill out your
player questionaire. Again, fill this out as a PLAYER, not a
character.
(6) Click on the "Character Menu" tab.
(7) Click on "Create a Character".
(8) Fill in the information about your character. IMPORTANT: The most
vital parts are the character's name and your BGA resources. The
latter is the value of the BGA Resource RTLB ability for your
character, and does NOT include the 4 BGA actions you get for free. If
you only use the default 4 BGA actions, put 0 in that blank, as you
haven't purchased any BGA resources. When you're done filling out the
form, click "Add".
If any of your character data changes -- such as your BGA Resource
stat going up, or you being given extra BGA points for a round by a GM
-- you can always click on the "Edit Character" link. Heck, you can
even change your character's name, maybe she got married or something.
We trust you and this goes under the general Threads "don't be a jerk"
policy.
You're now ready to enter BGAs for that character. We'll go through
the process as if you were logged out, since in future you won't have
just finished registering. If you just went through the above and
don't want to log out and log back in again, click "Between Game
Actions" and skip to Step 3 below.
WRITING A NEW BGA
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl and login with
your username and password, hitting "Submit"
(2) You should see your characters on the right. If you don't, click
the "Character Menu" tab. In any case, once you see the character you
want to write BGAs for, click on "Between Game Actions".
(3) Click "ADD a NEW Between Game Action"
(4) Choose the type of BGA in the dropdown, and then click "Go to Step
2". IMPORTANT: If this is a group BGA, regardless of what other type
of BGA it might also be, choose "Group". The types of BGAs are
explained on the page.
(5) Fill out the form and click "Add". The most important parts are
what you're doing, the GM you believe to be primarily in charge of the
BGA, and the number of points you're spending on the BGA. IMPORTANT
NOTE: Most, but not all, of the current writers are in the system as
GMs. If the writer you need for a BGA isn't listed, use "NOT SURE" or
"Threads Staff", and put a note in the You can also use "NOTE SURE"
if you're not sure who the writer is, strangely enough. If you want
the BGA to go to all the writers of the game, choose "Threads Staff".
That's it! You can fill in more BGAs by going back to Step 3 above,
and you can delete or edit your existing BGAs by clicking on the
"Edit" or "Delete" link next to the BGA in question.
You're limited by your BGA points, it won't let you enter more than
you're supposed to; if you're out of BGA points, you can only enter
0-point BGAs. In addition, if you try to charge yourself more points
than you have, it only charges you the amount you have left. (Of
course, you could edit your amount of BGAs at any time; this is part
of the "we trust you not to be a jerk" policy. But we figured keeping
track of the points for you couldn't hurt.)
VIEWING BGA RESPONSES
If you're already logged in, skip to Step 2.
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl and login with
your username and password, hitting "Submit"
(2) You should see your characters on the right. If you don't, click
the "Character Menu" tab. In any case, once you see the character you
want to see BGAs for, click on "Between Game Actions".
(3) If a BGA has been processed, under "Action", where normally you
could edit or delete a BGA, it will say "Processed" and list the
result of the BGA.
There will be an email on Threads-Official letting you know you when
to check your BGAs for a given period for results. Feel free to check
earlier and obsessively if you want, but we make no guarantees. An
individual writer may choose to tell you she's answered a BGA, but
again, we make no guarantees.
Once a BGA has been answered, the BGA points have been used and the
BGA can no longer be edited. If the writer charged you less BGA points
than you put into the BGA, you might have some BGA points suddenly
available; if this happens before the BGA round closes, it's OK to use
those points immediately.
CANCELING ACTIONS
If you want to cancel what you're doing (such as editing a BGA or
adding a BGA), there is usually a "Return to BGAs" or "Main Menu" link
at the bottom of a given page that you can click, and it will exit you
without changing/adding anything.
If you need to delete a BGA entirely, click the "Delete" link next to
the BGA in question. Be sure you want to do this before you do it.
CHARACTER CHANGES: NEW CHARACTERS AND EXTRA BGA POINTS
If you are an existing player or GM already in the system but starting
a new character, do the following:
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl and login with
your username and password, hitting "Submit"
(2) click on the "Character Menu" tab.
(3) Click on "Create a Character".
(4) Fill in the information about your character. IMPORTANT: The most
vital parts are the character's name and your BGA resources. The
latter is the value of the BGA Resource RTLB ability for your
character, and does NOT include the 4 BGA actions you get for free. If
you only use the default 4 BGA actions, put 0 in that blank, as you
haven't purchased any BGA resources. When you're done filling out the
form, click "Add".
If you are playing the same character but any of your character data
has changed -- such as your BGA Resource stat going up, or you being
given extra BGA points for a round by a GM -- you can always click on
the "Edit Character" link and put in the new data. We trust you and
this goes under the general Threads "don't be a jerk" policy.
Heck, you can even change your character's name, maybe she got married
or something. However, if you're changing characters, DO NOT simply
change your character's name and stats to those of the new character.
This would make things complicated for the GMs. Instead, use the
procedure outlined above.
IMPORTANT: OTHER FUNCTIONS
There's a lot of links/features you might see clicking around that are
not mentioned above, like "Edit Public Info Page" or "View Timeline".
Those aren't guaranteed to work; use at your own risk. We might
implement those features more fully in the future. PLEASE NOTE that
"Manage Journal" accesses a journaling system managed by the software
and NOT your Threads Blog that you used to put BGAs on in the past. If
a function does not relate to BGAs (this includes the journal link),
do not ask us about this at the time.
NEED HELP?
If it's computer-related, like your browser has trouble rendering the
database webpages, email threads-te...@threadsofdamocles.org
first. If you don't get a response in a day or two, try
in...@threadsofdamocles.org. If you have a question about the BGA
*process* or some question about BGAs that isn't technical, email
in...@threadsofdamocles.org
--
Kirt "Loki" Dankmyer -- http://ivanhoeunbound.com -- xiomBRAG on AIM
cats * hats * RPGs * love * Eris * Agent Patriot * anime * Dada * poetry
"Only ONE MAN can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me!" -Death