Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you never wanted to know and always wanted to ask
About RPG Dreams
No, you're right, demons don't have levels. Their abilities are innate, rather than something they have to work at improving during their lifetimes.
All Content posted to RPGDreams.com in any way, is the responsibility and property of the author. RPGDreams is committed to keeping the Service in decent standing for all audiences but is not responsible for the monitoring or filtering of any journal Content. Within the confines of international and local law, RPGDreams will not place a limit on the type, or appropriateness of user content within journals. Those users posting material not suitable for all audiences must agree that they are fully responsible for all the content they have posted anywhere on the service.
No. This is a role playing game site. Very little, if anything, you find on this site is actually real.
Many users create celebrity journals for use in role-playing games. These journals typically contain a disclaimer in their user information stating that it is part of a game, they are not the celebrity, and have no contact with the celebrity.
Character journals (journals created using the names of characters from books/television shows/films) are not sanctioned by the copyright holders.
No, not at the moment - this is something which will be considered in future though and this may change.
At the moment we are not looking for any further support volunteers – if this changes in the future, we’ll post about it.
Yes, we accept donations via pay pal. See this post here for more details.
The limitations for the icons is 100x100 pixels in size and 60k in file size, and in gif, jpg, or png format.
We do ask that your icon be non-explicit (no sexually graphic images, no icons featuring inflammatory messages).
Yes - at the moment the site is in beta-testing and as guinea pigs, you get it for free, you lucky people! Eventually it is intended to be opened up to the general public at which stage it will be funded through a mixture of advertising and optional advert-free paid accounts. The exact mix has not yet been decided yet.
By default, Drupal only allows one account per email address. We've had to get round this, however the way round it means that if you lose your password the password recovery system will only email you the password for the first account you created. Therefore we advise you that, if you are going to have multiple accounts registered to one email address, you keep the password the same for all of them.
Site Navigation Features
At the current time, the forums for this site are inactive.
Content This is the menu is where you're going to find all the scenes, journal entries and ooc posts available in the game.
Journals: This link will show you only the journal entries of those who are in the communities. This will be all of the journals, not only those on your buddy list.
Everything you need should be linked in top bar or the side bar (depending on your layout). If you spot a post that you think would be awesome to have linked there that isn't (and yes, we're only talking information posts here, not the uber-cool scene you wrote last night!) let one of the mods know so they can consider whether to add it to the side bar.
Accounts
At the moment, this is set to 50 icons per user. Each icon can be no bigger than 100 x 100 px.
You will find on your user profile page two links Add a new character image and View my character gallery. To view the icons in your gallery, click on the second link.
At the moment, you can’t – you can only view the icons in your own gallery.
Not at the current time, no. We’re working on this and if this changes in the future, we’ll let you know!
The icon that will show in your comments is the one which you upload in the ‘edit profile’ page.
By default, Drupal only allows one account per email address. We've had to get round this, however the way round it means that if you lose your password the password recovery system will only email you the password for the first account you created. Therefore we advise you that, if you are going to have multiple accounts registered to one email address, you keep the password the same for all of them.
No, not at the current time - that's something we're actively looking into!
The only way to change your username is to create a new account at this time.
Log into your account, and go to the 'my account' section. Under 'edit', right under your username, there should be two fields for your password. To change it, simply type in your new password in both fields, and hit 'save'. Your password will be changed.
Guidelines for a good password include:
1. It should be 6-10 characters,
2. contains mixed case characters such as WmPoV,
3. contains symbols such as ! @ # $,
4. is a word that does NOT appear in the dictionary, and
RPGDreams is not responsible for lost passwords. Remember your passwords, and it is likely a good idea to keep the email that is sent to you when you first create an account. That will have your username on it. If you have already changed your password from the default one assigned, then it is lost. The link in the emails really is a one time use, and cannot be used again to log into your account to change the password. Please keep your passwords somewhere you can access them should you lose them! We currently have no way to retrieve them for you!
No - if you leave the game, your account will be changed to 'view only' status - which will allow you view access (but not posting rights) to the community. The amdinistrators do, however, reserve the right to delete your account in cases of abuse.
At the moment, you cannot delete your account. This can only be done by an administrator. If you wish your account to be deleted, please talk to an administrator or moderator.
Please note that, once deleted, an account CANNOT be reinstated.
To get create an account, you first choose which game you are going to be playing in. Then, once you go into that game's system, you go to 'create an account'. You enter in whatever you want for your character's journal, and your email address, and there you go. You will get an email shortly after with your temporary password, and a link you can click that will bring you into the system for a one time use log in where you can change all of your information, put in the password you want, change your layout theme, upload an icon, and enter in your character information.
Messaging
Check your PM settings . Go to your account page and press edit, then scroll down to 'Private Message Settings' - make sure 'allow Private Messages' is ticked.
PM notifications should be sent to the email address you signed up with. At the present time, this cannot be changed.
As you cannot receive PMs from anyone other than players in the game this should not happen - if this does happen, please report it to a moderator or administrator immediately.
To send a PM to a player in the game, go to their user info page. There is a tag which reads 'send private message to [username]' - click on that link and it will take you to the PM page. Enter in a subject and message and simply press 'send'
PMs allow you to send messages to other players within your game without using email or having any other information about them save for their username. Please note that this only applies to players in your game and cannot be used for inter-game contact.
There are various ways to tell if you have a private message.
1. You can switch on email notifications for private messages in your user info
2. You will be notified of a new private message when you log into your account
3. If you have aggressive notifications of PMs set up, you will get an alter on every page of the site you view in that game until you read the message
Private message settings:
You will want to check the top two boxes, as well as 'every message' under 'Receive e-mail for unread messages'.
Tags
To add a tag (or tags) to a journal entry, enter keywords in the field marked "Tags:". Separate keywords with a comma. You may not use HTML in this field.
HTML and special/fancy characters are not allowed in the tag field. If you are seeing this message please check and remove all formatting codes, then post your entry again.
To add a tag (or tags) to a journal entry, enter keywords in the field marked "Tags:". Separate keywords with a comma. You may not use HTML in this field.
Customisation
There is a default community moodtheme, but at the present time, you cannot have your own.
Yes, yes you can - the profile page supports the same html as any other page type.
RPGDreams cannot make a theme for you, nor can we redo a style you already have. Also RPGDreams support volunteers will not help you with your layouts or customization questions.
RPGDreams also will not assist in customizing your userinfo, other than what is contained within these FAQs.
At the present time you cannot do this.
Yes, there are two themes available which can be customised by users - MyTheme1 and MyTheme 2
Here's how to use them:
-
Firstly there are two new themes that appear on your profile page. They are called "MyTheme 1"(which is based on "Lake") and "MyTheme 2"(which is based on "Sidebar"). They are activated in the usual way, by going "My Account -> Edit".
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Now if you go to the "My Account" page, you will see a new tab has appeared called "Theme Customisation". Click on this tab
To change the look of your account, you need to hit the link for 'my account'. From there, you hit the 'edit' tab, and it will bring you to a the page where you can edit your settings. If you scroll down, there will be a list and preview of all the themes available for you. Simply tick one of them, and then save, and your account will load that theme whenever you're logged in.
Sure - just don't ask us how to do it, because we haven't had a chance to sit down and look at it. Eventually, custom profiles will be enabled. So far, there's just the 15 or so to choose from.
Go to the link 'My account' and click on the 'edit' tab. Then click on the 'Profile' tab. The rest we trust you can work out yourself!
Entries
Ω Don't hijack scenes. If there are more than two people on a scene and you join it, don't steal it and leave one of the players out.
Yes you can! But the one thing we'd ask for this is that you're careful doing it. If special fonts are used, they have to be ended specifically or they'll just carry right on down the page! Finish your posts with </font>.
Also, could you remember to use a specific <!--break--> tag within the post - either at the start of the post or after a paragraph so that the post does not 'cut' automatically (which also screws up the formatting for the entire page).
FOR EXAMPLE (your post should look something like this:-
Posts automatically break (ie the whole post will not appear in the main comm, but be hidden with a 'read more' tag), so if you don't want to be fussed to break it yourself, you don't have to.
You can override the automatic break by using a <!--break--> tag. If you place a <!--break--> tag anywhere in the scene, the scene will show up down to that point, rather than automatically cutting off - this is useful if you wish to put a short 'teaser' on your scene of a couple of paragraphs.
Currently all OOC posts are community locked and some of the pages of information are community locked.
At current you cannot set any other entries to be community locked - if you have something you wish to be community locked, please contact a moderator. This situation will be reviewed in the future, so if you have any problems, let us know!
You can set your options to notify you of comments. To do this, go to 'edit' on 'my account' and scroll down. Under 'subscriptions' tick the box 'autosubscribe'.
Comments are automatically enabled and you cannot change this. Sorry.
At the present time, only administrators can delete comments. We hope to change this in the future, but currently, if you want a comment deleted, please PM the mod account (praelitismods)
Each user's icon can be viewed on his or her user info/ account info page.
Acceptable HTML are the following:
<a> <b> <big> <br> <center> <cite> <code> <dd> <div> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <form> <h1> <h2> <h3> <hr> <i> <img> <input> <li> <nobr> <ol> <option> <p> <pre> <s> <select> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul> <xmp>
At this time, the only way to save your entries is to save them manually - either by copy and pasting them into a text or word file, or by saving the entry on your browser. On most browsers, this is as easy as locating File, and then an option such as Save As, Save Page As, or Make Viewable Offline.
You can choose a mood from the mood theme. At the current time, the only available mood theme is the community-wide one. We're working on allowing personal mood themes and will update the community as and when they become available
At the moment, you cannot include music in your post. Again, we will update the community as and when this option becomes available.
CHECK THE FOLLOWING IS CORRECT:-
The time on your journal entries is based on the time set on your computer. If your posts consistently show an incorrect date or time, verify that your computer's clock is set to the correct time for your timezone.
To set the date and time through Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP please follow these instructions:
1. Right click on the time in your systray. This is commonly in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.
2. Click Adjust Date/Time.
Scenes and journal entries in RPGDreams are set up to cut automatically, so you don't have to worry about it! The automatic cut off point is 600 words.
While viewing the entry you wish to delete, locate and click the Edit link at the top of the page. This will bring you to the editing page. Scroll to the bottom of the page, where there will be a link to delete the entry. PLEASE be certain you are deleting the correct entry! Once an entry has been deleted there is NO WAY to get the entry back again.
While viewing the entry you wish to edit, there are two links beneath the subject - View, and Edit. Clicking the Edit link will bring you to the editing page. Make whatever changes you need, and remember to hit the Save button at the bottom of the page.
On this site you pick where you want your post to go before you write it. We've tried to make this as easy as possible. Click on 'create content' and you'll see a list of options:-
Journal entry - creates an entry in your character journal
Scene - creates an entry in the in-character community
OOC Journal - creates an entry in the out oc character community.
Simple, n'est pa?
Game questions
Questions about things game-related
Adoptable characters are characters that have been given to the game by their original player, without requiring credit. We would never put an old character up for adoption without the original players consent (in fact, characters are only put up for adoption when the original player offers them up).
About the Mods
This game is run by Sue and Taffy, who have been rping for quite a few years, and actively modding games together since 2005, and have fun a few successful games over the years.
They pride themselves on being fair moderators, and are protective of players. This means huge explosions of wank aren't going to happen, and problems between players can be dealt with in a civilized manner. No one is going to bust into a game and tear it down with dramaqueening wangst in the ooc, and the games are meant to be a fun, safe environment to roleplay in.
AIM:
This is a supernaturally based horror game. This will not be a calm, fluffy sort of game. This will be a game that continually escalates towards all out mayhem. It will be character development and plot heavy, sometimes encompassing the entire game in story arcs. If all you are looking for in a game is ship stuff, shiny happy stuff, private roleplay between you and only one or two other people, only rampant smut, this is not the game for you. If you do not enjoy character development or plots, this game isn't right for you.
That means you need to be 18 to play. This is because graphic violence and other mature situations are allowed in game. They are required to be put behind a cut, but they are permitted.
Something to keep in mind, however, is while we do in fact allow sex scenes in game and find absolutely nothing wrong with them, if that is all you are doing you may be asked to leave the game. There are other roleplays out there that are specifically for smut only, but this isn't one of them.
No – you have to be 18 to play. Sorry, there’s no getting around this rule. This is not a reflection on you – we have nothing against you and we’re not making any judgment on your ability to write or roleplay. This is about legality and the bottom line is that this game deals with adult situations, played out by adult players. And if an adult player is playing adult situations with a person below the age of consent? That is a crime. We will not expose any of our players to the risk of finding themselves on a sex offenders register somewhere. We realise that the age of consent differs from country to country (and even between countries) and therefore, to protect ourselves, the game and our players, we have made the blanket decision that you must be 18 years or older to play in Praelitis. Thank you for understanding.
Yes! There is a template you can follow! It's shiny. Go check it out. We do encourage you to write up new species or types. There is no guarantee that they will be approved, but the mods will be more than happy to work with you to get things to an acceptable level. If you don't feel confident enough to write up things yourself, talk with a mod! We will be willing to try to help write things up as well if you can give us the information we need.
No. If you can, it will be detailed. We're not going to have vampire werewolves running amok. It's a breeding ground for flaming Mary Sues, and it's not going to be happening here.
Unless stated otherwise, all character types in Praelitis are actually at their base level human. If you want that more specifically, the following character types are in some way or other human: dreamwalkers, elementals, protectors, psychic vampires, psychics, willworkers, witches. Lycanthropes and half-demons have human blood and can be considered to be humans with extra bits, if you will. Spirits were human when they were alive
Okay, seemings in Praelitis work on several levels, if you would. Basically, they’re not all the same and they’re not interchangeable. To try and make it clearer, they work as follows:-
- Fae can see through the seeming of another fae
- Fae cannot see through angel/demon seemings*
- Angels can see each other’s wings only if they are not stored
- Angels can ‘sense’ when other angelic abilities are used in their immediate vicinity
- Angels cannot see through fae or demonic seemings*
Each different sort of ability has different ways of achieving higher levels. Here are some general tips for advancement: Keep in your journal a private entry keeping track of each time your character actively uses their abilities in scene. This will give you an accurate logging of how much your character has used their abilities. The more they're used, the easier it will be to up your level. For some abilities and generally for higher levels of things, you will need to plot out a story arc for your character that will result in attaining the higher level.
Sure! We wrote up what we thought was most common, but there's tons of things out there we probably don't have covered anywhere. Help fill us in! Just like with the races, we encourage you to branch out and come up with things on your own! You can follow our system of abilities and submit it for approval - we've even provided a handy set of forms for doing this here. As always, the mods will be perfectly happy to work with you on whatever you might want to write up.
All characters in the game must have at least three weaknesses. This is to ensure that characters are well balanced and, at the end of the day, flaws and weaknesses can really make a character interesting. Nobody's perfect.
We recognise that it can be hard to come up with three weaknesses that fit your character concept and which are interesting and original to play. Which is why we have come up with this handy reference guide to help you out! Your character weaknesses do not have to come from this list, it is simply there as an aid and if you wish to come up with your own, feel free!
Each post should be headed as follows:-
Who: [Characters involved in the scene]
Where: [Location(s) of scene]
When: [Time of day]
Don't forget, NC-17 scenes MUST have a rating warning added.
Also keep in mind that open scenes must be marked as open. If they do not say they are open, consider them closed and unable to be tagged on.
We recognise that people have lives (amazing, isn't it?) and can't always get scenes done exactly when they need to be done. To aid this, we've slowed time down for the game. Each new game day is heralded by a mod post in the comm detailing the date, the weather and any events happening that day, so you know where you are. Here's an example of a time update post here.
Everyone at times has problems with other players. No one's perfect! If speaking to them does not work or you are too uncomfortable to talk to them about things, please contact a mod. Do not let things go and let problems go unattended. Chances are if someone is doing something with you, they are doing it with other players as well. We as mods are very wary against abusive types of players--we do not want it in our game period. However, we can't guard against it if we do not know it is happening.
More often than not, it's for one of three reasons:
- Obvious errors, from grammar, spelling, and format; or a blatant disregard of the rules in any way. For example, if you're 16-years-old and you post an application without talking to a mod first? You will be denied on the spot. If your character's history is a thin paragraph or so, even though we clearly state that we need otherwise on the application page? Denied on the spot. We do not have very many rules, it should be no problem whatsoever to follow them.
Yeah, whatever. Okay, okay, yes. It is in fact a real, honest-to-God weakness, and can be very fun and interesting if played out well. But if you're going to have a lot of the typical Mary Sue weaknesses, you better have enough to balance it out and justify it.
The probationary period was brought in because we recognise that not everybody apps well. Having a probationary period means that we can have some discretion when we receive a borderline application which we would otherwise feel we had to reject. It gives players a chance to really show what they can do. Conversely, we also know that someone's application is not and can never be a reflection of how they will mesh within a game.
To protect the privacy of our members, the AIM list is member-locked. If you're accepted to the community, you'll be able to see the list.
No, actually. As detailed in our premise, all sorts of the weird is drawn into the area--but that doesn't mean they're walking around with neon signs, letting everyone know about it. In a small town, to ensure survival, the supernatural by default has to do their best to hide what they are and not draw attention to themselves. So even the born and raised don't usually know anything about it. It's not that they're stupid or oblivious, it's that anyone supernatural would have to be suicidal to go running around yelling to the rooftops about what they are.
This means you're not going to find a lot of the things you will in cities. This is a rural, wooded area, where there are a lot of small towns. So, what's that entail?
Now you're getting it. Yes, it is, really. That's why it's up to you and character interactions to make the place less dull. It's a challenge, but we have faith you can liven it up.
Marquette is small. Small like less than 20,000 people small. And it's the largest city in the entire U.P., which should give some perspective. It's spread out, but it's in no way big. One thing to keep in mind is that blocks here are NOT city-blocks. City blocks are huge. Here? Maybe four or five houses for the smaller ones. Graduating classes are small, most of the time under 100 people. What does Marquette not have that might be taken for granted?
We have created a map of the town to help you out. At the start of the game, this map was near enough empty, but it will be filled as players give us information to add. Please, feel free to let us know where your character lives, or works etc.
Evil and You
A quick guide to playing evil. Evil is hard to play. It can be very trying, and very frustrating at times, and other times it can be great. Sometimes it's also difficult to come up with things to do for evil characters that won't have every good guy in the game gunning for you. So we've written up a bit of an inspiration guide, which everyone's more than welcome to add to.
For a detailed summary of how the level system works, see this page here! THe level system only applies to character types that specifically have level information in the character type write up. If there's no level information there, they don't have levels!
~Toxicity Chart~
Vampires--anything that isn't human will not only taste bad, but continual consumption will cause them to become ill. Everything else is just ickapoo, and they'll know right away when they bite into something that isn't very savory. Trying to eat vampires isn't advised. They taste like long dead, stringy ickyness. Because they are.
Demons and Angels really probably shouldn't try cannibalizing each other. We aren't sure why they would want to attempt it either, but still. That not only would be toxic enough to cause sickness, but could quite likely be fatal.
Yes, as it states on the angels information page, angels are not there to serve or be messengers for a god or gods. They are merely a race of creatures with a bent towards doing good.
Demons can curse each other, and angels can bless each other - it just doesn't necessarily work very well. A demon cursing a demon is likely to have the result of a mild irritation rather than any real impact. In the same way, an angel that blesses another angel won't give that much more of a benefit.
Yes, they would be. Ascended demons are still demons.
If it's something that killed them, like a vampire or a fade etc then they would lose the curse. If it was something that altered them, but didn't kill them, like becoming a cursed werewolf, then the curse would remain.
There is no full wolf change for a cursed werewolf. It is only the battle form they change into when they do. Other strong emotions do not force a shift from them, or we would have an overpopulation of cursed werewolves in the world. Also, it's very rarely something that happens because of anger alone. It has to be pure rage that drives it--which generally leads to some form of violence, which in turn forces the change.
Most of the werecats found around Marquette are medium-sized wildcats, cougar etc. Werecats are never the very large cats, such as tigers and they are never as small as house cats. The largest werecat you're likely to get is about the size of a mountain lion. We have purposefully left the description vague to allow for player discretion and werecat 'type' is open for discussion upon application for a character.
No. Dreamweavers have no connection to the dreams they weave. Once they are given to another, it either works or does not, they have no supernatural connection with the dreams once they are woven. It's much like a product. They are there for the creative process, but they have no control over what happens to it once it's finished, no knowledge based or other connection to it.
Firstly, there's only ever one key to a dream, so it would be the key, rather than a key. But if two dreamwalkers enter a dream, the first one to find the key gets the power, the other then remains as helpless in the dream as s/he would be in a 'normal' dream, however in such a circumstance, they wouldn't have the possibility of finding the key either, because the power already belongs to another walker.
No, shroud eaters attack with claws (if you want an overview, see the shroud eaters plot here) and, as such, the dreamwalker would be injured in the dream, which would be passed over into reality (think Nightmare on Elm Street type thing – injuries for a dreamwalker in a dream they don’t control appear on their body in the real world). So a dreamwalker killed by a shroudeater would look like they’d been shredded.
Yes. Because a Dreamwalker is supernatural in nature, it, like all other supernaturals will effect the vision of a Psychic Vampire. In this case, the effect is a hazy sort of one, making the world appear as if a heavy fog is edging everything. This is very visually impedeing to the individual, the effect slowly wearing off as the energy is used.
When Fades phase out of physical form, it looks like an invisible wind is blowing them away like ashes. It happens quickly, no more than a few seconds. This is also what it looks like when their body dissolves at daybreak when they die(after the first death).
Mirrors in the inbetween are not located by geographical location, but randomly (but regularly) spaced down the 'corridors' - so a mirror in Tokyo could be right next to a mirror in New York. A broken mirror from the other side would simply look cracked and a fade would not be able to pass through it - it would be as impassable as any solid substance.
That depends on how much they take, but as a rule of thumb, if a vampire drains a human entirely, they don't have to feed again for a week. If they take less, they'll have to feed more often.
If a vampire goes too long without feeding, they get ravenous and go rampant, gorging themselves on anything with a heartbeat. Note, with this, they won't just take enough to stop the hunger, they will kill anything and truly gorge themselves, basically killing anything in their paths.
If they are caged, or restrained and physically unable to feed, they will still go mad and ravenous, but eventually they will go dormant. Once dormant, they are helpless and the only thing that will rouse them from this is being force-fed. A dormant vampire is a very easy target!
Blood preference of the Lamatu vampire is individual to each vampire and something which is discovered when they are first turned. There is no known explanation for what the preference will be, though some Lamatu have come up with their own individual theories and justifications for the reasoning behind their tastes and the tastes of others.
It would be unusual for them to turn someone much below forty.
No. As the write up for Babylon states, underage customers cannot enter the bar - they can only enter the club at the back. Whether they are supernatural or not has no bearing on their age!
Miscellaneous Questions
Everything else
There's actually no reason why they shouldn't - profiles support the same html as normal posts - please check your coding.
There is a limit to what html is allowed, but the common tags are active - please check the FAQ on what tags are allowed.
Then feel free to ask a question (there is an 'ask a question' link under 'Frequently Asked Questions' and one of the administrators will get to it ASAP.