Frequently Asked Questions

Registration is required to be able to participate in any of the discussions or games that are part of rpgFusion. It is a sad fact that griefers and spammers will seek out places to ply their particular brand of behavior. Therefore all registrants must have their accounts activated by an admin.

New members simply need to fill out the user account information from the Create new account link on the left side or by clicking here: http://rpg-fusion.com/user/register

Once you are registered, you will need to send an email to paragon@rpg-fusion.com so that you can tell me where you found us. I don't unblock new accounts without that email unless I know you ahead of time. This helps to keep the member base free of spammers.

Once your account is activated, you are free to participate in all that rpgFusion has to offer. We are always looking for new GM's as well as players for games that might already be running or are starting up. Activated accounts can also begin to use the forums as well as the FlashChat module.

This form of online gaming takes PBP (play-by-post) or PBeM (play by email) to a whole new level. The pages that are written are accessible by all members of a particular game. This allows the GM to initiate the scene/move and the players can react at any point in the game's move. Instead of the the game being locked into a cycle of linear postings, the GM and/or players can adjust and adapt in case things change. It allows players and GM's to insert in between posts.

Not all games are managed by the GM's the same way. This format allows for that level of flexibility and customization. Each Game gets it's own Storybook which is readable by all, but editable only by the GM and the players. Each game gets its own Image Gallery to post in as well as a chat room and forum. The GM can create as many sub-forums as needed for their particular game.

This is only the tip of what is available here at rpgFusion.

No. Membership is completely free. Donations are always accepted and appreciated, but not required. If you decide you wish to donate to the site to help us maintain it, feel free to click the Donate button at the bottom of each page or this one:

You will notice, at some point, that there are many types of content used here as part of the Drupal structure: node, book, blog, page, story, etc. each type of content can be configured as to who has access to create, edit, delete that type of content. It can also be configured to publish to the front page or not, as well as if others can leave comments. Here is a list of most of the content types and what they are used for at this site:

Blog entry
A blog entry is a single post to an online journal, or blog. Every activated member has their own blog they can post to and allow or disallow comments.

Book page
A book page is a page of content, organized into a collection of related entries collectively known as a book. A book page automatically displays links to adjacent pages, providing a simple navigation system for organizing and reviewing structured content. Book pages are what we use at rpgFusion for the games that are run here.

FAQ
A frequently asked question and its answer.

Image
An image (with thumbnail). This is ideal for publishing photographs or screenshots.

Notes
A place to take character related notes.

Page
A page, similar in form to a story, is a simple method for creating and displaying information that rarely changes, such as an "About us" section of a website. By default, a page entry does not allow visitor comments and is not featured on the site's initial home page.

Poll
A poll is a question with a set of possible responses. A poll, once created, automatically provides a simple running count of the number of votes received for each response.

Story
A story, similar in form to a page, is ideal for creating and displaying content that informs or engages website visitors. Press releases, site announcements, and informal blog-like entries may all be created with a story entry. By default, a story entry is automatically featured on the site's initial home page, and provides the ability to post comments.

This depends on whether the game is an active or new game. If it is a new game with a published Casting Call, then you simply need to follow the submission guidelines listed by the GM of that game. If you are wanting to join an existing game that has not published any new openings, then you simply need to PM or email the GM asking whether they are accepting any new characters. I have seen many a game pickup an extra player or two, especially if the characters fits the story.

It's really not that hard. The first thing to do is email or PM your concept to Paragon. There will be some questions I will need answered concerning the game. Once your game is approved, you can start your Casting Call in the forums and post it on the main site if you so choose. Depending on the userbase, you might need to do some offsite recruiting for players. While you are getting your game ready, I will be creating the following for your game:

Roles - I will create the GM and Player access roles for your game
Book Page - This is where all of your moves will take place and are linked to
Main Gallery - This is where you can create and post the images for your game
Forums - I will create the main forum and set the GM as the Moderator
Chat Room - I will create the FlashChat room for the game
Filespace - I will create a spot on the server and grant you FTP access for you to put your world files or add a wiki
> I will add a link to your wiki or world files in the Game Info Files link on the top bar

You will then be able to start using the custom content for your game

If you are in one of the games here, you will notice that there is a new button at the top right of the game move. This button says "Highlight changes". When you click that button, it will highlight the edits to the revision you are viewing, and it will reveal a "View revision" button to the left of the Highlight Changes button. You will also see a pull-down box to the left of the "View revision" button. If you want to see revisions from previous edits, simply use the pull-down button to select the revision you wish to see and click the "View revision" button.

This is a handy tool that might one day lead to us no longer needing to use color coding in game moves.

It's sometimes difficult to keep track of posts that are interesting or which you have been posting comments on. By watching posts that you want to keep an eye on you can see (and be notified) when they're updated or changed or when new comments are posted.
Basic use

* To start watching a post, click the link you see by the post on the site. The post is now added to your list of watched posts. Click again to stop watching the post.
* In your watched posts list you can see all posts that you are watching. You can also see the number of comments and how many of those are new (not yet read by you).
* If the site owner has enabled email notifications, next to each post is an icon that tells you whether changes to this post results in notifications by email. Click the icon to enable/disable email notifications. Emails are sent to the email address you have entered in your site account details.
* To stop watching posts, either click the trash can icon next to the post in your watched posts list or click the link by the post.

Settings

The settings page allows you to customize how and when posts are watched and notifications are sent. The site owner may have set default settings that will apply to all users who have not modified their settings. The default settings will apply until you have modified your settings.

Email Notification Settings
The email notification settings allow you to change your preferences regarding how and when email notifications are sent.

Automatically enable email notifications for posts that I start watching
When you start watching a post, email notifications are automatically enabled for it as well. You can disable email notifications by clicking the email icon in your watched posts list.
Send email notification when a post is updated or edited
An email notification is sent when the post is changed, either by its original author or someone else. This is useful for being notified about changes to posts that many users may edit. You will not be notified if you edited the post yourself.
Send email notification when a post receives a new comment
An email notification will be sent when a new comment is posted to the post you're watching. You will not be notified about comments you have made yourself.

Watch Automatically
These settings control when posts are watched automatically without you having to manually click "watch this post".

Automatically watch posts that I comment on
When you post a comment on a post, the post will be added to your watched posts list without you having to manually add it. This is handy if you always want to watch all posts you have commented on and discuss with other users.
Automatically watch posts that I make
Posts that you have made will automatically be added to your watched posts list. This helps you keep track of what changes are made to your posts and the comments that are posted about your posts.

Sharing
Your list of watched posts can be shared with other users.

Share my list of watched posts
If you want other users to be able see what posts you watch, enable this setting. When you're sharing your list, a link will appear in your profile allowing other users to browse your list of watched posts.

WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get

This is an editor that lets you manipulate the content types data as if it were being used within a word processor program or such. rpgFusion does not believe in forcing this upon it's members, so it is an optional input editor. It has been enabled for all content types except Books and Book Entries. the reason for this is that it must be an either or for shared content types. If one person enters their post using the WYSIWYG editor, and someone comes behind them and disables it, then all kinds of wonderfully whacky coding appears and garbles the content.

There are some really neat features of this editor, though. You can insert images directly into the content as long as the images are stored online somewhere. I used that feature to put the images in this FAQ.

Here is how you choose your editor for your content. First you click Create content from the Navigation block to your left. Once you do that you can scroll down and you should see an expandable section called Input Format that looks something like this:

When you click the Input Format it will expand to reveal this:

You can choose either the WYSIWYG or Real HTML at this point. If you select WYSIWYG or if it is selected by default, you will see a screen that looks like this and has the familiar formatting options at the top:

Not the entry that says Disable rich-text. Click that if the WYSIWYG Editor is enabled by default and you wish to disable it for this content entry.

The dice roller is a simple little program. Click the link to the dice roller in the Game Tools Box on the right of the screen. You will find it with the D&D Character Generator. When you click that link it will take you to the dice roller page. Simply select the type of the die that you wish to roll. You can select modifier or multiple dice by editing your roll options.

This should be a fairly straightforward dice rolling option that is usable by any game here.

Please let me know if you encounter any problems.