May the Odds be EVER in your favor!

I want you to understand that the person who runs the role playing game you decide to join is a real person who has put a lot of effort into the creation of their site.

Now don't just roll your eyes at me and dismiss my point because of course you know that they are a real person. Unless you have owned a role playing game or administrated one, you probably have no idea how much effort has gone into the work that they have done and continue to do. You get to sit back and enjoy the game; they get to log on to do work.

My point is that I simply want you to be considerate of the staff, when you first join and during your stay at the forum. Get to know the rules before you sign up (that's always been a problem in sites that I've owned -- people don't take the time to get to know the rules!). Refer to them frequently. Respect everyone, the staff and the players. Be courteous and aware. Keep personal matters in private.

Perhaps most importantly, know if you have stumbled onto a "literate" RPG and choose to sign up accordingly. If you cannot put together a solid paragraph, and the game you're joining requires it, then don't sign up!*

*Not all games are "literate." I've played in a couple that aren't. However, you will find that it's currently popular to write very long posts. Know your game before you register!

In most cases, the role playing game you are playing in will be "alternate universe," meaning that you will be playing an original character instead of a canon character (such as Katniss or Peeta). You will need to create your own personality, traits, and background. The Hunger Games RPG makes this easy for you with a form that you can fill out and submit. You will have to wait for your character to be approved.

However simple the form may be, I like to know everything about my character. I'm a natural writer (of fiction) and characters are my bread and butter. I want to know who they were before they became who they are; I want to know their parents' names and personalities; I want to know their favorite color, their favorite food, and who their best friend is; I want to know what they look like; I want to know how they feel and what they think. And for me, all of this occurs before I even submit the character for approval!

You don't have to know all of this of course. But the more that you do know, the more likely you will be to engage other players and get real action.

There are a few terms in role playing games that you really ought to know. The Hunger Games RPG doesn't use these terms the same way that I do (which is the way that the majority of role playing games use them) but they are very important terms to know if you are going to get along well in any rpg.

Metagaming: Metagaming refers to making another character (one who you don't own) do things in order to promote your story. For example, if I play Jane, and I am in a scene with John (owned by another player), I might metagame John by making him follow me into a cave. John must be allowed to make the decision to follow on his own. Hunger Games RPG and some other role playing sites refer to this as "power playing." (See below for the alternative definition of "power playing.")

Power Playing: Power playing refers to deciding whether or not the character you are fighting against has taken a hit. You can throw the punch, but they must have a chance to dodge it. If your fist connects with their fast, you have power played.

God-Moding: In God-Mode, your character is invincible. They never take a hit at all, but they land plenty of them. This is never fair to other players and is always inappropriate. I like to flip a coin. Chances are that 50% of the time, I'm going to take the hit as a result. It has worked out well for me so far.

The most important thing is to know how your game defines these terms and then to obey the rules related to them. Some may allow power playing in limitation, and some may allow limited metagaming of other characters. Just be cautious and make sure that you've read the rules thoroughly before you sign up.

Because we are all individuals, the game that I recommend might not be right for you.

How do you know whether a site is the right fit for you? Well, it comes down to a few factors, including the following:

• Can you meet the expectations of the group in terms of your writing abilities?
  
• Can you adhere to the rules of the game and not disrupt the current community?
  
• Can you create a character to the specifications of the game you've chosen?
  
• Do you like established games, or new starts?
  
• Do you know the owner of the group and get along with them?
  
• Do you like a fast paced game or something slower?
  
• Do you like threads that involve large groups and massive battles, or more one-on-one interaction?
  

All of these are factors that you will want to think about, and I do want to share a personal story with you.

When I was first working on getting back involved in role playing, I joined a few sites that were interesting to me. One of them was a Twilight RPG and three of them were Harry Potter RPGs.

Now understand that I consider myself a writer, and a very good writer at that. I'm great at character creation. But I'm also in my thirties and it's been years since I was in high school being taught about five sentences to a paragraph and five paragraphs to an essay. So when I submitted my applications for two of the three Harry Potter games, I was flat-out rejected. Believe it or not, my paragraphs weren't long enough because they weren't five or more sentences long! I was finally accepted when I "scrunched" several paragraphs into one. What they lacked in flow, they made up for in length!

Oh, and then I was accepted. For these two groups, writing convention was more important than readability. I didn't stick around for very long.

If you are an adult, you might want to seek out a group that is run by another adult*. In the case of younger people, generally speaking you'll be able to get along in either case.

* This has nothing to do with the maturity level of the average thirteen or fourteen year old. In fact, I'm stunned by the level of maturity and literary talent that I see from teenagers every day. The reason I suggest that adults join games run by adults is because most people in their thirties and beyond have totally forgotten the conventions that they were taught in high school and therefore don't require that members adhere to these (often strange) conventions in writing.