Uptime

Origin Story will be played on the Origin Story Discord – for information on how to join Discord, see below. Starting on the 27th of July the games will play every other week. Games will start at 7pm BST, and run for three hours. Here is a timetable for what days games will happen:

If you can't make a session, don't worry! You can still continue to play the game, and even submit a turnsheet if you want, and it will be assumed your character just couldn't make it to active hours for some reason.

Gameplay in Origin Story during Uptime will take a number of different forms. Each of these forms will be represented on the Discord; please note, any discussions happening in places the GMs can't see (e.g. Discord DMs) are not occurring in-universe.

• The majority of gameplay will be happening on the forum pages of SparkInYou.org
• There will be a number of pages representing different topics of conversation characters can engage in
• SparkInYou.org is a safe space for characters to talk about their lives and feelings
• All characters should have access to these pages at all times, (unless the IC moderator feels some reason to limit you!)

• On SparkInYou.org, each person on the forum will have their own personal pages
• Use your personal page to post whatever you like! Valid posts for characters would be introducing themselves for the forum so people can remember who they are, talking about topics related to them personally, or posting pictures of their cat
• Characters will have the opportunity to comment/discuss on other character’s pages
• Each of these pages will be represented on the discord, and should be viewable by all

• SparkInYou.org has a capacity for Direct Messaging between members
• Please note, this is NOT Direct Messaging on Discord; the only IC communication that should be happening during Uptime should be on the Origin Story Discord (with emails during Downtime)
• We will explain how in session DMs work at the first session
• Emails are used to capture direct messaging during Downtime

• Sometimes GMs might need to let you know things happening outside of the SparkInYou.org forum that your character would be aware of
• For instance, maybe your character’s mother delivers you some cookies! You wouldn’t want to miss that!
• Likewise, you might need to let us know things that your character does outside of the forum
• For instance, maybe you want to share you cookies with your little brother!
• For that purpose, each character will ALSO have a personal page where off-forum IC activity can take place
• These pages may also be helpful if you want to quickly check something with a GM during session
• Each of these pages should only be visible to the person who’s page it is
• We are not planning to include much significant 'action' in Uptime; it is unlikely that PCs will be going on the adventurous linears of previous Discord games during session

If you’re new to Discord, do not worry! Here is a brief guide to help you log on, as well as some useful tips for using the service.

1. Create your character using our Google Form. Once approved, we'll email you a link to our Discord server.
2. Sign up to Discord using an email account (this should be a personal address, not your IC email address). You can do this by downloading and installing the Discord desktop app, or by simply using the browser version.
3. Click on the invite link that the GMs will have sent you by email and it will automatically give you the option to join the server.
4. You can see all the servers that you are part of in the Discord sidebar on the left-hand side, where they will be represented by circular icons. Select the Origin Story server from this sidebar.
5. Once you've joined the server, right click on your name in the user sidebar on the right-hand side and select “change nickname”. Change it to your character's name along with their preferred pronouns.
6. You can change your profile picture by clicking the gear icon (User Settings) at the bottom of the channel sidebar on the left-hand side. This will take you to the 'My Account' tab where you can edit your username, password and profile picture
7. By left clicking on your name in the user sidebar, you can see which roles you have been given. These represent sets of access permissions that the GMs have given you. Discord roles do not exist IC and should not be used to gain information about other characters. They are instead used to represent your character's abilities, locations, equipment, and other things. If you think there is something wrong with your roles (e.g. you're missing one that you think you should have, or you have one but don't know what it means) feel free to ask a GM.

• To have a message be in italics, bold, or strikethrough, highlight the text and select the appropriate option(s).
• You can also quote a message by selecting the quote marks that appear when you select text. This displays the highlighted message clearly as a quote. Right clicking (on the app only) or selecting the three dots that appear when you hover over a message that has already been sent will allow you to select the “quote” option. This will allow you to send a direct reply which quotes the original message and notifies the person who originally sent it.
  • Please note that you cannot use this to reply to NPC accounts with the “BOT” label - you'll notice that if you try quote-replying to a message sent by one of these accounts, Discord will try and fail to @ it.
  • Instead, please react to a message sent by an NPC “BOT” account using the :bell: 🔔 emoji. This will notify the GM who sent the message, ensuring that they won't miss your reply! Alternatively, you can simply @ the GM who controls the NPC if you happen to know who that is.
• To address a message directly to someone in a public channel, type @ before their handle, and this will notify them, taking them directly to your message.
• To start a new line without sending the message, hold shift and press enter.

In Origin Story we’ll be using several OOC (Out of Character) calls to help make gameplay fun and safe for everyone. Here they are:

• [Square brackets] indicate OC communication. These should be used to make safety calls (below), or sparingly for short comments and clarifications, not for extended conversation. We discourage players from extensively communicating OC throughout session as this can clog up IC channels, break the immersion of other players, and may encourage metagaming)
• [STOP]: This is a safety call meaning that everyone must stop roleplaying the current topic. All players seeing this call must stop roleplaying the topic in question. When used by a GM, this may indicate that the topic has strayed into themes which are forbidden in the game.
• [OUT]: This is a safety call meaning that the user does not wish to further engage in this topic. Once this call is used, other players should carry on roleplaying, but should treat the player calling [OUT] as if they are not/were never part of the interaction.
• [DOWN]: This is a safety call meaning 'tone it down', to be used when player interaction is getting too intense and you would like to signal to others to tone it down without shutting down the roleplay altogether. This is particularly important in angry, argument-based scenarios or highly emotional scenarios that deal with sensitive themes.
• [PAUSE]: This indicates during a high-stress or time-sensitive situation that you would like to pause to look something up or ask a GM about something. This call will hold for a maximum of 5 minutes, after which it is automatically void.
• [DONE]: This call can be made after any other call to indicate that it is all good now, you are ready to jump back into the roleplay and the IC situation can proceed as normal.
• [GTG]: Short for 'got to go', this indicates that the user is logging off or needs to leave, either for an extended period of time or for the rest of session. Others will not wait for you to continue roleplaying but will not assume that your character has gone missing IC.
• Spoilers: You can spoiler tag a message by adding double pipes (||) on each side. Spoilers will not be used by GMs to conceal information during the game so anyone can open spoilered messages. Use spoiler tags on messages pertaining to sensitive themes and tag such messages with appropriate spoiler tags. Outside of the themes which explicitly say they should have content warnings, use your best discretion to decide what should be tagged and oblige if someone — player or GM — suggests a message should be tagged

If you have any questions about this, or any other aspect of Origin Story, please do not hesitate to contact one of the GM Team!