New Guy here

Hey there folks, I'm your new resident newbie.

I don't know what to do or how to get into games on here, so if someone would be so kind as to give me a run down or a tour, I would really appreciate it. I was recommended to this site by another RPer, but I'm not sure about her username on here.

First off Welcome to the forums. The site here is pretty much self explanatory (except for administration) but you should take a look at the rules thread and subscribe to the errata both are at or near the top of the official updates board thing. Now as for games you caught us at a rather poor time due to games recently starting. At the moment there are two that are actively recruiting though Radio show and Rainbow Factory. Just a few minor notes reusing characters may be frowned upon, in general copy and paste from an off site roller rather than use the on site dice bot, and they are called Pips not Energy the hand books lie. (The hand books may be found at or near the top of the official updates board.)

Hi there, Ikari! Welcome to Ponytales! Have a welcome pinkie! :4thwall:Do keep a tight hold on her, the last time someone let a Pinkie clone loose she found the mirror pool and we had pinkie clones everywhere. It's not as fun as it sounds, believe me, unless you're into paint-watching competitions.

Now then, please make sure your seatbelt is buckled and hold on to your pink pony, and we'll get the tour started straight away. I'll be your explanatory administration, Pingcode.

The first port of call for our little tour is The Rules. Now now, I know what you're thinking; 'What did I do to need a reminder of the rules?' Well don't worry, this is just making sure you know where to find the dos and don'ts of our community. Remember to give it a good read, but for the most part all you need to worry about is: Don't post anything that would get you thrown out of polite company, and Don't get into fights.

With that out of the way, the next place you're going to want to have a look at is the Official Game and Game Updates forum. This whole community is built up around a homebrew roleplaying system called Pony Tales, or Living Legends. This is a nice little system building from 4e that strongly splits out your noncombat abilities and your combat abilities, so you can build whatever character you like without struggling in combat - and with whatever flavour you like, too! It's all still a work in progress - even if it looks complete and can be played in full, there's changes all the time - so keep an eye on the Official Game and Game Updates forum, because that's where any adjustments to the system will be announced.

Inside the Official Game and Game Updates forum, you'll also find the Official Rulebooks thread, which has a list of all the rulebooks you could ever want (assuming you don't want rulebooks that don't yet exist) for Pony Tales. Or, if you'd rather jump right in, just open up the Player's Handbook, which will walk you right through the process of making your very first Pony Tales character.

So! Now you have a character (or maybe you'd rather look for a game first - DMs like it when you make a character especially for their game, or so I hear). Now it's time to look for a game! For that, you'll want to swing by the Roleplaying forum, where all the various DMs on these forums set up shop to hunt for new players. Look for any thread that doesn't have a lot of posts, or says 'Recruiting' in the title - those are the most likely to still have seats open for a brand new player, and a lot of DMs will specially make space for someone new to the game. From there, make a post saying you're interested in joining in, maybe with a quick concept for your character. Be careful - a lot of DMs like to use First Come First Serve when recruiting, so putting your hand up quick can be the difference between getting into a game and having to wait for the next bright idea. Or, if you're feeling creative, you can just skip all that and start up your own game! Don't worry, there's plenty of players who will be chomping at the bit to sign up and play with you.

Whew! So now you're in a game. But where is it meant to be? Well, there's two kinds of games here - Play by Post and Skype. If your DM is running a Skype game, once they close recruitment they will be looking to find out when everyone is free, and organise a time for everyone to jump online and play a game. How exciting! On the other hand, most games are Play by Post, and they happen in the Campaigns forum. Be aware that the campaigns forum is mostly for your In Character posts, and anything purely out of character is usually in the Recruitment thread, though there are no rules and it varies by DM.

Okay! But what about dice? Now, you have a few options for dice. The first and most straightforward is using our friend GafferBot, in the Dices Roll section. What he will do is take what you put into the Dices Roll section below the posting box, and make a new post rolling the dice. Not every DM is fond of this, however, and there are a couple of other options. The first is using an Online Dice Roller, like Rolz, which lets you roll dice online and even set up special dice rolling rooms so you can log all your dice. Other players like to use the Honour System, where you take your own dice and roll them, then just say what the result was.

Whew, now you're ready to jump into a game. There's a few more major forums, though, so I'll give you a quick list.

Found something you think is broken in the game? Let us know in the Errata Suggestions thread, and maybe you've caught something we've missed! Made something new in the Pony Tales system that you think is cool? Swing by Game Mechanics and show us your chops in a new thread! Pick the subforum that looks closest to what you've just made, or leave it in Game Mechanics it doesn't seem to fit anywhere else.

But all this gaming sure is tiring. Off Topic is the place to go when you just want to shoot the wind and relax. Everything under the sun can go in here, from posting games to personal announcements. Finally, The Celestial Chamber is where all us administrators talk about changes to the site itself.

Finally, if something just doesn't look right - maybe someone's gotten into a big fight, maybe someone's brazenly come in and decided to tell you all about where you can get the cheapest kitchens - just use the handy Report button   to let us know and we'll be having a look.

And who are we?

Stairc -Dan Felder: Lead Designer and Founder of the forums. The buck stops with him. Contact him if there is something that absolutely needs his attention and can't be handled by anyone else. In most cases, however, it's better to contact him only if for one reason or another you can't contact anyone else, such as disputing a moderation decision.
LoganAura: Community Administrator. LoganAura is responsible for keeping a lid on disputes and taking action when someone is repeatedly breaking the rules. If there's a fight going on, he'll usually be sorting it out. Most of the time you should be alerting him through the reporting system.
Pingcode: Technical Administrator. I'm the gearhead for these forums, and my job is to keep the software running shipshape. I handle modification of the forums and squashing bugs. Contact me via PM if you find a bug in the system, or use the suggestions thread if there's some feature you'd like on these forums.

And that's all for now! Thanks for joining us on this brief tour of the forums, and I hope you enjoy your stay!

^Wow. That was quite thorough. Nice.

I can't add too much to that except to say "Welcome, Ikari! I hope you enjoy your time on these forums! Don't drop the particle accelerators."

Welcome Welcome Welcome! A fine welcome to you!
WElcome Welcome Welcome, I say how do you do!
Welcome Welcome Welcome, I say hip hip hooray!
Welcome Welcome Welcome to PT/LL yaaaaaay!