Greetings, prospective passengers! Mod Amelia here! To ensure a safe journey aboard the Infinity Train, please read the following guide on appropriate usage of our underlying software– a very cool forum service called Flarum!
Why a forum?
Most killing game RP groups these days use Discord, and for entirely valid reasons! However, the realtime chat nature of Discord RP can be intimidating and lead to slower or busier writers (like yours truly) having less opportunity to play. It also limits formatting options and makes it harder to share the RP with friends and spectators. On the other hand, Tumblr has grown increasingly unusable for this kind of RP, and while submission trials allow more time to think over one’s words, they notoriously require a mod to be online to approve every. single. post. And in the past, free forum services tended to be clunky and not very mobile friendly…
Enter Flarum! A modern forum system with clear threading, familiar formatting, and Discord webhook support– any post here can be automatically crossposted to our OOC Discord, organized neatly into channels. AND it’s free! We think this will give us the best of both worlds, letting people write at their own pace in an easily readable and shareable place, while still getting live notifications in the server where all the planning happens.
(Yes, you will still need to join a Discord server, but the story happens here!)
Forum RP Structure
Rather than persistent chatrooms organized by location, forum RP takes place in threads (also called discussions on the Flarum site.) They are created as needed by both players and mods, and typically locked after the conclusion of the scene. Each scene takes place in a thread of the following types:
- Open RP - If you came up with a good scene starter and are open to anybody joining in, use this tag. Works best with scenes where the order of events is less consequential.
- Closed RP - If you want to talk to a specific person or group, use this tag and add the tags of all characters present. These are still visible to players and spectators; if major spoilers are a concern, see the Private Threads section below.
- Plot - A tag indicating a major plot event, reserved for mod use. Players are encouraged to write character reactions in the replies, and these can be split off into new threads by a mod if desired.
- Challenge - A tag indicating a group challenge or time-sensitive puzzle, reserved for mod use. These will be used in cars with the Megathread or Assigned Seating thread types, and will function as described on the mechanics page. Everything in a Challenge thread will be automatically crossposted to its associated OOC channel, so nobody misses a post!
There is also a tag for OOC Announcements, as well as a method to create Private threads. See the Using Flarum section below for instructions on how to create and reply to threads of all types.
Forum RP Etiquette
- Take your time! There’s no prize for being the first person to post, but interesting dialogue and flavor text will encourage interesting replies.
- Avoid one-liners! These are less of an issue in Closed RP or Challenge threads where the gist of a scene has already been decided, but players still need material to work with. Acknowledge the previous post, verbally or nonverbally, and offer something new (maybe a question? information? action?) for them to react to.
- Careful not to get too long, either! There’s nothing wrong with a monologue, of course, but keep in mind these are verbal conversations in-game. If you’re juggling four different topics in each reply, it may be better to start new threads.
- Ask before physical interaction! If you can’t phrase an interaction so that the other player has a choice to accept or deny it, (i.e. “offering them a handshake,”) ask them OOC for permission and work out the general outcome before posting– especially if the action can cause physical harm. If you can’t decide or just want a little RNG, ask a mod to roll dice for you!
- Talk to someone new! Your character will gravitate towards a group of friends, and you, the player, will likely do the same. Keep an eye out for Open RP prompts and Plot reactions from characters you haven’t interacted with!
- Be patient! Part of the appeal of forum-based RP is that you don’t have to reply on the spot if you’re busy or in a different time zone– extend that courtesy to your fellow players and give them a day or two before seeking mod help. That said, leaving a reaction emoji on a post is a great way to indicate that you’ve seen it and are planning a response!
- Take turns! During Scenic cars, threads with more than two people in them typically go in a “turn order” based on the chronological order of the first posts. If it makes sense for your character to reply to something immediately, go ahead, but try to avoid getting more than three or four posts ahead without giving everyone else a chance to reply. During Express cars, this depends more on who’s online at the time, but keep an eye on the Discord channel and give people a heads up if you’re working on a post!
- Embrace the multiverse! Occasionally the timelines of threads will contradict each other, especially in Open RP and Plot reactions– this is totally fine! In situations where the order of events isn’t essential to solving a mystery, all variations of a thread are treated as equally canon. If one of these “contradictions” ends up becoming important, the mods will discuss it with the relevant players and add footnotes as necessary.
Using Flarum
Signing up
Only players can make accounts on the forum, and instructions for creating an account will be provided when you are invited to the game’s Discord. Don’t forget to choose a profile pic and fill out your bio! If you don’t like the default dark theme, clicking on your username in the top right corner will show an option to toggle “day mode.”
Starting a thread
Click the “Start a Discussion” button in the top left of the home page, and this box will pop up:
This is your post editor! Now that you’re in:
- Choose tags! You’ll need to select the scene’s chapter and location, what type of thread it is (Open or Closed RP) and which characters are involved.
- Come up with a fun thread title!
- Write your post! Most of the buttons here will look familiar to you, but here are some highlights:
- Add images using the Media Manager. Files you upload here are stored with your forum account– so once you upload your sprites, they can be accessed from any browser, desktop or mobile! See the FAQ for more details.
- DON’T use the Add External Image button (unless the image is already online somewhere and you don’t want it saved to your Media Manager library.)
- The “+” button has some additional formatting options, including strikethrough, two kinds of spoiler text, and a horizontal line for dividing sections.
- Need to finish writing later? Use this icon to save a post to your drafts! You can also enable draft auto-saving in your account settings.
- Navigating between pages on the forum will cause the post editor to minimize along the bottom of the screen. You won’t lose your work as long as you haven’t closed the browser or refreshed the page.
- Is the post editor too small for your liking? Use this full-screen button to expand the editor.
- Post your post!
Replying to a thread
There’s two options to consider when replying to a thread:
- Is this a Closed RP, a Private RP, or a Plot reaction continuing the existing discussion? Scroll to the bottom and write your post there!
- Is this an Open RP or a Plot reaction turning into a separate conversation? Hover over the relevant post, click Reply and write your post there! If you think the reply chain will be longer than two or three posts, a mod can split your post into a new thread.
Otherwise, the post editor remains the same, minus the tags and thread title.
Following threads & Notifications
In addition to Discord crossposting, you can also follow specific threads on the forum. By default, Flarum will auto-follow any thread you make or post in. These notifications appear on the website (via the bell icon by your username,) e-mail, and/or system notifications. In your account settings, you can easily change what gets sent to you and how.
Private threads
We encourage everyone to use regular threads as much as possible, so that the other players and spectators can enjoy the story! But if you want to have a spoilery conversation, investigate a crime scene, or interact with an NPC in secret, you can create Private threads.
To create one, click on Private Discussions in the sidebar, and the “Start a Discussion” button will change to “Discuss Privately.” These will behave like any other thread on the forum, but only the invited players can see them… until the time is right to make it public, possibly at the end of the event, chapter, or game!
Be sure to add the Mods group as a recipient, even if you’re not planning to talk to a mod character or NPC! If you forget, just flag the first post and we can fix it (see below.) A mod must be present for RP to be considered canon.
Badges
These are a little achievement system built into the forum, similar to Discord roles! Some are earned automatically, and some are awarded manually by a mod. You can choose which ones to display by editing your profile.
Flags (I need to rename or split a thread/report an untagged trigger/have a mod look at something!)
Flagging a post isn’t a bad thing– in fact, it can be faster than DMing a mod! It won’t automatically hide anything, all it does is send the mods a notification to look at a specific post with a reason you provide. You can flag any post on this site using the menu in its bottom right corner; please give an explanation for the flag in the text box, including the new thread title if renaming or splitting a thread. Empty flags and joke flags will be ignored.
FAQ
So I can make a thread anytime I want?
If the currently active car is a Free Seating car, go ahead! Some cars of other types may have time for additional threads before or after a challenge; these will be clearly marked in the car description. Otherwise, ask a mod first.
Why can’t I just use Discord?
Because this is a different style of RP! The vast majority of these types of games use Discord already, so we’d like to offer another option to people who don’t enjoy realtime chat RP. Threads will be slower-paced, replies will be longer, and players are not expected to be online every day. The forum will also be visible to spectators without having to invite people that aren’t players to the OOC Discord.
If you aren’t interested in trying a new style of RP, this may not be the game for you– and that’s totally fine! But we’ve worked hard to make this forum just as accessible as Discord, and we expect players to learn the system (with our help, of course!)
Is there a limit on the number of images I can upload?
Nope! I’ve hooked up the site to some cheap cloud storage, so go wild. That said, all images larger than 760px (the maximum width of a forum post) will be automatically resized to keep things from getting too out of hand. I highly recommend resizing sprites yourself so you have control over image quality– this site will resize groups of images easily! There’s no hard rules here, but I usually resize waist-up sprites to 300-400px tall and headshot sprites to 200px.
Wait, do I have to use sprites?
They’re totally optional, but they are a lot of fun! I don’t officially have commissions open, but if you want sprites that match the game’s style, let me know and we can work something out! Otherwise, feel free to make your own, commission a friend, or use Picrews that allow use as avatars– but please don’t use images from published media and especially not other people’s OCs!
Can spectators comment on the forum?
No, this could get confusing for players very quickly and adds another layer of work to the mod team. Feel free to send asks to the Tumblr blog or post with the hashtag #danganinfinity!
Why does it want me to “install” the site or “add it to my homescreen?”
This forum is a progressive web app– if you install it on your phone or computer, you’ll get a fancy little app icon, a dedicated browser window, and access to push notifications. I personally use it on my phone because it hides the browser tab bar, saving some screen space!
Any other questions?
Send them to the askbox! If your question is related to the forum itself, I’ll reply on Tumblr and also add the answer to this post. If you haven’t seen them yet, check out the demo threads for examples of forum RP in action!
Thanks for reading!
-Amelia 🌸
