InsaneJournal

All characters on the game have a journal of some sort, the type being your choice entirely. Either your character is the old-fashioned sort who uses a pen and book that they tuck into some crafty little space in their closet, or they use the nice, shiny World Wide Web like so many people; the latter obviously provides more fun for you, as a player.

If your character has a pen and paper journal, make sure to note that at the top of each entry, so you don't get other characters commenting where they really can't/shouldn't.

But if your character is living very much in the now, and has an internet journal, then here's how it works. Simply put, they work like Livejournal or Insanejournal does; the character has a username (the one you use for them!), they make entries about their day or whatever, and other characters can leave comments. Entries can be filtered to other characters simply by using a cut tag that says something along the lines of Private to Rowan or Private to The Locard Pack. Characters can use this to communicate rather than emails, etc. If the character is very secretive, all you have to do is label the post Private, and voila, you're done.

NOTE: Unless your character has told other characters, at some point, what their journal name is, they do not immediately know who that person posting is, or, more importantly, what they are. Mystery; gotta love it.

thebreed: This here would be the main game community, where narratives and threads go. There's no special trimmings here, it's all very straightforward and you've seen it before. There are no messy labels at the top for time, place etc; the game is set in real-time, so unless you state in OOC parenthesis that the post is backdated, then it's set on the day you post it, and people should obviously read the post itself to see where and what's going on. If the post is closed as a narrative, end it with something along the lines of ( NARRATIVE; CLOSED ). If the post is intended for a certain other character (and note that you must have the other character's player's permission to leave posts for them; common courtesy), it goes like this: ( ROWAN ) or ( OPEN TO ROWAN ), or if it's for a group of people: ( OPEN TO THE LOCARD PACK ). And obviously, if you have no set intentions and you're up for anyone jumping in, then you just say ( OPEN ). Just be sure to give some clue as to when the post is set so some poor vampire player doesn't accidentally send their character off gallivanting in the daylight. Ouch.


breed_logs: This community is for IM or email logs, whether they be IC emails, IC instant messenger conversations, or actual narrative play worked out over either medium.

For IC emails, simply title the post EMAIL TO ____ and obviously fill in the blank. Put the email itself behind a cut, saying something along the lines of You have mail! or whatever you think is witty for a new addition to the inbox.

Text messages can also be sent IC, and the format is essentially the same as the email one. The title should read TEXT TO ____ and so on and so forth. Actual phone calls, on the other hand, are better off done in the main community, with narrative action padding.

For IC instant messenger conversations, it'll basically be AIM, so your character needs some kind of username. Let's imagine Rowan and Lacey are having a (granted, rather unlikely) conversation, here's how that might look:

ilovetigger: hey! :D
bigbadwolf: Who is this?

If you do pick an IM name for your character, it's best to list it in your bio's Random Trivia section, for future reference. Note that this works as the journals work: unless your character tells others what their online name is, there's no way of magically knowing.

And for actual narrative play, essentially you and the other player take turns over email or IM, as if you were writing a thread but not in comments. The post should come with a title along the lines of LOG: Rowan and Lacey (again, I know, unlikely), then you need to use the following form:

WHO:
WHERE/WHEN:
WHAT:

You only need to attach a warning if it warrants one, such as for excessive violence, a lot of foul language, or anything else that qualifies as adult content. And then, behind a cut with your text of choice (usually an excerpt from the log itself), this is how it could look:

ROWAN: "Are you the strange girl who sent me that message last night?" he asked, taking the beer she offered him with a wary frown.

LACEY: She smirked playfully, shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe. I send a lot of random messages. You'd have to be more specific."

And that's all there is to it.


breed_ooc: This one is very easy to explain. Basically, anything Out of Character but related to the game goes here: introductions of new players or for new characters you're bringing in, offers to strike up new interaction, announcements for hiatuses, the works. Remember, though, this isn't a forum for advertising. They make communities for those, so find one and go nuts.