🌟 [Discussion] The New Player Experience

[Gavril Berghansen]

The goal of the New Player page is to clearly introduce them to the game and world, guide them through character creation, and streamline their path to start roleplaying. It will accomplish this goal by giving them a clear and well-organized approach to explore the site while keeping them focused on getting to their first in-character post.


I think that the current link to the New Players wiki is already on the right foot. It introduces what this is, how to create an account, how to create a character, how to give them a character sheet, and how to introduce yourself to the community OOC.

What I envision is taking the currently existing link/page and turning it into the singular page that has all you need to know with some links to existing resources. Keep "welcome" and "getting started" and "create your account" headings just about as-is. The big changes and improvements should be in two areas: "Create Your Character" and "Dive Deeper."

Create Your Character
Smyth nails it above--you can't truly create your character until you have some grasp of the world and the lore and the setting and what all of this is. This is where we should include a narrative and plenty of links to the primers and guides.

Something organized like this:

Create Your Character​

The best way to create your character is to become familiar with the world of Telath. To catch up on important plots and the setting, check out the [insert link to current paradigm shifts or maybe we even have an ongoing IC-common knowledge history summary type of thread]. Now that you have an idea of what's going on, take a look at the different options for PC [races] as well as [skills] to determine the path your character may take in this world. Once you have an idea for your character, check out the [Character Creator] to generate your character and answer some general questions about their background and motivations!

The biggest "thing" to do here is, as Smyth calls out, is provide a history of major plot points that any common character knows so they can get a feel for what's happening in this world they're entering. We can provide links to existing paradigm shifts, which I see as "updates" to history, but unless it exists already I think a singular page with appropriate links to summarize Telath's history makes sense.

This will then lead to the Character Sheet creation, which I think is pretty good as-is.

Dive Deeper
Finally, we need to lead new players to how to roleplay:

Begin Your Adventure​

You've created your character and you're ready to begin telling their story! There are many ways to jump into the adventure from starting an In-Character welcome [maybe provide a link to a real thread] or development thread, to adventuring alone or with others right away. The last thing you need to know is how things work around here. Collaborative storytelling is the heart of the game of Telath. Typically players will narrate from the perspective of their player characters (PC), writing their responses...

You can just about copy and paste a lot of the "guide to moderation and storytelling" page here to describe what moderation is and how the game works. Then, we make it very clear:

Requesting Moderation and Starting Your First Thread​

When you have an idea of what your first thread will look like, you can find other players and a moderator in the [matchmaker forum] where you will request a mod and invite any others to join (if you'd like). You can work with the moderator there or via Discord or PMs to ensure you're on the same page with your goals for the thread and your moderator will work with the staff via a [storyboard] to ensure their plan for your thread works and to seek approval to start moderating your thread.

I think the page will be lengthy and may include some redundancy that exists elsewhere, but that it will keep new players centered in a welcome "hub" page where they are directed to specific places to explore the rest of the site in an order that makes sense and streamlines their path to start roleplaying. They don't need to understand, yet, how storyboards work (for example), only that their moderator will use one to get approval for the thread.


I didn't include the actual links and will take a look at this post again tonight to see if I missed any thoughts!

 

[Crimson]

This is awesome. I’ll incorporate this into a revision to the New Player article tomorrow

Please continue this discussion as ideas and suggestions come up!

 

[Lysandra Roth]

I second Gavril and I would suggest a page for when new players do feel ready to mod or co-mod. Maybe it wouldn't be part of the new player sections so new players don't feel they HAVE to fully mod for another player but having a page somewhere fairly accessible that explains modding without your character involved, how to submit a story board and how to submit for awards when a thread is finished would all be amazing. The only reason I've survived as a new player is because of Tal and even then I've had to navigate unspoken rules as a new player doing things for the first time.

If it was all on one page, once a new player asked about storyboards or expressed interest in modding for someone without their character there, any other player could share with them the link breaking down how it all works and what's expected of them.

I know there's a little of this info in the mod desk but a thread amongst other threads sadly blends in. Also I don't know how up to date the templates are (are character family trees still a thing?) and the explanation threads itself could use a little more stream lining.

I know many people have already worked hard on this to get it where it is. Their work is valid and appreciated and that does not mean there is no room for improvement.

 

[Gavril Berghansen]

I was thinking the same thing as Lys. Once somebody is ready to "take the plunge" and be a mod (which seems like it would naturally be to reciprocate for somebody who volunteered to mod for you), a similar "hub" of the how-tos for the mechanics of it should be pretty easy to navigate and understand. Here again, the most important information is that the mod learns the characters they're moderating and the setting of the thread and all things applicable. The actual steps of submitting a storyboard and working with the team and doing rewards should be mostly routine.

Also, @Lysandra Roth if you could provide us some of those "unspoken" rules that you can recall navigating I think it would be helpful. Either a) those rules should be dispelled or b) they should be codified somewhere so that others don't have to learn the hard way as well.

 

[Crimson]

Draft - [Wiki] New Players

Draft #1 Notes: Discussion (New Player Experience) Wiki Article Suggestions for Wiki article: "one-stop shop" character creator link current history link(s) paradigm shift link current event(s) link(s) Discord link "learning setting" Suggestions for the Site: Prominent button for New /...

telath.com

OK, everyone!

Draft #1 of the revisions for the New Player Guide is in the World Forge

This is our draft, so let's shift our discussion and work over there. I also tried to put as much of the discussion / suggestions and work that @Kettle and many others have put into this thread into that draft. But if I missed anything, please note it so we can incorporate those ideas into Draft 2.

 

[Crimson]

Hi, everyone:

Gonna leave the draft up for a couple more days for feedback and discussion!

Let’s continue in the World Forge. Closing this thread

Draft - [Wiki] New Players

Draft #1 Notes: Discussion (New Player Experience) Wiki Article Suggestions for Wiki article: "one-stop shop" character creator link current history link(s) paradigm shift link current event(s) link(s) Discord link "learning setting" Suggestions for the Site: Prominent button for New /...

telath.com