Roleplaying Handbook

From Wikipedia of the Dark Brotherhood, an online Star Wars Club

This page serves as the official source for all recommended Roleplaying systems utilized in the Brotherhood's Roleplaying Society. It also contains the policies that help govern the activity.

  • For information on the Roleplaying supplemental society, and the trophy-based progression system, please see the Envoy Corps: Trophy & Rank Progression page.
  • For information on the Envoy Corps (Fictional) see the Envoy Corps page.
  • For information about the Exarch and Exarch Staff, see the Exarch page.
  • The Exarch Staff can be reached at: exarch-staff@googlegroups.com

Shadow Academy Exams

The Shadow Academy is a great place to learn more about the Brotherhood's RP activities.

Activities 104: Roleplaying

  • Course Notes and Exam- This course will show you how to quickly and easily join a roleplaying (RP) activity, set up an RP activity, as well as what to do when participating in a session, and how to run one yourself if interested!

Exarch Resources

You can find a folder of all the Exarch Resources on Google Drive at the link below:

Adventure Kits

The following "kits" were made to help you run your first RP with some visual aides.

Players Tokens & NPCs

Tokens are popular to use when using a map for your roleplaying activity. Use the site below to drag and drop an image, adjust it, and save it to use in any of your games and maps!

Map Making

Creating an RP

It's highly recommended that you take the Activities 104: Roleplaying exam to better familiarize yourself with the technical steps needed for starting up your session, but it is not required. Any member is able to host or create an RP, but if you have any questions, please reach out to a member of the Exarch staff or email us at: exarch-staff@googlegroups.com.

Here is a quick list of commands and what they can do for RP activity:

Command Function
/rp create Create an RP session. Can be initiated from any channel.
/rp edit Edit the RP session parameters.
/rp joins Enable or disable the join button on the advertisement message.
/rp advertise Will let you pick a channel to advertise your RP
/rp snapshot create Will let you select from your available character sheet loadouts and attach it to the session.
/rp snapshot list Will show you a list of attached snapshots

Dice Bot

If you choose to utilize dice for your roleplaying session, you can do so by adding Dice Maiden to the RP via the "Add Dice Bot" button.

Some popular ones that come up a lot:

Command Function
/roll help Displays basic usage instructions.
/roll help alias Displays alias instructions.
/roll 1dX+Y Rolls one dice, where X is the number of sided dice you want to roll. +Y adds a modifier value
/roll 1dX+Y ! Description of action Any text following the "!" will post with the role.
/roll 2dX d1 Advantage roll where X is the dice sides value. Rolls two dice and keeps the highest.
/roll 2dX kl1 Disadvantage roll where X the dice sides value. Roll two dice and keep the lowest.

Types of Roleplaying Activities

When running and setting up the RP Typefield, for your RP these are the recommended "game types" or archetypes that can be used to help organize the types of Roleplaying activity you are running.

SOCIAL

  • Suggested size: 3+ players
  • Suggested run time: 1-4 weeks
    • Optional: Voice Session (2-4 hours)

Social RPs can be set up in a cantina, an event space, or any venue, really. They are usually treated as casual sessions, and are a good way to get as many members involved as they tend to be more free-form and less structured. They’re also great for focusing on interpersonal character drama and not getting bogged down in mechanics, turn orders, or awareness of Star Wars/Brotherhood lore. While dice rolls are not required, they can be used to help play games that make use of “drink points”, or casual attribute checks such as arm-wrestling, darts, billiards, etc.

ADVENTURE

  • Suggested size: 3-6 players
  • Suggested run time: 1-3 weeks
    • Optional: Voice Session (2-4 Hours)

Adventures function more like a conventional TableTop/DnD session. There will usually be a venue, an objective, and a more hands-on structure set by the DM and an overarching plot/story. While dice rolls are not required, they are what most TableTop players are accustomed to and tend to help keep members engaged and with more indication of what they can/can’t do.

CHARACTER

  • Suggested size: 2-3 players
  • Suggested run time: N/A

Character focused RPs can be anything that focuses on character development and interactions with other characters in the Brotherhood. These can range from an overdue conversation between two characters meeting at a given location, to a slice of life outing, to sparring or training matches, and even for duels. The idea with Character RPs is that there is no impetus for scheduling or a DM, and the onus is placed on a small group of members to self-manage and enjoy writing together in RP format.

OTHER

  • Covers anything that falls outside the previous three archetypes.

Finalizing

Once an RP is complete, the DM (Leader) can close out the session. This will automatically generate a URL with an HTML transcript of the RP, and submit the word count to the Exarch Staff for review and processing.

Roleplaying Policy

The following section contains policies created to help maintain the operation and integrity of Roleplaying Activities so that members can have fun and be safe while running and participating in these activities.

DM Etiquette

As seen in the Activities 104: Roleplaying Exam:

Being a part of a roleplaying group can be a very intimate thing. The characters that have been created are held dear to a player's heart. So putting them out into the world for potentially bad things to happen to them is a kind of trust-fall in an RP activity. As a member of the group, players are encouraged to be respectful of each other and their characters when telling a story together using each of your respective characters.
When waiting for other players to post, be kind! Everyone in the Brotherhood is here for entertainment and enjoyment, but real life does happen and can throw off your plans to post. It’s okay to @mention another player to remind them or follow up, but you never know what might have come up for them. Likewise, if you know you’re going to be unable to post for a period of time (a few hours, a day, etc.) you should tell your DM and fellow players so that they know.
If you ever feel like a DM is being unfair or you feel like they’re creating a negative experience, please reach out to a member of the Exarch Staff and they can take a look into the situation for you.

Co-DM/GM Policy

By default, Golden Envoy Marks are awarded to the member that creates an RP activity as the DM of the session. This member is designated as the “Leader” role for the administrative abilities of dbb0t for the RP thread (as they are the only one that can Add Dice Bot, and finalize the session). A second member can act as a "Co-DM" if necessary for your Roleplaying activity. A Co-DM is not required but may be helpful especially with larger or more ambitious activities.

Some good examples include:

  • A busy work schedule that prevents you from answering players for a long stretch of time during the day.
  • Help with keeping track of larger groups through maps, resources, or lore dumps.
  • Help reverse-shadow a new DM.
  • Time zone coverage.

When selecting a Co-DM, you must send an email to the Exarch Staff (exarch-staff@googlegroups.com) at the beginning of the session. This ensures that when processing the RP on the backend, we attribute credit to the Co-DM.

As part of the review process the Exarch staff already does, Exarch Staff will check the RP thread to make sure that the co-DM contributed in a meaningful way, and manually append the additional dossier when submitting the activity. In general, the Exarch Staff will trust the DMs, and only take action if there appears to be blatant abuse of the system.

Rulesets and Systems

DM/GM's have the option of deciding what system they will use when running a session. The following list is a collection of suggested guides for running different kind of RP activities.


Rulesets
Author System
Turel Sorenn Starfighter PvE Guide
Teebu Nyrrire Clan Taldryan d6 Source Book
Exarch Brotherhood d20
Leeadra Halcyon Drinking Game (D10)
Archenskov Brotherhood Fate (Beta)
Grot Blades in the Dark (Beta)
Aura Ta'var Dice-less Social