InsaneJournal

Missions are NPC run mini-events or major gamewide events that players can sign up for to explore the world and make new character connections. There are five important components to every mission page to help you understand what exactly you are committing your character to.

1. The Brief
This is your book jacket description of what this mission is about. It will tell you the key locations, players and conflicts involved in the story, and how exactly you might fit into it. Most missions should have opportunities for heroes to do good by the people, or for those people of more ambiguous morals to benefit from the chaos-- and, of course, it's all up to your interpretation. NPCs will stir interest for these events in the game communities, directly contact participating player characters, or will be sneakily silent and wait for player characters to put their own detective skills to use. The first thing you need to do might be to figure out how to get there-- an event might take place in New York City, Hong Kong or Atlantis, and the NPCs are rarely a public transportation service. Maybe your character needs to make friends with an airforce pilot or teleporter before they even begin.

2. Expiry
Most missions will be posted at least a week in advance of their projected occurrence to give players a chance to sign up and plot with each other to prepare. Some are indefinite and will linger on the map until they catch someone's attention, but most will expire on the date listed and be removed if there are not enough player participants for it to move forward. Sometimes it's not that easy; an expiry might be a countdown, so don't let those innocuous investigation missions go by unchecked. The next mission that goes up might just be an invasion, plague or huge natural disaster that could have been prevented.

If the stars align and a mission has enough character participants to proceed, the game post goes up and everyone begins tagging, it is still subject to a fumble. If the thread does not come to a satisfactory end, or it experiences a two week posting lull, the expiry effects come back into play.

3. Stats
Using a ranking system of one to five stars, this handy little meter will give you a quick and clear idea of what a mission will entail. A high FIGHT rating tells you a mission is largely combat based for those looking for some action, and a high FLUFF rating tells you its softer and cuddlier. These are not mutually exclusive! A mission is not always completed in a single thread, and a single thread isn't always just the big blow-out. This also does not indicate the 'difficulty' of a mission; a maximum fluff mission could take a lot of observation and investigation skills to accomplish.

4. Play Type
This displays the determined balance of NPC and player character roles in the mission thread. There are three different types of play, each weighing the NPC's importance differently:

a) Turn Based missions give the NPC a regular turn in the thread, as determined by an established turn order. Respect their turn as much as a fellow player character's.
b) Point and Click missions depend on the player characters interacting with the environment and locals to get the NPC to react. A quiet NPC means you're on a cold trail.
c) Freeform missions are entirely up to the player characters-- the NPCs can establish the setting, but then you're on your own to tell the story.

5. Comments
If a mission page receives no comments, the mission will expire. Players have to sign up for a mission to participate, and all missions require at least two player characters to go forward. You're not here to play with the NPCs. If you have questions or concerns, comment! If you want to participate but want to change something, comment! If you can't play by the expiry date, comment! If you don't know how to involve your character, comment! There are no stupid questions, just stupid empty comment boxes.