BGA Rules and Info
From ThreadsWiki
If you've never used the system before or if you're playing a new character, you may want to skip to the section on registering for the system.
Contents |
WRITING A NEW BGA
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl and login with your username and password, hitting "Submit"
(2) You should see your characters on the right. If you don't, click the "Character Menu" tab. In any case, once you see the character you want to write BGAs for, click on "Between Game Actions".
(3) Click "ADD a NEW Between Game Action"
(4) Choose the type of BGA in the dropdown, and then click "Go to Step 2". IMPORTANT: If this is a group BGA, regardless of what other type of BGA it might also be, choose "Group". The types of BGAs are explained on the page.
(5) Fill out the form and click "Add". The most important parts are what you're doing, the GM you believe to be primarily in charge of the BGA, and the number of points you're spending on the BGA. IMPORTANT NOTE: Most, but not all, of the current writers are in the system as GMs. If the writer you need for a BGA isn't listed, use "NOT SURE" or "Threads Staff", and put a note in the You can also use "NOTE SURE" if you're not sure who the writer is, strangely enough. If you want the BGA to go to all the writers of the game, choose "Threads Staff".
That's it! You can fill in more BGAs by going back to Step 3 above, and you can delete or edit your existing BGAs by clicking on the "Edit" or "Delete" link next to the BGA in question.
You're limited by your BGA points, it won't let you enter more than you're supposed to; if you're out of BGA points, you can only enter 0-point BGAs. In addition, if you try to charge yourself more points than you have, it only charges you the amount you have left. (Of course, you could edit your amount of BGAs at any time; this is part of the "we trust you not to be a jerk" policy. But we figured keeping track of the points for you couldn't hurt.)
VIEWING BGA RESPONSES
If you're already logged in, skip to Step 2.
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl and login with your username and password, hitting "Submit"
(2) You should see your characters on the right. If you don't, click the "Character Menu" tab. In any case, once you see the character you want to see BGAs for, click on "Between Game Actions".
(3) If a BGA has been processed, under "Action", where normally you could edit or delete a BGA, it will say "Processed" and list the result of the BGA.
There will be an email on Threads-Official letting you know you when to check your BGAs for a given period for results. Feel free to check earlier and obsessively if you want, but we make no guarantees. An individual writer may choose to tell you she's answered a BGA, but again, we make no guarantees.
Once a BGA has been answered, the BGA points have been used and the BGA can no longer be edited. If the writer charged you less BGA points than you put into the BGA, you might have some BGA points suddenly available; if this happens before the BGA round closes, it's OK to use those points immediately.
CANCELING ACTIONS
If you want to cancel what you're doing (such as editing a BGA or adding a BGA), there is usually a "Return to BGAs" or "Main Menu" link at the bottom of a given page that you can click, and it will exit you without changing/adding anything.
If you need to delete a BGA entirely, click the "Delete" link next to the BGA in question. Be sure you want to do this before you do it.
CHANGING YOUR DATA
If any of your character data changes -- such as your BGA Resource stat going up, or you being given extra BGA points for a round by a GM -- you can always click on the "Edit Character" link. Heck, you can even change your character's name, maybe she got married or something. We trust you and this goes under the general Threads "don't be a jerk" policy.
REGISTERING FOR THE BGA SYSTEM
If you're new to the system, you'll have to do these steps.
This may seem to take a bit, but it actually doesn't take very long at all in practice, and you only have to do this part once. Do it now and get it over with.
If you have a new character, you'll need to log in as usual and then start at Step 6 of the procedure below.
(1) Go to http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/login.pl
(2) Click on the "Need to Create an Account?" link.
(http://bga.threadsofdamocles.org/addeditplayer.pl)
(3) Fill out the form and then click "Submit". IMPORTANT NOTE: The form is asking for your information as a PLAYER, not your character's information. Put your real name and email address in the system. Don't make the same mistake Eric Smith did. :)
(4) You'll then be back at the login page. Enter the username and password you just created and click "Submit".
(5) Click on the link marked "Click here" and then fill out your player questionaire. Again, fill this out as a PLAYER, not a character.
(6) Click on the "Character Menu" tab.
(7) Click on "Create a Character".
(8) Fill in the information about your character. IMPORTANT: The most vital parts are the character's name and your BGA resources. The latter is the value of the BGA Resource RTLB ability for your character, and does NOT include the 4 BGA actions you get for free. If you only use the default 4 BGA actions, put 0 in that blank, as you haven't purchased any BGA resources. When you're done filling out the form, click "Add".
You're now ready to enter BGAs for that character. In the description below, we go through the process as if you were logged out, since in future you won't have just finished registering. If you just went through the above and don't want to log out and log back in again, click "Between Game Actions" and skip to Step 3 of "WRITING A NEW BGA".
IMPORTANT: OTHER FUNCTIONS
There's a lot of links/features you might see clicking around that are not mentioned above, like "Edit Public Info Page" or "View Timeline". Those aren't guaranteed to work; use at your own risk. We might implement those features more fully in the future. PLEASE NOTE that "Manage Journal" accesses a journaling system managed by the software and NOT your Threads Blog that some of you used for BGAs in the early seasons of Threads. If a function does not relate to BGAs (this includes the journal link), do not ask us about this at the time.
NEED HELP?
I suggest re-reading the above and making sure what you want to do isn't already explained.
After that, if a problem computer-related, like your browser has trouble rendering the database webpages, email threads-tech-support@threadsofdamocles.org first. If you don't get a response in a day or two, try info@threadsofdamocles.org. If you have a question about the BGA process or some question about BGAs that isn't technical, email info@threadsofdamocles.org.
