Campaigns

A campaign is an actual game of the ToAd, played online through the FrOg. It involves a bunch of people going online at the same time to partake in an adventure. This can be as simple as a bar-room brawl or a true campaign spanning decades and continents and hundreds of characters.

Since you are seeing this, it most likely means that you are also the director of the campaign and therefore the person who has to set it up, which is what this page is all about.

Name: This is the name of the campaign. Like all names in the ToAd it should be distinct, so be sure to use the Check button before submitting the page.

State: These radio button determine whether or not new players may join your campaign.

Public Nature: Eventually the FrOg may offer private campaigns, but for now all new campaigns are open to the public.

Rule Level Allowed: While the setting of rules on the ToAd site carries with it a profound change in the appearance of the site, this elaborate collection of radio buttons does nothing but inform players of what to expect from you so far as allowing characters and items into the game.

World: Likewise, the world setting does little more than inform the players what world the game takes place in.

Challenge: This informs future players of how challenging you expect the game to be.

Max Number of Characters: Limits the number of characters the party as a whole can bring on the adventure. Once this limit is reached no one else will be able to sign on.

Minimum and Maximum Character Level: These two boxes tell the players what level character to bring to the game.

Start Date And Time: These fields detail when the game will initially begin. Generally it is a good idea to keep meeting at the same time on a weekly basis. In truth, the time and date are for display purposes only. Once a game is set up you can go into the FrOg and use it anytime.

For matters of consistency, just please adjust your timing for EST or Eastern Seaboard Time.

Game Frequency: This is how often you plan to run games in the FrOg.

Blurb: These are your selling points for this adventure. When players go searching for new campaigns, this is what will catch their eye and hook their imaginations.

Introduction: This is the long introductory passage read by the director to the players to start a game off. It get's posted ahead of time so players can read it over at their liesure and not have to waste any game time milling through it..

Private Notes: Use this space to write messages to yourself. They will only appear here on the campaign editing page.

Player Characters: This is a list of the characters and players who have signed on to the adventure.

• Rejecting/Accepting Characters: Newly added characters which have not yet been approved will be marked with an asterix. To approve a character simply do not click the rejection box and submit the page. Approval is automatic. The box just to the right of the rejection checkbox is space where you can send a small message back to the character's player explaining why you rejected the character. You do not need to write a reason in order to reject a character but it doesn't hurt.
• Blacklist Player: It's unfortunate, but sometimes we can't all get along. If you have a player who is apparently bombarding your campaign with bogus character's just to get at you by clogging the system, check this box when you go to reject his characters and that will put him on the blacklist. From there he will not be able to sign on or attend any adventures that you run. To take someone off your blacklist, see your player profile.

Creatures: Creatures are your characters. Clicking the Select button creates a pop-up page similiar to the ones used to give characters skill, equipment and such. The only difference is the Group box. Use it to keep your creatures organized by checking the members of a group, typing the name of the group in the Group box, and then clicking "Assign Checked Items to this Group."

Note that this is not the only way to bring creatures into an adventure. The director's visibility button works to bring in new creatures. And if you are using a pre-made adventure, the creatures in it are easily brought into play through its page. Note that - by default - all creatures come into the FrOg as invisible, so you can enjoy springing them on your friends.

Although the Creature table will be changed when you click Finish and return to the Campaign editor, the changes will not be cemented in place until you submit the campaign editing page.

Battle Boards: These are maps of various encounters you might be planning in advance. The table here is just for show and all modifications to your collection of battleboards are done through the battle board builder which appears when the GoTo It! button is clicked. See the Battle Board Builder's help file for info on how it works.

Because you first need a record in the database for Battle Boards to connect to, the GoTo It! button will not work until you have first submitted your campaign.

Adventures to Access: This is a table of pre-made adventures you plan to run during the game. It uses a selector similiar to the one used to bring in creatures. This info is private and players will not know what adventures you have lined up for them.

Like the Creatures table, changes made to the adventures to access table will not be cemented in place until you have submitted the page.

Send a Message to All Players: Whatever you write into this box will be emailed to all players who have signed on to the campaign. Use it to get opinions and keep people abreast of changes - especially changes in the time or date of the adventure!

Creation Information: The most important part of this section is the Complete Box. Checking it is like tacking up a notice on an information board. Other people will be able to see it and sign on for the adventure. Double check everything and be absolutely sure the campaign is complete before checking Complete!

Delete Campaign: Clicking these three checkboxes and submitting the page will delete everything about your campaign, erasing all record of it. If your campaign is simply over, it is much better to select "Game Over. Campaign Complete." from the State menu than to delete it completely. Characters who adventure in your games get to have links to its transcript - as a souvenir of sorts - in their profile, so in a sense by deleting the campaign you are robbing them of their trophy. Of course, if the campaign went badly this might not be the worse thing to happen in the world.