New Player Introduction

Hi and welcome to the Universalis Arena! We're glad you've chosen to participate! We've tried to make the playing procedure as easy as possible. So just follow along and we'll get you started.

Becoming a Player

Step 1. Register

The first thing you need to do, if you aren't aleady a member of this site, is to go ahead and Register. Just click on the linked page and then follow the directions. After you are done come on back here. Register Me!

All done? Great. If you aren't familar with how a Wiki works, I suggest you take a look at the WelcomeGuest topic. It will tell you all you need to know about how to use the software here.

Step 2. Create Your Player Page

This will be the page where you can track all the Scenes and Components that you've spent your tokens on. To do this, Enter your WikiName (first and last name with no space) into the form below and click create. This will bring you to the edit view of your new player page. Go ahead and save it and then come back to this topic through the link on the side bar menu.

Congratulations! You are now ready to learn how to play!

Playing the Game

So, now you're asking, "How do I play the game?" Hopefully, you've already got your own copy of the Rules of %UNI%. If you don't, I highly recommend picking up a copy. (Just click on the link, its some of the best money I've spent.) There are people here who are happy to help you through learning how to play but we don't have either the room or inclination to reprint the entire book, partly out of respect for its authors.

In Universalis, you pay for everything with Tokens. There are three major types of things you can buy. Tenets are additions or adjustments to the rules of the game and additions to the social contract between the players. Components are the People, Places and Things inside the game (called respectivly Characters, Locations and Props.) Finally, Scenes are the actual 'story' parts of the game where things happen to the Characters, Locations and Props.

You start the game with 25 tokens. (They're already there on your Player Page.^?) When you complete a Scene you earn 5 tokens for it. You can also gain more tokens through complications (conflicts in a scene where both sides earn tokens depending on a roll of the dice.) Yes, you don't start with very many, and for good reason. We want story conflicts to happen and happen early!

People are sometimes reluctant to add stuff to other people's Scenes or Components. I have to voice a personal opinion here: Universalis thrives on people with differing visions of what they want to happen. It's really what drives the game, so don't be afraid to contribute anywhere.

Creating a New Component, Tenet or Scene.

So how do you create a New Component (Character, Location or Prop), Tenet or Scene? Easy enough.

Every Scene, Component or Tenet will be contained in its own page or Topic as its called around here.

You may want to go ahead and open SampleComponent in another window so you can see what we're talking about.

1. Create the Topic

Type the WikiName of your new Scene, Tenet or Component in the Go box there at the top right of the page, next to "Golden Chain Press," Then hit enter on your keyboard. The software will then ask you if you want to create the topic. Go ahead and click the Create New Topic link that will be offered.

Do I always have to use the Go Box?

As a matter of fact, no. If you happen to be Adding to a Scene (see Adding to an Existing Topic, below) you can just write the WikiWord for your new Component into the scene. Once you save the scene you can click on the little question mark that appears at the end of the WikiWord, LikeThis^?, that will take you to the edit page for your new component.

2. Fill out the form at the bottom.

Don't worry its a tiny form. There's only two things to enter so your new topic gets indexed properly. The form looks like this. (If you're on IE it won't look this pretty, but it will be close.)

Just select the main type of the topic (Tenet, Scene, Component, Metagame, Admin)

Then select the subtype

• For Tenet - SocialContract, RulesGimmick, StoryElement
• For Component - Character, Location, Prop, MasterComponent
• For Scene - Proposed, Open, Closed
• For Metagame - Player
• For Admin - None

If you don't know how to categorize it, just do the best you can, and then ask. An admin (or you even) can correct any errors.

3. Save the Topic

See that raw text in the edit screen? You really don't have to mess with that unless you are using the Alternate Posting Method. One thing though, if this page is not a Component or a Tenet, you may want to delete the Importance Section. It really isn't used for Scenes.

Next, check the "Release edit lock" checkbox. This will make sure the topic is available to others for editing right away after you make your entry. Otherwise they have to wait about 30 minutes before it becomes active again

Now, click the save button.

A couple of side notes about buttons on the bottom of the edit screen

• Checkpoint saves the topic without leaving the edit screen
• Quiet Save saves the topic but doesn't show an update to the topic's version number, so it doesn't show on the RSS feed, or the changes page.
• The 'Minor changes, Don't notify' checkbox does the same thing as Quiet Save.

4. Write your contribution in the 'Entry' Box

Once you've saved the topic you'll see two boxes on your new topic. The top one is for play entries (and says above it, cleverly, Play Entry.) it looks like this (please do not use this one):

and the bottom one is for non-play comments and discussion and looks like this.

Write your entry in the proper box. Don't sign it, the wiki will automatically add the proper signiture. Note the coins you spent or earned in the 'Spent' and 'Earned' boxes below the Play Entry box. Make sure you keep the double number format. Write 03 instead of 3, etc. If you don't do this the tracking will not pick up your entry properly.

Finally click the 'Add Entry' button.

That's it, you're done! Congratulations! If you see mistakes and want to edit your text, just go through a regular edit cycle.

Adding to Existing Topics

So you want to add to a Scene or Component started by another person? Of course you do! Remember what I said earlier? This game thrives on people having different ideas about what should happen. So help make our game entertaining for us and for you by being assertive with your ideas.

Anyway, adding to other people's topics is pretty much the same as the procedure above, except simpler because you don't have to actually create the page or fill out the classification form.

All you have to do is enter your addition to the page as is mentioned in step 4 above.

Commenting on other player entries.

Instead of entering your comment in the play entry box, enter it into the comment box. Your comment will be posted in red below the current play entry. The wiki will add the proper signiture.

If you need to add a comment to an earlier entry, go through a regular edit cycle (click on the Edit link on the bottom of the page), put your comment, along with your regular signiture, in the proper spot. To color it red, you can surround it with these tags

%RED%My comment is here.%ENDCOLOR%

You get,

My comment is here.

Alternate Posting Method

1. Create the Topic

Do this the same way as in the main method above.

2. Write your contribution.

After clicking the create new topic link, you'll be in the edit screen for your new Game topic. All you have to do now is go ahead and write down what you want. If this is a new Component topic you'll probably want to list its description and whatever traits you want to add to it. if its a new Scene you'll want to give the Location, Time and Starting Characters, as well as narrate the first events.

3. Sign it and note coins spent.

Once you are done adding to your topic, you are ready to sign it. If you look at the bottom of the edit screen you will see two signitures available. The second one is the the one you want to use for any actual game entries. It Looks like this.

-- MyWikiName 00 00 -- 23 May 2012

Just copy and paste that line into the topic underneath your entry. Then change the 00 to equal the number of coins you spent. The first 00 is coins spent. The second 00 is coins earned (like when they are refreshed at the end of scenes.) Its important that you don't change the spacing or anything because there is a search string on your Player Page that looks for this specific pattern so it can track your expenditures and earnings automatically.

So, say you spent five coins. You would change the string to read

-- MyWikiName 05 00 -- 23 May 2012

Now, say you did something that earned you five coins, You (or someone) would write the sig

-- MyWikiName 00 05 -- 23 May 2012

Now, for giggles, say you did something that caused to you spend 3 coins and earn 5, the sig would look like

-- MyWikiName 03 05 -- 23 May 2012

4. Fill out the form at the bottom.

This step is the same as Step 2 above.

5. Save the Topic

If you're pretty sure you're done editing the topic check the "Release edit lock" checkbox. This will make sure the topic is available to others for editing right away. Otherwise they have to wait about 30 minutes before it becomes active again

Finally, click the save button.

A couple of side notes about buttons on the bottom of the edit screen

• Checkpoint saves the topic without leaving the edit screen
• Quiet Save saves the topic but doesn't show an update to the topic's version number, so it doesn't show on the RSS feed, or the changes page.
• The 'Minor changes, Don't notify' checkbox does the same thing as Quiet Save.

You're done! You've just created a new Tenet, Scene or Component! The harder way too! Do you get anything for that? Unfortuately only UniWiki geek cred. :)

That's pretty much it, hope to see your contributions in the field!

Got questions? You can email me, or you can visit our Forum.

Examples

This will be a listing of samples for you to play with, to see what actual entries are like.

• SampleComponent