Anatomy of a Post
Understanding the Doug Alone Formatting
Over time, quite a few elements have been developed to give me the kind of freedom/layout I want to tell my stories in the way I like to play and share them. A few headers that clearly defined the layout have been cut over time since they became a bit "explain-y" and repetitive and interfered with the flow of the reading. However, this means that some elements might seem a bit weird if someone sees it for the first time.
This page gives a sample of the most common/regular segments of my actual play session posts. A quick summation of the various elements are:
- Gamemaster Phases (aka, Setting the { Scene | Area }): where session building primarily occurs with oracle rolls aimed at designing rooms, scenes, and encounters. These also contain the shorter intermissions that discuss simple changes to formats, new rules, and such. More complex changes tend to get their own full INTERMISSION post which can be a lot more varied.
- Player Phases: where the actual typical player-facing style moments are played more in short, fun-to-run "real time" bursts within (and sometimes against) the framework of the GM-phases and other phases.
- Lore Phases: a mixture pure creative writing fitting the world lore but with occasionally rolls | tests to figure out specifics. Generally used for BIG PICTURE elements for a campaign.
- Actual Play Inserts: Are sections with an abbreviated play journal with play and mechanics blended together, used to either share a play journal for recap or to represent a more summary explanation of several scenes without playing them in detail.
- Notes Phases: Containing commentary, mechanical notes for the Player (and Lore) Phases, and credits.
- Interjections: Pretty rare but tend to be used to insert moments where real life or technical glitches have an impact on a post.
- Art: Various types of art are used. Most posts have a "splash art" at the top. Sometimes maps and fun "handouts" are shared. I like to include credits directly under the art as a caption just for clarity.
Sample Post with Elements Explained
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| Art by Lars Nissen (Pixabay) |
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Table of Contents
A bit self-explanatory, this section has links to various elements around the page. If "hide gm elements" is clicked (above), the links to the various sections in that category are also hidden. For instance:
- A Summary Phase Example
- A Gamemaster Phase Example
- A Lore Phase Example
- A Player Phase Example
- An Interjection Example
- An Actual Play Insert Example
- A Doug's Commentary Example
- A Mechanical Notes Example
- A Credits Example
Summary Phase Example
The Summary Phase (in the same green motif as the notes, roughly) has a few elements to help place the session in the bigger picture. There is a...
Previously on...
"Previously on..." section that sums up the last session (or two) or gives previous story elements important to the context of the section. Then there is a...
About
The about section sums up the campaign as a whole with a short paragraph about settings and lore. This section includes a...
CONTENT WARNING: possible triggering content elements, with a general lean to covering all bases. See Notes about Content for a fairly extensive list about the kind of content I do and do not allow in my actual plays.
...and some technical notes and links explaining the basic format of the post, the RPG being used, the oracle/emulator, and links to important tables.
The actual session starts here, with the title marking the start of the Chapter | Session | Episode | Part | etc
A Gamemaster Phase Example
The Gamemaster Phase (in broadly a "teal/cyan" color scheme) are where I Set the Scene or create an area and work out roughly a scene or session's worth of mechanics, prompts, and ideas. I do not try and work out every detail, here. The idea is to work out enough that I have some basic concepts for a scene or two, maybe a few rooms, a session at a most. Then, specific elements and what they mean are given more details in the Player Phases.
For instance, I might have a section where I work out there is a thief trying to grab something from my characters. I might work out the thief's name and what they are trying to grab. I still will leave some room to figure out more details depending on if the thief is caught, a fight breaks out, etc.
NOTE: If you want to test the "hide GM Elements," above, this section should...
*POOF*
A Lore Phase Example
I am a storyteller and forever-GM at heart so I have a tendecy for writing complex world building and lore elements for everything I touch. I find it fun. Lore might involve a few mechanical rolls. It is usually just free writing out details based on known or planned elements. Some lore will have virtually zero impact on a session.
The idea is that these moments are more big picture things and background set-pieces.
Lore phases tend to a kind of orange/pink coloration.
A Player Phase Example
A section like this (generally un-decorated and just in default blog text and colors) is where I do the player phase. In my format for this blog, this is the section where I respond to the stuff established in the Gamemaster (Setting the Scene) and Lore phases. It tends to be written from character POV (note: said POV might be third-person limited depending on if there is more than one main character) and in a story-type format describing actions and thoughts in detail rather than just summing up stuff. "Donna quickly opens the door and then jumps inside" instead of "Donna: open door + quick movement."
I prefer present tense for the majority of posts because when writing this I rarely know what will happen next.
This means that { dice rolls | card draws | other mechanical details } are kept out of this section. When I make rolls, draw cards, or otherwise engage with the mechanics I write those down below in the Mechanical Notes section and then link to them at the end of the paragraph in square brackets with a link to the specific note and an HTML-tag so you should see the text of the note by mousing over it. Like this: [1]
In the cases of RECAP-style posts, the recap will go here, instead, but from a "character-facing summary" instead of fully fleshed out fiction. Details might be missing if they are more "GM-centric." The notes will be shared in an Actual Play Insert below (usually after the commentary for flow reasons).
An Interjection Example
Probably the least used element on my blog but every once in a while something occurs (usually technical, system, or real life) that requires more of a special notice. This might show up if a post is very delayed or undergoes a complete switch half-way through.
An ACTUAL PLAY INSERT Example
These "actual play" phases (in a broadly "yellow" theme) serve two purposes for the blog. Calling these "actual play inserts" is a bit confusing out of context, I admit, since the whole blog is basically "actual play" but I will try to explain.
First, for RECAP posts, it is either the actual play notes from my journal posted directly in a blog-friendly format (often with a slightly length process of adding in paragaph, heading, and color/style tags. An example of this would be this post from the older format of The Bloody Hands where the actual play is down below and a recap is up above. OR, in cases where the actual play notes are more scattered or harder to format—such as games where info is kept in a more visual table or in a number of shifting parts—this will be downloads.
Second, for other posts, it is section where I compress the other phases—Gamemaster, Player, Lore, and sometimes others—into a single stream with minimal formatting and breaks. Used to do things like sum up a time jump, settle a more complex situation in a couple of rolls, or potentially show something "off-screen" that would disrupt the flow of the main campaign session. An example of this would the final "Season 1" post for The Bleak + The Pearl where 1-3 sessions of gameplay was summed up in a single section (scroll down to near the bottom of that post).
A DOUG'S COMMENTARY Example
Nearly every post has some content here where I discuss my feelings and thoughts about the session and some behind the scenes stuff. This is a way for me to "debrief" myself after a session and sort my ideas. It also gives some background and sources for some inspirations and let's me tally up ideas I need to focus on for future sessions. As long as it looks like I am talking to someone else then it is not me talking to myself. *wink*
A MECHANICAL NOTES Example
These are the notes for mechanical rolls (player-facing, tables, oracles, whatever) and occasionally notes about story/content for the Player and Lore Phases. An example would be:
- I just rolled a 1 on a 1d6.
A CREDITS Example
Where the various credits go. Somtimes things included are less about the specific post and more about the campaign in general since the nature of solo roleplaying means a lot of oracles/tools are used to get to a point so those elements are inherent even if a specific post/session does not use them.
For instance, the "Lantern, Sea, Heaven, Beach, water" splash art used in this demo is byLars Nissen from Pixabay. It was picked because it showed up in the recent/recommended and just looked pretty.
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