Thanks for the input Viletta. I am going to leave a lot of them as documents, though I'll probably convert everything to PDF for ease of portability. To be honest, I don't like the way MW displays a lot of things, so that is why I am doing it this way.

Also, I'm the type of person who likes being able to have the downloads, so I can take things with me on USB, so no matter where I go and even at times when I have no internet connection, I can still read or review stuff. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but that's how I do things. Also, I think having everything in posts makes it look too jumbled. It doesn't look as clean to me. Somethings having everything in the posts makes it a lot harder to read through.

See, and I think is a problem which spans beyond this topic, but I think an 18 page ad is a turn-off to a game. How the heck are you supposed to find stuff. Just having to dig through spoiler tag after spoiler tag I think is a turn-off to people. Maybe something in-between how I like it and how you like it might be a "best practice".

Good catch.

Imo the 18-page game-ad is more combursome and beyond good useage of spoiler tags. I'd rather download a doc file and find a converter than have to manage scrolling my window back and forth just to try and find some info. Yes it's good to contain information. This is overkill and should be spread into Multiple posts/threads in a game forum with the main 'page' spoilered in the game add to help. Again just my thoughts though. The game as is at it's core an Advertisement. Keep it short, but make sure you give players enough info that they are not clueless, and not too much that they feel overwhelmed.
Basic Things I find Necessary in the order I use them on an Add

Campaign Opener Hook: this is usually a paragraph or two (And by that I mean about 15-30 lines of text on the boards) of the first bit of information you want people to know about your setting's story. This could be done in a Dialogue fashion, or replaying an NPCs events. Maybe it's a note given to the player at the beginning of the game that draws them into the story, or maybe it is a short story about what just happened to the PC to bring them to where they are. OR maybe it's completely disconnected from the PCs and it is simply an Epic description of what is going on in the world at that time. Whatever it is, this needs to be packed with something intriguing that makes people say, oooh I want to explore this out.

DM Names: Give a list of the DMs if it's just yourself this is optional.

Setting: Detail the time period, the setting, or other information about the setting if you are using a pre-generated one. If you are using a homebrew you can describe the feel of the setting, and describe it in more detail here.

Overview: Now that you have the people introduced through the Opener Hook you can give an overview of what you want to see in the people. This is going to be things you ask from the players, certain number of posts per day/week. Certain Writing skill, New players only, old players only. etc. The type of setting, the feel of the game you want to get. How long it will run and other basic info related to running the game.

Application: Detail what information you want the characters to include in their application. Maybe you want a completed sheet. Maybe you don't even want people to create a sheet. Maybe just a background and personality is fine. I also suggest having a template or basic layout of what you want it to look like in here also, you can use code tags to make a template, or just format your own like most people do.

Character Creation: This section details how you want your players to create their characters. I suggest putting allowed sources/material and homebrew being used in this section so there is no confusion.


Any info beyond this I would highly suggestion putting in the game forum. Or even myth-wiki, since it is there for this very reason. I use a Wiki for my custom campaign setting and it works great!