Ad Nauseam will be played using Discord, a platform that’s sort of like Teamspeak and Facebook Messenger mashed into one. It has both voice and text capability, though this game will be conducted through text and not voice. The following is a basic guide on how to use Discord.

Here's a quick guide to joining the Ad Nauseam Discord server for the first time. For a definition of some of the terms used here, please see the Glossary.

1. Create your character. Once approved, we'll email you a link to our Discord server.
2. Sign up to Discord using an email account (this should be a personal address, not your IC email address). You can do this by downloading and installing the Discord desktop app, or by simply using the browser version.
3. Click on the invite link that the GMs will have sent you by email (it'll look something like: https://discord.gg/Zrk2cj) and it will automatically give you the option to join the server.
4. You can see all the servers that you are part of in the Discord sidebar on the left-hand side, where they will be represented by circular icons. Select the Ad Nauseam server from this sidebar.
5. Once you've joined the server, right click on your name in the user sidebar on the right-hand side and select “Edit Server Profile”, and there should be an option for your server name. Change it to your character's name along with their preferred pronouns. Discord nicknames are not general IC knowledge, though your character will likely want to introduce themselves!
6. You can change your profile picture by clicking the gear icon (User Settings) at the bottom of the channel sidebar on the left-hand side. This will take you to the 'My Account' tab where you can edit your username, password and profile picture. Like Discord nicknames, profile pictures will not be general IC knowledge, though they can be helpful for distinguishing who is talking.
7. By left clicking on your name in the user sidebar, you can see which roles you have been given. These represent sets of access permissions that the GMs have given you. Discord roles do not exist IC and should not be used to gain information about other characters. They are instead used to represent your character's abilities, locations, equipment, and other things. If you think there is something wrong with your roles (e.g. you're missing one that you think you should have, or you have one but don't know what it means) feel free to ask a GM.

This is a Discord text roleplaying game, which to those who haven’t tried it before can be strange. The following are helpful things to know whilst roleplaying on Discord:

• To have a message be in italics, underlined, bold, strikethrough or spoilered (blacked out), highlight the text and select the appropriate option(s).

• Alternatively, text can be formatted by surrounding it with the appropriate characters as illustrated in the image below: a single asterisk (*) or underscore (_) for italics; a double underscore (__) for underline; double asterisks (**) for bold; double tilde (~~) for strikethrough; or a double pipe (||) for spoilertext.

• You can also reply to a message by selecting the three dots that appear when you hover over a message that has already been sent and selecting the “reply” option. This will allow you to send a direct reply which quotes the original message and notifies the person who originally sent it. Replying to a message posted by a bot will not notify anyone. Instead, you can notify the relevant GM by reacting to the message with a bell emoji.

• A message that is blacked out is spoilered. You can view these messages by clicking on them. Spoiler tags are an OC mechanic and do not represent anything IC. They will be used to hide sensitive content that players who have not taken the "Oh god, its horrifying!" Playstyle Quirk may not wish to see, and to convey OC information in Excursions. Please make sure only to click on spoilered messages if you know they are intended for you to read.

• To address a message directly to someone in a public channel, type @ before their handle, and this will notify them, taking them directly to your message. This is also referred to as “tagging” them in your message.

• To start a new line without sending the message, hold shift and press enter.
  

Discord makes use of 'roles' to allow an admin to easily control permissions such as access to hidden channels and the ability to send messages rather than simply reading them. You can see a user's roles by clicking on their profile picture: this is a strictly OC feature of the game, and should not be used to gain IC information about other characters (e.g. their whereabouts, alliances or abilities). Roles can also be assigned hierarchies and colours. A user's username or nickname on Discord will appear in the colour of their highest ranked role. This is useful for example to distinguish GMs from players.

Before playing this game, please be aware of the conventions we will be using. To avoid confusion, players must not use square brackets in IC interactions, as these should be reserved for important OC clarifications and safety calls.

• Italics represent descriptions of a thing or an action your character is taking.

• Bold text in a Linear Channel represent communication to a GM (if you have a question otherwise in a public channel, click on a GM's name in the user sidebar on the right-hand side and message them privately)

• [Square brackets] indicate OC communication. These should be used to make safety calls (below), or sparingly for short comments and clarifications, not for extended conversation. As above, we discourage players from extensively communicating OC throughout session as this can clog up IC channels, break the immersion of other players, and may encourage metagaming.¹⁾

• [STOP]: This is a safety call meaning that everyone must stop roleplaying the current topic. All players seeing this call must stop roleplaying the topic in question. When used by a GM, this may indicate that the topic has strayed into themes which are forbidden in the game.

• [OUT]: This is a safety call meaning that the user does not wish to further engage in this topic. Once this call is used, other players should carry on roleplaying, but should treat the player calling [OUT] as if they are not/were never part of the interaction.

• [DOWN]: This is a safety call meaning 'tone it down', to be used when player interaction is getting too intense and you would like to signal to others to tone it down without shutting down the roleplay altogether. This is particularly important in angry, argument-based scenarios or highly emotional scenarios that deal with sensitive themes.

• [PAUSE]: This indicates during a high-stress or time-sensitive situation that you would like to pause to look something up or ask a GM about something. This call will hold for a maximum of 5 minutes, after which it is automatically void .

• [DONE]: This call can be made after any other call to indicate that it is all good now, you are ready to jump back into the roleplay and the IC situation can proceed as normal.

• [GTG]: Short for 'got to go', this indicates that the user is logging off or needs to leave, either for an extended period of time or for the rest of session. Others will not wait for you to continue roleplaying but will not assume that your character has broken down/gotten abducted/lost connection IC.

…is that it's not the end of the world if you're new to any or all of this! If you're unsure, you can always refer to this page or to the OC rules channel which will be set up on the server, or you can contact one of us (the GMs) privately if you'd like us to explain something in more detail. As GMs, we'll also be working out some technical difficulties, so you won't be alone! We hope you enjoy your Ad Nauseam experience, and we'll hopefully see you on the server very soon.