General Information

User Information

Posting and Posts

Rules and Forum Terms

General Information

What's this forum for?

This, in case you found us by accident, is the forum to discuss the game Deadly Rooms of Death (commonly abbreviated to DROD). It's free to download, so go back up to drod.caravelgames.com and pick it up if you haven't already. Really, you'll love it.

Recently we've started taking on people who have no intention of talking about DROD, partly because we're suddenly showing up in Google for other puzzle games. To those people we say, welcome, check us out, it's not like we're going to turn you away, but stick to the Anything board.

Why can't I post?

We haven't actually heard this one, but then that makes sense, because if they can't post, then they... oh stuff it.

We require people to sign up first so we don't get spammers. We haven't had one yet, so it's obviously a working strategy. Don't argue. I said don't.

What do I need to have to register?

Well, let's assume you've clicked on 'Register' up the top there. I hope this is a safe assumption, and you're clever and a fine addition to the DROD community.

We'll need a username (so we can call you something), and it has to be unique. As we're a small board, this will be easier than those places where you can tell the old hands because they don't have a number in their name. We also need a password, and your e-mail address. Feel free to provide a country, instant messenger IDs and the like.

We make a legitimate effort to secure passwords. As long as you have JavaScript enabled, an unencrypted password is never even sent to our server. Regardless, just like any site, it's probably a good idea to not use something for your password that has bad follow-on effects if it gets discovered i.e. your Internet banking password, or your NORAD logon name.

Of course, we know you'll probably use the same password you use everywhere, unless you have an amazing memory. Don't feel embarrassed. If by some chance you have used your NORAD logon name, you can change your password easily enough - see below.

Can I make more than one account?

No. If you are caught with multiple accounts, they will be disabled. Depending on the circumstances, we may allow you to keep one of the accounts.

What do you do with my e-mail address?

Nothing - we don't display your e-mail address anywhere on the site. Although we do use it to send you urgent messages, any posts that you want to read via e-mail, as well as any new caravelgames.com news and for other forum users to send you e-mails using a page on the board (both of which you can opt out of). No-one knows your e-mail address. Stop being paranoid.

Well, I guess the forum admins do, but they're cool, so they won't abuse it. They're too busy raiding your Internet banking account after you used it as a password.

Does this forum use cookies?

Only the computer kind. We unfortunately don't provide free food.

You need cookies enabled to use the forum via the website. That's just the way it is.

If you clicked "Remember me" when you logged in, the forum won't log you out when you leave. However, you can log out yourself by clicking on the 'Log out' button at the bottom of the page.

Aaaahhh! Cookies! How do I get rid of them?

Well, normally I'd say to eat it.

However, here this won't work. What you'll need to do is (first) make sure you aren't browsing the forum. Cookies could be stored anywhere, depending on your browser. So the best idea is to do a search for 'caravelgames'. Among the game files you'll invariably find (at least, if you have a reason to visit the forum in the first place) should be a file named something like [your-logon-name]@caravelgames.com[a number].txt, or possibly Cookie:[your-logon-name]/caravelgames.com. Anyway, delete anything with your user name and 'caravelgames' in it, and you should be fine.

I've forgotten my password! I know, I'm an idiot. What do I do?

Click on 'Lost your Password?' next to the login boxes and type your username in. Check your e-mail, and follow its instructions.

Of course, this will really only come up if you keep logging on and off. We can also automatically log you in, so this hopefully won't be a problem for a lot of you.

Cool, you can log me in automatically? How do I take advantage of such a great offer?

  1. When you log in, check the "Remember me" checkbox.
  2. Buy some M&Ms and put them in an big jar, then eat them with an ice-cream scoop.

User Information

What does it mean by 'Roachling'? How do I get that to be cooler?

This is your rank on the board. You'd be a 'Roachling' because you haven't posted much of worth. To increase your rank, you'll need to get other forumgoers to give you rank points for your posts.

Unfortunately, bribing often doesn't work because we'll accept your money and then not do what you say.

This is how many points you'll need for each rank -

Roachling - 0-14 rank points (new DRODiacs start on 10)
Goblin - 15-29 rank points
Delver - 30-99 rank points
Master Delver - 100-299 rank points
Smiter - 300-499 rank points
Smitemaster - 500+ rank points

You might be wondering how you get into this game of handing points out. It's simple - when you get rank points, you'll also get the ability to hand out points to others.

You can look at your moderated posts by going to your 'Profile' (at the top of the page) and clicking 'View my Moderated Posts'.

So who are these 'Legendary Smitemaster' jokers?

These fine people are the administrators and moderators. Treat them with the respect and reverence they deserve. Even better, send them money.

Note that this is different from the Hall Of Legendary Smitemasters, who have finished the game.

All right then, who are the 'Legendary Architect' people?

The Legendary Architects aren't responsible for the site, but what they are responsible for is building new versions of DROD. They can be counted on to know what they're talking about, except maybe when it comes to things that aren't DROD. A minor problem.

So then what do I get for making the next rank?

A new rank name. And that's it.

One of the sucky things about moderating systems is people get all caught up in the system, which means it's fun, but it's kinda dominating the idea of posting on a forum. So our system, by design, does absolutely nothing but give people more ranks. And it's not like your rank is even a decent encapsulation of who you are and how we see you. It's far better to just let the rank thing do its thing, and you do your thing. And if your thing happens to be predicting what's going to be in the next game, then so be it.

What's the difference between admins and moderators?

Moderators are users we've come to respect and love who get unlimited mod points. They're what we consider to be upstanding members of the community, although in reality they're probably sitting down.

You can get in contact with the moderators by shooting off an e-mail to moderators@caravelgames.com. And yes, we do not fear spam. Although maybe we should.

Admins are the people to talk to if you want to change or submit something (be it DROD, the site, or the current world order). You need to get in contact with either Schik (our Technical Wizard), Mattcrampy (webmaster) or ErikH2000 (the Guy With Money, as well as DROD's original creator).

Whoops, I've used my NORAD login name as a password. How do I change it to something which doesn't compromise national security?

Like so, General:

  1. Click on 'Profile' at the top of the page.
  2. Click on '[Modify]', which is in the dark blue bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Type in your old password (if it isn't there), your new password, and your new password again, just to make sure it isn't a fluke.
  4. Click 'Submit'.

You were talking about it earlier, but let's pretend I wasn't listening. How do you have it log on automatically?

I'll tell you again, but make sure you remember to log off if there's more than one person that visits DROD.net on your computer. Erik gets caught in that situation often.

  1. Click on 'Profile' at the top of the page.
  2. Click on '[Modify]', which is in the dark blue bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Down the bottom of this screen, there's a option to "Save my username and password", which would be at No for you.
  4. Switch it to 'Yes'.
  5. Click 'Submit'.

I want a picture! Erik's got one, why can't I have one?

Look, you'll just have to share.

Oh, you mean an avatar. Oh right. There are two ways to do it:

  1. Click on 'Profile' at the top of the page.
  2. Click on '[Modify]', which is in the dark blue bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Scroll down to 'Avatar', and put either the URL of your avatar, or the location of the picture file on your harddrive, in the corresponding box.
  4. Click 'Submit'.

If you have it off-site, it must be 60x60 else it will get resized and look really horrible. If it's on-site, you could be really sneaky and upload a script that returns a picture. Of course, don't abuse it, or else we'll hunt you down and beat you to death with a head of lettuce.

Why a head of lettuce? Ask Matt O'Leary, cause he won't tell me.

I want to always have stuff at the bottom of my posts! Tell me how or I'll kick you in the

Okay, that's enough. Next time, ASK NICELY.

  1. Click on 'Profile' at the top of the page.
  2. Click on '[Modify]', which is in the dark blue bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Choose a witticism and type it in the 'Signature' box.
  4. Click 'Submit'.

You can format your signature just the same as a post. For more on formatting, see below.

Posting and Posts

What does the number next to my post mean? How come there's two links there as well? And why don't I get any rank points? I'm so confused!

All the stuff next to the title of the post is for moderating. Let me explain how that works.

Every post to start off with is rated at 0. As people read it, if they think it's nifty they'll give that post points, which gives you rank points (which make your rank go up). You also get mod points, which you can use to give points to other posts, and if you have some you'll see '[Good | Bad]' come up next to the post's score. This is how you give points to other posts, and the whole cycle begins again. It's like something they sung about in a Disney movie.

Moderating any post, even if it's already been moderated by someone else, costs 2 mod points.

Still confused? Yes? Good.

I'm assuming DROD has custom smilie pictures?

You assume right. We have a wide array of smilies for your viewing pleasure, most of which will never come into normal conversation, and a few of which will come into normal conversation precisely because they normally wouldn't come into normal conversation.

To use them, you can just use the fairly standard smilie symbols, or click on the smilie to the right of the text box and it'll insert it at the end. Some of the less common smilies, like the offtopic sign, are inserted by putting their name after a colon (:).

Apparently, everyone drinks Pepsi. Or at least that's what the smilies say.

I want to put some emphasis on what I say, as I'm trying to make a joke that only works if you stress the right part of the word.

Really?

The DROD forum uses tags quite similar to HTML, but instead of the < you need to put a [ (and ] instead of >). You can also use the buttons above the text box. Some tags are special to the DROD forum, so they get mentioned below.

Here are the tags, for completeness, that are also inserted by the buttons above the text box:


[I]italics[/I]
[b]bold[/b]
[u]underline[/u]
[secret]text that needs to be highlighted to read it[/secret]
[img]URL of an image[/img]
[url=URL of the link]Link text[/url] (to send an e-mail, put mailto:email address)
[quote]a quote[/quote]
[code]writes it out EXACTLY as written[/code]
[size=(-2 to +2)]differently sized text[/size]
[color=colour to use]coloured text[/color]

Also, [leftbracket] and [rightbracket] evaluate to [ and ], respectively. Just in case you wanted to know.

You know what would be cool? If the forum would just copy and paste things I'm replying to!

You know, it can! If you click on "quote reply" under a post, it will put that post into a reply box, and make it small and squash it like a sandwich. If you want to split the post up, or want to make up a quote, you can get the same effect by putting [quote]quotes here[/quote], so just split the one quote block you've had made automatically into two.

I'm on the Hints board, and everyone's angry at me 'cause I didn't put hints inside a white block like everyone else and made my entire message |00|< |1|<3 T#15! I promise not to do it again if you tell me how.

For the record, l33t = bad, j00. But you've apologised, so I guess it's okay. You're well on the way to being a Smitemaster!

However, to make a "secret" block, all you need to do is put [secret]your secret here[/secret], taking care to close your secret block, as it makes the page look really bad if you don't.

I'm on the Challenge board, and I've thought of a good one. Is there some arcane thing I have to do for everyone to try it?

Not really arcane, but unexpected. To create a challenge, you do this: [challenge]the task[/challenge]. Put some explanation for the challenge outside the tags.

Right, I'm trying to describe a room in DROD. Is there some way I can do it easier?

There's an easier way all right. Click on 'Insert DROD room image' which is on the right of the text box, just above the smilies. Follow the prompts (picking hold, level and location) to bring a room up. Any hold on the Holds board will come up in the Room Image dialog.

The last step deserves a mention - you can place numbered dots on the room before you post, so you can indicate what parts of the room are giving you trouble. In addition, you can make it an external link, in case it's a solution.

Neat, huh? They say a picture is worth a thousand words, although most DROD rooms can be described in about 30.

I've got this funny sound! How do I show it to the world... or indeed anything else I want to show the world?

There are some things best kept private.

However, if you'd like to attach a file, you can use the handy-dandy file attacher below the text box on a new post. You can only attach one file, so make it count. It might be an idea to get a zip program (like Winzip) if you don't have one already. Either type the file's path into the text box next to 'Attach File', or if you're the rest of us, press the Browse button and navigate to it. Either way, it'll be attached ready to download when you send the post.

Hey, that guy's got a funny sound! How do I download it?

To download attachments, just click on the link to the left of the post (it's hiding underneath the posters information). You'll then start downloading it. It's that simple.

Don't laugh, that little link can be a bugger to find.

Polls. What do they do, why do they do it, and how can I make one?

Polls create a little ballot paper up the top of a topic and put three weird bars that look like buildings a bit, don't you think? next to the topic on the summary page.

It's so you can ask questions like "What's your favourite ice-cream flavour?" and have answers (as many as you want!) that people can click on. Then you check the results and see that everyone like chocolate, except when it tastes like coffee. Or something completely different.

You can have more than one question in your poll by clicking the "Add Question" button just under the answers. You can also make polls that allow people to put in more than one answer (the "Allow multiple selections" checkbox, between the two buttons), and timed polls that close the poll after a certain amount of time (the "Timed Poll" checkbox before the post stuff).

To make a poll, you click on 'New Poll', next to 'New Topic', then ask a question and give at least one possible answer. Otherwise, it's just like posting. And trust me, you'll do that a lot, mostly accidentally.

I'm having an argument with some guy, and I want to know when he's replied. Can I get an e-mail or something?

Yep! If you click "Watch This Topic For Replies" when you post, you'll get an e-mail when someone else posts.

It won't do it if you go back and post in your own topic, so you can't make yourself feel wanted by getting fifty e-mails from DROD.net. However, we may be able to accommodate you if you really want fifty e-mails from us.

Umm, my boss lets me read e-mails but not visit websites. How do I find out how to solve Level Thirteen?

Well, Jimmy - unless you're not Jimmy, in which case, can you get Jimmy and bring him back here? - you can get posts from the boards you select e-mailed to you, by doing this:

  1. Click on 'Profile' at the top of the page.
  2. Click on '[Modify]', which is in the dark blue bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Go to 'Send copies of all posts to e-mail' and select the boards you want to have sent to you.
  4. Click 'Submit'.

You can also sign up to the News mailing list, which will automatically send any new posts in the News section to your mailbox. You can do this even if you're not a member of the forum, by going to the 'News' and following the instructions at the top of the page.

Awwwww smeg! I made a speeling mistake! How can I correct/banish it to the mists of time?

Looks like you made another one, there. And you're a Red Dwarf fan as well, I see.

We so happen to have the perfect link for you: press Edit/Delete to bring up a page that looks remarkably like the New Post screen, except for three things:

  1. Your message, in editable form.
  2. The delete box, which if you check, then hit 'Edit Message', will delete it totally. If it kicked off a new topic, it'll also delete the topic. Do you feel the powah?!?
  3. an Edit Reason box, where you can put some pithy comment telling everyone you spelled 'the' wrong. Or whatever. It'll be added to your post along with a date-stamp.

If you've attached a file, you can unattach it as well here.

Bump? Is that a forum game?

It just means "I'm bringing this topic to the top." See, if no-one posts, a topic fades and falls on another page. Bumping brings it back up.

Did you sing that song that has bump in the chorus when you read that answer, by any chance?

Soooo... what's the red folder mean?

It means that the magical New Post fairy has visited a topic since the last time you were here.

Well, that used to be the case, but our forum guy, Matt Schikore, fixed it so everyone who posts in a topic since the last time you were here makes it go red. The New Post fairy's since retired in protest.

There are quite a few boards you may never read, such as the Development board, or a topic you'll never read that everyone else does. In that case, at the top of every listing, there's a teeny-tiny link that marks all new posts as having been read - in other words, turns all the red to yellow.

Okay, the folder's burning. What's going on?

It's a hot topic.

No joke, that's the corny name given to it. It simply means there's greater than 25 posts in that topic.

The topic's got a new post, but it's not here!

It's probably gone onto a new page. It's hard to see, so look down the bottom, and there's some bonsai links that say 'Pages: 1 2 (and possibly more)'. Your new posts will be found there.

I can't post in the News board! What's going on?

Only the Legendary Smitemasters can start a new topic in the News board. It's for DROD news, see. It's also easier than editing the homepage.

Hang on, I can't post in the Holds board either!

That's not a question.

There's special rules for submitting holds to the Holds forum. We need to upload it specially, so to upload it go to the 'upload holds here' link at the top of the Holds forum. (There, one sentence, three 'upload's.) From there, it will go on the Holds page on the site, people will be able to ask about it in the Hints and Solutions board, they'll be able to bring it up as a Room Image and people can vote on its difficulty and fun (by clicking where you'd rate it on the brains and the little yellow door/bar. Dugan's is arbitrarily counted as 5 brains.)

Any holds you've uploaded can be changed in your profile. You can't change the layout, though, so it's suited for making minor changes when someone finds out a staircase is broken. Here, you can also select some rooms to not come up in the Room Image layout.

I'm stuck! Not only can I not get past this room, I can't even post about my problem in the Hints board!

Calm down, I'll walk you through it.

Firstly, you have to work out which hold you're trying to solve. The default hold is King Dugan's Dungeon, and it comes with the game. You can find the hold name by going into DROD and seeing what hold is selected when you click on "Where". Then, work out the level and click on the room that you're stuck on. Make sure that the room that comes up is the one you want, then press 'Select' and tell us your problem. Make sure to check back to get an answer, although by that time you'll probably have solved the room on your own.

So, these private messages. Are they saucy?

What? No!

Aww, now I'm going to have trouble sleeping. Thanks a lot.

Private messages are only saucy if someone sends you a saucy message. They're basically an e-mail account just for the board, so you can send and receive messages just from other board users. The link for your private message inbox is just under the boards, so click on that to get there. You can send a message by clicking on "Compose Message" (or finding the user you want to send it to and clicking on the PM icon under a post of theirs), or read a message you've already gotten.

I can't tell you any more, because it's private.

Rules and Forum Terms

What's not fair game to talk about?

As we're a small forum, we haven't really had huge objectionable behaviour. That said, we don't really want:

* spamming, or advertising for the sole reason that it makes you money
Don't get us wrong, we're all for hearing about games you found cool and the space shooter you're making and hope one day to sell, or possibly your boat company. But not about porno sites. Unless you work there and have a funny story.

* racist, sexist, homophobic, illegal or other objectionable content
This is a forum for DROD. I mean, there's a great bunch of people here, but still, we're a forum for DROD. This alone is a good enough excuse to say 'if you're talking about anything naughty, well then it's not DROD, is it, so to the virtual trash it goes'. But I reckon you deserve a bit more than that, so here it is:

You shouldn't promote doing anything that is illegal or dangerous, or even offensive, for example: taking drugs, pirating software, or hopping freight trains. That isn't to say that there aren't illegal or dangerous things worth talking about or even doing, but our forum isn't a good place to describe them as acceptable activities. Note that you can promote an activity simply by saying that it is "okay for you". Some of our members are pretty young and lack the experience to make good judgments, so even very mild things you say here can have consequences beyond what you intended. Sometimes someone can have a legitimate point of view that favors or condones an activity, perhaps under certain circumstances, but still this opinion shouldn't be expressed around children or teenagers. Since pursed lips at least occur with even subtle promotion of illegal/dangerous activities, it'd be nice for people with opposing views not to throw out bait, i.e. "People who take drugs are all losers." Topics like these are best avoided on our forum. You might have a valuable conversation about them someplace that isn't actually about a puzzle game, remember?.

By the same token, making fun of other people's punctuation is probably a bad idea too.

* random topics of conversation anywhere other than the Anything board
There's a place for that stuff. It's not just for talking about other cool puzzle games and movie tag, it's for ANYTHING. Feel free to talk about what's on your sandwich there, though you'll have a hard time convincing everyone else that it's not spam.

* blabbing solutions, endings or spoilers
We've got a mechanism for hiding things you want people to have to choose to see - the secret tags. Please don't put things like your opinions of the ending of The Sixth Sense, the solution to Level 24, Once South Once/Twice West, or anything else that could be considered "spoiling" something outside the secret tags. When in doubt, hide it. Though by the same token, don't hide everything just to spite me. That's not on.

* posting demos for requests for hints on the Hints and Solutions board
Very specialised case, this is - it's more fun to get a solution yourself than watch a demo for it, but there are times where you just can't do it. That's what the Hints and Solutions board's for. Generally, it's only good form to post a demo if they ask for a demo or they've tried it themselves a few times and been given hints, and then a full solution. That way they can feel responsible for finishing a room and not guilty that they cheated through the puzzles. Yeah, we're hard on all the stuck people. Drill instructors would shake their heads in disbelief.

* posting private messages on the public boards
This one's debatable, mainly because this hasn't been an issue yet, but generally posting private messages is bad form - private conversations are conducted there for a reason, and you need a very good reason to consider throwing a confidential conversation open to the public. Generally, the reason this is done to demonstrate the rudeness or unfairness of the other party. We suggest, though, to use some brains and either talk to the admins, let the other person know exactly, in unforgiving detail, how you feel about it, and making a reference to their rudeness in public conversation. If asked for, give out the conversation in PMs, but don't just blab it out all over the floor. We don't want to mop up.

What's the swearing policy?

Use common sense. We allow swearing, but don't overuse it, and censor the harsh words. Otherwise, it's what you feel comfortable with saying in a public forum, filled with people you don't know, any of whom might be small children (now that's something to give you pause). Except if it's ****. Or ****. Don't use those.

What does 'hold' mean? Apart from what you do to a cup, that is.

In case you wonder, a hold is basically a standard unit of DROD. Similar to how you have a mile. A mile has feet, DROD has levels. Except not as many as feet in a mile. Hopefully.

This is explained much better in the ending to King Dugan's Dungeon, but a hold is a collection of levels. We had to invent a term before the editor came out so we give a name to what we were making. Also, so we could decide upon a cunning and witty extension, which a surprising amount of Windows users won't even get to appreciate.

How come everyone's so antsy about whatever the next version of DROD is?

Well, it's like this. The Caravel team (that's the programmers) decided that they didn't really want to start hyping the next version of DROD until it was getting close to being done, so they shushed up. Unfortunately, this was really obvious, and to make matters worse, as they got closer to finishing the webmaster let some things... slip. So now the forum's being tortured with half-details as the team either avoid the forum altogether or blurt things out. We reckon everyone will feel a whole lot better when the game's close to being done and they can let it all out at once.

So the moral of the story is, don't trust the webmaster. Either that, or prod the webmaster to reveal all of the Caravel team's secrets.

Every forum has in-jokes, and I can't stand being out of the cool crowd, even though I'm posting on an Internet forum for a puzzle game. (Don't tell my friends.) What are they here?

Well, here's a few off the top of my head:

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