A new forum RP development thread?, Interested in those who are interested. Options

[Darkblade]

Wondering how many of us are interested in setting up a new RP for the forum.
What kind of RP would you all be interested in taking part in?

A little while back there were two being set up.
One based on a couple of guilds set in a city
And another was a plot set in World of Alsta
Way before that there was one based on a natural disaster set in a small town, it got
started but never took off.

Cant even go back and look for the threads since the forum changes.

Anyway, who is interested in building a new RP.

Questions for brain storming
What kind of theme? (Sci-Fi, fantasy, realism)
What kind of world scale? (Huge developed world or set in a little town)
What kind of plot? (Simple kill bad guy or something more elaborate)

[MEands]

My favorite kind of RP's are ones with lots of secrets among players, like, where it's not everyone traveling as a caravan to save someone, but more like some players are on the adventure, some are the villains trying to stop them, and some are just there to add comic relief and possibly play a role later.

I might be interested except for the fact that these take a really long time to take part in.

[Ryuga]

The problem isn't really the lack of ideas. We just don't have enough players anymore to make an RP worthwhile. We just keep losing regulars, and any attempts to attract new ones have not worked.

Making another RP from scratch is a waste of time at this point.

I think that the only option that even has a shot is another RP like Deathnote. A simple RP based in an already popular and established setting.

[Sparrowsmith]

The problem isn't really the lack of ideas. We just don't have enough players anymore to make an RP worthwhile. We just keep losing regulars, and any attempts to attract new ones have not worked.

Making another RP from scratch is a waste of time at this point.

I think that the only option that even has a shot is another RP like Deathnote. A simple RP based in an already popular and established setting.

Pretty much this.

However, any work needed in world building has my name written ALL over it and of course, you can count me in for the RP.

[Eye of The Liger]

I don't know too much about past RPs on this site, though from what I have read, a problem is a lack of members, not ideas. Honestly I've seen this before. It's not something that those involved can fix, more like you need to bare with it and hope that more people come on-board. I've been on sites where that's worked, and suddenly they've received an influx of members due to the illusion of activity, and I've been on ones that have just plain died.

The way these sites often create this aforementioned illusion is by focusing on RPs that require very few people. These RPs tend to be rather short, so they're sure to have an actual conclusion, and none of the members involved have much to complain about. So smaller, focused RPs seem to be a better path to take, instead of grand risks. Making, say, a Skyrim RP where players are free to go where they like when they like is all well and good. But it's a large undertaking. Making a sci-fi project that revolves around a small crew's misadventures upon a ship, occasionally stopping on stations and planets in order to progress the story? That's more manageable, and if every scene within the RP contributes to the overall storyline, then it's more likely to reach its end scene and have a satisfying conclusion.

Just my thoughts, from past experiences. And naturally, that sci-fi thing was just an example of something I was previously involved in, though it was Hella fun. Unfortunately, I was also involved in the Skyrim RP. Messy messy messy.

[Darkblade]

Yeah, its very true, we are usually lacking in members.

I think that the only option that even has a shot is another RP like Deathnote. A simple RP based in an already popular and established setting.

Problem with doing an RP based on an existing franchise is the possibility of interested people not knowing much or anything about it but still wanting to join.
Although, I agree, something popular and established would be the best way to get interest.

Making a sci-fi project that revolves around a small crew's misadventures upon a ship, occasionally stopping on stations and planets in order to progress the story? That's more manageable, and if every scene within the RP contributes to the overall storyline, then it's more likely to reach its end scene and have a satisfying conclusion.

I think we might have had trouble moving an RP forward in the past, although now that you've brought this kind of setting up for an RP, I think having defined character roles (captain, engineer, that kind of thing) would help that a lot since a captain character would make a lot of decisions.
Trouble is, deciding who gets what role in that kind of setting. Was that an easy thing to decide on in your experience?
Of course it could be up to the user when creating their character, but small crew having bunches of characters with the same role on a ship seems a bit awkward.

[Ryuga]

Problem with doing an RP based on an existing franchise is the possibility of interested people not knowing much or anything about it but still wanting to join.
Although, I agree, something popular and established would be the best way to get interest.

On the flip side it can attract people who have never Roleplayed just because they like the setting.
Our attempts at building original RP's haven't panned out. Rather than do the same things again we might as well try to attract a different group of people.

This post has been edited by Ryuga: Apr 21 2012, 04:09 PM

[Eye of The Liger]

I think we might have had trouble moving an RP forward in the past, although now that you've brought this kind of setting up for an RP, I think having defined character roles (captain, engineer, that kind of thing) would help that a lot since a captain character would make a lot of decisions.Trouble is, deciding who gets what role in that kind of setting. Was that an easy thing to decide on in your experience?
Of course it could be up to the user when creating their character, but small crew having bunches of characters with the same role on a ship seems a bit awkward.

Well, you could say we had a lot of chemistry between us, which is one of the benefits of a small community - you start to learn eachother's roleplaying styles, and can adapt your own to compliment their's. As such, we kinda got lucky. We all had our own tastes, so we ended up with at least one of each "class", and we were all too modest to make a Captain, except for one of us who we could all agree had enough experience to hold the role anyway... Though he was quick to reserve the role for himself.

Honestly, without that kind of luck, a discussion could just be held before people are even allowed to sign up for the RP, where they reserve roles, each of which have a cap on how many there can be. Any roles that aren't filled can be taken by players making a second character, and if there's competition for a prestigious role like the Captain, we could simply have it be filled by whoever is the most experience roleplayer. And if he/she doesn't want it, then the second most experienced, etc.

There's really no truly reliable system for organizing these things.

This post has been edited by Eye of The Liger: Apr 21 2012, 04:45 PM

[Nicsp]

MAKE A MY LITTLE PONY RP!

From what i've read, I think we all agree that what we need is a roleplay based off a well-know and yet, simple to pick up series and that can be easily carried on with little players.

In that case, the first idea that came to mind was an Avatar: The Last Airbender Roleplay, focused around a small group of mercenaries, coming from all nations, who have been hired to protect a trading caravan or whatever as it travels through the nations. Just an idea I had and thought that I could drop off in here.

-Goes back to drowning self in uni stuff-

P.S. It feels weird not having the Moderator stamp anymore...

This post has been edited by Nicsp: Apr 22 2012, 05:03 PM

[Eye of The Liger]

I'm not familiar with Avatar though from what I've seen of it, it just comes down to which kind of poo you, as a monkey, would like to throw - Fire, Water, Air or Earth, which isn't the most difficult concept to comprehend. As such, something like that could work so long as the story we adopt doesn't require too much knowledge of the series' storyline to date (if it's still going, that is).

[Nicsp]

I'm not familiar with Avatar though from what I've seen of it, it just comes down to which kind of poo you, as a monkey, would like to throw - Fire, Water, Air or Earth, which isn't the most difficult concept to comprehend. As such, something like that could work so long as the story we adopt doesn't require too much knowledge of the series' storyline to date (if it's still going, that is).

Bolded for WTFvalue and for the strange fact that it's oddly correct.

But yes, there's a few other things such as each country's individual culture and the Avatar himself, but I don't think there's anything awfully complicated. The storyline is still going, however it did have a sort of a time-skip of almost a century or so. We could probably make the RP happen some time between the two seasons or just make a whole different universe based from either seasons. Options are plenty.

[Polaris]

I'd love an avatar RP. But I don't think it's a good idea to have the avatar be one of our characters. In fact, we should probably start in the time period before avatar aang awakened in the iceberg. That way we avoid any problems with the avatar.

And I like the mercenary idea. We should get started.

Me dream of being a merc.

I'd love an avatar RP. But I don't think it's a good idea to have the avatar be one of our characters. In fact, we should probably start in the time period before avatar aang awakened in the iceberg. That way we avoid any problems with the avatar.

And I like the mercenary idea. We should get started.

Me dream of being a merc.

[Darkblade]

An RP based on Avatar sounds like a good idea.
I think that would be a easy one to take part in.

[Kratour]

Did somebody say Spiderman Thread Avatar Roleplay?

Ah, that brings me back. Actually about a year ago there was a game not unlike what's being described here. It was altogether what of the more pleasant experiences I've had in roleplaying (which I've been doing for a while, as you may know), though it was sadly cut short by the person running it's rather sudden disappearance.

That said though the problem of the Avatar is a lot easier to fix than you'd expect. First of all if you don't want them to make an appearance, just don't include them. Move around it however you want, be it meddling with the time the game takes place, or just working around it by not bringing it up at all. Honestly though, very few players would even want to take up the role of the Avatar, since there's too much meaning attached to it already. (That said, characters with Avatar- Grade power is is a different matter, but what'cha gonna do?) Most players, or at least the ones that have been doing this for a while, prefer to make completely unique characters, since there's more room for... let's say customization for now? Eh... Yeah, that sounds about right. So depending on your players, it's usually going to be a problem that fixes itself. Do be sure to have strict limitations on characters though, especially at creation. Don't let someone decide that they want to play a sword juggling prince of thieves who's mastery over the powers of Fire and Earth manifests itself as the guitar solo from Freebird blasting out around them every time they do something amazing. Which is constantly. Because they said so in their abilities section. ... Right, well I think I was making a point, though I don't really remember what it was. Ugh, allergies have my head all in a tangle (probably metaphorically of course, but still unpleasant).

... Anyways. I guess I'll just say that it sounds like a pretty decent idea. It's a pretty expansive setting with a world that's been adequately described, well defined, and yet not too thoroughly explored. That, of course, means that the setting itself has the potential to yield a fairly high grade roleplay, although that will ultimately be more heavily influenced by the person running it and even more directly the players involved.

As for availability and ease of access... Yeah, Avatar is a well known series with a wide fan-base. In fact, it's pretty fair to assume that the majority of people who access general media will be at least passingly aware of the show, which is ultimately enough to kindle some interest in a roleplaying game based around it. Uh... rather or not they'd be particularly good at roleplaying is another subject (one that's a lot harder to decide on, actually, since individual talent and willingness to learn are, in fact, keyed to each individual separately (hence the word individual)), but any interest is, evidently, good for you guys (or maybe I should say us? ... Will contemplate further) at the current time, so it's a moot point.



... Also hi. I'm probably not dead.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm super out of it right now. If I say something that doesn't make sense, just write it off as my heretical devotion to the Mad Gods influencing my sleep deprived mind and ultimately producing random bouts of literary insanity.



Edit: Yeah, I actually read through this a bit more thoroughly, and I've gotta say Liger makes a good point. Maybe even more than one, though I'm only focusing on one in particular. We do need to just bear with a lack of players and make games with smaller numbers of people. Well, need might be a bit strong, but regardless, it has merit. I don't know about tailoring the game itself to to be smaller in scale though, since ultimately it's an unneeded gesture. One of the... No, I don't deal in absolutes, but if ever there was a time to break that rule it's now. The single biggest issue with roleplaying on a forum like this, the thing that causes so many games to just outright die, is the game's flow. It needs to be steady, not lightning fast but still quick enough to keep everyone interested involved. If you have eight players and a Co-DM, then believe you me. One player's gonna disappear for a few days, the sudden interruption to the flow of the game will suddenly slow everything to a snail-like crawl, and then ultimately a few of those players will just loose interest and drift away to do something else.

If the group is smaller, and more perhaps more dedicated, then the game will progress at an even pace, with people posting more frequently and having more opportunity to actually interact with the world (as well as each other of course. This also allows for more semi-personal moments, and ultimately more dramatic uh... things. Events? ... Sure, why not.), and ultimately the players will just be more invested in the game itself. The point that I'm making here is that it's a problem that fixes itself when you have fewer, more dedicated players.

Or something like that, I don't really recall to be honest.

tl;dr Fewer players makes for smoother game flow, lowers the probability for inactivity, and does this all while allowing the players to grow more connected to one another (in game and out). ... No, I'm not coming onto you. Probably.

This post has been edited by Kratour: Apr 25 2012, 03:32 AM

[TheWhitosify]

Id love to do one set on a special island that holds many secrets. And monsters and stuff like that. Much like the Lost television series.

[Polaris]

Id love to do one set on a special island that holds many secrets. And monsters and stuff like that. Much like the Lost television series.

Personally, I'm not interested in confining the rp to a small region. How do a bunch of mercanaries find themselves lost on an island? But that makes some nice ideas come to mind. What if we were captured as prisoners or some sort? We're just brainstorming here. Would they ever escape the island? The most fun comes from fighting people, not creatures. You hardly ever see characters fighting creatures in avatar anyway. The conflict is always people.

It would be cool if I made a Fire-bending character who devoted themself to only using lightning?
More ideas, guys.

[Jonnie19]

I would definitely join in if we created an Avatar RP. Something similar to that anyway

[Darkblade]

Well, we're setting this Avatar one during the time Aang was frozen right?
So maybe something linked to the Air Nomads and the Fire Nation?
Maybe somehow linking the idea of mercenaries into it and an island?

Fire Nation discovers(not so much discover, but receive intelligence reports based on it) an island that might have some remaining Air Nomads surviving there, Fire Nation sends mercenaries for a recon mission.
Mercenaries realise they have been somehow tricked by the Fire Nation and decide to help the Air Nomads instead.

How about that for a kind of starting plot?
Problem is, Air Nomads pretty much will have to die somehow.

[Nicsp]

Or.

We could set it in a parallel world, with all things still the same, with the exception that, in this world, the Avatar died a few centuries ago while in Avatar mode, resulting in the end of the Avatar cycle. I'm good with either, really, just throwing suggestions.

[Jonnie19]

Or how about we actually all have to find the Avatar....The Avatar is created by the GM, who is the only one who can control when the Avatar is found. Once the GM decides that the Avatar is found. They control the Avatars actions. They decide whether he will listen to which tribe, and depending on how many people join in. The tribes can get together and try and find a way of getting the Avatar's attention. Whether it be in a Positive force. or in a negative force. The decision lies with the GM.....

Just come up with this at stupid o clock in the morning...so need sleep but it's an idea to throw in