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 Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:43 am
Though there is no way I could ever place enough information in any post or thread, I shall try my best to at least post some basic suggestions and pointers when you are trying to create a role play.
When creating a role play, you have to consider a few things.
1: What is your story? What is going to happen?
2: Where is this story? What is your world like?
3: What kind of characters live in this world?
4: What evil creatures (if any) dwell in these lands? What powers are there?
5: Who will be controling what? Are people expected to control their own opponents? Are you providing the opponents?
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:53 am
1: What is your story? What is going to happen?
This is probably the most important question of any you could ever be asked when creating a role play.
No, I am sure most of you have heard that a battle plan never lives past contact with the enemy. It is true, and it applies even to role plays. In this case, the players themselves are the enemy for your plans. No, this does not mean they are evil, they just are not always going to go the way you want them to.
When creating a story for a role play, you have to consider a few options, and few different paths. The point is, at least try to have a direction for the role play to head off into. It is only a plan, like a sketch. Nothing is solid and it all can change at any time, but everyone should have one.
When creating a story, consider what you want to happen. Is there some great evil? A dark and powerful force once kept trapped but now escaping from it's ancient bonds?
Is a party of four destined to save a dark world and return a light long thought lost?
Are they just trying to make it one day at a time through school? Avoiding the bullies and pass that math test in D block?
Is there a princess captured by a powerful dragon and the court mages and knights have to rescue her?
These are all good starts for any story, but what happened BETWEEN the start and the end? That is for you and the players to work together to find out. Have an idea on what is where, and where is what. Do remember, once the players start to play your story, things will never be the same again. Things will change, different paths will be taken, and other things will not work the way you thought they would.
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:13 am
2: Where is this story? What is your world like?
This is probably second most important question. Sometimes it can actually be more important than what the story is, for if your really lucky, you might find a group that is willing to work on a story together, but just need a setting for everything.
This is what I call world creation. You are creating a world for others to play on. This is your solid ground, breezing winds and vast oceans. Your islands and mountains, forests and deserts. Your Jungles and barren tundras.
For world creation, you do NOT need a map. You can simply state what is where, or even create it as you go, but have some idea where everything is. If your creating as you go, don't forget where you said something already is. The great city of Surath in the south should stay in the south, and never somehow be in the north tundras, unless moved by some magical might, but that would have to be some magic at work then.
World creation also considers what the story is. If your having a pirate adventure, the likely hood of finding oneself in a vast desert is unlikely. Your going to be creating vast oceans and seas with many islands and port towns. Hurricanes and tropical storms will brew and cross the ocean surface, battering unexpectedly at towns and ships at sea.
If your in a magic kingdom, maybe there are lands we have never heard of, like the Crystal Forest. the tree's themselves grow as multi-colored crystals of all shapes, colors and sizes. Maybe they drop emerald leaves that decompose and turn into granite soil. Magic lifts could transport you from one magic sphere to the other, with vast distances of void between, places that nothing exists except for possibly pure magic energy of creation. No one knows as no one has survived long enough out in the void to discover the truth (might also be where your evil would lurk, waiting to pray on those traveling from area to area, and maybe where the greatest powers come from).
You are creating what your players are working with. Be creative, but always try to be consistent in how your world looks. Don't move things around because you can't remember where things are, keep things where they are suppose to be.
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:23 am
3: What kind of characters live in this world?
This is a good one for your players to know, what kind of characters should they play, and what characters are they going to know? Are half-dragons common? Are demons and Angels unheard of? Do they posses magic, or is it only a sword and their wits?
Consider what kind of world you are playing when you describe what characters exist in this world of yours. Would a magic controlled world have no magicians? Would a modern realm with technology and cars have magic? Would a horror role play have pixies and spirits?
Consider what your world and story are when deciding on your own NPC characters and what players will be allowed to play. I know that half-dragon crystal entity might sound really cool, but do they fit inside your modern day world of high school? Probably not.
Does the high elf mage fit in a world that posses no magic? I don't think so.
Some of the coolest character ideas can seem really awesome, and you may be tempted to add them in, but consider the cost. If one character is a master of all magic at age 12, and everyone else can only do basic magic and all other magic masters are 192 years old, that might be a little overpowering. Either refuse that character or have them play the character very carefully, and keep an eye on them. (I once played a dragon of light and wind. He was extremely powerful. He was actually more powerful than any other character in the entire role play, however because of some character flaws, I never over used him. He was never pushed to his max, for his flaw was he was afraid of his own power. He was afraid he would injure someone. This kept my 'overly' powerful character down to a reasonable level for everyone else, and only one person complained about my character. Everyone else liked the character and even my own opponent's thought I played him right.)
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:31 am
4: What evil creatures (if any) dwell in these lands? What powers are there?
This is something very closely related to question 3, but in a different way.
Before you create too far, consider who your player's opponents are going to be. Who will they be fighting? What can they do? Who is the big 'baddy'?
Do refer to how your world and story are set up. If it is a classic classroom role play, would there be goblins and spirits? Maybe, but probably not. Your more likely to face the evil of a tough bully, the pressure of the cheer squad, the brashness and arrogance of the football team and the chance to fail that dreaded science test you never studied for the night before.
Consider who your big evils are. Consider how they run the evil of your world. Maybe the players are the evils ones? Maybe they are doing evil and they are being stalked by those that wish to do good? Maybe your players are the hero's this time, and have to stop the unleashing of the ancient demon Althin from returning to this world and plunging the world into 10,000 years of darkness.
Maybe there is a prophecy? If so, what is it? Keep it vague, so that things presumed from the prophecy might not really be true. Be careful of prophecies though, they can easily reveal too much, leaving players board and disinterested in the stories progression. They can also be very hard to word in a manner that doesn't tell too much, and might end up sounding stupid rather than awe inspiring.
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:44 am
5: Who will be controlling what? Are people expected to control their own opponents? Are you providing the opponents?
Basically, who is directing the show and calling the shots. The players or the Moderator (creator of the role play or someone in charge of it)?
If the players are calling the shots, than expect a trailing of dead bodies and easy kills to follow their characters, as they tend to have a need to prove how strong their characters are. The story will probably go no where and things will get out of hand fast.
Alright, maybe not that bad, but you lose any direct control over the role play and the story will go where ever the person who posts the most tends to take it. It could lead to something, or it could lead to a ton of overly easy to kill monsters that just keep jumping them and wont stop. The story will probably spiral around that and expect more auto-hits on the monsters than anything else.
If you control the role play, you have control over everything. The creatures, the NPCs, even the players to some extent. If you need something to happen, it just does. Though with all this control also comes a problem, just like if you give complete control to the players. When you have control of the creatures, you will find that players will try to auto-hit and kill them with the ease they expect. Maybe you will let them for the little guys, maybe not. Players also tend not to be too happy if you control their characters, even if it sometimes make sense (like they step onto the ledge of a cliff to look down, and then the stone they are stepping on gives way and they fall down the ravine. They probably would survive the fall seen as you caused it to them, but they wont be happy that they didn't get a chance to post what their character's reaction would have been, even if it would have been the same thing as what you post).
You will probably need to find some middle ground between the players and yourself for control. Let your players to what they can, letting them progress the story at their own pace. If needed, give them a helping hand. Keep things exciting. Maybe there are a few creatures that they can easily hit and kill with a few blows. Let them do so. Let their character's think they are all tough, then again, let the bosses they fight be strong. Let them worry about their characters. If someone would die, let them die if you can see no way not to prevent it.
This is going to be the hardest part of any role play, deciding who is in control. For some, this will be easy. For others it might not be. Also consider this as well, Progression of the story is good, but so is progression of the characters as well. The characters need to grow as well as the story, together. One can not be without the other.
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Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:48 am
The last comment I have on this subject is probably the most important. It is small and simple, but so important that many people seem to forget it.
Just like how I said that characters need to be allowed to grow and change, so does the stories. They need room to grow and change. Stories never go as planed. Except it now before you start. Let it grow, change and go its own way. It might not be what was expected, but it will probably be more fun and exciting for yourself and the players. Let them run away with it a little. As each character grows up, so will the story. For each character added in, the story will change and grow. Each player will bring in a perspective on your story, a history and a feeling. Let the character's work into the story, not the story work without the characters.
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