Discussion: RP Management

[Thornshield]

This is a discussion thread for those who've signed up for running the RP and for others to chip in ideas. Post away you crazy imaginative people!  

[Cartagia]

Anyone have any ideas/preferences? XD Does anyone thing we should set a world, or a genre, or just some random situation and make it up as we go along?

I don't really mind, although I think the more open it is for lots of different characters the better (like restricting to sci-fi, for example, would probably not go down very well). Personally, and I figure pretty much will be the same for the rest of you, I have lots of characters I can modify to fit into any situation, and plenty who can help drive an RP. ^_^d  

[JaelMoray]

Well, the roleplay I ran for a long time worked very well for various characters of all genres and themes. It was steampunk/high fantasy. So basically a mix of magic and science fiction. Clothing could easily fit with either genre, weapins could be anything from swords and old fashioned weapons to guns, rifles and futuristic weaponry. I agree, it would be a very good idea to make the roleplay world all-encompassing so that it will bring in roleplayers of all genres.

And how is membership working for the guild? Is it free to join or is it going to be invite only? I don't know much about roleplaying on gaia, as I have always done so on other forums, so if anyone can fill me in, that'd be awesome. whee

I guess, the only thing I have always worried about a public guild is that often you'll have people joining for the wrong reasons, whether that be hoping to get free art or the "one liners." I think thats the biggest killer of roleplay, most members putting in effort with their writing/roleplaying to recieve a one word or one line response. gonk  

[Zienkyer]

Well, for those of you that remember the OOC RP, I don't know about you, but I enjoyed that immensely, for reasons I'll explain in a moment.

For those of you that weren't there/forgot/etc, well, it didn't matter where your character was from. The world was (pretty much) pure fantasy, but the characters didn't have to be from the world to participate. They were dropped there by a seemingly random magical anomaly (random portals for the win) and had to undergo a massive quest to attempt to find a way home. I had my military sniper from a dystopian world and my wandering fantasy-based illusionist, Carty had Laveris, her very sci-fi empress, and there were a lot of others that didn't quite fit in xD

But that's what made it oh so very fun, and would require less alteration to the OCs being entered and encouraged people to use their favorites. There was the challenge of characters attempting to cooperate, fit in, and even understand what was going on, without getting killed in an unfamiliar world. Part of the OOC RP, where we were RPing about how to make bowls, was because they were dropped into a forest unprepared and only a few people actually had supplies for that setting. The RP managers could make or alter OCs specifically for this, but no one else really has to.

But for this, a high fantasy, or at least partially high fantasy, world would work best.

As for people joining for the wrong reasons, there has to be rules set into place, such as encouraging an attempt at literacy, involvement, and a decent sized RP-post. Nothing pages long, but I think a lot of us tried for between one and four paragraphs per RP post depending on what our characters were doing, what was going on, etc. Which isn't too unreasonable with a contest of this size.

Uncalled-for one-liners and illiterate attempts at free prizes are vulnerable to insta-character-death at the RP manager's discretion and disqualification from the contest wink

 

[Cartagia]

I have to agree with that, I think some world or setting where characters can be just 'dropped' in for some reason (either explained or not - gods or destiny or just some random chance) would encourage participation in RP, which really is what we want. XD

I think one-liners are invitable when you open up something like this. The trick is for the RP managers to be able to either ignore them (if they're ridiculous, god-moddy or completly pointless), PM the person in question and encourage them to open up to the RP a little more (if they've made an attempt but it isn't very long), or work their own response to try and draw more from them. :3

I'm thinking fantasy setting too - it's very general, everyone can find a way to interact within it, and everyone pretty much understands how fantasy works. XD I'd hope.  

[Jitsumi1221]

back when OOC happened, we didn't have much problems with one liners.. those that really wanted their characters to compete, were really enthused at the prospect of RPing them in a world where we were all thrown together.

it was so very much epic fun ^^

stars universe idea may work quite well also, could be fun to pit fantasy character (giant majority of us have these) against science ^^ i mean heck, any magic user this could make for some awesome experiences.  

[Cartagia]

Jitsumi1221

back when OOC happened, we didn't have much problems with one liners.. those that really wanted their characters to compete, were really enthused at the prospect of RPing them in a world where we were all thrown together.

it was so very much epic fun ^^

stars universe idea may work quite well also, could be fun to pit fantasy character (giant majority of us have these) against science ^^ i mean heck, any magic user this could make for some awesome experiences.

I think the fact that it's a chance to show off your character is a big draw for people to RP properly too. XD

*cackle* I think fantasy with steampunk elements is a lot of fun! >D

Pst, are we going to get to torment Cyp again? x3  

[Jitsumi1221]

lol cart.. can you imagine.. a few years down the line, getting sucked through another dimensional portal and lav and cyp smashing into each other again... ahhhh the potential to torment my poor arrogant self centered idiot... <3

personally i think the steampunk aspect of it can really help draw in more scifi and NON-fantasy (you know like.. actual human normal non superpowery) type characters ^^ fantasy is amazing, but it makes the poor mundanes (god that sounds horrible.. i swear i have NORMAL human ocs er.. that i rarely roleplay.. bad jitsu bad ) i dunno it kinda limits what they can do.. or maybe not even limit.. but.. hurm.. it'd be nice to have everyone equally thrown out of their element but still have a small connecting thread.  

[Cartagia]

Oh my gods. XD Bowls the Reuinion.

I agree! smile Perhaps we could have a steampunk location and a fantasy location for people to choose from? But they are the same world (they could be two different towns) and the groups will meet up eventually (or ironically end up being in the town next to one another, just that one happens to be more industrial than the other). XD  

[Zienkyer]

I couldn't exactly do a reunion, because Maverick has gone through so many changes, I couldn't play her as I did back then... xD

Mayhaps not towns, exactly, but countries, or halves of the same small continent? One could have a rather heavy steampunk themes and technology, while the other is being 'stubbornly old-fashioned' xD Leading to some hostilities between them because naturally, no one can agree on anything. Which leads to secret experiments on both sides to find the best way to gain the upper hand in case war really does break out. Which leads to random character poofling when said experiments get a little bit out of hand... xD

Just some random ideas randomly thought of while randomly rereading what people have said.

 

[Cartagia]

Zien - I imagine a lot of other OCs used have gone through much the same. XD Lav hasn't really but that's mostly because I havn't RPed her much since then. I don't think I will use her (at least very much) in these RP sessions. I have a lot of other characters who would like their chance to shine. >D  

[Kimaya]

rofl bowls reunion! better get working on those woodcrafting skills... haha  

[Thornshield]

Too hard to respond to everyone's posts...but I like the idea of a steampunk/high fantasy world. And yes, we're looking for characters from different genres like OOC. That would definitely mean Portals of some sort.

Also, as Jitsu suggested a team RP event, I definitely would encourage a world where players are divided into two or several sections with different tech/magic levels. And to eliminate overpowered characters (not necessarily godmodders, just chars that are say, demi-gods, etc), we'll need some sort of system in check that drains them.

Perhaps this world has an annual tradition where they summon people from other worlds for a "friendly" large-scale match between the sides. But due to their differences, there's sneaky and devious things going on beneath the surface.

As we all know, not all RPers are into fighting, and such a setting means it won't be the main RP driver. Instead it'll be more like challenges, races, puzzles which levels the playing field.

Of course, there may be some mini-events where combat gets featured, and for those we'd need either a simple combat resolution system, or proper RP judges.  

[Jitsumi1221]

hahahah i like the groups and a way to dampen the super powerful chars to put everyone on a roughly equal footing. the question is how... not everyone is going to have the same kinds of magic.. same goes for non magic users.. super strength.. or even just buffed up strength because of different races.. and how are we going to dampen sci fi chars that use AI stuff, without hurting them completely?

hahah competition is reminding me SO MUCH of the olympics.. no battles, but its all in the sports. *snort* or the world cup thats coming up. can we maybe alter some of these sports.. like maybe.. i dunno i know there is olympic equestrian and fencing.. can we mess these around a bit to riding some strange creature native to this world?

also bring to mind a city wide soccer game in europe... i forget where but the whole city divides in half, and its less soccer, more get the ball however you can to the "goal" which happens to be a windmill door?

lol i can see Cypress doing something involving gambling... i read about a dice game "humans" play in D&D.. i may look into it more and see if i cant alter it so that he can "gamble" with people.. for like random junk they have on them *snort* could be fun..  

[Zienkyer]

I propose at least four main 'country' sections as teams for the characters to have to cooperate with. I haven't named them, and I'll explain why shortly.

1 - High magic, low tech. Value magic so much, technology is virtually outlawed. Considered old fashioned by the other countries, but still powerful enough to be a problem. Really doesn't like country #4.

2 - More magic than tech. They're growing on the idea that technology is useful, but like the familiar comfort of magic. Prefers to do a lot of things without the notice of the others. Is pressured by #1 to get rid of tech, has an uneasy alliance with #3 for protection.

3 - More tech than magic. They still encourage magic users to develop their powers, but is making quick technological advances, especially when it comes to military equipment. Likes brute force and flash explosions, is watched warily by #1, secretly trying to take over #2.

4 - High tech, low magic. Magic is valued as a power source, but little else. It's generally frowned upon to show off magical skill, many magic-users are considered below 'normal' people. Subtly encouraging #2 and #3 to develop tech, if only to finally be able to get rid of #1.

Since it wouldn't be fair to ask one RP manager to do all this, my suggestion is that each manager takes over a 'country', and will be responsible for the NPCs and events in that area. They can develop it as they wish, these are just general ideas. Constant communication, though, would have to be required between the managers to keep the teams on the same page. We can add countries, or take some away.


There could have been an agreement between the leaders of the countries involved that, instead of waging war and destroying their own people and land, that they randomly summon people from other worlds to represent them in a competition. It would be considered a matter of luck, not technology or skill, that determined which country gets which characters, and in turn, which one has the best team for the event.


As for leveling out the characters, since the magic here could be considered different to what they have at home, there could be a sort of curve. If they're considered a demi-god in their world, they might find they can only tap so much magic here before being drained, while anyone with an average amount of magic finds it unchanged. Same with physical strength, perhaps, since anything too unnaturally strong could be considered magically enhanced.