Okay, here are those new RP Creation Guidelines I've been talking about. Feast your eyes everyone~!

Let's end the dirge of one liners and quickly dying threads with a brand new set of guidelines to help us out. Please read through them carefully.

First: Once you have come up with a good idea, check to see what other role plays already exist in the guild. You could also ask around to see if there’d be any interest before you make the rp. Make use of the Guild RPer's Directory thread and the Request RP Partners thread to help you find players. If you’re doing something that’s already been done, think about how you can make your RP different. Sometimes all you need to do is change a few details such as the setting, or add some twists.

Second: Once you have a fitting title that grabs attention, use the first page to set out your role play information. And I really do mean the whole first page (or most of it. It’s wise to reserve some posts there for use later)! This will tell and show people what the story is about, the setting and the types of characters allowed, profiles, as well as any rules specific to the rp, apart from the usual Gaia ToS. Be creative and have fun with it! Use pictures to help show what you mean. And make a plot that takes up about a page in a Word document or similar; concise, yet filled with enough information to really flesh things out. Otherwise you might find your idea petering out in a few pages because no one knows what to do after a certain point.

So: Give the characters something to do! Give the role players a storyline to follow! What’s the goal of this rp? What can they work towards or achieve? By all means, use this guide here (sixth post on the first page): A User's Guide to RPing

And this guide here (the whole page is useful but 11th post on the second page is generally what you need): Barton OOC RP Guide

You can even sum up the goals as dot points at the end to make it more clear; whatever is most helpful.

Third: Ask for at least one or two paragraphs per post. No more boring one liners. They may be quick and easy but it’s really hard to reply to a one lined response and keep the story interesting. It’s also unfair if one person is putting in effort and all they ever get in return is one lined responses.

Posting Order should also be considered. Any time you have more than two players in an RP, it is common courtesy to wait till everyone has had their turn before posting again. EXAMPLE:

Person A posts

Person B posts

Person C posts

Person A posts....then person B, and so on.

Just like taking turns at a board game. This helps prevent people being left out and keeps all the characters on the same scenario/page/time zone.

If someone isn't posting when it's their turn and it is holding up the rp (after a reasonable amount of time. This depends what you've specified in the rules on the first page. Example: if you asked for a post every month and it's been two months), then you might want to send them a reminder or ask whether you can puppeteer their character or just pretend their character went somewhere else or went to do something until the person comes back and can post. If they are unavailable or even ignore you, then I would say it's fair to continue the rp and write their character in again if/when they return.

Fourth: After you have it all set up and have some players, the best thing to do is try to set a good example yourself and also try to include everyone. If things get slow, throw in a prompt or a time skip to move it along. The idea is not to rush towards the goal at the end of the story though; it’s to have fun exploring the characters, setting and story before you get there.

Note: if you need help or get stuck with a rp, why not try looking at additional resources for ideas? This site has tons of useful articles. Writing and World Building (and Character Creation)

There are even generators for character building, questions to help you and litmus tests to check if you have a Mary Sue , Gary Stu or Despie that needs tweaking. It never hurts to learn and can make your rp experience and writing that much more fun.

One More Note: If there's a lot of Out Of Character (OOC) chatter happening in the rp or you think there might be, consider making a separate OOC Chat thread for the players to ask questions and discuss rp related things.