How to Forum Roleplay

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In various threads we have commented on roleplaying here. I decided to open a topic where we could bring these ideas together.

1) A good scenario that a variety of people can join. The more people who join the better the chance of the RP lasting.

2) A good DM is essential. Whoever is DMin should, imo, have an alternate DM in case s/he can't post.

3) Encourage people new to Forum RP to join.

 

@ Nakia-
Well, I want to join in one of the RPs, but I have never ever play RP, I have limited knowledge about it. So I guess what am trying to say is, that if is not to much to ask, can you help me??

 

I would love to. My first attempt to RP here was a disaster so I'm 'noobie' friendly when it comes to RPing. PM with any questions and I'll do my best.

Just be sure to read the 3 stickies at the top of the forum.

 

1) Well ... yes and no. Lots of people are nice, but it can sometimes go so fast that some people get excluded (mostly because of timezone). If there are lots of people there needs to either be a regulation of how many times per day you can post, or someone who can sum up what has happened every few pages. The second idea only works if the action is spread out - after all, having a summary of the really exiting battle you just missed is no fun, but having a summary of what happened in a seperate-but-related plot line to yours would be good.

2) I firmly disagree. In PBP, there is no need for a GM. Collaborative playing where everyone is free to add plot details, NPCs, and colour to the world is a far better way of doing thing, IMO.

3) Eh - it's a secondary goal, but I suppose worth having.

Now my suggestions:

In PBP, the scope can be often a lot larger than Tabletop or IRC - because people have time and spcae to get all their ideas out. Therefor - games with lots of people playing several different characters is a good thing - it's taking advantage of the format. The Nationstates forum is/can be a good example of this happening - with people controling entire nations and all the citizens of them - and can jump to any point of view which they might need for a particular post.

 

I am wondering about something, hopefully I can express myself clear enough to get the idea across.

In RPs, generally you only post actions for your character. Sometimes a person is offline (sleeping or working or school) and can't post until later in the day. The actions in the RP are going quickly and you want the offline person to stay in the thick of things. Here's an example and I'll give names so it'll make it easier.

Bob RPs with Mike. Now, Bob doesn't have a lot of free time to post, while Mike does.
Mike posts: There's a huge fire in the house. "We've got to find a way out of here! Bob, kick out that window while I grab the basket of kittens." Bob kicks out the glass and makes it safe to escape through. He goes out first and I hand him the basket before crawling out myself.

Is it okay for Mike to do that? If Bob doesn't mind that is?

In the Laelit RP, DarkStrider had my character, Lena, jump in a river and save someone. I didn't mind because a) Lena is a good person and would've found a way to rescue the swimmer, and b) I was a bit lost in my posting development. I've also read RPs where the person RPing the bartender freaks out because the other RPers were having his character pour them drinks.

Is it just personal preference or should we PM people about doing little things like that? Unless it's mentioned, I try not to post talking or actions for others - ie: Kuemper, while she's on vacation, says Nakia can post for Lena in Laelit.

 

I love RPing and have followed RP corner ever since I joined SP. In my first attempt to RP I did a minor (Ithought) manipulation of another character and got in trouble.

The following comments are based on what I've seen here and are strictly my own opinions.

Rashemen was my debut here as a serious RPer. This is a link to Rotku's first post on the OCC thread. Rashemen OCC

There are eight pages in RP Corner.

Previously I referred to the Pirate theme and outside of that Rashemen has been the longest RP here. I attribute the success of Rashemen to Scot, who took over as Game Master (GM) and that we play as a team.

The timing problem is a big problem. IMO the biggest one in RPing on an International Forum. We had to agree to limit our postings so that everyone had a chance to post. We also have the problem of two or more people posting at the same time.

Right now the RP Corner is very popular and I think we are all learning. How do we keep the story moving and give each person a chance to contribute? How do we manage people posting at the same time?

I think minor inconsistencies can be ignored. A couple of times I have had to change my post to fit someone elses.

Now back to manipulating other peoples characters. Be very careful. The OCC thread and PM are a very important part of role playing. Sometimes in order to move our own role along we're going to want others to do something. On the other hand we may post something that is actually supposed to be secret. If we do this we should make clear either in the RP or in OCC that this is secret.

If we are going to play as a team we have to agree as to what may or may not be done. Now I prefer to team play. If someone wants to solo we have Creative Surge.

As far as I'm concerned the GM has the right to manipulate characters. Any objections should be handled by PM.

Not sure if this helps or just confuses the issue more.

 

Manipulating other people's characters; Guilty.
In the Laelit RP I'd pm'ed kuemp about her character and she had warned that she was finding her feet and so I felt what I did was ok for the reasons that kuemp put forward. I worry that I have given myself a difficult line and responsibility to the thread by becoming a seer. While it was a great idea to have a seer in the group I have to be careful that I don't manipulate the characters to serve my own ends; at the moment i've backed myself into a corner by being too literal, in future my visions will be more symbolic.

In the Rashemen RP after asking, pleading Nakia and Daie d'Malkin not to steal something from my god's temple, I came up with what I hoped was a compromisory workround; where they were allowed to steal it with the High Priest's knowledge. I was surprised and pleased when Nakia put it in the 'Great Moments RP'.

In Warwic I had everyone fed, watered and resting ready for the next adventure which I felt was needed; as we seemed to be floundering but beforehand I'd posted we were going to do that, so I think it was ok, I hope.

But in general I agree with Nakia.

EDIT: corrected spelling

 

Nakia has the right of it. Be careful when manipulating other people's characters, but that doesn't mean you can't. Sometimes it's even required for certain things, but it's best to keep those minimal. I've even done it a few times myself, thankfully without incident.

I think some things, if they're small enough, don't require permission beforehand, but be very careful when trodding on this dangerous ground and try to stay true to the character. Be prepared to edit it back out on request, and on the other side don't hesitate if someone did something you didn't like with your character; catching it early can mean a world of difference in what you can change. PM is the best medium to ask for such a change, and IMO the OoC thread should only be used if it fails.

 

The OCC is for general statements. PM should be used for individual conflicts and strategy. If I ever set up a RP thread one of my rules will be "Individuals should not argue in public. Use PM"

This shouldn't be necessary to say but I'll say it anyway.

PM is great for setting up suprises for the other players. ie: Hey Jacko lets prepare a little adventure for our other players. What do you think of,,,,,

 

in the Character Creation Thread, if you have an NPC who is rather tied in with your PC, say an NPC who is following said character in hopes that said character will lead him to the quarry the NPC is chasing, should you include that NPC in the character creation thread?

For example, the character I primarily RP is a CG male human barbarian, he has a NE female drow enchantress (yes I know this is a strange class for a drow female, but her personality is one of high manipulation and sees more power in arcane magic then divine magic) who's life/freedom he saved/won from some wizard who hoped to make the drow his concubine. She now believes herself to be the barbarian's slave due to drow culture (among many, many other more selfish and manipulative reasons) and convinced the barbarian to let her travel with him. How enter high level LG male human Paladin of Tyr who sees good and evil in a VERY black and white sort of way, every chaotic act must face justice, every evil act punished and all sources of evil destroyed. Obviously he's detected that the drow is evil and on top of that she is a drow, the LG Paladin does not believe evil characters are redeemable (evil corrupts to the core) and will kill them on sight for the greater good of lawful society, and does not believe it is possible for Drow, Duergar, Tieflings or any other generally evil race to ever be good (which is why I love to RP this Paladin into good characters of traditionally evil races and just make him dive into denial). Now this Paladin is never far from my barbarian in hopes that if he stays with the barbarian he can catch the drow. Being that anytime my barbarian is present this Paladin NPC won't be far behind, would I include this paladin in the character creation thread so that others can use him properly if they want to interact with him?

[ January 30, 2006, 21:14: Message edited by: Ilmater's Suffering ]

 

Ilmater's Suffering: Short answer: yes.

You probably don't want the long answer - because I think I'd have to blather on about roleplaying theory, and no one tends to care about that

And plenty of people are going to disagree with me there, probably.

I would advise never narrating anything about another character, except for details which they've explicitly stated (or something that they have no control over - such as if it's known that they have long hair and that there's a wind blowing - narrating their hair blowing in the wind would be quite fine ).

On the other hand - that doesn't need to be set in stone. If all the people in the game decided that it was fine to touch other people's characters however - then sure. As default though - don't.

 

Imo, one of the thigs one should take into account before meddling with someone else's character is "How well do you know the character?" - taking into account this, it is easier to decide if meddling with someone is a good idea or not, and save woes of "Edit that because my char is way ooc!" kind.

*hands in her $.02*

 

Good to know what Nakia's initial faux pas was. I've always wondered.

I've definitely been guilty of over manipulating others characters. As Rashemen's defacto gm, I guess I had a kind of right to there, I just let it drift over into other RPs too, and have almost been asked to walk the plank for it. Btw, I like how Rashemen has become more of a team dm effort, though I still have some master plans, the product of all our creativity working is more than any individuals. The temple plan was a nice surprise for me.

I had more of a laissez-allez attitude about people posting for my characters, especially things that seemed in character, and therefore thought it wouldn't be too out of line to do some things, especially when I was only trying to resuscitate an RP suffering from rigor mortis, but each RP seems to have its own flavor. You live and learn.

Btw, sorry to those of you whose toes I've stepped on.

 

I hate it when characters are too invincible or infallible. One of mt favourite ever characters was Shalladeth in the Copper Coronet who continually set himself on fire due to his clumsy wielding of his flaming sword.

 

another question (I'm full of them) is in regards to character stats, how limited do we want them to be? When are we our of control with stat lines?

My barbarian has a stat line of (3.0 ed):
STR-16
Dex-14
Con-16
Int-12
Wis-10
Cha-16

to me, that stat line looks fine, specifically since that 16 charisma and 12 intelligence have minimal effects on his class. However I do wonder at what point poeople would get irritated by out of control stats (I'm never one who tries make the best stats, I only RP stat creation so I'm not asking this question to take advantage, but to make sure a certain character of mine doesn't get me in trouble), how much leeway we have in stat contruction (the charisma stat line really inflates point distribution for my characters).

 

In forum RP, I usually don't give a damn about stats - sicne there's no dice or mechanics, they do not really matter. if one wanted to rteally use something, then atributing them along broader lines, possibly with verbal descripotions works better... (think: strong/very strong/Hewculean/The Hulk and so on )

*doesn't even want to think about Ricardo's stats*

 

I concur with Ara - and will go further: *don't* use stats in freeform. Representing a character as a bunch of numbers is silly in this kind of play, and showing that your character is strong can be done in far better ways than 'Strength: 16'. Show, don't tell

 

I'd like to try to divert the conversation back to Nakia's origional point-that is, coming up with a scenerio for a new RP. Being new to the forum, I'm somewhat intimidated by the existing RP's, and would like to be part of a new one that i would feel/have a right to join. I ask then this: who is interested in starting a new RP, and if so, does anyone have any scenerio ideas?
By the way, Nakia: if I missed the idea of this thread entirely, and this is only a thread discussing how to succesfully roleplay instead of starting a new RP, then please point out my error.

 

There's an active thread at the moment on the topic of setting up a new RP.

My advice for scenarios: Have a focus in the starting post which can drive the RP somewhere - there have been a lot of miserable failures where the beginning is too open and the game can't go anywhere because everyone has different ideas of what they want to happen which are quite incompatable. If everyone knows what kind of RP this is and can get straight into it from the beginning - there's no problem.