Open RP – Situational RP Threads

[Illysia]

Here’s a thought for those of you lurking the forums, inclined to RP, but can’t get it to work in game. You can try open RP threads that cater to specific situations.

For example, someone could start a Sanitarium(sp?) RP thread on the forum that is open to anyone and any character. Characters would just need to fill one of two requirements for this situation. They either would be there in need of medical aid or there to render medical aid. From there, forumers could RP out getting patched up or patching people up and get back in the swing of RPing with a specific scenario instead of a completely open ended and possibly dead ended tavern RP.

Another issue would be to leave the threads open to characters that don’t have in game versions and may not “exist” beyond that thread. This way people aren’t limited by in game characters that have stalled in their personal stories. People can also practice character development. So in our Santiarium example, let’s take a menki with a broken tail. Let’s call this menki Lharus, and he was made just for the thread. He comes to the tent, gets his tail patched up, interacts with other occupants of the tent, and then may never be heard from again. However, it was a chance to get some RP in anyway.

This is a low risk, low investment idea. It would only take some getting used to. Grand Epic writers would need to adjust by dialing it back and keeping posts to a few paragraphs at most. Terse typers might need to adjust by writing more than just a character’s verbal reply. Another issue with forum RPs is that everyone has to agree to a certain amount of timey wimey-ness as time becomes relative with forum RPs which can span real life weeks with only a few minutes’ worth of story progression.

People will need to come to some kind of agreements on when they will include forum RPs in their in game RPs, if that’s possible. They will also need to learn to give others a chance to respond without letting the whole RP die because someone goes AWOL. Further, someone will need to find a situation people have an interest in RPing out. The good news is that most of this is fairly easy to adjust to once you get over the initial apprehension of RPing differently.

If you like, you can use this thread to discuss potential scenarios and see if you can come up with one people would like to support and RP in. Also probably stick the RP thread on the Roleplaying (Communitive Storywriting) Board. Happy RPing people.

[gonger]

Hi Illysia,

Thanks for your interesting ideas. I would like to add that not every RP needs a big, elaborated, complicated background.
A normal greeting in a IC way is already some RP. "Greetings, Lady / Sire!" takes about the same time as "Howdy, buddy.", and is definitely some RP.

Greetings,

Gonger

[Illysia]

This is true. I might also add that GMs could run such threads to try out parts of a story for players. It wouldn't require them to be in game for hours at a time. However, I wouldn't suggest trying to run a full event this way. Forum RPs stall too easily for events. Better to use it to let people explore the ramifications of a settings level event like an execution, tax hikes, or an alchemical explosion out at Levrus' place.

Here's an example of how a forum RP could look.

Initial post containing some background for the setting of the thread and any OOC notes for RPers, can be only a couple paragraphs long or several depending on the amount of starting conditions. <Poster 1> Amare smooths out her apron and walks up to the first patient at the Sanitarium. "Welcome, how can I help you today?" <Poster 2> Leric hobbles into the tent on one leg and a badly burned crutch, his wing is bound and he has a scowl on his face. "Out of the way wench," he snaps. With great pain and difficulty he manages to hobble over to one of the beds and lay down. <Poster 1> Amare lips purse as her eyes narrow but she lowers her paw. It had instinctively begun to rise as if to backhand the rude Kylros. "What a 'winning' personality. How may I help you today?" <Poster 3> Harla walks in cradling her hand and looks around for an open seat. Her rich clothing lights up the tent as little rays of light reflect off the jewels and flecks of gold woven into her dress. Her wavy hair is pulled back and held by an ornately decorated hair pin. [Harla is a Nolthrir by the way. Does anyone know if the Sanitarium actually has chairs?] <Poster 1> [Yeah it has chairs.] Amare looks at the Nolthrir in some surprise but politely says, "I will be with you in just a moment." Turning back to Leric she waits for him to tell her what he's done to himself. <Poster 2> Leric snarls, "Just get me some burn salve." He is in a foul mood. So far today, most of his red way experiments have either failed or blown up in his face. <Poster 3> Harla looks at the one legged Klyros and says with an air of high born sophistication, "You look like you've had a long day." <Poster 2> [Leric has two legs, he was just only able to walk on one of them as he entered. The other one is injured.] Leric looks like he could throw something at the wealthy lady. "And you look like you took a wrong turn. What, you come down here slumming or something? Don't you have some idiot of a private doctor to go pester?" He mutters a curse under his breath, "It would be busy in here today..." So on and so forth....

[MishkaL1138]

So, basically, going back to MUDs, aye? Is that what we're doing here? Don't get me wrong, you had the best intentions, but someone has to play devil's avocado advocate here.

[Illysia]

I never played a MUD so I can't say, but here's the issue:

This is the last chance to salvage something of communal RP in this game. Regardless of what I'm actually advocating here, the alternative is let community RP die altogether. I was in game just a day or two ago and it is actually worse than it was when I was last actively playing. I did stumble across two people RPing eventually but the whole world was sooooooooooo empty.

Now I warned people it would get this bad years ago and people shouted me down saying that everything was fine and I was making up problems. The deadness of the game and forum should finally put that to rest. There really isn't much room for the usual pattern of shooting down proposals. Traditionally, the PS RPer base has been super resistant to change, but look around... that didn't help the game's player count or amount and quality of RP once things went downhill.

So here's the state of Yliakum: PS will either need to better fill the RP niche or it will fade even more. Further, this change rests on players not gms, not devs... players. The MMO market is oversaturated and PS isn't novel anymore. There are too many free to play commercial options with full teams and better resources. PS is just a volunteer project, it can't compete with commercial teams on a lot of counts simply because it lacks the resources. However, PS doesn't have to pack up shop yet.

Charm can carry a game long past dated graphics, quests, or whatever may not be able to compete commercially. For this game to hold it's ground it needs to have a super active and engaging RP community, like it used to. For that to happen, players will have to change some habits and overcome a certain amount of apathy and discomfort. Forum RPs are a step in that direction.

Forum RPs require less time, resource, emotional investment. Forum RPs are highly visible. Forum RPs are more accessible. At this point, this is as good as a solution gets.



On an off topic note, you are henceforth known as Mishka Avacado.

[Volki]

(disclaimer: I skimmed the thread)

There's not much you can do as an individual community member to fix the lack of players. Seems like the game is having trouble retaining players. Haven't seen the stats for joining recently, but I suspect this is the case. RP is what keeps people playing, but as of right now there's barely any of that. There's nothing keeping people playing ordinarily. It needs that before people will stick around to roleplay.

I still think the game's doing itself a disservice by making training extremely difficult and spreading players too far. It would be okay if the training was interesting, but it's not. The power gained from training isn't rewarding enough for most players to spend as much time as it takes to level up in this game. The few amount of players there are makes the game appear more empty when those few players go out to train. I think a city like Hydlaa should be a center for training most skills.

The developers are the ones to change this. It's not your obligation as a player to do so. You're just part of the equation to player retention.

[Illysia]

RP communities are formed and maintained by players, in all games. Devs can affect them adversely, but ultimately they are a reflection of player commitment and interest. Having RPed outside of PS and found having a healthy community, I know know this to be an absolute fact.

For PS specifically, more people played the game when there were many maps and training was more tedious. The Devs have made the gameplay more interesting and less difficult than it used to be. Player retention got worse after streamlining. I doubt this is the problem. Not to mention, there's harder to play games that retain players.

I'll concede that the gameplay being more fun would help keep people longer, but not everyone plays an MMO for the same gameplay aspect. The state of the RP community is not the sole result of gameplay failings but it is largely the result of player factors, at this point.

I'll make a second concession that some Devs did badly damage the community in the past by not protecting it better. That eventually led to decline. RP Communities are as fragile as butterfly wings.

[Thoss]

I like the ideas you have put forward Illysia! That makes me down for participating in one of these situational RPs here in the forum and I will also continue pop in and out of the game while at it to add to  the numbers in a miniscule way.

I assume by posting these ideas you are coming from the angle of giving nudges for others to kick things off... so I will do some brainstorming and see what comes...

But, I basically consider myself an RP noob and am apprehensive about running one of these... so with that... if you want to start a little mini RP thread (with the angle of perhaps teaching how to run one) I will definitely participate... being the one interested in learning.

[Illysia]

Well, I'm reluctant to take this on... In the past I tried to start lots of initiatives only for them to die because of people wishing for community RP but not supporting attempts to generate them even when I did the bulk of the starting work. However, I can do one for you so you can see what I mean.

Also, don't let your feelings of inexperience stop you. There aren't many hard fast rules for RP. Generally you need to be considerate of other players, let others choose how their characters react to things, and give your own characters goals big or small so that they aren't left to flounder on what to do next. Other stuff you can pick up over time.

Edit: And here's an RP thread for people to play around with. [Open RP] A lot of Fuss for Fyran