There has been quite a few replies to 'plot bunnies' thread (in this thread I'm sticking to the game Furcadia). Though it seemed to be for smaller, perhaps one on one roleplays.
What about dream wide roleplays? I've orchestrated one, helped out on a few, and am constantly seeing how things can be improved. Now, this is coming from a dream of 100+, where 20+ people may come and try to take part.
For dream wide plots what tickles your fancy? How do you keep posts in line (especially where it's a para-post atmosphere.) ? Is something more intimate, more one on one, your preference? If you put dream wide plots on, how do you keep the flow and keep things from lagging or stalling? If you take part, whats your preference, or how do you hope things go?
Just some general questions, but please, feel free to add whatever else.
What about dream wide roleplays? I've orchestrated one, helped out on a few, and am constantly seeing how things can be improved. Now, this is coming from a dream of 100+, where 20+ people may come and try to take part.
For dream wide plots what tickles your fancy? How do you keep posts in line (especially where it's a para-post atmosphere.) ? Is something more intimate, more one on one, your preference? If you put dream wide plots on, how do you keep the flow and keep things from lagging or stalling? If you take part, whats your preference, or how do you hope things go?
Just some general questions, but please, feel free to add whatever else.
Dream wide plots, for me are hard partake in if there is more than a handful of people posting at one time. The main reason for this is because of the time it takes for one turn to complete. If you have a really big group making para posts, it can take over an hour before it's your turn again! And that time gets even longer if there's one or more people in the group who don't type parts of their post while others are posting.
If it was a relatively small group (say 3 to 7 players) typing fairly small posts (maybe about 5-7 lines) than I handle that. Especially if everyone was pre-turn typing and getting their posts ready prior to their turn. In fact, with pre-turn typing you can probably increase the group the size to about 10 and still have a decent turn time!
I do like situational plots where everyone is experiencing something but doesn't necessarily need to be super involved, like an unusually long winter pushing a town to the brink or a sickness ravaging a city. That way, you don't have 23086534 people trying to post at once but you still get a common situation for everyone to play with.
But for big (10+ players), involved plots a DM/Moderator can be a HUGE help in keeping things on task and rolling. For example, if you had two opposing parties engaged in battle it would be kind of unreasonable to have everyone post one at a time in a set order. Instead, the DM/mod can pair them off and let the pairs make short posts at each other. That way, pairs don't have to wait for other pair to finish before they get a turn to deal a blow and it creates a hectic atmosphere much like a battle. This might sound a bit confusing but you really only have to keep up with your partner's posts. You wouldn't see every happening on a battle field, so your character wouldn't either. To keep track of who's in what condition, you can assign visual cues. For example: standing means your character is still fighting strong, sitting means your character is wounded but still fighting and laying down can signal a defeated character. The only down side to this method is making sure all players involved know and understand the way you're handling the RP.
If it was a relatively small group (say 3 to 7 players) typing fairly small posts (maybe about 5-7 lines) than I handle that. Especially if everyone was pre-turn typing and getting their posts ready prior to their turn. In fact, with pre-turn typing you can probably increase the group the size to about 10 and still have a decent turn time!
I do like situational plots where everyone is experiencing something but doesn't necessarily need to be super involved, like an unusually long winter pushing a town to the brink or a sickness ravaging a city. That way, you don't have 23086534 people trying to post at once but you still get a common situation for everyone to play with.
But for big (10+ players), involved plots a DM/Moderator can be a HUGE help in keeping things on task and rolling. For example, if you had two opposing parties engaged in battle it would be kind of unreasonable to have everyone post one at a time in a set order. Instead, the DM/mod can pair them off and let the pairs make short posts at each other. That way, pairs don't have to wait for other pair to finish before they get a turn to deal a blow and it creates a hectic atmosphere much like a battle. This might sound a bit confusing but you really only have to keep up with your partner's posts. You wouldn't see every happening on a battle field, so your character wouldn't either. To keep track of who's in what condition, you can assign visual cues. For example: standing means your character is still fighting strong, sitting means your character is wounded but still fighting and laying down can signal a defeated character. The only down side to this method is making sure all players involved know and understand the way you're handling the RP.
I adore giant RPs and I've hosted my fair share. I did one huge plotline for my dream some two years ago and it goes down in history as one of the best RPs of all time. (Sorry, Kanye.) I've learned a couple things about "DMing" any kind of freeform group, and they are:
1) Post order is bad news. Unless there's a battle going on, I highly suggest you don't enforce any kind of post order. I don't personally understand orders in anything that isn't a combat anyway, though. But this will slow your big production to a crawl. For fights, what Tasha suggests is a good idea, and getting people to play some of the enemies (if they're NPCs) works as well. Just keep track of who's doing what so you can combine post orders if two of the mini-conflicts overlap.
2) Big posts... are generally not so good for large RPs, but I'll leave you alone on that one, because I know a lot of people like giant posts. I'm a semi-para man through and through.
3) Sometimes the players don't know what to do in a large plot situation. It can be hard for them to answer the questions "Hey, who's the leader here? Where do we start? What do we do?" so they will RP their characters idling and waiting for you to do something. Just learn to see when this is happening and, as the DM, give them (or one of them) a good nudge in the right direction. This leads to...
4) Make them feel important. This is one of the most important things to remember. Suppose you're all RPing a large search party to try and find a lost child. Rather than have an NPC pick up the trail or simply emitting something vague like "The sharp-eyed among you begin to see a trail underfoot," whisper to one of the players that would be likely to see/smell a trail that they see it. This makes them feel special and important. Because they are!
I try to do this to as many different players as appropriate in any given plot.
I'm sure I have more, but... I can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck.
1) Post order is bad news. Unless there's a battle going on, I highly suggest you don't enforce any kind of post order. I don't personally understand orders in anything that isn't a combat anyway, though. But this will slow your big production to a crawl. For fights, what Tasha suggests is a good idea, and getting people to play some of the enemies (if they're NPCs) works as well. Just keep track of who's doing what so you can combine post orders if two of the mini-conflicts overlap.
2) Big posts... are generally not so good for large RPs, but I'll leave you alone on that one, because I know a lot of people like giant posts. I'm a semi-para man through and through.
3) Sometimes the players don't know what to do in a large plot situation. It can be hard for them to answer the questions "Hey, who's the leader here? Where do we start? What do we do?" so they will RP their characters idling and waiting for you to do something. Just learn to see when this is happening and, as the DM, give them (or one of them) a good nudge in the right direction. This leads to...
4) Make them feel important. This is one of the most important things to remember. Suppose you're all RPing a large search party to try and find a lost child. Rather than have an NPC pick up the trail or simply emitting something vague like "The sharp-eyed among you begin to see a trail underfoot," whisper to one of the players that would be likely to see/smell a trail that they see it. This makes them feel special and important. Because they are!
I try to do this to as many different players as appropriate in any given plot.I'm sure I have more, but... I can't think of anything else at the moment. Good luck.
Heimdall wrote:
4) Make them feel important. This is one of the most important things to remember. Suppose you're all RPing a large search party to try and find a lost child. Rather than have an NPC pick up the trail or simply emitting something vague like "The sharp-eyed among you begin to see a trail underfoot," whisper to one of the players that would be likely to see/smell a trail that they see it. This makes them feel special and important. Because they are! I try to do this to as many different players as appropriate in any given plot.
I try to do this to as many different players as appropriate in any given plot.Oh, I like this idea! 0: I'm gonna keep that in mind next time I'm in a big rp!
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