... And what can we do to prevent it?
Inspired by Kim's RP discussion chats, I've decided to start a forum topic dedicated to elongating an RP's lifespan and ensuring that it is as healthy as possible!
I'd like for us as a community to discuss this issue of 'dead' RPs, and figure out how to prevent them. I don't know if this has been discussed already or not, but it's still a worthy topic and it can help younger RPers avoid this particular little pitfall in the future!
For me personally, I've noticed that an RP dies when the participants get tired of RPing. Where posts were once full of creative, awesome writing power, there are now boring posts, which are barely enough to respond to. (And sometimes not even that.) In a long term RP, where the group gets together regularly to continue their stories, this isn't as big of a deal. They can all just agree that their creativity has been sapped for the day, and that they can get together the next day for more RP goodness.
So my question is this: At what point does an RP become 'boring?' How do we keep things interesting?
I have a few ideas of how this happens based on my own experience.
Idea número uno: Dragged-out scenarios/Smalltalk
This can be particularly annoying. I find the biggest offenders to be 1x1 RPs. The scenario is always the same: Two characters meet, exchange greetings, and then both players are at a loss for what to say. This generally ends up in the characters parting ways, and moving on to their next RP partner. This is actually one of the biggest reasons why I prefer open/group RP over 1x1. When new characters are introduced, things keep moving along at a steady pace. Of course, this happens in groups as well, just not as often. (In my experience.)
My advice on how to avoid this scenario? Avoid all 1x1 RPs with settings like a cafe or bar and have your typical Mary/Gary Sue/Stu "ordinary" characters LIKE THE PLAGUE. I cannot tell you how many RPs I've walked into where my dragon slayer just wanted a drink, and decided to make small talk with the bartender. Those always ended with my character exiting the room very shortly afterward, because nothing interesting kept me there. All good stories have conflicts/problems. So why should RPs be any different?
Idea número dos: Boring/Lack of GM
A GM, IMHO, is the person who starts an RP. They are responsible for keeping the story moving. They generally play most, if not all NPCs. They present problems to the other players for their characters to overcome. Their characters are secondary to their role as GM.
Now what happens if you start an RP and never do anything interesting? The other characters are never presented with anything new or dangerous, and they are stuck making small talk. Small talk once again kills off any chance of an exciting story. The lack of an exciting GM is not good.
There are, however, some instances where everyone takes part responsibility in keeping the story moving along when there is no GM. This, when done right, can be very fun. But most of the time it isn't.
My advice to avoid this? If you see no GM present, and you start to see the RP devolve into small talk, Take up the mantle and assume the responsibility of GM. I've done this quite a few times. You don't have to appoint yourself GM publicly or anything, just introduce a little spice into the RP. Heat it up. Get your favorite antagonist character to drop by and say hello. The other players will love you for it. You don't necessarily have to be the official GM, but you can keep the RP going when the others aren't.
Idea número tres: Self RP/Schizophrenia
This is a sort of pet peeve of mine. When you have a character that is actually two or more characters bundled together, it can be absolutely detrimental (lookitup) to an RP's fun factor. It can be fun when done right, (See my character Bunny, Kitty, Moose,) but it can also be just the opposite. I'll give you an example from an RP website I used to play on before I came here.
There was this MLP character, a husband-and-wife pair of Unicorns. One was named Fleeting, and the other was named Time. Cute, huh? Yeah, just wait until you RP with them.
My character, Thilga, was in the midst of courting a lovely werewolf lady when suddenly, out of the blue, these two harbingers of doom entered. Now, being in the middle of the forest, Thilga and his beloved were very surprised at the sight. The lovely werewolf was the self-established guardian of the forest, and had only just started to warm up to Thilga. Seeing these new, cartoonish strangers undoubtedly set off many alarm bells in her head, and set both her players' and my eyes rolling. We both had seen this before, and it had never ended well. Time, the husband, was carrying his wife, Fleeting, because she had broken her leg. There was lengthy conversation between the two, going something like this:
"Ugh, it hurts so bad, Time!"
"Don't worry Fleeting, I'll get you safe!"
I don't remember exactly how, but their player somehow managed to keep the conversation going and it eventually became a series of "I love you!" "I love you too, I'll protect you whatever it takes." Type things. I wanted to vomit.
Eventually, Time saw Thilga and Grace. Instead of asking for help, he took a defensive stance, and stood in front of his bride. "Don't you dare hurt her!"
The player obviously wanted our characters to come over and prove their friendship, and try and calm his character down and offer their help to the hurting pony.
The RP quickly devolved into one liners, and eventually the other player and I agreed to log off and meet back up to continue where we left off another time.
My advice to avoid this problem? If you see a character ignoring everyone else and talking amongst themselves, Ignore them. As heartless and cruel as it sounds, giving someone the same treatment they're giving everyone else will cause them to try and interact with the other characters more. This will reduce their interaction with self and increase their interaction with others. In my experience, talking OOCly to someone about their characters' OOC flaws always ends in a flame war, and a bunch of toxicity being spewed. In the RPR's mature community, I'm sure people can handle being talked to maturely, but in other RPing sites you might want to watch out.
Idea número cuatro: Being Nosey/Cutting in where you don't belong
Fleeting/Time was also guilty of this.
I'd have a character who had a problem and couldn't control her power to time travel, appearing in random times without wanting to. She'd be in the 21st century, sometime in the future, and would approach a time travel expert on the street.
Once again, Fleeting/Time would come in. Instead of a broken leg this time, Time would be sick. Fleeting would be desperately seeking some kind of cure. Since they were time traveling ponies, they decided it would be okay to appear randomly.
One of these things is not like the others~
One of these things just doesn't belong~
This kills RP faster than an Angel of Death kills a man who should've died 25 years ago.
My advice on how to avoid this? Kindly redirect the offending player to another RP with similar characters. If that doesn't work, refer to the previous problem's solution.
Idea número cinco: One liners/Lack of detail
First, I absolutely despise fluff. Any meaningless filler meant only to feed your ego with a post large enough to stretch to the moon and back needs to rot in Tartarus. If I see any fluff in an RP I will go all Soup-Nazi on them.
"No post fo you!"
But one liners can kill an RP so fast. Faster than a mouse trap kills a mouse made of glass.
I'll give you another example from my old RP site.
Once upon a time, there was a group of RPers who all played a family. They were mostly Nekos/Anthropomorphic cute animals. I played a Mexican orphan named Carlos who was living next door with a foster family.
The family Carlos was neighbors with adopted pretty muchly any anthro child on the entire RP website. One such child was named Lily_Rose. This girl could not distinguish between OOC and IC. OOCly she referred to her IC adopted mother as "momma," and she was a total brat IC. All of the characters tolerated her. Her typical post went something like this:
"*would walk over to Johnny* hi johnny wanna pway a game? *would hold out ball to throw*"
Every other characters' post was decently lengthy, and had enough descriptive language to be fun. She didn't kill RP in a group, but with one or two other characters, her introduction post meant a death sentence for the RP.
My advice on how to avoid this?
RUN AWAY. These characters care not for quality. They only want attention!
Idea número seis: Fluffy, extra long, meaningless filler/"LOLSHORT" posts/Many descriptions, few actions
You and your friends are having a good time in an open RP. The young couple who secretly liked each other finally gets together, the amnesiac remembers his real name, and the android robot finally discovers his programmed purpose. All is well in RP land, until you read this:
"Light blue hues gleamed in the moonlight as the male in the trees watched the campfire reunion. Daring not to reveal himself just now, he remained hidden. Long, silver flowing hair reflected the moon's majestic light, as the man smelled the smoke mingled with the odor of the oak leaves from the tall-standing pillar he currently rested upon..." Etc. etc.
As Gru from Despicable Me once so wisely put it:
"I hate dat guy."
How to avoid this problem?
I'd ask the offending player to tone it down a bit, and/or redirect them to other like-minded players. If the problem persists, there's always the trusty ignore button.
Well, that's my two cents. What do you guys think? Any other scenarios we should know to avoid? Any advice on how to diffuse the aforementioned problems? What about your own experiences?
Cheers and excellence,
~Oaky
Inspired by Kim's RP discussion chats, I've decided to start a forum topic dedicated to elongating an RP's lifespan and ensuring that it is as healthy as possible!
I'd like for us as a community to discuss this issue of 'dead' RPs, and figure out how to prevent them. I don't know if this has been discussed already or not, but it's still a worthy topic and it can help younger RPers avoid this particular little pitfall in the future!
For me personally, I've noticed that an RP dies when the participants get tired of RPing. Where posts were once full of creative, awesome writing power, there are now boring posts, which are barely enough to respond to. (And sometimes not even that.) In a long term RP, where the group gets together regularly to continue their stories, this isn't as big of a deal. They can all just agree that their creativity has been sapped for the day, and that they can get together the next day for more RP goodness.
So my question is this: At what point does an RP become 'boring?' How do we keep things interesting?
I have a few ideas of how this happens based on my own experience.
Idea número uno: Dragged-out scenarios/Smalltalk
This can be particularly annoying. I find the biggest offenders to be 1x1 RPs. The scenario is always the same: Two characters meet, exchange greetings, and then both players are at a loss for what to say. This generally ends up in the characters parting ways, and moving on to their next RP partner. This is actually one of the biggest reasons why I prefer open/group RP over 1x1. When new characters are introduced, things keep moving along at a steady pace. Of course, this happens in groups as well, just not as often. (In my experience.)
My advice on how to avoid this scenario? Avoid all 1x1 RPs with settings like a cafe or bar and have your typical Mary/Gary Sue/Stu "ordinary" characters LIKE THE PLAGUE. I cannot tell you how many RPs I've walked into where my dragon slayer just wanted a drink, and decided to make small talk with the bartender. Those always ended with my character exiting the room very shortly afterward, because nothing interesting kept me there. All good stories have conflicts/problems. So why should RPs be any different?
Idea número dos: Boring/Lack of GM
A GM, IMHO, is the person who starts an RP. They are responsible for keeping the story moving. They generally play most, if not all NPCs. They present problems to the other players for their characters to overcome. Their characters are secondary to their role as GM.
Now what happens if you start an RP and never do anything interesting? The other characters are never presented with anything new or dangerous, and they are stuck making small talk. Small talk once again kills off any chance of an exciting story. The lack of an exciting GM is not good.
There are, however, some instances where everyone takes part responsibility in keeping the story moving along when there is no GM. This, when done right, can be very fun. But most of the time it isn't.
My advice to avoid this? If you see no GM present, and you start to see the RP devolve into small talk, Take up the mantle and assume the responsibility of GM. I've done this quite a few times. You don't have to appoint yourself GM publicly or anything, just introduce a little spice into the RP. Heat it up. Get your favorite antagonist character to drop by and say hello. The other players will love you for it. You don't necessarily have to be the official GM, but you can keep the RP going when the others aren't.
Idea número tres: Self RP/Schizophrenia
This is a sort of pet peeve of mine. When you have a character that is actually two or more characters bundled together, it can be absolutely detrimental (lookitup) to an RP's fun factor. It can be fun when done right, (See my character Bunny, Kitty, Moose,) but it can also be just the opposite. I'll give you an example from an RP website I used to play on before I came here.
There was this MLP character, a husband-and-wife pair of Unicorns. One was named Fleeting, and the other was named Time. Cute, huh? Yeah, just wait until you RP with them.
My character, Thilga, was in the midst of courting a lovely werewolf lady when suddenly, out of the blue, these two harbingers of doom entered. Now, being in the middle of the forest, Thilga and his beloved were very surprised at the sight. The lovely werewolf was the self-established guardian of the forest, and had only just started to warm up to Thilga. Seeing these new, cartoonish strangers undoubtedly set off many alarm bells in her head, and set both her players' and my eyes rolling. We both had seen this before, and it had never ended well. Time, the husband, was carrying his wife, Fleeting, because she had broken her leg. There was lengthy conversation between the two, going something like this:
"Ugh, it hurts so bad, Time!"
"Don't worry Fleeting, I'll get you safe!"
I don't remember exactly how, but their player somehow managed to keep the conversation going and it eventually became a series of "I love you!" "I love you too, I'll protect you whatever it takes." Type things. I wanted to vomit.
Eventually, Time saw Thilga and Grace. Instead of asking for help, he took a defensive stance, and stood in front of his bride. "Don't you dare hurt her!"
The player obviously wanted our characters to come over and prove their friendship, and try and calm his character down and offer their help to the hurting pony.
The RP quickly devolved into one liners, and eventually the other player and I agreed to log off and meet back up to continue where we left off another time.
My advice to avoid this problem? If you see a character ignoring everyone else and talking amongst themselves, Ignore them. As heartless and cruel as it sounds, giving someone the same treatment they're giving everyone else will cause them to try and interact with the other characters more. This will reduce their interaction with self and increase their interaction with others. In my experience, talking OOCly to someone about their characters' OOC flaws always ends in a flame war, and a bunch of toxicity being spewed. In the RPR's mature community, I'm sure people can handle being talked to maturely, but in other RPing sites you might want to watch out.
Idea número cuatro: Being Nosey/Cutting in where you don't belong
Fleeting/Time was also guilty of this.
I'd have a character who had a problem and couldn't control her power to time travel, appearing in random times without wanting to. She'd be in the 21st century, sometime in the future, and would approach a time travel expert on the street.
Once again, Fleeting/Time would come in. Instead of a broken leg this time, Time would be sick. Fleeting would be desperately seeking some kind of cure. Since they were time traveling ponies, they decided it would be okay to appear randomly.
One of these things is not like the others~
One of these things just doesn't belong~
This kills RP faster than an Angel of Death kills a man who should've died 25 years ago.
My advice on how to avoid this? Kindly redirect the offending player to another RP with similar characters. If that doesn't work, refer to the previous problem's solution.
Idea número cinco: One liners/Lack of detail
First, I absolutely despise fluff. Any meaningless filler meant only to feed your ego with a post large enough to stretch to the moon and back needs to rot in Tartarus. If I see any fluff in an RP I will go all Soup-Nazi on them.
"No post fo you!"
But one liners can kill an RP so fast. Faster than a mouse trap kills a mouse made of glass.
I'll give you another example from my old RP site.
Once upon a time, there was a group of RPers who all played a family. They were mostly Nekos/Anthropomorphic cute animals. I played a Mexican orphan named Carlos who was living next door with a foster family.
The family Carlos was neighbors with adopted pretty muchly any anthro child on the entire RP website. One such child was named Lily_Rose. This girl could not distinguish between OOC and IC. OOCly she referred to her IC adopted mother as "momma," and she was a total brat IC. All of the characters tolerated her. Her typical post went something like this:
"*would walk over to Johnny* hi johnny wanna pway a game? *would hold out ball to throw*"
Every other characters' post was decently lengthy, and had enough descriptive language to be fun. She didn't kill RP in a group, but with one or two other characters, her introduction post meant a death sentence for the RP.
My advice on how to avoid this?
RUN AWAY. These characters care not for quality. They only want attention!
Idea número seis: Fluffy, extra long, meaningless filler/"LOLSHORT" posts/Many descriptions, few actions
You and your friends are having a good time in an open RP. The young couple who secretly liked each other finally gets together, the amnesiac remembers his real name, and the android robot finally discovers his programmed purpose. All is well in RP land, until you read this:
"Light blue hues gleamed in the moonlight as the male in the trees watched the campfire reunion. Daring not to reveal himself just now, he remained hidden. Long, silver flowing hair reflected the moon's majestic light, as the man smelled the smoke mingled with the odor of the oak leaves from the tall-standing pillar he currently rested upon..." Etc. etc.
As Gru from Despicable Me once so wisely put it:
"I hate dat guy."
How to avoid this problem?
I'd ask the offending player to tone it down a bit, and/or redirect them to other like-minded players. If the problem persists, there's always the trusty ignore button.
Well, that's my two cents. What do you guys think? Any other scenarios we should know to avoid? Any advice on how to diffuse the aforementioned problems? What about your own experiences?
Cheers and excellence,
~Oaky
Ah, I'm glad you put this massive wall of words in ideas. That makes it easier to reply.
Número uno
cha cha cha
Dragging out scenes is never fun. They should never be longer than they're supposed to be. Though I cannot fully agree with you on the smalltalk part.
Yes, it can be difficult to maintain a decent conversation, and yes, it is incredibly tedious and annoying when it is dragged out, yet smalltalk on its own is important. It can be seen as character development, and depending on what's being said, it can come back later as a positive or negative reason to do a certain action. for instance, when one of the character proclaims his love for pies a couple of posts earlier, and the other one finds himself near a bakery, he would know about the other character's love for pie, and might just buy him/her one, which would improve their relationship.
Número dos
Aye caramba
I fully agree with this statement. A GM is incredibly important to setting the scene as well as keeping the characters busy. I like GMing, and what can help is create a list of possible events that could happen if a character were to go one place or another. It keeps things going, if only for a little while. A GM's job is never done!
número tres
Taco
Schizophrenic characters can be fun to interact with. But your example of a schizophrenic character clearly didn't do it right. The same goes for people who are deaf, or speak a different language. The boundaries these characters pose can be difficult to interact with. It takes experienced roleplayers to embrace such boundaries and not have a convenient magic tonic or artifact with them that allows them to understand the other character fully.
número cuatro
El Woopie Goldberg
Personally, I never had the problem of time traveling schizophrenic ponies appearing out of nowhere in front of my character. Though as a time-to-time GM, I would say the following:
CUTTING IN INTO PLACES YOU DO NOT BELONG IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN EVER DO
It gives the GM the chance to really make the character regret his/her decisions. These things ALWAYS go wrong, and will come back later to really mess up their day. I love it! And more people should do it!
número cinco
...de mayo?
When people post one liners, it's obvious they're new/inexperienced at RPing. You should always put a limit as to how many sentences you'd like the minimum post to have. And if the newbie is willing to learn, you teach him/her! They'll be grateful for it one day. And you'll end up having changed a noobish RPer into a socially accepted one. it's a friendship that lasts for ages, I promise you. I see it as a duty to help one-liner players out, instead of marking them as "noob" and leaving them be. Everyone has got potential.
Now you may have noticed I said nothing about your solutions. This is because I fully agree with all of them. So far, I believe they're the best way of dealing with said problems. Good going Oaky, good going.
Número uno
cha cha cha
Dragging out scenes is never fun. They should never be longer than they're supposed to be. Though I cannot fully agree with you on the smalltalk part.
Yes, it can be difficult to maintain a decent conversation, and yes, it is incredibly tedious and annoying when it is dragged out, yet smalltalk on its own is important. It can be seen as character development, and depending on what's being said, it can come back later as a positive or negative reason to do a certain action. for instance, when one of the character proclaims his love for pies a couple of posts earlier, and the other one finds himself near a bakery, he would know about the other character's love for pie, and might just buy him/her one, which would improve their relationship.
Número dos
Aye caramba
I fully agree with this statement. A GM is incredibly important to setting the scene as well as keeping the characters busy. I like GMing, and what can help is create a list of possible events that could happen if a character were to go one place or another. It keeps things going, if only for a little while. A GM's job is never done!
número tres
Taco
Schizophrenic characters can be fun to interact with. But your example of a schizophrenic character clearly didn't do it right. The same goes for people who are deaf, or speak a different language. The boundaries these characters pose can be difficult to interact with. It takes experienced roleplayers to embrace such boundaries and not have a convenient magic tonic or artifact with them that allows them to understand the other character fully.
número cuatro
El Woopie Goldberg
Personally, I never had the problem of time traveling schizophrenic ponies appearing out of nowhere in front of my character. Though as a time-to-time GM, I would say the following:
CUTTING IN INTO PLACES YOU DO NOT BELONG IS THE BEST THING YOU CAN EVER DO
It gives the GM the chance to really make the character regret his/her decisions. These things ALWAYS go wrong, and will come back later to really mess up their day. I love it! And more people should do it!
número cinco
...de mayo?
When people post one liners, it's obvious they're new/inexperienced at RPing. You should always put a limit as to how many sentences you'd like the minimum post to have. And if the newbie is willing to learn, you teach him/her! They'll be grateful for it one day. And you'll end up having changed a noobish RPer into a socially accepted one. it's a friendship that lasts for ages, I promise you. I see it as a duty to help one-liner players out, instead of marking them as "noob" and leaving them be. Everyone has got potential.
Now you may have noticed I said nothing about your solutions. This is because I fully agree with all of them. So far, I believe they're the best way of dealing with said problems. Good going Oaky, good going.
Ahhh, so much I see here is the exact reasons I practically do not participate in group role plays anymore. A bit more and I would be allergic to them. If it is group role play, then it strictly has to be closed which, again, disinterests people to join. I don't have the will or interest to struggle with these 'trolls' as they appropriately could be called. It does not matter if it is done on purpose, because the player has no knowledge of Role Playing Etiquette (I believe there is some) or they just don't realize what they are doing.
However, about some of these I also have conflicting emotions, especially Idea número seis. Alright, the poster went a bit over the top with word choice at places (and suspiciously smells like Gary Stu), however for an into post, when you are not exactly sure what to do and how to 'barge in', it could've been a post good enough. Then again, I am one who particularly likes details, so called 'fluff', so imaginative scene description is quite nice for me. Yet, I can agree that the poster could have found a more creative way to actually enter the scene, not just 'lurk in shadows', waiting to be found.
Also, I absolutely love to play more than one character at the same time. It can be done sanely and with moderate interactions which make post longer, but also reveals character personalities well and doesn't drag out too much (especially since in these duos, one of them is the quiet one for me usually).
As for GM... How about 1x1? I agree what you mentioned as first problem is very acute, but that is why people should plot before to find a common reason of coming together and where it will lead. I don't like random role plays. And in 1x1s, it's nice if things are discussed beforehand, before you take drastic actions, but if the other person is (very) passive, it's awfully hard to get things moving while keeping your character IC and plot not 'schizophrenic'.
And I want to add another problem: large groups, rushing ahead and leaving someone behind. It may not lead to dying out directly, but when, say, 6 people get together and on one day, 2 fall behind, they might as well fall out from the game altogether, feeling insulted and/or not interested to rejoin. And that might happen again until there is just few players left over and then the role play can die from any of the other mentioned reasons.
However, about some of these I also have conflicting emotions, especially Idea número seis. Alright, the poster went a bit over the top with word choice at places (and suspiciously smells like Gary Stu), however for an into post, when you are not exactly sure what to do and how to 'barge in', it could've been a post good enough. Then again, I am one who particularly likes details, so called 'fluff', so imaginative scene description is quite nice for me. Yet, I can agree that the poster could have found a more creative way to actually enter the scene, not just 'lurk in shadows', waiting to be found.
Also, I absolutely love to play more than one character at the same time. It can be done sanely and with moderate interactions which make post longer, but also reveals character personalities well and doesn't drag out too much (especially since in these duos, one of them is the quiet one for me usually).
As for GM... How about 1x1? I agree what you mentioned as first problem is very acute, but that is why people should plot before to find a common reason of coming together and where it will lead. I don't like random role plays. And in 1x1s, it's nice if things are discussed beforehand, before you take drastic actions, but if the other person is (very) passive, it's awfully hard to get things moving while keeping your character IC and plot not 'schizophrenic'.
And I want to add another problem: large groups, rushing ahead and leaving someone behind. It may not lead to dying out directly, but when, say, 6 people get together and on one day, 2 fall behind, they might as well fall out from the game altogether, feeling insulted and/or not interested to rejoin. And that might happen again until there is just few players left over and then the role play can die from any of the other mentioned reasons.
There is a large difference between adding a bit of spice to a dull scene, and simply interrupting with a brash antagonist character. I've seen too many people think that they are livening up something -they- find dull, and all they really manage to do is just annoy the other posters.
First of all, I would like to say I love different types of rp. I do love having some big epic storylines. I love having the occasional fight or struggle, injury, betrayal, chaotic things happening. But I also absolutely love the very simple day to day life rps. This is where it really comes down to the well balanced in depth characters keeping things running. When you -can- have an enjoyable rp just off how their normal lives are, and everyone's interactions with each other. It's not easy to do. It takes some really great rpers and often ones with 'older' characters that they've played long enough to really understand all the things that make that character who they are.
Another thing you have to understand. Sometimes a scene just fizzles out. It happens. Get over it. Maybe think about why the scene fizzled, and then learn from it.
I've had far more cases of someone trying to make things interesting by doing what they think would liven things up, and they do it poorly. All they end up doing is busting in on other people rping, and try to derail and hog the attention on themselves.
An example. Character A, B, and C are seated outside talking. Character D sees they are just having a conversation about sheep sheering and farming, and other oh so boring things. Character D has their character rush up covered in blood and screaming, claiming to have been attacked by bandits/monsters/demons so on.
Yep. Seen it, or some variation of it a 100 times or more. For some settings, this isnt 'living up a scene' its a bit inconsiderate to the other players, and to the setting. Here is why.
If you are in a small setting with a rather detailed background.. The other players now have to accept that something like that happened in say, a very small very safe town that has guards paroling. So one, you just assumed that the guards weren't doing their job. You made decisions right there for other player characters about how they play their character. You assumed those things would actually be in that setting. Then, you made everyone commit to realistically having to follow through with this thing that should not have happened in the first place.
A better way is to ask someone. Ask first, out of character if you would be able to have something a bit more dramatic happen. There is nothing 'wrong' with an rp where someone gets attacked, or some sudden dramatic accident happens.. But what if you are in a group of people who are so tired of random disasters they do want their chars to have a chance to just sit down and have a chat, a couple beers and talk about mundane things?
Don't do things that are sudden, jarring and scene breaking when you are new to a setting. If you are just joining a group of new people, don't try to make this huge epic plot surrounding your character, unless its been approved or agreed on.
How do you keep rps from dying? Here are a few tips.
Don't have your character rush into a relationship with another. Nothing kills it faster, that two characters hooking up within a few days or a weeks time because both people want to play romantic stuff, or feel like they have to have their character 'mated'
Don't constantly try to make it all about you. This is something I think everyone struggles with at some point. If your character almost always has something wrong with them, or is in some sort of fix, or is always barging in and derailing scenes, this doesn't add 'spice' this annoys the other rpers into not wanting to interact with your character anymore.
Be consistent. Your character's background and abilities, don't change these after its already been established. If something happens to your character, then it happened. If your character got in a fist fight with someone a week ago, other people are still going to remember that. Just because a week has passed doesn't mean everything is all perfect and fine now. Other characters will remember it too.
Don't try to force a character into an setting that just doesn't work for them. Example. Kledros, I would not just drop him in the middle of a day to day life small town rp. I like those rps, I like Kledros, but he just wouldn't work there.
Don't try to 'fix everything' This goes for players, admin, GMs, everyone. Conflict resolution is fine. Helping a character is fine. Please do not insist on trying to instantly 'make better' things about a character. One example would be.. I played a severely scarred character. Yep, he was ugly. It was unattractive that he had so much scarring. It gave him a social stigma and some hangups related to how he looked. I dont know how many times I had to tell people they could not heal or magic away his scarring.
Another example would be.. Say someone arrives in the setting, their char is poor, homeless, lost.. Someone jumps in and just -gives- them 100 gold and invites them to stay with them. No. Don't. Better option? Someone pays for their meal and tells them where they can find work. Still helping, not instant fix.
Characters need goals and aspirations. They need smaller ones, and larger ones. The details of interactions between others is what keeps a story going. There is only so many times someone can burst through the doors of the inn screaming about bandits, or bust in and act rude and insane.. It really gets old.
First of all, I would like to say I love different types of rp. I do love having some big epic storylines. I love having the occasional fight or struggle, injury, betrayal, chaotic things happening. But I also absolutely love the very simple day to day life rps. This is where it really comes down to the well balanced in depth characters keeping things running. When you -can- have an enjoyable rp just off how their normal lives are, and everyone's interactions with each other. It's not easy to do. It takes some really great rpers and often ones with 'older' characters that they've played long enough to really understand all the things that make that character who they are.
Another thing you have to understand. Sometimes a scene just fizzles out. It happens. Get over it. Maybe think about why the scene fizzled, and then learn from it.
I've had far more cases of someone trying to make things interesting by doing what they think would liven things up, and they do it poorly. All they end up doing is busting in on other people rping, and try to derail and hog the attention on themselves.
An example. Character A, B, and C are seated outside talking. Character D sees they are just having a conversation about sheep sheering and farming, and other oh so boring things. Character D has their character rush up covered in blood and screaming, claiming to have been attacked by bandits/monsters/demons so on.
Yep. Seen it, or some variation of it a 100 times or more. For some settings, this isnt 'living up a scene' its a bit inconsiderate to the other players, and to the setting. Here is why.
If you are in a small setting with a rather detailed background.. The other players now have to accept that something like that happened in say, a very small very safe town that has guards paroling. So one, you just assumed that the guards weren't doing their job. You made decisions right there for other player characters about how they play their character. You assumed those things would actually be in that setting. Then, you made everyone commit to realistically having to follow through with this thing that should not have happened in the first place.
A better way is to ask someone. Ask first, out of character if you would be able to have something a bit more dramatic happen. There is nothing 'wrong' with an rp where someone gets attacked, or some sudden dramatic accident happens.. But what if you are in a group of people who are so tired of random disasters they do want their chars to have a chance to just sit down and have a chat, a couple beers and talk about mundane things?
Don't do things that are sudden, jarring and scene breaking when you are new to a setting. If you are just joining a group of new people, don't try to make this huge epic plot surrounding your character, unless its been approved or agreed on.
How do you keep rps from dying? Here are a few tips.
Don't have your character rush into a relationship with another. Nothing kills it faster, that two characters hooking up within a few days or a weeks time because both people want to play romantic stuff, or feel like they have to have their character 'mated'
Don't constantly try to make it all about you. This is something I think everyone struggles with at some point. If your character almost always has something wrong with them, or is in some sort of fix, or is always barging in and derailing scenes, this doesn't add 'spice' this annoys the other rpers into not wanting to interact with your character anymore.
Be consistent. Your character's background and abilities, don't change these after its already been established. If something happens to your character, then it happened. If your character got in a fist fight with someone a week ago, other people are still going to remember that. Just because a week has passed doesn't mean everything is all perfect and fine now. Other characters will remember it too.
Don't try to force a character into an setting that just doesn't work for them. Example. Kledros, I would not just drop him in the middle of a day to day life small town rp. I like those rps, I like Kledros, but he just wouldn't work there.
Don't try to 'fix everything' This goes for players, admin, GMs, everyone. Conflict resolution is fine. Helping a character is fine. Please do not insist on trying to instantly 'make better' things about a character. One example would be.. I played a severely scarred character. Yep, he was ugly. It was unattractive that he had so much scarring. It gave him a social stigma and some hangups related to how he looked. I dont know how many times I had to tell people they could not heal or magic away his scarring.
Another example would be.. Say someone arrives in the setting, their char is poor, homeless, lost.. Someone jumps in and just -gives- them 100 gold and invites them to stay with them. No. Don't. Better option? Someone pays for their meal and tells them where they can find work. Still helping, not instant fix.
Characters need goals and aspirations. They need smaller ones, and larger ones. The details of interactions between others is what keeps a story going. There is only so many times someone can burst through the doors of the inn screaming about bandits, or bust in and act rude and insane.. It really gets old.
Such an interesting topic to bring up. I think that, in my experience, and RP 'dies' when the players lose interest. There's not always something that can be done about this, but a lot of times there is.
A few of my problems, however, are these;
Uno, dos- tres- it's been a really, really messed up week.
No. But Smalltalk/GMing. My characters, in general- though not always- tend to react to a person as, well, another person would react to a person. "Holy schnikes did that lady just dump a dragon head on the bar? Uuuuh, I'll just take my grilled cheese to go, thanks." So small talk is necessary, just like I find it necessary to get to know a person in a public setting (i.e. a bar or cafe) before I go out on a Lord of the Rings adventure with them. Again, there are always exceptions, like two people meeting while each on their own quest, which they find to be the same- but I feel the way that you've presented the idea was a bit too general.
As well was the point of a GM. As someone who has started an RP before, this is my problem; I play the NPCs, set the scenes, describe the alternative characters, lay out line after line for plot-enjoyment, aaaand my RP partner does... what? "TOODALOODALEE~ LOOK I'M ON AN ADVENTURE!" Thanks. I'm glad I put so much hard work into this so that you could just roll along with it. If it's just for a little bit- one little piece of the story, this is fine. But when I got burned out of doing everything, what did the characters do? They went home. Bam. Ta da. No more. It was a bit disappointing, and even a little insulting. If two people, or a group of people put their heads together, this is much easier to work out, but I feel that insinuating that it should be a single person's responsibility is a bit presumptuous.
Cuatro~ I have to agree with Rynh. Cutting into places you don't belong is awesome. I have a character who is insatiably curious. You can't say 'nevermind' to the guy because HE WILL ANNOY YOU UNTIL YOU TELL HIM. 'Do not push'? Well, don't let him see it. But there is, I feel, a distinct difference in going places you're not supposed to, and interrupting people. Curiosity means that 'behind closed doors' is a challenge; but interrupting people for 'SPOTLIGHT ON ME TIME' is not quite the same.
Stop and staaaaare~ (Also known as Fluff.)
I. Love. Words. Big words, small words, descriptive words. I want to know that your character's eyes are on the cerulean side of blue, I want to be able to imagine the supple wave of your character's hair. Please, feel free to describe things. I don't mind. I understand that some people mind, and I know I mind when you're using words that don't mean what you think they mean, but I like words never the less. However, if your words surround no actions? Then all I am left to believe is that your character is just staring at mine. I'm glad you thought about the gravity of the offer presented, I'm glad that you're contemplating what it means to be invited over for lunch on a Sunday afternoon- but for heavens sake do something. Otherwise? O_______________________________________O Is all I'm reacting to. And that's creepy as hell. I would rather take a one-liner of "Gary kicked a rock as he thought about the invitation." Than ".___________________."
Always. Always. There will be right, and wrong ways to go about RP. The keys, I believe, are much like Kledros suggests; rely on other players. Be considerate of those sharing the world around you. My personal suggestion is that if you are grinding gears with someone- find a place with more like-minded people. There will always be people who can't understand the difference of IC and OOC, there will always be people who will troll you. The best you can hope to do is find a place where whatever happens generally makes you happy. The exceptions will always be there, we can't help them, and sometimes they can't help themselves. But that's oddly similar to Life, anyway.
A few of my problems, however, are these;
Uno, dos- tres- it's been a really, really messed up week.
No. But Smalltalk/GMing. My characters, in general- though not always- tend to react to a person as, well, another person would react to a person. "Holy schnikes did that lady just dump a dragon head on the bar? Uuuuh, I'll just take my grilled cheese to go, thanks." So small talk is necessary, just like I find it necessary to get to know a person in a public setting (i.e. a bar or cafe) before I go out on a Lord of the Rings adventure with them. Again, there are always exceptions, like two people meeting while each on their own quest, which they find to be the same- but I feel the way that you've presented the idea was a bit too general.
As well was the point of a GM. As someone who has started an RP before, this is my problem; I play the NPCs, set the scenes, describe the alternative characters, lay out line after line for plot-enjoyment, aaaand my RP partner does... what? "TOODALOODALEE~ LOOK I'M ON AN ADVENTURE!" Thanks. I'm glad I put so much hard work into this so that you could just roll along with it. If it's just for a little bit- one little piece of the story, this is fine. But when I got burned out of doing everything, what did the characters do? They went home. Bam. Ta da. No more. It was a bit disappointing, and even a little insulting. If two people, or a group of people put their heads together, this is much easier to work out, but I feel that insinuating that it should be a single person's responsibility is a bit presumptuous.
Cuatro~ I have to agree with Rynh. Cutting into places you don't belong is awesome. I have a character who is insatiably curious. You can't say 'nevermind' to the guy because HE WILL ANNOY YOU UNTIL YOU TELL HIM. 'Do not push'? Well, don't let him see it. But there is, I feel, a distinct difference in going places you're not supposed to, and interrupting people. Curiosity means that 'behind closed doors' is a challenge; but interrupting people for 'SPOTLIGHT ON ME TIME' is not quite the same.
Stop and staaaaare~ (Also known as Fluff.)
I. Love. Words. Big words, small words, descriptive words. I want to know that your character's eyes are on the cerulean side of blue, I want to be able to imagine the supple wave of your character's hair. Please, feel free to describe things. I don't mind. I understand that some people mind, and I know I mind when you're using words that don't mean what you think they mean, but I like words never the less. However, if your words surround no actions? Then all I am left to believe is that your character is just staring at mine. I'm glad you thought about the gravity of the offer presented, I'm glad that you're contemplating what it means to be invited over for lunch on a Sunday afternoon- but for heavens sake do something. Otherwise? O_______________________________________O Is all I'm reacting to. And that's creepy as hell. I would rather take a one-liner of "Gary kicked a rock as he thought about the invitation." Than ".___________________."
Always. Always. There will be right, and wrong ways to go about RP. The keys, I believe, are much like Kledros suggests; rely on other players. Be considerate of those sharing the world around you. My personal suggestion is that if you are grinding gears with someone- find a place with more like-minded people. There will always be people who can't understand the difference of IC and OOC, there will always be people who will troll you. The best you can hope to do is find a place where whatever happens generally makes you happy. The exceptions will always be there, we can't help them, and sometimes they can't help themselves. But that's oddly similar to Life, anyway.
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