General RP Chat

[Prince Baeronius]

I assume you mean statless RP, or god modding, which can indeed be annoying.

I assume you mean statless RP, or god modding, which can indeed be annoying.

Edited October 11, 2014 by HeroEmperor Ardlin

[Shin]

I assume you mean statless RP, or god modding, which can indeed be annoying.

SF has had a few statless RP's that have worked pretty well, although we seem to be in the age of numbers currently. Also, a shameless plug that I have a slot or two free for Magvel 803: Alternate story.

[AnonymousSpeed]

So, gentlemen, I have today thought a thought. See, I read the thread Shin recently posted for Angelcynn, and this comment by a friend of mine really started the little grey cells working.

Holy crap. I hear about this from a friend and then immediately 4 hours it's already totally full? Geeze. Well there goes all my chances D:

I've noticed that pretty much all the RPs, active or dead, get filled very quickly by the same people. Like, in Skype, I remember Shin saying he made Shinvel for people who couldn't be in Terrador, then all of Terrador joined. And it's not like there aren't other people who would want to participate, it's just that things are filled up already.

So, I had this idea of a sort of 'entry level' RP, one so that the new blood can actually be an RP (or more than one RP, in some cases) and learn the ropes of things. It would most likely be something simpler than Masquerade, Angelcynn, etc, a little easier to sort of just 'join in' in case you've been considering joining an RP but haven't really done so for one reason or another. That's not to say I want to dumb/strip things down, but if it was something simpler, it would better suit its purpose as something entry level for the new or inexperienced, a sort of 'gateway' for other RPs.

It wouldn't be particularly challenging. Certainly not a 'throw your units at the enemy and win' type of thing, but not something particularly hard either. The concern with character creation would be less balance and more that it's easy to get comfortable with it. It's unlikely it would be particularly long if seen to completion. Now, this idea raises the issue 'are you going to reject people just because they have/currently are participating in other RPs?' I admit, that could indeed become a problem, one I don't have an answer for if it ends up being something the experienced people would like to be in as well.

Now, am I the best person to control such an idea? Most likely not, I am still one of those inexperienced people in regards to this site. Given that this RP would also serve the purpose of education, it would be best to have an experienced person or two to at least look over and help. I believed that this idea was at least worth bringing up, less to garner interest (as everyone who reads this thread is likely one of the regulars) and more to see if the idea could work.

[Thany]

you do make a pretty nice point.

[Snowy_One]

Well, couldn't it be solved by simply making it clear that it's for people to get used to RPing? I mean, it's not like most people are gonna sign up just to spite it. (has had all his RP's fail...)

[Shin]

I think a lot of newer players struggle with the actual roleplay element to RP's than the mechanical workings.of battle. I've seen a lot of roleplayers struggle to stay within the lore of their world, having disagreement over petty things or simply not understanding that they're part of a group. Characterisation's also an issue, where players will literally just say what they want to get done rather than flow as a character.

However, I'd very much support a newbie friendly RP and I'd be happy to offer help personally if you were to run one, Anon. A roleplay doesn't need to be overly complex or well written, it just needs to be coherent enough for players to begin to grasp the principles. It also needs a host with the ability to keep things going and to plan a little. A lot of RP's have failed due to either the GM having no clue how to progress things or being lazy. I wouldn't worry about having to exclude experienced people, there's only so many big RP's people can be in!

[AnonymousSpeed]

The Fabulous Sir Shin himself offers his assistance? I feel truly honored!

I can certainly believe that. I recall my earlier roleplaying days on another forum. There was a lot I had to learn about characterization, writing, and having an idea of what you wanted to do during my time there. Hopefully, this would provide a place for some people to learn these things, and probably for me to learn some things as well.

Going back to your offer, being a game master is something I'd certainly need to learn more about doing. Since you have experience doing that and I don't, it would be especially appreciated. A simpler lore (compared to most ongoing RPs at least) seems best for such a thing as this, correct?

On the note of experienced individuals, that is also very true.

[Shin]

If you have the basics, you can always build on it as time progresses. The problem is when the foundations are so poor that it's difficult to get going. If you had a list of locations, vaguely what each place is like and some semblance of a plot, you can't go far wrong.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Alright noobs, get ready.

[Tryhard]

It's a cool idea, guys. Considering I hog up the RPs when they are available... oops.

One of the ideas I had was using roll20 for a FE-style LP. Though the site is usually used for tabletop games, it would probably work nicely for a Fire Emblem style game, and it would take the waiting out of the play-by-posting. You can actually match up the tiles like this quite nicely. Just an idea for now. Specially since I have trouble following through with stuff.

Edited August 7, 2015 by Tryhard

[AnonymousSpeed]

Heheh, well, I'll probably fall into the same trap, knowing me. At least, when I'm not going to bed early and then all the slots get filled right away.

Well, I've never used Roll 20 or played a traditional table top RPG in my life, but...I'm always up for new experiences, usually. And those tiles do indeed match up quite nicely.

[Phoenix]

It's a cool idea, guys. Considering I hog up the RPs when they are available... oops.

One of the ideas I had was using roll20 for a FE-style LP. Though the site is usually used for tabletop games, it would probably work nicely for a Fire Emblem style game, and it would take the waiting out of the play-by-posting. You can actually match up the tiles like this quite nicely. Just an idea for now. Specially since I have trouble following through with stuff.

Love this place (though I wish they'd get on the foreground map layer suggestion already lol). I've been using roll20 for this sort of thing too, but the rp we're making with it isn't quite ready to go, yet. It works very nicely for FE-style systems and maps and there are a lot of ways to automate various things if the GM has a pro account (which I do).

[Thany]

perhaps a roleplay tabletop will have to be done eventually. should be interesting.

[Tryhard]

Love this place (though I wish they'd get on the foreground map layer suggestion already lol). I've been using roll20 for this sort of thing too, but the rp we're making with it isn't quite ready to go, yet. It works very nicely for FE-style systems and maps and there are a lot of ways to automate various things if the GM has a pro account (which I do).

Interesting. I have attempted to do macros which do some automation, but I haven't got a pro account. I've been trying to get into Pathfinder, but I haven't used the site enough yet to have that investment. What exactly does a pro account give you that would help?

[Phoenix]

Interesting. I have attempted to do macros which do some automation, but I haven't got a pro account. I've been trying to get into Pathfinder, but I haven't used the site enough yet to have that investment. What exactly does a pro account give you that would help?

Access to the API script functionality for one. I can't write scripts myself because I'm out of my element with javascript, but there are plenty of people around the roll20 forums who do and they're pretty active in updating and enhancing them. There are things like tokenmod which let you update a token's attributes without directly interacting with it (macro compatible), then there are things like powercards which let you do neat shenanigans like this, scripts that cause tokens to move automatically after a certain amount of time has passed or due to a trigger event, ammo count managers, trap triggers, dungeon mappers, blood splatter generators, away/busy screen message cyclers, and plenty of other things. People are always coming out with interesting scripts for the different kinds of games you can run on the VTT.

Continuing with the pros of pro accounts, you also get a ton of storage space for your pictures, you can test newer updates to the site on the dev server, and use dynamic lighting (though DL is available with plus accounts too, I think. I don't remember for certain). Dynamic lighting let's you restrict player sight to the tokens they control, but I mainly use it for restricting movement through designated walls, which was a recent update. It works beautifully. So yeah, I like it and the next rp I do here is definitely going to use roll20 for the battles and storing a lot of the information. Due to the way handouts work, it's pretty easy to keep everything nice and neat and in one little directory if you're good at linking from one handout to another.

[Tryhard]

Very cool stuff. The main problem is storing the stats for all the units in the game - looking through them would be rather tedious if you were using the Fire Emblem system exactly. Still, I'm interested to see what you come up with if/when you decide to do it.

[-Cynthia-]

Each journal entry on Roll20 has a character sheet that should display stats fine (and said stats can be used in macros for combat).

Personal experience is that the picture limit for free accounts isn't very limiting. I've run a D&D game for a year and a half and just hit the limit- was easy enough to delete some old stuff.

[Tryhard]

Each journal entry on Roll20 has a character sheet that should display stats fine (and said stats can be used in macros for combat).

Yes, I was aware. I suppose duplicating a character and then changing their stats manually under Attributes & Abilities would be the shortest way to create a lot of enemies/PCs in a relatively quick manner. Just that players would have to be constantly checking enemy statistics and such, but I suppose that is unavoidable. And the fact that I don't know how to include weapon stats in macros where it does not offer if conditionals or such, so it seems like it would be difficult to fully automate it for combat.

I have pretty much done the whole combat macros fairly easily already, but you have to enter a lot of things like weapon hit, WTA y/n, etc. I suppose I could include the weapon hit etc as an attribute in the character sheet and then use that, but it seems rather roundabout.

Edit: Eh, I suppose that would work.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Tryhard

[Phoenix]

There's a lot of grunt work that goes into setting up a battle, yeah (I'm probably going to be scouting for mappers in particular at some point lol), but I see it as a normal/minor GM issue, and if you know you've got a battle coming there's plenty of time to get things ready. I'm pretty numb to tedium at this point, though so don't take my word for it lol

As for macros, powercards (API script) currently has conditionals built into it, so I managed to get critical, lethal, and autohit messages working in our system, though the macros themselves can get a bit bulky. Even if your WTA/D isn't a set number in your system you can still use a roll query to factor it in. Ours is a set number for advantage and disadvantage so I have it set as a drop down menu. Everything else is put directly into the macro so it references all the needed attributes (even the enemy you're attacking) during the rolls. The only downsides are the initial setup and making sure the attributes referenced are always up to date. There are a few more things that could probably be automated, but I'll get around to those once more important things are dealt with.

[Sarki Soliloquy]

Anyone like Holy Grail Wars? Because our game was getting close to start & our Archer just dropped.

[Shin]

Thought I'd share something that I've been working on for a little while, it's less a hard and fast set of rules to abide by, but I thought it'd be interesting to try and compile some sort of beginner's guide for RP. I'm more than willing to hear any complaints or criticisms, I was hoping it could stimulate some discussion!

Link to document!

[Phoenix]

It's easier to get complaints and criticism when there's something to complain about lol. I didn't see anything in there I disagreed with, myself. I guess I could add a bit to the commitment part, even though I already rambled about it ages ago.

Basically you're going to get out of an RP what you put into it. If someone doesn't post very often they're going to have a harder time staying relevant, and if they're already relevant, it's going to hold everyone else back until the GM(s) start writing over or around their character(s). Obviously life happens, but if an RPer can't even be bothered to let people know what's going on with them, they've got no one to blame but themselves in the end. That's all I can really add off the top of my head and it's just Phee flavoring.

Also, I do have a question of my own. Not bothering with a full topic though since it's just curiosity and it's related to this. What kind of settings do you like (anyone reading this)? Aside from the likely Fire Emblem-esque types.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Phoenix
Typo

[Toogee]

12 hours ago, Shin said:

Thought I'd share something that I've been working on for a little while, it's less a hard and fast set of rules to abide by, but I thought it'd be interesting to try and compile some sort of beginner's guide for RP. I'm more than willing to hear any complaints or criticisms, I was hoping it could stimulate some discussion!

Everything you wrote is true :). I guess the examples operate under the assumption that the GM knows what he/she is doing. Maybe a guide for new GMs is in order, though I'm sure that's floating around somewhere.

 

15 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

What kind of settings do you like (anyone reading this)? Aside from the likely Fire Emblem-esque types.

Medieval Fantasy is really the only thing that catches my interest, though I have a soft spot for pokemon RPs. It really does depend on how much love goes into the background though. I'll join anything if it's a good set up (time permitting).

However, I don't want too many "save the world" plots. I wouldn't mind seeing more light-hearted adventures. My point is a good plot and background are better for my interests.

[-Cynthia-]

Looks like a number of useful tops to me. I would consider adding something about not taking things personally. My character may have an issue with your character, but that doesn't mean I have an issue with you as an RPer. Similarly, if a GM KO's (or kills) your character in combat that's probably just something that happens, it's not an attack on the RPer (and if the GM does do that, you might want to find a different game). Though perhaps that's outside the scope of this, interacting with other players could be a whole other article.

 

On 3/4/2017 at 11:05 PM, Toogee said:

However, I don't want too many "save the world" plots. I wouldn't mind seeing more light-hearted adventures. My point is a good plot and background are better for my interests.

 

I agree that "save the world" plots can get cliche- but a problem I've seen with RPs that don't at least have that general premise is that they tend to die relatively quickly. I think the big thing is that the GM has to have plot stuff for the characters to do- an RP left to just the RPers tends to fizzle.

[Shin]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm probably going to try to expand it with advice on how to deal with stuff whilst playing, but a counterpart GM info thing could be interesting as well. 

With respect to setting, I'm fairly flexible, I'd much rather the RP was engaging than a particular setting. I'm not so much of a fan of canon settings, both as a player and GM due to how to can occasionally stifle creative liberty with stuff. I find medieval fantasy and sci-fi both have a great deal of scope and flexibility but both rely heavily on establishing the world and various magical/scientific systems. I've had ideas for things set in a zombie apocalypse and the Wild West, but those were mostly ideas on the drawing board. I was part of a game set in the L5R world, but that required learning a lot about fake feudal Japan.