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Post by Ben "Camo Hog" White on Aug 31, 2006 23:12:54 GMT -5
Alright, we need to hammer out the rules for our Roleplay. I am assuming that our old rules at the old site are not suitable for our new roleplay.
Discuss!
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Post by Kat on Sept 1, 2006 17:26:33 GMT -5
Aha, rules for roleplay! Let me think... I wrote up some rules for an RP a short time ago, and they distill down to these basic categories: 1. Only write for your characters. 2. Don't be a Powerplayer/Godplayer/Godmoder/munchkin/twink. 3. Don't make your character a mary-sue. 4. Don't mix up OOC and IC things. How's that sound as a starting point? What else do we want, for RP-specific details? (original page here, for a shameless plug.]
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Post by Ben "Camo Hog" White on Sept 1, 2006 21:23:27 GMT -5
That's great! Those are good rules, and I cannot think of any alterations. We should add the bit about NPCs that dray proposed, though. Umm...you want to rephrase that, dray? The bit about who controls which NPCs?
Let's see...oh, one more:
5) Although the Roleplay is in the setting of the game Urban Dead, has characters from Urban Dead, and the relationships are loosely defined by Urban Dead, we are not constrained to follow in-game events in the roleplay. In fact, we plan on diverging rather quickly from in-game events.
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Post by dray on Sept 1, 2006 23:53:05 GMT -5
I like the fifth rule. Finally, freedom!
(Make this any number you like.)
NPC's are available to anyone who wishes to play them, however you will need to inform other players about your intentions to use important NPC's before you write for them. If your plans conflict with those already on the go, your proposal may be subject to modifications or rejection. A list of NPC's can be set up once we get going with the more important ones at the top, seperated from those who've been mentioned briefly, with whatever info's been revealed for them--the list can be added to and modified as more is learned about various NPC's. (Who created them, what they look like, how they act, relationships to other characters, etc.)
The universal-rule should go for plots that tie in directly with the main one, as well. I don't know about you guys but I like to have some idea of where we're going, so informing others ahead of time as to what the next big spin is all about is a very good thing.
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Post by Ben "Camo Hog" White on Sept 2, 2006 8:59:35 GMT -5
Okay, we'll make the NPC rule #6. Let me separate it out of your paragraph for official purposes:
6) NPC's are available to anyone who wishes to play them, however you will need to inform other players about your intentions to use important NPC's before you write for them. If your plans conflict with those already on the go, your proposal may be subject to modifications or rejection.
I don't know if I agree about informing on all plot twists ahead of time, though. I know it can throw a monkey wrench in your plans if I make a sudden plot twist that I didn't warn about, or vice versa; but as long as we inform about major NPCs (so they don't have conflicting actions and motivations) I think we can have lots of unwarned plot twists. I plan on throwing a few in myself.
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Post by Kat on Sept 2, 2006 10:29:53 GMT -5
Plot twists can be good things, but the problem with everyone plotting surprise-twists is that then you're having about five different OMG! things happening at once.
Maybe if there was some way to space out plot twists without telling the details of them ahead of time?
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Post by dray on Sept 2, 2006 10:55:03 GMT -5
Oh, I don't mean that you should let everyone know exactly what's going on! I was thinking more along the lines of saying, "hey, guys, I'm working on throwing something into play, let me know if you have something planned right away." So we don't step on toes, you know? Like what JKat said.
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Post by Kat on Sept 2, 2006 20:53:13 GMT -5
Oh! Idea.
Stop me if this is retarded, but: What if there was one person to which anyone planning a plot twist that would affect more than just their character, told that plot twist to? I'd volunteer because I don't imagine I would personally have a lot of twists to throw in, and I don't mind knowing ahead of time what will happen.
That person could monitor the different plot twists and see how they fit together, and make sure they didn't clash too bad with one another. If a continuity problem came up among plot twists proposed, they could discuss it with the people planning them and try to work out a solution.
I dunno if it's srs-business enough to want to actually do that, but it's a thought if anyone wants. :3
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Post by dray on Sept 2, 2006 21:14:10 GMT -5
XD I dunno if it'll be that serious, either... god knows that sometimes with an established plot-point, things go completely the different direction, but that does sound like a good idea. You're the global mod, after all, so it'd make sense to work things out that way.
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Post by Ben "Camo Hog" White on Sept 2, 2006 21:42:02 GMT -5
I tell you, I am not in favor of this planned-out plot twist thing at all. Here me out on this hypothetical setup:
Each player has his or her own plans. He has the motivations and secrets of his or her own characters in mind and how he or she thinks it will play out as a result of the initial setup.
Then, once play starts, the player alters the character's actions when the roleplay dictates--as in, other players actions interfere.
The result is a complex and beautiful roleplay that is based first on the intial plans of players and second on the unexpected interaction between different player's actions. We therefore have good roleplay without endless pre-planning.
This is my idea; but if I am outvoted, then I am outvoted and we will do it the pre-planned way.
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Post by dray on Sept 2, 2006 22:20:32 GMT -5
The thing is, there have been a lot of RP's that start out like this and run very well for a few weeks or even months, but things become unguided, and the RP dies. It's been made plain (to me at least) that there needs to be an active moderator-voice to guide the threads, if they're serious, or else the thread will fray and just... stop.
On the other hand, I can see where you're coming from, as I've seen good setups stagnate where so much forethought has gone into the RP that playing it out seems like a chore.
How about this. We don't worry about plot-twists and managing them at the very start, so long as people try not to spring a million things at once. If the RP looks like it's getting less interesting, we can then see if anyone has a twist up their sleeve and we can see about implementing it to get the thread moving again.
Having a few threads where only a few people are involved at a time would be nice, as well, instead of one of those monster-threads. In the latter, it seems like either everyone waits and waits for the order to go through so they can post again, or else there is no order and two people will have posted twenty times, leaving everyone else in the dust, which is frustrating.
Would it seem too strict to have everyone plan ahead who should be in which thread, and to plan when a certain thread, or scene, ought to end? And not to have thread-skipping occuring so that characters aren't in the same place at the same time?
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Post by Kat on Sept 3, 2006 11:13:52 GMT -5
I like your idea of how you want it to go, CH, but never in seven years of roleplay have I ever seen that happen. :/ That's best-case scenario, and certainly something to strive for, but not something to count on!
But Dray, seems like you've got a good system figured out. Let's goforit.
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Post by Ben "Camo Hog" White on Sept 3, 2006 12:56:23 GMT -5
Okay, I'm with the dray-plan too. Is anybody else going to pipe in? Since these are going to be our rules, I think as many opinions as possible should be welcome.
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kenshin
Free Runner
Come to the dark side....We have cookies.
Posts: 186
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Post by kenshin on Nov 11, 2006 16:39:41 GMT -5
What about if you killed an NPC, would that be allowed or how would that go?
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Post by dray on Nov 11, 2006 18:25:58 GMT -5
I think that that's more of a case-by-case sort of thing. Either you can PM the person who is playing the NPC at the time, or you can ask in this thread (or create another thread) to ask about it.
For instance, some of the zombies in the newest thread are killeable, but characters like Mock, Eddie, Fa, AGT, Sarahthebullet, etc. are not, since they aren't NPC's.
Just let us know if you have something huge planned, that way nobody gets surprised or frustrated that the character they were hinging some plot on gets wiped! ^_^
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