How to make a good RP into a great one

[Hellis]

1;

Have your GM be flexible.

2: Have a open discussion and a good relationship with your players.
3: Keep coherency, stick to the original vision, let players take up their space as they see fit. But do not let trounce all over oneanother to hog the spotlite.
4: Keep the plot from getting to convuluted, but keep it fresh. Also, see point 3

[Photon]

@Kestrel: I wish to express my disagreement with your statement " there is no such thing as an 'advanced-level plot' silly :,)".

First off I should point out that if you meant that plots aren't automatically more complex in advanced just because it is advanced, then this post is pointless.

If however, you were saying that any plot would do just as well in free as it would in advanced, then I am addressing your point.

Advanced players are almost always more willing to read and write longer posts containing more information than free players (by '{section} players', I mean those who play almost exclusively in that section). I don't believe that you can debate that point, with maybe a couple of exceptions such as people who don't have a good grasp of the language they are RPing in. This also applies to Interest Checks and OOC posts. Some plots have more information that needs to be understood by the players than others, for example:

Plot 1: A team of adventurers (the PCs) are sent on a quest to wipe out a nearby goblin infestation.
Plot 2: Each PC is the leader of a political 'house'. There are 17 houses (5 major and 12 minor), and each of these has their own policies and alliances with the other houses. Each PC also has a family (NPCs), and plans for arranged marriages between their children in order to advance their position. The story focuses on a period of time in which each major house feels that it must take full control of the government if their city is to survive, and the minor houses attempt to latch onto houses which they think would benefit them.

Put plot 1 in advanced, with a bit of description of the area and a cool magic system, and you would be lucky to get any interest at all. Put plot 2 in Free with a description of each of the major houses and most wouldn't bother reading it.

But let us assume for a moment that plot 2 gets started in both advanced and free. Do you want to argue that both plots will end up with the same level of complexity once they get to page 50, or even reach their conclusion? Personally I very much doubt it.

Here I want to insert a note: please don't think I'm level bashing. I have played in all three levels and enjoyed all of them, I'm just pointing out their differences.

I was about to write a conclusion here, but I'm out of time, back to work I go.

[KnightShade]

@Kestrel: I wish to express my disagreement with your statement " there is no such thing as an 'advanced-level plot' silly :,)".

First off I should point out that if you meant that plots aren't automatically more complex in advanced just because it is advanced, then this post is pointless.

If however, you were saying that any plot would do just as well in free as it would in advanced, then I am addressing your point.

Advanced players are almost always more willing to read and write longer posts containing more information than free players (by '{section} players', I mean those who play almost exclusively in that section). I don't believe that you can debate that point, with maybe a couple of exceptions such as people who don't have a good grasp of the language they are RPing in. This also applies to Interest Checks and OOC posts. Some plots have more information that needs to be understood by the players than others, for example:

Plot 1: A team of adventurers (the PCs) are sent on a quest to wipe out a nearby goblin infestation.
Plot 2: Each PC is the leader of a political 'house'. There are 17 houses (5 major and 12 minor), and each of these has their own policies and alliances with the other houses. Each PC also has a family (NPCs), and plans for arranged marriages between their children in order to advance their position. The story focuses on a period of time in which each major house feels that it must take full control of the government if their city is to survive, and the minor houses attempt to latch onto houses which they think would benefit them.

Put plot 1 in advanced, with a bit of description of the area and a cool magic system, and you would be lucky to get any interest at all. Put plot 2 in Free with a description of each of the major houses and most wouldn't bother reading it.

But let us assume for a moment that plot 2 gets started in both advanced and free. Do you want to argue that both plots will end up with the same level of complexity once they get to page 50, or even reach their conclusion? Personally I very much doubt it.

Here I want to insert a note: please don't think I'm level bashing. I have played in all three levels and enjoyed all of them, I'm just pointing out their differences.

I was about to write a conclusion here, but I'm out of time, back to work I go.

I think Kestrel's point was not that Advanced RPs don't have more Advanced plots than Free but that they don't have more Advanced plots than Casual RPs, which makes your emphasis on the two extremes a bit redundant. I can testify that plots like 2 fit just fine in Casual even if they won't in Free hence Advanced not neccesarily having a higher level plot.

[Kestrel]

@Kestrel: I wish to express my disagreement with your statement " there is no such thing as an 'advanced-level plot' silly :,)".

First off I should point out that if you meant that plots aren't automatically more complex in advanced just because it is advanced, then this post is pointless.

If however, you were saying that any plot would do just as well in free as it would in advanced, then I am addressing your point.

Mostly the former, but hell, I feel like playing the devil's advocate.

Advanced players are almost always more willing to read and write longer posts containing more information than free players (by '{section} players', I mean those who play almost exclusively in that section). I don't believe that you can debate that point, with maybe a couple of exceptions such as people who don't have a good grasp of the language they are RPing in. This also applies to Interest Checks and OOC posts.

This is correct.

Some plots have more information that needs to be understood by the players than others, for example:

Plot 1: A team of adventurers (the PCs) are sent on a quest to wipe out a nearby goblin infestation.
Plot 2: Each PC is the leader of a political 'house'. There are 17 houses (5 major and 12 minor), and each of these has their own policies and alliances with the other houses. Each PC also has a family (NPCs), and plans for arranged marriages between their children in order to advance their position. The story focuses on a period of time in which each major house feels that it must take full control of the government if their city is to survive, and the minor houses attempt to latch onto houses which they think would benefit them.

Put plot 1 in advanced, with a bit of description of the area and a cool magic system, and you would be lucky to get any interest at all.

Here, however, is where your argument fails you. First off; there are sandbox RP's in advanced, and a sandbox RP has no predetermined plot direction at all and is limited in it's predetermined elements as per definition. Their existence disproves your statement.

Put plot 2 in Free with a description of each of the major houses and most wouldn't bother reading it.

This is likely correct. However, you can't build on this argument because it assumes the GM info-dumps the players from the start. While more information might be needed to understand the plot, you assume the proportion of information per post will always be huge. This is a silly assumption, You can adjust your presentation accordingly and give people bite-sized samples rather than info-dumping in the interest check. You could go with a goblin-hunt and slowly but surely tie in more plot points and invested parties. This is ironically, how most novels work. It doesn't make the plot less complicated, it just spreads the information thinner over more posts.

But let us assume for a moment that plot 2 gets started in both advanced and free. Do you want to argue that both plots will end up with the same level of complexity once they get to page 50, or even reach their conclusion? Personally I very much doubt it.

That's a silly argument because free will likely have less text per post, therefore will likely process less information in the same amount of posts. Assuming our advanced players write more than just purple prose, at least. It would be much more curious a comparison, how far both would be on month 5.

[Unlit]

Question: Has anyone defined what we're measuring "great" by here? A completed roleplay? A fun roleplay? I might've missed it somewhere.

[Holeypaladin]

It's true, great does depend on the objectives of the RP.

For the RP in question, great includes character interaction, enjoyment, and diversity. As well as an attempt at me getting to know some of the RPers on this site. While I appreciate the help and support that have been given by some of my fellow writers from a past site, I still would like to see new faces of people who can appreciate the adventure to strange new worlds where you meet new aliens and kill them.

[Unlit]

I see, I see. I'll try to aim my answer toward your notion of "great."

First, I guess, you should consider why people ditch roleplay. I think I still agree with my reasoning here. But simply put, it boils down to the OOC part of the equation. Some really unique, wonderful plots/games can lose characters and die after the first post or two. But then... you might see a game with the most contrived, ass-backward, cliched plot imaginable keep everyone and last on for months. This tells me that the substance or wow-factor of the plot isn't necessarily the sticking point for a lot of players. It certainly doesn't hurt, of course, and is definitely a good hook for luring in new players. But then you have to keep those new players with you.

Here's what I would do if I was truly trying to get my name out there and demonstrate to new players that I actually have a clue.

Start off GMing a roleplay with a very brief IC timeline. That's ultimately the biggest factor with players ditching, right? The OOC time passed is much greater than the IC time passed. As in, players vanish before the story has time to conclude satisfactorily. Well... make it easy for them. Literally make a roleplay that lasts for just a few IC days. Hell, maybe even just for one IC day. One roleplay I was in encompassed the events in a 48 hour time period or so... but lasted about nine months to play out. I know from experience that there is plenty to be played out in a short IC time-frame. Maybe you could plot out a famous last stand sort of roleplay, or a murder mystery, or the day a terrorist attack happens, or... whatever.

But here's what starting off with a brief game might give you. The players can easily see an end to it. Being able to see a light at the end of the tunnel is incentive to stay around and see that light. Also, once you have completed this roleplay... you will be a GM with a completed roleplay under your belt. The players that stayed around to finish it with you will know you for a GM that can see a roleplay through from start to finish. You now have a pool of players that are more willing to join your games (because hey, it feels nice to complete a roleplay, and many will want to relive that feeling with people they know will hang around), and you can start broadening your scope with successive games that you GM. You are well on your way to roleplay greatness then.

Here is another link that could be useful. Completed Roleplay Archives. Look at some of the games on there, and not just at the IC. If you can, go find the OOC threads for some of those games, maybe even the interest checks. See how they were formatted, and how the players interacted with one another in the OOC. Seeing how others did it might give you some ideas of your own for how to engage players and make them keep wanting to come back.