Lillian How long have you been Role playing?
WildKitsune Probably about 8 or 9 years, give or take.
Lillian How long before you made the switch to GM?
WildKitsune I'd say at some point maybe 3 or 4 years in. I started off mostly playing with friends in college and as that spread to outside groups I found myself sort of gravitating towards the role.
Lillian What made you make the switch?
WildKitsune Mostly the desire to challenge the other players. I find the most entertaining role plays are ones that don't just test a player's combat prowess or social graces, but also their mind and spirit. I decided the best way to do that was to be the one giving those challenges to them.
Lillian That seems ambitious. How do you give them those challenges?
WildKitsune It depends a lot on the types of players I have, but it often involves non-combat challenges, ambiguous decisions, and facing their personal demons; Things like a room that traps 2 players and will only let one out, the physical manifestation of their doubts taking form, fights where both sides have honest and true reasons for fighting, etc, etc. In some cases it might be a battle of riddles, or words. In others, it might be a simple case of admitting you made a mistake. The basic idea is giving the players the opportunity to learn and grow from their experiences beyond just "beating the bad guy." Sometimes nobody is the bad guy, but just the other guy who stands in your way.
Lillian What would you say was your most successful RP and what made it so successful?
WildKitsune I've had RPs with friends in the past I'd consider the most fun, but as far as most successful it would probably be the ongoing RP I currently run on RPG by the name of Feral. As for its success, I place that entirely on the dedicated player-base. They are the people who have stuck through it for 3 years now, through delays and hiatuses, and all the little challenges I've stuck in between. A DM can create the most unique world, or offer the greatest challenge, but without the people to see it through it's just window decorations. For me, success is derived from simply watching the OOC. Seeing the players engaged, excited for future events, or simply congratulating each other on a particularly good post. When they're excited, it lets me know I'm doing a good job.
Lillian How do you foster that OOC activity? I've seen it make or break a RP.
WildKitsune I won't lie... often the OOC chat in Feral has nothing to do with the RP. I think that in some odd way has helped it last. The players don't just know each others' characters, but the actual people behind them; What they like, don't like, funny videos and heavy metal... whatever they want to talk about. Of course we discuss plans for dealing with a particular situation, or I tease about future events, but if the IC is for building character relationships, the OOC has been for building interpersonal relationships, and I think that bond helps keep people interested. Humor, really, would be the main thread in the OOC, if I had to pin it down. Lots of joking around.
Lillian so lots of freedom in the OOC, how much do you allow in the IC? How much control of the story do you allow your players?
WildKitsune I have a roadmap of major events, and I set the scene, but how they deal with it is up to them. I might have the group travel to a city, and I'll DM NPC characters to set the mood, but my group has surprised me in the past with how they react. One particular event set our group back probably 3 months (in-game time) simply because they broke out into combat when diplomacy would have worked as well. Ultimately I think having the advantage of being the DM and having an unlimited number of NPCs at my fingertips makes it fairly easy to drive towards the big things I need to happen without making the players feel like they're on rails. And, yea, sometimes I have to make things up on the fly to react, but if I couldn't do that the RP would probably seem more like a choose your own adventure book and not something the players are creating as they go.
Lillian So you have a road map of major events, do you plan for an end?
WildKitsune Yes and no. The ending is all planned out, but I try to leave room for extensions. Even once everything is said and done, I would be willing to continue the story if my players wanted. In some ways seeing Feral through to completion after 3+ years of effort (realistically it'd take another year to wrap everything up at our current pace) would feel good, but it'd also be the end of an era, as it were. I'll most likely check in with the players as we get closer to the "grand finale" to see what they really want to do. If they want to keep living in the world that's been created, I'll be more than happy to oblige.
Lillian Three years is incredible, did you ever think it would run so long?
WildKitsune I never would have imagined. 3 years ago if you told me as a player I wouldn't have believed you. My personal experience is that forum RPs tend to die around the 3 week mark or so, so to see 3 YEARS go by is a testament to my players. As I said before, I'm certainly not in this alone, and the people who I RP with are not only extremely talented, but dedicated.
Lillian So no easily shared tricks for getting past the hump after the initial excitement about a new RP dies off?
WildKitsune Hmm... that's a tough one. I'd say the number one killer of RPs in the early stages is post frequency. It seems like half your players will quit if you don't respond within an hour of them posting, and the other half will post and then never return. From some other experiences I'd say as a DM you really need to buckle down and push hard the first few weeks with responses. Get your players engaged in the world, interested in the other characters, and OUT of the inn/bar. That would be another piece of advice: If at all possible, don't begin your adventure in a bar or inn. It's a convenient plot device for meeting up, but it's too easy to stagnate and drown in the initial meet-and-greet. Start things in the middle of a war, or at a major political event. Give them something early on that both intrigues them and drives them to respond. If need be, let them start in totally different places and DM them together via NPCs and plot points. Ultimately your goal is to engage them early and often. Once the players are hooked you can drop the pace and know they'll stick around. Try to think of it like reading a good book. If the first 30 pages are two guys talking in a bar you're not likely to make it past the first chapter.
Lillian So what do you do when it does stall? When you have player dropouts?
WildKitsune Well the downside to having an RP run for 3 years is we've seen more than our fair share of players come and go, even if the core group has remained consistent. I find there are a few things you can do to ease down times. First is don't be afraid to introduce a new character if your current one is stuck engaging a conversation with a stalled player. As DM, your goal is to keep the more active players going while your less active ones take their time. If someone vanishes entirely, then take control of their person, free the other players from waiting on them, and then find a way to write them out, be it branching goals in the quest, urgent news that requires their attention, or if need be, death. As DM I also tend to put new players through a bit of a buffer period. They don't just appear with the group, but often appear in some proximity, and I'll guide them towards everyone with NPCs. It gives them a chance to really show off what their guy is about, and also gives me a chance to deal with them if they quit in the first week. Plus by the time they get to the core group the introduction is fluid. This way it's not a random guy who pops up and wants to travel with us for no reason.
Lillian You run a lot of NPC's it seems. Do you have any characters who are more than just NPC's, i.e GM-PC's
WildKitsune Of course. I have the character I originally joined the RP with and the leader of our group, which the original DM created. In reality I probably have less NPCs than it sounds. Most of the time the NPCs I do control are one-off characters, like a diplomat, traveling merchant, or prison guard. Nameless figures that serve to help drive the plot for the real characters. On occasion I'll take control of a major villain, or perhaps a king, but its always the players that get us there, and the players that drive how the event plays out.
I just find them to be such a convenient tool as DM when I'm in need of someone to keep a player occupied while we wait on others to post.
Lillian How do you handle slow players, say if a situation comes up where they are holding up more active players? Has that ever been an issue?
WildKitsuneOn quite a few occasions. Depending on what sort of situation they're in I might handle it a number of different ways. If they're stuck in conversation, a simple interruption is often enough. It's not usually an issue in combat, but if necessary I have no problem incapacitating a "frozen" player to keep things going. I also make an active effort to engage those players via the OOC. I let everyone know that if they cannot post, for whatever reason, they can always let me know. I have at least a few times in the past simply DM'd a character through an event while their player is off on vacation or something which poses it's own challenges, since in doing so I have to both keep them in character and believably disengage them from whatever they're doing. Eventually, over time, the core group learns who can post and when, and the order of things naturally sorts itself out (active players tend to stick together, "weekend posters" tend to reflect on events or personal challenges, etc)
Lillian Have you had many "problem players" and how did you handle them?
WildKitsune Only a few, fortunately. We had one that would frequently post, then vanish for a month, then come back and post a lot for a week or two, and then vanish again. Eventually we just had to tell the player his character was no longer part of the story, and if he wanted to rejoin he'd have to start over with a new one. I've had characters literally just "go crazy" and I had to drag them away with guards and remove them from the group. Godmodding isn't really an issue, but if I've ever seen instances of a character being too good at everything I just make it a challenge to engage them in ways that raw power won't overcome. So if a character can do everything all the time, I challenge the player with a riddle, or a moral dilemma. Something they as a person can't resolve with a new power, and that seems to set everything right. I've never had to kick a player out, though. I find that the "good" posters will dedicate time and effort to engage other posters who are really trying, and ignore the ones who aren't. Eventually the bad players quit of their own accord.
Lillian So what would you say was your biggest mistake as a GM and what did you learn from it?
WildKitsune My biggest mistake was probably driving events too hard in one direction. I find players generally fall into "combat" and "social" camps, and while they are somewhat flexible, pushing too hard in one direction will alienate one camp. I've gone too "social" before and nearly driven off some of the core players who have little interest in small talk but love combat. So now I always try to balance both, and if need be allow the group to separate naturally and run multiple simultaneous events like an attack at an outpost at the same time some characters are sweet talking a diplomat for information.
Lillian Any advice for a fledgling GM that you wish you had known when you started?
WildKitsune Don't drown your players in rules, and always remember that whatever "idea" you've created is never more than a setpiece for your players. The moment what you want takes center stage, it stops being a RP and turns into a novel filled with characters that have no incentive to act. Give players the opportunity to be creative, and to develop and shine, and you'll find something far more interesting and valuable than whatever idea drove you to create the RP in the first place. As I've said, it's all about the people, and if you remember that you'll have far more success than not.
Lillian Anything you'd like to add?
WildKitsune Just a heartfelt thanks to everyone that's stuck by with me and this little adventure over the years, and a hearty welcome to anyone that may find their paths crossing with mine. YOU are the ones that keep me writing.
Furthermore, Data Spell's got a great team of roleplayers, who practically act as its own fanbase, making jokes about the characters and even drawing fan art of them. Plenty of hysterical conversations have come out of this thread, and I think that's one of the reasons why it's lasted so long, too- a dedicated team of players that gets this into the roleplay. 
I love the characters, too, as the majority of them are just gamers and internet addicts outside of Kahkrah, living their lives very similarly to how most of us live our lives, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the IC gets its fair share of humorous pop culture references. We even have one character who constantly compares his experiences in Data Spell to that of a Zelda game, thinking himself some Hero of Hyrule, it's hysterical. 
Moderator
Originally Posted by AOTM
There's a new AOTM Manager!
Posting Permissions
