Hi, everyone. I'm not new to roleplaying, but I'm new to this site, so I want to ask a few question to see if this site is the kind of place I'm looking for.
Before asking the questions, I think I should tell you a bit about myself. I'm a Chinese Canadian computer science major in university, and a rather huge nerd and anime weeaboo. My sense of humor is probably rather strange, because of the aforementioned two things. I like writing and worldbuilding a lot, especially in the fantasy genre. Because of my background as a science major, I tend to value strict internal consistency in my settings and stories, and thus rigidly enforce a set of rules that the fantasy elements go by (and yes, I browse TVTropes too). And I'm not all that good at socializing, so I apologize if I act a bit too stiff before I get to know you more. I'd like to believe that I'm a pretty nice and open-minded guy, so I won't act aggressive toward anyone unless the person acts aggressive to me first without provocation; I hope conflicts like these won't happen during my stay here.
Now, for the aforementioned questions. I've been hosting roleplays on Kongregate Forum Games Forum for the past couple of years. I hope this doesn't sound too much like obnoxious bragging, but I was consistently praised as one of the best RP hosts on Kongregate FGF, and I was notorious for writing extremely long posts (as in, frequently OVER NINE THOUSAND over 2000 words), so I think I have a reasonable amount of experience in hosting "advanced" RPs, as you guys seem to call them here. Unfortunately, RPs have been in decline in Kongregate FGF for at least a year, and the forum just doesn't have enough dedicated roleplayers to keep a detailed RP going for long. That's why I'm considering migrating to this forum, and host an RP here. But I'm new, and don't know how things work in this forum, so I have a few questions.
1. What's the actual process of creating an "advanced" RP here? In Kongregate FGF, we first create a signup/discussions thread with OOC details about the game, and wait for people to sign up. Once the host has personally decided that there are enough players to begin, he'll make a second thread for the game itself, where all the InC posts go. Each game is thus allowed to have up to two threads. How does it work here? I see an "interest check" subsection, which seems to be for pitching RP ideas to potential players. Do I use that as the OOC/signup thread, or do I make a separate thread once there are enough interested people? If the latter, do I make the thread in the RP section itself?
2. How active do "advanced" RPs tend to be around here? How many players do they have on average, and how many posts per day? I'm not looking for any exact numbers, just rough guesstimates.
3. How many "advanced" RPs successfully reach their conclusions? This was my main problem with Kongregate FGF. People almost always lost interest after a few weeks or months, and the game would slowly die. Very few RPs in Kongregate FGF actually reached anything that could be called a conclusion.
4. In an "advanced" RP, how active does the GM have to be? I'm in university, and I don't have an unlimited amount of free time. And another problem I had on Kongregate FGF was that the players simply wouldn't do anything unless I constantly poke and prod them every single step along the way; it eventually got too tiring for me. In this forum, can I give the players opportunities to create their own factions and plotlines, and expect the game to mostly sustain itself? Of course, I'm not saying that my own participation as the GM will be completely nonexistent. I will be playing as characters in the game too; I just want to be able to let the players collectively create their own plot, rather than having to create my plot and drag the players along.
5. How well do roleplayers take to GMPCs in this site? I have a tendency to make GMPCs that are explicitly more powerful than any of the players' characters (I have specific reasons for doing this, but I don't want to get into that right now). I take extreme care in making sure my GMPCs are flawed, realistic (at least given the context of the RP) characters, rather than Mary Sues. And I take equal care in making sure that my GMPCs will not ruin the conflict of the game, or dominate the plot; their roles in the game should be comparable to the roles of other PCs. My exact ways of doing this vary, but they often involve psychological issues and circumstances that make my GMPCs unwilling or unable to easily solve any of the other player characters' problems. My GMPCs are not invincible, and can actually be defeated by the PCs if I deem it appropriate in the plot; I just want to be able to have my characters lose only when I want them to. Yes, I know that I can do this as the GM even if I don't make my characters more powerful than all the other characters, but this again ties into the aforementioned specific reasons that I don't want to discuss right now. And of course, I will not use my GMPCs' power to humiliate other PCs, not without a justifiable in-universe reason (and no, my GMPCs are not the kind of characters who go around humiliating people weaker than them for kicks). When I was in Kongregate FGF, no one really complained about my GMPCs, and no significant problems occurred. Can I expect the same thing here? If my GMPCs are more powerful than the player characters, but otherwise won't ruin the conflict or hog the spotlight of the plot, will the players generally tolerate them?
6. As I already said before, I value internal consistency a lot. I'm also more than a little paranoid about supernatural abilities that I consider "overpowered"; these won't be allowed in my games even if the character who has them won't use them in any game-breaking manner. In fact, I have a whole thread back in Kongregate FGF that discusses overpowered abilities and how to nerf them. As a result, if I make an RP here, some players may be asked to edit their character sheets multiple times, to get rid of everything I consider unacceptable, before they're allowed to join the game. Is this kind of behavior tolerated in this forum?
7. Usually I try to be reasonable as the GM, but I tend to not like it if a player thinks he can push me around. I moderate my RPs very strictly to make sure no rules are broken, since I value internal consistency. Most of the time I'm willing to negotiate if a player accidentally does something that's not allowed in the game. But if a player refuses to make the changes that I ask him to make, does things that I've disallowed him from doing, or generally try to challenge my GM authority in any way, that'd lead to warnings and then a swift ban from my game. This kind of behavior is reasonable and expected here, right? As the GM, I'm allowed to be less than perfectly polite with players whose actions are disruptive to the game, right?
I think these are all the questions I have for now. Thanks in advance for your help.
Also, in case anyone is interested, here are the three most recent RPs that I've run in Kongregate FGF:
Emblems of Fate
Seraphic Legacy
Realms Adrift
Before asking the questions, I think I should tell you a bit about myself. I'm a Chinese Canadian computer science major in university, and a rather huge nerd and anime weeaboo. My sense of humor is probably rather strange, because of the aforementioned two things. I like writing and worldbuilding a lot, especially in the fantasy genre. Because of my background as a science major, I tend to value strict internal consistency in my settings and stories, and thus rigidly enforce a set of rules that the fantasy elements go by (and yes, I browse TVTropes too). And I'm not all that good at socializing, so I apologize if I act a bit too stiff before I get to know you more. I'd like to believe that I'm a pretty nice and open-minded guy, so I won't act aggressive toward anyone unless the person acts aggressive to me first without provocation; I hope conflicts like these won't happen during my stay here.
Now, for the aforementioned questions. I've been hosting roleplays on Kongregate Forum Games Forum for the past couple of years. I hope this doesn't sound too much like obnoxious bragging, but I was consistently praised as one of the best RP hosts on Kongregate FGF, and I was notorious for writing extremely long posts (as in, frequently OVER NINE THOUSAND over 2000 words), so I think I have a reasonable amount of experience in hosting "advanced" RPs, as you guys seem to call them here. Unfortunately, RPs have been in decline in Kongregate FGF for at least a year, and the forum just doesn't have enough dedicated roleplayers to keep a detailed RP going for long. That's why I'm considering migrating to this forum, and host an RP here. But I'm new, and don't know how things work in this forum, so I have a few questions.
1. What's the actual process of creating an "advanced" RP here? In Kongregate FGF, we first create a signup/discussions thread with OOC details about the game, and wait for people to sign up. Once the host has personally decided that there are enough players to begin, he'll make a second thread for the game itself, where all the InC posts go. Each game is thus allowed to have up to two threads. How does it work here? I see an "interest check" subsection, which seems to be for pitching RP ideas to potential players. Do I use that as the OOC/signup thread, or do I make a separate thread once there are enough interested people? If the latter, do I make the thread in the RP section itself?
2. How active do "advanced" RPs tend to be around here? How many players do they have on average, and how many posts per day? I'm not looking for any exact numbers, just rough guesstimates.
3. How many "advanced" RPs successfully reach their conclusions? This was my main problem with Kongregate FGF. People almost always lost interest after a few weeks or months, and the game would slowly die. Very few RPs in Kongregate FGF actually reached anything that could be called a conclusion.
4. In an "advanced" RP, how active does the GM have to be? I'm in university, and I don't have an unlimited amount of free time. And another problem I had on Kongregate FGF was that the players simply wouldn't do anything unless I constantly poke and prod them every single step along the way; it eventually got too tiring for me. In this forum, can I give the players opportunities to create their own factions and plotlines, and expect the game to mostly sustain itself? Of course, I'm not saying that my own participation as the GM will be completely nonexistent. I will be playing as characters in the game too; I just want to be able to let the players collectively create their own plot, rather than having to create my plot and drag the players along.
5. How well do roleplayers take to GMPCs in this site? I have a tendency to make GMPCs that are explicitly more powerful than any of the players' characters (I have specific reasons for doing this, but I don't want to get into that right now). I take extreme care in making sure my GMPCs are flawed, realistic (at least given the context of the RP) characters, rather than Mary Sues. And I take equal care in making sure that my GMPCs will not ruin the conflict of the game, or dominate the plot; their roles in the game should be comparable to the roles of other PCs. My exact ways of doing this vary, but they often involve psychological issues and circumstances that make my GMPCs unwilling or unable to easily solve any of the other player characters' problems. My GMPCs are not invincible, and can actually be defeated by the PCs if I deem it appropriate in the plot; I just want to be able to have my characters lose only when I want them to. Yes, I know that I can do this as the GM even if I don't make my characters more powerful than all the other characters, but this again ties into the aforementioned specific reasons that I don't want to discuss right now. And of course, I will not use my GMPCs' power to humiliate other PCs, not without a justifiable in-universe reason (and no, my GMPCs are not the kind of characters who go around humiliating people weaker than them for kicks). When I was in Kongregate FGF, no one really complained about my GMPCs, and no significant problems occurred. Can I expect the same thing here? If my GMPCs are more powerful than the player characters, but otherwise won't ruin the conflict or hog the spotlight of the plot, will the players generally tolerate them?
6. As I already said before, I value internal consistency a lot. I'm also more than a little paranoid about supernatural abilities that I consider "overpowered"; these won't be allowed in my games even if the character who has them won't use them in any game-breaking manner. In fact, I have a whole thread back in Kongregate FGF that discusses overpowered abilities and how to nerf them. As a result, if I make an RP here, some players may be asked to edit their character sheets multiple times, to get rid of everything I consider unacceptable, before they're allowed to join the game. Is this kind of behavior tolerated in this forum?
7. Usually I try to be reasonable as the GM, but I tend to not like it if a player thinks he can push me around. I moderate my RPs very strictly to make sure no rules are broken, since I value internal consistency. Most of the time I'm willing to negotiate if a player accidentally does something that's not allowed in the game. But if a player refuses to make the changes that I ask him to make, does things that I've disallowed him from doing, or generally try to challenge my GM authority in any way, that'd lead to warnings and then a swift ban from my game. This kind of behavior is reasonable and expected here, right? As the GM, I'm allowed to be less than perfectly polite with players whose actions are disruptive to the game, right?
I think these are all the questions I have for now. Thanks in advance for your help.
Also, in case anyone is interested, here are the three most recent RPs that I've run in Kongregate FGF:
Emblems of Fate
Seraphic Legacy
Realms Adrift
