So ages ago on another forum I used to frequent, I saw a RP where the plot and characters were already outlined for everyone to choose from. RP'ers would merely pick one and fill the shoes, however, there was a twist. These characters were not named, and besides a 8 paragraph exposition on everyone, all were simply assigned a color. He was a shy boy, only a freshman, yet he had a crush on her. And so on. By using this format, it gave the players a chance to create characters around a plot and practice writing characters as if they were close with no actual experience writing them together beforehand. I was very impressed, but was too late to get the chance to take part at the time.

Since then, the idea has stuck with me and I've considered frequently how I could use it. How I could improve it. I thought what if these were all people who had dreams, and in their dreams they saw the others only for their colors and saw bits and pieces of how the others days worked? Or perhaps simply one see's and must tie together the evidence to solve a mystery in a who-dunnit sort of scenario?

The largest obstacle however has always been the scale of such an RP. To hide identities, you need false identities. Characters who are not colors, colors who are not the murderer(or whatever) but who are significant, as well as a system with which to present information and control it as a GM and convey it to the players. Moreover, how would I go about having additional murders/background exposition occur that to be revealed in this format without large tedious background groups and PM's with all members of the RP juggling around?

This is not a finished idea, but I'm curious how you all would go about GM'ing such a structure and whether any would be willing to take part. With ~6 people willing to write 2 characters each, I feel the RP will become populated enough without overcrowding, but I have less experience than some with the activity here.

I'd be happy to be a part of something like this.

The colors in the original were likely so that they could name the characters themselves, and truly create them while following the skeleton provided. It only told how they fit in, not who they were, which meant that they would still be your character. In this case though I'm not sure how much of that I'd be able to retain, since color'ed characters must be secrets from the RPers for the plot to be engaging.

I certainly agree with choosing a character as the culprit. There is no fun in this sort of RP if the GM is in charge of that aspect, and I feel that person would have the second most control over the RP with their actions. The tricky part would be, as I mentioned before, allowing private scenes between their characters and others without revealing the truths to the other RPers.

As for authoritative character.... perhaps, however I feel the dreams/colors fulfill that role, the question still lies in how to deliver it. Does one character see these dreams, making them fill a detective role? Do all colors see the dreams that they themselves take part in?

Ideally the dreams can reveal clues about all the characters, not outright naming one color as the murderer but instead revealing details about each color as the characters both attempt to discover other characters color identities as well as which color/person committed the crime. The crime doesn't have to be murder either, perhaps one character is a 'color thief' and when he steals the colors from the others, they fall into coma's for the duration of the RP? That would avoid the police aspect of the RP.

Beside having a ton of background private RP's going on every time characters are not in a public space though, does anyone have insight onto how we could have background info on these characters to reveal to the RP? The RP could always follow an honor code where we ignore plot details from other private interactions, but this would make the colors scenes far less engaging and make sleuthing feel more mechanical.