What would we timeskip to? More classes of mathematics? Another mission?

RPGs aren't shows. Sometimes at points when there really isn't anything happening, it's good to have a timeskip. But RPGs are roleplaying games. Games. Sometimes people can't go at breakneck speeds into everything. How an RPG moves has more to do with the players. What if people are in the middle of something when the timeskip hits?

That doesn't make things more interesting. That's jarring and cuts off the flow.

It's more than VGNB's that relatively behind, to be honest.

KNVS hasn't even seen the giant spider monster, and started far later than the other missions due to confusion over who was going to antagonise them.

That Brewing Storm mission, from what I've read, doesn't seem possible to finish within two posts.

The whiplash would be immense.

Realistically, though, the majority of players have gone on record saying that the class system in its current (or, rather, in what was its current) state isn't working. Clearly the missions have gone on for a while, and there are probably a minority of teams (CODE and Robert's acronym-shifting abomination foremost in my mind at the moment, but there may be others) that could feasibly accomplish an end to their mission in all of two collabs. The rest of us - Brewing Storm, the highest ranked mission to date by any team, included - can't really be expected to wrap things up in two collabs, especially with a busy head GM as an antagonist and little idea of what we're up against. So - at least in this case, since I don't know how the first set of missions went - mission structure is a pain in the ass to work with, too, especially during a month long procession of holidays and the last days before classes start up for the majority of people.

Character development and posting in response to teammates is, to a lot of people, I think (and speak up if you agree or disagree here) the most fundamental part of any character-driven RPG. Especially a school RPG like this one, with varying takes on the same motivation that can best be explored in real time.

And we're being asked to recap that. When it feels like the one part of the game that really shouldn't be rushed to allow for time.

Timeskipping over important character moments in between pitched battles isn't what makes Volume 3 of RWBY great viewing, it's what made the first two volumes such shit.

the cooldown between likes is really inconvenient when i have such force with which to upvote

the cooldown between likes is really inconvenient when i have such force with which to upvote

did you think I was kidding

i can't fuck off back to reddit if i was never on reddit, snow

and not a day goes by without at least three surprises

Can you all stop typing for just one minute? I can't try and defend myself against three different people and a subtle mob of thumbs-uppers all at once.

Anyone who thinks we are or have ever been moving at breakneck speed is a buffoon. Happy one year anniversary folks--we've made it two weeks into the IC.

RWBY has maybe ten main characters and two guys calling the shots, while here we have twenty-eight in both categories. We have a cast of main characters with different actions and personalities (I know you know this, so I realize I'm not being too helpful by reiterating). It's impossible to give all equal attention and utterly implausible to give some all the attention and none to others. Not everyone has the tools to fill time with meaningful development and interaction. is that fair to those who do? I know it isn't.

For your information, Brewing Storm could be finished pretty darn soon if everyone posted for it. We could all make our developments happen and never get bored if life allowed us to post even a single paragraph once a day, but that's not the case.

Criticism here, criticism there. Neither this or that is the right way to deal with things. I've never been a good GM and never will be, just interested in good times and good storytelling. You all want this to work better? Stop saying what I'm doing wrong for a moment and start making suggestions on what I can do right!

Before you read this know that I haven't read Lug's response above yet.

Tbh, a timeskip straight after a set of missions really kills character interaction.

They need a breath of fresh air, some acclimatization back at the Academy, and more chances of character development/forming character dynamics with others.

My bad for not clarifying. I didn't mean right after the missions were over then just immediately skip into another week. I meant after the weekend when people have had a chance to have there character's interact with stuff and things and things and stuff. I also meant more like a one or two month timeskip. We've seen so far how people new to a school acclimate to the life of boarding school, pair off, make friends and enemies and what now. The next step from that would be to see how they settle in after a longer period of time. Again though I'm not advocating that we do this immediately cause I think that would cause incredibly whiplash especially for the people new to the RP.

A solution to not getting the time you wanted for stuff within a certain timeframe would be to work on a collab with the team while putting up posts that follow along with current developments, and then when the extra stuff is completed it can be posted with a disclaimer that tells when it actually occurred. This would mean multitasking for those players, though I can't imagine that to be an issue for people whose praiseworthy writing skill leads them to in-depth character development.

I have nothing against flashbacks, they are a fairly good plot device and serve well for a variety of matters but there is two very important things about them. Firstly they can't be longer than about ten to fifteen minutes IC time otherwise it seems like you forgot about something that should have been there so just plopped it into a flashback. Secondly flashbacks are used for something that absolutely had to happen in the past. Like if it be important that Adam said something that was never scripted for Paul and Kristy to remember but Adam has been killed off then you flashback it. If you have a flashback that just as easily could happen two minutes from now and not effect the flow of the story then it should happen two minutes from now. Flashbacks are like Ecstasy, use sparingly.

I do agree that the timeskipping over free time is getting very very old. I think that's some of the most important parts of the IC but it just keeps getting overlooked. I had to flashback a scene with Sapphire and Shiro arguing over his pills because the afterschool periods were skipped over. We're essentially doing the same old thing. Morning, Combat Class Fight, Math, History, Period Four of your choice, skip over Period Five and Six cause everyone's getting board of school, timeskip to missions causing going through mundane school events for so long has everyone shouting for some action and that seems to be the only way we can think of to do it. Then everyone begins to get ready for some good interaction, they set up plans and stuff that can only be done over the weekend and find that they have two hours to finish very complex things before we skip to another day of school.

Like the event with the monster in the lake. We had half a collab of that fight and then after that we had party plans in which the whole school was invited were we could get into trouble and possibly fight some people but just as we were getting really into that suddenly bam, timeskip, "You can just talk amongst yourselves about what the results of that were." If I'm being honest that fight in the lake and what was looking to be a party afterwards were the most interesting parts of the RP so far and because of the timeskip I don't think we even got to post the fight let alone finish it. I mean imagine what it would be like in the show if they timeskipped over Team RWBY's fight with Roman and the White Fang at the docks and just talked about it afterwards cause it didn't take place strictly in school hours or on a mission. No one would give a damn about what was happening at the moment and simply be asking themselves why the hell that fight wasn't shown. They'd assume it was because of low operating budgets the show couldn't animate that fight. Do you really want to be the RP! that has too low and operating budget to show the interesting stuff?

And now having actually read his response his avatar is suddenly looking at me in frustration.

If you want my opinion, anytime a timeskip is proposed if it seems like a good time put it to an anonymous vote. Everyone sends there preference in to you and you add it up and see if it is a good time to skip time for the majority of people. If so a few of us will have to suck it up. If not then the other few will have to. I realize this is too large for you to take a vote on everyone decision that needs to be made but I don't think it would be too difficult to put the major RP effecting ones to a the group.

Lugubrious.

This is an RPG, not a TV show. "Screentime" essentially boils down to: "this player is posting as this character". You're never gonna get equal attention for every character. You don't need to. There is no narrative that demands it. RPGs work when players post as their characters, interact with one another, get things done together, and how they tightly weave that together is how the RPG keeps going. Sometimes you gotta timeskip, yeah, when there's just a sheer barren space of "yeah, we're not doing anything anymore", but you need to find that good time.

And RPGs don't work on real time or anything similar. They work on the schedule of how busy the players are.

We could all make our developments happen and never get bored if life allowed us to post even a single paragraph once a day, but that's not the case.

This is demanding far, far too much. There's so much that people do. Pay the bills, homework, revision for exams, organising trips back to the motherland to visit their cancer-ridden beloved maternal grandfather, et cetera. Maybe in a perfect world you could get a post a day, but this isn't a perfect world, so you have to be able to adjust to that. Adjust to the fact that players have other things to do.

Stop saying what I'm doing wrong for a moment and start making suggestions on what I can do right!

How do you know what to fix if you don't know what's wrong?

I come back after a alcohol induced coma to this? Crap, where's my next beer? xD

"You can just talk amongst yourselves about what the results of that were."

It always feels disgusting when someone proposes that in any RP I play. Yes, that was the greatest scene never written, thank you very much. Then again, I very rarely join RPs with such a turnout that it becomes a necessity, so do as you must, though it would be strange pulling that when my character hasn't even appeared in front of her supposed team.

On another note, speaking of collabs, I wonder if the 'Capture the fort' mission wouldn't go smoother in collabs. The team missions are played by relatively few players anyway, so it lends itself to that, and that way we won't have to deal with the string of tiny conversation posts that would probably come from introducing a new PC at this junction.

I come back after a alcohol induced coma to this? Crap, where's my next beer? xD

It's waiting for your next post in the collab, dear ;)

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On another note, speaking of collabs, I wonder if the 'Capture the fort' mission wouldn't go smoother in collabs. The team missions are played by relatively few players anyway, so it lends itself to that, and that way we won't have to deal with the string of tiny conversation posts that would probably come from introducing a new PC at this junction.

This is why I do every mission in collabs. It's infinitely easier. It strikes me as somewhat ridiculous that others don't feel the same way, but some people are pretty good at handling missions like that.

Just voicing my own thoughts here, but I'd rather not do a Time Skip myself. Like many have already said, it's impossible for us to finish everything in such a timely matter. Not as a casual "For fun" rp anyways. Maybe if this was Advance, we should have more dedication, but I feel that also defeats the enjoyment of a casual RWBY rp. Yes, it's kinda slow and lumbering. We're only as fast as the slowest member after all, and some of us have some very busy lives outside of RPing. But unless you're going to start making much stricter demands over people's free time, there isn't a lot you can do about it, Lugu. Nothing but to be supportive and help whenever you're asked to.

It's certainly a test of one's patience, but that's what you have Co-GM's for. People to help move events along so that everyone has something to do. Which also reminds me I still need to make a big responds post for my missions, IMA SOWWY!

Sorry if this is a potential double post, just wanted to respond to Lazo.

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It always feels disgusting when someone proposes that in any RP I play. Yes, that was the greatest scene never written, thank you very much. Then again, I very rarely join RPs with such a turnout that it becomes a necessity, so do as you must, though it would be strange pulling that when my character hasn't even appeared in front of her supposed team.

On another note, speaking of collabs, I wonder if the 'Capture the fort' mission wouldn't go smoother in collabs. The team missions are played by relatively few players anyway, so it lends itself to that, and that way we won't have to deal with the string of tiny conversation posts that would probably come from introducing a new PC at this junction.

I'm totally fine with making the capture the fort mission a huge collaborative. Hell, I'll do that for all the missions if the players want to. I just stick with posting in the IC cause I feel that showing some life in the IC is healthy.

Sorry if this is a potential double post, just wanted to respond to Lazo.

<Snipped quote by Lazo>

I'm totally fine with making the capture the fort mission a huge collaborative. Hell, I'll do that for all the missions if the players want to. I just stick with posting in the IC cause I feel that showing some life in the IC is healthy.

That's true. I really love collabs, but they do just look like nothing is happening to anyone who's not in on it.

Games like this actually flow along really well if you let them travel at their own pace.

Alright, main body: of course timeskips are not preferable in a character-driven role-playing story game. We're making good characters here, ones with interaction and depth and development, and I understand that needs time.

Our members like the entirety of team KESS, half of JPCL, and so forth aren't able to check in very often. I'm not blaming anyone for not being able to check in or post often; that's just the way life is. Unfortunately, that reality means that if people aren't able to do anything then they may keep losing motivation and interest until they drop out, and then we have even more problems to deal with.

One of the problems is, most likely, too many characters. Allowing people to have two was a mistake, and allowing anyone to antagonize multiple missions was probably a mistake too. The antagonization thing was unavoidable, however, as only some brave souls are able to be on often enough to serve their noble evil purpose, but eliminating multiple characters might help lessen responsibility and increase focus. How next could we come together as a RP and get both development and flow? I don't know. I'm not good enough.

Perhaps I've been possessed by the wrong sort of idea about what this RP was meant to be. I wanted us to get through a lot of time, various impactful and exciting events, never imagining that to really get into rich storytelling and charactermaking that it would be the right idea to slow way, way down. I've been assuming that if we were to slow way down, so many people would be counterintuitively left behind, and grow disinterested. I prescribed a schedule hoping that it would keep us on track is a group, but alas, in attempting to put us in a box I only squeezed us too tight.

@Crimmy don't needle me with ethos, I know how important people's lives are. I wasn't making demands, I was acknowledging that no such perfect world existed and I could never expect it to. That logic both spurred me to make a schedule and now makes me realize that was the wrong choice. And the answer to your last question: because I don't know how to fix it. Even if every problem were spelled out for me, I could not generate a solution that pleases anyone on my own.

But I'm going to try. @Everyone, listen up:
The choice I have is between two systems of operation. The one I've been using is to maintain a schedule, giving time but enforcing deadlines to keep the entire group on track, making steady progress toward events that everyone can be involved in. This is more of an ideal system, meant to entertain larger numbers of people, and more and more seems less and less feasible.

The alternative as far as I can see: slow down. Live every moment so that our characters can live and grow like real people. Break out a timeskip like a fire axe from its case: only in emergencies (empty space) and when agreed to by a majority of the people. No more boring classes, but no pushes toward action either. Take the risk of marginalizing players, and not replacing those who go.

The idea of moving slowly but more meangingfully does seem like a better idea than screwing over both people who want to move either faster or slower. It would mean that this RP could die rather than living on fumes, but a death for a purpose is better than forced life, right?

So I'm putting it to democracy on two fronts:
Question A: Do we slow down, removing forced deadlines, timeskips, and new players?
Question B: Do we eliminate multiple characters, making senior teams into NPCs that can be controlled on special occasions?

I really would kill to hear you just tell us how you really feel and say in no uncertain terms that you just fucking hate BASL, because at least part of our team is the example you use every time an argument escalates like this. Calling out Narayan - the one person who hasn't shared our opinion in all this and has genuinely gone on record several times saying he's too busy to post very often - is the dickest of dick moves.