Hello! I am curious to know what sort of applications people are using for RP purposes right now. I know Google docs and Discord are popular, but I am also very curious to know if people are using Trello/Asana for managing their RP's or any other software of that nature.

Also, writing apps, like ommwriter. That one actually came out of a similar thread a couple years ago. I've used it ever since for roleplaying as well as stupid shit like e-mails for work where you want to write something to get a response out of someone busy/important who doesn't really have to give you time of day.

I also use the Hemingway app to tighten up the prose.

What else is out there? What are some of you guys using, particularly people who are running long-standing RP's.

I use open writer for all my writing stuff.

Titanpad is also amazing for collaborating, and I was only notified of it's existence about a week ago. It's more or less shutting down in march, but pirate pad looks like it's the same thing. Basically it's a document that you and anyone with the unique url code can edit. It does not send alerts however. otherwise, it's very easy to copy and paste your finished collab anywhere, unlike skype.

I use open writer for all my writing stuff.

Titanpad is also amazing for collaborating, and I was only notified of it's existence about a week ago. It's more or less shutting down in march, but pirate pad looks like it's the same thing. Basically it's a document that you and anyone with the unique url code can edit. It does not send alerts however. otherwise, it's very easy to copy and paste your finished collab anywhere, unlike skype.

Honestly, I just checked yesterday to set up something on Titanpad and was like, "Damn, that's not gonna work" because of the shutdown. Piratepad is also doable and I suppose we'll see what's up when we get there.

I'm using Trello for an RP right now and it seems to help us create a point to coordinate lore and work up things with notifications for updates to subscribed note items. We're experimenting with it, but you can stick hyperlinks on it (to track where the collabs are) and create checklists.

I've honestly used it for project management before, so it's familiar territory for me. I wanted to create a more collaborative RP where we weren't working in silos, so I settled on trying it for an RP.

We use Sketchup for our maps. But then, we found a 2D map to be insufficient.

An alternative to Titanpad/PiratePad that I use is Mozilla Etherpad, or sometimes when I'm doing more intense collab with RL friends for other projects (largely visual novels, Python coding, and whatnot), we would use the official, downloadable Etherpad freeware. I'm not a fan of Gdoc, due to it's horrible lag on my computers when there are more than 2 people working on the document at the same time. I also avoid Discord for collab projects because we need a way to be able to keep track and look back past discussion points without having to scroll through slowly to squint for them (I know there's the pin thing, but it's not organized enough).

I might give Trello/Asana a shot. From what I've seen on the official sites, looks quite good.

Mozilla Etherpad sounds like a winner too. Half the reason I was asking was because I wanted a collaborative document that I can link to on Trello without having to go through Google.

damn i thought this thread was about apps that help dealing with procrastination and the like

For all sorts of individual writing purposes, I use Evernote. Totally free, its editor has just enough formatting and the big deal for me is that it has sync capability with every device you have Evernote on. Being able to write on my phone when I'm not home is an amazing feature.

For (my admittedly limited experience with) collabs, so far I've used Google Docs. Really simple, everyone has an account for it and it serves the purpose just fine.

For all sorts of individual writing purposes, I use Evernote. Totally free, its editor has just enough formatting and the big deal for me is that it has sync capability with every device you have Evernote on. Being able to write on my phone when I'm not home is an amazing feature.

For individual writing on mobile, I use JotterPad, as I have a personal preference for minimalistic interface free of unnecessary distractions (formatting is considered a distraction to me, especially since I major in design-related field and I'm particular about visual appeal) to focus solely on writing down my thoughts. It can be synced via Dropbox, and then I can continue to write using the Windows Notepad because it shares the same .txt file format as JotterPad's notes.

I used to use Evernote in the past, but I had issues with some bugs that couldn't allow me to sync my notes properly, and then my account was one of the unfortunate cases that got hacked during the numerous server incidents which made me less trusting towards Evernote. It's generally a decent app, but my experience with it wasn't great, so I'm not fond of it.

Mozilla Etherpad sounds like a winner too. Half the reason I was asking was because I wanted a collaborative document that I can link to on Trello without having to go through Google.

Of course - it's a public pad that is not much different from Titanpad/PiratePad, except that you can give a name to it as its address for easy recall, an in-built spell checker, and you can even change the font of the text to other font types that are available in the setting tab. (Hang on, why did I sound like a salesperson all of a sudden? Lol.)

A quick question: how many of you here ever tried the MS Office Notes software/app?

God I feel so out of place

For Collabs - I use Pm's
To plan out Rp's and prep posts - I Pm myself
To chat with rpers in my rps - I use Chatzy
To keep track of Rps, who needs to post, when I need to post, etc.. - I use a spiral note book and a pencil. (With a kick ass green eraser on it)

God I feel so out of place

...I use a spiral note book and a pencil. (With a kick ass green eraser on it)

Don't be, because nothing beats the good ol' fashion way of writing and note-taking, imo. Even though I would use all those tech stuff since I'm alright with them, I still write notes physically by hand in notebooks from time to time.

I tend to use Google Docs both for jotting down ideas and for writing RP posts before posting them in PM or thread, because it's saved onto the cloud so it's saved every couple of lines and if there is a power or broadband cut I tend to only lose a tiny bit of what I've done as opposed to the whole thing (which is what happened before when I wrote things straight into the PM/thread XD)
Google Docs also has an app that I can download onto my phone that lets you work on stuff on the go and/or offline as well, to upload them back to the cloud later; so when stuff gets real quiet at work or while I'm waiting for buses on the way there/back I can work on posts and ideas and such as well.

I also like to keep a notepad and pen on my nightstand just in case I have a cracking dream and wake up in the middle of the night full of RP ideas I need to jot down XD

I also like to keep a notepad and pen on my nightstand just in case I have a cracking dream and wake up in the middle of the night full of RP ideas I need to jot down XD

Glad to know I am not the only one that does this!

I also like to keep a notepad and pen on my nightstand just in case I have a cracking dream and wake up in the middle of the night full of RP ideas I need to jot down XD

We keep our laptop like that, for noting down stuff in all sort of documents...

But when it comes to writing, we usually stick to google docs.

Rich Text Documents are my temporary locations of choice these days (though I haven't done an actual RP post in a while, I've done a little other writing in the background).

I also like to keep a notepad and pen on my nightstand just in case I have a cracking dream and wake up in the middle of the night full of RP ideas I need to jot down XD

I'd do this if I didn't suffer from some sort of weird condition where the moment I wake up I instantly lose any memory of parts of my dreams that'd be useful to my writing, and only those parts of my dreams. All I wake up with is the knowledge that I had a lot of great ideas that'll never be used. This is pretty much every morning for me. I'm able to remember pointless dreams to an extent, and nightmares can sometimes be vivid enough in my memory that they're indistinguishable from my real past, but remembering something helpful to my projects? Nope.

Anyway, I've got an unhealthy amount of notepads on my desktop (and on USBs) and physical notes on paper (which are mostly unreadable due to my physical health conditions rendering writing directly exceedingly painful -- typing hurts too, but is more manageable), relating to a variety of ideas but mostly for my main story project. I don't have the time or energy right now to really answer the rest of this thread in any detail.

Word Counter: I use this to keep track of how long things are. For RP's I prefer to make posts 2k words in length, so I use this to see where I am landing. It mostly just keeps me paying attention to wordcount. It does have a lot of other useful stats though, and my second favorite feature is keeping track of most commonly used words. I use that to make sure I am not flooding my post with any specific noun.

Hemingway App: Mentioned in the OP of course, but I got into using this one recently. I don't necessarily take it as gospel, but it is good for showing you what parts you should reconsider.

I also use a text to voice add-on for Firefox. It isn't perfect, and it is especially bad with names, but I think having text read out to you not only helps you catch errors, but is also good for double checking dialogue.

Weirdly enough, I actually prefer writing posts in PMs to writing them in word processors. I never particularly liked Google Docs, and though I have Scrivener for organizing my many half-baked attempts at serious writing, I don't like writing RP posts in it. I have a specific self PM I use for storing notes and writing drafts, since my style nowadays is to write a little bit at a time.

I don't recommend Hemingway App for everything. It's a useful little tool and I like to use it as guidance rather than rely on it.

Kudos for mentioning the Hemingway app, I desperately needed something like this. I tend to write longer sentences, which is perfectly normal in my native language, but they often sound a bit off in English. This app should definitely come in handy when editing stuff!

To touch upon the topic itself, I don't really use any specific tools for writing. I write all my stuff in Word, mainly due to its autosave feature, and use PiratePad for collaborating. I used to keep physical notes as well, but my handwriting is so horrible that I can't read half the shit I've written down.

When working on my own, I simply write everything here in the forum while making notepad backups when necessary. I use various syncpads for more collaborative work, and for the purposes of discussion chatzy has proven most convenient. There is also Discord, but most roleplayers utilization of extensions from the main RPG discord limits my own use of it.

On the specific note of collaborative tools, I would like to specifically talk about the use of syncpads, google docs, and actual full-blown wikis for specific roleplays. In my experience, storing all of the information together in one easy-to-edit document or even a series of them combined with realtime chat has the counter-intuitive effect of creating stagnation in the roleplay proper. The problem is not quite that people get too bogged down in too many small details, but that the greater access and freedom to discuss those smaller details tends to lead to plot developments that then drag and eventually die if so much as one party loses interest or has to go inactive for a while. Such documents invite a greeter degree of collaboration from people than might otherwise be advisable given varying degrees of commitment and interest between individuals. For that very reason, I approve more of keeping sheets right here in the forum in a more static format, forcing roleplayers to actually write in the thread in order to convey detail and development rather than just writing about it endlessly in some never-to-be-seen syncpad. I myself am guilty of this - my favorites bar is cluttered with syncpad links from dozens of old roleplays, describing various plots and details of stories which ultimately never saw the light of day.

There are only a few roleplays that ever get big and detailed enough to really benefit from a wiki, and to an extent it can result in the exact same kind of problem as investing too much detail into a syncpad codex. At the same time the, its slightly more rigid and static format means that people still need to go out of their way to talk about everything and various shenanigans elsewhere, which can hopefully lead to more active collaborations (though one should be wary of posters being lured in to endless editing campaigns). Wikis seem to be most useful for organizing large amount of disparate information in a setting with a lot of stuff to sift through - Large Space NRPs where you might want to find out what factions have what things, but do not necessarily want to have to sit down and read through each individual nation sheet all over again.

I think that the Hemingway App is useful as a guide to highlight parts that one might need to reconsider, but like some have said: do not rely on it too much. Different people have different writing styles and flairs, which the program may not be able to pick up well. I put some of my writing into the site, and the result told me my style is too sophisticated and difficult to understand (on average of grade 11 and above). Then when I ran text excerpts of well-known writers - like Tolkien's LOTR - and the guy really love his adverbs. /shrugs

Since this question went unanswered the first time I asked, so let's try again: has anyone tried to use MS Notes? I stopped using it for personal projects and reserve that for school note-taking now; it's quite similar to Evernote.