Welp, here goes.

I dimly remember saying something along the lines of moving things forward when people came to a consensus. Plus, there's the bit in the OP that asks for direct communication about any problems in terms of RP activity. My thoughts this entire time have been: nobody's told me they want to skip ahead to anything, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes, so I'm not going to make unwanted waves. I'm fairly certain I talked to Write about this philosophy in a PM, and I'm positive he didn't indicate that people were getting antsy for progress. We even talked about things we could potentially do in the RP's future, such as the Vytal festival. More importantly, I suggested starting a new thread with Write at the helm, a person liked and respected among the playerbase who could do what people wanted. He hasn't gotten back to me.

None of that really matters, though, and I'm not holding anything against anyone.

The crux of the issue is a larger personal problem. I haven't felt as if my interference was wanted in a very long time. After making so many mistakes trying to get things to progress in the ways I thought would be best, and making so many people angry, I decided to take it really easy in terms of guidance. However, even the stuff I did do, like the race, barely got engagement out of anyone, so that seemed like a fluke as well. With nobody giving me complaints, I figured that letting everyone develop their characters and their relationships however they pleased was what people wanted.

The bottom line is that I've been checked out of this RP for more than half a year now. So, you're correct, Abi. Whether it was all my fault or not, the incidents that transpired some time back made it clear that I wasn't and shouldn't be in control, and in terms of giving up it was all downhill after that. My interest in RWBY itself died during that time; volume 4 pretty much turned me off to the series. At this point, I don't remember if the consensus is that I'm an asshole or just an idiot, but I can tell you honestly that I'm an anxious person who takes criticism to heart. Time, of course, heals all wounds, but my barriers were up until I just couldn't be asked to hold them up anymore.

Because of that, letting the RP coast, and letting the people who were really into it able to do what they wanted without restriction while those not so into it were free to drift away, seemed like the best option. If that wasn't the case, I would have liked to have known, but perhaps that wouldn't have changed anything anyway.

If you want to start a new thread, who am I to stop you? I hope it goes far better than this ever did.

I will sooner continue to write my insular ass mountain japanese shiroyama hicks beating eachother up before starting it all over

Seriously though, I've seen this "fresh start" stuff play out exactly as Krayzikk described in triplicate. Giving a sluggish playerbase reason to quit without something majorly generating hype for newcomers (like the show airing, for example) just kills things dead, and while my elitism problem would doubtlessly be sated by trimming the metaphorical fat and leaving only dedicated die-hards, the game cannot be sustained on the backs of the maybe five people who'd go with you.

I love a good destruction of the status quo (read: my one-time presidential voting record), but this is not the situation where it helps anyone.

I have to agree with Snow, an exodus to a new thread just makes this die.

Honestly, Lugu, this isn't on you. It's on everybody who hasn't been posting.

I know we have shit to do, but some of us haven't posted in months. Sometimes it's because the person we're waiting on hasn't posted, sometimes it's because life has been kicking us in the ass, but whatever it is, it's killing this RP like a fucking cancer.

We have people who've been trying to get through a day and have been waiting for months. We've had people who could have pushed through in a week if left in their own microcosm, but they're not in their own little world. It's a group, and unless everybody gets on board with a plan, nothing is going to work. Not a damn thing. I can't blame this one on Lugu, we've had plenty of ideas to work with, but so many of us just haven't posted enough to generate the momentum to get things going in an orderly fashion.

It's like herding fucking cats here, and I can't even herd the single little shithead I have half the time.

I'll admit, I haven't written anything in months because after Hari vanished from thin air, I felt rather deflated. I kinda feel like a lot of the people who I do want to interact with are suddenly gone, and there isn't really much for me to do now. I love Gren and the things I'd get him into, but right now it just kinda feels like all of Gren's friends are dead. Sure, I could always make new ones for him, but at some point I'd have to address the elephant in the room and notice that since Hari is gone, Shiro has suddenly vanished too. Suddenly Team SNSG just lost an member and that's not something that I can just pretend to get over, especially for all the drama I had Gren get into with Shiro.

Also doesn't help my own philosophy of waiting for people who I've responded to, so all this time I've been waiting for Pyro who I also think has gone AWOL. Unfortunate, but inevitable.

As for you Lugu, this isn't your fault really. After all your attempts to do your job as a GM and getting it thrown back into your face, I'm not surprised that you are hesitant to try to reign the RP around again. That's what you got your Co-GM's for after all, whatever they're up to anyways.

All in all I'm still interested, loosely anyways. I definitely know that Gren has stuff he could do, but it's less of a manner of Gren needing something to do, but mostly of a motivation for myself. Where am I going with him? What could I do now? Honestly after Gren's beat down with the nerf stick so long ago, my own interests in sticking around was mostly out of a sense of duty and honor turned stockholm. But now that's worn away only the guilt of thinking I might be letting this ancient RP die is what prevents me from just walking out the door.

>My interest in RWBY itself died during that time; volume 4 pretty much turned me off to the series.

Going off on a tangent here, brace for half-baked nonsense.

For what it's worth, I think it's fine if you don't have a passion for the show. Personally, I've only ever been lukewarm on it (heh) at the best of times, but it's worked since our canon is best described as either a sidestory or a slight AU, considering the worldbuilding liberties and such that we've taken before World of Remnant fucked it all up (LOOKING AT YOU, MISTRAL).

What we do have from the show that matters, and I mean really matters, is a fairly wide open sandbox for the characters we create to play in, with room for a whole bunch of creativity and exploration due to the existence of things like Auras and Semblances and other such excuses for "cool shit to happen". If I want to be a Chinese knockoff Nisio Isin with a budget Araragi family running around, then there's plenty of open space to do that alongside, for example, Varius "100% MOTIVATED" Gliver without missing a beat.

If we want to get artsy and pretentious and metaphorical with it: if the characters are colors, then the setting is a canvas. It's open and pretty blank and ready for you to go wild on it with whatever colors you damn well please. That's what the game thrives off of, and personally why I keep playing even though it's based off of a series I essentially have nothing but disdain for. I think that's what Monty wanted from it too. You don't have to like the show. It's the vessel. You don't have to like the vase or the soil that much if you care a lot about the plant growing in it, right? This game is the stem, the contests leaves, and the characters are our flowers. Almost every time you look at a potted plant, I can guarantee that it's to take in the flowers.

I think you might have a better time if you looked at it a bit more like that. It's a shot in the dark and doesn't solve our immediate problems, of course, but in terms of simply enjoying the game, which seems like it's one of your big issues right now, I know that it's the characters and the sections of the world that we've built around them that keeps me coming back for more.

Maybe it can do the same for you.

Again, I know it's not a solution to the current problem at hand, but it's just something I felt needed to be touched on, especially given how much it means to me.

I appreciate the condolences. To touch upon a bit of what you're all saying...

The whole group dynamic is, while not a complete scapegoat for the various issues floating around, definitely a problem in terms of RPing. Having groups of four players that all require collaboration and coordination is doable when everyone's present and engaged, but when legs start to come off a chair, the whole thing starts keeling over pretty quickly. That's just the way it is with the four-man-team format.

Having Hari disappear was a blow for me too, even I'd already lost the tempo at that point. Maybe he saw which way the moss was growing and decided to cut ties without a show, having already been host to misgivings about the RP only assuaged by promises of better days that never came about.

RWBY is an amazing premise for creativity, that much is for certain. One thing I enjoy about the RPs, though only this one has ever lasted, is at the start when all the characters are made and every little cool thing comes together to make a great cast. I will always respect RWBY, Monty in particular, for providing such a vessel for creativity no matter where the show goes.

I personally have no interest in continuing in this RP, even if it's cut down and revitalized into just the core players. That brings me to one last thing I might be able to offer: a roadmap. Obviously, I was fine with letting HoB continue in this sort of malaise, not what I had in mind for it but satisfactory enough to keep some people engaged. The only other things to do with it would be to make a 'next next chapter' to get new members or to trim the fat and leave only the old members, but Krayzikk brought up good points at the bottom of the last page. If neither of those routes are taken, the only other option (aside from picking a new GM but not making a new thread) would be as Plank suggested: for the remaining players to control things, come to agreements for how things are to proceed, and so forth. Of course, I have no input on what path to take. For a while now, and definitively for the future, the road belongs to whoever wants it.

I leave for a couple of hours and drama goes down.

Sheash

I'm new to this RP, so I don't have or know the history here, but I do know this, what you have here is about as rare as Rooster's Teeth (heh); an Rp that lasted for more then 3 years. It would be a crying shame to put it down.

Others have said it, and I want to say it too. Blame doesn't matter. Who ever or whatever is fault doesn't mean a damn thing. From what I understand most here are in favor of continuing. That is good. We can continue.

I also strongly argue not to make a new thread. I made the mistake of doing that with the last RP I was in, a really good one, but the gm up and vanished, leaving us to figure out what to do. We decided to make a new thread and only a few people showed up, plus a co vanished and it summarily died. Maybe this could be different, but we would have to do quite a bit of reorganizion and planning, which could be bad for the RP.

I had thought about a RWBY rp myself, and the conclusion I came was this: more then most, absences are a huge obstacle to the RP, because of its inherent four man team. If even one person leaves, it could be disastrous.

Lugu, I'm very sad to see you go. You write well, and I respect your leadership, evident in how that you kept this RP going for quite some time. I see that you take criticism to heart, and that is fine. Learn from it and become better. Your idea here how to continue is a good one.

I, personally, will stay and continue, no matter where this goes. I love Ferris as only a writer can love their characters, and I have plenty in mind for him.

As for how to proceed, that is veeeery tricky. I think that, Idealy, making a 'next next chapter' would be the best idea, but I have learned from bitter experience that when making a new thread, you tend to lose a lot of players. So much so that the RP tends to putter. That is just my experience in the past. You may have had a different one. Out of the other options Lugu outlined above, I'm not a fan of letting it continue in this semi stagnant way, letting players decide everything. An overarching story, I believe, is the best way to keep people interested and invested.

Unfortunately, all I can do is add to the noise here. I'm not sure how to proceed. But we should try to come to a decision quickly. Nothing else like stagnation drops people. I wish I had a grand idea, but I don't.

Damn. I just finish moving into a new house and I come back to this. I won't go and say that I have a clue what the best course of action is. I do know one thing though: I want this to continue.

No matter what happens, whether we have someone else take up GMing, move this to a new thread, create some kind of New 52-esque reboot, or whatever, I want to stay. This was the first RP I ever joined. I look back at when this started and can't help but cringe at some of my past decisions for Robert. Things I know I'd change now because I had such little clue as to what I was doing back then. Even now, I often read other people's posts and can't help but feel that the difference in skill between their and my writing is staggering, which is obviously disheartening when I eventually want to make a career in writing.

I don't want to quit though. I want to get better. Not only that, I like the small community we have here. Yeah, we fight, we argue, and holy shit can we get really fucking salty about the dumbest shit, but we're all still here. This RP has been around for 3+ years so obviously we're doing at least one thing right. Who knows? Maybe all it is that we're just too damn stubborn. Whatever it is, I'll still be here as long as there's at least one person willing to reply to my posts.

Kinda went off on a tangent there, so sorry about that. Congrats to whatever maniac is actually reading anything I have to contribute to this discussion.

I don't know if I speak for anyone besides myself with what I'm about to say, but here goes:

When I write, it's because I enjoy creating things. Characters, settings, stories, all of that and more. However, as much as I enjoy RPs because of the immediate feedback and sense of mystery and anticipation in what the other people will write, they always pose a problem in terms of motivation for me because of the reasons I just gave for writing at all. I don't know if any of you know me well enough to have noticed this already, but I'm a very easily intimidated person. I started RPing when I was very young and immature, and as a result made some very stupid decisions that I don't like to think about and I now know drove some people up the wall. The problem is, no one came out and told me back then that I needed to get it together and act more maturely. Instead, they badmouthed me behind my back. It was ultimately a good thing because it made me more self-aware, but it has also made me very insecure when it comes to "rocking the boat", so to speak.

Now, whenever a cool idea comes to me that would otherwise motivate me to share it through posting, I start to get nervous instead. "You'll re-read that tomorrow and think it's stupid." "You're being self-centered, no one cares but you." "You don't have the authority to put that forward." If I go silent for a long time, sometimes it's for real life reasons, but other times thoughts like these are weighing me down. I know it's mostly just my stupid brain, but I usually feel as though I have no control over the story of an RP and my character(s) are completely insignificant, and when the excitement of something being "new" is gone, it's all I'm left with. Maybe it would help if power over the RP's direction was spread around more.

Edit: Honestly, I'm wondering if this should be RWBY anymore. A good number of people here seem to feel negatively about it, and most of its influences are either superficial (color names, generic "monster" enemies, semblances that could honestly just be super powers) or hindering (four person teams, missions that need to be "completed").

@SevenStormStyle Why not just bring up your ideas in the OOC and see if people like them before implementing them in the IC? If I were creating an event that I felt would make any sort of significant impact to the RP, that's what I would do. If people like it, they can say so. If not, they can explain why. I'd like to think we're all friendly enough with each other to not just shoot each other's creations down.

Welp my plan to start a discussion about this worked better than I thought.

But yeah, I'm all for continuing this and deciding together how we proceed. Let's fucking do it.

I don't know if I speak for anyone besides myself with what I'm about to say, but here goes:

When I write, it's because I enjoy creating things. Characters, settings, stories, all of that and more. However, as much as I enjoy RPs because of the immediate feedback and sense of mystery and anticipation in what the other people will write, they always pose a problem in terms of motivation for me because of the reasons I just gave for writing at all. I don't know if any of you know me well enough to have noticed this already, but I'm a very easily intimidated person. I started RPing when I was very young and immature, and as a result made some very stupid decisions that I don't like to think about and I now know drove some people up the wall. The problem is, no one came out and told me back then that I needed to get it together and act more maturely. Instead, they badmouthed me behind my back. It was ultimately a good thing because it made me more self-aware, but it has also made me very insecure when it comes to "rocking the boat", so to speak.

Now, whenever a cool idea comes to me that would otherwise motivate me to share it through posting, I start to get nervous instead. "You'll re-read that tomorrow and think it's stupid." "You're being self-centered, no one cares but you." "You don't have the authority to put that forward." If I go silent for a long time, sometimes it's for real life reasons, but other times thoughts like these are weighing me down. I know it's mostly just my stupid brain, but I usually feel as though I have no control over the story of an RP and my character(s) are completely insignificant, and when the excitement of something being "new" is gone, it's all I'm left with. Maybe it would help if power over the RP's direction was spread around more.

Edit: Honestly, I'm wondering if this should be RWBY anymore. A good number of people here seem to feel negatively about it, and most of its influences are either superficial (color names, generic "monster" enemies, semblances that could honestly just be super powers) or hindering (four person teams, missions that need to be "completed").

Well, you definitely speak for me. I made, and and still make those mistakes often. And when I'm about to post, I find myself thinking those very same things about what I'm about to post. I really understand feeling like that. Maybe its a good thing the guild doesn't have a delete post feature. But, I have learned, or maybe decided is the better word, to just ignore those insecurities and set forth my ideas. Obviously with some restraint, still, but if I have something to say, I try to say it.

That is an interesting point of view, feeling like your characters are insignificant to the plot. I have felt that in many RPs before. Whatever we do, I think we should keep this firmly in mind, and try not to make the RP feel like that.

The setting is partially superficial, but mostly not. I believe it is still RWBY, the tech, semblences, the enemies, even something as simple as the names, all make the setting. Yes, these things could be put in a different setting, but that is the inherent nature of stories. As long as they are part of the plot, the setting is not superficial, and the RP is still RWBY.

How to not be background extra

Step 1: find a friend who actually posts

Step 2: keep posting

Step 3: pester them to keep posting

Step 4: congratulations

Luke and Grat have a good dynamic for this

find yourself an expy, kids, it's the only way

(Im on my phone forgive me for crappy formatting)

Speaking as a GM of many inactive and several conpleted roleplays from the original RolePlayerGuild (before it was shifted to this new independent domain), rebooting an RP is a commitment that's almost impossible unless you surely have means of connecting with the members at all times. For an RP as big as this, that's very hard, despite being possible to some extent.

This RP has its fair share of history and honestly has a well-established beginning, contrary to some potential beliefs. As long as people are interested, it's going to stay alive. As long as people are not interested, it'll remain inactive until it hopefully picks up activity again. I'm online for an almost inexcusable time, so that's what I could pick up from what people are talking about right now.

As a current co-gm (I bet some of you might have forgotten! XD), I actually kinda feel bad because I was pretty active but never really spoke with Lugu aside from some technical stuff on Character Sheets and etc. So like people have said, all of us can do our parts in kicking this in overdrive some time soon!

I'm tired as heck right now, but my suggestion is to have a consensus up that doesn't leave anyone's opinions out the window. So far we're doing that pretty well, especially since we're showing that we loved- and still love- Heroes of Beacon!

---

@Lugubrious If you'd like to talk to me, feel free to do so! I'll still poke at all the others GMs to find a way to get things active again. I'm sure everyone's anxious to get things rolling even if they're exhausted from the pacing.

And to everyone else, I might open up a temporary public etherpad to gather your opinions! That's a might though, because I haven't really done anything in a not-so-sleepy head right now. x-x

How to not be background extra

Step 1: find a friend who actually posts

Step 2: keep posting

Step 3: pester them to keep posting

Step 4: congratulations

I did this until all of my friends left. I miss you Irish Tree, DoktorSchnabel, Skyrte, poog the pig, and Monster's Hand.

Find more friends

Anybody want to apply to be my new friend?

<Snipped quote by SevenStormStyle>
That is an interesting point of view, feeling like your characters are insignificant to the plot. I have felt that in many RPs before. Whatever we do, I think we should keep this firmly in mind, and try not to make the RP feel like that.

On this point, I've found that a good mentality for attacking the internals of the issue is this.

Roleplays are, in essence, people coming together to tell stories. No matter how much or how little you may interact with whatever ephemeral, in this case formless and not quite there main plotline, you are telling the story of your character. And they are, doubtlessly, the main character of their own story. It's similar to acting. You don't just become a cog in the machine of the play, you become the character you are cast as and are doing everything from their point of view, telling their side of the story through your words, actions, and emotions.

It's actually more liberating here, because despite interacting with others and following a general line of plot you have the freedom of tweaking the script in regards to your character. You're not locked into the role that only gets one line and is there in one scene, you are always able to really go into the meat of the character-- because you have complete creative control of what they do and who they are, so long as it meshes with this very forgiving setting.

They can fail, They can suffer, They can go through complete hell on earth, even if they aren't important to anyone else's plot. The "camera", so to speak, is always on them through your posts and narration, even if it's well away from whomever's been designated BumFuck McGee and the Chosen Three. It helps for them to forge connections and get involved in big stuff, sure, but you always need to remember that for every bit that they are a part of that story, that story is a part of their story. That's the story we're here to tell, to me. The roleplay comes about in how these individual threads weave together, how these stories interact, cross, and share with one another. That's where the magic happens, not in which way the whole rope goes but in how each thread tenses and slacks within.

Or something like that. Just write their tale, man. Don't look at me. As long as they have somebody to play off of I'm set.

@SevenStormStyle Why not just bring up your ideas in the OOC and see if people like them before implementing them in the IC? If I were creating an event that I felt would make any sort of significant impact to the RP, that's what I would do. If people like it, they can say so. If not, they can explain why. I'd like to think we're all friendly enough with each other to not just shoot each other's creations down.

Seven probs wouldn't do that for the same reason I need to stop doing that: because my ideas will cause people to get angry, and some of us don't handle confrontation very well. Just look at "Gren and his Fusion Core" or even read the book "Gren is a cyborg" to see how well those ideas went. And that's kinda the thing too; a lot of ideas have gotten shot down rather publicly, and while we're still together, there's no doubt that a lot of us have done stupid shit that has painted us in a negative fashion.

I can really only speak for myself considering that I have been the source of a lot of salt and bullshit that has gone on in this RP. From the very notion that Gren is a cyborg with a semblance, to his affiliations with the White Fang, and even things I want to have but don't quite got, such as additional upgrades and his plot to take over the team. On the flipside, how everyone talks about how shitty RWBY is in canon also kinda kills me mood to RP. I won't try to convince you that RWBY is good because that falls under the purview of your preference in entertainment. But I'm also the type of guy who would take a fragment of something and become inspired to expand on it. Stuff like "extremely humanoid robots/androids exist" and "Youths are freakishly talented with combat and engineering before highschool" and go nuts with it. Or when there isn't anything to explain how something can happen, but it does happen, than I'd make up a reason for it that has neither been supported or disproved.

But then I come here and see people talk shit about that when it actually becomes true in canon, and it makes me think that maybe I can't do what I want because people don't like that. Than it makes me think I made a bad character because there are so many people, or at least someone who's raising a big fuss about it, and that just kills any interest in not only my character, but in the RP as a whole. I'm digressing so I'll get to the crux of the issue: at some point the RWBY we wanted isn't the RWBY we got. I don't know what you guys expected but I'm going to guess that what we were given isn't really that interesting to you, and now you got a gift you don't know what to do with. Some of us handle it better than others, but it's gotten to the point where it's kinda hard to have fun.

<Snipped quote by Crimson Raven>

On this point, I've found that a good mentality for attacking the internals of the issue is this.

Roleplays are, in essence, people coming together to tell stories. No matter how much or how little you may interact with whatever ephemeral, in this case formless and not quite there main plotline, you are telling the story of your character. And they are, doubtlessly, the main character of their own story. It's similar to acting. You don't just become a cog in the machine of the play, you become the character you are cast as and are doing everything from their point of view, telling their side of the story through your words, actions, and emotions.

It's actually more liberating here, because despite interacting with others and following a general line of plot you have the freedom of tweaking the script in regards to your character. You're not locked into the role that only gets one line and is there in one scene, you are always able to really go into the meat of the character-- because you have complete creative control of what they do and who they are, so long as it meshes with this very forgiving setting.

They can fail, They can suffer, They can go through complete hell on earth, even if they aren't important to anyone else's plot. The "camera", so to speak, is always on them through your posts and narration, even if it's well away from whomever's been designated BumFuck McGee and the Chosen Three. It helps for them to forge connections and get involved in big stuff, sure, but you always need to remember that for every bit that they are a part of that story, that story is a part of their story. That's the story we're here to tell, to me. The roleplay comes about in how these individual threads weave together, how these stories interact, cross, and share with one another. That's where the magic happens, not in which way the whole rope goes but in how each thread tenses and slacks within.

Or something like that. Just write their tale, man. Don't look at me. As long as they have somebody to play off of I'm set.

I'd like to say I agree to this, and I do, but once more personal experience has made me think that this sort of thinking doesn't pan out in practice. Once more, Gren is my example. I'll admit I do want to load him up with all sorts of cool shit I think it's possible in RWBY, shit like jetpacks, giant guns, and badass robot armor. In my own opinion that's stuff I can see Gren wanting and eventually getting. But the problem comes from the fact that he does have to interact with others, and in a semi-competitive combat RP, there needs to be balance. When Lugu said that Gren is likely the "strongest" character in the RP, I was confused and worried. I won't lie; he's pretty badass in a fight. But ideally, so is everyone else. We're fucking hunters, not Jaune. Each of us ought to be able to not only hold our own but carry others too, either when necessary or when possible. In my mind, Gren isn't the "strongest" character because I don't care if he's the strongest or not. He's just exactly what I want him to be, which is basically an ork-sized gundam.

But now that he's the "strongest", I feel like I have this pressure to both maintain a high level of strength, but also a limit to what else I can do or add onto him because he's already "the strongest", even if he hasn't achieved or obtained everything I wanted for him. SO that, plus me pondering and asking about getting him more things, have tended to backfire on me and makes me wonder if Gren is more work than he's worth. In this world of super powered teenage warriors, giant shadowy monsters, and weapons with no place in logic, I just wanted to be a giant robot. But I can't. And that makes me sad.