I've been tossing the idea around for a while now of opening up a discord RP server but I thought I'd ask some pbp RPers what their take on it is, and whether or not it's a good idea to store character sheets/do applications on RPerguild - I couldn't find anything in the rules that said no. Just want to open up a conversation about it and see what people's experiences of this medium are.

Do you want your posts to be limited by discords relatively short message parameters?

Do you want your RP to be "free" level?

Do you want to personally host a discord channel and monitor the posts as they come in?

Do you want to give up the clean formatting and BBC code that the forum affords?

Do you want the mod team to be powerless to punish something that happened outside their jurisdiction?*

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you probably shouldn't host a discord RP. From what I've seen, most discord RPs tend to be very "impulse" post driven, which isn't my cup of tea. But if that's your sort of thing, I don't see why you shouldn't.

*_{You can remove people from your own server, but they will have gotten away free, as they can still hang out in the RPG discord or the forum.}

I've been tossing the idea around for a while now of opening up a discord RP server but I thought I'd ask some pbp RPers what their take on it is, and whether or not it's a good idea to store character sheets/do applications on RPerguild - I couldn't find anything in the rules that said no. Just want to open up a conversation about it and see what people's experiences of this medium are.

As someone who has done a hefty amount of Discord RP, it can and can not work for people. It works for my friends and I's weekly tabletop sessions, however, with Discord's limitations, you're ultimately better off using RPG unless you don't care for lengthy replies or fancy formatting.

Regarding the CS/application process idea, as long as the server has a connection to RPG, you're likely okay. Offsite stuff (especially servers without any true connection to the forum) tend to be looked down on by the moderators, but regardless, there have been people who've recruited for Discord RP here.

There is, in fact, a section dedicated to Discord roleplaying found on the Roleplayer Guild Discord called #in-character_roleplaying. The issue with it hardly being in use as it is, is because the majority of the audience on the server now go there to have interaction with the community outside of roleplaying. The option however, always remains, and it typically becomes active when the forum is experiencing downtime due to maintenance or outages.

If one wished to do so, they very much could assume the channel by and large and play to their heart's content, with the same sorts of protections afforded to the forum - meaning problem players can still be enforced against - all while having a foundation to base the roleplay topic off of. One could, should even, create a topic as normal and simply play as they will in the Discord's appropriate channel. As it is, the only issues with terms of quality or ability are really limited to the persons involved, not so much the chat service. While it is less in-depth as the forum for any number of reasons, it is still entirely possible to play anything from highly literate posting to near rapid fire single sentences.

I would offer, @Stitches, that one could store the characte sheets here and the main topic but host the roleplay solely on the official Discord. The only issue that tends to arise otherwise is, is that advertising other Discords is a taboo; players should be getting those in private if they plan to play solely off of the forum; it is generally an issue with advertising. The goal is to have the activity centered on the forum after all.

Thank you all for your feedback, it's been very interesting to hear from you guys!

From what I've seen, most discord RPs tend to be very "impulse" post driven, which isn't my cup of tea. But if that's your sort of thing, I don't see why you shouldn't.

I'm curious to know what you mean by "impulse" posts. One of the main reasons why I consider a discord RP server is because I just straight up don't have the time to write lengthy posts anymore, nor do I have the patience to sit and wait for weeks so other people can slot in reply-writing into their schedule. This isn't out of anger, but I do like to use RP as a distraction technique so not having response-ready RPs at my fingertips these days has been affecting my health.

It also appeared to me that most discord RPs seem fairly self-sufficient as 'sandbox' roleplays, and with a team of moderators instead of a GM and co-GMs the workload is more efficiently spread out.

Regarding the CS/application process idea, as long as the server has a connection to RPG, you're likely okay. Offsite stuff (especially servers without any true connection to the forum) tend to be looked down on by the moderators, but regardless, there have been people who've recruited for Discord RP here.

Yes, that's what I was thinking about...What would you mean by 'a connection to RPG'? If the CSes were kept on site would that be enough of a connection, or should I maintain and update an OOC thread as well? The way I see it, only players with accepted CSes would obtain the link to the server, meaning there still should be a trickle of potential players through the site and enough communication to keep things going?

If one wished to do so, they very much could assume the channel by and large and play to their heart's content, with the same sorts of protections afforded to the forum - meaning problem players can still be enforced against - all while having a foundation to base the roleplay topic off of. One could, should even, create a topic as normal and simply play as they will in the Discord's appropriate channel. As it is, the only issues with terms of quality or ability are really limited to the persons involved, not so much the chat service. While it is less in-depth as the forum for any number of reasons, it is still entirely possible to play anything from highly literate posting to near rapid fire single sentences.

Okay, so it looks like the general consensus is that you can't really run a discord RP server and advertise here. There needs to be a more cohesive link between the server and the guild, otherwise the mods will lock the thread. That's a shame but like Harbinger said, the focus should always be on the website and not drawn away onto different apps.

Okay, so it looks like the general consensus is that you can't really run a discord RP server and advertise here. There needs to be a more cohesive link between the server and the guild, otherwise the mods will lock the thread. That's a shame but like Harbinger said, the focus should always be on the website and not drawn away onto different apps.

More or less this. Advertising is generally frowned upon, to the extent that it would be breaking a rule. Put simply, you shouldn't recruit players here for something offsite without keeping an active thread. I know there was a Nation RP that did everything related to it on Discord and kept an updated thread by posting a summary of everything that happened every few years.

But yes, using RPG to recruit players without a true connection to the Guild isn't really allowed. Like explained, you need a cohesive link between RP and RPG.

I'm curious to know what you mean by "impulse" posts.

Posts with very little thought put into them. You log in, you see an opportunity to do something, you respond before it's too late, and hopefully you can do so again before your battle with the orcs gets buried by all the flirts in the bar and whatever the hell everyone else is doing on the pirate ship. You post quickly to do something in the story. There's no time to think. You are encouraged to respond, not do something interesting. You are posting on impulse.

For you, a discord RP sounds great. especially if you don't care about stuff like post length or quality. Myself, I like the writing more than the roleplaying. I like having some time to think about what my characters are going to do, and what sort of drama I can pull everyone into as their GM. I also like that I can balance some of the slower posters and faster posters because in not logging on for one day, they didn't miss out on an important event. Also, I find pure sandbox RPs infuriating and will always insist on working with everyone, co-gm or not, to do special things with the RP.

I prefer forum RPing, there's more variety for what sorts of RP's can be done.

I've had people try to tell me that Discord RPing is the same as forum RPing. Fucking charlatans.

I’ve done RPs on Instant Messenger (MSN, AOL, Skype, etc.) for nearly twenty years. They are a medium between Chatroom and Message Board that aren’t all that different. For me, the RP on Discord messenger can be no different than a well-written casual section post on RPG, though that entirely relies on you having the right partners. There is no difference in genre or style of RP between messenger and forum. Some messenger groups will prefer a touch-and-go style, others will look for something more well thought out. I've had all kinds of experiences through the medium. I prefer it far better than chatroom RPs that rely more on posting speed than cohesive content.

Thanks for the input guys, this is really interesting to hear - especially from the writers in this thread. I've decided to make the server but it's such an array of opinions on the topic that I still want to hear about it. I'm more on @Inkarnate's idea that it's all about the members, so I'm going to be pretty stingy on the application process. @BrokenPromise has an intriguing way of looking at it from a literary aspect, but would you say the character limit is too severe for a good quality post? Nothing would stop a player from sending multiple messages consecutively.

It is entirely dependent on the partners as @Inkarnate noted. I have experienced the same level of literacy and competency on Discord roleplays as I have on the forum or better in a few select cases. This is the exact reason brought up that one can simply write multiple paragraphs and post them back to back; nothing is lost. Unless of course the server is of the rapid fire "Free" roleplaying style, at which point one is getting exactly what they paid for, conceptually at least.

Speaking on that type of example, I am notorious for being verbose and wordy, even in chat service responses. Players in the past who wrote very minor responses, when the service was hosted on the forum itself and it had a fair amount more actual roleplaying taking place, would generally wait long enough for a response to be issued. Certain formalities evolved, such as ending on going posts with a dash to show they continued, and that the matter of length was never really an issue. That variety and disparity of posting talent never was problematic either, for if anything, observation indicated to me the more I invested, the more they did in return, and the phenomena existed with others too.

So to bring this back to the head of the matter, it is clear that which matters is not the service itself but the members involved. I simply do not buy into the notion that forum roleplaying is somehow superior inherently. What forum topics do afford by contrast is time; the sense of urgency is diminished because in a chat roleplay one stands to "lose their turn", so to speak. This too is faster to come as more members are involved. It takes a gentleman's agreement to ensure that people do not reply too much to the chat and that they actively make motions to acknowledge the actions and events of other players.

There is a trend here, I would note, and that trend would be the one that emphasizes the importance of choosing good members, not so much a "good" or even "bad" medium.

For reference, this is about the par of a discord messenger RP post from me:


It’s certainly less detailed than my average post on RPG, but I would say it fits the parameters of quality-over-speed. Hell, it’d probably work in the casual section on the forum as well.

Roleplay here if you enjoy writing at least a paragraph or two, character development, and some depth. Grammar and spelling are encouraged. Generally one paragraph (a few sentences) per post. See individual GM for RP specific standards

By purest minimum, the in-writing standards, that example post alone more than qualifies for the Casual section of the Roleplayer Guild, @Inkarnate. That is the kind of Discord roleplaying I have been speaking to as to why it is just as viable. If one has players at least that talented or more, it can be done.

@Stitches I would very much like to make a physical copy of a book I have on my computer. Given enough time, I could complete that task by copying the words off of my computer screen and onto a roll of toilet paper. But if I have access to a printer, wouldn't it be easier just to use that?

There's certainly nothing stopping players from writing well on discord. You don't magically dumb down your writing just by moving to a chat service, no more than writing on a forum enhances ones grammar and understanding of writing. Though it should also be noted that writing these types of messages don't come flying out of the fingers faster just because it's discord. A thousand words is a thousand words.

I suppose my real concern is that I don't really see any mechanical advantage to writing on discord. In high fantasy settings where the players are expected to drop a paragraph of world building narration every time their character looks at something, my posts easily surpass the two-thousand word mark. Discord's message limit is about that many letters, so I would need to break up those posts into many messages, which is a step I don't need to do on a forum. While I realize some people aren't a fan of it, I am also very much in love with collabs, but that's not really part of this discussion. However, the word count can get really high on those. I also like that I can turn words into clickable hyperlinks, and any pictures I do post can appear on the page at the size I want instead of as an extension.

I really think it's mostly what you want to do. I am unwilling to put up with the handicaps discord puts on me for an RP. The only real advantage I see is that you know when someone is online and typing (unless, like me, they type in their favorite word processor) But you mentioned that you wanted to write smaller posts, and don't strike me as the sort who nerds out over formatting. I'm unsure if your players will post faster, but it certainly sounds like discord won't hold you back.

i've never actually tried discord roleplay — the damn thing eats up my ram to no tomorrow, so using discord at all is entirely out of the question — and i'm quite new to forum roleplay, so i've not a lot of insight on these things. however, taking in mind the strengths and weaknesses of both mediums discussed in the thread, i shall take it upon my humble self to propose a third option. not that i've an ego or anything.
tumblr roleplay meets quite a lot of the 'requirements' you've mentioned, and it's where i hail from in my roleplay journey. i know, i know: tumblr, it's the devil! it's full of far left loonies and is scared of nipples! but, as far as roleplay goes, it's quite versatile as a medium. posts have no character limit, posting times can be as flexible as needed, the available coding seems to exceed discord's (from what i've read)... you can even have your in character, out of character and character sheets all on the same blog, organised by tags. the blogs are also fully customisable, so with a bit of html knowledge you can make a character sheet storage page. not to mention the roleplay resource blogs and countless roleplay pages out there already.
so, if you're alright with deviating from discord, i'd highly recommend it. advertising is easier, too, cause it's all on the same platform. am i blowing my own trumpet here? feel like i am.

i've never actually tried discord roleplay — the damn thing eats up my ram to no tomorrow, so using discord at all is entirely out of the question — and i'm quite new to forum roleplay, so i've not a lot of insight on these things. however, taking in mind the strengths and weaknesses of both mediums discussed in the thread, i shall take it upon my humble self to propose a third option. not that i've an ego or anything.
tumblr roleplay meets quite a lot of the 'requirements' you've mentioned, and it's where i hail from in my roleplay journey. i know, i know: tumblr, it's the devil! it's full of far left loonies and is scared of nipples! but, as far as roleplay goes, it's quite versatile as a medium. posts have no character limit, posting times can be as flexible as needed, the available coding seems to exceed discord's (from what i've read)... you can even have your in character, out of character and character sheets all on the same blog, organised by tags. the blogs are also fully customisable, so with a bit of html knowledge you can make a character sheet storage page. not to mention the roleplay resource blogs and countless roleplay pages out there already.
so, if you're alright with deviating from discord, i'd highly recommend it. advertising is easier, too, cause it's all on the same platform. am i blowing my own trumpet here? feel like i am.

The fact that you have been able to figure out the Tumblr RPing format earns you my respect. That shit never made sense to me.

<Snipped quote by arabxlla>

The fact that you have been able to figure out the Tumblr RPing format earns you my respect. That shit never made sense to me.

why, thank you! i suppose it came second nature to me; i had already been an avid user of tumblr for a while when i got into it. the aesthetics and functionality of it all just seemed to click.

I believe that one of the most useful elements of the Discord versus a forum topic in this age is that it adds the urgency and emphasis to post. I have spoken to this issue extensively in the past so I will not harp upon it as much as I perhaps should, but there exists a tremendous issue at this time where in the roleplaying community there is less an importance on the delivery of timely responses. Now I have heard no shortage of argument about people being busy is why - rest assured I do not like excuses either way - but one of the superior elements that Discord offers is that people tend to be active on it for more than just their roleplaying server.

Without them making themselves invisible, this allows the use of mentions they are likely to see, which should spur to them the need to get under way and not leave others waiting. Granted this is not always successful, I have found this to be more successful then the mentions used on the forum, as that requires actually already being present and online to see them, meaning they were being active regardless although potentially procrastinating.

Personally the topic of formatting will never get to me, a post is a post so far as I am concerned and the only critical elements needed are the ability to bold, italicize, or underline text. Books themselves are seldom any different, thus unless a roleplay requires that as part of their flair, a matter of how they do business, that is of little consequence. As far as character limit goes, copy and paste, then return of the system is more or less a minor inconvenience.

I would much rather more active members, more posts, and the capacity to engage in near instantaneous communication, in and out of character, over the alternatives. Forum roleplay is in relatively dire need of participants getting their acts together. As such, I will still engage in both.

I believe that one of the most useful elements of the Discord versus a forum topic in this age is that it adds the urgency and emphasis to post. I have spoken to this issue extensively in the past so I will not harp upon it as much as I perhaps should, but there exists a tremendous issue at this time where in the roleplaying community there is less an importance on the delivery of timely responses. Now I have heard no shortage of argument about people being busy is why - rest assured I do not like excuses either way - but one of the superior elements that Discord offers is that people tend to be active on it for more than just their roleplaying server.

Without them making themselves invisible, this allows the use of mentions they are likely to see, which should spur to them the need to get under way and not leave others waiting. Granted this is not always successful, I have found this to be more successful then the mentions used on the forum, as that requires actually already being present and online to see them, meaning they were being active regardless although potentially procrastinating.

Personally the topic of formatting will never get to me, a post is a post so far as I am concerned and the only critical elements needed are the ability to bold, italicize, or underline text. Books themselves are seldom any different, thus unless a roleplay requires that as part of their flair, a matter of how they do business, that is of little consequence. As far as character limit goes, copy and paste, then return of the system is more or less a minor inconvenience.

I would much rather more active members, more posts, and the capacity to engage in near instantaneous communication, in and out of character, over the alternatives. Forum roleplay is in relatively dire need of participants getting their acts together. As such, I will still engage in both.

I challenge the urgency point. I've been RPing on that medium for six years now. And virtually everyone I know has an 80-90% ghost rate. I do agree with its usefulness for ooc interaction. To me, the best is a hybrid. Discord for ooc, a forum for RP.