[OOC] Divided We Stand

[SkeankySnack]

After some time, finally got the Kayla x Leon morning after post up Lost and Forgotten

Hope you all enjoy the awkwardness.

[BogeyDope]

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been around, a whole lot of things have been happening lately. lol I'm open for a collab with Carmen/Gabby if anyone wants to. ^_^

[LovelyComplex]

Working on collabs with a couple of people :3

HAVE NO FEAR. I'M STILL HERE.

[smarty0114]

Still here too! Life has just been hitting me hard right now! Doing my best to keep up with everything though :)

[LovelyComplex]

As we all know the holidays unfortunately cause chaos and roleplays become slow. I'm sick but do know I'm still here and maybe soon enough my collabs will get wrapped up but for now, take it easy family and enjoy the holidays

[LovelyComplex]

To my writers: I want us to discuss the health of the roleplay and what we should do from this point on.

Since our family is small, I want everyone involved. My life has been chaotic which has taken some of my inspiration away. I've tried to crank out other roleplays with friends to get out of this minor rut I'm in. That being said, this week I have had the back thought of perhaps it's nearing Divided We Stand's close time until we're all ready to revamp it.

I love this story. I love this world. It is literally my baby.

But I'm also immensely tired and at times, I do wish we had new blood to keep things fresh, new. But getting new blood for a roleplay this far in is difficult.

I'm truly open to suggestions but I don't think I'm the only one going through rough times. I waited after the holidays and now I think we should all discuss what we should do from here on out.

May it be putting the roleplay on the shelf or making an entire new concept, new rp, same world, I'm open to ideas. I just know we need to do something.

All of you mean so much to me and I'm thankful you've stuck around for this long.

I'll be back home around 7 PM Eastern Time so feel free to get back to this message when you have the time.

This is an open discussion.

Thanks,
Plex

[LovelyComplex]

To my writers: I want us to discuss the health of the roleplay and what we should do from this point on.

Since our family is small, I want everyone involved. My life has been chaotic which has taken some of my inspiration away. I've tried to crank out other roleplays with friends to get out of this minor rut I'm in. That being said, this week I have had the back thought of perhaps it's nearing Divided We Stand's close time until we're all ready to revamp it.

I love this story. I love this world. It is literally my baby.

But I'm also immensely tired and at times, I do wish we had new blood to keep things fresh, new. But getting new blood for a roleplay this far in is difficult.

I'm truly open to suggestions but I don't think I'm the only one going through rough times. I waited after the holidays and now I think we should all discuss what we should do from here on out.

May it be putting the roleplay on the shelf or making an entire new concept, new rp, same world, I'm open to ideas. I just know we need to do something.

All of you mean so much to me and I'm thankful you've stuck around for this long.

I'll be back home around 7 PM Eastern Time so feel free to get back to this message when you have the time.

This is an open discussion.

Thanks,
Plex

@lovely complex

@HushedWhispers@Lasrever@smarty0114@AbandonedIntel@BeastofDestiny@Viciousmarrow@Aewin@Legion02

I think I'll wait a week for responses. Whatever we do decide, I don't ever want to lose you as fellow writers and friends, even. You guys are an amazing group and I want to continue working with you for whatever reason. And I'm far too attached to my characters and this world to put it on a shelf forever. I'm definitely leaning toward reinventing a story closer to spring/summer time.

Note: By the end of next week, I will come to a decision! But I hope you all can put a say before hand :3
I'm the type of person who likes closure, so I will let you know of a decision rather than vanish and ignore the family.

You all deserve better than that.

[Wade Wilson]

To my writers: I want us to discuss the health of the roleplay and what we should do from this point on.

Since our family is small, I want everyone involved. My life has been chaotic which has taken some of my inspiration away. I've tried to crank out other roleplays with friends to get out of this minor rut I'm in. That being said, this week I have had the back thought of perhaps it's nearing Divided We Stand's close time until we're all ready to revamp it.

I love this story. I love this world. It is literally my baby.

But I'm also immensely tired and at times, I do wish we had new blood to keep things fresh, new. But getting new blood for a roleplay this far in is difficult.

I'm truly open to suggestions but I don't think I'm the only one going through rough times. I waited after the holidays and now I think we should all discuss what we should do from here on out.

May it be putting the roleplay on the shelf or making an entire new concept, new rp, same world, I'm open to ideas. I just know we need to do something.

All of you mean so much to me and I'm thankful you've stuck around for this long.

I'll be back home around 7 PM Eastern Time so feel free to get back to this message when you have the time.

This is an open discussion.

Thanks,
Plex

@lovely complex

Hm. I think maybe something along the lines of this: "reboot" the RP. Same universe, same location, same cast (can always bring in flesh blood and make secondary characters if it feels lackluster), but the story is rewound back to the start and gives us a chance to get back into the flow and spirit of things. That's just my two cents, anyway. I'll be willing to play Ash (once I've finished her lmao) no matter the choice.

Also yes, hello, I'm still here. Can't get rid of me that easily.

[LovelyComplex]

@Wade Wilson I don't think the rest of us want to reboot because we put far too much time into this to let it go to waste. Far too much character depth and we've all wanted the tournament day for awhile and still haven't gotten it xD

If this wasn't 11 pages in, it would be maybe easier to rewind time, but it is and I know that would just frustrate me lol

xD

I have no problem with recapping and what not, but I kinda want to reinvent it so alot of us gain inspo again without erasing everything we did so far

[Lasrever]

@Lovely Complex

Disclaimer: I can sound harsher than I mean to sometimes, and I think that might come through here, but I want you (and everyone else) to know that I genuinely do love the setting and characters, you guys are all great, and it's been really well put-together. Still, I think there are some things that you kind of need to consider whatever you may decide to do with the RP.

On the status of the RP

Personally, I don't really want to abandon the characters/world, but it does definitely need something to give it some kind of momentum again.

Whatever you choose to do, I'd say what it could do with is a bit more of a clear, overarching plot. Whatever that would be is up to you, but some kind of approaching conflict that the players would be aware of. While the conflict between the schools is all well and good, I feel like that's more of a part of the RP's setting than the plot of it, especially a lot of characters don't really have much reason to be involved in the fight between the two schools.

The issue is that it almost feels like we have a setting without anything to move it on, which means that the RP can potentially turn into a series of basically unconnected events. I wouldn't say it's gone quite to that level yet, but it has been approaching it. Which makes it very difficult to find inspiration/motivation for a post. Plus, speaking as a really anxious/shy person, not having an established reason for characters to really interact makes it difficult to approach people for collabs or whatever, although that's more personal nervousness than anything else.

There are a lot of positive things in this RP. The character development and interaction are great and the setting is genuinely interesting. But I don't think those things can carry an RP on their own without a plot to carry the characters forward. There needs to be something for everyone to work towards or figure out, some sort of payoff for all the development and everything, or it becomes difficult to find inspiration.

Because the setting and characters are so strong, I think there's a very good foundation to build a plot off of. But there does need to be something there, at least in my opinion, to fuel everything behind the RP.

As for how to do this? Well, I don't know. It depends how invested everyone is in keeping their characters, really. But the way I see it, there are a couple of options.

1. If you choose to keep the same setting & characters, and just move things on, I'd say either move to shortly before the beginning of the tournament and make some kind of plot clear there, or just move on to the next semester for a mostly fresh start.

2. If you want to reboot completely in the same universe, take some time to consider a progressing central narrative before doing so - something that would give the characters a reason to act.

It might also benefit from an actual Discord server rather than the messaging group, purely so that you can have different channels for different things.

Again, though, this is just my two cents. I'm not really a GM or anything like that, but from personal experience when I've seen RPs slow down like this it's because there's some kind of disconnect between the characters and the plot. Then again, this is quite possibly all nonsense, by the way, and feel free to tell me so. I'm not and never have been a GM of anything, so I probably have a slightly skewed view on everything.

[Aewin]

@lovely complex I love the detail that has gone into this RP, and I would be really sad to see it die out after all the effort you and everyone else has put into this show.

I would suggest maybe waiting. Schools have just started and people are getting back to work, so it might take some time for people to settle down back to writing? Or maybe we could open up the RP for more people, but I don't honestly know how you can bring more people in currently without making it feel forced.

I definitely don't want to see this die out, and if it means you're planning on a reboot then I'll be happy to follow along ^^

[LovelyComplex]

@Lasrever Funny thing is, I do have an overarching plot and the tournament was/is going to reveal a key plot point.
Ive been slowly revealing answers for the fire but the conflict of the school causes the importance of the fire to disappear.

The tournament is immensely important since in my opinion that's mid point.

Everything I've done is to lead it to season 2, I've told some people and they love it but at the same time, Legion thinks I might have made it too focused on plot?

If you'd like me to bring you up to speed I can.

I think I do want to go to the tournament since that's what everyone is looking forward to.

I would want everyone to figure out what their characters have been doing and how the fear fest went. I still want to wrap up my collabs...

I don't want to put those to waste

The tournament is a massive timeskip and that makes me worried because we all would need to discuss if our characters had interactions prior.

I could make a discord server. Our group is just tiny and I felt like it wouldn't be as active. But I can try.

So... do you think I should make a new thread/revamp? Or stay with what we got and just timeskip???

@Aewin yeah I understand.

Maybe I should "make a new rp" but in the sense it's simply a continuation. And the conflict and fire are smaller plot arcs, and I can introduce the bigger plot point that I've been leading the roleplay to???

So it's kinda like this is the first book and I am going to make the second book??

This could help with getting new blood too and it won't be focused on old plot points???

I kinda like that idea

And the rp could start on the tournament day and since it's a new rp, I can manipulate the roster and reiterate the rules???

[Legion02]

Okay so many of you know I absolutely LOVE this roleplay. It’s the one that I’ve helped working on for the longest now. I’ve had tones of fun with everyone here. So it truly pains me to say it but: DWS right now is dead. I say this because the activity has reached an all-time low. The last post was from more than a month ago. The last addition to the collab I’m is from more than 3 weeks. Again, I hate and feel sad to say it but DWS as we know it ended.

We could revive it but the death of DWS isn’t the issue. It’s the fact that everyone got their real life to take care of. Aewin and me are still in university and college and several other people are either looking for work or working. Which is also quite a drain on the creative spirit. I’m pretty sure, should we try to revive, and we’d just extend DWS’ life for maybe 2 weeks again.

That all being said, DWS could be revamped or recreated. With the same world and maybe even the same school and characters and what not. But not now and not in the near (2 months) future. I’d say wait at least until mid or end of spring (though I’d personally prefer start of summer)? In the end that’s a GM decision. But we’d definitely need a new thread so we can attract the new meat and make it accessible for them. I think this is a part of my opinion most could agree upon?

However, I do have another opinion that’s a bit more radical: make another RP (again, much later on) but one no longer revolving around Mayweather or Delphina but maybe two entirely new schools somewhere else. Or maybe not schools but something else entirely? But all in the same universe as DWS. This comes from my personal belief that we should never try to re-live something but rather create new experiences. But that’s just my opinion and again, I’m not 100% sure it would be a good idea.

[LovelyComplex]

@Legion02 I have been slowly bringing the story to outside the school, the big world. Ie. Gangs, the government involvement (this one is subtle but it is there - the tournament would have revealed that)

I want the 'revamp' to be more on the world outside of schools.

People could join as an adult.
As a teen.
As what we are now, young adult.

Something more about applying your powers and being super heroes/villains, with actual nemesises that their school experience created.

DISCORD CHANNEL - For the sake of us staying in communication

Legion, Viciousmarrow is at work but he said that waiting until summer would outright kill people's will for the story. He also said he probably wouldn't be able to write much until April cause of his classes, so i can't promise to be part of whatever.

But he does suggest not waiting too long to keep what we want alive. Going on too long of breaks won't do DWS any good, in his opinion.

[Lasrever]

@Lovely Complex I'd personally prefer to keep this thread because I'm kind of attached to it, but a new thread seems like the best idea if you're looking for new people to join, because you're right that it's always harder getting interest in a months-old thread.

You could always link this RP in the first post for anyone that wants to read it fully and just leave a summary of everything else, because I definitely agree that I don't want everything else before the tournament to be completely forgotten. As for character interactions, I'm not sure... I think that's something that might just end up needing to be discussed between people in PMs - but I understand the issue with all the potential development being missed.

I'm fine without being brought up to speed, though. From the sounds of it, things just slowed down as you were approaching the bulk of it, so that's probably just how things worked out. It's not a problem. I'm happy to just go with it, wherever that ends up!

[LovelyComplex]

@HushedWhispers@Lasrever@smarty0114@AbandonedIntel@BeastofDestiny@Viciousmarrow@Aewin@Legion02@Wade Wilson

So a lot of us are still attached to this rp, so we're going to keep going. After the current collabs are wrapped up we're going to timeskip to training day for the tournament which is more open ended for everyone to do what they want. This will require everyone to discuss development during the timeskip and how the Fear Fest went.

I do know Viciousmarrow won't be as active for awhile, so I'll probably write his characters when I deem necessary. We're a small batch of writers, but we're going to keep chugging along. Since I do know everyone was/is looking forward to the tournament. I don't want to close this down until we all at least get to experience that.

Let's keep fighting for this! We all love it soooo~

[smarty0114]

Guys I'm so sorry for being so absentee for so long. I adore this RP and everything about it, real life has just been kicking my ass and making writing more of a chore than a hobby. I'm not going to make any promises, since everytime I do it seems like more shit comes my way, but know that I'm trying my best to get back into the swing of things :) Ideally that won't take much longer! Again, so sorry for being such a flake!

[Silent Whispers]

Okay, so I am probably the one to mostly blame for this roleplay's sudden halt along with other things wrong with it. 2017 started off okay then took an immediate turn of events on me within days. I rather not get into personal details here because you'll be reading all day. Literally. I rarely had any time to write anything but I hope to be back soon enough.

But just know that it is definitely hard for me to get back into the swing of things and I am really trying to. I am, of course, still invested within the story and everything that you guys have put together but I really do think that some new recruits, some new blood is definitely needed. But we can keep this small with the people we have, too since it would be a lot to get someone caught up. But, it is kind of up to you guys, too. What do you guys think? Things do still need to be discovered within the roleplay, big event still need to happen and among other aspects of the roleplay, too.

If you guys have any questions, comments or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask me. :)

[BogeyDope]

Hey guys, I didn't know this thing was still going on without me. Sorry I wasn't around so often, but I'll tell you all why. When I ran the second Powerbound RP, I lost all motivation for it, and my morale (as well as morale with others) dropped significantly within a month of play. It was by then I discovered that play-by-post RPs just aren't for me, as they often take too long and you can lose motivation for them quickly (especially if you're in the live chat variety). I thought I'd stick by DWS, but since then I lost contact with a whole lot of its players and I eventually forgot about the whole thing. Since then my life has progressed onto new things, and I started pursuing other ideas.

I met up with a few old friends from the Create-A-Hero RP that I did private live-chat RPs with, and I had an idea to make it like Powerbound but of the live-chat variety, so I go back to RPGuild to go get the sales pitch, and I find that I have two notifications, from this thread, and I felt a twinge of guilt that I left good friends behind without even saying goodbye.

But now, I'm here to say goodbye, but this time I don't think I will return. It's not that the RP is bad by any means, nor is it because of you guys, far from it! You guys are some of the best writers, and the best GMs I've ever met. You guys made a great RP that has overshadowed any attempts I made and that's saying a lot. I'm happy to have called myself a player of this thing, but when I made a discovery that I preferred live-chat RP varieties, well... I decided to just call it quits.

I'm sorry to inform you guys of this, but, I'm leaving the RP for good this time. However, I'll be around in the Discord chat to talk to anyone and anybody about anything, and I'd love to keep in contact with all of you if I can. You guys were an amazing group, and you all treated me so well when I needed help for any reason. Thank you all so much for everything, I love you all. :)

- AbandonedIntel

[Silent Whispers]

Despite my recent silence, I am still here, everyone. I've lost my muse for a moment but a sudden burst of inspiration have brought it back. We've all been there, I am sure of it. But on top of that, I couldn't really concentrate since all of things happened within my personal life, too. But nevertheless, I am still here with everyone that is present. :)

I thank you all for being understanding and still here.