When Does It Stop Being A "RP Idea"?

[Yam I Am]

Now, this is a discussion i've had with a couple of different people over the years, and it all came to when I really got into this with a few friends of mine this morning. I've had a whole-ass workday to mull it over, but I suppose i'm also the type to really get second, third, and sixteenth opinions on things.

When do you draw the line and say, "Yeah, this isn't an idea for an RP, this is an idea for a novel/comic/game."?

[Jeep Wrangler]

Now, this is a discussion i've had with a couple of different people over the years, and it all came to when I really got into this with a few friends of mine this morning. I've had a whole-ass workday to mull it over, but I suppose i'm also the type to really get second, third, and sixteenth opinions on things.

When do you draw the line and say, "Yeah, this isn't an idea for an RP, this is an idea for a novel/comic/game."?

@Yam I Am

Probably when it's not interactive anymore? I've sadly turned things into that before and it becomes quite clear when no one is having any fun except the ones peddling the ideas

[Meliant de Lys]

When it stops implying other people. Role-playing is a social activity, that is, involves 2 or more people. For this to happen there must be some degree of vagueness where both may contribute to it. Therefore, the main idea or pitch the first person had will invariably mutate with the input from seconds. The one person that had the RP idea does no longer have full editorial control over where the roleplay goes.

I am reminded of a poster in the forum of the infamous hacker known as 4chan. This gentleman had a very elaborate map he liked to show around, and also spoke lengthily of his plans about his setting. It all begged the question: when do the players come in? How do you turn this into a role-playing game? The poster then admitted that it was never the plan; this was to be a book. So I suppose that until the idea becomes too elaborate for other people to have casual input. It stops being a role-playing idea when there's no common language. A wiser man than I wrote about this. I'll link him here once I can. Edit: monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2021/…

Of course, in truth a novel, book or comic will have more than one person working on it on an official capacity. I imagine here the difference is a certain asymmetry between them, while a group of roleplayers is much more symmetrical.

[Yam I Am]

Probably when it's not interactive anymore? I've sadly turned things into that before and it becomes quite clear when no one is having any fun except the ones peddling the ideas

@LetMeDoStuff

Makes sense, but I suppose it also begs a different question as well:

When do you draw the line on it not being interactive? How much interaction is necessary before it's not really an RP? I know that some GMs have vastly different styles, with some having a very set route on where they want to direct the story. How would that really draw the line?

[Jeep Wrangler]

<Snipped quote by LetMeDoStuff>

Makes sense, but I suppose it also begs a different question as well:

When do you draw the line on it not being interactive? How much interaction is necessary before it's not really an RP? I know that some GMs have vastly different styles, with some having a very set route on where they want to direct the story. How would that really draw the line?

@Yam I Am

That honestly depends on what the RP beckons. It's a bit of a non-answer but depending on the genre, atmosphere of the group and expectations of roleplaying liberty that goalpost can be as large or small as possible

[BrokenPromise]

Well, "games" are interactive. So I hardly think something could become a game by becoming less interactive.

I think when people say "Yeah, this isn't an idea for an RP, this is an idea for a (insert chosen media here)," what they are actually saying is that the idea is too cool/good/sensational to be made into a crummy ol' RP, and you could instead use it to make big bucks. The problem is that there's an uncomfortable truth that separates the Hollywood blockbusters, the triple A game titles, and the best selling novels from anything you're going to write on this forum:

Ideas are only worth the ambition you pour into them.

Wanna turn an idea into an RP? Pretty easy. Just put up an interest check, post weekly, and you might be blessed with an RP that lasts for years. It might even have the word count of a novel or two by the time you're done. I think my danganronpa RP had a word count long enough for 3-4 novels.

Could I turn it into a novel series? Hell no. The first hurdle is that it's fan fiction and wouldn't be legal anyway. If we ignore that, I wrote it with at least 15 other people. If I wrote 2k words a day, I might be finished in a year. But we're being very generous if we assume I'm able to keep that pace or that it's the final version. chances are it will need extensive editing. I'm not just talking typos, im talking huge things like entire conversations vanishing because they add nothing to the plot, and different scenes springing up in their place. I'm talking about finding inconsistencies, the type of stuff that would bother the most critical person in your writing circle. Because you know what? They have nothing on what a reader who pays for your work will expect. And after you've sunk all that time and money into editing and finally think it's perfect, you'll have to face wave after wave of rejection from publishers who just don't think it's good enough yet, or maybe you self publish and take on the nightmarish task of trying to market your book so that people will actually read it.

And books are easy mode. Just imagine the effort it takes to make movies/games/tv shows. Have you seen the credits to those things? That's not something a small group of people can just do.

So the short version is this: there is no idea that wouldn't work for RP. It's the level of ambition you wish to devote to it that decides if the effort is too monumental for it to be considered an RP anymore.

[Kassarock]

I don't think you can necessarily use the the presence/lack of interaction between multiple writers as being the delineating point between roleplays and novels, after all, not all novels are written by individual authors. When considered in this context, what's the difference between a 1x1 RP and a novel written by two co-authors?

I think it might have something more to do with intent, specifically how the resultant work is intended to be consumed. Generally roleplays are intended to be consumed in the process of their production, whilst novels are consumed in the wake of it. But that's only a half finished thought, I'm sure someone can find examples with which to disagree with me.

[Foster]

<Snipped quote by Yam I Am>

Probably when it's not interactive anymore? I've sadly turned things into that before and it becomes quite clear when no one is having any fun except the ones peddling the ideas

@LetMeDoStuff

I'd agree with this, that when it starts getting railroaded so hard the RP becomes more of a mildly interactive novel written on a George RR Martin timescale where the other players are essentially just providing writing-prompts and plot-pitches.

Ofc, when that happens all it takes is one Henderson to pull it off the beaten track to keep things interesting.

Although I found out the hard way that a savvy GM's counter to a Henderson is to retcon them into an NPC and then send them packing of to an early grave before they do any damage to the timeline... Essentially TVA/Loki style.
-Which is especially jarring in a nation-RP and the GM just retconned an entire continent after 2 decades. Followed by 14 others... It was easier just to retcon the person truncating their entire world to just themselves and their close friends from the franchise.