RP's dying out ?!

[NanoFreakV2]

Although I've joined RPGuild 4 month's ago, I'm still pretty "green" compared to some other people here. Despite this and not having partaken in more than around 10 RP's I've been wondering. I have not been part of a single consistent RP. All of them (that aren't fresh and new) so far have died out or are dying out, and it's disappointing too cause those were good ones, and most of all, fun. I honestly wasn't expecting that when I first got "dragged into" this by a friend of mine.

Well enough of my, what some people might consider, ranting. I'd like to hear about your experience here. Am I just in plain bad luck that I've gotten into RP's destined to die or have you had similar experiences as well?

[RBYDark]

Ah, get used to it frankly. I joined the original guild in, what 2009? Been in dozens of rps - only seen one be completed, really, and it went on for 4+ years.

Really, use rping to hone your writing and befriend people and maybe see if any of them will be willing to stick with you for any personal projects (and vice versa of course) because if you only rp to see a story to its end, you're gonna end up bitter quick.

[The Nexerus]

Some roleplays keep going for years and years on end. Some reach a nice finishing point and stop. Some go for a few weeks or few months and then folks gradually lose interest. Some die relatively quickly, either out of lack of interest, disputes between roleplayers, or individual players running into real-life distractions.

No matter how much you loved a roleplay that either died or never even really made it off the ground, either you or someone else will come up with another idea that you love even more down the road. Best to just move on and continue seeking out new roleplays, rather than clinging to dead ones.

[Dinh AaronMk]

You're just unlucky.

Most people I imagine don't have the attention span or the fore-sight to plan for a long-term Role-playing commitment. And even if they do they may not be among company with the same sort of planning. When dealing with people, something will fall apart one way or another and there's no promised method to create a long-living RP.

I've tried to replicate the longevity success of Precipice of War several times. But each time I try it falls apart because of commitment failures on some end. Only PoW has lasted long, and that may be because those who are the core commanding members have been a part of it for years. We've all grown up around it and watched each other grow up because of it. And we have such long-term plans and have such deep roots with the RP I don't imagine it'll die.

Inevitably - we sometimes half joke - it'll evolve into an HBO mini-series. Once we clean it up.

[Vilageidiotx]

We've all grown up around it and watched each other grow up because of it.

@Dinh AaronMk

Hold the phone, I was twenty one when PoW started. And you were nineteen.

[Dinh AaronMk]

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Hold the phone, I was twenty one when PoW started. And you were nineteen.

@Vilageidiotx

It's growth enough. We've all come out of college in that time and [most of us] get lost in the sea of non-major relevant employment.

[NuttsnBolts]

Sadly real life comes in at the worse times and some people just don't commit to an RP 100% when school, work or family comes first.

The other factor is the work load in starting up an RP. There are people that are trying to make "The best RP ever" and before they know it they've over committed, have a group too large, appeal to too many ideas, or fail to for see what will happen in the story.

[Ellri]

A lot of it can be blamed on inexperienced / unskilled GMs. Its relatively easy to come up with a good RP concept. Its quite another to make it work long-term. Sometimes, a good RP needs to be run twice to pan out right.

In addition, RL often gets in the way for players. If the RP doesn't have mechanics in place for efficiently replacing characters belonging to those who drop for RL (or other) reasons, it will eventually die.

We're into the 5th month of iteration II of Coruscant Sacked: Aftermath, but the original dates back to before the guildfall. It took a long while to fix the errors between the iterations, but in the end it was worth it.

[NuttsnBolts]

We're into the 5th month of iteration II of Coruscant Sacked: Aftermath, but the original dates back to before the guildfall. It took a long while to fix the errors between the iterations, but in the end it was worth it.

@Ellri

If you don't mind, could I ask what errors occurred? And looking back, were they something that could have been avoided if you knew about them?

[Ellri]

No minding at all, @NuttsnBolts. Some could've been avoided, others were unexpected.

Being based on a prisoner / captor concept, the chief design flaw was lack of hope. The architect of the prison had designed it after reading and using the Evil Overlord list. Thus the security systems were well beyond what you'd find in even maximum-security prisons on Earth. In addition, even if they had escaped, we had no system in place for what characters could do then.

Other mistakes we made involved imprecise mechanics. Being a high-end large-group RP, we did not have mechanics in place to keep track of IC time. Not in any good or consistent fashion. The current iteration has 28 characters spread out across 17 different players, so managing IC time is mandatory.

One tip we have is this: never underestimate the value of a good pair of Co-GMs. The larger the RP, the more necessary. People will have problems in real life and that includes GMs. Having a couple of reliable Co-GMs means that at least one GM is available most days.

We've also found it valuable to be critical in the CS process. Not rushing things there eliminates the majority of problems later, be they godmodding/Overpowered characters, players out of their league or earwax incontinence. (ok, maybe not the last one)

Another issue we had was overcomplication. If something in the RP is so complex the GM(s) alone understand(s) it, then it probably doesn't belong there. A timestamp system needs to be simple and easy to understand. If the RP is based after a certain event, it might seem logical at first to use minutes/hours after event, but that stops making as much sense once you get into events on the following day. Most don't want to bother trying to figure out how many days after the event 432 hours and 19 minutes is.

If a captive player population has no hope at all of getting away, it will not encourage them to try escaping.

We think we deviated a bit above, but some of the mistakes weren't easily quantified into a single sentence.

[NuttsnBolts]

We think we deviated a bit above, but some of the mistakes weren't easily quantified into a single sentence.

@Ellri

Nah, it's all good. I can see some points where I have made, or seen those mistakes in the past with RPs I've been in. One point I do completely understand is players making unexpected choices or being in unexpected situations. It's a hard one as it requires a lot of planning and understanding in the direction you want to go but everything can be turned upside down when someone makes an innocent post that you didn't initially predict. It's worse when you look back and think, "Damn, should have seen that coming", but on the flip side those sort of twists are what makes this Roleplaying and simply not a linear storyline.

Your comment on Time is one that I COMPLETELY agree with. Even without thinking some people begin to advance the time and then you have the situation where two people meet and somehow one is still in morning yet the other is in the afternoon, and how does it take 10 hours to make a cup of tea or 20min to go around the world, find a relic, fight off an army, and return back to your original destination in time to hear the end of that conversation that was started when you left.

They're not necessarily game killers but if you break the immersion people will be startled and start questioning the quality of the RP they entered.

[Ellri]

Indeed. In our current aftermath iteration, we've got a problem with syncing up the two separate timelines, with one being about 30 hours ahead of the other. Its not easy to make time go faster in many settings.

[ArenaSnow]

I'm just lucky I'm in one that has so far lasted for a good couple of months and has so far remained with the living...

[NanoFreakV2]

Well it was interesting hearing from you all and your opinions. I do hope I will find that one long lasting RP before I give up on myself.

[NuttsnBolts]

Indeed. In our current aftermath iteration, we've got a problem with syncing up the two separate timelines, with one being about 30 hours ahead of the other. Its not easy to make time go faster in many settings.

@Ellri

Time changes with Gravity so you could use that if it's different planets, however I'm guessing that won't be the case. :\

Well it was interesting hearing from you all and your opinions. I do hope I will find that one long lasting RP before I give up on myself.

@NanoFreakV2

2 RPs on an Anime forum.(gm of 1)
3 RPs on a friends forum (gm of 1, Co-gm of 1)
Now for here...
- Super hero school
- Cyber Angel demon
- My Steam punk one
- Supernatural
- My Sci Fi small group one
- Pokemon medieval
- cyberpunk pirates
- My demonic fantasy
- Tokyo Ghoul
- Mechs*
- 1x1*

*: Current RPs

So out of all those the only one where GMs haven't left was the * ones and the Tokyo Ghoul (I left because 17 post in 3 hrs is too fast for me). The cyberpunk pirate one ended after a single chapter as the Gm lost time for it (great Gm, sad to see him have to give up)

The Pokemon gave me the shits. He left and said he doesn't have time for it, but a few days later started another RP, so in my books he's a bit of a tosser.

You'll find something eventually but the more you enter the more you become critical and you can begin to spot who's RPs will do well and who is just playing around with ideas.

[Fillet]

A lot of it can be blamed on inexperienced / unskilled GMs. Its relatively easy to come up with a good RP concept. Its quite another to make it work long-term.

@Ellri

That's the main problem I've run into in the games I've joined so far. It is greatly frustrating because I expect the GM (and usually one or two co-GMs) to be the most committed to the game, but they've been usually the first to bail after introductory posts. It is easy to come up with an interesting RP concept players would join, but there's a huge amount of work after the second IC GM-post that doesn't seem to be considered.

Honestly, it's not good enough to excuse a sudden disappearance on real-life as a GM: 99.9% of their reasons were blamed on school work or something that they would have known was coming up. Their contingency plans, namely their co-GMs, were incompetent, meaning they didn't take the reins as they should have until the GM returned or they ghosted away too. (I once had a game wherein the GM's internet access had been cut off, but the game had three co-GMs - THREE - and not one of them initiated anything to move the beginning plot along; in the sporadic times the GM could pop back, they didn't quickly authorise or prod their co-GMs to continue the game either).

That said, thanks for sharing your GM experience, @Ellri. It might be a good idea to start a thread for GM tips: what they've come across, unforeseen flaws and what worked.

[Ellri]

Threads with GM tips pop up every now and then. While many people here aren't ready for GMing, there is a decent number of those who have passed the threshold of readiness.

another thing that could be interesting to have made is a "Am I ready to GM?" test. one that would provide the sort of example problems like sudden RL work and such. Quite a lot of the ones who do start RPs could become great GMs, but they need guidance and to know some of the possible realities. And most of all, they need persistence. Just because an RP doesn't work the first time, doesn't mean it won't work the second time.