Darkraven

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

Very well. The crowd has spoken. I will drop the 2 Category model and embrace the 'Minimum Standard Model' instead. I have some reservations though, but we'll try it out and see what happens.

I might post the real interest check soon in both the Casual and Advance section within a few days.

In the meantime, I need input on how the RP should be formatted. Basically, we're going to go with the model that the RPers get to act, but cannot decide any results. But there's more to this than that. Results of any action, by the way, will be based on the intelligence and practicality of the decisions and actions versus the aliens, with maybe some leeway given whenever there's potential to further the story and the RP along. Are you guys okay with that? Other than that...

Back to how the RP should be formatted... I know that having an order of posting will kill an RP immediately as all it takes is for one guy to suddenly disappear for things to slow down, so what we'll get is simply free-form orderless posting with these rules:

- Always wait for RPers you are interacting with to post unless informed by said RPers to go ahead (due to certain reasons such as real life)

- In the event of the sudden disappearance of an RPer, the rest of the present RPers will get to post 2-3 more times before having to wait.

- An RPer who has disappeared without informing the GM or Co-GM for a week will be 'put in stasis' with his character/s converted to NPC until s/he returns. The character/s will not be protected from whatever might happen. If the RPer is still gone after 2 weeks total, s/he will be dropped from the RP permanently with no chance of rejoining again.

But other than posting order, I need you guys to check out the way things will pan out on the battlefield. I'm thinking of this:

RPers + GM/Co-GM Posts (Any number will do, as long as there's an impact on the battlefield. GM/Co-GM will control all NPCs)

Alien Activity (By the GM/Co-GM, which can be anything from a door slamming in the distance to a squad of Sectoids opening fire on the PCs with Chrysallids coming up behind. NPCs will still be moving around, reacting and stuff.)

Random Events (Shit happens, such as a character's gun jamming, an NPC freaking out and running/friendly firing/freezing up or an explosion, but these will be things that your character could respond to(unless you don't want him to))

Do note that there's no fixed order of play, but it'd basically be a chain of RPers posting, then things happen before RPers react, things happen again- so on and so forth.

***

And one last thing. RP disputes.

Whenever there's a dispute, I have an idea on how to go about settling things. Instead of asking everyone to shut up and suck it up with no hope of the dispute ever being resolved ever, I prefer to hash things out in OOC instead. All parties will be required to be civil. It will basically be an open court, with both sides stating their case. Assuming that everyone's reasonable, compromises will be made. Everyone, including neutral parties, will get a say in things, but must be civil and logical/reasonable for their voice to be heard.

I've had horrible experiences with GMs who choose to suppress things and deliver decisions that will either benefit only one party or no one at all (causing the RP to fall apart). I've had particularly terrible experiences with 'mock courts' that will only ostracise and single out newbies or one particular RPers. I hate politics. So there you go. What do you guys think?

However, itty bitty minor things can be settled in PM. In fact, if the parties so chooses, they can settle it in PM as long as nothing serious happens and the job gets done.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

lol Derpestein :D I'm sorry, but you derped there :D By a good standard of English language I meant the technical writing itself, as in the grammar, tenses and such. Feel free to write about characters speaking in a different language all you want. But I'm not expecting someone to come up with an entire post in Japanese or Russian, so yeah :D

As for the policies I came up with being segregationist... Do you have any ideas on how to make it less so? Because I tried my best not to make it such that one group is marginalised. As for some policies being a bit too strict. I guess what I can do is to insert the key words 'general guidelines', meaning that exceptions can easily be made.

Another way is not to have different expectations for each type of players at all, and instead create one single set of rules for all players, which I'm not sure will work out because it may become too relaxed for some advance players and too harsh for some casual players.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

Oh sorry that I haven't been replying. Yesterday was my real first day not working during the holidays. I was either half-conscious or relaxing/reccing. Anyway, I've spent some time working on the RP. Here's what I've been mulling on.

First thing's first, what I'm going to do is to offer a choice of 3 CS templates. The first would be the hardcore UN sign-up sheet, the second a simplified OOC CS, and the third would be completely freeform. The last option lets you write your CS however way you want it. In all cases, I'm going to make the selection process a little tough, because one mistake I noticed that had been made by plenty o' GMs is that they'd just open the floodgates and let anyone through. Here's the simplified CS:

Simplfied Template

Simplified Template

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Appearance/Description:

Personality:

Biography:

Service Record:

Weapons: (That your character's parent service deigns to provide you with)

Equipment: (That your character's parent service deigns to provide you with)

Furthermore, I've been working on how I should deal with having a mix of both casual and advance players. Here's what I got:

Casual
- Simplified or free-form CS encouraged.
- Occasional lapses in the language allowed.
- Relaxed standard of storytelling.
- Allowed to have up to four characters.
- General guideline for length of post would be one quality paragraph per character minimum. More would be welcome.

Advanced
- Either the use of the detailed or simplified CS encouraged.
- Strict standard of English with little to no mistakes allowed.
- Must have high standard of storytelling, character development, etc.
- Allowed to have one character only; two if the RPer can handle it.
- General guideline for length of post would be two quality paragraphs per character minimum. More would be welcome.

Furthermore, players may jump categories as long as they tell me that they're doing it. For example, casual RPers may want to try their hand at writing Advance-like while Advance RPers might need to relax during times of real life problems or stress.

What do you guys think?

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

It'd take some time haha because I'm going to do it right

Surviving: The End (character-centric; modern zombie survival)

Hi Azseth, have you seen the little present I left you in the Google doc?

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

I'll see what I can do. I'd have plenty of time soon, because this is my last week of work in my temporary job.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

No problem guys. This is where the casual elements I talk about comes in. Taking a page (or hundreds) from Ernest Hemmingway, indeed, quality matters tye most. I have no quarrels with having a minimum of like two paragraphs as long as it's beefed up with all the goodness that exists in writing, like character interaction, development, a good show of the setting, the emotions. Or some powerful scene that only the lack of words can imply.

What I can do is that I can make damn sure that there are no unreasonable rules and attitude that would impede such writing and some of the advantages offered by the casual experience.

Edit: Also, our discussion of this has lead me to a crazy idea- the RP could become one of the first, if the first Casual-Advance RP.

I could post an interest check in both the casual and advance section. Casual RPers and Advance RPers could then roleplay together in IC. They will abide by the same rules, but expectations will differ.

Since neither types of RPers are better than the other obviously, I'll tailor the expectations for each category accordingly.

I need input for this idea though, because this is the first time I've ever thought about it.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

This RP interest check is here, by the way, because it is more of an open discussion on how it should work. It's also an in-depth look at the developmental process of the RP. This is not even the final interest check.

That said, Derpestein, I'm willing to put it here because I have no preconceptions on how RPs of all categories work. If you can prove that this RP will work better as a casual RP rather than a mix of high casual and advance, I might just give your suggestion a shot. It is an open discussion after all.

What that guy said about advance RPs is right. Everything he said. We don't flaunt words. We put them to good use. We put them to good use, so if a post is long, it's because it needs to be long. If there's an advance roleplay who's just spamming words in my RP, I think everyone would likely talk to him about it.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

Aw... Well, thanks for the shower of support anyway. Maybe one day you'd become an advance roleplayer?

In the meantime, I'll just keep working on this RP. Pace will slow down a bit though, because I'm working alot these days.

XCOM Roleplay - An Open Discussion on How It Should Work

Thing is, my RP encourages a fair bit of research on your part in order to create a good character. This RP is destined to be advanced, so...