Ether

Let's Discuss our Standards.

All players of an RP, upon participating, has an expectation of how the RP should go. Some expect activity, some expect deep collaborating between players, some wish for the ever-illusive coherent narrative. The GM, too, has his/her own plans, the grand vision of how the RP will play out, and the fun that the players will hopefully have by the end of it.

To that end, everyone has standards for posting IC. Roleplayer Guild's system divides it into three, and within each there are high/low implicit standards. The question in this thread is: What standards do you, as GMs, impose on your players, mentioned or not? Players, how do you feel about GM-imposed restrictions on paragraph length and other aspects of IC? What do you expect from other players?

Perhaps the viewpoints shared in this thread can help some people to achieve understanding on what are expected of players and GMs alike, and enhance the experience for everyone involved.

Why is Casual so much more popular than Free or Advanced?

I think it's simply because people see Advanced as too demanding, and Free as too low a standard.

Go through the Alphabet before someone posts a My Little Pony Picture

F

Deep Ground Online

<Snipped quote by Ether>

This is not an Accel World RP. This is an RP that we started quite some time ago and are now recently bringing back from hiatus. Although I will admit that the initial inspiration at that time was Accel World, it eventually evolved into its own story and world.

@TheWindel

After reading your opening post, it's similar enough to me. Either way, consider me interested.

EDIT: Found the old RP. Yeah, it's different alright. The OP is pretty misleading. It seemed like that 'die in game -> dying in real life' stunt you pulled killed the RP.

Deep Ground Online

Are you sure this is not an Accel World RP? At least credit it as an inspiration.

Katawa Shoujo RP (school for disabled students)

Just reread my post and it made me wonder if Suna's sudden departure felt too cold. Unless Keiko manages to somehow grab Suna's attention, I'll probably send Suna into the dojo. On this note, @ClocktowerEchos, is Kenshi part of the kendo club or something? It'd be a nice excuse for Suna to stumble into him.

Katawa Shoujo RP (school for disabled students)

Suna Kumoshita

While Suna was all smiles on the surface, he was more than slightly uncomfortable with himself, and the person in front of him. It was his notebook (his Maths notebook, to be precise), so him stowing it away with an innocent smile was, hopefully, not a terribly offensive gesture. If Keiko was just any meek girl he'd probably lack the heart to do what he did. Keiko's expression indicated that she caught on, and now Suna's fate all depended on whether Keiko was stubborn enough to forcibly (as in, physically) demand his notebook.

'No, no, no, that's definitely out of character. Don't give in, Suna!' Suna internally mumbled upon Keiko's pouting visage. She then made a gesture of writing; it was obvious what she meant. Suna did not intend to give up so easily, though. And really, he needs to go to the club he had interest in. He pointed to and tapped his small wristwatch, and made a small shake with his head. Wordlessly, Suna righted his bag and left Keiko, waving politely along the way.

Why did Suna stayed silent? Perhaps he felt that speaking would be 'unfair' based on his little sensibilities; to Keiko, though, it might seemed like adding insult to injury.

What's the attraction in Sandbox roleplays?

Most Sandbox roleplays are inevitably going too be character-driven, because there's little plot to speak of except the backstory, and one that spawns from the player character's own initiative. That said, the appeal of sandbox RPs can be summarized as:

• Exploration of the given setting.
• Interaction between different player characters.
• Character development, which is arguably one of the ultimate goals there is in a sandbox RP.

Being character-driven, it's terribly important for sandbox PCs to be more fleshed out. They generally have long backstories and thorough, deep personalities. While a story-driven fantasy RP will have you pondering which skillset is the best for your odds of being awesome, a character-driven cyberpunk RP will have you thinking more on what motivates your character, what caused them to think and see the world like they do, and (perhaps most excitingly) the various possibilities they can develop into; basically making your character 'fun' to interact with. This is the backbone of a sandbox RP, and the reason why such RPs filled with tragic broody loner characters die faster than you can say 'Fonz'.

Still, I found one aspect often neglected in sandbox RPs: A stopping point. Odd as it may seem, the maturation of your character's personality provides a degree of closure, but not enough to conclude the RP from a collaborative writing standpoint. 'Graduation' is the logical stopping point for sandbox school RPs, a conclusion most never saw. 'Start of the War' is the stopping point of an old fantasy military base sandbox RP I was part of in the oldguild (the fates of the characters left ambiguous).

When you look back through the various conversations, swordfights, and interactions that made your character way more than what they were when you first posted their character sheets, you know that the sandbox RP you participated in was worth it.

Question about the Feasibility of this Concept

Railroading in itself is not a wrong technique per se, what matters is the fact that your players didn't notice it. Any smartly executed 'railroaded' plot is indistinguishable from a dynamically evolving scenario, because the fact that you want the RP to go a certain direction stays within your head and your head only.

Having a goal and working to it is not a bad thing.

Katawa Shoujo RP (school for disabled students)

by the way...you should quit while Suna is ahead, @Ether

It will only get worse from here xP

@Rune_Alchemist

I'll take you up on that offer, then. Suna is playing it safe now.