Ether

Men vs. Women Race to 1000

245

Character Development Threads, a suggestion.

@Billsomething Naturally.

Character Park (Needs More Participants)

Character Development Thread #1

Character Park
Join Status: Always Open

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Q&A

What is this?

Character Development Threads are a series of roleplays that mainly serve as a writing exercise for all sorts of writers of fiction. Originating from NaNoWriMo and thrived in TVTropes, these roleplays invite writers to pitch in characters from works they author, and have them interact with characters of other fellow writers.

Do I have to be a professional writer?

No, not at all! The threads are open for any type of character from any type of literary fiction. Whether you're just starting out or have ten published books makes no difference. However, for the mutual comfort of all participants, you are required to adhere a set of rules and standards. Don't worry, those aren't particularly hard to follow. Common Sense and Decency 2015™ should mostly cover your bases, but give them a read anyway.

Can I bring in fandom characters? Star Wars? Harry Potter?

No. Sorry about that. Only characters from an original work (as in, a thing you legit wrote) can participate. And no, you didn't write Harry Potter. OCs from fanfiction is also disallowed.

Okay, what are the rules?

If you have the time, the rules listed in the link above cover all your concerns already. However, to summarize:

• Write properly. Punctuation, grammar, syntax, nail them down. Nobody's perfect, but this roleplay is a writing exercise first and foremost, and you should seek to improve yourself as much as you can.
• Fancy formatting is a no go. You don't see those in a novel and you should think of yourself as writing for one as you post in this roleplay. You know what I mean: fancy colors, big post headers. Let your character's actions speak for themselves.
• Unless it's something you draw yourself, no images of your characters. A good writer doesn't take a fancy-looking image from the internet and say 'This is how my character looks'.
• Length of an IC post is a non-issue, but you folks with common sense should know how rude it is to reply to a thoughtful multi-paragraph post with a (often hard to reply to) one-liner. And this being a writing exercise becomes a moot point if you're not doing at least some writing.
• There are no limitations on what kind of character you can bring, but keep in mind:
  
  • Keep everything non-smut. Any NSFW interactions should be glossed over with a fade-to-black.
  • Do not bring in more characters than you, and your oh-so-busy real life, can handle writing for.
  • You are free to bring in a demigod a from high-fantasy work or a doctor from a medical drama novel, but the former should respect the latter's wish should he want his character to remain unharmed. We're not trying to prove whose character is the strongest. There are many roleplays that can host power-wanking fantasies, but this is not one of them.
  • Have some sort of plan for your characters. This is called Character Development threads for a reason.
  • When your character(s) doubles as a walking distraction (bearing some sort of unignorable characteristic), err on the side of caution and prepare to reply a lot. Do not disturb large parts of the thread. Do not alter the nature of the thread without majority consent.
  • No fourth-wall-breaking shenanigans (addressing the 'audience' or 'readers'). Characters normally capable of making the stunt will mysteriously have this characteristic vanish.
• No autohitting, no controlling other player's characters, no assuming how another character's power works. Keep OOC a civil place, and we're cool.
• In a situation where your character is involved with two or more other writers, give both time to reply. Don't leave out someone just because they're not online at the time.
• Any qualms, reasonable complaints, suggestions and deliberations are very much welcome in the OOC. A bit of discussion can go a long way.

What is your role as GM?

Advancing the time of day, the weather and the like. Also participating and weeding out jerks. Beyond that, nothing. This RP is a sandbox for you and me both to develop our characters, terminated only by inactivity or majority vote. Feel free to add new locations, plot hooks and the like as long as they didn't disturb the big picture.

Any other things to note?

It really helps if you include a location tag (where your character is at the time of the post) on the top of your posts, and (optionally) followed by the list of characters they're currently interacting with. Also, for extra bugging, mention the poster of the characters you're interacting with at the bottom of your post.

Example

[Park Entrance] (Alice, Bob, Charlie)

*Body of your post goes here*

@Ether

How do I join?

Feel free to post your characters in the character tab. A paragraph-long description will suffice, although more doesn't hurt. Your character shines in the IC, not in the character tab. Give the OOC a hello, then you're welcome to join in, no need to wait for my approval!

Map & Locations

Note: The upper-right corner is West, and the bottom-left corner is East. Forgot to add in a compass rose.

While I'll write short descriptions for each area, it will be barebones, and more specificity is up to you, the writer, to fill in as needed for the purpose of developing your characters. Maybe they encounter a plant unique to their world, maybe some cute critters.

Entrances
There are two (indicated by the doors in the map), each taking the appearance of a large arch entangled with colorful flowers. Every character will mysteriously appear from beyond the archs. The entrance area is well-illuminated, and the western entrance has a post office nearby.

Stroll/Picnic Area
For general fun times, this is the go-to area. There are food stalls and benches and open-air diners, expansive grass fields to play around in, typical sandbox and toys you'd found in a kid's park, and a nice canopy facing the beach. There's also an indoor pool across the clinic.

Flower Fields
Modeled after Netherland's flower cultivation gardens, brilliantly colored flowers envelop this area, with paths just big enough for people to pass by. A few greenhouses are also present to host the more delicate flowers.

Gardens
This area is one of the main attractions of the park. Rare, hard-to-breed plants, neatly-trimmed Bonsai trees, a grass labyrinth, cultivation area for edible plants, there's no shortage of plant-related things here. Also houses a gardening store.

Hotel
The hotel is the newest buidling around, opened just to accomodate the otherworlders who'd like to experience more than a day in the park. The tallest building around, sporting a style of architecture reminiscent of pre-modern European buildings.

Light Forest
Felt up for light trekking and exploration? This place is the perfect fit. Segregated into different types of plants for each corner, you will find no shortage of bamboos, pine trees and other tall plants. This artifically made forest has its trees separated fairly evenly, allowing sunlight to mostly seep through, unlike the dark forests outside the park.

Clinic
The park's emergency facilities are mostly located here. The doctor can heal most injuries.

Beach
A favorite amongst visitors, the beach has a coastline that spans almost the entire park. The nearer to the hotel, the rockier the beach becomes. The area of the beach directly adjacent to the hotel was off limits. Most visitors enjoy the fine sand beach near the Picnic area. Swimsuits, floatation rings, wetsuits and snorkeling equipment is available for rent. The ocean's waves tend to be gentle, although the seafloor was quite eerily empty save for a small coral and fish here and there.

Welcome to the first installment of Character Development Threads, the Character Park. Located in the hub between dimensions, this park was opened by a man full of mysteries to visitors from all sort of worlds. One side facing the ocean, and the other facing a suspiciously tall mountain range, many unusual and mostly harmless flora could be found contributing to the vivid greenery of this Asian-style park. At night, some animals with vicious eyes can be spotted, but worry not, they have never been reported attacking visitors. Those uncomfortable with the glares can enjoy a luxurious stay in a seaside hotel with a splendid view of the ocean sunset.

Admission is free, as is sightseeing. But there are strict rules against littering or damaging the park's meticulously-groomed plants. After all, taking care of such an unusual park costs a lot. That said, enjoy your visit!

Special Rule:
You're allowed to take control of the NPCs in form of park cleaners, food stand patrons, and other insignificant figures to help move things along. Don't let them overshadow your characters.

Character Development Threads, a suggestion.

@Billsomething No, no restriction at all on what sort of character you can bring. Just don't bring a fandom character and we're good.

On second thought, I might go straight into posting the OOC (Casual or Advanced). Prepare your characters (there will be no sheet, just brief descriptions).

Character Development Threads, a suggestion.

In a day or two I'll make another interest check in the Casual Roleplay section. There I'll post a working setting (a park, as many agreed) and a better pitch. Meanwhile, look forward to it.

Character Development Threads, a suggestion.

Alright, there seemed to be sufficient interest to have a thread going. I'll ask now, what setting should we go with first? Because the small amount of players, I propose a small setting centered around a specific structure (a hotel, a bar, a cantina, etc).

Character Development Threads, a suggestion.

Looks like the idea doesn't fly so well.

Katawa Shoujo RP (school for disabled students)

Where'd you all go? This can get really good if we play it right.

Useful Applications for Writing

It occured to me that I've been suggesting apps I don't really use.

When dealing with forum forms, I shamelessly use my trusted partner, Notepad++. Plaintext is best text, no argument. When I need decent spellchecking I chuck the entire thing to MS Word and let it do its magic. When I'm doing actual writing it's either FocusWriter (immersive writing a.k.a oh god did i just write down 5k words in an hour) or MS Word (proofreading, editing, anything else), using a file format that can be opened with both (.odt). Not really a fan of online text editors because the folder that contains most of my writing is backed up online already.

There are also applications/web apps I found immensely useful that's not a text editor. TheSage is an offline dictionary and thesaurus that would've been the best thing since sliced bread, if not for its donators-only update cycle. Seventh Sanctum is a random content generator where I have stolen countless names from. Lastly, Evernote, for when that flash of inspiration occurs when I'm not anywhere near a computer.

Character Development Threads, a suggestion.

I want to bring the Character Development Thread series of roleplay into RP Guild (not really bringing over, just thinking it would be nice if we can have one running here, too). In short, it's a roleplay in which you bring character from your work (something you legit wrote, not fanfiction) and have them follow a story designed by fellow participants or just interacting around in order to flesh them out or have fun in general.

Aimed at writers of fiction of any genre, there will be a set of minimum standards to maintain mutual comfort in posting, of course. Most of which has already been listed in the page I linked.

Anyone would be interested in doing this?