Prince

A Universal Guide

Wikidot has a simpler user-interface, loaded slightly faster when I tested it and admin access allowed me to freest and edit permissions as well as set site admins. The control over its navigation is also easier and it lacks the visual editor, which will push focus on content instead of the sit, which really is just a catalyst. Both Wikidot and wikia use wiki source code and have larger communities, but only Wikidot lets you mitigate some of that to selectively choose what is more beneficial.

Welcome! Welcome to De' Seil Carnival!

Tomorrow, I most-likely return to classwork and exercise. I will be available if this picks up in case Riddle or Cinderella are active to the degree we can begin something. :D

A Universal Guide

Jig, you ask the exact kind of questions I'm looking for. For your first question, I'll give you two answers that should provide more understanding. The wikidot functions two-fold: first, it will be the place that we create the prototype of the Guide before it is posted on the Guild; second, I could have picked another forum or even just used PM's or Skype to make the prototype, but I picked a wikia for its symbolic nature. A wiki is a site with tons of pages and posted information that any member (in this case, you do have to apply, but that is just a minor formality) can edit and add to. I want that to be the embodiment of this endeavor. This is not "Prince's Royal Guide to Roleplay" nor will it be the "Prince and Brovo Project, feat. Jig" - it is going to be a community project made by the community for the community, and that is the very essence of a wiki.

As to how the wiki will be structured, I intend on creating a 'portal' with an IRC, then a 'preface' page and then we go on through making page after page like chapters, adding on and editing in new content as we go over a new set of information and a new subgenre per chapter, then revise every former chapter as we see fit for the sake of consistency. However, and I stress this highly, even that system can be challenged and I will gladly let anyone take floor to either improve or present a better one.

Now, on to the second half of this.

As per the way I would want this designed, there would be a preface that functions as a) a guideline for the editors (us) to design the site and its foundation and b) an instruction manual for all those wishing to read the guide. This is where we would explain how it works (and how we want it to work), our mission statement as a whole, the fact its a community effort, etc. After that would be Chapter One, the core. For instance: Chapter One: What is Roleplay? That is all we do. Answer that question. But, how do we do it? I would say that we try to address and define the fundamental principles found within most forms of roleplay: plot, setting, characters, roleplay itself, roleplayers, moderation, mediums, etc. We explain what roleplay is and we look at several different models created by experts, such as Ron Edwards, basically just to understand the bigger aspects of it. We create a fool-proof definition and core understand that in and of itself doesn't shed too much light on roleplay, but it provides universal understand for the later chapters. Essentially, we would tell you what roleplay is, in a general sense, and the aspects that are needed for it, but we would do so in a way that did not apply to only text. For example, LARP'ing would have a different set of rules, but somewhere in there would be still a core element. Same for table tops. Same for nations. Same for all forms of roleplay.

Then, after we have the 'core definitions' set, we would design more. We would take these words we know and fabricate them in a formal sense to give them real definitions with a concrete level of understanding. Now, this might sound pointless, but here's where it goes on. Let's say we move on to chapter two. What would it be about? Well, I say that we change that up. Just like in a textbook, we should have "Units". Unit One: Chapter One: What is Roleplay? would lead into the Fundamentals of Roleplay which would lead into anything that any member would want to embellish on that would just apply to roleplay alone, but I'm sure that still doesn't make sense. It will as SOON as I bring forth the next Units.

Unit Two: Text-Based Roleplay. Unit Three: System-Based Roleplay. Unit Four: Other forms of roleplay like LARPING. Unit Two is obviously the big field of interest as the Guild is a forum and most of this is text-based. Here's the thing. It would ONLY and I do mean ONLY address text-based roleplay. System-Based roleplay would be meant for tabletops, RPG's, MMORPG's, whatever else you want. Essentially, you would not need to read all of Unit One to move to Unit Two. Why? Because, if you've picked up newer-age college-level textbooks, you realize that most of them don't have a chronology like that anymore. What we would do is at the beginning of each chapter simply state the suggested chapters to read from each unit to give a better understanding. All the information should be a) consistent b) integrated and c) flow smoothly. Why? Because as long as we build a core and we work off of it, every single chapter, unit and footnote should have trace elements that keep them on the same page. If we intelligently integrate the system so that a newbie wanting to learn about casual roleplay only needs to read two or three chapters and the preface, then he won't need to surf through 30 chapters to get his information. This would also allow us to create an end-of-text glossary where we can link the the words used to the chapter they were used in to fully understand the context. A word we might use in several subtypes of roleplay might have a different meaning in one kind, and why not design a system to clearly show that?

Each subtype would inevitably be its own chapter. We could even have two similar chapters in different units. Why? Character Sheets in System-based would be different than text-based. We could explain why we're using this system by looking at GNS theory by Ron Edwards which states the three core elements to roleplay are Gamism, Narrativism and Simulationism. If that's true, why not divide those elements up into units and address them as such? So many experts have done a lot of work for us and we can adapt it fairly easily, if we work together.

And, lastly, as for how I would put this up on the Guild would actually be miraculously simple. Make the beginning post with the introduction and preface, then link every single chapter with its own reply so that we can permalink the thread within itself for convenience sake. Once it's done, just request it be locked. This would leave only one person to edit it, and in my head that was me, but I don't really care who: if we had a Mod cooperate, they could do it for us.

I hope this covers all of your questions. Ask any more. Again, this is how I would personally see it done. I don't mind discussing other ways and I'm sure someone is going to dislike the method because it's a bit more work (even though I would probably end up doing a large part of the organizing) and that it's more complex than the simplistic method of putting one chapter after enough to be followed. That's fine. I have my reasons for wanting this system (I've been in college 3.5 years now and I've read plenty of textbooks, so I feel methods like this are superior in terms of usability and learning), but I do want people to give me input and ideas, now at the beginning and as we progress through design. I want this to be a community-based, collaborative effort with no real limit on people, although as of now I'm looking for the core group. The core, in my opinion, would be me, Aki, you (Jig), EvanCat (and his collaborators), Brovo if he hops aboard. Then there would be Rare and Vordak for their respective subtypes, as they requested. This is just the beginning.

A Universal Guide

My point exactly. If a new roleplayer has a dozen guides to look at, how much help is that? If they have one guide that a large sum of the community seems to support, then the decision is easy and everyone will be on the same page.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

Quality writing is nice, but no matter how good it is, someone's response is limited by how much is given for them to respond to.

Double-edged sword right there. You're addressing the medium by which we communicate interaction as if it was the determinate factor, and it's not. You're missing the real factor on what an individual has to reply to: content. What is dialogue? Often, they are several one-liners back and forth of characters just speaking. Yet, technically, they are sentences. In that scenario, that is adequate. You could say, "well, fine, but in conversation, you're limited to relpying with more conversation", and that's not true. If a character says something to upset or enrage another character, that character can react in a myriad of ways ranging from decking the speaker to bursting out in tears.

Interaction is the key aspect of roleplay, plain and simple. Thus, every post we make has to communicate using the same encoding/decoding/message/decoding/encoding/feedback setup as any other form of communication, including elements of noise, environment and medium. When you say quality, what do you mean? The literary technique and skill applied to a single sentence? Or, do you mean effectively encoding that message in a way that will limit noise and listener decoding issues? Both are applicable. Sure, you can give more content, more quantity to the message, but to what avail?

The real aspect to look at here is the message itself, the content. When encoding and designing the message, understanding how much information and how to structure that information to create the best possible feedback and illicit a response of similar caliber should be the goal. Quality and quantity are just aspects to that message and can vary from situation to situation. That would best promote proper communication and thus support the interaction within a roleplay, which is in fact its primary element.

A Universal Guide

I actually have plans for all of that, but I need more of a team before I go discussing structure and getting input. There is no point in designing a system no one wants.

A Universal Guide

http://rpguide.wikidot.com/

It's bare at the moment, but it is made. It is set so that only site members can edit pages and site members must be approved via applications. I believe it's simply signing up through Wikidot, then hitting the Join button. After becoming a member, you can edit any page unless it is restricted to only admin/mods. Additionally, any revisions can be reverted unless deleted by an admin/mod.

Essentially, this will be a collaborative effort just like any other wikia, but I will be selective as to whom I allow to assist as they need to be knowledgeable and trustworthy, as well as productive.

Onto the second topic, I have yet to flesh out structure in terms of how I want the guide to be built, but I have plenty of ideas. The reason for this is that I did not want to design a site that just needed expert opinions tossed in. I do truly want it to be a collaborative effort not only for the increase to comprehensive quality but also as a symbolic gesture to what roleplay is. That said, I will discuss what I did have in mind.

As I said originally, I want the site to somewhat be a textbook and referent for roleplayers. All textbooks have chapters and are designed so that information adds to itself and becomes more complex as it goes along. This pattern is similar for almost all textbooks be them for Physics of Appreciation of Arts. With that in mind, I want to set aside information as core 'fact' that all theories we discuss will refer to and we will fit all models to be comprehensive of, then I want to discuss opinions, models, theories and the different styles of roleplay within a subtype and how they might bridge over and connect to different ones of a different subtype, or how there might be a pattern of sorts.

As you can see if you take into account just how many subtypes there are and the variety of different styles, this is definitely not an endeavor I can accomplish alone. No one can, really. The first step to this guide should be to set the ground rules and state the mission of the guide. You see that in the preface of almost every major textbook. This will not only lay the foundation for us as a team, but it will help the reader understand how the guide will work. After that, I would go on to set definitions that we design and agree on to define roleplay in such a manner that they will apply to all branches and subtypes. I would go so far as to try and make them so all-encompassing that they could technically describe roleplay such as LARP, tabletops, virtual RPG's and text-based adventure style roleplay. For instance, when I took on the title of mentor, I taught roleplay as such:

Roleplay - (verb) the act of simulating the thoughts, behavior and actions of a character to interact with other characters and a setting

In this case, the setting included the environment, society, culmination of plot-based events, etc. I made such known by setting a definition for what a setting is. Obviously, roleplay can be used synonymously with setting, thus I had to go through and create several different possible definitions for each word and if I referenced a definition within a definition I'd make sure that word had a superscript for reference.

All of these words will need defined multiple times and we may have to go back and edit them as we encounter new information and methods of thought. That should be part of the process.

As the 'chapters' would progress, we'll get more advanced definitions, sometimes create a definition of a word that is only applicable to a subtype. This is where the expert opinions in the field will come from. And, when it comes to an opinion that every just agrees is wrong, we'll omit it. Even though it isn't relevant to this guide, if you all voted against my stance on Elitism and social stratification within roleplay, I would forfeit it and move on. We might make a note of it somewhere that it's not a universal opinion. But, the point would just go on. Some people might drop the project in such a case, and if so, too bad. You can't make an omelette without cracking a few eggs.

After that, we can discuss and create pages for topics such as Character Concepts vs Character Sheets, what a Character Sheet is and should be, etc. I see dozens and dozens of splendid topics in the Roleplay Discussion Forum that we could format to our guide style. And, on that note, we would have to keep that in mind. Even if we have a thousand people cooperating, this is going to be a guide, not a rulebook.

Welcome! Welcome to De' Seil Carnival!

You have no clue. I'm pretty sure one of those generations centered around the fact that the wars and disputes of mankind had depopulated the last bit of survivable land to such a degree that humanity was on the brink of extinction and the gene pool was getting dangerously limited. I meant, two GIANT wars after World War IV should leave next to nothing left.

Welcome! Welcome to De' Seil Carnival!

Not gonna lie, I feel like I was an old war vet telling those stories. lol

Welcome! Welcome to De' Seil Carnival!

Well, the phrase started out as "I lie to you not", then it became "I fuck you not" because I'm vulgar...

...then, a bunch of people were like, "well, technically that's not true" so I changed it to "I shit you not!" and it works.