spiral origin

Tips and Advice for GMing/RPing

I do a lot of written GM'ed RPs that have just a single player, and often struggle with deciding what kind of a situation to leave the player in. Like if I have too much going on in the scene it feels a bit "railroaded", but if there's not much going on it just feels kind of empty with not much for the player to do. I generally try to end every post with a situation that is interesting and open-ended that allows the player to approach it in their own way, but it's a bit tough to ensure this for every post. So I wonder what your thoughts are on this matter and how one might effectively approach what I suppose could be called "scenario design" - but moreso on the micro scale (what to leave the player with on every turn) than the macro (overarching plot).

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

Slow Steamy S...tories :^)

[1x1 RPs] How much should a character do in a post?

I find myself unsure about how much my character should do in a single roleplay post (1x1 format). Should I do a small amount of stuff with greater detail or a larger amount of stuff with less detail? A balance?

Sometimes I find that if I do very little, it might not be enough to move the RP forward (and may also be a relatively shorter and/or less interesting post to respond to). But if I do a lot, it forces my partner to have to address and react to all the things I did, which can kind of mess with interactive flow, as well as turn into unintentionally controlling their character in that it may deny their ability to respond appropriately to one or more of my actions.

So how do I know how much my character should do and where a good "end point" to my post should be?

Naming an RP

@spiral origin I usually try to come up with something descriptive, often the more specific is the best way to go. It might be helpful to keep a specific genre in mind when figuring out a name. Or simply use a generator or a dictionary.

@Dark Cloud

My issue with something specific is that sometimes I'll want the RP's theme to stay open, so if I give it a specific name it feels limiting to the further development of the RP. For example if the RP starts out as people going on a fishing trip, and I name it "The Fishing Trip" or something, it makes it sound like the entire RP is going to be about the fishing trip and limit it to just that. When ideally I'd like it to be able to open up to much more than that afterwards and let it develop on its own. I guess this problem mainly pertains to RPs that don't have a specific theme, like open-world system/GM'd RPs, though it sometimes happens with normal RPs too where there are just some plot candies present but not a specific plot/theme. Using a generator sounds like a good way to get ideas, I will try that next time.

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

Wholesome Lecherous Adventure

Naming an RP

I run into this problem sometimes where I'm making a starter for an RP and I just have no idea what to name it. Since it hasn't even started it's hard to describe it in a meaningful way unless certain plot points and themes have been thoroughly discussed (which often isn't the case). I don't want to prescribe a name for it that is so specific it suggests the entirety of the RP is going to be somehow related to the name, but going too general makes the title feel arbitrary and disconnected. So I'm wondering how to best approach this dilemma to come up with suitable names for RPs.

Open World Minimalism: World in Mist

@Dark Cloud It's so incredibly cool to see like, a formal RP format incorporated with RTD. Before these games here I had only pretty much seen one-liner chaos haha. It's really developed into something new here, but with the same core mechanics, which is fascinating to see.

Mmm I might make another here, I'm just not the most experienced writer tbh, am much more accustomed to processing one-liner chaos. Though I've gotten better over the last year or so after doing more actual RPs! I'll see if I can come up with something...

And you can punch god in the dick if you help me contemplate whether there's more to life than theft :P
That game on bay12 is cool too, like a never-ending jump-in RTD with no particular GM, but yeah you pretty much have to GM in order to participate as a player there, which is a bit of a bummer if you just wanted to be a player ><

Open World Minimalism: World in Mist

<Snipped quote by spiral origin>

Ngl you actually started it, and you were the reason I and a couple others started RTDs. So it was all you.

@Dark Cloud

Yeah I was having a hard time finding RTDs anywhere besides bay12, and I really enjoyed them, so I tried to see if anyone else had heard of them or were interested in them. Really cool to see it spread!

Open World Minimalism: World in Mist

I remember she @'d you too, it was the one where we were all evil mages.

@Dark Cloud

o.O I don't recall that haha, sounds fun!

Open World Minimalism: World in Mist

@Dark Cloud Neat! I'll have to check that out. It's cool to see a lot of people beyond just bay12 enjoy the concept of RTDs as well.