Edit: in the low odds that you are reading this, parts of this are out of date.
Hello there! If you’re reading this for the first time, welcome to the roleplay! I've had this idea kicking around in my head for some time now. Normally in a roleplay, each person will roleplay a character (or more) and they will interact within the GM's story. My idea here is to have all the writers take turn writing the story. Each poster will take turns writing; in the end what will result is a (hopefully) cohesive and interesting story. All of the characters, setting and plot are made by all of the writers, each one building upon the work of the people who wrote before them. Here is a short example (obviously the posts would be longer in the actual story):
Poster A:
"Frank was walking down the street on his way to work. It was his last day on the job; he was proud of his 43 years at the Wonderful Wheel Company, but he was looking forward to retirement. He arrived at the old factory, same as ever, except he was surprised to see..."
Poster B:
"that it was decorated with banners! The old factory worker saw banners, balloons and homemade posters celebrating his last day and wishing him well. A hint of a smile showed on the man's face. But the biggest surprise was when he walked into the place..."
Poster C:
"a huge array of tires spelling out "BEST WISHES FRANK" right on the factory floor! What was previously a hint evolved into a full-on grin; the man never expected his coworkers to go through all this trouble. Honestly, he thought they didn't even like him. However..."
And so on. Again, this would be longer if we were actually writing. I'm not looking for big essays here; just two or three quality paragraphs per post. If you want to write longer, cool, but don’t monopolize the story. Ideally, this will have some advantages:
-If someone loses interest or gets busy with life, the whole story won't grind to a halt.
-Multiple authors can provide multiple perspectives, making the story more interesting.
New Information:
Based on feedback from the people in the interest check and my own brainstorming, here are some guidelines/rules for the story:
-Edit: at this point, the Discord for this story is used by us so much that I'm making it a requirement to join it to be a part of this. It just makes communication much easier for everyone. Upon being accepted, I'll send you a link for it.
-The popular consensus of the IC is for a fantasy setting, so that is what it shall be. I’m not going to plan every granular detail of this world because part of the fun is building a story with all of you, but the starting point will be a typical magical fantasy setting. Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. At the same time, your posts should be consistent with the setting. For example, the next post shouldn't be a robot popping in from the future to shoot the protagonist.
-Also, your posts should be consistent with what other people have written. If it has been established that the protagonist’s best friend has been his friend for 30 years, the next post shouldn’t be that person killing the protagonist. Plot twists can be done in an interesting way, of course, just use common sense. If it’s something big, please discuss it with the group first.
-No smut, extremely graphic torture, or gore please. A common-sense PG-13 rating is what I’m going for. If people have sex or something, fade to black. I’m not looking to write an episode of Teletubbies, just use common sense.
-No politics please. This isn’t even taking place on Earth, plus politics is dreary and based on my experience nobody is going to convince anyone else of their views anyway.
-This is an original story; keep people from the real world and pre-existing IP out of this please. George Washington shouldn’t save the day by riding in on a Transformer.
-No guns. This is by popular consensus.
-Writing will take place here on RP Guild. This is also by popular consensus.
-Please use proper spelling and grammar. I’m not the grammar police, but it makes writing look so much nicer.
-I'm not looking for big essays here; just two or three quality paragraphs per post. If you want to write longer, cool, but don’t monopolize the story.
-This story will be written by and contributed to by everyone who writes. That being said, please don’t monopolize it. For example: if the story is of a brave knight slaying a dragon and Poster 1 makes a post about the knight starting his journey, the next post shouldn’t be a huge thing involving the knight slaying the dragon, marrying the Princess and becoming king of the realm. As the GM, I will probably set the direction and thus build on the structure of the story more than others, but that is from the perspective of running the game, not running the story.
-Use common sense. I can’t think of every possible scenario here. And if you’re in doubt, please ask a question about it.
-Most importantly: have fun!
Posting Order:
We will decide on posting order by discussion (either on the OOC or on a Discord server that I make). I will write the first post, but after that it’s up to you guys. After the first post, the next writer will have 48 hours to make his post. The writer after that will have 48 hours from when the previous writer posted to make their post, and so on. Of course, you can post earlier than that.
“Application”:
Since we’re not making character sheets like in most roleplays, the application will simply be a writing sample. At least 2-3 good paragraphs displaying how you write. You can take it from a roleplay you are or were in, a personal story you are writing, or whatever else you can think of that makes sense in this context. Just keep it PG-13 like this story please. I would not be surprised if you all are better writers than I am; I just want to see that you are capable of writing well enough to contribute to the story. E.g. good spelling and grammar, writing that makes sense, etc. I’m not looking to be a control freak here. If you’ve read all of this post and want to join, please write the phrase “Electric Pokemon” somewhere in your post with the writing sample. (It doesn't have to be in the writing sample though :P)
Also, I would strongly recommend reading the IC. Not only will it help you understand the characters and story, it will also be fun! Plus it will let you get familiar with our writing styles.
Final Thoughts:
I’m going to make a Discord server that we can all talk in. This will help us get to know each other better and to more effectively collaborate on making a good story. When you are accepted to the story, I will send you a link to join. If you don’t have Discord, I suggest you get it. It’s free and easy to use. Also, please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts. If something seems faulty or unreasonable, we can discuss it. I’m not looking to be a dictator here, I just want to have fun writing a story using a reasonable framework.
I look forward to writing with you. Have fun!
LimeTime966,
rabidbacon,
xenon,
Izurich,
CloseEnough,
Xaltwind,
Vesnic,
Teyao,
BrokenPromise,
Dark Cloud