RP Threads, and why they Don't Work.

[Seasick]

Okay, before I begin, I want to say I love RPing games and Forums, etc etc.


BUT.

I don't think that RP Threads work well, and here's why:


Okay, for this we'll have ten people: Bob, Joe, Dan, Ben, Chuck, Jack, Kevin, Jonah, Tyrone, and Ethan.

Bob: Bob woke up in the old Diner, he looked at his palms. They were dry.

Tyrone: Tyrone trekked alongside the road, headed away from DC.

Bob: Bob walked out, smelling the air.

Dan: Dan leaned against a tree.

Joe: Joe was camped out in the Office building.

Ben: Ben rode in his RV.

Chuck: Chuck was on his boat.

Jonah: Jonah was sitting in the pilot's seat of a crashed plane.

Jack: Jack swam in the river

Kevin: Kevin climbed on top of a tree, to see over a hill.


First of all, Everyone's in a Different Location, then, There are multiple RPs going on with different people in the same Thread, which is constricted and confusing. Threads shouldn't be used for Three different RPs going on in the same Universe, Gear posts, Profiles, and OOC Posts. That should all be in Forums. There should be OOC Threads, or Forums. Profile Forums/Threads, Different Threads for Different RP's, so they're not all smushed into the same thread because they're in the same Universe.

I know everyone's not a website designer, but it's very easy. Just go to a Website. Set up a Forum. Give it a name. Set up Sections BOOM. I could do it, and I've never made a site before.

What say you?

[Theta-Sigma]

I've seen this done before, the style of forum that is. It's really nice and keeps everything organized, but I'll have to argue. Not every RP is like to one you explained.

[Precarious]

RP threads don't work unless everyone communicates OR they're at least on the same page. It's not only that, but most posters aren't consistent, so it comes down to people having to make things happen without Bob for 3 days while he's supposedly off doing laundry or something. Consistency is key, and they can be playful or serious, but the minute someone active disappears, it all goes to ☺☺☺☺. You can't really have a good RP with two or three people contributing regularly and 10 popping in from time to time to say they're tying their shoes or popping bubblegum and expect people to be able to respond to that.

I've never been much of a RP girl myself, while I do enjoy writing. It's personal preference I suppose. What most people in the RP communities I've seen over the years, do, is form somewhat of a bond amongst the characters, which in turn forms a human relationship as well. That can be a good thing.

[Ryan's number 1 fan]

Mhm, yeah I think that RP threads on here are a lot different to what you find on other sites, because here people use shorter posts without much detail. From what I remember anyway. Which really kills it.

I agree that everyone is always separated though, that also messes things up a bit.

[Invader]

Yeah, RPing here is a bit awkward. I try to make my RP posts long, because I need a certain amount of detail to feel satisfied that my post won't be misinterpreted (it doesn't help that I'm often a bit... verbose, either). I, for one, prefer writing to RPing, but that's mainly because most discussion in an RP is really concise, which gets the needed information across fairly quickly but it is also bad for the atmosphere. I mean, take this for example:

Buck slung his shotgun over his shoulder and rode away to stop the rustlers.

Buck solemnly donned his shotgun, an old double-barrel his grandfather had passed down to him. He could hear the thieves' shouts in the distance, and could just barely make out some human forms, scattered here and there over the huge tracts of land. He knew he probably wouldn't return alive, but he had to do his best to stop them. If not, his family would have no money. They'd starve. He looked back at his house one last time before riding away, as if to say goodbye.

See the difference? That's what every RP post should be like, nice and detailed.

[Codex]

See the difference? That's what every RP post should be like, nice and detailed.

That's why I stopped RPing here, because it went from the latter to the former. Detail is wonderful - short little lines make it really hard for people to move an RP on.

[_Pax_]

What say you?

I say, "why reinvent the wheel?"

Instead of setting up your own forum, go to Role-Play onLine. Anyone who registers can start a game, and get their own suborum. Which in turn, has up to a dozen sub-subforums.

Plus RPoL has lots of other tools, like a broad gallery of character portraits; easy handling of character sheets (including a GM switch to set them player-editable ... or not); in-post private messaging; easy font- and color-formatting tools.

And a die roller that is statistically more random than actual, physical, plastic dice (seriously, they ran a test with something like twenty billion samples) - which has a lot of system-specific presets.

Playing Shadowrun? The die roller can handle that. White Wolf? Covered.

^_^

[L33t B0uncer/R0sie]

From Experience, Short or Semi-Lit post RP's Last way longer and form a community way better than Fully lit RP's, not sure why.

And I personally have a diastase for super-lit RP's because most of the time, People just post garbage fillers to make the paragraphs seems longer, short posts are straight to the point... but there is a limit where I will actually go with One Liners.