We've recently blown through several roleplaying scenarios that had quite a bit of potential but never really took off. This might have been because rules and objectives in the scenarios weren't clearly defined or people just lost interest because they were never enthusiastic about the subject. So, to counter the second of these possible problems, I'll formulate several RPs and put it up to a vote. I'll manage the RPs myself (with some help from some others if they would like) with varying degrees of strictness and monitoring depending on the choice. I've written some very brief summaries below (these are not the names of the actual RPs).
Option 1:
System RP.
Spoiler:
Similar to Tau Leonis and Lambda Leonis, the characters will be in a single, semi-secluded system in neutral space with its own small government. Choose your own race, money, amount of power, profession, etc. This RP would have very little moderation, only to prevent godmodding and blatant OPness, and the occasional event to keep it from slowing down.
Option 2:
Empire Parallel.
Spoiler:
This RP is one that hasn't really been attempted before. Fen recently started a new empire-style RP, and perhaps we can make an individual character RP that works alongside and is affected by events in the empire RP. Not really sure how this would work, but we can give it a whirl if people want it.
Option 3:
Mech RP.
Spoiler:
This would be a reboot of Error's Periphery that could go one of two ways. The first is playing exclusively by Battletech rules, with flexibility in mech design. Masters would make sure that a mech isn't over or under powered, organize and decide the outcome of battles, and give objectives to players if applicable. The second is anarchy, managers would only serve to prevent godmodding and reinforce the usual RP rules.
Option 4:
Mercenaries.
Spoiler:
In this RP, each character would be a a mercenary aboard an assault boat, and the GMs provide objectives and setting. This option would include multiple planets and scenarios.
Option 5:
Cryo RP.
Spoiler:
Another shot at this one, the players wake up from cryogenic storage to find themselves on a desolate, forbidding landscape. People WILL die. The managers would act as the opposition. Mutants, tripping over a rock and stumbling into a pit of molten lead, buildings collapsing, etc. Just to keep it interesting.
Option 6:
Pandemic.
Spoiler:
In this RP, a disease has spread throughout the Galaxy that transforms sentient beings into ferocious, crazed, zombie-like versions of themselves (typical space zombie type thing, eg. the Flood or Borg, those things from Firefly). A vaccine was administered, but only to a select few. You are that few. Your mission is to fight the pandemic, find a way to stop it before it entirely consumes the Galaxy. Fun for people that like to make extraordinary characters, as those that are charged with the preservation of the galaxy have to be special.
Option 7:
Gods RP.
Spoiler:
Each member plays as a god that presides over a nation on a world. Each has a unique specialty, an aspect of the world, the nation is affected by the god's specialty. Advancement of the civilization and use of god powers would be paced by numbers of pages. If a nation is destroyed, so is the god.
Note: If anyone has any suggestions, put it in the comments and I'll add it.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 1:59 am
by ACH0225
I've given Fen my top seecrit one, so you can ask him.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 2:20 am
by Ivan2006
I won´t vote, as I propably won´t join...
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 9:32 am
by Prototype
Considering cryo died twice...
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 2:26 pm
by Archduke Daynel, PhD
I didn't like the system RPs, never really got into them.
A mercenary RP would be pretty awesome tho.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 2:46 pm
by Error
Daynel wrote:I didn't like the system RPs, never really got into them.
A mercenary RP would be pretty awesome tho.
This.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:28 pm
by ACH0225
Info dump based on PMs to Fenway. These are actually just my PMs copied.
Each member of the forum who participates is a god in a world. They each have their own populations of whatever species they want to look after. Each God has a 'specialty', but is mostly just an all-around god who rules over its people. We could use a world map(I thought the map of Kerbin from KSP was nice), and have territory displayed on there. There could reasonably be wars, but Gods couldn't fight directly because they would probably destroy the universe or something, meaning their nations are the best options. If a nation is completely destroyed, their God is destroyed as well, as their nation and God are bound together on a fundamental level. This is how you 'die'. Each nation could start in the Classical age(a la Age of Empires), and everyone could advance, say, every 15 pages of the RP. This would encourage posting, causing it to last a longer time.
I figured each person would say, like, God of Storms, all troops get stronger in bad weather or something. Maybe special abilities like Age of Mythology? Every 2 pages you can use, say, a lightning bolt if you're god of storms? There can't be OPness like 'my god is god of life, and can kill anyone no matter what, my troops can 1 shot anything whenever they are alive'. Similarly, no can't-kill gods like god of the sun who is embodiment of sun. How about no gods of planetary bodies, at all, like no sun god or moon god or stars god, if we're taking this to space. However, things like God of Fire can start small fires and his troops can briefly light themselves and their weapons on fire and take no fire damage. God of Ocean could have stronger boats and summon a rogue wave or something.
I figure if we don't use numbers to compute things, we can use pages as timescales, with a god-power only useable every 2 pages or something, making timing important.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 4:07 pm
by cats
ACH0225 wrote:
Spoiler:
Info dump based on PMs to Fenway. These are actually just my PMs copied.
Each member of the forum who participates is a god in a world. They each have their own populations of whatever species they want to look after. Each God has a 'specialty', but is mostly just an all-around god who rules over its people. We could use a world map(I thought the map of Kerbin from KSP was nice), and have territory displayed on there. There could reasonably be wars, but Gods couldn't fight directly because they would probably destroy the universe or something, meaning their nations are the best options. If a nation is completely destroyed, their God is destroyed as well, as their nation and God are bound together on a fundamental level. This is how you 'die'. Each nation could start in the Classical age(a la Age of Empires), and everyone could advance, say, every 15 pages of the RP. This would encourage posting, causing it to last a longer time.
I figured each person would say, like, God of Storms, all troops get stronger in bad weather or something. Maybe special abilities like Age of Mythology? Every 2 pages you can use, say, a lightning bolt if you're god of storms? There can't be OPness like 'my god is god of life, and can kill anyone no matter what, my troops can 1 shot anything whenever they are alive'. Similarly, no can't-kill gods like god of the sun who is embodiment of sun. How about no gods of planetary bodies, at all, like no sun god or moon god or stars god, if we're taking this to space. However, things like God of Fire can start small fires and his troops can briefly light themselves and their weapons on fire and take no fire damage. God of Ocean could have stronger boats and summon a rogue wave or something.
I figure if we don't use numbers to compute things, we can use pages as timescales, with a god-power only useable every 2 pages or something, making timing important.
Excellent, added. Everyone should be able to change their votes with the introduction of new RPs.
E: Nevermind, it clears the poll with each edit.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 4:19 pm
by cats
I'll make tomorrow the last day for the pole, last chance to vote. So far, it looks like Mercenaries will be coming out on top, I'll need one or two other GMs for it.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 5:29 pm
by Professor Fenway
I'll be a GM for the mercenaries one. A head-leader, known simply as 'The Professor'. I'm the technology guy.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 5:32 pm
by Chairman_Tiel
Would like to make a snarky remark about every RP you've GM'd dying, but that applies to every single one of the threads in this subforum. Something's wrong, and no new topic is going to magically fix that (if any, you're just wasting valuable ammunition trying to fight it).
Grimdark, indeed. SOLUTION IS MAKE WH40K RP WITH MANDATORY PARTICIPATION
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:11 pm
by ACH0225
FFS, not another FPS RP. Make something original! Think outside the RP derp bubble, or else the whole RP forum is going to wither. How about a crime RP, or a RP with an individual ship as the focus instead of an individual person!
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 6:17 pm
by Chairman_Tiel
ACH0225 wrote:
a RP with an individual ship as the focus instead of an individual person!
Been there, done that. Died within a week, if I remember correctly. Everyone wants to give themselves OP stuff.
ACH0225 wrote:
How about a crime RP
How it could work is like Trouble in Terrorist Town - the GM picks 2 or 3 members to be 'criminals' who do foul deeds while the rest try to keep up. However, what ultimately will come from this is a bunch of asspull. People are more interested in winning than sustaining the rp for as long as possible. (and the latter indeed is not much of an improvement, people get bored and move on).
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:49 am
by Professor Fenway
I ran the most successful RP (Story Arc 2, 65 pages), as well as the original Diplomatic RP (60 pages), as well as some of the well-known and treasured ones (Lambda Leonis). Oh, and don't forget Arc 1 (25) and the Super-Official Rp (30). If you didn't realize, I STARTED the whole RP business on this forum with the Diplomatic Thread RP. The best i've seen otherwise comes from Prototype (Grounded, Outpost 19).
Please, don't take to insulting the creator. It won't end well. I've yet to see any of your RP's take off, and I will say this- Each RP fails because of a lack of interest. People want a well balanced, Empire RP, without a set plot. I am trying to do that with the new RP. Once I get the tech tree finished, I will rework the system and make it excellent.
Re: Arpies.
Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:34 am
by Chairman_Tiel
Unit 340 wrote:I ran the most successful RP (Story Arc 2, 65 pages), as well as the original Diplomatic RP (60 pages), as well as some of the well-known and treasured ones (Lambda Leonis). Oh, and don't forget Arc 1 (25) and the Super-Official Rp (30). If you didn't realize, I STARTED the whole RP business on this forum with the Diplomatic Thread RP. The best i've seen otherwise comes from Prototype (Grounded, Outpost 19).
Please, don't take to insulting the creator. It won't end well. I've yet to see any of your RP's take off, and I will say this- Each RP fails because of a lack of interest. People want a well balanced, Empire RP, without a set plot. I am trying to do that with the new RP. Once I get the tech tree finished, I will rework the system and make it excellent.
You'll notice that at no point did I say anything that necessitates a defense on your part, merely stating a desire to stay something that would as well as an observation that all the RPs inevitably die. I also find it somewhat amusing you say 'don't take to insulting the creator' when you somehow turn the entirety of the paragraph that sentence contains into, ironically enough, an insult to my own RP creation abilities even though I've only made one that stagnated due to you jumping ship at the worst possible moment.
The point I'm trying to make is that changing the topic won't change the simple fact that roleplay threads here have an abnormally high attrition rate. Thinking 'outside the box' only succeeds in throwing people off their feet and making them that much more reluctant to participate, as well as forcing them to make completely new characters, with sometimes catastrophic results (*cough* sentient crap *cough*). I'd suggest nailing down the problem first instead of just blindly penning it to 'lack of interest' before going forward to waste all your ideas on threads that will never take off.
PS: As an afterthought, all your empire RPs have a severe case of SSDD. Might be a factor, it certainly is the reason I stopped applying for them. You've already read my comments on as to how to rectify this in another thread.