Pseudo-plotty chat RPs

[Dragon Sage007]

Right. As Kai put it to me earlier today, we're running out of interest in our CIs. We have a shortage of GMs. So, in an attempt to revive interest, I call upon all people who wish to run some sort of event, or even just have a major character event! I myself have a short list I'd like to run, which I'll now list. I'll probably run them sporadically, with not a whole hell of a lot of planning behind them, and at random times.

Opening of an arena:Since so many of Doma's citizens practice self-defense, and so many of them are quite -emphatic- about said activity, this was only a matter of time. More of a gym than an arena, with several areas to practice weaponry and a magic room. Also has several sparring rooms, which occasionally hold tournaments for cash prizes. The opening of it will involve a free tournament of such, as well as free memberships for the first ten people.

Fire!:A fire has broken out in the slums. Most people are fine, but there's still a few problems...many of these houses are not at all fireproof, and the fire department of mages won't be able to get on the scene for several minutes. In the meantime...

The hell?:There's a rogue mage on the loose, and he's getting his kicks in rather...odd ways. People have been warned about him, but he always seems to teleport away before help can arrive. He hasn't killed anyone yet, but he has left many people with need for a white mage, and the undeniable fact that he's an utter nut. He keeps talking about killing some 'chosen one with crazy hair.'

>: Now you bastards should RP. <p>

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<div style="text-align:center">I have no idea how this happened. Really</div></p>

[Kai]

I'm glad that someone else actually cares that CIs are boring as hell when there aren't any plots to give them context.

I have several things I want to do (plotwise and CI-wise), and would except for the sporadic presence of certain characters. The thing is, it's hard to get an actual plot started in CI when I open the chat room window and I know that we're all just going to sit in the park and chitchat.

I guess I do hope that someone expresses interest in this thread, because I have two or three full-fledged plots that are short enough to happen in the course of a couple CIs. It just doesn't seem right now like anyone cares enough to participate in anything more than tavern chatting or calm evenings of feeding The Ducks.

Long rant short, if anyone actually gives a damn, I'm willing to GM if no one else is. I'll probably just use this thread as a gauge of interest for now. <p>-------------------------
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." -- Sandman "The Kindly Ones" </p>

[Archmage144]

I have a thought.

The people, at least the people I respect and have always enjoyed RPing with, do not want "psuedo-plotty RPs." They want actual plot. Not comparatively mundane miniplots. Not "help, my kitty is lost and these adventurers in a bar with nothing else to do are going to find it!" Not "we have to clear the farm, pa!" Not "the ducks in the park are getting hungry and attacking passersby! One of them bit a little girl on the finger!"

Whatever happened to the exciting, heroic, truly epic things that happened in chat RPs? Have we decided once again that nothing can really happen in a chat RP? I remember when people didn't think it was possible to GM Philsys in chat because "it would take too long" and I decided I was going to do it anyway. Not only did it work, but it worked pretty damned well, and it became habit for a lot of people. Gone are the days when I can remember exciting things happening in chat--the days when someone would pull an adventure out of their ass and drag PCs off to find a treasure in an abandoned ruin, when an encounter with a group of thugs would turn into a three-or-four session plot that ran much deeper, or when a seemingly chance encounter in an inn with some NPC would be the genesis of an epic quest that would take bored adventurers away from the complacency of sitting around in bars all the time.

And even ignoring the impromptu stuff (that often developed into much thicker plots), whatever happened to the chat RPs that would happen almost weekly? Most of The War, which I consider to be the biggest single contributer to RPGWW's history as an RP community, happened in miscellaneous chats, dozens and dozens of them. Jak used to run RPs that would occasionally be one-shots, but take a couple sessions to finish and always had some great heroic potential, like his bit with the halflings and the necromancer. Amanda used to pull out plots about drug dealers and dragons gone amok, and there were endless antics involving Hakaril's in-laws. I ran several campaigns that linked into each other about Nikumu, and the events of such will probably never be forgotten by the characters of Kate, Adam, WillBaseton, Jak, and various others.

I realize that people have lives. I realize that at least some of these people that I keep talking about have moved on, or if nothing else, that they aren't really as active as they used to be. I know I'm not. But damn, it's depressing to me to look at RPGWW, especially the chat RP scene, and find out that not only is absolutely nothing of any real interest happening, but that the interesting things that are happening have by this point been running for a year or two, are naturally closed to new blood, and are crawling toward some sort of conclusion that will ultimately impact at most four or five people after two year's worth of one adventure.

"But Archmage," you say, "isn't it an act of hypocrisy to stand up here on a soapbox and tell us to RP/GM when you're not GMing yourself?" Maybe. But I don't think so. I did a lot of gamemastering when I was really active at RPGWW (I have no idea how much, exactly). I enjoyed it. A lot. I always wished I could get more chances to play, but I digress. I'm so glad that there are other people now that GM that aren't me--I can remember the days when I was literally the only person who really did. What I'm trying to say is that the people who are GMing, or willing to GM, should find the time to do so more aggressively. "But I'm already running a plot" isn't really an excuse, in my mind--I often ran two or three at a time, or ran RP segments that concluded in a single session, leaving everyone in the party home and dry, but at least a few of the characters were constant--some others would rotate. Whoever was around at the time would fill in, and the people I could scrounge up would go on the next leg of the adventure. This style concludes things much more rapidly. It keeps RP segments self-contained, but characters who have an investment in the plot can stick around if their RPers can do the same. Each individual section is meaningful, somehow, and contributes to the overall story arc. Ideally, the characters that have participated the most in the individual segments will be around for its conclusion; alternately, several "conclusions" could be possible, depending on how the participants and their characters can be logically divided up. This keeps plots from getting stale and running for three years at a time--if everyone is available when they need to be, they get to participate more heavily in the plot. If they aren't or can't be, they don't, and someone else will get a chance instead. More people get to RP this way, more plots actually get finished in reasonable timespans, and more stuff can happen. And when stuff is happening, PCs have an actual reason to CI, because they can talk about their latest triumph over Villain X and Plot Y, swapping stories with other PCs in the bar, or they might have been significantly changed by the events of the RP. Character development, ahoy!

But maybe this isn't what people want. Maybe everyone is too busy with real life--college, work, whatever. Maybe RPGWW is more interested in the one or two long-running storylines going on. Maybe there are at most 8-10 active RPers left out of a pool of 18-20 or so. Maybe most of the forum would rather play MMORPGs, or RP elsewhere, like Videoland.

Maybe people are content to CI reading the newspaper. <p>

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[Shinigori V2]

Shini actually has a whole agenda of plotted RPs he's going to do.

He just needs End of the Chaos to finish to set the whole chain of events off in the first place.

Ironic, End of the Chaos being what starts a whole lot more... <p>

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<div style="text-align:center">What's wrong with this ring?!</div></p>

[Kelne]

I think the episodic format has a great deal to reccommend it, if you can arrange for suitable opportunities for characters to join or leave the overall campaign.

My own most recent campaign certainly started off in such a format, with an initial stand-alone session to set things up, followed by recruitment for part 2, after which things were essentially closed regarding new players. I was fortunate in that I only lost one person to scheduling difficulties, and we managed to run through the campaign in what was (for me at least) record time.

Unfortunately, there are certain plots which don't lend themselves to such chopping and changing. Anything involving going off the map (or even out of Doma) rather precludes established characters joining in half way through. But that doesn't mean that people can't design campaigns around such a format in the first place.

I may well see about doing something along these lines in future, though it'll have to wait until I've got a bit more time on my hands. And of course until I've worked through a few other items on my list of things to do. <p>Centuries of threats of "I'll turn you all to stone!" and "I'll knock you all down!" have caused Domans to develop an instinct to form small groups. For safety, I assure you. – Keir</p>

[pd Rydia]

Not "help, my kitty is lost and these adventurers in a bar with nothing else to do are going to find it!"

*sniffs* :'( <p>

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<div style="text-align:center">dictionary.com | encyclopædia dramatica</div></p>

[Archmage144]

While I don't object to the occasional "adventurers do a good deed for the community" RP session, adventurers have more exciting lives than that. They don't gain their amazing reputations by saving kittens.

Though kittens are cute, and should be saved whenever possible. <p>

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[The Great Nevareh]

Perhaps a grand, unifying long-term event is in order, one that is very, very difficult to solve in one quick movement. I wasn't aroung for the War, thus I'd like to see another one. I'd be willing to work for a war. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[Archmage144]

Yes and no. The last time that happened, people complained. Some people, anyway. More importantly, I think we'd have to do something different--the War idea has been done already. Plus, part of what was supposed to happen with the War was that it would stimulate people to run related events as plots, but a lot of people didn't do it. Why?

The theory I would support in that case is that, somewhat understandably, people were afraid to "fuck up Adam's plans" for the War. What a lot of people didn't understand was that the war was supposed to fuck things up anyway. <p>

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[Kelne]

Actually, I think the Rivan situation might well qualify as a long-term event. At least it will once I have enough time to get things up and running properly (Another week or so should do it). Obviously it's not going to have quite the impact on Doma that the war had, but I think it'll shake up the political landscape a bit.

On the other hand, the possibilities of getting everybody involved are decidedly less. Not many established characters hang out in Riva at the best of times.

Other possibilities include Vaniyakna making his move, or perhaps some new organisation muscling in on the organised crime racket in DC. Perhaps those crazy mages up at Gunnir have meddled in something they should't have, and let some ancient and insidious horror loose on the world?

The possibilities are close to endless, almost as much so as those of a normal campaign. In fact, I can think of a few campaigns that could easily have been expanded into just such events.

The thing is that it requires a certain amount of coordination and, dare I say it, conspiracy between GMs to pull something off on a large scale. And nobody seems inclined to be the one who gets the ball rolling.

An understandable attitude given the dramas surrounding the war. I think people not getting involved in running things wasn't so much a problem as it was a symptom. There was a sense that Adam had a distinct plan, and wouldn't take kindly to interference. Additionally, many of the key plot points that people could easily spot coming had already been allocated. Who but Adam or Kate, for instance, was going to run an attempt on Dhargun or Arnast's lives? Just how the heck was anyone supposed to stop the undead horde short of Hyral castle? And could someone do something so potentially plot-breaking as trying to kill Mally ahead of time? Oh, wait... :P

These issues, and the perception of railroading led to a fair bit of behind-the-scenes (and not-so-beind-the-scenes) griping, which only made things worse. After all, nobody wanted to put themselves in the firing line by taking on a central role in the proceedings.

As a result, while other GMs might run a bit of peripheral stuff, practically everything of any significance was left in the hands of the original instigators, who got both the responsibility and the grief of running the war.

And so nobody wants to kick off anything so potentially controversial again. Because there's no way to really get approval from the community ahead of time without some major spoilers, and if anybody left out of the loop doesn't like something, they'll let you know in no uncertain terms. You might manage to bring a few key people on board, but how do you decide who is and isn't key?

Maybe things would be different a second time around. I'd certainly like to think so. But it's very dependant on the nature of the event, peoples' perceptions, and the person coordinating things. <p>Centuries of threats of "I'll turn you all to stone!" and "I'll knock you all down!" have caused Domans to develop an instinct to form small groups. For safety, I assure you. – Keir</p>

[FF Fanatic 80]

Wow... Kelne just summed up everything I was thinking/worrying about in one post.

*Gives a kitten*

[Blackwind Isao]

For my part, I'm always interested in a plotty or even psuedo-plotty CI sort of thing. As long as it doesn't involve sitting in a bar and chatting with various people about random things and little else I'm all good with it. As noted before however, my schedule is fairly limited (though it is set) so take that for what you will.

- Blackwind.

[LadyDragonClawsEDW]

Grief is true. Honestly, I wouldn't suggest anyone try anything like that again unless they have really thick skin. <p>--------------------

"If I have to grab a man's ass, you can smile." -Tolaris</p>

[Zemyla]

Idea for plotted chat! Contact me on AIM for more details!

EDIT: Almost forgot! If we use a system, we're going to be using D&D 3.5. <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
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Ultimately, wizards and clerics don't say, "Gee, I want to become a lich because weapons hurt less and I don't have to worry about being backstabbed; that whole 'eternal life' thing is just a fringe benefit."-Darklion
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Brotherhood of Elitist Bastards</p>Edited by: Zemyla&nbsp; at: 10/27/05 18:39