Advice/Help Beginner-Friendly Group Roleplay Genre / Plot / Story Help

[Wyn]

Hello all,

I'm planning on going into group interest checks to try and set up a beginner-centered RP group where people who either don't have much experience or aren't confident in their skills can come and get the basics and meet some cool people.

Are there any story lines / plots / genres that you think would best fit a beginner RP group? I'm thinking about a group RP so more than 4-5 people eventually.

Ideas
- Fictional / Realistic / Modern School (For the heck of it, even though it's slightly overdone)

 

[rae2nerdy]

So I would say school is your best bet because it’s a universal experience. That said I would probably do a lot of pre-planning on your end before getting started.

I would also give it a slice of life style plot if your going to keep it open. So that new players don’t need to read a lot of information to know what’s going on. Just have a post for the current activity in the thread and move on.

Additionally school roleplays need you to have some kind of plan to keep the story progressing. You don’t have to make it a “realistic modern” school as long as it follows the basic format of a real school and the world lore isn’t too robust.

So if you want to make a superhero academy, a magic academy, heck even a special music academy for royals it’s all good.

Just make sure you as the GM create a school year worth of activities for your players to do. Also make sure you have a set time skip schedule and a plan in place for when people drop off.

If you need further ideas for this I’d be happy to brainstorm with you.

 

[Crayons]

Sounds like a great idea, and it looks like you have some great advice from middleagedgeek.

Keep the setting and lore fairly generic and easy to digest, make sure you're prepared to hold the players' hands if necessary and you're away!

 

[rae2nerdy]

Another thing is be very specific and very consistent about the rules. This means that everything is fair and no one will feel like their being left out or treated badly because of their skill level.

So as an example - You have a rule that says you can only post once in a 24 hour period (to prevent people from spamming the thread while others are offline). If you see one player breaking this rule you can give them one warning. "Hey I saw you posting a lot in the thread, please wait until tomorrow so that everyone has a chance to reply." If they continue breaking the rule than they're out of the roleplay.

It seems harsh but the whole goal is to teach people how to roleplay properly. And one of the first rules you got to learn is that the GM's word is law, whether you like it or not. It teaches good habits for later on down the road.

 

[Wyn]

rae2nerdy
It's funny how difficult something made to be so simple is. A school setting would be the easiest in every way because it allows for interaction, character development, and how to push the story forward. I just wanted to see if there was anything outside of a school format that would be easy, but I agree. Also, what are your views on post orders? All the groups I've partaken in had them and I found them useful but there's cons to everything.

I would love to have the help, especially because I don't want to steer people in the wrong direction and this would be my first time being a GM in something more than a casual RP group. I plan on finding a few experienced people to help me run things and keep the group going.

Crayons
Easier said than done. But yeah, the holding hands part is just fine but keeping things generic and simple is the struggle, ironically.

 

[Zeppelin]

Nice idea mate, I hope I can join it

 

[Crayons]

If you're going to make a rule of not posting more than once in 24 hours, why not go the whole way and establish a posting order? Is that not a thing here?

You could do a generic DnD style "fantasy people go on an adventure" type story if you want something other than school. Or rival gangs....

 

[rae2nerdy]

rae2nerdy
It's funny how difficult something made to be so simple is. A school setting would be the easiest in every way because it allows for interaction, character development, and how to push the story forward. I just wanted to see if there was anything outside of a school format that would be easy, but I agree. Also, what are your views on post orders? All the groups I've partaken in had them and I found them useful but there's cons to everything.

I would love to have the help, especially because I don't want to steer people in the wrong direction and this would be my first time being a GM in something more than a casual RP group. I plan on finding a few experienced people to help me run things and keep the group going.

So usually what I have seen done is not so much post orders but time zone groups. So basically you ask all your players what time zone their in and when their hours of availability are. You then put the folks that are online at the same time into a group. This way you don't have to deal with one person getting left out of the action because they'll be paired with people online at the same time as them.

Now this works for more rapid paced post requirements. If you have a slower paced roleplay (a post a day or a post a week) than I find that having the 24 hour rule or a double-post rule works fine. Either you can't post until everyone else has posted OR you have to wait 24 hours to post. This gives people a chance to respond.

The only problem I can see with post orders is figuring out a list that makes use of the time that everyone is online so they can post in a timely manner. Like if you have someone who is only available at like 5am and their post time comes up at 6pm than you've got several hours to wait before they can post.

Whereas with the post groups the only ones waiting are the ones who either aren't online OR are online all the time and would have to wait their turn anyway.

That said a post order might be a good starting off tool just to get people used to following a specific sequence of. A posts, then B posts, then C posts, etc. So they learn that they can't just spam things whenever they want. They have to wait their turn and reply to the posts previously.

 

[Crayons]

I have never been in an rp that doesn't have a posting order, except if they are reaaaaally casual or fast paced. I guess it's a culture thing. Time zone groups for fast paced rp seems like a really good idea.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Crayons yeah I haven't really had post orders in any of the sites I'm familiar with. I haven't done groups in like four years admittedly so it might also just be a recent trend. Back when I did groups it was just time zone groups or the wild west where there was no post organization and you just posted whenever you wanted.

 

[Crayons]

Crayons yeah I haven't really had post orders in any of the sites I'm familiar with. I haven't done groups in like four years admittedly so it might also just be a recent trend. Back when I did groups it was just time zone groups or the wild west where there was no post organization and you just posted whenever you wanted.

This hurts me deep in my soul. It's like having your pens out of colour order and leaving the lids off.

 

[nios]

i was in one group that had posting orders. i liked it due to the fact that it gave me extra time to write my reply to someone as the rest of the cycle flows. however, i would have to be super patient. most of the members were skipped over because they werent replying on their turn and the group eventually died out.
i like the idea of a school rp tho! an academy for supernatural beings theme was my first rp and i learned a lot.
i dont know how i feel about planned plots tho. i've never gone far in group here on rpn where the plot was followed and completed, but the group^^ i have been a part of had a plot with riddles and such... it was cool while it lasted and it was a fun way to pass the time as we waited for our turn on the posting order. i think groups that run free without a plot are more interesting.

 

[Wyn]

nios Crayons rae2nerdy

Yeah, I found posting orders to be super helpful. The posting order would be determined on both timezones and just whoever wanted to go first. Then posting would be about once every day or two and if you didn't post to let the others behind you post, they'd reach out and either let you post or skip you and make a reason up as to why the character exited. For us, it made things easier because we could prepare our posts in between ours, so the larger the group, the larger the amount of time we'd have to prepare our response and then add in details from the posts before ours, if that makes sense.

I was thinking that maybe the main story with the largest group could be a post order or have some posting rules/guidelines but people could exit their characters into a different thread or channel for a public 1x1, that way they could develop their own characters and relationships as well as interactions could be quicker than the main story? But then, we're trying to make it as simple as possible for people to get the hang out of it!

That being said, I really do like the time-zone sections and think that would be a good idea. The only reason I don't do free for all posting is because it can leave out members and then get really confusing as to what's happening, especially fop beginners. So I definitely think some posting guidelines will have to be put into place. It's just a matter of which ones better suit the group

 

[Wyn]

Zeppelin You're more than welcome to! Right now, I'm just debating whether or not a discord server would be easier or the threads / PM on here. I can shoot you a PM when the groups ready if you want!

 

[Zeppelin]

Zeppelin You're more than welcome to! Right now, I'm just debating whether or not a discord server would be easier or the threads / PM on here. I can shoot you a PM when the groups ready if you want!

Sure man, Can't wait for it !

 

[cytosine]

I’d love to join if possible! Technically I’m not new but I love the idea and think this would be a great way for any beginners to kind of ease themselves in c:

 

[Wyn]

cytosine You're more than welcome to join! As I said before, as soon as I know roughly what I'm doing, I'll post it on here or even message you if you want.

 

[Wyn]

If you wanted to join this roleplay as an experienced (really anything besides beginner) RPer, than keep an eye out for a new thread in the group interest section! I'll be recruiting people who want to not only help with making this an smooth place for beginners but anyone wanting to help with the behind the scenes stuff like plot and rules and such!