Other Need some advice and stuff :3

[Bacon is fluffy]

My ic

So I was wondering if anyone, more experienced as gm's or not, wouldn't mind looking over my ic and my op in this thread and answering a few questions. I'm only asking now because it's really not going to well and thought this would be the perfect chance to ask for advice before moving on to a new project. Here was my pokemon rp that was supposed to be more akin to an adventure rather than a journey.

On being an adventure rather than a journey: What I was thinking was most rp's are open ended and designed with continuity spanning for in indeterminate amount of time. It could be a week, a month, a year. While there are others that especially in pokemon, if they weren't gajinka slice of life, were epic quests from your home town to the elite four.Even using the games as a base for this, which is super bad, is a big undertaking. You have to flesh out how they meet, what each city is like, drive players toward new environments and situations that keep it fresh while making them not want to go play the games with the narrative aspect of the rp.

So I sought to remedy this by having players start off established with one objective in mind. A 2-3 month in rp time challenge league with a set number of challenges based on 5 different islands. Its much smaller in scope and allows me to just focus on the challenges and the transitions between each one, rather than coming up with route 1, 2, pewter, 20, 21,mount moon etc etc. And since its already determined, its more of a single arc with a clear beginning and clear end on a much smaller scale of the gym based model.

So I ask, was it a bad idea to have players play established trainers going into a tournament blind? Does that take out the charm of pokemon, which is largely about going from zero to hero? Does scaling down the scope come off as a turn off and a restriction of player freedom of choice? I'm interested in hearing what others think on this subject

My thought process and planning... or lack there of: So I set out with one major goal besides coming up with large scale challenges for my players to compete in. That was to capture an international feel and grandiosity of the audience and participants in general. It would be a slog to describe every competitor(each challenge would have upwards of 50 people). Yet it would also be boring to just describe groups of people and have no real specifics on these extras, no matter how small they would be. I wanted my players to feel like they were lined up with people of all canon regions and feel like they were unique in their own ways, without slogging down the rp with description.

To this end I used a little of blanket descriptions and planned around 12 main antagonists and npc justice do gooders to play recurring npc roles in the rp. So for instance I opened up my rp by describing the lasses in general, describing them as giggling would be innocent school girls traveling from the school of hard knocks. A reference to a pokemon academy in the early days of pokemon back in season 1. This was supposed to solidify my lasses and trainer boys as rich or well to do trainers with an academic and serious mind set for being professional trainers one day. While only eventually making passes at the school itself if exposition ever comes up.

While in another instance I had white collared tech guys from saffron play biker dudes. Cheeky good guys who are playing the part on vacation,but are also meant to be a foil to the lass girls in that they are there to warn newbies. Their main features are the mention of them being adults with conventional jobs at an unconventional place that has been subject to team rocket terrorism. This is how I'd portray my good guy bikers.

This was how I sought to introduce psychics, martial artists, artists, musicians, and so on and so forth. Take their towns, major places in each region and come up with ways to characterize one or two stand outs who will act as either antagonists or guides for the players. Is there anything im missing here? Impression? :L

On the subject of bad guys: The bad guys for the most part would play the part of people who violated the bond between trainer and pokemon. The one thing that separates pokemon from dog fighting is the aspect of it being a sign of pet and owner relationship. And what the bad guys in this rp were doing was actually performing a ritual to disturb the gods by causing greif and mayhem, using the tournament as the cover for their actions.

So a little background, The tournament is based on a myth of a warrior race of people known as the crimson ones. They challenged nature and paid respects to their gods, which we now call legendary pokemon. The crimson ones eventually let their hubris get the better of them and they went from challenging nature, to going all out against the gods themselves. These gods, sunk their own temples and sought out to destroy the humans in a blind rage,but ho oh, save the humans from the other legendaries. The humans as thanks, hurt the ho oh, who since never came back to the island and is presumed to have been mortally wounded. This was to be revealed later if the lore ever became more necessary.

But the point is the rp's challenge league was based on the myth of a warrior race of people challenging nature. The bad guys in this rp sought to use this myth as a cover for what they knew to be true, the existence of legendaries. They want to sully the human and pokemon bond by taking people's pokemon during the tourament, reprogramming the balls and selling them on the black market. Feeding off this hysteria and rumor mongering, they sought to also create grief and turmoil on the islands through the challenges themselves. These feelings of competitiveness, animosity and disturbing of the islands themselves, was to be a catalyst for drawing the attention of the long lost god like pokemon.

Leading to a cataclysm and struggle to survive. That was my intent for the bad guys. Thoughts?

On my Gm style: My ic style was to take notes of both what I wanted to happen and what was actually happening based on player actions. In essence all I knew is I wanted to have challenges, a few bad guy appearances, some drama involving elimination followed up by the appearance of legends. What happened in between was basically winged on a case by case basis. So I really didn't have environments planned out. I didn't have a cache of characters made up before hand due to the player factor. And for the most part I was going for a slow pace to flesh out the islanders, the competitors, the audience, the tournament as an event and so on and so forth.

I was basically trying to portray the super bowl with a little biblical cataclysm.

Lastly on what was implemented and what wasn't: I didn't use money, despite money being a potential factor for characterization for my players, with richer well off people vs struggling artist equivalent competing for fame in this tourney. But I felt it was unnecessary bloat and rules for an rp I hadn't even gotten support for yet.I also took out things like critical strikes and simplified stats to hp and types essentially. Was this a bad move on my part?

Closing statements: My hope is I can get feedback from regular players and more experienced gms on these topics. I already know what I think and believe,but I don't have an inkling on what others might think or percieve on my execution of the rp. So instead of asking for what I could have done better(there was loads), I wanted to see if my thought process was good.

But if you see something super nooby or bad, lemme know. I already got rejected by the community and got little to no interest in my rp. So no criticism could phase me at this point. Hell I'd appreciate it so I could change my approach on my next idea.

Thanks in advance if you got this far.

 

[Hachi Machi]

My ic

So I was wondering if anyone, more experienced as gm's or not, wouldn't mind looking over my ic and my op in this thread and answering a few questions. I'm only asking now because it's really not going to well and thought this would be the perfect chance to ask for advice before moving on to a new project. Here was my pokemon rp that was supposed to be more akin to an adventure rather than a journey.

On being an adventure rather than a journey: What I was thinking was most rp's are open ended and designed with continuity spanning for in indeterminate amount of time. It could be a week, a month, a year. While there are others that especially in pokemon, if they weren't gajinka slice of life, were epic quests from your home town to the elite four.Even using the games as a base for this, which is super bad, is a big undertaking. You have to flesh out how they meet, what each city is like, drive players toward new environments and situations that keep it fresh while making them not want to go play the games with the narrative aspect of the rp.

So I sought to remedy this by having players start off established with one objective in mind. A 2-3 month in rp time challenge league with a set number of challenges based on 5 different islands. Its much smaller in scope and allows me to just focus on the challenges and the transitions between each one, rather than coming up with route 1, 2, pewter, 20, 21,mount moon etc etc. And since its already determined, its more of a single arc with a clear beginning and clear end on a much smaller scale of the gym based model.

So I ask, was it a bad idea to have players play established trainers going into a tournament blind? Does that take out the charm of pokemon, which is largely about going from zero to hero? Does scaling down the scope come off as a turn off and a restriction of player freedom of choice? I'm interested in hearing what others think on this subject

My thought process and planning... or lack there of: So I set out with one major goal besides coming up with large scale challenges for my players to compete in. That was to capture an international feel and grandiosity of the audience and participants in general. It would be a slog to describe every competitor(each challenge would have upwards of 50 people). Yet it would also be boring to just describe groups of people and have no real specifics on these extras, no matter how small they would be. I wanted my players to feel like they were lined up with people of all canon regions and feel like they were unique in their own ways, without slogging down the rp with description.

To this end I used a little of blanket descriptions and planned around 12 main antagonists and npc justice do gooders to play recurring npc roles in the rp. So for instance I opened up my rp by describing the lasses in general, describing them as giggling would be innocent school girls traveling from the school of hard knocks. A reference to a pokemon academy in the early days of pokemon back in season 1. This was supposed to solidify my lasses and trainer boys as rich or well to do trainers with an academic and serious mind set for being professional trainers one day. While only eventually making passes at the school itself if exposition ever comes up.

While in another instance I had white collared tech guys from saffron play biker dudes. Cheeky good guys who are playing the part on vacation,but are also meant to be a foil to the lass girls in that they are there to warn newbies. Their main features are the mention of them being adults with conventional jobs at an unconventional place that has been subject to team rocket terrorism. This is how I'd portray my good guy bikers.

This was how I sought to introduce psychics, martial artists, artists, musicians, and so on and so forth. Take their towns, major places in each region and come up with ways to characterize one or two stand outs who will act as either antagonists or guides for the players. Is there anything im missing here? Impression? :L

On the subject of bad guys: The bad guys for the most part would play the part of people who violated the bond between trainer and pokemon. The one thing that separates pokemon from dog fighting is the aspect of it being a sign of pet and owner relationship. And what the bad guys in this rp were doing was actually performing a ritual to disturb the gods by causing greif and mayhem, using the tournament as the cover for their actions.

So a little background, The tournament is based on a myth of a warrior race of people known as the crimson ones. They challenged nature and paid respects to their gods, which we now call legendary pokemon. The crimson ones eventually let their hubris get the better of them and they went from challenging nature, to going all out against the gods themselves. These gods, sunk their own temples and sought out to destroy the humans in a blind rage,but ho oh, save the humans from the other legendaries. The humans as thanks, hurt the ho oh, who since never came back to the island and is presumed to have been mortally wounded. This was to be revealed later if the lore ever became more necessary.

But the point is the rp's challenge league was based on the myth of a warrior race of people challenging nature. The bad guys in this rp sought to use this myth as a cover for what they knew to be true, the existence of legendaries. They want to sully the human and pokemon bond by taking people's pokemon during the tourament, reprogramming the balls and selling them on the black market. Feeding off this hysteria and rumor mongering, they sought to also create grief and turmoil on the islands through the challenges themselves. These feelings of competitiveness, animosity and disturbing of the islands themselves, was to be a catalyst for drawing the attention of the long lost god like pokemon.

Leading to a cataclysm and struggle to survive. That was my intent for the bad guys. Thoughts?

On my Gm style: My ic style was to take notes of both what I wanted to happen and what was actually happening based on player actions. In essence all I knew is I wanted to have challenges, a few bad guy appearances, some drama involving elimination followed up by the appearance of legends. What happened in between was basically winged on a case by case basis. So I really didn't have environments planned out. I didn't have a cache of characters made up before hand due to the player factor. And for the most part I was going for a slow pace to flesh out the islanders, the competitors, the audience, the tournament as an event and so on and so forth.

I was basically trying to portray the super bowl with a little biblical cataclysm.

Lastly on what was implemented and what wasn't: I didn't use money, despite money being a potential factor for characterization for my players, with richer well off people vs struggling artist equivalent competing for fame in this tourney. But I felt it was unnecessary bloat and rules for an rp I hadn't even gotten support for yet.I also took out things like critical strikes and simplified stats to hp and types essentially. Was this a bad move on my part?

Closing statements: My hope is I can get feedback from regular players and more experienced gms on these topics. I already know what I think and believe,but I don't have an inkling on what others might think or percieve on my execution of the rp. So instead of asking for what I could have done better(there was loads), I wanted to see if my thought process was good.

But if you see something super nooby or bad, lemme know. I already got rejected by the community and got little to no interest in my rp. So no criticism could phase me at this point. Hell I'd appreciate it so I could change my approach on my next idea.

Thanks in advance if you got this far.

This is a lot to read and answer, so here's my comments. I probably missed a few things, but since no one is answering your stuff, I'll provide some insight, but I've only GMed one RP.

Q1: So I ask, was it a bad idea to have players play established trainers going into a tournament blind?

A1: It just depends on your preference. Judging from the IC, it seems as if the role players are perfectly capable of this scenario you've created for them.

Q2: Does that take out the charm of pokemon, which is largely about going from zero to hero?

A2: If someone wants to play zero to hero, they'll likely tell you. I wouldn't focus too much on following the themes in pokemon 100% unless that's your ideal for the roleplay.

Q3: Does scaling down the scope come off as a turn off and a restriction of player freedom of choice?

A3: I say let the role players decide their character. Everyone has their own preferred themes and stories they want to RP in, so I think it matters little if the scopes are lower or higher. I personally focus on establishing what my role player's want to see in the IC, and then I add events which lead to what the role player's want to see in their roleplay. Don't fret about restrictions, since those are necessary for creativity! By limiting it to a smaller scale, you also make it easier for the roleplayer's to focus on the essential parts and develop their characters accordingly. Sometimes too much freedom prompts a role player to go the 'typical route,' rather than a 'unique route.' It's better to start with a small setting than a big one, since you can always work your way up.

Q4: Is there anything im missing here? Impression?

A4: I would just create the characters you and your role player's want to see. It's difficult to control multiple characters, so focus on a few at a time in each post. Develop them slowly. You can stereotype groups of people together, as that helps immensely with controlling multiple characters. I really don't know what specifically you're missing, but it seems like you've got things down at least from what I've read in the IC. You convey the character's personalities really well. The only thing I would avoid is the caps locks for yelling. I would just write: Sam yelled, "Let's get ready to Rummmmmbleeeee!" However, that's your preference.

Q5: Leading to a cataclysm and struggle to survive. That was my intent for the bad guys. Thoughts?

A5: Bad guys motives seem fine. You can always expand on it later, if the role players really want to know, or if you're really invested with the bad guys. For example, why do they want do the bad guys want to create grief, or what unites them together to cause this grief? Why do they want to disturb the gods? Why did they violate the bond between trainer and pokemon? Maybe you've stated that somewhere, and I didn't read it properly.

Q6: On GM Style.

A6: I often wing RP posts as well. I only have a general direction in mind, and I shape the specific details according to what the role player wants to see. If your role players don't complain about your style, I think it's fine. You should also ask for criticism from your role players. The reason I can't judge you properly is because I actually do the same things you do, and I barely get complaints either because the role player's don't mind my GM style, or it makes sense for them.

Q7: Was this a bad move on my part?

A7: I don't think stats/mechanics matter that much, unless you want the roleplay to be a numbers game. Money can be an option for characterization or struggling artist. You can always add that in later, so it isn't necessarily a bad move on your part. It just depends what motives you want to set up for the characters.

Q8: Closing Statements

A8: Well I'm no experienced GM, so you can ignore my stuff, if you feel it doesn't answer your questions. I probably misread a few things, or misunderstood some parts, but I tried my best to answer your questions. As long as you have at least two role players interested, so it's a group role play, I say it's a successful interest check. Your thought process seems fine, but I think the best way to gain advice is from your role players, since other people, like me, may lack the knowledge to actually aid you in perfecting your group RP.

I hope I provided you with some insight, but I only skimmed your posts in the IC, since I don't have the time to fully analyze every single detail.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

This is a lot to read and answer, so here's my comments. I probably missed a few things, but since no one is answering your stuff, I'll provide some insight, but I've only GMed one RP.

Q1: So I ask, was it a bad idea to have players play established trainers going into a tournament blind?

A1: It just depends on your preference. Judging from the IC, it seems as if the role players are perfectly capable of this scenario you've created for them.

Q2: Does that take out the charm of pokemon, which is largely about going from zero to hero?

A2: If someone wants to play zero to hero, they'll likely tell you. I wouldn't focus too much on following the themes in pokemon 100% unless that's your ideal for the roleplay.

Q3: Does scaling down the scope come off as a turn off and a restriction of player freedom of choice?

A3: I say let the role players decide their character. Everyone has their own preferred themes and stories they want to RP in, so I think it matters little if the scopes are lower or higher. I personally focus on establishing what my role player's want to see in the IC, and then I add events which lead to what the role player's want to see in their roleplay. Don't fret about restrictions, since those are necessary for creativity! By limiting it to a smaller scale, you also make it easier for the roleplayer's to focus on the essential parts and develop their characters accordingly. Sometimes too much freedom prompts a role player to go the 'typical route,' rather than a 'unique route.' It's better to start with a small setting than a big one, since you can always work your way up.

Q4: Is there anything im missing here? Impression?

A4: I would just create the characters you and your role player's want to see. It's difficult to control multiple characters, so focus on a few at a time in each post. Develop them slowly. You can stereotype groups of people together, as that helps immensely with controlling multiple characters. I really don't know what specifically you're missing, but it seems like you've got things down at least from what I've read in the IC. You convey the character's personalities really well. The only thing I would avoid is the caps locks for yelling. I would just write: Sam yelled, "Let's get ready to Rummmmmbleeeee!" However, that's your preference.

Q5: Leading to a cataclysm and struggle to survive. That was my intent for the bad guys. Thoughts?

A5: Bad guys motives seem fine. You can always expand on it later, if the role players really want to know, or if you're really invested with the bad guys. For example, why do they want do the bad guys want to create grief, or what unites them together to cause this grief? Why do they want to disturb the gods? Why did they violate the bond between trainer and pokemon? Maybe you've stated that somewhere, and I didn't read it properly.

Q6: On GM Style.

A6: I often wing RP posts as well. I only have a general direction in mind, and I shape the specific details according to what the role player wants to see. If your role players don't complain about your style, I think it's fine. You should also ask for criticism from your role players. The reason I can't judge you properly is because I actually do the same things you do, and I barely get complaints either because the role player's don't mind my GM style, or it makes sense for them.

Q7: Was this a bad move on my part?

A7: I don't think stats/mechanics matter that much, unless you want the roleplay to be a numbers game. Money can be an option for characterization or struggling artist. You can always add that in later, so it isn't necessarily a bad move on your part. It just depends what motives you want to set up for the characters.

Q8: Closing Statements

A8: Well I'm no experienced GM, so you can ignore my stuff, if you feel it doesn't answer your questions. I probably misread a few things, or misunderstood some parts, but I tried my best to answer your questions. As long as you have at least two role players interested, so it's a group role play, I say it's a successful interest check. Your thought process seems fine, but I think the best way to gain advice is from your role players, since other people, like me, may lack the knowledge to actually aid you in perfecting your group RP.

I hope I provided you with some insight, but I only skimmed your posts in the IC, since I don't have the time to fully analyze every single detail.

I appreciate you taking the time to give me feed back hachi ding dongerino. I really do appreciate it. Lately just talking to my players was the best way to gauge these things.

But rpn has so many gms, that I hoped more would chime in.