ChoShadow
That One Fear In My Enemy's Eyes
Good morning, good afternoon, and/or good evening everyone!
Welcome to this tutorial for Role-Play Survivability.
This tutorial analyzes much of the typical behavior patterns used by role-players within the span of the role-play's first 30-60 days of life, as that's typically when the role-play is in the greatest danger of being abandoned due to lack of interest or life circumstances interfering with player's online access.
So, let's begin!
Stage 1 - Consistency
A lack of consistency is (in my experience as a role-play veteran) the number one cause of death in a role-play which is still in its earliest stages. Either a lack of consistency in action, drama, character/player interaction, or what have you. All of them and more contribute towards the role-play finding its way to an early grave.
To avoid this, how do you remain consistent? Role-play's are ever evolving and changing, right?
Wrong.
The role-play which you have created does not change at all. The way the players engage it is what changes. As the owner of the role-play (aka the GM), that's where you must concentrate your time and attention: "How are my role-players engaging the role-play?"
So what does it mean for a role-player to "engage" the role-play?
In short, it translates to the content of the role-player's presented information in each post. Are they talking to other player characters? Are they making NPC's to talk to due to lack of present player characters? Are they just writing narrative? Are they writing primarily dialogue when they finally meet other players? Are they writing primarily narrative and only using dialogue sparingly when they meet other players? Are they capable of mixing it up? Are they doing this? Are they doing that?
As the owner of the role-play, it's your job to learn, quickly I might add, who your role-players are and what their style of role-playing is. Their choice of words, their phrasing and construction of sentences, dialogue style, narrative choice, etc. You must pick up on it as quickly as possible so you can ensure that their needs as a role-player are being met.
Once you have figured out who your role-players are, becoming consistent with how you tailor the role-play's narrative as you push the plot and story along becomes rather simple. Between all your players, find a happy medium where you meet all of their most basic needs and push them out of their comfort zone just a little bit with each post. If you can do that, then you're well on your way to making your role-play a success.
But how to maintain consistency?
Simple... Pay attention.
That's it.
Paying attention to your role-players is the only requirement for maintaining consistency within the role-play. Even if you are the GM, the role-play cannot succeed without the other players who are helping to breathe life into it. As the GM, put your ego and position of authority aside and learn to pay attention to your players' dialogue, their narrative, and their character's positions and desires IC. If you can pay attention, you can determine what it is they need and provide it for them whilst still maintaining control over the plot and story of the RP itself.
By maintaining control while giving your players what they need, you provide them with a consistent environment of progress and meaning, which is arguably what they're after. They are here because they want to portray a character with meaning and purpose, who has a greater reason to exist in the role-play other than to just fill up a character profile so you can push them forward at your pace and on your terms.
Stage 2 - Balance
Balancing the role-play is a difficult task, and one not easily accomplished by many newcomers to the GM role.
What is "balance" in a role-play?
Well, here is short list of components within a role-play which all need to be weighed against one another in order to find your role-play's point of balance:
* Setting
* Time period
* Lore
* Mechanics
* Player character designs
* Player character dynamic
* Player count
* Rules
* Your presented authority as GM
These are the primary components which I have found appear the most frequently when designing a role-play and which need the most attention.
So how do we balance them?
Very carefully.
Your setting is the world your characters will occupy. Is it a world like Earth? Is it a world unlike Earth? If it is like Earth, how and why is it similar? If it is not like Earth, how and why is it so different? These simple questions and more will be on your players' minds. If you cannot answer them, it will likely push them away and cause disinterest over lack of... you guessed it: consistency.
The time period is next.
If your world is like Earth, then the time period doesn't really matter because we know what the relative comparison will be if you say "medieval." If it's like Earth, that means sword and shield, candles and oil lamps, no electricity, cannons, castles, kings and queens. But if you say it's a world unlike Earth, then what do we have to compare it to? What does "medieval" mean in the context of this new and unfamiliar world? Is it as primitive, or perhaps more so, than Earth's "medieval" period? Is it more akin to what a futuristic Earth would be? What does your time period mean and why is it important to your role-play's Setting?
Combining the Setting and Time Period is a balancing act all its own, so pay special attention to how they blend with one another in the context of your role-play's lore, which is the next item on our list.
The Setting and Time Period will both play a role in determining what the lore of your role-play is. After all, you can't have history and culture without knowing what general time period your characters live in and what technology they have at their disposal. You also cannot expect to have any technology if you don't know what kind of world your characters live on with respect to materials, resources, etc.
So what is your lore?
What is this world? What kind of terrain does it have? What kind of seasonal behaviors does it exhibit? What kind of gravity does it have? What kind of resources are available, and where on this world are these specific resources available? Are your precious metals and gems located in mountains or beneath the vast seas? Perhaps there are vital herbs, roots, foods, and more located in your deepest forests.
In short, your lore should contain information about what in this world is most important to your character's lives and livelihoods. If your character is a blacksmith, where does he/she find their materials, where do they buy them, from whom do they trade for them, etc? If they're a tailor, what kinds of materials do they have at their disposal to make their wears with? The same questions apply from the blacksmith as they do for the tailor. From where? From whom? At what time of year? These questions and more will drive the creation of your world and its lore which leads directly into our next item: Mechanics.
The Mechanics of your role-play are the basic functions of the world you have created. What kinds of player characters are allowed. What kinds of magic are or are not available. What kinds of creatures are and are not easily defeated by shield and sword or magic alone? What kind of governments, religions, cultures, etc exist in this world for your players to utilize to craft their characters?
Your Mechanics should amicably dictate what kinds of characters are allowed in the role-play and what kinds of characters are to be avoided, and this leads into our next item: player character designs.
The player character designs must feed off of your presented mechanics. If you let everyone know "hey this world is magic like Avatar TLAB, build whatever kind of bender you want!" and then set them free, you've given them excuses to create just about any kind of character they want which is not what you as the GM should be doing for them. Instead, you must keep a careful but steady level of control over what kinds of characters are allowed and be sure that the explanation as to why fits with your presented setting, time period, lore, and mechanics. If you dictate characters without providing that information, the players will assume you're just a jerk who wants total control of the role-play without giving them any kind of creative freedom.
When your players don't have, or feel they don't have, any creative freedom they won't be that likely to last long in the role-play.
Next within the context of player character designs, be sure to keep a balance of male/female roles. If everyone is a female, or if everyone is male, then your RP is doomed from the start. Some would argue that an all male or female cast is acceptable, but I would argue differently based on nearly 20 years of experience. I have never once seen a role-play with an all male/female cast succeed or even make it past the 2 month mark due to, you guessed it, a lack of consistency.
You might be wondering, "what's more consistent than an all male/female cast?"
Good question, but the answer is simple: player character dynamic.
An all male/female cast leads to an imbalanced and poorly conceived lineup of characters who all share very similar traits including strengths and weaknesses. Even if, on the page, their strengths and weaknesses look different, they really aren't. Why? Because they're all male/female without any counterparts to compare or balance them against. If there are two female profiles next to one another and one says "this character is fast and agile but not seriously powerful," while the other says "this character is powerful, but not incredibly fast or particularly agile," what are you comparing them to? You're comparing them to each other. Two female characters of similar size, weight and build. There's only so much you can do to say that two women are strong or slow compared to each other because there's no other measure to set it against.
How about a man who is 6' 4" vs. a woman who is 5' 3"? Over an entire foot of difference between the two sets them entirely apart from one another. Even if they carry the exact same strengths and weaknesses, the dynamic between them will be more varied and flexible than the dynamic between two entirely different women.
Why? The man's height, weight, and build alone make him stronger than the woman could ever be, while her shorter and lighter frame make her faster and more agile than he could ever be.
Why? Physics. The man's size ensures that he is stronger no matter what, while the woman's smaller body makes her lighter, faster, and more agile no matter what. Weight of musculature, bone structure, and the length of the nervous system means that though the male is stronger no matter what the circumstances are, the signals sent by his brain travel a larger distance to his muscles than those of the woman, which is why she'll always be faster in close combat than he will be.
But again, these two share the exact same strengths and weaknesses as one another, yet they couldn't be more different from each other which is why they work better than an all male/female cast.
Next, we balance player count. How many players are in this role-play? The larger the role-play world, the more players you can have safely while ensuring you don't compromise the underlying plot and the speed of posting. Generally, smaller numbers of role-players last longer because it's a more intimate setting where they can post more regularly without having to rely on a posting order which may or may not interfere with their daily lives. The more players you have, the more you have to structure posting to ensure nobody steps on anyone else's toes, and this can be incredibly tedious and problematic even if it is more convenient on the surface.
Also, when you have fewer players, guess what becomes easier to regulate and maintain?... Rules.
Your role-play's rules define what works and what doesn't. Who can do what, where, and when. Who can say what, where, and when. And how the world will act/react to what happens based on your narrative throughout the experience.
And your rules are governed by what? Your authority as the GM.
Yes. One's authority as the GM is a very powerful thing indeed. You have complete control over the role-play from top to bottom, front to back, side to side, up, down, forwards, backwards, and inside out, and every other way you can imagine... But do you really?
In reality, you do not have that kind of control.
Why?... Because the other players are also, in their own way, Co-GM's no matter what you may say or what your rules might otherwise imply. Every word they type on a character profile dictates beyond your control how that character will interact with the world you have created. Good luck taking control over what's on their personal character's profile. You try, they'll leave the role-play almost guaranteed. Similarly, every word they type in the IC posting section contributes to the flow of your plot and story, irregardless of your personal feelings on whatever it is they have said/done in said post.
As the GM, your authority rests solely on your ability to balance the role-play in its entirety. This means checking your ego at the door and running the role-play with dignity, grace, flexibility, acceptance, and respect.
If you cannot give your role-players those courtesies, your role-play is dead on arrival.
Stage 3 - Final Thoughts
In summary, your ability to keep your role-play alive throughout its earliest stages when it is, like any infant, at its most vulnerable, rests on your ability to remain consistent and balanced throughout the experience. The more your behavior and presentation fluctuate, the faster your role-play will die.
To remain consistent and balanced requires one thing and one thing only from you as the GM: Paying attention.
Pay attention to yourself, and pay attention to your players.
If you do not pay attention to yourself, your role-play will be full of inconsistencies and present itself as more a chore than a delight to other players which will lead to a rapid death. If you do not pay attention to your role-players, you as the GM will fail to deliver the experience they wished for and that too will lead to a rapid death.
Be consistent.
Be patient.
Maintain order and balance.
And most importantly, have fun doing it.
Thank you all for your time, and I hope you have a wonderful morning, day, evening!
~ ChoShadow
View full tutorial
Welcome to this tutorial for Role-Play Survivability.
This tutorial analyzes much of the typical behavior patterns used by role-players within the span of the role-play's first 30-60 days of life, as that's typically when the role-play is in the greatest danger of being abandoned due to lack of interest or life circumstances interfering with player's online access.
So, let's begin!
Stage 1 - Consistency
A lack of consistency is (in my experience as a role-play veteran) the number one cause of death in a role-play which is still in its earliest stages. Either a lack of consistency in action, drama, character/player interaction, or what have you. All of them and more contribute towards the role-play finding its way to an early grave.
To avoid this, how do you remain consistent? Role-play's are ever evolving and changing, right?
Wrong.
The role-play which you have created does not change at all. The way the players engage it is what changes. As the owner of the role-play (aka the GM), that's where you must concentrate your time and attention: "How are my role-players engaging the role-play?"
So what does it mean for a role-player to "engage" the role-play?
In short, it translates to the content of the role-player's presented information in each post. Are they talking to other player characters? Are they making NPC's to talk to due to lack of present player characters? Are they just writing narrative? Are they writing primarily dialogue when they finally meet other players? Are they writing primarily narrative and only using dialogue sparingly when they meet other players? Are they capable of mixing it up? Are they doing this? Are they doing that?
As the owner of the role-play, it's your job to learn, quickly I might add, who your role-players are and what their style of role-playing is. Their choice of words, their phrasing and construction of sentences, dialogue style, narrative choice, etc. You must pick up on it as quickly as possible so you can ensure that their needs as a role-player are being met.
Once you have figured out who your role-players are, becoming consistent with how you tailor the role-play's narrative as you push the plot and story along becomes rather simple. Between all your players, find a happy medium where you meet all of their most basic needs and push them out of their comfort zone just a little bit with each post. If you can do that, then you're well on your way to making your role-play a success.
But how to maintain consistency?
Simple... Pay attention.
That's it.
Paying attention to your role-players is the only requirement for maintaining consistency within the role-play. Even if you are the GM, the role-play cannot succeed without the other players who are helping to breathe life into it. As the GM, put your ego and position of authority aside and learn to pay attention to your players' dialogue, their narrative, and their character's positions and desires IC. If you can pay attention, you can determine what it is they need and provide it for them whilst still maintaining control over the plot and story of the RP itself.
By maintaining control while giving your players what they need, you provide them with a consistent environment of progress and meaning, which is arguably what they're after. They are here because they want to portray a character with meaning and purpose, who has a greater reason to exist in the role-play other than to just fill up a character profile so you can push them forward at your pace and on your terms.
Stage 2 - Balance
Balancing the role-play is a difficult task, and one not easily accomplished by many newcomers to the GM role.
What is "balance" in a role-play?
Well, here is short list of components within a role-play which all need to be weighed against one another in order to find your role-play's point of balance:
* Setting
* Time period
* Lore
* Mechanics
* Player character designs
* Player character dynamic
* Player count
* Rules
* Your presented authority as GM
These are the primary components which I have found appear the most frequently when designing a role-play and which need the most attention.
So how do we balance them?
Very carefully.
Your setting is the world your characters will occupy. Is it a world like Earth? Is it a world unlike Earth? If it is like Earth, how and why is it similar? If it is not like Earth, how and why is it so different? These simple questions and more will be on your players' minds. If you cannot answer them, it will likely push them away and cause disinterest over lack of... you guessed it: consistency.
The time period is next.
If your world is like Earth, then the time period doesn't really matter because we know what the relative comparison will be if you say "medieval." If it's like Earth, that means sword and shield, candles and oil lamps, no electricity, cannons, castles, kings and queens. But if you say it's a world unlike Earth, then what do we have to compare it to? What does "medieval" mean in the context of this new and unfamiliar world? Is it as primitive, or perhaps more so, than Earth's "medieval" period? Is it more akin to what a futuristic Earth would be? What does your time period mean and why is it important to your role-play's Setting?
Combining the Setting and Time Period is a balancing act all its own, so pay special attention to how they blend with one another in the context of your role-play's lore, which is the next item on our list.
The Setting and Time Period will both play a role in determining what the lore of your role-play is. After all, you can't have history and culture without knowing what general time period your characters live in and what technology they have at their disposal. You also cannot expect to have any technology if you don't know what kind of world your characters live on with respect to materials, resources, etc.
So what is your lore?
What is this world? What kind of terrain does it have? What kind of seasonal behaviors does it exhibit? What kind of gravity does it have? What kind of resources are available, and where on this world are these specific resources available? Are your precious metals and gems located in mountains or beneath the vast seas? Perhaps there are vital herbs, roots, foods, and more located in your deepest forests.
In short, your lore should contain information about what in this world is most important to your character's lives and livelihoods. If your character is a blacksmith, where does he/she find their materials, where do they buy them, from whom do they trade for them, etc? If they're a tailor, what kinds of materials do they have at their disposal to make their wears with? The same questions apply from the blacksmith as they do for the tailor. From where? From whom? At what time of year? These questions and more will drive the creation of your world and its lore which leads directly into our next item: Mechanics.
The Mechanics of your role-play are the basic functions of the world you have created. What kinds of player characters are allowed. What kinds of magic are or are not available. What kinds of creatures are and are not easily defeated by shield and sword or magic alone? What kind of governments, religions, cultures, etc exist in this world for your players to utilize to craft their characters?
Your Mechanics should amicably dictate what kinds of characters are allowed in the role-play and what kinds of characters are to be avoided, and this leads into our next item: player character designs.
The player character designs must feed off of your presented mechanics. If you let everyone know "hey this world is magic like Avatar TLAB, build whatever kind of bender you want!" and then set them free, you've given them excuses to create just about any kind of character they want which is not what you as the GM should be doing for them. Instead, you must keep a careful but steady level of control over what kinds of characters are allowed and be sure that the explanation as to why fits with your presented setting, time period, lore, and mechanics. If you dictate characters without providing that information, the players will assume you're just a jerk who wants total control of the role-play without giving them any kind of creative freedom.
When your players don't have, or feel they don't have, any creative freedom they won't be that likely to last long in the role-play.
Next within the context of player character designs, be sure to keep a balance of male/female roles. If everyone is a female, or if everyone is male, then your RP is doomed from the start. Some would argue that an all male or female cast is acceptable, but I would argue differently based on nearly 20 years of experience. I have never once seen a role-play with an all male/female cast succeed or even make it past the 2 month mark due to, you guessed it, a lack of consistency.
You might be wondering, "what's more consistent than an all male/female cast?"
Good question, but the answer is simple: player character dynamic.
An all male/female cast leads to an imbalanced and poorly conceived lineup of characters who all share very similar traits including strengths and weaknesses. Even if, on the page, their strengths and weaknesses look different, they really aren't. Why? Because they're all male/female without any counterparts to compare or balance them against. If there are two female profiles next to one another and one says "this character is fast and agile but not seriously powerful," while the other says "this character is powerful, but not incredibly fast or particularly agile," what are you comparing them to? You're comparing them to each other. Two female characters of similar size, weight and build. There's only so much you can do to say that two women are strong or slow compared to each other because there's no other measure to set it against.
How about a man who is 6' 4" vs. a woman who is 5' 3"? Over an entire foot of difference between the two sets them entirely apart from one another. Even if they carry the exact same strengths and weaknesses, the dynamic between them will be more varied and flexible than the dynamic between two entirely different women.
Why? The man's height, weight, and build alone make him stronger than the woman could ever be, while her shorter and lighter frame make her faster and more agile than he could ever be.
Why? Physics. The man's size ensures that he is stronger no matter what, while the woman's smaller body makes her lighter, faster, and more agile no matter what. Weight of musculature, bone structure, and the length of the nervous system means that though the male is stronger no matter what the circumstances are, the signals sent by his brain travel a larger distance to his muscles than those of the woman, which is why she'll always be faster in close combat than he will be.
But again, these two share the exact same strengths and weaknesses as one another, yet they couldn't be more different from each other which is why they work better than an all male/female cast.
Next, we balance player count. How many players are in this role-play? The larger the role-play world, the more players you can have safely while ensuring you don't compromise the underlying plot and the speed of posting. Generally, smaller numbers of role-players last longer because it's a more intimate setting where they can post more regularly without having to rely on a posting order which may or may not interfere with their daily lives. The more players you have, the more you have to structure posting to ensure nobody steps on anyone else's toes, and this can be incredibly tedious and problematic even if it is more convenient on the surface.
Also, when you have fewer players, guess what becomes easier to regulate and maintain?... Rules.
Your role-play's rules define what works and what doesn't. Who can do what, where, and when. Who can say what, where, and when. And how the world will act/react to what happens based on your narrative throughout the experience.
And your rules are governed by what? Your authority as the GM.
Yes. One's authority as the GM is a very powerful thing indeed. You have complete control over the role-play from top to bottom, front to back, side to side, up, down, forwards, backwards, and inside out, and every other way you can imagine... But do you really?
In reality, you do not have that kind of control.
Why?... Because the other players are also, in their own way, Co-GM's no matter what you may say or what your rules might otherwise imply. Every word they type on a character profile dictates beyond your control how that character will interact with the world you have created. Good luck taking control over what's on their personal character's profile. You try, they'll leave the role-play almost guaranteed. Similarly, every word they type in the IC posting section contributes to the flow of your plot and story, irregardless of your personal feelings on whatever it is they have said/done in said post.
As the GM, your authority rests solely on your ability to balance the role-play in its entirety. This means checking your ego at the door and running the role-play with dignity, grace, flexibility, acceptance, and respect.
If you cannot give your role-players those courtesies, your role-play is dead on arrival.
Stage 3 - Final Thoughts
In summary, your ability to keep your role-play alive throughout its earliest stages when it is, like any infant, at its most vulnerable, rests on your ability to remain consistent and balanced throughout the experience. The more your behavior and presentation fluctuate, the faster your role-play will die.
To remain consistent and balanced requires one thing and one thing only from you as the GM: Paying attention.
Pay attention to yourself, and pay attention to your players.
If you do not pay attention to yourself, your role-play will be full of inconsistencies and present itself as more a chore than a delight to other players which will lead to a rapid death. If you do not pay attention to your role-players, you as the GM will fail to deliver the experience they wished for and that too will lead to a rapid death.
Be consistent.
Be patient.
Maintain order and balance.
And most importantly, have fun doing it.
Thank you all for your time, and I hope you have a wonderful morning, day, evening!
~ ChoShadow
View full tutorial