Other What makes a good fantasy/super power RP? (In your opinion)

[CatGirl]

I can understand that if you're writing with people you can't trust, but then you'd have to wonder why you're writing with them at all? Or maybe I've just been extremely fortunate. We've had Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Shazam and Wonder Woman (all of whom can go super OP if they wanted to), but they've all been very respectable. Each plot is planned way ahead, and the result of each fight already pre-planned via OOC communication before they enter. That way, it's not possible to aggravate anyone in the story.

 

[The_Omega_Effect]

Not sure about super power but for a fantasy Rp you need a plot with a gm that actively tries to keep it going. You have no idea how many fantasy rps end with all the characters walking into the fucking tavern and the story going nowhere.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I can understand that if you're writing with people you can't trust, but then you'd have to wonder why you're writing with them at all? Or maybe I've just been extremely fortunate. We've had Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Shazam and Wonder Woman (all of whom can go super OP if they wanted to), but they've all been very respectable. Each plot is planned way ahead, and the result of each fight already pre-planned via OOC communication before they enter. That way, it's not possible to aggravate anyone in the story.

I think that’s actually not how most roleplays are formatted. I have never been in a roleplay (group or otherwise) where the scenes were pre-planned to that extent.

The closest was a roleplay that had planned chapters. But it wasn’t like every scene in the roleplay was preplanned in the OOC, you just had specific story beats each character was assigned.

So I think that might be the disconnect with the advice. I would say the style of writing your describing is extremely uncommon.

Most roleplays work more like:

Susie writes post A. Jan responds with Post B. Billy responds to both in Post C.

There isn’t any OOC collaboration on individual posts. So in that way it’s not about trust so much as lack of control. Susie doesn’t get any say in how Billy responds so she can’t control how his character manifests.

Plus I think original characters are also very different. With canons you have an example in the source material on how to make the character nuanced.

Bit with OCs your building a character from scratch so you have to rely on your own talent in getting nuance across.

I mean if doing canons works for you that’s cool. I’m just not thinking that’s really advice that translates to an original roleplay. Especially one that doesn’t use your specific writing style.

 

[CatGirl]

Since 2004 I've been involved in seven roleplays, two of which did not follow the format I described, and they ended very abruptly with no real goal. The other five were pre-plotted with all the writers involved with the end in mind, one of them went to the extent of plotting to the detail of each scene, and us writers just filling in the more descriptive parts with literary detail. Those five have lasted months, with one in particular lasting about five years till it came to a proper conclusion, and was then carried on with a spin off even. They weren't all in the superhero genre, in fact most of them were fantasy, and forum based. About a year ago, I bumped into a bunch of Star Trek RPers who ran their role play in a similar pre-plotted design with assigned tasks to each writer, and theirs lasted a couple of years as well. I have noticed nonetheless, that in recent times, some of the groups I've gotten into have not plotted anything and everyone just writes what they want with no real goal in mind, which I can assume will run into the problems you've described. If that is the issue here then I think the measure of success of an RP is not in the genre or the characters brought into the story, but in the format and behind-the-scenes organizing work. Also, more essentially, finding writers who'll share in your vision and are respectful enough to plot beforehand in order that all parties might be happy with the product.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Since 2004 I've been involved in seven roleplays, two of which did not follow the format I described, and they ended very abruptly with no real goal. The other five were pre-plotted with all the writers involved with the end in mind, one of them went to the extent of plotting to the detail of each scene, and us writers just filling in the more descriptive parts with literary detail. Those five have lasted months, with one in particular lasting about five years till it came to a proper conclusion, and was then carried on with a spin off even. They weren't all in the superhero genre, in fact most of them were fantasy, and forum based. About a year ago, I bumped into a bunch of Star Trek RPers who ran their role play in a similar pre-plotted design with assigned tasks to each writer, and theirs lasted a couple of years as well. I have noticed nonetheless, that in recent times, some of the groups I've gotten into have not plotted anything and everyone just writes what they want with no real goal in mind, which I can assume will run into the problems you've described. If that is the issue here then I think the measure of success of an RP is not in the genre or the characters brought into the story, but in the format and behind-the-scenes organizing work. Also, more essentially, finding writers who'll share in your vision and are respectful enough to plot beforehand in order that all parties might be happy with the product.

That was my point. You are offering advice on essentially a niche style of writing. That style has worked for you and that’s great. But it isn’t something the majority of a roleplay audience is going to be interested in.

And I think that because you were assuming that your way of writing was self-evident (I.e. the way your write roleplays is more common than it is) than it was making your advice less helpful than you intended.

As the reason writing OP characters doesn’t work for the majority of roleplays is because they follow a much more real-time format. The story isn’t preplotted at all but is a series of real time reaction by respective characters.

So there isn’t the necessary story control in place to keep OP characters nuanced and interesting.

 

[CatGirl]

And I think that because you were assuming that your way of writing was self-evident (I.e. the way your write roleplays is more common than it is) than it was making your advice less helpful than you intended

The fact that from 2004 to 2019 is 15 years with different groups of people, not to mention the other Trekkie RP involving more people than even I've been exposed to, completely un-linked to anything I've done. And they all run, or at least used to run in a similar manner. Many of the participants were from prior RP background and none of them surprised it was being pre-plotted. If I had to guess, they had their prior RPs run in the same exact fashion. Current group we have is about 10 - 15, all excellent writers who pre-plot and discuss arcs beforehand. So I disagree that it's that niche at all. Just need to be patient and persistent to wait for the right partners.

 

[rae2nerdy]

The fact that from 2004 to 2019 is 15 years with different groups of people, not to mention the other Trekkie RP involving more people than even I've been exposed to, completely un-linked to anything I've done. And they all run, or at least used to run in a similar manner. Many of the participants were from prior RP background and none of them surprised it was being pre-plotted. If I had to guess, they had their prior RPs run in the same exact fashion. Current group we have is about 10 - 15, all excellent writers who pre-plot and discuss arcs beforehand. So I disagree that it's that niche at all. Just need to be patient and persistent to wait for the right partners.

There are literally thousands of people on this site alone. So yeah 10-15 people is pretty niche.

I mean it’s nice that you have found this style and it works for you. But it’s plain unreasonable to act like it will work for a vast majority of people.

In order for it to be more helpful you would have to see a significant portion of roleplays take this style of writing on.

At minimum one in ten and like I said I have literally never seen it in any of the roleplays I have been in.

I’m not saying it doesn’t exist but that your personal experience is just a very tiny sample size.

And expecting the majority of other people to follow it is unrealistic.

 

[bubblefly]

Coming from someone who hasn't actually contributed in any fantasy style roleplay, I think it's research.
I've been preparing characters, storylines, plot twists, etc. for a few weeks before actually joining this site and what made it so much easier was research. If you have enough knowledge on the genre and how to roleplay it effectively, it makes you feel so much more comfortable and allows you to engage with other people without feeling lost.