RP... What makes it good?

[Grey Nightmare]

I was talking to TWIF and we both decided the rp in this forum is kinda... lacking atm, there are very few rps that seem to survive any longer than several weeks.

Why do you think this is?

Perhaps if we all posted and said what we like about roleplays we could make them a tad more enjoyable (and keep them alive).


E.g.

I personally don't like it when people try and involve levelling/stats and troop numbers (or any statistical factors).

I much prefer it to be 100% story and choice driven by a good DM.


What about you guys?

 

[-Peper-]

I like RP that no one dominates (like someone new can beat pro rpers).
Level system and number is kinda annoying. (eg. level, attack, defense)
Rp should be fast-paced, good organized, no overpowering, tactics and uniqueness.

 

[Ganondorf]

I like RP that no one dominates (like someone new can beat pro rpers).
Level system and number is kinda annoying. (eg. level, attack, defense)
Rp should be fast-paced, good organized, no overpowering, tactics and uniqueness.

You know there was leveling in the Videogame wars just because it's... like a videogame ^^ But surely, it didn't matter that much, and didn't affect the RP at all. Not the RP, nor the characters.

The best for me in RPs are surely the themes. If the theme's wrong, Fuck it.

And, of course, the other RP users are supposed to be serious, if not, than the RP's just... wrong. No need to play it at all, and it get's boring. But too serious isn't good neither.

For me, again, the best would be a story that is simple yet complex, the RP should be story-driven.

 

[-Peper-]

Yep, the leveling is not required, should we remove them lol?
Anyway, a RP should give an unique experience to it's player like something that never thinked before. (Sprites? lol)

 

[Grey Nightmare]

I like RP that no one dominates (like someone new can beat pro rpers).

How so? I wasn't aware you 'beat' people at rping
Either way I would say experience shouldn't matter, just because you've role-played longer it doesn't give you the right to more power... on the other hand I do agree dominating is a big issue, I think (especially when done on purpose) DM's need to start reporting people who ruin rps, rather than let them get away with it.

But yeah I agree 100% more story, less stats (If I wanted to play a video game rpg... I would right?)

 

[Fussiler1]

1. Good roleplayers. (no dice rolls)
2. Well established enviroment which isn't too complex.
3. Activity.
4. Good flow of the story.
5. Having fun pretty much makes up for most flaws for me.



I think it were these aspects that made the, in my opinion, best RP in this forum.

Besides that, this is pretty much an answer to the title, not the OP itself, really.

 

[Grey Nightmare]

All good points except number 3, the reasoning behind this is to hopefully enlighten budding DM's on their RP building and ensure rps become more active, cuz atm (compared to what I've seen before) the rp forum could be a slight bit more consistent, too many rps, not enough last long enough to enjoy imo.

So yeah activity doesn't = fun

fun = activity

 

[takakenji]

people dont join rps enough and thus no new rps can grow and all the well known rpers completely dominate because when people see them it automatically says "oh they're good, i'll join their thread", thus not allowing the RP community to expand

 

[Dr Wigglz]

I like RPs that have a good storyline, and lots of possibilities for the RPer(like dramatic plot twists etc.)

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Do you prefer it relatively static or more dependant on choices the rpers make?

 

[Ganondorf]

Do you prefer it relatively static or more dependant on choices the rpers make?

More dependent on choices the RPers make.

 

[Dragonson]

Well... It appears i'm kind of a loner on this one, but in my experiance a RP needs both rules and game elements to be truly compelling.
F.X. i dont know how many times me and my friends have been laughing over incredible crits of insane stat increases, or how many times i've wanted to get a specefic ability or stat when playing DnD or Witches' Coven.
RP just isnt the same for me without rules to keep me just out of reach of what i want.

Roleplaying needs to be like a game, like a MMO or a RPG (which IS called a Role-Playing-Game fora reason...) for it's players to want to come back and want to play again.
Anyone here who has never rolled a charecter in some tabletop game system and have never had the experiance of following that charecter through his or her adventure is seriously missing out on something.

THAT is what RP should essentially be: Like any normal tabletop game, but with the awesomeness of homebrewed content mixed carefully into the soup.

Ofcourse some of you may disagree with me, but know this:
I have run MANY RPS.
IRL, with 100% homebrewed rules, here on the hive, under the name of Never Ending Story, LARPs, etc.
Forum RP is still newer for me than most other types, but i've run five of them in total and i think i can say what works and what does not.

Say what you will, without the sense of achievement and struggle RP is not the same for me.

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Oh I used to play D&D, the newer one with the ice expansion.
Fuck did me, my step brothers, dad and (even sister occasionally) have a good time.

But I don't get the same enjoyment playing with stats through text, meh, maybe it's just me, maybe it's just you.

But when I want stats and the like I go play D&D or Oblivion on my xbox, I prefer the forum rps to be much more story driven (literature, rather than maths).

ALTHOUGH as you said rules to some degree are essential;
take your own necropia and blackwind rafia for e.g. I don't recall their being any 'visible stats' in that, yet there were rules and it was highly story driven... that was win!

Same with Legacy of Legends!

 

[Dragonson]

You gotta have the rules but you gotta make sure that no one notices them.
That's rule number one if you wanna' be a successful politician.
You gotta give people freedom, and yet pretend to be putting them in a cage.
That's rule number one if you wanna' be a succsessful DM.
You gotta give people what they want and do it in a way that you can personally enjoy.
That's rule number one for me.

 

[Grey Nightmare]

Shame politicians aren't as good as you at following it XD

 

[Ignitedstar]

Well... It appears i'm kind of a loner on this one, but in my experience a RP needs both rules and game elements to be truly compelling.
F.X. i dont know how many times me and my friends have been laughing over incredible crits of insane stat increases, or how many times i've wanted to get a specefic ability or stat when playing DnD or Witches' Coven.
RP just isnt the same for me without rules to keep me just out of reach of what i want.

Roleplaying needs to be like a game, like a MMO or a RPG (which IS called a Role-Playing-Game fora reason...) for it's players to want to come back and want to play again.
Anyone here who has never rolled a charecter in some tabletop game system and have never had the experiance of following that charecter through his or her adventure is seriously missing out on something.

THAT is what RP should essentially be: Like any normal tabletop game, but with the awesomeness of homebrewed content mixed carefully into the soup.

Ofcourse some of you may disagree with me, but know this:
I have run MANY RPS.
IRL, with 100% homebrewed rules, here on the hive, under the name of Never Ending Story, LARPs, etc.
Forum RP is still newer for me than most other types, but i've run five of them in total and i think i can say what works and what does not.

Say what you will, without the sense of achievement and struggle RP is not the same for me.

You need to find the right group of people. When you do, RPing DnD style is hilarious. I had never done it before until recently. I have to say, I have never laughed so long and so hard.

The story was unbelievably corny: I was playing an evil spirit who "possessed" a peasant that escaped from prison. Quotes around possessed because throughout the entire story, the peasant wasn't sure if he was possessed or not, but did evil things simply because he was supposed to be possessed (but again, wasn't sure). We started rolling for things and coincidentally, every time the spirit was involved in the rolls, I always won. It got so bad (good in my case!) that I had more than half of the characters in the RP under my evil spirit's influence. Let's see, I had a peasant, a Shaman's son (his father could never detect the spirit due to rolls but always suspected something), a cult leader who wanted the evil spirit's power for himself (but I overpowered and took control of him), and eventually an entire kingdom.

Even more coincidences happened afterwards: two characters in the RP ran into me on numerous occasions and every time the spirit tried to mind control them, it wouldn't work. This eventually turned in these two characters being the only ones to save everyone else. At the final battle, we did two rolls. The first time was when the one of the heroes' attacked the Peasant and determined who would die in the duel. I lost that. The next roll was if the evil spirit would die himself or if the evil spirit would kill the two heroes and dominate the world (AKA I win). I rolled a 2D12 and they both rolled 1D6 and added their rolls together. They rolled first and got a total of six (everyone gasped and said that they're doomed). Then I rolled and lost by one. When everyone saw me lose, everyone typed LOL while I did an exaggerated "NOOOOOO!". Everyone's like, "Divine retribution!" because I was so lucky throughout the entire RP and lost to a two nobodies. Really, they literally had NO significance in the story until about half way through.

I was never a lover of DnD style RPs until that. The corniness didn't matter; it was so much fun and we all walked away laughing.

 

[Glycine]

Well, I used to roleplay under a system of moderators instead of dungeon masters. I found it much more flexible, in a way. Though the general storyline becomes out of any one person's control, unless that's the only mod on your thread, the quirks and changes each mod can apply made up for any uncertainty.

It was also much easier to do so, since you could start out with less unplanned and try and luck your way through it. I'm not sure about here, but in the roleplay where I used to be, you had so much power to try and make something happen, but you could never actually make it happen. It was funny, though, to see what could happen as a result.

For example, I could have devised an elaborate plan to take our some random monster, but whether it worked depended on the moderator and how he or she or it viewed the feasibility of my plan. I just can't say (and still won't say) my plan has a degree of success; such things are beyond my ability to make happen instantly.

Compared to that, WC3 roleplaying is far more open. There's more variables under your control, and you have to make a visible effort to try and restrict yourself to reasonable thoughts, actions, and words. You can do anything, almost, under the constraints of the World Editor, and I'm curious to see how I can adapt to it.

As for what makes it good:

1. An interesting community of people
2. Balanced and interesting control
3. A variety of topics to choose from
4. Tolerance and respect for others
5. And... a degree of literacy and eloquence. In time, one can learn to write well.

 

[TheKurt009]

try: Boundless star prophecy, it's actually player-based where we just have fun!
and the DM doesn't restrict rules at all!

 

[Jagex]

I'm creating an RP just for the sole purpose of experimenting how a player-based RP will go.

 

[Vunjo]

RP shouldn't have a complicated or long story. I mean, if I really want to hear a story, I can watch movies on TV, read a book, or warcraft related, watch a cinematic map, play a campaign. It should have many classes, and yet, every single class must have a "role" in it, since it's RP
If the dungeons/bosses don't have much spells, it is boring. Who wants to play PvE if it's easy, or if enemy got no spells? It should have many PvP variations (events), such as CTF PvP, regular PvP Arena, with option to choose teams and so.

 

[Amargaard]

I once ran an RP in these forums - It wasn't like any other RPs. Those who were part of the RP had to follow a story and write on it themselves. No restriction on using other's characters or anything, just writing a shared story kinda

I don't know if you call that a roleplay, but I enjoyed it a lot, and everyone had a role with big importance for the story