Why is the same RP constantly being made, honestly if i see another middle-earth race based RP I'm gonna go nuts. There's no way you guys all want to play the same RP over and over again.

So here's why i made this topic, what do YOU guys wanna see in an RP? This RP section is dying off a little, so if we make an RP everybody wants, then why not give it a shot. Just look at the 280+ page Final Fantasy RP, half of it is uninviting spammed nonsense, so i say we try and appeal to the masses, what do you say?

i was thinking about yall making an urban rp.
an rp that has to do with life in new jersey, or houston?
it has to do with some kids growing up, trying to make it big.

their goals are to make it in the nba.
is this a good idea or am i wasting my time?
[im new to rps].

I say that it's a good concept, but the way it is executed here is seriously flawed. Nobody listens, the RPs are always dull and acting it out is just typing, no matter how you look at it.

I agree with you, Amongst Your Flames. People are unoriginal here, nowadays. "Veteran" role-players seem to prefer hanging around the same 'ol topic and spamming it up, whereas newer role-players simply make the same RP over and over.

I personally like pretty simple RPs, not ones that have like different classes of playable characters, like a alien species or something. Some of those RPs are good, but most don't interest me at all.

i see i've been ignored.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for the medieval themed RPs. Warriors, powerful magic, an epic quest to complete, I love it. That and the 'Underworld' themed RPs (werewolves and vampires) are the ones I like most.

No offence Swagga, but I don't like an RP like that at all. It's a bit too 'real' for my taste, I like fantasy RPs a lot better.

I agree, that age/time brings out the imagination like a story book.

So here's what we're getting at:

- Keep it SIMPLE! (good point Leet World)
- Fantasy based is good, but since it's a virtually unending world of possibilities
- Think before starting an RP, will people like it?

So i say once we gather lots of good info i'll put this to the test and start an RP, but any other ideas?

Personally, i say one setting that needs more RPing is like Final Fantasy 7, that world mixed magic and sword combat with a futuristic-style setting, the problem is i don't think too many of us could pull off starting a successful one like that.

everything here is fantasy, what the hell.
why does everything for yall have to be medieval, and underworld?

Thats exactly what i mean by posting this topic. People don't realize all the different kinds of RPs, we could do a Gang Rp, a Super Hero RP, a High School RP (those are really popular on RP forums, i dunno why though haha). There are so many possibilities yet we get a million middle earth RPS, so you've come to the right spot Swagga.

I kinda thought my RP was a bit original and sorta out of the ordinary. But, nowadays some RP's are getting a boring and dull. But most of the RP's im currently in are surviving (Besides mine D:) are doing good. You just gotta try them before you hate on them.

That's exactly what I don't like in an rp. Keeping roleplays simple only makes them interesting for people who don't like to read and then only for a little while. I prefer more complex roleplays to boring simple ones as they give more of an interesting story than a simple roleplay.. A RP with different races is unique compared to other fantasy rolepalys too which makes them infinitely more exciting. Look at Atilya/Levante for example, those roleplays both introduced us to a host of new races (Well some were old for me but whatever) and while neither of those roleplays really got off their feet well they had rich ad engaging plots to them and they also weren't the typical middle ages roleplays but more of an almost Renaissance era.

Foremost in a good roleplay you need a rich and engaging plot which others can be hooked on to. Simple roleplays do not allow for that in nearly the same way that a more complex and well thought out roleplay might and as such I almost always avoid the simple roleplays in this room. You can make a roleplay like that but I never find them to be very good, they always seem to lack the depth of more complex roleplays.

We do have a super-hero Role-Play. It's called 2025.

Whilst I can see where all of your opinions are coming from, my stance in this matter lies somewhere in the middle zone. The role-plays that are currently active here are quite far from being 'the same'. If my observations serve me right, whether a role-play is 'the same' as another is determined by the plot and the setting (with the latter being second in importance). Take a look at the numerous plots of each role-play (if you have the time). One role-play takes the general 'Lord of the Rings' plot and twists it, with the characters involved fighting to retrieve a map instead of traveling to some mountainous figure of doom to destroy said object. I love that! Taking an existing, well known plot and twisting it is a great thing to do and distinguishes your role-play. I see another role-play which revolves around a group of pubescent teenagers instead and their explorations of Area 51. That's interesting and unique to me. Ealagi may seem to be the general invaded versus invaders plot, but it's storyline goes deeper than that. It involves each race's party of soldiers (and more) to partake on a quest to search for these arenas and retrieve the eight pieces of the Octasphere. What originality! Occultus uses the werewolf/vampire/human theme and takes it to a higher level, creating a plot that twists each race's general origins and using that to fuel the story. Rencava delves into mystery and uniqueness, with the plot centering around the search for a mysterious 'One' to defeat an even more mysterious figure cleverly entitled, 'The Shadow'. This all cries out originality. Sure it may seem the same, but observe all the role-play posts in it: it differs from other role-plays entirely. They way they react, feel, interact. The Land of Habok is definitely original, it resembles a MMORPG of sorts, where each storyline is a quest. Riveting I have to say. The Elemental Warfare role-play uses the known theme and evolves it into something new and spectacular (I mean come on - Earth Nation versus Nature Nation!). The Final Fantasy role-play is very unique, frankly due to it being a free role-play where you're welcome to roam the world alone or with others. This stems thousands of possibilities just waiting to happen.

I could go on forever but I'm sure you get the point. The active role-plays here are far from being the same. Don't just look at role-plays and notice that they all have the same races involved, and then label them the same. Perhaps not the best term to implement into here, but 'don't judge a book by its cover'.

You say that they're the same: I beg to differ.

Just throwing this out there, but Love seemed to make good RP's.

Does Love still post in the RP room? I haven't noticed, if she does.

No, she quit because "she was tired of all the idiots."

Oh, that's too bad. She was a good role-player.

The roleplay room died after she left...

Hmm... I kind of noticed that.

Thats exactly what I'm not doing, judging it by the covers makes everything appear different these RPs have clever names though, but once the RP starts it's always one guy whose parents died and acts like the biggest bad ass eventually ruinning it along with plenty other problems. These RPs are essentially the same story the more i read. The problem goes deeper than that, no one thinks out a good story, they just post, so to avoid this topic from becoming an argument lets focus on what people want in Role-Plays.

Sacred made a good point, simplicity can add to a lack in a hooking story. So what interests everyone here, what kind of books do you read, what video games do you play?

Hmm... Well, I noticed that there are a few overpowered characters. So, to make the RPs more fair and interesting, why don't we start putting a "weaknesses" part into our applications?

EDIT: There's also underpowered characters, so we could put "strengths" into apps, too.

EDIT: Just throwing suggestions out there. I don't necesarily expect them to be good, keep in mind.

I'm quite curious how many topics similar to this one have been posted...Too bad I'm too lazy to look... (Sila, Sacred?)
Anyways, I only skimmed the topic so I'll be addressing things in no particular order.

Concerning post 21: There is no real problem with "overpowered characters" if used in the right context. It really is the responsobility of the DM to judge the roleplayer and how they will approach the roleplaying of that particular figure. There are things better than other things in life. The main problem here is people take their characters too "personally" as themselves, and can't fathom the thought of anything bad happening to them...

Concerning anything involving the place being "dead": I refer you to the first sentence in this post. All I'll say is there has been worse.

Concerning anything about Love: Isn't it wonderful how people are so attached to the past? Can anyone do the me wonderful favor of supplying a few quotes showing how she/he was "good" at roleplaying. Thanks.

Concerining the original topic of this topic: Simple setting, complicatied setting, I don't really give a damn. All I care about is having a group of competent roleplayers. Everything could be made up along the way even, I really wouldn't mind. On that note, I think the most important thing in an application is a sample post...i.e.

Everything in the end comes back down to general roleplaying ability.
Finito!
Any conceptual mistakes in this post are Silavor's fault.
Any spelling errors are Erebus's fault.
Any moments of sheer genius are Ellibereth's fault.

I like the midevil rps, but these are all the same. Nobody has any creativity. I want new rps like Kingdom of Elements, or I could recreate Nithrus.

Not every RP in this is typical RP, just look over a few. Scorpion and Leo Crimson make some good Medivalish RP's. (I have one too >.>)

None of them have the same originality that brought me into the rp room in the first place. I would actually love a new kingdom of elements role play. Or a good future mech roleplay.

The problem with that sort of role-play is the lack of interest. Often those role-plays are left hanging with next to no one joining them. I for one don't find them interesting as I just don't see the glory of the street and how it makes all that interesting of a story and I certainly have no perspective on that side of life so trying to create a character that fits would most likely spit back in my face.



First point I disagree with, simple stories promote laziness and lack enough for the full range of a role-players creative to be brought into the topic and as such I don't like them all too much.

Second I have no objection against since the realm of fantasy is unending.

Third is not always helpful. It means the creator of the role-play might come to doubts with the idea of his role-play and end up not posting it. I've done that a few times with more outlandish themes so I speak from experience when I say it's not always the best idea. I would rather change that to something along the lines of: Think before starting a role-play, is it well thought out and am I happy with the writing involved. That covers something of the same idea but keeps it focused and puts an emphasis on the language and characteristics of the role-play and not necessarily other peoples thoughts which you can't exactly know.




That remains a heavily debatable topic in this room it seems. About half the people in this room think she was great and the other half have a very low opinion of her role-playing. There are some in the middle too but it seems mostly people either loved her or hated her for various reasons.



I actually feel the roleplay room has merely resorted to a slow state. I feel Love's appearance marked what I term a sugar rush in which the Role-Players' room saw an almost unhealthy spike in activity and now we're in that crash period after the rush. It'll recover, that has always been the case and I've sat through periods where there has been next to no activity and believe me, there's still activity here.



The ever present problem in all rps... God modding and the like always seem to ruin role-plays. You have civilians suddenly turn into crack snipers, farmers who use a pitchfork to destroy an empire and tiny little space ships that can shred capitol ships 100x their size in seconds. Adding weaknesses to an app would do little to counter this, its still the role-player behind the character that makes him overpowered and even making a weakness for the character the role-player can easily ignore such a thing in the midst of the role-play.

Underpowered character I like however, if everyone was a hero then we wouldn't need heroes would we? Recently in a few of my apps I've been making purposefully weak characters such as Arik in Serenia who really is just a boy with a musket, not the greatest soldier and scared beyond his wits in combat but he's also an interesting character that will develop as the story goes on.


On the topic of this general discussion however we have a problem. What we have in this room isn't just an assortment of the same general people. We have similar people granted, Ellibereth and Silavor seem to share a somewhat similar line especially as far as the room is concerned. Sacred and I share almost identical interests but then again we're brothers so that's kind of expected. But mostly we also have individuals and each person has their own likes and dislikes, we have people who love modern (me included) and those who hate it. We have people who love fantasy and probably some people who despise it. There does seem to be a strong attachment to fantasy on this forum however so that's always a safe bet in a role-play. That's also probably why we get so many fantasy role-plays in this room and since people also want their roleplays to be successful they try to imitate the successful fantasy epics like the Lord of the Rings. Eragon or untold others.

My point with this although my idea seems jumbled is this. You won't be able to find a topic that everyone likes so finding the 'perfect' role-play will most likely be impossible. you may have an idea of what people want but it all comes down to what you write. Instead of asking for what people want instead post an outline of a story and see if it gets a good reaction. If it gets a good reaction turn it into a roleplay and it will probably get a few people to join.

Now I hope I've covered the main parts of this topic and I'm sorry about my absence from the room. I just had what I would like to term as a realization that I've really got a month here before I'm off to college and stuff so I've been getting things in order. Now however I hope to help get this room back on solid ground before I depart for college where I might only be able to make chance appearances. I'll most likely be cooking up a new rolepaly since Levante now seems to have fallen into the dusty road behind us so look for that in the next week or so. I think I have a good idea but we'll see how it goes once I actually start writing it.

Edit: yeesh, that took me over a half hour to write.



Why is my greatness for appearing again too much for your undead mind to handle?

Hmm... I also think one of the reasons that we can't create a succesful RP is that the DMs make more than one RP, and they can't pay enough attention to them all, and then they lose interest in one of them altogether, and then so do the other RPers.

I didn't read through any of the last posts, so bear with me if I'm repeating something that has been said.

In my opinion, the perfect RP is based on a fantasy world with an interesting setting we can leach off of, as well as interesting and new races with each their own background. I'm sorry, but if there are going to be more than one consciously sentient species on the usual archipelago, make them interesting.

That raises another question: What the hell is up with people and their f***ing islands?

Hmm...I'm having second thoughts on that.



I'm sorry if this is offensive, but Love/Deathsythe wasn't too great at it. Neither was Leon, whom shortly after Love did.



Thank you.

Of course, I have a short attention span, so tl;dr (Too long; Didnt read, well at least most of it on the second page, I read some on the first) I don't know why so many people like fantasy so much... I'm not much for those RP's.

I'm more for modern time Rps, or maybe survivor ones. Like a zombie RP or escaping from something, even if it's pretty generic. Simplicity is bliss. For me, at least.

I honestly think we're running out of good RPers here. I know there's a bunch of smaller RPers like me, who just can't make up a story by themselves. But then again, you always have that one RPer that sorta just makes ridiculous posts and characters.

It's not an issue that there's a lot of RPs in a similar genre if they all have original plots. No one complains about how many books there are that take place then, because they're all interesting, and that's what this forum needs.

The isn't a problem concerning setting plot.
If the general setting is well recieved, people apply, if not the topic dies.
The main problem, I repeat, is the overall quality of writing in IC posts.

I agree with Elli. These days, the number of long and quality IC's are disappearing, which results in multiple potentially good RP's dying.

... And that's why I have a list of people whom I will accept into my RPs.

Basically, you choose between a successful RP with a bunch of pathetic one-lined posts.

Or...

A successful RP that dies out after a few days, yet it has high-quality ICs.

We need Gunnerkrigg roleplay friends

I usually only take the apps and rps that seem to be good. Eventually, most of the not-so-good ones just stop. Which...kinda benefits.

I don't know if rejecting not-so-good applications is a good idea... On another forum, I accepted a role-player into my RP that wasn't really that great at first, but he got much better as the story progressed. Sometimes, people want to join and RP, but they can't think up good characters, but if they're accepted, they get better as they go.

EDIT: Also, on that forum, the role-players make insanely long and decent posts. I think it may be because they have seperate OoC and IC threads...

Scorpion, link me to that forum.

Here

Look at the Raven Tower in particular.

EDIT: On the locked Raven Tower thread, there's some really long posts on the second to last page.

EDIT: The funny thing is, all the RPs there take place in the same world (Not exacly the same place, but the same world.), so I don't think that the setting is this RP room's problem.

EDIT: Hmm... Everyone stopped posting in this thread.

The case of the 'dead guy who goes bad' doesn't apply to all the role-plays currently active AYF. True, there's two or three that have this element to it, but the rest differ from it. If I may suggest toning down your title, seeing as it makes you sound like you believe that every active role-play here is the same (50 says that...). If you're interested in people's interests, there have been a few threads concerning that a while back. You could go through them.

I too agree with Ellibereth when saying that the sample post can very much be the influence on which the decision of accepting him or her is based around. But that's not all for me. Whenever I start a role-play (elsewhere that is) I have to see the applicant's prowess in developing his or her character as well as the sample post. I hate seeing people apply with absolutely no idea or vision of who their character is and what general direction they want their character to go in. If I see all those negative things - I'll decline them instantly. Role-Playing isn't improvising (not necessarily). You don't make up a character quickly or respond to a post without any sense of what you're saying. You plan and plot. You respond in a certain way that suits your character. Unfortunately, some fail to see this.

Because of Charles Darwin, most people assume that the only way to have truly diverse cultures and species existing within an easily imaginable realm of existance is to seperate everyone onto tiny little islands. Truth be told, from a biological perspective, they're right. But I think most people just look for an easy way out, and that way is to plop down a bunch of unique islands onto a map and say that's the world. I'm guilty of combining that notion with the Runescape notion of "There's more to the world outside the black space, it's just not made yet" when I made FF:EoD. I tried to fix that in Fire Emblem, but I still ended up with islands. While the main continent may be many times larger than the surrounding islands, the fact still remains that in order to have two seperate cultures develop, I instinctively put them on two seperate islands (Anaco and Mu, if I recall correctly).
Although now that I think about it, I actually did make a roleplay once (it was never actually released, but I've got it saved in a PM from two years ago) that didn't involve a bunch of islands. I did the Hexias thing, where I actually built an entire world, and drew lines on a map seperating borders between different nations. I think that if a DM wants people to truly enjoy the world they create, then that world needs to be fleshed out before releasing the Rp in the first place.

On the topic of overpowered and god modding, it's actually not as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I mean, if you look at books and video games, the main protagonists don't actually lose that many fights, if any at all. While they're not all-powerful, Ellibereth-like beings at the start, they often grow to that point by the end, if anything so that they have a realistic chance of destroying whatever ultimate evil has its eye on world conquest/destruction.
However, this is not me giving the go-ahead for all characters to be overpowered in every single roleplay. Rather, people need to accept that not all characters are going to be the ultimate hero, and many characters will end up being support roles. While it's true what Zed Doomstar used to tell me, that all human players in an Rp are main characters, it's also true that not every character has the skills needed to make it to the end. If you've noticed in actual games and books, the cast list starts off small, swells towards the climax, and then dies off so that the final confrontation is between only a handful of individuals. If you want to touch the sky, you have to have people who are willing to offer you their shoulders to reach it. If we all try to reach the sky at once, none of us will ever make it to the top. Which is why, as Erebus has pointed out, weaker and minor characters are just as important to a story as big, loud, rough 'n tough characters. It's why in a lot of the more recent roleplays I've taken the time to join, I've decided to be the role of the healer or defender rather than a contender for the ultimate sword.

Oh, and one other thing to mention...
Final Fantasy: Era of Darkness was created by a noob. It began with a handful of self-professed beginner roleplayers, who were saddened by the closing of the Runescape Rp they had all joined and enjoyed, and wanted a new world to play in. I've often wondered just what exactly would have happened if I had not created FF:EoD, and we had instead gone with whatever idea Gingerdog was thinking of at the time. But that's neither here nor there; rather, the point of this is that you don't need to be considered an Rp god like Ellibereth in order to go places. All you need is a calm head, a couple of friends, and the persistence and tenacity required to hang onto an Rp until it reaches the end. I've done nothing special to become what I am today. I don't consider myself experienced or famous, or a 'veteran' of any sort. Rather, I'm just the same Rp'er I was three years ago, with nothing new to my name other than the experience, growth, and friends I've made and lost over the past three years.

Hmm... so, I really don't know what else to say after that. I guess the biggest thing to remember is to have fun with it, and just be yourself. Or rather, just be someone else! Oh, and we need more villains in the world. It's hard trying to come up with good antagonists every time, you know? I kinda poured out all my originality when I made It. Go make your own villains now, and be sure to create just as much backstory for them as you do for your protagonist.

The lack of rps that draw me in is the reason that I've mostly withdrawn from the rping room.

I do have an idea but with the disappearance of Xtel I just don't know much about continueing since the only other rper I really have a link with is Aliath. (We're a bit like drink buddies, on those drunken nights that we'll shout at eachother 'I WUB YOU MAN, I WUB YA' while manly tears would run down our cheeks)

That's sweet.

Hm? I wonder where in the world Xtel is?

I agree with everything you said, Silavor. Especially the villain part. Everyone seems to make all heroes or all villains so that they can be allies in the RP, when, in reality, at least one person should be an enemy, to make the RP more interesting.

Everybody needs a person to hate in the rp, but I also like a two-sided story. No one person is good or bad, and that makes it a better plot device.

For whomever said that wanted an Urban roleplay, I could try to organize one, but it's not my interest.
Btw I'll only be here for the weekend; back home. It seems back at camp somebody noticed I was sapping their bandwidth and took their wireless down.

I hope Silver Dawn and Serenia didn't fall under your '50' list; I bloody spent a month each thinking out plots, storylines, characters, and technology for those. Sol is pretty awesome as well.

Maybe we could have something like an RP Awards or something and the winner of each month gets a siggy proclaiming 'I Eatz Babiz' or something. This could get more people to post just so they could get bragging rights. Or it could backfire and the room would end up with people posting ridiculous role-plays in a desperate attempt to win.

There's been two Role-Play Awards in the past (if I'm not mistaken), one was hosted in the RP Room by Aliath and Xtel (see here), whilst another was hosted in Gingerdog's Blog (see here). Both seemed quite successful to me. However it would take a considerable amount of organization and preparation to host this.

The former one never took place.

This would be a great idea to drag in new people and get more active, I would love to help with this.