Role Play Cafe: General Discussion and hang out about RP itself.

[Noblejanobii]

I've always wanted to do a collaborative really hardcore fantasy story. Like just fantasy ALL THE WAY.

[Gef]

I played around with the idea of a high-fantasy RP, just in the context of what I think would make a unique roleplay premise and what I personally wanted to write, and I came up with this:

The players control members of the fae race, tiny arthropodal humanoids with antennae, wings, and other creepy-crawly features, and they would likely wield or at least have access to magical means. Certain fae-folk would form a questing party to essentially raid this huge manor, overwhelming for your average five-to-six-foot human being, never mind little bug people. Nonetheless, the queen of the faeries would be in attendance of a political event regarding peace treatise with leaders of the other races within this manor; she would have tasked this adventuring party with raiding initially to sort of give her an edge against her opponents. It's a morally-questionable reason for summoning your characters but, on the bright side, any goodies they will come across, inevitably, they get to keep! But essentially the RP would require in-character scheming and teamwork skills as the swashbucklers respond to orders from their queen to be secret nuisances during the event. There would also be secret intrigue plots the characters could tune onto and follow at different points, revealing more about the political situation and, possibly, the queen's real motives. I'm thinking I'd also like to encourage some creative writing skill-building with little writing events in the out of character thread where participants or even winners could gain in-character rewards.

There'd be a lot to it but it'd remain contained with a set ending, influenced by how creatively situations are addressed by the cast. The prevailing tone would be that of an old Brothers Grimm-style fairy tale while also being inspired by fantasy JRPGs; I think members of the party could fill classes (i.e. knight, rogue, bard...), but I'd want these to be player-selected, or at least more than just claiming one of six or seven pre-selected categories. The other fantasy races would of course be inspired by the classic elves, dwarves, etc. but would incorporate animalistic traits, just as the faeries resemble bugs. I imagine, in fact, the elves would be insidiously reptilian; forked tongues and slits-for-eyes!

[Soups]

I played around with the idea of a high-fantasy RP, just in the context of what I think would make a unique roleplay premise and what I personally wanted to write, and I came up with this:

The players control members of the fae race, tiny arthropodal humanoids with antennae, wings, and other creepy-crawly features, and they would likely wield or at least have access to magical means. Certain fae-folk would form a questing party to essentially raid this huge manor, overwhelming for your average five-to-six-foot human being, never mind little bug people. Nonetheless, the queen of the faeries would be in attendance of a political event regarding peace treatise with leaders of the other races within this manor; she would have tasked this adventuring party with raiding initially to sort of give her an edge against her opponents. It's a morally-questionable reason for summoning your characters but, on the bright side, any goodies they will come across, inevitably, they get to keep! But essentially the RP would require in-character scheming and teamwork skills as the swashbucklers respond to orders from their queen to be secret nuisances during the event. There would also be secret intrigue plots the characters could tune onto and follow at different points, revealing more about the political situation and, possibly, the queen's real motives. I'm thinking I'd also like to encourage some creative writing skill-building with little writing events in the out of character thread where participants or even winners could gain in-character rewards.

There'd be a lot to it but it'd remain contained with a set ending, influenced by how creatively situations are addressed by the cast. The prevailing tone would be that of an old Brothers Grimm-style fairy tale while also being inspired by fantasy JRPGs; I think members of the party could fill classes (i.e. knight, rogue, bard...), but I'd want these to be player-selected, or at least more than just claiming one of six or seven pre-selected categories. The other fantasy races would of course be inspired by the classic elves, dwarves, etc. but would incorporate animalistic traits, just as the faeries resemble bugs. I imagine, in fact, the elves would be insidiously reptilian; forked tongues and slits-for-eyes!

Hm... I'm definitely interested. While I may not be too hyped to RP such a.. strange being (it's pretty weird xD), it's a great way to broaden my horizons and attempt something new. I also like your idea to somehow include a reward system.

Here's my only concern. As Noble stated above, our community operates at a much slower pace than most. If you're expecting high activity, you MAY not get that. If you're fine with a slower paced RP, I don't see why you shouldn't go for it.

[Neo Emolga]

and I came up with this:

I like it! I've RPed faerie characters before and it's fun. I'm also part of the crew that feels the movie Strange Magic was awesome and sadly underrated. So this would definitely be something I could get into.

[LKWayvern]

Sometimes there are certain roleplays that I feel would work better on a chat server rather than a single thread on a forum... I tried running one of them before, and it was a bit hectic but also pretty interesting and different and I think everyone enjoyed. So now I'm trying it again with a different idea for a roleplay I had~ which may be slightly based off the plot for pxfire. slightly. it's much less dark though.

[Neo Emolga]

Sometimes there are certain roleplays that I feel would work better on a chat server rather than a single thread on a forum... I tried running one of them before, and it was a bit hectic but also pretty interesting and different and I think everyone enjoyed. So now I'm trying it again with a different idea for a roleplay I had~ which may be slightly based off the plot for pxfire. slightly. it's much less dark though.

I haven't really tried the chat-based ones that much, but from what I remember from many years back, they just weren't as descriptive and a lot of your success depended on how fast you could button-mash your responses. I remember having a character that wasn't even given a chance to fight back or respond before getting blown up in a helicopter crash just because I was putting in more detail and coming up with a clever way of responding. I honestly wasn't too crazy about that setup. Plus the god-modding and bunnying was on insane levels.

If it's on a forum, it just feels more like one of those turn-based RPGs where you can plan out your next moves and provide details before taking action rather than a button-masher game where speed is more important than quality. Not to mention you can post when you're fully ready and able to rather than having to set aside huge blocks of time for chat room RPing where you lose simply because you need to quit and do something else for a while.

[LKWayvern]

I haven't really tried the chat-based ones that much, but from what I remember from many years back, they just weren't as descriptive and a lot of your success depended on how fast you could button-mash your responses. I remember having a character that wasn't even given a chance to fight back or respond before getting blown up in a helicopter crash just because I was putting in more detail and coming up with a clever way of responding. I honestly wasn't too crazy about that setup. Plus the god-modding and bunnying was on insane levels.

If it's on a forum, it just feels more like one of those turn-based RPGs where you can plan out your next moves and provide details before taking action rather than a button-masher game where speed is more important than quality. Not to mention you can post when you're fully ready and able to rather than having to set aside huge blocks of time for chat room RPing where you lose simply because you need to quit and do something else for a while.

I don't run mine quite like that. It's more when I have multiple events occurring at the same time. For example, several matches going simultaneously in a tournament. Or two groups searching for different objects in different places.
And the whole 'short fast response' is a pet peeve of mine... So I tend to set aside a channel just for the rules, and specify what is and isn't allowed. I've had experiences with bunnying before, and each instance was very grating on my nerves.

Then again, I've never actually seen anyone else do server RPs on Discord outside a specific section of my circle of friends...

[Steel Lunpara]

I haven't really tried the chat-based ones that much, but from what I remember from many years back, they just weren't as descriptive and a lot of your success depended on how fast you could button-mash your responses. I remember having a character that wasn't even given a chance to fight back or respond before getting blown up in a helicopter crash just because I was putting in more detail and coming up with a clever way of responding. I honestly wasn't too crazy about that setup. Plus the god-modding and bunnying was on insane levels.

If it's on a forum, it just feels more like one of those turn-based RPGs where you can plan out your next moves and provide details before taking action rather than a button-masher game where speed is more important than quality. Not to mention you can post when you're fully ready and able to rather than having to set aside huge blocks of time for chat room RPing where you lose simply because you need to quit and do something else for a while.

Nah, Live RPs are my jam. There's a super easy fix for most of the issues there, actually: A GM. I get that there's always the guy who made the story, but having someone who controls most of the NPCs, determines the effectiveness of each attack (either by judgement or a dice system), who says what works and what doesn't, it gives the same kind of backbone longform has that's needed to sort out the chaos. It's all about what you look for in your RP, Longform and Live both fill some similar needs, but also satisfy some very different ones. Sometimes, you just don't need a paragraph per post. Sometimes, you need the combat to move at a quick pace. My buddies and I ran a single game for well over a year, and it went really well. We're doing a second campaign now, I'm playing as my last character's kid, and we've slowly transitioned our system to a heavily modified version of Dungeons and Dragons. It's super good stuff, if you haven't tried a more tabletop style game, I'd recommend it.

[Noblejanobii]

Chat box rps are actually quite fun if you know how to run them right. They're a bit chaotic and random but I enjoyed them for the time I did them. To be fair ours literally just involved a bunch of us interacting with no real plot but I mean we were all beginner rps so we just wanted practice getting used to the system of basic rps. We weren't in it for plot or detail at the time.

[Gef]

I'd argue a good roleplay wouldn't limit its audience to a word count minimum and be coordinated by a leader, not a compliant or retiring writer disengaged from their players. I'm always considered long-form ideal in constructing a traditional narrative with the added twist of it being composed by multiple writers, though my experience with live roleplaying is pretty much naught. But I'm attracted, perhaps to a naive extent, to the concept of the collaborative story. I will say it's hard to run a long-form roleplay correctly, however, due to a lot of misconceptions considering "literacy" (poor man's term for defining "writing well"). As I see it, a true game master that holds himself or himself responsible for the facets of their project rather than relying on and consequently blaming their players when things go sour is what is needed for an engaging experience.