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General RP stuffs

I agree with Mike, in the sense that the Guild has had less activity lately than it has at times in the past. And we've seen a shift in the regular RPers that come here, it's really been years now for the Guild and so of course things change over time.

But I really think the Guild is only the way it is now because we're starting to get into ruts. Most RPs are expected to have some huge-butt post to start things off, people jump on newbies who try to make an RP but end up making maybe one or two paragraphs. I'm not knocking that because I want to see everyone helping each other become better RPers - but if we immediately have like four or five people posting only to tell the post starter that they need more detail in their RP, that can scare off people who might turn out to be good roleplayers.

I don't really know what it is lately - and I've hardly been roleplaying myself recently, though I really want to keep up with at least Forest of the Future even though it's dying off right now. But, maybe we're all setting our expectations a little too high, maybe we've lost sight of what makes RPs fun and interesting.

Now obviously we haven't lost it entirely, or else we wouldn't be having the activity that we do have. I'm not trying to paint a doom-and-gloom picture here. And in many ways we have a finer and more mature bunch now than ever. Long gone are the days of the "Golden Age" where the Guild used to be dominated by pseudo-FPS stories and war games that only included certain individuals who would not adapt to the changes that started happening where newer people wanted to create stories, really dramatic and powerful stories where you cared about what was happening to the characters. But, nevertheless, I think because we've gotten used to a higher standard, we're starting to lose people who may very well be fine RPers, given a little time and effort.

And remember, not every RP starts out with an epic starting post; some of the best RPs I've seen only started out with IC posts that began in a single sentence! Those of you around for the first Newbie RP, City Bound, know that thing just outright exploded thanks to the help of Gideon Kalve Jarvis. And that story actually reached an ending that everyone liked, or at least most of them liked; few RPs ever reach a proper ending like that. And how did it start off? With a huge honking OOC post, and a single sentence describing...I wrote the sentence myself and I don't even remember how it started. I think it was at the edge of Robotropolis. But that thread ended with thousands of well-written posts. And Forest of the Future became immediately popular as an RP and got a whole bunch of people to join it - and only more recently has died off like it has. It started off the same way that City Bound did, with a single sentence of IC!

Now, there was another newbie RP that was started out by Wayfarer - bless his heart, always trying to get people into new RP concepts and ideas, and hopefully has helped people think more creatively - that didn't explode with activity at first like the others, and in fact died fairly quickly. Why is that, when he wrote such a detailed and well-written first post?

I think that part of it is the general interests of everyone who is currently part of the Guild; not everyone likes stories about flying saucers and normal people. But I hypothesize that part of the reason the Guild is struggling in any way right now is because we are being too non-open in our minds to plot developments, character interactions. The newbie RPs were excellent because they allowed such a wide variety of characters but provided enough basic background - in a single sentence! - that people had a general feeling of what characters were and weren't allowed.

And there wasn't the feeling that the plot depended entirely on a single person to run the thread. That's something I see as a complaint for RPs dying all too often - "we were waiting for someone to post but they never did." And that's perfectly legitimate, but if you really are excited about an RP and somebody else isn't posting as fast as you like, PM them or otherwise contact them and let them know how excited you are and what you'd like to do. Maybe you'll excite them back into the RP, or at least you'll know if they're still actually interested or not in continuing.

But heck, some of the best RPs I've ever been in hardly featured the RP starter during it - I remember a number of occasions where the RP starter started an RP, but it took off without him or her and ended up being a blast. One of my very first RPs was in one of the "Golden Age" wargame RPs, and ironically enough it was one of the best experiences. I was RPing a robotic villain character along with two other players, a Chaos-allergic thief and a time-traveling echidna, and somehow they all got working together to fight against entire armies. But it didn't start out that way, in fact my character was directly at odds with the time traveler at first! But that's the wonderful thing about RPs, your characters make decisions seemingly on their own and when that happens, things seem to flow more smoothly and it becomes natural and fun to RP.

Maybe I'm harping about something that people don't see as a concern or disagree with. After all, the Guild isn't required to see a particular amount of activity per month or whatever. And I'm sure some people like having everything laid out for them exactly. But try to make the most of any RPing spark of inspiration you have for any story you're in or want to be in. And while a good framework of rules is good and important to start from, remember that some of the most successful RPs and most popular ones, began from only a single sentence of IC.