Random Topic V3

[Iceking]

G4E:I hijack the Wraith.

[Godzilla Forever]

Yah har! Of course!

[Giratina93]

Well, withhe MH topic made, this place will become almost as much of a ghost town as the actual forums (I've simply lostall interest in ISS, while I'm waiting for TT in FRPG and DM in DRPG... SHRPG will be attended to in just a minute...)

I'm gonig to be here by myself for the next two days, which means... LOADS OF FORUM ATTENTION FROM ME!

[Godzilla Forever]

Don't worry, I'm here!

I just don't feel like posting. I've been.... busy.

[Iceking]

Still waiting for DM to post in DIRPG and EE to post in ISS RPG.

[Evil Eye]

I was actually waiting myself, in case you wanted to make a post 'waking up' Maloriak first haha. But alright then.

[Iceking]

Posted for you, EE.

[Giratina93]

Listening to the beautiful Okami soundtrack... And now that I am motivated once more... FANFICT PROGRESS AHOY!

Bowser: ...and now, a word from our sponsers...

[Galaxia]

As for me I've been in an ISSR rut for some time now

It's sad to see a forum that's been going so long begin to slow down

[The Kingpin]

who said it's slowing down? only problem at the moment is school and RL getting in the way. The reason activity's gradually dropping is that people are getting older, so their free-time isn't what it used to be. And considering you're frequently disappearing for week long stretches, It's no surprise you would think the site's dying. you're hardly here enough to judge

On a side note however, I noticed one or two people say they're getting bored in the RPGs. there are numerous ways to entertain yourself and keep things interesting in an RPG. two methods in particular come to mind. the first [and preferred if you have the initiative and commitment to do it] is to start your own plot. preferably one that isn't built on an event-to-event basis [I noticed this problem with Gira's Germania plot until TT and Dm jumped in to stir things up and make things interesting. planning things in such a way that it went (using that plot's example) Pope is killed --> new pope elected --> assassination plot revealed --> new pope is framed --> sent to prison to await execution. This keeps people away because 1) They don't get the overall theme of the plot, 2) They aren't sure how much further it's going to go before it runs out of steam and stops and 3) The plot seems to be on rails, with no possibility of being influenced by other members. hence, rather than drawing in participants to stir things up and make things interesting, you drive them AWAY].

Now don't get me wrong, I respect Gira for putting the effort to make a plot in the first place. However, he can learn from these mistakes and avoid them in the future, and maybe even correct the plot to make it more interesting. For example, say, someone breaks the framed pope out of prison. Say there's an eye witness who saw an exchange between two people earlier that month that seemed shady. say this whole assassination is part of something much bigger [I may go on to develop something along those lines myself to assist the plot. toss in another angle perhaps]. the former pope and victim of the conspiracy could then decide to head along with a friend [say, in this case, that one trader girl who's supposedly close to her and has a background in life outside the cities] to track where these guys were last seen heading. try and pick up a trail.

This brings me to option number two: Joining an already running plot. Using my example with FRPG, A member whose observant here can pick up on the plot, and maybe want to toss in an idea or two, or maybe an entirely new angle, for the sake of amusement. They can toss in their own elements, their own motives. say for example, they have a character whose been searching for leads for ages and runs into the girls. they hear their story and then tell them that this conspiracy isn't the first of it's kind and their own home town faced something similar and they believe it may be connected. see what I mean? here you get a flowing plot that's interesting and ever-changing. So what the main participants of this plot had originally planned may not end up being the way the plot actually plays out. Other members get involved, other angles come up and suddenly the plot goes in a completely new direction that nobody expected.

I can give you another example of this: DIRPG. Near the beginning, the group split in half. the majority stuck with Barnes and Dodgson, while Jacob and David went rogue, initially out of the belief that the larger concentration of people and the potential mistakes they could make would get them killed. later on however, as Dm revealed Jenkins and the odd things about the facility [example being the ballistic destruction and lack of bodies], he opened up new venues for the plot. Simply following Barnes and Dodgson without doing some of your own development or investigation into the surroundings would leave you with a very boring rail-plot where you basically just tag along from beginning to end, with barely more than a random boring conversation between you to keep you interested until the next planned event. While the main group's basically having a tour, Jacob and David [controlled by myself and by CS, respectively] begin piecing together what happened to try and figure out what was really going on. They noted the lack of bodies, the ballistic damage, the lack of massive amounts of dry blood-pools from bodies, the fact Jenkins was the only survivor, the fact he had mild control over at least one of the animals, the fact all the computers had been purged or smashed. it looks like a cover-up. Next thing you know, there's this conspiracy theory going where Jacob and David believe that Jenkins is using the group to escort him to a meeting place, after which they'll be killed off by his original contacts, he gets away, sells his information to them [or their employers] for a few million dollars and escapes government detection. So now Jacob and David are racing after them to try and get to them before the trap is sprung.

This is a shining example of how improvisation can improve your experience in an RPG. it becomes more fun, and more desirable as a place to go to when you're bored, instead of being something you avoid BECAUSE you're bored.

[TyrannoTitan]

TL;DR version: If you say "SITE IS SLOWING DOWN SADFACE" and don't do anything to help solve the problem, YOU ARE A BAD PERSON.

[Evil Eye]

Say, outta curiosity, since everything restarted, will we ever be putting the NYC move into play again, in the future?
I was reading the topic, and a lot of interesting ideas were seemingly never put into effect if I remember correctly, (such as raptors controlling the subway tunnels, for easy protection against larger predators, etc, as someone had mentioned).

[C S]

That was used, actually. Aircrest came across a band of tunnel dwellers that belonged to doc

Missed are the days when he was involved in the RPGs

[TyrannoTitan]

Its unlikely it will be used again. Something similar may happen in the distant future, but we kinda want to avoid doing the same thing over and over.

[raptor titanus3]

I want to join in but... I kind of locked myself in on several fronts. Personal life cost me several chances as well as putting myself into a corner waiting on others like Gira, I wasn't at all expecting the whole murder to catch up so quickly and then have him run off with Armadillo man . Not to mention the fact that "magical sources" are being horribly mutated leaves my only fully functional group land-locked, their very world lives due to magic water sources that give life to the extreme cold of Upper Midgard. If I left any kind of opening all source of life would pretty much go belly up as their most important foundation to life is infected . For anything else I don't know who to turn to, plus I've been contemplating changing my name so I'm not seen as the the creepy imitator of TT (I'm starting to doubt I could have been the same person back then). I could actually have completely viable options but I'm just not sure whether or not they conflict with Site rules or other issues.

[Giratina93]

Sorry RT... Didn't mean to lock you out like that... I ws actually waiting for you to post...

And I do apologise for all the "Event-based only" plots... (Is it me, or are a number of problems here stemming from me?) That was just the main thing I could think of... I'll try and open up more for others to join in and have some fun...

[The Kingpin]

note: not all magical sources are being 'horribly mutated', and it's not absolute. It may happen, yes. but it isn't a one shot KO thing. additionally, it's still relatively localised. Notice that now, Dm's wizard character is not turning into a monstrous beast [the attack he got in my post has nothing to do with the mutation thing. that's TT's handiwork. All I did was have a Demon go 'ooh, looky, wizard, let's have a taste' and try and jump in his head.

Additionally, you could use this to create a plot. The whole idea of an RPG is to adapt to change. that's what makes it interesting. things change. action and reaction. something happens, you react to it. disaster strikes, you find a way to solve it.

also, at this point in time your characters shouldn't exactly know about this magical mutation thing. they haven't seen it or heard of it, so for now, they're clueless. play on those grounds.

You have loads of chances to adapt and continue posting. you just need to think outside the box a bit. look for work arounds. someone builds a wall in your way? climb over it, find a way around it or smash through it depending on circumstance. get what I mean?


TT never intended for this to actually STOP people from posting. it's a challenge to make things interesting, to ENCOURAGE people to post. so now instead of people waltzing around going "hum de dum de dum FIREBALL WHEEE FIREBALL WHEEE FIREBALL WHEEE", it's now "Hum de dum de dum FIREBALL WHEE FIREBALL WHEE FIREBALL WH-OW GOD MY HEAD SOMEBODY HELP.....damn....wtf was with the random mindrape?"

hell, non magical characters are, to my understanding, completely immune to the mutation problem. you could actually build a quest around that. bunch of wizards gradually notice what's going on, connect the dots and figure out normal people are safe, assemble a team and tell them to kill the cause. epic journey ahoy.



as for Gira, you should consider the advice. apply it. I've given you some plot options there. consider them, develop them, construct new ones. be dynamic as a writer. that's what seperates best selling authors from random hobbyist writers. it's the will to press themselves and be dynamic in their plot conceptualisation.

[Giratina93]

I will consider the avice, Kp... and I will embrace it!

[Godzilla Forever]

As of now, I'm dealing with Nitsunobue's attempt to break away from the thing that has defeend him for over 300 years: insanity. Which is why Anarchy and tranquility keep getting brought up.

[The Kingpin]

all the while being pestered by a Demon that's debating whether or not to totally break his mind before possessing him

what will actually happen of that event, even I don't know.