~Fading Twilight~ DISCUSSION THREAD

Started by WhiteRose, September 02, 2013, 06:32:24 pm

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WhiteRose

The RP is going great so far! Everyone is doing a fantastic job of giving their characters personality and shaping their world.

I have noticed a trend of people introducing additional characters, which is great! However, I also want to make sure that I don't step on anyone's toes as I continue with my own narration. I try to avoid controlling your main characters when at all possible, because I want you to each feel in control of yourselves, but what are your thoughts on the additional characters? I think there's a bit of balance involved. On one hand, I want people to feel free to shape their characters lives and background, and fully immerse themselves in the game. Other people are an important part of your background and environment, so it's natural and expected for everyone to add minor characters to help spice up the story and expand the game world. (Vell's introduction of the innkeeper at the Red Dragon was a perfect example of this. That was great!)

However, at some point, this does start to approach the line where the RP is no longer a game, but instead more of a community driven story, with each person being a narrator and an author, knowing the thoughts and actions of everyone on the metaphorical stage. Because of this, I feel that the actions of major, plot-important characters (aside from each person's individual character, of course) should usually be under the control of the one running the RP. Now, again, there's a bit of balancing to be done here, as having everything in the entire environment run by me would take away a lot of your creative liberty as players, which I definitely don't want to do. I don't want to take away your ability to flesh out the lives and backgrounds of your characters, and I don't want to replace characters that you introduce with my own versions of them that don't meet your expectations as to the actions and personality of those characters. I certainly don't want to limit this to a "choose your own adventure," where each of your responses is only a single sentence, followed by you waiting to see what happens next. So, there will be times where it is necessary for a player to take control of other character (in very rare cases, even other players' characters!) in order to be able to type more than a few words.

So, we have a matter of balance on our hands here. I want to make this the type of RP that you would all enjoy the very most, whether that be through each of you having complete creative liberty over the characters and plot, or whether that means limiting the player's realm of control to their own individual character.

What are everyone else's thoughts on the matter? Maybe I'm the only one who has even noticed anything at all, and everything looks fine to everyone else. If others are also noticing a bit of a problem, maybe we should start outlining a few loose guidelines for posts. For example (and this is just an example,) if someone wants to introduce a new character with any sort of importance to the story, rather than creating the character as part of their post, they can PM me with information about the character and allow me to integrate them as part of my next post.

No one has done anything wrong, so there's no need to feel that you've posted incorrectly or anything like that. Everyone is doing really great! I just want to make sure that we have things established so that everyone will be able to have the most fun possible.

Dreaming Sun

Oddly enough I was just mentioning this to Vell earlier. I was surprised with the control other players had (not that surprise was a bad thing!) over other NPCs since in general my background involves non-PC characters to e mainly within the domain of the creator since you'll never know how important they'll be to the plotline. I guess as a result of being more used to that style, that's what I'm more comfortable with (and why I was somewhat worried when my post ended with a tiny bit of dialogue). Still, freedom in the world is always great and it would be silly (not to mention slightly unfair on you since you'd need to put in all the effort; great job so far by the way) if the story was completely run by you and we just fool around within it. Overall, personally I'd probably find it best if non-consequential characters (say, for about 4-5 posts) are freely able to created and run. Just named NPCs left to you should be left to you, while characters that should last any longer should be run past you to make sure they rigidly fit in to the setting.

... I'd type more but on the way to school so there's my quick two cents hope it helps. Also why does Leon's home  have the same name as Sofia's sword ;~;

Vell

Yeah when I woke up today I wondered if I'd overstepped. I forgot I wasn't writing a book. >.< woops!

WhiteRose

Quote from: Vell on September 02, 2013, 11:32:29 pm
Yeah when I woke up today I wondered if I'd overstepped. I forgot I wasn't writing a book. >.< woops!


Hahaha. No worries. Like I said, no one really did anything wrong. I just figured we might as well get this all figured out now so that it doesn't cause any problems later.

I apologize for still not having responded to people yet - I wanted to make sure that we got this sorted out first.

I really like Dreaming Sun's idea. How about we establish a guideline that players are free to create as many incidental characters as necessary, but anyone who is going to be involved in the story on a plot level should first be run by me, after which either I or the player who wants to introduce the character can add them into the story? As for characters already created, the same principle applies. Perhaps the biggest problem is that I, as the storyteller, am not aware of the level of involvement you'd like these characters to have. So, we'll just do the same thing - we'll assume all introduced characters are incidental, but if one of the characters that you've introduced is meant to be more permanent, send me a PM, and we'll work it into the story. :) I'll still generally take control of all characters other than your own personal characters, of course, but this will allow players to introduce people that their character has met, and so on. Does that sound like a good, happy medium for everyone?

PhoenixFire

Quote from: WhiteRose on September 02, 2013, 11:56:26 pm
Does that sound like a good, happy medium for everyone?


Works for me.



In addition to this, one way that I sometimes work within an RP, is that I allow the storyteller to create any large changes, or move me from area to area. Like this first iteration: I was placed in the tavern, so I told my part of the story, using interactions that prior players put down, relevant to where I was. I then added my own parts into it, and allowed for a way for the storyteller to either keep me in the tavern (maybe I'm supposed to witness an event or something), or to move me out somewhere else.


EDIT: I just went to go copy a part from my reply, but it looks like it didn't post.... And I'm not going to re-type it tonight, so, I will get it back at some point tomorrow. WR feel free to move people along without me, as I can catch up quick. I don't have much planned for my part yet, other than witnessing the convo in the tavern, and some "third-party" observations about the characters in the tavern. I end up heading out into the rest of the city from the tavern to shop some of the stores, and head towards the tower... and that's all I had added so far. I'll catch up, so, yeah, don't wait up for me =p
Quote from: Subsonic_Noise on July 01, 2011, 02:42:19 amNext off, how to create a first person shooter using microsoft excel.

Quote from: Zeriab on September 09, 2011, 02:58:58 pm<Remember when computers had turbo buttons?

SBR*

September 03, 2013, 11:12:09 am #5 Last Edit: September 03, 2013, 11:17:09 am by SBR*
Quote from: Dreaming Sun on September 02, 2013, 06:49:28 pm
Also why does Leon's home  have the same name as Sofia's sword ;~;


I honestly hadn't noticed that... I'm sorry; I'll edit my post. I mainly needed a home town for Leo and ended up overestimating how far a mile was. I'll make Farrance Leo's home town and make him escort a caravan to a different town. I've never participated in an RP before, so feel free to correct me if I do anything else wrong.

Anyway, I like Dreaming Sun's idea as well. I didn't really have plans for Leo anyway, aside from Azimuth travelling with him for a little while.

Vell

Well yeah, a barkeep and cook are more or less incidental. My primary worry was assigning my own quest like that. After waking I debated cutting that out, but wlel, I figure it's always possible moving forward to have osmething distract the character.

I mean, when I GM and a character does that, I have somehting happen to them which causes the character to move in a different direction. And then later something comes back to bite the character for forgetting to fulfill what the player added in. Teehee (I can be mean).

Dreaming Sun

September 03, 2013, 03:01:15 pm #7 Last Edit: September 03, 2013, 03:03:42 pm by Dreaming Sun
Quote from: Vell on September 03, 2013, 12:13:25 pm
I mean, when I GM and a character does that, I have somehting happen to them which causes the character to move in a different direction. And then later something comes back to bite the character for forgetting to fulfill what the player added in. Teehee (I can be mean).
Rose, I humbly request you do this just this once c:

Also it's absolutely nothing SBR I was just mentioning I found it funny! I was actually slightly-brainstorming ideas if I could give the sword an origin somewhere in that village sice I found it a pretty cool coincidence. May I ask how you came up with the name?

Vell

Well yeah, I was pretty much inviting that *shrug*

SBR*

September 03, 2013, 04:20:47 pm #9 Last Edit: September 03, 2013, 04:27:48 pm by SBR*
Quote from: Dreaming Sun on September 03, 2013, 03:01:15 pm
Quote from: Vell on September 03, 2013, 12:13:25 pm
I mean, when I GM and a character does that, I have somehting happen to them which causes the character to move in a different direction. And then later something comes back to bite the character for forgetting to fulfill what the player added in. Teehee (I can be mean).
Rose, I humbly request you do this just this once c:

Also it's absolutely nothing SBR I was just mentioning I found it funny! I was actually slightly-brainstorming ideas if I could give the sword an origin somewhere in that village sice I found it a pretty cool coincidence. May I ask how you came up with the name?


My head had started connecting the Tower and the color blue (blue robes etc.) and I wanted to give the town a name that would fit within my mental image of the Tower and its surroundings. That's how I came up with that name. However, it may also be because I had read Sofia's character bio containing the name a few days before, of course. If you want to give the sword an origin in the village, I could change the name of the town back to Azura (or perhaps Azure?). Nothing has happened after my post yet, after all.

Dreaming Sun

Huh, go figure. The Blue -> Azure -> Azura process was the exact same logic train I had. It would be a long and rather pointless explanation, but basically Sofia'll have a lot of blue stuff going for her (also in The Wise Man'd Fear the main character's sword was called Caesura/Kaesera so it probably helped Azura sound awesome to me). I actually had the idea of a blue-cloaked Sofia first so seeing the mages had to wear blue made me all happy inside xD Anyway it's up to you whether you want to change it or not: I already feel bad for having you edit on my part once already...

SBR*

Quote from: Dreaming Sun on September 03, 2013, 06:14:09 pm
Huh, go figure. The Blue -> Azure -> Azura process was the exact same logic train I had. It would be a long and rather pointless explanation, but basically Sofia'll have a lot of blue stuff going for her (also in The Wise Man'd Fear the main character's sword was called Caesura/Kaesera so it probably helped Azura sound awesome to me). I actually had the idea of a blue-cloaked Sofia first so seeing the mages had to wear blue made me all happy inside xD Anyway it's up to you whether you want to change it or not: I already feel bad for having you edit on my part once already...


Don't feel bad for having me edit my part. In fact, I feel rather silly for not remembering when I was writing it that your sword was named Azura as well. Anyway, I have to admit it is quite the coincidence, so I'll change it back tomorrow morning. After all, those funny coincidences are inherent to RPing and it would be great if they could grow into something amazing.

WhiteRose

Quote from: SBR* on September 03, 2013, 11:12:09 am
I honestly hadn't noticed that... I'm sorry; I'll edit my post. I mainly needed a home town for Leo and ended up overestimating how far a mile was. I'll make Farrance Leo's home town and make him escort a caravan to a different town. I've never participated in an RP before, so feel free to correct me if I do anything else wrong.

Anyway, I like Dreaming Sun's idea as well. I didn't really have plans for Leo anyway, aside from Azimuth travelling with him for a little while.


You didn't do anything wrong - I hadn't established any sort of rules or anything on the matter, so what you did was perfectly fine. There wasn't any harm done.

Quote from: Vell on September 03, 2013, 12:13:25 pm
My primary worry was assigning my own quest like that. After waking I debated cutting that out, but wlel, I figure it's always possible moving forward to have osmething distract the character.

Haha. No worries. I thought your post was great! I didn't really give you much to work with, so I'm actually glad that you were able to make something out of it. Don't worry - I have plans for you, but just needed to find a way to get the ball rolling. ;)


@DigitalSoul: Sorry that your post didn't get posted. D: That's the worst. I'll probably move things ahead, since we don't want to lose momentum after stalling so long, but I'll try and keep you in a position where you should be able to re-use a lot of your ideas, so no worries. :)

PhoenixFire

Quote from: Subsonic_Noise on July 01, 2011, 02:42:19 amNext off, how to create a first person shooter using microsoft excel.

Quote from: Zeriab on September 09, 2011, 02:58:58 pm<Remember when computers had turbo buttons?

WhiteRose

Quote from: DigitalSoul on September 03, 2013, 09:22:41 pm
I'm retyping it now lolz


Awesome! :D I'll type up the response as soon as you're finished.

PhoenixFire

Quote from: Subsonic_Noise on July 01, 2011, 02:42:19 amNext off, how to create a first person shooter using microsoft excel.

Quote from: Zeriab on September 09, 2011, 02:58:58 pm<Remember when computers had turbo buttons?

Vell

Note: In order to keep bogging down the RP with communication between players, perhaps it would be best if it could be arranged for, if two or more players' characters are going to get into a conversation, they could rp it in skype or some other instant messaging medium which permanently stores the backlog, and then type it out fully / in longer parts, so that a conversation consisting of like, 5 sentences back and forth doesn't take up half a page or more.

WhiteRose

Quote from: Vell on September 03, 2013, 11:26:13 pm
Note: In order to keep bogging down the RP with communication between players, perhaps it would be best if it could be arranged for, if two or more players' characters are going to get into a conversation, they could rp it in skype or some other instant messaging medium which permanently stores the backlog, and then type it out fully / in longer parts, so that a conversation consisting of like, 5 sentences back and forth doesn't take up half a page or more.


That's a fantastic idea. I remember that we did that quite frequently in some of the RPs in which I've participated, and it worked very well.

By the way, the latest post is up. Vell posted while I was typing, but it actually still fits in well with my response, so no worries. :)

Vell

@DigitalSoul: If you want to continue the thing where Alfred's following Angel, perhaps you could segment your post into two parts? One before plot, one during plot. Allowing that WhiteRose is agreeable, of course.

SBR*

September 04, 2013, 04:04:08 pm #19 Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 04:08:45 pm by SBR*
Quote from: Dreaming Sun on September 03, 2013, 06:14:09 pm
Huh, go figure. The Blue -> Azure -> Azura process was the exact same logic train I had. It would be a long and rather pointless explanation, but basically Sofia'll have a lot of blue stuff going for her (also in The Wise Man'd Fear the main character's sword was called Caesura/Kaesera so it probably helped Azura sound awesome to me). I actually had the idea of a blue-cloaked Sofia first so seeing the mages had to wear blue made me all happy inside xD Anyway it's up to you whether you want to change it or not: I already feel bad for having you edit on my part once already...


Alright, I've edited my post; the town is called Azura again. I tried to undo most changes I had made to it in the first place, as I guess making any changes to old posts is kind of against the spirit of role-playing.

@WR: How far from the Tower is Farrance? Is it more than a day's walk?