What's putting you off joining in forum RPs?

The above is a 'multiple choice' poll, which confusingly means you can tick as many options as you feel apply to you.

I've created this poll to try and get to the bottom of what's putting our members off from joining in the PbP here. A Wayward Son has sort of died a death and nobody stepped forward when Sureshot and Lunarwolf opened the door to new players in Doom Amongst the Dunes and Dark Secrets.

This is an anonymous poll so you don't have to leave a comment although all comments are welcome.

Cheers!

(Edit: Perhaps one of the Admins could set up a dummy profile with Guild Member status and post the username/password? That way people could leave an honest anonymous comment without fear of scorn.)

Different reason.

I'm already in the Hyperion so I don't really want to start messing around with timelines and things. Also, in the Wayward Son, no one was replying to my post though Nosyd did say that he was struggling with real life. I suppose the setup made it so that you're reliant on your partner...

I cant vote in this Poll, I'm afraid.

There is no:

"I've ran out of RP to get involved in" Option

You read my mind Harewood, /beginrant

I've lost alot of motivation to join when the RPs fail, RoTC was my first on here I didn't post much but that ended due to BH leaving, AWS was put on hold because no one was posting (I've posted my thoughts for this on the discussion thread and accept responsibility for making it a bit difficult for members to post), then over on HoD we as characters were never really in the story more so plot developers for the other guilds and now that one looks dead :/
I would join the Hyperion but i would like to introduce one of my permanent characters first and not just have them "appear" in the guild with no intro, also making another one that i won't be using in game doesn't interest me right now, also the story atm (i'm a week behind reading right now) seems to be very guild focused with stories going on between other guilds and member, not outside civies etc.

Quote :

nobody stepped forward when Sureshot and Lunarwolf opened the door to new players in Doom Amongst the Dunes and Dark Secrets.

I can't remember when this was but SS offered me a place on DATD a fortnight ago on chat which i said I'd do, but he hasn't got back to me yet as he's busy.
DS and DATD have dragged on for months and it must be hindering the participators time to join or start new ones for the guild, if we could finishes them and focus on something new that we could all get behind we might get some more interest (we could even start a new one as a rescue team being sent to help the DATD characters?)
/end rant

Harlequin2 wrote:

Different reason.

I'm already in the Hyperion so I don't really want to start messing around with timelines and things. Also, in the Wayward Son, no one was replying to my post though Nosyd did say that he was struggling with real life. I suppose the setup made it so that you're reliant on your partner...

No worries Harl I did set it up for failure on that front

ps I'm not admin so can't do you clever suggestion

Yes, I thought AWS was inspired in it's design because it ensured players had someone to bounce off. But you're right, the flip side of that was if your partner wasn't posting you were stuck. So theres a good lesson to be learned there: if splitting players into groups then too small a group could lead to stalling.

The Hyperion though as I understand it a place for characters to spend their 'down time' when they're not off doing, er, 'propper (?)' stuff. It's an RP to drop in and out of. For instance if a bounty hunter-esque RP came along I'd write a post on the Hyperion thread excusing my Keel saying a job's come up. I don't think the Hyperion was ever meant to trap characters in one place^^

But your point about the timeline is also a good one, Harl. Unlike HoD and the Prax we're keeping timelines sort of vague, but perhaps we could start our own internal calendar or something. Not putting it into the wider ToR timeline but a listing of which order RPs/events take place in relation to one another. Would that help?

I can really only speak for the RP's I've instigated or had a big hand in, but:

The Hyperion: Harewood is right on the money with this one. The Hyperion is designed to be a casual RP which is open-ended with the express reason to allow players to "dip in and out" of roleplay at their leisure. Characters are in no way pinned down (I expect the occassional use of "[x]'s personal communicator goes off and after reading the text that appears on it he/she excuses himself/herself from the conversation, suddenly having an assignment to attend to" or words to that effect if a character is needed for an RP. Its designed for people to further explore their characters through social interaction and give others an idea of what to expect from each other. Even if people use characters they have no intention of using in-game, it gives us a chance to see how we all gel together as a group. Though its open-ended and has no real "plot", I've tried to add in lots of interesting stuff (and more stuff to come) to make it an interesting and lively place for characters to 'hang out' in.

Dark Secrets: This one's a bit of a toughy because it was always meant for a small group to give it both a large scope and claustraphoic feel. I admit that I'd like a lot more input with it (Sureshot and Harewood not withstanding, they've been ace ) seeing as Nex is not around often and Raiflaine and Black Heart dropped out, but that was why I opened the doors to 2 more spaces on the RP; which nobody took up.
I've got (what I consider) a good story behind this RP and while I appreciate some people might consider it taking it too long and just want them finished, I intend to see this story through to its natural conclusion rather than rush it and feel dissapointed (its about 3/4 done, incidently - its coming up to the investigation/conclusion/epic battle sequence quite soon). I know that people might just want to see it "done and dusted", but I'm not one of them! Putting the story together and trawling Wookiepedia for hours on end is hard work, I don't really want to drop it now.

All that said I think an RP that involves more of the Agents is a good idea. We have Sureshot's "A Lesson Taught" being chatted about, which sounds great but is another freeform RP. I personally think we could do with a story-driven RP that involves more Agents in a team capacity.

Lunarwolf wrote:

Dark Secrets: ...I know that people might just want to see it "done and dusted", but I'm not one of them! Putting the story together and trawling Wookiepedia for hours on end is hard work, I don't really want to drop it now.

Totally. I'm enjoying this RP and am in no rush for it to end^^

Quote :

All that said I think an RP that involves more of the Agents is a good idea. We have Sureshot's "A Lesson Taught" being chatted about, which sounds great but is another freeform RP. I personally think we could do with a story-driven RP that involves more Agents in a team capacity.

I might have something up my sleeve...

As I've said before: Forum RPing ain't mah thang.

Artekus wrote:

As I've said before: Forum RPing ain't mah thang.

Just so we know where we are, Arte; have you voted as such in the poll or is that vote not yours?

Harewood wrote:

Artekus wrote:

As I've said before: Forum RPing ain't mah thang.

Just so we know where we are, Arte; have you voted as such in the poll or is that vote not yours?

Yep, one of those votes was mine.

Artekus wrote:

As I've said before: Forum RPing ain't mah thang.

So long as "in-game" RP is your thing, I can sleep easy

Forum rp is not my thing.

Art & Zoran, I gotta commend you for stepping forward and saying as such, but as RP Director I have to say I'm a wee bit concerned.

What is it about ForumRP you're not keen on? is it the pace, lack of visual/audio stimuli?
It goes without saying that in-game RP will be quite a bit harder and a lot less forgiving (instant replies and the like) so I personally relish the opportunity to get in some RP here where you can take time with your replies and consider the way your character phrases things.

(Nobody would be impressed with Vader going "Yeah, give beats to those rebel scum, yo?" in the Star Wars movies! Don't worry, I'm just making a point not being a plumb...)

I appreciate its only optional, but I've personally disagreed with this on Sure plenty of times and he knows my viewpoint that I think ForumRP should be manditory for an RP guild who have no other way of interacting "in-character" until the game releases.

Do me a favour please guys, reassure me I'm worrying about nothing, would'ya?

Well, I have a hard time to find a role for my character, I do try but it seems like my character just blends into the crowd and stays that way.

Charada wrote:

Well, I have a hard time to find a role for my character, I do try but it seems like my character just blends into the crowd and stays that way.

You need some air-time in a structured RP

I just dont like participating in them, dont doubt that i dislike ingame rp as that is one of my favourite things about mmos but forum rp Ive never been much of a fan of, for it its the fact that the story and setting has to be something i would like, i admit i did used to forum rp sometimes on wow but i had a proper rp story and stuff when i haven't made one yet here, maybe when the game comes out and i actually have a proper rp story ill be more into, but at the moment its not my thing.

Easy poll this, I don't even have to vote!

As you know I've currently been involved in The Hyperion, Dark Secrets, and the two that I'm running or have completed The Swollen Shaak Cantina and Doom Amongst the Dunes. Needless to say I'm a very busy guy at the min and if I didn't have PJK and L-Dubz around to cover me I don't think I'd have the time to do it at all. I'm ok with members not doing forum RP as you know but thats why I added the new rule that Initiates must take part. If I find we get in game and people don't roleplay I will indeed start removing members as really thats what our entire guild is about. Roleplay first, PvP, power-levelling and everything else is secondary. I will also be making a rule whereby if members don't participate in RP in game and don't appear for 3 roleplay sessions in a row they shall also be removed.

Oh and as for PJK, sorry about that mate I was extremely busy all last week so I didn't have time to add you to teh RP. I'll mail you shortly and we'll work out a way to bring in your character.

Yeah I would like to see more people involved with the RP on here purely for the fact that I'd like the opportunity to meet your characters.

My only problem with RP on here is that it goes waaaaaaaay too fast. Some posts seem like no effort has been put in and sometimes it feels a bit rushed so it's a nightmare to keep up with it. Thats my only real issue with it though.

Oh one more thing I forgot to put, I find this option a bit strange in all fairness and I'm quite surprised someone voted on it:

I'd think about joining if GMs were tougher on non-posters.

How are we supposed to be tougher exactly? Kick them from the guild for missing 1 RP post? lol! Sounds a bit over the top!

Its no problem SS i was just mentioning it to show I'm actually interested in getting into some RP, oh and I agree especially the Hyperion it moves so fast nowadays that said I can't remember any um lazy? posts by our regulars
Oh LW I might set up a short story to flesh out that character we talked about, then tail end it into DS.

Oh yeah I totally agree that the GTC made a shambles of that RP and it just goes to show their inexperience. I was referring to them more than anything.

Sureshot wrote:

Oh one more thing I forgot to put, I find this option a bit strange in all fairness and I'm quite surprised someone voted on it:

I'd think about joining if GMs were tougher on non-posters.

How are we supposed to be tougher exactly? Kick them from the guild for missing 1 RP post? lol! Sounds a bit over the top!

Good point. By including this option I thought I was giving people the opportunity to express the possible opinion that having to sit through many weeks of twiddling their thumbs while GMs gave slow players a more-than-fair chance to post was what put them off joining RPs.

To answer your question, I think GMs could be tougher on non-posters by sticking more closely to the weekly update days (RL allowing ofc), and also by making L-Dubz's excellent SCS system...

Lunarwolf wrote:

THESE ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL ROLE-PLAY RULES THAT GOVERN ALL PLAY-BY-POST, THIS IS FOR DARK SECRETS ONLY.

DARK SECRET RULES

* Players who are away on L.O.A (Leave of absence) and have stated as such in the Absences Thread will enter SCS (Storyteller Controlled Status) and become an NPC (Non-player character) until they return.

* Players who do not post for 7 days without L.O.A will enter S.C.S

* Players who do not post for 14 days without L.O.A will be written out of the story (note this does not mean killed off)

...guild policy (and actively enforcing it).

No I don't think that getting tough by dolling out punishments would encourage anyone to roleplay. But removing elements which impede smooth and timely progress in RPs might. I don't think it's all that strange^^

PrioryJK wrote:

Oh LW I might set up a short story to flesh out that character we talked about, then tail end it into DS.

Huzzah!

RE: SCS System:
I think that worked ok actually, I think the RP may have grind to a halt without that being put in place. It definately does work because Nex still comes and goes without a problem and Fuze and Raiflaine were safely written out in case they return.

I'd like to offer my help to the anonymous member who's having some trouble finalising their character. I've built a whole bunch of them for myself, so I think I sort of know what I'm doing^^

If you want you can PM me and we'll see if we can firm up your character's background together. Or if you'd prefer an Officer to help you out I'm sure they won't mind my volunteering their assistance either!