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How To Create Your Own RP.; Options, And Things To Consider.
Tweet Topic Started: Mar 29 2007, 03:30 PM (300 Views)
Post #1 Mar 29 2007, 03:30 PM Project.Seeds
So you've got a great idea for your own text-roleplay? Well that's great, as everyone has interesting ideas and people love to participate in them. But to help make things easier, and to set up your RP here at RPSH, there are some things that we recommend you consider:

Is your RP more Official or Freeform?
If your RP has a specific storyline that you want participants to follow, then your RP would be considered an Official RP, or an OTRP.

If your RP has no set storyline, and everyone just kind of builds upon it through each post then your RP is more of a Freeform RP, or FFRP.

Neither is better than the other, but each do have their respective sections. FFRP's are collected under the Freeform Roleplays sub-forum, while each OTRP receives its own sub-forum due to their collection of rules and RP topics.

One more thing to consider is approval. FFRP topics can be created at whim and without any guidelines, while OTRP's must be formally proposed here in this sub-forum and granted approval by the Administrator and the majority of the membership. OTRP's get their own sub-forum and are usually quite large; so why go to so much effort in constructing your RP if no one will join it? This is why we have formal proposal topics for OTRP's, this way you can get a feel of what interest there is for your RP. Also, members suggest and/or criticize ideas or present new ones, helping to refine your idea so it is more enjoyable and/or developed.

Freeform Roleplay (FFRP)

If your RP is a freeform RP then all you need to do is think up of a prompt to get things started. For The Inn, which started out as an FFRP, the prompt was nothing more than, "You stumble across an inn atop a lonely hill. Though foreboding, you can hear the voices of many guests inside. It is night, and raining heavily, so you decide to walk inside..."

From there, RPers come up with characters as they wish, and gradually forge a storyline of their own. Sometimes this occurs just by the characters' going down one adventure after another, until eventually you can weave all those adventures together into one distinct storyline. For example, The Inn in its present form is actually the merging of two Freeform RP's. Both topics shared many story elements and references, and in a bout of creativity those who were playing those stories just decided to meld them together.

This is just about it for the FFRP process. As you can see, it is very simple and very open. The one downside to this liberty is a lack of rules; everyone basically plays by the honor system. But in truth, because there is no distinct authority people can do pretty much whatever they want. If you prefer a more ordered RP, or just one where people follow your storyline, then you would probably be better off with an OTRP. Granted, the process of making OTRP's is more complex, and has more things to consider.

Official Text Roleplay (OTRP)

OTRP's give you, the RP Creator, more control. For one thing, you have physical control over the topics and posts as each RP Creator is given moderator status over their RP's sub-forum. Secondly, the storyline proceeds as you wish it to, as opposed to in FFRP's where the storyline changes by everyone. Thirdly, you have final say in how the RP progresses, as it is your RP.

However as they say, "with great power comes great responsibility." The downside to having such authority over the RP is that you, in turn, are bound to it. Yes, the RP is your baby, but you must care and nurture this baby. Constant involvement is required, you cannot just start the RP and leave it at that. Participants expect you to create the world they are RPing in, and also expect you to continue to develop that world. This includes the storyline, you must be able to continually advance it and keep the plot interesting. An example of such things is newly introduced races, lands, and items. Another, and extremely popular one, is world events. These are earth-shattering incidents that hold consequences for the entire universe that is your RP, and everyone is affected by them. What is nice about world events is they "keep things fresh;" being in that they are so sporadic and influential they keep RPers on their toes and give them excitement and new things to look forward too.

Character Creation
All text-roleplays have characters, they are not only crucial to the story but are the story. In most, but not necessarily all, participants in the RP are asked to create a “character sheet,” which is a collection of all of their character’s important statistics. These can include the basics from Name, Age, Race, and Class/Profession to more complex fields like History, Appearance, Fighting Specialty, etc. In truth, because each RP is its own universe character sheets would usually be tailored to the specifics of that RP. The RP Creator, you, may already have a list of required information fields to be filled out in order to coincide with your world.

The purpose of a character sheet is so that everyone, from you to all the other participants, has a complete and convenient source of reference to each character. This cuts back on “godmodding,” in the regard that characters cannot simply “have always had” equipment that wasn’t listed in their sheet. Also, it allows the character to be identified within the RP itself.

It is ultimately up to you how detailed character sheets must be, or whether they are required at all. For the sake of mystery, formal character sheets may be omitted. Also, sometimes participants may not wish to totally reveal all aspects of their character; however the extent of this should be carefully monitored.

Other objects of consideration:

What will I be supplied with for my OTRP?
The Administrator will supply you with a sub-forum for your RP, an OOC section for your RP within that sub-forum, any additional sub-forums as necessary (like for character creation, background info, world areas, etc.), and moderator status over your RP's sub-forum.

But from then on out you are on your own. You will have to set up topics and rules according to your RP, and it will be up to you to enforce them. Administrators and Forum Moderators will only step in to enforce rules that affect the entire forum or any other extremely serious matter; but trivial things affecting only your RP are up to you to resolve.

How in-depth must my story be?
There is no set guideline for how structured or in-depth your story must be, but we recommend you build it out as much as possible. Too much vagueness becomes an agonizing problem in the future, as things will require clarification and arguments can start. The more structured the RP is, the less uncertainties the participants will have and overall the RP will run much more smoothly.

Does my story have to be original?
This question is actually poignant to both FFRP's and OTRP's. The answer is no. DivRes, for example, is based off the WarCraft universe and Legends of Legends of Tanariel is based off EverQuest. This can actually be an advantage, as at least you always have a concrete storyline to refer to, and because both games have continuing plots you can base your RP off of them. However, basing your storyline off another can be a hindrance, for if you wish to follow the storyline strictly you cannot deviate that much from it. You are, in effect, bound to that storyline. Meanwhile totally original storylines are limited only by your imagination, but of course require that all aspects of the nature of that "universe" be created by you.

Do I have to be there every day to look over my RP?
Perhaps not every single waking hour, but you should never leave your RP for too long. For one thing, you must always keep an eye over it to enforce both rules and the plot, secondly the RP is your world. Therefore, it cannot develop without you. OTRP's can, and often do, "die out" because of a lack of RP Creator involvement. You must supply constant input in order to keep your world breathing and active, literally.

Can I participate in my own RP?
There's no reason why not. And you don't even have to play as an omnipotent or all-powerful character just because as the RP Creator you, well, are. Alternatively, if managing things suits your taste more than actually RPing then nothing holds you to creating a character. Perhaps you just prefer to act as the Game Master and set up things, rather than playing them yourself. That is perfectly acceptable as well. (Be fore-warned though, you may end up being corralled into GMing for the TBC RP! gruntwink2.gif ).

Just what am I responsible for?
Simply put, everything. Even if you base your RP off a pre-existing storyline, it will be up to you to interpret that storyline, research it, and if necessary, continue on where that story leaves off. Everything from the properties of magic to the extent of technology is up to you to decide, and in truth that is a very demanding task. You will be looked up to by the players for guidance and advice on how to RP in your RP; be expected to give it.

Anyone can create a typical "Good Vs. Evil," "Chaos Vs. Order" or any "This Vs. That" storyline. But the details are what set them apart, and you must supply those in one way or another. Supervising an RP is a careful balance of exposition and suspense, creating conflicts and challenges but not impossibilities, and more.

I don't think I have very good managing skills, but I want to create my own RP.
Sometimes a "gentle" way of easing up to the task of creating an OTRP can be through other RP's. FFRP's, upon forming a story, become OTRP's. Also, fan-fictions can be adapted to RP's. Storylines from games, books, movies, and other mediums can be translated into RP's as well. The best practice is acting as a Game or Dungeon Master in an activity, for that is essentially what you as an RP Creator are.
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