The Roleplaying Tavern - Stop by for a pint!

[King Sora X]

I've a question for our community: Apart from the basics, such as plot, concept, and quality, what drives you toward or from certain roleplays?

I guess half the reason I join certain rps is what is the thing actually about. Not the plot, but the type of universe it's set it. Like, if it's canon or original; fantasy or supernatural; action-orientated or romance-orientated. I also have a slight biased look on things and go for rps that usually are by my friends. I know that's a bad way to go about it, but it's just a small part of me.

 

[Orion]

• Collab with Ordeith.​

I just finished playing the original and have just picked up Dark Arisen so gimme some o' dat roleplay.

 

[Sarge981]

Im in progress of making a game that will hopefully spark a lot of hype but I will need some help.

The game will be based around a character you wish to create and I will make that a reality by making them into a sprite. You will start out very basic but you can choose from multiple classes and races to start your character. You will be able to fight new monsters and enemies every week. Earning gold, treasure, weapons, and armor. EVERYTHING will be made into an image. no script or logs of your character. You will be able to see your character with weapons and armor attached. I still need a team to help me iron a few things out and run the show smoothly. I feel like if this gets moving it will get addicting but this is not your traditional. What do you guys think? Anybody interested in being what could be the next big thing?

 

[Chromatic]

Im in progress of making a game that will hopefully spark a lot of hype but I will need some help.

The game will be based around a character you wish to create and I will make that a reality by making them into a sprite. You will start out very basic but you can choose from multiple classes and races to start your character. You will be able to fight new monsters and enemies every week. Earning gold, treasure, weapons, and armor. EVERYTHING will be made into an image. no script or logs of your character. You will be able to see your character with weapons and armor attached. I still need a team to help me iron a few things out and run the show smoothly. I feel like if this gets moving it will get addicting but this is not your traditional. What do you guys think? Anybody interested in being what could be the next big thing?

I'm not sure I'm 100% reading this correctly. Is like, roleplaying through posting images or something? Or is it just a matter of putting sprites to our characters? Would it still function on a text-based play through? Either way, I have my doubts, as it seems that it'll either be something very foreign to the practice here, or otherwise, simply something that adds a superfluous layer to the process.

I would attest that simplicity, rather than cutting edge and groundbreaking is the greatest approach we can take here at this point in time.

 

[Hidden]

The game will be based around a character you wish to create and I will make that a reality by making them into a sprite. You will start out very basic but you can choose from multiple classes and races to start your character. You will be able to fight new monsters and enemies every week. Earning gold, treasure, weapons, and armor. EVERYTHING will be made into an image. no script or logs of your character. You will be able to see your character with weapons and armor attached. I still need a team to help me iron a few things out and run the show smoothly. I feel like if this gets moving it will get addicting but this is not your traditional. What do you guys think? Anybody interested in being what could be the next big thing?

I'm also curious how this would work exactly. Can you give us some more information?

Taking Chromatic's advice into account, I'm starting a pretty straightforward canon roleplay next week--Kingdom Hearts: Night of Fate. However, after talking to Ordeith, Orion, and Omnichaos, I have added one little twist that will hopefully be interesting for people. There will be no character templates for this roleplay; players will write their characters directly into the roleplay, providing background information and details for their character as it fits into the story. The goal is to create a smoother, more narrative experience.

On the flip side, to keep the number of characters reasonable, there will be a selection process. Based on players' writing and characterization, some will be asked to continue in the roleplay, and some will be asked to write their characters an appropriately dramatic... death scene. Hopefully this will all be taken in a spirit of good fun, and it might even make for a more interesting roleplay!

For anyone interested, you can read more information here.

 

[Ordeith]

For whatever it's worth, Hidden's project has my full backing. It could really become something nice, if the section pumps some energy into it. Go take a look, ye scallywags!

I just finished playing the original and have just picked up Dark Arisen so gimme some o' dat roleplay.

I may post the sign-up thread independently, schedule permitting.
I'll just need to consult with Omni (and you, Jezza, if you'd like) once or twice, before finalizing it.

 

[Javelin434]

*Peeks around* Seems kinda dead around here. What's going on?

 

[Alaude Drenxta]

This place is good and dead. Somebody's gotta make some noise around here, I figured it would be hopping for years after I'd forgotten it.

 

[OmniChaos]

We can only do so much. This section's survival depends on the community as a whole, so we can't do much unless we can draw the community back. We've had a lot of people, like yourself, leaving, and the community's continued to dwindle and the section's continued to die because of it.

I'm putting all my cards on the table in an attempt to revive the section with KHE. If I could get at least most of the community involved in the roleplay to some degree, I would like to see if perhaps the site staff might make mention of it on the front page, hopefully bringing in more roleplayers to the section.

 

[OmniChaos]

Just to give a little notice to everyone, there will be two more community events coming up. First, as part of a Creative Corner Christmas contest, there will be a contest held where you are to re-imagine Christmas figures and the best three submissions will have a Christmas-themed roleplay built around them. For more information, see this thread: [x]

Second, there is another Creative Corner-wide project in the works akin to KHI Fables and, like Fables, is being spearheaded by Ordeith.

Finally, in other news, for those of you who might not know, KH: Eclipse, a sort of "Main Roleplay" project for the website, is now up and accepting characters: [x]

 

[Mason Stark]

Hi! Just a couple of quick updates from me~

As part of the section overhaul, I've taken some suggestions and created a poll to gauge what you guys would most like to see. (It's only a start, but hey, gotta start somewhere!) If you'd like to vote, here's the thread: [link!]

Also, I've added a beginner's primer and link archive to the section. Here's the thread for that: [link!]

I'm working on more things right now, but here's what I've got so far! Enjoy! C:

 

[Hidden]

I'm honestly unsure what happened with the interviews.

While Jezza ran the original interviews, they seemed to have good feedback at first, but for some reason--perhaps school or some other thing that required his attention--he just sort of stopped. Never asked him, so I haven't a clue as to why the original run stopped.

Earlier this year, Professor Ven revived the interviews and took over for Jezza. He interviewed me and then, out of nowhere, stopped. Again, no idea as to why.

Anyway, I completely agree. The interviews were nice and were an excellent way for members to get to know the people behind the names, as it were.

This is probably old news, but I also enjoyed the interviews and would be glad to read some more. Seeing as none are forthcoming (for the last three years), I'll volunteer to conduct a few myself. In the next few months, I should have a reasonable amount of time to spare. This is an interest check: would people be interested in reading (and possibly participating in) more interviews? It would proceed in the standard way, a thread for nominations, a thread for voting, then a posted interview. Go check out some of the original interviews conducted by Orion if you're not familiar with them.

A general question, to get into the spirit of things: Was there a particular roleplay/character/roleplayer that drew you into the RP section?

For me, it was Ordeith's character Decimus Caliga in Takushi Rena's roleplay, Unnatural Selection. I had been interested in the RP section before, but I was always put off by what I saw as cookie-cutter characters that you could just pick up and drop into any roleplay regardless of the story or setting. Ordeith's was the first template I read where I thought This is how you are supposed to create a character! A week later, I basically dropped everything and created my first original character, Donavan Roark.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Not at all. In fact I joined this site just to RP. My at the time girl friend showed me the site and an RP she was participating in, and even though I wasn't interested in that RP I had wanted to RP for a while so I just joined.

Also I'd be down for reading interviews even though I'm not sure how many more people can be interviewed.

 

[Orion]

I got drawn into the Roleplaying Section more or less by accident. I'd posted a while ago in a thread that looked like your run-of-the-mill "Make Your Own Organization Member" threads, but I guess it must have been posted in Roleplaying instead. I remember it had gotten a lot of attention, but maybe that's because filling out a template with name, appearance, element and weapon is just about the simplest task possible in the RP Section. Nevertheless, I forgot about it soon enough, but months later got a PM from someone I'd never spoken with before, asking when I was going to post in this thing called "Organization XV". I guess I'd unwittingly signed myself up for it with my made up Organization member, and apparently had been well-reviewed by the maker of the roleplay, because I was 'ranked' as Number II in said Organization.

Somewhat funny and somewhat sad is that that, my first roleplay, is the only roleplay I've completed to date and without any sort of forced effort or stimulus, and virtually no pre-planning.

 

[Mason Stark]

This is probably old news, but I also enjoyed the interviews and would be glad to read some more. Seeing as none are forthcoming (for the last three years), I'll volunteer to conduct a few myself. In the next few months, I should have a reasonable amount of time to spare. This is an interest check: would people be interested in reading (and possibly participating in) more interviews? It would proceed in the standard way, a thread for nominations, a thread for voting, then a posted interview. Go check out some of the original interviews conducted by Orion if you're not familiar with them.

If you'd like to do that, go for it! I can help you set everything up, if you like! But the interviews were great and it would be very awesome to see them again~

A general question, to get into the spirit of things: Was there a particular roleplay/character/roleplayer that drew you into the RP section?

I had roleplayed before and I originally hung out on the forums because of the Fanfiction section, but I was drawn in by a few roleplays, particularly one by someone named A.J. He started a roleplay, which was a Kingdom Hearts one but there were characters from different universes in it, and I hopped in with a few of my characters. I don't think that I would join a roleplay like that now, but I'm glad that I got to join in and I'm glad that it got me into this section!

[And I completely forgot about the Unnatural Selection RP xD I kind of want to start it again ;w;]

And while we're on the topic of questions, would you guys like to see a Roleplaying Awards again this year? I ask because I put up a Spotlight and there hasn't been much going on with it, and I don't remember how well received the Awards were last year. If there's interest, I'll do it, but if not, I may wait until later in the year to do something~

 

[Epif]

A general question, to get into the spirit of things: Was there a particular roleplay/character/roleplayer that drew you into the RP section?

The person who really go me interested in the RP section was Vida. He wanted help with X-Men: Retribution of the Mutants and I threw in some ideas. I keep coming back, though, because of my interest in KH Eclipse and various ideas that pop into my head for other RPs.

And while we're on the topic of questions, would you guys like to see a Roleplaying Awards again this year? I ask because I put up a Spotlight and there hasn't been much going on with it, and I don't remember how well received the Awards were last year. If there's interest, I'll do it, but if not, I may wait until later in the year to do something~

Yes, not that I participated with the RPing Awards last year, but the Spotlight thing sounds like a clever and fun idea.

 

[Ordeith]

I'd love to see a return of roleplayer interviews, if only for a chance to redo that awful first interview.
Perhaps we could somehow combine them with the RP Spotlight? Whenever a roleplay is featured, its creator's name would be added to the queue of interviewees.

Ordeith's was the first template I read where I thought This is how you are supposed to create a character! A week later, I basically dropped everything and created my first original character, Donavan Roark.

Well, gawrsh!
I wouldn't think that a natural like you needed any encouragement.

_________________________________________________________________________

Anyway...

In the spirit of free and easy roleplaying, I have more details about the latest Creative Corner RP project. It will be set in (nearly) the same universe as "KHI Fables" — but where "Fables" had a lengthy application process, this roleplay won't even require a template.

Allow me to explain further, through spoiler boxes copied-and-pasted from my PM correspondence with OmniChaos:

Spoiler Show

Salutations, friends!

As you well know, a diligent Story-Keeper never sits idle for long—for as the year turns, new stories are given life in words, while old tales resurface. Still we labor to recover the lost kingdom of Dragonsbane, but that does not exempt us from our other duties. A new set of stories has recently come to the Library's attention, and we feel that your talents are best suited to the task of deciphering them.

I do not use the term "decipher" unduly; these volumes are . . . cryptic, to say the least. The Library discovered them on a shelf that had long been obscured by the large sundial from Gwyladyr-Hav, where presumably they sat for ages, undisturbed. Despite this, the language constantly flits between ancient and modern forms, and everything in-between. In some places, it takes a strong regional dialect—while in other places it borrows liberally from languages we have not even seen before.

In short, these works are an anomaly, shifting whenever we feel that we've properly identified them.

The author of these texts identifies himself/herself as Spurius—making a rather obvious pun at our expense. The margins and body are filled with this author's notes and spoiled drafts, indicating that much of the work is pure fiction. Still, fiction has value unto itself—and the magical properties of Spurius' work are reason enough to investigate.

Use whatever magicks, rituals, and resources lie at your disposal. I am certain that whatever your discover will be interesting, at least!

— J. Ordeith, Keeper of Tomes​

Spoiler Show

• To participate in this RP, you need only post your character's name in the OOC thread, along with a brief description of how they relate to the setting/story/other characters. (e.g. Adolfus, bastard son of the king. Known traitor, and enemy of the realm.) (These will be compiled in a small "record" post in the OOC thread, and increase in detail as the RP progresses.)
  
  After that, they are free to properly introduce their character in the RP thread itself. Those yet to join can coordinate their entry with those already participating, to make it more seamless—but this is not required.
  
  
• Standard RP guidelines are in place—but whatever somebody posts, even if their writing is choppy or amateurish, is accepted without question. That's it. Even if they inadvertently break a rule. Any incongruities can be attributed to Spurius' fickle nature and sloppiness as a writer. So long as they write coherently, section newbies can write as they please, without fear of being rejected outright.
  
  If someone feels that their character has been wrongly used by another roleplayer, they can submit a complaint to the OOC thread. If we rule in their favor, Spurius (as the narrator) will intervene and "begin a new draft" at that point. (This would manifest as a bunch of scratched-out lines, some critiques of the plot thus far, and a fresh starting point.) Functionally, new drafts will serve as "soft resets" to resolve any difficulties that arise during the RP.
  
  They would also mark alternate endings to the story. Like Drakengard and Nier, these endings can be abrupt and unsatisfying—or not. Between these more complete drafts, characters' roles and relationships can change drastically, or not at all.
  
  
• Every now and then, the roleplayer controlling Spurius will change. As the new Spurius, this person has absolute power over the RP's direction, though they should use this power sparingly. They should not, however, worry about inconsistencies with past versions of Spurius; inconsistency is the only consistent quality of Spurius.
  
  
• At the end of each draft, each character's entry in the database will be updated with notable events from that version of the story, along with their position/status at its end. If possible, we will cite the posts in which these events took place.
  
  This is for the benefit of the illustrators. While they are free to illustrate any character or scene at any time, the database will place all of the juiciest tidbits right at their fingertips—just as in KHI Fables.
  
  When a draft is officially complete, the content of that draft is usable by anybody who wishes to write stand-alone pieces based on it.

I apologize for such an unseemly wall of text, but it really is easier to post all of the information at once.

With all of this in mind, I'd like you all to wrack your brains for plots/settings to which this process can be applied. I already have something in mind—but given how adaptable this format is, I'd love to see this RP become the section's collective property.

 

[Hidden]

Also I'd be down for reading interviews even though I'm not sure how many more people can be interviewed.

Hopefully lots--we only got through nine.

Somewhat funny and somewhat sad is that that, my first roleplay, is the only roleplay I've completed to date and without any sort of forced effort or stimulus, and virtually no pre-planning.

Unintentionally awesome?

If you'd like to do that, go for it! I can help you set everything up, if you like! But the interviews were great and it would be very awesome to see them again~

I like Ordeith's idea of pairing them with the Spotlight (see below), so we can talk about that sometime.

And while we're on the topic of questions, would you guys like to see a Roleplaying Awards again this year? I ask because I put up a Spotlight and there hasn't been much going on with it, and I don't remember how well received the Awards were last year. If there's interest, I'll do it, but if not, I may wait until later in the year to do something~

I'll leave it to others to decide, but maybe starting with the Spotlight is enough for now.

The person who really go me interested in the RP section was Vida. He wanted help with X-Men: Retribution of the Mutants and I threw in some ideas. I keep coming back, though, because of my interest in KH Eclipse and various ideas that pop into my head for other RPs.

He hasn't posted here in... awhile. That's unfortunate.

I'd love to see a return of roleplayer interviews, if only for a chance to redo that awful first interview.
Perhaps we could somehow combine them with the RP Spotlight? Whenever a roleplay is featured, its creator's name would be added to the queue of interviewees.

Noted (see above).

In the spirit of free and easy roleplaying, I have more details about the latest Creative Corner RP project. It will be set in (nearly) the same universe as "KHI Fables" — but where "Fables" had a lengthy application process, this roleplay won't even require a template.

Allow me to explain further, through spoiler boxes copied-and-pasted from my PM correspondence with OmniChaos:

I love the idea of an narratively unreliable roleplay; that's what most roleplays are in the first place, but to actually work that into the structure of the roleplay is clever. Links svp.

 

[OmniChaos]

Was there a particular roleplay/character/roleplayer that drew you into the RP section?

I essentially wandered in like a drunk looking for a place to crash, and haven't left since.


On another note, Jezza and myself have also been working on a "jump in and go" roleplay: a net-based roleplay that is aimed to be a bit more newb-friendly with a lot of action and stuff blowing up, while still offering plenty of depth for more seasoned roleplayers to sink their teeth into.

 

[Professor Ven]

I'd love to see a return of roleplayer interviews, if only for a chance to redo that awful first interview.
Perhaps we could somehow combine them with the RP Spotlight? Whenever a roleplay is featured, its creator's name would be added to the queue of interviewees.



Well, gawrsh!
I wouldn't think that a natural like you needed any encouragement.

_________________________________________________________________________

Anyway...

In the spirit of free and easy roleplaying, I have more details about the latest Creative Corner RP project. It will be set in (nearly) the same universe as "KHI Fables" — but where "Fables" had a lengthy application process, this roleplay won't even require a template.

Allow me to explain further, through spoiler boxes copied-and-pasted from my PM correspondence with OmniChaos:

Spoiler Show

Salutations, friends!

As you well know, a diligent Story-Keeper never sits idle for long—for as the year turns, new stories are given life in words, while old tales resurface. Still we labor to recover the lost kingdom of Dragonsbane, but that does not exempt us from our other duties. A new set of stories has recently come to the Library's attention, and we feel that your talents are best suited to the task of deciphering them.

I do not use the term "decipher" unduly; these volumes are . . . cryptic, to say the least. The Library discovered them on a shelf that had long been obscured by the large sundial from Gwyladyr-Hav, where presumably they sat for ages, undisturbed. Despite this, the language constantly flits between ancient and modern forms, and everything in-between. In some places, it takes a strong regional dialect—while in other places it borrows liberally from languages we have not even seen before.

In short, these works are an anomaly, shifting whenever we feel that we've properly identified them.

The author of these texts identifies himself/herself as Spurius—making a rather obvious pun at our expense. The margins and body are filled with this author's notes and spoiled drafts, indicating that much of the work is pure fiction. Still, fiction has value unto itself—and the magical properties of Spurius' work are reason enough to investigate.

Use whatever magicks, rituals, and resources lie at your disposal. I am certain that whatever your discover will be interesting, at least!

— J. Ordeith, Keeper of Tomes​

Spoiler Show

• To participate in this RP, you need only post your character's name in the OOC thread, along with a brief description of how they relate to the setting/story/other characters. (e.g. Adolfus, bastard son of the king. Known traitor, and enemy of the realm.) (These will be compiled in a small "record" post in the OOC thread, and increase in detail as the RP progresses.)
  
  After that, they are free to properly introduce their character in the RP thread itself. Those yet to join can coordinate their entry with those already participating, to make it more seamless—but this is not required.
  
  
• Standard RP guidelines are in place—but whatever somebody posts, even if their writing is choppy or amateurish, is accepted without question. That's it. Even if they inadvertently break a rule. Any incongruities can be attributed to Spurius' fickle nature and sloppiness as a writer. So long as they write coherently, section newbies can write as they please, without fear of being rejected outright.
  
  If someone feels that their character has been wrongly used by another roleplayer, they can submit a complaint to the OOC thread. If we rule in their favor, Spurius (as the narrator) will intervene and "begin a new draft" at that point. (This would manifest as a bunch of scratched-out lines, some critiques of the plot thus far, and a fresh starting point.) Functionally, new drafts will serve as "soft resets" to resolve any difficulties that arise during the RP.
  
  They would also mark alternate endings to the story. Like Drakengard and Nier, these endings can be abrupt and unsatisfying—or not. Between these more complete drafts, characters' roles and relationships can change drastically, or not at all.
  
  
• Every now and then, the roleplayer controlling Spurius will change. As the new Spurius, this person has absolute power over the RP's direction, though they should use this power sparingly. They should not, however, worry about inconsistencies with past versions of Spurius; inconsistency is the only consistent quality of Spurius.
  
  
• At the end of each draft, each character's entry in the database will be updated with notable events from that version of the story, along with their position/status at its end. If possible, we will cite the posts in which these events took place.
  
  This is for the benefit of the illustrators. While they are free to illustrate any character or scene at any time, the database will place all of the juiciest tidbits right at their fingertips—just as in KHI Fables.
  
  When a draft is officially complete, the content of that draft is usable by anybody who wishes to write stand-alone pieces based on it.

I apologize for such an unseemly wall of text, but it really is easier to post all of the information at once.

With all of this in mind, I'd like you all to wrack your brains for plots/settings to which this process can be applied. I already have something in mind—but given how adaptable this format is, I'd love to see this RP become the section's collective property.

Best spoiler boxes of 2014 indubitably

And I stopped interview because personal probs aka mum

And at this point I don't remember what drew me here. I just happened to sort of sloth my way in.