RP Discussion and Ideas thread

[Kat]

OC characters only allowed?

[R.Lock]

Not really. But, until I can see the system being able to handle high-level characters, OC only.

[Kat]

Well, I'll wait for further announcement, but I'm already somewhat interested at this point.

[RacingeR]

http://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread...l=1#post869908

If people are still interested on this, I'll go ahead with it instead of with Ragnarok. Had years to make this particular RP, and I think it is finally ready.

[Five_X]

RACE'S BODY IS READY

[Mellon]

Okay. Lately I have been looking at the various RPs at BL and noticing a certain pattern in them. Resulting in this, which is my extremely amateurish and basic/bad attempt to critique some of the more common styles of RPs used in BL.

Please for the love of god, don't take this the wrong way. I am just sharing my personal wonky observations. It is very likely that they are totally wrong in most aspects. Also, the examples are just that. Examples. The critique is not involved with any of the RPs pointed out as examples, just a more general observation on the RP type.

Might add my opinions/expand on a couple more types later.




Post Apocalyptic/Dark World RP

Popularity – Very High
Examples – Onigokko, Notes, Ga Rei, every single RP that takes place in destroyed world or uses the “stranded PCs” concept of some sort.


The seemingly most common type of RP on BL for quite some time now. Its roots go way, way back to the original Notes (who can remember it at least) and greatly surged in popularity ever since Onigokko was released. These days it seems that every second RP that comes out seems to use some sort of apocalyptic setting (especially for completely original settings/worlds). PCs are typically school students dragged into a dark and twisted world. Or they were there all along. But it must be school students! Of that, there can be no doubt.

The setting itself is pretty nice and allows itself relatively well to different types of storytelling (hot blooded or despair filled, both work), and it typically avoids the pitfall that is expanding your “world” too far (since it was most likely destroyed/gone to shit already), so it most likely does not have a gazillion factions. It is usually not too forgiving in theme (since the world is either dark and unknown or destroyed and desolate), which avoids many of the story pitfalls of the more shonen-esque RPs. If anything, my main issue with this setting comes from how incredibly… common and plain, this type of base setting has become. I feel that to truly stand out from the crowd, you need to put an extremely large amount of work to truly make your RP feel unique and not just another rehash of what has been out there already.

It is something akin to what is going on with zombie games/media at the moment. Simply following the theme is simply not good enough. You need to be truly exceptional (either through presentation, storytelling, characterization, etc) to be fully memorable and generate excitement in the RP.



Shonen RP

Popularity – Medium/High
Examples – Fortissimo, Rubicon, Clearing, Fantasia, anything that Hero ever makes.

The place for hot blooded men, who scream and power-up each fight and scream about FRIENDS, DEFYING FATE and BONDS. Something which to some degree, exists in every single RP, but is taken to the extremes in this type of RPs. Probably the most popular RP type after the Post Apocalyptic-RPs, especially amongst RPs that have a more battle-focused leaning. Expect many a CG and uplifting theme track here, my friends.

Since the Shonen aspect is just an underlying setting theme, not much else, you can add it to almost anything, from Fantasy to Sci-fi, without it feeling out of place. However, there are two main weak points that tend to crop up in Shonen RPs. Firstly, the PCs seem to run around with invincibility cloaks on. Every fight seems to have an already predetermined outcome of victory for the PCs, where the world itself will warp in a way as to guarantee PCs superiority/survival, regardless the opponent. And even if the PCs do not win, their loss seems to have no significant consequences in the overall story, as the plot will bail them out somehow. There is never an actual sense of danger that a PC might die (unless they become inactive), nor lose something significant. Now I myself have been guilty of this on some occasions (certain parts of Rubicon for example), so it is something I am trying to work on myself as well. This in part leads me to my second issue, which might be more of a personal perspective issue, from my part, but which I will mark down here nonetheless. I feel that for shonen characters to develop they need actual, meaningful, challenges in their world view and perspective. The true strength of a shonen character is not in his ability to spout friendship and hope speeches when there is not much at stake, but to do so when the situation and the world is against them.

Can you still keep your character shonen when you are fighting against your best friend to the death? Can you offer salvation to the man who just killed your sister moments ago? That is the true test of willpower for these characters. It is surprising to me that the most honest and believable shonen character development I have found in BL RPs came not from a Shonen RP, but from an RP completely opposite in theme. As it is, partly due to the lack of meaningful consequences, a lot of Shonen RPs end up having very little interesting and unpredictable character and plot development in them. People start shonen and stay identically shonen throughout the entire RP.



Grail War/Nasu RP

Popularity – Medium/Low
Examples – Regalia, Moon White, GRILL WAR #X, Extra, Gotterdammerung (if it would have ever started)

The old kings dethroned and cast down into the darkness. Once the undisputed rulers of the BL RP section, they now only arise from time to time to remind us of their existence before sinking into the shadows once more. Not simply Grail War RPs but a style that encompasses a lot of the already known and trodden Nasu RP territory.

Typically following a very strict structure (Grail War) the Nasu RP shares, ironically, a lot of the weaknesses with the current most popular RP type. The Post Apocalyptic-RP. It, like the aforementioned style, is extremely reliant on being unique and doing something fresh with your concept, or having extremely high production values, to make it more relatable. Another bind that a lot of these types of RPs run into is the PvP “block”. Countless times we have seen that you simply cannot have the PvP be the main “driving” force of your setting, combat and plot. It simply does not work and it ends up creating apathy in the playerbase, leading the RP to simply die out. This means that you both need to have a gripping underlying plot (besides the standard “go kill each other” fare), as well as an interesting NPC cast to drive that very plot. Likewise, I feel that it is paramount that any RP that goes this route feels authentically fitting in the Nasuverse, something which is incredibly hard to pull off and takes an extreme amount of effort to do correctly.

Finally, a lot of GW based RPs tend to go a tad overboard with their playercount numbers, simply to fill all the slots for the Servants/Masters. This in turn tends to create very slow moving RPs, simply due to the amount of work on the GM.



Wacky SoL RP/Totally Not Srs Gaiz RP
Popularity – Medium
Examples – Maids/Idol/Standard School RP/etc… you know the type.

The lighthearted kids. The RPs that tend to not take themselves too seriously and are mainly there to have some silly comedic antics.

An RP type that I don’t have much experience with, if I am completely honest, but one that seems at least moderately popular in BL. The main issue I have with a lot of these RPs is the lack of guidance. Often they seem to be based on simply meandering about and having talks, but lack a driving force and cohesive plot to keep the players interested. Even if you take the combat away from the RP, you still need some sort of a goal or idea for the players to aspire to. And removing combat does not mean removing conflict, something which seems to happen relatively often in various lighter RPs.

Secondly, far too often, the theme of these less “serious” RPs feels too much like crack for my personal tastes, especially if the theme is involved with a more canonical universe (Fate, etc). While being amusing/comical is good, it is probably not enough to truly fuel an interest in an RP all on its own (at least from my own personal experience).

[RacingeR]

I haven't seen a single Wacky SoL RP that has had much duration at all, personally.

They suffer from a lot of the disadvantages of PvP driven GW RPs.

[Mellon]

Lack of central driving force most likely. For the plot and the setting.

[RacingeR]

Lack of central driving force most likely. For the plot and the setting.

Yeah, pretty much.

Fate/Extra I think was the one that was going on the good path, but it had some other errors that brought it down. That said, it and Regalia are the only ones who I have seen as "working" for GW RPs, and both did involve a large NPC cast and a lot of driving force and subplots.

[Spinach]

EXTRA had too many cooks in the kitchen and had a lot of players. EXTRA 2 didn't have either of those problems but it had the stain of Leo GMing so it was cursed to a fast death. A shame, too, because it was a good collection of players.

[Mellon]

Yeah, pretty much.

Fate/Extra I think was the one that was going on the good path, but it had some other errors that brought it down. That said, it and Regalia are the only ones who I have seen as "working" for GW RPs, and both did involve a large NPC cast and a lot of driving force and subplots.

I have definitely taken part in GWs that worked (or that I feel could have worked). MW for one had a smaller scope, yet still felt driven in a way. Its mainly just the plain and general "welp everyone make Servants and we just plop them down in the city" approach that seems to run aground at some point. I don't even think you need a "massive" amount of NPCs to give the RP any sort of guidance.

Quality before quantity. Too many NPCs just leaves most of them feeling kinda faceless at times.

A lot of it comes down to lack of guidance during the PvP as well.

[RacingeR]

A GM cannot just sit down while the PvP happens. The GM needs to decide the results of the movements, rather than leave it up to the players.

Otherwise we get the standard Grill fight result: nothing ever gets accomplished in the fight itself.

[Mellon]

Agreed. Hands off PvP typically never works properly. You need someone to make the decisions and direct the fights.

Otherwise you get the situation where nobody gets hit because the two sides will just try to out-write each other, regardless of the circuimstance.

[SeiKeo]

EXTRA had too many cooks in the kitchen and had a lot of players. EXTRA 2 didn't have either of those problems but it had the stain of Leo GMing so it was cursed to a fast death. A shame, too, because it was a good collection of players.

Think you're funny, Charlie?

[Snax]

Putting together something of a strategy RP that isn't yet fully a strategy RP....any tips from the past, Team Fantasia?

[SeiKeo]

Fantasia as far as it looked to me was a shounen rp with army backdrop, not 'strategy' qua 'strategy.' Not that that's bad but I - oh wait that's what you said, nvm, that's what you want.

[I3uster]

Dynasty Warriors is a very strategic game about generals.

[Kat]

Inb4 Crusader Kings 2 RP

[Spinach]

Think you're funny, Charlie?

[Snax]

Well, with the help of several, I managed to create an ooc post.

deeeeeeerp.