OOC Info [OOC] In the Murder

[Prophet]

So I have been thinking a lot in terms of how I want to ST Ravok. Surely, such an extreme difference from my previous domain should warrant a different approach. At the very least, it's worth considering.

In the interest of full disclosure, there have been several instances where I have been overwhelmed by everything that is Ravok. There's entire threads dedicated to plotting and development that most of you will never see. The locations and history are deep and full of life but most get treated with passing glances. My general concept would help improve this by adding more of a 'personalization' in regards to the local spots. Ultimately, it's the nature of forum roleplay -writers will adhere to what interests them.

So back to Ravok- what's the most prevalent thing in lake town? Rhysol. He and his agents are everywhere. So in the spirit of Big Brother, I have decided to make myself come out of my normal ST shell and try something different but I want to see what people think about my idea.

Players always say "I wish I felt like my PC had more impact on the game." Add that the Black Sun and Ebonstryfe spying on everyone, I think it would be an interesting turn to demand knowledge.

What?

I can't possibly read everything that gets written. However, if every player who started a thread would send me a PM with the link and one or two sentences explaining the purpose, I could incorporate personal events into city plots and gossip or the plots of other players.

Think about it for a while. Mull over the implications. Let me know how you feel about it. You don't even have to be planning on RPing in Ravok. I'm really just curious and I have some other ideas that tie in with this one.

That is all.
-P

Nothing's as it seems...

[Benare Nitrozian]

Ohhh, interesting Prophet. Currently, I have a long plotline with Benare, and once I feel I have developed the Crescent Circle enough, I would probably introduce it to the RP. I have done a couple threads related to the fresh new guild of Ravok. I can give a brief synopsis of the Guild below:

The Crescent Circle is a guild, and not just any particular Guild. One of which that honours their brethren, and hunts down those who oppose Rhysol and his name. They mostly work behind the backs of the Ebonstryfe, and don't have a station currently. They occasionally hold meetings at citizens homes, and stealth under the Ebonstryfe. The members are skilled in certain tactics, but do take newcomers as long as they deem worthy and oath to make sure that there won't be problems among them all.

Back to Suggestions

So when I looked through the lore of Ravok and its linkmap, I have learnt that most of Ravok, if not all of it is organized and maintained with the Noble families. I thought that there would be more rising action that would invovle them, henceforth why I've created a Nitrozian. What I want to see happen in Ravok would be more inner conflict between the people, if ya know what I mean?

[Prophet]

I appreciate the feedback but it's not what I was after.

The current question remains: Do you like the idea of sending me a message summarizing each thread?

This does not include plans for the future or plot notes. I'm only after the actual rp that takes place -not the hypothetical. My thinking is to have a better knowledge of the city's ongoings which I can apply to the Black Sun/Big Brother aspect as well as incorporate the actions of PCs into the city plots.

[Alija]

I think its a great idea, and not too hard.
Except it can be hard. Because you might forget. Or not know where the thread is going. Or find summarising hard.

But if it did work, it would really help you connect. Maybe you should even have a thread where everyone can see each others threads, so they can connect as PCs too? I'd find this pretty useful, if I were in Ravok.

[Evarista]

I like the idea. The main benefit is the potential to connect different people's mini-plots together, which otherwise seldom happens. However, I see a potential problem in the degree of spontaneity some people like in their threads. I never plan anything ahead when I roleplay and my threads can drastically alter course fairly often. If there are more such players here, you will quickly end up sitting on a lot of obsolete information. A possible solution is sending you regular updates, but I see that quickly becoming a chore for everyone involved.

[Prophet]

You both make very good points. I have a lot to consider before enacting anything. Thanks for the feedback.

[Sayana]

Hey there,

I like the idea of sharing personal plots more (with both the ST and other players), but I think it could be a lot simpler and without the 'requirement' of sharing.

What if there was just an OOC thread that was specific to plot sharing and free of just casual/random chatter? That way, if you have specific plots or purposes to your threads, you can post them, but if not (or if you forget) then it's not a big deal. It will give you the option to become more integrated with the city but not a requirement.

Then if anyone is more the spontaneous type, they don't feel pressured to post. And also if you're just trying to thread for the purposes of getting to know a new character or a new member on Miz (but without a specific purpose), then you don't feel the need to actually present a purpose somewhere and somehow.



In my own experiences on Miz, often I find myself very protective of my plots and sometimes rather reluctant to share with STs. This is mostly due to things like ST turn-over and getting excited by a certain plot only to have it get abandoned. As such, I tend to be more willing to share my plots that only have a low-medium level of importance. My high-importance plots tend to be crafted in such a way that I don't need ST assistance.

I do like the idea of being able to influence and interact with the city more, and in a higher level way. But I get uncomfortable if I have to start relying on a ST. It's one thing to rely on a PC, and if they go inactive then you just work around their plots and make something work. However, if a ST goes inactive, you can't just make a quick fix and work around it. The plot kind of gets stuck, unless you find another ST to jump in.

Anyways, those are just some of my few experiences. I haven't really had many modded things. And once I had a ST asking all about Sayana and what she wanted to accomplish, and when I focused in on a very small (but important) bit of plotting I wanted to clarify (in this case, her job), I hardly got any feedback. I kind of got the impression that it wasn't 'grand' enough. Grand things can be fun, but I'd want to first build a good relationship with the ST before putting up all the high stakes. Good OOC relationships are important to me, especially if it's between a PC and ST where there is an obvious difference in gaming power.


Okay, that kind of got rambly. But yes to sharing ideas (and avenues to do so), and no to required sharing.


Sidenote: If you just want to learn what players are doing in the city, some cities like Syliras have a place to put a thread summary in the grade request. As a grader I love this because I can get a quick glimpse at what the thread is about before committing to reading the thread. Plus I can peek at other threads and see what characters are doing just by skimming the grade queue.

[Prophet]

As always, Sayana, your experience and insight are very helpful. You made some very good points as well as touched on some things that I had been wondering about in terms of the trust between players and staff.

I had considered the grade request aspect but I would like this - concept - to take place at the beginning of a thread's life rather than at the end. I don't know about you or anyone else but I've seen hundreds of threads tagged 'PM to Join' but have never had anyone ask to join one of my threads. I've also not seen very much of others joining in on threads that I've followed.

As previously stated, I have no intention of rushing into anything but I do think there is room for improvement in this area or rather there is a solution available that will satisfy many of these items. Thanks for contributing.

[Samuel Longwell]

I think the idea of linking more plots together is great, personally it's something that would be of benefit all over the site. I particularly like Sayana's idea of having a plot thread, it would work well in any city for integrating our stories. But it wouldn't even have to be a new thread. For example, people could go back and edit their Character Registry with details of their threads as they go up/when the plot starts to take shape. I already use this to find people that I might want to plot with during the season, and it would mean all the information would be in one place. I would guess it would also be much easier to see at a glance than looking through a huge amount of PMs, so it would make your job easier Prophet

I have also found that people aren't so willing to jump into PM to Join threads. Honestly I rarely do it myself, I've probably only asked to join in on one or two. If people had a little list of their threads in a plotting thread, it might happen more often. Seeing where Open/PM to Join threads are heading would only be beneficial.

Also, if you wanted to have Ravok to have more of a "Big Brother" feel you could ask PCs to say how public/secretive the thread's events are. I don't know how much it would add to the RP experience, but it might make people think about the fact that they're being watched.

[Sayana]

And just because I'm enjoying this conversation, I'd like to talk more about my own experience with Open/PM to Join threads.

I found at the very very beginning of my roleplay experience (eg first 2-3 weeks), I was drawn towards the Open/PM to Join threads. This was because I was new, didn't have any roleplay friends and was shy about PMing people. I think I also made my own Open thread which ended up being super long and with 5 players on it (plus a part 2).

However after that, I have almost exclusively made closed threads because I would first PM someone (or visa versa), plan out a thread idea, and then start the thread. When I was new, all the Closed threads were a bit intimidating and kind of unwelcoming, but after I got going, I found I would always start my story ideas with who I wanted to roleplay with and then craft a story around what the characters had in common or what contrasted.

I find I either have roleplay partners that are one-off or those that eventually become regular/long-term partners. The one-off scenarios might be as simple as a "meet and greet" or might have small weaving of plots like incorporating a job thread, using a calendar event, or playing with some distinct conflict between the two characters. Long-term partners are just that, and lots of deeper and more meaningful plot connections are formed and interwoven. Sometimes I even have a long term plot in mind with a certain kind of character I need, and then I go looking through Miz (via character registries or through chat) to find and ask said PC if they'd like to do that sort of plot with me.


So in my own opinion, I think Open/PM to Join threads are great for new members in their first month-ish, afterwards I have hardly used them in my own experience (except to encourage other newbies).

Also, I don't think it's a bad thing that there are lots of threads tagged "PM to Join" but no one necessarily joining. Then if there's a newbie around they might feel more welcomed. Although, if the author of the thread doesn't have anyone else committed to the thread and they really do hope that people will PM to Join.... Oh, I see. Does that actually happen? If it does, I can see how that would be a problem.