Twokinds ARCHIVE Forums

I used to roleplay aaages ago back when Yahoo! Groups was Yahoo! Clubs. Not sure what the popular formats are today, but back then it was fill out a character biography, some basic skills (we didn't go as far as superpowers or whathaveyou, but literal professions were plentiful), and motivation.

Then we just traded 3rd-person omniscient authorship between one another in pseudo-response to previous posts. The challenge was to create a comprehensive storyline that flowed well. It got to the point where our tight-knit little group would allow one another to influence and maneuver other RPers' characters (a cardinal sin in other RPGs, I discovered). It was fun stuff, nothing too serious. Add a dash of raging teenage hormones and you ended up with an interesting storyline.

I dunno, what's the norm these days?

Well, simply take a look at some of the topics we have here and you should get a generally good idea of what's common. (Albeit all the fan derived TwoKinds based RPs.) These days from what I understand, most technical RPs take place here in forums, using separate threads for signing up and posting characters, out of character discussion, and actual RPing itself. The other popular format is a toss up between IRC channels and instant messenger group chats. They too can be typically very organized, but are more effective for the impatient and fast paced players. The casual RPers usually stick to forum RPs.

Stories in most RPs are usually short synapses that lay out the basic plot device and most of the technical aspects of the RP. From there, people join up, entwining themselves with the elements of the story's environment and begin to construct a more thought out storyline through the actions and interactions of each others' characters. Other times, RPs are made with carefully well thought out stories, but with a flexible design for character development.

Yeah I've been farting around the threads and noticed a lot of it is one-line replies, generally with either dialogue or a reaction to something. I'm used to jotting down a good three or four paragraphs per entry with characters and environment mixed throughout.

Pretty sure I'd go stir-crazy being without a lot of the fine details I like.

That is one reason I avoid RPing in most forums as most people don't realize the reason for RPing in a forum is the sake of elaborate detail in a post. IRC and instant messengers are much better for these one-liner posts.

I myself get fairly agitated as well if my posts and the other RPers posts aren't at least an attempt in being descriptive...

Your reasoning towards forum RPs is similar to mine.

So why hasn't anybody started a detailed RPG? Surprised so many one-liner storyboards are up and running when it's such a pain to sit at the computer and refresh the thread every 10 seconds. I like to post, do something else for a couple hours and come back.

3 posts per member in a day was pretty good progress for our old groups, :P

I would, but I don't think I could muster the commitment to GM a roleplay.
From what you describe as what you're used to, it sounds more like one of those "multi-author stories." If someone were to start a detailed RP, I would most likely join, though (depending on setting and restrictions and the like).

Edit:
Forgot to mention:
A lot of people like to be involved, but some people simply don't have the time to formulate very detailed posts before their schedule catches them again. If one were to create a detailed RP, the author would have to specify that they have a certain literary standard to which participants must adhere.

Proof positive, I have zero idea how to even begin to GM any sort of RP. The group we had way back when were already offline buddies and we figured, hey, let's fart around with some sci-fi. Nobody was really the boss of anything.

Edit: Dur, hit Enter to quick.

I wouldn't mind trying one out again, at least for the sake of experimentation.

Detailed RP's are hard to make and keep alive. More often then not, they'll fall to either:

1) Inactivity.
2) Poor Literacy.
3) Mary / Gary S(t)ue's
4) One Liners.

The first tends to be the start of the end. Once inactivity starts, the RP maker will accept nearly anyone to keep it going. Thus the following three tend to sweep on in.

Which all of the above mentioned by Zso is, in fact, true... I've tried keeping a literate RP going a couple of times and they effectively die within the first two weeks due to disturbingly low activity, or people conveniently needing to attend one of their 186 dead grandmother's funerals or they're having their 73rd midterm of the year. (Seems to be my reoccurring excuses I get from people's sudden disappearances and lack of ATTEMPTING to warn be before hand.)

But putting aside my rather venomous opinions of people's reasons for not replying, they're simply not in any scenario which ultimately leads to the RP devolving into a poor attempt in getting anyone to post and you get the one liners IN SPITE of the fact of the title of the RP (If it includes the word Literate somewhere in the title.) or that it's mentioned somewhere in the rules.

As you can see, I've had some extremely bad experiences with forum RPing...

M'kay, fastchapter, you need to know something about twokinds RPs. Compared to most forum roleplays, these aren't exactly the most thought out, especially considering a. This forum isn't specifically for roleplaying, b. There is a large influx of one-liner, direction less RPs (coughs at "A Simple Ruler") with little to no forethought or conceptualization. Granted, that's kind of what forum roleplays tend to be- carefree pastime.

Good roleplays are almost always going to be pen and paper with people you know. Forum roleplays have the advantage of bypassing conflicting schedules- not everyone has to be there at the same time- but good ones require at least competent writers on almost all sides, as well as a *very* diligent GM, one with even, perhaps, *gasp* a campaign outline. To the point where it might even be an *omg* linear roleplay.

Just so you know, the post-size quota in 2kinds is lower than normal as well. Most RP-dedicated forums have something like three or four big, fat paragraphs per post. You're lucky to get anything more than a few scattered dialogue/description switch-off lines in most of the roleplays here.

It should be noticed that the internet offers several tests for finding Mary sues and Gary Stus. The second one actually insulted me.

"Jonah is suspiciously similar to you. He is not at all cool; in fact, he thinks cool is a temperature reading, and when he says "Oh, I just put on whatever old thing's lying around," he means "on the floor, where I threw it last night - but I turned the underwear inside out first." There's never been anything special about him that he could see; boy, is he in for a surprise. He's got no emotional scars to speak of. And he's gotten no slack from you."

I have several ideas for good RPs but I don't have regular enough internet access to properly GM. An hour or so per day is all I can put out (not countin Sundays, when I have no access, or Saturdays when I have more access).

I find most Mary Sue tests are generally an insult and are rather biased towards insult rather than criticism. A lot of them are just down right asinine...

Ah well, I'd likely go a little crazy if I had to respond to a one-line piece of dialogue. Methinks a detailed RP might just as well end up in failure like you mention.

Also, wtf is a Mary Sue Davie Stue or whatever...?