Roleplaying Forum?

[PersonaNonGrata]

Alright, now hear me out before you peg me to a wall and use me to practice your throwing knife tossing skills... And you may do that afterwards because it will likely reduce my headache a bit.


Questions you might have.

Q.) What is Forum Roleplaying?

A.) A roleplaying forum is where people write, (almost always in the third person to keep the story sounding sane to all who read it) a type of collaborative fictional piece. These stories that are made up are usually made for two, incredibly important tasks. To relieve the stress of the participants, and to let them have fun.



Q.) How does it work?

A.) There is usually a chain of command in a roleplaying forum.

Moderators keep the forums clean, tidy, and otherwise inviting to the poor souls who we manage to suck i- I mean, to make the whole forum category look nice.

Then thread creators, or thread masters to manage their own threads and to keep them actually going, or to have the heart to kill them off when they are close to a slow and painfull death. They have power within their specific threads to ask people to stop, and to accept biographies for new characters.

Then, there are specific thread moderators who just help the thread creators to keep order within that specific thread.



Q.) Wait, I saw biographies above, whats that about?

A.) When someone wants to get into a roleplay, they usually create a biography based upon a simple format which they tweak for their own purposes. The most bare version is below, the absolute you could use to get an idea about the description of the character.

Name: (First and last (if needed for thread.))
Gender: (Male, Female...)
Age: (Appropriate to thread, can't be 10,000 years old if it is abased in reality.)
Appearance: (What they look like, it could actually be broken into categories of 'physical appearence' and 'clothing')
Personality: (What they are like.)
Brief History: (Information from their past as to give insight into what they might do in given situations they might have experienced before, or other relevant things.)
Other: (Self explained)



Q.) I think you are lying, how can it possibly be a real stress reliever?

A.) It's up there on the things I would rather do than slamming my head into a door. . But seriously most anyone has ever tried it (That I know) liked it, like writing by itself this is an escape from reality something you do to try and get away from the world fo a tiny while. But the real nice thing about roleplaying on the forums is the fact that you'll actually grow to have a real tie with the characters of any roleplays you are involved in. As the character(s) you control goes through their life (lives), you can't help but grow biases against other's characters. It really becomes something you look forwards to at the end of the day.



Q.) Why are you trying to get this type of forum set up HERE on WritersBeat?

A.) Two reasons.

A.) As I explained, it's something fun and I do believe that a number of people would enjoy it as something secondary to writing. It really does help stimulate the mind when you try to think of something in less than ten, twenty minutes as to not keep your partners in the roleplay waiting.

B.) This whole community of writers seems like it would be a hugely good group to do something like this. Every single person on here who I've seen the writings of (At the very least seventy short snippets, even if I dont comment on every one.) seems like somebody who would be more than able to write proficiently enough in one. Plus, I think that everyone would learn a tiny bit more about writing just from participating in something so 'hands on' if you want to say so.



Q.) Do I get a cookie for reading this all?!

A.) Heck yeah! You get as many as you want, hopefully this might've even peaked your intrest enough to comment or vote to see if it might eventually become a real part of this great forum!



Oh, and I totally even voted on my own thread... Thats the first awsome vote, hoping there will be many more.

[Firefly]

There's actually recently been a long conversation about this in another thread.

We've encouraged people start up some RPG threads in the Board Games forum, but they never caught on . . . I'm just not sure if there's a enough interest here at WB to even get one thread of it going, let alone a whole section dedicated to it. We've always said that if we see a big enough (and lasting) interest in something like this, we'd definitely consider adding it. Unfortunately, there hasn't been.

So, if this is something you're really passionate about, feel free to start one in Board Games. I'm curious to actually see what happens when it plays out. They've just never gotten past a handful of posts here.

[PersonaNonGrata]

All righty, I'll see if I can't do a little something something tommorow or maybe on Friday night. Hopefully there could be a little bit of intrest in this, although I'm going to have to find a genre for it that'll be appealing to a fairly wide audience in WB for the first one.

I shall see what I can do, hopefully something will come of it.


'Ouch, I was put on the wheel of death... '

[Winterbite]

If we see a few things like that being a success in Board Games, we'll be favourably inclined towards setting up a sub-forum for it

[Night Wanderer]

Originally Posted by PersonaNonGrata

'Ouch, I was put on the wheel of death... '

I'm sorry. It sounded entertaining.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Alrighty then... ... I've got a minor thingamerjig to see what genre of a roleplay people would like in board games... The only problem is that the poor thread is being dragged down by not being posted on...

Time to add it to my Siggy!

I probably spelled something wrong... Xd.

[SyntaxError]

Alrighty, PiNG my friend. I voted to have a go. But my advice would be to try to keep it uncomplicated to begin with, so have the set up fairly simple:

Some examples:

e.g. A nuclear war has ravaged the earth leaving a handful of survivors, you are among them.

Your plane has crashed in a huge jungle, you and only a few others survive, but you are in the middle of nowhere, how do you go about finding your way back to civilization?

You are holed up in a medieval castle with rampaging hordes at the door. An escape route must be found before you and your allies starve to death...

These are just examples. I think the reason that these roleplays haven't taken off is that they seem too complicated at the beginning, rather than starting simply and growing. I think people are willing to have a go, but they don't want to be bogged down with too much backstory or too many rules. Obviously there have to be some rules (the not killing each other thing etc.) but they could be worked out as it goes along rather than given in a big chunk.

I don't think you should place age restrictions on your chars. either, esp. if you are going for a more realistic theme. Obviously I'm not talking about being 1000 years old, but then again, what about a Dumbledore or Gandalf type char? I suppose it depends on the theme.

Anyway I'll have a go, if you're still thinking of doing it.

Good luck.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Hmmm... Well, If you feel like attempting, I can always dredge something up from the depths of my mind.

If you particularly feel like trying it out immediatly, PM me an idea for a RP you'de be willing to take part in, I'll see if I can't develop it and post it within an hour.

[PersonaNonGrata]

*Ressurects thread from the dead.*

Alright... Based on people's responses I'll put a link to a very freeplay roleplay in my siggy, all who wish to join just click the link.

It WILL be a very fantasy environment, albeit in a variaty of settings... (You'll actually have to get a little into the story before stuff happens )

[SophiVengeance]

RPGs sound nice although the only thing I really hate about them is a magic system or something like that. much rather prefer "realistic attributes" like charm or creativity, etc.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Nope, it's not an RPG, it's a RolePlay.

It's all based on your writing, nothing on stat systems or any other thing.

I'm just about to put a link to the one I made a while back into my siggy.

Clicky clicky .

[SophiVengeance]

What if I don't want to clicky clicky it? what if I just want to click it?

[PersonaNonGrata]

-Bites nose off-

DO IT!

[SophiVengeance]

ok

-clicks-

[J.P.Clyde]

I'd like to make a comment to the stupidity of a Roleplay section going up.

The very established Nanowrimo, has a roleplay section. So....yeah. I really don't see your guys fear of it having a section.

It get a lot more attention in its own thread and not the random games section. Random games section doesn't give it the professionalism needed.

[Oasis Writer]

I already tried this once before, and my battle was a lose. I was around when there was one around, and it takes a lot of work to keep it active. Traffic into the RPG forum dies some months and it animates others. *Shrugs* I'd drop it; find a forum that has it, and visit this one for other uses of your writing needs. I think I read somewhere that they're now pushing for them to go up in the Board Game section or whatever. Good place to look.

[SophiVengeance]

I'm just saying
Personas rp is active in Board games and new characters would be nice so...

[Night Wanderer]

Exactly! Join that one, make your own; if they're popular, we'll be happy to reevaluate our position.

[PersonaNonGrata]

Rawr, your negative comments do nothing to me.

Fear my optimism.

[SophiVengeance]

Originally Posted by PersonaNonGrata

Fear my optimism.

To the spinning wheel of death for you PersonaNonGrata!!

[Pulp Writer]

This is a great as it keeps the creativity muscle on its toes with participating in an ever changing and evolving story line. I have run several of these int he past both for actual roleplaying game players and also for writers who had not familiarity with the exercise. It can be fun and rewarding.

I would be happy to do one of these if anyone is interested, just send me a message, I think these are known as PMs.

Cheers

[fleamailman]

the goblin hated roleplaying, saying "...if one is a writer, then why not just write as you see fit here within your own posts, I mean so many writer's forums, moreover most posts too, are just some bland text with a few smileys perhaps, little more than texting about their written works elsewhere, where these same posters are often aspiring to be writers...", and then the goblin stopped, had a quick sip of coffee, and then tried to explain it a little more, saying "...me, I've just arrived and l am looking for a forum which is forward looking, a place that understands, that what with the evident decline of the bookworld now, that writers have to entice their readers to follow them to their posts, a forum that gives a free range to members to experiment in whichever writing style they wish as long as it is inoffensive to others, and above all one that sees that it is actually here, not elsewhere now, that readers are turning up, in a word for forumland then..." in fact, since each member here was a persona, that is a representation of oneself, it was all roleplaying anyway the role being oneself he imagined here, for all that is actually here are mere words on your screen

[XMoonlightMagic]

I, myself, favor the idea of having a roleplaying forum. I have done many roleplaying forums, and they have usually succeeded and even caused more people to join the website. Others though, haven't been so lucky and slowly died out. This was because not alot of people liked the idea on the site, but I think alot of the people here would enjoy it. I know I would.

[YoruKage]

This sounds like a neat thing to have, a good way to add some fun to the writing. A lot of the time when roleplayers see a forum started with a rp going on, they will want to join it :3

[Labren]

I actually participated in something like this a couple of times and as long as the people involved stay involved it can be an enjoyable experience.

[Doov]

I would love such a forum. In fact this type of forum is what I am used to.

[indmoss]

I think this would be a good exercise in creative writing. Good for character development and plot development.

[horsewriter]

I voted Yes!