A Completely Different Roleplay Experience!

[SkyGinge]

Hey guys, my first time posting in this sub-forum!


Ok, so now that I've got over losing my Roleplay Discussion virginity, I have an idea and a plea of help/collaboration to present. Basically, before I joined this forum, I was a member of a rather small gaming forum (which co-incidentally had a decent RPing community, but that's surprisingly irrelevant), and I ran something which I called the 'Quiz Race'. Essentially, I would PM each participant a weekly quiz which they would then submit their answers to. Then, from these answers, I would write out a race-sequence which would simulate the results.


If that's a little unclear, here's an example.

• Person A got 15/20
  
• Person B got 13/20
  
• At the end of the race, Person A beats Person B.
  

My gosh, that was a pretty shocking example, but hopefully you can see what I mean xD Originally, seeing as I was in sole control of the results and the race, the way the race handled (with overtaking and crashes and stuff (as you may be able to tell I love motorsport (WEEEE BRACKETCEPTION))) was a little more complex, but that's now unimportant.


Because now I want to remake this for this larger community as a Quiz-Race-RP. Like before, people would sign up for the quiz, I would PM questions weekly, and results would end up based on the answers. But I want to add in an element of RPing too. The participants would be able to re-enact each race with different characters, but also there would be sub-threads and the like for role-playing out of races, and I would create role-play events for characters to contribute in to entertain them.


Whilst this (hopefully) seems like a cool idea on the surface though, I have a few issues that I need you guy's help solving. I've come up with a way of handling the race results and keeping excitement in them for as long as possible before the end, but yeah, issues as follows:

1. I want to create an interesting world for these races to be based on, so that it's not just a complete simulation of Nascar or F1. I was thinking of the races being semi-technological/futuristic, so that they would happen either in exotic, exciting locations such as volcanoes and tundra wastelands, or in special techno-domes where these locations could be simulated. Having races over one long marathon lap would also allow me (and other GM's) to introduce danger and new twists in the race, keeping people interested and giving them ideas to react to. So I have the in race world sorted I think (though I'd still love suggestions.) However, I'm pretty stumped on how to make the out-of-racing world exciting and interesting too, so would like suggestions on an overall setting for this racing world. I'm open for pretty much anything, but would like it still to be Earth/human-based (although somethign intergalactic would be quite cool I guess).
   
2. I, eh-heh, am not the best of quizmasters. To put it simply, my questions were rather naff, and that was the main downfall of the event last time. Thus I need people willing to be quizmasters.
   

If you've got any more questions about how this would work then feel free to ask, but otherwise this stands a something of an interest-check/world ideas debate for this.


Thanks for reading through this all. I hope you have a wonderful day/night!

 

[White Masquerade]

I would say look to Hot Wheels for Inspiration. I know there was a movie they made that got my attention but I have no clue what it was called. But they raced for (pieces of something; some magical jewel?) stuff. When all the pieces were collected, they could...don't remember (control time?)..it was something crazy. It was called something like the "The Wheel". Anyway, what made it interesting to me, was the element of team competition, each car having a unique set of skills (oil slicks, nitrous system, grappling hooks, jet boosters, etc). Try to incorporate specializing your car into the RP.


Also, the pieces they had to find took them across various tracks that had their own obstacles. Avalanches, lava pits, gravity switches, you get the idea. I wasn't a fan of the cars per se, more a fan of how unique they made the concept of cars, and what was done with it. The things they did... e.e.


As for the questions, 20 seems a bit much yeah? What about 10? And for the questions, there are plenty of quiz places you can find online. Just pick questions from websites people frequent the most. ^^ Ta-da!

 

[SkyGinge]

Having a larger goal other than sole racing is a good idea; means there's more at stake. Not sure I like the idea of collecting jewels, but there's certainly a wide range of just as interesting alternatives. It could even begin as a mystery to them, and be slowly revealed as the races go by.


In terms of making each car have its own special ability/ies, that would also be quite good, but I don't think I'd allow anything too crazy. As awesome as some things would be, it would very quickly get too hard to manage I think.


Regarding the questions, you have to remember that from the answers I have to have a definitive order of rank. With only 10 questions, it's very likely that several people would end up on the same score, and then I would have to randomly pick between them as to who got what place.


Although, having said that, last time I ran this there was only 8 questions per quiz. However, they were hardly normal quiz questions. The quiz was split into four parts of two questions:


-Part 1 was standard questions, but they had to be scalar: for example, questions like 'In what year did six and such happen?', so that I could mark the answer by how close it was to the value.


-Part 2 was to do with arguing or presenting a point; I rewarded points based on the strength of argument/detail of point.


-Part 3... I can't really remember, but again it was to do with arguing/presenting a point.


-Part 4 was cheap guesswork and rather unfair.


Another problem with just searching top rated question sites for questions is that the competitors could just as well do the same thing,


However, standard questions are the quickest/easiest to answer and as I don't want to be draining hours of people's time just for a quiz, I would want to use them now. The 20 question thing was just an example though, not the actual value I wanted to use So I'm thinking something along the lines of 10-12 questions, with most of them normal questions, but a few (perhaps two) arguments based ones, which would fit in with the fact that this is a site based around writing. I'm also considering awarding bonus points each week based on the quality of writing, and also maybe one completely chanced set of points as there is always an element of luck in Motorsport. Would also keep the same genius from winning every single week too xD


I have two ideas for the world now, and both involve the racing of mechs instead of standard cars. Racing mechs is just a cool idea, and would allow for all the ridiculous changes/vehicle accessories to make it cool, like different wheels/feet for different terrains, flying/gliding sections, water sections, ECT. One of these ideas is a more slice-of-life style one, one a more darker Sci-Fi, see what you think of that.


But yeah, still looking for ideas of what this greater goal for racing could be, and anything else you could think of including both handling and participating in the RP/Quiz. I'm also still looking for willing quiz masters and also just reply if you're interested in the idea

 

[White Masquerade]

Regarding the questions, you have to remember that from the answers I have to have a definitive order of rank. With only 10 questions, it's very likely that several people would end up on the same score, and then I would have to randomly pick between them as to who got what place.


-- For this, is having a tie really a bad thing? If you set it up like real NASCAR CUPS(I only have a vague idea of how they work), ties wouldn't matter. What they do is have a "Race for the Cup", where your position in each race give you points; instead of one wins and the rest lose. You can make an interesting little chart for people to look at using this set-up.

You can make a track list as well, but instead of using real cities, use places like Lava Falls, XN - Drowning Hills, TP.


Yes you don't want to drain people's time; especially with vacation being over. As for the bonus points, that's good. It gives motivation for putting in effort!


If you were to make it a darker sci-fi, you'd alienate quite a few people not into that genre, but the people you DO get to join, will be highly interested. Mechs would fit. If it's a slice of life; I don't think Mechs would go over too well. Cars would definitely make better sense there. If you did that, you'd get more casual players, which would lead to you needing to tone down the "specialized" ideas of your RP. Casual really just want to talk, interact and have fun following a simple idea.


People seem to be into Fantasy/Superpower/Romance/Supernatural RPs (I left out anime; it seems to be a popular sub-group, but not overall). This means they will be hesitant on joining a Racing RP. The idea has to make sense, the page has to look pretty, and it can't be too complicated.


As for handling help =/ I'm swamped

 

[SkyGinge]

I'm also fairly unfamiliar with the way that Nascar works (other than that it has cars and is American), but that table you put up is more of an overall points standing chart, not for a single race; that catalogues the points gained over several races (6 to be exact, so goodness knows how so many points were gained so quickly D. I would plan to have a scoring system for results too, probably adopting the standard F1 one seeing as that makes a lot more sense than Nascar scoring, but yeah, in overall standings I would have no issue with people being level on points. I'm talking about two people having the same quiz score in the same race.


Obviously I would create a track list as such too, yes, and split people into teams to get a team championship as well as a normal driver championship too.


Anyhow, thanks for those good points on attracting people based on genre. Obviously you're right in that I don't want to make things too specialised, thus even though I might still go for this sci-fi idea, I would make it so that people would need very little knowledge of sci-fi things, and similarly with the mechs themselves. I think though, the fact that it is still essentially a quiz with added RP elements would probably bridge certain boundaries, and people could well still join in just to take part in the quizes without much of an interest in the outside RP. I don't want to main focus to be on the world outside of races, instead on quizing and racing.


The best way to check this out for sure though is to catalogue interest, and see what people who perhaps aren't spilling with ideas yet would be interest in joining would think, thus I'm going to create a poll now that I'd really appreciate any reader voting on


And of course, I'd still love any idea and contributions you guys can give  
Ooh yeah, forgot to mention, but if you do have an answer to the poll then it's really helpful also to just tell me here why you have the opinion you do (especially if it's one of the bottom two), so that I can know how to improve/if I need to explain stuff further/better.

 

[White Masquerade]

Ah, for me, I like the quiz-set up and the way it translates into a race; but I'm neither a fan of quizzes or races. It may be something cool to dabble in though if I had a lot of free time -- as in being able to handle a lot of RPs