Apex's Rant (Deleted)

[Doomshroud]

(The following has been revoked)


The following brief little thread is going to be a rant/opinion, fair warning. Considering the description for this particular forum also mentioned rants, I'm gonna go ahead and get this off my chest. If this gets on your nerves, I apologize, but that's not gonna make me retract this little thing. Like it or dislike it, but it's within the rules of this forum.


I'll start off by saying, right now, I'm a little bit ticked off. Why? Well, let's just say that it's a bit of a slap in the face when you make an interest check, and gain no interest. Or, when you make a whole RP thread, and aside from some views here and there, not one comment (Aside from someone I tagged, who didn't have the time anyway) or anything gets posted on the thread. Nothing, no one gives a crap about the interest check, just nothing.


Now I'm not saying I was expecting character signups to start shooting in out of nowhere, because believe me, I know for a fact it's time consuming to make a sheet. But maybe I got my hopes up a little too high. Perhaps I was hoping to get at least one indication that someone, anyone, was at least slightly interested. So yeah, it's a bit of a slap in the face when something you've spent quite a bit of time developing (I spent a while trying to come up with the idea, and editing and adding in things for the thread) requires bumps just so people can see it. Not only that, but the interest check is useless because, guess what? No one seems very interested.


It almost feels like I wasted my time with it, because more than likely, I'm gonna log on tomorrow, have zero notifications pertaining to the thread or the interest check (With the exception of a few more views), and have to go and uselessly bump them again (with no success). And this next thing is just a minor annoyance, but I'm starting to get irked every time I get a notification (Thinking someone finally posted on the interest check or thread), and instead it's just another notification of a new contest, or the donation just reached another height, or something pertaining to some kind of monthly voting or whatever.


Now, I don't mean to start taking shots toward the particular genre when I say this, but I almost wonder how much the thread and interest check would have lit up and caught on if, instead of having a big open world, I just put, *Insert Name*'s school for the *Insert fantasy species*. Or maybe if I'd just put, *Insert Genre* School/Academy.


Why haven't I used the looking for roleplayers feature? Let's just say that at first I wasn't to keen on just randomly PMing a bunch of people about the thing, but the situation's changed a little bit, I guess. Might just do that now, who knows.


But that's all I've got for now. Hope you enjoyed the read, just a little rant I wanted to get off my chest. Heck, if some people post in the interest check, or post in the OOC of the thread that they're interested or want to join or something, questions maybe I dunno, I'll request a mod to delete this thread. Might even be childish to an extent, but again, rant.

 

[Alexandra]

If I'm reading the timestamps correctly, there has been less than 24 hours since you made the interest check, yes?


In so far as not gaining any attention, writing an RPG pitch is an art in itself. The way you structured yours leaves far too much open to interpretation; I had to go through the tabs in the rpg thread to see if there would be any actual information on the factions or locations you listed. I like what I see so far, but unless you can offer your potential players an overview of the story you plan on running, the information is really too sparse.


I'm always of the opinion that too much freedom in a game can be a bad thing without the fiction to back it up. If you tell me, as a player, that I can be anyone, do anything, in any location I like, well, that's going to create a lot of work for both of us. I'll then start asking you half a million questions about every character type I could possibly play, and then ask for far more on the current factions and locations you have set out.


I'll need to know will the game be set in one place? Shall we be running a city, or just working in one? Shall we run a trading company, or an inn? Will we move about? Are we travelling mercenaries? A travelling circus? Then I will need to know about levels of technology, science, magic, and the supernatural, if it exists.


Then comes the kind of game we'll be playing. Combat-oriented, mercantile, political intrigue, swashbuckling adventure, spying, slice of life; knowing the tone is important as I wouldn't want to create a sneaky, politically adept character only to have you make us earn our group's freedom at the Capitol in gladiatorial combat at the beginning of the game.


I can see why you might be a little ticked off that academy roleplays would gain so much attention by comparison, but you have to realise that by their nature, academy roleplays are very structured. They are a familiar location with a familiar social structure. Everyone has been to a school, camp or class of some kind. That immediately takes care of a giant chunk of the setting for the GM. They can then focus on what kind of magical students are attending the school, and what kind of secret plot (there's always some kind of secret) is going on for the players to uncover.


So I suppose, in short, I reckon you have three options; double the setting information available to players, and add a list of classes, races, or types of characters they can play, with notes on technology and magic. Or, zero in on a single location in your world and run a more tightly plotted game with concrete tone and themes, and add the new description to the interest check to reflect this. Option three would be to do both of these, and hell, that might get me interested.

 

[Doomshroud]

If I'm reading the timestamps correctly, there has been less than 24 hours since you made the interest check, yes?
In so far as not gaining any attention, writing an RPG pitch is an art in itself. The way you structured yours leaves far too much open to interpretation; I had to go through the tabs in the rpg thread to see if there would be any actual information on the factions or locations you listed. I like what I see so far, but unless you can offer your potential players an overview of the story you plan on running, the information is really too sparse.


I'm always of the opinion that too much freedom in a game can be a bad thing without the fiction to back it up. If you tell me, as a player, that I can be anyone, do anything, in any location I like, well, that's going to create a lot of work for both of us. I'll then start asking you half a million questions about every character type I could possibly play, and then ask for far more on the current factions and locations you have set out.


I'll need to know will the game be set in one place? Shall we be running a city, or just working in one? Shall we run a trading company, or an inn? Will we move about? Are we travelling mercenaries? A travelling circus? Then I will need to know about levels of technology, science, magic, and the supernatural, if it exists.


Then comes the kind of game we'll be playing. Combat-oriented, mercantile, political intrigue, swashbuckling adventure, spying, slice of life; knowing the tone is important as I wouldn't want to create a sneaky, politically adept character only to have you make us earn our group's freedom at the Capitol in gladiatorial combat at the beginning of the game.


I can see why you might be a little ticked off that academy roleplays would gain so much attention by comparison, but you have to realise that by their nature, academy roleplays are very structured. They are a familiar location with a familiar social structure. Everyone has been to a school, camp or class of some kind. That immediately takes care of a giant chunk of the setting for the GM. They can then focus on what kind of magical students are attending the school, and what kind of secret plot (there's always some kind of secret) is going on for the players to uncover.


So I suppose, in short, I reckon you have three options; double the setting information available to players, and add a list of classes, races, or types of characters they can play, with notes on technology and magic. Or, zero in on a single location in your world and run a more tightly plotted game with concrete tone and themes, and add the new description to the interest check to reflect this. Option three would be to do both of these, and hell, that might get me interested.

..... FUS ROH DAH!


Kidding, kidding.


Thank you, Alexandra. Ironically, this actually was going to be set in a particular city, rather than a whole open world type thing.


Got some people interested earlier this morning/after I'd logged off for the night, so I guess that wraps this up (Revoked).

 

[Doomshroud]

@Alexandra


Been thinking about adding in a race guide, because regarding the world itself, there's a definite chance it'll straighten out a number of things. Classes and such are a bit more ambiguous, for reasons...


But thank you again!

 

[Alexandra]

@Alexandra
Been thinking about adding in a race guide, because regarding the world itself, there's a definite chance it'll straighten out a number of things. Classes and such are a bit more ambiguous, for reasons...


But thank you again!

No problem ~


I used the term "classes" so you'd immediately understand what I meant, though I know many games wouldn't have a specific "class list", especially free form RPGs. I've seen "archetype", "occupation", "calling", "specialisation" and a variety of others used as the title of a list that would include a bunch of different character "classes" as examples, just so players have a jumping off point.


Meanest Senpai has written a number of tutorials you might find useful; Creating an RPG and the World Building Primer should be able to give you a wealth of ideas.

 

[Archie]

You need to advertise your RPs and market them


Now like a bad daddy I let my baby Skyworld down. But the images and salesmanship there was great and it filled up in less than a day and a half


Any idea wrapped in silver lining sold like a used car salesman gets takers, or how would politicians win elections?


Don't lose faith man, keep trying and you'll get a big break


I can't tell if I typed that up for you or for me

 

[Alexandra]

I can't tell if I typed that up for you or for me

Why not both??

 

[Doomshroud]

Always healthy to look back and facepalm at yourself

You need to advertise your RPs and market them
Now like a bad daddy I let my baby Skyworld down. But the images and salesmanship there was great and it filled up in less than a day and a half


Any idea wrapped in silver lining sold like a used car salesman gets takers, or how would politicians win elections?


Don't lose faith man, keep trying and you'll get a big break


I can't tell if I typed that up for you or for me

Thank you, Archie