Advice/Help Cafe Setting?

[Fluxbauble]

I've been wondering if there was a way to write a cafe setting for a roleplay where players can pop in and out without hassle. I figured you'd have a key character or two namely the owner and maybe one or two staff. But characters like patrons that come and go are simply there to provide players a means to easily drop in and out if they want. Sort of like a stop gap roleplay while they wait for the replies of other roleplays they are in or something like that. I know the concept sounds half-baked, which I'll admit it is, but there are times where I simply just want to roleplay for roleplays' sake and not really have to worry about things like post length or frequency of posts or players that join the the roleplay and then suddenly disappear without rhyme or reason. At least in the instance of the last one we can treat them as patrons. They come in, get their drink and maybe a snack, and then they suddenly leave and it doesn't break the overall structure of the roleplay.

I don't really know how to say any of this eloquently or more clearly and even I'll admit again, it's not exactly the clearest concept I've ever pitched, but it is an idea that's been floating in my head for a few weeks. So I ask for advice on this. How would you go about writing such a concept and "properly" pitching it to people to garner interest. Is this concept even really sustainable as an roleplay setting? I'd like to hear what people think. I find cafes make great short story locations, but I'm not sure how to translate that into a roleplay.

 

[Onmyoji]

This kind of roleplays were actually quite popular a few years ago. But then their popularity withered in favor of more story-driven rp.

They can work. But because it's basically drop in an out it largely depends on the players who join, whether it would work or no. If you are lucky and players take initiative, make up their own interactions and don't drstroy the flow then it's good.
As GM (or 'staff' characters') you can throw in some things for other characters to do. Like a quest or a mysetery or spread a rumor they might want to investigate.
And there will always be characters who would sit there and interact with no one because the players are too shy, so you need to think what to do with those if anything.

 

[Fluxbauble]

Hmm that's a rather interesting note of history for the site. It's kinda cool to think this was a thing that was popular. Do you think it would be an entertaining idea to sort of have the cafe act as way for players to relive characters they had left behind from other rps? So the cafe functions sort of like a Limbo or a Plane of Transition where characters from other rps come to regale the staff with their tales before passing on? I was juggling with this as a core concept for the cafe but I'm sort of second guessing myself.

I guess I basically want the cafe to work like a large scale sound board or testing ground for players to try out character concepts without having to worry about the setting so much. But then again the characters are largely built based on the setting of the rp so I don't suppose that would work huh? The more I think about what I want this to be for others the more I block myself conceptually. I seem to be my own worst enemy lol.

 

[Onmyoji]

That's the thing, it was really popular throught the internet, not just the site. There really was a huge trend for them years ago.
And from time to time I see requests for such rp pop up here even now. So if you decide to make one there should be at least a few people interested.

You may want to make a shared concept though. For example, a really popular way out for those rp was, regardless of which universe the character was from originally, their powers don't apply in the cafe. Or work differently. So that characters could be more or less equal if you mix superheroes with forest elves.

Try to make interest check thread, see how much response you get. Because why not

 

[defenderofberk]

I'd be up for it, but there would probably have to be something to do like the others said, maybe a mystery or something similar. I think having different "rooms" of the cafe for different characters could be interesting, like the basement could be for deliberately toxic characters, the garden could be for furries/Pokémon and so on. Characters could then move between the rooms as they wished (except for maybe the toxic characters being locked in the basement) and be shocked by the various discoveries.

(Just please don't make it start with some god or something grabbing my character from whatever she's doing, I hate those.)

 

[Fluxbauble]

I get what you both are saying. I'm genuinely curious to see what becomes of this little social experiment now. I'll start writing up something and post an interest check in the near future. Like you said Onmyoji,"Because why not?" lol

I rather like the concept of having a sectioned off area or room for different types of characters. I mean if cafes have smoking and non-smoking areas, indoor and outdoor seating areas, than this is a simple extension of those conceptually. I believe I'll use that. Who knows, maybe the cafe will become a cafe and bar by the end of it. Well then this is has been an enlightening and encouraging experience.

 

[welian]

A walk-in RP! Super popular back in my day! It's a lot of fun if you have a floorplan for your cafe, and some people even like to make fictional menus!

 

[Crayons]

I think this was about ten years ago, my SO ran a cafe RP on a chat site called "Spooky Cafe". It was intentionally silly, and was at times quite popular. There was a huge menu including many different cakes and drinks (some of it crowdsourced from the customers) and different rooms, a garden etc. I played the resident drunk, occasional bartender, and friend of the owner who lived in a skittles tree in the yard - my character being repurposed from an actual serious RP. There were some awesome things and some terrible things.

Awesome things: It was super fun, relaxed and casual. Everyone was really creative and the theme was a hit. There were some truly hilarious scenes, both intentional and unintentional. There was never a problem recruiting for cafe staff.
Terrible things: A lot of the people that came there were super emo-kid one-liner players because they couldn't get accepted into the more serious RPs with higher (or any) standards, and they started to take over the whole place. One of them was a furry mpreg character. For some reason people getting pregnant and having babies happened a lot. One time we went on holiday and my SO left this one person in charge who was usually Very Serious, and she banned pretty much everyone. XD

I think it could be a lot of fun, just make sure that you can be there to mediate on all the craziness that will ensue (and it WILL ensue). Have a couple of people who can also be trusted wrangling those who will walk in and try to destroy it/do other acts of vandalism and crime.

I would caution against mandating different areas for certain breeds of character, it sounds a lot like ghettoisation to me and therefore no bueno.

Anyway have fun and I hope it works out!

 

[defenderofberk]

I would caution against mandating different areas for certain breeds of character, it sounds a lot like ghettoisation to me and therefore no bueno.

I didn't mean for it to be mandated, but they could design certain rooms where characters may feel more at home and hang out with other characters similar to them.

 

[Crayons]

I didn't mean for it to be mandated, but they could design certain rooms where characters may feel more at home and hang out with other characters similar to them.

Yeah that would be cool. A velcro room would also be fun.

 

[defenderofberk]

Yeah that would be cool. A velcro room would also be fun.

Yeah I was thinking you could have an "evil lounge" in the basement for all the villains and an open air seating area for all the God/goddess/demi god's, stuff like that. So they could mix and you could have a general hang out room, but it'd help keep it organised.