Advice/Help group rp advice~

[ofbluehues]

hey all! just here with a quick question: how do you guys prefer running your group rps/participating in them? i’m trying to set one up and i’m lost for whether i should have replies be a ‘free for all’ kinda thing or have a specified order? more structure or less structure?

thank you!

 

[Cogwork]

Personally I kind of prefer a free for all.

Having an specified order just stresses me out since the longer I take to post, the longer everyone else has to wait. Which in turn results in me prioritizing speed over quality.

 

[ofbluehues]

Personally I kind of prefer a free for all.

Having an specified order just stresses me out since the longer I take to post, the longer everyone else has to wait. Which in turn results in me prioritizing speed over quality.

That's a really good point! I like the idea of everyone doing their own thing then joining as a group when a big event happens, if that makes sense.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I think the best way to do this is to have a post limit and a time skip schedule.

For instance "You can only reply to the same person twice in a row, unless someone else has posted in the main thread."

Ex. Person 1 Posts, Person 2 Posts, Person 1 Posts, Person 2 Posts. They must both wait for Person 3 to write a reply before continuing.

This prevents two people from hijacking your roleplay and leaving everyone else behind. If they really can't wait for a third person to reply they can always open their own 1x1 separate to the group thread.

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Also set up a specific time when the action will progress in story. Like okay guys you have two weeks IRL to submit a reply in the current scene. If you can't make it then just wait for the next scene to post your reply.

 

[Maverick Six]

Eh it kinda depends a bit.

Usually however there is a degree of general "momentum" you want to keep with group RPs and I lean towards that as being the priority. But go too fast and you run the ridk of some who post less frequently to get left behind. Not only that but depending on the RP, if things move too fast, it becomes weird for some people to he standing there.

Usually free for alls can be good when there is little of tangible consequence happening or even diffefent groups can rotate among themselves in an RP (Ie people at table A have a rotation and people at table B have a rotation)

When dramatic developments or major things that impact everyone occur, it's typically best to have some type of rotation for everyone so that opportunity can he given to properly react.

What's best to do ebbs and flows with what's actually happenings but "momentum" of some sort should be maintained before the RP dies out with a whimper. Most RPs doe out very quietly in this way.

 

[A Sparkling Zombie]

What I've seen and have done that I think works well is...

- Establish a time period in which people can post for a round - 3 days, 7 days, whatever.
- Everyone is expected to post at least once. Maybe they could be allowed to post multiple times, or maybe they're restricted to posting x number of times - GM's call.
- There is no set order.
- Either everyone posts before the deadline and the game moves sooner, or the group hits the deadline and the scene progresses to the next round.

This is for GM-guided scenes. If people break off and do their own thing, that becomes harder to enforce as a GM, but make sure people are active and that no one is stuck by someone else going silent. Something like what Nerdy Tangents suggested could probably work well in this scenario.

After trying this method, I'm personally not very fond of enforced posting orders, because it can take nearly a month or more to get through one round if a full group is involved and enough people take the maximum amount of time granted. Not many people can stay invested in a game if they're forced to wait that long to respond - or they can, but it slows them down, too, because, by the time they can post again, they've lost context with their character and need to make an effort to get back into their head again.

 

[Idea]

The only time I have a set order is if there some kind of mechanic to the RP that demands it, most common DnD initiative order. Aside from that there is as A Sparkling Zombie mentioned a time deadline (I don't use one in 1x1s but groups can't wait the way I can) after which point I will make a post using the absent player's character, and I'll likely intervene if too small a fraction of the players is posting too much on their own.