Other What comes across as an organized roleplay to you?

[satanael]

I love logistics and thinking about how to best convey information. (I'm the person who changes email subject lines so that people have an inkling what to expect).

So tell me about the times and experiences you've had that make you go these people know what they're doing.

This could mean character sheets, the way rules are laid-out, etc.

 

[MDL]

Usually it resides with the GM and how the story is driven. You can often sense if it's well planned ahead or just made up on the spot. With character sheets it's easy to tell. If the cs includes a lot of nonsense that doesn't add to the story it sucks and if it's really focused on the narrative. With few details that are well explored. Focused essentially. And well written. Then that impresses me as it is sadly very rare.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Easily accessible information put into easy to read chunks. So usually lots of tabs or google docs set up to cover information as it comes up.

Also when it’s clear the creator thought about the question of Why? Why do things work the way they do? Why is the plot focused on the players? etc.

 

[Nove NuVonde]

Easily accessible information put into easy to read chunks.

Basically this. I wouldn't say tabs or a doc are necessary for this function, but I certainly prefer when information is broken up and easy to read. When I see a long mess of paragraphs with no headers or visible separation, it gives the impression it was all written on the fly, even if that's not actually true.

I also feel like a little formatting goes a long way. I don't need every interest check to be a BBCode nightmare (in fact when it comes to BBCode less can often actually be more), but just some simple conveniences like a nice font, maybe a simple border, bolded or italic headings, that sorta thing can really make a check infinitely more readable and makes me feel like the author really cares about their idea. If I just see a big block of unformated text, it makes me feel like the whole thing was hastily typed in half an hour.

 

[Idea]

I'm all about them rules.

I identify a roleplay as organized when it knows what it wants and how it wants it, and is able to take effective steps in that direction. It will establish rules to regulate what needs to be regulated, and be able to lay it out clearly for the players. In my eyes, a roleplay without proper rules is nerve wrecking, and a GM that "follows their gut" when it comes to what should be allowed or not, instead of havign concrete criteria the players can actually use is downright tyrannical. If you can clearly outline what you want and don't want in your roleplay, what behavior you can't allow not as a vague generalization, but as a real line in the sand, that's an organized roleplay.

I can think of no better example of this than the very thing that drew me to the first roleplay site I was ever on, and I was drawn to it precisely because of how much I loved it's rules and mechanics.

Another thing that to me really shows proper organization and forethought in a roleplay is the GM's ability to answer specific questions with concrete answers, these questions pertaining to
A) Who the characters are and what their role is
B) The logisitics of the roleplay (rules, requirements, where exactly everything fits, expected number of players)
C) Questions about the established world.

Again, the more a GM can concrete non-arbitrary (in other words, based on actual criteria rather than just whatever they feel is the right thing at a given moment) answers and do so quickly and neatly the more assured I can feel that they at least tried laying down the groundwork for what I would find to be good organization.


Lastly, consideration for ramifications. One thing that can really impress me is when the ramifications of events and details both on the building blocks of the roleplay (lore, world etc...) and in the roelplay itself (characters, IC...), are smoothly integrated into the whole.

To summarize, want to seem organized and like you have a handle on things with me? Then
1. Have clear and concrete rules that outline what should or shouldn't go into the RP and are respected once established (especially when it comes to things you might disagree with)
2. Be able to answer basic questions regarding your roleplay, namely in terms of logistics, the player's role and the established world and lore, in a manner that displays you've thought about these things and are therefore able to answer them structurally and concretely.
3. Show, in the lore and in the roleplay, that things don't just happen arbitrarily or in a vaccum, but that there is enough of a structure and connection between the pieces for them to affect one another (read: stuff must have ramifications if it happened, ya need to think about that)


Of course, it's nice for a roleplay to have organization in it's presentation and the like (especially coming from me, a huge BBCode fan) but to me the organization of the GM's thought and of the roleplay's structure is far more important, because I want to work in an environment I can trust.

 

[MDL]

Of course, it's nice for a roleplay to have organization in it's presentation and the like (especially coming from me, a huge BBCode fan)

How does BBCode help with organizing information in a roleplay presentation better than just structuring with formatting?

 

[Idea]

How does BBCode help with organizing information in a roleplay presentation better than just structuring with formatting?

Tabs, tables that kind of stuff.

 

[MDL]

Tabs, tables that kind of stuff.

Although aesthetically pleasing in some cases, they carry no advantage in organizing information. Just look at news websites, you don't see them riddled with tabbed sections that hide some of the information. Not that you can't organize it that way, and sometimes it's done. But I don't see how it's superior for organizational purposes. Not that it's inferior either.

 

[MDL]

And lets not forget that sometimes overuse of bb-code, like when users make pitch-black backgrounds and put colored text on it to come off edgy, it can burn they eyes so bad the damage can be irreversible.

But obviously that isn't always the case and bb-code can be effective if used with common sense in mind.

 

[Idea]

Although aesthetically pleasing in some cases, they carry no advantage in organizing information. Just look at news websites, you don't see them riddled with tabbed sections that hide some of the information. Not that you can't organize it that way, and sometimes it's done. But I don't see how it's superior for organizational purposes. Not that it's inferior either.

And lets not forget that sometimes overuse of bb-code, like when users make pitch-black backgrounds and put colored text on it to come off edgy, it can burn they eyes so bad the damage can be irreversible.

Well I for one really like the BBcode aesthetic. I of course understand that you may disagree with that, but I often do. Naturally I wouldn't demand it off anyone, but I really like using it and I like what people do with it when used even minimally well. The fact that it's something I like to look at it's important because it can keep me looking and make some text more bearable. As someone who is aware of how hard BBcode, especially more complex BBcode, can be to make, it is also something that communicate the effort the person was willing to put in, a potential indicator of their passion for the project, whichever that may be.

This,admitedly, might not be an "organizational" advantage,but it is nonetheless adn advantage to me, mentioned in passing. Not that of course BBCode is without orgnizational advantages as well: the possibility of compartimentalizing the information through tabs and through tables as mentioned I find to be quite the organizational tool.

 

[Breech Loader]

*snorts*

Lately, it's somebody who can post more than once a day.

 

[Nove NuVonde]

*snorts*

Lately, it's somebody who can post more than once a day.

Once a day is actually a very impressive and high amount of postage for people on RPN, and that's not going to change any time soon. People have jobs, school, social events, family, or just plain anxiety, and that's only a sliver of a fraction of the huge web of things that can keep people away from RPN. I'd say if you can post at minimum once a day you're already posting a lot, and you can tell that by how many people straight up won't join RPs that require you to post more than once a day. Many people can struggle to post even every other day and I don't think it's a sign of disorganization to put real life slightly above a fun game website.

 

[Nove NuVonde]

Not that it's inferior either.

But obviously that isn't always the case and bb-code can be effective if used with common sense in mind.

I feel like you answered your own question with these two statements. OP wasn't asking for a list of things that makes RP posts objectively better, just what makes them come off as more organized/thought out. For some people (including me) BBCode is part of that (of course with the stipulation that this is BBCode used for good, and not for evil, like those damn people who use 10px tall text).

And that's what it boils down to: some people just think BBCode helps with organization, and that's as simple and subjective as it gets.

 

[Breech Loader]

Once every other day would be nice too.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Once every other day would be nice too.

I would say that’s less an organizational issue and more free time. I have ideas I have worked months on. That have a minimum of three docs with information related to the setting, society, or locations of the world.

But because I work five days a week I can only respond on the weekends. That doesn’t have anything to do with the work I have put into the idea.

I mean if you prefer faster replies it’s fine. I just don’t think it has much to do with people’s ability to organize a thread.

 

[MDL]

I feel like you answered your own question with these two statements. OP wasn't asking for a list of things that makes RP posts objectively better, just what makes them come off as more organized/thought out. For some people (including me) BBCode is part of that (of course with the stipulation that this is BBCode used for good, and not for evil, like those damn people who use 10px tall text).

And that's what it boils down to: some people just think BBCode helps with organization, and that's as simple and subjective as it gets.

You just restated exactly what I wrote in my post.