Experiences What is the most intriguing Roleplay concept you've ever come across?

[Reisling]

Hello, Nation.

I've noticed that, over the years, I've seen a lot of similar Roleplay concepts be recycled again and again, no matter where I go. I'm not here to gripe about that (first and foremost, everyone's Roleplay is valid— Barring the exception of offensive, inappropriate material, that is), but the opposite! I want to know what is the most intriguing Roleplay concept that you've ever come across, either as a Roleplay itself or an interest check? Did you join it? Why or why not? If you know, what was its ultimate fate?

Very curious to see what folks have to say!

 

[Zavian]

I think around 8 years ago, I took part in a pretty fascinating roleplay that hooked me to the community.

The concept appeared generally simple, the only twist was that our characters could die and when they did, they continued along as ghosts. I assumed that was to keep roleplayers invested even when their characters were no longer alive. When our characters were injured and teetering between life and death and clearly about to die, the host would say our character hear a voice, and them dm us a question.

That voice could be the voice of God, the voice of a loved parter, the voice of a child, it depended on the character. And we had the option essentially to continue along with the surviving characters or not. The roleplay was set up so well, we didn't know if our characters would be revived in the future or if the remaining ones would survive, so literally all of us chose to stay.

Turns out, there was a Matrix twist. If one of us had chosen to leave, they would have awoken to reality. We had made our characters agree to stay in a false reality, and one where they lived in grief. As a 12 year old writer, I was freaking out!

Before this, I had done very casual roleplays and I wasn't feeling it. After this, I realized I loved deep, unique, immersive plots. It changed the game for me.

 

[zilkzong]

i've roleplayed in a lot of different spaces, and each one is really unique (except for probably tumblr) in how they keep things fresh for players involved, or how the roleplay itself is set up. spaces where characters act as if they were in an online chatroom were a fun and more laidback form of rp, i've also been in groups, and have used this tool myself, where you allow a dice roll to determine the outcome of a situation your character is in instead of having it be totally plotted out beforehand. i've seen there be a point system for active roleplayers to earn in-roleplay rewards whether it be a small personal item or a bigger plot opportunity, which i thought was a really good incentive to keep activity up.

 

[BuggaBoo]

Hi!!

Post war Madoka inspired magical girls. Slice of life turned psychological turmoil turned expendables. All charries are in late 20s, early 30s and have moved on and repressed their experiences and memories so they can live as normies. Some are married now. Some even have kids. Some didnt do too well.

Anywaaaaays. Bare minimum cs. We buillt background and revealed Powers as we went. So like the RP was solo styled Slice of life where charries would go about daily routines from pretty much all over the world. All interaction btwn charries was all in flashback as teens. So there was a dual charrie posting style to the rp. One currently as grown ass women and one as a teen magical girl. What triggered memories is that the ladies are seeing glimpses of their talking magical girl animal guide. Its.because the war isn't over.

But so like their magical girl time was like Madoka where girls are dying or being possessed by demons. Or even betrayed by their own. And so like they have repression issues, emo anguish and severe post trauma and have to deal with it as they start to remember.

We only got as far as the ladies agreeing to group call to figure things out. Aaaaaand like whether or not they wanted to rejoin as magical girls or go as Mercs or take out the whole recruiting of magical girls altogether.

AMAZING excecution cuz of gm and amazingly creative writers. It was a perfect storm of styles, engagement and collab that ended faaaar too soon. In a time when I took the plunge into adv | lit. Like I reeeeeally wanted to see where this went.

 

[Darling_Canines]

I took part in a roleplay years ago where literally each character we wrote has to be based on a specific cheese. That's how it started, it was supposed to be a crack RP and no one expected it to survive beyond like a month.

It lasted 4 years.

It was honestly one of the most epic, gut wrenching RPs I have ever been a part of. It made me full on CRY once. There was the pasterised and unpasturised war,mold plagues and zombies that became the great leaders of society later. One zombie became a god because he transformed into a new breed of cow for some reason (cows and goats were considered gods in that world) the great Brie extinction (that was the one that made me shed literal tears). At some point we ran out of cheeses so some people wanted to add yoghurts as characters and that, I kid y'all not: that was what caused the end of the RP because everyone was so divided on it it became a huge thing and really bad, nastly arguments came up and yeah.

That RP was a weird, but incredible once in a lifetime ride lmao.

EDIT: When cheese randomly comes up in conversation, people are usually a bit surprised when they discover I'm a living cheese wikipedia all of a sudden lmao. That godamn RP haunts me even 10 years later HAHAHA

 

[dovette]

recently i saw an ad on tumblr (which, i really want to do this myself but fandom related, i would love to give creds but they were anon) about a haunted house sort of deal where muse A was being haunted by muse B, a friendly ghost but after months of staying there, muse A starts to wake up at the edge of the forest, behind the house “as if something was calling to them” or something, is how they said it. i love love loved for concept and im not sure what they had planned for it, but i would love to build on it myself.

 

[Jon-LockeEdwards]

An interdimensional “roach motel world” concept would be the best phrase for me to describe it.

It created serious crossover potential that rivaled what the Nintendo Smash series of games has pulled in their stories.

But the crossovers were grittier. Individuals who died or moved on in their universes were being pulled in as champions by the patron deity of a world “at the interdimensional crossroads,” one being threatened by a powerful force that would use it to launch an assault across said dimensions if they were able to claim said world. This darker power was even drawing in its own champions from other worlds, up to and including the rivals of canon characters that the patron deity of the crossroad world called upon.

The crossover potential drew in Canon Characters and OCs from Titanfall, Starcraft, Halo, Destiny, Mass Effect, RWBY, SAO, Gundam, Homeworld, Warcraft, Azur Lane, and more, such was the eclectic mix of all the group members’ varied interests.

Obviously making this work is a challenge…. But we got lucky. We had an incredible set of DM style RPers in our server’s admin team, and the RPers themselves, for the most part, stuck to a trust system to keep things civil, and relatively balanced.

I was shocked to be part of something like that, but we made the Subspace Emissary campaigns of SSB: Brawl and the various Kingsom Hearts games look like a child’s storybook in comparison.

The character interactions were surprisingly deep and robust, and we ended up building a world at war with complex and well-thought-out geopolitical landscapes.

Talk about a wild adventure….

 

[Wildcard888]

Any rp concept that my best friend comes up with!

I love her stories, and what happens in our role plays is so fun. We were supposed to do a Halloween role play with an idea she came up with, but it never happened. But I would be more than thrilled to do it now if she wants to ^^

 

[Chiester]

The most interesting RP's Ive had werent the ones with the most interesting concepts tbh. But the ones that shined in their execution.

When everyone is proactive in some way the plot tends to shift and change.

 

[Pokeking]

Some of these storylines seem, like the cheese one, seem miles beyond anything I've participated in.

The first thing that comes to mind, in my part of the RP world, was not even an RP storyline. It was in high school, where me and the other members of the creative writing club would write a paragraph or two and then the next user would write a paragraph or two, then so on. It started out as a Noir-type mystery, but quickly evolved into a timey-wimey multiversal adventure. How did it get like that? You're looking at him. As the first user besides our faculty advisor, who was the librarian, I shifted the theme to suit my preferences. The members of the club, and their variants, teamed up to confront Duran Duran (a single person) and Carmen Sandiego.

As for true RP storylines, it's difficult to say what was the most intriguing. I suppose it was my first RP called Red Ground Tavern and Inn which I got into in 2002 when I was in college. I was a lurker for a couple of weeks. I wasn't sure what I was seeing, but it eventually pulled me in and the rest is history. Truth be told, although I do miss the times that I had with that one, I would have acted differently. I was a rookie back then and only had one character and wasn't as versatile with interacting with other user characters.

 

[AaronMk]

There was one that to this day my friends and I sometimes come back around to talking about because we thought it was the most interesting setting any one of us come up with. But for life reasons once it was launched it fell apart because one or more or us couldn't post for extended periods. And stretched out long enough the energy of the RP slackened and it died.

The premise - Landfall - was built in the idea that everyone is a second or third wave of space colonists arriving to a planet that is hoped would be the new Earth. However, disaster in orbit scatters everyone and not all colonists make it to the surface alive or even on target. Those that do arrive on target find that the original colony is abandoned and are charged with learning how and why, and also getting it all back up and running. Those cut off in the wilds have to find a way to connect with the main colony not knowing where they are.

Also the planet itself is practically alive because of a rhizomatic fungal net that serves as a sort of neural system and passes information and food for the planetary ecosystem which also means it *can* itself fight the alien intruders

 

[Dragonearuss]

I have a lot of triggers, some that are completely ordinary or people find really trivial- such as alcohol. One of my DM's remembered this about me ( there was a series of incredibly unfortunate events in the past ) and invited me to a campaign that he had tweaked one thing on... That coffee ( instead of alcohol ) was illegal. Essentially, anything to do with alcohol was replaced with coffee and coffee shops. It was amazing, and while that campaign never actually started it really stuck with me.