RPG-ing: Solutions to "it feels like a task"
By morbus_iff 17 Comments
First, as a general disclaimer: yes, I’m new here. No, I have no experience with the existing RPG forums. Yes, I’ve played-by-post before and think I can bring something useful to the table. No, I don’t think folks are “doing RPGs wrong”, nor do I know any of you so my comments aren’t motivated by bad blood or history.
I think one of the underlying problems behind many of the current complaints can be summed up with one word: expectation . It’s hard for a player to know what they’re getting into when they look at a current or new RPG thread. They might look for an OOC thread for information (that may not exist), or they might just post in hopes that everything will be to their liking. If it’s not, they’ll drop out unhappy, affecting everyone’s enjoyment.
Thankfully, this is a really easy problem to solve by adding a list of clarifications and intentions to an RPG's thread:
Story: Sandbox or Focused
Duration: One-shot, Mini-series, or Ongoing
Post length: 1, 2, 3 paragraphs or Unlimited
Speed: Daily, Every few days, Weekly
Enrollment: Open or Closed
Other threads: [links to OOC and Recap threads]
Story: Sandbox or Focused?
Is this story a sandbox or focused? If it’s focused, the game master has a definitive adventure or quest in mind with a hoped-for conclusion, and the players should be focused on bringing that storyline to a satisfying ending. A focused game represents the “structured” or “on the rails” approach that some play-by-post games might take: they’re interested in exploring a single story or idea, and large deviations from that storyline are unwelcome.A sandbox game, however, is wide-open, both in story and character development. The players should feel free to insert their own within-reason ideas into the mix, and the game master should feel free to do potentially untoward (but reversible) things to the characters. In a sandbox game, the game master wants to be challenged as well, and part of that challenge is intelligently and creatively responding to a player’s plot-twisting or game-breaking ideas. The players, on the other hand, should be willing to “lose”: they might misplace a limb, lose all their powers, get a debilitating disease, lose a loved one, or what have you. In the comic book world, most of these things are entirely reversible (with a corresponding in-story explanation), and players should be willing to work toward favorable results in-story. “Reversible” is the key here: forcing a player to do things they wouldn’t want to do or are taboo subjects (being raped, becoming gay, murdering a loved one, being mind-controlled, etc. etc.) should be privately consulted with, or left out entirely.
Duration: One-shot or Battle, Mini-series, or Ongoing?
Post length: 1, 2, 3 paragraphs or Unlimited?
Speed: Daily, Every few days, Weekly?
The duration indicates to potential players how long the game master thinks the story will take. A one-shot or battle won’t take anytime at all: it might only be a week or a month or, hell, even a 3-hour “as quick as possible” some Tuesday night. A mini-series could be 3, 5 or 12 “issues” long, roughly corresponding to how many months the game master thinks their story’s twists and turns will play out. An ongoing story might be for regular team-based adventures or a sandbox game: it’ll keep going as long as people keep playing.The post length also indicates speed of play, both for writing and reading. By standardizing the length of a response or action, no one will feel pressured to write a book or spend an hour drafting his or her response. A 1 paragraph game emphasizes actions over flavor and progresses speedily, while 2 to 3 paragraphs will let a little of that flowery-talk through. Unlimited posts are for those who prefer the extra fluff to really paint the world. Note that Unlimited is not an exclusive label: players shouldn’t necessarily feel that they must write 800 words just because a previous player has, merely that the length is welcome should they want to.
Finally, the speed of a game indicates the maximum amount of time all players should take between responses or “turns”. Daily means everyone should be checking and responding daily, weekly once a week, and so forth. This sets the expectation for how much “work” is involved: players can quickly gauge if they have the time or effort needed to be a rewarding member of the storyline.
Enrollment: Open or Closed?
This is just a quick note on whether new players are currently welcome to the storyline. GMs can tweak this option based on how many players they currently have, vacations, dropouts, etc. I’ve seen a few OOC threads where game masters have said “Hey! Please delete your comment, you’re not allowed!” and this can easily be addressed in the first post of a thread.Other threads
Someone had previously suggested adding a “Recap” thread alongside the OOC thread, and I fully support this idea. ARGs, transmedia, games, comics, TV shows, all have “Previously on…” equivalents from entry to entry, and game threads should be no different. Whether it’s time-based (every week, month, major event), or count-based (10 pages, 20 pages, 50 comments, etc.), a recap will help new players (in the case of an open enrollment), Vine Universe canonneers, and your existing players.Which complaints does this list solve?
By putting this list of items at the top of your RPG threads, it should help solve a number of the complaints that came up, solely by giving to players a better idea of what you, the game master, expect their involvement to be. Players stay happy because they only join RPGs that fit into their time schedule, writing capabilities, or creative control, and game masters stay happy because they only get players that meld with the sort of story they’re looking to run.- Some don’t like the new structured feel of current RPGs (Story)
- People feel pressured into writing or the posts are too big to catch-up on (Duration, Post-length, Speed, Recap threads)
- People aren’t willing to change things or else depend on others to do it. (Story; This is solved twice: players who don’t want to change things can join a focused story, or they could join a sandboxed story and let other player’s suggestions take control.)
- Canon RPGs go too fast and there’s too much to read (Recap threads)
- Players are left out of the loop in their current RPG (Recap threads)
- RPG ideas are “already done” or “too predicatable” (Story: Sandbox)
- RPGs are too slow (Duration, Post-length, Speed)
- Teams do RPGs that affect the entire universe, but don’t share (Recap threads)
Which complaints MIGHT this list solve?
- People drop out too quickly. (Hopefully, a player will only join an RPG they feel they can be a decent member of: sandbox for those who want to express their own ideas, 1 paragraphs for those who have a variable amount of time, etc., one-shots for those who want to explore new ideas , etc.).
Which complaints WON’T this list solve?
- Popularity and recognition is too important (i.e., only well-known players are involved, an individual wants to be the star or “make a mark” [canon or otherwise], you have to be on a team to do anything “noteworthy”).
- Newbs aren’t treated tenderly (posts are ignored, don’t know how to fit into the story, shunned when they screw up, etc.).
- Team-play is too important (canon- or noteworthy-wise, and a team becomes a clique that prevents the strongest players from branching out into other games; this MIGHT be solved by shorter Duration or Post-length games).
Those are my forward-moving thoughts. Yours?