Original RP sign up topic.

We have just enough RP-ers on the site to run a really good rp but the problem is this ragtag group of internet friends lack an interest that's common to all of us. Sure its a tales site but some of us don't even play the games. The Persona rp is our most successful one to date, but let's be honest, even with the attention it's been getting, Masu has four original characters. The solution has already been proposed and I am going to take the initiative and start an original, open-ended rp. No longer will anyone have the excuses of "I don't know or like that show or game" or "I'm waiting for you guys to do *blank* so I can *blank*" This RP will have so many openings for characters that those who don't have the time or energy to commit to it can make short term appearances and never be heard from again.

So! Now for what its all about:

I'm stealing the idea for this RP from some shows and books I've read... wait didn't he say the whole point is we don't need to know the series? Fear not that still holds true! The concept is simple, "world jumping". That's right, forget picking a sci-fi rp or a fantasy rp. We get to do all of them. Completely oblivious to the show your friends like? Your character will be too, but it's OK because he's from a different planet. Everyone who wants too will have a turn to write their own adventure and drag us all along for the ride. Any genre, game, or anime goes. Even if someones tastes seem like they'd be a little too obscure for us to enjoy, a few simple guidelines and the broad back-story I've prepared will keep us all on the same page. It goes a little something like this...


Intro

Parallel Earths all exist unseen and untouchable to each other. These worlds form a sort of line. (here's the part I stole lol)As one approaches one end of the spectrum the force known as magic grows stronger and that which is commonly revered to as "logic" slowly loses its hold on the order of things, and those with strong spiritual power mold their fleeting worlds around themselves before returning to the aether. Conversely, on the other end of the spectrum science reigns supreme, the so called "mysteries" of the universe are discernible and tamed with just a little ingenuity and lots of hard work. The two ends of the spectrum counterbalance each other, however two opposing factions seek to overthrow this balance, the *insert name of occult sacred order* which seek to rule all the realms through sorcery, and the *decepticons* a race of sentient machines which aim to subjugate the humans of every universe. Our story begins in the Third Realm which straddles both ends of the multi-verse and follows a set of rules incomprehensible to both science and magic. Lar-E, a nigh omnipotent imp of the Third Realm, has taken an interest in the clash between magic and science. In order to stop the growing threat, but mostly because he's bored, Lar-E has selected people from several parallel Earths bringing them together to prevent either faction from obtaining the World Keys, which allow certain compatible individuals to travel between worlds. These keys play a vital role in stopping the advances of the two forces which seek to plunge the entire multi-verse into darkness....

Character guidelines

Your original character can be anything, and I mean that. All you need to do is determine which side of the multi-verse your character originates from, Magic or Science. For example normal earth we live in with cellphones, cars, and forums is on the science side of things. Other science universes include steam-punk, robots, cave-men etc. On the magical side you have things like beastmen, wizards, angels and the like. You may also choose to go mixed like the magecite-tech in tales games, but you'll need to determine the primary source of power for those things. In tales for example the technology leans more toward the magic side of things and the materials involved wont be available in a world farther along the science side of the spectrum. The reason for this is that more complicated spells won't work in a world without mana and more complicated technology will fail in a world with a strong magical field. I may come up with a dice roll equation for this but not if it interferes with the free-form mood I'm going for here.

More serious RP-ers will join the main group. Other people who wish to join temporarily as locals of the worlds we'll be visiting may do so without posting a character bio and can jump in anytime. Since we are dealing with parallel worlds you can use the same character in different worlds we visit keeping the personality but making them residents of the new world (think Tsubasa Chronicles for those of you who know it). Latecomers who want in the main group will be worked in when we come to that, and those who want to leave the rp will find their way home or die or whatever. A person who drops out without notice will lose their character in this manner and may have to create a new one if they want back in. First posts will be used to introduce your character. Throw in some daily life stuff to give us a feel for the type of world you're from and what your character is like. After everyone posts Lar-E will start kidnapping people. Also after your character bios make suggestions of what type of worlds you'd like to see, or if you want your characters home-world to be one of the ones we visit. Even if you don't want to be the one write the adventure, make a suggestion, although I feel that each person is the only one who can really capture what they want out of an adventure so I strongly hope you'll all consider it.

Well, there you have it. Post any feedback or just jump right into character making.

Ooh. I'll probably try this.

Just a suggestion, based on the RP activities I seen on the MSPA forum.
They all have a system where anyone can control anyone's character, as long as they don't make other people's characters do stuff that's too extreme or uncharacteristic.

It almost completely eliminates the problem of people not being around to post, and it makes the whole thing more active in general. The system works great, and they've used it many, many times successfully.

Since it's your creation here, you can decide whether to do that or not.
Here are examples
http://www.mspaforums.com/forumdisplay.php?92-Collab-Roleplay

I'll think of character info n stuff. I'll check back a few times to see how things are going, too.

Thanks cat. This has loads of stuff rule-wise that can help me and some nice ideas for the story too. I'm gonna edit this post later to put in the ones I think would fit best for us.

EDIT: All righty here are the general rules. comments welcome but don't try to bend 'em once they're set ok :

first off as always the rules of the forum. these are pinned in namcobandaisland but here they are again

Spoiler:

Obviously rule 3 in chara/story doesn't really apply here but 2 definitely does. I'm also gonna edit stage rule 1 with regards to the following:

1. As part of an effort to combat slow or busy posters control of others peoples characters will be allowed in certain circumstances:
. If someone is away during a good posting chain you may move them along. no need to wait a whole day for a simple "yes i agree"
. If someone needs to take a long unexpected break more specific posts are allowed
. No controlling if that person is online unless its obvious that they are ignoring the rp
. If someone needs to take a break and informs us ahead of time they may choose who they want to write for them
. If your online by yourself please don't take it as an excuse to start one-manning the story.
. In general we are slower than most rp-ers so if your in doubt as to how long before someone counts as inactive it's best just to wait a bit longer

2. RESPECT! Other people worked just as hard on their characters as you, so try remain true to their original vision. And don't obviously try to bomb their set-ups unless screwing them over really and I mean really fits with what we're supposed to be doing. If it's obvious their stuff is way too crazy to work and everyone agrees a particular poster is getting out of hand, put 'em down. But do it gently and don't twist fate around i.e. make their machine fall apart randomly or create a random bystander to trip them, because that's metagaming. Instead try to counter things you do not like by reacting to them as your character not as "god as the machine".

3. Keep controlling other characters to a minimum. No seriously long winded set-ups if you can avoid it, however the longer someones away the more liberties you can take as long as you stay in character

4. No controlling another character until after they've been well established. In general let's not do this for the first adventure.

5. For temporary local characters wait three or so posts after which they are up for control. Same applies for NPC's but try to stay away from Lar-E since he's my major plot device.

6. Don't do anything permanently damaging to a character without that character's author's permission

7. READ. READ. READ. AND READ CAREFULLY. Even I'm guilty of skimming a post and then messing up continuity. Everything we write affects the story and it's so upsetting to see carefully planned details go to waste.

8. ANYTHING POSTED BECOMES CANON. If you're away and get controlled you just gotta deal. Pick up where others have left off and continue to react in character. If they're following the rules it's nothing you wouldn't have been doing anyway. You're also responsible for you're own recaps, even if that means reading several pages to catch up.

REMEMBER EVEN THOUGH WE'RE POSTING FOR EACH OTHER, OUR COURSE OF ACTION FOR LAZY POSTERS CAN STILL INCLUDE PHASING YOU OUT OF THE RP ALL TOGETHER.

Addtional rules...

1. NO METAGAMING. Metagaming is "a broad term usually used to define any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. Another definition refers to the game universe outside of the game itself." In simple terms, using out-of-game information, or resources, to affect one's in-game decisions. Don't react to stuff your character wasn't around to see and don't give your character knowledge s/he shouldn't have. You know Deadpool from Marvel? Yeah that.

2. Keep all non-story posts in spoilers. Sometimes stuff happens and you have to go "Wait time out. Explain that to me again." and thats ok. Major questions and discussions should be directed here though once you have our attention.

3. Reserve posting:
Not many of us are gonna be writing in great detail, but sometimes you got a real nice reaction going and then you're redirected to "someone posted before you, edit this now!" If you feel like you got something wonderful you may post a "reserve" this'll give you an extra 30 mins (check the time posted to keep track people) to write something and give your reaction priority over the reactions under you. That is to say even if someone puts their post under yours they can't contradict you and will be forced to edit. If your times about to run out post what you got and ask for an extension but really we're not as hardcore about your prose here. Don't disappoint us by making us wait around and then all your character does is nod. Sometimes it's just easier to adjust with the flow when unexpected things happen. This isn't your fanfic (learned that while I was doing the reborn rp lol). You may take as long as you want for your first post since that's introductions

4. What you need for your character sheet
NAME- "Wie heisst du?"
DESCRIPTION- Backstory, homeworld, personality, etc. Characters develop over time but try to commit to this or your character becomes inconsistent
ABILITIES- What are you capable of? Lot's of stuff happens on adventures. How will you make it through this
ALIGNMENT- Mine's Neutral-Good. Tell us whether you're from a magic world or a science world. Keep in mind a sword is a sword is a sword, but your PDA doesn't get signal in Middle Earth and vice versa for all you mana users.
BACKPACK- A trans-dimensional imp has just plucked you from your homeworld. What did you manage to grab as you were being sucked into the void? You'll have opportunities to restock if you were caught off guard but you'll run out of ammo at some point.
COLOR- Because who said what can be confusing pick a color for your speech on a first come first serve basis (I reserve the right to the color Red). Only your speech has to be colored but if you are posting for someone else's character use their color for the entire thing.

5. No ones perfect especially me. If someones messing up, don't flip a shit. Bring it to their attention and then bring your concerns here to the discussion topic. If they continue to dick-up, then flip a shit

Yay!

Yeah, that option to "reserve" a post should help too. Like if I want to type up a whole page and then I get ninja'd with the world blowing up or something. That would suck.

Also, I'm ready to post my character profile. Should I do that here?

actually lets put them in one topic for easy access this'll be the discussion topic, you go ahead and make it. Include name, description, abilities, and whether s/he's magic or science powered.

All right, everything's set up. I'd like to try my hand at writing without using colors unless it's absolutely necessary, but I picked one anyway.
I'm ready to write my introductory pre-warp post.

It's a little disheartening how no one else seems to have posted yet, though. Do you know whether there are other people on board yet?

To be honest I may have been overzealous in trying to get this started. I was expecting everyone to pounce on the idea and I was feeling quite proud of myself, but no ones even posted a "this looks interesting". I know Masu and James at least seem like they're looking forward the return of the Reborn RP, and they're major players in the P4 one, but I am too and I really want to do this... perhaps my timing was off and i overestimated this idea. post if u want catbread, im still working on my guy but i wanna read yours anyway and it might get people interested.

Shoot! I was all ready to be super active and everything.

I can write my introductory post though. It'd probably be best if you started the thread itself to introduce the whole plot thingy, so I'll wait for that. Some patience might be all this needs, anyway.

If everyone ignores this though I should probably spam ponies across the forum in retribution. It's only fair!

im interested in this as well.

Usogami has saved us all from catbread and his ponies yay!

FOR NOW

I'll write a character up soon, I been more active in RPing in the real world instead of here though

Catbread wrote:
If everyone ignores this though I should probably spam ponies across the forum in retribution. It's only fair!

Across the forum doesn't sound like just the spam board.

Jude Mathis wrote:Across the forum doesn't sound like just the spam board.

Uh

As long as you're posting in the thread, what do you think about this here RP? We could use some more members.

Seems interesting, but at the same time i wasnt expecting a member whom we thought left to return and revive the Reborn RP the very day (or day after) i made the blog post. Red said he may have jumped the gun on this one, and I do wanna participate, but I dont wanna make a character and join it just to halfass it cause im focusing on Persona and Reborn and slow down its progress. Cause i've watched people do that. It sucks.

Jude Mathis wrote:Seems interesting, but at the same time i wasnt expecting a member whom we thought left to return and revive the Reborn RP the very day (or day after) i made the blog post. Red said he may have jumped the gun on this one, and I do wanna participate, but I dont wanna make a character and join it just to halfass it cause im focusing on Persona and Reborn and slow down its progress. Cause i've watched people do that. It sucks.

Ya, that makes sense. Maybe later then. I'll keep an eye on the topics here.

we could just make characters to prepare for it after the others I guess

Agreed with Kiba, Speaking of which I know you're waiting for arc to post but ur still in reborn right?

Theres no point in that. With time comes change, meaning I wouldn't be surprised if 70% of the entrants changed their characters/personalities/moves/whatever when this thing ever kicks off.

yeah I'm in, just been busy with school a bit and looking for a job, gonna post again soon if arc doesn't