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Kazooie

RP Planning

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So, I guess this is the best place to post this honestly, but it's a bit of a discussion potentially!

Currently, I'm in the process of planning for an RP. Taadaa. But more than anything, I'm curious on how much you all plan out when you're starting the planning stages of the RP. Obviously, you can't plan out everything and still have player influence, but you can plan beats. Do you have every potential story beat planned out? Do you have a vague outline of what you want? Do you bother planning at all?

I'm curious, cause we've got a decent array of styles of hosts here, so I want to hear from some of ya. And we can use this forum a bit too.

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tbh it has varied for me.

Gijinka I had a basic idea and a map, figured out basics about the cities on it, and then kinda just made it up as I went along.

Mind and Soul I literally had a couple "events" planned for each area, trainers and teams planned, plot points, evil team admins, rivals, gym leaders, basically I had everything planned out before it even was an OOC

For the most part when starting though I want at least

Premise
Setting (sometimes with some specific locations, sometimes with just vague ideas)
A few important NPCs
And the initial one or two "encounters" and/or "events"

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what's planning lmao

Because players - being human and thus fickle creatures - are fully capable of doing something there's no way to account for, I tend to not worry that much about the overarching plot of an RP. I'll think about the broad strokes of "this is cast, cast's goal is X which we can do via methods Y or Z, and obstacles A B and C are in our way" of course, but I tend to focus more on the world of the RP instead of its story; once you have a world, the rest kinda falls into place in my experience. Aside from this method that pretty much gives me a plan in name only, I don't bother with the plot.

Course, I'm a notoriously unsuccessful host, so maybe don't take too many notes from how I operate.

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Sai and I have the arcs and major story beats planned out for FBMO, but not how it will affect characters. The characters will almost certainly influence things to the point where plans change (one of them already has), but that's all a part of the process.

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Only have one RP hosting credit to my name, but I'm very in on the "create situations, not plots" school of thinking. I set up some locations and NPCs, added some events to introduce both of those to the players, and then everything else I just built from those elements during play. At the same time, though, I don't think it's impossible to have, like, a complete story in mind when setting up, it just needs to be flexible enough to change when players inevitably run roughshod over it. From my RP, the major steps are pretty set; it's a journey and I already at least have an idea of each location on the way. Even the finale is rather concrete. Player expression, then, comes from how they resolve the situation on each stop.

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Pla...Ning?

I usually fly by night with it. I have general major beats in my head, but I try to let the flow carry where the rest of it goes for a while. Give players an early chance to figure out what they’re doing in a round table environment, then set them on the path.

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Planning is...well...hard to do, to a certain extent. As many have already said, players are quite the fickle beasts to where they end up doing things you never once anticipated in your plannings. And if you never planned with those things in mind, everything gets thrown out of whack.

That said, I've done planning and used it more as a guideline and general outline to work under. Taking into consideration, Grimm Nights. The first incarnation of this RP there was like...ZERO planning involved. I had a general end goal that I wanted, but never fleshed anything out...and I honestly believe that's what sort of had that first version die within two pages (or less, I can't remember). Planning may not be a bad thing in an RP, though always be flexible when doing things. Having the flexibility while going by a general plan for the RP is always a good thing to do.

Cause life can happen and they may not be able to post, so you'll need to be flexible in having to put a character or two in limbo until they return... Or...if players end up going in a direction that is one thing you weren't expecting. Always be as flexible as you can be with an RP, cause if you can roll with the punches, things will be a lot easier.

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I know I'm new here, but I would like to try my hand at pitching an idea. Currently, I want to know if there would be any interest in a Power Rangers themed role-play. An idea inspired by my kid brother, I was thinking of setting it in the near future with the rangers being painted as a form of authority, but a scandal has put them at odds with the public.

Furthermore, in an effort to restore their image, they find themselves in the middle of a grand evil scheme that takes advantage of their public failures and puts the world and it's people in danger.

I realize this is a very big pitch, so I just thought I would try to gather interest. ?

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2 hours ago, GwenSynth said:

I know I'm new here, but I would like to try my hand at pitching an idea. Currently, I want to know if there would be any interest in a Power Rangers themed role-play. An idea inspired by my kid brother, I was thinking of setting it in the near future with the rangers being painted as a form of authority, but a scandal has put them at odds with the public.

Furthermore, in an effort to restore their image, they find themselves in the middle of a grand evil scheme that takes advantage of their public failures and puts the world and it's people in danger.

I realize this is a very big pitch, so I just thought I would try to gather interest. ?

The best way to gather interest is posting an Interest Check. Basically, you go to the OOC section and basically pitch the idea of the RP to us. People will then express interest.

 

Now personally, while I am glad that you are showing interest in joining the RP section... Honestly, it's kinda hard to get people to trust you as a Host without establishing yourself as a good RPer first. It might be best to try to join other rps first before pitching your own.

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10 minutes ago, Saikazo said:

The best way to gather interest is posting an Interest Check. Basically, you go to the OOC section and basically pitch the idea of the RP to us. People will then express interest.

 

Now personally, while I am glad that you are showing interest in joining the RP section... Honestly, it's kinda hard to get people to trust you as a Host without establishing yourself as a good RPer first. It might be best to try to join other rps first before pitching your own.

Oh, I had no intentions of hosting it myself. I don't have that level of confidence yet. But I am flattered!

If I wanted to only pitch ideas, and perhaps assist with a project, how should I go about doing that?

Thank you for your help!

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46 minutes ago, GwenSynth said:

Oh, I had no intentions of hosting it myself. I don't have that level of confidence yet. But I am flattered!

If I wanted to only pitch ideas, and perhaps assist with a project, how should I go about doing that?

Thank you for your help!

A lot of people who would want to host things/make things are the types who want to make them themselves. So you might not get any biters for something like that.

That said if you have ideas you want to put out there anyway this specific forum (RP Help Desk) you could make a thread of RP ideas to put them out there.

Also if you see an OOC asking for a co-host pop up you could offer. (though many would choose people they know for that, fair warning)

btw for questions of this nature in the future you can use "Comments and Inquiries" forum up near the top ?

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