Firefly Roleplay Helpful Suggestions.. by ZachsMind

FIREFLY UNIVERSE

Firefly Roleplay Helpful Suggestions..

POSTED BY: ZACHSMIND
UPDATED: Thursday, January 22, 2004 00:10
SHORT URL:
VIEWED: 2615
PAGE 1 of 1

Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:59 PM

Feel free to add your own helpful suggestions in replies to this thread. Perhaps this could evolve into a kinda FAQ about how to play these sorts of things, as we all get our metaphorical sea legs.

This is a working draft of helpful suggestions and ideas that people can opt to keep in mind as they venture into roleplaying. This may or may not be helpful. The intent is to be helpful, and not to tick anybody off. I apologize ahead of time if anybody freaks out. I ain't trying to tell you how to run your roleplay. Just throwing some free advice out there. Ya git whut ya's pay fer so don't complain if this don't help.

My brain's just thinkin' a mile a minute here and I thought I'd jot down a few ideas as they come to me. Anyone registered can of course post a thread in this forum and instigate a roleplaying session. However, what's gonna make a thread successful and what's not?

When thinking about rules for your roleplaying, first off ya gotta wonder if you even want rules. You also gotta understand what rules are really for. I mean remember when you were a kid and your parents had all these rules? They usually started with the word "DON'T" didn't they? My least favorite word, growing up. Kinda necessary sometimes though. Don't run out into the street. Why? Cuz the cars are whizzing by and they'll run over you. Sometimes rules are good things.

If you want rules, how ya gonna enforce them? In all honesty you can't. Presently there isn't a way to vote people in or out of a given thread, or delete replies inside a thread that somebody doesn't like. That might change, or perhaps I'm wrong. For all intents and purposes though, we're operating pretty much on the honor system. That may change some day, but my recommendation would be to keep rules down to as bare a minimum as possible, using common sense. There's anarchy and there's micromanagement. The goal is to be somewhere in between. Not enough rules and players won't have any boundaries at all, which often deteriorates into either a love-in or a shouting match. Too many rules and people will complain they're not having any fun, or start breaking rules just to be rebellious, or worst case scenario, they'll leave your little roleplaying thread and not return, looking for some sandbox or puppet theater in the forum that knows how to be fun.

Decide before you begin how serious you're hoping other players will take the RPing, and be sure to convey that tone in your introduction. Also realize that roleplay is a group activity and it grows out of the efforts of many, so where you're planning on taking a roleplay session will inevitably NOT be where it ends up. You'll wanna go to Persephone, but others in the group will wanna go to Shadow. Don't freak when things don't go your way. In fact, expect things won't go your way so that you'll be pleasantly surprised if by pure chance they ever actually do.

There's many different approaches to rping online. Some have guides that determine what happens in the 'verse, outside of the roles played by principal players. These guides are known often as GMs aka "game masters" (used to be Dungeon Master but that was a long time ago). This approach is oftentimes ideal for play by email. However, webbased games seem to sometimes work like email and sometimes work like chat forums. Depends on how many players happen to be online at the same time. If three Players are online and the GM ain't replying, they're gonna get pretty bored quick.

Another approach is character driven roleplay. Where each player chooses a role from the series, or makes up their own character, and then describes what they're doing in the form of a "move" and then leaves things open to allow other players to post with their move, interacting with what the previous player established. This is actually more successful than it might sound, but there's a number of guidelines to keep in mind. Predominantly, one is responsible for their own character, and should not describe what other players characters are doing without that player's explicit (preferably public) permission. Also be sure not to do anything in one's own description that would guarantee the certain death of a fellow player's character. Treat other players and their characters as you would like to be treated. Even if you're playing a bad guy, which is the most challenging thing to do. You are supposed to try to get the good guys in bad situations, but remember you always have to give the good guys a way out. I mean the game would get pretty over fast if you blow up Serenity, so try to avoid that temptation. Instead, think of ways to annoy the good guys or perpetually keep them in a state of impending doom.

Try to work with anything that gets posted. Don't get rattled by someone who posts something that completely derails what you were going to do. That's actually part of the fun! Rethink what you had in mind and see if you can try to incorporate what the other player is doing into what you were doing. Or just scrap whatever you had in mind and go along with what they're doing. Save your idea for later. I've found myself frustrated a few times over the years doing this kinda gaming, but oftentimes if you think "yes and" to whatever comes down the pipe rather than instantly thinking no to someone else's idea, you soon find that complex rules and judicial decision making by some objective party becomes less and less necessary.

Finally, realize that not everyone's going to get along with everyone. There's gonna be times when you're playing in a thread and you just don't click with the people in there. Be fair and gracious about it. Bow out politely. There's no need to make a scene. It is just a game after all. Feel free to give your character to another person, or just announce that it's now up for grabs for whomever wants it. Even if you think you got the short end of the stick, you'll come out ahead if you don't demean yourself by mudslinging or otherwise ruining everyone else's fun. If you don't like how other people's rpg sessions are going, there's nothing stopping you from running your own, on your terms and by your own guidelines.

Remember: Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

------------------------------
"Hang on, travelers..."

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

Thursday, January 22, 2004 12:10 AM

CAPNRAHN

Hey Zach! This thread is a Great idea.

So, I'll join in and re-post this from the -RP OCC 2 "Badgers Betrayal..."- thread:

I believe there is a need to have a 'bare bones' synopsis or act breakdown (for those aspiring screenwirters) and decide if the "episode" will be a solo, double triple etc.

If you want to keep in the episodic format, there are 6 to 7 'acts' ... Teaser, Acts 1-4 (or 5) and Coda for each episode.

For episodes that arc together it would be (2 parter as example) Teaser, Acts 1-10, Coda and so forth.

It allows us or the GM/Director to plot out what direction us/they want to go. AKA as a STORY/PLOT ARC. Some shows only have an 'A' ARC and 'B' ARC in every episode. Others, like Farscape and Firefly, try to have PLOT ARCS that interact with CHARACTER ARCS.

CHARACTER ARCS usually play out over many episodes ... TeelaBrown knows what I mean!

Character Arc Example
River's condition and rememdy is a good example. She has little 'bits, then there whole episodes that 'expose' what the smaller arcs hint and foreshadow at. "Ariel" and "Objects in Space" are the examples of 'whole' episodes that explain more about Rivers' condition.

Savvy?

"Remember, there is only ONE absolute - There ARE NO absolutes!!!"

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | TOP | HOME

YOUR OPTIONS

SHARE THREAD

NEW POSTS TODAY

USER	POST DATE

USER

POST DATE