..for an RP board, remarkably few people actually RP. ^^
Well, do something about it.
I can hardly *force* people, y'know.
Quote from: "Carthrat"I can hardly *force* people, y'know.
Sure y'can.
Here now, lissen up, gents'n'ladies! It has done come to my attention that there are no less than two hunnerd and seven'y free people on this here board, of which only no more'n about twenny are gaming! Now I am not the best person in the world at maffs and stuff, but this is not soun'ing like a good ratio. An' th' thing about ratios is, see, when they get bad, then uvver fings also get bad.
Take this here kitty, for example. Ain't it a pretty li'l fing? Now, unless I'm mistaken -- an' I don't think I am, because me mam knew just about eferyfing about kitties, loved 'em t' death, if y'know what I'm saying -- this here kitty is in fact a Gaming Tomcat, a breed of kitty wot is famous for dyin' in accidental and painful ways when there is not enough of gamin' in its immediate vincinity. An' it is a beautiful kitty, as I was sayin', an' it would be a downright
tragedy if somefing were to happen to it just because some people could not be bothered to be in a game, know wot I'm sayin'?
An' this here puppy! It is a well-known
medical fact, found in dictionaries an' the like, that puppies will get downright
suicidal wivout a bit o' the harmless ol' arr pee gee goin' round. Lemme tell you, it's a sad fing to see when puppies start takin' swan dives offa tall buildings. And since puppies aren't swans, in any technical manner of speakin', well, the fings wot happen aren't the sorta fing that you'll want to be writing home to mam about.
Now, all dis is a lot to be finking about, and I can appreciate you needing some time to be givin' dese matters some serious consideration. So I'll be givin' you some time to fink about wot I have been sayin'. An' when I come back, I hope that you all will have reconsidered your position onna relative merits
vis a vis gamin' an' health an' well-bein' o' cute, cuddly l'il Fluffy and Fido.
Quote from: "Carthrat"..for an RP board, remarkably few people actually RP. ^^
270 some odd members.
60 or so who are on a minimum of once a day.
Of which...maybe 8 of them game.
-_-
Dracos
wonders why he bothers some days.
Because us eight people are just too damn cool?
Huzzah!
The title page says 'Anime and Gaming'. Not that I wouldn't mind gaming here, but I'm more focused on the anime related stuff.
Yeah, and that's fine. I don't mind that really. It's part of what the site is about.
Just sort of bemoan the lack of folks who are here for gaming.
Dracos
I'm here for gaming. Except I suck at gaming. And coming up with characters. And I don't understand d20. And I keep forgetting to check the boards so I can't keep up with Dracos' posting. Etc.
It's Carthrat's fault. Really.
Hey, I'd love to game - but I can't do IRC or anything that requires posting in the middle of the day or the morning...
On the other hand, the last RP I was killed in the first day for massive incompetence! Good times, good times.
-Jeram
<Jon> "I'm a loser!"
<Carthrat> "It's my fault he's a loser!"
<Jon> "Yes it is!"
<Carthrat> "I ain't disagreeing!"
Quote from: "Jeram"Hey, I'd love to game - but I can't do IRC or anything that requires posting in the middle of the day or the morning...
On the other hand, the last RP I was killed in the first day for massive incompetence! Good times, good times.
-Jeram
Yeah, bad break there.
Um, I know games are starting up right now, so keep an eye on the Testing Grounds.
I'm going to be odd here.
A lot of us play in playing groups. Many of which aren't here.
I'd like to see this place grow. Expand and such. Have more players around for gaming than the small squad we have now. I've been working to spread word of mouth but really, most the folks I know attend here by now. What the boards could really use is the honest help of those currently here.
We could USE folks telling others to come over here, hang out for a bit. Maybe join in a game. Those of you who have gaming groups (And I know many of you do), pass it around. Ask the folks to drop by. Help the boards grow.
There's a limit really to what I can do by myself and I'd like to see the boards grow beyond that.
Dracos
To be critical.
Join *what* game, Drac? Most of the playerbase we have currently active don't really feel up to GMing (not that there's anything *wrong* with that at all), and we personally seem to prefer sticking to amongst ourselves.
What are people supposed to say? "Hey, come by! Have a look at these games- oh, the people running them are elitist pigs, and you probably can't play for another six months until someone actually decides to run a game."
Quote from: "Carthrat"To be critical.
Join *what* game, Drac? Most of the playerbase we have currently active don't really feel up to GMing (not that there's anything *wrong* with that at all), and we personally seem to prefer sticking to amongst ourselves.
What are people supposed to say? "Hey, come by! Have a look at these games- oh, the people running them are elitist pigs, and you probably can't play for another six months until someone actually decides to run a game."
Hey, to be fair, people can join games midway. I did that a few times myself in the past SM game, and it worked wonderfully. Brian did the same thing too with TDAT, right?
Games do cycle as well, and if it gets more people who can run games...everyone wins. Heck, even if it gets a few more PCs, it's a good thing.
I dunno.
I for one would like to see some fresh blood in my games. It's annoying and kind of silly to look at all the games you are in and see the same faces. Even if they are good friends, that kind of defeats the purpose of playing with different styles.
People can join new games, but more than that, it seems like at least once a month someone flings out a game. Even so, I think it's overstated the amount of players to GMs. Sure, most games get filled quickly, but it's largely with the same folks. There's almost as many folks GM'ing here as there are people playing at all.
Dracos
I'd do it, but you seem to want a minimum of once a day, which is impossible for me. On occasion, sometimes I only get to the forum once a week. Also, I only have a rather rough understanding of how these things work.
Well, yeah. On my games I tend to run a daily routine. Though, there is a reasonable enough sized group of folks who aren't into that who are hanging around the forum that it should be possible to set a game up on that.
Dracos
Hey, is it my fault every single game I've been in, Delphi or here, has died in midway without ever reaching any remote goal? ^_^
Yes. =P
Dracos
It can't be my fault! ^_^
It's only a coincidence, even if it's a batting-1000 coincidence! ^_^
I'm not the GM and I'm only one player, it can' t be my fault! ^_^
Kwok, you are a talented individual the likes the world sees once every few weeks. =)
Dracos
Only a few weeks? ^_^
With the whole cross-linking of the RPGDL...there's probably something we can do colaboratively. The DL's third RP has...died even more painfully than the previous ones (last post is August 2; it's to the point that I've been writing a couple ideas for a fourth RP into a sketchbook for...over a month now; not that I've ever DMed before). Not that RPs can't work well with this group, as the first one was about 800 posts and we have some very talented writers, just that some people got busy with exams and couldn't keep up with the post rate, then others fell behind.
Basically, this is the bill I've been trying to fill...
It needs to be scalable to high numbers of people (say 20 or so; quite a few people tend to get interested in this).
A number of the players should be non-central to the plot, in that it can carry on without them (exams happen; tendenitis happened in my case during the first one). Of course there's ultra-dedicated people who will be around, and can play a central role.
Vast sprawling worlds don't actually work that well (in our first RP the "heroes" spent a good 400 posts getting together; we didn't make that mistake again...).
In addition I'm just hazarding a guess that something more comical would probably work better as it's easier to get into (and we've tried the dramatic/epic RPs a couple times now).
Though yeah, not sure if people are interested in collaborating on that. At the very least, it won't be hard to improve on the DMing....
A bold plan.
May I quote some guy who I respect: "The enjoyment of a game is inversly proportional to the number of people playing."
To run a game like this, you need, like, full-time GMs. People who do nothing but sit down and GM shit. Daily. Paid.
Large group of people = Conflicts. Shit happens.
May I reccomend breaking down one large game into several smaller ones, perhaps set within the same world? Certainly, the GMs could collaborate; it'd still take a great deal of work, but it would be more managable.
Oh. We have enough trouble with timeslots with like, 3 people. Gawd. Managing 20 people would be.. hell. Even if only a few are the 'main gamers'.
Oh, and, er, glad to have you here.
I'd like to second Rat's comment about group size. What I would consider is a few 2-4 people groups. Each group would be bunched together according to good time chemistry and posting pace, and would be within the same world for all. The groups would interact at points and have some deals and effects, but would not be so closely related as to be dependant on each other.
In other words, lessen the troubles that large groups can cause. Also, two GMs splitting the wordload intelligently would be a fine idea.
The largest game that has been held here in terms of number of people was tomb. It had 15 people and was designed from the very beginning to both end quickly and prune folks.
You'd honestly need a full time GM to handle 20 people. Someone who'd have around 10 hours of day to do it. I personally don't have enough time to do such, nor do I think anyone here can manage that at the moment.
Group GMing could work, but it's very difficult to keep it working. The reason small groups work better on boards is that the environment provides a lot of chance for friction and misunderstanding by structure. The more people the more difficult it is to manage all these people. When you have 20-24 possible fail points with 5-10 of them being critical fail points, it's really asking for trouble. With a standard game you only have about 4-5 possible fail points of which only two-three being critical fail points that'll destroy the game in vanishing. In any of the very fast and long running games here, they had only a few people in them.
Additionally, it's generally troublesome to get people to play a game as non-central roles. Folks generally want to play important parts. To have the game working around them and feel like what they do are important.
Good luck, but I'd suggest focusing the work on planning and preparation for handling a smaller group rather than a scalling setup.
Dracos
Quote from: "Dracos"The largest game that has been held here in terms of number of people was tomb. It had 15 people and was designed from the very beginning to both end quickly and prune folks.
Hmm, pruning; sounds like it could be interesting, and might actually work well with the group (historically interest has been high at the start of the board RPs, but a few people fall behind). How, precisely, did this work?
Quote from: "metroid composite"Quote from: "Dracos"The largest game that has been held here in terms of number of people was tomb. It had 15 people and was designed from the very beginning to both end quickly and prune folks.
Hmm, pruning; sounds like it could be interesting, and might actually work well with the group (historically interest has been high at the start of the board RPs, but a few people fall behind). How, precisely, did this work?
I'll field this one.
First, you need to know something about Tomb - it's based off of Tomb of Horrors, a legendary DandD module. In effect, it was a super glorified death trap adventure to kill all but the luckiest and best off. Tomb followed this pattern, with many PCs dying extremely fast.
I'll let you extrapoliate what that means in the current reference.
In his defence, Drac, when running that, told us all from the start. But that didn't stop us from acting like crazy little girls, oh no!
What, praytell, is wrong with acting like a crazy little girl? <_< >_>
On a side note, for some reason that scenario makes me think of Grefter roleplaying Cthulhu and eating people...which sounds remarkably cool for all that it wouldn't provide much opportunity for actual gameplay....
Yeah, I still don't know how I fielded quite so many people willing to go through a game that pretty much guarenteed death. Moreso multiple times.
Dracos
Yeah, 20 people would be too much for an RP. Both times I tried there were... around 15 on startup. Only 8 participated in the end of each... and even then that was a bit much. I'm in agreement with Dune, maybe split it into groups of 4-5.
EDIT: Granted, I'm not much of a DM so maybe 8 would work, though if Dune's suggested keeping it down to 4, I'd probably take his advice.
As a side note, I wouldn't really consider GH's RP as the third Contenders RP. Interest for it didn't seem that high for the group past... three or four people. If anything, the third Contenders RP would be Super's Pass-along story. But that's semantics.
It's a simple fact, group size does not scale very well in role playing games. To manage leaps in playerbase tends to take exponetial amounts of preparation work and actual skill at managing folks. There are tricks, many of them, for dealing with larger groups than 4-6, but they tend to work on a sacrifice setup. In order to handle the larger group, interaction for any given player is reduced, the range of freedom is also generally reduced. Even the best GMs can be burned out by a fast moving set of 4-5 players after months of playing. The workload for a set of 20 is far more extreme and generally doesn't work well outside of very carefully constructed scenarios. The effort taken to generally stay ahead of a squad of that size and the possibility for trouble is just huge.
Meanwhile...starfarerers starts today, doesn't it.... =D
Dracos
I role play! Just not here. =p
;_; But why not?
We try so hard, and so many gamers ignore us. It makes Dracos a sad dragon!
But anyhow...nyaaaah.
Dracos
Erm, well, before, I didn't understand the D&D system so much.
Now, well, I guess I have no good reason NOT to. =p
Phah! D&D is in the past. Nobody uses *that* ol' hunk'o'junk anymore. ^^
My suggestion is to start some "weekly" games for the busy. I'd certainly play if I knew I could keep up with the schedule. You'd post about once or twice a week. Posting more than three times in one week would be frowned upon.
Perhaps one of the more initiated people on the board could give it a try.
That's not a bad idea at all...
Heh, heh, heh.
Anyone could run a game needing only a few posts a week. Is there any serious interest for this?
Depends on what kind of game this weekly lazy man's game is, but my curiosity is piqued. Tell me, what evil could be cooking in that noggin pot of yours, Dune?
^_^
'Twould be easy to craft together a rather GM work centric game where the PCs give fairly long posts detailing what they're gonna do and the GM adjudicates it, or something. Just toying with various ideas, here, something to fit this gaming.
Well, if anyone's interested, I can dig out the rules for Battlemagi. It's not an RPG per se, just a game. Each player has a stable of wizards that duel each other. Good for people who can't be on more than once a week. After designing your character, you don't need to provide much more input than the matchups - the fights themselves are automated.
MIght be interesting. Why not post those and see if anyone has interest?
That sounds a lot like what I used to roll play..... Sometimes we posted a few times a day, but it wasn't much more than once a day, or less if people were really busy. The posts were more like short stories, which is awsome to read.
Yeah, that's how pretty much every roleplay I've been in so far has been like, so my perspective is probably a little skewed.... >_>
Here's what one round of a fight looks like in Battlemagi. There's eight different elements to cast spells from, and combat is nonrandom. I'll have to redo the game system from scratch (long story), but if y'all think this looks interesting I can work on it this weekend.
======================================
BRAEGYN sheathes PANACEA in shimmering armor.
MELYTHYR frowns, concentrating.
MELYTHYR sheathes PANACEA in platemail armor.
ZIRCON frowns, concentrating.
OPAL's fire bolt...
explodes ineffectively on PANACEA's platemail armor, scattering debris.
{OPAL's ERTHARMR breaks apart and falls off}
MELYTHYR's earth bolt...
punches through BERYL's flaming armor with a fiery blast!!
{BERYL's FIREARMR explodes}
{BERYL gasps at the minor burns infliced by her exploding armor}
and strikes!
crushing several ribs and knocking BERYL back a few paces.
OPAL fires a muck-covered rock at BRAEGYN!
ZIRCON frowns, concentrating.
ZIRCON hurls a spear made of solid ice at BRAEGYN!
BRAEGYN appears quite pleased with himself.
BERYL hurls a spear of solid fire at BRAEGYN!
OPAL frowns, concentrating.
PANACEA fires a green-flaming grinning skull at ZIRCON!
BRAEGYN smiles to himself.
{BRAEGYN has learned how to cast ICE-SPEA I!}
{BRAEGYN has learned how to cast DETHBOLT I!}
Looks interesting. I take it you set up an AI for your mages or something?
Here's a related RP question:
Would you rather have an RP that:
a) has more frequent short-length posts (Most of ours)
or
b) has less frequent long-length posts (The short story posts)?
Just wondering, if you guys had an opinion.
-J
Hm.. I think I have no preference, really. A week ago, it would have been short story type, but after monitoring a couple RPs here, I think I'm beginning to warm up to the short frequent style of game.
Personally? Depends on the quality of the writers and availability of the people.
With very good writers I do like the short story type posts, since some people can really make them seem very professional literary-wise (which isn't the case for back and forth posting). Character interaction does tend to suffer, however.
As for availability of people, the short posts don't help so much if people can't get online at the same time (that or the RP would move very slowly).
I'd kind of like to join a RP as well. If someone creates something that's either free form or uses a system I'm familiar with. One or the other. The only RP I see them working on in the testing grounds is one based on the Hero system which I know nothing about.
A combination of the two!
It really depends on how the characters are interacting, and how much pull the GM decides to use on the game. Not to mention system and whatnot.. meh.
Cue mid-november, I'm capable of running stuff, be it freeform or otherwise. If someone has some hugely cool concept they'd like to play in but can't because nobody makes such a game (heh, heh. *noogies Dune*), then feel free to toss the idea around the Testing Grounds. I really think it's seen more as a 'I'm going to GM this game' forum, rather than a "I think this kinda game would be cool, who would want to play, and in what role?"
I run free form games every so often, and depending on how FFA goes, may be flinging up a new one in the next week or so.
Dracos
I'd have to go with b) Long posts every once in a while.