2: Setup/organization
kk, now that you have it all on paper, let’s put it on the
forum!
Think of a cool name that supports the theme of your rp, and
now to work on the essential first post…
Ok, so let’s think of your rp as a club, what questions might
someone ask.
Joiner dude: yea, I'm interested in your club and I’d like to
know what it’s about exactly.
Club owner: It’s a club for people who like cans, and we have can competitions
in which we kick the cans as far as we can.
Joiner dude: lol @ pun, so what about my can, can it be any can?
Club owner: it can be anything but a tuna can!
Joiner dude: cool any other rules?
Club owner: no smoking, eating, or drinking in the club room! that’s about it.
Joiner dude: awesome! How's this can?
Club owner: Great! The competition starts in 2 days!
Joiner dude: looking’ forward to it!
So in short, we have to tell them:
What’s the RP about
There character criteria
The rules
When it starts.
The intro to your rp should be easy
for you to figure out, as far as character criteria, some essentials are the
name, gender, appearance, and powers, but some have more fields to fill, and
you can add more, just don’t make it feel like a tax form. It helps to give an
example by filling out your sheet with one of your own characters.
As for rules? I recommend these 5:
1: No using other people’s
characters without their approval. This includes dialogues and actions.
(people can be easily offended when someone
makes there character act out of character, or kills them off without there
permission. The only guy that can kill without permission is you!)
2: Make a post at least once a week. Unless you’re going to
be absent for a while, which you can PM me to inform
(and by me, I mean you! We have to make sure the rpers post
regularly)
3: No invincible, almighty characters.
(there overrated and stupid, as you should know by now.
However, if one does join, you can always kill them off… sorry, taking well
crafted characters and killing them has become very entertaining for me!)
4: You can device any sub-plot as long as you stick to the
main plot.
(because if you aren’t, you should make a fiction, or your
own rp :P)
5: You are a good/bad guy.
(let them know if they can be villains or not, and what
factions there allowed to join if applicable)
also, you can recommend they look at this rp tut as rule 0 :P
As for when the rp starts? You can set a date or when X
amount of members join.
Now the hard part, management!
If you’re like me when I started my first rp, you’re going to
let everyone in who wants to be in right? You are right? Because your nice and
you think that just because someone is illiterate or doesn’t speak English as
there main language they should be aloud to post in your rp right?
Don’t, not unless you absolutely need them!
I know it’s harsh, but good grammar is important. If they’re
posts could be miss read causing confusion and chaos among your good rpers. I
find most players like this tend to get left behind in your rp anyway. there
are rare acceptations however, but don’t count on being lucky enough to have it
happen to you.
Keep an eye on the older members. Are they in a lot of rps?
do they abandon rps often? Important stuff man!
Also, count on half of your cast leaving about 3-4 pages into
your rp, it always happens, it’s not your fault, and don’t sink into despair
when it does happen.
Guess that’s it, next up…
3: Governing your RP/keeping everyone happy
I highly recommend you make a new topic for your RP’s story,
and you use the old topic to make announcements and ask for suggestions.
Anyway, You’ve kicked off your rp by making the first post and
guiding everyone in a direction, maybe you sent everyone hunting for an
artifact, maybe you sent everyone to go train somewhere. Anyway it’s your job
to make sure the story continues as you like. Be sure to keep everyone on the
right path, it usually pays to have a main hero that you control that everyone
is suppose to follow around and help take down whatever it is there suppose to
do. Be sure to add a plot twist along the way, and balance the action and story
out. Too much of either can be a bad thing.
But even with a fool proof plan, you will likely encounter problems:
God-modders
confused people
annoying people
Here’s how I deal with each:
God-modders have to be dealt with. If they seldom do it, give
a warning via pm first, or in your announcement thread if you notice a few
people doing it. If they constantly do really
bad things, kill him off immediately. You can’t risk that kind of behavior. Soon
everyone in your rp will be a god modder, then it’ll be up to you, the heroic
lone rp master to bring down your own rp!
…wait…
Confused people, well, if they say something that doesn’t
make a lot of sense, pm them or drop a note in your announcement thread. Also,
if it’s too screwy, be sure to have a mod clean it up.
Annoying people, well in short, they get into squanders in
your rp when there forced to make a decision among themselves (who’s character
would win in a dual, etc) and you may need to step in. if this sort of thing
happens often with a particular player, you may have to consider giving him a
warning, or killing him off.
Can’t think of anything else to say! That’s all for now!