I've got a lot of things to say so I'll just start at one and go down the list. First things, seated positions. You have to remember Xeim that the characters we are playing are special, they are unique and different from the average shinigami that comes out of the academy. It is not uncommon for shinigami out of the academy to get seated places. Byakayu asked Rukia if she placed as though it was a common thing. Shouhei or whatever was actually being talked about as going to be a Vice-Captain straight out. Strong shinigami come through, its not common, but they occur. And we are those shinigami, we are not average shinigami. We all happen to be off the exceptional group. We wouldn't be playing characters that were normal and not destined to be heroes of the story. So I see it as only being natural that our characters get seated. And I was pretty reasonable about it I though, since it is not going to happen that they are Vice-Captain material. We are not that amazingly special. I mean being seated 7th in the grand scheme is pretty weak, Orihime could whip us and Chad could do it without even trying.

Next thing. This also links back to the characters being the heroes of the story. Missions happen yes, but look at the formula that Bleach takes when they do things. When they are doing their one off episodes a handful of people get involved, but that is filler episodes. The main part of Bleach is the arcs. But these arcs are huge moments in history and life changing events. Other events like this happened, but they were spaced out. Bleach doesn't follow the daily lives of the shinigami, they show the big events that change history or make an impact. And if you view it from that point we should be approaching it from that point of view as well. The small stuff happens while we are doing the big stuff. But doing the big stuff I viewed as jumping through different points in time. We can skip three years into the future and something big that hasn't happened in a while occurs. This occurrance causes the unusual to happen. They need to send more than one shinigami. So they grab people, being the heroes of the story plot dictates that we are picked. We all go, we normally in our every day lives don't do this, but this is a big special moment. We are focusing on this because its important and history making. When it is done we go back to our individual squads and we jump forward in time to next big crisis. It would never be a back to back thing, those things just don't usually happen unless it is a plot reason like the canon Bleach story. Because we are not telling one story from the lives of these characters like a normal RP, but showing the overall history of these characters. We can just jump from important event to important event. When you are reading a biography its the important times that you read about and not the times that they went shopping for groceries and nothing bad or exciting happened it was just a normal moment in life. The former has been the approach the RP has been going and has been the original posted intention of the RP. We skipped around in the academy to the big moments because that is what you were wanting to do. So the big times getting the Zanpakuto and getting shikai and graduating. The history making moments for a character. That is the way the RP has been plotted.

Not quite the next thing, but that's a really big paragraph. You want to do missions, but missions are akin to everyday tasks of a shinigami. In general you investigate and kill the hollow, save the soul or do whatever the objective is. It is not history making events. The history making events is the arcs. So the missions do not fall into line with what you have been doing in the past. We focused on some of the everyday stuff, but the things that were important where what we jumped. We blew through a lot of the other stuff.

There is a reason for this, people don't find everyday stuff interesting. They already do it themselves. I know people aren't going around slaying hollows, but a mission is everyday stuff. People want and enjoy the exciting stuff when your life is on the line, there is a big conspiracy and a huge villain that has destroyed half the Seireitei already. That stuff is awesome and exciting people thrive of that stuff. They look forward to it. The everyday stuff works in moderation, but asks yourself when you're watching Bleach the anime what do you really honestly enjoy and want to see. Do you want to see Hitsugaya being pressured into playing Soccer or do you want to Ichigo fight Byakuya fight in this showdown that you have seen coming for 30 episodes and promised? What do you go back to and rewatch over again? Probably one of the most awesome fights in Bleach or the first time Ichigo goes Bankai or the first time Ichigo released Zangetsu. You love the history making moments, they are awesome and keep you coming back.

So that is what we should be focusing on, the awesome moments that you want to go back. That is what people enjoy and can thrive on.

Next point and counter point to Missions versus Story. A question first, if you had to guess how long does a mission arc take in posts over a story arc? If I had to guess doing it alone or with someone else, i could be done in like 2 posts or maybe 5 posts. It is short stuff, its not complicated it is meant to be low maintenance and less involved. And a story arc could be a 100 posts or 200 posts.

Now with those numbers all completely estimates to make a point. And lets be a little liberal, missions are an even 10 posts and storys are 100 posts. So if we did one story arc, we are busy for a 100 posts on a single story line and focused on that. It keeps us busy, it gets drawn out or whatever people come and go, we deal with it. A mission is 10 posts and its done. In the time that it takes to a story we can get 10 missions done, maybe more if I'm posting ^^; Sounds pretty cool huh? On paper. But there's one problem.

You say that with story arcs you have to come with another idea when the other is ending to go into immediately. It is true you do, but how long is it going to take for us to get through a story arc, being conservative, it could be a year or more, maybe less if people are posting. Either way, it will be months. And if you look at what is happening now, the graduation is not even over and the next story is already being talked about and worked on. The graduation won't be done for like several weeks. That is plenty of time to work on a single story idea to go for the next. Especially if it is character focused.

However, for how ever long it takes to complete the mission one day or a month. You need to come up with something immediately afterwards as well. You just have less turn around time. But to make matters even more complicated, for the time you have to play through one story, you need to figure out ten new missions and make them different. And you are not doing that for one, but many. So now you are needing to make new stories that are really short that come out to being like twenty missions for the one story that we would have for an arc.

Math aside, from a creative stand point. Do you want to be spending a lot of free time having to be creative and unique twenty times in a year or just once in a year? Hey I love making things, but after a while it is going to get recycled and we will just be going through the motions and the quality is going to vanish. And I know you are busy, if you want to be getting back into RP do you want to be forced to spend your time making up missions. Or if we do it, us making up our own missions repeatedly.

Like I said before people love the excitement and history making moments. Missions are not those. People are going to get tired. You saw that happening with the classes and the test. People got bored because they were being forced to do something normal. If you read any of my posts, do you ever see me in the classroom after the training week? No, I was never posting about the classroom. The exciting stuff was happening in the hall and outside. The stuff that people are more interested. People will find the missions momentarily interesting like they do any filler. But just like in Naruto during their 80 episode filler. It just got old and people wanted it over with. Everytime you see or hear filler is coming you dread it because you don't want to see it. Missions without the history making moments equal filler episodes. And people will do them at the start, but you are going to lose them. Then you switch to story and people will dread going back to the missions.

Next thing, this is a single RP. You don't have to weigh yourself down with systems and procedures. RPs in general have one story and when it ends it over. This is naturally different from the average RP, but systems are not necessary. I think you are over complicated something that you can do very simply with a lot less of the stress and worry.

Next thing, I'll just say this for myself. I haven't RPB. I like this being a RP and I'll be sticking here for that even if the rest of your go off to RPB.

And on a personal note, I want to RP with everyone. Being independent is fine, but that is not the point of the RP forum. The RP forum is supposed to be about people working together and roleplaying together through a common goal. Most of what we have been doing so far as been opposite of that intention. I want to see this RP return to the heart of what the forum is intended to do. We are here we should be RPing together a group.

This boils down to I think you should stick what was originally talked about in the club a long time ago. Just going through story arcs. You only have to do them once and then you got a long time to think of the next great amazing moment while it is going on. You won't feel rushed coming up with stories really quick. And you can get everyone involved.