TOP 5 RP Misconceptions!

[OutlawTorn]

#5:
"The Cluster **** of Destiny!"

Through some untold, unforeseen circumstance, 99.99% of all writers, in 99.99% of all RPs, find themselves in a Cluster **** of Destiny. This is when 4-8 characters immediately cross paths and find common ground in a quest to save the day from evil. And all of this happens inside of 4-8 posts.
The misconception here is that this is any sort of start to a credible story someone would want to keep reading—let alone was the best way to set up your cast and plot.

You can almost picture several cliche, archetype characters accidentally colliding at a crossroads. And while helping each other gather their loose belongings off the ground, discover that they are all in fact on a fabled quest to achieve similar goals, and decide to travel together immediately, never leaving one another's side for the next 200-300 pages...

Weakest IC launch humanly possible without actively trying to bomb it. Play your cards with a little more finesse and calculation, your stories and characters will go down on you for it.*


#4:
"That was awesome!!... Right? .....Guys?"

Assumptions have no place in role play, ever, for any reason. When approaching another writer's character or scene, touch base, open a line of direct communication.

We're in an RP that's just started. I kick off with a post depicting my character at a small restaurant at a corner table nursing a black coffee. He seems a little on edge and keeps checking his surroundings as well as the time piece on his left wrist. I end with a cliff hangar; nothing is revealed or resolved.

You assume I'm waiting for someone and decide it's going to be*YOU. This is going to be SO GREAT!
You enter the small establishment, approach me calmly and sit down across from me, spitting out something like, "You're early."

What you couldn't have known without asking was that I'm an assassin, and I'm waiting on my mark. You've now destroyed that plan all together and forced this awkward, ugly exchange that hinders everything. Of course we*"can"*salvage the scene and work on the fly. I'll sacrifice the intro I planned specifically for my character for specific reasons so you can make a flat transition into the IC without exploring and setting up your character at all. We're off to a fantastic start! Even though you could have just said, "Hey, I got this idea. What if..."


#3:
"Mary Sue... Who Are You?"

A lot of people actually don't know what a*"Mary Sue"*is, or how they can be used effectively in a story (it doesn't happen very often, because it's very hard to pull off).

I've heard people say a Mary Sue is an annoying female character. A female character played by a teenage girl (usually a bad writer). I've even heard it referenced as a character someone uses over and over in different projects.

A Mary Sue can be any gender, played by anyone. It is a seemingly perfect character, usually created by an insecure or otherwise escapist writer. They generally have no weaknesses, or if they do, they can and usually are channeled into strengths when it matters most, because a Mary Sue cannot fail.

They boast an impossible range of skills, strengths, knowledge, and means. They are often teenage girls, and their level of skill and wisdom is preposterous for their age. The primary trait of the Mary Sue is the ability to learn, even master any skill or feat in a remarkably fast amount of time. They adapt instantaneously to every situation thrown their way, almost always taking point and coming out on top.

So how do you use one? Subtlety.

Don't use this extreme blueprint. Furthermore, don't make the character a primary cast member, but a secondary or supporting role. Ideally, though, the Mary Sue is a Villain with drastic, deep flaws and weaknesses that emerge over the course of his or her journey. This method presents a perfect antagonist force that slowly reveals itself to in fact be flawed and imperfect, sometimes the things you thought were strengths ending up being weaknesses.


#2:
"Stories Work Themselves Out!"

-_- No. No, they don't.
A good story requires premeditation, thought, some complexity and careful structure. How can multiple writers attacking a plot from multiple angles with their own motives ensure the final product has reached it's full potential?

Communication at every stage of the project. Leave nothing to chance or in the wind (within reason). Discuss, mull over, and finalize every decision going forward. Great story telling is a complex creature, and it doesn't happen by chance.


#1:
"Longer Is Better!"

This is the number one misconception in all of role playing and has divided the upper class for as long as I can remember. Only after years of reading and writing roleplays from a critical perspective does it become evident why longer is in fact NOT better, but worse.

Let's break this down piece by piece and examine the anatomy:

• I usually don't have 20 minutes to read one or more epic posts depicting your character entering town from a dusty old country road. How then could I—in good conscience—ask that of my co-writers every time I submit a post? Do this long enough and take it seriously enough, you start to consider things like this.

• Long posts bore the shit out of people. We usually don't get through them, especially if you color code all of your dialog, allowing your cowriter a to skim everything but the dialog (Double Rookie Move. It's like Kryptonite to my refined senses). It makes a choppy, cumbersome read that dispels any interest in the plot within a few posts. Pace and structure is everything—it's make or break.

They also murder your dialog and scene flow. Post length should always vary depending on the circumstance at hand. When 5 characters are in an intense conversation and the writers are spewing 8 paragraphs of filler each, I stopped reading on page 1. And what are we really writing for? Narcissistic gratification, or to tell great stories the world can appreciate? Something every writer should ask themselves before they get involved in someone's baby.


•*"Nice tan, bro!"
Finally, the limelight is intoxicating. Long posts actually force writers to hog the limelight, often loading submissions with filler just to meet length requirements. I found myself doing it all the time in the early days. Long posts can even compromise character development, giving far too much insight into characters far too soon. How you reveal things and when is so important to a character's growth and the reader's experience.



5 RP Misconceptions debunked. Something for everyone to consider or disregard as nonsensical heresy.

[Michael Swayne]

If I may ask, what brought all of this on? After all, our RP section is basically in an extended coma.

[Heartless Angel]

Especially number 1. I see so many RPs go under because every post is enough to make a TV miniseries out of, people start skinning, missing details, and loading up their posts with nonsensical shit to keep up with the average length. The worst case I ever saw, this **** was completely out of relevant detail needed in this post, so in the middle of a fight, started reminiscing about his cat to pad the post word count.

The Law of Conservation of Detail - TV Tropes

All about the law of conservation of detail. Players have a finite attention span. Don't waste it with irrelevant shit. If it isn't important, nobody cares to read it.

[OutlawTorn]

Ha! I appreciate the 'extended coma' bit, Swayne. Made me laugh.

Just a little something for when it wakes up. And, I may be getting back on the saddle.



Isn't it the worst, HA?

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

#6 would have been the "Demons/Bandits destroyed my village and raised me as a Mercenary." schtick.

When Diablo 3 more or less used this backstory for the Demon Hunter class, it made me physically sick.

Yeah, the Demons killed everyone but you, a snot nosed kid. They killed the woman rather han enslave or trade them. They killed the healers, warriors, and crafstman, but took a child and raised it to be a mercenary... 'Cause everyone knows Demons are just misunderstood Mercenary recruiting agencies with questionable methods.


God I hate newbs.

[Heartless Angel]

Well, I mean that one isn't TOO bad. A child can still be shaped, molded into whatever you need. An adult is pretty much set in its ways. A slave is going to try to escape its fate, where a kid wouldn't be as resistant to change. Overdone, and still somewhat illogical, but not COMPLETELY beyond the realm of reason.

[Andromeda]

I tend to think of it as a medically-induced coma, since myself and others have actively or passively stopped giving this part of the forums attention.

As for the list, while accurate in their own ways. It is certainly not iron-clad these are bad ideas. Like everyone meets up at the start of the quest. This can be handled smartly with a reason why everyone is together. You've been hired by someone to do a job, that's why you're together. So it's possible, but generally it is pretty unlikely if it is just going to be a random encounter everyone meets at the same time. Those are awkward.

For your #4, are we talking controlling another character's actions? Because yeah that's just flat out against the rules around here, because that's just bad form. Or are we talking about just setting up the scene that other characters are present in but doing nothing to them?

For #3, don't forget the Gary Sue, there is a male version of the female term.

#2, depends the sort of RP you're wanting to do. I've had fantastic RPs where there was no communication on our actions. One of the skills you develop RPing is reactive play. Someone is going to do something you don't expect or plan for and now you're going to have to react to that even if you already had plans. It's like in a game of D&D, the GM has a game plan, but if the players end up going down a different way the GM plan for or things played out in a way they didn't account for the GM adapts and makes their plan work what happens. Adaptability is just as important as communication.

#1, I think that's another case of depending on the sort of group you're playing with. That's why for a while we offered casual RPs and serious RPs. Casual RPs you could break a lot of the rules we established. Where in serious RPs, you were expected to meet a minimum content requirement for your posts. Most people in serious play in the past expected on average a page of content out you per post. Half a page was the minimum without it being qualified as spam. So it varies on what the group wants to achieve.

[OutlawTorn]

#4 refers to assumptions, as clearly stated and followed by an example.

I hate RPing with people who do their own thing. It's extremely bad form IMO, because I only do complex, high concept stories it's almost impossible to phone in nowadays. I gave up freeform long ago when I began to take storytelling seriously.

[Rowan]

#4 refers to assumptions, as clearly stated and followed by an example.

I hate RPing with people who do their own thing. It's extremely bad form IMO, because I only do complex, high concept stories it's almost impossible to phone in nowadays. I gave up freeform long ago when I began to take storytelling seriously.

No wonder you love the bible!

[OutlawTorn]

No wonder you love the bible!

See, Ro. What you couldn't have guessed by making an assumption is that I don't believe in any god, or any heaven. Had you just asked like a normal human being, I would have told you I enjoyed the Bible as a work of historic fiction... Nothing more.

Dirty little things, assumptions.


I don't like assumptions in ANY form of story, Andromeda... You can't know what I'm thinking or have planned without asking via OOC, VM, or PM. So instead of jumping ahead of yourself, I prefer you touch base. It has nothing to do with 'ground rules' although hey should exist to some degree, depending on the nature of the story.


I like a bit a mystery and suspense in my character arcs, regardless of the genre or story. It's proven veey hard for me to do this when I'm surrounded by writers who constantly want to assume and get in on what's going on. I've changed more plans and weakened more characters arcs as a result, that I quit free form all together because of it. I could do free form, but I don't like it.


EDIT: Have you ever been in a story so good and juicy people couldn't do and say whatever the **** they wanted, but rather worked together the entire time to create and tell the story TOGETHER rather than as independant entities imposing their will?

You just assumed the secret my character has been hanging on to and referencing is that HE killed Bob in the first chapter! Because several times I said some things that raised serious suspicion. But you had no idea Bob was never dead, even though you just posted your character finding his body, collecting evidence to pin it on poor Stan.

Piss poor form, 101.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

All it takes is a simple, 30 second, "Hey! OT. So what's going on with Stan & Bob? "

[Andromeda]

#4 refers to assumptions, as clearly stated and followed by an example.

I hate RPing with people who do their own thing. It's extremely bad form IMO, because I only do complex, high concept stories it's almost impossible to phone in nowadays. I gave up freeform long ago when I began to take storytelling seriously.

Doing any form of RPing that is longer than a sentence sounds pretty rough and undesirable on a phone.

But you can do serious storytelling in freeform RPs. It takes talented RPers, but it is totally doable.

But it sounds like something like what you preferring doing just requires laying down some ground rules when opening it up to people.

If we're going broad and just saying Assumptions then it's going to be up to the style of RP you doing. The reason why I asked is because your example lack the context of the type of RP it was. Because typically the sort of example you used is one a form of RP where you make no sign-up thread. And if you make no sign-up thread then you're working on the whim of the creator and have to follow what they've done. And since your character didn't exist when they made the thread there's no assumptions that can be made. If the opposite is true of your example and there was a sign-up thread. Then the creator was just showing bad form and being a bad writer, not paying attention to all of the characters that were created by people.

That's why I asked. Because your example read differently in the way I was interpreting it verses how you were explaining things before.

[Andromeda]

I guess it comes down to different environments. The style of RP we fostered here was a more reactive one rather than one that was heavily planned out. As long as you didn't physical take control of someone's else character to do something that would get them harmed, injured or negatively effect them, then all things were fair. We focused being surprised and adaptive play. We tended not to do heavily controlled stories where everyone knows everything. The view was if you're doing that why aren't you just writing a story at that point. People stopped viewing that as RP and just writing a collaborative story at that point. People wanted to be surprised, learn things and feel like they didn't know what was going to happen next.

But it is just a different environment we were bred in. It was just a game to us and so we focused on entertaining everyone.

But to answer your question with the way you described it. No, we've never done that strict of RP here before. At least in the ones that I participated in. There was always a pretty high level of autonomy and independence people had. Sometimes they'd PM specific people in secret to put together plans and what not. But it was never a case where everyone was in all on the secret working together. Everyone had their own plans and they looked forward to seeing what others did.

[01habbo]

But to answer your question with the way you described it. No, we've never done that strict of RP here before. At least in the ones that I participated in. There was always a pretty high level of autonomy and independence people had. Sometimes they'd PM specific people in secret to put together plans and what not. But it was never a case where everyone was in all on the secret working together. Everyone had their own plans and they looked forward to seeing what others did.

This is pretty much the type of RP I only ever participate in, because it's more fun and more relaxed. If I'm the creator I don't want everyone to know the whole of the story right off the bat. I want to surprise the people that I'm playing with. I might want to reveal some secrets from time to time to a few people to surprise the others but I want everyone to join the ride. If I'm only a participant I don't want to be in a RP where everything is planned right away with everyone, I want to follow the story that the creators have planned out and enjoy the ride while getting some surprises along the way.

I also have been in a RP where colours are used for characters. I don't really find that people skip it all just to read the dialog, if the story is good people will read the whole post. But it is useful when you need a reference, when writing your own post to find the dialog you need. It's not to the taste of everyone but I like it.

[Heartless Angel]

Mine usually have some very basic ground rules. Players are free to introduce new elements to the game, as long as they do not require any other player to make changes to their personality or history. If I'm an assassin waiting for my mark, you're free to wander in and ask me for directions to the nearest gas station and ruin the whole thing for me as my mark walks by and gets away during this exchange, but you're not free to decide that I was there to meet you, because that changes my own character's history to include knowing you and having made plans with you. The only rights I tend to explicitly deny to other players are passing significant amounts of time, and creating global events that are going to affect all other characters, IE, no you can't make a dragon attack the ****ing bar while I'm waiting for my mark.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

To relate it to a video game, say Elder Scrolls... If you didn't have to hit the ~ key to open the console to make this post happen, it's fair game.

[OutlawTorn]

I'm not including you, Swayne because I know you won't touch RP anymore. Four people have horned in what I never really intended to be a discussion (which included myself in it).

At this rate if we nut up and take some action, we may be able to plant a seed of life in this derelict womb of a scene I keep hearing about.

And although you may have noticed I like to use strong phrasing and wording, it by no means harbours ill will in this case.

I have a feeling H-Town is down. What about the outspoken ladies? (There's obviously some ****s to give, or you wouldn't have posted here.)

[Andromeda]

I'm afraid I don't know what you're asking when you're saying "H-Town".

As for the scene. It hasn't been a scene for like 2-3 years. And it hasn't been the scene, since like 2004, back in the 2001-2002 period when we were well known among the various RP communities and frequently battled other forums for bragging rights.

The last RP I was actually part of was the Bleach one that died 5 or something years ago. I've since gave it up. Though I'll attempt some temptation on creating a new RP like the old days and seeing what happens.

[OutlawTorn]

H-Town would be refering to HA. Work with me here a little bit, Andromeda.

[Andromeda]

Still don't follow. I've never heard the term before.

[Heartless Angel]

It's a nickname he uses for me, lol.

[OutlawTorn]

You know I try. But everyone plays dumb (not you HA), cause they got a bone to pick with me for gettin' real and sayin' how it was, and still is.


Well no more. You need me. Never the other way 'round. I miht get a few people who read my stories, but at the cost of dealing with you people...... God no!



I never wanted to see it before, but I see it now. Your little shit hole didn't just die. The lazy, idiot staff members here killed it!

[Andromeda]

And now I'm only more confused. I don't know how we got from where we were to here. I feel like I'm missing some context to a conversation I wasn't a part of.

You are saying we are fighting you over the reality of what happened to the forum here when I've been doing nothing but pretty much agreeing with you. I even stated in my first reply that I and others actively or passively caused the death of the RP forums. That's pretty much just agreeing with what you've been saying. I'm not hiding from anything. I'm being honest about the reality of this situation. The place is dead and I certainly had an hand in that happening since I stopped RPing.

So I'm a little confused how I'm playing dumb when I've been nothing but honest.

[01habbo]

You are saying we are fighting you over the reality of what happened to the forum here when I've been doing nothing but pretty much agreeing with you. I even stated in my first reply that I and others actively or passively caused the death of the RP forums. That's pretty much just agreeing with what you've been saying. I'm not hiding from anything. I'm being honest about the reality of this situation. The place is dead and I certainly had an hand in that happening since I stopped RPing.

It's no one fault that this section died. Forums just don't attract people like they used to, with social media being so big like Facebook. People now use other mediums to communicate with each other. As such the forums are left with a community that is getting older, and with that members have less time to do things like role-play. It's certainly no ones fault and you shouldn't beat yourself up about it.

Besides it only needs two nutters, with far too much time on their hands, to come up with an RP me and Zerathos986 are coming up with something, we're pretty dedicated (so much so that the only thing alive in another forum is the RP). We like to see things through to the end, even if it means it ends up with just us two, which I hope doesn't happen this time. ^_^

[OutlawTorn]

Battle for bragging rights??

Didn't win much, did you?


This place is dead because of YOU, and every last staff member who should realistically no longer be staff members in the interest of TFF's future. (Know what the definition of insanity is?)

That's beside the issue here. When I say H-Town is refering to HA, how does that not click in your brain???

Confused is a natural look for you, eh?



What brought this on was not you, Andy (stay with me, girl, that's you), but your litte f**k-boy (meaning a young male prone to f**kery/stupidity and or bad judgement calls, NOT implying that you do or ever have had sex with this little puke, 'cause he'd probably bust puttin' the condom on) Alpha gave me a "Flame Warning" last night for joking around with Clint-who by the way I had just mended fences with.

He's got a ****in' problem with me and it's no secret to those who pay any attention to what goes on here, Andy. He abused his privledges as a Moderator to take the first chance he could get at some pathetic, tragic form of revenge for all the times I put his ****ery on blast.

I take issue with staff doing **** all here year-round, then trying to jack ME on some total bullshit.


Now, I'd offer to draw you a map to the Ban Function of your Admin Panel, but I know first hand the staff here has that much on fleek.


Have a nice day.


http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/60035214.jpg

[Andromeda]

The majority of the forum RP competitions happened before I arrived. So I only know of them anecdotally from those that took part. But we held our own as far as I'm aware, won a couple I think. Judging RP battles or just standard RPs is a rough thing to do though. Been a judge almost for some of the tournaments we did here.

H-Town and HA are something you have between you and Heartless Angel. I'm not going to know it. It's like me expecting you to know who I'm talking about when I say Shadow (not the FF character, an actual member here). It unrealistic to expect me to know the personal nicknames you have between people on the forums.

So confusion is only going to be natural.

As for the warning. If you feel that you have been warned unfairly, then send a PM to Loco or myself and we can review the warning. If we feel the warning was done in error we'll overturn it. The mods don't report to the admins on every action they make. So if something happens that doesn't send automatic email to us, we won't know about it.

However, additionally, it is also against the rules to make demeaning and insulting remarks about other members. If you have a problem with another member of the forums take it to the staff and remain calm and polite.

[OutlawTorn]

H-Town and HA are something you have between you and Heartless Angel. I'm not going to know it. It's like me expecting you to know who I'm talking about when I say Shadow (not the FF character, an actual member here). It unrealistic to expect me to know the personal nicknames you have between people on the forums.

So confusion is only going to be natural.

Yeah, honey, you're just not that dumb. This isn't even a thing and Heartless knew what I was talking about. He's been around a while, one of your more prolific, valuable members. Might wanna get to know who this phantom enshrouded in mystery known as 'HA!' is.

[Zerathos986]

I think Andromeda covered most of these RP misconceptions so I'll take the one no one offered any significant objection.

#3: The Mary Sue *or Gary Stu =p*:

While in the typical event, a Mary Sue character is an irritating addition to the story, being the infallible being that has a solution to all conflicts presented, I challenge the limitation of such a character archetype to NPC or villainous character.


Yes, it is true that a villain can be granted a truly immersive and rich backstory if first depicted as a Mary Sue. Sephiroth of Final Fantasy VII would be such a character. The hero of the Wutai Wars, Sephiroth was seen both as the perfect warrior and the single successful product of the Jenova Project. Both main characters Cloud Strife and Zack Fair believed in him and his stature and they would both be proven wrong in horrid fashion when his key flaw, his true origins, was revealed to him. Following that, he became more of a bogeyman, an unrelenting antagonist that was nigh invulnerable and an enemy that would span all three CD-Roms of the game before the main characters grew strong, actually more so determined, enough to defeat him.


However, I, personally, have created a Mary Sue character and in an RP, in fact. The character was given awesome power and the capacity to grow limitlessly more powerful with only a flawed memory slowing that progress. The character learned at a faster pace, could react to almost any situation should it present itself, and was even prophecised to do great things. Now, given these characteristics, my character would clearly fall under the worst of Mary Sues. The way I changed that was to utilise the flawed memory aspect and thus make uncertain whether or not any of the character's advances would be for the better in the end. Once I did that, the focus shifted from the uncanny abilities to the mystery of how the character came to possess them, whether or not they were meant for benevolent or malevolent purposes. In the RP, I was thus able to take on a neutral role, siding with whomever my character might deem an ally at any given moment and making questionable choices that led to more story development rather than hinder it in spite of having resolved most immediate conflicts. After all, solving a situation within a story's bounds doesn't necessarily mean solving it for the good. Successfully defeating an enemy NPC without fail could be a poor way of developing said NPC or it might lead to the revelation that the NPC had, in fact, been wrongfully accused, a detail within a much more intricate plot, or a casualty as a result of the player character being on the wrong side.


This character grew from the RP later on and I was able to develop an entire story with my own list of supporting characters as a result. The story changed to revolve even more on the character, dealing with a great many choices - something I believe is at the core of any good RP - and the consequences of those choices - which should be at the core of any good story - considering how easily they'd lead to story progression through swift conflict resolution.

I know the above was a bit tl;dr, but the point of it is that there are a great many ways in which a character might be generated and it shouldn't be limited to accommodate more structured storytelling. It is more the portrayal that will decide whether a character becomes problematic for the RP and, mind you, that is not limited to the character's RPer. Ask haboo, there was a time I incorporated a godmoding RPer's spam character into one of my posts. *She had me edit those bits out, but it did work. =p*


Now that that's out of the way, there seems to have been a shift in the topic being discussed here.


OutlawTorn might want to get off his high horse. It's gotten him lightheaded to the point of absurdity. Whether or not an admin will know your pet names for other members should not factor into that person's intelligence for the obvious glaring reasons. Who's at fault over the lack of activity in a forum is additionally not valuable to overcoming that issue. If the problem that needs solving is to bring activity back to RPing, what use is it to throw a tantrum? Worse yet, its an entirely unfounded tantrum as Andromeda agreed with you!


Now, far be it for me to judge someone's frustration with forum staff, but I have something to say about that, as well. Irrespective of any antagonism faced, there is never justification for insulting someone unprovoked and in a venue that is entirely out of context. Your infractions or penalties, whatever system they use here, has nothing to do with poor RPing, your own subject matter for this thread. I've had my fair share of troublesome and petty staff members. Call them out on their errors when you find them. Console those who have also suffered. Speak with other staffers who have shown more professionalism and integrity to have them analyse the situation for themselves, given their better capability of actually solving the problem. Throw your tantrums only when you've exhausted all avenues and have no alternative than to voice your frustrations, but then do so on point in a sub-forum best suited for it and under a thread meant for it.


I've had bad blood with many a staffer no matter the forum. Power corrupts, as the saying goes. I've managed to resolve many of them in this way, appealing to their betters and even befriending those of them willing to reflect on their errors. One of them, who'd argued and thrown his insults at me ended up appointing me a moderator, having come to understand that it was actually his misunderstanding me that caused his aversion. Once he had that figured out, *I'd had another staffer vouch for me* we began to have mutual respect and led that forum's RP division for a spell.


Moving on, though by this point I believe this part of the discussion was only meant to vent your misgivings of the staff, as well, I would like to comment on #4 on your list.

Number Four:

Just as Andromeda said and haboo further mentioned, I'm a proponent of the reactive RP style. While that in no way undermines your argument that certain RPers might ruin a plan you had for your character, I feel as though you've settled on the negative of it.


Allow me to illustrate my counterpoint first. For that, I will use HA's example:

Mine usually have some very basic ground rules. Players are free to introduce new elements to the game, as long as they do not require any other player to make changes to their personality or history. If I'm an assassin waiting for my mark, you're free to wander in and ask me for directions to the nearest gas station and ruin the whole thing for me as my mark walks by and gets away during this exchange, but you're not free to decide that I was there to meet you, because that changes my own character's history to include knowing you and having made plans with you. The only rights I tend to explicitly deny to other players are passing significant amounts of time, and creating global events that are going to affect all other characters, IE, no you can't make a dragon attack the ****ing bar while I'm waiting for my mark.

Response Post #1: Other RPer posts having come to meet your character

I saw my mark sitting there, going over his notes as he stirred the sugar into his coffee. I only needed to wait for the right moment. It wouldn't be long now.


"Oh, so there you are!" A friend of mine, though I was sorry for having deceived him like this.


I'd had invited him to the cafe, my way of having an alibi. He was none the wiser, thinking I was just sitting with him to chat. I responded to him before taking a quick scan around. They'd taken the bait. Being alone would have automatically raised their suspicions. With my friend there, I'd melted into the crowd, just another patron of the cafe.

Response Post #2: Dragon attacks the ****ing bar

I saw my mark sitting there, going over his notes as he absentmindedly stirred his drink. I only needed to wait for the right moment. It wouldn't be long now.


Suddenly, screams erupted from outside and, soon after that, a loud thud alerted the lot of us to something that had landed on the roof. A giant scaled claw crashed through, the hole it left revealing the hideous reptile putting a end to my careful plans. Everyone was in a frenzy, some making their way to the doors, others cowering in fear under their tables. My mark was one of those making his escape through the door. It wasn't my original design, but it would work nonetheless.


Quickly, I dodged the falling debris, making my way to him and offering my help to aid his escape. Though puzzled by a stranger's help, his survival was more important and we fled the bar together, surrounded by others. In their panic, they never suspected nor cared and my poisoned dart easily dug its way into my mark's veins.


I left the dragon to handle the clean up. It was doing a good enough job leaving nothing but ash in its wake. Meanwhile, I would rejoin the fleeing masses.

As I said, always a proponent of reactive RPing. Unlike a story, an RP doesn't need to have every detailed planned. There really is little you could do to safeguard them, after all. If you reveal the plan to every RPer, what would be the point? As Andromeda said, how would that differ from a collaborative work? However, if you hide the details, other RPers won't know, for example, that you have a mark you had planned on waiting for. Part of the joy of RPing is not knowing how you'll come to the conclusion of your RP and working through the other posts to eventuate at your intended ending. In another example, I've had the ending, my character's final post for my current Exigo RP written for years. However, during that time, two characters have died and another had most recently been brought into the world of a new RP prematurely. All reworked to fit the current standings. The development of a few other characters has even led to my writing a few bits of what I intend to be the final post of the RP, which in itself hadn't been decided on until there were other developments.


In fact, my overarching Exigo Universe has undergone several revisions to accommodate Square Enix's own changes, for example, their release of Lightning Returns, which came after I'd written the Exigo Timeline. Though, I was rather pleased my ideas mostly coincided with theirs. *proud face*

*ahem* So, another of my long-winded walls of text. Sorry about that. Get a bit invested in these sorts of topics. Hope I added something of use here.