I work in a kitchen so I can’t sneak net time at work lol. I don’t know how I feel about Forum RP, though maybe a middle ground could be reached. Like IC In Game chars could decide to exchange letters via Moogle Post or Delivery Box etc. and then could start an IC thread on the page for that. And like with the diaries it can possibly be that said letters could be stumbled upon or stolen.

I also kinda like the idea of there being a PC of the week or the day etc. Though with attendance being spotty right now it might be best to hold off on that, I mean it could make things worse if nobody shows up on a certain PCs day. It might be completely because of real life not allowing people to attend but I know I’d feel like people just hate me and/or my char if no one showed up on my day.

And I agree that often the LS seems cluttered with text. I’ll often lose my place or just get dizzy watching walls of text fly past that my character would have no way of “hearing” IC. And I too feel like I’m just annoying people when I try to insert my own IC actions into the LS. Again probably just my own real life self worth issues projecting out again, but whenever I try to RP in the LS when I’m apart from the major action I get a serious piss of and let us do our own thing without you vibe.

Maybe we should considerer using party chat as /say like for talking IC. The LS then is only the long range radio in normal /linkshel chat. And the () in linkshell is for OOC. This of course would eliminate typing thoughts IC, though I’ve always thought typing thoughts IC did a little too much of breaking the 4th wall. This is another reason for having IC diaries. It’s a place where all those thought posts can be written down IC without it distracting people who are RPing at the moment. If we do go to this method though we would constantly be forcer to re-arrange parties as people move in and out of hearing distance, but it could defiantly work if people want to give it a try. It could even be so that the LS is for OOC chat unless someone puts the LS into IC mode by using the LS as an IC item. But the details can be worked out later if it is decided we want to try out new formats.

As for people not being on ToV, I can’t do much about that. Normally I’m so tired from work that I don’t even spend a lot of time on FFXI at all anymore. But when I am on FFXI I’ll probably be on ToV more likely than not now. The Returners has been basically dead the past few times I’ve been on and the only other shell I have is my Abyssea shell and I haven’t been going to runs much cause I’ve just been too tired.

I might try being on FFXI more on my days off but I’ve kinda just been taking a break from FFXI for the most part. Partly because I’m always exhausted from work and partly because I’m so pissed off by how much the new BLM spells cost on the AH.

P.S. I got on at the scheduled time tonight for RP and waited around for about an hour and nobody got on so I just /shutdown to do other stuff. I think we need a more stable schedule for during the week RPs. I have a feeling that the weekend RPs are going to end up being the main RPs and since I work 11 hour shifts on Sat and Sun there is no way I can attend weekend RPs. I’ll understand if weekends are the only times that really work for everyone else, but if the LSs stays weekend focused I’ll have no other choice than to simply not be involved. It sucks for me but sometimes I really get the feeling that nobody would miss me anyways.

Well I’m off to bed, got work tomorrow.

Going to go through these and give some comments and thoughts that I have one what has been said. I'll start with some of the points that Nodem made which I think targets a lot of the issues that some people are having.

1: Everybody has their noses up their own ***s.
Everybody has character developement going on but it is unwelcoming to others who wish to join. This makes for nothing but solo's & duo's.

2: Reflecting #1: The linkshell is unwelcoming.
Because of this people who want to get into the rp can not. It makes it hard for people to join in when others just simply won't bring them in/welcome them in. I watched Aurou trying to RP with the group for an hour one day. She couldn't get in and didn't know what was going on IC because nobody would tell her.

I agree that there has been a lot of soloing and duoing taking place in the RP, which is both good and bad. It would be unrealistic to expect that all characters have the same level of interest in each other as others. But it is probably reaching a point that is becoming disruptive to the flow of RP and pushing others out, although not intentionally, and I certainly would fault myself as well for having played a role in this.

In general, I think other RPers need to see development with other characters as a means to further or enhance their own character's background and current story. Recognize that a lot of development can take place through each other and not just through the overarching plot. When you see a character going through a struggle it might be a good time for your character to reach out and let yourself get drawn into the other RPer's plot, because their plot could become your own. This was something Nodem was particularly good at during the San d'Orian line, as his character easily had several different storylines and plots going. More recently, Sae's current plot with Sobe gave Jericho a reason to change job and send him down an entirely unexpected path as a Dark Knight, which of course links back to Avina in ways. You can see how getting involved with what the others are doing, on a deeper level, can have very impressive rippling effects.

So lets try to really reach out to the others in the RP. Your fellow RPers are a resource through which your character can grow, you just need to feed into it. If you decide to follow another RPer around IC give it some meaning… have your character learn something that they take with them to other RPs. If your character views another as a mentor, don't ask them to train you in one RP and have it never come up again. Seek that character out, set aside time to do some duo RP, make those decisions matter and make it mean something. If you want your character to be trained by another, *make them train you.* :) Undoubtedly some strong bonds will be formed.

There are some things that I have thought about that I think get in the way of doing this and impede interactions.

"I can't think of a reason to go there." This one comes up a lot when there are RPers who want to bring their characters to a location where there is something cool going on but can't think of a reason to ICly… which honestly I think we all need to become less concerned about this. If the only thing keeping a interested RPer from coming to a scene to RP with the group is a reason to travel to a nation, then I think we need to stop thinking up these reasons because its unlikely that 1. Anyone will inquire about your reason for being in said nation and 2. There is more character development to be gained in interacting with others than there is to spend a lot of time to come up with a weak reason for your character to travel somewhere.

If it feels wrong to have absolutely no reason at all for bringing a character to a given nation, there are some easy excuses that fall into the adventuring lifestyle, such as 1. Visiting the local guilds. 2. Visiting 'friends' such as other adventurers (not RP characters) or NPCs or 3. Visiting the nation as part of a duty from a quest.

With this next part, Drae sorta read my mind in a way

"I've been away for a bit and I've come back and have no idea what's going on." As Aurou indicated is the case with her, and I know she isn't the only one, there is a big problem in this RP in terms of how to bring characters who miss significant events or have been away for some time back up to speed. I think the honest reason why RPers tend to dodge giving explanations ICly is because it has happened enough that honestly, I think people get really drained and tired from having to so frequently bring other characters up to speed. That and it kind of pulls people out of the 'new' things they are doing and the new developments they are excited for and its kind of a grind to do that.

However it isn't a good thing to leave others behind like that. I think the best way for us to handle this is when a character asks about what they've missed and what's going on, we take an IC pause (and imagine a fade to black) and skip the IC explanation and explain OOCly what information our character shares with them. Then we resume after the conversation has taken place. Does this seem like a reasonable alternative? Also, to avoid having to do this so frequently… (this will be covered in the next point)

… An idea along those lines… Maybe we should start 'rotating' and highlight one person a week, or whenever, and have them run the show for that night? Even if it's just RPing while running a couple quests in their quest log? I feel like this was suggested before… Hmmm….

Along with this idea, I think at this point, each of the RPers can afford to be a little bit more greedy with the spotlight at times. I feel like we all need a little bit more camera time so to speak and for certain RPers to take the stage and own it… running their own plots, etc. And please, by all means, if you are wanting to or are planning on having a big event for your character take place on a certain day, give me a heads up and I'll send a message out about it and stick it into the RP schedule as well. People like when they know something 'big' is going to go down, so if you get ideas and have a plan make it known! I do like Drae's idea of having the RP alternate on focusing on a particular character on a weekly basis.

Forum-based RP: In the past we have sorta explicitly tried to avoid this and keep things in game, but given the limited availability that people have been having lately (despite still wanting to RP) I think this may be worth revisiting. Post here or otherwise make it known somehow if you'd like to see this and I'll make it happen.

IC Journals: Although I like the idea I have the sense that people lately have been kinda strapped for time to have to write up a mandatory summary at the end of each RP. Even just with my schedule I think it'd be hard. Hopefully though the forum-based RP option would alleviate some of that stress.

The Linkshell for ICness vs. Party for ICness: I've seen a couple of posts about this and want to see, how interested are people in changing the way RP in the shell works to as follows:

Individual parties form based on their location to each other. Probably by city. Alliances are formed when multiple parties are close together, etc.

Linkshell is only used for long-distance radio with ::s for OOC talk.::

I think that with less cluttering of the chatlog people will be able to focus more on what is in their proximity. It may also leave people to wonder more ICly about what the others are doing/up to rather than simply knowing.

Let me know what you all think of these suggestions x.x Sorry that I'm kinda long-winded.

In regards to being hard to get in IC and OOCly:
I completely agree. It seems a lot like there are certain groups or specific people that each character tends to hang out with, and never seems to go anywhere without. I'm guilty of this myself. Sure it's fine, in moderation, but when it gets to people trying to get more involved with the group or trying to get to know another character, it's hard when the "newbie" ends up being the third wheel. My suggestion for this would be try taking an RP away from the other person. Send a /tell to someone that you've never (or rarely) interacted with, and set up a quest or something that the two (or more!) people could do. You don't need to do an actual SE quest…make up something! Go to the 12th floor of Upper Delkfutt's Tower to retrieve some item, and end up fighting some NM on the way! Fight the Aroma Fly as a bunch of level 30's and hope for an RSE ammo piece! Whatever you end up doing, just break the habit! Get to know someone new! Trust me…I'll be working on this myself.

Forum-Based RP:
I like the idea, but it could be challenging if each person could only reply say, once or twice a day, and you're trying to go into an elaborate plot, which might end up taking weeks to complete. Where do you place this event in the RP storyline? And are you going to know how the event ends at the end of it, so that if you RP with the group before the event ends, you'll know how your character should act? I do love actually having a decent amount of time to write, and go into details that we normally wouldn't be able to do. If we can figure out how it'd fit into the game-based RP, I'm all for this!

IC Diary:
I like Drae's suggestion about it, as in that if people choose to do it, it can be stolen and read (with OOC permission). However, I don't think that we should make it a mandatory thing to do. For one thing, I can't see some characters keeping any sort of a diary, the other being I could easily see the diary become a chore to do OOC. An occasional post could work, but still…it would get old fast.

And yeah, I think the highlighted character of the week could work out well, and would be pretty interesting.

Other than my original suggestion, I guess I just agree a lot with what Drae's brought up. Hopefully, we can get things a bit more lively again. :)

EDIT:

Change of RP format:
I'm kind of iffy on this, really. While I'm fine with party chat for RP and LS for actual LS chat, only joining the party/alliance when you're in the area doesn't seem like too great of an idea (at least for me).

I understand that it would provide RPers a better reason to get together and talk, but I also feel that it would work in the opposite direction. That is, it would isolate some people even further.

Personally, there are times where I have a solo plot going that will be instrumental to one or more of my characters' development. If people want to get involved, most of the time, I'm more than willing to have others join. Personally, I *want* others to see what I'm doing. If no one is going to see it…well…I'll just write a story and post it in the fanfic section.

This is my first RPLS, so maybe I'm just fond of the system that I've grown so used to. I do see the benefits to the change, I think I just don't like the idea of such a drastic change. Anyways, that's my rant!

Tossing in constructive thoughts.

Forum-Based RP:
My past RPLS' had these as well. They were generally people duo'ing, just a lunging scene, or etc.

These scenes were sometimes limited to a certain day. A good time to use this would be after a mission.

For instance: "We just saved the world for the umfteen time. Bye." That's how they generally end… You could instead make a forum thread and the group would be sitting around a camp fire shooting the breeze over their most recent accomplishment instead of just disbanding.


"I can't think of a reason to go there."
Sometimes it's true. If you had a character who hates Windurst with a passion, why would go there? Especially if that character has no real ties to the group or friends there?


The Linkshell for ICness vs. Party for ICness:
Here's how my last RPLS did this. If it showed up in the LS chat anybody could react to it. This doesn't mean:

"OMG I'm there now too and want to help!"

It was more of, *Player1 is fighting against a goblin and getting beaten to hell. Player1 screams in agony*

*Player2 yells out* "Player1! What's going on?!"

If you didn't want people to RP off of it, it should never be in LS chat.

To Drea on Multiple RP's: There were 10-20 people RP'ing at any given moment in my last RPLS'. 4-6 people in ToV is less then it was in them. So yes, I understand the pain you're going through and don't feel /blist'ing is the answer as you never know if somebody is gonna call for you on the linkshell.


~ ~ ~

As for things being centered around Avina… I'm brainstorming a possible solution to that. It's something that was brought up in the past, but I've since lost my notes on the subject. The group itself seems to rely very heavily on Avi, and while I do think (with the way things seem to go) that there should be some sort more recognizable IC leadership, we shouldn't have to rely on Avi and hunt her down to find everyday entertainment.

The only reason I'm re-touching this is because it is semi-true. Avina is the "Mission sync" and without Avi we can't do anything. That forces a ton of focus on Avi which makes it look like we're drawing away from other characters because… Well we have to hunt down a goblin, CS NPC, youtube, etc to be ABLE to interact with what's going on. It's tiring and I've personally given up on it as… Well it's more time consuming.

Note, the above statement only TRULY applies during missions.

Outside of missions: Because Avi is the mission sync, it feels as if doing stuff without Avi isn't "right" I guess best fits what I'm thinking.


To Kao: Yes… Nobody was in the shell today. As I mentioned before, I have a lot of stuff planned out before hand that fall on my non-event nights. I popped in to see how many were on and only saw you. Sorry I didn't say hi at least or stay in longer. I was busy in another part of Vana'diel.


EDIT: IC Diary
This can be a good idea, and an easy way to blackmail another character into doing your actions. lol.

The only annoying part I see is:
"My diary got stolen for the tenth time!"

At that point I think any character would burn it. Especially if it was under their bed, in a lock box, in their locked mog house.

If you think that's a lot of locks… You never saw my military bags…

Toss out some more thoughts before I leave:

Diary-
I did something similar to this in my last RP shell. It was just me though, and only after something important happened. But my char would write something in her diary, which was located in a forum post. It was never stolen or anything, but that could be interesting.

Chatlogs-
I've mentioned it before, I think it would be fun to do some public(say) RP once in while. Don't do it in Port Jeuno… but in Windy Walls or out in the field, we'll even get an audience sometimes! Back in it's hayday, our old LS had a group of followers… random non-RP people that would show up to one of our events just to watch. Even the negative comments were all in fun, we'd RP back and it turned into a good laugh for everyone around.

Forum RP-
It can work. But when it gets to be over 20 pages, it's very easy for people to miss what's going on.

Duos/solos-
While they are a good thing for character development… I would like to suggest that they be saved for non-event/group time. A few minutes of it if it is necessary, I can understand! But like things have been recently, it's just annoying when you're not in one of those duo's and don't want to be a prick by cluttering the chat log with your own soloing.

Spotlights-
It would good to have others choose what to do once in a while. Socials can be taking a trip to someplace out of the normal, questing, camping an NM, etc. I'm a little disappointed at the lack of SE seasonal events that this LS uses… we really didn't do anything with them, and that's always good RP fodder :(

Schedule-
Do we have a set time and day for RPing? I know it used to be Tuesday/Sunday…? it was Saturday for awhile… now it's Wednesday/Sunday? If there is nothing on the forum calander I schedule something else… as was the case for last night (sorry Kao!) We scheduled a mission fight. If someone puts something. Anything (group RP, social, mission, quest, prease help me, etc) on that little calendar, I'll do my best to go as long as nothing else is scheduled for me already.

A couple things and suggestions with regards to Aurou and Nodem's case in particular… keep in mind,

I think part of the issue with Aurou is I don't think she's ever had a character defining moment. She's a wandering SMN but she is often kind of distant ICly, which makes it hard really, at least on Avina's end, to really read Aurou and her motivations. I remember when Aurou first came back Avina questioned her a lot as to what happened, where Nodem was, but I felt like the conversation sorta dead-ended and both OOCly and ICly I didn't know where to go with it since I didn't feel like I would get an answer. I think Aurou's character is in a way a big question mark at this point, since she tags along for a lot of things (although she doesn't seem to want to) and we really just don't know much about her.

I think more than anything that Aurou is missing was that she never really had an introductory story or event where she really established her character as a firm member of the group. Normally when we bring new RPers in we devote a good deal of RP time in just introducing them and giving them the spotlight, but when Aurou first joined her schedule was precluded that. And I think part of the issues that I mentioned above have to do with the fact that never happened… her character does feel like an outsider in a way because we didn't get the moment that we usually set aside for new characters.

I think in order to get the character to make an impact and become a more powerful presence in the RP, Aurou should get a specific event or series of events dedicated to a storyline plot focused on her. Cus although I know Aurou has story but the storyline hasn't really been brought up in the RP and I think everyone is all for giving her the spotlight so that she can get more enjoyment from this. Sometimes it just helps to have some coordination and definitely Aurou, if you have ideas, let me know and I will schedule it up for a day when I know a lot of people can attend. I think this would be a big step towards helping the issue (although I don't think its the only step we all should take).

With regards to Nodem its a new but similar issue. Nodem (the COR/RNG version) was a pretty well established character who got killed in Tavnazia. Since then, there was a long gap where Nodem didn't RP as he was putting together a new character… but again like I said above with regards to Aurou I think an introductory story is necessary for this character and specifically setting aside time to introduce the character. A lot of times, especially with Nodem's schedule being kinda up in the air like he says, I don't ever really know when he is going to be able to show up, so I get involved ICly doing something else before I realize that Nodem intended to participate.

But an introductory story would help with Nodem's new character I believe. Because I don't think Avina is going to get into a deep conversation with every Knight she comes across. There needs to be something to spark that conversation which may need to be determined ahead of time and not in the moment. I don't think anyone will argue that starting a new character in an RP is very easy especially when it involves getting integrated in an established group, which is why we typically like to extend a helping hand for these kinds of things.

These were just some thoughts I had, and definitely not the only things that I am suggesting need to be changed. Just some things that popped in my mind.

… I had every intention to be on last night, but I got distracted by this thread and another project. So, I apologize for that >_>;

To Drea on Multiple RP's: There were 10-20 people RP'ing at any given moment in my last RPLS'. 4-6 people in ToV is less then it was in them. So yes, I understand the pain you're going through and don't feel /blist'ing is the answer as you never know if somebody is gonna call for you on the linkshell.Nodem

Oh, oh, oh, oh, that's not how I meant that! Heh… I meant that in the terms of /blist'ing griefers and trolls.

And, I'm okay with having lots of people RPing at the same time. SwCRP (the RP channel I used in WoW) had upwards to 60 members. The Gauntlet LS had 10-20 at times. The difference was, for me, that they were "audio" only – what I saw in the channel or shell's chatlog, was something I could logically listen and, if I chose, react to. Similar to your past experiences, if someone screamed into the comm-stone or pearl I could ask what's going on and offer assistance, but I didn't see what happened. It's the "visual" and other stuff I shouldn't be privy to IC'ly that puts me into overload.

I know part of the issue stems from how my brain processes things. I'm reasonably intelligent, but I think someone was experimenting with a new way to wire things while I was being built.

Chatlogs-
I've mentioned it before, I think it would be fun to do some public(say) RP once in while. Don't do it in Port Jeuno… but in Windy Walls or out in the field, we'll even get an audience sometimes! Back in it's hayday, our old LS had a group of followers… random non-RP people that would show up to one of our events just to watch. Even the negative comments were all in fun, we'd RP back and it turned into a good laugh for everyone around.Aurou

I was actually introduced to RP in this game when I stumbled on a group of people RP'ing in Selbina back on Asura – I didn't find a listing on a forum or with an internet search. I saw people doing it, it looked fun, they let me join on the edges a bit, and I eventually applied to and joined their shell.

And agreed, Port Jeuno isn't a good place for /say RP because it's so busy and densely populated and has the highest chance of bringing more griefers/trolls than we can handle. Anyplace else can be fair game, and if someone becomes too problematic, well, that's where the /blist function comes into play.



Forum RP. Not an ideal format for huge, epic, earth-shattering storylines. But for some character development/interaction between two or three people doing a shopping trip, or a couple people sitting around a campfire telling stories or catching up, it could work. Forum RP's can and often do benefit from rules, based on what's going on:

Closed vs Open: Closed means that you need permission/invitation to join. Open means anyone can jump in at any time.

Frequency/order of posts – "You cannot post more than once an hour/three hours/day/etc", "You cannot post again until all others signed up have posted once", stuff like that. This can help keep turns fair.

Scenario timeframes – This puts a limit on how long the scenario goes for. "This ends when everyone goes to sleep that night", "The thread will close next Saturday at noontime and we'll pick it up in-game at that time, so get as much done as you can until then".

Scenario objectives – The scenario has a pre-decided, general ending and everything up until that goal is fair and free game. This and the timeframes are usually connected with each-other.

Sole Character Control vs In Good Faith Puppetry – This can be a touchy subject for people. Sole Character Control means that you, and only you, can speak/act as your character. For people who are worried about godmoding/metagaming, or are unsure that others will accurately portray their character, this keeps others from doing things that you may not like. In Good Faith Puppetry allows others to do minor actions as you; getting you started walking in one direction or another, nodding yes or no, stuff like that.
Scene examples:
– "Seeing the car barreling down the street, Puck leaps into the road and attempts to push Mir out of it's path." This is Sole Character Control; the scenario ends, and Mir will decide whether or not Puck was successful in saving her.
– "Seeing the car barreling down the street, Puck leaps into the road, grabs Mir, and the two of them tumble out of harm's way." In Good Faith Puppetry allows for Puck to reasonably control Mir's actions.

There's other rules and the like that can be used. Most of the time, when a scenario is suggested, the person running it decides on what the rules are. I'm just throwing these out to kind of explain what I was meaning.

I don’t know how I feel about Forum RP, though maybe a middle ground could be reached. Like IC In Game chars could decide to exchange letters via Moogle Post or Delivery Box etc. and then could start an IC thread on the page for that. And like with the diaries it can possibly be that said letters could be stumbled upon or stolen.Kaolla

Another good idea. CoA and Gauntlet used a similar system, and in the community forum for WoW we even did a pen-pal program for a little bit.


Journals/Diaries – Not everyone HAS to do it, or HAS to do an entry after EVERY scheduled RP. And it doesn't have to be a journal/diary style; for some a journal/diary would be natural, for others a "file and report" system might make more sense. Maybe it's you just thinking out loud to your Moogle. Maybe it's just a notebook that you jot and doodle in occasionally, has notes and to-do lists, or synth recipes in it.

Amending what I said originally about it being stealable – this should up to the journal's owner. With that in mind, I'd recommend that if someone's journal is stealable and you're planning on reading/stealing someone's journal, unless the owner otherwise states, that you must RP it when the owner is around and be aware that you might be caught. On the reverse side, if your journal is getting stolen, be aware that it's a possibility that you might not notice until it's gone.

For example, Draen may have two journals – one may be carried on her/in her backpack and has brief notes, thoughts, and travel entries. The other may be kept at home, and contains more in-depth entries, personal thoughts, and maybe personal storyline/plot details. The one in her backpack, I may openly post and would be relatively easy for someone to get ahold of; whenever she leaves her backpack unattended, it's fair game. The other one, the only way to obtain it is to be invited into her home, search for it when Draen isn't paying attention, and if found I'd PM/email/whatever it's contents to the person who found it. After it being found too many times, or after it's actually stolen the first time, Draen might then decide to find a much more secure location to hide it. On the flipside, this more personal journal might be intentionally left out when she's got someone she trusts is visiting.


"I can't think of a reason to go there."

This one comes up a lot when there are RPers who want to bring their characters to a location where there is something cool going on but can't think of a reason to ICly… which honestly I think we all need to become less concerned about this. If the only thing keeping a interested RPer from coming to a scene to RP with the group is a reason to travel to a nation, then I think we need to stop thinking up these reasons because its unlikely that 1. Anyone will inquire about your reason for being in said nation and 2. There is more character development to be gained in interacting with others than there is to spend a lot of time to come up with a weak reason for your character to travel somewhere.

If it feels wrong to have absolutely no reason at all for bringing a character to a given nation, there are some easy excuses that fall into the adventuring lifestyle, such as 1. Visiting the local guilds. 2. Visiting 'friends' such as other adventurers (not RP characters) or NPCs or 3. Visiting the nation as part of a duty from a quest.Avina

Oh, yes, there's PLENTY of reasons to go traveling, or be somewhere other than "home". If you craft, you can turn that into some sort of "traveling profession"; don't let the lack of, say, an alchemy guild in San d'Oria keep you from going there – alchemists make medicines, and people in San d'Oria probably do get sick from time to time. Sell non-local fish, be hired to help do renovations of a Residential District, cater a party/Consul event, etc.

And it doesn't have to be limited to your crafts, or even to towns. Be on a chocobo ride, or vacation/camping trip, out hunting, or HELM/fishing.

I took the easy way out and made Draenen a courier, and with that I can spontaneously arrive just about anywhere on the premise of delivering something.

"What are you doing here?"
"I'm delivering papers/supplies/mail."

It's cheap, but it means I don't have to come up with a whole, huge story on why I'm "conveniently" where-ever.

"I can't think of a reason to go there."
Sometimes it's true. If you had a character who hates Windurst with a passion, why would go there? Especially if that character has no real ties to the group or friends there?Nodem

Eeeeh… my (very blunt) opinion on that one is, if someone is absolutely refusing to go someplace because they scripted a character to hate that location, then that is kind of on the fault of the player, not the group. If someone writes themselves into a corner like this, they really have two options: overcome/suck it up and do it anyways (feel free to IC'ly snark/mutter about it), or stay and the corner and don't whine.

Ooh, ooh, my turn! My turn! :3

I know i am new, but i have run a lot of very successful rp guilds in my time, so i am sure some of my advice might come in handy to you.

I hope i don't sound harsh, it's not how i am trying to be.

First, i am gonna discuss the issues involving "Everything is about such and such and we should get some cameo time too!"

Well, yeah, but you'd have to write out a plan for what you want, i doubt anyone'd complain, so if you want more screen-time or events that don't revolve around a certain character, stop expecting them to come up with ideas and come up with your own. When someone told me to stop revolving stuff around myself, i asked them if they had something better 9/10 times they didn't have the slightest response.

As it's been stated, the creativity of one may be vast, but can become taxing when everyone is crawling around looking up with gleeming eyes expecting the almighty RP to spew forth and endulge them. Avina isn't a D&D Game master here.

Solution 1: Instead of RP that bases around a character, how about an RP event that doesn't. A planned set day (which has a vote, sorry but this is really the only way to ensure majority of people can attend and if you sign for it, you better have a good reason not to show, because your 1 vote can ruin it for someone who was outvoted and really wanted to go), and do something that has no self-centered plot at all. An expedition into a cave, a day of crafting where people teach new crafters, or open a bazaar to sell your goods, simple things that require no thought, but can be so much fun.

Solution 2: Set up a voluntary council of RP planners. No real authority over the shell, but they come up with ideas that can be used for larger events. 5 creative minds can be more powerful than 1, and even stronger if they form coalitions with one another.

Moving into the spam-linkshell chat rp. It's not as bad as that but since it was brought up, the system is decided by the linkshell, yeah i am used to ((Ooc chat)) talking 'Thoughts' *Emotes* and stuff, but it's just a system. You don't go into your new job and ask them to change the system cause you're used to how someone else did it. Sorry, but adapt, i will.

as for being pushed out of RP, can't comment, only just joined, but if you feel left out, speak up. Everyone seems nice enough that they're not gonna blacklist you because you asked to join in. If you don't make yourself known, how can anyone know? If getting in ICly doesn't work, ask OOCly through a /tell or something. If you feel left out and you don't speak up, did you really want to join that badly?

Okay, so here's some solutions to character building. The Journals is a good idea, allowing people to see how others are developing. Sure it's time consuming, but you shouldn't have to feel compelled to write one every RP conclusion. If you're bored and aren't doing anything, waiting for people to come online, try going into windowed mode, open the forums and allow space to see the chat window or linkshell list whilst you write up a journal entry, i mean heck, it's not like you're doing anything anyway. Why wait around for an hour doing nothing when you can kill that one thing you said you didn't have time for? who knows, it might make time go fast enough that people start coming online.

Oh, the whole stealing journal pages idea is a bit… bad. People write journals because they don't want people to see what they're writing. If someone had a crush on someone else and managed to cool down over them by writing their feelings in a journal isn't cool if someone reads it, takes it into ic by claiming they stole/found the lost page and informing said crushee about it. It'd cause IC tension (Or it could spark a firey romance rp), but still, i don't think it's a good idea to let journals be taken OOC to IC by people who shouldn't have access to it.

"Oh, i can't RP with so and so because my character doesn't know him/her." Well, what about taking the journal idea and making it a bit more co-ed. For example, random lots generated once a month causes 2 random members to engage in an exchange diary. Yes, you heard me, the same kind of diary that kiddy romance sometimes use. And i'm not saying for romance situations either. This journal is a way to get two people to express themselves to others via the journal, so everyone can read it, but only the two involved know about it ICly. I'm not saying the two should devolge their deepest darkest secrets to each other, heck one of them could be a "I killed a few <mob> today on a job." And the other can expess with great detail how pissed they were about that damn little taru Muriru stealing their hat and running off with it until she was pinned and forced to give it back, only then to sweetly cry until she got a cookie! >.> You get the point.

What else was there to go over…? Hmm…

Ah yes, "I missed this event so i don't know what's going on" Instead of a pause, perhaps someone can oocly offer to bring up to speed through tells, perhaps someone can mentally note down roughly what happened during the event and post it on forums for people to come up to speed? Is it possible to copy and paste the chat log into the forums? Heck, that'd be the best thing, if you have it all copy pasted, everyone'd read it as it happened and really have little excuse not to know what happened. If they don't want to read it, were they really interested to begin with?

Next point. Taking time to sit down and simply talk about the events. A good idea whilst people are levelling or something, perhaps, though the spam of killing stuff might cause people to lose the chat. This is entirely the choice of those who want to do it, personally i think people'd much prefer to go RP some more, but that's me. It can be good though, so don't take this as me rejecting the idea as bad.

Perhaps use the forums to discuss the RP events OOCly, people can express what they liked and disliked about it, and this is then saved for later refference to make the next event better.

Aurou, you said you have a story all planned out, but won't bother to type it up at this point? …… why? If you don't put it out there, it won't happen. If you really want your place back you gotta push for it, and as you probably have read, no one will mind, in fact this HELPS the situation people have of focusing around Avina, so by all means GO for it.

Next point. Forum Roleplaying for people who can't attend most ingame events. You said problem is figuring out where it fills in with the game? A HQ. A place in a given location in the world where everyone can end up. A safe-haven. Anyone can walk into, work, sleep etc etc. This can all play out in the forums and it really doesn't need to conflict with the IC stuff at all, only that friendships may develop seemingly overnight, which no one is likely to question much… unless they go from strangers to lovers >.>

About the "Player Focus per Week" idea. That's all good, but it should be agreed apon by the player, and time should be allowed for them to come up with something they'd like to do, and if they ask for help, help should be provided and be very careful about unintentionally stealing the spotlight. If someone is totally unprepared for their focus week, it's a lot of pressure. Also be sure to have a backup event in the waiting encase Life, as lovely as she is, decides to completely bitchslap the idea.

maybe it should be considered the party chat for ic options for individual roleplay unless the ls isn't being used that much icly. for example, everything plays as normal, but if all of a sudden you're losing your spot or your place, suggest that you move to party chat to continue it. Sure, we get to miss out on the show, but you get to continue it, it's not like you can't report later in forums or something, if things are becoming too cluttered, it's better you continue it rather than break the RP due to the cluttering, otherwise it might lead to awkwardness trying to pick it up later.

This'll do from me for now. I am sorry if i caused any form of offence, this is just how i see things. Take it or leave it, it's entirely up to you.