Roleplay Formatting Idea

[Backwardsunday]

(Friendly note in advance: For all I know this type of thing happens all the time and I am merely ignorant to it, which would not surprise me).

A lot of the role-playing I have read/followed or participated in has been pretty free-form as far as formatting is concerned. This is not to say that there is no sign of organization (that is what these discussion forums are for after all), but things still seem a little loose to me.

I'll elaborate: Most of what I've seen has been (what I call) "free form," in the sense that each post in a role-play builds off of the last one, generating a developing story without a solid structure. Many of these threads (though certainly not all of them) seem to get abandoned after a only few pages or so.

My idea, though I am sure I am not the first to think of this, is to create a role-play structured around a central story (developed by me and anyone who wants to contribute) which I will "narrate" every so often as things progress to move the story along. While in this "dungeon-master-esque" role my goal is to provide structure to the overall narrative with a closed role-play thread while the other characters involved fill in the details in the traditional way.

At any rate, If this type of thing sounds interesting to anyone (or if I need to elaborate further) please let me know!
If I get enough traction here I would love get something going! I just have to finish work on a story I have been developing (which will probably have to wait until after I graduate in May).

Whatever happens, thanks for reading.

 

[Captain Jordan]

While I haven't done quite what you're suggesting (post as omniscient GM voice), I've participated in games that do that. It's okay, it works, it's not my thing.

I much prefer (and actively attempt to do so) when myself and the other people involved in a thread sit down and talk about where it's going. How it fits in with the big picture. Even some specifics about what we want to accomplish or how it happens, should the need arise.

Some have argued with me that this robs the story of its spontaneity. Okay. But as you, OP, pointed out, spontaneous stories often wander and circle the point endlessly. If someone knows their character well enough, they can explain at plotting time what their character would do in a certain instance, and very little is lost besides someone's notion of writing in the moment.

Besides, for anyone who reads the posts, they won't notice if the post was written spontaneously or as part of a larger plot. They probably won't care. What they will care about is if the thread actually has a good story.

 

[Backwardsunday]

(Thank you for commenting!)

I love when such discussions take place prior to a role-play, I want to combine such discussions with this "omniscient narrator" idea. This is just something that I thought could combat the "endless circling," (as you aptly put it) while hopefully sustaining a narrative as it progresses toward its conclusion.

Everyone has a different style when it comes to writing, I am just toying around with ideas that would, hopefully, enable a small to medium sized group of characters to co-exist and develop within a larger story. This way character arcs could develop off of one another without disconnects like those I have seen.

Obviously there are plenty of people here who are more than capable of managing complex and multi-layered characters on their own or with groups that already exist. I just thought this type of structure might help people with less time on their hands or, perhaps, people who are new to forums like Chaos.

Either way, I'm just brainstorming.