Taeli Raaf
Bookworm
So as I said I would do, this thread will be about discussing things that you the members want the Republic to do, both IC and OOC. Please keep the discussion civil and be thoughtful of what others say.
Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos
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What do you want?
- Thread starter Taeli Raaf
- Start date
- Status
The Hair Knight
The Republic has been doing much better with dominions and invasions, and even the Senate seems to be getting on track. As far as supporting the main operations of our faction during wartime, things seem to be going well.
I'd like to see the Republic venture into more development. Not just new technology or equipment, but developing infrastructure and rebuilding war-torn planets. We seem to hop from planet to planet, domming or invading (or repelling invasions), but once they're under our control we seem to forget about them. The Republic should be investing some time into the IC development of its locations, and I imagine this could provide some very enjoyable story material.
Beyond that, just overall activity and recruitment of the branches would be useful. The Senate has something like 4 regularly active characters, and I know the Jedi have suffered a few mass-departures in recent past.
OOCly, the one thing I've always had trouble with is finding Republic IC threads out in the greater Chaos. Maybe we can encourage people to use the FACTION prefix and also tag with a standard "Republic" or similar moniker. Then we could simply link to a list of all the topics in Open RP that have the right tags (similar to how the Factory board does).
I'd like to see the Republic venture into more development. Not just new technology or equipment, but developing infrastructure and rebuilding war-torn planets. We seem to hop from planet to planet, domming or invading (or repelling invasions), but once they're under our control we seem to forget about them. The Republic should be investing some time into the IC development of its locations, and I imagine this could provide some very enjoyable story material.
Beyond that, just overall activity and recruitment of the branches would be useful. The Senate has something like 4 regularly active characters, and I know the Jedi have suffered a few mass-departures in recent past.
OOCly, the one thing I've always had trouble with is finding Republic IC threads out in the greater Chaos. Maybe we can encourage people to use the FACTION prefix and also tag with a standard "Republic" or similar moniker. Then we could simply link to a list of all the topics in Open RP that have the right tags (similar to how the Factory board does).
Tyl Ro
The Anti(Hipster)-Cynic
At the moment, there is only one thing that I see the Republic lacking: cohesiveness.
We are a group of independent writers doing our thing where we see fit. And that is awesome. I personally love being able to be cavalier, writing the stories I want to write, being picky and choosy about what I join and just aiming for the best story possible. And please do not think I want that to change. No one should ever feel pressured to do anything that they are not interested in. The Republic should absolutely be about inclusion and freedom.
However, that is not what makes a good faction. A good faction is goal-oriented, has a community that always has something to do, and members that encourage participation and inclusion.
What are our goals? If it's to write a good story, we all seem to be accomplishing that better as individuals than as a unit. The only things we manage to finish as a faction are dominions (though the current two are severely lacking). Speaking of, if our goal is to play the map game, we're not doing well. Outside of that, I haven't seen much direction (either from an IC perspective or an OOC perspective) as a whole. Rather I see a lot of individuals running every which way without any sort of goal (other than the usual "Hey, I'm a Padawan, I'd like to have a Master").
As a community, our corner of Chaos has seemed incredibly empty these past few weeks. I know we're busy, and that there are plenty of things going on (at the very least we have our weekly update, which is a great motion towards this effort). But if a new member were to come in right now and look at our level of activity within the subforum, I would question if they would get even close to the whole picture. They would instead see a lot of old posts and a few people commenting here and there. I think the simple fact that there is only one other response to this topic proves this point completely.
As for having encouraging members, this might be one of the only things we have going for us. There are plenty of folks within the Republic willing to jump into about anything, and we welcome all our new folk with open arms. But then what? What do these supposed new people have to do with themselves? Join a dominion? Go off and do their own thing? The mission listings would be a great place to start but they spark in interest once in a blue moon and I haven't seen hardly any get off the ground (and I haven't heard of one that finished).
I post this fully aware that I am a perpetrator of the above problems as well. However, these are simply my thoughts as a member of this faction as an area we need to drastically change if we are to continue to stay afloat, let alone be able to succeed as a community. As for suggestions, I'll save that for another post. If others feel the same, then I will continue to expound. If not, no harm, no foul.
We are a group of independent writers doing our thing where we see fit. And that is awesome. I personally love being able to be cavalier, writing the stories I want to write, being picky and choosy about what I join and just aiming for the best story possible. And please do not think I want that to change. No one should ever feel pressured to do anything that they are not interested in. The Republic should absolutely be about inclusion and freedom.
However, that is not what makes a good faction. A good faction is goal-oriented, has a community that always has something to do, and members that encourage participation and inclusion.
What are our goals? If it's to write a good story, we all seem to be accomplishing that better as individuals than as a unit. The only things we manage to finish as a faction are dominions (though the current two are severely lacking). Speaking of, if our goal is to play the map game, we're not doing well. Outside of that, I haven't seen much direction (either from an IC perspective or an OOC perspective) as a whole. Rather I see a lot of individuals running every which way without any sort of goal (other than the usual "Hey, I'm a Padawan, I'd like to have a Master").
As a community, our corner of Chaos has seemed incredibly empty these past few weeks. I know we're busy, and that there are plenty of things going on (at the very least we have our weekly update, which is a great motion towards this effort). But if a new member were to come in right now and look at our level of activity within the subforum, I would question if they would get even close to the whole picture. They would instead see a lot of old posts and a few people commenting here and there. I think the simple fact that there is only one other response to this topic proves this point completely.
As for having encouraging members, this might be one of the only things we have going for us. There are plenty of folks within the Republic willing to jump into about anything, and we welcome all our new folk with open arms. But then what? What do these supposed new people have to do with themselves? Join a dominion? Go off and do their own thing? The mission listings would be a great place to start but they spark in interest once in a blue moon and I haven't seen hardly any get off the ground (and I haven't heard of one that finished).
I post this fully aware that I am a perpetrator of the above problems as well. However, these are simply my thoughts as a member of this faction as an area we need to drastically change if we are to continue to stay afloat, let alone be able to succeed as a community. As for suggestions, I'll save that for another post. If others feel the same, then I will continue to expound. If not, no harm, no foul.
Directorate Officer
Were you thinking about military or civilian infrastructure? Both?Jerek Zenduu said:
I have some interest in both, I think we should talk about it, and see if anyone else is interested.
I've been thinking about rebuilding Alderaan after the One Sith occupation especially after the Vong-shaping down to the world. So it'd be a combination of rehabilitating some of the devastated landscapes, rebuilding civilian infrastructure there, and fortifying it (since Alderaan seems to always attract a lot of attention regardless of who owns it).
I've thought about the same topic for a bit myself. I've certainly enjoyed the freedom that the Republic has given me in pursuing my goals IC and OOC, but I think that you're right in that there's not a whole lot of mingling between some groups of writers who make up the faction as a whole. What did you have in mind for suggestions?Tyl Ro said:
One thought I had, and I'm not sure how well it would work, would be to create an "interest roster" to form small groups to write about that common interest. For example, there could be a Jedi "dueling group" where people can come together to find practice duel partners or to set up a tournament. Another group example might be "Rebuilding the Republic" which would collaborate IC and OOC to make codex submissions and write their supporting development threads. Aside from providing some cohesiveness within the Republic, these groups could also serve as anchor points for our newer members to join in and to start to get to know people.
The Hair Knight
[member="Gir Quee"]
Absolutely, both.
Alderaan sounds like a good candidate to start with. Iconic world, lots of references, as well as natural interest.
I'd be fine with talking further about it, either in a topic, via PM or Skype (elianatamerin).
Absolutely, both.
Alderaan sounds like a good candidate to start with. Iconic world, lots of references, as well as natural interest.
I'd be fine with talking further about it, either in a topic, via PM or Skype (elianatamerin).
Directorate Officer
[member="Jerek Zenduu"], this week has and will continue to be a bit crazy for me, but I'll shoot you my initial thoughts in the next day or so, and we can begin collaboration from there. If anyone else is interested in this project, please let me know.
Tyl Ro
The Anti(Hipster)-Cynic
[member="Gir Quee"]
The difficulty is, and always will be, that you can't pressure anyone to do something they are not interested in doing. If anything, that is one of the Republic's successes. We as writers have the ability to pursue whatever it is we fancy. And if we're doing it in the name of the faction, all the better.
But if folks don't know where to join, that can be one problem. So one suggestion would be a better thread tracking system. I wonder how often folks actually check the front page of the GR? I know I don't use it often. I skip straight to the forum. Perhaps that's my fault, but how many others do the same? That would seem like the best opportunity to keep members updated on current faction threads, but it should probably be somewhere in the subforum as well, simply to keep every angle covered. It would need to be up to date, thorough and well organized for ease of use.
As for giving members things to do and opportunities to pursue, the mission signup threads are a good start. But they are poorly underutilized. I imagine they are scanned over by most and promptly ignored in order to have their own pursuits. One way to help this is to open those up for mission submissions. A member has an idea for a thread that they'd like to do? Post it here and see if you can garner interest for working together with other members of the faction. Maybe you just want to come up with the idea and let others run with it? That's cool too, we have a lot of members and they all have ideas for things. Let's encourage that under the banner of GR cooperation. This goes for Jedi, Senate, Military, and joint (there isn't a Senate one currently and I think that might be a good thing for them to have). Keeping in mind, however, that working together is the goal. I think the joint missions should take full priority.
The above would probably be akin to your suggestion of an interest roster. Because of the diversity of our writers, getting everyone on the same page can be difficult. Anything that can serve to put people in threads together is a good thing.
As for goals for the faction, I do not believe myself to be in a place to make suggestions on that subject. I only think it prudent to point out that I have not seen anything in that realm.
The difficulty is, and always will be, that you can't pressure anyone to do something they are not interested in doing. If anything, that is one of the Republic's successes. We as writers have the ability to pursue whatever it is we fancy. And if we're doing it in the name of the faction, all the better.
But if folks don't know where to join, that can be one problem. So one suggestion would be a better thread tracking system. I wonder how often folks actually check the front page of the GR? I know I don't use it often. I skip straight to the forum. Perhaps that's my fault, but how many others do the same? That would seem like the best opportunity to keep members updated on current faction threads, but it should probably be somewhere in the subforum as well, simply to keep every angle covered. It would need to be up to date, thorough and well organized for ease of use.
As for giving members things to do and opportunities to pursue, the mission signup threads are a good start. But they are poorly underutilized. I imagine they are scanned over by most and promptly ignored in order to have their own pursuits. One way to help this is to open those up for mission submissions. A member has an idea for a thread that they'd like to do? Post it here and see if you can garner interest for working together with other members of the faction. Maybe you just want to come up with the idea and let others run with it? That's cool too, we have a lot of members and they all have ideas for things. Let's encourage that under the banner of GR cooperation. This goes for Jedi, Senate, Military, and joint (there isn't a Senate one currently and I think that might be a good thing for them to have). Keeping in mind, however, that working together is the goal. I think the joint missions should take full priority.
The above would probably be akin to your suggestion of an interest roster. Because of the diversity of our writers, getting everyone on the same page can be difficult. Anything that can serve to put people in threads together is a good thing.
As for goals for the faction, I do not believe myself to be in a place to make suggestions on that subject. I only think it prudent to point out that I have not seen anything in that realm.
The Hair Knight
Sounds like we should have an OOC Missions and Plotting board for this. Then group the Jedi missions, military missions, dominions, invasions, LFG (looking for group, for those midnight paddie parties or for someone's mission idea), mission ideas for adoption posts, and just general plotting threads.Tyl Ro said:
If everyone's going in the same place to get their IC group ideas, hopefully it'll encourage more cross-division RP. A Jedi sees a military operation that needs a Jedi, or a dominion gets promoted that needs Senators and NFU military, etc.
Plus, this would decrease some of the clutter in the main OOC board or the tendency for new people to not have any idea where to post. A lot of newbie plotting happens in the New Members board, but after that it's kind of a wash, either a thread starts in Shatterstar's OOC or not at all. This would give those threads an identifiable place to be posted, and a destination for interested eyes to go seek them.
Marcus Itera
Yeehaw
What happened to all of the NFUs in the Republic that aren't Senators?
Haven't seen very many military guys besides the upper rank officers.
Haven't seen very many military guys besides the upper rank officers.
Varius
Champion of the Light
I could bring Blane here since is in the Rebel Alliance aswell [member="Pappy"] though im not sure how much will that help.
To be honest I never really did much about character development, but I guess I should put Varius in some dominions, skirmish, duels, battles so that he could learn more about fighting and all that.
To be honest I never really did much about character development, but I guess I should put Varius in some dominions, skirmish, duels, battles so that he could learn more about fighting and all that.
Varus Shatterstar
Finding Purpose
More Cowbell.
[member="Taeli Raaf"]
^_^
[member="Taeli Raaf"]
^_^
Cecily Demici
Princess of Naboo
You know all of my concerns, but for the sake of keeping utilizing this channel I'll post my primary concern here:
More than anything, the Republic needs cohesiveness, organization, and a good brand. We need our information to be updated and relevant and organized. We need everyone to be united in the effort to advance the GR so that all members know how to be effective team members in invasions and dominions. We need to build a GR brand that will help us successfully market our faction both IC and OOC.
All of these things are necessary for our faction to get ahead.
More than anything, the Republic needs cohesiveness, organization, and a good brand. We need our information to be updated and relevant and organized. We need everyone to be united in the effort to advance the GR so that all members know how to be effective team members in invasions and dominions. We need to build a GR brand that will help us successfully market our faction both IC and OOC.
All of these things are necessary for our faction to get ahead.
Ali Hadrix
Bad Boss
One thing we could do is put up a "Showcase" thread where GR writers can post particularly well written or exciting posts of their own, giving those considering joining a place to scroll through and get a general feel for the kind of writing we enjoy, an idea of the quality of our faction's writing, and a place that can help summarize what we've been up to from an IC perspective.
RC 212
HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO!
[member="Ali Hadrix"] [member="Cecily de Demici"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Taeli Raaf"]
Ok here we go.
Having run multiple factions with multiple characters, some including helping found the LoTF with this char, I have a lot of insight here.
Right now you guys are dead in the water. The Dominions don't finish because, honestly your storylines are really not that compelling or inclusive of everyone. Second everyone’s attention is split into their own little section here. The Jedi probably post in their little section, the Military in theirs etc.
Do away with that and skype chat and push all OOC back into one main forum guys. Seriously people will stumble across everyone else’s posts and be like "Oh Cool, let me get in on that!" There are far too few active memers to have discussions split up everywhere. when new people come here this place wont look skeleton crew, but vibrant and alive. Rem most new RP'ers don’t even really know about Skypes importance on this board.
Second Organize the military units in the Resources Forum as well as all that random stuff. Make a few Units, keep those units and fleet lists and just roll with it. Everyone can't have their own unit, it makes for no interplay at all. Again simplify, when we grow again expand.
Third, going back to dominions. There's literally two objectives on this dominion I just posted on, both military. If we want our dominions to finish, we need to make them all inclusive. Everyone needs a apart, Navy, Jedi, Intelligence and Army. Give them each their own objective or allow them to team up!
Seek out other factions of groups willing to play the opposing force. It gets boring just slaying NPC's unless you got the killer plot to go with it. I notice the Sith dont like to skirmish with us for some reason. They elave just about every skirmish blank. So lets find a new enemy and set our sights on them.
Last POLITICS. There is a huge draw for political types when their is politics to be played. Make some political threads for the senator types to grovel over a contract or hosting a podrace on their home-world or some such nonsense. Get our diplomats out to start canvassing who wants to ally and who's our enemies.
Lastly you guys have absolutely no board presence here at all. I have not seen on GR thread or advertisement in almost a month. Threads generate interest and lots of them. Missions may be fine, but if the thread doesn’t pick up within a few weeks, it wont, period. Threads normally have strong success or they have total failure about a week or two in. So move on to the next idea, spit set it and forget it.
We need to get to spamming. I also note their is no overall story line. What are our goals as a fation and what are we doing IC to support those goals. Are we going to defend forever? Then lets get some bases built, and some stations reinforce IC. Lets make threads.
Are we going to attack? Then lets get some GRIM agents out there scouring other places. Lets get Commandos and Jedi and Pilots training on some combined arms warfare. Lets start Deving some factories.
Look at a faction like OP. In their prime there was never nothing to do. They always had at least three or four threads going, either developing planets, Dominion, Invasion, Political manoeuvrings or just plain hanging out IC with each other.
Think about these things.
RC out.
P.S. I will spam if Necc.
Ok here we go.
Having run multiple factions with multiple characters, some including helping found the LoTF with this char, I have a lot of insight here.
Right now you guys are dead in the water. The Dominions don't finish because, honestly your storylines are really not that compelling or inclusive of everyone. Second everyone’s attention is split into their own little section here. The Jedi probably post in their little section, the Military in theirs etc.
Do away with that and skype chat and push all OOC back into one main forum guys. Seriously people will stumble across everyone else’s posts and be like "Oh Cool, let me get in on that!" There are far too few active memers to have discussions split up everywhere. when new people come here this place wont look skeleton crew, but vibrant and alive. Rem most new RP'ers don’t even really know about Skypes importance on this board.
Second Organize the military units in the Resources Forum as well as all that random stuff. Make a few Units, keep those units and fleet lists and just roll with it. Everyone can't have their own unit, it makes for no interplay at all. Again simplify, when we grow again expand.
Third, going back to dominions. There's literally two objectives on this dominion I just posted on, both military. If we want our dominions to finish, we need to make them all inclusive. Everyone needs a apart, Navy, Jedi, Intelligence and Army. Give them each their own objective or allow them to team up!
Seek out other factions of groups willing to play the opposing force. It gets boring just slaying NPC's unless you got the killer plot to go with it. I notice the Sith dont like to skirmish with us for some reason. They elave just about every skirmish blank. So lets find a new enemy and set our sights on them.
Last POLITICS. There is a huge draw for political types when their is politics to be played. Make some political threads for the senator types to grovel over a contract or hosting a podrace on their home-world or some such nonsense. Get our diplomats out to start canvassing who wants to ally and who's our enemies.
Lastly you guys have absolutely no board presence here at all. I have not seen on GR thread or advertisement in almost a month. Threads generate interest and lots of them. Missions may be fine, but if the thread doesn’t pick up within a few weeks, it wont, period. Threads normally have strong success or they have total failure about a week or two in. So move on to the next idea, spit set it and forget it.
We need to get to spamming. I also note their is no overall story line. What are our goals as a fation and what are we doing IC to support those goals. Are we going to defend forever? Then lets get some bases built, and some stations reinforce IC. Lets make threads.
Are we going to attack? Then lets get some GRIM agents out there scouring other places. Lets get Commandos and Jedi and Pilots training on some combined arms warfare. Lets start Deving some factories.
Look at a faction like OP. In their prime there was never nothing to do. They always had at least three or four threads going, either developing planets, Dominion, Invasion, Political manoeuvrings or just plain hanging out IC with each other.
Think about these things.
RC out.
P.S. I will spam if Necc.
Ali Hadrix
Bad Boss
Well that's certainly a meal for thought, to be sure! I like these suggestions. A lot.
RC 212
HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO!
[member="Ali Hadrix"]
Tell me more about grim, in a summary. You guys are spies?
Tell me more about grim, in a summary. You guys are spies?
Ali Hadrix
Bad Boss
Certainly, we are indeed spies, and I'm wanting to incorporate a type of commando unit into the fold as well.
RC 212
HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO!
Cool already got a mission for us two.
[member="Ali Hadrix"]
[member="Ali Hadrix"]
Mantic Dorn
Old school...
@RC 212
*standing ovations*
*standing ovations*
skin, bone, and arrogance
I'd like more threads like this, [member="Taeli Raaf"], and I would like to feel engaged with this faction, since it has become my main love affair. To be perfectly frank, I know that several members, myself included, have been feeling more and more disengaged, more and more pushed to one side over the last few weeks. Part of that, I think, has to do with the shuffle of transition from one administration to another, and is unavoidable. I definitely don't think it's personal and I don't hold it against anyone, but now that the transition is over and everything seems settled, it's time to move forward together.
Since Corvus left I have felt (and I'm certain I'm not alone) that discussions with the faction as a whole have begun with the end decided and the discussion was really about informing us rather than engaging us, with most discussion being of the "Here's why you're wrong" variety. Lately it feels like we are having our interests told to us, rather than our leadership discovering our interests and proceeding accordingly. Maybe that's by design, I don't know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It might also help to ease tensions between everyone to remind people that the role of a discussion is to discuss, not to berate, humiliate or shame, especially among members of our own faction. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely as guilty as anyone, but I think there is something to be said about leadership setting an example.
Additionally, it would be nice if we, as a group, were engaged on decisions relating to the structure of the faction and the forums themselves -- the recent changes made to the forums, while certainly acceptable and adequate in my opinion, was a missed opportunity to give people the feeling that they were contributing to the faction. As we have discussed before, activity is important but it isn't everything, and you might be missing out on some great ideas by people who are made to feel that their input is not welcome or that they missed their chance because it was already decided.
This may seem like rather a litany of woe but honestly I think we have a bright future ahead of us as a group. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish. With more threads like this, more group discussions, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.
PS I agree with [member="Cecily de Demici"] on branding, [member="Jerek Zenduu"] on all the things, and also [member="RC 212 "]and [member="Ali Hadrix"]. Go team!
Since Corvus left I have felt (and I'm certain I'm not alone) that discussions with the faction as a whole have begun with the end decided and the discussion was really about informing us rather than engaging us, with most discussion being of the "Here's why you're wrong" variety. Lately it feels like we are having our interests told to us, rather than our leadership discovering our interests and proceeding accordingly. Maybe that's by design, I don't know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It might also help to ease tensions between everyone to remind people that the role of a discussion is to discuss, not to berate, humiliate or shame, especially among members of our own faction. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely as guilty as anyone, but I think there is something to be said about leadership setting an example.
Additionally, it would be nice if we, as a group, were engaged on decisions relating to the structure of the faction and the forums themselves -- the recent changes made to the forums, while certainly acceptable and adequate in my opinion, was a missed opportunity to give people the feeling that they were contributing to the faction. As we have discussed before, activity is important but it isn't everything, and you might be missing out on some great ideas by people who are made to feel that their input is not welcome or that they missed their chance because it was already decided.
This may seem like rather a litany of woe but honestly I think we have a bright future ahead of us as a group. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish. With more threads like this, more group discussions, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.
PS I agree with [member="Cecily de Demici"] on branding, [member="Jerek Zenduu"] on all the things, and also [member="RC 212 "]and [member="Ali Hadrix"]. Go team!
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