Hello everyone. I am here today to ask you all what you think are prerequisites of a good RP. By good, I mean it is fun to read, take part in, and attracts people. I ask this because I wish to sometime create an RP, and because I have seen far too many RPs with undeveloped plots and generally unattractive offers for RPing. I will write what I believe is necessary for an RP to be fun and successful, and ask that you correct me and add on with your own opinions.

Roleplays require planning, possibly more so than a fan fiction due to the dynamic element of real people playing the main characters. The planning must address the plot, where we want it to go. Too many have died because they didn't have a well thought out plot, and this disappoints me greatly. You must have a good idea of location, a familiar and preferably in-game place to at least start in. You must also have something be happening, an event to involve all of your fellow RPers. It must be original, exciting, and leave opportunity for input from your companions.

Often the group or groups of RPers form the protagonists, and they must combat the antagonists in the same format as novels. They can be heroes, anti-heroes, or just ordinary citizens, as can the opposition. The main conflict should be between the two groups, with internal struggle to add realism. The characters must engage in dialogue that both exposes their personality and advances the plot, but not too quickly. They must make decisions as to how to solve the conflict occurring at the time, and do so in a way that is original.

The characters, as I said, can be good or evil. Either are interesting and fun to read and write, but the nature of the characters will change dramatically with the choice between good, evil, or in between. Often the groups will have both good and evil characters, adding internal strife and complicating the conflict, and this makes things all the more interesting.

As I said, the plot can't be freeform. You can't just tell your RPers to go do something, you must present them with a situation in which they can interact and resolve the original issue. This is a key mistake many RPs make.

Many RPs are set in a post-oblivion crisis world, but this is not always a requirement. It leaves room for more creative plot and undecided outcome, but pre or during the crisis RPs have equal opportunity for success. Not to mention RPs centering on the Morrowind plot, or ones that have nothing to do with the main plot of Oblivion.

Well, I have written too much already ^^. Please input your thoughts on what an RP needs to be successful. I only touched on plot here, but feel free to address characters, prose, rules of thumb to be remembered, etc. Tell us anything you think we should consider when making an Elder Scrolls Roleplay because I for the life of me cannot seem to organize it all in my head.

Please do not restate things mentioned in the guide to RPing by Illusionary Nothing, this is more for RP makers than RP players. I intend to summarize my ideas and yours and edit them into this post so that people can look at the information without all the hassle. Thank you.

Oh, and any constructive criticism on why this should never have been made are welcome. I hope to address them satisfactorily. Thanks again.

EDITS: @FC4 I agree completely. This is not a cut and dry, guranteed success kind of thing. You will have better chances with a plot, but it's just that, a chance. As you said, the past has shown many good RPs that have been free form, but a few don't make up for the hundreds of dead ones.

Also, players should give input and influence the plot. Whether by pm, IM conversation, or subtle in or out of character hints. The creator cannot hold a dictatorship on the story, the players have just as much say in what goes on.

The only thing I can honestly tell you is that not all rps will follow this formula. Some Freeform rps, offering a shell of a plot, have been very successful. Blood of the Ancients is an example of this, where the PLAYERS had come up with the actual plots.

Another is the Dragon's Saga, which was originally meant to be freeform, but then became adventure. It also was horrid at the beginning, but in the second chapter of the Saga (2nd rp of four) things improved. I had not originally planned any of the plot of the Dragon's Saga when I began with Dragon's Taint, only began planning in Dragon's Purification. The plans continued on through the Saga, and made a great rp, but it only began thanks to wonderful input from the rpers that began in Dragon's Taint.

Basically... not all rps that follow your observations will succeed. But this is a good general format to follow. Some rp successes are just... miracle.

The above is true. A good shell is the best the host can offer. An RP is made or broken almost entirely by the players. Even if the host doesn't do a great job, the players have the power to make the RP very strong and memorable. But as for making the shell, so to speak, I have a few notes:

-First, an RP does not have to be a completely original idea. Originality is not congruent to quality. It is unnecessary to get bent out of shape because you cannot think of a brand-spanking-new idea.

-I have witnessed this many times, and can attest that what kills a lot of RPs in a bad way is "getting stuck". Be it that the players can't get out of a particular dispute, they won't move forward due to the personalities of their characters, a plot hole gets the players into a situation where they cannot do much but make 'filler' posts, anything that keeps the story from going forward- this has been the sad end of many good RPs.

-Freeforms aren't bad. They rely a lot more on players, though. They are almost completely immune to the above problem, but they run the risk of players losing interest. For this reason, it might be good for the host (or a player who is feeling particularly venturesome) to add some element to the setting here and there to keep the interest of the players- but be careful to avoid snaring yourself in the problem I described above, in doing so. This can also help in bringing the players together, in some sense. If there is too much disunity among the players, the RP turns into a bunch of individual fanfics in the same thread.

That's all I can think of at the moment. :shrug:

I think what most end up making the RP a good one is the Roleplayers.
You have got to figure, good RPers make the Roleplay good, and keep it going. But then, usually a good plot, and structural base attract good RPers.

Well, seeing how the only rp I've ever made here failed miserably, I'm not sure if my advice is even worth listening to, but I'll throw my opinion out there anyway.

I think a good majority of an rp is about the players, really. I've seen some rps with completely generic story lines take off and flourish, simply because it had a group of dedicated players willing to make it work. On the flip side, I've seen some incredibly creative rps die because the players lost interest. In the end, you can have the best plot, the best planning, and the best setting in the world, but if you don't have players willing to make it last, it amounts to nothing.

Me personally, I don't care so much about how original a plot is, so long as it works, you know? Nothing completely ridiculous, but something that won't get boring easily. Now planning... Well, I think when it came to The City of Shadows, my short-lived rp idea, I don't think I had the foresight to really run it well. I had a story all down pat, and a damn good one if I do say so myself, but I wasn't prepared for how the players would change things. Which is the big difference between fanfics and rps, and the one that really got me, I think. So we're back to players. I think that, in the end, the failure of my rp was mostly my fault. Bad planning, bad rules, moving too quickly, whatever it may have been, but I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I had had more or a different set of players. Because it lost interest eventually, and died. And after it did, I stopped seeing some of the players.

But anyway, the players lost interest, and it died, and that's probably my fault for not setting it up well enough. So I think if someone is going to start up an rp, they should really think things through.

Free form is not my particular style, and I doubt I would function in a purely free form rp very well, but some people do, and some work and really take off. I'm more for the traditional set of rps, with set rules and, to an extent, a linear storyline.

As for setting, I think rps are definitely easier when it's in an in-game setting, because people know what to expect. They can picture it more easily, which naturally leads to a better flow of writing, or at least that's how it is for me. Though of course, then you have things like the massively successful Immortal Blood Timeline, which, for the most part, takes place outside of the game's world.

So ultimately, for me, it's all about the players. If you have people willing to stick something out and really make it good, then it'll be good, regardless of what you had to start with. Look how long the Immortal Blood Timeline's been around, or End of an Era. Dedication makes things work.

Either the Rp's boss must create so much info that players have no trouble imagining themselves there or the boss must allow the players to create the scene for themselves.

Of course, most trouble comes from people who are eager to join yet lazy when RPing. I believe that is the biggest problem for an RP: people lose interest too quickly. The only way to make people stay is to make them love the RP so much they become a part of it and don't want to see it fail.

So the general concensus is that the RP isn't the sum of its plot and planning, but the people that write it. The planning is ultimately what makes the pieces fit together and run to produce an excellent, enjoyable RP, but it isn't everything.

As far as the players go, what would be the best decision when accepting Character Sheets? To have experienced guys (and girls) or to have those that seem to have real style and imagination? These usually go hand in hand, but the real thing I'm getting at is how to decide if someone is really dedicated and will put time and effort in, or if they will sink the RP.

I hate to use forum terminology in this, but what are your thoughts on newbies (newbs or noobs?) in accepting their contributions? I know you can't just deny someone because they have little to no experience, if we did then none of us, especially me, would be able to RP. But sometimes such people are poor RPers. How do you judge?

EDIT: @FC4 (again)- I recall hearing that, but I forgot which was which. Okay, I'll make sure not to use the wrong word from now on XP. Thanks.

And thanks to you others, too. I might start summarizing soon, but I will wait for a few more informative posts.

I'm quite new to the forums, but not rping. I think the best factor is in seeing how this person writes up the character. First, ask yourself if the character will be feasible during the storyline. Second, ask yourself if the person has decided how they will work the character into the plot. If they hadn't dedicated enough of their time to understand the SL, then chances are they won't dedicate enough time to roleplay well, or help the story out. IMVHO.

I look for signs of possible uberness first; like wielding Umbra and other such Tamrielic Relics without permission from the Creator first. I say this because one of my own characters has the Vampiric Ring, but ImmortalBlood had given me permission for this. Some characters can be allowed to be slightly uber, maybe at one skill or aspect of their character in particular. But if you were to see my first sheet ever made, you'd wonder why Illusionary Nothing even allowed him. Half Nord half Breton with Daedric armor and ebony sword and good spellcraft and just jack-of-all-trades uber.

However, I deleted his sheet.

A poor sheet has usually very skimpy descriptions, like oneliners for appearance and mentality and such. Now, not all sheets need to be miniature novels like those coming from the more experienced players, but more often than not the smaller the description, the less creativity in the character's creation, and the less thought the player has put into the character or the rp. Again, no need for huge descriptions, but just enough to form a mental profile of the character in your head.

If you like the sheet, but still aren't sure about the player, you could always ask around; see what others know about this guy. Maybe he's rped before here, and you just never noticed until now. See what others say. If he's new, I'd say give him a chance; direct him constructively to any problems with the sheet, and offer suggestions as to how to improve those errors. Don't fix them for newb. Just rtry to encourage creative thought.

And often newbies will ASK for your opinion of their stuff, be it post or sheet. Give it politely and constructively. Sure, there is a risk with having a newbie in your rp, but there is no other way they could ever improve than by DOING! You just need to work patiently with them.

By the way... newb is for someone new. Noob is for someone who is old, should be experienced, and ACTS like a newb.

Please take the following advice with a pinch of salt; I tend to be a harsh judge of character sheets, in my RP or others'. The one thing I really loathe in an RP is when players skirt the line of credibility with their characters. Be it in their appearance, their race, their abilities, it irks me to no end when it is made unrealistic. I mean realism by Tamrielic standards, of course, but the point remains valid.
Also, the length of a character sheet means very little, I believe. It may look like the player put little effort into the character with a one-line appearance description, but at the same time that cuts out the potential for a boring overly-descriptive entry. But that may just be me- sometimes I find it kind of disgusting to read about how a person looks for a paragraph or two. And regardless, the other players will develop their own mental picture of the characters.

As for new RPers, the best course of action is to teach them as they go. It takes a while to get used to RPing, so it would be better for the host/experienced players to help the newer players along in order to make them the future experienced players. Rejecting someone because of their poor writing skills is tempting, but using the RP as a tool to improve said writing skills is better in the long-term view.

Well Its nice to have experienced RPers for your rp, its actually awsome. Sometimes accepting newbies in an rp can be great too they can learn how to rp alot better. If they screw up a bit at a point you can Send the ma Personal Message and let them know whats going on and a good way to have their character act. (or teach them like tom above said)

and to your first sentance in there, An rp is a little of everything. It should have a good story plot and maybe theme, but its mainly the members that make it to be a great or good rp. Your the one making the story but without the characters it can't progress. Its also good to give hints as to when your going to progress it if you plann on making a freeform rp when they can do whatever before a certain event happens.

Commited players above experienced, if nobody's playing than there is no game

I got to admit that that I skipped the whole thread but I do have something on plot and the backstory.

If they make it too complicated or the idea itself is too narrow, then the rp might interest only a few players. That turns me off. The plot cant be too simple either. It needs a bit surprising atleast until the players themselves can give ideas.

That's my two cent shorts.