2011: A Year of Change

[Batman]

In the grand tradition of The Superhero Hype! RPG Boards, apart of being intergrated within our little community of writers is the strive to constantly improve the way things function. And since we all saw a considerable amount of vocal support in the effort to come up with new rules in order to boost activity and make the games more welcoming of new players in The RPG Soapbox, I came to a decision in order to improve the quality of the RPG forums as a whole. About a month ago, I reached out and contacted three individuals that will now serve as apart of a four man team of forumrunners designed to help keep ontop of the ever-changing policies and guidelines that will both keep a strict reign over slacking players and endow a sense of freedom for our all-important newcomers.

Together, we've been coming up with a list of new rules to add to the old set, and with their permission, I will periodically release the new rules that will go into effect as of today. The gentlemen helping me in this little endeavour? You know their names well...

Byrd Man

wiegeabo

Keyser Soze

And of course, your's truly, Batman.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome these three in the monthly task of reviewing the state of the boards and offering new rules, based on your suggestions, to help reshape the forums as a whole into a more orderly fashion that shows little tolerance to slow-runners and support to the enthused gamers that have helped run this forum for the last three years of it's existence.

With that said, the first announcement is this.

SHORT-TERM RPG APPLICATIONS WILL NOW BE ACCEPTED

With a minimum of a trial five running short-term (or, "shorties") games at a time, anyone can now apply for this specialized type of game for any section. Though the approval process will be quite different from what's usually been seen, with a voting system that we shall establish, our hope is that these new games will allow new players a fresh start with their favorite characters, and old players a fresh start with new characters.

Look for more to come in the next few weeks.

 

[Byrd Man]

Soze is head of the secret police and I'm his deputy. Run for your lives, *****es!

 

[Byrd Man]

A potential short-term RPG for your consideration: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?p=19435662#post19435662

 

[Catman_prb]

And another one: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=345771

 

[Carnage27]

And another one!

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=345803

 

[wiegeabo]

Since we're going to be voting to gauge which short games get started, maybe we should have a vote on the first of every month and run it for a week.

The top game to survive the vote gets accepted, if there are enough players (I'd say at least 8-10). We could even let voters not rank a game they're not interested in (that way we'd know if a game wins the vote, but still only has five players.)

 

[Byrd Man]

Hopefully that system will pan out. Right now we've had three apps spring up and it's been almost 24 hours since MB lifted the ban. Hope more pop up and give folks a chance to play in different RPGs and stories.

Also, vote for Pickett's Ridge or I will kill you all.

 

[wiegeabo]

I'm really tempted to bring back my character from the other western game.

 

[Byrd Man]

But it's not a western. Takes place in 2011. Although I could say it's in the antebellum south just so we can have all over characters running around screaming "There has been a muuuurder!" in fake southern accents like they did in that episode of The Office.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Suggestion: Make a section devoted to the applications and IC and OOC threads for these Short-Term games. That way there is no confusion with new players to the games when they enter the Approval & General RPG Discussion section or the Other Comics & Genres RPG's section; this way it is understood that these are separate than the regular games and therefore have differences.

 

[Byrd Man]

I don't know if MB can make a whole sub-forum. He'd need to run it by the admins and from what I've heard, some of them aren't the RPGs biggest fans. They think we're weirdos We're so misunderstood.

 

[trustyside-kick]

?? All he does is make a new section like he did when he created the RPG Archives.

Is that not possible anymore?

 

[wiegeabo]

I think MB had the idea of having a main section for the Marvel/DC games. Second section for player created games like OU. And a third for the short games.

I also wouldn't mind splitting the Application stuff from the General discussion. Leave the General thread for Flagons, general talk, and recruitment. Keep all the potentially messy application stuff in its own place.

 

[Catman_prb]

I quite like the idea of a tripartite system like that.

 

[trustyside-kick]

A fourth Short-Term RPG to consider:
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=345811

I miss the old G&M days. Consider this a spin-off variation.

 

[Byrd Man]

Okay, we have four very different and unqiue short-term RPG apps on the table. I know we want to wait for a bit until we vote. But when it comes time to vote, how many will make the final cut. Let's say that right now four is all we get. Of those four, will we approve only the highest voted RPG or will it be the top two or top three? Or will they all get approved? I'd count the current Walking Dead RPG as a shortie right now, so there's that as well. I know we said we want five right now, and it looks like we'll have five if you count the Walking Dead RPG.

 

[Batman]

Okay, we have four very different and unqiue short-term RPG apps on the table. I know we want to wait for a bit until we vote. But when it comes time to vote, how many will make the final cut. Let's say that right now four is all we get. Of those four, will we approve only the highest voted RPG or will it be the top two or top three? Or will they all get approved? I'd count the current Walking Dead RPG as a shortie right now, so there's that as well. I know we said we want five right now, and it looks like we'll have five if you count the Walking Dead RPG.

The Walking Dead RPG is exempt, as far as I'm concerned. It was the proto-Shortie, so it might aswell stay and finish out it's run.

As far as the voting process, I say we should wait for the votes to come in. See how many votes each RPG gets before deciding that, and then run off from there to judge the future voting sessions accordingly.

 

[wiegeabo]

I say, for every four game up for vote, we accept one. (So the top two go if there's 8 apps).

It's not a big deal if a game doesn't get picked one month. Because I think we should have a vote every month we're not up to our five game limit.

but we also have a minimum player rule, right? 8(?) players have to vote that they're interested in a game before it's accepted, even if it wins the vote?


Oh, and I volunteer to run the votes.

 

[Batman]

I say, for every four game up for vote, we accept one. (So the top two go if there's 8 apps).

It's not a big deal if a game doesn't get picked one month. Because I think we should have a vote every month we're not up to our five game limit.

but we also have a minimum player rule, right? 8(?) players have to vote that they're interested in a game before it's accepted, even if it wins the vote?

That's true, though it'd be a shame to have to wait a month when the interest is so high now. Perhaps if we allowed the concepts that didn't go ahead to be fleshed out further in their application threads, the RPG's creator could continually work on the concept to submit for another month's vote.

Oh, and I volunteer to run the votes.

Go right ahead. It was your idea, so it's only right that you be the one to see it through.

 

[wiegeabo]

That's true, though it'd be a shame to have to wait a month when the interest is so high now. Perhaps if we allowed the concepts that didn't go ahead to be fleshed out further in their application threads, the RPG's creator could continually work on the concept to submit for another month's vote.

Oh, absolutely. If a game doesn't get picked up, the GM has a month to make changes and get more players on board. And they can keep bringing it back as long as it takes.

 

[Batman]

Alright, since it's been a week since the last new rule addition, it's past time for another. And since I'm feeling that there's a drastic need to get things going at a much quicker pace, I'll start doing them numerically - IE, 2 new rules this week, 3 the next, 4 after that, ect.

The two for this week...

Three Strikes, You're Out
Inspired by Andy C.'s admirable work in All-Star Marvel, aswell as input by wiegeabo, this is a new guideline to ensure the eradication of consistently fickle posters. Once anyone applies for a character they're expected to post, but some constantly apply, post once or twice, and leave shortly after. While real life is an understandable issue, three instances of this is enough for an RPG to have to withstand per season. So the rule is thus: You flake three times, and you can't apply for the rest of the season.

D&D Leniency
Basically, this rule allows Gamemasters to be far more assertive and actively involved in IC-based events. GMs will now have the control to move slower arcs along by bunnying mass NPCs, dropped characters, and even frequently inactive PCs in order to establish a more player friendly point of continuation. If you're planning an arc that involves several different PC's from all across the game, it will also now be a requirement to submit a basic rundown to the Gamemaster of the particular game for approval.

 

[Shlee]

Why do I feel like I am the epitome of the three strikes rule? *sniffle*

I'm sorry I'm not better for you! *sob*

 

[wiegeabo]

You are one of the least offenders of the three strikes rule.

*glares at everyone else*

You know who you are!

 

[Batman]

Why do I feel like I am the epitome of the three strikes rule? *sniffle*

I'm sorry I'm not better for you! *sob*

To be honest, you hadn't even crossed my mind for that one. I'd say you're in the clear for it's depiction of the flakers.

 

[Harlekin]

As good as time as any to butt in and say I'm not too fond of the D&D rule. Rather than give power to the gamesmaster to bunny PC's in stalled stories, give that power to the playing people. Say if someone doesn't post for a week, the others have the authority to bunny him. But running stories past the GM makes it seem like we actually have to get approval and what about improvised arcs? GM's using NPC's I'm completely for, of course.