Role-Playing League Discussion

[twylight]

Okay, well it's been enough day's and I figure if we don't want this thread, we can always delete it

Basically this is an open forum for ideas and whatnot.

Are we even still interested in doing the RP League?

What would people like to see for the next season?

Is there any internal structuring in terms of teams and scenario's people would like to see?

Go crazy

Some choice snippets from the other thread:

One of the things that bothered me, even when I was a judge and Feature was laying out the rules to us, was how strict it was. I never liked the whole "goals" and you had to do two out of the four. It was too strict, and I agree that we should change up the rotation and and deadline structure, but change up the general scenario planning and structure as well.

So, how we can improve the game:

• 10 week, definite season.
• No teams, individuals only.
• Pre-written scenarios that go up on a given day of the week, every week.
• Organized, streamlined judging.
• Instead of 1 or 2 points per round, there ought to be more places, so as to ensure that a given player doesn't go for half of the season with no points. One option is to develop a rating system that assigns each entry a number of points. Thusly, out of 10 entries, the worst would get one point, and the best, 10.

I think at this juncture it might also be important to establish chat sessions between the teams and judges, since during my time as both a judge and a player I found that communication was a major issue.

My ideas for a better RPG League?

-Individual posters with the option to team up with other people and write a joint entry.
(The points are added to each individual's score, not divided by how many people were part of that entry, but the full amount of points gets added to everyone for the entry if that makes sense)

-Write scenarios that are fairly open ended. Give complete creative license. Give guidelines or suggestions, but not conditions that -have- to be met. It will open it up to have extremely diverse stories, rather than all the same thing because they have to fit those conditions into a post. However, put a word limit on the entries instead, somewhere around 1000 words or something like that, 2000 at most.

-Give two weeks for people to write their stories, and another two weeks for judging and coming up with another scenario. At least then everyone's held to a "deadline", it's a bit more streamlined with timeliness.

-Offer up open judging spots each week. Offer a minimum of 1 to 3 additional spots. If we do it as individuals (with the options to team up like I said in my first suggestion), everyone's out for themselves so judging would be fairly partial, rather than biased based on their team. Then, we could also put a minimum limit on number of judges' decisions that have to be in before we can move on. Say minimum 3 judges (out of 5? raise the minimum or lower depending on how many judges sign up that week on top of the regular judges) have to post within the 2 week period to move onto the next scenario. Obviously all the judges could post in 2 weeks, but if 2 weeks go by and only 3 of the judges have posted, you can still move on without waiting. It just means less points that week for the players.

-Allow individuals to volunteer to come up with scenarios. However, they -obviously- cannot post that week, or team up with others that week. This helps keep the scenarios fresh, and keeps it from becoming one guy having to make the scenarios. That way, we're also not waiting on scenarios for lengths of time because someone has other things going on, or has writers' block.


I have some other ideas, but I'm having a hard time expressing myself in written word. Articulation is not my best skill. Oh well, I'll probably come back to see how my suggestions get ripped apart, and also to talk about changing the points system slightly to help fit with my suggestion on extra judges.

I think the whole team thing is more of a hindrance than a help. I mean, what purpose has it served thus far this season? How many of us, honestly, have had group meetings with all our teammates to discuss our stories? Are the stories group collaborations, or solo projects? People write the stories alone, or at least I assume they do for the most part. So I don't see what it is about the team dynamic that's so essential.

All the team structure does is impose limits. You can't post a story for this scenario, as it's been assigned to someone else on your team. You can't get any points for this week, as your partner couldn't post before deadline. How does it feel being the one weak link in an RPG League dream-team, feeling you're continually letting your teammates down? Or similarly, how does it feel if you're constantly writing first-class work, but no one else on your team ever posts, so you're dragged down with them to the bottom-ranked spot?

Shlee, good post. But one thing I strongly disagree with is the 1000 word limit on stories. That is waaaaaaay too short. For the sake of reference, my last League story clocked in at north of 9000 words.

Team's also ease the burden of having to post every week. Getting to take time of let's you recharge the batteries. I know in the DTL, (that's right, I'm bringing up the DTL. Wanna fight about it!) posting every 7 days really drains people after just a few weeks. So we extended it to 10 days and allowed people to pair up into teams and switch off. Made the experience far more freeing.

The flipside is that not posting often enough can make interest wane, or make it difficult to get back into the writing grove. So maybe having teams of three would help with that. (Teams of 4 is fine with me.)

 

[Eddie Brock]

We need to know exactly how long the Season will be before it starts, and I agree with SSF on the point system. I think every post should earn a point on a 1-10 scale. (Obviously, if you don't get something up, you get 0.)

 

[wiegeabo]

Once I get all my ideas organized, I'll post them.

 

[twylight]

We need to know exactly how long the Season will be before it starts, and I agree with SSF on the point system. I think every post should earn a point on a 1-10 scale. (Obviously, if you don't get something up, you get 0.)

Well, there was a general idea..:/

The team that has earned the most points at the end of the season will be the winner. A season will last roughly 4-6 months.

I think months might be the wrong way to judge the length though, maybe perhaps x amount of scenario's or x number of weeks.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Well, there was a general idea..:/



I think months might be the wrong way to judge the length though, maybe perhaps x amount of scenario's or x number of weeks.

I agree. Season length set by number of scenarios makes the most logistic sense to me.

 

[twylight]

Well, 8 Scenario's is potentially 2-4 months anyway. Depending on if we lengthen the writing/posting time.

 

[twylight]

....


:meow:

 

[Shlee]

More Discussing.

 

[twylight]

I agree, more discussing.

 

[wiegeabo]

Player ideas:
Keep teams
They allow more players to participate without judges having to read a ton.
They keep players from burning out.
They let players offload work if something comes up.

Limit teams to 3-4 players
2 may be acceptable, but more players improves the chances of participation.
More than 4 means players writing less than once a month, could get boring.


Scenario ideas:
Work out most/all scenarios before season starts
Minimizes the delay between weeks.

Eliminate necessity of goals
Keep guidelines/suggestions, but allow freedom for writer.
If goals kept, possibly extra points for incorporating them.
No penalty for not using any goals


Game ideas
One scenario a week.
Move on to next scenario even if judging not finished.
Team gets to pick which player writes next once scenario is up (maybe players can't write two in a row).

Keep current point system
If not, then assign points based on number of teams (if 5 teams, first place gets 4 points, 2nd gets 3,..., last gets 0)
Missing a writeup is -1 point.

 

[wiegeabo]

I know I've forgotten some stuff. I'll post it when I remember it.

 

[Eddie Brock]

I want to make it more of a team effort. Don't ask what that entails because I have no clue. Perhaps one team member comes up with characters, another writes an outline, another handles the heavy lifting, and the last member gets the week off? (Assuming teams are still 4 players.) Something to that effect. My idea isn't great, but I want to get that out there. Maybe someone else can come up with a better idea that keeps this general theme in mind.

 

[wiegeabo]

Something like that would be good. More team interaction behind the scenes. Especially if it avoids the situations where someone couldn't get a story up, but they don't tell anyone until two days before it's due.

 

[Eddie Brock]

Something like that would be good. More team interaction behind the scenes. Especially if it avoids the situations where someone couldn't get a story up, but they don't tell anyone until two days before it's due.

I didn't even think of that aspect, but you're absolutely right. I was also considering the fact that we don't all want - or have the time - to write an entry every week, so this gives you the opportunity to contribute something when you're not the writer - while still giving everyone a week off every so often.

 

[twylight]

I love all those suggestions, my only question is, is there enough interest to even do it now? >.<;

 

[Eddie Brock]

I love all those suggestions, my only question is, is there enough interest to even do it now? >.<;

Sssh. We're just going to ignore that fact. It's irrelevant.

 

[twylight]

We are the team of three! O.O;

 

[Harlekin]

Whatever's decided, I'll be there.

 

[Matt Murdock]

It's been a year. I've had some thoughts, the ideas have stewed. Meet my thoughts on what would help make The Role-Playing League: Beta a reality.

THE ROLE-PLAYING LEAGUE

• Meet your teams:
  • Teams could consist of three players, chosen by the players themselves. This way, we'll have players who want to play together, know each other's posting habits, know when to work, and know how best to contact each other.

• Beta Scoring:
  • In THE ROLE-PLAYING LEAGUE Classic, we had weekly posts from specific posters in the teams. Instead of that, what if we just had specific deadlines for all of the teams? So, Teams A, B, C, D, and E each have to produce a post. It can be a collaborative effort, joint post, or a solo project. As long as it's posted by a member of a team, they'll get credit for that week.
  • Bonus points - We always had four additional scenarios in the Classic RPL, but never any incentive to write all of them. It may take extra effort, but that's the idea. Even if the post is God-awful and written by a blindfolded, ******ed monkey, at least the player won't go home empty handed if they got all the bonus conditions. A total of two extra points could be added to the final score, depending on the system we work out.
  • Streamlined Judging System - In the beginning of THE ROLEPLAYING LEAGUE Classic, we had four judges. Each of those judges would post their own, individual scores for each of the posts presented that week. What if, instead of individual point scoring from judges, the judges reached a consensus behind the scenes and said, "this post gets 5 points, this one gets four, this one three, etc." The entire judging process could be done in 20 minutes via MSN, instead of days as with RPL-C.
  • New Points - The old point system was based on three numbers: 0, 1, and 2. Points should be relative to the number of teams in the game. If there are 6 teams, then the highest number of points can be 6.
    • First place team gets 6 pts.
    • Second place - 5.
    • Third Place - 4
    • Fourth place - 3
    • Fifth place - 2
    • Sixth place - 1
  • It may seem a bit jumbled at first, but this scoring style ensures competition. With 6 points at stake, it'd be anybody's game at any time. Wanna talk about competition? How about when you're down by 3, and you're in second place? With a potentially maxed out number of points up for grabs, people'll post.

• ThirdWeek:
  • Ever had that fight you've been dying to write? Wanted Spider-Man and Uncle Ben to meet mask-to-face? Ever wanted to just write a narrative without superpowers or catastrophe? There's a reason casual Fridays, open-line Fridays, and Open Mic Nights are so popular. Here's my proposal with ThirdWeek: every third week in the game, the scenario will be totally up to the teams. Whatever they want to write about it, they can go for it. Drawing inspiration from THE ROLEPLAYING LEAGUE Classic, though, there will be a certain number of additional conditions that each post must fulfill. Basically, ThirdWeek is a built-in failsafe for boredom during gameplay. We all like writing, so ThirdWeek opens up the possibility for a no-holds-barred week of scoring and intense posting. Basically, we tell the teams, "alright... write, but include these unique aspects to your story."

• Say Hello to Character Limits
  • Part of RPL-C's problem was that the posts were so long that the judges just got bogged down. Nobody wants to sit staring a computer screen, reading about how a bank robber married his cousin who could control electricity. The new maximum character limit for THE ROLEPLAYING LEAGUE could be 40,000 characters. That's two, fully stocked SuperHeroHype! posts. If any of the teams placing in first, second, and third are able to get their high-quality posts into a single V-Bulletin response, the teams each get a bonus of 1 point. For every 2000 characters the teams go over, though, 1 point could be deducted. The only people who would have to use character count would be the judges. Writers would only have to make sure their posts fit into a maximum of two replies.

• Deadlines
  • It's a problem we see a lot of in the games today: people failing to live up to their deadlines. It's completely understandable, though. EVERYONE on SHH! has to post from somewhere, and that somewhere gets in the way of our storytelling. With that, there needs to be a new, structured system for the RPL. The free-flowing nature of teams will help in this instance, since if one person is on vacation, one of the other two teammates will be able to take over, but what of the actual schedule? I think the following makes quite a bit of sense:
    • Saturday afternoon - Scenario Posted
    • Saturday - Wednesday - Writing Time
    • Wednesday, 11:59 PM EST - Posts Due
    • Thursday - Judging, grace period for late posters. Late posting will deduct 1 point from team's total score.
    • Friday - Scores are posted. Any teams without a post up for the given week will be penalized an additional point.

• Pre-Planned Scenarios
  • Of course, this style mandates that the scenario-posting actually be able to keep up with the weeks as they pass. As such, every scenario could already be pre-planned. If the idea of ThirdWeek is embraced, that could reduce the number of necessary scenarios by as much as a third, thereby making the process that much easier. With the scenarios pre-written, the administration of the game could become relatively mechanical, with a single judge or admin pumping out scenarios as the weeks pass. Of course, this possibility only works out if the idea garners enough interest.

Just my thoughts. Sorry for the techno-like babel. I've been watching Mac videos.
​

 

[SenseiofCheese]

Yes, please.

 

[Harlekin]

Seconded.