The RPG Soapbox: Let your voice be heard!

Length? I'd personally say that depends on the game and how well they are supported, imo. For instance, I've got ideas floating around in my head that could last a season and no longer.

But I've also got ideas that could last 2 seasons to becoming full-fledged games like we usually do.

I really think it all depends on the game master and how well they are supported. But I guess that kinda negates the notion of a short-term game.
 
And yet 2 seasons sounds too short :p

Well, if we had season lengths, I wouldn't mind 3. But the way this past OU season has been going, 3 seasons would take half a lifetime.
 
Something else that should be addressed is post frequency. WoH and OU started with a one month limit (with a complicated procedure after two weeks). Now both games are down to three weeks.

But I think it should be a hard two week limit. Honestly, that only requires two posts a month. If it takes you more than fifteen days to make a post, something is wrong.

Now, if something's going on in real life, or you know you're gonna be gone on vacation or a business trip or whatever for a couple of weeks, you could clear it with the GM ahead of time.

But, upping post frequency would help get stories told faster, keep games active, and boost interaction with other players. Exactly what we need. And it's more likely players will be able to wrap stories up in a season or two rather than dragging it out for three or four.
 
Well, if we had season lengths, I wouldn't mind 3. But the way this past OU season has been going, 3 seasons would take half a lifetime.

Very true. Season 1 of Star Wars is over a year old now. :p


With the short, definite arc-games idea that's been brought up, I say make each game last only one season. Now, if the game is going along great, with lots of activity, that's when the GM considers extending it another year, and even then it doesn't necessarily have to be extended at all. Leave them wanting more, and all that.
 
Something else that should be addressed is post frequency. WoH and OU started with a one month limit (with a complicated procedure after two weeks). Now both games are down to three weeks.

But I think it should be a hard two week limit. Honestly, that only requires two posts a month. If it takes you more than fifteen days to make a post, something is wrong.

Now, if something's going on in real life, or you know you're gonna be gone on vacation or a business trip or whatever for a couple of weeks, you could clear it with the GM ahead of time.

But, upping post frequency would help get stories told faster, keep games active, and boost interaction with other players. Exactly what we need. And it's more likely players will be able to wrap stories up in a season or two rather than dragging it out for three or four.

I completely agree. Hell, I'd say after 10 days your character is up for grabs, but I'm a hard ass.

Also, I wouldn't mind a rule about picking someone up and then dropping him without making a post. You should have to play as Stilt Man for that.

Very true. Season 1 of Star Wars is over a year old now. :p


With the short, definite arc-games idea that's been brought up, I say make each game last only one season. Now, if the game is going along great, with lots of activity, that's when the GM considers extending it another year, and even then it doesn't necessarily have to be extended at all. Leave them wanting more, and all that.

Agreed.
 
Something else that should be addressed is post frequency. WoH and OU started with a one month limit (with a complicated procedure after two weeks). Now both games are down to three weeks.

But I think it should be a hard two week limit. Honestly, that only requires two posts a month. If it takes you more than fifteen days to make a post, something is wrong.

Now, if something's going on in real life, or you know you're gonna be gone on vacation or a business trip or whatever for a couple of weeks, you could clear it with the GM ahead of time.

But, upping post frequency would help get stories told faster, keep games active, and boost interaction with other players. Exactly what we need. And it's more likely players will be able to wrap stories up in a season or two rather than dragging it out for three or four.

I think there should be a bit stricter game management with GMs. I like to take a loose approach with the games, as do most of us, but maybe it we upped our control just a bit, without stepping on anybody's creativity, we can better motivate and inspire people to post. That can mean anything from NPCing characters to move a story along, to creating and introducing story arcs for people who need help with their characters.
 
Very true. Season 1 of Star Wars is over a year old now. :p


With the short, definite arc-games idea that's been brought up, I say make each game last only one season. Now, if the game is going along great, with lots of activity, that's when the GM considers extending it another year, and even then it doesn't necessarily have to be extended at all. Leave them wanting more, and all that.

I think a 2nd season should be considered only if the responses is still overwhelmingly positive after a hiatus of a coulple months after the game's end.
 
I think there should be a bit stricter game management with GMs. I like to take a loose approach with the games, as do most of us, but maybe it we upped our control just a bit, without stepping on anybody's creativity, we can better motivate and inspire people to post. That can mean anything from NPCing characters to move a story along, to creating and introducing story arcs for people who need help with their characters.

I like this idea as well. As of now, all our GMs do is approve characters basically.
 
I think there should be a bit stricter game management with GMs. I like to take a loose approach with the games, as do most of us, but maybe it we upped our control just a bit, without stepping on anybody's creativity, we can better motivate and inspire people to post. That can mean anything from NPCing characters to move a story along, to creating and introducing story arcs for people who need help with their characters.

I really like that idea. I'm thinking if Star Trek hadn't died off before the point we introduced it, it might have picked things up quite a bit.
 
I like this idea as well. As of now, all our GMs do is approve characters basically.

That's only because we like to collect our paychecks without doing any real work. You know, in preparation for becoming US Senators.
 
I think a 2nd season should be considered only if the responses is still overwhelmingly positive after a hiatus of a coulple months after the game's end.

Absolutely.

If everyone in the game is posting great and saying "I don't want it to end!", then maybe it shouldn't.
 
That's only because we like to collect our paychecks without doing any real work. You know, in preparation for becoming US Senators.

Silence, you fool! :cmad:

Just had a thought. Now I know I'm a GM and an AGM is pretty much every RPG.

But who is the GM, BBMFIC, of OU? Is it you or....who? :huh:
 
That's only because we like to collect our paychecks without doing any real work. You know, in preparation for becoming US Senators.

Of course. Except we actually like to get things done here, much unlike Congress.:awesome:
 
Silence, you fool! :cmad:

Just had a thought. Now I know I'm a GM and an AGM is pretty much every RPG.

But who is the GM, BBMFIC, of OU? Is it you or....who? :huh:

Wieg and Soze were GMs. But Soze is gone, so I guess it's Wieg.
 
I'm the GM for OU, Trek, Wars, and Pages.


My god...when did that happen?
 
I'm the GM for OU, Trek, Wars, and Pages.


My god...when did that happen?

Well, Pages and Trek are basically dead, so you're only GM for 2 games.:csad:

But, I've got an idea for an over arching storyline for a final OU season, if we decide(which I think we should) go that way. So if you want some help over there I'm up for it.
 
I'm not sure if cracking down on the post limit will necessarily spur more activity in a lot of the games. While it may work for the main DCU game, I know I had trouble with it in All-Star Marvel- when a character was starting to get too far behind, in a lot of cases when it would be brought up, the poster would just say "oh well" and let me cut him from the roster. So instead of gaining more activity, we actually lost players.
 
I'm the GM for OU, Trek, Wars, and Pages.


My god...when did that happen?

What a loser!

I'm only the GM for WoH, HvV and an AGM in OU, UDC, FTPO, and I might still be an AGM in ASM.....
 
At this point I'm pretty much just drawing AGMs for All-Star from a hat.
 
I'm not sure if cracking down on the post limit will necessarily spur more activity in a lot of the games. While it may work for the main DCU game, I know I had trouble with it in All-Star Marvel- when a character was starting to get too far behind, in a lot of cases when it would be brought up, the poster would just say "oh well" and let me cut him from the roster. So instead of gaining more activity, we actually lost players.

I say good riddance to them. Seriously, if someone can't be bothered to post, then they're not doing the game any favors by holding onto a character.

Now, obviously, things work differently in player-created continuity games like an Ultimate or CaH. And if the player is currently in their own arc, and not interacting with others, then it's not a big deal. But if they're holding back an arc...

We've tried to address this in Star Wars. Basically, player-created character or not, everyone must post at least once a month. If they don't, they lose the character. If it's a player-created character, that means anyone involved with an arc with that character has free reign to NPC them to keep the story moving along.
 
Ok, so here are the ideas I've gathered from the interview and this thread so far. These are not approved ideas, just all the ideas that have been thrown around during our brainstorming:

Declare a final season in WoH

Maintain wiki for continutiy

Limit consecutive seasons a player can own a character

Try single season games

Newbies should get a chance to apply before veterans

Limit # of short/alternate games in each board

Byrd mush be killed to take Gordon away from him.

Standard season lengths

Force increased post frequency

Punishment for players that pickup and drop characters without a post, or only a couple of posts

Increased GM activity

GM controlled NPC's and story arcs

Recruitment from outside the Hype

Better use of RPG Proposal board

D&D type GM control


These are just the raw ideas without going into detail, looking at problems/issues, or addressing exceptions. And since this is just brainstorming, please, no attacking ideas. Expand or discuss, but don't outright dismiss.

And, MB, stop ****ing goats and do your job and maintain this list! :cmad: :p
 
Okay, one thing I'm wondering about is the approval process. With the talk of the short-term RPGs, I know all of us have ideas, I got a few to be sure. How to do we choose which ones to back and which ones to approve? Not all of us can get what we want.
 
Limit # of short/alternate games in each board

I gotta say this is the most important I think. Especially with the shorter ones. And if someone doesn't get their game picked the first time it's proposed, they can easily propose it again next time a slot comes open.

Also, I think, and feel free to disagree, that if someone has their game picked when a slot opens up, they cannot propose a game the next time a slot opens up, unless the ones that are proposed are really lackluster. I think this would give an opportunity for people to get their games approved and vary the games that are played.

GM controlled NPC's and story arcs

I can understand this to a degree, but not in the ongoing games. People need to be able to flesh out their NPCs as they see fit, IMO. Also, I think even in the shorter games it should be up to whether or not the player is up to the challenge to handle NPCs.

Also, dealing with the wiki, I have 2 ideas.

1) I think it needs to be more aggressively promoted throughout the RPG OOC threads.

And

2) I think it should be mandatory for players to update their pages once every 2 months.
 
Okay, one thing I'm wondering about is the approval process. With the talk of the short-term RPGs, I know all of us have ideas, I got a few to be sure. How to do we choose which ones to back and which ones to approve? Not all of us can get what we want.


I'd think the one with the most players wanting to join up.

Everyone puts forth their idea, we keep tally of who wants in which, the one with the most wins. If it's a tie, we make the players pick which they'd prefer (or consider doing both).

Or, if there is a lot of game proposals, do a ranking vote. Everyone ranks their game preference in order. The votes that picked the losing game get moved to their 2nd games and that game idea gets dropped. Then the next lowest voted game has their votes moved to the 3rd place choices, on and on each round until only one game is left. (It's a hell of a lot easier to do than explain)


Whatever is done. We need a cutoff date. Like say, on Jan 31, all voted will be counted. No games considered after that. The winning game gets approved for this season. Making it a competition may help give players an investment in the game, making them want to post more and keep it going.

And the other nice thing about short games is that, if one starts to die, or we have demand for another, we can kick one off in the summer designed to last just six months, if we want.
 

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