The RPG Soapbox: Let your voice be heard!

[Carnage27]

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.

See my post above.

 

[Byrd Man]

See my post above.

Make me!

 

[Byrd Man]

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.

I like these ideas. Make it democratic instead of MB approving. Who elected him?! Nobody! Divine Right my ass! Revolt on the monarchy!

 

[wiegeabo]

How would this be enforced exactly? What's to stop a newbie from joining a game, posting once, then never returning?



I don't play D&D, can someone explain this?

Basically, if someone joins then drops, don't let them join the game that season again (or at least for a month or whatever). This one's hard to enforce because there are even veteran players who get excited, pick someone up, then run out of steam after a couple of posts. But I say, veteran players should no better than to go into a character without a story ready to go, or at least a bunch of posts in mind to play around with. Again, hard one to enforce. It's almost like vets need a different rule than newbs, which I'd rather avoid. Simpler is almost always better.


As for the D&D, I'll use the Star Trek game as an example.

So, Question and I were throwing ideas around about how to drum up interest in the game again. What we've hit upon is opening the game up.


Currently, the game is confined to the Enterprise. And it's rather run like we have a DM. Whoever is running the mission determines what happens next.

But, rather then keeping the game on the Enterprise, we'd open it to let people expand their characters throughout the galaxy. If you want to captain another ship, be a security officer on DS9, be a Klingon, explore what it's like to be a Gorn, or escape the Collective as a rogue Borg, go ahead.

But, we won't necessarily be dropping the entire DM concept. Even if we keep the game open, the GM's will occasionally through large arcs into the game. Like suspicious activity within the Klingon High Council. Or a Borg invasion on the Federation. Things that players and ships can choose to deal with or not, if they're willing to take that chance.

And, players will be still be able to join the ships of other players, and even DM missions for their individual ships or stations, sort of like what we're doing now, if they choose to do so.

 

[wiegeabo]

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.



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.

I approve this message.

 

[wiegeabo]

I like these ideas. Make it democratic instead of MB approving. Who elected him?! Nobody! Divine Right my ass! Revolt on the monarchy!

I'd have no problem running a ranking vote if no one else wants to, can figure out how to.

 

[Andy C.]

How would this be enforced exactly? What's to stop a newbie from joining a game, posting once, then never returning?

That's a question I'm wondering myself. Both the original version of Ultimate DC and All-Star Marvel were seriously plagued with this problem: people coming up with a cool alternate version of a character, writing a handful of posts, then dropping out. Then when new players want to come in and pick up said character, they see they've already been used and decide not to (and especially big problem in ASM since there are no retcons)

I don't play D&D, can someone explain this?

Basically, the GM in D&D and similar table-top games is the one who sets up the story arc, plans out all the encounters and battles, and plays the part of the monsters and NPCs that the players encounter. Think of him as the "computer" in a video game.

While this approach could work to great effect in a short, small-scale game like Hype Horrors, I don't necessarily think it would work particularly well in a large-scale ongoing game like WoH or Heroes vs. Villains (another game in dire need of revival). I can see the hands-on GM working when doing big events (say, Galactus invades), but otherwise it would severely handicap the amount of universe exploration that the players can do.

 

[Catman_prb]

Would anyone be against me referencing the Basement on sites like tvtropes.org? It might generate a little more traffic, plus there's the sheer vanity of it...

 

[wiegeabo]

Would anyone be against me referencing the Basement on sites like tvtropes.org? It might generate a little more traffic, plus there's the sheer vanity of it...

 

[wiegeabo]

While this approach could work to great effect in a short, small-scale game like Hype Horrors, I don't necessarily think it would work particularly well in a large-scale ongoing game like WoH or Heroes vs. Villains (another game in dire need of revival). I can see the hands-on GM working when doing big events (say, Galactus invades), but otherwise it would severely handicap the amount of universe exploration that the players can do.

That's pretty much behind what I was hoping to move the Trek game towards.

Also, because of the nature of the Trek universe, various ships could have their own missions where the Captain (or whoever came up with the idea) DM'd their ship's own little arc. But that's something that would work well in a Trek game, not necessarily a large comic game like WoH.

 

[Byrd Man]

Would anyone be against me referencing the Basement on sites like tvtropes.org? It might generate a little more traffic, plus there's the sheer vanity of it...

Go for it. I'm looking up RPG ad sites myself.

 

[wiegeabo]

Because I'm bored, I'll try and explain how a ranking vote works (btw, it's also the method I wish elections used, but the general public is too dumb to do it right).

Let's say that 4 games are proposed: A, B, C, and D
And ten players are interested in playing (not necessarily in all four games)

So when everyone votes, they don't just pick one. They rank them by which they want to play in most. So someone could rank them B, D, A, C and someone else C, B, D, A

So, everyone votes, ranking the games from 1st to 4th. The results of 1st place votes look like this

A: 4
B: 2
C: 3
D: 1

It's true that A got the biggest number of 1st rankings, but most people would rather play in something else. Since D is the clear loser, that vote is moved to the person's 2nd choice. Let's say their second choice is C, it now looks like

A: 4
B: 2
C: 4

Ok. Now B is the loser. So we move those votes to their next picked game. Let's say they're both for C, it now looks like

A: 4
C: 6

So C should be the game that gets played because, overall, A was ranked lowest among all the players.

 

[Carnage27]

I like it.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Posting to subscribe.

 

[Byrd Man]

That seems pretty fair to me. Not everybody's number one gets chosen, but nothing can be completely fair.

 

[wiegeabo]

Yeah, I figure it's better 6 out of 10 people get to play in their 1st or 2nd choice, and 4 not in their 1st, rather than the other way around. Hopefully it means more invested players.

 

[Batman]

I think wieg's solution for the short-term games is the best way to go. Through voting, we can keep things orderly and tight while still leaving it in the hands of the players involved - which is a philosophy that needs to be maintained throughout every decision made in here. We lose the community aspect of everything and we're finished.

 

[Carnage27]

So, are we going to like, ratify an RPG Constitution?

basically, when are we going to put any changes we decide upon into effect?

 

[Batman]

Also, another idea that I had kicked around involved restructuring the boards themselves. Rather than divide each RPG up by company, I thought about maybe dividing them by type. For instance, here's my stab at how I would order it...

Approval & General RPG Discussion
Mainstream Continuity Games (World of Heroes, Heroes Vs. Villains)
Alternate Continuity Games (One Universe, Ultimate DC, All-Star Marvel)
Misc Continuity Games (Star Wars, Create-A-Hero, Dream Team League?)
Single Season Games (Speaks for itself)
Archives

I wouldn't mind DTL still having it's own forums, just didn't know what everyone thought of it.

I think I want to move the Tournament threads out of the RPG boards. They don't really fit, IMO.

 

[wiegeabo]

You can probably just write the DTL off as dead. If it ever restarts, we can create new stuff for it.

 

[Batman]

So, are we going to like, ratify an RPG Constitution?

basically, when are we going to put any changes we decide upon into effect?

When we decide upon a number of changes, they'll likely be put into effect immediately.

But at the moment, it's too early to make any of them stick. We need to find a proper balance first, and the World of Heroes/One Universe seasons need to end for the final ones to begin, should that decision go through. The only change that I can see going through while still keeping the other games as they are is the idea of short-term games.

 

[wiegeabo]

So, are we going to like, ratify an RPG Constitution?

basically, when are we going to put any changes we decide upon into effect?

Oh, don't get me excited. I love doing **** like that.

 

[Batman]

You can probably just write the DTL off as dead. If it ever restarts, we can create new stuff for it.

Then it can be moved to a Misc. board. I'm sure you guys wouldn't mind sharing the space.

 

[Eddie Brock]

I'm all for mandatory RPG wiki updates, and here's how I'd do it:

Want to have first "dibs," so to speak, on your character at the start of the next Season? You have to update the wiki on the previous Season. If you are unable or unwilling to do so, then anyone can apply for that character.

 

[Rain Dog]

Also, another idea that I had kicked around involved restructuring the boards themselves. Rather than divide each RPG up by company, I thought about maybe dividing them by type. For instance, here's my stab at how I would order it...

Approval & General RPG Discussion
Mainstream Continuity Games (World of Heroes, Heroes Vs. Villains)
Alternate Continuity Games (One Universe, Ultimate DC, All-Star Marvel)
Misc Continuity Games (Star Wars, Create-A-Hero, Dream Team League?)
Single Season Games (Speaks for itself)
Archives

I wouldn't mind DTL still having it's own forums, just didn't know what everyone thought of it.

I think I want to move the Tournament threads out of the RPG boards. They don't really fit, IMO.

I think that would confuse newbies.