Public Rules Proposals

KinkyPrawn

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I’m all for death disabled pvp all around. But how do you account for taking characters out of power or to ensure that characters can’t lose a fight and just come back and continue the same problems they did before? No one wants to have their character die and death enabled results in sense of accomplishments in killing that big bad mean Sith Lord or killing a Jedi master to demoralize the Jedi. Just like you see in movies. Like how do you capture that if no one ever dies and losing a battle carries less weight?

When we rolled out battle of coruscant or even some battles in this timeline that had death disabled, it fizzled out after a few rounds. In death enabled? People track that shit from beginning to end and get hyped about what’s gonna happen. Again, if there’s a way we can capture this with death disabled I’m all for it. I’ve just never seen it pulled off.

I do see your point, not gonna lie. That fight between Painus, Dara and Faded has over 2000 views I think. But those are of course high level players who know their stuff.

Of course there is the option to hijack a system from other sites and give it player choice and say simply that characters can't die without permission. Then players can agree whether their dude dies or not. It'll work for those run-of-the-mill invasion threads that don't have much story to them, where a character dying will just be a waste of creativity. Then the victor can still maim, capture and loot to their heart's content and the loser doesn't need to rack their brain for a new character they'll enjoy.

It'll also work nicely for very deep threads like the battle for Korriban or the invasion of Mandalore we got going now. Those are story driven and significant, a setting I'd like my character to die if he were to die. Then the character's death has meaning and lends a hand in progressing the story
 

Where

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I'll try to keep my comments on this brief, as my opinions on PvP are well known by now, but suffice it to say, I don't think the site needs to be a PvP site. Simple as that.

To be perfectly frank, I think the PvP focus has done nothing but hurt membership here since it became more prevalent two (or was it three?) timelines ago. The community did not support the idea at large then, and as a result the 6th timeline was thrown into chaos. It leveled out some after a while, but not without losing a fair number of formerly active members in the process.

I've been roleplaying for years, well over a decade by now, and in that time I've been to dozens of sites, almost none of which had PvP as their focus. In fact, PvP was a term I seldom encountered in roleplay until I came here. In my very humble opinion, the only 'system' which needs to be in place isn't a system at all, but a site culture. One that doesn't promote members competing among themselves for prestige or levels.

That said, I've said my piece on this subject. I don't expect my opinions will change anything, but I felt it prudent to at least touch on the subject as I feel this site-wide 'burnout' everyone is currently feeling is due to more than simply an uninspired timeline. The simple fact is, membership is down, 'burnout' is sky high, and I believe both can be directly correlated to a rule heavy, PvP focused system that works for some but not all.

So, I know some suggestions have been made, but I really need to throw my two cents in on this one. I strongly believe that PvP is essential to star wars. Granted, I am biased towards PvP because I come from sites where that was all we did, but keeping the war in 'star wars' is very important.

I don't think that anyone could name a star wars movie where two major characters didn't engage in combat. Star Wars movies typically abide by the formula: 15% Adventure, 10% Romance, and 75% Physical Conflict! I understand that everyone likes to RP in their own way, but PvP is intrinsically tied to star wars.

Star wars without PvP would be like Dragon Ball without the fights IMO. Also, as a returning member, I do indeed find PvP attractive .
 

Insoulent

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I want to promote a quick and simple idea I had wanted to introduce for the Hutt cartel a few timelines ago: a colosseum, but as a dedicated PvP sub forum (which I believe we had on the citadel in timeline 4?).

Or rather - a fighting pit somewhere in space, specifically for PvP centric members to go to and be able to realistically randomly fight anyone and everyone who signed up. You could do quarterly events that has prizes and death matches that could give shine to the good fighters or just be training grounds for members who want to dip their toes in it, and these wouldn’t effect the major galactic story going on.

Honestly I don’t believe that sentiment though, bud. Star Wars is ultimately focused on shared adventure, political strife/drama, and depending on the era, sure - fighting. In the original trilogy, the resolution to it all would be a fight between a Jedi and a Sith, but fighting isn’t the entire focus of the movies, and rarely do we get training montages. Rather it is the main character going through a war-torn galaxy and getting into problems and getting out of them too, before taking on the big bad guy.

That’s ultimately the problem, we don’t give much opportunity to create interesting predicaments to get our own characters in - writers just want to win on this site for their faction. Do you want to roleplay simply because you want to write a battle-centric novel where your character and faction is the winner, or is it to explore/expand what the Universe has to offer, and see how your character and your own writing ability grow?

There’s an array of aliens, cultures, societies, and planets that potentially have so much to offer. It’s part on the member writers themselves being uninspired or unmotivated, and the staff moving slow to correct these problems because they don’t want to look like they fail. We should look for ways to encourage members to be cooperative in their stories with other faction members, and be proactive in wanting to do that too. Which is easier said than done.

A quick fix for that could even be allow character plots to be public for everyone to see and let members find writing partners from across factions. Sort of like an “LFG” in games like overwatch or destiny. Also, staff shouldn’t be so scared to shake things up and try some stuff once in a while, even if it’s not a big hit, you can always find ways to change and replace stuff.

Anyone will tell you that in a story, action of course is always a good thing, but it can’t be the center focus of the story’s plot. There has to be purpose that the characters find and internal battles they go through themselves through exploring and meeting new people in the SW Galaxy, that make an interesting story. We are trying to be galactic influencers, but don’t want the inbetween “boring” stuff by just walking and talking in an interesting location, exploring and storycrafting.

I am strongly against having to kill your opponent just because you’re in a PvP thread, I usually would ask an enemy faction member to sort of play the opposition villain for the thread, but everyone should escape with their lives in tact. In just about every Star Wars movie, those that fought (outside fodder soldiers) usually escaped to fight again somewhere else. That’s sort of the thing I think is lost on the site, and it’s a mentality/habit/culture one has to form because of egotistic focus on who can write like a combat lawyer the best to win a pointless and meticulously written battle.

All of our characters should already stand out from normal every day citizens, so our stories are going to all obviously reflect that, and we should all get to do great and amazing things every once in a while. But people are just selfishly focused on being notorious in the story and gaining something out of writing and their time. Or look for the faction leadership to give them things to do. Granted this doesn’t apply to all members, but most casual writers on the site definitely look for faction leadership on direction on what to do with their characters.

And what would a conversation about rewarding ego be without me selfishly pointing at my war system again. It makes those who want PvP centric things to focus on that - and allow those that don’t really care much for PvP or the “glory” it brings - to focus on other things happening around the Galaxy.

But again, it falls to the site admins and storycrafters to really be involved and proactive in producing interesting stories for non-combat centric members to enjoy or want to be involved in. But that takes dedicated work.

We should find ways to reward “fannon” article contributions (so long as it fits the SW feel), like we used to!!!!!!!, and allow members to explore all their creative outlets while they write. Stop being so damn “cannon”-only focused. This is a fan driven site, not an official Disney back Star Wars site. We should aim to make stuff fun, not always 100% fair either, it’s part of an adventure - you don’t know what you’ll get in this epicly huge galaxy - the force is in everything so it should be able to do anything.

If I can be quite frank - in my experience on the site (granted I’ve been gone for two and a half years), the problems boil down to either: the site story is crap, or the members are spoon-fed lazy. The two go hand in hand and can’t have one without the other, but if you want something great we have to work for it and strive to see a vision, but it’s hard to do it alone and with restrictions to try stuff out that might be a little...iffy. Though I’m not advocating to just allow anything to be fannon-approved, but at least be open to the idea of being fannon acceptable. And by fannon, it also includes expanding Legends material type stuff too. Again I might be totally off the message with the fannon/Legends stuff since I’ve been gone, but I know that was an issue back then for a lot of members, they wanted to do more things than just Jedi and Sith. Look at the Mandos :P

I honestly just think giving members more responsibility and freedom is best - have a story that’s sort of blank slate where the members create their own drama without it being so obvious on what could be the resolution.
 
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Braden

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So my 2p, is more on the story i guess as i am not really a PvP person.

I'll let discussion on the other topics continue before I weigh in, but I like this one. The issue is that sometimes members are uncomfortable with staff doing storycrafting. However, when we leave it entirely up to members, there's a lack of any real direction. What do you suggest as a good balance between staff involvement/member involvement? Who should own what? Who should drive and lead what? Because we tried the staff led story route, it didn't work. We tried the member led story route, also fizzled out. I'm not entirely sure what the right answer is without overburdening staff or members, so would love to hear thoughts on what could be a balance.

I think something in the middle of staff and player base could work. Something along the lines of a story committee, made up from lets say 2-3 players from each faction either chosen by the FL or the player base and overseen by a Mod. This groups job would be to create story moments for the Timeline to keep things moving forward, whilst taking into account what people in their faction want to see happen, taking away the need for the Mods to read every single reply. The commite people would be in for 1-2 months before another round of people take over. Thus keeping it fresh but also allowing them to enjoy just writing as well. Ill put an example below;

Group 1
Jan-Feb = After the new TL, it appears that people are after a big battle event to try characters out. So they arrange for the battle of Hoth Sector for Feb. This could either be a 5-6 thread set of battles, or perhaps a point system like the NPC factions this TL.

Group 2
Mar-Apr = Group 2 are elected towards end of Feb so they can get going straight away in March, the battle of Hoth, goes well but people are after something different. So they orgainise an event similar to the Life Day Kashyyyk plot from this TL for end of March. But because of the interest and activity on Hoth, organise another battle for April.

Group 3
May-Jun = All groups want to chill for a bit after the flurry of events so nothing for may. In June the Sith faction and the Mando's really want another battle but the Jedi don't. So we could then organise a more peaceful Jedi Event to take place in June and another battle Sith V Mando for June as well.

And so on and so on.

The point of the system is to allow player input on what happens and take some of the strain from the mods but still have site wide events which hopefully everyone can enjoy. The group being overseen by a Mod also means that if Mod Leadership have something in mind for the TL as a whole, they can move the group in the right direction without every event/battle being heavily policed. Hope this all makes sense.
 

Gamov

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I had intended for this to be a thread for ideas to be posted, not for conversation on said ideas. That being said it seems to be functioning just fine as a conversation, so.... Carry on.


I'd like to weigh in on @Gamov and @Sreeya 's conversation, because I have some ideas that could potentially be relevant to just what y'all are talking about.

I should start by saying that I am a supporter of PVP. I love it... Even though it has never gone particularly well for me on this site, lol. I would be very disappointed if it went away. That being said, I understand that there are a number of members who are not fans of it and avoid it at all costs. I can understand this as well, as PVP has the potential to blow up into a rather unpleasant experience should misunderstandings and disagreements arise. So, I agree with the sentiment that PVP should stay, but that it should not be pushed as much. Also, I feel that non-PVPers should not be limited in their effect on the site and overall story. I do think, though that we should keep the level system so as to continue to measure combat potential for PVPers and Fame/Noteriety level for non-PVPers.

How do we level the playing field though? That may be where I could shine some light.

My suggestion is "CHALLENGE THREADS".

I'm borrowing this from a large and successful site I was a member of long ago. On that site, members could request "Challenge Threads" for their characters. These threads were significantly more difficult than your average thread and could result in character death (not required for us, read further down), but the rewards were equivalently higher, and the members involved could have a greater influence on the site story by doing these threads (they had site events as well, much like our own, but challenge threads could be requested at any time). The beauty of the Challenge Thread (I think) is that it could take several different forms for us:

Combat Challenge (PVNPC): This could be a death-enabled, DMed thread where the member takes their character on a quest to achieve a major story goal or acquire some major prize where combat would be highly likely and death waits around every corner. I think we are fairly familiar with this sort of thing, but this would give members the opportunity to enter into that sort of highly challenging story without requiring PVP for any sort of bonus or influence. For example, a mandalorian killing a sith was a pretty big boon this TL. But why make the Mando members hunt down sith PCs for that bonus? Have them request a Combat Challenge and give them an exceptionally strong NPC sith to take down and then reward them for the job well done!

Combat Challenge (OPEN): We all know the open pvp threads around here. Someone's feeling strong and itching for a fight, so they make one of these and the PVPers come running. Usually they had to switch the thread to ASK after a few characters joined or else the thread would turn into a big old messy melee and take forever. We could leave this sort of thing in play and use it in the following way. The member requests the Open Thread and starts it, and then PC resistance could come in from a willing challenger to provide the challenge for the instigator. If no PC resistance comes in within the first 72 hours of the thread being started, or maybe the first 3 posting rounds, then a DM on standby will jump in to provide appropriate NPC resistance. For example, take last TL. The sith created a powerful fleet and (towards the end of the TL) started rolling around the galaxy, jumping here and there, and just blasting the holy hell out of any planets they chose (looking at you @Sreeya and @Phoenix, lol). They virtually always did this in OPEN threads, so if someone had the means, they could have jumped in and tried to stop them. But, no one had the means. So, that sort of thread would fall into the CHALLENGE OPEN category in my scenario. So, the sith would request the thread, they would begin their approach and prepare to attack, and if no PC forces jumped in to stop them, a DM would jump in with NPC forces to put up a fight. I mean, logically, surely some of those planets would have had navies or defense forces that would have had to have been dealt with, right? Yes, the sith fleet was pretty ridiculous at that point, but there should have been at least some resistance they would have had to push through. So, this would ensure that even if some character or faction became so unbalanced as to curb stomp whomever they wanted on the site, they would still face challenges and setbacks.

Non-Combat Challenge (PVP/PVNPC): This is something a little new that I thought up. Consider, if you will, the United Protectorate that was created this TL. This is a group of characters that are strictly political, and economic, certainly not combat-oriented. Now, if a senator wanted to push a major bill through the senate (like, say forming the GAR or something) it wouldn't make much sense for that senator to pick up their blasters or laser sword and start hacking their way through a sea of bodies to accomplish their goal, right? But it would be challenging. It could be dangerous, and it could result in repercussions if they failed. A senator that fails in such an endeavor could be ridiculed and could lose recognition and influence in the senate. Perhaps they would lose allies or even the support of the planet or system which they represent. This could be reflected in a loss of credits which could decrease their level, but not result in character death. Basically, by entering into one of these threads you are gambling your character's influence and position, but not the character themselves. Perhaps this would be an enjoyable challenge for those members who dislike combat?

Espionage Challenge (PVNPC): So, say you have a character who wants to infiltrate something. Steal something highly valuable from a prominent figure or force in the galaxy or perhaps launch a guerrilla campaign against such an existence? This would be the espionage challenge. A character would have to carefully maneuver through threads like this. Not necessarily focused in combat, but could devolve into such a state if the player isn't smart about it. Take the Mando's bombing of sith bases earlier on in this TL? Maybe they face the appropriate challenge of accomplishing such a task even if they aren't faced with PC sith standing in their way? This would be a cool kind of puzzle-type thread where the member has to pick their way carefully through the story lest dangerous repercussions result. Perhaps an espionage thread that goes bad could result in death, or perhaps it could result in a Penalty Thread where the character is caught and imprisoned and then they have to do a thread to escape their captors? Perhaps these penalty threads (which could be death enabled or not) could involve PCs from the opposing faction that the member was trying to sabotage (or not, either way)? If they fail that thread, then their character is still trapped. This could be a useful tool in those threads involving stealing another factions assets or infiltrating another factions base, etc.




We could make other variations of the Challenge Thread if we thought of more uses for it, but those are some of the ones that come to my mind. The beauty of it is, there are variations in there that don't involve PVP, and even don't involve combat, at all! This still recognizes meaningful PVP or meaningful combat, but also opens doors for non-PVP players or even non-combat players to have a greater impact on the story and gain some of those bonuses that have thus far been reserved for PVP. Also, I think we should abolish the bonus for general PVP. If my rouge character in the outer rim kills @KinkyPrawn 's rouge character in the outer rim, why would that matter? Did Han Solo become famous for gunning down Tobias Beckett in the sparsely inhabited desert of Savareen, or killing Greedo in a cantina on Tatooine? No, Solo became famous for swindling nearly everyone in the galaxy. You could say his notoriety came more from story than combat.

My proposed system requires a lot of DMing. And that could put a lot of strain on the mods. So, I would propose another solution from an old site I was on once upon a time. We could establish a list of members who are pre-approved by the staff to DM for Challenge Threads. We had these on this other site. They were not mods. They differed from other members in no way except that they had been recognized by the staff for their prowess at DMing and thus were approved to DM important threads that otherwise would require mod attention.


So... Yeah... this is long. But in a nutshell, this system would enable mini-events for members of all playing types to take part in anytime and anywhere they choose, and could potentially give members of all playing types the opportunity to have an impact on the overall site story and benefit from the bonuses that have been available only through PVP thus far. It's not perfect, I'm sure, and would likely need some refining and hashing out... But maybe it's a start?

So my 2p, is more on the story i guess as i am not really a PvP person.



I think something in the middle of staff and player base could work. Something along the lines of a story committee, made up from lets say 2-3 players from each faction either chosen by the FL or the player base and overseen by a Mod. This groups job would be to create story moments for the Timeline to keep things moving forward, whilst taking into account what people in their faction want to see happen, taking away the need for the Mods to read every single reply. The commite people would be in for 1-2 months before another round of people take over. Thus keeping it fresh but also allowing them to enjoy just writing as well. Ill put an example below;

Group 1
Jan-Feb = After the new TL, it appears that people are after a big battle event to try characters out. So they arrange for the battle of Hoth Sector for Feb. This could either be a 5-6 thread set of battles, or perhaps a point system like the NPC factions this TL.

Group 2
Mar-Apr = Group 2 are elected towards end of Feb so they can get going straight away in March, the battle of Hoth, goes well but people are after something different. So they orgainise an event similar to the Life Day Kashyyyk plot from this TL for end of March. But because of the interest and activity on Hoth, organise another battle for April.

Group 3
May-Jun = All groups want to chill for a bit after the flurry of events so nothing for may. In June the Sith faction and the Mando's really want another battle but the Jedi don't. So we could then organise a more peaceful Jedi Event to take place in June and another battle Sith V Mando for June as well.

And so on and so on.

The point of the system is to allow player input on what happens and take some of the strain from the mods but still have site wide events which hopefully everyone can enjoy. The group being overseen by a Mod also means that if Mod Leadership have something in mind for the TL as a whole, they can move the group in the right direction without every event/battle being heavily policed. Hope this all makes sense.

These two ideas right here. These seem like they would work in perfect harmony with one another by catering to as many people as possible, without shutting anyone out. So far as I'm concerned, finding a way to employ these ideas side by side should be the road map for how to plan the next timeline.
 

Brandon Rhea

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Yup, been reading every post. Sorta similar to what was said before, I didn't necessarily want this to be a back and forth thread where I comment on specific ideas yet. I want to take them in and then include ideas in the staff conversations about the rules.
 

Jake

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I haven't been active on the site for years, but I was around for and [I think that I] helped facilitate the shift towards a PvP, death-friendly site culture many timelines ago. On various of my short-lived, sporadic returns to the site I've observed that PvP has had widespread ramifications for the way the roleplay works at SWRP.

The whole idea of PvP that goes on here at SWRP (and I think Sreeya can probably vouch for this) is loosely based off a system of combat roleplaying that was used on several forums throughout the Internet when play-by-post RP was at its peak well over a decade ago. Some interesting links if anyone feels like reading about this are here and here, posts that are respectively from 2006 and 2011, to give some indication of how old these ideas are.

However, it doesn't seem like SWRP ever fully adjusted to that style of roleplay. It's very competitive, it's almost always accompanied by a lot of ego and a lot of disputes, because even if you accept the risk, who is going to let a creative effort potentially years in the making be extinguished without arguing over it tooth and nail? I'm exaggerating, and I haven't been following SWRP for a long time now, but my experience with "roleplay combat" in general, across many sites, has given me that impression.

I think that the site could try to embrace other, radically different systems of roleplay combat, or look for a way to give people options for both. Long-lived forum-based roleplays have existed (one long-since dying but still visible: Althanas; another dead and whose corpse is barely documented on the Wayback Machine, Roleplayer's Realm on animeleague) where the outcomes of battles and wars are determined by the quality of the narrative presented by participants - that is to say, the writers that craft more interesting and well-written stories win, not whoever writes their opponent into a corner.

There is still a lot of room for tweaks and adjustments to that system. In the two successful implementations I've participated in, the ones I mentioned, the systems were very different despite being grossly similar (after a thread concluded, a judge came in and read it, applied a point-based rubric evaluating technical details like grammar and style, the creative content of the thread, use of setting and story and background, etc). On Althanas, you could lose the fight but win the thread quite easily (making it simple for players with low level characters to defeat veterans). On Roleplayer's Realm, threads progressed up until a boiling point, whereupon a judge gave their evaluation and the winner wrote the thread's conclusion.

I don't think either of these systems could be copy-pasted onto SWRP and work, but maybe looking for ways to make PvP less about who can think of fancier ways to use the Force or their lightsaber and more about the narrative is a good way to start.
 

Nor'baal

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For what it's worth, here are my suggestions:

We need to make the forum more accessible and open to new members. From previous iterations of this forum, I think that's best achieved when there are abundant small groups around for new members to get involved in, reflecting the diversity of star wars.

We know that most star wars films (which, let's face it, alongside the TV shows, are what attach people to this forum) consist of two major factions attacking each other, and then numerous smaller groups the characters interact with as the story develops.

I would propose that, to begin with, the two main factions are NPC, and controlled by staff. Players can climb their ranks in the usual way.

Smaller groups, businesses, criminals, ship crews and more, we losen the rules on them, encourage their leaders and members to work with each other to tell good stories (not just ones where winning is all that matters, as was often the way with small factions a while back).

Furthermore, when a new member joins, the PM to them is great, but make sure they are publicly welcomed. Do a thread for new members each week/fortnight, and encourage older players (length of service not age) to jump in, and invite them to threads for new members when the join, to get them started!
 

Yuan

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For what it's worth, here are my suggestions:

We need to make the forum more accessible and open to new members. From previous iterations of this forum, I think that's best achieved when there are abundant small groups around for new members to get involved in, reflecting the diversity of star wars.

We know that most star wars films (which, let's face it, alongside the TV shows, are what attach people to this forum) consist of two major factions attacking each other, and then numerous smaller groups the characters interact with as the story develops.

I would propose that, to begin with, the two main factions are NPC, and controlled by staff. Players can climb their ranks in the usual way.

Smaller groups, businesses, criminals, ship crews and more, we losen the rules on them, encourage their leaders and members to work with each other to tell good stories (not just ones where winning is all that matters, as was often the way with small factions a while back).

Furthermore, when a new member joins, the PM to them is great, but make sure they are publicly welcomed. Do a thread for new members each week/fortnight, and encourage older players (length of service not age) to jump in, and invite them to threads for new members when the join, to get them started!

I like this a lot. I was actually thinking of proposing something similar. I think we should make the starting factions a bit smaller and more numerous, and then make it easier for lower-level characters to form smaller organizations, like crews and gangs and local militias and companies and the like. Give these small organizations some benefits. Obviously it wouldn't make much sense for a local militia to build an Andraste-class destroyer, but maybe say that they can acquire up to the smallest class of capital ship available. Also, let the small organizations have the ability to gather more NPCs for their use and let them offer some smaller mission rewards for members.

Not trying to make it to complicated, but maybe we could create an organization level-system? As the organizations grow, they can unlock more perks and abilities as the org levels up? Just an idea.
 

Eccles

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Not to be a spoilsport regarding the indie appeal and looser set of rules, but I personally prefer the current set-up:

Indies can be freely set-up as NPC factions (including assets), but ruling a faction should only be possible after having devoted serious time to that character (and rising the ranks). If you want to grow you need to do the plots, which will be evaluated to assure a fair balance.

Not everything in the current set of rules is unbalanced.

The only major thing I would change is going back to having the main factions be ruled by NPCs and maybe have it last longer (with more of the NPC's involvement) than last time. We see that once people become a FL they burn-out much faster as opposed to the gazillion threads they burned through getting that position, and burned-out FLs usually kill an entire faction's drive, which, for a main faction, decides the timeline's story.
 

Brandon Rhea

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Indies can be freely set-up as NPC factions (including assets), but ruling a faction should only be possible after having devoted serious time to that character (and rising the ranks). If you want to grow you need to do the plots, which will be evaluated to assure a fair balance.

I'm not sure that's the right limitation to have. I think there's an alternative.

IIRC, one of the major drivers in changing from the indie faction system we used to have to the NPC faction system we have now is to handle rank, power, and influence that often came in the previous set up without any real work. For example: you'd have to RP a LOT to become a Jedi Master, but you could create some sort of Grey Jedi faction and call yourself a Master of that. There was a disconnect between advancing in the ranks in a main faction and just anointing yourself by virtue of creating an indie faction.

With the level system, however (which I like in general), that primary issue is basically solved. Inherent in the level system, depending on how it's used, is the ability to really call yourself whatever you want. You could walk around saying that you're Darth Evil, the baddest most powerful Sith there ever was, but if you're Level 1 then you have no influence, no recognition, no real power, etc.

Coupling the level system to how you advance within an indie faction/NPC faction should solve the issue that you've pointed out. Nor'baal could call himself Grand Pooba of the Best Hutts Ever Clan, but if his character is Level 1 then that doesn't really mean anything.

IMO, that would give people the potential to RP the character they want (leader of a faction they created) while still satisfying an overall desire for some level of balance because they too still have to gain influence, power, etc as they build their faction. And if you create a faction as a higher level character, you're already in a position to create and rule that faction based on the influence you've gained.
 

Eccles

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IMO, that would give people the potential to RP the character they want (leader of a faction they created) while still satisfying an overall desire for some level of balance because they too still have to gain influence, power, etc as they build their faction. And if you create a faction as a higher level character, you're already in a position to create and rule that faction based on the influence you've gained.

But that's not so much different as it is now. You either get with a few people, do plots and gain assets, or you rise in level and rank within an existing faction (doing plots and gaining assets) and branch of later.

What we should want to avoid is people creating a bubble calling themselves kings from the getgo and expecting everyone to play ball. Ofcourse, if that's what they prefer to do than we could cater to that, but it wont add to the collaborative story-telling.

I'd be a shame to have dozens of indie factions sit inactive because they were made on a whim just because people could, but then abandon it when the bubble bursts.
 

Topher

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Just following on from Brandon's announcement, did get thinking a little more back to earlier days of SWRPing about it being story driven and the likes. Perhaps it might have been tried and tested and didn't work out too well in past iterations of this community, or might not really be of much use either! But figured may as well be worth sharing on the slight hope it can work

Whilst SWRP has become current venue for the creative story telling itch, and not gonna sugar coat it and it's no doubt widely known, I'm old! And had been active on many boards since my early teens, ranging from Star wars, to X-men, Lord of the rings etc, which ever resonated with my creative outlet the best at the time. Star wars often being the main go to throughout.

Similarly at each of the boards, there has always been a point of stagnation, that requires a shake up. Be it a rouge Force user cell detonates HEX weapons on Coruscant which in turn allows a right wing anti Force user sentiment to take over the Senate which drives the Jedi out into hiding, to a plague that wipes out life across the galaxy, throwing everyone back to the stone age and having to venture out and rebuild - kinda like fallout in a way thinking about it....

But it always seems to have stemmed back to the single point, that either faction - cliche i know but Sith and Jedi / republic either are at a stalemate, or one has domination over the galaxy. It often seems to be the case that as soon as the board reaches it's pinnacle thats when interest weans off. Again i realise that this is already well and truly gathered, but please bare with me.

Out of the many boards I have been active on, SW-Unforeseen Destiny, Gungan Council, Children of the Moon for example, there was one board that did have a strong drive towards a story narrative, SW-Evolution. But the way in which the board done that was by breaking up the board structure, rather than there being a board for each of the main rims, it was divided into two main thread categories.

For the first one, you had General RP - which would be where you can develop your character as and how you wished, interacting with other characters, build relationships, train, go shopping or just get "fit shaced" in the local cantina. Within this section of the board there was no real limit to how many threads you could take part in, as they where mostly centric to allowing the RPer to develop their character.

For the second part of the board there was the story RP, this was where most of the key action that influenced the board's wider narrative took place. As an example it was where the Sith all gathered and revealed their return and existence to the Imperials. Or where a correlian rebel cell was able to get information from an Imperial Moff, by getting him drunk and seducing him within a strip joint.... Perhaps not the best of examples !!! But the main caveat in the rules was that your character could only be active in one of those threads at a time, and it had to be completed before you could move into the next thread. - If to be candid, it did take in effect well over a fortnight to complete less than a day's interaction, which might not appeal to everyone?

Possibly in addition to the above two categories, a third one could be used, i think it's been mentioned somewhere before possibly on discord thinking about it. But having a PVP arena of sorts, where those looking to flex their combat writing skills can influence the story through a combat / conquest point of view?

The reason why I'm putting this forward and sharing past experiences over the boards, is that it did keep the board active, admittedly the numbers in the community at the time was by no means anywhere near the numbers on this board, but there was a strong level of consistency in activity. Though i appreciate that it might not work with the community we have here as obviously dynamics and attitudes do change over years.

Though there was another rule that did work, and that was a limitation of being able to RP a Jedi / Sith character. I imagine that perhaps many have experienced it, perhaps on different boards and the such, but there was often the urge and focus to be one of the mystical space wizards with a lightsaber and I'll put my hands up, i'm one of them. Which had found when was a member of the staffing team at the previous boards, it can sometimes either lead to an over saturation of Force users, or many new members jumping in fresh from new movie release and creating a Jedi/Sith character, then post in a few threads and then their interest dies and moves on, might be similar what the staff may have seen over the years here? However, will admit at the start of this time line, the staff hit a home run with the initial cap on the Jedi, and to progress to a Jedi required being discovered and a plot to develop that discovery to getting trained up to a padawan. I did really enjoy that angle, as it allowed for development of the character as they transition into accepting this new role / outlook on life.

When looking the star wars galaxy at large, the scale between everyday Joe's; smugglers, bounty hunters, politicians, rebel fighters, soldiers etc, and the Jedi or Sith, there is only but a mere fraction of them, and something of an extreme rarity. Whether this may fit with the plans for the board or not, perhaps it might be worth considering that a member can only apply for a force user when they have met certain criteria on the board within the time line. I'm going heavily from what i can remember of some of the old rules that drafted, but i think it was something like you couldn't have a Jedi / Sith character until you had 2 characters who had completed a minimum of 5 story RP's or something along those lines. It was more of a reward to promote and work towards the activity and story progression of the board, guess almost like the SW battlefront games, you could only activate Luke or Vader when you had captured x amounts of flags or got y amount of kills

Might well be that the above is of no use, but thought wouldn't hurt to at least share what have experienced over the last 20 odd years of Story RPing.
 

Brandon Rhea

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But that's not so much different as it is now. You either get with a few people, do plots and gain assets, or you rise in level and rank within an existing faction (doing plots and gaining assets) and branch of later.

What we should want to avoid is people creating a bubble calling themselves kings from the getgo and expecting everyone to play ball. Ofcourse, if that's what they prefer to do than we could cater to that, but it wont add to the collaborative story-telling.

I'd be a shame to have dozens of indie factions sit inactive because they were made on a whim just because people could, but then abandon it when the bubble bursts.

Personally, if the concern is faction abandonment, I'm not super concerned about that myself. If people want to pursue a particular storyline and it fails, I'd rather let them do that than have to grind for something that might lead to the same result. I'd rather let someone try something bold, fail, and have the faction go away than to throw up a ton of roadblocks in their path.

Gungan Council

giphy.gif


But the way in which the board done that was by breaking up the board structure, rather than there being a board for each of the main rims, it was divided into two main thread categories.

For the first one, you had General RP - which would be where you can develop your character as and how you wished, interacting with other characters, build relationships, train, go shopping or just get "fit shaced" in the local cantina. Within this section of the board there was no real limit to how many threads you could take part in, as they where mostly centric to allowing the RPer to develop their character.

For the second part of the board there was the story RP, this was where most of the key action that influenced the board's wider narrative took place. As an example it was where the Sith all gathered and revealed their return and existence to the Imperials. Or where a correlian rebel cell was able to get information from an Imperial Moff, by getting him drunk and seducing him within a strip joint.... Perhaps not the best of examples !!! But the main caveat in the rules was that your character could only be active in one of those threads at a time, and it had to be completed before you could move into the next thread. - If to be candid, it did take in effect well over a fortnight to complete less than a day's interaction, which might not appeal to everyone?

Possibly in addition to the above two categories, a third one could be used, i think it's been mentioned somewhere before possibly on discord thinking about it. But having a PVP arena of sorts, where those looking to flex their combat writing skills can influence the story through a combat / conquest point of view?

We did things like this in the past too. In the earliest incarnations of the site, we had the "The RolePlay" for general RPing and "The Great War" for major battles/events. We also had a Dueling Ring for competitive PvP (not just "all fights go here" but rather it was a literal dueling ring where people could fight one another) as well as bars, cantinas, casinos, etc that people could RP in. Including one on Naboo called Bar Bar Drinks, which I'm quite proud of.

I'm not sure why we ever moved away from that. I think having clear, distinct areas makes a lot of sense.
 
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Braden

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Just following on from Brandon's announcement, did get thinking a little more back to earlier days of SWRPing about it being story driven and the likes. Perhaps it might have been tried and tested and didn't work out too well in past iterations of this community, or might not really be of much use either! But figured may as well be worth sharing on the slight hope it can work

Whilst SWRP has become current venue for the creative story telling itch, and not gonna sugar coat it and it's no doubt widely known, I'm old! And had been active on many boards since my early teens, ranging from Star wars, to X-men, Lord of the rings etc, which ever resonated with my creative outlet the best at the time. Star wars often being the main go to throughout.

Similarly at each of the boards, there has always been a point of stagnation, that requires a shake up. Be it a rouge Force user cell detonates HEX weapons on Coruscant which in turn allows a right wing anti Force user sentiment to take over the Senate which drives the Jedi out into hiding, to a plague that wipes out life across the galaxy, throwing everyone back to the stone age and having to venture out and rebuild - kinda like fallout in a way thinking about it....

But it always seems to have stemmed back to the single point, that either faction - cliche i know but Sith and Jedi / republic either are at a stalemate, or one has domination over the galaxy. It often seems to be the case that as soon as the board reaches it's pinnacle thats when interest weans off. Again i realise that this is already well and truly gathered, but please bare with me.

Out of the many boards I have been active on, SW-Unforeseen Destiny, Gungan Council, Children of the Moon for example, there was one board that did have a strong drive towards a story narrative, SW-Evolution. But the way in which the board done that was by breaking up the board structure, rather than there being a board for each of the main rims, it was divided into two main thread categories.

For the first one, you had General RP - which would be where you can develop your character as and how you wished, interacting with other characters, build relationships, train, go shopping or just get "fit shaced" in the local cantina. Within this section of the board there was no real limit to how many threads you could take part in, as they where mostly centric to allowing the RPer to develop their character.

For the second part of the board there was the story RP, this was where most of the key action that influenced the board's wider narrative took place. As an example it was where the Sith all gathered and revealed their return and existence to the Imperials. Or where a correlian rebel cell was able to get information from an Imperial Moff, by getting him drunk and seducing him within a strip joint.... Perhaps not the best of examples !!! But the main caveat in the rules was that your character could only be active in one of those threads at a time, and it had to be completed before you could move into the next thread. - If to be candid, it did take in effect well over a fortnight to complete less than a day's interaction, which might not appeal to everyone?

Possibly in addition to the above two categories, a third one could be used, i think it's been mentioned somewhere before possibly on discord thinking about it. But having a PVP arena of sorts, where those looking to flex their combat writing skills can influence the story through a combat / conquest point of view?

The reason why I'm putting this forward and sharing past experiences over the boards, is that it did keep the board active, admittedly the numbers in the community at the time was by no means anywhere near the numbers on this board, but there was a strong level of consistency in activity. Though i appreciate that it might not work with the community we have here as obviously dynamics and attitudes do change over years.

Though there was another rule that did work, and that was a limitation of being able to RP a Jedi / Sith character. I imagine that perhaps many have experienced it, perhaps on different boards and the such, but there was often the urge and focus to be one of the mystical space wizards with a lightsaber and I'll put my hands up, i'm one of them. Which had found when was a member of the staffing team at the previous boards, it can sometimes either lead to an over saturation of Force users, or many new members jumping in fresh from new movie release and creating a Jedi/Sith character, then post in a few threads and then their interest dies and moves on, might be similar what the staff may have seen over the years here? However, will admit at the start of this time line, the staff hit a home run with the initial cap on the Jedi, and to progress to a Jedi required being discovered and a plot to develop that discovery to getting trained up to a padawan. I did really enjoy that angle, as it allowed for development of the character as they transition into accepting this new role / outlook on life.

When looking the star wars galaxy at large, the scale between everyday Joe's; smugglers, bounty hunters, politicians, rebel fighters, soldiers etc, and the Jedi or Sith, there is only but a mere fraction of them, and something of an extreme rarity. Whether this may fit with the plans for the board or not, perhaps it might be worth considering that a member can only apply for a force user when they have met certain criteria on the board within the time line. I'm going heavily from what i can remember of some of the old rules that drafted, but i think it was something like you couldn't have a Jedi / Sith character until you had 2 characters who had completed a minimum of 5 story RP's or something along those lines. It was more of a reward to promote and work towards the activity and story progression of the board, guess almost like the SW battlefront games, you could only activate Luke or Vader when you had captured x amounts of flags or got y amount of kills

Might well be that the above is of no use, but thought wouldn't hurt to at least share what have experienced over the last 20 odd years of Story RPing.

I too was at SWE for a while and I have mixed feelings on the Force User issue. It worked in one sense because it meant that people had to work to get a powerful character (and the FS characters were much more powerful than a standard one.) and because of this they felt important like in the films/tv/comics/books. However if I remember correct there was only a limited number of Sith (7) I think, which did mean that it felt the story stagnated if one or two of them were not very active.

I did like the limited Jedi at the start of the timeline, it was an interesting concept which allowed a lot of character work within the Jedi/Rebels. However I think because the Sith and the Mandalorians to an extent didn't have this restriction this caused a little imbalance in the writing/characters created for each faction. If perhaps both FS groups were limited at the start this might create a better balance in character development and activity.
 

Topher

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OOOH Another SWE!!!! Who was your character?

Edit: Sorry got a little bit too excited there LOL
 

Brandon Rhea

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I too was at SWE for a while and I have mixed feelings on the Force User issue. It worked in one sense because it meant that people had to work to get a powerful character (and the FS characters were much more powerful than a standard one.) and because of this they felt important like in the films/tv/comics/books. However if I remember correct there was only a limited number of Sith (7) I think, which did mean that it felt the story stagnated if one or two of them were not very active.

I did like the limited Jedi at the start of the timeline, it was an interesting concept which allowed a lot of character work within the Jedi/Rebels. However I think because the Sith and the Mandalorians to an extent didn't have this restriction this caused a little imbalance in the writing/characters created for each faction. If perhaps both FS groups were limited at the start this might create a better balance in character development and activity.
I think it’s an interesting concept to explore if it’s tied to the story and not just there as a rule or mechanic. For example, it made sense last timeline that there were some limitations around the Exiles, the original Sith, etc because of what the story was about. Likewise, with the story of this timeline being as it was, it made sense that there were limits on Jedi. But if the story was to be about a time when the Jedi and Sith were plentiful (relatively speaking), I'm not sure how I'd feel about it.
 
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