Site Storytelling Opportunities

[Diva]

I think a major undertone I am detecting here is that the admins want to RP and participate again. They want to pay with us, and to create main story threads for us to play in, because alot of us feel marginalized by the PvP culture.

Admins are members too.

 

[Nor'baal]

Admins are members too.

Shut up Diva

Seriously - I think you make a good point here. Running SWRP should leave time for admins to RP as well.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Nah bro.


To elaborate; I don't think it's necessary. The whole point here was to let things be player driven, so rather than start edging away from that and thus going against the whole original idea for the TL, you just need to do more to enable people.

What would help push things along, I think, is both a clarification and a loosening on what a faction needs to do to move things forward. Indies are pretty neutered insofar as affecting real change, and the main factions are ineffective and frankly (this is not a snipe at anyone) boring. You need more pro-active faction leaders. I think people right now are too stuck in self preservation mode to really make anything happen, and more aggressive, change minded leaders would help break people out of that. Let people have real free reign, get a couple opposing faction leaders together who actually want to see stuff happen, and let them start slugging things out.

On another personal note, I think the senate was a mistake. Yeah, it's different and some people are into it, but effectively all its done is bog things down.

That won't work. The Sith had that with Marf. Players didn't give a crap, (sorry marf), they just wanted more fighting the jedi/burninating the countryside. There were some who didn't have that whole fixation, but the many more were interesting in winning against the jedi as their main motivation, and losing battles made them stop rping rather then using it to tell more stories. With the resurgance in pvp focus of the sith, notice how activity is now on a massive uptake?

No matter how much you empower or change, that won't change the fact that the playerbase itself is focusing on pvp way more then it is on story telling.

I feel like a lot of good points are being brought up in the combat focus and nature of this timeline so far. But I think it bears mentioning that just having the admins make threads sometimes won't fix those issues.

Maybe it won't, but you know what? When you're choking/drowning, a breath of fresh air sometimes isn't so bad. Maybe it's hyperbole on my end, because I know even if nothing comes from this thread, I'll still rp and do what Ive been doing this timeline, focusing on pvp with my main char while using my indie/other profiles for telling stories.

But I'd honestly really like this to happen, just so I can start making some non-pvp related character development, without it impacting my faction negatively in its ability to respond to pvp threats.

 

[Proleptic]

I am totally game for this, and I can only trust that the admins will fulfill their end of the bargain.












NO REMORSE @Poop Fairy

 

[Outlander]

Maybe it won't, but you know what? When you're choking/drowning, a breath of fresh air sometimes isn't so bad. Maybe it's hyperbole on my end, because I know even if nothing comes from this thread, I'll still rp and do what Ive been doing this timeline, focusing on pvp with my main char while using my indie/other profiles for telling stories.

But I'd honestly really like this to happen, just so I can start making some non-pvp related character development, without it impacting my faction negatively in its ability to respond to pvp threats.

But what IS that breath of fresh air, exactly? The admins doing threads? This isn't guaranteeing us to less PvP focus, or that we'll have somehow immensely deeper lore to play in. All this thread is, as @Brandon Rhea said, is that the Admins want to be involved with creating threads and story arcs.

 

[StormWolf]

@Outlander
And in another recent thread you expressed what seemed like distaste regarding Admins not participating with the player base. This would begin to mend that.

And given the quality of work the Admins (and the think tank) crank out for timeline lore, do you honestly think we're going to get anything but decent quality?

 

[Gamov]

You could also argue that the Sith operate in that capacity in many different versions of the lore. Leaders are usurped, killed, kidnapped, and any other way you can think of to be supplanted. While your point remains valid that it hasn't even really been mentioned IC'ly much, it's not a completely out of line scenario for the Sith to be going through. And I know that what's happening to us is mostly an OOC thing, it does have some de facto IC merit.

True enough. Internal conflict just comes with the territory when you deal with the Sith.

But to my mind, the Sith losing their reigning figure head (regardless of era or lore) would be tantamount to Palpatine being killed off in Empire Strikes Back and just replaced on a whim in Return of the Jedi without anyone batting an eye. By all rights, the kind of power vacuum that would inevitably result from that kind of loss to a faction would - or rather should - spark numerous power grabs from within the faction.

But to that end, I would echo this point made by Red:

3. It's pretty clear that MOST people know that they are more than welcome to come up with and implement their own story arcs at any point in time. However, it can't be ignored that especially our newer members likely struggle with this idea. Some people just don't know what's allowed and what's not, while others might come from other RP sites that run on a strict GM/DM system or something.

So whether it was confusion among members of the Sith faction as to whether or not they were allowed to make that power play for themselves, or the sheer intimidation of assuming that responsibility, the decision for each subsequent Sith FL was made OOCly by members of the faction (as it should have been), but with very few actual IC impacts when that transition actually came. IC, there was no rhyme or reason behind the change in leadership, while OOC the Sith required a shift in attention to effectually survive what was - at the time - an onslaught of miserable failures (<-- said without any untoward malice to Sith FLs/AFLs, past or present).

So while I see your point (@Relent) that internal strife is just the nature of the Sith, and it is easy enough to explain away these leadership changes in those terms, such conflict doesn't often go without having major repercussions on the Order as a whole. Which hasn't necessarily happened with the Sith so far this timeline. Even the bombing of the temple on Korriban has been largely overlooked - I still see people asking about it. And considering the importance of Korriban to the Sith, something major happening there should be one of those events that gets immortalized in lore as a bench mark for the story. But as it stands now, the bombing on Korriban has just been a blip on the radar. Another fight that some people did somewhere at some point that accomplished some obscure objective that very few people were aware of.

 

[Logan]

True enough. Internal conflict just comes with the territory when you deal with the Sith.

But to my mind, the Sith losing their reigning figure head (regardless of era or lore) would be tantamount to Palpatine being killed off in Empire Strikes Back and just replaced on a whim in Return of the Jedi without anyone batting an eye. By all rights, the kind of power vacuum that would inevitably result from that kind of loss to a faction would - or rather should - spark numerous power grabs from within the faction.

But to that end, I would echo this point made by Red:



So whether it was confusion among members of the Sith faction as to whether or not they were allowed to make that power play for themselves, or the sheer intimidation of assuming that responsibility, the decision for each subsequent Sith FL was made OOCly by members of the faction (as it should have been), but with very few actual IC impacts when that transition actually came. IC, there was no rhyme or reason behind the change in leadership, while OOC the Sith required a shift in attention to effectually survive what was - at the time - an onslaught of miserable failures (<-- said without any untoward malice to Sith FLs/AFLs, past or present).

So while I see your point (@Relent) that internal strife is just the nature of the Sith, and it is easy enough to explain away these leadership changes in those terms, such conflict doesn't often go without having major repercussions on the Order as a whole. Which hasn't necessarily happened with the Sith so far this timeline. Even the bombing of the temple on Korriban has been largely overlooked - I still see people asking about it. And considering the importance of Korriban to the Sith, something major happening there should be one of those events that gets immortalized in lore as a bench mark for the story. But as it stands now, the bombing on Korriban has just been a blip on the radar. Another fight that some people did somewhere at some point that accomplished some obscure objective that very few people were aware of.

Aye, an I would agree with you on the point of many IC things not getting the mention they deserve - but I think the lack of IC knowledge of things like Korriban can also be linked to lack of OOC knowledge about it in general.

Perhaps such significant changes in the Sith landscape should be reflected in some sort of write up made by either the FL/AFL or - maybe even better - the people that did the act deserving of recognition. It gives them a chance to detail what happened in their own words, and who better to do so then the person(s) who did it?

It would also give not just new members, but anyone new to the Sith an easy place to see the things players have done. It will also show them that they too can do things that effect the entire site. It will show that each individual character can be important, and give them insight into the amount of freedom the players of SWRP actually have.

So it would meet many ends that you've brought up, i think. Not to mention help the site as a whole in regards to both clarity and gravity of its overall story.

 

[Topher Ridge]

Well as far as I've seen in this thread (Sorry I'm tarty to the party, sleep was needed) the Admins are simply saying they just want to give more opportunities to RP. Which I'm all for to be honest. As long as it's still open I don't see any problem with the Admins just giving essentially RP suggestions that they themselves take part in.

 

[Lucy Lou]

Thanks everyone for the great posts since last night. I think most have been comments rather than questions so I'm addressing the few questions there were in this post. If I missed yours, please let me know so I can answer it.

Also, as we move forward in this thread, I have a request for those of you who have made a lot of posts in this thread. We’re about over 100 posts in already. It's going to be very intimidating for other people, especially new people, to jump into this thread. I've already seen people on Skype saying they're too afraid to jump into this thread. So I would ask those of you who have made your point already to hang back, so as to allow other people to chime in as well. That way no one feels scared off in sharing their opinion.



It's not about being chosen or not chosen. There's no sign ups. Want to join RPs that might fall under this basic umbrella? Please do! They'll be Open. And remember, they're not structured. No one's a focus character. No one's more important than anyone else. There are no plans here. With no structure and no direction, anyone and everyone can shape what happens.



It didn't include everyone, not everyone made a difference. That's why it failed. We will never have plot characters who are "more important" again. No one should ever be relegated to a supporting role again.



One of the big issues with Legacies, as I said earlier in the thread, is that there was basically one set of rules for admins and another set of rules for everyone else.

We'll never do that again.

Thanks for answering my questions! c:

 

[Officiant]

< This one is very much interested and in favor of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Latte]

so i tried to read through this entire thread and some of the circle-talking got my brain mixed up, plus im bad at parsing out what people mean usually anyway so if im off base, then forgive me, my brain is easily fuzzed. also folks here can disagree, im not saying my opinions are that of everyone here, this is just solely from my perspective.

i like the "lead by example" thing the admins want to be doing from here on out, just making storylines as members, not admins railroading things, and showing the rest of the site "hey you can make cool shit too like we did, you dont need to be an admin to have impactful storylines". honestly? last timeline when i was in the waste rangers (for newbies, it was a huge ass indie faction) it felt like i was able to influence shit and have fun doing it and really make a change in the galaxy, even if it was only a corner of it out near zonju v. just being able to work with other folks on our characters and threads made it feel really cool and like i was part of changing something. i disliked, however, that in legacies there was a really locked in plot-armored storyline, which clearly the admins already know they dont wanna do again, which is fine by me. i feel like in this timeline folks here have the potential to do the kind of change i felt like i made w/ the waste rangers, only now we could make that kind of change on an even larger scale if we can manage it, due to lack of legacies plot stuff.

and yes im "one of those people" some folks in this thread were shocked about. i do tend to feel restricted and like i cant just up and start my own storylines. "writing is hard" and also my brain doesnt work like yours (general "you") does. so some folks feel free to do "whatever they want" basically, and some folks like me have trouble getting going.

as far as the intense focus on combat? yeah, its why i got bored with swrp a few months ago and ghosted for a while. i dont wanna lose characters i worked on because combat is so required to move anything along at all, which is what it seems like around here (i am not a mastermind at making alternate story arcs like marf is). i like the idea of balancing the combat focus with focus on other areas, like politics and other stories (plus id be way more willing to engage in combat if it felt like it was actually part of a story and not just constant "get in get out wham bam thank you maam" battles, one after the other, all the time). i dont like combat and pvp around here because it just feels like when i play flashpoints/heroics in swtor. which, i love those missions in swtor, but thats when im not looking to actually write a story. i come here to write stories, so i like the thought of folks here being more willing to do stories instead of those goddang battles all the time lmao.

also, idk if anyone knows how to do this, but id be willing to help out with keeping track of peoples storylines/threads and stuff like that so we can sort of record what all is happening and where, since to any newcomers or folks returning, its really hard, imo, to figure out what in the duck is going on around the galaxy and whats happened, outside of the "uber most important main faction PVP threads", ykwim? like i said, all just solely from my own perspective, im not really trying to negate other peoples perspectives, this is just mine and mine alone, as someone whos been around since the butt-end of the last timeline and been in and out of both that one and this one.

 

[Dread]

So... can members plot stories that impact the main storyline now? Last time I tried to plot something big-ish on this site (in the legacy timeline) I was shot down by the admins, then told I was a shitty person.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

So... can members plot stories that impact the main storyline now? Last time I tried to plot something big-ish on this site (in the legacy timeline) I was shot down by the admins, then told I was a shitty person.

So... I very much doubt that that happened.

But there is no "main storyline." I made that clear in this thread. This is just about bringing some new stories into the timeline other than just PvP and combat.

 

[Jakalar]

To the OP: Yes yes yes

I joined this site in February of last year. Within a couple months, the end of the fifth timeline was announced and the whole site started to wind down. Because of that and a few other reasons, I stepped away for a while. I only recently returned. I didn't have the opportunity to really develop my character in the last timeline and I was pretty upset about that, actually. I was excited to come back and be a part of a story where everyone was still in the developmental process with their characters, rather than the wrapping-up process.

But I'm actually extremely disappointed in this timeline. In like every aspect. Relative to the last one, I hate it.

The overarching Lana plot - while it didn't really affect my character and I didn't follow it intensely - lent a structure to the whole site and sort of set a framework and a model for the sorts of stories individuals should tell. I think this timeline would benefit greatly from that.

I know everyone is looking for different things on a site like this, but if SWRP were like this when I joined a year and a half ago, I honestly don't know if I would have stayed. In this timeline, I have actively not joined any of the major factions. I have actively not participated in PVP. I want story. I want development. And I'd like to see other people with those stories too. I want my character to interact with other characters that are developed or thought-out to a comparable degree.

I think the "pewpewpew" nature of this timeline is rooted in a lack of overarching story - or at least the lack of a sense of the overarching story. I feel like that sense is necessary for people to not only value their own characters, but also other peoples' creations. And to see their characters as belonging to the greater universe.

I'm not entirely opposed to my characters being killed off at some point, but I want their deaths to be more than a tick on someones PK tally. I want their deaths to mean something to whoever kills him/her or other characters involved. And, as a generality, I don't think this timeline offers that.

So, I don't know the extent to which I'd like to see that story - personally I liked the structure of the fifth timeline, though I can totally understand qualms with it - but I do want something bigger. It makes the entire universe feel a little more real.

That's my two cents.

 

[Horizon]

So, to some of you it seems like the battling is something of a placeholder for something better.

Tbh, I worry about how some of you guys will react to others putting out something adventurous and relatively new.

Simply because sometimes you end up having to hold on for the long haul.

 

[Lavi]

Given that I mostly lurk around here at this point and can probably be considered burned out by Star Wars RPs, what I'd say probably has very little weight. But anyways...

I find it odd that people are apparently not happy about predetermined outcomes when I did not notice much (if any) objection to the usage of predetermined battles. The two go hand-in-hand. The idea was that going from A to B wasn't important: how one got from A to B was. I thought it was a pretty clever way of going about it, kind of like how Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade system worked (the illusion of choice).

If the overall site story is stagnant because people are not sure how to move forward themselves and people are not happy with having a structured story laid out for them, what is the third option? You start with a structured prologue with predetermined outcome and then throwing it to the masses to move forward themselves. I really have only been here from the tail end of the second timeline, but this method has worked to start the third timeline. The fourth timeline being a continuation of the third with revised rival factions piggybacked off of the third's success.

If the timeline stagnates because people are not sure what to do (say 2 months of no MAIN THREAD activity), run another predetermined outcome event to jump start more ideas. I think this is the reasonable middle ground.

Regarding site lore: to me, building a site lore is essential to making any RP unique. Anyone can throw together a setting and get people to roleplay in it. It's something else entirely when there are bits and pieces that are unique to this website and can bind characters together. Creating our own legacy is something we hope to strive for in roleplay, I think. It doesn't have to be a galaxy spanning legacy, but one that gets people talking. For instance, I'm dabbling in some Fire Emblem RP at the moment, on a website that is far less populated than here. At times, the forum wouldn't see replies to any thread at all for days at a time. But the RP offered there kept me drawn to it because it strove to be different in pretty significant ways, becoming its own site lore. SWRP can do that too.

I'm disappointed that this timeline lacked much of an identity, since there are some good ideas unique to this timeline (omg no required training threads), but hopefully these few cents help push thoughts along.

 

[Dmitri]

My two cents:

Don't be afraid to see how you can combine/mingle storylines. By no means shoehorn one into the other (before you say it, Brandon, shut up). See where there are common elements and see how they can merge. Turn NPC backstories as the same. For example, wanting vengeance on Darth Omnomnom for killing your ____? Your friend has a Sith that taught their character or has some beef with that character? Make them the same person? Both already have names? No biggie. Characters have changed names before, taken on new ones; nicknames too. A character in one backstory can be part of a gang in another's backstory. Sometimes connected storylines can lead to interesting places. Tweed had made a character named Della Fray who had been kidnapped from her world by a scientist Sith. In my character Geist Weiss' backstory, he's done a lot of experiments and projects, so I offered to have Geist be the unnamed Sith in Della's backstory. Not only did it lead to expanded and more fleshed out backstories, it led to some of the most enjoyable arcs I've had with Geist.

 

[Jakalar]

My two cents:

Don't be afraid to see how you can combine/mingle storylines. By no means shoehorn one into the other (before you say it, Brandon, shut up). See where there are common elements and see how they can merge. Turn NPC backstories as the same. For example, wanting vengeance on Darth Omnomnom for killing your ____? Your friend has a Sith that taught their character or has some beef with that character? Make them the same person? Both already have names? No biggie. Characters have changed names before, taken on new ones; nicknames too. A character in one backstory can be part of a gang in another's backstory. Sometimes connected storylines can lead to interesting places. Tweed had made a character named Della Fray who had been kidnapped from her world by a scientist Sith. In my character Geist Weiss' backstory, he's done a lot of experiments and projects, so I offered to have Geist be the unnamed Sith in Della's backstory. Not only did it lead to expanded and more fleshed out backstories, it led to some of the most enjoyable arcs I've had with Geist.

Agreed 100%. It makes everything so much more interesting and adds tons of depth to your character and the ones you interact with.

Sure, this requires that people invest the time to research other peoples' characters' stories/histories. But I think that a little macro-level structure/guidance would help to spur this sort of storytelling on a little, if only by pushing people to pay attention to more than their own arcs.

 

[Taz]

My two cents:

Don't be afraid to see how you can combine/mingle storylines. By no means shoehorn one into the other (before you say it, Brandon, shut up). See where there are common elements and see how they can merge. Turn NPC backstories as the same. For example, wanting vengeance on Darth Omnomnom for killing your ____? Your friend has a Sith that taught their character or has some beef with that character? Make them the same person? Both already have names? No biggie. Characters have changed names before, taken on new ones; nicknames too. A character in one backstory can be part of a gang in another's backstory. Sometimes connected storylines can lead to interesting places. Tweed had made a character named Della Fray who had been kidnapped from her world by a scientist Sith. In my character Geist Weiss' backstory, he's done a lot of experiments and projects, so I offered to have Geist be the unnamed Sith in Della's backstory. Not only did it lead to expanded and more fleshed out backstories, it led to some of the most enjoyable arcs I've had with Geist.

This is the exact thing I did with @Phoenix for my character Vash.