Me and Dennthotta run the "Main" (Not the first and foremost plotline, but the reoccurring) storyline in the Night Blades. People are usually surprised to know most of it isn't scripted in the slightest.
I have a large vault of villains that I have pulled from the last year or two played by various people in the guild as alts. Fillion was our main bad guy for a long while, along with his sisters Isera and Ferah - who ran around terrorizing people in the name of the Empire. They were well fleshed out, didn't see themselves as villains, and had their own things going on aside from going after the Night Blades. Of course, as is the case with most villains, they were defeated recently - Isera was beheaded and Ferah was killed in a bigger battle, but Fillion now works with the NB - exchanging information he knows about the newest big bad (Fillion's ex-second in command, Cicero) for his life.
These characters also had different character swing in and out to help, cause problems and leave. We also did a big Voidsent storyline for awhile when Fillion and co. went into hiding for awhile.
If I broke down the exact timeline of what happened, a lot of it would sound scripted, but the truth is I don't script a LOT of things. Here are the only things I actually plan:
Anndd.. that's about it. Everything else is reacting to the players reacting to what we set up in the beginning. Player decided to get their character more involved? We may throw one of our Villains at the character to stop them. Character tried to run away? We may have someone go kidnap them while they are away from the safety of the group. Things like that. We don't plan it out till things happen, and there are about 5 or 6 helpers who watch roeplay sessions and then report back to us what people were roleplaying about - which helps us plan our next move.
I don't really have a fixed ending, except for knowing what the fate of the Villains is supposed to be. Each player gets to decide if their character lives or dies, if a person playing a Villain says they don't want that character to die yet, I just need to prepare for that character surviving. I've had people get REALLY mad at me for this - saying that its not fair the "heros" can't kill the villains, but it's not up to me. It's the same rules as the "Heros" have - the storyteller can't tell a player their character is dead without their permission, not in an MMO. I only had control of two Villains myself, most of them are rolled by other people.
Generally, we tend to come up with things on the fly, we have a Storyteller LS, a Skype room, and a secret section on the forums so we can tell each other our ideas at anytime of the day. I've seriously gotten up at 4am to go "GUYS WE SHOULD DO THIS." after hearing about certain role-play sessions.
So, my answer is a little of all three. I don't like working off a script in Roleplay, preferring to react to the players but obviously some things need to be planned in order to create a more cohesive storyline. It requires a lot of fast thinking on my part, but I really enjoy it.
I have a large vault of villains that I have pulled from the last year or two played by various people in the guild as alts. Fillion was our main bad guy for a long while, along with his sisters Isera and Ferah - who ran around terrorizing people in the name of the Empire. They were well fleshed out, didn't see themselves as villains, and had their own things going on aside from going after the Night Blades. Of course, as is the case with most villains, they were defeated recently - Isera was beheaded and Ferah was killed in a bigger battle, but Fillion now works with the NB - exchanging information he knows about the newest big bad (Fillion's ex-second in command, Cicero) for his life.
These characters also had different character swing in and out to help, cause problems and leave. We also did a big Voidsent storyline for awhile when Fillion and co. went into hiding for awhile.
If I broke down the exact timeline of what happened, a lot of it would sound scripted, but the truth is I don't script a LOT of things. Here are the only things I actually plan:
- The beginning of an arc is usually always scripted in a way. It's meticulously planned out with everyone who wants to be involved in order to try to bring in or interest as many people as possible. The very beginning pretty much goes a certain way, and is written in such a way to provoke interest of those in the guild.
- If certain people want something specific. A lot of the time, people will hear about a storyline and go "I actually want -this- to happen with my character, is there a way to do that?" and I'll work with them to work it into the plot and making sure it goes the way that they want to.
- If we want to do something VERY specific with a non-Storyteller character. Sometimes in the middle of an arc we'll come up with a grand idea ("Based on <character>'s past, let so <thing> and see how it would effect the character!"). We'll then go ask the player and a certain amount of planning will happen.
- Events on Roll20 are obviously a little planned since you have to build your own maps and boss fights.
Anndd.. that's about it. Everything else is reacting to the players reacting to what we set up in the beginning. Player decided to get their character more involved? We may throw one of our Villains at the character to stop them. Character tried to run away? We may have someone go kidnap them while they are away from the safety of the group. Things like that. We don't plan it out till things happen, and there are about 5 or 6 helpers who watch roeplay sessions and then report back to us what people were roleplaying about - which helps us plan our next move.
I don't really have a fixed ending, except for knowing what the fate of the Villains is supposed to be. Each player gets to decide if their character lives or dies, if a person playing a Villain says they don't want that character to die yet, I just need to prepare for that character surviving. I've had people get REALLY mad at me for this - saying that its not fair the "heros" can't kill the villains, but it's not up to me. It's the same rules as the "Heros" have - the storyteller can't tell a player their character is dead without their permission, not in an MMO. I only had control of two Villains myself, most of them are rolled by other people.
Generally, we tend to come up with things on the fly, we have a Storyteller LS, a Skype room, and a secret section on the forums so we can tell each other our ideas at anytime of the day. I've seriously gotten up at 4am to go "GUYS WE SHOULD DO THIS." after hearing about certain role-play sessions.
So, my answer is a little of all three. I don't like working off a script in Roleplay, preferring to react to the players but obviously some things need to be planned in order to create a more cohesive storyline. It requires a lot of fast thinking on my part, but I really enjoy it.
![[Image: tumblr_n92fndN0EH1rujdn8o1_500.gif]](https://33.media.tumblr.com/449e130ac31106ec8aeda3d0f121d76b/tumblr_n92fndN0EH1rujdn8o1_500.gif)
