RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Warren Castille · **03-25-2015, 09:19 AM**

Be it roleplaying in game, roleplaying on Skype or roleplaying on the forums, there's a common thread of creative writing that runs through all of our collaborations and musings here. However, there's no singular way to go about the process of creating stories! I want to know how you do your hoodoo.

Do you have a GM in game? Are YOU the GM?
Do you plan out all of your story ahead of time, then run through the script?
Are you flying completely by the seat of your pants all the time?
For longer arcs, do you know how it's going to end before you start writing?

I've been thinking about one of my current forum threads, and how much trouble I've been having while writing it. It's not that I'm completely unhappy with the current result, but I caught myself catching on the "how" of my writing. This entire arc so far stemmed from a single thought. "I could probably tell a cool little detective story where the Dangerous Lady is the villain and not a love interest."

That was all I had. The idea of doing a cool, slightly-noir-styled reveal that the Contact was the Villain All Along. I had no motive, no means, no endgame. Didn't stop me from sort of making it up as I went, though. Anyone who's grouped with me at Jancis' pilgrim events knows I tend to not plan anything in advance. That, obviously, doesn't always work.

So that's one of my parlor tricks. Get idea, start writing it, even if I've got no idea what or where or how it'll go. Right now I'm actually split on how the next post will run - I'm aware I'm running into the finale territory but even now I've got no idea what that's actually going to be beyond some vague closing threads. I've always been a poor planner, and I can't follow an outline worth a damn. I just open the tab and... write.

This explains the obvious slapdash quality of most everything I touch, I suppose.

SessionZero · **03-25-2015, 09:29 AM**

I start with a basic idea, get a general direction in mind, and will typically GM my own scenes, even if it is purely OOC in a narrative sense. I always ensure I keep wiggle room in case my players start going in a wholly unforseen but interesting direction.

Case in point: while running a custom D&D campaign, I had every intention of my players fighting their way through a gang hideout in a city to kill the leader in order to procure an item they needed. Instead of killing him, they used diplomacy and intimidation to make him their puppet, and basically took over his businesses running in the city so that not only would they get the item they needed, but they would also get a steady income from human trafficking, protection rackets, and black market trade. I guess that's what I get for putting a party of mostly Chaotic Neutrals face to face with a gang boss that gives shitty saving throws.

***Maril*** · **03-25-2015, 09:57 AM**

I usually get inspired at the weirdest of times, and then I'll go mull about it. Sometimes I bounce ideas at friends and see what they say. I do not tend to GM my storylines, which lately has been shooting me in the foot some, as I tend to rely on other people to take on for example a villain role. I do not plan much ahead, and I never decide an outcome, to some extend I prefer to leave myself in the dark when a villainous person has their sights set on one of my characters. In the case of a villain, I would give them an overall goal and maybe detail some of the things they might be good at, which fits into the arch as a whole - but then what happens is something I leave down to the person who picks up the role. Successes and failures are determined on the fly through the roleplay.
It's very rare that I know anyone who has the desire, time and ability to pull it off where I feel confident it won't end up annoying either side oocly because it might derail or stumble into other issues, and that ultimately discourages me somewhat from trying.Â
So most of the time I do not have any active arches going on, but will focus on taking part in that of others - which is fun enough in itself Smile

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When it comes to my characters skill progression, I usually find a way of making it happen without relying too much on other people but still finding a way to involve it. I don't like to just go and write a story that explains why my charatcer can now do more things. Nailah had a small arch which lead to her Aether not being blocked anymore, and for the past 2 months she's been trying to even thraumaturge but is no where near good at it at all yet. And is not destined to be for another 4-6 months all depending. She isn't destined for greatness with it in any way.Â

This is how I feel when I bounce ideas at other people:
[Image: tumblr_m3viy81r8q1ru06ato1_500.gif]

[Image: tumblr_m3viy81r8q1ru06ato1_500.gif]

Gegenji · **03-25-2015, 10:09 AM**

For most general, spur-of-the-moment RP, I tend to just go with the flow as best I can. Of course, this often means I'm sitting there trying to figure out what Chachan would do... or a way to move things along if there's a lengthy silence... but it also leaves things open for everyone participating to have a hand in the direction the interaction goes.

For set things? I tend to have a generalized goal in mind - nothing overly specific - and try to adapt what others bring to the table. Little Lady's Day is a good example of this. Way back during Valientone's, Memeli and Virara both made chocolate for Chachan. As is custom in Japan (and thus ported into "NotJapan" Doma), there's another holiday called White Day where the boys give gifts back to the girls.

So, the original plan was simply "make gifts for the girls." Everything blossomed out from that. A conversation with Meli gave me an idea for her gift, and overhearing an event that happened with Virara gave me an idea for hers. Virara's was a weapon, so that was easy enough (though it was also in a crafting class I was leveling at the time, so I really pushed so I could make it!), but Meli's was a piece of jewelry! Which led to its own conflict as he tried to make it and kept messing up with the gem part of it (which he wanted to shape into a cactaur). This led to him timidly asking an FC-mate for help once he learned she was a Goldsmith.

So many RPs came out of that - the girls being eager to get their presents and trying to figure out what it was, Chachan trying to be covert with his giftmaking, and the nervous approach for help. All with generalized goals but no "it must be this way" path to them.

And now with Gogon around... I'm hoping it'll be kinda like that but more expansive. I have a generalized "endgame" for the situation with the older brother, but what actually happens is dependent on everyone who participates. That way everyone feels like they had a hand in the crafting of the story, and not just serving as extras in someone else's tale.

cuideag · **03-25-2015, 10:18 AM**

I am.... REALLY pretty horrible at carrying plots and arcs for many reasons so I try to leave it in the hands of the better capable. The kind of RP I do tends to vary between character to character. Jajara's really just an average Eorzean citizen: she's thought about putting some time out there adventuring but she's really most comfortable working in Limsa, doing Boring Citizen Things like delivering shipments or smelting ingots or whatever. She's usually my go to for casual, spur of the moment stuff - which is perfect because I don't always have the time to do anything more in depth anymore.

Delial is the one who is in the deeper plots if only because it suits her character more. Most of those plots have a general outline of what might happen and what could happen though it does not always go that way. I am more comfortable with things being structured as such so that there is a coherent story with arcs and twists and all that, some of which do happen while things are being RPed. Also it helps because... yeah, Delial is a Not Very Nice Person and it is a bit harder to do Not Very Nice Things without those ideas and things being discussed with the others they might involve.

Zhavi · **03-25-2015, 10:37 AM**

For long running things, I start with general idea, a few ideal mid or end points, and then pretty much just toss it at people and let them do what they will. Which can be really damn hard because sometimes it swerves from cool ideas I wanted to put into play. But, I dunno, my longest running one is going on six years now (forum rp), but at this point it's evolved to the point that I don't really need to touch it anymore. The people invested in it have taken on characters from all the sides, so it has a life of its own and as such it'll play out how it plays out.

For shorter things I tend to plan things more point by point, though with rp I always believe that there should be plenty of space left for people to bring in their own ideas.

For story things there is idea of point I want to share/write about, then I think of an end point, cool things that happen in the middle, and then how to start it. I'm good at writing things down, terrible horrible awful at revision and making all the little parts flow together in a good way.

I know a guy who is tremendously meticulous about his story planning and putting all the story bits together. I am most jealous of his ability, and also in awe of it. Sometimes when I'm struggling I'll think 'hmm, what kind of twist would he throw in here...'. He just has that ability to think of all the levels and plot points at once, in a comprehensive sort of way. That's something that I need to work on, as I feel it is a weakness in my own writing.

Lekka Meyren · **03-25-2015, 10:52 AM**

I tend to have an idea of who my character is; where my character is in life; and where I want her to end up. I don't think I really "GM" it so much, but I definitely direct it through how I tell the story.

Recently I ran a little Arc that was supposed to set her up a little, affirm her reasons for staying with the company she is at and introduce some of the conflict in her life.Â
Â And because I love it if people pick up on a hook and add to the story; this ended up including medical roleplay, interpersonal drama and just so much character development.

I suppose this mostly works if you have characters surrounding you whose players love to jump at ideas and take it their own way; and there's a certain level of trust required. But it was so much fun!
Suddenly Lekka has relationships to a lot of characters in ways I could have never predicted; some she feels indebted to, others she dislikes. And all of that happened rather organically because people found hooks in my story that fit their characters.

ArmachiA · **03-25-2015, 11:53 AM**

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:

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.

C'kayah Polaali · **03-25-2015, 01:34 PM**

My ideal is a story that's completely bottom-up. That is, it emerges from the RP that everyone involved does, rather than from a story that's been pre-written. It's pretty clearly an ideal that isn't easily realized, and it requires that whoever brought the story to the table lets go of the idea of knowing how the story will go, but when it happens it's very memorable.

Let me give you an example:

A few months ago Otto Vann came to me and asked if I could arrange for him to be robbed. He'd ICly hired another player to guard his gold, and wanted them to have a foil. I agreed, and RP followed in which we used various means (cue sexy sax) to find out where his gold supplier was, when they sent gold to his main storehouse in Ul'dah, and the route the wagon took. We hit the wagon and walked away with a nice haul.

Later C'kayah and his cousin Miah had a falling out. She was privy to Grand Theft Otto, so she went to him and became his mistress and tried to get him to come after us. At one point she even tried to cue the Sultansworn into the job. All the RP around this was completely bottom-up, emerging on the fly from everyone involved. A lot of the things that we all thought would happen didn't (Miah trying to get the 'sworn to convict C of robbing Otto, C'kayah trying to frame Miah for supplying the poison Jin'li used to poison the wells in Ul'dah), but that's just like real life. It was still a big pile of fun RP that no one planned out or really expected.

Story and Roleplay Design

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes