What would it take to convince you to change a plot?

[SaintEaon]

For instance suppose you're deciding to take a character in a newer direction, the status quo's been the same for awhile and you meet some new RPers and start making a plot with them. At some point something happens, it could be from your old RP having some change, it could be something new you learn (be it true or false ICly), how big would it have to be in order to make you change your new plot and plans?

[Ignacius]

A decent conversation.  Keep things fun.

 

Then again, I like to drop the changes straight into RP.  Have some fun with it.

[SaintEaon]

A decent conversation.  Keep things fun.

 

Then again, I like to drop the changes straight into RP.  Have some fun with it.

 

Well let me throw this curve ball at you then. Your character development is about to take a dramatic turn, the things your character wants and values are changing, like growing up going from being a teen to a young adult who has to choose life for themselves. As you're starting this out, a character from your past comes to you (I'll let you decide the context) claiming that they've changed or are changing or whatever they're claiming and while they want to help you grow into this new world, they (as a character, not a player) need your character to fight against some of the change and try to remain with them. 

 

Who would this new character asking your character in part to stay with them have to be in order to get you to change the plot? I mean this could be a friend becoming an enemy, an enemy becoming a friend, a former lover/flirt asking to be something more, someone you admire, someone you hate. What would their relationship have to be to you ICly to consider changing for them?

[-no longer matters-]

Few things:

 

1.) OOC Scorn - Yep this happened once.

2.) New people getting involved with fresh ideas to ad in that work. (A lesson every writer should learn, you're ideas aren't always the best stay receptive.)

3.) Brick wall of where do I go now. - Like you plotted it all out, but it just didn't come together so you had no Idea where to go so you just went left instead of the planned right.

[Warren Castille]

Step 1) Present new idea (from herein referred to as "the boat") to Warren (herein referred to as "the stick in the mud")

Step 2) Be prepared for the stick in mud to riddle the boat full of as many holes as he can

Step 3) Get in the boat

Step 3a) Swim back to shore and construct a new boat

Step 3b) Sail away on the boat

 

Sturdy boats can stand a few holes. Other than my apprehension to shaking things up, I'd like to think I'm pretty okay about listening to "Hey, I've got an idea."

 

Edit: If we're talking about IC decision making, just apply logic and reasoning. Season with revenge and justice to taste.

[Zhavi]

Any well thought out and interesting idea, or accommodations to either bring in a character or let a character leave. Or, well, something unexpected happening in the rp, so long as it wasn't a nonsensical bit of godmoding.

 

99.9999% of the time, I leave everything but the beginning setup open to change.

 

I like my rp fluid.

[Mia Moui]

Sounsyy saying it can't be done.

 

 

I changed my plot a bit when I was informed that my idea wasn't all that likely in the lore.  But I'm open to suggestions pretty much all the time.

[SaintEaon]

Sorry if these threads I'm making lately are a annoying, I just like to address things I feel like might be common things to happen to RPers that it might be helpful to have different perspectives on. 

 

Lets go for a really typical Hollywood Trope: 

 

Guy and Girl are very close romantically but for whatever reason they don't work out. Girl moves on, guy realizes error of his ways and comes back. 

 

What does guy have to do to show girl he's changed enough to be worth her taking on despite any new potential boyfriends? Does it matter how "involved" the girl and her new relationship is? Does it matter the age? Does it matter how bad the last relationship was? If girl got a new relationship because she didn't feel like the old one was going anywhere after months, if guy came back showing he could change and be different, in girl's shoes how do you handle this?

 

Oh also assume Girl still really loves guy a lot. They're still very close just not together.

[Kellach Woods]

A good hook considering I ensure any "plot" I "plan" is so open ended it can be taken everywhere.

[Gegenji]

A good hook considering I ensure any "plot" I "plan" is so open ended it can be taken everywhere.

 

I try to do that as well. I will usually have a general idea of where I would like to go with a plot if/when I present it... but I also try to be open enough that if something comes up that alters the path - or someone has some other ideas - I can roll with it. I suppose Gogon is a good example of that - original plan had him dead, and he's done quite a bit since when that was supposed to happen.

[SaintEaon]

A good hook considering I ensure any "plot" I "plan" is so open ended it can be taken everywhere.

 

I try to do that as well. I will usually have a general idea of where I would like to go with a plot if/when I present it... but I also try to be open enough that if something comes up that alters the path - or someone has some other ideas - I can roll with it. I suppose Gogon is a good example of that - original plan had him dead, and he's done quite a bit since when that was supposed to happen.

 

What if it wasn't just like something you roll with. If someone had the idea of a plot that went one way then someone or something from your character's past came up like a nuclear fuckin' bomb or a force of nature that wouldn't just shatter your plans but could potentially shatter your partner's too. At that point do you say "Well, look this has been important to my character in the past I can't ignore it." or do you go "Well my character will be affected by this, maybe even dramatically, but I'm going to go for the same loosely defined end goal regardless."

 

And further more would it change the way you viewed this event if you'd known that a lot of the reason this event happened was because of your change in plot.

 

To use the trope again, guy changes not because he would ordinarily have changed but because the idea of losing girl was so bad for guy, his character went through its own development to match.

[Zhavi]

A good hook considering I ensure any "plot" I "plan" is so open ended it can be taken everywhere.

 

I try to do that as well. I will usually have a general idea of where I would like to go with a plot if/when I present it... but I also try to be open enough that if something comes up that alters the path - or someone has some other ideas - I can roll with it. I suppose Gogon is a good example of that - original plan had him dead, and he's done quite a bit since when that was supposed to happen.

 

What if it wasn't just like something you roll with. If someone had the idea of a plot that went one way then someone or something from your character's past came up like a nuclear fuckin' bomb or a force of nature that wouldn't just shatter your plans but could potentially shatter your partner's too. At that point do you say "Well, look this has been important to my character in the past I can't ignore it." or do you go "Well my character will be affected by this, maybe even dramatically, but I'm going to go for the same loosely defined end goal regardless."

 

And further more would it change the way you viewed this event if you'd known that a lot of the reason this event happened was because of your change in plot.

 

To use the trope again, guy changes not because he would ordinarily have changed but because the idea of losing girl was so bad for guy, his character went through its own development to match.

 

if it makes sense, I roll with it.

 

If it doesn't I either discuss it until it does, or drop it.

 

I once had someone ruin my character in the course of the rp. She was chattel, a means of getting to another character. Still rolled with it. Couldn't play her after, didn't care. The story was worth it.

[Verad]

Instead of all the hypotheticals, why not tell us what kind of answer you're looking for?

[Gegenji]

A good hook considering I ensure any "plot" I "plan" is so open ended it can be taken everywhere.

 

I try to do that as well. I will usually have a general idea of where I would like to go with a plot if/when I present it... but I also try to be open enough that if something comes up that alters the path - or someone has some other ideas - I can roll with it. I suppose Gogon is a good example of that - original plan had him dead, and he's done quite a bit since when that was supposed to happen.

 

What if it wasn't just like something you roll with.

 

If it's not something I can roll with, then I don't. I might play along with it a bit to see if gets better, but if I don't like where it's going, I don't do it. Example, an "April Fools" prank resulted in Chachan being tricked into thinking his girlfriend had been turned into a male Highlander. It was odd, but I rolled along with it.

 

... Until the person decided to get rid of said Highlander (since it ended up somehow being some other, mental person entirely) by having them slip off a wall, crack their head open, and die. Right in front of Chachan. After the shock of having that curveball thrown, I decided to recon it to a bad dream and have carried on with it as such ever since. It was something I was not comfortable rolling with, so I ultimately didn't.

[Ignacius]

A decent conversation.  Keep things fun.

 

Then again, I like to drop the changes straight into RP.  Have some fun with it.

 

Well let me throw this curve ball at you then. Your character development is about to take a dramatic turn, the things your character wants and values are changing, like growing up going from being a teen to a young adult who has to choose life for themselves. As you're starting this out, a character from your past comes to you (I'll let you decide the context) claiming that they've changed or are changing or whatever they're claiming and while they want to help you grow into this new world, they (as a character, not a player) need your character to fight against some of the change and try to remain with them. 

 

Who would this new character asking your character in part to stay with them have to be in order to get you to change the plot? I mean this could be a friend becoming an enemy, an enemy becoming a friend, a former lover/flirt asking to be something more, someone you admire, someone you hate. What would their relationship have to be to you ICly to consider changing for them?

 

Not much of a curve ball for me.  Roleplaying is not about using other peoples' characters as props for your story.  If my character trajectory is going one way, and someone wants my character trajectory to go another way, they'll have to do it the same way everyone else does: roleplay.  If they want my character to take up a specific role for their character, and they can't convince them through RP, it's not going to happen.

 

I'm old-fashioned like that.

[SaintEaon]

Instead of all the hypotheticals, why not tell us what kind of answer you're looking for?

 

None in particular, I'm just interested in the discussion ^.^

Waiting for Blueprints to finish, thought it sounded interesting to talk about.

[C'kayah Polaali]

Personally, I think that looking at RP in terms of "plots" is a mistake. RP should be a conversation. It should be collaborative. It should spring up organically based on the interactions of characters (including handwaved interactions that are discussed OOCly). Don't fret about the plot. Deal with your character, and the plots will take care of themselves.

[Warren Castille]

"Plot" can sometimes mean "general one sentence description of the current arc/angle." It's more often than not just "these things are on the horizon, let's explore" as opposed to "And this is the scene where the heroes storm the warehouse but it's a trap, and the villain gets away after using a smoke bomb."

 

To wit, I know there's a kidnapping plot going on with absolutely no coordination between the parties involved beyond "Kidnap that person" and "Don't let this person get kidnapped." It's been exhilarating.

[SaintEaon]

Personally, I think that looking at RP in terms of "plots" is a mistake. RP should be a conversation. It should be collaborative. It should spring up organically based on the interactions of characters (including handwaved interactions that are discussed OOCly). Don't fret about the plot. Deal with your character, and the plots will take care of themselves.

 

I am in the same boat ^.^

[C'kayah Polaali]

Personally, I think that looking at RP in terms of "plots" is a mistake. RP should be a conversation. It should be collaborative. It should spring up organically based on the interactions of characters (including handwaved interactions that are discussed OOCly). Don't fret about the plot. Deal with your character, and the plots will take care of themselves.

 

I am in the same boat ^.^

 

In that case, you've already got a good answer to your question: Play Raeaon as Raeaon. How would he respond in this situation? What would he do?

[SaintEaon]

"Plot" can sometimes mean "general one sentence description of the current arc/angle." It's more often than not just "these things are on the horizon, let's explore" as opposed to "And this is the scene where the heroes storm the warehouse but it's a trap, and the villain gets away after using a smoke bomb."

 

To wit, I know there's a kidnapping plot going on with absolutely no coordination between the parties involved beyond "Kidnap that person" and "Don't let this person get kidnapped." It's been exhilarating.

 

Sorry to double post. I just wanted to say 100% Yes to that.

 

Arc and Angles guys, suppose you're not taking part of a plot. How do you handle your arcs? Is it the same way? 

 

I know when I did Rae when I made him I had some general idea of what I wanted him ideally to be like, but I made a character who would fit in the world who had to goal of "I want to be this when I grow up." and he worked to that but I didn't put any steps down and let RP flow.

 

Would you budge from developmental arcs if someone gave you reason to budge?

[Warren Castille]

As an Arcangle (I just wanted to write that to see autocorrect frown at me) kind of guy, I'm pretty minimum on planning. My involvement is usually sparked by someone suggesting an idea to me OOCly, though some have sprang up entirely through in-game conversation. Hell, Warren got to do a run in in someone else's climax because they needed someone of his sort.

 

In the end, it really just boils down to "This is my idea, Y/N?" If it fits, Y. If it doesn't, N.

[Ignacius]

"Plot" can sometimes mean "general one sentence description of the current arc/angle." It's more often than not just "these things are on the horizon, let's explore" as opposed to "And this is the scene where the heroes storm the warehouse but it's a trap, and the villain gets away after using a smoke bomb."

 

To wit, I know there's a kidnapping plot going on with absolutely no coordination between the parties involved beyond "Kidnap that person" and "Don't let this person get kidnapped." It's been exhilarating.

 

Sorry to double post. I just wanted to say 100% Yes to that.

 

Arc and Angles guys, suppose you're not taking part of a plot. How do you handle your arcs? Is it the same way? 

 

I know when I did Rae when I made him I had some general idea of what I wanted him ideally to be like, but I made a character who would fit in the world who had to goal of "I want to be this when I grow up." and he worked to that but I didn't put any steps down and let RP flow.

 

Would you budge from developmental arcs if someone gave you reason to budge?

 

It's about character.  You don't play the result, you play the character.  If someone else's character is what would derail yours, you derail, following the character.

 

The best laid plans of mice and men generally involve the boring process of tunneling.

 

The best RP evolves organically, from character interaction.  I try not to have "arcs" because arcs are just things coming to Earth.  I definitely started RPing before everyone was an aspiring novelist trying to co-opt everyone else's characters, but the best RP arises from character interaction.  You go where the RP takes you.

[Warren Castille]

"Developmental arc" seems an oxymoron. If you're participating in RP, it's all potentially developmental.

[Diskwrite]

I think, if this is something that would completely disrupt your and your RP partner's plans, then you should have a conversation with your RP partner about it. I get the "roll with it" idea entirely, but when this happens, its important to keep your RP partner(s) in the loop.

 

Thing is, your character has their story and their character(s) have theirs. But when you're working together, it's not just your story anymore. It's a collaboration! If something happens that would affect your RP partners' stories so thoroughly, you should include them in the conversation. UNLESS, you have established in conversations with them before, you know they like being surprised that way.

 

My RP partner and I love surprising each other with twists and turns, but if something came up that would completely change our plans, I'd talk to her about it. We'd figure out together how we wanted to handle it.