Public Quest Journal

[Moltove]

As a continuation of my previous post here.

 

So upon reflection of a multitude of things, I think I figured something out. I wanted to create a quest journal, similar to in game journals, that are strictly for RP quest arcs. I thought about keeping a nice and tidy .doc file, but then thought "why not make it public?". So I checked out the Tumblrs in the above thread to see what the layout was like and if it generally fit my tastes. Unfortunately, it just wasn't what I was looking for (quite yet, in my inexperienced state), so I thought about making an intuitive social media platform that could potentially be opened up to ALL RPers across the wide range of MMOs, of whom other players could view your character's entries and somehow get tips to get involved. There would be character lists on the entry for those involved (and then subsequently removed if need-be). The possibility was endless. Alas, it was too ambitious, until I can get my hands on a web programmer working for free.

 

I considered the Wiki, but with concerns of keeping the entire Wiki uncluttered vs. character pages uncluttered, I was at a loss...until I realized the Discussion Page on our character profiles can be utilized. I had been using mine for story notes, ingredients and other stuff until I just realized /that/ should be on a .doc file.

 

What am I talking about, you say?

 

A public quest journal. What you do is you list your character's current RP quests-- Going after/finding story antagonists, finding lost family and friends, mending broken weapons, going shopping for an exclusive item-- ANYTHING could be used for your character to set up quests.

 

As you all know, a lot of our 'quests' will merge , morph and change as we progress with or without others help. By putting up quest entries, you can add an nteractive or nfluence tag on the entry to signal other players to know your character (whether he/she knows it or not) may need help or is generally influenced on certain subjects and courses of action through more interactions with more players. Though, it is important to either be somewhat vague or to provide miniscule hints for your character on an entry, possibly stating, "Molt can be found sometimes talking about the subject in Soliloquy Tavern and is on the fence on what exactly to do next." or "Molt, as a traveling merchant and can easily be found in any city-state depending on his travel schedule (PM for more info/schedule run-in)."

 

This last notion does prove problematic. The chances of godmodding could raise, but I think a little common sense can fix this. We are very open on divulging our character's backstory, yet more often than not it's usually STRICTLY private and would not ever be known. Considering this, we still want to tell the story-- we post up Wikis and we drop hints on our characters for others to inquire about. It's nearly the same concept: We have our CURRENT and DEVELOPING story posted, and we drop hints as to pick up others to help us fulfill tasks, get opinions or just generally inform.

 

The Quest Journal can be divided into a few categories:

 

 

Main Story Arcs-- These are your character's bread and butter. These often tie into a backstory that you've set up, and anything currently posted under here offers status updates and possible leads on where your character will be going from there. (THIS DOES NOT MEAN THINGS CAN'T CHANGE! Thus, you simply update accordingly!). These quests should normally be limited in player assistance, aside from RP generated in the past (1.0) with others, or if your character is at a stand-still and needs something to progress (perhaps another player or what another player could make or own--or just knows!)

 

Side Quests-- These quests arein a way not as important, and can range a bit wider to simple tasks that your character needs to get done, often times in order to advance in a Main Story Arc. Broken weapon? Need something enchanted? Need to train? This is possibly the spot to post the entry under.

 

Public Quests-- These are quests that you may be offering openly to other players. Again, finding something and requesting assistance, getting something fixed; as long as the request is more or less looking for more players to assist, then it would go here. Molt, as a merchant, sells basic supplies and weapons for adventurers, and while it's not strictly a "quest" to offer his services out to others, it does announce to anyone who's interested that he offers this service. Others could do mercenary entries, craft entries, you name it! If you talk to a player in-game and if it's established you do something for this person (just like an NPC), you can copy and paste the entry to your own Shared Quests section (and link to it) or into a Completed Quest section.

 

Shared Quests-- As touched on before, Shared quests would most likely what you are currently tackling with others. Propositioned or offered to help someone? Take that entry down and copy it here, create a link in the title to the original entry and you're good to go!

 

Completed Quests-- For when you complete your quests and move on, you can stuff  the entries here, most likely with the title and a spoiler tag.

 

Entries with special notifications to players interested can be tagged (as mentioned above) and as long as you set a general tag legend at the top (or just explain at the bottom of the entry) players will know what quests you're looking for RP with.

 

Think of it as like a freakishly mutated "Looking for RP" section on steroids, that likes to actually network. You can create a simple line on your main character page, more or less saying to check out the page and link to it. You can make links to specific quests in your backstory or other part of the Wiki to link directly to the quest (not just to the entire journal page, but to the actual /entry/).

 

There's so much possibilities with this. Please check out Molt's Work in Progress Public Quest Journal to get a better idea and tell me what you think and if it has any potential widespread use. If it doesn't, then FUC I'll just use it on my lonesome =X For the record, though, I've been thinking of every excuse on why not to do this, but I keep finding simple workarounds for it >.>

 

TL;DR? FU!! Go to Molt's Journal and see if you want to use this clever device for inter-RP Awesomeness. And sorry this bitch is long. Been a day. I'll disable my signature for you, you lazy jerk.

[Tabrett]

Have you looked into something like Wordpress? I don't know it it would fufill all of your needs, but check it out? That's the route I plan to (eventually) go with Kerr.

[Aysun]

I'm.. wat.

 

No really, I think this is a cool idea, but it's certainly not something for everyone. I'm overwhelmed by it, personally. I much prefer RP just "happening" rather than anything like this, but that's just me. I hope you get some interest!

[Adventurer]

I actually really like this idea! It's a great way to show others which direction your character is looking to go and if people's characters would fit in with interacting with them (and also when!)!

 

My issue is (and this is because I'm lazy) it will probably need a lot of updating after every few RP sessions and that's something I'm absolutely terrible with!

 

Come launch I might actually give this a go and see how I do with keeping it up to date. It'd become very interesting to see how your character's direction has changed and what caused it to change all on one page later down the line!

[Moltove]

Have you looked into something like Wordpress? I don't know it it would fufill all of your needs, but check it out? That's the route I plan to (eventually) go with Kerr.

I just made an account this morning, though I'm having a bit of trouble with it. I'll have to look deeper into it-- Might be a good place for both this /and/ a regular journal, but I'm not 100%.

 

What I'm concerned about is keeping the main RP quest entries open and accessable. While I like the idea of having them organized by time, I feel like depending on how many quests you would have up, some would get archived, and in general it wouldn't be too easy for another usuer to peruse for interactive quests-- if that makes any lick of sense >.>

I'm.. wat.

 

No really, I think this is a cool idea, but it's certainly not something for everyone. I'm overwhelmed by it, personally. I much prefer RP just "happening" rather than anything like this, but that's just me. I hope you get some interest!

 

Fair enough. The aspect of letting others know or inclining them to participate may be a bit off-putting (as it's less random) But I hope to see usage even if you don't want others to "run-in" to your character, as it makes for an interesting side-journal. We'll see if it takes hold at all.

 

At the very least for me, it does help me keep track of Molt's goals and things he has going on, after all. But I have to write that stuff down-- terrible memory >.<

 

 

I actually really like this idea! It's a great way to show others which direction your character is looking to go and if people's characters would fit in with interacting with them (and also when!)!

 

My issue is (and this is because I'm lazy) it will probably need a lot of updating after every few RP sessions and that's something I'm absolutely terrible with!

 

Come launch I might actually give this a go and see how I do with keeping it up to date. It'd become very interesting to see how your character's direction has changed and what caused it to change all on one page later down the line!

 

 

That's probably the hardest part I'll have as well >.<

[Tabrett]

Have you looked into something like Wordpress? I don't know it it would fufill all of your needs, but check it out? That's the route I plan to (eventually) go with Kerr.

I just made an account this morning, though I'm having a bit of trouble with it. I'll have to look deeper into it-- Might be a good place for both this /and/ a regular journal, but I'm not 100%.

 

What I'm concerned about is keeping the main RP quest entries open and accessable. While I like the idea of having them organized by time, I feel like depending on how many quests you would have up, some would get archived, and in general it wouldn't be too easy for another usuer to peruse for interactive quests-- if that makes any lick of sense >.>

 

I don't think it will be accessible to the general public (as in they can post/update/sign up for quests) but it could prove a good place to post them.  I'm looking into making several pages for Kerr's info and maybe quest logs now! General info and things. And then have his journal too. I'll keep you updated on how's it's going for me. I'll probably start tweaking the actual page sometime today.

[Aysun]

Oh I still write things down. Aysun keeps an IC journal, and one of the main perks is I can just read it so I can remember what has happened. x_x I have terrible memorryyy.