After 9 years of doing it I am finally able to admit what I am, to put my hand up and say it loud and proud, I am an Rp-er. PHEW! I’ve come close a few times to admitting it, always in the most oblique terms, convinced that I would be shunned by all that knew me – even my beloved die-hard fencing geeks. That is, until recently when I learned that a very good friend, someone with an important job and some one who the next generation look too for guidance, actually spends one night a week with a 20 sided dice and a D&D strategy book. I am still somewhat reeling from the revelation that he spent 8 weeks sitting in his fencing kit (850newton Kevlar) while they LRPD the zombie apocalypse so I am confident that my RP forays will be accepted with relatively open arms (After a few giggles)
For those that don’t know RP is role-playing, now I am not a dungeons and dragon girl or anything of that sort, my poison is the forum RP, which I suppose could be argued is the love child of RP and fan fiction. Players either create originals characters (OC) or take up canon characters.
Every site has their own way of running thins, from the basic no application, no word limit affairs, to a lengthy application process and advanced posting of (600/800/1,000) word posts, Boards are generally found hosted on proboards, invisionfree; zetaboards had a minor swell in early 2000 but seem to have vanished again, at least from all useful advertising sites. Choosing were to plat can be as difficult as deciding what genre to pitch for. Finding the perfect RP can be a difficult business so here’s Dante’s guide to finding the perfect RP!
What To Look For:
- 1 Admin per 50 members/characters – but if the site is small or just starting 2 admins is a good number! Ideally they would be in different time zones, or offset a little so that while one is asleep others can be online, it really makes a difference. It means that admins are easy to get a hold off and you aren’t left waiting for DAYS for applications to be reviewed or questions to be answered.
- Active Admins! You can have all the admins in the world but if they aren’t active and aren’t advertising the site then you will spend a lifetime waiting to be accepted and by that stage the site will be dead from inactivity.
- Active Players: Obviously a half decent number of people to play with is vital. If there are only 5 players on a site which is more than a few months old you should be aware of what even if they have 5 characters each you will very quickly get bored of the same thing over and over again, and with all the will in the world you will run out of plots! Variety is the spice of life and it’s the spice of online life as well!
- Sensible Rules: Some admins want to be treated as gods and while every site needs some rules to stop power playing and god modding, some are overly prescriptive and meant to control how others play their characters. The ideal rules are a mix of common sense, fair play, and balance, to allow all members to start on an even footing and avoid Mary-Sue mega characters.
- Players Community: Is there plenty of OC chat, is it fun to simply hang out in the chatbox/chatroom and have a natter with other members? Its important to be able to vibe with other players outside the realm of characters, if you can spark of each other socially you will get the best out of each other creatively.
What to Avoid:
- Dozens of Admins: A site that has more admins than players when it is fledgling with 6 or more admins (I’ve seen 10+ on some sites)
- Cliques! It sucks in real life to be constantly trying to elbow your way into a clique, why hassle with it in online life! If everyone posts with the same people and isn’t really keen on posting with other/new players then avoid it like the plague! Who needs the agro!
- Activity: Depending on what you are looking for make sure that the site meets your activity needs! No one needs the drama/pressure of HAVING to post multiple times everyday in order to pander to the rules. If you only have a little time to spend rp-ing make sure you are on a site that only needs to be posted in every few days.
- Prescriptive character rules: Like I’ve mentioned variety is the spice of life! Its boring being on a site where every character has the same traits, the same look, the same tragedy riddled back story! It is understandable in real life sites that they require a real face, but sites which require that every face be a scene kid, or a Disney face, or something of that sort doesn’t give the player a chance to make the character their own. This leads me on neatly to my next point.
- Mary-Sue’s! NO-ONE should be permitted to have a mary sue character! For those that don’t know have a look at the Mary Sue HERE. By no one it should include the admin staff, sometimes it’s not okay for members to have them, but admins have these mega characters capable to steam rolling everyone else –any site with a preponderance of marysues/garystews should be avoided with passion!
For the past two years I have been an active and avid member on two forums-having become rather picky in my old age, but I thought I'd link them so you know what sites I think fulfil the requirements I set out.
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For the past two years I have been an active and avid member on two forums-having become rather picky in my old age, but I thought I'd link them so you know what sites I think fulfil the requirements I set out.
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