I think guygombaa states my reply to your second question very elegantly enough.
If you're still insistent on the subject though, highlight the part of my text which says 'your RP is uninteresting?!', and I'll get back to you on it.
And yea, Cloaked brings up a good point. Sometimes, even if you wrote out a very intricate and detailed storyline, it might not get much interest if the genre isn't one most might like to join.
I am not sure if I have the writing capabilities for a steampunk-detective RP. I would happily join one though. I mean, a team of people(or maybe several individuals) looking for answers to a crime. Getting into a firefight with wheellocks and clockwork weaponry on an airship? Awesome.
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
Cloaked's idea sounds way too good to pass up. The story would definitely have to be detailed and well thought out to do it full justice(as for who's to host it, I don't know if my skills are good enough to do so).
Maybe we could work out a storyline and background for this steampunk world as a special collab of sorts first?
I'd imagine the main infrastructure to be based off a group of freelance detectives/spies, who work together as a highly effective team. I don't know if the group should start out separated and organised by some mysterious head or they just met in a bar, or already integrated together in a sense of sorts(they already know each other to an extent). I don't really know whether we should even implement the usual tropes(evil corporations, oppressive government, wasteland, etc.) into the RP, or just make it much more free roam(picture Gunpoint, but in a world of clockwork).
... Of course they'd own their own private airship that they use for missions.
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Airship is a must.
I think it would be interesting to implement the standard tropes and see how they play out in a steampunk world.
What about more of an Avengers backstory, by which I mean completely unrelated Detectives coming together to face a common enemy and then sticking around.
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"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." - Marcus Aurelis
Sounds good. I don't know as to what sort of common foe they should have though, and as to how long it should stick around/how difficult and significant it is in the established universe.
It could be something like an oppressive government(this could play out either as a totalitarian regime over a huge landmass or a simple corrupt council of rulers in a small city), or even a secret society operating from the shadows(the trope is strong here) who has influenced lots of things in the land, and each of the detectives that got together have been affected by them and know of their existence one way or another. Just a few examples.
I don't know how long you'd want to stretch this arc out though. It could be for a relative while(weak/vulnerable enemy) and is just used to get the team together, or it could be for a long time(the main big bad behind everything). If we ended up choosing the long one, I might suggest inserting a few breaks in between the battle against the enemy, perhaps through taking up other unrelated/semi-related freelance contracts.
Collab sounds good. Brainstorming is now in session.
The antagonist could be anything really. Maybe the group would face up against a local mob boss and get introduced. Slowly making their way up to a kingpin or corrupt government official. Maybe at one point they fight a 'chessmaster' sort of villain that seems to predict the group's actions and counters it easily. Either cases in the arc, breaks are very much necessary. Provides character development and breaks monotony. Also allows new members to join in.
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
The idea of a local gang seems to interest me the most now that I think about it. It allows for each of the characters to quickly get acquainted with each other(perhaps they've been cheated by the gang somehow?) and easily aligns their interests to form a team. I like the idea that this could easily expand into a whole 'things aren't as they seem' kind of arc, where they eventually find out that as they dig deeper into the world, they find that a lot of antagonists(whether insignificant or major in a way) are somehow related to an unknown malicious entity of sorts, like a chessmaster who's been behind the curtains pulling the strings(the big bad basically).
And yep, I agree with the breaks. I doubt we're gonna be allowing characters to just join in the middle of a mission, so the side missions will allow for new players to introduce themselves. Plus, I'd imagine that the breaks would have some sort of free time kind of thing which allows for interaction between characters(e.g. a trip to the market eventually leads to a new contract).
I don't think an apocalyptic setting will be used in that case. I think the whole 'free roam steampunk world' is already pretty captivating enough in all honesty.
So, I think we have the main infrastructure for the RP set up?
Well, just a few more suggestions to add on to the RP.
Perhaps the main lore of the RP could be rooted in a 1984-ish kind of setting, where there are three main superpowers aiming for control of the skies/lands/seas, constantly either in war or allied with one another. It wouldn't be as horrible as 1984, in the sense that people still have a lot more liberty, no brainwashing, everyone's not as poor, not totalitarian, the war actually contributes to the economy(production of weapons), and people are free to roam around the world as much as possible(basically the only part I'm borrowing is the whole three superpowers part). There would most likely be pauses between the war, but it's practically a never ending war that continuously fluctuates between hot and cold. There would most likely be other minor countries who are kept protected either due to their position of some sort of special attribute, just to keep things interesting. The whole three superpowers fighting for control might allow for interesting arcs and goals for antagonists to develop, but it's just a thought.
I'd imagine the world wouldn't be a very nice one to live in compared to the modern era. Basically, the gap between the rich and poor are around the same as the period of the Industrial Revolution(albeit it's still comparatively better, as steam power has developed so far that the middle class is starting to develop a lot easier).
I'd love to have a whole underground network of gangs(a lot of which might even be connected to the 'chessmaster' villain), of which only very few non-criminals actually have knowledge of. And as our characters delve deeper into the depths of the underground, they'll learn a lot more about the inner mechanisms of how their world really works. To list a few short examples, perhaps a global economy based on the manufacturing of an exotic drug, where purity of the hallucinogen(or maybe even enhancer) is valued above all. Maybe even trading of selling manpower to discreetly assist in the three superpower war. Secret assassinations, selling of stolen caches of experimental, dangerous, and innovative weapons(still based off steam power of course), and etc. This list can go on for a while, and it'd allow for some interesting interactions with the characters as they learn more about how things really work behind the scenes; and how they can exploit it for their own uses.
A new type of resource. Compare it to how much value oil has today. This could be used as an untraceable type of currency among elite societies and groups, or just used in highly expensive auctions and trades between strange malicious villains hiding in the shadows. Perhaps it's a huge and compact source of power, or maybe even a kind of element used specifically to create new superbly useful tools and innovative forms of weaponry.
... Clockwork lasers. Put that in somewhere, whether or not it's some sort of experimental weapon stolen from an elite gang that the team decided to steal or maybe a design they managed to get as a reward from a happy contractor. Either ways, lots of fun to be had.
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
I think guygombaa states my reply to your second question very elegantly enough.
If you're still insistent on the subject though, highlight the part of my text which says 'your RP is uninteresting?!', and I'll get back to you on it.
And yea, Cloaked brings up a good point. Sometimes, even if you wrote out a very intricate and detailed storyline, it might not get much interest if the genre isn't one most might like to join.
also I'd join a steampunk-detective RP anyday
Crap. I made a joke and now the entire roleplaying community is mad. What is wrong with me?
Also, my roleplay is a Minecraft roleplay..... And I am presenting it to the MC forum.
what is steampunk-detective?
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-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
While I understand that it's a Minecraft roleplay on the Minecraft forums, the roleplaying community here(majority anyways) are not really interested in roleplaying a world in Minecraft. Just because all of us happen to have played/play a game doesn't necessarily mean that we want to roleplay about it. Sure, we might like the game. But whether or not we want to write for it is a different subject altogether. Most of the people here are a lot more intrigued by interesting, different, and detailed backgrounds and worlds, rather than just the usual bland Minecraft roleplay which could be argued to have already been done repeatedly.
When I talk about the audience you're presenting it for, I didn't mean that just because it's an *insert game here* forum, it meant that all roleplays focused on that single game get a lot of interest. It's often not always like that, and is certainly not like it here.
So in summary, Minecraft forums doesn't mean the roleplaying community is easily attracted to, or even very interested at all, in Minecraft roleplays. Same applies to other forums that have roleplaying sections, such as Spore Roleplay(which if you check, the front page is filled with genres not related to Spore whatsoever).
As for the Steampunk-Detective roleplay guys, perhaps we should move this to a PM to discuss rather than here? If so, I'll create one right away, and anyone who wants to join in the discussion can just say so here and we'll add her/him to the discussion.
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That didn't seem like a joke at all.
Also, Minecraft isn't very roleplay-friendly. When people make a good RP based on a game they like, it usually keeps the setting and themes, but not the gameplay. Do you get where this is going? Minecraft doesn't have a story. The Telltale games nonsense doesn't count. It just doesn't work, because you basically end up roleplaying Minecraft when you could just as easily play minecraft and get the same experience. We roleplay to get new experiences, not watered down ones.
Sure, lets move into a PM.
A steampunk-detective story is very self-explanatory. It's literally just a story about steampunk detectives.
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"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." - Marcus Aurelis
Steampunk is basically a world where machines are predominantly powered by, as the name suggests, steam. Mostly set in the industrial revolution and/or Victorian era. You can compare this with cyberpunk(a world powered by cybernetic technology) and atompunk(a world powered by atomic/nuclear energy).
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If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
Alright, PM created. As to anyone reading this in the future/right now who's interested in the idea and would like to share their ideas/help in development, just leave a message here and you'll be added into the discussion.
Yep, guygoomba makes a good point. Most people interested in games, while intrigued by it's established universe, mostly enjoy it due to the gameplay itself. If not, well, why not just read a book about the game then? Or a graphic novel if you're also into visuals. Or maybe even a television series while you're at it. Point is, unless the story is so damn captivating that it just needs a roleplay(i.e. something Minecraft lacks altogether), you probably shouldn't make a roleplay based off a game.
Unrelated, but strangely enough, there seems to be a whole set of genres based of Cyberpunk(basically, they all end with 'punk').
Not a funny joke? What else is new? I'm not funny.
Anyways, I'm out. You can have fun with your steampunk roleplay. But if people don't want to RP about MC, then how does LAAM have over 200 pages? And the Herobrine RP that's Minecraft-based and easily the most popular RP on here?
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-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Also, Minecraft isn't very roleplay-friendly. When people make a good RP based on a game they like, it usually keeps the setting and themes, but not the gameplay. Do you get where this is going? Minecraft doesn't have a story. The Telltale games nonsense doesn't count. It just doesn't work, because you basically end up roleplaying Minecraft when you could just as easily play minecraft and get the same experience. We roleplay to get new experiences, not watered down ones.
Sure, lets move into a PM.
A steampunk-detective story is very self-explanatory. It's literally just a story about steampunk detectives.
Have you looked at my RP? You can't get the same experience in Minecraft. Unless... Oh God, is there a mod to go into the Void?
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-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Those were created and started literally years ago. They're also a tiny minority in the whole spectrum of RPs altogether. Compare them to just the other RPs with huge amounts of posts as well, and you'll notice that popular Minecraft roleplays are an extremely small minority. As for the two RPs you mentioned... From a quick glance, the Herobrine RP already appears to be dead and basically closed and just kept alive with OOC talk. LaaM... there are literally just one liners everywhere. Sometimes just two words. Two words. Is that an RP you'd really want to create? Sure, you might argue that they have over 200 pages of content, but what kind of quality do most of those posts have? To quote the great Sloop:
((Being responsible for the current state of LaaM spawns a level of guilt that can not be repaired by blank compliments. Thanks, though.))
Sloop. I don't know what to say but sorry. You have my sincerest sympathies.
Either ways, back to the discussion at hand. If you really want to create an RP like that... well... I don't think you really need our advice on the subject. Besides, I think those two that you mentioned are the only ones I can even remember.
But tell you what, I'll address it. It could just be me, but I've noticed a pattern that seems to be recurring with RPs with the high amounts of posts. The quality of posts are most often simple one-liners, a paragraph at best, or lots of OOC chatter. Seriously, choose a random page number and read the first post. They're often not of a high word count. I'm not trying to insult anyone, but this seems to be a huge trend with these RPs. And trust me when I say, it isn't exactly hard to fill up pages with lots of OOC chatter and one liners. Point being?
RPs which allow for writers new to the trade to easily slip in and get attracted have better chances of living longer. Why? Imagine if you're a 12 year old newcomer to this section. Would you rather join a Minecraft roleplay, something you're familiar with, or would you join a complex and rich Steampunk-Detective Roleplay? Maybe you'd take just one glance at the latter, to see a person's incredibly long application. As in, an application you couldn't cover fully with your hand on the computer monitor. So yes, you'd switch to the Minecraft roleplay.
This, coupled with the fact that there will always be more newbies than professionals creates the environment we're currently experiencing. There will definitely be no shortage of people who easily understand how to write a sentence saying what they feel without capital letters, and people who easily write huge amounts of OOC posts anytime soon. As such?
Minecraft roleplays can thrive easily. If they're lucky enough to attract a substantial amount of loyal newbies quickly enough to sustain themselves. Believe me, I could easily create 50 pages of content by myself if all I had to do was write one liners for each post. Does this apply for everyone who joins Minecraft roleplays? No. Sometimes there are people like Sloop who can write detailed paragraphs of content, but he is one of a very small minority. A roleplay filled with one liners might be 'popular' but it wouldn't be one I'd like to join. If you'd like to, then go ahead. But if so, I'd think you're knocking on the wrong door for advice.
To cover the subject of your RP's supposedly innovative plot. Here is a very elegant example of what not to do in an RP, provided by grnmachine:
Okay so this rp happens (States random fandom) and (Adds plot twist) and feel free to join
I know other Minecraft roleplays are more detailed, but can their level of detail match, let's say, oh I don't know, Mafia's amazing Hot Zone's opening post(revival coming soon)? No? Precisely.
It's lazy and vague. I can do one too in just 30 seconds:
The spider king, in all his glory, had united the arachnids all under a single flag. Together, their strength easily plows through Minecraftia, taking over plots of land without any difficulty whatsoever. Will you help in stopping him?
Keep in mind that I could probably expand this in 2 more minutes to a word count similar to most Minecraft roleplays(including LaaM, Herobrine, and yours). With 10 minutes, I could even make an opening post bigger than these three all combined. Now, is there a mod about a spider king leading a legionnaire of spiders under him, using complicated weaponry such as cannons and machine guns to conquer Minecraft? No. Does it make it interesting? The answer is the same. Just adding a simple plot twist to a fandom/game in this way is easy and just pure lazy.
And with that, I think my points have been made clear enough.
Those were created and started literally years ago. They're also a tiny minority in the whole spectrum of RPs altogether. Compare them to just the other RPs with huge amounts of posts as well, and you'll notice that popular Minecraft roleplays are an extremely small minority. As for the two RPs you mentioned... From a quick glance, the Herobrine RP already appears to be dead and basically closed and just kept alive with OOC talk. LaaM... there are literally just one liners everywhere. Sometimes just two words. Two words. Is that an RP you'd really want to create? Sure, you might argue that they have over 200 pages of content, but what kind of quality do most of those posts have? To quote the great Sloop:
Sloop. I don't know what to say but sorry. You have my sincerest sympathies.
Either ways, back to the discussion at hand. If you really want to create an RP like that... well... I don't think you really need our advice on the subject. Besides, I think those two that you mentioned are the only ones I can even remember.
But tell you what, I'll address it. It could just be me, but I've noticed a pattern that seems to be recurring with RPs with the high amounts of posts. The quality of posts are most often simple one-liners, a paragraph at best, or lots of OOC chatter. Seriously, choose a random page number and read the first post. They're often not of a high word count. I'm not trying to insult anyone, but this seems to be a huge trend with these RPs. And trust me when I say, it isn't exactly hard to fill up pages with lots of OOC chatter and one liners. Point being?
RPs which allow for writers new to the trade to easily slip in and get attracted have better chances of living longer. Why? Imagine if you're a 12 year old newcomer to this section. Would you rather join a Minecraft roleplay, something you're familiar with, or would you join a complex and rich Steampunk-Detective Roleplay? Maybe you'd take just one glance at the latter, to see a person's incredibly long application. As in, an application you couldn't cover fully with your hand on the computer monitor. So yes, you'd switch to the Minecraft roleplay.
This, coupled with the fact that there will always be more newbies than professionals creates the environment we're currently experiencing. There will definitely be no shortage of people who easily understand how to write a sentence saying what they feel without capital letters, and people who easily write huge amounts of OOC posts anytime soon. As such?
Minecraft roleplays can thrive easily. If they're lucky enough to attract a substantial amount of loyal newbies quickly enough to sustain themselves. Believe me, I could easily create 50 pages of content by myself if all I had to do was write one liners for each post. Does this apply for everyone who joins Minecraft roleplays? No. Sometimes there are people like Sloop who can write detailed paragraphs of content, but he is one of a very small minority. A roleplay filled with one liners might be 'popular' but it wouldn't be one I'd like to join. If you'd like to, then go ahead. But if so, I'd think you're knocking on the wrong door for advice.
To cover the subject of your RP's supposedly innovative plot. Here is a very elegant example of what not to do in an RP, provided by grnmachine:
I know other Minecraft roleplays are more detailed, but can their level of detail match, let's say, oh I don't know, MafiaDog's amazing Hot Zone's opening post(revival coming soon)? No? Precisely.
It's lazy and vague. I can do one too in just 30 seconds:
Keep in mind that I could probably expand this in 2 more minutes to a word count similar to most Minecraft roleplays(including LaaM, Herobrine, and yours). With 10 minutes, I could even make an opening post bigger than these three all combined. Now, is there a mod about a spider king leading a legionnaire of spiders under him, using complicated weaponry such as cannons and machine guns to conquer Minecraft? No. Does it make it interesting? The answer is the same. Just adding a simple plot twist to a fandom/game in this way is easy and just pure lazy.
And with that, I think my points have been made clear enough.
So your point is that the only people who will join are newbies? Thanks for the advice; maybe I should leave the roleplaying section.
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-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Rainbow, don't take this(and what the other roleplayers have said) out of context. These people are all trying to help you. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I have learned from their words. What they are trying to say is that people join what they are interested in. Minecraft roleplays are really catered to one audience: people who want to play minecraft, which can be easily achieved by playing minecraft. Your roleplay can also be played in minecraft by playing in a RP server of sorts.
Now I am not saying that you should not join the forum roleplaying section entirely, what I am saying is that if you want to attract more people to your roleplays, is that you need to pull them in with something interesting. For example, Rekindle pulled people in with a topic that has rarely been seen to grace the forums. Naturally, people went for it because it was very interesting. You CAN make minecraft roleplays interesting, but usually, the more interesting you make it, the more it starts to deviate from the original setting of minecraft and more into their own fantasy setting.
Don't get me wrong, minecraft is a good base for RP. I'm just saying that if you build it up, you may end up eliminating the minecraft aspect entirely. So, to make a long lasting minecraft roleplay is difficult, but not unheard of(hence LaaM and the Herobrine RP). If you want to attract people to the setting, you need an interesting plot or more importantly, an interesting setting. We can all relate to minecraft, so it's a setting we're familiar with. Many people want to dip their toes in unfamiliar settings we've never heard of(or heard of, but REALLY want to try). So yeah. What you choose to do with this advice is your own choice. It would be a shame to lose a roleplayer, especially one with the potential to be better.
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If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
@Rainbow Saying 'You can go into the void' does not make a unique experience. It's still a minecraft rp.
LaaM was actually just one of many 'play as a mob' RP's. It was the only one to retain traction, and it kind of spiraled into something even more casual than a casual RP.
Herobrine has always been about it's own lore, Minecraft was just a back-drop to make the RP easier to make and more attractive for newcomers.
If you actually bother to look at the five most popular threads in the RP section, it features Ulti's Bar and Grill, which is, like LaaM, the most successful of a really spammy setting. It basically succeeded because a lot of furries found home there. From what I understand.
The PoW OOC. The Pricpers pretty much sat on the high mountain of PoW OOC and laughed at the commoners below, like gods watching ants. Then they packed up and left.
Two Pokemon RP's. Pokemon, like minecraft, is well known and easy to do. From what I hear, Topaz was gorram amazing. The other one just got lucky. During a drought of interesting ideas, everybody flocked to anything even mildly interesting. Didn't suck, but wasn't great.
And then my RP, HMA, which, believe it or not, at the time was an original idea. Then the Highschool RP wars began and everybody threw themselves off cliffs like PILES OF FLESHY MEAT SACKS AND-
*ahem*
I have looked at your RP. Your vague and uninteresting story can't hold much. I'm not saying you should leave, but if you want to make an RP, even another MC RP, try harder. Spend a few more minutes on it. Try to create something original. Original does not mean slightly change something pre-existent, but something that has yet to be done.
Let me try:
In the long forgotten lands of Urven, there were once a great and powerful race known as the Humans. But then, the Yurgen came like a rippling tide with their draconic steeds and crushed the Humans, eternally damning them. So the humans vanished, and the Yurgen struck Urven from the annals of history. Five weeks ago, a great light shot into the sky. Somebody has awakened the dragons of Urven. Somebody has awakened the Humans.
Took me 2 minutes.
Also, when I joined this forum, there wasn't even a forum roleplaying section. You had to go to the Art-Stories section or the Forum Games section and pray to god there was a new RP, because only about 8 would run at a time. RP's were a rare, interesting thing, and RPer's fought like hell for their own section. But not a single MC RP existed, either. Because nobody wanted them.
I think guygombaa states my reply to your second question very elegantly enough.
If you're still insistent on the subject though, highlight the part of my text which says 'your RP is uninteresting?!', and I'll get back to you on it.
And yea, Cloaked brings up a good point. Sometimes, even if you wrote out a very intricate and detailed storyline, it might not get much interest if the genre isn't one most might like to join.
also I'd join a steampunk-detective RP anyday
I am not sure if I have the writing capabilities for a steampunk-detective RP. I would happily join one though. I mean, a team of people(or maybe several individuals) looking for answers to a crime. Getting into a firefight with wheellocks and clockwork weaponry on an airship? Awesome.
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
Guys we need to make this a thing. I don't want to run it, but it'd be an awesome collab.
"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." - Marcus Aurelis
Cloaked's idea sounds way too good to pass up. The story would definitely have to be detailed and well thought out to do it full justice(as for who's to host it, I don't know if my skills are good enough to do so).
Maybe we could work out a storyline and background for this steampunk world as a special collab of sorts first?
I'd imagine the main infrastructure to be based off a group of freelance detectives/spies, who work together as a highly effective team. I don't know if the group should start out separated and organised by some mysterious head or they just met in a bar, or already integrated together in a sense of sorts(they already know each other to an extent). I don't really know whether we should even implement the usual tropes(evil corporations, oppressive government, wasteland, etc.) into the RP, or just make it much more free roam(picture Gunpoint, but in a world of clockwork).
... Of course they'd own their own private airship that they use for missions.
Airship is a must.
I think it would be interesting to implement the standard tropes and see how they play out in a steampunk world.
What about more of an Avengers backstory, by which I mean completely unrelated Detectives coming together to face a common enemy and then sticking around.
"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." - Marcus Aurelis
Sounds good. I don't know as to what sort of common foe they should have though, and as to how long it should stick around/how difficult and significant it is in the established universe.
It could be something like an oppressive government(this could play out either as a totalitarian regime over a huge landmass or a simple corrupt council of rulers in a small city), or even a secret society operating from the shadows(the trope is strong here) who has influenced lots of things in the land, and each of the detectives that got together have been affected by them and know of their existence one way or another. Just a few examples.
I don't know how long you'd want to stretch this arc out though. It could be for a relative while(weak/vulnerable enemy) and is just used to get the team together, or it could be for a long time(the main big bad behind everything). If we ended up choosing the long one, I might suggest inserting a few breaks in between the battle against the enemy, perhaps through taking up other unrelated/semi-related freelance contracts.
Collab sounds good. Brainstorming is now in session.
The antagonist could be anything really. Maybe the group would face up against a local mob boss and get introduced. Slowly making their way up to a kingpin or corrupt government official. Maybe at one point they fight a 'chessmaster' sort of villain that seems to predict the group's actions and counters it easily. Either cases in the arc, breaks are very much necessary. Provides character development and breaks monotony. Also allows new members to join in.
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
The idea of a local gang seems to interest me the most now that I think about it. It allows for each of the characters to quickly get acquainted with each other(perhaps they've been cheated by the gang somehow?) and easily aligns their interests to form a team. I like the idea that this could easily expand into a whole 'things aren't as they seem' kind of arc, where they eventually find out that as they dig deeper into the world, they find that a lot of antagonists(whether insignificant or major in a way) are somehow related to an unknown malicious entity of sorts, like a chessmaster who's been behind the curtains pulling the strings(the big bad basically).
And yep, I agree with the breaks. I doubt we're gonna be allowing characters to just join in the middle of a mission, so the side missions will allow for new players to introduce themselves. Plus, I'd imagine that the breaks would have some sort of free time kind of thing which allows for interaction between characters(e.g. a trip to the market eventually leads to a new contract).
I don't think an apocalyptic setting will be used in that case. I think the whole 'free roam steampunk world' is already pretty captivating enough in all honesty.
So, I think we have the main infrastructure for the RP set up?
Well, just a few more suggestions to add on to the RP.
Perhaps the main lore of the RP could be rooted in a 1984-ish kind of setting, where there are three main superpowers aiming for control of the skies/lands/seas, constantly either in war or allied with one another. It wouldn't be as horrible as 1984, in the sense that people still have a lot more liberty, no brainwashing, everyone's not as poor, not totalitarian, the war actually contributes to the economy(production of weapons), and people are free to roam around the world as much as possible(basically the only part I'm borrowing is the whole three superpowers part). There would most likely be pauses between the war, but it's practically a never ending war that continuously fluctuates between hot and cold. There would most likely be other minor countries who are kept protected either due to their position of some sort of special attribute, just to keep things interesting. The whole three superpowers fighting for control might allow for interesting arcs and goals for antagonists to develop, but it's just a thought.
I'd imagine the world wouldn't be a very nice one to live in compared to the modern era. Basically, the gap between the rich and poor are around the same as the period of the Industrial Revolution(albeit it's still comparatively better, as steam power has developed so far that the middle class is starting to develop a lot easier).
I'd love to have a whole underground network of gangs(a lot of which might even be connected to the 'chessmaster' villain), of which only very few non-criminals actually have knowledge of. And as our characters delve deeper into the depths of the underground, they'll learn a lot more about the inner mechanisms of how their world really works. To list a few short examples, perhaps a global economy based on the manufacturing of an exotic drug, where purity of the hallucinogen(or maybe even enhancer) is valued above all. Maybe even trading of selling manpower to discreetly assist in the three superpower war. Secret assassinations, selling of stolen caches of experimental, dangerous, and innovative weapons(still based off steam power of course), and etc. This list can go on for a while, and it'd allow for some interesting interactions with the characters as they learn more about how things really work behind the scenes; and how they can exploit it for their own uses.
A new type of resource. Compare it to how much value oil has today. This could be used as an untraceable type of currency among elite societies and groups, or just used in highly expensive auctions and trades between strange malicious villains hiding in the shadows. Perhaps it's a huge and compact source of power, or maybe even a kind of element used specifically to create new superbly useful tools and innovative forms of weaponry.
... Clockwork lasers. Put that in somewhere, whether or not it's some sort of experimental weapon stolen from an elite gang that the team decided to steal or maybe a design they managed to get as a reward from a happy contractor. Either ways, lots of fun to be had.
Sounds awesome. Definitely want the RP to be a thing now. Will post more ideas tomorrow, but I leave this for now.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SoYouWantTo/WriteASteampunkStory
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
Crap. I made a joke and now the entire roleplaying community is mad. What is wrong with me?
Also, my roleplay is a Minecraft roleplay..... And I am presenting it to the MC forum.
what is steampunk-detective?
-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Not a funny joke, but I'll bite.
While I understand that it's a Minecraft roleplay on the Minecraft forums, the roleplaying community here(majority anyways) are not really interested in roleplaying a world in Minecraft. Just because all of us happen to have played/play a game doesn't necessarily mean that we want to roleplay about it. Sure, we might like the game. But whether or not we want to write for it is a different subject altogether. Most of the people here are a lot more intrigued by interesting, different, and detailed backgrounds and worlds, rather than just the usual bland Minecraft roleplay which could be argued to have already been done repeatedly.
When I talk about the audience you're presenting it for, I didn't mean that just because it's an *insert game here* forum, it meant that all roleplays focused on that single game get a lot of interest. It's often not always like that, and is certainly not like it here.
So in summary, Minecraft forums doesn't mean the roleplaying community is easily attracted to, or even very interested at all, in Minecraft roleplays. Same applies to other forums that have roleplaying sections, such as Spore Roleplay(which if you check, the front page is filled with genres not related to Spore whatsoever).
As for the Steampunk-Detective roleplay guys, perhaps we should move this to a PM to discuss rather than here? If so, I'll create one right away, and anyone who wants to join in the discussion can just say so here and we'll add her/him to the discussion.
That didn't seem like a joke at all.
Also, Minecraft isn't very roleplay-friendly. When people make a good RP based on a game they like, it usually keeps the setting and themes, but not the gameplay. Do you get where this is going? Minecraft doesn't have a story. The Telltale games nonsense doesn't count. It just doesn't work, because you basically end up roleplaying Minecraft when you could just as easily play minecraft and get the same experience. We roleplay to get new experiences, not watered down ones.
Sure, lets move into a PM.
A steampunk-detective story is very self-explanatory. It's literally just a story about steampunk detectives.
"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." - Marcus Aurelis
Yeah. Let's move it to a PM.
Steampunk is basically a world where machines are predominantly powered by, as the name suggests, steam. Mostly set in the industrial revolution and/or Victorian era. You can compare this with cyberpunk(a world powered by cybernetic technology) and atompunk(a world powered by atomic/nuclear energy).
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
Alright, PM created. As to anyone reading this in the future/right now who's interested in the idea and would like to share their ideas/help in development, just leave a message here and you'll be added into the discussion.
Yep, guygoomba makes a good point. Most people interested in games, while intrigued by it's established universe, mostly enjoy it due to the gameplay itself. If not, well, why not just read a book about the game then? Or a graphic novel if you're also into visuals. Or maybe even a television series while you're at it. Point is, unless the story is so damn captivating that it just needs a roleplay(i.e. something Minecraft lacks altogether), you probably shouldn't make a roleplay based off a game.
Unrelated, but strangely enough, there seems to be a whole set of genres based of Cyberpunk(basically, they all end with 'punk').
Not a funny joke? What else is new? I'm not funny.
Anyways, I'm out. You can have fun with your steampunk roleplay. But if people don't want to RP about MC, then how does LAAM have over 200 pages? And the Herobrine RP that's Minecraft-based and easily the most popular RP on here?
-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Have you looked at my RP? You can't get the same experience in Minecraft. Unless... Oh God, is there a mod to go into the Void?
-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Those were created and started literally years ago. They're also a tiny minority in the whole spectrum of RPs altogether. Compare them to just the other RPs with huge amounts of posts as well, and you'll notice that popular Minecraft roleplays are an extremely small minority. As for the two RPs you mentioned... From a quick glance, the Herobrine RP already appears to be dead and basically closed and just kept alive with OOC talk. LaaM... there are literally just one liners everywhere. Sometimes just two words. Two words. Is that an RP you'd really want to create? Sure, you might argue that they have over 200 pages of content, but what kind of quality do most of those posts have? To quote the great Sloop:
Sloop. I don't know what to say but sorry. You have my sincerest sympathies.
Either ways, back to the discussion at hand. If you really want to create an RP like that... well... I don't think you really need our advice on the subject. Besides, I think those two that you mentioned are the only ones I can even remember.
But tell you what, I'll address it. It could just be me, but I've noticed a pattern that seems to be recurring with RPs with the high amounts of posts. The quality of posts are most often simple one-liners, a paragraph at best, or lots of OOC chatter. Seriously, choose a random page number and read the first post. They're often not of a high word count. I'm not trying to insult anyone, but this seems to be a huge trend with these RPs. And trust me when I say, it isn't exactly hard to fill up pages with lots of OOC chatter and one liners. Point being?
RPs which allow for writers new to the trade to easily slip in and get attracted have better chances of living longer. Why? Imagine if you're a 12 year old newcomer to this section. Would you rather join a Minecraft roleplay, something you're familiar with, or would you join a complex and rich Steampunk-Detective Roleplay? Maybe you'd take just one glance at the latter, to see a person's incredibly long application. As in, an application you couldn't cover fully with your hand on the computer monitor. So yes, you'd switch to the Minecraft roleplay.
This, coupled with the fact that there will always be more newbies than professionals creates the environment we're currently experiencing. There will definitely be no shortage of people who easily understand how to write a sentence saying what they feel without capital letters, and people who easily write huge amounts of OOC posts anytime soon. As such?
Minecraft roleplays can thrive easily. If they're lucky enough to attract a substantial amount of loyal newbies quickly enough to sustain themselves. Believe me, I could easily create 50 pages of content by myself if all I had to do was write one liners for each post. Does this apply for everyone who joins Minecraft roleplays? No. Sometimes there are people like Sloop who can write detailed paragraphs of content, but he is one of a very small minority. A roleplay filled with one liners might be 'popular' but it wouldn't be one I'd like to join. If you'd like to, then go ahead. But if so, I'd think you're knocking on the wrong door for advice.
To cover the subject of your RP's supposedly innovative plot. Here is a very elegant example of what not to do in an RP, provided by grnmachine:
I know other Minecraft roleplays are more detailed, but can their level of detail match, let's say, oh I don't know, Mafia's amazing Hot Zone's opening post(revival coming soon)? No? Precisely.
It's lazy and vague. I can do one too in just 30 seconds:
Keep in mind that I could probably expand this in 2 more minutes to a word count similar to most Minecraft roleplays(including LaaM, Herobrine, and yours). With 10 minutes, I could even make an opening post bigger than these three all combined. Now, is there a mod about a spider king leading a legionnaire of spiders under him, using complicated weaponry such as cannons and machine guns to conquer Minecraft? No. Does it make it interesting? The answer is the same. Just adding a simple plot twist to a fandom/game in this way is easy and just pure lazy.
And with that, I think my points have been made clear enough.
So your point is that the only people who will join are newbies? Thanks for the advice; maybe I should leave the roleplaying section.
-The Lovely and Magestic RainbowGirl
Whatever I just said, I didn't mean any offense. Unless we're fighting, in which case I probably did.
If I said something was a joke when it didn't seem like one, I'm making an excuse to avoid an argument I know is coming. Instead of telling me how not funny I am and how it didn't seem like a joke at all, just go along with it. Because flame wars suck and nobody wants to be a part of one.
Roughly 95% of Minecraft players hate Villagers and would be very happy if they were removed. If you are one of the 5% who actually like villagers, copy this into your signature.-RainbowGirl
The damn image won't work-screw my iPad!-but you should click this link. Now. Or you'll regret it...because this suggestion is epic.
Rainbow, don't take this(and what the other roleplayers have said) out of context. These people are all trying to help you. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I have learned from their words. What they are trying to say is that people join what they are interested in. Minecraft roleplays are really catered to one audience: people who want to play minecraft, which can be easily achieved by playing minecraft. Your roleplay can also be played in minecraft by playing in a RP server of sorts.
Now I am not saying that you should not join the forum roleplaying section entirely, what I am saying is that if you want to attract more people to your roleplays, is that you need to pull them in with something interesting. For example, Rekindle pulled people in with a topic that has rarely been seen to grace the forums. Naturally, people went for it because it was very interesting. You CAN make minecraft roleplays interesting, but usually, the more interesting you make it, the more it starts to deviate from the original setting of minecraft and more into their own fantasy setting.
Don't get me wrong, minecraft is a good base for RP. I'm just saying that if you build it up, you may end up eliminating the minecraft aspect entirely. So, to make a long lasting minecraft roleplay is difficult, but not unheard of(hence LaaM and the Herobrine RP). If you want to attract people to the setting, you need an interesting plot or more importantly, an interesting setting. We can all relate to minecraft, so it's a setting we're familiar with. Many people want to dip their toes in unfamiliar settings we've never heard of(or heard of, but REALLY want to try). So yeah. What you choose to do with this advice is your own choice. It would be a shame to lose a roleplayer, especially one with the potential to be better.
If I do not reply to my posts, I either have no internet connection, or am busy with college work. Alternatively, I may be writing up the post now. It all depends on the situation.
Pretty much sums it all up.
@Rainbow Saying 'You can go into the void' does not make a unique experience. It's still a minecraft rp.
LaaM was actually just one of many 'play as a mob' RP's. It was the only one to retain traction, and it kind of spiraled into something even more casual than a casual RP.
Herobrine has always been about it's own lore, Minecraft was just a back-drop to make the RP easier to make and more attractive for newcomers.
If you actually bother to look at the five most popular threads in the RP section, it features Ulti's Bar and Grill, which is, like LaaM, the most successful of a really spammy setting. It basically succeeded because a lot of furries found home there. From what I understand.
The PoW OOC. The Pricpers pretty much sat on the high mountain of PoW OOC and laughed at the commoners below, like gods watching ants. Then they packed up and left.
Two Pokemon RP's. Pokemon, like minecraft, is well known and easy to do. From what I hear, Topaz was gorram amazing. The other one just got lucky. During a drought of interesting ideas, everybody flocked to anything even mildly interesting. Didn't suck, but wasn't great.
And then my RP, HMA, which, believe it or not, at the time was an original idea. Then the Highschool RP wars began and everybody threw themselves off cliffs like PILES OF FLESHY MEAT SACKS AND-
*ahem*
I have looked at your RP. Your vague and uninteresting story can't hold much. I'm not saying you should leave, but if you want to make an RP, even another MC RP, try harder. Spend a few more minutes on it. Try to create something original. Original does not mean slightly change something pre-existent, but something that has yet to be done.
Let me try:
In the long forgotten lands of Urven, there were once a great and powerful race known as the Humans. But then, the Yurgen came like a rippling tide with their draconic steeds and crushed the Humans, eternally damning them. So the humans vanished, and the Yurgen struck Urven from the annals of history. Five weeks ago, a great light shot into the sky. Somebody has awakened the dragons of Urven. Somebody has awakened the Humans.
Took me 2 minutes.
Also, when I joined this forum, there wasn't even a forum roleplaying section. You had to go to the Art-Stories section or the Forum Games section and pray to god there was a new RP, because only about 8 would run at a time. RP's were a rare, interesting thing, and RPer's fought like hell for their own section. But not a single MC RP existed, either. Because nobody wanted them.
"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." - Marcus Aurelis