Oh geez hahaha. You guys really ran away with this. I was just thinking pure slice of life. I mean, sure characters can have dramatic backstories. While I will encourage some people to make characters that would pass as perfectly normal in society I know its far too much to ask most RPers to make just those types of characters. Indeed, I already intend on making one set of characters that is essentially a heir to a influential family and his younger adopted brother/assistant/servant type person.

Moving on though from my original ideas allow me to appraise some of yours. The island idea is interesting, but in my experience it has always failed for one reason; Balance between interaction with characters and the environment and a lack/difference of knowledge between RPers on how to survive on an island. When survival is an issue I find that RPers only know their personal plans for how to get by on an island and the presence of that while fulfilling in a story you write on your own tends to dull character interaction in an RP. That said, I'm still open since I've grown a LOT as a Rper since the last time I tried, and we can always easily give them some modern conveniences while still making them stranded(Maybe communication wires go down in a storm, but they still have some estate on the island until people realize they're stranded)

Trapped in a magical castle is ironically the first RP I ever did with the duo I mentioned earlier. That tends to work really easily for a RP since it forces a number of characters to interact with each other. If we were to do such a RP, I'd find it personally less interesting than a dorm unless it had some deeper plot. Since characters are forced to interact, it'd be easier to rp, and I feel less fulfilling than attempting to wrangle everyone in a dorm into meaningful and realistic interactions. If I were to do such a rp, I think it'd be a lot more fun with some source of power trapping them, with a GM controlling said source of power. Then, probably some Battle Royale or Dangan Ronpa sort of thing(I happen to love the way Dangan Ronpa works, if you haven't seen/read it, google it) within the walls to give it that tension and add murder to the mix.

Thoughts? I've gotten enough interest to go for the dorm idea, I just want to examine everyones thoughts further. I'm going to detail the architecture of the dorm, the culture of the town, what schools and workplaces are available... just do some stuff like that to make it easier on everyone to join the rp before I make it. Should get it out later today.