[center][img]https://media1.tenor.com/images/0131b1bf44247352cc738daaaa0342f8/tenor.gif?itemid=5389009[/img] [i]All these people![/i][/center] [indent][indent]Hey everyone, it's time for a [b]public service announcement[/b] from your GM. I will be doing these from time to time, just to check in with all of y'all and if I have anything important to say. This is something for all of you to keep in mind as we are progressing forward in the application process. 1: I love WIPs because they give everyone an idea of what other characters are looking like! That's cool! But if you are posting WIP, please remind me to look at when it is complete. Otherwise I might miss it or something! 2: This is something a little bit more serious! And I hope y'all don't mind me trying to nip it in the butt before all of y'all get too deep in the application process. I strive for inclusiveness in my RPs. I don't want people to feel like they don't belong, when all they want to do is a write a cool story with some cool people. To that end I'm going to but a disclaimer now about previous RPs and using previous characters, [b]particularly I want to address characters if they were in a previous ME RP with other potential players who [i]also[/i] may be using the same characters from said RP[/b], [u][b]Other cases of reusing characters is fine.[/b][/u] My problem is the potentiality of a bunch of people that all RP together using all their same characters, because it ends up isolating other players who might have not had the chance to be in their previous RPs. That is really the issue that I'm trying to prevent with all of this. I don't want this to become an old boy's club. I don't want people to feel like they don't have a place because they have never had the privilege of knowing some of you and your characters. Because that would suck. Reusing characters in this way, I find usually leads to this sort of thing because of how it effects the overall group. This is because the dynamics and even sometimes the arcs those characters go on have already been pre-established. This in my opinion is a creatively stagnant decision and ultimately harmful to the RP. Half of the fun of any RPing experience is figuring out the chemistry of characters, figuring out how a bunch of basically strangers end up becoming close friends or enemies. And also it sometimes leads to inside jokes and other things that isolate players that were not there. And that's without saying the harm I feel it to you as an RPer and writer because it doesn't present you the challenge of writing a new story, a new way of looking at things. Some people though are completely in love with one character and that's the one for them, and that's okay. If that's the case, I challenge you to [i][b]change[/b][/i] something about them. Where they poor before? Make them rich. Did they use swords last time? Make them use a bow and arrow or something. Somehow make them different. Change them and see how it works. You might be happily surprised. And also truthfully, I feel that it hurts me as a GM. It shows to me a sort of lack of caring almost? Like oh, I'm not going to take the time to see if I have an idea that would really work for this RP. Nope, instead I'm gonna just gonna reuse this same character I use in all my ME Rps or all my Dragon Age Rps or whatever. To conclude though, I can't stop you from not making any changes. But if you don't and trust me I will find out (I can go back in all of y'all post history, I have that power). During the application process, I'm going to judge it more harshly then somebody that put the effort in to shake it up a little bit or think of something new. And I think that is fair. But if you think that concept is still strong enough to hold on its own, then go ahead. I just felt it's fair to give you guys the warning ahead of time. --- Anyway, I'm going to stop with the serious stuff now. Instead I will leave you all with this. [center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jKZ9KGtee0[/youtube][/center] [/indent][/indent]