Hiiii Phantom!

[hider=Hope this isnt tl;dr ^^;]I want to suggest first not to keep yourself limited to five RPers even if the CSes and writing skills are solid, unless you know without a doubt that those you've got with you are 100% committed and not going to drop. I've not GMed a group RP beyond co-GMed as I'm used to 1v1s, though it's almost inevitable that you'll have some drops or loss of interest from people who say they're interested/committed at the beginning of the RP [i]and[/i] have stellar CSes/writing styles. (It's happened in [i]every[/i] RP I've been in since 2004; it's the same reason I start multiple 1v1s at once because I know at least one or two will fall out after a week lol.)

If it helps put things in perspective, and I apologize if it sounds like boasting lol: in my current daily RP, the GM hoped for about 7 players total; we initially started off with 11 players, but 4-5 got booted within the first few months. It's been running for 1.5 years now, though this is just a reboot since the original crashed due to no real conversation between players (thanks to a lack of IC/OOC thread distinctions - it was originally on a site entirely different from RPG). Right now we have 8 players, with the 8th one on a "trial run" for our current chapter.

This is just a suggestion, but if possible, you could make the beginning of your RP able to accommodate extras or replacements before moving into the bulk of the story with who's 'confirmed.' That way you can strictly enforce your posting frequency requirement from the start as well, and whoever can't keep up with it or loses interest quickly can drop without placing themselves in an integral part of the story off the bat. With the way Sinners started, it would be impossible to move on without immediate replacements/drops at the risk of discontinuity, especially since its theme required a seven-man party that all knew each other. All in all, it's more about how many reliable players you can get, versus if you can reach a desired amount. :)

At any rate it's good you're not looking for a strict number either @ willing to have less than the desired amount. As long as any drops won't hinder the progress of your RP, i.e. if everyone can carry on the plot even if one or two people lag behind at the beginning stages, then you should be good to go.[/hider]

I am super interested in the second option and would love to see that concept developed even further. I don't have any other comments to add in about it except that if you go with it I'd definitely apply hahaha. If you're interested, I'm all for some chatter if you want to bounce off any ideas, esp. for what I've mentioned earlier. (I have zero interest in Final Fantasy tbh, so I won't be tagging along if you decide to go with #1. xD Though the overall concept sounds killer enough, and I'm sure it'd garner a lot of attention.)

Hope this time your upcoming RP will live a long life. :) I can't imagine the amount of patience a GM needs for group RPs.