BrokenPromise

On the Limitations of Creativity

@whizzball1

Does that mean you'll do it? Alright, I look folward to seeing what comes out.

My only condition for this challenge is that you pick an RP that gives me at least some leeway. Obviously I won't be able to make anything that can fight like a dragon-prince-demon-wizzard if you choose a generic true to life school drama as the base RP. If you're making a mid-teir combat orientated character, pick a mid teir combat orientated RP. Other than that though, you're free to do as you please.

On the Limitations of Creativity

@whizzball1

No one is going to dispute the fact that more freedom means more possibilities. The problem is people tend to use that freedom to take shortcuts instead of making something more unique and interesting. It forces you to think harder in order to make your character stand out. I know weaponised hair isn't uncommon in anime. But how many times have you seen people burned with such a weapon? Same with my fire character. you would think that my original character would have more abilities, but there was virtually no difference between the fire one and the hot and cold one. While thinking of the character as a duel elemental build definitely made the fire character more interesting, the fire character feels like they would fit better into a roleplay.

In fact, I joined another magical girl RP a few months ago. It had a CYOA system in place, so you basically rolled for a bunch of powers. It would have been acceptable to just make the character a pirate-griffen-chimera, but I restricted myself to only using pirate attributes again. Her wings were converted into sails, she used a ship cannon as a weapon to utilize her high strength and dexterity scores, etc. I feel my self imposed limitations made my character more interesting.

You should definitely let your imagination run wild. think of powers and atributes for your characters that don't make sense or wouldn't be allowed. But then challenge yourself to refine their attributes until they make sense in the setting. That works for anything from powers to backstory. Wanna do something with robots in a medieval RP? Use golums instead. Want to use magic in a strongly science fiction setting? Bust out those nannomachines that can act as fireballs and wizzard spells.

I agree with your comment earlier about what-ifs and hypothetical. Topics like this tend to become huge think tanks, and I'm more about seeing things in practice. How about you make a crazy RP character for an rp. link me to the RP, and then create a wild character (in this topic) that you would make without limits. Give them a dragon tail, cyborg augmentation, waifu-level deity that watches over them, and a really, really crazy backstory if you want. Do whatever. It does have to be something you find interesting, that's the only catch. Then I'll make a character that recaptures what you made in a unified theme, and we can discuss the two characters.

On the Limitations of Creativity

@whizzball1 It was not necessary, but she would have fallen in with every other "let's roll a bunch of random crap together and see what we get" magical girls. The point was that I actually got to keep my original idea, which was a character that could stun on sight and fight with their hair. The limitation only made those aspects more interesting and make sense. Well, as far as magical girls go.

Another character for something entirely different was only allowed to have 1 element. So even though I wanted to make a character that could control temperature {heat and freeze things} I decided to stick with fire. I couldn't freeze the ground and skate on it, but I could turn it molten and slide on the liquid magma. etc. That character was one of the only ones that was able to use fire as a utility, versus everyone else who used fire as a purely offensive power.

What Roleplay section do you mostly post in?

Every roleplay on this forum that I have joined or hosted has been in the casual section. I don't join roleplays very often, as few people can keep them going for more than a month. However, the reason why I chose casual is because it seems like it's more active. There are no silly word requirements, and people seem more eager to post. attitudes are more relaxed. I like casual because it's just that, casual. I've never considered free. I like grammar, and the posting speeds are way too fast for me.

As for the specialty sections, I have some interest in some of them. A forum based tabletop game probably couldn't hold my interest. the real life ones move so much faster, and even they bore me from time to time. I prefer to write about characters instead of groups of people, so I don't see myself entering Nation. Arena could be fun, I read some of the fights. But I still don't believe in competitions via written word. It just seems like it's too easy to power game. Might be fun with someone you know/respect/etc however. I have wanted to try in the past. 1x1, again, might be fun if I knew someone and was in the mood for it. But starting an RP like that with a stranger is not to my liking.

As for how I'm treated, I actually feel respected wherever I go. My ability to GM roleplays is respected by long standing members, despite my short time here. There's really no spot on the forum where I'm afraid to post.

On the Limitations of Creativity

When people say "Limitations breed creativity," they are saying that people do more interesting things when they are presented with a barrier and aren't given excessive freedom. They will find a way around the barrier, or they will find a way to make their side of the barrier more palatable.

As an example, I once joined a magical girl roleplay. I didn't like it very much, but that's not really important. I wanted to make a medusa themed girl, with some pirate themes thrown in. Medusa traditionally dwelled on an island by the sea, so it wasn't a huge stretch. But the GM would have none of that, and said that the snake aspect of my character was too far outside the boundaries of what a pirate was. But I really liked her powers, particularly her paralyzing stare and how her hair could be used as a weapon. So instead I made her more of a pirate captain who drew influence from all the great pirates. She had burning wicks in her hair like black beard that could be used as weapons. She also had the intense gaze of a pirate captain, which often caused people to stop in their tracks. So while I didn't get to play as my medusa/pirate hybrid, I got to use all the powers I wanted to and made one of the most unique magical girls the RP saw. While it did ruin some of the backstory stuff between medusa and my character both having similer origins, she was definitely the most interesting pirate magical girl I'd ever seen. all because a GM told me I couldn't have a medusa pirate girl.

Limitations definitely make for more interesting stories.

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

@WarpcircuitWell, I was not expecting such a detailed response.

Most of the important stuff is in the OCC "story so far" segment of the "truth bullet" section. If you've read that, then you're familiar with all but the most recent developments. I plan on adding the events of chapter 2 to the OOC after the trial, but not too much story wise has happened yet.

It's really not that complicated, collabs I mean. You're just taking turns passing paragraphs back and forth in real time. the good news is that your character's slow moving convo with another character can be done in a few sittings instead of a month. though it does prevent other characters from joining in, and too many people in a collab at once can slow things down. Not everyone likes them, I find them to be very useful in the right situations. This RP simply presents many situations where collabs are more preferable.

The obvious cons that I see would be that I would need to divide time between the trial and your character's situation. How problematic this is depends on your posting speed. And because all of the NPCs are just player characters that are controlled by people who are no longer with us, you would basically just be writing with me and yourself. If you crave interaction with more than 1 person, this is not an idea route, especially if you're a fast poster.

I'm definitely open to talking about the background of your character via pms and such. Even though this is a DR RP, you'll probably have the best luck if you don't try to put your character too close to any of the games/books/shows. But ultimate despair had a slew of masterminds, at least in this roleplay, so there are plenty of non-cannon antagonists to choose from.

Thank you for the kind words. This does take a lot to run, but I enjoy it because of all the effort everyone puts forward. If you're the social type, you may be interested in jumping on our discord server. No one is really on right now though, haha!

Lunacy of Love: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

@FamishedPants@Shifter_Master


But yea, very excited to see how things continue.

Danganronpa: Tower of Carnage (Finished!)

@Warpcircuit Hello, fello fan!

Yes there's room, but It would probably not be very practical for you to join at this time. The other players would be too busy gathering evidence and throwing wild accusations at each other. This RP does rely heavily on collabs and character interactions. I could probably find a way to squeeze you in, but you probably wouldn't enjoy it.

Another idea: It may be possible to put you in one of the other killing games. I had toyed with the idea of bringing back some old NPCs after the trial, so you could be among them when they get shuffled back to "this" killing game. I'm not sure how much of Tower of Carnage's lore you're familiar with, but that would let you develop your character a little bit before jumping in with the veterans. Though this could last for a month or longer, so you may wish to not join, or simply join after the trial.

Of course, this also gives you plenty of time to think of a really cool character.

If you have any ideas or questions, I'm all ears.

Christmas Gift Game

A saddle.

Admittedly, that's more of a gift for me than it is for you.

OOC Gender Restrictions

It seems to me that after reading this topic, the reasons why people do this is to elevate their level of comfort, or fantasize. How okay people are with OOC gender restrictions really stems from how acceptable they feel those reasons are for bringing out gender restrictions.