Dark Jack

The Prophecy

Heh, hey yoshua. I know the feeling... I also keep wanting to continue this RP or - more likely since I have to accept that it is well and truly dead by now - reboot it. If I ever did so, however, the setting would be somewhat different from what it was originally. In the years since I created the RP-world I have begun rewriting the story it is based on, you see, and I have made changes to a lot of various things about the world in a way I think works much better and makes a lot more sense.
I've also learned a lot about being better GM in the meantime, so that would probably be rather different in a new iteration, too.

The main thing stopping me is the fact that I honestly struggle to have faith in my hypothetical players anymore. The primary reason I prefer to GM in the first place is to avoid the potential issue of the GM abandoning the RP and leaving the players hanging dry... but knowing that I will always be around as GM doesn't help much when the players abandon it instead.
Obviously I don't mean to blame anyone for leaving; no one should feel forced to participate in an RP if they no longer feel like it, and as I have always said real life comes first. But twice now on just this site I have put in huge amounts of work to make RPs (The Prophecy and Night of the Hunt) only for them to peter out and die because the players just stop posting. Stuff like this really kills my motivation for this kind of thing... so unless I someday come upon a group of thoroughly dedicated players that assure me that they'll stick around for the long haul, I don't know if I'll want to put in the work all over again.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Oh my! Well this is quite the surprise. After the last player stopped posting in this RP nearly a year ago, I admit that I have been checking in with RPGuild more out of habit than anything else. I put a huge amount of work into my RPs, and it was so demoralizing to see it abandoned by its players that I decided to take a break from RP'ing in general, just because I'm so incredibly tired of my work going to waste.

But I am here, I still have the mountain of notes I took on this RP back when it was active, still even have my little program to handle one of the quirks of false Paleblood Hunters. It might take me a moment to get back into the headspace of some of the characters, and it will certainly take me going through some of my old notes, but if there are players interested in the RP, I'm willing to give it a go.

After all, it has always been my policy to never give up on an RP as long as even a single player remains.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Taking a moment to shamelessly ignore how quiet it has been here for a while now, I just discovered that the musical score played during the boss fight against Ludwig the Accursed actually have lyrics in Latin. I've found some different claims, but the wiki page I just linked to seems to have a fairly decent translation of what the lyrics would be:

Lyrics from Ludwig's theme

Oh, hunter.

Blessed saint.

An honest death is like a blessing.

Let death come once and for all.

Plenteous blood is lost

Mutated into an unsightly beast

Mutated a long, long time ago

Still, as a mentor, I always were at your side

Even when you had turned into a beast

The master of the hunters, who stood guard in the night with his moonlight

The first hunter who organised the folks to hunt

The first hunter of blood

And one of the first who mutated into vile beasts by the blood

You turned into a beast.

Oh, hunter.

That Saint.

The Divine Partner of your fate

May it come by mean of the Death, the Departed(or Missing) Blame (or Pain)

The Blood will flow in abundant

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Ah, hello! That's great news! Be sure to let me know if I can help with your character.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

All right, I bumped the recruitment thread, come what may.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP Recruitment Thread

Just posting to bump this thread a good long while later, and letting people know that the RP is not only still recruiting, but could really do with a bigger cast of players.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

sigh I know... I'm very sorry, it wasn't exactly my intention for it to end up like this either, though it seems as though it's almost an inevitability on this site, or at least in the Advanced-section; would have to check and see if the same phenomenon is occurring in the Free- and Casual-sections. It's one of the big reasons I stopped trying to join RPs altogether and decided to focus on GM'ing, since then I could at least rest assured that the GM - which, and this is not intended as a boast, is arguably the most important role in RP to have filled by someone reliable - would not just abandon it.
I've thought about posting in the Discussion-section about this observation and what could be done to counter it, but then I spot the status bar, and almost every day I see someone posting about going on hiatus, coming back from an extended hiatus, or talking about how hard and terrible life is in some way or another and how the state of life as a whole is going to prevent them from posting for varying, often indeterminate amounts of time... and I wonder if there even is anything to be done?

I don't mean this as an insult or chastisement of the people on the site, or the people who have dropped by this RP and left (though the ones that have just vanished without a word do irk me), but it seems as though trying to hold people's attention for an extended period of time is nigh impossible. Between people coming upon hard times that prevent them from RP'ing, people losing their interest and enthusiasm, and people that just move on or disappear without a word as to why...
And I've asked, again and again, if there is something I need to do differently. Do things need to be moving faster? Do I need to facilitate more action in the story? Do I need to shorten my posts? Do I need to be more open about what I'm planning? Do I need to be more in control rather than giving you players as much free reign as I can? I'm willing to reconsider the way I GM if it keeps my RPs alive, but there doesn't seem to be any answers forthcoming.

Eh... yeah, needless to say this is something that is on my mind as well. I'm wondering whether I should bump the recruitment thread for this RP, but then I think about it and wonder how demoralizing it would be if no one responded to it.
What do you think? Any ideas?

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Central Yharnam, Upper Cathedral Ward, the Lumenflower Gardens

Vicar Harold watched Morgraine attentively as she pondered his question, a gentle, patient smile on his face, as if trying to reassure her wordlessly that whatever she wanted to say, he would be pleased. He seemed not to notice her hesitation and confusion as she pieced together her reply, merely nodding approvingly at her words as she spoke.
Then, once she had finished her somewhat revised version of the impression that seemed to forcibly occupy her mind whenever she thought of this man, he closed his eyes. For just an instant, the sensation of wrongness intensified to a certainty, only to then swiftly abate, fading away until she barely felt anything out of place at all and even the memory of strangeness faded to nothing more than an absurd thought. Nothing strange was going on, after all; he was just a nice, old man that she could definitely trust.

“Thank you very much for the kind words, my girl,” he chuckled happily, clearly and boundlessly satisfied with her answer. “That is high praise indeed. I will certainly work my hardest to earn those words, just as I work to deserve the faith of Yharnam. Gods willing, I hope to one day be it worthy.”
Still kneeling and presenting his sword, Dietrich hesitantly cleared his throat without raising his gaze from the floor. “Milord Vicar, please forgive me, but it is a Night of the Hunt, and...”
“Yes, yes, you are right. Lives are at stake, time is of the essence,” the Vicar nodded, walking the last bit of distance that separated himself and Morgraine to place a hand gently on her shoulder. “I am about to tell you something very important, Morgraine. You may have learned some of this already, but regardless I want you to listen very carefully.
You are what we refer to as a 'Paleblood Hunter'. That means that you are very, very special, and extremely valuable. All the factions will want to sway and control you, but you must remain resolute and remember that we fight for the gods, and for Yharnam and its people. We need you more than you could ever imagine.”
Vicar Harold smiled apologetically. “As a Paleblood Hunter, you have one foot in the realm of the gods. If you fall asleep, lose consciousness or even die, this connection will pull you from the waking world to a place called the Hunter's Dream. In effect, this makes you immortal. You have likely seen small, nightmarish creatures around the city, especially back at the clinic where you awoke; these creatures are drawn to your kind, and only Paleblood Hunters can see them.
Do you understand so far, my girl? I know this is a lot to digest, but the gods need you to understand the power you wield so that you can truly serve as their agent.”

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

Central Yharnam, Upper Cathedral Ward, the Lumenflower Gardens

Vicar Harold smiled warmly at Morgraine's words as he continued his approach, arms slowly lowering back into a resting position. His light-brown eyes had a kind, almost loving expression that spoke of the sheer depth of the devotion this man felt for her, and indeed, all of his subjects. This was the highest-ranking official in all of Yharnam, the de facto ruler of not only the city, but the surrounding lands as well, and it was not surprising that he had been chosen; the sheer intensity of his charisma made his presence almost overwhelming.

Beside Morgraine, Dietrich lowered his head as he moved his sword from its perch atop his shoulder, placing it tip-down into the floor in front of himself and gripping it with both hands before lowering himself to one knee, effectively offering his sword to the vicar in a tremendous show of respect and submission.
Harold quickly and dismissively waved a hand at Dietrich, barely even looking at the First Hunter, as he kept smiling at Morgraine.
“I do not, no,” he responded to her question as to whether he had grown the garden himself. The flowers, all of their blossoms facing their side of the garden, seemed to shine even more brilliantly than before with an almost silver-like sheen, like an entire field of small full moons. “These were left behind by the old Healing Church five years ago, and grew and survived long before I came to Yharnam. They are called lumenflowers. You are fortunate in your timing; they only bloom at night, and are the most beautiful when there is no moon.” He smiled softly. “This is my favorite place in the city. I like to be here, speaking to the lumenflowers. They are so... understanding.”
His gaze lowered in thought for a moment before shaking his head, chuckling to himself. “Ah, but I am too used to talking to plants, I suppose. You have better things to do than listening to me chat about my hobbies. Tell me, Morgraine: what do you think about me?”

Through it all, Morgraine has a very faint sense that there is something strange about this place, though the feeling is so fleeting that it could easily be dismissed without a second thought. Perhaps if she was more insightful about the secrets of the world, she would be able to interpret what she feels more accurately.

Night of the Hunt - a Bloodborne RP

One small correction to your post, bloonewb: you wrote

Through twists and turns they traveled, in grey stone spaces leading this way and that, barely illuminated unlike the previous hall.

bloonewb

I was confused for a moment reading this until I considered my own post, and realized how my description of the area might be difficult to grasp just from a verbal description. I'm guessing that the "twists and turns" mentioned refers to what I wrote here:

What awaited them on the other side of the doors, however, seemed like a completely different world than where they had just come from. The door opened onto a stone walkway running left and right before them, about as wide as the hallway behind them, with a small drop to the side opposite of them. The stone walkway reached a dead end at a wall to their left, whereas to their right it made a left-turn, following what seemed like the top of the actual Grand Cathedral, with part of the wall there being an actual mosaic window beyond which the cathedral interior could faintly be seen. At the opposite end the walkway made another turn, this time to the left, forming a sharp U-shape around the central area below the walkway, reachable by several sets of stairs, one of which was right in front of them.

Dark Jack

This doesn't actually describe a hall, but a walkway that only has a wall on the outer side of it, whereas it is open on the inside facing towards the central area. The area I was trying to describe is actually the Lumenflower Gardens (best image I could find to show its layout; its the one in the middle left of the map, with the Celestial Emissary) from the game, only entering from the opposite side of the garden and with two additional stairs built to allow access to the central garden. No twisting or turning necessary; the moment Morgraine and Dietrich left the long, straight hallway, they would be right above the garden.