Kamen Evie

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

Does Ridlins go first or do I go first?

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

Sorry about that. Recent events left me feeling kind of out of it for a while.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

It took a moment for Rebecca to realize that Nina’s attacks were far more illuminating than the Dragon Rush that had actually occurred. She waved hello to the Swablu and listened to her speak, eager to both potentially make a new friend as well as gather more information about their elusive enemy.

“Well,” Rebecca said slowly. “Would Mariah work?” She admittedly had a bit of trouble coming up with a name, but she thought it was nice. She had to wonder if this sort of thing was common among wild Pokemon, even though such thoughts struck her as somewhat depressing.

“Oh, and my name’s Rebecca, by the way.” The Ralts added.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

Lavul... I just don't know how to fix it. I'm sorry. I tried thinking of my own solutions, to the point where that kept me up at night, but something in the back of my head kept bothering me...
should I even try fixing this? Do people still enjoy posting here?

I'd kind of like people to answer in OOC whether or not they still enjoy posting here before I even continue on. As much as I'd like to see this through to the end, I don't want to just drag people along who feel like they're simply obligated to post.

Which reminds me, Kabling, if you tell me that you enjoy posting here, I know you're lying, 'cause that contradicts what you keep telling me over Steam.

@Lugia

Hey man, it's not like it's a lost cause. It's still a really fun idea for an RP and definitely something I still find interesting even if I feel like a lot of potential is being wasted. All I think you'd really need to do is just come up with some sort of character for all of these random encounters. It doesn't have to be groundbreaking or well-developed, just something to make this seem less wooden. Just throw whatever comes to mind at the wall and see what sticks. If people don't love it, then who really cares because it's a one-shot that'll be over in a couple of turns anyways. If they do love it, or you think there's potential somewhere, then you can contrive some way for them to show up again later and don't have to put in the effort to come up with another one.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

<Snipped quote by lavulman>

When interruptions happen, I usually try to focus on the environment or even a bit of back-story. If you notice, I may sometimes force my characters off-track into rambling periods during narration. One thing that usually keeps the blood pumping is through combo-posts. As in, some moves are combinations or collaborations of other attacks/actions.

@KaBling

I think that's a pretty nice solution, but I also feel like that works better for certain characters than others. From the fragments of what I've read that I can remember, Miles seems like a pretty introspective character, so branching off during or after a fight to ruminate about details or reminisce about backstory fits pretty well for him. Rebecca is generally into and enthusiastic about what she's doing due to being the kind of adventurer she always wanted to be, so it's a bit harder for her to go off track unless some small detail directly prompts her to do so, even if she can ramble for a long time.

I know I'm beating this dead horse far more than I should, but I think this would be fixed all together if there was more personality put into these interruptions: Imagine if the eccentric Rival A says or does something during the mid-fight banter that hits a raw nerve in the normally jovial Character B. After the battle, Partner C asks Character B what made them act so strangely and Character B tells them that it reminded them of something in their sad past or something. This brings characters B and C closer together as partners, meaning they're likely to converse more later, while also establishing some animosity for Rival A, especially if he plays on this deliberately, meaning people are going to want to beat the crap out of him, meaning they're hyped up to see him next time he shows up, which all means that people are interested in what's going on.

This is arguably a pretty basic example, but it's one of the reasons why I love roleplaying so much as a medium; people can start with very basic characters and situations, but they can play off small details and things can eventually snowball into this incredibly tight narrative web of a story that everyone has an emotional investment in. It's just more difficult for this to come about when there's not much effort put into the conflict.

As for combo posts, I also find them more interesting than regular ones. But it's tough for me to convey the feeling that characters are working as a team instead of just haphazardly throwing things together. This would probably work better if we switched to more posting like you said, though, so there would be a better opportunity to set up team attacks with the other characters.

Ultimately, I reckon we're just old now. That stuff would've been fun years ago, but we (or at least I) actually want a degree of story and character in our posts. Would've been all over that stuff years ago, but now it's just... well, you're hittin' points.

@KaBling

Probably. As we get more and more into things, we start analyzing them and the ways they work more and more, and we start to strive to get better, which means noticing the flaws and growing tired of them so we can focus on the good stuff. It's probably why I'm here complaining about it right now.

That said, you are allowed to opt out of posts, which would've been useful considering the delays we've experienced lately. I just don't like it how others may stigmatise and perceive characters without posts to be 'still' or whatever, as if they're not even characters and just avatars in a fictional world.

@KaBling

That's actually something that's really been bothering me for a while, but I didn't think I'd ever get a good chance to bring it up. I would probably skip more posts and let people who were into it handle it if I didn't feel like I was being passive-aggressively told that I'm being that guy.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

<Snipped quote by lavulman>

You know, I never actually thought about that. Most of the fights seem to be based off absolutes rather than 'beating you up because i need cash for food'.

Presumably this is as... well, most of the Pokemon we fight are 'feral', their minds broken (to an extent) with regards to hostility against outsiders. At least that's what I recall a while ago whilst discussing the RP with Lugia. We do however have some characters that reoccur, i.e. Team Zan and their occasional genius.

In the end, this RP is based off a game where EXP is needed to progress without getting killed. Personality is usually side-tracked 'cause I assume we're just too lazy to do anything with the monsters, and see them more as fodder if anything.

Now, with regards to getting to places... I have raised the issue in the past. Thing is, we actually don't have that many fights; we don't expect the fights to take weeks at a time, to the point where this RP won't end for another year or so. They're supposed to be interruptions at least, but our posting schedule's been elongated. It takes a week just to do an action now, which is something I talked about in my earlier post and how I preferred to post more than once.

@KaBling

But this is what my thoughts all boil down to; these are indeed interruptions. They're not really all that meaningful as far as I know and they mainly serve as a roadblock for something that could be more interesting. I actually slow down a lot when I write a post around these random encounters: I'm not going to pretend that I'm especially invested in or enthusiastic about this RP, but I still try to inject some character into my writing so that they're fun to write and hopefully read and respond to. I find it kind of difficult to do that when all that's going on is "Rebecca smacks some schmuck around" or "Rebecca buffs the party," especially as these actions are repeated and they start to wear out their welcome more and more. I guess I could just not try and get things done faster, but that's kind of a defeatist course of action.

But yeah, post is up.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

Rebecca watched as whatever was in the bushes fled into the distance. She probably could have done something about that, but she didn’t get the chance to for whatever reason. It would most certainly show up later, whatever it was. She turned to face the Golett and attempted to throw it forwards with Confusion, but only ended up moving it’s foot slightly, the wild Pokemon stubbing it’s toe ineffectually against a rock. Thankfully, with Dexter currently biting into the Golett’s shoulder, the small shift in stance thankfully managed to bring it crashing down onto it’s back.

“I meant to do that.” Rebecca said quickly, pointing halfheartedly at the destruction.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

<Snipped quote by lavulman>

yay, you're gonna be successful compared to us hopefuls

Last year of high scool AND I got no idea what to do

@KaBling

Idunno fam, there's still a few decades worth of Murphy's Law to contend with.

I just kind of got a solid idea of what to do a few months ago and even then there's still a lot of in-between stuff I haven't figured out yet.

One would think that our roleplay is actually dead at this point. In reality, our posting system is like... well, it's structured so that we only post once GM posts. Makes the roleplay predictable and easier to post, because we know who's supposed to be posting and don't have to read as much. However, we can't double-post/make additional posts to interact with other characters, which kinda ruins the immersion of the roleplay. We gotta do all our actions at once and sometimes just observe, depending who posts first.

We used to do a system where the GM still progressed the story, but we could just post whatever we wanted while waiting. Heck, we even sometimes progressed the story on our own. Needless to say, it was horrible for me because whenever I got home from school, I would have over 100 notifications/posts to read (bear in mind this was on Minecraft Forums, hence the notifications). Not to mention that 5 years ago, our quality was... cringy, and the direction that roleplays were going did NOT follow that of the GM.

Now, I honestly prefer if we could post more than just once, so that we could actually interact with others. However, I only say this because I actually have... moderate amounts of free time. It would mean more reading and posting, but no one's got time for that.

@KaBling

Isn't that what collab posts are for? I guess I really haven't thought much about it.

My only real problem with the way things are being run right now is all of these fights. I mean, I get that this is based off the game, and the game had a lot of beating the shit out of random Pokemon who had nothing to do with anything to get stronger, but for me it's really hard to get invested in combat when it's a throwaway fight against something with no character and who is pretty much guaranteed to never appear again. I'd rather just go on to where ever the characters are supposed to be and get some roleplaying done, you know?

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

So, @Lavulman, how's that computer going? Got enough time to post?

@Lugia

I'll hopefully have a surplus of time after I graduate on Sunday.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

lavul's apparently been more or less online. I'd imagine he can't actually speak to us, let alone roleplay.

I'm gonna assume his computer issues are severely hampering him, unfortunately.

Lavul, if you're reading this... do you remember a guy who went by the name "Stale Pizza"? I think you mentioned he had Skype or something.

@KaBling

The new computer is built now. I might need to find a better wifi card, but that's about it. Once I download everything and get back into my groove I should be able to post again. I had my phone over all that time and I would occasionally drop back in to try and see how things were going, but I still find trying to write anything decent on a touchscreen to be a hassle.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's still in my contact list.