Rina

The Rising Tide

Wow, take care of yourself okay. Don't feel guilty of having to step down, I understand. If at anytime at all you want to start this up again or something new in the future (maybe we can even Co-GM it so that the pressure is off of you) or even a 1x1, feel free to contact me. I've enjoyed reading your blog so I'll make sure to keep an eye on your blog for what is in store for it in the future! Stay safe and stay healthy. My Skype and my PMs are always open if you ever want to chat or get something rolling.

This has been the longest running roleplay I have been in and have enjoyed roleplaying with all of you. If we want to continue, restart or even do something completely different with each other I am all for it. I am already busy GMing a roleplay but if need be I can step up or seeing that we are all pretty trustworthy and responsible people, we could also make it into more of a team effort instead of a focal GM and come up with the plot and such and progressing things together. Although I personally haven't been in a group that has done it, I've seen it work well with other people. All in all, I am fine going in any direction the rest of you are wanting to do so.

Kirra's Weekly Discussion: NPCs

Lillian Thorne said
I've even handed control of a few of them over to players who acted as co-GMs a time or two in the infancy of my GMing.

I've tried this out for the first time in the roleplay I'm running and so far it has worked wonderfully. It helps take off the load of keeping track of all the NPCs as well as let certain NPCs be played in a different manner.

Lillian Thorne said
Then there are the ones that are a little more cardboard-y. The baker who is around the corner who warrants a name but not much more. I make lists of these so that there is coherency and that if for whatever reason the baker needs to become more important we know a name and some little things about them.

I'll have to keep that in mind. I've done this with more important NPCs but adding to the list with names and short blurbs of who they are a minor NPC is would come in handy granted that I have a ton of NPCs in that roleplay so I'll probably have to find a way to somehow limit it.

Lord Wraith said
Sometimes I even write whole posts from the perspective of the NPC, it's fun sometimes to describe your character through someone else's eyes. That said I predominately play Superhuman RPs and thus this all works very well for that particular genre.

With a decent chunk of the first part of the roleplay focused on uncovering the NPC's past, I have done this (maybe a little too much) so that the roleplayers can learn about what is going on or what is to come. From what I've seen it's been a great way to set the mood of a roleplay or an arc.

Arsenal said
I never really put much thought into NPCs; usually I operated under the "name/nameless" rules for NPCs. In general, if any given NPC is referred to by a name, as in "Bob" rather than just "the waiter", then that NPC is at least important enough to give priority (but not necessarily absolute) control to whoever introduced that NPC, or the GM in charge of the RP, whichever is best for the situation. Conversely, if somebody introduces an NPC without giving them a name, then that NPC is probably unimportant enough that everyone involved in the RP can dictate their actions and reactions moderately freely.

Like BW said, I haven't gone with the idea that a name would distinguish if the NPC could be used by roleplayers or not. I do give limited control of NPCs on a varying degrees based on importance though on a case by case situation. Implementing something more clearer like this might be something I will have to look into.

As for NPCs versus secondary characters , I have been guilty of being between the lines of the two and the lines can be challenging to distinguish at times even harder so when a group of NPCs were the main characters of a previous story and now that I turned that story into a roleplay set years later it has been hard to shove them into a box labeled NPC when there is a lot of history about them.

Did anyone else get punish for laughing when they were younger?

No big deal

Go ahead and remake this thread in the other section and you'll be fine.

Did anyone else get punish for laughing when they were younger?

Psst, you might want to put this in the Off-Topic section. You might get more relevant posts there since this section is for roleplay specific things.

Kirra's Weekly Discussion: NPCs

I might be stirring up the pot a bit with this idea but

After that rather eventful thread in the News section, it had me thinking about the state of the guild. Sure, the site itself needs some care but not only that, the community itself is sick. There is almost no contribution from the community from the guild in the News or the Welcoming section while Spam, Off-Topic and the Roleplaying Discussion are becoming stagnant, that is when people are not bickering at each other.

It's not just the Admins or Mods that keep this place running. We as the community are a major contributor to this site with our posting and actions. As a community we can work on our end of things and help bring this site out of this sick phase. I'll be working on a weekly discussion here to try and bring life here but I can't do it on my own so I hope there are others that see this and want to help bring life and activity back to this site. Post and discuss here, stir up (good) activity in this and the other sections and maybe together we can jumpstart RPG into a healthy state.

Saying that, here is my one and final warning about the state of the site, it might be the reason I started this but any negativity brought to this thread about it will (not maybe) be reported to the Mods. If you want to talk in the PMs, fine. However that discussion is over and this thread will not be used to stir up trouble.

Rules:

Read Them

If you've read the Fundamental Rules of the Guild, you should know what this means. No Fonz, Know Mods will be the our key rule here. If you are not acting Fonz-cool here you will get to know the mods and depending on the severity of things it can be anything from a warning chat, posts being deleted, the banhammer and if needed (which I hope won't be the case) closing the thread.

Besides that there are only a few other things I'd like to mention before getting this show on the road:

-Please keep things on topic
Discussion is good! New discussion elsewhere is very good! Taking the discussion away from the focus is a no-no. If you are going down a rabbit trail that is far away from the topic, please take it to another thread, the PMs or anywhere else that is applicable.

-Feel free to bring up your own on-topic questions
I can only come up with so much content about a topic and as things are discussed, more ideas and questions will be raised so please bring more things to the table

-Please give me ideas!
If I'm going to keep this on a weekly basis, I'm going to run out of good things to discuss eventually. If you like to help out with the weekly discussions or have an idea about roleplaying you'd like me make into a discussion, feel free to PM.

Love them, hate 'em or sometimes assigned to assassinate them, NPCs are something you are faced with while roleplaying. Throughout my time GMing and roleplaying I've seen them being used both as a GM inclusive device while other times they've been free to use by anyone. Sometimes it is even a mixture between these two extremes with roleplayers having a limited use of an NPC or it being a case by case situation. I've seen important NPCs that would have so much details and even an inner monologue written in a post that they almost seem like a character instead of an NPC while other times I've seen an NPC with equal importance that go without the inner thoughts and such with far less background information. Although not as controversial or seen in a variety of ways compared to others things concerning roleplaying, it will be a great starting place for us.

As a launching point for discussion here are a few questions to get things rolling:
What is your take on an NPC? How much of an importance should be put on them? How should an NPC be dealt with in the IC and who should be able to control them? GM/roleplayers, what has been your experience with NPCs and what has worked best for you in the roleplays you've been in? How is a good NPC played?

Unlikely Heroes

Alright I'm home guys and back in business. How was everyone's holiday (or week for those that are not in the U.S.)? Kimono, how is your history section going?

Unlikely Heroes

No worries Viktor. Things like that should always take first priority. Hoping for the best for you and your family.

To answer your question PoS, he's covering the Charlie's tracks but not exactly deleting their digital life. He's doing things a bit differently but it will be revealed all in due time and yes BW, it's exactly what you are thinking.

Unlikely Heroes

I've added a little snippet at the end of my last post about what Cameron is doing right now for a little teaser on what is to come. It probably be mentioned a little bit in the next chapter but the Charlie's focus won't be on it until a little more further down the road.

Unlikely Heroes

Ah alright. It's no rush or anything so just tell me once it's up and running.

Oh and as a heads up for thanksgiving next week I'll be out of town Wednesday through Saturday. I'll be off and on every once in awhile with my phone but don't expect me to be around much.

The Rising Tide

Jester! It's nice to see you again! How's life been treating you?

Haha you'll get used to it Platanus.