Sierra

Fire and Faith (Seeking interest and GM help for an idea)

Alright I’ve finally had some time to sit down between classes and hammer out some of my thoughts for you. I’ll try to go through the prompt as you’ve written it and offer my critique, as well as some more general advice on how to GM well. Full disclosure: I write and GM in the Advanced section. This will subsequently color the entirety of my feedback. Some of this will not apply 1:1 and some of it may feel a bit harsh, so take things with a grain of salt.

. . . a coven of mages accidentially destroyed one of the worlds greatest cities . . .

One does not simply ... I don’t think this trigger event works for creating a believable premise. I think instead you shouldn’t be afraid to invoke a fanatical cult or something more malevolent here. If the church that later becomes this holy inquisition has something to very legitimately call a threat, then nobody questions their relentless persecution of magic. You want the obvious thought process to be “All magic is temptation. Temptation leads to misuse. Misuse is dangerous.” or similar. Equating magical power to existential danger ensures widespread support and minimal resistance to what equates to genocide.

The religion preached that the great god of life was angered by the destruction of his favored city that was destroyed by magical fire.

Similar thing, though this one has a shred of subjectivity coming through with it. I think it reads more believably if written as “God says ‘thou shalt not give in to temptation.’ Magic is temptation. Magic is a sin unto the lord.” or something of that sort. This is sort of the natural evolution of the previous, enshrining the idea into faith rather than reason even further cements the blind adherence you want for believability of setting.

I think if you take these two points (or rather facets of the same singular point) and apply them thoroughly through the concept, you’ll build a stronger premise for it. Beyond this, further worldbuilding (importantly including the construction of the magic system in play) is something I cannot reliably consult on without us sitting down for an extended period of time working through things.

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As for running a group, I can offer some basic guidance for now.

Have a plan.

A general story arc along which to keep things moving helps a lot. I know many people like freeform, and this isn’t to say you can’t allow players to have their own stories to tell, but having a very general, overall arc that you can use to keep things moving in a set direction has helped me keep things moving when without it, they would have stagnated long ago.

Have standards.

Particularly at the casual level, I see all too often GMs make rules, but then fail to enforce them in any meaningful capacity. I admit it’s no fun being the bad guy, but you’ll be more upset at yourself if you do nothing, than if you do something. Stick to your guns. Don’t be afraid to kick people if it becomes necessary. Don’t be afraid to deny character sheets if there’s something you don’t feel fits the setting or is overpowered.

Fully build the idea before recruiting.

At least to 90% or so is good. The interest check you post should be pretty close to the main OOC thread you’ll post later. If you don’t (and again I see lots of GMs do this), the time delay involved in finishing it often causes player interest to fade and you lose half or more of your interested players. Sure, it sucks building an idea that then doesn’t take off, but when the interest starts rolling in, you’ll be glad you did this.

Demand character sheets at the interest check.

Some people put the CS template up, but surprisingly few actually demand them. “I’m interested” doesn’t count for shit when judging who will or will not commit to an RP. A measly 50% player retention going from interest check to main thread is not uncommon. But if you judge your interest by completed (or at least partially completed) character sheets, 70% or higher retention becomes the case.

This post has rambled on long enough so I leave you with this as my wisdom for now, as I have class again in 20 minutes. PM me, or find me on discord (you are in the discord for Congee’s romance RP right?) so we can keep going back and forth if you’d like, as I’d rather not clog up this thread too much more.

Fire and Faith (Seeking interest and GM help for an idea)

It's almost midnight and I have a 9:30 class tomorrow, so I'm gonna have to get back to you about it later, but I definitely want to give some help & critique. I think I can be safely considered somewhat versed in dark fantasy group projects.

Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator

So the save cut off my scale at the bottom and imgur compression is appalling as always ... but I worked the generation stats until I got one I liked. This is hopefully for an interesting experiment that is a naval war game.

4K image warning

Tear the World Down

NOTHING WITHOUT COST

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Gwynne had handily cleaned up her half of the battlefield, leaving only the remaining two imperials on either side of her to be dispatched. The sword taken from their now-deceased cohort had less reach than Adi’s own weapon, not that it would hinder her. She went left first to engage the other swordsman. He was still terrified from her display and kept stepping back with every parry. Adrianna thoroughly controlled the fight until soldier number two made his attack.

Her own stamina was approaching its limit from the protracted battle. She turned to block the incoming axes, throwing them off to one side. The fight needed to be equalized now or she would almost certainly be caught out yet again. Instead of drawing back the sword for an attack, she ran it towards soldier two’s neck and stepped around him. It wasn't a lethal swing but it put it against his throat right as she got to his back. As before Kassandra conjured a thin barrier with her aetheric magics to keep the steel from slicing into flesh as Adi grabbed at the sharp end with her right hand.

This position was uncomfortably familiar: a sword being wrenched against the throat of a hapless captive. Though now there was no wooden pole to stop the cutting edge. She drove her knee into his back without letting up on wrenching the blade back, forcing it all the way through his neck. Her own throat was starting to swell from being almost crushed a moment earlier. Her breathing was labored, but still present unlike the falling severed head. The jolt of energy from Kassandra’s appearance was gone and it was tiring to even raise the now crimson glazed blade.

The final opponent was four steps into a sprinting gait away from her. Meanwhile she was panting, propped up by a hand on her knee. “Oh for fuck’s sake ...”
She took one more heavy breath and broke into a chasing run after him, dropping the sword she’d stolen. For the first time in the entire battle, not having her armor weighing her down was finally an advantage. Her prey was just as spent as she was, so she converged on him in little time just as he reached the treeline. He thought he was clever grabbing a tree to pivot his momentum into a fast swing of his sword, but Adi wasn’t trained yesterday. She dropped to a slide, ripping a knife through the flesh of his thigh in passing, and vaulted herself on the next tree root back to standing.

The hunter smelled the blood of her prey. Like a wolf she lunged at the injured fighter, driving him to the ground before he could fully turn to face her. With zero hesitation she gouged her knife into the soft tissues of his throat and ripped it open, leaving him choking and sputtering as she gracefully returned to her own two feet. That was the last one to be slain; the battle was finally over. She trudged back, collecting her staff and wiping some of the blood from her hand before scanning the surroundings for the others.

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The rush, the focus of battle, had faded. Death had a certain fragrance: sweat, blood, ammonia. Her nose coiled at the sickly scent. A few unfamiliar faces were now present, brandishing bows and arrows having done battle from afar. The help was not without appreciation. Her neck was turning unsightly colors from the bruising, but alas she had nothing to hide it with. It seemed some minor injuries were the worst of the damage. For being caught with their pants down, potentially literally for some among them, it appeared the rag-tag band of would-be conquerors had weathered the ambush without fail.

She dragged her feet through the grass and dirt, past weapons and corpses, to clean up what was left of the campsite and collect her belongings. Among the refuse was a body, a woman’s body. Adi just stood and stared in disbelief. She didn’t know the woman; she didn’t even remember her name. She shouldn’t have felt anything, for she had just cut down half a dozen imperial soldiers without the slightest reservation. She didn’t know them any less than she knew half of the other chosen she fought alongside. But realizing the real price of battle, she felt cold. A shiver ran down her spine, her legs growing weak. Two minutes ago she stopped a broadsword with the bare flesh of her palm. The illusion of invincibility she built for herself fell away, leaving only harsh reality against her bare, vulnerable skin.

Nonetheless she was a chosen, same as all of them. For all their power, their potential, their Gods-given destinies, they were still painfully mortal. Her body had broken all the same under the weight of hammering hooves, caught out when the first riders came through. For having felt untouchable just moments ago, it was a sobering reminder of just how fast everything could go wrong, of how steep the consequences really were. Nothing is without cost. The lump in her throat felt larger. Her breathing felt more strained, her own mortality subtly reminding her of its existence.

I Wanna Hear Your Opinions On The Different Wrting Levels/Forums.

I considered my thoughts on the matter but they're irrelevant as none of this has any bearing on the thread's topic at hand.

I Wanna Hear Your Opinions On The Different Wrting Levels/Forums.

probably three months

@Inkarnate

Witchcraft. By all accounts any RP should be dead to rights by that point. But that's moving beyond the purview of this thread ...

I Wanna Hear Your Opinions On The Different Wrting Levels/Forums.

@Inkarnate I've dragged an RP out of a longer silence spell than that. Admittedly the frequents of Advanced section are somewhat more tolerant of that than anyone in Casual (a week of silence in Casual is usually enough to call time of death). It helps though that my playerbase has kept in touch even through those spells so we know who's really still here and who to hound about posts or, if worst comes to worst, I invoke GM powers and brute force things along.

I Wanna Hear Your Opinions On The Different Wrting Levels/Forums.

Hounding your players about it seems to be working out pretty well so far. :P

But in all seriousness, pacing is a shortcoming of the advanced section, and part of that has to do with the burnout incurred by writing massive posts. I don't even write massive posts, but I would probably struggle to sustain a post a day long term. So while it does move slow, I make it a point to keep pushing my players along with me so the inexorable march of progress actually remains inexorable. The moment I as GM stop doing that is the moment it will die of inactivity. Of that I am certain.

I Wanna Hear Your Opinions On The Different Wrting Levels/Forums.

Really? I don't feel that at all. I stopped participating in Casual about five years ago and every time I've tried to go back, the roleplays have too many people participating that roleplay at a level I'm not comfortable with. It's not about their English skills or even their writing skills but the characters they make and the things those characters do. It's often so immature that I just can't be bothered.

On the other hand I also only participate in two Advanced RPs with some very strict application procedures (to the point that I was myself rejected the first time I applied to one of them). My experience might be skewed towards the absolute "best" (or most elitist, depends on how you look at it) the Guild has to offer.

@Father Hank

This. Particularly as a GM, I've come to really value what I can get from players in terms of storytelling, worldbuilding, and character creation quality. While I theoretically could get that from the casual section, with a much larger audience to draw from to boot (and as a GM that audience is massively tempting), but I would have to be more of a hardass in a section supposedly with lower bars to pass, in order to run a roleplay that is worthwhile in my eyes. And for the record I am already a bit of a hardass of a GM (and it's honestly tainted my ability to put up with a ton of things a lot of GMs here do).

The audience that frequents Advanced is a population I can innately expect to bring what I'm looking for without having to weed through a lot of sheets that don't. I don't uphold length standards the way a lot of Adv. section RPs do but I can't reliably get the kind of thoughtful writing I want elsewhere. I want content to be meaningful; it should have a clear purpose to its inclusion. To name a few major ones: it should advance the current story, it should expand upon the picture of the scene, or it should develop the character in some way. Disclaimer: list is far from inclusive.

Like @Odin said, Casual often contains decisions in posts that scratch heads, don't fit, or otherwise feel like they served no meaningful purpose to the larger picture. That and in my own experience (anecdote warning) I often recall seeing decisions that were rather selfish, serving to push one character's story along to the detriment or exclusion of others. Just by being around that I ended up doing it sometimes myself, and I think catching myself doing it is more frustrating than someone else doing it, because I like to think that I can be better than that.

Visions of Futures: A Pre-Interest Check

@tal0n The thing with doing that, and I say all of this having very much considered this possibility, is that I feel it diminishes the value of invoking the religious-supernatural element. I was tempted and that's part of why I've set it up the way I have so that the religious-supernatural elements are not in any way in conflict with scientific fact, present of future. As an aside, I'm trying to develop the supernatural elements in a way that lends a sort of universality to any past or present religious sect, despite drawing heavily from western/european judeo-christian mythology. I'm struggling a bit with the polytheistic cases but I'll probably figure something out.

I think pushing it forward maybe 50+ years and bringing it up to speed with my cyberpunk realm would be really interesting. Pairing it with humanity having developed a pseudo-immortality of their own that is arguably more powerful than that of the divine creates a really interesting dichotomy and in a lot of ways levels an ordinarily-unbalanced playing field. The effect that balancing has on the dynamic between Earth and Heaven and Hell would be super interesting to play out.

But with all that said I have other stories I want to tell in that cyberpunk world that are more grounded in reality and I tend not to like double-dipping in the creation of RPs ... so that leaves me in a bit of a rock and a hard place. Lemme know what people think regarding my thoughts on it. These are just my thoughts on the matter (but I am the one that has to make the decision and do the work, so there's that).

EDIT: @DeadDrop You're going to have to be more specific, since there are now four different concepts here, as to which you're referring to. There needs to be a clear winner in terms of popularity and/or idea development for me to know which avenue to focus my efforts down.