Zapdos

Casual, really?

2nd - RPs created over time:

Because people say their RPs aren't as popular anymore, that they few ignored, or have the impression that the Guild is dying somehow. I wanted to see the truth about that and, as you all can see, what appears to have happened is that was a wild, almost ridiculous explosion of new topics created around Summer 2017.

We have been on a gradual decline back to the original stable numbers of the Guild ever since then. What I theorize that is the cause of complaints of lack of activity is people who joined around the boom and aren't used to the old pace being slowly reestablished. So yeah, it's not anyone's posts that are particularly bad or anything like this, it's just that we are going back to the near flatline pace that was between 2014 and late 2016.

So, what's your opinion about this? I think this is the most insight we had about the guild in years, and it really changed how I see things here.

PS: here's the link for the code if anyone wants to take a look/modify it for other sections/etc.
https://github.com/Final-Palladium/simple-rpguild-data-analysis/blob/main/rpguild_scrape.ipynb

@FinalPalladium

I didn't see anyone ask this (sorry if someone did and I missed it), so I wonder - is there a way to measure the number of new members who joined each month? I'm wondering how that data would look alongside the quoted data above. If there was an explosion of topics in Summer 2017 alongside a spike in membership, that might confirm your hypothesis.

Also, do people use tags when looking for roleplays to join? I just browse the casual section and see what interests me, personally.

Sum up your week in roleplaying in just 3 words

Way too slow.

@LostButterfly92

I agree, butterfly

New Collaborative Story Interest Check

Bump.

Friendships

I used to date someone that I met on this site. We don't talk anymore, but it illustrates that roleplay can lead to friendship or more.

New Collaborative Story Interest Check

Hello there! A few months ago, I started a writing experiment: everyone takes turns writing the same story with the same characters by adding their own content, ideas, and so on - what results is a cohesive and interesting story. The end result of this experiment has been The Adventures of Caleb Crowsnest, which has been a great deal of fun to write. So why is this thread here? Because I’ve had fun writing about Caleb and his friends, but the post rate has slowed down, so since I have more time on my hands now I thought it’d be fun to start writing another story!

If you’re interested in getting an idea of what the structure would look like (not the genre or topic of the story), you can read it here or you can read the much shorter example below:

Short Post Style Example

Poster A:

"Frank was walking down the street on his way to work. It was his last day on the job; he was proud of his 43 years at the Wonderful Wheel Company, but he was looking forward to retirement. He arrived at the old factory, same as ever, except he was surprised to see..."

Poster B:

"that it was decorated with banners! The old factory worker saw banners, balloons and homemade posters celebrating his last day and wishing him well. A hint of a smile showed on the man's face. But the biggest surprise was when he walked into the place..."

Poster C:

"a huge array of tires spelling out "BEST WISHES FRANK" right on the factory floor! What was previously a hint evolved into a full-on grin; the man never expected his coworkers to go through all this trouble. Honestly, he thought they didn't even like him. However..."

(Please note that these posts are shorter than a normal post because this is just an example of the concept.)

I’ve found that this writing style has big advantages over a more conventional RP structure, the biggest one being that people dropping out of the story doesn’t grind it to a halt. Plus, multiple authors can provide multiple perspectives, making the story more interesting. I’m hoping that I can take what I’ve learned running the aforementioned story and use that knowledge to run this new idea even more effectively.

So what would this new story be about, you might be asking? I don’t know yet! Part of the fun is collaborating with other writers on the story. I’ve learned from Caleb Crowsnest that establishing a plot structure/starting goal (at least a loose one) can help a great deal; at the start of the aforementioned story, there was no real idea of what the plot was, so everyone was trying to add ideas and pulled the story in unpredictable directions. I'd like to collaborate with everyone on what sort of story to write. What genres or sorts of characters do you want to write about? What ideas have perhaps been lurking in your brain until now? I know that smut, torture, gore and real life politics are things that I am not interested in here, but beyond that (and, if all else fails, a silly Pokemon idea I have) I don’t really have an idea of what the actual plot will be.

The length of writing is “whatever makes sense for your post” which is usually a few paragraphs but can be much more if you want it to be. I’ve written in the past with writers who can say more three paragraphs than some people could with three pages, but at the same time I’ve written with people who took three pages for a single post and every word was worth reading. Quality matters, not quantity; in other words, I don’t want to read a gargantuan post if it’s really difficult to follow what’s going on. (L i k e t h i s f o r e x a m p l e.)

If you have any questions, thoughts or comments, let me know. I look forward to writing with you!

The Adventures of Caleb Crowsnest

The conversation continued on the road out from town, with Caleb and Sara sitting up front while Rainbow was nearby inside the wagon. No matter what the group would decide to do, there was no sense in talking where they could be overheard. Coincidentally, they had turned right on the main road like Alan had said earlier.

“...and then he left. What should we do?” Caleb asked as he finished his recounting of what had happened earlier. So far, Sara’s face had revealed nothing. She had listened respectfully, but had given no indication of how she felt one way or the other. The boy, on the other hand, looked visibly nervous. Caleb wanted to do the right thing; he just hoped that this involve him meeting with Alan tonight.

The elderly woman’s face soon became visibly distressed. “I understand how you feel, child. More than you know, really, but Lydia is in serious danger. I don’t think-”

Before she could finish her thought though, Rainbow interrupted her. “We should go see this farmer.” Caleb and Sara were both slightly surprised to hear Rainbow’s opinion on this, as neither person had expected the rablin to go against anything their leader decided on.

“Sorry Sara, but I know this kid,” Rainbow said, patting Caleb on the side and smiling, “and I know if we don’t talk to this guy now, Caleb’ll never be able to focus on saving Lydia.” The time on the dwarven island was fresh in the rablin’s mind at this moment - Rainbow was certain that this was the right thing to do. Now turning to face Sara, he added “and besides, if we talk to the farmer, maybe he’ll be able to help us with that too, if we’re careful. And since I have a plan, we will be.”

Caleb beamed at his green friend’s position; Edward smiled as well, seeing his friend so happy. Sara was reluctant to keep Lydia waiting, but looking at the boy sitting next to her, she found herself unable to deny his request.

“Alright,” she responded with a nod, “we’ll go.”

The child immediately hugged the elderly woman. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, child.” Sara smiled and hugged the child back. Looking at her travel companions and seeing similar looks on their faces, the elderly woman knew that this was something that everyone there wanted for Caleb.

-----

A few hours later, the group of four had arrived at the farm. It was a little worn, but still in good shape, with a red barn out back and a functional ranch-style farmhouse close to it. The wagon, with Edward attached and Flower inside, was parked out front; this would make escape easy if it was necessary. Sara and Caleb then exited the wagon, with Rainbow invisibly walking behind them. Part of the rablin’s plan involved him following the group, staying invisible with his illusion magic so he can assist as needed.

The group walked to the front door; Caleb was nervous, but excited. He had been waiting for this moment for so long and now it was finally happening. Sara gently nudged the child to knock on the door, so he did so; the person who answered the door wasn’t the farmer from earlier though.

“Holy crap, you actually showed up! Guess I owe Dad a silver piece,” said the young man, who followed up by taking a drink of what smelled like beer out of a wooden mug. He looked like a young man, no older than 18 or 19 years old, and wore a worn brown leather jacket over his white shirt and equally worn pants. The man’s hair and eyes somewhat matched the jacket, but this was a coincidence rather than a conscious decision on his part.

“Uh, hi, have we met?” was all Caleb could awkwardly think of to reply with. Sara simply arched an eyebrow at this person whose presence reminded her of Junior.

“Nah, Dad told me about you though. Come on in. Name’s Luke, by the way” the man said as he walked inside, motioning for the pair to follow him with his free hand.

Following Luke with Sara through the simple entryway, Caleb noticed a stack of newspapers on top of a small wooden table; they were issues of the Eagletown Enquirer. The top paper’s date was from a few days after he left town, the headline was “Young Child Missing” and it was accompanied by a detailed drawing of himself.

Animal Crossing RP Idea

@c3p-0h @IvoryKeys Thank you for the interest! And welcome to Roleplayer Guild Ivory.

Animal Crossing RP Idea

I might be interested. I’m guessing this is played like the games with a murder mystery attached?

Are we playing as Animals or Humans?

@Crimson Flame

Yeah, pretty much. The goal here isn't to be some super powerful guy who can jump over buildings, you're just an average person. You can be an animal or a human, it just depends on what sounds the most fun to you.

Animal Crossing RP Idea

Hi there! I am Zapdos and I’m looking to gauge interest in this idea for an Animal Crossing story idea I have because I want to write more and the story I’m currently running has slowed down. If you aren’t familiar with the series, you play as a person who moves to a town full of animals and you live your life doing things like decorating your house, fishing, bug catching, etc. In the newest game on Switch you move with a group of animals to a deserted island and build a town there. It’s not a series that requires understanding a huge amount of lore, but still has a great amount of room for creative ideas and that appeals to me.

With that said, I wrote a little blurb below to give you an idea of what to expect:

---

In the Animal Crossing universe, Tom Nook has gotten sick and is unable to move any more beings to deserted islands. Fortunately for a small group of people and animals, a copycat innovator named Vince has stepped in to provide this service. For a small fee of 100,000 bells each, he has nice houses on a pleasant island for each person. Everything seems aboveboard - he’ll take everyone to the island first, then get their stuff on the second trip. The houses on the island are in great shape and even had some basic furnishings as well. It looked like everything was going to be good.

But as it turns out, there was more to this place than just ocean views, as was discovered by one resident who dug a hole to plant a tree…and found a fresh dog corpse occupying the spot already.

With no way of contacting the authorities, the villagers now have crucial questions to answer on their own: just what had happened here? Why had nobody heard of this death before now? And what would happen to them?

---

Since this is in the casual section, I’d expect about 2-3 paragraphs at a minimum, but what really matters is that you’re writing good quality posts. I’d rather see a good two paragraph post than a three page essay that nobody can understand (and I speak from experience here; when someone has to ask you what has happened, that isn’t a good sign). Ideally I’d like people able to post 2-3 times a week, but I understand life happens so communication is important.

Do you have questions? Concerns? Comments? Let me know. In any case, I appreciate you taking the time to read this!

The Adventures of Caleb Crowsnest

While Sara helped their cause by looking around for information, Caleb was helping customers. He thought medical books might be a niche market, but a kind woman had bought a text on how to make casts earlier, so maybe there was more demand than he expected. Now the boy was waiting patiently as a thin, tan man with a swirly mustache examined a different book. He was shocked out of his complacency by what the guy said though.

“This book is fake,” he declared as if he were stating the meaning of life.

Caleb knew this wasn’t the case; Roger was way too smart to not know if his book was real. “With all due respect sir, it’s real. The, uh, seller is well educated and a good man.”

“Well, boy,” the adult responded in a kindly way, “it isn’t your fault you got fooled, but let me do you a favor - I’ll buy it off you for a gold piece.” Based on Roger’s price sheet, that offer was 100 times smaller than what it should have been.

“No thank you, sir.”

Now the man’s tone of voice became more stern. “Alright boy, enough games. The authorities won’t take kindly to phonies. Trying to scam the people of this great city will not end well for you. I’ll give you a silver and we can forget this ever happened.”

Caleb was nervous now, but not because the book was allegedly fake; rather, he didn’t want to jeopardize the mission over something fairly small like this. Still, knights didn’t back down from doing the right thing, so that was what the boy intended on doing.

“The book is real. I’ll have to ask you to leave now, sir.”

“GUARDS!” the man started to yell, “THIS CHILD IS-”

Suddenly, the man stopped - not because of any moral enlightenment, but because another man had punched him square in the face. Caleb recognized the attacker; it was Alan, the guy who had helped them find the spot earlier.

Alan scolded the man for his actions as well. “Curly, you oughta be ashamed of yourself, trying to scam a child. What is this, some back alley in Thorn?”

“But Scarman, he-”

“No excuses.” Alan loudly declared as he pulled out his sword. “Now get out of here, and if I hear of you scamming anyone else I’ll gut you like a fish.” Saying this, he kicked the chastised man as he scurried away.

Caleb was relieved; the farmer had saved him from a potentially awkward situation. Edward and Rainbow were relieved as well, having just been spared from potentially having to reveal themselves.

“Thank you, sir” the boy said to the man, “I wasn’t trying to cause any trouble.”

“I know. Don’t worry about it, Caleb,” the scarred man said in response.

The child had to wonder if he had let his name slip at some point. “It’s Calvin, actually.”

The older man smiled in response, as if something about that was funny. “Now Caleb, if you lie any more, Ms. Ardia will wash your mouth with soap.”

At this, the boy’s face became a shade of pink as he tried to maintain his false identity. “Uh, I don’t know who that is. Maybe you have me confused with someone else?” Whether it was on a dwarven island impersonating a bear or in a dragon empire, Caleb apparently was not very good at bluffing.

Fortunately for the child, this farmer was apparently kinder than the failed scam artist, as he looked like he had remembered something that was important. “Alright, all things considered, maybe that was a little sudden. Just...listen please, okay?” Caleb nodded, figuring he could at least do that much after the man had helped him earlier.

“Thank you. I don’t know why you’re here, and you don’t have to tell me, but I’m happy you’re okay. Like I assume you did, I grew up in Eagletown at Red Twig, with your father.” At the mention of a parental figure, Caleb’s eyes went wide and he looked at the man intently, but said nothing. “I get it if you don’t trust me, but I’d like you and your elderly friend to join me for dinner tonight. Maybe I can help with whatever it is you’re doing here? Anyway, I live at the Crimson Ridge farm; take a right on the main road and take a left on the first dirt road, then my house is the first farm on the right. I won’t bother you if you don’t show up, but I hope you do. Take care, Caleb.”

Saying this, Alan waved and took his leave. Caleb felt torn; on the one hand, he would do anything to know more about his parents and what happened with them. On the other, he didn’t want to abandon Sara, his village or Lydia. He had to ask himself: what should he do?