Planning Guild War 2

[Goosh]

January/February does sound good: Hopefully my computer will be fixed by then. X___x Though no one person is in charge of Guild Wars, I guess. =3

[Deleted]

petfriendamy said:

fenrix said:

And I don't know if Elcie agrees with this, but since I'm helping her run the Merc Guild, we may be more of workers-for-hire instead of an actual guild, since that is what Mercenaries are.

Yesh, I always thought it would be fun if we could have like a hiring mercenaries thing. Like, if one guild finds they're in a bind, they can post in a special thread or something and hire a mercenary for help. Mmyes, that'd be fun, but ahh, that's not my decision.

And looks like the consensus so far is that it should start in January. Which sounds good to me as well, since then we'll be all done with the holidays for a while.

That might work. Perhaps a "Hiring Mercs" thread like the welcome thread, that way everyone can post.

As soon as Elcie IMs me I'll talk it over with her, but I think she'll go for that idea. *shrug* She may or may not participate in the GW2.

[Deleted]

fenrix said:

petfriendamy said:

Yesh, I always thought it would be fun if we could have like a hiring mercenaries thing. Like, if one guild finds they're in a bind, they can post in a special thread or something and hire a mercenary for help. Mmyes, that'd be fun, but ahh, that's not my decision.

And looks like the consensus so far is that it should start in January. Which sounds good to me as well, since then we'll be all done with the holidays for a while.

That might work. Perhaps a "Hiring Mercs" thread like the welcome thread, that way everyone can post.

As soon as Elcie IMs me I'll talk it over with her, but I think she'll go for that idea. *shrug* She may or may not participate in the GW2.

I suggested Mercs could have free roam through all guild roleplays, since don't mercs usually wander around in search of work anyways? Besides, their wild-card natures could help other roleplays to better thrive.

Anyways January/February would be good, I think. And although I'm open for all our freedom and spontaneity to return, I do think some kinds of restrictions need to be put in place. Like, no more than one post per person per day, or a max length to each post to keep things manageable for everyone. Whatever happens, though, I think I'd be up for playing summarist again. Oh, and we need a plot, too. The last GWRP struggled to thrive sometimes because we ran out of steam when the expected war never was. Like, we need to start with some set alliances and set enemies with some reasons why everyone's fighting, so we have at least some framework to start in to keep us going through until the end.

[Kengplant]

one post per day per person would kill it. Maybe something more like 3 or 4, maybe 5. Normally when rapid posting is done it's between about 2 or 3 people.

Oh, and we need a plot, too. The last GWRP struggled to thrive sometimes because we ran out of steam when the expected war never was. Like, we need to start with some set alliances and set enemies with some reasons why everyone's fighting, so we have at least some framework to start in to keep us going through until the end.

But that would ruin a lot of the spontaneous factor that makes RPs so great. And besides, I think a lot of us have learned to plot amongst ourselves over PMs and whatnot from the last GW. Maybe just a VERY loose beggining layout. The guilds involved would have to agree on their starting position and then we let it take on a life of it's own from there.

One thing I would like to do though is get a bit more timeline done so the war lasts more than a day. I could handel this with maybe one or two other people spontaneously going "OK IT NITEY NOIGHT TIME PEOPLES KK?" ever few hours worth of events. For my sake I would also keep track of the moon phases...

[Omni]

Yeah, there were a few problems with a few people doing too much at one time. There should probably be some sort of restriction, but only one post a day would be too strict, in my opinion. Especially in the occasional case where circumstances don't really allow much more than a one-line post (without godmoding or something). So, perhaps a maximum combined wordcount for the day? I'm thinking something close to 1,000 words per day, give or take a few hundred. Perhaps it could be more flexible for plot-exposition posts.

And I agree with Keng. There should be some set plot, especially at the begining, but after that people will want to interact (semi-)realistically, throw their own ideas in, and otherwise be able to do what they want. I'm sure there are many writers here that have written a story with an end in mind, come up with another cool idea partway into writing, and then with the new plotline the originally conceived end would be impossible (or at least really difficult). And it would be even harder to get a set end with so many people together in one game. And again, one of the funnest parts of roleplaying is interactivity and flexibility. So... yeah.

[Vyt: Down, but Not Out]

I think the restriction on posts per day would be too strict and tight, especially when it comes to battle scenes. I do agree, however, that we had problems with two people interacting against each other, ruining the plotline and not giving the others a chance to react. It's just up to the roleplayers to think if their actions are getting too far with the plotline.

1,000 words per day? I'm not sure if that would work in the cases of Wolf and the others, who make very lengthy posts in a larger time interval. I'd say, increase that to 500 words so people could at least act once or twice to someone else's reaction to their first posts.

[PFA]

Restrictions on posts would just make it really frustrating, IMO. >_> I mean, I don't exactly want to have to check how many words my posts have and make sure they're not over the limit.

If we're going to have post restrictions, though, perhaps we could do something like... make sure there's at least two/three posts before you post again? That might help with the two people interacting thing that Vyt mentioned. But I dunno. *shrug*

[Cyborg]

Restrictions would be to tiresome if you had to count all of the words and I think Fen is right for the merc idea. Plus the GWRP should start after march cuz ill be gone for 2 weeks.

[Kengplant]

cyborg878 said:

Restrictions would be to tiresome if you had to count all of the words and I think Fen is right for the merc idea. Plus the GWRP should start after march cuz ill be gone for 2 weeks.

No offense Cyborg, we love you and all, but fact is at any given point in this RP someone won't be able to get online and post or something. We had 22-30 people in the last GW RP (there are 22 characters unique to 22 users in a poster I have sitting around unfinished and I may have missed a few people...). We had the same problem last time, people going away (if you encorprate your temporary removal from the plot as part of the plot you might come up with something interesting. MMM was a result of me taking a leave), people showing up half way into the plot, and people who forgot about the RP completely. If you are going to join an RP of this scale you have to accept that you're not going to be a part of everything. Once again using myself as an example, keng was unconcious or in another room completely serprate from the main action for almost the entire RP. She missed the entire shadow army thing.

There is no way we'll be able to make everyone happy with when we start this. 2 weeks of missed RP is both a lot and not very much at all. The last GW started in Febuary and ended in May (give or take). So about 3-4 months.

I'm not saying we should not start in march, or that we should, but everyone has to accept that with an RP lasting over that period of time we will not all be present throughout the entire thing. Exams come, projects, holidays, just know that you will ALWAYS be able to write yourself into or back into the plot. Just look at how Rider disapeered for some 60 pages then came back.

[zarikrahia]

Mmmhmm. Everyone'll probably be away at some point, so we can't work around everyones calendar. Most go on holiday December-early january, I go late january. So yeah. I fervently hope GW doesn't start then, but we can't work around every single person. XP.

In my opinion, Early January. To avoid the December rush and for those who go later, so they don't miss the start.

[Zylaa]

Post limits per day and a set plot outline would be pretty strict. I mean, look what we've got for a second here: 115 pages of 15 posts each with at least 100 words per post. This gives us at least 172,500 words. To put it another way, that's 3 and a half novels. Do you know of any trilogy that's stayed true to it's plot beyond the most basic premise?

I think that PFA's restriction sounds the most reasonable- wait for 2-3 other people before you post again. Oh, and people suddenly posting AND THEN NIGHT FELL would be useful. But we've got to accept that there'll be a certain amount of chaos- which I think is fun. ^_^

[emmhwal]

I think specific posting limits would be a bit extreme - it's hard to limit yourself and annoying to have to check, especially with the way the last GW went.

A fully structured plot would be pretty much impossible, given the nature of things, although we do need at least some idea of what we're doing, and where we want to go.

zylaa said:

This gives us at least 172,500 words. To put it another way, that's 3 and a half novels.

Fun Fact: The first nine pages of Guild Wars RP have 16,172 words, not counting various OOC chatter, and quotes.

[Deleted]

Yeah, when I made my suggestions, I was largely just throwing things out there....

One post per day would be really strict, but something has to be done to allow more people to keep up and participate. So many people got swept aside last time, and I'd hate to see it happen again because a select few dominate the thread. If there's 15 posts per page, maybe a limit of four posts per page per person would work? That would still allow for freedom, but not allow any one or two people to overrun things for a long length of time.

Which makes me think, on the subject of time, perhaps every new page automatically pushes the RP forward one hour? That way, twenty four pages equal a day. Though, this could make intense scenes difficult to work with, while slower ones last longer than needed...

As for the plot, I wasn't thinking anything big, just enough to get us started. The last GWRP had the intention of getting the guilds to war, but that never came to pass. We need to start in medias res, in the middle of things, so we have an inkling of inter-guild war before we hit page sixty, or whatever page the fighting began last time. That is what we want, isn't it?

And something has to be done about multiple allegiances, I think. Maybe a limit to two, with one designated as the primary one? That way, we have clearly defined armies, but betrayal can still be an option?

Or maybe I just like rules too much.... Yeah, that might be it....

[Kengplant]

micrody said:

Which makes me think, on the subject of time, perhaps every new page automatically pushes the RP forward one hour? That way, twenty four pages equal a day. Though, this could make intense scenes difficult to work with, while slower ones last longer than needed...

I'd like to intruduce the idea of a sub-section to spacefleet, (mage manor might want to get involved too... *darts a glance at a certain time mage*)

The the Space/Time-Continum Natural Flow Protection Agency (STCNFPA).... eerr... still working on the name...

A select group of agents who, while possibly being very loyal to their own factions, put the Space/Time continum before their own feuds because if the continum were to collapse there would be nothing to feud over and no one to feud about it. Thus they keep a careful watch of the time-line to make sure that the present past and future don't overlap to much as RPs tend to do and that we aren't spending 10 hours in a sun that's just beggining to set.

This is all a fancy way of saying people who keep a rough timeline throughout the RP.

... Ok... I'll get some sleep now before I make any less sense.

[Crystal]

omniscia said:

Yeah, there were a few problems with a few people doing too much at one time. There should probably be some sort of restriction, but only one post a day would be too strict, in my opinion. Especially in the occasional case where circumstances don't really allow much more than a one-line post (without godmoding or something). So, perhaps a maximum combined wordcount for the day? I'm thinking something close to 1,000 words per day, give or take a few hundred. Perhaps it could be more flexible for plot-exposition posts.

And I agree with Keng. There should be some set plot, especially at the begining, but after that people will want to interact (semi-)realistically, throw their own ideas in, and otherwise be able to do what they want. I'm sure there are many writers here that have written a story with an end in mind, come up with another cool idea partway into writing, and then with the new plotline the originally conceived end would be impossible (or at least really difficult). And it would be even harder to get a set end with so many people together in one game. And again, one of the funnest parts of roleplaying is interactivity and flexibility. So... yeah.

The odd thing is that in the first GW, what I saw was that the longer posts carried the roleplay along, and the shorter posts didn't really add anything. I mean, they contributed and all, but it was the long posts which really set the plot and settings and determined the ending. It could just be me, but I'd have suggested a -minimum- limit, not a maximum. XDDDD