General Chat

Yeah this year is hectic for me, because of irl and blah blah blah... I work in retail and people start buying for x-mas. The last two days have been busy as T-T and I'm completely spent I have tomorrow off then back to work the day after... so I'll catch up tomorrow...

I can only post so much being being Life with no one to interact with, I don't want to post too much too soon the sooner zack and seph or yuffie and red can get to me the better

and I think its ok for other members to join that want to just chat about their favorite game and who knows they may one day decided to take on a character, but their permissions would be to only view the general rp and au rp and not post

but I understand what Nero is getting at, I don't want too many people joining as randoms cause this is a RP forum

also we don't want it to be overly strict this rp is more easy going but on topic and I'd prefer it this way instead of the fun being sucked out of it by being really correct, cause I'd have to quit as my grammar will always fail.

there isnt a problem of 'too many people' joining. I think some have forgotten that we admins have to approve of each user before they can post. we can easily just say no.

Hmm. Well, if you have a feature where you can okay/block posting in the main rp by group. Then I don't see why it wouldn't be alright. So long as we don't end up with throngs of OCs and the main Rp suffers.

Though, I go back to my original point. We should probably try to figure out what our over-all goal for this arc is supposed to be. Are we looking for a minor confrontation? Are we still recruiting? What breakthroughs are we hoping to accomplish?

Well Vincent, I don't disagree with it but in all honesty, I somewhat fail to see the point: that, of course, could very well be my fault. If it promotes activity on the board, great but if the activity it's promoting on the board isn't caused or between the RPers... then I don't really think we need to promote that kind of activity because we'd still be at square one....

Weiss, darling, grammar and whatever shouldn't be a problem. Your posts are FAR more legible than the ones I have seen. I have seen people post as: "my guy stabs cloudz and blud gos evrywre lol".......... that is the only time I would ever kick someone for their syntax... But I agree with Weiss, strictness is never a good thing if we go overboard.

And Jen, might just be me, again I seem to be conflicting >.>, but I generally let RPs unfold themselves rather than plan things in advance as a board. Since if we planned it, no point RPing it since there's no surprise or novelty to each post XD. But I do agree with small groups planning, like if you and I plotted, or if you and a few people plotted a twist, but those blueprints I would keep away from the public eye.

good post and I like the element of surprise with the rp but having a base idea of where we want to end this arch on would be cool

I think an arch plot is a good idea, but character plots should be a surprise cause it's fun...

As for what this arch plot is... I was just kinda winging it to see what would happen. >>;

Though I do want a moment where Zack goes bonkers but that's just me <3

To be honest, I don't like knowing where we'd end up. =/

It's like if someone spoils the ending to a movie/book, you really don't care as much for the middle as you do for the end. That's just me though, seems I'm defeated XD

I want to be Life forever i'll be sad when an aerith comes in XD

oh well weiss is fun to rp as is

Well, it's not like Aerith will be the controller of the Lifestream. The things pretty massive: I'm sure even with Aerith controlling it, some would be independent enough to own Weiss' body.

Back to the idea of plot vs no plot. I prefer to have a basic outline of what we're trying to accomplish. I guess that's the writer in me, wanting to know where it's headed. For the most part I don't have any plans in my head as of yet so I'm just kinda reacting to what happens.

Well, I mean, aren't Zack and Seph heading towards Jenova and Nero? I'm sure that's enough to work with for now. Whatever the outcome of that will be, will be you making your own little plan/reacting to other people's plans.

I seem to be the "different one" here XD. I like RPs spontaneous, with twists, and ending up in ways nobody planned. After all, I do tend to play antagonists on board for that reason. I played Kadaj on a KH board who just destroyed an eight of Radiant Garden because he "felt like it"; I also played Ultimecia, who tricked them all in to thinking she was "good" and loved to casually have conversations with her enemies and made them doubt themselves. I didn't plan any of it, I just went, that would be a good idea -- I'm gonna do that! And then bam! Massive conflict appears that everyone has a piece of the plot to work off of if they want to.

Again that's just me. The way I've seen it, the more people take the initiative to try and create a plot by themselves, the easier it is for someone to get inspiration and work on it themselves. There will always be a majority of the board who "goes with the flow" and always throw in a few things here and there to make it more interesting, but again: that is just me rambling for a bit.

I just woke up and I feel like talking. Feel free to ignoreee :3

I'm kinda in between on it.

I like surprise, but I also kinda like knowing where I'm going. Helps me plan my own things, you know? I don't know XD.


And as for letting more members join, sure! I don't see why not, I just hope it doesn't get to the point where there are more active "other users" then RPers. But I doubt that would happen anyway.

Hey, guys, chiming in on the topic at hand. ^_^

The way I see RPs are that they're a group story, everyone who plays in an RP should contribute something to the overarching plot. If you aren't contributing to either a plot or a subplot in some way, they why did you join the RP? It's all about action/reaction. The Mods and Admins should provide a scenario, but it's up to us RPers to flush out the details. The Mods should step in to help move the plot along to a logical conclusion to over arcing arcs, but we will provide the details.


It's definitely a "Goldilocks Scenario." You can't have too much plot, but you can't have too little. Someone needs to have a clear vision of where they want the story to go, but you cannot force everyone into a lock-step point-by-point outlined story. Give them a little nudge, ask them outright, but never TELL them where they have to go. Be flexible with the story, let people's ideas evolve the plot into something greater than what you can do by yourself.

Right now, I don't know what Kadaj is going to do or where he's going to go, but that's mostly because I can't seem to figure out what everyone else's plot ideas are. ^_^ But that's how Kadaj feels right now too, he's a stranger in a strange land and trying to find his place. My own uncertainty feeds into his own.

Perhaps if we discussed everyone's goals and knew where the mods wanted the story to go, it would help a lot of us figure out where we all stood.

I also think you shouldn't have "standard users" that aren't allowed to RP. Why not let them have original characters and join in on the plot? Video Game worlds are populated with nameless NPCs: soldiers, townspeople, ect. Why not let people create OCs to play these parts? That way they can RP and not just take up space.

the problem with oc's in a main plot is that you get too many oc's posting and not enough cannon, that is what I found with the last RP we made

I have no idea where the RP is headed what I'd like I'd for weiss/life to battle with Jenova or nero or both cause that would be kinda epic XD

but it depends on what they want as well but I'll take it as it comes

Again, if the OCs are posting and helping to advance a plot, what's the harm? I've played on boards with OCs involved who took major roles and helped to fill holes. We had an OC be a major villain on one board because we needed a new major villain. I've never been on a board wherein OCs were a problem. Of course, OCs were usually treated with more scrutiny than canon characters because it's a lot easier to god mod and create a over powered OC. But if they're serious about playing, they'll usually honor your requests and fix flaws when they're pointed out.

And, again, the mods need to figure out what kind of story they want the RP to be and let everyone know. Yes, we know it's set after DoC and all these people are coming back and the planet is dying, we the players need to be given hints why this is, otherwise we're groping in the dark at straws. Is the Lifestream purging itself of evil? If so, then what will happen when the villains are defeated, will they be eliminated from the lifestream? Do you want us to work towards a brighter future? Or a darker one?

If you're a true RPer, you will know how to utilize this knowledge to move your characters in a subtle way towards the goals of the board and know that even if you know what's going to happen, your character won't (i.e. I (the RPer) know Jenova is alive and well, Kadaj doesn't know this so he'll be in for a shock if and when he meets Jenova or if Jenova asks me if it'd be okay for her to take over Kadaj and I say yes, Kadaj won't be able to see it coming and prevent it.). So it is perfectly acceptable to give a goal to work towards, but let us figure out what happens between point "a" and point "b."

Again, this is all my opinion, take it or leave it.

On the topic of OCs: I don't think Original Characters are a problem. I mean, OCs, in my eyes, always add another dimension to the RP, and that never hurts. Especially now, where we have 17 Cannon characters on the forum. The chance of getting 10 OCs without getting ANY Cannons is severely unlikely. I believe Kadaj has a point when he says "if the OCs are posting and helping to advance a plot, what's the harm?" I mean, everyone kinda has the initial kinda, "Oh, an OC *eyeroll*" I'm sure you guys have it, even I have it. I'll admit to that. But I've found some OC players who make me go wide-eyed and I get proved wrong, many times.



On the topic of Plot: Kadaj, Lucky, Angeal and I have been on a few boards together, and I've noticed there is a bit of a difference to how we RP: we both have the plot as a whole, but our system tends to be that every individual thinks deeply about what his character's motives and goals (and if you have some form of split, such as Weiss and Life, you create two, for example Life wants to kill Nero and Jenjen, Weiss wants to go dance with Nero in a flower garden, or whatever) and we all chip in pieces or tokens into the grand scheme of things, which in this metaphor would be a jar named "Plot"; from what I see from Seph, Jenova and Zack (this is just an observation, feel free to correct me!) on the other hand, tend to do the same thing with the thinking deeply but to a lesser extent: you like to know, as a whole, where the whole is going, and you all work together to get there.

I think both are amazing systems. The latter one (and I've RP'd that kind a few times) has RPers rely on a more of an "outside guidance" than an "inside guidance". And the difference, I find, between writing fanfics and RP'ing fandoms is the outside/inside. I've seen people who can RP beautifully but they cannot write a fic, and people who cannot RP but can write wonderfully for that reason --- and reading your posts, I can say that you can all RP amazingly. I just think it's more of an "inside" thing.

And of course this isn't black and white, there is a bit of both in both styles. But I think, if you're not sure what to do, ask yourselves:

1. "What has happened to your character between their last cannon appearance and FFVII: Revelations?"
   
   
2. "What has happened to your character since the start of FFVII: Revelations?"
   
   
3. "What does your character feel right now?"
   
   
4. "What is your character's current short term goals?"
   
   
5. "How is he/she going to try to achieve that? Who does he/she need to interact with to achieve that?"
   
   
6. "What is your character's current long term goals?"
   
   
7. "How is he/she going to try to achieve that? Who does he/she need to interact with to achieve that?"

Using that, try to find a goal. Because once you have a goal, you have a sense of where your character is going. You have a destination, now you can start the journey. Maybe we can make a little questionnaire for those who lose their goals. What do you guys think?

One of the previous RP's I was on we had an issue with OC's isn't FFVII related RP... it was anime based, when one of the OC's stepped over the line there was some correcting required, of course things went really blah after that.
It wasn't a bad over the line but more or less... she wanted her OC to be in love with one of the main crew and vice versa, who frankly wasn't the fall in love type *coughsanzocough* but she kept pushing it and kept pushing it... to the point where it got kinda ridiculous and ruined the RP for several cannon characters. So it caused a non OC rule in the thread.

But I'm willing to give it another shot if the other mods are okay with it. because I know the rules I will set down for it.

I haven't had any issues with OC FFVII characters too much had a few myself that I use to move my doujin fic and so forth along.


Zack's focus is really trying to locate Aerith, that's atm though.


I just got back from work so I'll do a full blown thing bout the RP tomorrow when I'm not so @_____@

You have my thumbs up for anything you guys want to try,just keep it civil. I dont want to come back here and have to sort out some tangled mess.

Zack wrote:

One of the previous RP's I was on we had an issue with OC's isn't FFVII related RP... it was anime based, when one of the OC's stepped over the line there was some correcting required, of course things went really blah after that.
It wasn't a bad over the line but more or less... she wanted her OC to be in love with one of the main crew and vice versa, who frankly wasn't the fall in love type *coughsanzocough* but she kept pushing it and kept pushing it... to the point where it got kinda ridiculous and ruined the RP for several cannon characters. So it caused a non OC rule in the thread.

But I'm willing to give it another shot if the other mods are okay with it. because I know the rules I will set down for it.

I haven't had any issues with OC FFVII characters too much had a few myself that I use to move my doujin fic and so forth along.


Zack's focus is really trying to locate Aerith, that's atm though.


I just got back from work so I'll do a full blown thing bout the RP tomorrow when I'm not so @_____@

Yeah, I've run a board and helped run boards (all of them Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy related) in the past and I've never had a problem quite like that. But even if I did I would have just punished the wrongdoer. I don't believe that you should punish the many for the actions of one, which is often times what happens in the real world and I find it extremely unfair. It helps to set down a clear set of rules that state what will happen if you do decide to do something stupid.

I initiated a "3 Strikes" rule on my old board, copying a friend who had the same. It was simple - for your first offense you would get a warning, second offense earned you a suspension on all accounts (we allowed multiple characters) for a set amount of time, and your third offense got you booted off the board. I've only had one time where someone decided to start shit on my board, and they were playing a canon character. They were swiftly dealt with and since they decided not to play nice, they were booted out-right.

The only problem I have with OCs is god modding and like Zack stated, a character who is madly in love with a cannon character and wants them to be madly in love with them. However if characters need to be approved by mods I don't have a problem with that. One of the largest rp forums I was a member of almost all the characters were ocs. It was a setup of we were given a world to rp in but almost no cannon characters so it was fueled by those original characters.

Said forum had specific rules concerning god modding, specific rules concerning fighting, in fact a whole page of it. It worked because these were normal characters with no special abilities and any that could possibly god mod had to be approved by the mods. Granted that will be an issue here because fact is these characters have abilities no real person will have. We've got everything from magic to insane fighting ability to contend with which could make god modding more likely.

Long story short I'm all for OCs as long as they must first be approved by the mods and some rules are put in place such as you can't decide what another person's character feels, etc.

I'm not really sure how I feel about these things.

If we decide to just pave our own directions then I will amend my style accordingly. Thus far I have been fortifiying my character in order to stall. I didn't know if someone was going to establish the main plot point at some junction like we did in the the old rp. Since that hasn't happened yet I may just have Jenova do her own thing, though it is entirely possible such action will result in some mayhem and battles that I don't know if youse are ready for at this point in the story.

I'm also hesitant to act because Jenova is "supposedly" at full strength which would put her on a new tier in relation to the other characters and I am not certain how to handle such without the appearance of G-modding. I mean, it took a LOT of full-blown Cetra to get her down the first time. Then she was practically a zombie throughout VII and still came close to destroying the world just through her ability to manipulate those around her. The woman is freakishly strong. Frankly, I felt that I was pushing it with the virus despite the fact that it was just a basic Jenova tactic.

That being said, I also don't know how we are planning to handle the battles here. What kind of system are we using?

On another note, the rp is divided into arcs but the flow feels very choppy. I know one of the reason's Reno decided to leave was due to everything being smooshed together. She had trouble just picking out what was pertinent to her location and interactions from amongst the posts of every other story line in the amount of time she had to Rp. Is it possible for us to divide the arc into a series of locations rather than piling one story line on top of the other? Like, have wro in a thread, Former ShinRa tower, Divide Midgar into sectors, etc? That way if she can only be on for a half hour or so to write she knows exactly what is going on with her character without having to sift through the other posts?

As far as OC's go, I personally don't care if they are permited. I would suggest that we fill more of the canon slots first, being that we are missing certain characters that have no business being left out without adequate explaination. I.e. Aerith. If you are going to permit OC's I would also require a Bio sheet and a trial page. Nothing too binding. Just like, 500 words in-character to showcase the OC and specs.

Hmm. Sorry if this sounds overly critical. I'm very sleepy and am having issues with gauging my tone right now. :/

---

Zack wrote:

One of the previous RP's I was on we had an issue with OC's isn't FFVII related RP... it was anime based, when one of the OC's stepped over the line there was some correcting required, of course things went really blah after that. It wasn't a bad over the line but more or less... she wanted her OC to be in love with one of the main crew and vice versa, who frankly wasn't the fall in love type *coughsanzocough* but she kept pushing it and kept pushing it... to the point where it got kinda ridiculous and ruined the RP for several cannon characters. So it caused a non OC rule in the thread.

Zack, while I admit to having many of my own bad experiences with OCs, sometimes it's the player -- not the character. If that OC Player played another character, and the same thing happened, it probably would have evoked you to add a more accurate rule. And I know, I've done the same thing, a problem caused by an OC must be the OC's fault, but it could just be the player. I've had bad experiences, Angeal and Kadaj can attest to this, of Cannon characters as well.

---

Sephiroth wrote:

Long story short I'm all for OCs as long as they must first be approved by the mods and some rules are put in place such as you can't decide what another person's character feels, etc.

I agree with Sephiroth.

---

Jenova wrote:

If we decide to just pave our own directions then I will amend my style accordingly. Thus far I have been fortifiying my character in order to stall. I didn't know if someone was going to establish the main plot point at some junction like we did in the the old rp. Since that hasn't happened yet I may just have Jenova do her own thing, though it is entirely possible such action will result in some mayhem and battles that I don't know if youse are ready for at this point in the story.

I'm also hesitant to act because Jenova is "supposedly" at full strength which would put her on a new tier in relation to the other characters and I am not certain how to handle such without the appearance of G-modding. I mean, it took a LOT of full-blown Cetra to get her down the first time. Then she was practically a zombie throughout VII and still came close to destroying the world just through her ability to manipulate those around her. The woman is freakishly strong. Frankly, I felt that I was pushing it with the virus despite the fact that it was just a basic Jenova tactic.

That being said, I also don't know how we are planning to handle the battles here. What kind of system are we using?

Jenova, I'd rather not be ready for something then nothing happening. I say its about time something happened. XD. As for you and your character limitations... Some characters are far more powerful than others, and that is fact. One on one, Jenova will probably win all fights unless there is some form of weakness exploited or secret weapon. Of course two on one, the power of teamwork will be the only way to counter Jenova's strength. I know it's hard to try to not overstep boundaries, but you have to think that the boundaries for Jenova are a bit further than usual. And I know that can be uncomfortable, but you`re playing a woman who got her head ripped off... shouldn't be too hard. XD

As for battle, I think we should stick to free-form, normal style RP: where creativity always seems to be the best weapon.

Jenova wrote:

On another note, the rp is divided into arcs but the flow feels very choppy. I know one of the reason's Reno decided to leave was due to everything being smooshed together. She had trouble just picking out what was pertinent to her location and interactions from amongst the posts of every other story line in the amount of time she had to Rp. Is it possible for us to divide the arc into a series of locations rather than piling one story line on top of the other? Like, have wro in a thread, Former ShinRa tower, Divide Midgar into sectors, etc? That way if she can only be on for a half hour or so to write she knows exactly what is going on with her character without having to sift through the other posts?

The way I had always done it in the past is multi-thread RPs. Essentially splitting the RP into several areas, such as Midgar, WRO HQ, Edge, Wutai, etc (not too many though, usually 2-3 depending on the size of the board. When Kadaj and I had about 40 members on EL, we only really used 4,). The problem with that is, it's an entirely different system in which there would be no arcs, just threads in the areas and everything would happen at once, on a more personal level. People would make threads and they would be locked when there is no one left. Of course that would be COMPLETE REFORM, and I think it's a bit extreme but that would be up to the staff.

Personally, I've only used 1-thread RPs for AU/Non-board-cannon related RPs. But that's just me.

Jenova wrote:

As far as OC's go, I personally don't care if they are permited. I would suggest that we fill more of the canon slots first, being that we are missing certain characters that have no business being left out without adequate explaination. I.e. Aerith. If you are going to permit OC's I would also require a Bio sheet and a trial page. Nothing too binding. Just like, 500 words in-character to showcase the OC and specs.

The problem is, majority of the most versatile characters of FF7 have been taken. Not many people are into playing Aerith, she is a bit hard to RP, I've done it myself. And as for OCs needing a bio-sheet and trial page... boards I come from, everyone is asked to make a character profile/character sheet, nothing big. In fact some took less five-to-ten minutes to complete. Small sheet, with a two RP post exemplars. Of course, since not all of us like Jenova write beautiful walls of text (they crit me for 9,999 damage and it's just like, damnit, I liked these jeans, now I have to clean up because it was too orgasmic!!), usually something like 2-3 paragraphs is more than enough. And I know some admins asked OCs for some extra detail because they were more keen on those characters.

---

All in all, my last belief is that we should allow OCs, why? because a new dimension might really help us right now. If they have to go through some form of procedure to join, I agree with that -- as long as it's not too hard. Maybe a small AU RP is all they need; ask them to make a thread, anyone can join and that would be that. We can see the character, see the player and make judgement. And if things go array, just speak to them about it. If they don't conform... that's when we have a problem, but to be honest, at that point, the problem would be the player. And the worst players I've seen have always been cannon.

---

LONG POST IS LONG

I have the same feeling concerning battles. While Sephiroth's powers are not near Jenova's my mind has gone: He can teleport in certain games, should he be able to teleport in battle here? Would that make him too powerful? What about his attacks, particularly heartless angel, is that too overpowered? Do I look at his abilities in the games and assume he has all the same powers? What about his abilities to control the negative lifestream that appears in Case of Lifestream Black and White? I've personally been playing it as he somehow gets the memories back that it is stated he sacrificed in Case of Lifestream as he seems to have a completely different mindset then he has in that/Advent Children, having a head completely clear of Jenova for the moment.

I don't know if the rest of the game baddies are having the same issues, not wanting to seem overpowered. So far in fights I have held it as basic slashes, flying, and materia usage, but I guess what I'm really wondering is if we can have some sort of setup and determine what type of abilities the characters have. Do we say 'if the character had this ability/attack in a game/movie they can do it here' or do we limit it to certain types of attacks? The battle system the old forum I was part of used basically followed a few basic principles.

1) Can't decide which attacks hit the other character
2) Can only dodge twice in a row, the third attack must hit
3) Every attack may not be a fatal one. Only 1 in 3 can be fatal attacks
4) Third strike and you're out, person who takes three hits first loses the fight
5) No-consent, your character may die without your permission

This forum however was huge and had hundreds of rpers and fights in rp were common, also no one was restricted to one character. I really don't think the death rule should be involved here considering that would be a situation of, your character gets killed you're out of the rp and considering that a lot of characters have returned from the dead there's the question of what would happen if a character did die. I apologize for the long bit, it's just a few of the things that have been running in my mind.

As for multiple threads, I'm all for it. The large forum I was part of had boards for every area and threads were made between characters, planned rps, open rps, private threads, mass threads, but once again this was a huge forum.

Well Seph, the good and bad of being powerful, eh? XD 

I played several overpowered characters, including Ultimecia (controller of space and time, how the hell can the fight against a woman who controls four dimensions?), Bahamut Zero (rivals Bahamut, who was one of the strongest beings), I've also played Ocxash, who was a Nobody version of God of Destruction and Discord, Chaos and several others. The way I tend to play is that your character would get more powerful depending on the situation. A mere fight or a spar would be Seph slashing, dodging, on occasion shooting a beam out of his blade and some materia, maybe a few Fires and a couple of Blizzaras; however, if he has his back against the wall, fighting Nero and the fight is the determiner for life/death of his BFF Zack Fair: his emotions would skyrocket and he'd be blazing out Firagas and Thundagas and Triple Blizzagas -- and at the climax of the fight, he'd go all out -- heartless angel is up in this bitch!

Basically when someone raises the stakes, makes it more dire, or serious, the more powerful your character becomes. Of course these emotions are everything, and even think of in Crisis Core, in certain events the DMW raises for certain people or even the frequency/rate. 

I've always found that sticking to story or emotion as basis for a fight enriches it. It also becomes more than just a mere fight, it becomes plot. That's just 
me though. 



As for rules of combat. I say nay. Let it be freeform. Only because we're not a combat based-RP, we shouldn't make it all structured. If it needs to be, we may have to, but I'd prefer otherwise. 

As for death... My say is: only you can choose if your character dies. As far as I'm concerned, God-Moding, defined as your character/your post doing something it shouldn't be able to do. In this case, controlling other characters. If I'm making a post, I can't say "Sephiroth smiled at my joke" --- only Seph can say that I'm his post. Same thing for death. My character's life/death, you no touchy!! XD 



Also, I feel death scenes should be heavily planned and a huge plot point. If someone DIES, it should be: HOLY SHIT WTF NOOO/YESSS! Not something like "Bob stabs Seph in the heart."