RPG Forum Brainstorm Session

[RaZoR LeAf]

Braingstorming –noun
a conference technique of solving specific problems,
amassing information, stimulating creative thinking, developing new ideas, etc.,
by unrestrained and spontaneous participation in discussion.

RPG Forum Brainstorming Session

Following on from previous Ideas threads, I want to know where you see the RPG Forum going over the coming months. What ideas do you have for the forum itself, not just for potential RPGs? Discussions, games, competitions, newsletters, fan-clubs, schools, whatever you can think of, I want to hear them all. Be they massive, or tiny, sane or insane, I don't care, I just want your thoughts.

This topic is for your brainstorms. I want everyone to share their thoughts, and for everyone else to give good honest feedback. RPGing is a community, so lets get together and talk.

[Kamotz]

Cool, I like this.

I guess something that just occurred to me was to create a "beginners RPG." Something for newbies who might otherwise get looked over by GMs (myself included) that are looking for more experienced players. One of the most common arguments against "waiting for more experienced players" is that without the chance, newbies will never get the experience themselves. A beginners RPG (something Pokemon-based for simplicity) would give players that chance. I'm not sure on the specifics of such a project, but it could be a continuous sort of thing, or done in "seasons" or something, where new players could continually enter and exit, a sort of revolving door for a hands-on RPG training school.

Another idea I had was a "newsletter" sort of thread. Something where potential GMs could advertise their RPGs. The posts would only be advertising, no conversation or "I'd join that!" type of talk. Just the completed, polished final drafts of RPG plot/information (stuff that would go in the signup thread), and a list of things the GM was looking for. I know that sometimes RPGs are often overlooked because their titles aren't catchy enough, or a GM is new, or whatever. A newsletter/advertisement thread would let the GM reach everyone who has subscribed to it and wants to find RPG info all in one place.

[Griff4815]

When you say "fan-clubs" do you mean for specific RPGs?

[IatosHaunted]

Cool, I like this.

I guess something that just occurred to me was to create a "beginners RPG." Something for newbies who might otherwise get looked over by GMs (myself included) that are looking for more experienced players. One of the most common arguments against "waiting for more experienced players" is that without the chance, newbies will never get the experience themselves. A beginners RPG (something Pokemon-based for simplicity) would give players that chance. I'm not sure on the specifics of such a project, but it could be a continuous sort of thing, or done in "seasons" or something, where new players could continually enter and exit, a sort of revolving door for a hands-on RPG training school.

I really like that idea. It's really hard to integrate new and experienced players sometimes, as I've had experience with recently, and this would really help towards improving RP quality.

[Extreme Floatzel]

I would personally want something to help beginners such as myself. I'll try and post a lot more when I'm not typing on an iPod...

EDIT:I'm on an actually computer now:Anyway, my idea was that the forum could hire certain veteran roleplayers to be something such as 'reviewers' there would be a reviwer page where new roleplayers would sign up to get their posts looked over by said veterans, there would be specific veterans allocated to specific newbies, and they would basically get linked to any rpgs that the newby is in, and they could send them a series of pms helping them and whatnot, or they could even communicate over skype, msn or something similar.

[Martin_]

I also second Kamotz's ideas.

[Martin_]

(If I edited my last post I don't think it would get notice so...)
I have an idea for the starter RPG. My current RPG is The Dangerous Pokemon World! is pretty much the idea. It's where groups of trainers ages 13-16 set off on a pokemon journey in the Hoenn region. We could keep one going constantly and every time a group of five sign up they could start as a group in the RPG and when groups are in the same area they could interact with each other. It could just keep going with a group of GM's who post as NPC's such as officers, nurses, weather, and team rocket forces. Also when people want out of the RPG or are no longer active we could just say their character went home. Anyone else agree/want to build on the idea?

[lxdarknessxl]

we should have an arcade part, where we can play flash games without worries of viruses!

[RaZoR LeAf]

Google "flash games"

If you don't have a proper suggestion please don't post stupid ones.

[lxdarknessxl]

hey, half those sites give you viruses. I'd rather not take a risk.

I like Kamot's idea, though.

[Martin_]

I decided to act on the starter RPG, it's in the SU thread. So everyone please take a look.

[Psychic]

I'm actually dying for a low-maintenance RPG these days. That's not to say an RP of poor quality, but one that doesn't have some huge, insane plot and is more freeform, allowing you to explore a world and interact with other characters (NPCs or not). It would be nice to have something where I don't have to worry about constantly staying perfectly up-to-date and can just play around.

I think an RP like this would be great for RPers to both hone their skills and stretch their creative muscles. For that reason, it would be friendly to newbies while also allowing them to really interact with more experienced players, so everyone can just learn and have a good time.

I would say that it would be nice and simple for players to just play as a Pokemon (or two), to have a world that is more or less established and that can be explored, with enough NPCs for some fun. It doesn't need a long application form/process; it should be easy-going. The simpler, the better.


I've been tossing the idea around my head for the past few days, but I'm way too busy with school to GM right now. It might be best run by multiple people anyway. Thoughts?

~Psychic

[Martin_]

Well my current RPG project will be like that. They are still the usual trainers but there isn't a huge plot just groups trainers traveling across the pokemon region doing whatever they want. The groups of trainers will all be in the same world so they can interact with one another at will. It's currently in the early stages because I want it to run indefinitely or a at least a long time so new people can join it and get the feel for a basic RPG, though it will also be for the normal RPer's to just have fun with. I have a brief outline of it and GM sign ups in the sign up thread. I would appreciate any advice or comments about it to be messaged to me.
Edit: Thread has been relocated to RPG Café

[IatosHaunted]

I'm actually dying for a low-maintenance RPG these days. That's not to say an RP of poor quality, but one that doesn't have some huge, insane plot and is more freeform, allowing you to explore a world and interact with other characters (NPCs or not). It would be nice to have something where I don't have to worry about constantly staying perfectly up-to-date and can just play around.

I think an RP like this would be great for RPers to both hone their skills and stretch their creative muscles. For that reason, it would be friendly to newbies while also allowing them to really interact with more experienced players, so everyone can just learn and have a good time.

I would say that it would be nice and simple for players to just play as a Pokemon (or two), to have a world that is more or less established and that can be explored, with enough NPCs for some fun. It doesn't need a long application form/process; it should be easy-going. The simpler, the better.


I've been tossing the idea around my head for the past few days, but I'm way too busy with school to GM right now. It might be best run by multiple people anyway. Thoughts?

~Psychic

I like the sound of this. There's a couple RPs like that out there right now(I just joined one), but one purposefully engineered around that idea would be great, and something I haven't yet seen. I'd definitely join.

[Psychic]

In all honesty, I've never been all that interested in trainer journey RPs. After my six years here I find them all to be pretty similar, and they don't particularly excite me. But that's just my own personal opinion.

Either way, I stress the fact that I'm thinking low-maintenance, as in if you go on vacation for a week, or are busy, you won't be far behind or lost when you get back. Ideally, players can just run around and explore on their own, join up with others, leave, get caught up in small adventures and so on. The main idea is KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

As I've said, the ideas I've been tossing around my head were simply RPers playing as Pokémon, exploring a world and interacting. For instance:

-Just wild Pokémon across ____ region. Maybe some belong to trainers. Maybe some even belong to Team ___ members. Maybe some are hybrids based on what their parents were.

-The setting is a café or inn, owned and occupied by wild Pokémon. They interact, they have a good time, they tell stories and legends, they deal with trouble.

-The world is occupied solely by tribes of Mew - the creates that came before all the Pokémon species we know now. Every Mew is different. Some look like Pokemon we know today, others look like a jumble of Pokémon, others resemble nothing familliar to us. They live in tribes based on their typing. Yup, it's just an RP filled with different types of Mew, running floating around doing stuff, dealing with threats in their constantly-evolving world.

I would honestly love to run any one of these RPs, I just don't have the time these days. But that's the basic gist of what I'm thinking. If anyone wants to build on one of these ideas, go for it.

Thoughts? Aside from how Psychic is obsessed with Mew. XD

~Psychic

[Martin_]

I think I could build on the pokemon café idea. I'll post the RPG in the sign up thread when I work it out.

[Kamotz]

In all honesty, I've never been all that interested in trainer journey RPs. After my six years here I find them all to be pretty similar, and they don't particularly excite me. But that's just my own personal opinion.

While in any other discussion I'd be happy to agree with you, I think for a beginner-type RPG, a standard, done-before type of adventure story might be best. It introduces new players to the RPG concept in a way that they're likely to be more familiar with and covers several bases. They'd need to have a good, solid, dynamic human character; and would also need to have Pokemon characters. It'd introduce them to human and inhuman types of characters and characterizations.

On to another part of this idea, I need to stress that while this would technically be a "beginner" RPG, there would still need to be a certain level of standards in terms of signups and post quality. I know not every new RPer is a 1-sentence poster, but in my experience, many of them are. The difference here would be that instead of saying "denied" or "No" to these instances, the GM would have to sort of coach or workshop them along. At least, that's how I see this.

[Martin_]

I edited the café idea a bit but I hope it still works for you. The SU thread is up for it.

[Psychic]

Oh, you misunderstand, Kamotz - I just mean that I personally don't like trainer fics. That's not to say that it wouldn't work well as a teaching tool for newbies - it would likely work out swimmingly. I'm only saying that I myself probably wouldn't be all that interested.

On the note of a teaching RP, does anybody remember Lady Myuu's RPG School for Beginners? (Oh my gosh 2006 why am I so oooooooold?) The idea behind it was pretty good and it looked simple enough (five gyms instead of eight makes sense to me for a beginner's RP), it's just a shame it never got past the grading sign-ups phase. Either way, the entire idea of it is helping members along, showing them where there's room for improvement and getting them used to the SPPf way of RPing.


Wow, Martin_, that was fast. o_o Are you sure you'll be able to handle this many role-plays? Don't take on too much at once. You don't need to create an entire RP on my account - we're all talking about future projects here, and I don't think I'll be able to join until sometime in the future anyway.

Though I will say it's a neat idea, and I do rather like what you've done with the concept. Although a café and a tavern are two very different things - just stick to calling it an inn, and maybe give it a nice, inn-like name. (Wikipedia has good tips, just make it Pokémon-related somehow.) You can create NPCs for the staff so you don't have to rely on other members for the RP to begin. And maybe it can be in a port city/island like Olivine or Cinnabar, or a more isolated location like Blackthorn or Cerulean. (Sorry, I know Kanto/Johto the best.)

~Psychic

[Martin_]

Well the Inn Idea and the wonderful world of pokemon should be able to continue without me if people get devoted to it. Well it turned into a tavern while in the makeing so yeah I think I'll change the name. I like your suggestion for olvine though, I think I'll use it.