Concerns with TNP RP

Funkadelia

Funkadelia

TNPer
TNP Nation
Funkadelia Island
I am really concerned with the lack of actual RP in TNP RP as a whole. Of course, I understand some expediency with mundane RPs such as embassies and things of that nature. However, people complain about how terrible and confusing TNP RP is, and do so with good reason.

Roleplay is meant to be, to quote Myroria:
Myroria:
something meaningful, reasonable, and interesting. In a few short lines [it] elaborates on descriptions of characters, their motivations, and why things are happening the way they are
Click to expand...

I am not seeing this happen in TNP. What I am seeing is a lot of one line RP's that read over pages and pages like movie scripts. This is not how you create coherent and interesting to read RP. That sort of RP is only interesting to those directly involved, and would not fly in almost any other RP community, except for maybe the NS forums. And that is only due to the fact that there is a massive community that is difficult to moderate and guide on the right path. To reiterate: to make an immersive and interesting roleplay, it is imperative to describe characters, what motivates them, and why things are occurring. Obviously this cannot be done in plain text, but written into your prose.

What is particularly concerning to me is the fact that people are discouraged from making proper RP posts and instead are pressured to make half-assed and uninspired posts to push along RP. To some people, if an RP thread hasn't been posted in in the past five hours, it is considered a dying RP and people are pushed to make more posts in it to make it more active. This should not be the case. Some of the bests RP's I have ever read have taken months to complete. Quality is definitely the key element to good RP, not quantity. If you just shit up an RP thread with useless posts, it becomes confusing and impossible to follow, which is a very regular complaint I've heard from people involved or trying to become involved in TNP RP.

In a similar vein, communication is key. Many RP's I have seen involve two or more nations, yet none of the people taking part in the RP are talking with each other, so they keep doing asspulled tricks on each other to try to win. That's what we call writing to win, not writing to write. The goal of RP should not be to always win. It should be to enjoy yourself while crafting out your own story and your own little slice of fiction with your region mates, so that you can all mash your creative juices together and create robust histories and story lines. Basically, I think people should be talking to each other more. That's also a factor that's making these RP posts confusing as all hell to follow. Because no one has any clue what's going on, or what the other person is going to do.

Improving on these terrible deficiencies are what I think will save TNP RP. Because right now it is pretty bad, and most of us know it. I hope you all can relate with me. Thanks.
 
I do agree that our RP has become more OOC and short and backed away from long actual RPs. We have major issues keeping people interested in RPs and very few actual ones have finished. We have had some work out but not too too many. One of our better ones was one I led last summer, The Fall of Vicci. It's not perfect but we tried.

I also want to apologize if I have put anyone off from improving our RP. I'm not trying to, we have just been focused on other RP issues like threadjacking and other related things.
 
Malvad:
I do agree that our RP has become more OOC and short and backed away from long actual RPs. We have major issues keeping people interested in RPs and very few actual ones have finished. We have had some work out but not too too many. One of our better ones was one I led last summer, The Fall of Vicci. It's not perfect but we tried.

I also want to apologize if I have put anyone off from improving our RP. I'm not trying to, we have just been focused on other RP issues like threadjacking and other related things.
Click to expand...
That example you linked is exactly the sort of thing that TNP needs more of.
 
Just some things to add:

I've been writing for half of my life, and I definitely understand that people are at different skill levels. We all have to start somewhere, but part of the point of a role-play community is to improve the writing of everyone involved in it. This means constantly challenging yourself to write better.

Now "challenge" is very vague, and to be honest I'd prefer it to be vague. Everyone's skill level is different and if writing dialogue in prose:

"This is dialogue text," said Susan

instead of script-style:

Susan: "This is dialogue text"

is your challenge for the day, great. The challenge is the point. Writing what's easy may be comfortable, but your craft suffers for it. It's incredibly hard to grow as a writer if you're not constantly putting yourself in situations you may not be entirely comfortable with. Now I can't point at anyone and say "You're not challenging yourself", but it's something I think everyone should just keep in mind.

Other thoughts:

Writing is a craft of communication. I hate prescriptivism - the idea that a specific usage of language is the best - but at least a quick proofread is essential. Oftentimes I've read an RP and been completely puzzled by what's happening because the formatting is a mess, or sentences don't make any grammatical sense. Don't sweat typos or grammar mistakes - we all make them and I firmly believe making yourself understandable is more important than whether you end your sentence with a preposition - but make sure that someone reading your post will be able to understand what's happening.

When you're building a whole new world certain terms that are untranslatable from your nation's language. That being said, sometimes I find myself confused because words or phrases are being used that aren't easily understandable by context or aren't noted in a foot note. I'll use an example from my Taijitu RP nation - Myroria - because the world I've built for that nation is far more complex than Floresque. The head of Myroria is an elected monarch whose official title is Sedera. I almost never use the word sedera in my pieces because it can lead to confusion - I usually replace it with the close-enough English translations king or queen. When using a word in your nation's native language in your RP, ask yourself - "Is it clear what this is referring to?". If not, consider adding context, a footnote at the bottom of the post, or using a close-enough translation - king for sedera.

Oh, and for anyone wondering, Gonfaloniere is a term meaning "banner-carrier", and was the title of the head of the Republic of Florence during the Renaissance.



I don't think that the fact TNP RP can improve means it's necessarily in a terrible place. I just ask everyone to challenge themselves and go beyond whatever is easy.
 
I agree that the roleplay section has been flooded with OOC because of this I believe we should instill a rule, that rule being that full-OOC posts should be posted in an allocated OOC thread. It's quite ridiculous how some OOC-only post conversations last, and I admit that I myself have caused or prolonged OOC-only post conversations, as some take up almost entire thread pages. Allowing the rule to exist and enforcing it would be a great benefit.
 
Thank you for posting that Myroria. It was a lot less ranty and more positive than what I posted. >_>

I don't expect everyone to be perfect. But what is most frustrating for me is when people are discouraged from posting robust RP because it's too complicated for the norm.
 
I agree as well. The best RP experiences I have had my partners and I would trade 3-5 messages per IC post, and never in the RP thread itself.

RP should be about crafting a great story, and the 1st rule is "show, don't tell." The format currently popular here doesn't encourage that, at all. The second rule is that it is a collaboration, not a contest, like you said. The third rule is that people and emotions are far more interesting that simple plot.
 
Throwing my view in here as someone who is relatively new to this region but a regular RPer over in The Independent Order where we had a similar problem. Now I've got my nation organised I plan on getting involved in RP more often. However starting out is always the hard bit in any new region. One thing we did in TIO that helped was have RP admins run "EVENTS" every now and again the admin would put up an event that was accessable by everyone, so for example a natural disaster, a oil spill, an outbreak of disease. This gave everyone the chance to get involved and helped newer players interact with those whose nations are more established. We also found that having more RP sections helped. So for example we have a "vignette" section which is short stories for just your nation, so for example there I have a vignette about a former member of the royal family who betrayed his family and is now in prison. It helps new people get writing because they can establish characters without the need to get involved with ongoing story lines. If they look good RP'ers then people tend to then invite them to RP with them.

Also from a "newbie" view most things going on seem to be to do with this NPTO so if your a nation on the outside of that then its difficult to know where to begin.

I have to agree though RP usually works better with an OOC thread for the IC thread.

I hope an "outsiders" view may be of use.
 
I agree entirely with Myroria. Alunya and McMasterdonia are my favorite RPers. They had the ability to write on a personal level, while still exhibiting details about their nations' culture. Too bad they're inactive. I personally think the script format is rather distasteful, and that's why I've been rather reluctant to join RPs.
 
I hear the issues that are being said here and as the new Minister I will be making them a priority. To start off I will be overhauling the Culture Staff and looking for more consultants, a Deputy and an RP Mod or two. I will also be creating a series of Consulting Threads to assist nations in getting into RP. Im also considering some other projects for a later date.

With some luck and hard work I think that we can turn it all around.
 
After reading the concerns and complaints in this thread, I have now realized that the RP section does leave something to be desired. I admit, even though I am apart of the culture staff, I have not been partaking in a lot of RPs recently due to a combination of not having enough time, working on my own projects, and the lack of interesting RPs that I can sink my teeth into. I think that Morhiem's point on what TIO did with the admin-run events and the vignette section where new players can develop culture, story, and characters is something that I think would let people apply their skills to the table. Hopefully an overhaul on TNP RP can be made to further improve the whole section.
 
People should be allowed to RP however they want. Nobody is forcing anybody to post in any RP or thread or to RP a certain way. If you don't like the way somebody is doing RP just don't read it and make your own thread instead.
 
Empire of Narnia:
People should be allowed to RP however they want. Nobody is forcing anybody to post in any RP or thread or to RP a certain way. If you don't like the way somebody is doing RP just don't read it and make your own thread instead.
Click to expand...
Hear, hear!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top