The OOC Thread

[Miss Mae]

That's sort of supposed to be the point of an OOC thread, I believe?

But yes, every RP I've been involved in has had some planning going on behind the scenes so that people know what direction others are vaguely heading in and don't inject themselves into situations where they then change the entire direction of their plot. Particularly this early on in the story, it's hard to know where people see their characters going, if anywhere, so outlining our hopes and dreams for the immediate futures of our characters would be helpful.

[Loony BoB]

I fully suggest talking either in this thread or to the GM's (all of them) for any planned plots - in an RP you have to always expect that people will interrupt things as that's just the nature of how things move forward, but you also have to be very flexible as you're not writing a story on your own. Essentially the entire point of an RP such as this is that it's very reactive rather than pre-planned... I've intentionally kept the general situation at the moment very unplanned purely with the interest of seeing how people react to each other and the situation they find themselves in.

For example, I can say that I plan for Outworlders to become recognized by the general public (and labelled as Outworlders by said general public) sooner rather than later. I see it as an inevitability. I expect real plots will develop at this point in a way similar to that of a TV series rather than that of a film. By this I mean that antagonists will make themselves known and plotlines will naturally develop as a result of these antagonists... TV series can adapt to things like actors quitting, while films can not do that so easily.

Naturally, not all plans can coexist so not everyone's plans will work out. This is just how things are with RPs - they're a series of reactions rather than a novel written with a fixed structure that can be edited and tweaked until it becomes a full fledged thing. However, even when a plan is interrupted, that doesn't mean that the plan is thrown out - it could continue naturally in just a few posts, or it could adapt. Work with each other and create interesting developments that can leave everyone happy.

For example, you could plan on leading an army to attack a city, but then someone says that the army is heading to a different location. You can then post about splitting the army later on, and have the armies attack both cities, perhaps with different outcomes! Always remember that a diversion doesn't mean a dead end.

[Miss Mae]

I'm not talking pre-planned as in knowing everything, but interactions are generally talked about before they happen, at least in RPs I've been in (and I've been in quite a few). I definitely don't have a fixed plan - at the my only plan is that I think Tala and Cohen will get along, and that's it. It's all very vague.

Generally speaking, I think a courtesy "Do you mind if X comes and interacts with Y at this point, or are you in the middle of something?" in OOC would be polite at this point when there are a lot of characters in the process of trying to get to know each other.

[Loony BoB]

Ah, my experiences have been notably different - they tend to just post their appearance in an area, sometimes walk up to people and introduce themselves, sometimes find themselves thrust into situations and everyone just reacts to them.

I guess with so many people around the place at the moment I kind of just assume everyone is going to expect to be running into everyone and moving around a little until something rather notable happens. Much more reactive than anything... the only time I've ever asked if I can do anything in an RP is when it actually changed a "world" plot rather than the plot of an individual. Oh, or if I were to control someone, of course, by making them do or say things... but I rarely do that in the first place.

Essentially like real life - when you're somewhere, sometimes people come up to you and you may not want them to, but they're there and you react.

[Miss Mae]

Yeah, different experiences lead to different expectations. I'm all for the world changing and needing to react to it, but that's large scale. I'm not used to smaller or one-on-one interactions occuring without the parties involved first having a brief "Is this cool?" "Yeah awesome!" or "Can you wait a few posts until I..." type chat.

[Loony BoB]

What happens if you have a party of four or so people, and someone else wants to join in? Which person makes the decision?

I'll bring it up with the GMs as something to establish a "standard" for as it's clearly a case of different people expecting different things, and we've got a number of people from very different groups here so either way one group will have to adapt to the different style. More insight and perspective from more people will always be welcome on this, though, so feel free to discuss!

[Miss Mae]

That's why the discussions are had in an OOC thread - makes it much easier for everyone to see if something is happening or if new people could easily join. Often if you can see what other people are doing, it's easy to tell if your character would fit in or not. If you think you'll fit, you post there and the first person to see it makes the decisions or whoever was leading the current events says "Yeah sure" or "Give us until we get to the water - got something planned!' or whatever. It depends on individual circumstances.

For example, you are leading shion's character across the city presently, so if somebody wanted to join the two of you, you would probably be the one to answer since you are more aware of where you are leading her etc. You might not have a solid plan, but you are sort of in charge of where her character is going in current circumstances. If the two of you were traveling more equally, either or both of you would. Case by case basis sort of deal.

In the past we've always just had a thread where we update as we have ideas and say "Hey, X and I were thinking about going to Y or doing Z next" and somebody else might think "Hey that sounds awesome - can my character join you on that trip?" and they'd be like "Yeah sure - just let us finish this conversation about whatever first. It's important for my character's backstory." It was always super informal.

[Loony BoB]

Aww, but I like getting surprised when things happen. It feels more real, like I'm actually playing a part in a book. If I know what people are going to be doing then it kind of removes a lot of the potential for drama!

[Miss Mae]

It doesn't have to be detailed at all. The surprises come from the interactions and natural evolutions. But if a particular adventure is taking place, or if you plan on taking your character to a different town or whatever, it gives people the opportunity to get involved with that. Or, if somebody sees something taking place in the Official RP thread, it gives them a place to ask if they're welcome to just rock up and join. Like I said, it's basically just an informal chat where ideas are bounced around and people join up that way.

[Loony BoB]

Perhaps an alternative option would be for everything to be fair game unless stated otherwise. So if you don't want people to rock up and join in, then you state so in the OOC thread. Otherwise, people can assume you're happy to just let things happen and react in kind.

[Miss Mae]

This works.

[Loony BoB]

Cool, works for me too. It allows for surprise meetings without forcing them. Of course, I'll let the rest of the GMs have the final say on this one, they could prefer another option and I'm flexible.

EDIT: Jinx, it's probably worth noting that I had no idea that you and Alayna were doing anything at the time I made my post about spotting yourselves. I had looked at it and assumed you were just waiting to talk to someone, and under my experience of RP's that was fair game. It wasn't intended as rude or anything like it! It was merely a case of someone "growing up" with different RP rules, which is normal really - I mean, some RP's I've seen force you to play with dice and have set magic spells and whatnot, let alone rules about introductions! When you ended a post mentioning that your character saw our characters watching you, I saw that as an invitation to move in, as you didn't put anything like "I think someone's watching us, let's move."

It's early days, though - we're inevitably going to come into things like this where people from different RP backgrounds are going to see different things as strange and even rude, but always remember to assume it's an innocent thing and that no harm is meant. Over time we'll all learn how to move with this RP and it'll be great! Also, there is no reason that our characters are now tied together, we could merely cross paths and move on. You two can still have your journey separate to ours if you wish. I have many an idea of how at this point we could be split apart! I shall be sure to utilise one of those ideas shortly.

Check this thread at tGA for the general style that inspired this RP. 8th post onwards has a similar discussion!

[Lonely Paper Star]

My experience in RP relied mainly on reactions and improvisation. There was some pre-planning, but those would just involve location/physical direction, with one of us going, "okay, my character will be here at this area where you are. That cool?" And we'd normally give consent. If there is some heavy event that could possibly happen, we would explain and ask consent for that too, only if that event is necessary (for example, if we needed it to progress the RP). Otherwise, there isn't much detail to it.



Anyway... I agree that all interaction should be fair game unless otherwise stated.




Unrelated P.S. - Madonna, apologies for not posting as Camille yet. I will do this before the weekend is over.

[Miss Mae]

That basically sums up my experience PaperStar.

Thanks for the mognet earlier BoB about whether Cohen wanted to say anything before Jahred and Kathvi moved on. That's basically the sorts of discussions I've always had - no surprises ruined there!

[Formalhaut]

Agree with everything written above. Having said that, my characters story is fairly fluid at the moment, so don't ever feel the need to step on my toes with Locke, just do it