This has become something I have seen come and go many times in the Forum RP/Video Game/IRC RP standeds. It comes and goes and most times it always seems to die out at some point or another, this being said I do quite know what to think anymore. Now I have been thinking of making a RP for SK for a while, that does not mean it is out of the running mostly because I like to join them but still.
What I wanted to get across right now is the fact I am seeing a trend kicking up. We are enjoying RPs for a while, but then the leader goes away and all hell breaks lose. Not so say that always happens there have been many that kept going down the road and turned out grand. I just wanted to see you all come in with a general idea. That being we need to make a RP by the people we know can host well and make it last longer then needed.
Of course you mind would be needed to know when something is good and when something is bad. That is not to say that Moderators and Hosts can do this. The problem comes from the moment something is aloud to slide, of course this is just my view point and I am more then willing to sit down and read yours. However for right now just hear me out.
This has become something I have seen come and go many times in the Forum RP/Video Game/IRC RP standeds. It comes and goes and most times it always seems to die out at some point or another, this being said I do quite know what to think anymore. Now I have been thinking of making a RP for SK for a while, that does not mean it is out of the running mostly because I like to join them but still.
What I wanted to get across right now is the fact I am seeing a trend kicking up. We are enjoying RPs for a while, but then the leader goes away and all hell breaks lose. Not so say that always happens there have been many that kept going down the road and turned out grand. I just wanted to see you all come in with a general idea. That being we need to make a RP by the people we know can host well and make it last longer then needed.
Of course you mind would be needed to know when something is good and when something is bad. That is not to say that Moderators and Hosts can do this. The problem comes from the moment something is aloud to slide, of course this is just my view point and I am more then willing to sit down and read yours. However for right now just hear me out.
Okay I got that out of my system lets just start with the meat of my little forum post here.
I don't get it.
That is not saying I don't understand RP or any thing like it, in fact I know a great deal. Its just the fact we as a group have let so many things slip and go by we are now our own worse enemies. Look at some of the great RPs of this forum and look back on how it has changed the people, made them think about the characters and about how they work. Not just something you write about and can die with no consequences. On in the case of Thinslayer (Sorry to name names.) Poilitical RP. Honestly that could have been really good, but the problem is the lack of people who were really into it because of how it came out.
Now I am not saying there is something called a bad idea, no there is never any of those. I am just saying its a bad direction that needs to be handled before this forum becomes littered with nothing but the lost cause RPs (As I call them). That does not mean always come up with a new idea, no reuse some old ideas just shed some new light on them. Take that darker road over the more often traveled. I want to see us grow and become stronger, not fall back into regression. Yet everywhere we turn its over before we could even get a plot line out or the host can truly set the mood. And this is just the plot/story element I am talking about, the meat of the sandwich that is Forum RP.
When it comes to characters I am glad to say I have seen very good verity and uses of character traits. But at the same time this kills me because alot of us want the stonger smarter fighters. In real life there are people like that and most times they are some of the most uninteresting people you will meet. I want to see some one who talks to themselfs but still studies monsters. I want to see the FBI agent who has secrets and still has his humanity. But yet day after day I read and can predict what will come out and most cases when something will die out, I don't get it.
The Story should define the characters, not the other way around. We as a group need to get a story and make it define us, but at the same time the story needs to be able to flex yet never brake. To work with the characters and let them be creative as well as with in the lines that are set. Yet every time we let the characters define the stories.
Now if it was the characters telling the Story thats great thats wonderful. I want to see this happen because that is how the act should be. It needs to be like this, we need characters to tell the story. But we can't have characters Define what the story is because we already know what the story is. It can't be done like this because of the characters define the story you end up with a completely different idea then what was set by the host and it kills at least half the fun of trying to tell a story threw the characters.
And on that note the Emotion of a character needs to be defined with in the story but this is the one thing that defines a character. No one is devoid of emotion completely, if they did they would be inhuman and just a husk. Same with a character, they are nothing more then a husk if we don't give it some kind of human emotion make it live as if it was real and give it those emotions those feelings we feel. Its as if your writing what your feeling and then you just give it that extra little touch at the end to make it feel as if that is some one you could meet on the side of the road. Even with Villains, they have emotions, that have back stories. Honestly the Villain should have more emotion and have more of a feeling then the hero, because then it feels like something we could see and understand.
The motives of people are all different and that is what makes us stand out. The bland world of Hero and Villain has been play to death but we never get tied of it till the Villain feels more monster then man. And in allot of ways that is find, but the build up and attention to detail needs to be there and with in the guide lines of the defined story.
This makes me feel like I am ranting but honestly I am just trying to state what I am thinking. ANd in this case when it comes down to it we are all just standing around and doing nothing but feeding into this monster of endless waves. It helps no one and makes things worse because the next generation of people who see our mass of bad will think that is the good, its not and we have to help them see this to make the best of what was given to them to use and to write with. I am not asking you all to be swayed by me, may of you will completely disagree with me, and I respect this. I completely respect your ideals and what you think makes things good or bad, its just we are putting out a lot of bad with out thinking of the good.
I am not sure what you mean there mate, I know good guys vs bad guys is cliche so that is why in the stories that I made I always made the line between good and bad very blur (this does not apply to my new fanfic: project retribution). Here is some quote from Mister Ozlo while he is trying to salvage Skylark. My version of Ozlo may make you think twice before calling someone a villain.
Epilogue: the weight of leadership
Location: wreckage of S.O.S. Skylark, few clicks outside Haven.
[Captain Ozlo and a team of engineers ventured inside the husk of their beloved Skylark, almost destroyed during the crash, all of her systems have been down for years. Covered in cobwebs and dust, Ozlo wipes off the dirt off one of the computers on the commanding bridge and orders one of the engineers to repower it. The computer is rebooted and Ozlo accesses it with the password only he knows, Nezula, the name of his favorite mistress was the passcode. Once he is online, he clicks the folder that contained all the historical records and downloads it into one of the flash drive he is carrying around.]
Engineer A: “Mister Ozlo, would these data really help us to understand how Skylark crashed? I mean, at this point is that even necessary?”
Ozlo: “Son, did I ever tell you I always had this mysterious dream? In this dream, a man in a heavy metal suit told me that he has chosen us to be the ones who will free him from this…prison…”
Engineer A: “Prison? Is he hinting that this planet is a…”
Ozlo: “The thing is, this planet… Cradle, it is more beautiful than I have ever dreamed and more dangerous than I have ever Imagined. If this planet full of hostiles is meant to lock something up. Then whoever made it must want the captive to be locked up for a long, long time…”
Engineer A: “Is Tinkinzar the prisoner?”
Ozlo: *strokes his beard* “Unlikely, the man that I am seeing in my dream, that man in the metal suit… he must be the one inside the core, I can tell by the fact the he wants us to set him free… His very presence in my dream feels vile and ill-spirited. Yet, his voice is so convincing… as if he was real….”
Engineer A: “If he is inside the core then-“
Ozlo: “-No, he can’t be real, it is just a dream or one of Tinkinzar’s black magic! Proceed with the search!” *calls team B from his comlink*“Team B, found anything of use?”
Team B leader: *responds* “Sir, we are at the old interceptor hanger at Sector 46. Most of the hangers are empty, there are many corpses lying around, it looks like they died on impact when Skylark crashed… wait, why were there knights still on board when the crash happened? I thought there were enough escape pods for all!”
Ozlo: “I did what I had to do to save the best of our Spiral elites! There were simply not enough pods. I was told that there were 50 thousands escape pods on board, but 20 thousands of them are in fact old, de-commissioned ones. I locked down the poorer sectors of the ship to ensure the ones who is strong enough to fight for themselves escape and make it to the planet alive…”
Team B leader: “OZLO! YOU MONSTER! YOU MEAN ALL THESE PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE YOU CHOSE THEM TO?! WHO ARE YOU JUDGE THE VALUE OF THEIR LIVES?!”
Ozlo: *shouts*“STAND DOWN Private! Sectors 46, 47 all the way to 59 are the housing for the poorest knights when they boarded skylark. They were slum dwellers, sons and daughters of huge families in debt by the mobs, disease ridden degenerates and criminals. They would be the first to die after we reached Cradle and most of them will be nothing but deadweight to us all. I did what I have to do to ensure our people’s survival, and if you think that was cruel, there is no such thing as an act of kindness in this universe, ever. Don’t you forget that…”
Team B leader: “Sorry, Mister Ozlo, I shouldn’t have doubted your judgments, we will continue the search, and may these souls rest in peace…” *closes the comlink*
Engineer A: “Okay, Mister Ozlo, I have decrypted the last message skylark received, would you like to hear it?”
Ozlo: *with tears in his eyes* “No, maybe I will hear it when we return back to HQ.” *sighs*
Engineer A: “Is there something wrong sir?”
Ozlo: “Before I was the Spiral Order’s Captain, I was running a mercenary company of my own. I called it the ‘War hounds’. But one day a group of Spiral loyalists came to my camp and asked for my support, their offer is pathetic, yet I accept it. Some of my men defected but most of them joined me in the fight against the rebels. I got recruited into the Spiral order. After our first strategic victory at Nowens-grad, I was titled vanguard, I thought I could become a great leader who can brought about change, yet, the war lasted 3 years longer than I expected and I have sent too many good men to their death. My hands are covered in their blood and I could never wash it clean… That, son, is the weight of leadership, what would you do, if there are 50 thousand people on board your ship and you know that 20 thousand of them are destined to die? What would you do? Save them all? There is a reason why I was in charge of the ship and others are not. Only few in this world are strong enough to live with the sins they committed in their life.”