What happened to the RPG Section? (Not Other RPG)

[DragonMasterX]

I suffered with Furry College, actually. It blew up on my face when it just turned into how much pointless sex people could write about at about 3k posts, but knowing that people were having fun on their own without a need for a set plot was why I just left it for them to have their fun with until it died out on its own. Sure, that's one time my GMing sucked, but you can't put effort into what you don't like at all, but you can't either kill others' fun just because of that reason, that'd be very selfish. That's why I insted of proposing to close Furry College down I left people to play with it on their own.

The Super Hero RPG didn't have a set plot but it had a common point of interest for everyone, and that was for any super hero to fight any super villain so they'd go to jail. I was having fun, and as long as I was able to, I would post, hell, we didn't even need Salem for the story to be entertaining. I was at one point considering ignoring a certain character to simply go on my own, I don't usually mind the RPG population being reduced to 2 individuals constantly replying to each other, since people don't generally have trouble keeping up with me and viceversa, but since it was somebody else's RPG I wasn't really sure of just taking over, that's why I asked people if they wanted to continue but only one replied. In short, I just saw general disinterest and followed to completely ignore that topic.

To be able to put a longing RPG that doesn't have a plot you need to give popular settings that everyone might enjoy. In Furry College, everyone had to assist classes and I was quite liberal with the classes people went with or if they wanted to control the NPC teachers for example, but making an "Anything goes" RPG is much more complicated than that, and if the GM wants it to succeed they need to put extra time and effort to make sure lots of characters are interacting with lots of others. Why? Because a big group usually moves to another big group, they mix characters and the groups change when they separate into two or more again, that's why no one generally gets behind. The problem is, that kinda RPG is what is tried the most and people get eventually bored of just idly chatting with their characters or seeing others not doing anything of particular interest. Conclusion: Plotless RPGs can be popular but they are unstable as heck.

That's why I urge people to come up with original ideas or just simply ripping off a popular game or series they enjoy to play out its story in their way. That's what works best, because what better story is there to follow than one you've already seen in action and you liked?

The other is to go with a completely original RPG or one that includes so many known RPG elements that it becomes some sort of amalgam that needs an original plot. These two aren't easier than anything I've mentioned here, but they tend to work for people's interests really well.

An example of a rip-off is the Bleach RPG I made. There's general love for that anime and its popular elements, so the RPG went on for really long, it crashed because I decided to co-op GM it but unfortunately my teammie got bored of it and the plot had advanced too much for me to start taking care of everything at once. This topic even had had over 300-500 posts before the DaD crashed and the topics were lost, so it had to be remade. Don't remember the amount of posts it was left with right now but I'm sure I make my point when I say when you pick at something people generally enjoy it lasts long SO LONG as you are a dedicated GM or GMs.

An example of amalgaming is Magical Starsign. It's been going on ever since last year. It has had its stumps, but it's only natural for it to have them: Most of the new players join to do nothing and then slowly vanish. However, if you go take a look at the 10-15 earlier pages before the latest posts you'll see that it had been only 2-3 players playing at once. The plot advances at a normal pace and besides of our regret of having a serious decline in players Shadow and I still enjoy it. Crimson joined it recently though so we hope it'll get even better with time.

An example of original RPGs is The Spire. It started out with a simple plot that wasn't a big eyebrow-lifter, and it seemed to have a few players that eventually began withering and just disappeared. I didn't give up though. A GM doesn't give up so long as there are players, and there were players: Shadow, AWL and Ray. Receiving help from Ray, who earlier unfortunately couldn't come online often, the plot kept escalating relentlessly and it still is.

Conclusion: If you want good RPGs, do them yourselves. Pick out stuff of general interest and THEN give it your personal touch, never do it backwards, it takes great skill not to screw up there. So long as there are players there, never dismiss their abilities and keep them entertained. If you're stumped, ask a player for their opinions and/or help on the plot, friends are the best help you can get on RPGs.

Also, people should really try starting co-op RPGs sometimes. It is general knowledge that sometimes goals are more easily reached if people collaborate and help each other.

Those are my thoughts :D