Saturday, September 6, 2003

thoughts on RPG'ing

And now for a probably long-ish, really random rant on RPG's.

I'd never experienced RPG's until I got to OB. By RPG's I'm not referring to, of course, Final Fantasy or Chrono Cross or video game RPG's, because those I have experienced pretty much since I had enough hand-eye coordination to hold a controller. Instead I'm referring to ... oh, I don't know how to categorize them, but you know, the RPG's where you and a bunch of other people make up characters and basically write a story together.

Though I have really limited experience with RPG's, I really like the way they work on OB. There's a separate Recruitment forum so that you can have one thread with a detailed listing of all the characters, and one thread just with the story in it. Here's the first rant bit: I hate when people clutter up either Recruitment or story threads. Posts in Recruitment like, "So when's this going to start?!?!?!" should be OBLITERATED.

The reason RPG's really appeal to me is that it's basically community writing. It's such a great idea; you get to see how other people write, you don't have to think of the whole plotline yourself (and usually can't), it stretches your writing abilities because you have to fit in whatever you want your character to do with what everybody else is doing. Also, you get to play as a really cool character whose entire history and appearance and martial arts skill you've made up. It's akin to playing a video game, except you make up the story. I would highly recommend RPG'ing to anybody interested in writing. Any possible constructive effects to your writing style aside, it's just really fun if you like writing or making up stories or imagining you have magic powers.

There are certain traits of RP'ers that sometimes annoy me, though. Incorrect spelling or grammar is the cardinal sin. It's distracting and makes me hate reading the post. The thing I find most annoying (aside from complete incomprehensibility) is when people don't put spaces between their periods ... what's up with that?Then sentences become like this.And look really crowded and crappy.Just imagine an entire paragraph that looked.Like.This.

I also dislike when people abandon an RPG ... but I'm guilty of that myself, occasionally (including the two I started, I admit it, I'm a very bad person). So I won't go off on that :-P.

Eh, I know I had more rants, but I started thinking about something else: my own favorite RP'ers. I thought about putting a list in my sig, akin to Drix D'Zanth's intelligence club, but ... I decided not to. Much fewer people visit my myOtaku than will see my sig.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed RP'ing with SJChan Mayran, Wondershot, and Ben ... All of them seem pretty dedicated most of the time, have good ideas, put some humor into their posts as well, and just write in a style I enjoy. There are tons of others whom I like and respect, though ... The Harlequin, Raiha, James, Desbreko ... and I'm sure there are or will be others. Unfortunately there are also some RP'ers whom I have absolutely no respect for and would hate to be in an RPG with, but there's no way in hell I'm naming those people :-D. Don't worry, they're few and far between, so chances are you're probably not one of them, anonymous reader.

Sorry for all the random thoughts about RPG's. I'm pretty excited (as is everyone involved, I think) about the most recent Maverick Hunters RPG, the two predecessors of which I was too "young" to have seen/participated in. I also really enjoyed When Humans are the Enemy ... only it seems to have come to a standstill recently. Ah, such is life.

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