[OOC] "Lourdes Residence" Haunted House RP

[Samantha McGill]

Oh, organization is an absolute must. A lack of communication could easily make us look like total incompetents.  

[Saria Mithril]

Samantha McGill

Oh, organization is an absolute must. A lack of communication could easily make us look like total incompetents.

As opposed to what? xd  

[Samantha McGill]

Um... Partial incompetents? Or would we be partial competents?  

[Madgibs]

Madgibs

Aena, now that I think of it, maybe you could give me a few pointers on this, you having done the Polaris bit and all. (I wasn't in on that, but it looked great.)

i can give lots of tips. like don't eat the yellow snow. but what kind of tips you mean?
I mean like controlling when and how players get certain tidbits of information, flow control, just generally organizing stuff. Things of that nature.  

[Aenakume]

Madgibs

Quote:

Madgibs

Aena, now that I think of it, maybe you could give me a few pointers on this, you having done the Polaris bit and all. (I wasn't in on that, but it looked great.)

i can give lots of tips. like don't eat the yellow snow. but what kind of tips you mean?

I mean like controlling when and how players get certain tidbits of information, flow control, just generally organizing stuff. Things of that nature.

oh, well for polaris, i wrote a whole story about an incident that happened on the ship from start to finish, spending most of the time tryin to figure out what evidence might remain about what happened. i made the story specially so that the evidence left would be very little, and arranged in a way that allowed it to be discovered a little bit at a time.

because it was a fantasy setting, i could tweak the natures of the technologies that were available so that only certain bits of evidence were available and not like everything all at once. and because it was closed circle, i could restrict the kinds of things available.

then all i had to do was instruct everyone not to freeform (but many didn't listen), and then when they stumbled across stuff, i sent them a pm. i told the players when they wanted to investigate something, to rp looking at it, but not to say what they saw. then when they looked, i sent them a message "you see x, y and z". then i just let them go at it, without offering any more help, tips or guidance. i didn't do anything to control the flow of the story, or how they went about figuring things out. i limited their options a bit, keepin them inside the closed circle (because people bent over backwards to try and get out), but that's it. i did nothing to tell people how or where to look, or even what they should do - i just told them what they found and what happened when they did it.

(i tried to never answer any questions they didn't ask, but sometimes i kinda had to for the sake of expediency. like, when someone found blood, i would also add "if you check the age of the blood with an analyzer, it is two years old", even if they didn't give any indication they would have thought to ask how old it was.)

but you know, you gonna find that most of the roleplayers on gaia can't handle working under a set story... or any kind of damn rules. they wanna make s**t up as they go along. some of them joined without even bothering to read what it was about, and then whined about how they couldn't kill aliens or fight with people. and a lot of them argued and negotiated about stuff that would have ******** up the story - like part of the point was that the doctors were all dead (which was a clue that no one clued in to), but i had people insistin they wanted to be the chief medical officer or their assistant or some other kind of doctor or surgeon. or they wanted to be aliens or androids or other s**t that just couldn't fit in with the mystery story. i spent 90% of my administrative time in that roleplay tryin to explain to people to just stick to the ******** choices given, and not to write whatever s**t they wanted. with some people, i just gave up, and provided they didn't interfere with the rest of the roleplay, i let them have whatever wackyness they wanted. a couple of them didn't even bother with the mystery, they just tried to find a partner to ********. once again, once they didn't ******** up the mystery, i left them to it.

one thing that was fun was watchin people chase their tails. i give you a good example: everyone that joined i told - over and over - that if they wanted information, just ask the computer. i even demonstrated how it was done so they would get it. there were a bunch of crewmen missing from their sleep chambers, and everyone, for a *long* time, was runnin around in circles sayin "oh, these people are mysteriously missing... how can this be? where are they? what's goin on?". then *finally*, one bright person asks the computer "hey computer, where are these people?"... and they computer answers. ^_^; *big* clue, dropped right into her lap. ^_^;

and then there were the people who insisted they had figured everything out, because i deliberately left clues that made it look like other sf stories like alien, lost in space, resident evil and so on. i said nothing, and just let them "solve" the mystery for everyone else... until the next clue was found that threw everything out of whack ^_^.  

[DeirdreTonbo]

Aenakume

*finally*, one bright person asks the computer "hey computer, where are these people?"... and they computer answers. ^_^; *big* clue, dropped right into her lap. ^_^;

oh! that was me, I'm bright! XD  

[Saria Mithril]

Samantha McGill

Um... Partial incompetents? Or would we be partial competents?

True. xd Partial incompetence is where I live, but total incompetence would be a little too much incompetence even for me. 3nodding

If this roleplay gets off the ground, would you like to partner up as people who know each other well, or possibly sisters?  

[Samantha McGill]

I'm thinking sisters, or even twins. Identical twins, of course. They get to mess with peoples' heads.  

[Saria Mithril]

Samantha McGill

I'm thinking sisters, or even twins. Identical twins, of course. They get to mess with peoples' heads.

That might be difficult. xd But I am game to try.  

[Madgibs]

Hey, just letting you guys know I'm still happily story-engineering away. I'm looking at putting up the character app, but I want to make sure it emphasizes the right elements. Oh yeah, and Merry Frightening Christmas.  

[Samantha McGill]

Madgibs

Merry Frightening Christmas.

Yep, got that. I went to my cousins place. (Note: This is a big family, with a wide age spread. I say cousin, you think uncle.) We get there, and he is sans shirt. Not pretty, but the guy sure as Hell knows his food. Cajun turkey for the win!  

[Madgibs]

Samantha McGill

Madgibs

Merry Frightening Christmas.

Yep, got that. I went to my cousins place. (Note: This is a big family, with a wide age spread. I say cousin, you think uncle.) We get there, and he is sans shirt. Not pretty, but the guy sure as Hell knows his food. Cajun turkey for the win!

Now that you mention it, I'm related to some of those people myself. Haven't seen them in a while, though. So... I actually have a character app all ready for you guys. The question is, where should I put it?  

[Samantha McGill]

Just toss it here for us to mull over and discuss until you're ready to accept 'em.  

[Madgibs]

Sorry, the shadowy telephone agencies snipped my lines of communication with the outside world. Anyway, I'm back, so here it is.

Name: Who goes there?
Age: I'd expect characters from high school to early college age, but I can certainly make exceptions.
Appearance: I like pictures as much as anyone, but please make sure to use words mainly, for they are our true medium. (The other one just pretends to hold a seance.) Be descriptive... we do want to see your character, if only in our minds. Since this is winter, if you don't dress warmly, at least bring a heavy jacket.
Bio: Your character's history. What they've done, where they've been.
Personality: Prejudices, likes and dislikes, habits. Taste in females. Also, how your character can be expected to react in normal or abnormal situations.
Abilities and Achievements: You must be good at something. Then again, you can also show up unexpected and amaze people. Some good contributions might be languages, music... wait, don't ask me! They're your characters. Don't worry, if these don't help, you still have your wits with which to solve the mystery.
Stuff you Brought: Most characters will probably have some stuff packed for an overnight stay. You know that you will have free access to whatever accommodations still exist in the house, so whether you take a sleeping bag or just blankets is up to you. Pajamas, pillows, whatever. You can mention that here if you want to put some thought into it. Also, if your character has anything else interesting or useful (a diary or a flashlight), put it here.

 

[Samantha McGill]

Bien, bien... Status: Pondering.

Hm... Well, it's winter, and I don't suppose the haunted house pays its heating bill. Guess that means characters'll be wearing their coats most of the time. Or sharing bodily warmth.

Saria, I'm ready to start planning whenever you've gathered your thoughts.