Running Public Roleplay Areas
From Tapestries MUCK
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Concluded plotlines, or portions of them, may well be suitable for retirement as back story. | Concluded plotlines, or portions of them, may well be suitable for retirement as back story. | ||
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| + | Such plotlines should only directly involve characters that are willing participants in it, and are generally OK with where it's expected to go for their characters. | ||
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| + | Such plotlines should be managed, either by the owner, or other delegated admins. | ||
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| + | ===Story Arc=== | ||
| + | Some areas may have an overall story arc that all the plotlines tie into. This requires a great deal of coordination, especially as things change, players move on or become otherwise unavailable, etc. | ||
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| + | Often times part or all of the actual story arc of an area is a closely guarded secret of the area's owner and a few trusted individuals and admins. | ||
Revision as of 03:03, 10 April 2007
This is meant as advice to people that want to run heavy roleplay areas on the MUCK. Places with story and altercations etc. in a structured environment.
Contents |
Tapestries MUCK
The first thing that you should be aware of is that Tapestries is not an ideal environment for this type of area. It is first and foremost a BDSM Muck, not a roleplaying Muck. While there are overlaps (for example, BDSM power exchanges often involve roleplaying), BDSM still comes first.
At times this will require that you make compromises to your vision, and to the roleplay in your area, both to fit within the mission of the Muck, and to fit within it's Policies.
If the compromises are too steep for you, you may wish to consider if Tapestries is in fact the right place for you to be building your area.
Theme and Mission
It is even more important for heavy roleplay areas to have a clearly stated theme and mission.
The mission should state what the purpose of the area is, why it was created, what goals there are for the roleplaying there, etc.
The theme should describe the feel of the roleplay and the area, and go into some detail about the culture and such. Things people can play off in their stay in the area.
Stories
There are several types of story going on in a good roleplaying area, each should add flavor to the area, but not necisarly be something that everyone that walks in off the street has to worry about right away. It's best if casual players can come in and play off the stories, rather than being a part of them. Thus for many players the current plots and such should be background which they can use to richen their own roleplay.
Back Story
The back story is the history of your area. This should be publicly available to everyone in your area, along with the theme and mission. This should include information to give the area depth, and provide lots of jumping off points for people to roleplay from and to help people fit their character into the area better.
Current Plotlines
What of this is public or not depends a lot on the situation, but it needs to be partly public for it to have any value to the average user of your area. One approach that has worked out is having a 'rumors' program that gives you a feel for what is currently going on in the background.
Concluded plotlines, or portions of them, may well be suitable for retirement as back story.
Such plotlines should only directly involve characters that are willing participants in it, and are generally OK with where it's expected to go for their characters.
Such plotlines should be managed, either by the owner, or other delegated admins.
Story Arc
Some areas may have an overall story arc that all the plotlines tie into. This requires a great deal of coordination, especially as things change, players move on or become otherwise unavailable, etc.
Often times part or all of the actual story arc of an area is a closely guarded secret of the area's owner and a few trusted individuals and admins.
