[FWM] OOC 5: Egocentric Changeling Hive

[HalfTangible]

Random Durrr

Lone Star and Fox Trot have a weird musical duet-music video style number together

Your stupid explosions are drowning out my guitar riffs!
Well your stupid hair is hiding the awesome explosions!

[Luka]

Hey.
If anyone's interested, I might put my character back in for a bit, but I'm a bit confused on how things are in the town at the moment.

[MCerberus]

Well there's not much going on in town right now. Most of the active ponies are out of town for various reasons, so it'd be chilling with the supporting cast until something comes up.


And Grif, who should I be PMing the super secret stuff to?

[Grif]

Well there's not much going on in town right now. Most of the active ponies are out of town for various reasons, so it'd be chilling with the supporting cast until something comes up.


And Grif, who should I be PMing the super secret stuff to?

To me, if you please? I'll pass it on to Merellis.

[Grif]

Hey.
If anyone's interested, I might put my character back in for a bit, but I'm a bit confused on how things are in the town at the moment.

Yikes, thought I responded to this. Um, well, Luka, if you're reading this, the RP is a bit in a lull at the moment. I guess the town is mostly just convalescing from the invasion.

[Luka]

Yikes, thought I responded to this. Um, well, Luka, if you're reading this, the RP is a bit in a lull at the moment. I guess the town is mostly just convalescing from the invasion.

Alright, thanks! I made a post in the thread already.

[PurityIcekiller]

Hello? I'm waiting for reactions from Kelvin360, MCerberus, Grif, and anyone else who may be interacting with any characters of mine at this point in time.

[Grif]

Hello? I'm waiting for reactions from Kelvin360, MCerberus, Grif, and anyone else who may be interacting with any characters of mine at this point in time.

Apologies, been busy of late. Working towards posting a response soonish. (ie. within several hours.)

[Kelvin360]

I swear I thought I responded already. I even had a dream about that post! ...Maybe that's the problem.

[MCerberus]

I'll get a post up tomorrow. I've been sick all weekend. I'm not sure who we're waiting for in the forest though

[Grif]

Hm. Okay. It's that time of the year again, where I try and prod some life into this. Somewhat kidding, but I'm sure a lot of you can see how the RP is probably just stagnating at a fairly alarming rate. Or maybe it just settled into a very slow pace which everyone is comfortable with. Iunno.

So how are you guys? Everything going good? Should we start changing things up?

I apologise for the snail pace of that one FWM scene in the general thread. I... ah... I really have no idea to proceed.

[PurityIcekiller]

I'm decent. I just wish I had some idea of what to do aside from converse.

On another note, I'm thinking of writing up a little story elaborating on Blueshield's background, how she reached her current position, and why she's such an uptight jerk. If anyone's interested in seeing it when it's done, I'll post it here to pass the time.

[Grif]

I'm decent. I just wish I had some idea of what to do aside from converse.

On another note, I'm thinking of writing up a little story elaborating on Blueshield's background, how she reached her current position, and why she's such an uptight jerk. If anyone's interested in seeing it when it's done, I'll post it here to pass the time.

Really the same. Hence uh, this post. I'd love seeing that little story too!

[Luka]

I already made a post, I was waiting if anyone else would reply to it.

[Grif]

I already made a post, I was waiting if anyone else would reply to it.

MCerberus did. Check the thread again.

[Luka]

MCerberus did. Check the thread again.

Yeah, I noticed, but I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to reply to it, it says his character needs a signal and I couldn't find an In-character reason for a signal to be given, sorry.

[Grif]

Yeah, I noticed, but I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to reply to it, it says his character needs a signal and I couldn't find an In-character reason for a signal to be given, sorry.

Ah, yeah. Maybe just a short greeting with the guards then? I can play them briefly if you like. (Mach can just join in later.)

[MCerberus]

Yeah, I noticed, but I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to reply to it, it says his character needs a signal and I couldn't find an In-character reason for a signal to be given, sorry.

Unfortunately my characters are either on hold or don't have any official reason to act as part of the government.
Plus Mach smuggling ponies into the city has happened before multiple times, so direct action by him would likely end with jail.

Right now:
Staccata - in the forest waiting for the action to get started
Mach - flying around idle
Griffon - in the guardhouse and grounded due to injury
Whadda - waiting for the captain
Ammy - well, she's free but in Manehatten and possibly working overtime
Riposte - the investigation sort of stalled out

[TheAmishPirate]

Hm. Okay. It's that time of the year again, where I try and prod some life into this. Somewhat kidding, but I'm sure a lot of you can see how the RP is probably just stagnating at a fairly alarming rate. Or maybe it just settled into a very slow pace which everyone is comfortable with. Iunno.

So how are you guys? Everything going good? Should we start changing things up?

I apologise for the snail pace of that one FWM scene in the general thread. I... ah... I really have no idea to proceed.

Sorry for the delay on this one; I've been travelling, and this has required a bit of thought.

To be perfectly frank, this is a problem I've noticed with this RP, and one with freeforms in general. Simply put, stories aren't meant to go on forever, at least in the way a persistent FFRP does it. We can have arcs, we can have stories spiraling off of other stories, but at the end of the day we can't just fling characters at the wall and expect everything to turn out okay. There's only so much character interaction you can do before it starts to get stale and slow and wandering. We need conflict, some unifying threat that drives our characters to make interesting decisions, face real consequences, and inevitably butt heads. Doesn't matter if it's a warlord rampaging through the area, or Old Man Willikers refusing to clean his horrifying front lawn, a story's gotta have some conflict, otherwise we fall into ruts. And conflict, inevitably, needs somebody to manage it. That is what we call a DM.

So, what needs to happen here? Two things, really; folks to manage conflict, and folks to take on that conflict. Without both, this thing isn't going to last much longer. Problems in both areas, though:

-We don't really have a lot of people making conflict, and none of it is super unified. I've been too busy with work, and dealing with family stuff to give this game the attention it needs. Merellis is AWOL. Grif has been shouldering the burden primarily, but even so we've got a lot of plots and investigations with no real unified focus. There's stuff happening all over Equestria, stuff happening with all sorts of characters, and at the end of the day we just can't deal with all of it. Not with the numbers we have.

-And the plots we do have are stagnating because folks aren't participating regularly. When everyone has to wait a week or longer for someone to post - something I have been guilty of myself - is it any wonder that interest is low? Plus, with the number of people we have participating, one person not posting can completely lock things up for everyone else. It becomes a lot harder to DM when all your posts are met with radio silence.

These two issues absolutely feed into each other. We need stories with a tighter focus, a more unified conflict, and that should help keep folks interested. And if people are interested in a conflict, then they're more likely to post regularly. There's a lot of ways that this could be dealt with, so I want to throw it out there for ya'll to discuss. Where should our focus be? Who is willing to create and manage the conflict/threats? What should the scope of this game be, knowing that we likely aren't going to get more players than this?

And - though I'm loathe to ask it - are people still willing to keep going in this RP? If we don't have it in us to keep this thing going, then it may be time to close up shop. Just putting all our options out there.

[Grif]

Sorry for the delay on this one; I've been travelling, and this has required a bit of thought.

To be perfectly frank, this is a problem I've noticed with this RP, and one with freeforms in general. Simply put, stories aren't meant to go on forever, at least in the way a persistent FFRP does it. We can have arcs, we can have stories spiraling off of other stories, but at the end of the day we can't just fling characters at the wall and expect everything to turn out okay. There's only so much character interaction you can do before it starts to get stale and slow and wandering. We need conflict, some unifying threat that drives our characters to make interesting decisions, face real consequences, and inevitably butt heads. Doesn't matter if it's a warlord rampaging through the area, or Old Man Willikers refusing to clean his horrifying front lawn, a story's gotta have some conflict, otherwise we fall into ruts. And conflict, inevitably, needs somebody to manage it. That is what we call a DM.

So, what needs to happen here? Two things, really; folks to manage conflict, and folks to take on that conflict. Without both, this thing isn't going to last much longer. Problems in both areas, though:

-We don't really have a lot of people making conflict, and none of it is super unified. I've been too busy with work, and dealing with family stuff to give this game the attention it needs. Merellis is AWOL. Grif has been shouldering the burden primarily, but even so we've got a lot of plots and investigations with no real unified focus. There's stuff happening all over Equestria, stuff happening with all sorts of characters, and at the end of the day we just can't deal with all of it. Not with the numbers we have.

-And the plots we do have are stagnating because folks aren't participating regularly. When everyone has to wait a week or longer for someone to post - something I have been guilty of myself - is it any wonder that interest is low? Plus, with the number of people we have participating, one person not posting can completely lock things up for everyone else. It becomes a lot harder to DM when all your posts are met with radio silence.

These two issues absolutely feed into each other. We need stories with a tighter focus, a more unified conflict, and that should help keep folks interested. And if people are interested in a conflict, then they're more likely to post regularly. There's a lot of ways that this could be dealt with, so I want to throw it out there for ya'll to discuss. Where should our focus be? Who is willing to create and manage the conflict/threats? What should the scope of this game be, knowing that we likely aren't going to get more players than this?

And - though I'm loathe to ask it - are people still willing to keep going in this RP? If we don't have it in us to keep this thing going, then it may be time to close up shop. Just putting all our options out there.

For the last question, I am.

I... ah, I'll give a proper response when I can give it more thought, but yeah, I'd rather other folks chiming in as well before giving my thoughts. I'll just say one thing: fresh blood might be needed at this point, and some sort of wiping the slate clean might need to be done. (Not the setting, but the current plots and progression should be wiped and restarted anew.)

[Benson]

If the slate of stories and plots is wiped cleans...

Ideas- A sinister carnival comes to town..foul monsters and dark dealings may be afoot

-Zombpony outbreak :p

- A return of cultists trying to awake a slumbering Lovecraftian evil, who knows what secrets lies beneath the quaint town of Bridle Shores..
==


For the Cirrus

-Good ol fashioned ancient temple dungeon dive and maybe encounters with crazy tribals. Actually with this one, I like the idea that the Cirrus folk would actually have to park and leave the Cirrus at a small post in the middle of the jungle due to the just how thick the canopy and flora is. They would have to go on hoof and I like the idea of them traveling via little ol river boat down a dangerous and winding river~

[Kelvin360]

If we're going to have Cirrus-centric plots, odds are they'd need to include everyone still active, or at least the majority, not just the old crew. Not that it's a problem, just something to consider. I, personally, view that part of the thread's history as something specific to a few players, and heaping on new faces as...I dunno, tarnishing it? I can't really say anything, though, since I'm not involved.

Grif and I touched upon this general subject on Stream, but I like the idea of turning to Canon for inspiration. By lore, our timeline is technically on this universe's end of Season 1, or just before it. We've got loads of things we can decide we want to involve ourselves with or deal with now that it isn't the exclusive territory of the national-celebrity-six. For example, the Grand Galloping Gala. It's familiar territory because we all have a reference to it, but because we have the ability to involve ourselves, we can put a fresh spin on things. It wouldn't require whoever is GMing to come up with something completely new off the cuff.

I'll just say one thing: fresh blood might be needed at this point, and some sort of wiping the slate clean might need to be done. (Not the setting, but the current plots and progression should be wiped and restarted anew.)

I feel like we already sort of passively decided to do the latter. Consolidate things'n'stuff. As for fresh blood, I think it just seems a bit daunting for new folk to come into something unfamiliar. I mean, it is a homebrew setting, and those are always difficult to 'break in' to. It's not like we have an absolute shortage of people familiar with the fandom on the forum itself, but you need a special combination of those who are into RP and also willing to try new things. We're not as grimdark as, say, FO:E, but we're not big on cute-and-cuddly, either. If I were to make a snap judgment on segmenting roleplay styles, I might suggest upping the Friendship part of the title with character interactions, and leaving mayhem and danger for the active sections of questlines.

Another thing we could really use is some kind of gatekeeper. Luka right now is a perfect example of what could happen to new blood. You pop in and...uhhh....great, now what? It'd be helpful, to say the least, to have someone, possibly using NPCs, who can charge into the fray whenever they see someone is lost or a scene is losing steam. Like an actual 'welcome to our fine city' hawker that any pony place of civilization is bound to have.

[PurityIcekiller]

Hmm... I do agree that changes would do some good. I mean, I've been having fun, but I feel like I'm getting stuck in the same patterns over and over again. I'd like to break up the monotony a bit. Unfortunately, most of the ideas I've had are centered around my characters, and as I'm sure you're all aware, I'm not the only person who wants to be involved.

Show-plot-based events might be nice. It'd give us a chance to put new twists on old ideas. The Gala idea sounds fun; I can imagine all of my characters making the situation there hilariously awkward (Flare trying to be sociable but not knowing how, Blueshield not trying to be sociable, Blades scaring the {EXPLETIVE} out of half the ponies she interacts with, and Night Jewel slipping in uninvited to break some rules).

On the subject of a "gatekeeper" character, that sounds like a great idea. We need the kind of character who knows everyone in town and can show newcomers around, along with possibly getting long-term dwellers who haven't met together. I'm thinking of volunteering Precious for the role, although I'd have to establish her first.

So for the "clean slate" idea, would we be wrapping up the current plotlines somehow or just discarding them completely? If the former, I have an idea for how to get it out of the way either temporarily or permanently.

[Grif]

If the slate of stories and plots is wiped cleans...

Ideas- A sinister carnival comes to town..foul monsters and dark dealings may be afoot

-Zombpony outbreak :p

- A return of cultists trying to awake a slumbering Lovecraftian evil, who knows what secrets lies beneath the quaint town of Bridle Shores..
==
For the Cirrus

-Good ol fashioned ancient temple dungeon dive and maybe encounters with crazy tribals. Actually with this one, I like the idea that the Cirrus folk would actually have to park and leave the Cirrus at a small post in the middle of the jungle due to the just how thick the canopy and flora is. They would have to go on hoof and I like the idea of them traveling via little ol river boat down a dangerous and winding river~

All those ideas sound good for a short campaign-like thingamajig.

If we're going to have Cirrus-centric plots, odds are they'd need to include everyone still active, or at least the majority, not just the old crew. Not that it's a problem, just something to consider. I, personally, view that part of the thread's history as something specific to a few players, and heaping on new faces as...I dunno, tarnishing it? I can't really say anything, though, since I'm not involved.

Not really. The Cirrus is really conceived in such a way that we could swap crew in and out easily. After all, this is not the first time it has changed crew.

With that note, would anyone be interested to further supplement the crew?

Grif and I touched upon this general subject on Stream, but I like the idea of turning to Canon for inspiration. By lore, our timeline is technically on this universe's end of Season 1, or just before it. We've got loads of things we can decide we want to involve ourselves with or deal with now that it isn't the exclusive territory of the national-celebrity-six. For example, the Grand Galloping Gala. It's familiar territory because we all have a reference to it, but because we have the ability to involve ourselves, we can put a fresh spin on things. It wouldn't require whoever is GMing to come up with something completely new off the cuff.

Indeed. But I feel this requires deliberation between all the remaining players, and some sort of general consensus on at least the major events before we proceed with any such exercise. 'What counts as major?' you might ask. Basically anything that changes the status quo of the canon storyline. Off the top of my head, excluding the current season:

Spoiler

Show

• Discord
• Queen Chrysalis
• Equestria Girls/Rainbow Rocks
• The ascension of Princess Twilight
• The existence of Daring Do (I'm super not fond of the canon story, as a note)
• Tirek
• The existence of the Harmony Tree

Another thing we could really use is some kind of gatekeeper. Luka right now is a perfect example of what could happen to new blood. You pop in and...uhhh....great, now what? It'd be helpful, to say the least, to have someone, possibly using NPCs, who can charge into the fray whenever they see someone is lost or a scene is losing steam. Like an actual 'welcome to our fine city' hawker that any pony place of civilization is bound to have.

The gatekeeper things sounds interesting, if only to help ease players in. (Not unlike the function of the current Nexus Tavern.) Perhaps more than a person even. More like a location. Bridle Shores proper might be a start.

So for the "clean slate" idea, would we be wrapping up the current plotlines somehow or just discarding them completely? If the former, I have an idea for how to get it out of the way either temporarily or permanently.

The former, yes. Discarding them is not an option I want to take unless absolutely forced to, and even then, there should be no reason why we couldn't incorporate/salvage the existing storylines in some form.



Now. Replies aside, here's what I think about the RP currently. Sorted in no particular order:
- We have definitely fallen into the trap of trapping our characters into cliques that interact little with each other. Off the top of my head, we have the Heavy Metal group, the Icy/Fox/LS group, the Guard group, the Cirrus group and the Canterlot group (and even this is segregated by time and location). This had the effect of making the RP seem smaller than it actually is, and limiting the amount of interesting things that can/could have happened. After all, doesn't half the fun of FFRP come from throwing different characters into the mix and seeing what happens? I suppose the way our player numbers dropped didn't help things.
- Pure FFRP requires a certain number of players in order to function well, both to flesh out the world and to populate the setting. In that regard, FWM (and FiM) was a definite success in the starting year. Now, however, things are such that this approach would probably no longer work as well, since the aforementioned clique thing and some players like poor MCerberus have their characters trapped in a number of frozen scenes. As such, perhaps we really should move on to a more DM-style orientated play.
- Which brings me to my third point. Though I mentioned we should have a DM-oriented RP, there's still the problem of what happens if a player decides to go AWOL or is unable to post for whatever reason. Here, we're at a strange conundrum. In a typical PbP, the DM would either just write the PC out, or simply godmod the PC until such the player is available again. In this subforum, however, we still would want to respect the general FFRP rule that nothing should happen to a PC without the consent of the player itself. Yet, if the PC was a key player in the DM's plan, the DM won't be proceed with the story either and the entire thing gets stalled. (This already happened a few times.) We really should work out a set of guidelines on what should be done in the event of such. It'll definitely help smooth things out.
- Still on the topic of DMs, I would definitely look forward to see people other than Benson, Amish and I try a hand at it.
- On new blood, I'm not sure how we should be advertising this RP. I'd definitely like to see some new players hop on board, but I really can't find a way to phrase it in a way that would appeal to prospective players.

[Kelvin360]

Well, wait, it's not like we don't have resources. Aren't at least a few of us involved in the main thread, and have precedent in the mainstream FFRP counterpart (which I assume we basically stole Lycan from)? Also holy graciousness I forgot that Forum Explorer was a brony; isn't he, like, a veteran roleplayer? Incidentally, what happened to the other thread, FiM? Did it go the same way as FO:E and everyone here was just too stubborn to quit? If we're the only FFRP ponythread left on the entire forum, it shouldn't be a tremblingly titanic task to put out the word.

Not really. The Cirrus is really conceived in such a way that we could swap crew in and out easily. After all, this is not the first time it has changed crew.

With that note, would anyone be interested to further supplement the crew?

I can have a character rolled up in literally less than twenty minutes for it, my main concern is that my alt-itis is already an issue, so I wouldn't want to make that pass unless the Cirrus becomes our main gig, in which case I'm dumping pretty much everything else.

Indeed. But I feel this requires deliberation between all the remaining players, and some sort of general consensus on at least the major events before we proceed with any such exercise. 'What counts as major?' you might ask. Basically anything that changes the status quo of the canon storyline. Off the top of my head, excluding the current season:

Spoiler

Show

• Discord
• Queen Chrysalis
• Equestria Girls/Rainbow Rocks
• The ascension of Princess Twilight
• The existence of Daring Do (I'm super not fond of the canon story, as a note)
• Tirek
• The existence of the Harmony Tree

And yet, at the same time, we're an AU, so we can laugh off most of those if we really want to. EqG, Daring, anything after the midway point of S3 come to mind. BTW, you forgot Sombra. He has canon characterization equal to Iron Will's nameless goat secretary, but I figure we'll end up fleshing out most of the heavy hitters at some point, even by accident. The cool bit about all those villains is that, if each of them come packaged with their own longstanding plans in this 'Verse, we won't run out of Campaign-fuel conflict for a long time.

By the by, I think we can safely assume that Twilight won't alicorn-up here, or if she does, it'll be downplayed, since we're not a monarchy anymore.

The gatekeeper things sounds interesting, if only to help ease players in. (Not unlike the function of the current Nexus Tavern.) Perhaps more than a person even. More like a location. Bridle Shores proper might be a start.

You can't have one without the other. I don't know about you, but I hate being told 'here's an area, now do whatever' when I first get into an RP.

The former, yes. Discarding them is not an option I want to take unless absolutely forced to, and even then, there should be no reason why we couldn't incorporate/salvage the existing storylines in some form.

I have forgotten most of them, I think, but weren't they all connected to the same threat, anyway? We don't have to wrap them up, necessarily, just consolidate them.

- We have definitely fallen into the trap of trapping our characters into cliques that interact little with each other. Off the top of my head, we have the Heavy Metal group, the Icy/Fox/LS group, the Guard group, the Cirrus group and the Canterlot group (and even this is segregated by time and location). This had the effect of making the RP seem smaller than it actually is, and limiting the amount of interesting things that can/could have happened. After all, doesn't half the fun of FFRP come from throwing different characters into the mix and seeing what happens? I suppose the way our player numbers dropped didn't help things.

This is basically Inevitable #3 with any FFRP cluster, not that I disagree. I think we may need to consider a close grouping less the dissolution of cliques and more a matter of creating a bigger new one. Even 'ragtag team that's together because they have to be' has closer bonds than 'a bunch of schmucks'.

Oh, and we should really get a handle on overall power levels if we're going to gather up. Purity and I have been kind of playing fast-and-loose with how much unicorns can actually do lately. I in particular need to start stressing Arvadraa's desire to not use her powers and Stellar's total limits more. I don't envy badass normals like Staccata in an adventuring team when Mother Earth and Captain Force can literally just bury everybody.

- Pure FFRP requires a certain number of players in order to function well, both to flesh out the world and to populate the setting. In that regard, FWM (and FiM) was a definite success in the starting year. Now, however, things are such that this approach would probably no longer work as well, since the aforementioned clique thing and some players like poor MCerberus have their characters trapped in a number of frozen scenes. As such, perhaps we really should move on to a more DM-style orientated play.
- Which brings me to my third point. Though I mentioned we should have a DM-oriented RP, there's still the problem of what happens if a player decides to go AWOL or is unable to post for whatever reason. Here, we're at a strange conundrum. In a typical PbP, the DM would either just write the PC out, or simply godmod the PC until such the player is available again. In this subforum, however, we still would want to respect the general FFRP rule that nothing should happen to a PC without the consent of the player itself. Yet, if the PC was a key player in the DM's plan, the DM won't be proceed with the story either and the entire thing gets stalled. (This already happened a few times.) We really should work out a set of guidelines on what should be done in the event of such. It'll definitely help smooth things out.
- Still on the topic of DMs, I would definitely look forward to see people other than Benson, Amish and I try a hand at it.

I clustered these three for obvious reasons.

There are some differences to DMing something that's still ostensibly rather free-form (we can say 'screw ze clearance' and just haul off to Appaloosa at any time, theoretically) as opposed to DMing an actual, structured campaign. I know it's not easy transitioning from an A, B, C design choice to being able to come up with shiny strings on the fly. Above all, the focus here isn't necessarily as much making sure everyone stays on the plotline, but making sure the players have something to do at all times. There should never be a moment when everyone's sitting in the tavern, looking at the guy behind the DM screen and going 'uhh, now what?' Granted, players also need to be proactive with their goals, but there's a minor art to being able to recognize when that hellhound-up-a-tree sidequest you put in reserve earlier needs to come into play to keep things going, especially now that we're in the stalling-to-stalling danger zone.

Speaking of players, it's also important to get an idea of what they want beforehand. I've had dungeon crawls grind to a halt because the I-hate-puzzles-guy didn't mention that A) that's one of his traits and B) that he likes to pause and roleplay things out every once in a while to Sergeant Hack'n'slash. Not only does it determine that the players know how, generally, to interact with one another, it also allows the DM to know what to throw into whatever the encounter of the day is. This pre-game communication will also help ameliorate the issue of what to do if someone stalls out.

And oh by the way, on that note, this is really important for all of us. If the reason you're not posting is because you don't know what to do, tell someone. I'm incredibly guilty of this, but it's different from real life absences in that the other players and the DM can help you brainstorm a way out (or, well, a way back in). Whether or not the characters get along, we're a community on an OOC level. I'm 99% sure the show has a song about friends helping friends solve a problem. Or, y'know, six songs.

While we're on the subject of players, volunteering to be a DM is going to be a pain in the rear unless we discuss this part now. When you transition from playerside to DMside, all of your PCs immediately add 'DMN' to that identifier. It's just a fact of life. And unless everyone is cool with that particular DM's style (more importantly, everyone including them is sure the DM can HANDLE that style), absolutely everyone hates DMNPCs. A backseat and a clever barrier between the IC and OOC are the only things stopping them from taking over a campaign, even though occasionally one WILL need to step in to offer guidance. So, essentially, if you're DMing, in some way or another, you're forfeiting the ability to keep your PC on the roster with everyone else in the same way. I like the odds that our group will be accepting of a DM who decides to keep their PC around, but every action they take will be met with an unconscious wondering of whether that's what the PC would actually do, or whether they're acting because the DM wanted to throw in a safety net. It can be messy, is what I'm saying.

Furthermore, in our specific case, a DM should act less as an omniscient narrator and more a representative of the living world. This sounds common-sense, but a lot of people confuse storytelling for narrating, and the difference is that PCs turn from protagonists to tools in the latter case. Everything should react to the actions of a PC, not the other way around. In this way, we the players feel notably that we're making an impact in our own tales, instead of riding out someone else's story.

- On new blood, I'm not sure how we should be advertising this RP. I'd definitely like to see some new players hop on board, but I really can't find a way to phrase it in a way that would appeal to prospective players.

"Hey guys. We're the only MLP FFRP group still on this entire forum. Wanna play out your pony with friends? Trot on in."

Absent of an economic system, monopolies can actually be pretty neat.

We'd need to discuss with the new bloods how grim we want our dark to be, though. My notion on separating hardcorisms into player interaction and active conflict stands.

On the subject of a "gatekeeper" character, that sounds like a great idea. We need the kind of character who knows everyone in town and can show newcomers around, along with possibly getting long-term dwellers who haven't met together. I'm thinking of volunteering Precious for the role, although I'd have to establish her first.

I don't know a lot about Precious, but ideally, wouldn't her first introduction be the establishing moment, in a way?

[Grif]

Well, wait, it's not like we don't have resources. Aren't at least a few of us involved in the main thread, and have precedent in the mainstream FFRP counterpart (which I assume we basically stole Lycan from)? Also holy graciousness I forgot that Forum Explorer was a brony; isn't he, like, a veteran roleplayer? Incidentally, what happened to the other thread, FiM? Did it go the same way as FO:E and everyone here was just too stubborn to quit? If we're the only FFRP ponythread left on the entire forum, it shouldn't be a tremblingly titanic task to put out the word.

Most of them are already involved in more structured RPs in some way (which incidentally is either MLP canon, or FO:E). For various reasons, I'm not involved with the ponythread any more, so I'm not really one to try and promote this over there.

FiM died a natural death after players left, so that was that.

And yet, at the same time, we're an AU, so we can laugh off most of those if we really want to. EqG, Daring, anything after the midway point of S3 come to mind. BTW, you forgot Sombra. He has canon characterization equal to Iron Will's nameless goat secretary, but I figure we'll end up fleshing out most of the heavy hitters at some point, even by accident. The cool bit about all those villains is that, if each of them come packaged with their own longstanding plans in this 'Verse, we won't run out of Campaign-fuel conflict for a long time.

By the by, I think we can safely assume that Twilight won't alicorn-up here, or if she does, it'll be downplayed, since we're not a monarchy anymore.

Oh yes, poor Sombra, forgotten even here.

I have forgotten most of them, I think, but weren't they all connected to the same threat, anyway? We don't have to wrap them up, necessarily, just consolidate them.

More or less. But I think a blank slate where we just free every character from their scenes and start anew would do the pace much good.

This is basically Inevitable #3 with any FFRP cluster, not that I disagree. I think we may need to consider a close grouping less the dissolution of cliques and more a matter of creating a bigger new one. Even 'ragtag team that's together because they have to be' has closer bonds than 'a bunch of schmucks'.

Oh, and we should really get a handle on overall power levels if we're going to gather up. Purity and I have been kind of playing fast-and-loose with how much unicorns can actually do lately. I in particular need to start stressing Arvadraa's desire to not use her powers and Stellar's total limits more. I don't envy badass normals like Staccata in an adventuring team when Mother Earth and Captain Force can literally just bury everybody.

Power levels have always been a tricky beast. I believe so far we're aiming for heroes, not superheroes. (ie. no powers that levels an entire city block and equivalent.)

but making sure the players have something to do at all times.

I mostly skimmed this, but I think the important part is here. All else are secondary to this goal.

[Kelvin360]

Power levels have always been a tricky beast. I believe so far we're aiming for heroes, not superheroes. (ie. no powers that levels an entire city block and equivalent.)

I shifted Sunshine and Starbeam out of the picture basically because of this. I might actually have a way for Stellar and Flare to follow suit without deleting them entirely, if Purity is up for it.

[PurityIcekiller]

Not really. The Cirrus is really conceived in such a way that we could swap crew in and out easily. After all, this is not the first time it has changed crew.

With that note, would anyone be interested to further supplement the crew?

Possibly. Either one of my existing characters could join, or if none are suitable, I could bring in one of the spares I have lying around.

The former, yes. Discarding them is not an option I want to take unless absolutely forced to, and even then, there should be no reason why we couldn't incorporate/salvage the existing storylines in some form.

Well, I've thought of a way out of the entire Rusty Falls storyline for now, by calling in reinforcements from outside. I was thinking Blueshield would send for the other Knights, who would keep Doth's forces occupied for a while.

More or less. But I think a blank slate where we just free every character from their scenes and start anew would do the pace much good.

...On the other hand/hoof, if that's what you mean, I didn't have any big ideas for simply dragging everyone out of their immediate situations. Glossing over the spy mission could work, I guess. Perhaps they did have some success, but found the deeper areas of the town too secure and quit while they were ahead?

Now. Replies aside, here's what I think about the RP currently. Sorted in no particular order:
- We have definitely fallen into the trap of trapping our characters into cliques that interact little with each other. Off the top of my head, we have the Heavy Metal group, the Icy/Fox/LS group, the Guard group, the Cirrus group and the Canterlot group (and even this is segregated by time and location). This had the effect of making the RP seem smaller than it actually is, and limiting the amount of interesting things that can/could have happened. After all, doesn't half the fun of FFRP come from throwing different characters into the mix and seeing what happens? I suppose the way our player numbers dropped didn't help things.
- Pure FFRP requires a certain number of players in order to function well, both to flesh out the world and to populate the setting. In that regard, FWM (and FiM) was a definite success in the starting year. Now, however, things are such that this approach would probably no longer work as well, since the aforementioned clique thing and some players like poor MCerberus have their characters trapped in a number of frozen scenes. As such, perhaps we really should move on to a more DM-style orientated play.
- Which brings me to my third point. Though I mentioned we should have a DM-oriented RP, there's still the problem of what happens if a player decides to go AWOL or is unable to post for whatever reason. Here, we're at a strange conundrum. In a typical PbP, the DM would either just write the PC out, or simply godmod the PC until such the player is available again. In this subforum, however, we still would want to respect the general FFRP rule that nothing should happen to a PC without the consent of the player itself. Yet, if the PC was a key player in the DM's plan, the DM won't be proceed with the story either and the entire thing gets stalled. (This already happened a few times.) We really should work out a set of guidelines on what should be done in the event of such. It'll definitely help smooth things out.
- Still on the topic of DMs, I would definitely look forward to see people other than Benson, Amish and I try a hand at it.
- On new blood, I'm not sure how we should be advertising this RP. I'd definitely like to see some new players hop on board, but I really can't find a way to phrase it in a way that would appeal to prospective players.

Agreed on the groups thing. I'd like more diverse character interactions, but everyone just seems to stick with one specific cluster, and you run out of things to do with one group fast. My ponies have been cut off from a bunch of others who had potentially interesting relations with them, and I'd like that isolation to end. I mean, Night Jewel's original motive for coming to Bridle Shores was following up on the casino plot, but half the characters involved have never even been near her.

Again, I had some ideas for things I could DM, but they'd be awfully focused around my characters. If there's an idea that could work with anyone, though, please let me know.

Oh, and we should really get a handle on overall power levels if we're going to gather up. Purity and I have been kind of playing fast-and-loose with how much unicorns can actually do lately. I in particular need to start stressing Arvadraa's desire to not use her powers and Stellar's total limits more. I don't envy badass normals like Staccata in an adventuring team when Mother Earth and Captain Force can literally just bury everybody.

Power levels have always been a tricky beast. I believe so far we're aiming for heroes, not superheroes. (ie. no powers that levels an entire city block and equivalent.)

I shifted Sunshine and Starbeam out of the picture basically because of this. I might actually have a way for Stellar and Flare to follow suit without deleting them entirely, if Purity is up for it.

Yeah, I've been trying to keep Flare from breaking everything. I've tried to keep her away from anything where she could do anything too dramatic, or at least give her reasons to hold back (Underestimating the problem, fear of collateral damage, Blades would go spare, etc.), but I don't know if I can do that all the time. What's your idea, Kelvin?

I don't know a lot about Precious, but ideally, wouldn't her first introduction be the establishing moment, in a way?

Sort of, in that she's been shown to be Ciona's Morality Pet. Still, she hasn't actually done anything with other ponies aside from Ember yet.

[Kelvin360]

Well, I've thought of a way out of the entire Rusty Falls storyline for now, by calling in reinforcements from outside. I was thinking Blueshield would send for the other Knights, who would keep Doth's forces occupied for a while.


...On the other hand/hoof, if that's what you mean, I didn't have any big ideas for simply dragging everyone out of their immediate situations. Glossing over the spy mission could work, I guess. Perhaps they did have some success, but found the deeper areas of the town too secure and quit while they were ahead?

Awww, but I was gonna shoehorn Dawn into a Heroic Sacrifice. [/facetious]

Does Doth even have reason to threaten Bridle Shores anymore? They offed Redshift and the pegasus has already spilled her beans. If anything, now that their cover is blown they should be evacuating before Luna shoves something heavily armored and very unpleasant down their throat. Regardless of whether she's in a position to actually do that.

Yeah, I've been trying to keep Flare from breaking everything. I've tried to keep her away from anything where she could do anything too dramatic, or at least give her reasons to hold back (Underestimating the problem, fear of collateral damage, Blades would go spare, etc.), but I don't know if I can do that all the time. What's your idea, Kelvin?

We don't necessarily have to remove the heavy hitters from the game, just make sure they're all under the same cloth. Something like giving Stellar, Flare, and maybe Esmerelda and others I don't even know about their own sidequest away from the main action. Something that requires finesse over raw power but still needs a magic touch would make for an interesting dynamic.

Sort of, in that she's been shown to be Ciona's Morality Pet. Still, she hasn't actually done anything with other ponies aside from Ember yet.

Oh THAT Precious. Forgot about her, but then, the feyworld was another plotline that disintegrated faster than those cavern roofs Starbeam did in. With that connection made, I am intrigued.

[HalfTangible]

Grif wanted me to give my opinion on the current situation.

*ahem*

-I'm sick of waiting for stuff to happen in the misc thread, can LS, Es and FT come back to Bridle Shores now?!
-A gatekeeper character would be nice
-We've diverted into cliques that barely interact with the others, yes, and that needs to be fixed. Though that's sorta the nature of FFRP.
-This place needs new blood.