Traveller's Cafe 4: Brainstorming, Discussion, Tea, Advice

[Main Nation Ministry]

Honestly we just need more variety of RPs in general. For a couple years now most active RPs have seemed more or less the same conceptually. Super hero RP, medieval fantasy RP, godmod fest nation RP.

I'm in the works of several RPs, one horror and one based on a series I'm doing.

[Plzen]

Nominally, I know a Mass Effect: Factions RP should be in the offing soon.

Very interesting...

Aurora will be back.

[New yugoslavaia]

Honestly we just need more variety of RPs in general. For a couple years now most active RPs have seemed more or less the same conceptually. Super hero RP, medieval fantasy RP, godmod fest nation RP.

I'm in the works of several RPs, one horror and one based on a series I'm doing.

I like Superhero RPs as much as they next guy...but can we just chill it for a moment?

[Main Nation Ministry]

I'm in the works of several RPs, one horror and one based on a series I'm doing.

I like Superhero RPs as much as they next guy...but can we just chill it for a moment?

That's why I tend to go out of the box every now and then.

[Dayganistan]

And here I am wanting to make an Ace Combat style RP (probably using the Ace Combat name to attract people as well despite not being set in the Ace Combat universe) but I'm feeling like it's not going to take off. There was an active Ace Combat RP, but I feel like the people who were interested in that are one of the groups who've just left the site due to Discord and there's not so many people left who could be interested.

[G-Tech Corporation]

And here I am wanting to make an Ace Combat style RP (probably using the Ace Combat name to attract people as well despite not being set in the Ace Combat universe) but I'm feeling like it's not going to take off. There was an active Ace Combat RP, but I feel like the people who were interested in that are one of the groups who've just left the site due to Discord and there's not so many people left who could be interested.

Hm. We could use a good steampunk warfare RP. I'm not familiar with Ace Combat though.

[Main Nation Ministry]

And here I am wanting to make an Ace Combat style RP (probably using the Ace Combat name to attract people as well despite not being set in the Ace Combat universe) but I'm feeling like it's not going to take off. There was an active Ace Combat RP, but I feel like the people who were interested in that are one of the groups who've just left the site due to Discord and there's not so many people left who could be interested.

I'm actually taking an interesting risk by making my horror RP to be set in the same universe as the Amnesia games with its own custom story. I had to modify the original setting from the 70's to the 20's, since Rebirth came out. That way I can make things a bit of a bridge from Machine of Pigs to Rebirth.

[New yugoslavaia]

It's probably not going to help my reputation on this site at all, but I tried doing a pokemorph (human-pokemon hybrid) RP set a alternate history near future a while back (which of course never went anywhere).
Jist is that you would command a squad of up to four spec ops units (all human, all hybrid or a mix) and you would try and take down the dictator of a war torn Fascist Romania who may or may not of helped a terrorist cell commit a attack in western/central Europe.

Would of certainty been original...if a bit odd. But now that I think about, wouldn't it just be a (quasi) furry metahumans RP?

Is it worth giving another shot, or is this a awful idea?
I might change some things though.

[Plzen]

I pick up ideas faster than I host RPs, so I still have a lot of ideas from a few months/years ago that people in this thread have shown interest in but which I haven't run yet.

I'm feeling pretty discouraged at the moment, though, because it seems like my RPs never go anywhere. Most of them die due to insufficient initial applications and everything I do get launched die due to lack of interest in the first couple IC pages. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Maybe I just don't have enough of a reputation with the playerbase?

[G-Tech Corporation]

I pick up ideas faster than I host RPs, so I still have a lot of ideas from a few months/years ago that people in this thread have shown interest in but which I haven't run yet.

I'm feeling pretty discouraged at the moment, though, because it seems like my RPs never go anywhere. Most of them die due to insufficient initial applications and everything I do get launched die due to lack of interest in the first couple IC pages. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Maybe I just don't have enough of a reputation with the playerbase?

Offhand, I wouldn't say it has anything to do with reputation - perhaps just accessibility. Take 2095. You got a great application out of a few folks, but that, combined with the fully-constructed and interesting setting, probably scared away casual RPers. More or less, the dumbest RPs I've been in have been the most successful. There's a hard balance between making a fascinating setting/idea, and allowing others to access that idea.

It's something I struggle with too

[Dayganistan]

Another idea I have is a more grounded cyberpunk setting inspired by, if not outright based on, the Watch Dogs series. Not so much of the neon aesthetic and cybernetic enhancements (which a cyberpunk setting does not necessarily need IMO), but still dealing with themes of technology being misused, mass surveillance, and corporations acting unethically

[Plzen]

Offhand, I wouldn't say it has anything to do with reputation - perhaps just accessibility. Take 2095. You got a great application out of a few folks, but that, combined with the fully-constructed and interesting setting, probably scared away casual RPers. More or less, the dumbest RPs I've been in have been the most successful. There's a hard balance between making a fascinating setting/idea, and allowing others to access that idea.

It's something I struggle with too :P

Yeah... I generally want to cut out pointless debates on what is or is not possible right from the start, but that generally means walls of texts defining technological and economic settings.

Not sure how to get around that issue, to be honest, especially for RPs with non-historical settings. It's a bit odd when one player rolls up with semi-realistic spaceships and another shows up with something ripped off 40k.

[New yugoslavaia]

Offhand, I wouldn't say it has anything to do with reputation - perhaps just accessibility. Take 2095. You got a great application out of a few folks, but that, combined with the fully-constructed and interesting setting, probably scared away casual RPers. More or less, the dumbest RPs I've been in have been the most successful. There's a hard balance between making a fascinating setting/idea, and allowing others to access that idea.

It's something I struggle with too

Yeah... I generally want to cut out pointless debates on what is or is not possible right from the start, but that generally means walls of texts defining technological and economic settings.

Not sure how to get around that issue, to be honest, especially for RPs with non-historical settings. It's a bit odd when one player rolls up with semi-realistic spaceships and another shows up with something ripped off 40k.

I think what people need to do is to not need too many players in order for the IC to be set up.
You never got around to that on 2095. Shame really.

But seriously though people. Could that Pokemorph idea work (possibly with some adjustments)?

[Dayganistan]

I think what people need to do is to not need too many players in order for the IC to be set up.

This seems like a good rule of thumb in general. A smaller group of people who are all more or less on the same page is easier to deal with than a large number of people. But the smaller groups feel like they're destined to retreat to discord and abandon the forums.

[Main Nation Ministry]

I think what people need to do is to not need too many players in order for the IC to be set up.

This seems like a good rule of thumb in general. A smaller group of people who are all more or less on the same page is easier to deal with than a large number of people. But the smaller groups feel like they're destined to retreat to discord and abandon the forums.

I think you're allowed to do a IC, even if it's just you and another OP. I've been in a 2-player RP and currently in another without any complaints.

[Plzen]

You never got around to that on 2095. Shame really.

Yeah, not enough interest, alas... the world is a big place and needs people to at least reasonably fill it.

But seriously though people. Could that Pokemorph idea work (possibly with some adjustments)?

I'll probably have to bow out of that one, I'm afraid. I generally prefer RPs with a bigger scope (as might perhaps be guessed from my obsession with RISK-style board game mechanics).

---

A small group is fine if they're all dedicated posters, but in my personal experience a group like that is very hard to find. Most RPs I've been in with a small playerbase just fizzed out quickly because there just wasn't enough volume in the IC to push events along.

I know that there are video games - even niche video games - that have little trouble finding 20 players for a session basically every day, and while yes, committing to a weeks-long forum RP is a more daunting prospect than committing to an evening-night of gaming, I do hope that at some point NationStates sees enough traffic to routinely have roleplays with dozens of players in them.

I have strong hopes of creating adaptations (or participating in someone else's adaptations) of the megagame concept for the internet forum.

---

So, uh, I've been going through my old RPs to see if there are interesting ideas I can recycle (not that I'm short of new ideas >_>;;), and, uh, G-Tech, you interested in revamping your old XCOM RP? I've been re-watching a Long War playthrough recently and I'm vaguely in the mood.

Perhaps after this Mass Effect RP you just told me about concludes.

On an unrelated note, I hope that RP is fine playing a bit fast-and-loose with canon. You know what I'm like at times, and I'm none-too-familiar with the series to begin with. :p

[G-Tech Corporation]

So, uh, I've been going through my old RPs to see if there are interesting ideas I can recycle (not that I'm short of new ideas >_>;;), and, uh, G-Tech, you interested in revamping your old XCOM RP? I've been re-watching a Long War playthrough recently and I'm vaguely in the mood.

Perhaps after this Mass Effect RP you just told me about concludes.

Right now I'm vaguely stuck in, between New Civs, Different World (a fantasy-antiquity piece), and a role as master-of-mechanics for the potential ME:F RP. But I do love me some XCOM. Currently I have a dubious itch to do something high-magic, with characters in the role of survivors of a world-destroying spell of unmaking... we'll just have to see what my time allows.

On an unrelated note, I hope that RP is fine playing a bit fast-and-loose with canon. You know what I'm like at times, and I'm none-too-familiar with the series to begin with.

Oh we tend to be pretty chill. It helps that a solid amount of Mass Effect canon is undefined to start with.

[Romextly]

I am just returning to PT2M and am thinking of making a character RP of a Alternate WW!. Is anyone interested?

[New yugoslavaia]

I am just returning to PT2M and am thinking of making a character RP of a Alternate WW!. Is anyone interested?

What's alternate about this version of WWI?

BTW, I might have an idea for something.
Does anyone remember the R-Type series? Because I've recently become a fan of it and I've got to say...it's a lot more than just a mere shoot em up. Isn't just fighters. There's also bigger ships too. And there's lots of units too (albeit most of them being fighters). Could do a sort of grid based thing with a point systems and players start out with limited fleets.
The plot is quite interesting. At first glance it seems like a generic "humans vs evil parasitic aliens", but the Bydo actually aren't aliens, but really future sapient genetically engineered weapons from the far future of the 2500s (the games are set in the 22nd century) that were trapped in another dimension by future humanity and then managed to learn how to time travel in order to attack past humanity.
Also, unlike other assimilating alien species in Sci-Fi like the flood, they can make their own ships and units. Quite a formidable foe.
Also, everyone has wave motion guns. Including the fighters.

[Talchyon]

I'm in the works of several RPs, one horror and one based on a series I'm doing.

I like Superhero RPs as much as they next guy...but can we just chill it for a moment?

People are welcome to mosey on down to East Zilch, Texas with my comedy RP, Grand Theft Horse (links in sig).

[Zarzadon]

Are there any new/just starting country based RPs floating about?

[The Order of the Sovereign Heavens]

A nerdy individual shuffles up to you, notepad in hand, with an evidently prepared presentation for the Traveller's Cafe. Awkwardly, he begins his spiel.

"Community: that show that was great for a time, had a gas leak year, got better again, but still does not have the #AndAMovie that we've been promised. Within community, one loosely connected series of episodes have consistently been rated highly, and never fail to capture the imagination - the episodes where Greendale campus erupts into some kind of war. Whether it be the numerous paintball skirmishes that wreak havoc on the campus, the blanket and pillow fort war that wreaked havoc on the campus, or even the great game of "the Floor is Lava" that, you guessed it, wreaked havoc on the campus, they were always worth a laugh, and sometimes involved some interesting interpersonal politicking as society descended into madness.

"I would like to create a new college (and its campus) for NationStates P2TM. Home to raucous parties, doomed romances, many misadventures and, occasionally, study, this campus will be a tinderbox, teetering on the edge of madness and a civil war the likes of which no college campus on NationStates has ever seen. With heroism, cowardice, betrayal, and a lot of people taking college spats way too seriously, I think this has the potential to be an interesting yet also simultaneously fun (and hopefully funny) NationStates experience."

As your reality descends into meta-references and poorly-written prose, you awaken at your computer/phone/device/thing, and realise that you've been in the Traveller's Cafe topic on NationStates the entire time. You decide that, whatever it was that you just read, it was a good idea, and to write a post below this one saying as much.

[Nejii]

So I’ve started drafting on a high fantasy RP based solely on dwarves. Below are some basic up front details. Tell me what you lot think.


PREMISE
Set within the bowels of the fictional Bhalor Mountains, our storyline revolves around a large dwarven city state named Thungarn. Over the past several weeks, goblin attacks have increased and several dwarven thaigs have been destroyed with no survivors to be found. The king of Thungarn eventually organizes a campaign into the Dark Reaches, the ages old frontline between dwarf and goblin territory. A deep underground wasteland of ruins from centuries of battle, periled by oceans of lava, bottomless pits, and ferocious beasts.

Lead by the king himself, the campaign pushes the goblins back for several leagues, the dwarves even breaking a new front and establishing forward fortifications after days of battle. It is then that their fortunes finally break. One morning a massive horde of goblins overwhelms the kings’ army and razes their forward battlements. Among the goblins are orcs and ogres, something uncommon to goblin armies. The king perishes amid the mass retreat and his army is slaughtered near to the man. The survivors limp back to Thungarn and reveal the devastating news of the kings’ death and the coming horde.

While the Grey Legion holds the line against the horde, the city must choose a new king and rally for the coming invasion, as it is revealed that the goblins, orcs, and ogres are only slaves of something more sinister.

(OOC: Mind you this is a very rough and basic plot summary.)


SETTING(S)
-Thungarn
-The Deep Roads
-The Dark Reaches
-Various thaigs and ruins

RACES AND CREATURES
-Dwarves
-Goblins
-Orcs
-Ogres
-Dark Elves (Here and there.)
-Mindflayers
-Golems
-Shades/Spirits

[Aona]

Not to hop onto an interest train that is absolutely blazing through the gorgeous Southwestern landscape at several thousand mph (with many great rp ideas), but I'm looking to scratch my second story itch with a Shin Megami Tensei: Persona-themed RP. The lore is loosely defined enough that it can be lots of different things at once, but there's still a property to center it around. It also can act as equal parts fun combat/slice of life teen capers in *insert city/town/country here*. Any other weebs curious minds interested?

[Benuty]

Nice to see an uptick here.