[RP Theory Discussion] I've been working on the Railroad~♪

[Aix]

The way roleplays are typically on YCM is known as Railroading, where the host drives the action and plot. It is often criticized elsewhere because players don't have a lot of bearing on what happens, but on YCM, we tend not to have major opinions on how the plot should progress anyway, and if/when we do, we can just discuss with the host to try to arrange things. Sometimes, the host will ask for player input anyway, or sometimes the plot has directions it can branch similar to a visual novel.

 

Anyway, here are a few observations I've made for a host to create an effective Railroad.

1. Each GM Post should ultimately give characters one relatively simple prompt such as "attack the enemies", or "escape into the cave". It can't be too big of an action or too minor. For example, "steal the spider eggs in the cave" when the characters are outside the cave may be too big, and can be split into "scout the dark cave" and "attack the giant spiders defending their eggs". On the other hand, too minor actions will feel not worthy of a post.

2. The necessary elements to the scene should be provided by the host. Particularly, important aspects of the setting should be detailed and the enemies that the characters are fighting should be placed on the scene by the host. Ideally, the host only provides what's necessary, and the players can still invent big elements of the scene.

3. Avoid prompts like "react to X" that don't actually let the characters really do something. Keep exposition to a minimum and focus on advancing the plot.

4. Avoid situations/prompts where there is little possible variation in how an action is carried out. This is kind of vague, but just try to imagine different ways to accomplish things in a given situation.

5. Try to keep everyone together to facilitate good GM posts following the above guidelines. However, too many characters in one area is not only chaotic, but may exhaust what needs to be done (e.g. defeat all the enemies), so it may be advised to split the cast into decent-sized groups.

 

Of course, these are just guidelines and a host must be able to adapt and use their own discretion.

 

Discuss, do you agree or disagree with what I've laid out? Anything to add to the list?

[Maeriberii Haan]

1. A major goal...say, "Steal eggs from spiders in the cave" can be divided into several prompts without voiding the major goal. Giving these prompts a sense of importance is key as well, as you said. These prompts should be tangible and as clear-cut as possible. Also, don't forget to actually have a clear-cut ideas on how things would progress. It's important because, if we don't know about it, how do we expect the players to know?

 

However, alongside these prompts, what I see as important too is the need to give affordances - information on the post that helps the players make their move (details, similar kind of information) outside of the immediate prompts. These are tools, so to say, that could help the players post while establishing boundaries at the same time. Last thing we want is to have the players have no ideas on what to do, but it's also a bad thing if we railroad so much everything is effortless and expected - it kills excitement. Providing the environment to assist immediate prompts goes a long way.

 

2. Yeah, it's what I addressed in the previous point. Enough so the players can use them as tool and imagine how things go, but allows them to invent details. It's like making problems in a test - you need to actually have something solvable, with the tools your students have. Maps in general is a good way to do this, as simple as they usually are, the assistance they provide is immense.

 

3. Keep exposition and actual plot progression separate. If the host really has to post exposition without progress, post something that actually create progress soon - and never make people wait for exposition. Stalling progression only for the post to only contain exposition kills RPs. Exposition is not bad, but the plot needs to move on and is more important. RP is different from writing fics, unless you already go for a heavy story based one that works like collaborative writing, but they're a different model in general. Approaching RP just like you approach fics is not really advised.

 

4. It's mentioned in 1 too here. Basically don't railroad too much, more or less.

 

5. TBh i'm not sure on how to best approach this. Still unsure on the boundary of too crowded and the need to group people together. And multiple groups do have the benefit of having different things going on at once - which helps making things interesting.

 

I guess that's my 2 cents.

 

I'll add more later when discussion starts rolling.

[Raine]

RPing is very loose media format for people to play with, particularly if it's just in the text of the forum. RPing is as delicate as it is extensive, so when they start rolling after a time, it becomes obvious who is willing to stick with it and who is not. This railroading you're talking about is an imperfect way of getting people who less involved than yourself to play with at least some dedication. You set guidelines hoping your RPers take a bite, like leading a horse with a carrot. If there's a better alternative though, I don't know it!