Freeform RP

[Max Dirks]

Hey everyone.

As many of you know, I've supported the addition of a freeform roleplay area to Althanas (which I've dubbed the Interactive World or IW) for several years. To date, my previous attempts at bringing such an area to life, primarily Athylia's Verse and The Nexus have failed primarily due to lack of interest. I also note that both areas, though derived from the idea of freeform RP, were not exactly freeform either, as both had registration requirements.

So, the idea has been passed around again, but this time it has far more staff support than it's ever had before. However, based on my previous failures, before starting it I wanted to know whether the majority of you would use it. There are several integration ideas floating around, but my favorite making it an extension of Nexus. We will bring the forum back to the forefront as it's own category (Freeform RP). Registration would not be required, though I'll leave the Codex subforum active for people to post the characters they are using. Threads completed there will earn GP (since GP is freely transferable across characters), but not EXP because EXP is the World of Althanas staple. Completed threads there can be submitted for judgment like normal threads for AP like normal or simply submitted as a no judgment for GP rewards.

That said, are you interested? Do you have any suggestions? I don't want this to be a major resource sucking area/event. It will be a more casual post between post type area where you can RP Harry Potter, Star Wars, Earth, DnD, LoTR, etc. and grind for GP so you can buy sick Althanas stuff, so keep that in mind when coming up with ideas.

[Gum]

i am interested. totally and utterly interested. one of my favourite things about freeform rp is how open and inclusive it is. players just go with whatever the other players post and work with it. whereas, i feel at times on althanas the level of control and rigidity goes a bit too far. that's not necessarily locked in the rule system, it's also my experience with some players that they want to steamroll your contribution with how they think it should be. and i think that kind of attitude stems from the rigidity of the system overall, it makes treating people that way feel acceptable. anyway, that's a bit of a tangent. my point is that i feel like yes, total freeform would be so welcome on my part.

having said how eager i am about it, there are some issues with it. there's a weird feeling of official versus unofficial to it. i can spend my time posting in area A where everything is sanctioned, approved, controlled and rewarded. or i can spend my time posting in area B where everything is kinda rewarded with gp, but ultimately will always be the poor cousin to the official althanas setting. it sounds a super shallow sentiment to have, when it should be all about the "art", right? but i would imagine that kind of feeling might be what stood in the way of the nexus being a success. maybe one solution would be to make the freeform section of the site bigger, keep it separate and have its own xp, etc. just do away with character approvals, tech limits, possession limits and originality requirements. trust the players to limit themselves--i think anybody with half a brain understands that rping a god character isn't fun. we don't need to force people to play peon characters.

[Max Dirks]

I understand your sentiment, Gum, but an incentive system in a freeform system is inherently not freeform. Sure, we could give EXP and GP to completed threads in a separate freeform incentive system, but what would it get you? There are no items to buy because you can already have any item you want. There are no abilities to buy because you can already have any ability you want. The inclusion of AP and GP systems in the freeform RP is about as integrated it can get without sacrificing the freeform nature of the RP because they allow you to receive judgments and buy forum perks. Yes, we could have you gain EXP just to gain EXP to show off, but that seems like a waste of system resources.

[Gum]

Yes, we could have you gain EXP just to gain EXP to show off

that's an excellent counterpoint! and of course total respect goes to the volunteer staff and resource requirements to implement it. but i dare say vanity and the human need to nurture and grow things is important enough to justify the experiment at least? (if possible ofc) it would create a connection between the player and the character they play. even if it is harry potter or darth vader they're playing. i wanna be the highest level sailor moon on all of the internet, right?

[Storm Veritas]

I think it would work well here. We don't have a huge bunch of hacks that would typically scare me off from this type of thing like you may see at an less complex rule-system site. My fear is that people are even LESS likely to finish threads, but there's not much you can do about that.

[hoytti]

Does this mean nexus points and the nexus will be void? I want to be able to use these points like it said, to gain special items for our username and stuff maybe even special backgrounds and such. also a subforum in the new system would be nice as well.

[Mordelain]

We have such a rich and finely crafted IP, why would we pollute site traffic with fan fiction?

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

We have such a rich and finely crafted IP, why would we pollute site traffic with fan fiction?

I'm guessing that if we can pull them in with the freedom to write in the fandom of their choosing, they'll check out our created world while they're here and be enticed to write within it as well.

[Mordelain]

I'm sold on that.

I'm just wary of what the site could descend into based on other examples. I'm sure it'll be a positive move, but as ever, faithfully cautious.

[Gum]

why would we pollute site traffic with fan fiction?

i don't think it matters too much whether we do or don't value what other people do for fun. althanas would really benefit from more inclusive behaviour and less elitist behaviour. my neighbours plant begonias and i don't like them, i like petunias more. but i'd be crazy to be overly concerned with what they plant in their garden to enhance their own happiness. there's no such thing as a mandatory thread on althanas. everybody can have their own garden here.