how long?

[Aiko]

Is there a certain length of time to wait before deciding someone has abandoned an RP? I understand people have lives offline, and not everyone can get on everyday, but I've also been waiting for The Barbarian to come on and post for quite awhile in our citadel thread too. Is there some sort of a general time frame to go by, offically or unoffically?

[The Valkyrie]

Not really any sort of official time frame, it's really up to you --- I generally attempt to pm and im my opponent or teammate and get a general idea of timeframe. If there is no response and/or you don't see them online at all (look down at the bottom of the main forum and you can see if they logged in today), then make your decision. You can always come back to it later if they do come back and choose to continue with you.

[AdventWings]

What she said. :p

Most people here on Althanas take a while to respond to quests or battles should real life problems arise. If you tried PMing him and got no response whatsoever for a long period of time, you could deem the quest "temporarily on hold" in which it would be ideal for you to start a new quest/battle with other people.

A good example would be "Two Nobles and a Tramp" which took five months to complete. That took a long time despite not being exceptionally long because all the involved players had real-life problems in need of immediate attention.

I would say put that on hold and start something while you wait.

[Letho]

On the flip side, if you don't get a definite promise of activity in the near future, you can just write people out. Usually people don't mind if you bunny them a little bit when you write them out of the story. Waiting is good and all, but when that waiting starts to hurt your inspiration to continue with the story, it's time to move on.

[Aiko]

Its a citadel battle and he's my only opponet, if nothing else I might have to scrap it altogether and move on.

[Ataraxis]

Since it's a citadel battle, you could just put it aside and move on to another quest. If Barbarian comes back, he'll pick it up where you left off. If not, then it'll just end up in the Crystal Ball.

[AsukaStrikes]

Was that supposed to be a jab at me, Letho?

I'll get to that quest soon... depends on the weather, still.

But, like what he said. If it's a quest, find a creative way to write him out. If it's a battle, tough luck. Keep it on hold for now and wait until he gets back. The Barbarian should be getting back here any time now.

Yep... Any time now...

[Letho]

Was that supposed to be a jab at me, Letho?Noooo. I would never dare to take a jab at a redhead. It's goes against everything I believe in. :D

[Serilliant]

You could also double-post and come up with an ending to the thread, bunnying him if necessary (inactive opponents is the only time we allow unapproved bunnying) and submit it for judgement. Your score and rewards will be lower than usual if the thread itself is really short, but at least you'll get something out of it.

[Wraith]

Don't go inactive on Letho. He'll kill you.

[Skie and Avery]

He'll kill you if he's male. He's waited quite patiently for me several times. It's the boobs. Gotta love 'em.

[Aiko]

Well, it's been over a week and nothing. No appearences online, nothing. I want to just delete the entire thread. I'll do something else.

[Letho]

The Barbarian is also Sword-for-hire and Death's Nephew here, so you might want to try contacting him on those accounts as well.

[Aiko]

Ahh, see, I didn't know that. I will indeed try that.

[Karuka]

And seriously, not everyone is an online junkie. He MIGHT be in the middle of something, and of course Althanas falls to the wayside during such times.

A single week is nothing. If it's been a month and a half, then, oh well, I guess it's a dead thread.

in the meantime, you're free to do whatever else you want.

[AsukaStrikes]

I think the normal waiting-to-die timeframe for most quests is... two months.

Even still, there are 20-posts quests that took half a year to complete. Took a while, but still completed by everyone involved. That's some dedication to the storyline right there.

[Letho]

Yeah, but we're not all the same. Some people can wait a month and not lose their interest in the story, and others can't. And threads differ too. Some are led by the spur of the moment which waiting effectively kills. So I think that the standard for these things changes on person-to-person and thread-to-thread basis. Frankly, if I sent out a PM or something to my questing companion and didn't get a definite answer within a week or two, I'd move on to other things.