Brainstorming Ideas For RP - Help Wanted.

[Parasect]

Hey, everyone. As you may or may not know, I'm a relatively new member to this forums, and I mentioned once, that I'd like to roleplay on here. I'm making this post in the hopes of plotting and collaborating with other writers/roleplayers on here, because most of my ideas for a roleplay, are incomplete, or may not work at all. Hopefully, by collaborating with other roleplayers, we can all come up with a premise for a roleplay to make, together. I'm mostly interested in just sticking to the Pokemon universe, but I'd be open to the idea of another universe, entirely, or even a crossover. Please let me know what your ideas are, so that we can come up with something, together. My inbox is always open, and I'll be checking here, regularly. I'm looking forward to meeting some great people here.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

One where my character can be a wizard with lots of different spells would be rad.

 

[Parasect]

That would be pretty interesting. Like, a Hogwarts roleplay? Or maybe something that's in a fantasy universe, sort of like where an RPG would be set?

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

A fireball spell and a lightning spell and a water elemental summoning spell and the most powerful spell which is Finger of Death.

 

[Parasect]

Spells in a roleplay, would be interesting, though wouldn't that sort of eliminate the need for Pokemon?

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

What's a Pokemon?

 

[Prez]

@Heroic Sociopath; please stop. It's incredibly annoying whenever you do this.

@Parasect; First of all, hey! Welcome to the forums! It'd be totally okay for you to run a roleplay without Pokemon in it. Though, it still might be possible to combine both Pokemon and magic. Maybe make it less modern so that there are no real trainers yet? It'd be neat to have people fight off Pokemon on their own.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

Alright, alright, alright, I'll be serious. I personally would like an RP where I can be a wizard. However, I'm in the minority. Academy and journey RPs are usually very successful. I don't think I've ever seen a journey or academy RP with less than six or so characters. I might be remembering wrong, though. We get a lot of them, and they're more or less always popular unless the GM royally fucks up. Even then they tend to do well. I don't see many gajinka RPs, which is odd, because they also tend to do well.

Ah, what do you mean by your ideas being incomplete or not working, though?

 

[Parasect]

@Prez - Thanks for the warm welcome. I do like the idea of a roleplay that doesn't take place in a modern world. To be honest, I've always been interested in the idea of a Pokemon Conquest one, but that might not work so well.

@Heroic Sociopath - Yeah, I noticed a lot of those on the sign-ups, and genuinely did consider making one, but I didn't want to just rip off of someone else's concept. I wanted to do something different. What I mean is that, my plot ideas are like puzzle pieces. I have little ideas and plots that sound really cool in my head, but I'm not so sure how they would actually work in an actual roleplay. Also, I haven't been able to expand on these ideas, as much as I'd like to.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

It's not really ripping off of someone else's concept. Most people decide to make them independently. After all, it's a bit of a no-brained, innit? Journey RPs are just the plot of the games, but with RP characters. Academy RPs, well, why wouldn't there be schools for Pokemon trainers?

Perhaps you're overthinking things. Don't worry if your RP isn't very good. Sturgeon's Law, bro.

 

[Parasect]

Yeah, but it's not exactly original, either. I guess, it would depend on the sort of journey or academy roleplay. Thanks. If you'd like, I can share one of the ideas, that I've thought up, so far. I'm not entirely confident about this idea, though.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

Originality is less important than you might think. In a normal work of fiction, it's important. But if you're the GM of an RP, players will usually make it different on their own.

 

[lovandra]

GM of RP just need to make the 'world', imo. Not the story.

Story mostly are RPers job ;p.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

Exactly. But the world should still have things that happen. Like the big bad evil guy should conquer cities, the evil team should do bad things.

That said, an important part of good GMing is figuring out what players want to do or happen and making the game around that. Like if you're running a journey RP, and players are doing things like pulling guns on bad guys instead of battling, maybe make the RP focus more on fights between humans than Pokemon. If one player in a fantasy RP is playing a necromancer, have the players go on a quest to raid the library of a dreaded arch lich.

It takes a bit of practice at first. It's easiest when players just say what they want, but in practice that's pretty rare. Even when asked, a lot of them are evasive. So just be on the lookout for hints. That's why a lot of GMs ask for a history in player's bios.

After you figure out what players want, you need to make it more interesting. Make them fight a bad guy to get it. Or it's hidden. I call it the "Yes, but..." Method. Like, let's say my good buddy @PyroPokeman was in an RP I was running.

Pyro: Hey, HS, can my character become the king of the vampires?
Me: Yes, but he has to kill the current king of the night creatures.

Boom! Instant plot right there.

 

[Parasect]

Thanks. I guess I'll have to keep those tips in mind, and look out for hints. I also really like your "Yes, but..." idea. It's an interesting idea. So, I guess the first thing we should agree on is what kind of RP, we want this to be. If we want it to be a standard, journey, fantasy or something else, entirely. I'd personally prefer for it to take place in the Pokemon universe, but I'd be open to creating an original universe, or maybe doing a universe, from another series.

 

[Lyrebird]

I feel that the best RPs are those that are simple, easy to follow, the ability to let people build and just an element of fun. Simple is sometimes the best because people can follow and work with you. You just have to make it accessible.

 

[Parasect]

Yeah, I agree with that. Over-complicating it will only cause issues.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

@Parasect, I reckon the thing most likely to get in the way of you starting a good RP is you asking everyone how to make a good RP instead of actually making one XD

 

[Destructive Idiot]

@Parasect: I've thought of making a Mystery Dungeon-styled RP that occurs in and around one of the cities of the main series games. I also tried to start a gijinka-themed RP a couple of years ago, but it didn't get far (probably owing to a Mr.-Overpowered-Generic-Sadistic-Horror-Villain). I thought I might want to start it off again in a different region with a better opening, but I never got that idea completely fleshed out. You might want to make an RP in the vein of that.

 

[Parasect]

@Heroic Sociopath - I mentioned in my opening post, that I wanted to discuss potential roleplay ideas, with others, and share opinions. I don't want to rush into making a roleplay that nobody is going to end up joining. I mean, I want to hear your ideas, and your thoughts, and what sort of roleplay would interest you.

@Truly Deceptive - A PMD RP would be a good start. They're pretty common, and equally popular around here.