first off, what breed of rp? forum, tabletop, video game, in person, online, boardgame improv, premade distributable character sheets, make your own character sheet a game within of one of the pre established big roleplay games, such as dnd, pathfinder, fate core, cthulu, blades in the dark, or freelance kickstarter
o! Thank you so much, I needed someone like you! 1. it's a forum rp game 2. online 3. Anyone can make up their own character sheet and play, it's rather relaxed and inclusive 4. it's a freelance made-up sort of mix
alright. sounds like you have too much freedom freedom in gameplay is nice, but too much intimidates people. looks like you need to apply more structure. Make it very easy for what they need to do to fill in the blank on the character sheet, and have the character sheets correspond to each other some way. I would suggest looking up big roleplay games for reference on what character sheet looks like (free pdf for fate core character sheet, and the whole damn system [28 pages i think, lots of jokes on how short this one is]). Do your research on Wizards of the Coast, Evil hats productions, and other big rpg companies that playtest the actual science of good roleplaying games, good enough to pay money for. For the fate core character sheet, id recommend dropping all the skills and just having the high aspect, a trouble, and a few other defining aspects along with the stressors. And studying the rulebook. Additionally, i think nuffians would enjoy the activity of taking turns to create a backstory for their characters that intersect with each other, reference the rulebook, so that their characters all know each other and have reasons and bonds to do things and adventure together. also the fact that its on a forum where people have to actively access it would be an obstacle, and then wade thru way too much text to find where they are and whats happened since they were gone... for example, if i was running this game, i would have events go for a week and limit entry to like 5 dedicated players (interested and willing to check in) and make gameplay exclusive to those 5. And they each get ~5-10 posts to make that week, and arent allowed to reply to themself. that way, its less likely that someone is going to leave the game since they dont wanna wade thru 20 forum pages of 20posts each where they cant interact. Each week, make a unique event the players can build off of in easily predictef ways, or in total freeform, consult with players for their preference. Thats all i got. Also go play ttrpg they are very fun
The only system I'm used to for Forum Roleplays is the Adventurer's Guild system... Which is a very relaxed free-form writing based roleplay that lets people do almost anything they want while they write how they solve quests. Basically the only limitations are some power level limitations for the sake of not having god-like beings in the game. So uhn... If I were to try giving you any advice on how to make your game, I'd probably just push you towards an AG-like system because it's the system I know of and that I'm used to for forum roleplays. My suggestion instead, is to search around for online roleplays (there are tons of other roleplays out there, even if not on NUF) and join them. Try playing other online roleplays and get a feel of how they work... Then base yourself on your experience on those games to try making your own~
So, role play. The monster farm is quite engaging, the "Feed babies or else they will die" motivates people a lot. Reminds me of Animal Crossing. So, a fun RP would be one which has an active GM, a GM which does stuff like giving out roles. Basically GM does all the luck based stuff. Keep a table in check, with levels and skills? People really love big numbers. Happy gaming,
It best to make it simple, too complicated rule will turn away a lot of people. Also having an active GM is a must. It's always good to try to seek helper for your game. That way, there's someone to take care of things when you are not available. While no longer active, the most successful RP in this forum to date is the Adventure Guild RP. You can stole *cough* "borrow" some ideas from there as well.
One thing you got to figure out is how to handle when a player goes off tangent, like someone has a really strange idea that combat is something like Rambo and you can shoot down helicopters with exploding arrows or that you can jump on an MBT and ride it into combat or even funnier, dump your main quest unless the questgiver ups his already significant reward. It's really very difficult to get everyone on the same page and sometimes players that don't understand things can take really "off" actions and it's very variable on how you can handle these kind of things. One thing you cannot do is simply start yelling at them that "that is stupid! or "that is impossible!" because RP relies heavily on imagination and in their imagination, they can do that. One way to manage it is to have a "military structure" with a commander played by the GM so the players can't simply AWOL and do their own thing (like dumping the main quest... sometimes. Going off the reservation can be fun once in a while) and the "Platoon Commander" can be used to chive the players along the quest, like "FOLLOW ME!!" or "GET IN THERE GUYS!!", then let the players do their own thing. All in all, you need some patience and experience to do things like GMing. Never post when angry. Seriously.