by ToxicZombieCake on Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:51 pm
Hey guys!
So, I figured I'd throw in my two cents:
Drow Love characters versus Non-Drow Love characters:
- Personally, I love all the characters in Drow Love. I think they're a lot of fun to read and I like their designs. As far as the "Star of the show" thing is concerned, I personally wouldn't mind it too much as long as everyone in the RP simply ignored the idea of "star of the show" concept and the Drow Love characters were simply treated as another element of the story, just like everyone's new character.
- The benefit to writing new characters in the Drow Love scene, however, is that it guarantees that everyone starts out on the same "playing field" if there is such a thing. It would be fun to develop new personalities that fit within the context of an already constructed world, and it opens up a different angle of creativity for not only fans of the story but the authors as well. It could, essentially, help expand upon what Drow Love already has going for it.
- Regardless of what direction everyone ultimately swings, I wouldn't be concerned about the issue of having fun. Everyone here obviously likes forum RPing and Drow Love already, and so getting to write with a new group that's enthusiastic about their work is always a blast.
Time line:
- If we'd like to write using the cannon Drow Love characters, my vote is with an "alternate time line" idea, but in the strict sense of everyone being exactly the same. What I would suggest is a "freeze frame" moment (I've done this with my own DnD campaign characters and it's worked out splendidly)- take everyone's relationship status and history and freeze it in time. Then write using that knowledge. Generally the story will develop on its own, the characters will shift on their own, and it should flow pretty naturally.
If you wanted to have something that still felt like it was distinctly in the Drow Love storyline, what we could do is "disband" the group right now. There is a perfect opportunity in the story right now that we could do this, so essentially the opening of the Rp, we all walk in with the knowledge of "The last time the characters were in a group, they were ambushed by gargoyles and were forced to scatter. Being in a large forest area, they couldn't find each other again/didn't want to, and they haven't seen each other since." Fill in a little bit of individual back stories, and voila! You open the RP with "They didn't ever expect to see each other again, except one day...." etc.
- If we don't want to write using the Drow Love main characters, then what I propose is something totally awesome. I've been in a GREAT campaign with Bob as my DM (three years running, oshitya), and what we have is two different parties within the same campaign. They don't often directly interact with each other (they have crossed paths occasionally, but they don't adventure together) but what one party does affects what happens with the story of the other party. This can be directly related to the central plot line (for example, one party has a ring of three wishes that the other party desires so they may defeat a demon-lord) or it can be entirely peripheral (One party leaves behind three giant lizard mounts that the other party happens across and takes for their own.) This kind of direct/in-direct interaction with the "primary group" is really super fun because it leads to a lot of hand-over-mouth snickers that are extremely enjoyable to those who are involved. It's a great "wink at the audience" type thing that would be super fun to indulge in.
Plot:
Here's my proposal for plot. No matter what kind of characters we decide to write, I think we should start off entirely scenario based, even if it means going with the classic, overdone "so your character is in an inn. What do you do?" Basically, open with a character in a situation, allow it to be open enough for others to step in, even if it's a little random. That way, we can throw everyone's character into a space and see who we're working with and what the dynamics are going to look like. THEN, after we've determined some of those basics, we can start talking "plot". Often times, one or more of the characters will have some kind of goal or direction built into their design, and that'll be a great way to get the ball rolling.
As far as setting is concerned, I would either like to play with the port town (because that place has a lot of opportunities for vastly different character types, which it looks like people are leaning in that direction) or I would like to open with one of the large forested areas (because that opens up the possibility of being lost, being in danger, stumbling across a "dungeon" and monsters, etc.) How this may or may not be directly related to the Drow Love story is entirely up to you.
FIN
Oh, by the way- If you couldn't tell, I'm so totally in on this. ~_^
. BUT I know that Redux thread is really one of the most painful threads for me to post in for some reason, so there is a chance that that's going to be the same situation with this? I feel like this problem might be somewhat abated by not forcing the whole thing into a definite point in time. (I'm not really a fan of such specifics anyway 
)
There's even a little bit of time where people were off camera and could potentially be approached by NPCs, if it was done properly.
