[Interest Check] Two RPs, with a new twist.

[Chevaleresse]

Alright, first question is pretty simple. My first check had a decent amount of interest but the second only got one reply. This is the last call for a Destiny RP. I don't expect you to know the series, and I will be revealing information through the story rather than in a big info dump.

The second is a bit more complicated. Basically, I had an idea. What if we wrote a universe to fit characters into rather than the other way around? To make it better, no one gets to coordinate characters (initially, at least.) All the participants (I'm thinking 8ish, leaning lower) would write whatever character they felt like (avoiding franchise-specific stuff), PM them to me, and then I'd rough out a plan for the world (and plot, but that'll stay mostly private unless someone else wants to host.) We'd work together, refining the world and characters, and proceed from there.

EDIT (2): Please don't vote without commenting.

[Damiano]

Well I've never been in an RP but I see you've got a "I'd like to see it happen but do not want to participate." option so I guess this applies to me. As for the Destiny RP (this all heresay as I have never played) from what I've read Destiny can get rather repetitive with a less than fleshed out story. If you're confident you can turn it into something more, then I might read it but adding to an existing world can be a bit tough and often messy. (For example the Dark Souls to Dark Souls 2 argument) For now I'll say Neutral/Other

As for the other Yes. Seeing you guys world build in these RPs is probably my favorite part of reading them. I do like making characters and perhaps it could be my first attempt at joining. And even if I don't join, chances are I'd be reading it.

[Chevaleresse]

The Destiny RP wouldn't strictly stick to the games. It's going to be closer to the originally planned story for Destiny, which was, well, not absolute crap, with my own spin on it.

[Commander]

I can't say I'd be too interested into the Destiny RP as I've never played the games. Saying that, that also means I wouldn't be against the idea as it seems to be a pretty popular game lately (maybe it's declining...never really kept up). Maybe if you fleshed out a bit more detail in the second topic people would've commented a bit more. Things can change over time.

As for your second idea, I'm very intrigued by the idea, but there are also alarms telling me this could easily end in disaster. IMO Worldbuilding and especially plot takes a long time to do. If you have people signed up, it probably won't be too long before people lose interests or forget about it, especially with such a low number to start with. I do feel a bit hypocritical saying that because I only spent about a month working on the plot of my own RP, when I typically feel 3-4 months should be a minimum. To make up for this, I'm constantly working on fleshing out the plot more and more, but leaving areas to fill once I get some feedback. I'd really need to see how this is developed before I would even consider joining. Sorry if I sound harsh, I just want to make sure you know what you might be getting yourself into.

Edit: I just wanted to say I fully agree with what everything Huk said.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Keep in mind that I believe building a world around characters is a stupidly hard task. Not to mention characters that could end up being vastly different and range from all sorts of archetypes etc...

While it is a nice Idea, it is suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper unrealistic and will probably die super quickly due to the fact that the world needs to be built -AFTER- People make their characters. Players would want to jump right into the world, not make their character than wait a long time while the world is built up. While you say they will build the world with you... most players aren't here to build worlds, otherwise, they probably would be hosting their own of some sort. World Building is a hard practice as it is without strange curveballs thrown at you, and without having people waiting on you to do it/ or doing it with you. I don't see this ever surviving as it is much to ambitious of a project. Every single person involved would have to be devoted to it and I simply think it asks too much of you, the people playing, and any other host if they take over the project. It is like getting people to make characters for a world that deosn't exist, then throwing all of them together, trying to figure out how all those things exist in the same world, etc etc before even getting to the actual World Building. I just don't see it working ever.

[Kurotsune]

I'll get the first one out of the way quickly; I've no interest in the Destiny RP.

Now the second one... I usually try to go in a certain middle ground about that. I create the basic setting of the RP and the mainland where the RP will be settled in, and let players populate the world in their own choosing afterwards, and often will take the lore they created and incorporate it within the main story, though usually in ways not really noticeable at first.

If I'm to be honest, though, the two main reasons I do this is because that way I can add their lore to the setting after the game has started, and I'm confident enough in my ability to do so without ruining the storyline.

Allowing the players to fully create the world, however, is the kind of idea that surfaces every now and then but invariably has the same result; People will lose interest quickly since usually the few good pieces of writing will be outweighted by the subpar material and create a mediocre plot. At the end of the day, it just won't work out.

That's why when I want to try something new I create game mechanics which I think will be interesting. Creating ways to take the roleplaying out of the forum is not only an interesting way to get people out of their comfort zones, it also contributes to an overall more enveloping experience, as well as letting you have a deeper control of the story by keeping certain interactions hidden so they can be used in a later reveal for a plot twist or simply dramatic effect.

In conclusion, I've tried working with five excellent roleplayers to create a world at one point and that failed marvelously, simply because the more authors you add to the mix, the more conflicting opinions you have. Each person will have their own view of how the world should work and those will eventually collide. As said before, worldbuilding is a difficult task on it's own. There are no reasons to add more difficulty to it.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

It is a simple "To many Cooks spoil the Stew" situation. Well it may seem like "Oh, 5 is much better than 1!!!" it isn't the case at all. However, as Kuro has already in-depth explained it much better than I did, I shall leave it there.

[Commander]

The closest I've ever seen something like that succeed was a group novel-based writing project I joined a long time ago. Pretty much I took control of laying out a sound structure for the other people to work off of because most of them kind of wanted to improvise. Everything I designed kept things rather smooth, but once we got outside of my notes, this thing slowly began to spiral down into a mess and two members quit half way through. The sad part was the concept was really, really good.

[Yash]

Yes to the destiny RP. Already shown interest for it before.

The second RP is something completely new to me. (then again I know very little about RPing) It seems something I don't mind trying. Also if I understood what you said clearly, I think you are going to create a world based on the characters. The main issue I see here is that the characters would be extremely diverse, making the task of world building really difficult.

[K_H]

I'm all for both of them; the Roleplaying section really needs some livening-up.

[RubyHeart]

It would be nice to see a Destiny RP

but I'm just meh about it for now.

As for making a world to fit characters. It sound interesting but I might not join, though it would be fun to read along too.

[Sutoratosu]

I'm not really interested in a destiny RP at the moment.

AS for the second idea, I'm a bit on the fence about it- Commander and Hukuna and Kurostune have all made extremely good points with the major issues that would come about with it, and I more or less agree with them. Like hukuna said, It's just too much work spread out over too many minds- and each mind is gonna have their own way of coping with the load and this will almost definitely cause problems as these differing methods are attempted to be synchronized and mediated into something coherrant and doable that leaves all parties satisfied with the end results.

but at the same time, there's also what Kurostone said about walking the middle ground for it and creating the basic framework of the world and incorporating certain pieces of the lore made by players into it...

Basically, in the way you're thinking about doing it right now, with completely leaving the majority of it up to player influence, I completely agree that it's highly likely to result in an unproductive mess that will frustrate all parties involved due to conflict of interest and opinion in how the world should work, why A works and not B, etc. The only real way I can see the concept ever possibly working is if you were to do something pretty much akin to what Kurostone has described and lay out the basis for the RP's world and whatnot, and then take certain things provided by characters and their backstories and try to build off of those and incorporate them. But like he himself said, this in and of itself can still end up causing problems in some cases...

So yeah, like I said at the beginning, I'm honestly in the gray area with this idea in general, but I honestly strongly disadvise attempting it with as liberal an approach as is outlined in the OP of this thread.

that's just my two cents though... do with them as you will.

[PupSpace]

I like the idea of Destiny, but since I haven't played it and I'm not interested in doing so any time soon, I'd have to say no to that one.

As for characters-create-universe, I love the idea and would love to participate, and I agree on lower numbers of characters just to help create a malleable world. Like the above comments, I feel like the world would have to be created by one from many, but how to ensure each character is represented right would be a problem. Perhaps a world based on the link between the characters and each comes from a different location on the world or something? I can't think of a way I'd personally work it out.

[Chevaleresse]

We could do a few phases of revision. Basically, the initial draft of the characters begets an initial draft of the world. Characters are refined and rewritten and we do a bit more fleshing out of the world. Repeat that a couple times, and then go. We could even introduce characters gradually: start with a "seed" of one or two characters, and gradually add more in with each revision.

[Commander]

My biggest fear is that something like this will require too much communication. The Ymora Coordinator show fiasco pretty much happened because of communication problems. We had a storyboard and even descriptions of each Pokemon's role, but because we were not cooperating well, things went into a confusing mess before the stall.