Need help creating RPs

[wh40kforum]

Forum URL: warhammer40000.freeforums.net

I only just started the forum so if it looks empty, its just because I started it yesterday.
It seems, form looking around on the Proboards support forum, that Role Plays seem popular. Is there anyone willing to give me a few tips with creating Warhammer 40,000 role-plays, or even hoping on board the forum's creation?

[Kami]

I really think you need to read the rules of the forum, man. If you wanna start something as involved as an RP you need to lead by example. Looking for staff / recruiting for your site is not allowed outside of the advertising board.

Secondly, WHY do you want to make an RP forum / add RPs to your forum? Are you even interested in RP or are you just looking to be popular? RPs are hard work, even more so than any other genre of forum. I have laboured (out of love) on an RP forum for twelve years now, have lost sleep over it, have stressed out over it... but I am passionate about writing and weaving stories with other players.

If you're going into this with half baked ideas about popularity and hoping other people will help you "set it up" then I don't think you should run one. I don't intend this to be rude but like... if you don't even have a basic idea of what story you want to tell then what is the point of any advice we can give?

[» Poe the Villain]

Nov 10, 2016 7:17:00 GMT -8 wh40kforum said:

It seems, form looking around on the Proboards support forum, that Role Plays seem popular.

Sure, roleplays are very popular around here, and some of the most successful proboards have been roleplays. However, that does not mean that it is for everyone. For each successful roleplay they are at least 10 that didn't get off of the ground. For those that get off the ground, the first 4 months are the most important, as I'd say half of RPs close within the first four months of their life. The reason for this, is that roleplays are not easy to run in the slightest. I have been a member, moderator, and administrator several times, and let me tell you, it is a labor of love. Between the endless advertising to get members, the trolls that will likely crop up from the advertising, people disappearing mid RP thread, and the dreaded dramatic members, it's hard. Each forum comes with their own set of difficulties, but due to the popularity of roleplay forums, the difficulties are mighty.

Nov 11, 2016 7:47:28 GMT -8 Kami said:

I have laboured (out of love) on an RP forum for twelve years now, have lost sleep over it, have stressed out over it... but I am passionate about writing and weaving stories with other players.

This ^

Roleplays are most successful when the person running them has a passion for what they are doing. If you go into RP creation with the idea that your forum is going to be popular because it is an rp, you're going to be sadly mistaken. Like Kami said, I don't want to be harsh towards you, but I really don't think that you have thought this whole thing through.

[wh40kforum]

No, nothing wrong with what you said guys. Judging from what you have said, RPs are not going to be my thing. I was originally hoping to use it as a supplement to my forum, but that probably won't happen.

Thanks for the reality check!

[Kami]

Nov 11, 2016 11:11:39 GMT -8 wh40kforum said:

No, nothing wrong with what you said guys. Judging from what you have said, RPs are not going to be my thing. I was originally hoping to use it as a supplement to my forum, but that probably won't happen.

Thanks for the reality check!

You're welcome! For whatever it is worth (more food for thought) here is another post I wrote for someone else on this very subject:

Jul 9, 2016 10:39:33 GMT -8 Kami said:

Roleplay forums are HARD WORK. Incredibly hard work.

I was an admin on a very popular RP forum for nearly a decade. My daily jobs were as follows:

- greet new members
- remove inactive members
- review character applications (a process that could take hours, if not days, sometimes weeks depending on the situation for even ONE)
- update staff records about application statuses
- basic daily moderation
- answering guests & member questions
- daily advertising
- review any member disputes and reports of misbehaviour
- reviewing member suggestions / complaints
- review the RP training for those who wanted to practice their skills
- dealing with belligerent members and ex members (yes this was a DAILY thing, it's part of the price of popularity)

This, even in our slowest times, took at least three hours on average. In our busier times with literally hundreds of members and dozens of new applicants a day, and literally thousands of guests per day, could take me all day.

My other tasks that weren't daily, but still had to be done:

- forum design & technical troubleshooting (I was the designer and coder for my forum)
- adjusting the roleplay timeline after conferring with other staff to see what the players needed and what the site needed to move forward and adjusting for the best solution between the two
- adding new content (special events, new boards, implementing member suggestions)
- addressing topics our moderators couldn't handle / didn't have the clearance to address
- keep all our moderators up to date on policies and events

Depending on the situation these added at least another hour to my admin tasks, but usually another 2-3 hours.

In our busiest time (between 2006 - 2009) the head admin and I literally had to set up conference calls on a weekly basis with our other core staff members so we had a real time way to discuss what needed to be done with the site and how to accommodate our growing member base. At one point we had about twenty staff members, five of them admins and gmods (core staff, an odd number to break any tied votes about decisions), the rest board mods (branch staff), just to be able to handle all of our responsibilities.

I haven't even thrown accommodations for work and school into the mix.

If you've made it this far, have you noticed that role playing is not on the list of tasks I did daily? That's because I was literally unable to roleplay on the average day because I was too busy admining. I wrote replies on average maybe once a week, usually less when I was working because site upkeep took precedence over the RP otherwise the site would cease functioning smoothly.

Add RP into the mix and that's another 2-3 hours at least depending on how many plots I had active at the time.

This lasted for nearly ten years. We closed our doors about two month short of our eighth anniversary because the staff collectively could no longer keep up with the demands on their time. To illustrate just how long of a time to keep this up was: one of our staff members started when he was a sophomore in high school; by the time we closed, he had graduated college. I had finished what I could of college, gotten married, divorced, and had two children. Another staff member got married, finished nursing school and became an RN. One of our longest staying members graduated college and they joined in middle school.

I'm currently in the process of starting a new roleplay. The setup work on it alone has taken me literally six years -- I started setting it up in 2010 and have not made it live because I'm constantly readjusting the way the site runs to accomodate for new information released by the franchise my game is based off of. I anticipate many more months of coding (waiting for v6), and at least a year of advertising daily to even drum up a fraction of the activity the other site had.

Starting a roleplay forum is not something you should do unless you are willing to put in the time and commitment, especially if your goal is to get ~popular~ (which, to point out, is a terrible reason to start an RP forum). RP forums should be a labour of love, and if you aren't willing to commit to long and arduous hours of work then don't start one. It's not enough to have a cool idea or think it's neat, if you're not prepared for the work then it's pointless. That's why you see sites closing for "inactivity" or admins changing their minds after a few weeks or months.

You're in it for the long haul, or you'll fail. Wondering if you'll RP by yourself or if it's "worth it" before you even start tells me your heart isn't really in it. Lukewarm sentiment will get you absolutely nowhere -- it shouldn't matter if people would even join, you should make the site because you love the topic and want passionately to RP it.

RP forums only succeed if you decide before you start that you want it even if it doesn't explode into popularity but are fully prepared for the hours upon hours upon hours of work if it does.

Edit to add: just to note, people are more likely to join an RP if they feel the admin and staff are passionate and just as into the story as they are. Find something you adore and build an RP off of that if you really want to do this, rather than asking if people will join x topic. I've been a member of fandom long enough to know that if you build it they will come.

[wh40kforum]

No RPs for me then.....
Just saying, why would it take days or weeks to make character profiles?

[Kami]

Nov 11, 2016 11:56:28 GMT -8 wh40kforum said:

No RPs for me then.....
Just saying, why would it take days or weeks to make character profiles?

It varies by forums but as you can imagine not everyone fully reads rules or plot information, and very frequently will need to adjust their profiles to fit the forum. Some people also recycle characters, like if they're involved in multiple Harry Potter RPs they may use the same character on each site and forget to adjust information to fit the forum.

Still others try to adapt characters from other genre / fandom RPs into a new one, like a Naruto OC being adapted for a Bleach a game and forget to adjust.

And on top of that there's concerns about power levels for characters who fight, backstories that would shift the forum's balance of power unfairly to one player, and so on and so forth.

Couple all of THAT on to members having to be reminded repeatedly, not responding right away, or being belligerent, and any one profile has the potential of taking a few weeks to complete.

Some members are on the ball, but a vast majority of submissions will need editing in one way or another.

[wh40kforum]

Not my line of work then

[Kami]

Nov 11, 2016 12:14:27 GMT -8 wh40kforum said:

Not my line of work then :)

Haha, it's definitely not for everyone. You have to be passionate about your RP or you'll just burn out entirely.

[wh40kforum]

Just saying, if there is anyone who is really passionate about a WH40K forums, I will be glad to host you