ADMIN: What Should the Comm Be?

[not_in_the_book]

This is the conversation that I had with Nuance about the comm:


[Edited slightly for brevity and clarity]

(03:42:25 PM) intheafterlight: (... I may have created the comm "rp_sandbox" today, at DW.)
(03:43:36 PM) booksomewench: oOOOOH
(03:43:44 PM) intheafterlight: Just. For the record.
(03:43:51 PM) intheafterlight: Figure I'll set it up kinda like mixed_muses.
(03:43:58 PM) booksomewench: Putting that out there. La
(03:44:02 PM) intheafterlight: heeee.
(03:44:23 PM) intheafterlight: So, like, each post has only as much continuity to prior posts as you want when you put it up?
(03:44:34 PM) booksomewench: *nodnod*
[...]
(03:45:56 PM) intheafterlight: So I'm hoping the sandbox becomes a little more... Like, you guys could use it for Doosh posts, if you wanted, and I might try to snag some canon-mates for Ronan to run a plotline there, and things can cross over as much or as little as anyone /wants/, etc.
(03:46:10 PM) booksomewench: *nodnod*
(03:46:34 PM) booksomewench: I know Shannon and I still wanna run some Kaeleer stuff, too, but...yeah. That would be fun!
(03:46:38 PM) ***intheafterlight nods!
(03:47:12 PM) intheafterlight: I think the one biggest difference between this and m_m is that I'm picturing this more as, 'a place for friends to do all their RPing' rather than 'open to anyone for sandboxing'?
(03:47:26 PM) booksomewench: YES
(03:47:29 PM) booksomewench: THIS
(03:47:31 PM) booksomewench: PLEASE.
(03:48:06 PM) intheafterlight: So if you guys wanted to do your Kaeleer posts there, too, and it's just a place for us all to read each other's posts (and play where we're invited to -- I wouldn't want to join in on the Kaeleer stuff, for example, unless you guys brought me in).
(03:48:39 PM) booksomewench: Yeah. Oooh, I REALLY like this idea.
(03:48:45 PM) intheafterlight: But, like, we could throw up open posts, too, for anyone to tag into...
(03:49:31 PM) intheafterlight: ... I'm kinda picturing throwing a Ronan post up, for example, with him in college and going, "So who's at the college with him? WHO IS HIS ROOMMATE? Someone tag in and torture him with a hilariously inappropriate roommate."


So. Thoughts? Comments, queries, threats, bribes, abuse?

Comments

[wwiii]

Like I mentioned over in AIM, I'm curious to see how long plots would run. Things like Karla and Warren in Kaeleer, for example- We have some huge stuff planned for them that might end up sprawling out over the span of weeks, months, years. Would we be looking to keep that in our own journals, or would this sort of place be open to that?

I'm asking mostly because I don't really have experience with sandboxes, though my general impression seems to be that they're there for occasional noodling around, minimal continuity stuff? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I honestly have no idea. :)

[not_in_the_book]

In my head, this would totally be open to much longer stuff. I think you're right about most sandboxes being that way, but in my head, with this, it's as much a place for the occasional noodling around post (that might, in some cases, spawn something larger) as it is a place for each of those involved to keep track of the stories that we're all telling?

So, in my head right now, what I'm thinking is that, like, Karla and Warren in Kaeleer would fit in the comm (with all its prior continuity) alongside a post of mine with a new character in a new setting for everyone to join in on or not, as they desire. (Like, say, throwing Sarah, from Labyrinth, onto a deserted island, open for whoever else wants to ping in with a character on the island and freeforming where the story goes.)

Sandbox may end up not being the most accurate term for it, I guess, so much as a central place for a group of friends who RP to do their RPing, in whichever combinations and permutations are called for with a given plot (or lack thereof).

... I feel like I may have gotten a little too verbose here.

[wwiii]

Hey now. Verbosity is awesome.

So in something like this, it would be okay for people to mix-and-match to their hearts' content? Like, I could take Jono, with all his FH continuity, and throw him onto that desert island, where there might also be someone from a completely different game, and some original characters, and so on? And then if he keeps that continuity for future posts, that would be totally up to me? At the discretion of the people in the threads? Something something?

[not_in_the_book]

Pretty much exactly that, yes!

[wwiii]

... I am kind of in love with that. Shiny messy free-for-all. If things break a character in a thread, I wouldn't have to worry about the scramble to keep the repercussions from hurting that character's interactions for years to come, like I do with fixed-continuity games.

I could be less of a psycho if I decide to play someone like Zack again. :D

[not_in_the_book]

Yiiiis. :D

mixed_muses is similar, but they run into a couple of problems by virtue of having a more-or-less fixed setting at this point (99% of the posts are set in the Milliways bar) and a solid but sprawling player-base, making it harder to ignore specific threads, that kind of thing. Keeping this smaller, with a specific group of friends, means it's easy to snag someone and go, "I need to ignore that thread we did because it screws up other stuff for my character."

If that makes sense?

[wwiii]

Makes sense enough for me. Then there might also be the possibility of divergent timelines? Falling down the other leg of the trousers of time, so to speak. In case that bit of messiness WAS something that we wanted to poke at, but still go on with the planned future in other posts?

[not_in_the_book]

Ooooh, yes, I hadn't even thought of that approach, but it would totally work.

... And now I am picturing you guys running, like, three different Kaeleer futures at once. And a fourth where Karla and Warren go to college together on Earth.

[not_in_the_book]

And, actually, I think maybe a better term than 'sandbox' might be 'fluid-continuity.' Is a better description, I think?

[booksomewench]

I was thinking that maybe we could keep plotty/personal stuffs in our own journals, with links in this comm so people could follow. But this way, we could have The Saddest Kidlet Thread Ever, post it here for the BUCKETS OF TEARS, and then also have a post where Karla meets Doosh in college in this comm, and run the two simultaneously.

Does that make sense? *Asks blearily through the haze of cold meds.*

[wwiii]

So it would be kosher to just make posts over here with links to our personal journals? While still posting the less epic stuff here for madcap shenanigans, sort of?

[not_in_the_book]

Yeah, that would totally work.

I don't think there's anything to say you couldn't actually play the epic stuff here, too -- that's what tags and notes in the subject line, etc etc, could be for, right? ;) But playing elsewhere and linking here, so other people can keep track of the plotlines, totally works, too.

[fratboydooshbag]

I'm thinking things that are essentially locked to specific people should be posted in their own DWs? Just because it'd be rude to be like, "HERE IS A NIFTY POST THAT YOU CAN'T PLAY IN. AGAIN."

[wwiii]

*nodnod* Especially for our ongoing stuff in Kaeleer. "AND NOW WE WILL DO THIS EPIC THING. THAT YOU HAVE TO STARE AT ON YOUR FLIST WHETHER YOU CAN TOUCH IT OR NOT. FOR YEARS TO COME."

[not_in_the_book]

HEE. Well. That's fair. ;)