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Sounds kind of like the idea I was working on with the House systems - @Wintermoot I still need access to various posts/need them moved out of a restricted area so I can double check what I'd already posted and what still required transferring to the forums

Aura Hyperia struggled with RPs.  Its main RP, which was incredibly active at one point, had died off not long before I got there.  Right in the middle of the action, too, so I never got to find out how things turned out. 

Mara tried starting a new, point-based RP a couple months after I arrived.  The Imperial Council (which I was not yet a part of) wanted to incorporate a payment system to be at the core of the RP, where doing work in the region translated to RP advancements.  However, the system was complicated, hard to organize, and tended to favor certain members.  For example, my Inquisitor's salary gave me 70 credits a week, with an additional 15 for every case I closed; that's not including my Captain's pay in the Hyperian Guard.  In comparison, Taulover's Recruitment Officer's salary was somewhere around 25 credits, while IC members made closer to 100 credits.  Ironically, out of all Imperial Service departments, the RPers Guild had the lowest salary.  Needless to say, this system barely lasted a month before we all were fed up with it; even the people it favored wanted to scrap it.

The third attempt at a regional RP was a combination of the last two, and was quite successful until the region was wrecked.  @Aragonn can tell you all about the fun we were about to have when it ended.  It was very story driven, allowing new members to arise from either of two balanced factions or just start fresh.  Those who arose from a faction could start off larger and more advanced, but had to maintain similarities with their parent faction.  Those starting fresh had to be smaller and less advanced, but had no such cultural restrictions.  The payment system was reimplemented, but the weekly salaries now had a relatively small impact on RP advancement. Most of your civilization's money came from how many sectors of space you controlled, and so encouraged attempts at expansion.  Every time you added a character, you would recieve a set amount of credits, but from then on you had to pay your characters (if they worked for the gov't) from your civilization's coffers; this encouraged individual character development without limiting the number of characters someone could introduce.  This RP was complex without being overcomplicated, and had great potential to be a success.

Various people attempted to start smaller RPs during my time there, but none of them got off the ground. One of them didn't get enough interest, but at least one other had the creator CTE before it got going.  It's a problem that will persist in any region.

@Aragonn can tell you all about the fun we were about to have when it ended.

Oh yes, I remember quite well. We were just getting a major space battle going when the plug got pulled...

I'm still waiting for that response, Colby.

Sounds kind of like the idea I was working on with the House systems - @Wintermoot I still need access to various posts/need them moved out of a restricted area so I can double check what I'd already posted and what still required transferring to the forums

@Weissreich - http://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=1223.0

@Everyone else - So what would it take for Wintreath to establish a main nation-RP that was easy for people to get into?

Sounds kind of like the idea I was working on with the House systems - @Wintermoot I still need access to various posts/need them moved out of a restricted area so I can double check what I'd already posted and what still required transferring to the forums

@Weissreich - http://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=1223.0

@Everyone else - So what would it take for Wintreath to establish a main nation-RP that was easy for people to get into?

Excellent! Now, to make a very brief post on the topic of what I'd begun before my inactivity

Wintermoot made a post about the "Wonderful World of Wintreath", which if I'm reading the OP right would be a region-as-a-nation based role-play where citizens take on the positions of citizens/whatever within Wintreath itself, travelling through the setting to different areas etc and interacting not only with NPCs but other players.

That, roughly, was the idea behind a player-driven roleplay I was putting together that would - had it come together in the way I hoped for - tie in incredibly neatly with the House system. The basic idea behind it is as follows (to save you following that link - text in red is stuff I've added to the post):

In terms of RP potential, my Establishment of Setting will give rise to a House-based RP in which details are still being fleshed out but I've got an innovative system planned. Hopefully, the titles here will add elevation in class terms into the mix and keep things lively - my idea for development of the 'Titled Gentry' idea would be a system by which the head of an RP can choose an honourific by which an individual would be recognised from then-on in that RP for whatever contribution IC they made. The 'Titled Gentry' would come as an addition to the House system's titling, with no benefits beyond the right to the Title itself.

On from there:

What I'm looking at is a tie-in to the House system for this hypothetical RP. The game administrator can grant titles of differing RP significance that also carry over to the House system elsewhere in Wintreath, but serve no other purpose than generating interest and hopefully bringing people into the RP itself. These ranks exist separately from the Noble Titles and the Royal Titles and are just called Gentry Titles or something, and can be announced separately if that prevents confusion.

The value is entirely in the RP and the way it'll hopefully boost cultural activity. We need that more than we need a simple set of rules and this when explained properly isn't overly complicated. By having some kind of motivator in-RP that ties into things like forum accounts and off-site publications (if the idea for the Titles works out) I'm hoping people will be not only more invested in the RP itself but be interested from the moment they join the region.

And finally,

The House RP is going to be a deeply involved system based off of the Establishment of Setting, as many of you know. It's set in a nation called Wintreath, in which most of the cities and locations draw inspiration from either my own head (these are the weird ones), people's NS nations or the O,TPYGIW thread.

Now, the ideas I've got for this are pretty complicated so I'll lay out the basics here. First up, you don't control one character, or a city, or a nation. You roleplay three individuals. Yes, three. The rules for this are simple: your characters can be whoever you want, within reason (so no Kings or Dukes unless that's your title). Your characters can be in a House, or two of them can not be and one is, but that House is the House you're in OOC. If you're not in a House, you ask the Patriarch of a House you want to be in if that's alright, and then the same rules apply.

Following me so far? For each post you make, you can either: update just one character's plotline, or update all of them, or update two. The choice is yours. Characters don't have to be related to each other, although I'd personally recommend it. They don't have to 'start' in the same city, or even meet each other.

As you may be gathering, a lot of the interaction for this will be player-driven, which I'm really hoping is going to encourage people's involvement. By giving people three characters, there's more incentive to play as you're more in control of what happens. GM posts will occur every few days to nudge things along in the direction I have ideas for.

So, thoughts on that part of this post?

Anyway, moving onwards. The start point will be the 'golden age' of Wintreath, but from there things start to go downhill. I'm going to kill off several NPC important government ministers and the like over the course of the first week and introduce turmoil enough to provide the players with things to do. Cities with player characters will suffer random events the Players are encouraged to get involved with. So

Regarding RP titles: these are things I as GM will hand out in recognition for actions taken by characters. They'd only apply to singular characters and worthiness would be determined by myself in regards to the plot-line I'm angling for, but I'm thinking perhaps the title could then be added to that player in their house, or something along those lines. This is really up for discussion as to whether it should be game-only titles or game-and-House titles.

As a brief example of the three-character setup, I might have my primary updating character as Klause Meindhert, Duke of Wintreath and Member of the Overhusen. Beyond that, my secondary character might be Elric Santofeth Meindhert, a minor cousin in the family who runs an armoury business in Bain, whilst the third is of no relation and lives in a city on the eastern coast and likely will never meet either of my other two characters should I not wish for it.


For those of you interested in the rough locations the House RP would draw from, you can find a few examples in this thread. The Establishment of Setting thread (found here) is the rough basis and history behind what I'll be doing.

Thoughts and feedback more than welcome! Below I've spoilered the hand-drawn map (incomplete) I was in the process of completing for this RP, so take a look. A larger version can be viewed here.

Spoiler

Weissreich's idea sounds really good, but how would NPC interaction with PCs take place?

Also, generally, from what I've experienced, having the IC actions result in anything IRL just isn't a good idea. I like the House idea though.

Also, will this have a medieval setting? Because if the answer is yes, I will personally quash any dissenting voices preventing this RP from happening, even if I have to dethrone Wintermoot.

Personally, this is one of the best ideas for a regional RP I've ever heard. As Laurentus pointed out, translating IC actions into IRL stuff is just bad for business, but everything else is good.

Also, Elder Scrolls Online much? I'm just messing with ya

Weissreich's idea sounds really good, but how would NPC interaction with PCs take place?

Also, generally, from what I've experienced, having the IC actions result in anything IRL just isn't a good idea. I like the House idea though.

Also, will this have a medieval setting? Because if the answer is yes, I will personally quash any dissenting voices preventing this RP from happening, even if I have to dethrone Wintermoot.

1) However the player writing the interaction damn well pleases. The idea behind this is that it's player-driven more than GM-driven, allowing a huge amount of freedom within the scope of the plot that moves along every couple of days. In a region as 'large' as Wintreath, things take time and to try and control every player's action across such a 'vast' area would be frankly impossible anyway. Your characters exist within the context of the RP's plot that happens around you, with the idea being you're reacting to it and through your reactions influencing the future of the story in subtle ways.

2) That's the point - the titles don't mean jack shit, they're just there for show. They mean nothing IRL apart from stating "LOOK! I'M INVOLVED IN THE REGIONAL RP AND I DUN GOOD!" Our current house system created the Nobility, which have actual benefits, but the RP system would expand on this. If you read Decree 005, you'll see that the title for Knight exists without providing any benefit beyond recognition by a specific department of the government, and that's the sort of thing that the House RP would add to by creating titles that recognise an achievement in-game which can be displayed across the region to draw more people in. They mean little to nothing outside of the RP system, just serve as an incitement.

To make it clear, if you gain a Nobility title, as I and Amalya have done, you are allowed to use that title in the RP as well to elevate ONE character into the upper echelons of Wintrean society

3) It's mostly medieval, yes. I'd highly recommend reading through the Oh, The Places You'll Go... thread that's linked in my post to see the kind of setting I'm building, as that has various cities, locations and other interesting things that will be included in the setting itself. If you read the linked Establishment of Setting thread, it has a rough timeline and a description of the technology base. TL;DR - yes but steampunk.

E: @Aragonn - there is a tiny amount of influence from TES but again, read the Establishment of Setting thread. The differences become quite apparent immediately, and if you need examples of the sort of places Wintreath is home to just read the O,TPYGIW thread over in the Wintreath Chronicles forum

As a quick addition/bump to keep the interest flowing - anyone who'd like to work with me on creating the RP I've outlined again please don't hesitate to let me know by mentioning me here. I'll set up a PM in the near future to collaborate, or perhaps see with Mootles about securing a private forum to do the groundwork before going public

@Weissreich I'll work with you on it as I'm fascinated by the different locations and technologies. (Being an engineer, I love technology)

my only fear with a region-wide RP, or any RP for that matter, is that I'll be forced to conform to tech standards, I don't use. The gearworks is interesting, and there are some small ways Warhaven could contribute, but largely, the gearworks is a major step backwards. Likewise, with insectum, they won't use technology as it is normally understood, ever. They will remain a purely biological/organic society, so they can't use gearworks.

A main region-wide RP wouldn't be a mandatory RP...roleplayers could still pick and choose the RPs they want to do and imagine the Wintreath they want for one one, but I think it's been established that the 'official' Wintreath theme is fantasy with steampunk elements. In fact, if there were demand for it, there's no reason that we couldn't have multiple region-wide RPs...though I would suggest starting with one, of course.

Well, if you wanna get down into the science of it all, with each gear used, there will be a loss of power within the device meaning that the gyro would have to produce that much more energy for the whole thing to work. Then there's the concept of the gyro itself. I don't see how a gyro can keep a mechanism running indefinitely which makes it kinda magical to me.

The science side of things isn't supposed to make sense - it's just supposed to serve as a quasi-plausible alternative to our science that can produce everything our science and technology can manage and then some more things. Don't look at it too deeply.

Steampunk in general kind of just means magic with a brand of certain characteristics... Steam power is so amazingly suboptimal that it could never continuously function or work on a societal scale...