COMPLETELY Realistic roleplays on our club are almost impossible, or at least in the sense that was talked about. Now that isn’t to say that there aren’t some very realistic supernatural roleplays; as long as you can scientifically explain it, or by other means explain it, then it’s technically realistic to an extent, but I suppose down-to-earth is more accurate a description.
This means roleplays that aren’t all high-scale and full of powerhouses; roleplays where you can interact with characters that don’t have supernatural abilities (or a small amount) without feeling dwarfed.
Now the problem with this is not so much that people aren’t willing to make down-to-earth roleplays, (My Thief Roleplays were usually pretty low-scale on supernaturalism, and Mephiles97’s “Amped” roleplay is very realistic and down-to-earth in its captive-escape-theme, even Matt’s “Tales of the Eclipse” while including supernatural events, I could easily see being played on with a non-powered character) it’s more that the characters involved by the person who ANSWERS the roleplay are too powerful, or out there, to work.
This isn’t specific to powers of course. There can be characters with a super-complex past, extreme mental conditions, some extreme position of power, etc. but more times than not it’s involving characters with ice-powers, chaos powers, super strength, etc.
What I would suggest for the obvious solution is…
FOR THE ROLEPLAY-MAKERS MAKE SURE THAT
~Your roleplay has a specific scale-factor so that you know it’s clear what kind of character-audience you want to attract,
~Always try to make sure that those without powers can still complete tasks in the roleplay without making them obsolete; ergo make their existence have meaning; make sure they get to do things that your characters can’t easily do without them.
~Practice variety of scale and topic, and make sure your roleplay-theme balances with the scale. For instance, while my roleplay “DNA Catastrophe” involves DNA-Manipulation, element-changing identities, and more supernatural elements, the theme of the roleplay is an open-world casual-mystery, and the scale is almost always low-grounded. So yes you can have supernatural elements in it as long as the main focus can still be realism-based.
FOR THE ROLEPLAY-REPLY’ERS MAKE SURE THAT
~(If you have multiple characters)You use variety in the scales of your characters so that you can get people familiar with your different characters.
~Always try using your powerless/”weak”/”realistic” characters whenever you can. You WILL get into many situations where it’s actually more fun to use them than your powerful characters, and it makes the interactions more skill-based, giving you more of a reward for good roleplaying. For instance, when I use characters like Paige or Craiger, neither have powers but they still have their own skills that I have to utilize. Dave on the other hand has no fighting-skills, nor does he have powers, so it becomes more of a challenge to roleplay as him. Whether or not the challenge is enjoyable is up to the two (or more) in the roleplay.
~Don’t be afraid to show weaknesses. Believe me when I say that this will increase the entertainment and depth of a roleplay incredibly. Realize your characters faults, as well as strengths, and address them when needed. If there isn’t a chance to do so, that’s fine, but when there is, it will help. This isn’t so much power-based realism, but emotional-realism, making your character seem believable and realistic in their personality and thus making the roleplay itself more realistic.
In the end this isn’t a problem of the scale or realism of some roleplays, but…
>the amount of down-to-earth roleplays to balance the supernatural roleplays,
>and the variety of characters able to fit in the roleplay without seeming out of place.
There are a lot of realistic roleplays out there, it just takes time to find them. But in terms of specific wants for a roleplay, I think it would be a good idea if we set up a sort of roleplay-board where we can post elements and ideas we would like to see in roleplays. That way people can look at the list and use that as a basis to see what people want in a roleplay and balance it with what they want in one.
Hope that helped. This wasn’t really going to be a rant originally (as you can see by the shortness) but I felt I might as well go all out to make sure I made everything clear. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
God Bless,
Eat Pie and Prosper
This means roleplays that aren’t all high-scale and full of powerhouses; roleplays where you can interact with characters that don’t have supernatural abilities (or a small amount) without feeling dwarfed.
Now the problem with this is not so much that people aren’t willing to make down-to-earth roleplays, (My Thief Roleplays were usually pretty low-scale on supernaturalism, and Mephiles97’s “Amped” roleplay is very realistic and down-to-earth in its captive-escape-theme, even Matt’s “Tales of the Eclipse” while including supernatural events, I could easily see being played on with a non-powered character) it’s more that the characters involved by the person who ANSWERS the roleplay are too powerful, or out there, to work.
This isn’t specific to powers of course. There can be characters with a super-complex past, extreme mental conditions, some extreme position of power, etc. but more times than not it’s involving characters with ice-powers, chaos powers, super strength, etc.
What I would suggest for the obvious solution is…
FOR THE ROLEPLAY-MAKERS MAKE SURE THAT
~Your roleplay has a specific scale-factor so that you know it’s clear what kind of character-audience you want to attract,
~Always try to make sure that those without powers can still complete tasks in the roleplay without making them obsolete; ergo make their existence have meaning; make sure they get to do things that your characters can’t easily do without them.
~Practice variety of scale and topic, and make sure your roleplay-theme balances with the scale. For instance, while my roleplay “DNA Catastrophe” involves DNA-Manipulation, element-changing identities, and more supernatural elements, the theme of the roleplay is an open-world casual-mystery, and the scale is almost always low-grounded. So yes you can have supernatural elements in it as long as the main focus can still be realism-based.
FOR THE ROLEPLAY-REPLY’ERS MAKE SURE THAT
~(If you have multiple characters)You use variety in the scales of your characters so that you can get people familiar with your different characters.
~Always try using your powerless/”weak”/”realistic” characters whenever you can. You WILL get into many situations where it’s actually more fun to use them than your powerful characters, and it makes the interactions more skill-based, giving you more of a reward for good roleplaying. For instance, when I use characters like Paige or Craiger, neither have powers but they still have their own skills that I have to utilize. Dave on the other hand has no fighting-skills, nor does he have powers, so it becomes more of a challenge to roleplay as him. Whether or not the challenge is enjoyable is up to the two (or more) in the roleplay.
~Don’t be afraid to show weaknesses. Believe me when I say that this will increase the entertainment and depth of a roleplay incredibly. Realize your characters faults, as well as strengths, and address them when needed. If there isn’t a chance to do so, that’s fine, but when there is, it will help. This isn’t so much power-based realism, but emotional-realism, making your character seem believable and realistic in their personality and thus making the roleplay itself more realistic.
In the end this isn’t a problem of the scale or realism of some roleplays, but…
>the amount of down-to-earth roleplays to balance the supernatural roleplays,
>and the variety of characters able to fit in the roleplay without seeming out of place.
There are a lot of realistic roleplays out there, it just takes time to find them. But in terms of specific wants for a roleplay, I think it would be a good idea if we set up a sort of roleplay-board where we can post elements and ideas we would like to see in roleplays. That way people can look at the list and use that as a basis to see what people want in a roleplay and balance it with what they want in one.
Hope that helped. This wasn’t really going to be a rant originally (as you can see by the shortness) but I felt I might as well go all out to make sure I made everything clear. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
God Bless,
Eat Pie and Prosper