Renaissance of the RP - An Open Discussion
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Saturday, 16 November - 9:00PM EST
In light of recent events and long-going inactivity, it seems like the RP is in need of change. As the RP staff, we collectively feel that the way in which things were intended has been lost, under a mistaken veil of assumptions and excessive strictness. Being honest with ourselves, we've realized these things, more than any other, have made RPing here on Equestria Forever less than desirable for many of you... so we're here wanting to change!
We have some basic ideas on what we feel the new RP should be like, but in the end, it should really be up to the RP community as a whole. Considering this, please read over our notes below. If you have input you'd like to discuss with everyone else, join us in the Tavern RP room (and at a voice chat link, to be provided, if possible) at the time listed above. After this time, ongoing discussion will be open in the Tavern RP tab.
Starting from the time our open discussions begin until deemed necessary (if at all), the Tavern OOC chatroom will be open to everyone regardless of RP privileges. All are invited to take part, learn more, and hopefully become assimil-- interested in RP!
A new "suburb" of Ponyville should be created for use as the base town. This could be explained as simply as it being a place founded as Ponyville grew more popular. Ponyville (and all other towns) will remain open and accessible at all times. This is intended to do away with characters, and to a lesser degree, events, being forcibly centralized around Ponyville. (This area is proposed as the location, as it is immediately accessible to Ponyville, the Everfree Forest, and White Tail Woods, with the train enabling access elsewhere -- in other words, it's an easy fit-in with current locales.)
More mythos and interesting aspects of the MLP lore should be added, though it won't of course be canon. The Equestrian universe is not necessarily one of rainbows and sunshine everywhere at all times, and is far from "complete" based on the happenings of the show or anywhere else. Do note that does not mean the goal is to create Fallout: Equestria or something as such, but to explore things that could likely exist and involve everyone in uncovering them (and then locking them away again, if necessary).
While slice-of-life is bound to be an aspect of RP, it does not need to be the only thing happening. More adventures should be planned, leading to overarching stories. (Think Deceit, for those of you familiar with him; for those unfamiliar, think like many of the more magical challenges of the show or comics, from as "little" as parasprites to as potentially large as Discord)
Consideration should be given to some ideas presented in the MLP comics as fair basis for Equestria. These stories tend to be darker than what the show may present, but still feel wholly feasible for the universe of Equestria.
More trust and freedom should be given in characters, especially regarding "weapons". There is little evidence to show that allowing useful items that can serve as fighting tools (E.g. swords) will have adverse effects such as characters combating with one another. These items are fairly logical in many fantasy instances which could exist in the Equestrian environment, particularly in regards to adventuring. The key limitation is to consider nearly every E10 game and PG13 cartoon series and how they deal with such weapons. Even in worlds riddled with violence (E.g. Avatar: The Last Airbender), it is extremely rare that a character dies or is even severely injured, which is more how these kinds of things would work in our colorful world.
Mods should have the ability to quickly create one-off characters. These ponies have little reason to need a full fleshing-out, as they would be irrelevant faster than creating such a submission would take. This could potentially enable a richer RP environment. It also provides more time to work on events and story arcs without being burnt out on some nitpicky details.
Characters should be resubmitted, in order to have an accurate listing of still-active RPers. These submissions could be exact copies of previously-approved ones, or they could be tweaks that are taking advantage of the openness as mentioned above. Canon characters not resubmitted within a fair time limit would be assumed abandoned and made available for others. In doing this, the subs will (possibly) be given the option of being updated with key elements of their long-term character development, altered to include more adventurous skills for those who would like to add them, or to simply start over clean slate, though all relations to other characters, canon or no, will be at the discretion of mods and/or individual RPers. It may seem messy, but it would certainly help everyone who has wanted to make tweaks or try new things with their characters but were limited by their original subs.
The "Tavern" RP tab should be used as an on-site OOC chat for RPers. All RP can normally take place in the standard "RP" tab; a secondary "Adventure" tab could be added on-the-fly at times where large adventures or events are taking place.
