Wonderbolt Academy OOC Discussion

[Stryke]

So, he's out. Meaning that if Thunderfall is alright with only RPing with one character, then we're ready to start laying down ground rules/ideas and such.

I only have the one pegasus character, so yes, I am okay with that

Personally, I believe that such things would be better discussed in a live setting on Skype. But I guess what really needs to be discussed before we start is what exactly we'll be doing during the RP. Obviously the setting is going to be the Wonderbolt's Academy, and we're going to be primarily focusing on flight training, but what specific events are going to take place during said flight training? Also, is there going to be character interaction between the partnered ponies during intermissions (As in, while not under some sort of flight test.) or are we going to streamline it and only show the parts which take place during the training? Personally, I lean towards the former, but i'd like to see what everyone else thinks before we establish anything.

I'm definitely in favour of opportunities for interaction; the Wonderbolt Academy is a place to teach teamwork as well as flight skills, and we can't really put that across if our characters don't get a chance to chat on the ground. Plus it would defeat the object of using Thunder and Windy's shoutbox canon if all we were doing was flying.

It would certainly be good if we could discuss things on Skype, but bear in mind that not all of us are on at the same time. This is a particular problem for myself, as I seem to be in a different time zone from the entire chat room, and have so far never participated in it. Plus my Skype time is often limited to how charitable my girlfriend is feeling. So maybe if any discussion DOES take place there someone should lay down an abridged transcript of what was discussed in this thread so the rest of us can take a look. I'll TRY to participate on Skype, but no promises.

My ideas are as follow,

1. Training day event.
2. Messhall
3. Second event
4. Bed

This way we have a set schedule and we have time for social interaction. I think that one person should control a 'bell' that signals us all to move onto the next event. I vote that @Ferrarity gets control of this bell if he wants, if not I believe I can take it but it should be in the hands of an experienced rper. That being said @SilverWing would be another good candidate for this bell.

I think one of the rules should be, if you do not respond within a week you are out. This kind of thread would seem to be a fast paced one that after a 'week' of in rp time we would be done, we would need every participant here. (Unless of course it is beyond your power to show up. In that case we should all discuss what we can do to accommodate your situation.)

As for the events, we should follow canon as much as possible until we run out. After that we should make up our own events. As for competitive events, we should discuss a fair way to determine the winners of the event BEFORE IT HAPPENS. That way there is no argument during the actual event and we can all still have fun. (Side note, just because you are set to lose an event doesn't mean you have to do terrible at it. You could come in close second, third, ect.)

Team leaders! I believe we should have a vote when the time comes to decide team leaders. This vote should be based on how the character has performed in the thread as well as the rp skill of the user, for effective leadership. Or we can do it based off of nominations, selected teaming, or volunteering. Whatever works.

That order of daily events sounds pretty perfect to me. @Whirl Wind, @Ferrarity, I'd be happy with either of you being in control of the timings, you're both great social RPers,so I know you wouldn't cut people's fun short, nor would you allow things to drag on.

A certain amount of leeway for lulls in activity is necessary, but I agree that we need to keep things moving. You know me, I try to knock out a post every day or at least every two days, but my work situation doesn't always allow that. But we don't want anyone taking the piss, so let's be tough yet understanding

As for team leaders, 'winners' etc., I'm pretty easy with it. As I said before, I have no intention of Thunderfall making the final cut at the end. Now I don't mean that he's going to suck, far from it because it would ruin everyone else's fun and it's more of a creative challenge for me to keep him just about in the running, but basically he's just happy and surprised to be here

[Spitfire]

I can try to keep everypony active in the thread, I'll jump give em a bump in case they forgot or something just as a little reminder, so I'll keep up with that I'm usually lurking on here almost 24/7 My schedule is random, so I might be a tad slow in response, but since spitfire is mostly observing, once I get through with the tasks, then the rest is left up to y'all.

[Stitch]

Plus Fleetfoot can keep the recruits in tack if something happens, she may b on probation but she can still teach teamwork and leadership

[(Liberty) Lowtax]

I only have the one pegasus character, so yes, I am okay with that

, mixed you up with Whirl Wind for a second there.

Sorry about that wrote that post right before bed. Haha.

[(Liberty) Lowtax]

Alright, so basically we're going to be using Whirl Wind's daily format (Event, Messhall, Event, Bed) for every RP day that takes place, and the camp is going to done over the course of 7 RP days? Alright, that works out just fine. The first couple of days would be covered by the events which have been portrayed in canon. (Dizzitron, Flag Hunt, Precision/Extreme Weather Course, Cloud Smash) And then after that, we'd pretty much just make events up based upon the current state of the RP, as well as what would gear itself best towards an entertaining, engaging RP.

I like the idea of a "Bell", per say in order to keep the flow of the RP moving. I'm going to trust that as more experienced RPers, you guys will be better judges of when to push forward in the RP than me. So i'm pretty confident that someone like Ferrarity, Whirl Wind, or SilverWing would be a good candidate for being in control of it. The "One week and you're out." policy is a solid one in my opinion, although I hope that nobody will wait that long in order to respond to a post.

For the topic of deciding the winners of any given event, the question remains as to how we should decide what order the ponies will place. Should we simply have people guess a number/rely on random.org, or should we use a more sophisticated means of deciding how well everypony does? I believe that if we use a probability system, then people should be able to opt into lower positions if necessary, or give them higher positions if it makes sense based upon their character submissions or talents. (Example: Fleetfoot should generally do better than most of the ponies, due to her already being a Wonderbolt.) From my perspective, the ideal system would be to rely on a mixture of probability and character information (IE: Character Submissions.) for the earlier trials, but then proceed to incorporate what would make sense based upon character development during the course of the RP.

For the Lead Pony vs. Wing Pony issue, Ferrarity should be able to use his judgement to decide which position each character is given. After all Spitfire IS the one in charge here! people would be able to help him decide, of course. But at the end of the day, it should be his responsibility and decision. RP effort and skill would be a very good thing to take into consideration though. (After all, it would incentivise people to make their posts that much better, as well as discourage them from procrastinating )

So yeah, that's just my two cents, as well as my impression on how things are going to work. , after we agree on how we're going to do everything, we'll be ready to start this thing! (Or at least I will. )

[SilverWing]

Alright, so basically we're going to be using Whirl Wind's daily format (Event, Messhall, Event, Bed) for every RP day that takes place, and the camp is going to done over the course of 7 RP days? Alright, that works out just fine. The first couple of days would be covered by the events which have been portrayed in canon. (Dizzitron, Flag Hunt, Precision/Extreme Weather Course, Cloud Smash) And then after that, we'd pretty much just make events up based upon the current state of the RP, as well as what would gear itself best towards an entertaining, engaging RP.

I like the idea of a "Bell", per say in order to keep the flow of the RP moving. I'm going to trust that as more experienced RPers, you guys will be better judges of when to push forward in the RP than me. So i'm pretty confident that someone like Ferrarity, Whirl Wind, or SilverWing would be a good candidate for being in control of it. The "One week and you're out." policy is a solid one in my opinion, although I hope that nobody will wait that long in order to respond to a post.

For the topic of deciding the winners of any given event, the question remains as to how we should decide what order the ponies will place. Should we simply have people guess a number/rely on random.org, or should we use a more sophisticated means of deciding how well everypony does? I believe that if we use a probability system, then people should be able to opt into lower positions if necessary, or give them higher positions if it makes sense based upon their character submissions or talents. (Example: Fleetfoot should generally do better than most of the ponies, due to her already being a Wonderbolt.) From my perspective, the ideal system would be to rely on a mixture of probability and character information (IE: Character Submissions.) for the earlier trials, but then proceed to incorporate what would make sense based upon character development during the course of the RP.

For the Lead Pony vs. Wing Pony issue, Ferrarity should be able to use his judgement to decide which position each character is given. After all Spitfire IS the one in charge here! people would be able to help him decide, of course. But at the end of the day, it should be his responsibility and decision. RP effort and skill would be a very good thing to take into consideration though. (After all, it would incentivise people to make their posts that much better, as well as discourage them from procrastinating )

So yeah, that's just my two cents, as well as my impression on how things are going to work. , after we agree on how we're going to do everything, we'll be ready to start this thing! (Or at least I will. )

Be careful about how much structure we have, that can stife creativity. I know the Messhall is kindof supposed to be the "free time" where they all can bs with each other, but maybe have some bit for other RPers "commentary" when the other players do their bits for the running event. If I'm making any sense at all here

Everything seems to check out for me. Let's not have one person be in charge of the "bell," but just have a general consensus on when to move on.

Also, the two skype names I'm on are FlashSentry and flyvboy_SilverWing, so go ahead and add me if we're going to do skype discussions of this stuff

[Sky_Chaser]

Okay I am back, sorry bout my inactiveness, my job became busy with my 12s and the PT test, it's done now so I have more time again.

[(Liberty) Lowtax]

Okay I am back, sorry bout my inactiveness, my job became busy with my 12s and the PT test, it's done now so I have more time again.

I believe you're in the OOC chat on Skype already. Once we find a time when a good portion of us are online/not busy, we should finalize things on there/send our discussions to anybody who isn't present. Other than that, I think we're just about ready to start RPing

[Stryke]

I'm ready to go anytime

[(Liberty) Lowtax]

I'm ready to go anytime

Git on Skype then!