[NiGHTS Noob]

I noticed that even though Pyro has always put a lot of thought into his RP's, and he gave a very well developed character system, no one's ever actually given any tips for an RP itself. I figure I might as well so people can consult it to see how to make an interesting RP.

1) Sometime in your first post, you should let the players know if you are going to GM, or actively be a game master. A game master is just a term I used in Arabian Wildfire, but it's to the point and descriptive so no reason to change it. A game master is the person who created the RP, and actively being one means you're are taking and active Dungeon Master style approach to your RP. Instead of simply giving stats for enemies or giving out-of-character information to the players, a GM will spring traps, give rewards, control bosses, and develop plots as well as doing the things first mentioned. Now that I have first implemented GM, I figure it would be quite rude to implement it half way through to give yourself an edge or spring it upon other players as a surprise.

2) Find your own RP style. Players may not consciously realize it, but everyone has certain common traits among their RP's. I tend to like to give players the ability to make their characters go beyond the original threshold of their power through special items or new moves, and I like giving a set area to players to work with instead of letting them go 100% free around the world. Pyro on the other hand likes to give players a lot of non-combat time to balance out time spent in combat and give players a chance to develop their characters personalities. He also likes players to not only develop their own stories, but also decide when they run into enemies and how easy/difficult things should be. You've just got to find what makes your RP's unique and expand on that trait to make it your own.

3)Listen to what others are saying. The players will tell you if you're GMing too unfairly or aren't giving enough direction, listen to them, an RP is a collective thing.

4)Try to establish rules and direction. Some RP's may need more rules than others, but as a general thing, make sure there are enough rules to make the RP go smoothly. Try to think of everything you can do with the current rule set and add or subtract rules to give or restrict certain freedoms. Not all rules take freedoms though, many will allow someone to do new things they couldn't before. Also, if there's not enough incentive, throw a prize up. When you think of an RP, you've pretty much thought up all the rules along with, you've just got to figure out how to present them. Don't release an RP with an incomplete rule set or a rule set you aren't happy with, it just doesn't work right.

5)Make sure your RP's a fun idea, no one wants to do an RP that's boring. If you're trying to make an action based RP, make sure it has lots of chances for action whether made by the players or you. If your RP gives players downtime, make sure there are good places for that to happen like a city or an an ancient library in some ruins or something to that extent. Try to play through your own RP in your head, is it fun? or does it need a little more work? If you can't have fun with your RP idea, chances are most other people can't either.

6) Have fun with it. An RP's not supposed to be a taxing ordeal, don't stress out during the design stage. Don't think “I need to make a great RP.”, think “This RP's going to be fun!” RP's are a game, don't take them to seriously, it's not the end of the world if you make a bad one, just try again and try to see why that one failed. Ask people why they didn't like your RP, players know what works and what doesn't.

Hope you don't mind this Pyro, I just figured a few tips couldn't hurt, and to people reading this, these are not rules, only suggestions.

[Pyroman]

These are great tips! I'm pinning this topic for future reference.

[NiGHTS Noob]

Great! Thanks Pyro, I hope a lot of people take these to heart when designing their RP's.