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Drakhegao
Dec Member 2023

Drakhegao

Posts: 408 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Hey everyone,

Most of you on here are probably familiar with me in some form or another. I've been around RSRP for just over a decade now, I think. A lot of that time was me sporadically going on and off the radar but an equally significant portion was a constant involvement in the community. I've spent the better part of my teenage years on this game, roleplaying on 42.

It may be obvious to everyone, though, that the 42 of today is a far cry from when the Rising Sun would be blown up every other week. Day, even. I don't think, necessarily, that there is any finger pointing to be done about that. Things change, people grow up and get busy - I myself certainly know that. But, I do think that as of right now, 42 has a serious underlying problem that contributes to the relative scarcity of roleplay in game.

There are a whole lot of kings, and not a lot of subjects.

What I mean by this is that in my silent lurking of 42 for the past couple of months I've noticed that there are a lot of PoK focused groups that either have very small circles of people participating in them - or very wide empty circles. I'd wager that 90% of every royal court in RSRP right now is composed of the same single digit number of people.

So what about everything else?

My proposal: It would be a great idea for us to try and collectively encourage and facilitate roleplay in a single region of the game. At least until things start picking up again. As it stands, I see it that there are a lot of voices all wanting to be heard by starting up groups in unclaimed land and resulting in a scenario where very few people actually interact. There's no investment in characters themselves, only storylines. The roleplay I've seen has become a lot less conducive to an open community and more akin to controlled stories like we see in tabletop games.

(cont.) The King of Egypt herself.
Looking for fun and interactive kingdom roleplay? Look no farther than Misthalin !

09-Mar-2022 04:02:33

Drakhegao
Dec Member 2023

Drakhegao

Posts: 408 Silver Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
On one hand, there's nothing wrong with a nice juicy private plotline. On the other there's a serious problem when roleplay only happens in those plotlines. When's the last time anyone's ever seen actual barpee?

Freelance is, as we knew it, a dead concept. But it doesn't have to be.

My proposal:
As a community, I genuinely believe that it's in our best interest to... this sounds familiar in my head.. did I post this bit already? I have the memory of a goldfish.

Anywhomst. Yeah. I know there has been some sort of talk happening regarding this idea already. And, I've received questions on what exactly "consolidating the community" is. So, I've created a handy list of what the idea entails, and what it doesn't.

What it is
Encouraging and facilitating public roleplay in a single area. Think of it more as "the hangout spot" than a certified hub. Misthalin, for example, seems like a good place to try it. It's a free to play area, unlockable early in the game, and is pretty diverse in the roleplay it allows.

A place where newer folks can reliably find roleplay. A lot of roleplay nowadays happens in DMs or off-game. That's cool and it definitely has it's purpose, but it's not a way for the stray curious individual to stumble upon roleplay and decide they want to join in.

An effort to revive freelance. This is mostly self explanatory. Hop-in/hop-out roleplay is a fundamental part of what makes 42 dynamic, and it's something we should try to nurture.

What it isn't
An effort to remove PoKs. At this point, PoKs are a very fundamental part of RSRP. People have invested time and effort into running these roleplays and I'd never try to take that away from them. But, it's a thought to try and contain PoK stuff within one place to make it feel like a real kingdom and not a court drama.

A new "hub". I'm not a community leader by any means, and I don't want to be. No one should feel forced to partake in this idea. It's a suggestion, and little else. The King of Egypt herself.
Looking for fun and interactive kingdom roleplay? Look no farther than Misthalin !

09-Mar-2022 04:02:43 - Last edited on 09-Mar-2022 04:14:44 by Drakhegao

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09-Mar-2022 16:54:20

Nathmatics
Jul Member 2008

Nathmatics

Posts: 893 Gold Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I've heard of this... "rumour" if you will and in all honesty, it's not the worst idea. The only issues I can see is that, with previous conflicts going into OOC spaces, there is a lot of grudges people will likely hold onto and those would be hard to shake off easily.

Freelance is indeed somewhat a dead concept, yes. But the main issue would be "do people actually want a freelance character?". Personally, I've made a couple which don't distinctly bend the the in-game canon all that much, but because of the lack of people I see whenever I go to Falador to quasi-afk skill with Protean stuff and the such, it is very, very quiet more often than not.

There's no real incentive to have a freelance character either, as usually it'll either be in the Rising Sun and then it'll patter out beyond tales or chatter. You can do as you will with your character, but to gain some level of story and progression for said character, more or less everyone would have to agree, then develop some kind of Call to Action to get them doing something.

That's all good and jolly to think about, but the twist is, when you finally get a group together, it inherently ends up just being another private roleplay, unless you consistently "recruit" new people into the group, though the private rp concept still factors in.

Consolidating everyone to one kingdom does seem like a good way to increase activity, even if any given character is not originally from Misthalin. But refer to the first paragraph, people would have to be willing to rebuild broken bridges with various other roleplayers, who they may have hated or held disdain for many years.


In summary: It's a nice idea and I'd be for it, but there's so many technicalities that it'd end up changing how roleplay would work fundamentally, moreso if people are unwilling to cooperate and stay in their own private RP, instead of spending time trying to freelance.

Please Correct me if I'm missing something here or elaborate further.
An apologetically, unofficial representative for World 42

Want to get in contact with me?
Discord: nathmatics

09-Mar-2022 18:27:12

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09-Mar-2022 19:01:04

Lord Pyro I
Nov Member 2018

Lord Pyro I

Posts: 4,255 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I think the points that drak and rid have tried to put across both hold merit. Honestly, while I strongly feel that the actions of some within our community drove people away and brought inactivity to w42 faster and more severely than it otherwise would have been it doesn't make much of a difference to our current situation. Even if there had been no toxicity in the community we would have watched a huge number of people leave by now.

I say this not to blame others for the past but because as nath says we need to find a way to get along with each other if we want to make this consolidation work. And I think that for that to happen, certain individuals need to have the self-awareness to realize past mistakes and try not to repeat them in the future.

In any event I'm mostly a pretty practical guy, so in practical terms I have a character Danny Steel which I established during my time running Misthalin and afterwards as a leading figure in Varrock's organized crime. My proposal would be that I reprise this role with the blessing of Misthalin's pok leaders so that I can try and offer some rp that is more than freelance but also not directly linked to the Pok. "The greatest endeavors are achieved because of their selfless intent"
#WarIsComing

09-Mar-2022 19:19:59

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09-Mar-2022 20:07:20

Dansplainer
Sep Member 2007

Dansplainer

Posts: 3,001 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I support this, but to voice my opinion more in depth:

1) I do not believe there should really be an effort to reconcile separated groups of roleplayers, primarily because there really no way to do it which isn't doomed to fail. Some people just don't get along with others, and ultimately our goal should be to find and keep those that we do have common interests with, which I think is the bedrock of any well-functioning community. That's not to say crossover should be absolutely forbidden, but, that it would be more beneficial to let things grow on their own, because pressing the issue has, and will, make the divisions worse and not better. A united effort by people with common interests, and that get along best, is a far better solution to this problem.

2) RP is far better when it is organically driven, that being said, I do feel like Nath has hit the nail on the head, so to speak, in regard to what people feel is worth their investment. He is correct that if people found freelance RP worth their time and effort, they would be doing it already. There is a lot to be gained in casual RP, too, in building bonds between characters, especially in conjunction with larger scaled scenarios, like, plots. I find that if you just throw characters into some plot together without developing chemistry, the plots are less interesting, because they lack nuance and the most essential dynamics between the participating characters. A well-rounded story, with that in mind, is one nurtured with a balance of both freelance/casual and plot/event RP.

3) We are definitely playing in a sandbox that is far larger than we're really capable of filling in, especially in regard to roles and the impact those roles have, and by concentrating the PoK community in Misthalin, we are grounding ourselves in a space that is much more fitting to the current RP climate and where we can have a much better impact on the story in the roles that we play. Hi, I'm Dan.

09-Mar-2022 20:11:18 - Last edited on 09-Mar-2022 20:14:23 by Dansplainer

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