A pirate captain's log

Hey Elena,

 

Just perusing the blog section of RPG Initiative and saw this post. 

I totally get this desire for community. It's one of the reason's I restarted my site -- to try to build that kind of community I experienced there years ago. It's hard though. Everyone has an idea of the specific way they want things to be, the way of doing things, etc. It seems roleplayers are extremely subdivided. On top of that, what you're describing and what I also like requires people to like to write, not just "play" as an imaginary person. You remind me of me, in that I want to write, to focus on creating a good story, to do it with a community. 

I'm not as into "discussing" what we're writing ahead of time as it seems you are. Typically, I enjoy the mystery of seeing where the story goes when steered by a group. It's different than what I would have planned out, or they would have planned out, or what we would have planned out together. There is a kind of expectation of the unknown. I love that. But yeah, it is hard to find people to share in community. It's a slow process, and people come and go. 

I don't typically peruse blogs or post on these much, but the new comment above brought this post into unread threads so I took a look. Anything to do with communities as a topic makes me take a look. I also followed the link and read the rest. This was the kind of thing that my coleaders and I went on a journey for; we aimed to build a community of likeminded folks who looked at the experience as collaborative. We felt that longing that you did. There are different kinds of roleplayers out there and we wanted specific ones.

 

I showed this to one of my coleaders and the rest of the sentiments came out:

We decided two things were key: Trust and Patience. If things slowed down on our board and they frequently do, we were patient because we believed that a solid, strong community with beautiful bonds can be a slow burn. People can't always write all the time, but they are enthusiastic about doing so when they can. They're enthusiastic about plotting, sharing links, and learning new tidbits of history and information. Even the most active ones have periods where they slow, the beauty is that we come back where we left off. They're also incredibly laidback, witty, and will chat about anything under the sun as I will. I love that we tease each other and joke about things, that we don't harp at each other or exclude someone for a perceived slight, or make the environment feel oppressive under the weight of moods or shadow of arguments.

 

From one of my close friends: "It's what a lot of people are hoping for but don't have the right mix of either people or skill sets to foster it. Nor the willingness to admit it isn't about a constant buzz all the time. It's about the feelings your members have for the place and one another. We all get on and can spend hours just talking, playing around, but we bond. When we write? it's better because of bonding."

 

One of the important things is that we emphasize that we're in this for the writing more than we are for the playing. We don't control how often they can post, how many characters they can have, and what sort of plots they can run. The reason for this is because we wanted this to be a shared experience and treat everyone as equals. As partners in crime. As adults. I really think this is what makes it feel like a community and not just another game. There are a few things we don't allow -- like you don't get to decide if the writers don't have a life because they want to write or make snap judgments on their preferences in plots they want to do.