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Do you ban popular picks?


Varos
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So sometimes, when I browse a new site, I find what is essentially a species canon list. This makes sense to me, because you can list any species that need more members, because they just aren't as popular. Heck, I've been thinking of even adding one to our site, maybe see a few more Minotaurs wandering around. However, sometimes these sites have a 'no-go' list as well, which has species other characters have, but new members can no longer make due to the fact they are so popular.

 

Personally I would  and I would never do this. I understand having a species that is maybe way more powerful then the rest, so you have to earn a character, maybe through posts or a quest. But to just have a list of species that others were allowed to make right off the bat, no longer be available, seems unfair to me. I understand the logic, maybe you have 20 vampires and only 3 humans. But I don't think I could do that. And honestly, its a huge turnoff for me when joining a new site, even if I didn't want to be that species.

 

What do you guys think?

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I've done it before. Not a full out ban but an FYI that a specific species is not as prevalent and those apps were often more stringently gone over as they had to meet a certain criteria. Specifically with my custom race as they are set to be a very important race and literally the most rare race in the world. Having a huge conglomerate of them just doesn't make sense.

 

For me, I've seen gender bans. I've seen species bans. It's really up to the site owner and what they think is good for their site.

 

I think the biggest logic for me is if you're trying to start a big plot and you need more of one type of character, that is a legitimate reason to me.

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I'm kinda neutral to it myself, mainly because I'm under the assumption that in general people tend to already have a vague idea of what they might want to play if they're serious about looking to sign up. So it would either effect a person or not depending on the registree's bias of preference.

 

If I was to look at doing it myself, I would limit it to banned for EXISTING members (since they're more likely to understand the plot reasons behind it), but anybody who's brand new would get a free pass for their first character. Obviously assuming that members are allowed more than one character.

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I've done it before but I'm not likely to do it again. I really think people should play what they want because otherwise, they're just going to get bored and move on. I no longer see a large group versus a small group as a bad thing. There was talk of dropping our centaurs and mermaids because of lack of interest. I like having choices and offering choices so we nixed that idea real quick. I think the better way to go about it is to make those groups more interesting to play, like giving them a cool plot or making interesting characters in the group to make it more fun for people in that group to play with.

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The only restriction I have ever put on a Species is that I must approve the backstory to make sure it stays in line to the sites lore. I run a fandom rp set in an alternative timeline they visited in the series where most of the Canon Characters are dead (roughly 90% of them). So I have to make sure there are no "Son of X" or "Daughter of Y" running around that wouldn't be possible plot-wise. 

 

But straight up saying it's unavailable is not something I'm willing to do. Despite this, Humans and Demons have been the two most popular species on my forum. But they are also the most varied. They both have such much diversity in their own right that they can be played so many different ways that it makes sense that they'd be popular. 

Closest to this I've done is I had a species that just wasn't available for play yet. It was to be made available after a specific plot point. But no one had access until then. 

 

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I don't ban completely, but I recommend strongly the people to start with a seafaring character and make a civilian only afterwards. It makes sense for the plot, given that our plots are more seafaring centered, and having the first character a civilian might not bring as many plots (while having him/ her a second character means when no plots for civilians, there are lots of things to do at sea). 

 

I also don't allow female pirates as first characters, because they are supposed to be rare, and if everyone and their mother have one... we'd get an almost all-female ship. I saw this on a previous site and I wanted to avoid this. Having her as a second character and work for the position aboard the ship means that the writer is dedicated, sticking around and already having understood what works and what not on the site. 

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I don't bother banning character races simply because, the way I see it is that, any given actively played population of a roleplay is likely only going to be a very small percent of the total population of that world. So yes there might be 25 demons say, but if there are 7 billion (total of all races combined) living in the world then having 25 is basically drop in the bucket. Even if a race is supposed to be rare, that's a relative term... I mean 25 may be a lot if you're considering board totals, but total world population? 25 out of even 7 million is extremely rare.

 

Though I also think having a large number congregate in one city/location might even make sense (even if a race is rare)... I mean they may want to hang out with each other. (Or, if they're like vampires, maybe they have special needs to consider so it's easier for them to band together.)

 

That stated if I do feel like one species is getting too much attention then I may limit people to only having 1 of them and/or I may make it so the requirements to have one of those characters is so much higher. (Like before I may have been ok with a character who is just kind of an aimless wanderer without and real idea of idea where to take their story. But if I were cracking down then I'd reject that character unless they showed some proof they had a story they wanted to tell.)

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