Why did you make your forum?

[Veino 26]

For me,  I'm really passionate about the idea of commonly owned folk-traditions of storytelling. One of our oldest forms of storytelling is oral tradition that belongs, not to an individual, but to the community as a whole. That's a tradition we really no longer have as particiularly present in our current society. Collaborative RP forums, however, are a way of extending that tradition and creating something new with. Especially when it comes to high fantasy that draws so much influence from sagas and mythologies, I wanted to create a board that participated with the tradition of the fantasy genre and interacted with it by acknowledging what came before, but also making something new as part of it. 

[Jaxx 317]

I made Without Heroes because I was sick of all the Marvel sites out there not having my favorite canons open, closing in a few months, not allowing X-Men (or X-Men sites not allowing gen Marvel characters), having strict rules, and/or having toxic staff. So I made a site where I could make all my favorite characters in one place, didn't have to worry about it dying, allowed all characters, and had rules to my taste. 

 

I made Shatterdome because Pacific Rim is amazing and I was really sad that there weren't any sites around for it any more. I love worldbuilding, too, so I wanted to mess around with lore, and make my own Jaegers. And I'd never hit up someone else's board with "hi, let me extensively change your lore and setting". Hopefully any site would kick me if I ever tried that lmao 

[Sara-Zorah 18]

I inherited The Draft when the original owner poofed and the two OG admins promoted me and stepped down. 

 

It exists on jcink now because it was originally self-hosted on IPS and not only had the original owner's IPS license lapsed, but their hosting bill was coming due soon and we knew we'd lose everything when that bill went unpaid, so we moved everything we could over. Also there were necessary things that staff needed to have access to that were locked behind admin permissions for whatever reason.

 

 Now I have it set up so that even if I were to disappear or leave the site could keep running because everything the staff needs to run the board is accessible to them.

[Huskerdust 625]

Working on my current site because we searched high and low for something. Joined a couple sites. Some better than others. Then realized we just don’t like being censored and tied down so we are making our own site based on a plethora of ideas we’ve been sitting on for months now. Just exploding with ideas. It’s fun though. I’m having a blast building it. 

 

if you can’t find it then build it. 

[Mectre 9]

Mectre is new, but I started it because I wanted a place to host my urban fantasy RPs that was really sleek looking... LOL. But I was also looking for a place where I knew the quality of work was going to be dedicated/committed/people who would stick around because they really loved the craft of writing. Fingers crossed!

[Lunaala 18]

So the Cafe started when a bunch of us got together on a site not meant for RP and we'd do daily one-off threads where all the RP was contained in one thread. When summer ended and we were all going back to school, I created a RP forum we could all stay together on and continue our adventures.

 

We've been friends ever since. The RP comes and goes, but our friend group remains strong.

[PixieMegs 107]

My friend and I had been talking about a Riddle-Era site for ages. It was always something we thought about, but didn't do. We did trio era and marauders, mainly. For the most part, we always built our own sites, but after taking a break from admining and going back to being normal members, we realized we preferred it being the other way around. So we made Cherry Wine, set in 1945, while Tom Riddle was still in school and during the period which the basilisk was released. This was a lot of fun, but we didn't really want to stay in that setting. Thus, we evolved into Gods and Monsters, which is in the 1950s. And honestly, it is one of my favorite sites I've ever admined. 

 

(Basically we went from daydreaming about an idea and then saying: eh, why the heck not.)

[Renya 55]

So, when it comes to A Dream of Spring we made the site (as it was a joint effort) because one day we all had the pleasure of either waking up to or coming home to the site we'd been playing on being well... gone, one of those strange and very complicated and confusing closures where it was just like WTH for about a month plus afterwards.  Anyway we decided that we wanted to continue playing, we got some of the members who also felt the same way and worked up our own version. It isn't the same as the site we were playing on other then the genre but with us passing our one year anniversary I can honestly say it was well worth all the ups and downs and the odd toddler tantrum to get it to where it is now. 

 

The other two sites I run, well they were definitely from a love of the books and/or genre in each case. I have always loved the Psy/Changeling books series by Nalini Singh since I read the first one and being able to have my own site has been a serious achievement, it will be a year old in the New Year and I am really happy with everything it has done and the fun we've have and are having there. So, Disenthral is going strong and remains exciting to come and write in with its mix of sci fi and fantasy. I just love it. 

 

Midnight Dreams is my newest and I just wanted to write supernatural with faeries. I couldn't find it so, I made it using another books series by Laurell K Hamilton to help things along with the information and then just running with it. It's only a few months old but already I have to say I have been incredibly blessed with my team and the members of the community. They are where the real success is. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Renya

[Sammiie 40]

I'm a sucker for creating roleplays that are unique and not "popular" for the time-being. I'm a staff and a co-owner of a modern dog roleplay. We created our dog roleplay because there weren't any other good, active, or strong dog roleplays out there at the time. We were pretty unique for about a year before competition started popping up - but I think we're still one of the more stable "modern city setting" ones out there!

 

I have the future plans for a mermaid RP someday -- I notice that there aren't too many of those out there either! 

[Eleutherian 17]

Because there wasn't any other options for the genre we wanted to create.  There were fictional fantasy sites, but nothing based in Greek History and the only thing similar was still fantasy where the admin could create their own lore for the site irregardless of historical fact which led to a lot of medieval lore being pulled into the site.  

 

I personally have never created a site where there wasn't a need.  There were versions in the past, but they closed down so it seemed someone else needed to step up and take the helm.  

[Mab 58]

After bouncing around from a couple of sites i wanted to create a site that wasn't filled with stress or drama, where you had creative freedom in both the plot process and species process.  Where people could just kick back and just enjoy freedom in various ways. Where there was no stress to be the perfect roleplayer or speller, or grammar or anything of the kind. 

[Somniac 207]

There’s three of us who were having some trouble finding a place where all three fit, so we made it. 

 

Most of the time the fit problems were just benign things that work for a lot of other people (activity checks, certain layouts, etc.)  that didn’t jive with all three of us. A couple of times, there was targeted harassment that drove friends out and was enabled farther up (harasser best buds with staff, people getting weirdly fixated on someone and every single one of their characters and sometimes all characters connected to those characters re: this individual's IRL loneliness/thirst, etc.).

 

Do we happily join sites that fit or are close to our criteria (be it independently or as a duo or trio)? Absolutely. But it’s also nice to be able to luxuriate in knowing there’s somewhere where we don't need a spreadsheet and elaborate monthly ritual to keep from getting deactivated, and that we know actually have the ability and plan for dealing with broken stair-type situations.

[NFT47 40]

I really enjoy mythology, urban legends, and various lore. I wanted to make a universe where all that existed to see what sorts of stories unfold. Some of the other forums I have been apart of in the past with similar settings weren't exactly what I was looking for, so I made something that I could change a bit more to my liking and enjoy. From there I sort of collaborate with others and see what sorts of stories can develop.

[Ems 11]

For a place for my friend and I to write. The rest is gravy.

[tinymonstrosity 4]

i made my forum rp because i have a passion for dungeons & dragons. the problem is that being a DM in multiple campaigns is hard and im feeling the burnout of that, and a lot of my friends are currently feeling that same burnout so no one is really in the place to run a game. however, i already had all the lore for my world prepped and decided why not open it up so everyone can play in my sandbox? its so much easier if i can just drop the ideas for events and have the players run wild with them and help grow the story that way instead of having to manage everything as a DM. also i love play-by-post anyway, always have, so its been exciting to marry my two loves together like this!