Kit the Human 759 Share Posted December 29, 2017 I love writing threads set before the current forum time frame that the forum has ever been set in. Typically, I've always just posted them in the usual forums with a year in the thread title or the description. In the forum I'm building, I've installed tags so that past threads can be tagged and thus, easily found. But I'm curious, do people prefer another way of doing this? Is it preferred for past threads to be in a separate thread? Thread prefixes? Tags? Apathy? I genuinely do not have a preference in any direction, so I'm curious about what other people think. 2 PSI: an Occult Investigations RP Roleplay Architects: Grab a friend (or many friends!) and just write. You can also find me at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elena 546 Share Posted December 29, 2017 I like doing it too when the story requires them. On my site, those had been done in another forum reserved for all kind of stories, in order to not interfere with the ones in the current time. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormWolfe 557 Share Posted December 29, 2017 We call them Flashbacks and they are vital bits of our overall character stories. Generally, we have a separate forum for flashbacks that are going to be a story on their own with several threads needed to complete it. We also allow flashback posts which get an [FB] added to the beginning of the timeline field. These go hand-in-hand with the current story. For example, another character says something or an event happens that triggers a flashback for another character and they write a single flashback post. Flashbacks can be great storytelling tools. They can foreshadow upcoming events or flesh out some aspect of a character's life. Perhaps he or she is terrified of Woobies because they fell into a nest of them when they were a toddler. So, fighting a horde of rampaging Woobies sends them spiraling back to the time they fell into the nest. Maybe there was a clue to Woobie behavior in that childhood incident that lets him or her figure out how to defeat the horde. I think they definitely have their niche in both the ongoing stories and in their own standalone stories as well! ~ Stormwolfe 2 1 Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive. Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive. We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear. And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here. ~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~ *your one-stop RPG resource site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gothic 307 Share Posted December 29, 2017 We call them back in time threads. Personally, I enjoy them. It is fun to flesh out vaguer parts of a character's history for the story. 2 Active, fun, established 2008! Come join us. Aeterna Roma Sites I am on; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sadrienne 242 Share Posted December 29, 2017 I looooove back-playing stuff. It gives me a chance to explore parts of my characters that aren't necessarily accessible now. We have a forum for AU stuff, which we've used in the past to do all sorts of Freaky Friday stuff, but can also be used to play stuff before current time. That said--I'm not opposed to having back-played threads in the general forum. Usually there's some sort of indicator in the description and/or first post that tags it as a past event. 2 the australian potterverse | we're back in black CREATION GUIDE | HOW TO APPLY | PLOT | POSITIONS AVAILABLE | NOT AUSTRALIAN? | JOIN US ON DISCORD | TUMBLR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verridith 66 Share Posted December 29, 2017 I love threads in the past <3 We have a Historical forum that allows players to do so - right now I have an awesome thread there on a woman's past I wanted to flesh out, when she first discovered she could shift forms. Another I have involves the escape of a husband and wife from prosecution and the birth of their child, and watching the two new parents' story unfold is the absolute BEST. I've had other threads set historically that involve a character's childhood, and other such important historical moments. Childhoods are fun! 1 1 no word count 3-1-3 || creatively free high fantasy || immersive and in-depth 17 years running! proud supporter of: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kit the Human 759 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 9 hours ago, Gothic said: We call them back in time threads. Personally, I enjoy them. It is fun to flesh out vaguer parts of a character's history for the story. Hell yes - I've also found that it can give you more ideas for the future and fleshes the characters out. Do you prefer that they're separate from the present day threads? In their own forum? It seems to be the done thing so far and in this case, I don't mind following the pack. I'm not sure if any method is objectively better than the other. 2 PSI: an Occult Investigations RP Roleplay Architects: Grab a friend (or many friends!) and just write. You can also find me at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uaithne 543 Share Posted December 30, 2017 Historic threads aren't something I normally do. But if a member were to ask if they could do this on my site, I wouldn't say no. Likely I'd have them post these threads in the development section rather than in the main area. The only thing that I don't like about historic threads are when there's an entire forum visible on the main board because usually this forum doesn't get used very often, and now it's just another forum that makes the site as a whole look inactive. (Same with "future" or "AU" forums.) This varies by board, and some boards have very active historic thread forums, in which case it's not a problem. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quell 249 Share Posted December 30, 2017 (edited) I like them mixed in, but it's partly that I hate unsorted things. O.o and past thread forums feel unsorted for some reason when I look at them? I think it's partly because I don't do archiving threads, so why does it matter if you make a thread that takes place 4 months ago today or 4 months ago? We do require all threads to be dated in the topic description, so that might be some of the reason it is less confusing on Ark. The thread date is always present, so the locale is far more pertinent. (Unlike some sites where the post date is relevant.) As a note, I have a problem where I love to write characters with drastic personality changes (especially after traumatic experiences), so back dated threads are magic. :3 You get to play your character both pre and post incident and really explore the difference and similarities between who they were and who they are. Edited December 30, 2017 by Thyme 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gothic 307 Share Posted December 30, 2017 19 hours ago, Kit the Human said: Hell yes - I've also found that it can give you more ideas for the future and fleshes the characters out. Do you prefer that they're separate from the present day threads? In their own forum? It seems to be the done thing so far and in this case, I don't mind following the pack. I'm not sure if any method is objectively better than the other. I prefer having them in their own separate forum. I tell people on AeRo to make sure they date the thread and say where the thread takes place to clarify. 2 Active, fun, established 2008! Come join us. Aeterna Roma Sites I am on; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibson 21 Share Posted December 30, 2017 I usually have a separate forum for all past threads. Often I group it in a category with stuff like AUs and one-shots. I like using them to flesh out stuff. I prefer to skip past all the first meet type things when I'm starting a character off in order to get the story moving, so past threads are useful if there's anything like that the other player wants to expand on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulsRPG 15 Share Posted December 31, 2017 On 'Souls we have 'LASKY' which is a special forum for non-canon stuff and also canon stuff that's happened in the far past before the character was picked up. It's nice to be able to have a fun place to write silly or super-past / super-future stuff, but have it away from the main forum so there's no confusion as to the timeline. 'souls | no wc | character-driven | werecanines | open & active since 2001! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisOwl 59 Share Posted December 31, 2017 We have a separate forum section for earlier histories.... loving this right now. A partner and I have slowed down out story development in the actual forum year just because we want to flesh out a bunch of back story first and it been so fun. 1 {{Million Dollar Trail :: Colorado Territory, 1876 :: An Old West Tale}} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LOVE ME AND DESPAIR Share Posted December 31, 2017 I know in terms of back-play I've seen forums do one of the two things(at least of the ones I've been on through the years): 1. Allowing posts in the normal areas that are back-play, but only go back as far as so many months prior. Sometimes they'll allow within the 12 month time frame of the current date. They'll also have a "past forum" though for anything further back. 2. Only allow back-play in the "past forum" and not allow any on the forum itself. Personally I'm more a fan of #1 than than #2 cause the second one usually means the forum will automatically close threads that aren't finished even if not big site plot related threads, but just personal threads that take place before a date switches. I think the way you're talking of doing it can work just fine too, and I love the idea of a past threads tag. As far as outside of the designated time-frame(cause obviously there's going to be a line to how far back in the past one might post with character based on age), AU forums are always fun for char. development and just general shenanigans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CovertSphinx 710 Share Posted December 31, 2017 I use some flashbacks within threads, and ran some short 1x1 scenes run in off-site chat. Doing a whole thread full of Past isn't something I've had the pleasure of partaking in, so I'm going to comment as far as what I've seen friends do: Normally they just made sure to "tag" the thread as happening in the past; either in the description or the first post post. Being that I've always run on purely liquid timeline sites, the amount of times somebody did an officially "past" thread was rare, so having its own location was never really necessary. Normally the only time one of my friends did a "past" thread was if it was something that happened YEARS (or centuries) prior to the current RP happenings. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts