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Site Wide Plots: How do you do?


eleholly
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Hi guys!

 

So recently on my site, we've been faced with an interesting situation. Generally speaking, we have some overall plot ideas for each individual member groups to draw in characters and give people things to work with, but for the most part, we're super sandboxy and let the characters really drive the story in play. The admin team (there are four of us, with myself as the creator) who have some solid plots building and people are starting to assume that those plots are site wide plots because they impact the different factions and change the structure of the site slightly. 

 

This is a problem. 

 

Namely because they are individual plots written into character apps, etc., in reality. The admin team just controls the faction leaders for play purposes (we need active, stable players for those roles and have not had success finding them elsewhere previously), and people are starting to tell us that they feel excluded from the site for this reason. We've tried to explain that they are the character's individual story arcs and not site wide plots, but people keep expecting us to hand them out plots to get their characters involved in these individual arcs that just might not be appropriate for their characters. As with all the other plots, we've tried to include everyone we think would be a key player in the plot, but we cannot realistically include all 35 members in them. 

 

So...I've been considering an actual site wide plot to get everyone involved. How do you guys handle situations like this, especially those of you who have more of a sandbox structure to your site versus a real plot you're pushing?

 

 

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Haven't run into this problem yet, but my current plan is to hold little site mini-events for everybody at least a few times a year. One site I was on that I've taken a page from had everybody's first character be part of a "group" on site, and then each group would have events of its own as well for its members. Every now and again they'd have something like a major event liek a "terrorist attack", a "street gang war", or "a natural disaster".

Examples might be a festival of some sort, a television-network-sponsored Scavenger Hunt throughout the city or something similar such as an underground fighting tournament with the whole city as the battleground, and a lot of places do things like Halloween Events or Christmas Events or Valentines or Easter Events, although I imagine a site with magic might also do things for the Spring and Summer Equinox, or is it the Fall and Winter other one I can't remember the name of, or maybe stuff to do with full moons on occassion....?

I imagine also having a few volunteer members helping people develop their own plots for their own characters in a sort of "help" thread might also work, or finding ways to encourage members this way as well. And making sure people know these events are optional and voluntary, like I said, some for groups and some for everybody, and that way the ones who want to participate can, and those who don't can go with Character Plotter threads and stuff like that and, um, and I lost my train of thought, I think. Sorry.

Edited by Sparky Muse
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For the characters who don't fit in the ongoing plots, create others! What plots can encompass your factions?  Also try some thread roulettes with prompts.

 

Ask also your writers what adventures would inspire them more to write regularly, and use and combine their replies. I do this periodically.

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I don't know how this will work, because I've yet to actually test it, but while coming up with my characters, I found that a lot of the plots I want to do surround dwarves. It's not something I intended - most of my characters which I've tried on Twitter and pan fandom sites are dwarves. This will present a problem when the board opens because it will seem like I only want there to dwarves on the board (which is not true.) What I came up with was a suggest a site wide plot thread where people can submit ideas for plots that will involve groups of players. There, people who are interested in other characters can make their pitches, and if it gets support from other players then it will be a site wide plot. I really think these players need to be encouraged to come up with their own plot ideas that can include multiple members as staff can't be involved in everything and even the most creative people can run low on ideas and time to rp.

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I am a tad behind the times in replying to this topic. I'm not sure that how we manage site-wide plots would be of any use since we write in a linear event driven style. We allow some time fluidity, but in general we ask that our players watch for events to happen and remember to account for them if it would affect their character(s).

 

Each episode that we write has a main plot and a theme as well as smaller character-driven plots. Characters may interact with the main plot as it evolves if it makes sense and if their players are interested. We document everything quite well, send out notices, and keep everyone in the loop. If there is a good role for specific characters, we contact the players and ask if they are interested in participating in specific scenes.

 

Episode themes play off the main episode plot. We take a word or phrase and encourage the players to do character plots based on it. For example, this episode will involve a marauding bear. The theme is characters overcoming personal bears (i.e. obstacles in their lives).

 

In and around these things, everyone is encouraged to engage with one another and write smaller character-driven episode plots or even ones that will run from episode-to-episode. There is no onus placed on plots that become story arcs and run for several episodes.

 

Of course, we are small! We only have six full time players and one of those is on an extended LOA right now. This might cease to be a feasible format should we add a significant number of people to find slots for. I hope not. I think it is an open-ended enough venue that everyone that wants to engage with the plot will be able to do so.

 

PS: Forgot this until I read @Icewolf's reply. We also have a forum where everyone is encouraged to submit episode plot ideas for groups or episode-wide. The caveat if they are chosen for the next episode is that the Player that submitted it run it or, at least, help run it.

Edited by Stormwolfe
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The site that I am on has an over all story that binds everything together. The general premise without getting too deep is that we have one country where an outlying culture has come to trade/claim dominion over it. Groups within the native culture have different opinions regarding said dominion, as well as those groups looking to come out on top either way. Site Admins offer up local (per group or area) and site wide (all affecting) stories that can highlight all or any one of these groups. Members are also encouraged to submit a variety of plots from the personal to wide effecting in scale.  So while we aren't a sandbox in the traditional sense? We support a variety of personal, intergroup, small group versus small group, and all group effecting plots.

It sounds like you have characters and stories in each faction that are so compelling, they may be taking on a life of their own!  Sometimes, that happens. I find it is always good to stay open to this idea because sometimes, people will follow specific character or characters to find their way into a plot. Sometimes, what those characters do are so influential that having a main plot tied to their actions works well.  If you have to, I'd separate out those character plots into what needs to stay personal and not main, versus what you could spin out into a site wide idea that affects one or more factions involved. I also think, too, that based on what you said it is possible to keep your sandbox overall while offering short term unification plots that meet that "site wide" feel, running these as often as your staff feel is workable in with schedules. 


- Everything that is more and truly "personal" you could leave in as an option for interested people to join in this plot to make it personal to them as too, but again emphasize that this does not impact the site as a whole nor is it a part of what you envision as the main plot. You may want to consider updating any area where you list how your site works, what you'd consider sandbox, how personal plots work, what is a faction wide something, and what may qualify later on as a site wide something, and when/how/if those will all cross.

- Elaborating on that last thing?  I'd sit down with your staff and figure out all of those things so that way you can better explain and show the differences in any plots you want to have open for individuals or have open for small group/large group/site wide participation. 

-Keep a certain number of plot types revolving that are easiest for you all to keep up with. This could be 1 faction plot per area or even 1 feature faction, and 1 site wide plot. Or perhaps the faction development or development of certain character's becomes the feature thing. You can rotate between large or small features, in any number you choose. We keep a list of revolving plots, a summary of them, and important things to keep track of so anyone can jump in at any time. Keeping it updated is always an ongoing thing, but it's worth it! 

- With your thirty-five member base, I'd definitely explore  a division idea within your plot if you do have anything site wide such as moving them in parts, with each part led by a different staff member (or community member, your members are great resources for all manner of things! ).

- Another idea to keep it more sandbox in style?  Take what makes your plots tick, write out a summary that loosely binds them all together, and prompt ideas for building individual plots off of. This could 1) allow you to remain more sandbox while 2) letting members experience a little more cohesion off of a unifying factor.

I hope you find what works best for you! 

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I found that "sitewide" plots often grow out of member-run individual plots, as those plots mesh and converge with one another. 

 

In the characters that are "left out", are there anything within their profiles that can spark their own personal missions? Or, better yet, anything those members can think of that was of interest/note in a recent thread. Even if its just a short little: Hey this NPC has a pretty cool artifacty thing HINT HINT PLOTCRUMB. Usually one or two of those plotcrumbs will interconnect with somebody else's story (said NPC in another thread: "Oh hey Staff-Char that people think is important, I met this other player character who took my special item they might be of use to you in xyz plan!"). 

 

Other than that, there's always a "raid" type event thread setting you can do just to kill time and allow some new IC interactions to see if that rumble-tumble sparks any new alliances. 

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