I've got a question for you, reader. Have you ever joined a Pokemon roleplay in which you made it to the end of the story? If you did, was it worth it? If you didn't, do you want to experience it one day?
In my personal experience, clearing through to the end of a roleplay was no easy task, and it required the luck or connections of fellow writers who shared in that vision. Even so, it was immensely rewarding, and it bolstered my confidence in the making of many future works, because I knew now I had the grit to finish them. Don't get me wrong, here. Even when you try writing a story together, and everyone quits out of boredom, you're still wiser from the experience.
But, well . . . I'd like to think you approached Everest with climbing gear to reach the top.
For those who do want to be part of a roleplay that reaches the end, you've already shown some potential by not clicking out of here upon discovering it wasn't the usual story pitch. I'll still be throwing out ideas for a worthy plot, but know that this is also a discussion with suggestions to help boost your confidence. Off the top of my head, these three come first to mind, most likely because they apply to roleplays in general:
1. Your roleplay MUST maintain momentum. If an airplane stops going forward, it falls- and the roleplays after the first page are an airplane graveyard. Once you judge a story worthy, commit to it with at least one post every day, to the point that everyone notices when 24 hours have gone by without a post from you. I cannot stress this enough. Post. Every. Day.
2. Know what is worth mentioning, and what you can skip over. There's a reason that books, movies, and TV shows transition forward in time past mundane events. Embrace the Time Skip, make it a regular thing with your co-authors, because otherwise you'll be trapped in the same day forever.
3. Establish what your characters want, and the barriers keeping them from it. Writer's block, and the Law of Diminishing Returns, for example, are a couple of the barriers that prevent you from completing your roleplays and becoming more confident. But if you really want what you don't have, you'll pursue it no matter what. Same with your characters: establish what they want, and want badly- but don't let them have it before the end. They may never get it, but as long as they hope, that's what's important.
Right, then. Time for that worthy plot brainstorm. The plot, of course, is composed of a setting, characters, conflicts, and themes, all mixed together by the various authors' styles. So, what's going to get a bunch of authors on the same wavelength for the long term? What is interesting enough to be worth coming back for daily, even for months and years at a time?
-Setting: For this, I'd bear the audience in mind. My default is an established Pokemon Region in the modern year, since that's what the core community here understands. However, if the joiners are a group of friends or acquaintances with a mutual desire for something more, such as a world in catastrophe, let it be voiced. That's what the polls are for.
-Characters: Since I can't speak for personalities before seeing them, for now let's talk numbers. I think that decent core group should be somewhere between three and six people. Any less, and it's no longer a "group." Any more, and we lose track of who's who. Not to be callous, but this means turning down applicants at peak capacity. Furthermore, like a D&D campaign, there ought to be some established reason for the group to remain in close proximity for the vast majority of the time. Otherwise, what stake do you have in reading the posts of some guy who's never interacting with you?
-Conflict: Arguably more than anything else, conflicts drive the narrative. OPs establish the setting, then joiners carefully detail their characters, but none of it matters if the struggle is weak, or just never established. A good villain makes an RP. So does a time crisis, or a desperate need to prove oneself. I'll flesh this out a little further down.
-Themes: Let's talk real life. You came here to escape reality, but guess what- it bleeds into your fantasy anyway. Getting bullied by adults? Let's have a nasty drill sergeant character. Scared of bad grades? Put your character through high-stakes practical testing. If you're going to commit to a story for a year, it might as well contain concepts that matter to you.
For starters, I imagine a story taking place in Kanto, following the events of the First Pokemon Movie (with Mewtwo). See? Most of us know about that. In an alternate timeline, after Mewtwo abandons his mission to take over the world with clones, a second genetic abomination picks it up. This entity, known only as Missingno, develops its own army of superior clones, then initiates a sort of "Noah's Ark" event in which it kills off every non-cloned pokemon, and much of humanity. I'm not sure whether to make this a deadly virus or a brutal war, but I'm leaning toward the virus. Without their former pokemon, the remaining trainers attempt to capture some cloned ones, but the clones prove immune to pokeballs. As a last resort, scientists perform a counter-clone operation, creating super-trainers with powers that allow them to dominate pokemon without balls. The characters are these Clone Trainers. Throughout the story, they receive military education through a mock trainer journey. When it is finished, they throw themselves against Missingno and its reign of clones.
See how everything I've been talking about adds up? Now, this is just a rough sketch, and not "worthy" yet by any means, but it should help with the conversation to come- assuming there is any. In a while, I will return to see if anyone responded. If it turns out there is no one on this site who is committed to posting daily, and obsessed with seeing a story through to the end, well hey, at least I'll know. But maybe there is.
In my personal experience, clearing through to the end of a roleplay was no easy task, and it required the luck or connections of fellow writers who shared in that vision. Even so, it was immensely rewarding, and it bolstered my confidence in the making of many future works, because I knew now I had the grit to finish them. Don't get me wrong, here. Even when you try writing a story together, and everyone quits out of boredom, you're still wiser from the experience.
But, well . . . I'd like to think you approached Everest with climbing gear to reach the top.
For those who do want to be part of a roleplay that reaches the end, you've already shown some potential by not clicking out of here upon discovering it wasn't the usual story pitch. I'll still be throwing out ideas for a worthy plot, but know that this is also a discussion with suggestions to help boost your confidence. Off the top of my head, these three come first to mind, most likely because they apply to roleplays in general:
1. Your roleplay MUST maintain momentum. If an airplane stops going forward, it falls- and the roleplays after the first page are an airplane graveyard. Once you judge a story worthy, commit to it with at least one post every day, to the point that everyone notices when 24 hours have gone by without a post from you. I cannot stress this enough. Post. Every. Day.
2. Know what is worth mentioning, and what you can skip over. There's a reason that books, movies, and TV shows transition forward in time past mundane events. Embrace the Time Skip, make it a regular thing with your co-authors, because otherwise you'll be trapped in the same day forever.
3. Establish what your characters want, and the barriers keeping them from it. Writer's block, and the Law of Diminishing Returns, for example, are a couple of the barriers that prevent you from completing your roleplays and becoming more confident. But if you really want what you don't have, you'll pursue it no matter what. Same with your characters: establish what they want, and want badly- but don't let them have it before the end. They may never get it, but as long as they hope, that's what's important.
Right, then. Time for that worthy plot brainstorm. The plot, of course, is composed of a setting, characters, conflicts, and themes, all mixed together by the various authors' styles. So, what's going to get a bunch of authors on the same wavelength for the long term? What is interesting enough to be worth coming back for daily, even for months and years at a time?
-Setting: For this, I'd bear the audience in mind. My default is an established Pokemon Region in the modern year, since that's what the core community here understands. However, if the joiners are a group of friends or acquaintances with a mutual desire for something more, such as a world in catastrophe, let it be voiced. That's what the polls are for.
-Characters: Since I can't speak for personalities before seeing them, for now let's talk numbers. I think that decent core group should be somewhere between three and six people. Any less, and it's no longer a "group." Any more, and we lose track of who's who. Not to be callous, but this means turning down applicants at peak capacity. Furthermore, like a D&D campaign, there ought to be some established reason for the group to remain in close proximity for the vast majority of the time. Otherwise, what stake do you have in reading the posts of some guy who's never interacting with you?
-Conflict: Arguably more than anything else, conflicts drive the narrative. OPs establish the setting, then joiners carefully detail their characters, but none of it matters if the struggle is weak, or just never established. A good villain makes an RP. So does a time crisis, or a desperate need to prove oneself. I'll flesh this out a little further down.
-Themes: Let's talk real life. You came here to escape reality, but guess what- it bleeds into your fantasy anyway. Getting bullied by adults? Let's have a nasty drill sergeant character. Scared of bad grades? Put your character through high-stakes practical testing. If you're going to commit to a story for a year, it might as well contain concepts that matter to you.
For starters, I imagine a story taking place in Kanto, following the events of the First Pokemon Movie (with Mewtwo). See? Most of us know about that. In an alternate timeline, after Mewtwo abandons his mission to take over the world with clones, a second genetic abomination picks it up. This entity, known only as Missingno, develops its own army of superior clones, then initiates a sort of "Noah's Ark" event in which it kills off every non-cloned pokemon, and much of humanity. I'm not sure whether to make this a deadly virus or a brutal war, but I'm leaning toward the virus. Without their former pokemon, the remaining trainers attempt to capture some cloned ones, but the clones prove immune to pokeballs. As a last resort, scientists perform a counter-clone operation, creating super-trainers with powers that allow them to dominate pokemon without balls. The characters are these Clone Trainers. Throughout the story, they receive military education through a mock trainer journey. When it is finished, they throw themselves against Missingno and its reign of clones.
See how everything I've been talking about adds up? Now, this is just a rough sketch, and not "worthy" yet by any means, but it should help with the conversation to come- assuming there is any. In a while, I will return to see if anyone responded. If it turns out there is no one on this site who is committed to posting daily, and obsessed with seeing a story through to the end, well hey, at least I'll know. But maybe there is.
Maybe I'm too used to talking to teenagers or young adults. Not too sure.