Finishing an RP; is it a myth?

[El_Gringo]

Another Rp killer is, unfortunately, refusal to play a minor role or character unoriginality. Many people want the story to revolve around their character and if it doesn't, the 'lead' role already having been claimed, they throw in a tragic backstory and thrust their character out there with no actual understanding of wherethat character belongs the world it was just placed in. The character will fit into like one of five archtypes, none of which does anything for the story. You can't build a plot around 16 rebel teenage girls wthat because of some trauma as children, are unable to be brainwashed by the overlord leader....unless they form a badass team of revolutionary war women who crush the patriarchy. 0.0 lol But even still, someone has to be the overlord and someone has to play the faction, and really 16 fairly identical characters who would all react the same, nobly I'm sure, gets a little tried after a while....I'm going on a tangentand getting off track, I apologise but it makes a legitimate point.

Agreed 100% here. That's where I come in. I'm completely fine with a supporting/recurring/guest type role, in fact, it is actually refreshing. Consider me a 'character writer' at times.

Every one of my RPs here have died of course, I have never helmed one. One time I contributed to the falter, by moving to a new city and completely forgetting I was even in the RP. As previously mentioned, many try to tackle too much at once. More often than not it is peoples' work and school that are the antagonist.

This is why I try to push the idea of using these roleplays or collaborative writings as 'seasons' like on a TV show. Get your world, setting, and characters have a general arc/plot ready. Strive to finish that one. Congratulations if you do, consider that season 1. Maybe it will stop there, but hell, a lot of TV shows are canned after one season. At least there was a finished product to enjoy. What is frustrating is getting cancelled one or two episodes in.

[Fairess]

Finding a group of dedicated roleplayers is difficult. Even now when I read the interest check or the player's wanted adds I'm overly cautious. I don't want to work on creating a new character and getting excited and then be let down when the roleplay doesn't take off or flops. I can start my own but I don't want to GM, I don't want the responsibility, but most of all I don't want to do the work to introduce a new RP, accept players and then watch it die for one reason or other.

I think I'm greatly discouraged at this point.

I feel your pain. It resonated so strongly with me I even walked in here to talk about it! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into an RP (on various roleplay sites) with high hopes and a hunger for collaborative writing, only to see the collapse of an entire creative world within a month. When you start out in a new community, the chances of you finding not only a continuous (and eventually ending) roleplay, but a group of inspirational, persistent writers is close to zero. You usually start with a bunch of flakes who are eager to jump into an idea and slow to actually collaborate, and then you look for the local veterans who are already unreachable, as they are well within their own circle of friends and busy with their own roleplays.

So I did my time. I found the available people, jumped into thread ideas I didn’t resonate with (all the good ones always seem to be full before I can get to them for some reason), and eventually came to the conclusion that roleplaying can really suck. You put your heart out there, you give it expression the best way you know how, and then people walk away like it never existed—or worse yet, you’ll get stuck in a downward spiral where you see the death of a thread coming because everything about working with those people is downright miserable. Finding a group of people you can write with long enough to complete a story is really, really hard. Like, really.

But I once heard that when dreaming up the person you want to marry, the features you give that hot mess are also features you should strive to develop in yourself. If you want people who will be patient enough to wait however long it takes to complete a thread, you must be patient. You must sit through countless ideas that dribble off into the nether of the internet and be willing to dream up more. If you want people that inspire your creativity, you must strive to inspire others with what you write—not by thinking about yourself, but thinking about others. What are people writing about? What do they want in the story you share? If you want people to be persistent, you must be persistent in writing frequently and letting others know your limits so they can help when you feel overwhelmed. If you want friendly writers to help you, you must also be friendly, helpful, and above all, hopeful.

Eventually, there will come a day where you find yourself in the circle of veterans, that close group of friends who trust and enjoy writing together (and finishing threads, too). You will make not just creative, but personal connections with others so you can trust them with the things you want to create. If it happened for me, I’m sure it can happen for you, too.

Blackbird26 kind of already summed all that up in much less words, though: “Finding a good group, or at least a partner, that you can rely on to stick around to the end is a tricky thing, but it can be done.” Might use that as a bumper sticker or something…

It would probably also help to take the advice of the other awesome people here. As Mistress of Disguise put it, “Wish fulfilment, lack of communication, not mapping out the plot from beginning to end, no minor roles, or lack of creativity will all leave what should have been a wonderful roleplay stone cold dead in the water, people jumping ship like it's the titanic. But with a little tact and a checklist, you can have a sucessful roleplay if you find other people dedicated to its success as much as you are.”

I’ve found this to be very true for myself. When people disappear from my threads, I haven’t always made the effort to even ask them if something is going on or if they’re interested in continuing. I haven’t communicated with them to find out what part they want their characters to play in the story or where we’re even trying to go. And ultimately, I haven’t always had the conviction to even stick with what I thought was a good idea. But if you really care about your story, you have to realize that things don’t always go great the first time (kind of like a first draft). Don’t be afraid to try again or to work with new people. The more people you work with, the more you hone your ability to focus a story and find writers you want to work with, the greater chance you’ll have of finishing an epic roleplay.

That being said, my true induction into roleplay was when I finished a roleplay that took an entire year to complete. There was even an inactivity period of close to four months. But most of the people in it stuck around and communicated what they wanted and what we could have our characters do together. It’s that genuine interest in other people’s work, that belief that what you’re writing together is actually worth something that will eventually get you to the finish line. I learned that the wait can be worth it, and it’s worth remembering that perhaps the most important attribute of a co-writer is, in fact, patience.

[six]

Ive been a part roleplays that lasted 4 plus years. Characters have died, had children etc but there was never a conclusion. In the end it just fizzled or in some cases groups split because of creative differences and started a "spin off." I try to run my role play rooms on a seasonal basis. If at the end of a year I can end the season and start a new one I consider that a conclusion. It rarely happens though. A lot of ideas are either non starters because of waning interest or the setting/story are too complex and require more commitment than I have time for. Now I shoot for simplicity. This thread though makes me want to try a storyline that has a built in time line. For example, a group of "questers" that are chosen and given a certain set of abilities that come at the cost of a life drain. Or a suicide mission. Could be very interesting to see people play out that panic close to the end and to see who will stray or betray the mission in the name of recklessness.