RPTs: Gone Missing

[Gimfalisette]

I sense unrest in the playerbase. I sense boredom. I sense ennui. I sense there's just not enough going on, not enough happening, nothing jumping. I sense noobs aren't seeing the full wonder, and I sense vets are burnt out and waiting for other people to make things happen. I sense leaders are purposeless, minions are aimless, and indies see little reason to join clans.

I sense a severe lack of RPTs.

While tavern-sitting and hunting and crafting and trading are the day-to-day activities our PCs engage in, and which are somewhat fun, most of us need more in order to keep us truly engaged and excited about the game. We need the shot in the arm of RPTs. We need reasons to get together and do stuff.

So this is my plea to the playerbase: Get out there and make some RPTs. Draw your fellow-players in, involve them, make things happen. In Allanak, in Tuluk, in Luir's, in the Tablelands. Start planning stuff, communicating about stuff, and doing stuff. Do it for you and your group of buddies, do it for your clan, do it for your city, do it for the whole world.

Last year at this time we were in the midst of a lot of interesting RPTs. Stuff was happening and it was Fun. A lot of clans were involved in a lot of stuff. We could be doing that now, and we don't need to wait for imms to make us do it. In fact, it's not the imms' job TO make us do it. It's our job, and we're slacking.

Leaders, run RPTs. Minions, run RPTs and/or suggest them to your leaders. Indies, there's no reason you can't be running RPTs.

Who's with me? I know I've slacked. Are you ready to stop slacking too? I'm ready and willing to help anyone who wants to throw RPTs for the good of the playerbase figure out what to do and how to do it.

[Riev]

As I can really only take orders on my character, for now, I must say that I've had quite some fun in [city I am playing in]. There has been a lot going on, considering the amount of time I -do- end up idling for reasons almost beyond my control.

I've thrown out orders to merchant houses, thinking offering the Byn some money for training sessions, and a bunch of stuff, I just havn't gotten around to it. Heck, I keep trying to talk to [certain PC] about obtaining a gift for [certain leader PC] but things just keep coming up and I don't get the chance.

To the playerbase: I'M SORRY!

Addendum to the playerbase: DO MORE STUFF!

[a strange shadow]

em glances at the amount of non-stop action time she's been clocking in Armageddon lately.

>think *alarm* This is a "slow time"?!

Maybe it's all a matter of perspective. There are RPTs in the works...

I am liking this relative quiet a bit better than the OMG EPIC NONSTOP DRAMA of last year.

[Gimfalisette]

There are RPTs in the works... maybe not enough of them?

What I'm not seeing is:

-- Clan internal RPTs. Adventuring trips, just-for-fun times. Responsibility of clan leaders and minions to throw for clannies. May or may not be plot-related.

-- Inter-clan RPTs. Bigger adventuring things done between clans, usually in the pursuit of some kind of plot objective. Requires leadership coordination.

-- Public RPTs. Festivals, parties, auctions, bardic competitions, arena events. These should never be the bread-and-butter of RPTs, but compared to last year I'm seeing very few. One this past month and a rumor of one to come, but still it's very few, relatively speaking.

The Player Announcements forum is relatively dead in announcements for RPTs and/or follow-up postings of "omg awesome wow!" The city boards are dead. What I can see and hear by IC contacts is dead.

So, whether or not one player is experiencing a lot of activity...RPTs just aren't happening. Not comparatively speaking. All of the above RPT types can be handled by PC leadership and/or minions, and I would really like to see people doing more of it.

[Malken]

I killed a verrin hawk earlier.

[Riev]

New RPT: Verrin Hawks and Kylori make friends, and start a war against Malken.

[Salt Merchant]

I'll pipe up briefly to say that perhaps part of the problem is that adversity is being dealt with so efficiently these days. My last character got embroiled in conflict and was preparing to go on a (targeted) rampage for vengeance but was suddenly cut down despite two actions that -really- should have saved her.

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Arm 2.0 has been opened to playtesting to a select group. It would explain the sudden dip in player levels, wouldn't it? Naturally, it would be the "cream" of the playerbase (those most likely to get things going) that would be invited.

[FantasyWriter]

There are RPTs in the works... maybe not enough of them?

What I'm not seeing is:

-- Clan internal RPTs. Adventuring trips, just-for-fun times. Responsibility of clan leaders and minions to throw for clannies. May or may not be plot-related.

-- Inter-clan RPTs. Bigger adventuring things done between clans, usually in the pursuit of some kind of plot objective. Requires leadership coordination.

-- Public RPTs. Festivals, parties, auctions, bardic competitions, arena events. These should never be the bread-and-butter of RPTs, but compared to last year I'm seeing very few. One this past month and a rumor of one to come, but still it's very few, relatively speaking.

The Player Announcements forum is relatively dead in announcements for RPTs and/or follow-up postings of "omg awesome wow!" The city boards are dead. What I can see and hear by IC contacts is dead.

So, whether or not one player is experiencing a lot of activity...RPTs just aren't happening. Not comparatively speaking. All of the above RPT types can be handled by PC leadership and/or minions, and I would really like to see people doing more of it.

Agreed, especially inter-clan RPTs.

[FantasyWriter]

To: Salt Merchant
RE: Avatars

The Pen is mightier than the Sword.

[manonfire]

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Arm 2.0 has been opened to playtesting to a select group. It would explain the sudden dip in player levels, wouldn't it? Naturally, it would be the "cream" of the playerbase (those most likely to get things going) that would be invited.

I also hear aliens are performing telepathic brain surgery on us from their mothership.

[Salt Merchant]

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Arm 2.0 has been opened to playtesting to a select group. It would explain the sudden dip in player levels, wouldn't it? Naturally, it would be the "cream" of the playerbase (those most likely to get things going) that would be invited.

I also hear aliens are performing telepathic brain surgery on us from their mothership.

Haha... I heard one of your parents -might- be human.

[Gimfalisette]

Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Arm 2.0 has been opened to playtesting to a select group. It would explain the sudden dip in player levels, wouldn't it? Naturally, it would be the "cream" of the playerbase (those most likely to get things going) that would be invited.

The sudden dip in player levels had to do with the beginning of the school year. It's the same thing that happens every school year. If you look at the numbers, you will see that they have begun to come back up in November...also as usual. Ditto numbers at peak time.

Posting "suspicions" like this really does nothing positive for the game and for player-imm trust and interaction.

Also, guys, could you please derail less? It's really not helpful. Just as a reminder, the topic here is RPTs, how we're not having enough of them, and what everyone can do to pitch in and solve it.

[Salt Merchant]

The sudden dip in player levels had to do with the beginning of the school year. It's the same thing that happens every school year. If you look at the numbers, you will see that they have begun to come back up in November...also as usual. Ditto numbers at peak time.

Odd, I remember summers as being the time of lower players before. Things would always pick up again in the fall when students left summertime distractions and returned to their ISP-provided universities.

But okay, bye again.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I have Faled at providing RPT times for my players.

I'm sorry.

Let me go post one now.

Thank you, Gimf, for your encouragement.

To contribute to the conversation, though, I would like to just make a few points.

Personally, I like activity on my RPTs. With the change in the environment over the past few years, and seeing less and less activity during patrols and so on and so forth, I admit to becoming a tad jaded, given how much I like getting to use the fighting code. But I can fix that. I have been batting around goals that do not include the OOC goal of 'let's get into a fight', as patrols really tend to amount to no more than just that, but also tend to be the easiest RPTs to have.

With Staff being involved in many more things than they used to be, and with them being organized in a completely different fashion nowadays, Staff-on-Clan time is just not as frequent as it used to be. Staff-assisted RPTs have always been interesting to me, and perhaps I have lain too much value on them. I'm sorry for that. There are a great many things that we can do without Staff. I plan to do my best to investigate ways to work on this.

[Gimfalisette]

<3 7DV

Personally, I like activity on my RPTs. With the change in the environment over the past few years, and seeing less and less activity during patrols and so on and so forth, I admit to becoming a tad jaded, given how much I like getting to use the fighting code. But I can fix that. I have been batting around goals that do not include the OOC goal of 'let's get into a fight', as patrols really tend to amount to no more than just that, but also tend to be the easiest RPTs to have.

With Staff being involved in many more things than they used to be, and with them being organized in a completely different fashion nowadays, Staff-on-Clan time is just not as frequent as it used to be. Staff-assisted RPTs have always been interesting to me, and perhaps I have lain too much value on them. I'm sorry for that. There are a great many things that we can do without Staff. I plan to do my best to investigate ways to work on this.

Adventuring trips are fun. (Especially when it's not a hugemongous group of players. Smallish is better for adventuring.) And staff-assisted RPTs are fun.

But you're entirely right, those types of RPTs don't even close to cover all the possibilities of RPTs. There's so much that can be done, and it's so (relatively) easy to do.

Thanks for your renewed efforts. I appreciate it and I'm sure your clannies will, too.

[Attana]

There are RPTs in the works... maybe not enough of them?

What I'm not seeing is:

-- Clan internal RPTs. Adventuring trips, just-for-fun times. Responsibility of clan leaders and minions to throw for clannies. May or may not be plot-related.

-- Inter-clan RPTs. Bigger adventuring things done between clans, usually in the pursuit of some kind of plot objective. Requires leadership coordination.

-- Public RPTs. Festivals, parties, auctions, bardic competitions, arena events. These should never be the bread-and-butter of RPTs, but compared to last year I'm seeing very few. One this past month and a rumor of one to come, but still it's very few, relatively speaking.

The Player Announcements forum is relatively dead in announcements for RPTs and/or follow-up postings of "omg awesome wow!" The city boards are dead. What I can see and hear by IC contacts is dead.

So, whether or not one player is experiencing a lot of activity...RPTs just aren't happening. Not comparatively speaking. All of the above RPT types can be handled by PC leadership and/or minions, and I would really like to see people doing more of it.

Maybe not where you're playing.  Don't assume the lack of RPT's in your area and clan is what is happening everywhere else.

I for one am and have been involved in many cool plots, not so much in the way of RPT's, but we don't need an RPT every day, or even once every month.   Places and clans have up and down times, perhaps where you're located it's that region of the game world's downtime.  IMHO, it used to be that when there -was- a lot of activity it was an RPT (recommended playing time).  The occassional RPT event should be just an added bonus, and not something that people depend on to happen.

Perhaps the reasons you're not seeing any "omg wow awesome" posts, is because people are using the request tool like they're supposed to for that.

What could -we- do to solve the lack of RPT -events-? 
-Host shit.
-Imagine some report of some dangerous new threat, and take a group of hunters and friends out to investigate.
-Collaborate with a friend ICly about hosting a party or festival for whatever and post about it.
-Have a bunch of little RPT's all the time, and make specific times a RPT. 
To leaders in clans: 
-Post on your GDB board about running a patrol around a set time every night no matter what time and how many people show up (This applies for training). 
-Follow through with such posts.
-While in the middle of training, create a situation at the compound using VNPC's, send your underlings out to trap the said VNPC in the situation.
-Have and exploring expedition.
-Have a supply run. 
-Change up the training schedule as much as possible.
-Have a clan meeting with all the soldiers present.
-Discuss possible changes to the training schedule.
-Discuss inventing a new fighting technique to practice during training.
-Lead classes on teaching riding to the inexperienced of the clan.

There's a number of things even the average Joe character could do to bring back more interest in certain playing areas with a little imagination... and I think I'm spent on the subject for now.

[Ghost]

I killed a verrin hawk earlier.

oh man so much fun

[LauraMars]

I HAVEN'T LOGGED IN SINCE AUGUST

[bardbard#4]

i applied for a noble.

i was going to run quests.

haven't heard back yet.

[brytta.leofa]

I HAVEN'T LOGGED IN SINCE AUGUST

And here I was wondering why the crimecode change had so little impact.

[Malken]

I HAVEN'T LOGGED IN SINCE AUGUST

When I'm not playing Arm, I really miss it, but when I start playing it, I really don't know why I'm playing it.

So I go kill a verrin hawk, ruin some silks, then log out.

BTW, your avatar is not dancing like mine!!

[tortall]

One has been posted.

I have been told more are to come from that same person.

[Fathi]

The only RPTs I've seen lately have been parties and they've all been insufferable every time I've tried to attend one.

Not because they're boring, but it's really hard to enjoy an RPT when you've got 20 people all crammed into one room all talking and emoting at the same time. I can't stand them because of the nonstop spam.

I dunno about how others feel, but it makes me want to attend certain types of RPT a lot less and stay for much shorter intervals of time.

[Zoltan]

Not because they're boring, but it's really hard to enjoy an RPT when you've got 20 people all crammed into one room all talking and emoting at the same time. I can't stand them because of the nonstop spam.

The spam drives me nuts, too. When I play around a ton of other PCs, I tend to just clam up at my keyboard because so many things are happening so fast. Granted, I've been part of some really kick-ass RPTs that had a shit ton of players, but still... it's something I can only handle once in a great while.

With all of my characters, I've always been most fond of the little 3-5 PC adventurin' "RPTs".

[Attana]

The only RPTs I've seen lately have been parties and they've all been insufferable every time I've tried to attend one.

Not because they're boring, but it's really hard to enjoy an RPT when you've got 20 people all crammed into one room all talking and emoting at the same time. I can't stand them because of the nonstop spam.

I dunno about how others feel, but it makes me want to attend certain types of RPT a lot less and stay for much shorter intervals of time.

Seconded.

I usually end up idling during these RPT's and changing my ldesc to something like:

The Woman is here, looking absolutely bored.

And cue up my RP to match it.