Mod Cooperative

I have been trying for the past year or so to come up with a panfandom game that will actually last, or even gain enough characters to start in the first place for that matter.

I've played in games that were already established and active, and while they were fun, they only gave me ideas of games I would like to start. I don't think I'm doing anything differently, and I try to make the premise and design of the mod journal as interesting as I can, but I still get only a few bites.

I'd like to give it another go, but I'd rather not go through all the work it takes to set something up if no one's going to give it a chance. It seems to me that it's hard for a person to start a game that lasts even if the premise is interesting.

My question is... How do I start a new game that will actually get off the ground if everyone is only looking for established games to play in? I'm open to any and all ideas you can help me with. Please help me. I have good ideas, I think, but they just never seem to work out....

Fellow panfandom mods! I have some questions for you. I'm looking for general opinions about activity in a fast paced, plot heavy panfandom setting for a large game (35+ players, 200+ characters). What kind of rules regarding activity do you think are fair? How do you go about enforcing them? When a player is not up to that activity requirement, how do you handle it? Do you have rules about hiatuses? How do they come into play when it comes time to check up on activity? Any opinions or just sharing how you've handled activity checks successfully in the past would be helpful to me! I'm just wondering if the way I handle it at my game is the best way or if there are other ways out there that might be better for myself and my players.

Thanks!!!

( This is a little bit long, so I put it under here. )

So, I'm thinking about starting a game.

I've got a couple of ideas floating around in my head for plot, but my real problem is gauging interest. Essentially, I'm thinking about starting a game because no games exist for this fandom anymore and I really want to play with it. But I also don't want to go to the work of creating it if no one's going to want to play. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to go about seeing if there'd be a player base for it?

(Fandom's Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, by the way. It'd most likely be a mixture of anime & manga history.)

This might be a weird question, but what do other people do when in character threads are becoming too filled with drama (sometimes bordering on crack) and veering away from the premise of the game? (Keeping in mind that the game in question is 1.) Glee-based, so a certain level of OTT stuff is expected and 2.) an AU where the characters have super powers) But there are a few story lines going on currently that just don't fit the overall tone of the game I want to present. I don't want to be SUPER CONTROLLY MOD, but I want to encourage more overall character development and less focus on angst smutty shipping lines.

So, are there any suggestions? (I've got a few game-wide plots planned, and we do random threads every now and then to get people interacting with character they normally might not.)

So some of this is rehashing what I've said before in comments over in rp_tutorials, but it's gotten buried and I feel it deserves its own post. ( Advertising tips - avoiding missing/blocked images ) ( Stop losing your notifications ) ( Getting Greasemonkey scripts to work in Chrome )

I'm in a bit of a conundrum. I've been running a game for about four months and everything is still really active, but due to school and time restraints, we've lost quite a few players, mostly those that are essentially OC's (name only characters and family members of canon characters). When I took a game-wide poll the players left decided that instead of us trying to recast those characters that we just relaunch the game, omitting the storylines that said characters were involved with and moving things around.

Here's where I'm having a problem; I've never re-launched a game before and everyone that I know who has has only done so after the game has died plot-wise (i.e. things died down, they closed, re-did some things, and re-opened after a few months or weeks). What is the best way to go about relaunching the game when it's still open, we've got active plots going on, and we have a ton of holds and apps in process?

Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated.

Hi everyone. I'm trying to open a game - it's very much still in the planning stages, and I feel like I've spent a lot more time on the code than on the actual content. Pretty much every page is up for tweaking and revision. But the biggest problem I'm having is with the FAQ section.

My game is about students in a boarding school, holding out against a zombie apocalypse. Everyone inside the school is safe (as much as you can be), everyone outside is Infected. What I need right now, is someone to look at what I have and ask me questions, in a Devil's Advocate sort of way. It's not that I don't know the information, it's that I'm having trouble thinking of what needs to be included, and what people are likely to wonder about (some things that seem obvious to me, might not to others).

I'd really appreciate concrit, because I've spent a lot of time and effort on the game and pages, and I'd like to know, as players and as mods, what the good points are and what I need to tighten up before I can think about advertising.

Thanks!

( I've found myself in an increasingly uncomfortable situation. :T )

So, this is a little embarrassing but I'm here because I really need help on this game I'm setting up. I would love to say that I'm capable of doing all the work on my own to complete this game but in reality I'm having a little trouble. I'll get more to that in a second.

As a whole, here are a few things to know about it:

It's a Doctor Who panfandom game, though not exactly what you'd expect. If some games are sandbox games this one is a little more linear and plot driven. It is from the perspective of the characters and oriented to give the characters something to do at all times but also the choice to go off and do things on their own. There are "daily tables" posted every two days on updates of what's going on, when the next big plot is, etc. Each large plot will occur usually within the expanse of a two to three week period and will last anywhere from two weeks or a little over. Characters will be given a choice to just stay inside the TARDIS (the "space ship"), explore outside on wherever it lands or join in on the large plot; giving typically a lot of leg room as well as choices on what people want to do at any given time. Over all it is far more focused on being a Panfandom game set in the Doctor Who universe as opposed to anything of a Doctor Who game that allows characters from other fandoms to join in. There are caps on each fandom, roughly five per fandom, to keep others from outnumbering.

It is a linear game, one that moves foreword with an end game plot (though probably not for some time) and before releasing it my goal is to write up all of or at least a good number of the plots before releasing the game itself. So far I've got almost everything other than the plots basically set up aside from some editing and small changes.

HERE again is the game so far.

What I'm looking for:

Someone who has good ideas for game-wide plots whether you know anything about Doctor Who or not. Or someone who is good at tossing back and forth ideas and collaborating for some good game-wide plots that could be good to mess with. Really, what I need now is ideas to work with and flesh out.

Basically what you need to know is that characters are trapped on an ominous looking ship that is capable of traveling through time and space and occasionally lands in different worlds and time periods. This of course gives a lot to work with and while I'm willing to write up these plots no problem I do need someone to help with the fleshing out of ideas themselves.

Tags: advice, game: fandom

Dear fellow mods, I have a question for you.

Anonymous holds. This game I'm modding is extremely new (we started advertising US!Friday) and have had three since then in a row. Two are relatively big characters ones not. One held a PB too.

Should it be something to be wary about? In my experience people at least create a character journal if they don't have an OOC one before holding. Am I being overly paranoid?

Okay I need some help from my fellow mods.

I and another woman run an RPG together. She advertised for a character and someone brought them in. Now we went over the app, the samples were fine, not perfect, but definitely acceptable. Once she started playing with them, it became obvious that the samples were of a higher quality than her actual roleplaying.

Now my co-mod feels like she's in a difficult situation, since she asked someone to bring in this character for one of hers, and this player did.

But how do we handle this? Should she talk to the player first? Should we handle it as a mod situation from the very beginning? I know that sometimes we have to be mean as mods and set our foot down, but in this case, I'd prefer to take a compassionate route first.

Any help would be appreciated.

So I’ve been tossing around ideas for a game but off the bat I know it has to be short term. The very nature of the game (a horror/survival type) means it could only really go for about 2 - 4 months. That said, I’ve never been in a game that’s been purposefully run to be that short so I’m not sure how best to do it. Can it be done? Is there a time of the year that’s best for this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So, I'm new to this whole modding thing, but have been in a few really good games in the past. I even spoke to my former mods, before I went about setting up the game I've just opened, and received some really good advice. I think it's a good game, has a lot of creative freedom available, and I think a good premise.

The problem is, we're not having many bites, and I can't quite understand why. I'm starting to think that people favor fandom games more than original games, or even celeb games. I would love to have some opinions, suggestions... someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong even?

Thanks in advance! And this is my game.

Hey everyone,

I've got a general question, something that's been weighing on my mind for a long time. I've been modding games on and off for a couple of years now and I'm curious to see what other people think. The questions is essentially: What makes a good mod? Are there any specific do's and don'ts that mods should follow? Obviously this is a very subjective thing and I'm curious about other people's input. My own general "rules" are as follows:

1.) First and foremost, a mod should be active in his or her own comm and they should facilitate the development of the premise/plot through their characters and/or through mod posts and mod-controlled events.
2.) A mod should help promote general harmony within the comm by helping to sort out arguments between players and generally attempting to keep OOC drama to a minimum.
3.) Mods should facilitate character interaction, i.e. not only play with the same couple of people. Cliques in comms are a whole different topic and I think it's okay if you like/click with/have major lines with only a few different people, but as I mod I feel like it's part of the job description to play with people other than just your favorite writers.
4.) Mods should follow their own rules and do their best not to play favorites.
5.) Finally, mods should to their best to be good RPers and lead by example. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, but if the mods don't look good as RPers, it reflects poorly on the entire comm.

Those are just my thoughts, and I understand that my personal standards are pretty high. What does everyone else think?

Hey kids. I'm in the early processes of shaping my game idea right now. The premise and the conclusion of the game are all thought out, it just needs some structuring to be able to move from hypothetical to IJ. Thus far that structuring has been going slowly but steadily. Applications, however, are really beginning to make me fidget.

I checked the previous posts here to see if there was a dilemma similar to my own. There was. However the post was rather old and the responses, while helpful, haven't killed my anxiety. I decided to give the inquiry another shot to see if there were any new spins.

( Ramblin' elaboration on my personal troubles with this app business. )

So, if you can spare the time and the insight, I'm curious as to what makes and app interesting to you, and what makes it frustrating. As a mod, what kind of sections have you used that have worked really well and given really good insight? As a player, what's easy or difficult to complete, where do you have to repeat things, what is fun to think about? What do you like in applications? And generally, where have you seen a good balance between efficiency and fun?

Additionally, if you can link me to any other communities that have asked this question or that might help me with this I'd me much obliged for that as well.

-AJ

Hi!

Long time browser, first time poster.

So I have a problem. I've run a few games on GJ and IJ over the years. The last open game I ran was The Field, which closed in September of '09. Now that I am done with college and I'm revisiting the game (you may have seen me spamming the ads like crazy), I'm a little bit lost. I fell out of touch with many of my writing friends while in school. They moved on to bigger and better things. But that's ok! I am keen to meet new people!

So the new iteration of the game, The Field: Abandoned Oasis, has been open for a week and a half. I've been advertising like crazy and chasing down my little black book of RPers, and I've had a single app. Just one!

Despite telling myself to buck up, I am a sad panda. So I ask you, wise mods of the interweb - what am I doing wrong? I have a different concept from what seems to be "out there," I have a flexible game, no PB bans, interactive setting, and heaps of willingness to work with people. I've been advertising like a wild thing but I'm starting to worry that I may be flooding, and I ought to scale it back.

Have any of you been in this situation before? How have you handled it?

What do you guys think is the best way to ask someone to tag without sunding rude/annoying/nagging?

OK, I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a bit now. There is definitely a criminal/dark side to the Wizarding World, those who hang about in Knockturn for instance. Not every one of them is a Death Eater though. Some are petty criminals, others conmen and most of them only looking out for themselves. There must be some sort of hierarchy to this world. What I was thinking was of an RP set in that world, sort of like The Sopranos meets Harry Potter.

I'm thinking it'd work better as a shorter game, more of a "the game ends when x,y and z happens" rather than "it ends until we get tired of it". There'd be an overarching plot (unsure what yet), but a lot of decisions could be made by the players. Like if this capo were to get whacked or that gang to be taken over, etc.

What do you all think? Would there be interest in a game like this? Does anyone have any ideas as to the overarching plot, or want to mod it/set it up with me? Any help would be appreciated!

Hello, all. I just opened an OC/PB character plot driven Final Fantasy related game about a week ago, and it's my first time modding anything online in a very long time. I've advertised on several FF and ad communities, but so far no one has shown any interest. Is there anywhere else outside of IJ/LJ where I can advertise (I've considered using Hollow Art)? Or should I just be more relentless with advertising on the current available communities? Or maybe I should make my ad fancier and/or more attractive? Also, I'm looking for a co-mod. Maybe someone who's already more into the thread based rpg scene who could help me advertise and spread the word about my game. I don't have any coding issues. Everything is ready to go. I just need an awesome co-mod and some players. Any kind of help would be appreciated because I'm really at a loss right now...