Mod Cooperative

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...

There is a lot of tacit knowledge acquired through modding that hasn't or can't really be put down to paper, but one of the things I've noticed lately is just how much hostility goes on between roleplayers on this server. Having managed to avoid that nearly completely in the games I've been a part of, I believe there are some points that need to be outlined for anyone running or considering running a game in this time and age.

One thing people don't realize is that a lot of OOC drama derives from unfulfilled expectations and that those happen because players don’t realize that not all types of played-by (PB) communities are the same anymore (and, because moderators often don't either, they fail to make known what exactly they are looking for in a game or players – or worse, they don’t even know what that is!).

One huge tip for anyone considering opening a game is: know what you are looking for. You need to know why you are opening a game, what type of play you are looking to implement and what kind of players would better suit the universe you are looking to create with your game. Having limited experience with fandom games, I’ll focus on PB roleplaying for the following considerations.

( Currently, in PB, there are two main types of communities: social networking communities and character development communities. )

Just some random thoughts running through my head. I'd love to hear other mods' thoughts on this or comment on any other issues you may have encountered while modding. I hope this is useful to someone out there.

I have modded several games throughout my RPing "career," and I've come across my first real issue...

A player who is joining the game was poking around on the holds page, looking at people's CDJ's, just getting curious about the type of people she might be playing with when she stumbled upon it. What is it, you say? Well, she found a saved application in the journal, and in that application was a 5 paragraph long personality that was completely plagiarized from one of her own applications.

The game that his application was from has long since been dead, and this application/personality is not in use at the moment. In fact, it just sort of sitting in her CDJ gathering dust, but still-- it's plagiarized material.

The problem is that the owner of the CDJ was holding her third character, after already having two within the game. None of the stuff that she used to get into the game was plagiarized from what I can tell, and her writing samples are just as good as her normal writing so I have no reason to be suspicious.

I know both players. The victim here is saying that she does not want the other player kicked out, which is fine by me, but...

That leaves the question: What should I do?

Help? Please?

x-posted because I'm desperate and will have to face this tomorrow

[Hi! First time poster here. advertisemyrp. Thought I'd share some advice from my life in RP, both playing and modding.]

You're bored. Your game lacks the spark it used to, or maybe you just got a really awesome idea. Your bestie thinks it's awesome too. (Of course she does, she thinks all your ideas are great, becuase she's awesome like that!) It's time to totally rearrange your game with one major plot move. Let's do it right now!

Stop. Just stop.

Yes, it's exciting, but pulling a quick change right now hurts your game. I've left a game due to the effects of this. I've also, as a well-meaning but overeager mod, pulled one myself and seen the unfortunate results. If your game is strong, it will probably survive, but it won't be better for it.

All those people who weren't part of this decision? They are going to feel left out. All those people who are having an unfortunate attack of real life and missed those exciting few hours? They are going to feel like the someone who went home and found that all the locks had been changed. Whether or not you know it, you're going to spend the next month earning back your players' trust and trying to help the lost sheep characters whose lives were rearranged while they were out.

I'm not saying big plot moves can't happen. They can be lots of fun. They just can't happen right this very minute. Like your mother told you, patience is a virtue. (She was a smart woman, your mother. You really should listen to her! Wash behind your ears and look both ways crossing the street too.) Your players are human, and like most humans, they fear change. It makes them nervous. It makes them reach for their chamomile tea, their Xanax, and their martinis. So here's what you do:

- Warn your players. Actual warning. You can spare a day, right? Or a week. A week would be great. Give them time to figure out how their characters fit into this change and to wrap up any plots that are going to be fucked up by this change.

- Plan when it will happen. (Hint: The middle of a weekday is a bad time.) Think about timezones too. That girl in Australia is not going to thank your Eastern Standard Time ass for finishing the plot before she even woke up.

- Leave it open. Give everyone a day or two to participate. Starting and finishing the plot within 24 hours is going to leave people out. Even if your game runs in real-time, find a way to leave some things hanging. Don't be greedy. It's no fair keeping all the plot fun for yourself.

That isn't so hard, is it?

I would like to try to make another next-gen HP game. After my first attempt which wasn't so great, I think I am ready to try again for the second time. I'm thinking of reopening my community battywarts and/or just making a classic next-gen game with no twists. But I need advice. I don't know many people out there, so how do I gain momentum and popularity for my game? And this is a MAYBE but if I did make such a game, would anyone want to co-mod it with me? I'm very good with graphics and codes. I just need somebody who knows basic HTML and such that is willing to commit to updating the community and doing modly things. And if I don't end up doing a community, I might do a PSL, anyone interested, please do comment!

So I was wondering... A friend and I have been working on getting together an RP over on lj based around Bioshock. Pre-fall Rapture setting, multi-fandom, etc. We've worked out most of the finer details and are at the stage of getting everything set up to open some time in the next few months, but we've hit somewhat of a block on the way. Not in the planning or design or plot ideas. Simply put, would anyone be interested in playing in that sort of game? We figure people that have played the games might app in, but what about people that haven't? Any sort of advice or input would be greatly appreciated!

Hi! Sorry to bother you guys but I was thinking of trying to make my first RPG. I have made an account on Livejournal for it but I'm not too sure whether I should be using Insanejournal instead. Insanejournal appears to be much more rpg orientated and would it, therefore, ultimately be better for the game if I switched?

Also, is it inappropriate for me to put ads for a Livejournal rpg in Insanejournal and vice versa?

Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jesse Turner was an average eight years old boy. Well, except, you know, the technical bit where he's the son of perdition, the Antichrist, the bringer of the end. But see here, the thing of it was, he didn't want the world to end. In fact, he doth firmly protest against the apocalypse, the cataclysm, the ekpyrosis, the great big armageddon, or whatever it was called in your corner of the world. So, you know, being your typical half-human half-demon entity of unfathomable power, he decided at a pivotal moment in the final battle between Heaven and Hell that he had had enough. He just wanted things to go back to a simpler time, when the proverbial crap hadn't hit the fan.

...All the way back to the ages when princesses needed rescuing, damsels needed saving, dragons needed slaying and witches needed burning.

http://palingenesia.insanejournal.com/1196.html

This would be a Supernatural group PSL, pulling in a mishmash of elements from medieval, the old west and whatever else little boys like to pretend play. Both canon and original characters would definitively be welcome, but in the case of the former, they would have to be reconstituted to fit Jesse's imaginary world.

Tell us what you want! Premades, yes or no? Mishmash of settings or stick to one (e.g. strictly medieval or strictly wild west, whatever)? Y/N to angels and demons? Something else you had in mind? We could also use one or two additional co-administrators to bounce ideas off of. :D