rpg_review_mod (rpg_review_mod) wrote in rpg_reviews, @ 2010-09-19 13:41:00 |
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"A Very Potter RPG has more charm in it's premise than most games have in their entirety. That's right, charm. What makes this game successful, aside from its plot and premise, is the persistent focus on fun roleplaying by people who love both Harry Potter and the joy of respectful parody. The attitude of the players in combination with consistent and thorough moderating makes this game a rare gem. Play it, or simply scroll through the pages. You're guaranteed to smile." Interesting, engaging, and multi-faceted are some of the only words to describe the premise and plot of this imaginative and fun game. averypotterrpg is one of those rare games that seems to have come out of the blue, but nevertheless has come out swinging. This game is somehow both dynamic and simple at once; a parody with respect for its source that is perfectly balanced in nearly every way. Despite the extreme comedic nature of the game, averypotterrpg (hereafter known as AVPRPG) never feels unwieldy or foreign to an outsider. It's not an inside joke; rather, it's a lark that the game, players, and moderators invite you to join in on through its bursting and colorful OOC community.
The scope of the plot and potential for gameplay are absolutely limitless. While the game is set in Harry's third year at Hogwarts, AVPRPG incorporates time travel- opening up the chance to play multiple versions of characters (imagine first-year Harry meeting 7th-year Harry!) dead favorites, and next-gen spawn all at the same time! Briefly, the opening plot is described thusly...
--Thanks to professor Quirrell and his swapping of the final Horcrux (the incredibly boss Zefron poster), Voldemort is once again back in the land of the living. This time, he's scattered his Horcruxes throughout time and space. Not only do the trio and company have to contend with school, they now have to take out all six fragments of Voldemort's soul, and look awesome doing it.--
With a premise like this, storytelling could never end. The potential range of the game is enviable and brilliant - limited only by the group's collective imagination, (and from what we've sampled of that imagination, we think that AVPRPG could be around for a long time). While the idea of time travel within the Harry Potter universe has the potential to be confusing and complex (Prisoner of Azkaban, anyone?), it’s explained easily, with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor that infuses the spirit of the game with a wink and a laugh.
Weekly plot posts by the moderator keep everything tight and on-task, though the game direction itself is guided entirely by the community and players at large. The game premise allows for both serious and parodist gameplay, main plot conflict and personal storylines- something entirely refreshing in the current insanejournal climate.
With a game rule like: If your character is dead, that's okay, a prospective player can't help but know what they're getting into. The range of possible roles is enviable: Not only is there the flexibility for the presence of endless canon characters, where death, age, space, and time don't matter, but the game is also open to original characters (OC). The real beauty is that one could apply to play Winston Churchhill if one really wanted to!
The Character Directory is littered with colorful icons, a nice change from the severe directories of other games, and the quotes from the musical are a charming addition that bring home (as with almost every other page) the tone and whimsical nature of this game.
AVPRPG has a great Character Suggestions page, which when paired with their Wanted page is an excellent springboard for the prospective player. It gives a lot of insight, not only in the sense of guidance towards what roles need to be filled, but by giving a feel for what the game and the players are looking for in terms of humor- which is incredibly important. Humor drives and fills this game with life.
For instance, all the characters are caricatures of themselves - that is, they are affectionate, mostly-respectful, amplifications of the traits we either love or love to hate. Each player celebrates the joys and irrationalities of the Potterverse and their character without agonizing over every detail of each expansive novel. There simply is no lore posturing in a serious manner - if it exists, it's used in a tongue in cheek way. For instance, you may not remember the color of Arthur Weasley's enchanted car, but if you remember that he has one, you can twist a joke about it. This game is bursting at the seams with players who celebrate roleplaying, each character a clear indicator of the joy, creativity, and the natural humor that makes this community great.
That being said, this game isn't necessarily for everyone. It's geared to fans of the Very Potter Musical, and much of the humor and joking therein references this source material. In fact, the application mandates that you watch it, going so far as to provide links to it. However, all the resources in this game -from the mod journal down to the active OOC board - make this fact and specific humor readily apparent; there is no way that a prospective player will accidentally get involved with this game. There is no misinformation here. It's geared to fans of the musical, and we recommend it (and the musical, which we enjoyed watching!) to anyone who likes to laugh.
Expectations, rules, guidelines, and fun are mingled together to produce an A+++, Hermione-grade potion due to excellent real-time moderation. From the very first look at the page outlining the premise, a player will know exactly the sort of atmosphere that they are about to experience. Through weekly activity checks and consistent plot updates, the moderator contains the energy inherent in this type of game and turns it into lightning in a bottle, rather than having it spread unevenly in posts that have no direction. The layout and design of the rules pages are crisp, clean, and efficiently organized - we particularly enjoyed the opening paragraph of the rules page, wherein players are directed to the points that the moderator felt were the most important. The expectations for players could not be more easily and concisely stated in such a manner. The HTML is routinely updated with current dates, and the design of the activity checks is top-notch!
The code, which may now be found here, is attractive, simple, and is modified from a favorite template from rp_tutorials. Clean directories, rules pages that aren't presumptuous, and a particularly brilliant hold page make this a moderator journal to learn from - Hold charts are often cluttered, too much significant information jumbled into tables that are impossible to navigate and utilize too many different map keys. In this game, nothing could be further from the truth here.
The top chart contains a simple highlighting system: All canon characters are present, but with two simple things to remember- pink is Taken, blue is Held. Clean, unobtrusive categories make everything easy to find, and presented in a neat table with clear highlighting. The actual hold chart is also well-maintained and designed.The OOC journal is well-organized and actively utilized by the entire player-base, and is filled with so much fun, humor, and good will towards players and the game that it is very easy to want to be involved with such a great group of people. It is updated weekly with activity checks and nearly-weekly with plot posts detailing not only the main plot of the game, but character-driven sidelines and main plotlines as well, so that all players are up-to-date with what is happening in the RP in real-time. This sort of moderation makes it far easier for players to “jump in” and find RP partners.
Aside from a few minor point deductions in Information Architecture/Navigation, (due to a desire to see more tags in the OOC community, a broken link in the rules, as well as a paragraph that cuts off mid sentence and one member of the rpg_review_mod team's desire to see an accepted character application in the Moderator journal), the game's navigation is superb: The navigation bar is seamless and identical on all pages of the mod journal, it links all three communities together and frequently, and everything you need is at your fingertips. (Mostly, we just want more tags. They are very useful!)
Other minor deductions occurred in OOC Board/Moderation due to slightly shifting activity checks- while it's stated in the rules that they will occur (roughly) weekly and this is subject to change, we've observed them moved more often than remain static. The checks do happen, and it's likely that more stability will occur with time. Communication is so superb in the community -- changes in the checks are so frequently communicated and updated in the games Rules -- that this deduction became an almost frivolous point, hardly worth mentioning.This game is TOTALLY AWESOME
94/100THINGS WE LOVE:
There are several innovative things about the game itself, but in the mod journal, one particular thing caught our attention first: the conscious use of the page title!
This is such an interesting and completely under-utilized tool for mod journals! When seen in use here, the possible multi-faceted future uses become obvious, and make it a great tool that deserves recognition! Sure, currently the title is about their boss Zefron poster (which, incidentally, is a direct tie-in with their ads, a marketing strategy so easily ingrained in the subconscious that when we mods first began reviewing, something clicked and went, ohhhh, that game), but it's an excellent use of billboard space (and, who doesn't like thinking about the Zefron poster?)
How simple would it be for any mod to change this heading to reflect game needs? "Now accepting applications" or "Rules updated September 2010", for those who don't rely on your OOC board for information?
Wizarding Twitter:
We loved it. From the provision of a code from the mods to the players to aid posts in looking like "authentic twitter" lines, to the actual threads utilizing it. One of the many sources of great laughs, planning, and updates between plot threads. This is a modern twist that's been seamlessly incorporated into the game - we had to give recognition!
The Best. Acceptance. Notice. Ever
The lively and entertaining OOC board, activity checks, and detailed plot posts.
And while short applications are often troublesome, one can't argue with the humor in these bios:
All images, while capped by rpg_review_mod, are property of verypottermods, averypotterrpg, and averypotterooc. Game content, posts pictured, and character biographies have been unaltered save for cropping and remain property of the game. The banner used above has been created for, and is now the property of averypotterrpg for use in their journals and for advertising.