Positive Net Plot Flow!

NOTE: I originally wrote this as a staff member on the old site and posted it to the staff boards. Nothing ever really came of it but I wondered what the members would think of it. But as a result of its origin, the tone is very different to what I would usually post as feedback.

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PLOT ADVANCEMENT IDEA

Okay so I've had feedback from several members about issues- this has been raised generally on the c-box too, but it's something a couple people have talked to me about personally too. The jist of this is that people feel the board is currently a bit "slice-of-life" with a Bleach backdrop. So many momentous things have happened in the history of the site, such as the large plot where Lyn became a vizard, or even the time when Renji was kidnapped by Theo. There are other large plot things that are slightly lesser- like Dyo's continued occupation of Las Nochas, and Fang's CC Sub-Shini being booted out and Soul-sleep'd. There are probably loads more but that's the problem- I don't rembmer. No-one remembers.

We have a crap collective memory and this is part of the problem, nothing the players do ever really amounts to anything. (No offence guys!) I realize that RP is about taking on the role of your character and developing them personally but usually there is some degree of reward for that, other than "you can hit things really hard"- leveling for the sake of leveling is not fun. The reward comes in the form of actual power or prestige and the ability to change things, which is not necessarily correlated to your rank.

My idea is to give members a form of gratification in order to promote creative plotting, and put some drama and tension back into our little world!

STAFF-RUN GOTEI-13 LISTS

This one is race-specific. Clearly leaving this to canon-holders doesn't work. I want seated positions to be a thing, and I want them to have a purpose. Here are some ideas for what benefits characters with seated positions could gain access to:-

-Higher kido learning caps.
-"Thread invasion" for unseated/lesser seated in Seireitei/their squad board.
-Unseated shinigami can have threads invaded in Human world by their seated superiors.(?)
-Tech level learning cap for unseated shini(?)
-No Bankai for unseated shinigami. (SS would only teach the method for pulling spirit into real world to seated officers) (?)

These are just some ideas that can be played about with. There are a very large number of characters who are shinigami on site and so this would affect a lot of the members. It would give them something to strive for and would actually give the site's Gotei some semblance of organization. Obviously there are problems with ranks given our OCs are generally way stronger than most Bleach seated officers. Perhaps an avenue to potentially explore would be an OC "powerhouse" squad, almost something squad-zero style, offering shinigami some canon positions as the taichou and fuku-taichou as well as all the seats, however that is going a little beyond the scope of this thread and I am aware that shini have something similar in the Crisis Core however this would only be open to seasoned characters of very high rank. Anyways that is merely a suggestion or something to consider. Obviously if a canon-holder is feeling pro-active they can also take up the role! But many to


BOARD DESCRIPTION MODIFICATION REQUESTS

Yeah that's right. This might seem like a totally crazy idea but the idea that a character can shape the world around them with their actions is a key part of successful roleplay. It's why we love fully-interactable environments in games, it's why table-top RPGs work so well. That ability to creatively adapt the world around you is one of the major draws of text-based RP!

The idea is is that a member can post an [OPEN] thread in a board and detail themselves doing something that would ostensibly affect the description of the board they have posted in. After having made the action IC, they can post using a template saying they have done it. However members then have X days(?) to respond to the original post if they want to stop whoever did it from making the alterations. Any member who wishes to object in this way must respond to the request in the Board Description Modification Board, until the situation is resolved IC. If the original character is able to subdue those trying to thwart them, they can then update their thread, with a response time of half the original (i.e. there are X/2  days for a response, then X/4, etc.). This continues until either their character is stopped, or their changes go uncontested for the required amount of time. Staff can then judge the changes made in the thread; if you get the shit beat out of you trying to do something complex, then you won't be able to do it without resting and trying again. Staff could also issue bounties and warrants against a character as part of the result- if you tried to blow up Karakura Town then you would enable shinigami to invade all of your future threads.% Staff can then can edit the board description accordingly.

An important note is that this would probably only affect sub-boards (partly due to the awkwardness if someone nuked a board and then we had to edit all of the sub-boards). Boards in "The World" category would not be able to be affected either because you can't affect every river in the world simultaneously. Moreover, even if someone does nuke a board, it would be entirely possible for someone else to fix it in a following thread.%

So to make things clear;

1)Member A posts IC thread detailing the changes they're making.
2)Member A posts board change notification thread and waits.
3)Member B responds to IC thread in opposition.
4)Member B posts in request thread to signal a halt of the "countdown timer".
5)The conflict between Members A and B is resolved. If A is the loser, the process ends here.
6)If B is the loser (or if they go inactive), the countdown timer starts back up at half its original time (to a minimum of 1-2 days)
7)Steps (3)-(6) repeat until A is subdued, or until a countdown timer runs out.
8)Member A posts at the end of the timer with the changes they would like based on their thread.
9)Staff judge, and make changes accordingly.
10)Changes are added to a "Site-history"* thread.

Due to talking to Koz I'd also say that even when the countdown timer stops, people should have to respond to all posts within 1-2 days maximum.

*(more on this in a sec).

As you can see, this system is great for staff, who all they have to do is check the completed Request threads and then make a judgement. There's virtually no effort involved! Staff literally only get involved at stage (9) of this process! And yet it gives members an opportunity to make real concrete changes! It means that players are rewarded for having strong, well-developed characters (which tends to feel a bit pointless at the minute- they are kind of stuck in a rutt where their interactions are all either pointless fights with little reason or social threads) and it also does something incredibly important; it allows villainous characters a chance to attempt devious things, and gives them a real raison d'etre! This would fundamentally alter the dynamics of how people RP on the site, and how characters develop and pursue goals.

%Furthermore, we can have the whole system reset (as in boards go back to defaults) once or twice a year; perhaps even quarterly, except for changes which would logically be on-going- for example if someone blasts a hole in the roof of Las Nochas, and he's still sat on his throne looking pretty, then obviously, this would not be reverted. Destruction to Seireitei or Human world for example, however, would be fixed. Some degree of common sense(?) needs to be used by staff. Also, members would only be able to make 1 or 2 Requests per cycle.%

SITE HISTORY THREAD

I feel like we have such a rich, diverse cast of players and characters here at BSRP, that the least we can do is commemorate the things they do with a list of the large-ish events on-site. This would be simply put by listing the event in a sentence or two and then providing a thread link to the event in question. All board description changes would be added automatically upon getting approved- this would be the simplest way to have something added to site-history. Another way would be any plot that is approved for points that is a "site-wide" plot, again, added as soon as it is approved. This would truly give meaning to "site-wide" scale plots for points.

Members could, I suppose, also make site-history requests, however they would probably only be approved if they affected a large enough number of people to be considered site-wide- a minimum requirement of somewhere between 5-10 different characters (and they have to each be played by a different person) should be provided - each of them showcasing a scenario where they had been affected by the event in question, whether it be in a functionary or emotional level.

Another option for member requests for Site-History would be similar to making a board-change request. Someone makes an [OPEN] thread and says that they're doing some thing in particular and if no-one stops them it gets added but this only works for events of a large enough scale. (So someone buying an ice cream wouldn't get added! But someone killing 28,000 people in a city somewhere could)


OVERALL

We definitely should do something to revitalize RPing on the boards. We have no real on-going plot, it basically only ever changes when we have a time-skip. The closest thing is site-wide events staff run and often they aren't really considered canon and stuff and they also are run infrequently, and cause much strain on staff's resources.


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