Creating Roleplay Opportunities & Progressing Plot

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Koda

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Creating opportunities for your roleplay partners is an essential part of roleplaying. If you would like a roleplay to progress, and/or you are simply roleplaying for yourself while you wait for someone to interact with you, you're doing it wrong. Waiting for plot progression and other participants slows down the roleplay, and if there are a smaller amount of roleplayers, may even be the reason the roleplay DIES. To be the progressive roleplayer, you must try to make the first move with another character. If that is too far-fetched or unrealistic for the particular context, make a scene. Scenes are a great way to give a realistic opportunity for a roleplay partner. Be it falling over in public, or getting robbed by a thief, scenes send a clear message to any roleplayers. If you think they may ignore or not notice your attempt at interaction, tag them. If scenes weren't clear enough, tagging your partner/partners leaves absolutely no room for misunderstanding.
Here is some things you SHOULDN'T do:

Sally walked to the store and bought her groceries, before walking home and planning out her dinner party this evening. This example is based off of an actual post in a roleplay I was involved in. Obviously there were a few more lines describing the environment, but only a few. This is bad for several reasons, here are some of the primary ones:
#1 It is much too short, something all roleplayers will notice.
#2 It doesn't include any references to other characters, which is very bad for advancing the plot.
#3 It doesn't do anything significant, doesn't advance plot, character interaction- In fact, it doesn't advance anything. It is what I like to call an IPP- an 'I Posted Post', because it is just a boring, worthless event that was created to look like the poster wasn't lazy or hadn't given up on the roleplay.


Plot progression can be VERY frustrating. If you want to progress the plot, and you blame your fellow roleplayers, you're entitled to do so! Partners can be absolute Richards, but you don't have to put up with it! Try creating an event, diving head first into the plots complication, and combine these with tagging certain lazy people, giving them no chances for excuses. If they still refuse to post, or not post anything useful, contact the GM, and express your concerns to them. Often, a GM sees a problem roleplayer and doesn't want to be the bad guy by kicking them out or warning them. If a player expresses concerns, the GM can be able to say to themselves and the problem roleplayer; "A/Some participant/s in the roleplay has expressed their concerns about _______________.". If a GM has become lazy or busy, and the roleplay has slowed down or stopped, approaching the GM is a good idea. You can offer help, reminders, or other specific things in context to the roleplay. Just remember, always be overly nice to the GM, you don't want to offend the literal Master of your roleplaying.

Anyway, I hoped this helped you out, and happy roleplaying!


-Koda, a bear
 
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