Okay Now that you're here, we'll establish a few things.
You love to read and write, yes?
You love to roleplay yes?
You love Iwaku, right?
Everyone loves a happy(or even tragic) ending, right?
So tell me, have you ever found a member--or group of members-- that you've worked with so well that the story you started together actually ended? You know, all the loose ends tied up, action over, and in some cases, Happily Ever After/Resolution?
All of mine die because of lack of replies on either end. Might be lack of effort or dedication, but either way, I really want to end a story of mine, if not the way that I planned, then in some way that makes the story seem like it ended appropriately, not just a cutoff that's rushed for the sake of convenience.
In all my years of roleplaying, I have yet to finish one story that I have written or been a part of. Either I let RL get in the way or my partner(s) does and we never finish. :(
Am I the only one?
Tell me, have you ever written all the way to the end of the story??
Fantasy is my #1; I will give almost anything a chance if it has strong fantasy elements. Post apocalyptic, superhero, alternate history, science fantasy, some supernatural, romance, and a few fandoms (especially Game of Thrones) are also likely to catch my eye.
I've only had one roleplay ever reach a real, satisfying story conclusion. Actually, it managed it twice if I count each of the two major story arcs I participated in as separate things. They were different threads and everything, so I suppose I would count it as two things.
I think the main reason it actually reached a conclusion for the first story arc was that while it was a big free-for-all nonsense RP, as far as the actual plot was concerned it was basically a one on one roleplay with everyone else acting as the supporting cast. The two guys who started the game up played the main protagonist and main antagonist, and their posts were usually the only things that drove the plot forward. Most people playing were mainly concerned with having epic fights or doing super dramatic character development until it started winding down to a conclusion, at which point they joined the two main guys and the few others (myself included) who were actually doing things with the main guys. That setup made it so people going off and doing stupid crap for a dozen posts, or dropping out entirely, didn't have any real effect on the plot moving forward. The second story arc was way more solid, because the people who played all the way through the first one realized they had been silly and jumped right into the main story of the second one.
And that wasn't even on a forum meant for roleplaying. Never had a roleplay on a roleplaying forum actually reach a conclusion.
Yes. If you look in my signature you'll see a link to Legend of Renalta 2, which is a sequel to Legend of Renalta. The story stretched on for four years in the real world before coming to a close with an epilogue which transitioned to the sequel.
I admit that I miss it from time to time, I spent four years of my life on it. There were loves had and loves lost, the rise and fall of heroes and villains, a great journey that changed the very foundation of how the world itself functioned. There are many very memorable moments that helped me grow both as a person and as a writer.
There's something to be said for the culmination of character arcs. This one took about half a year, with a flighty thief who hadn't felt much in the way of real compassion through her childhood, suddenly realizing that she belonged somewhere. Just, not anywhere one might consider traditional.
Salinï turns to the creature on Mikan's shoulder, raising a eyebrow. "That one seems familiar..." She shook her head and smirked as she looked at Mikan. "Hiding? Well... you already seem to have a companion but still." She slowly started to bring her hands back to the front of her, talking all the while. "You spoke of what you had lost and that had me and Jamiahl thinking. There was one possession of yours that we could replace since even here her tale is well known and people make profit of it. So I hope you like this gift." She had both her hands extended now, laying bare upon them was a doll she had just bought, a plushie doll with a certain similarity to Kouri.
Mikan doesn't blink or giggle, or say anything. She just stares at the plushie, the black bead eyes almost seeming to stare back at her. It was a new plushie, a brand new one to boot. "Y-You... Got... Me a gift?..." She asks curiously, cautiously reaching out and quickly grabbing the plushie away, looking it up and down. That's when a smirk reaches her face as she leans in close to Salinï. "Aha! You want something for this, right? What's the catch." She asks.
Salinï raises a eyebrow at Mikan's words, surprised and puzzled and shakes her head. Eyes widening when the implication of Mikan's words hit her and she cups Mikan's chin and forces her to look her in the eyes. "I, and Jamiahl, decided to do this for you... because we care for you." She focused on the bond she and the green haired woman before her now shared and imparted her feelings, showing she was speaking nothing but the truth and trying to envelop her with nothing but warmth. "All I would want from this gift, is you to be happy and recover something you had thought lost to you."
The words hit her hard. Harder than anyone's words had ever hit her before. She had never thought that anyone would give a street rat like her something... Just because they wanted to. That was for women who were worth something in Rheinfelder society! No this... She looks at the Kouri plushie, then looks back to up Salinï, her voice cracking up as she speaks. "I... Nobody's... Ever given me a gift without a price before." She says, her eyes starting to water up. "...You would do this... Just for me? Really?" She says, barely able to hold back tears of happiness at being valued by someone this much.
Salinï smiles and nods, "Yes. Really. You are family... and more now." She envelops the younger woman in a warm embrace, not caring who saw or what they might think and leaned down for a soft kiss. "The only price perhaps, would be a smile... though I can... sense... that you love the gift."
Mikan's quivering lips immediately turn into a great, heartfelt smile as her arms wrap around Salinï tightly, a few tears of joy streaming down her cheeks as she buries her face in Salinï's neck. "Family... I've never had a family before... I've always wanted one." Her grip around Salinï tightens a little as she brings her face up to Salinï's face, Mikan's eyes were filled with a happiness that was truly genuine. A rare sight to see. "I love the gift, thank you, but at this moment I know what I love more... Or rather, who I love more." Her smile remains as she leans in to kiss Salinï one more time, bending one of her knees as she does so, leaning against Salinï lightly.
The corners of her mouth lift up in a smile as she kisses Mikan back, pulling back and grins. "Well then, glad to see the gift was welcomed like that." She turned around and saw the shop owner looking at both of them, grinning like a idiot. Rolling her eyes she pats Mikan's unoccupied shoulder, "Perhaps it is time to leave and get to the scorpion bar... before your friends think me and Jamiahl hurt you. As for you never having a family before... I think you underestimate the care your friends have for you... some were willing to tear apart every brick of the keep to find you.... which some of them even managed."
Mikan's eyes open widely. "Everyone came lookin' for little ole' me?..." Mikan giggles, her smile broadening even more than before. Now she looked downright smitten, almost like she was under a spell. She lifts the plushie up and pushes it in front of Salinï. "I cannot wait to tease ev-er-y-bo-day with this!" She then pulls it away as Thane hops off of her shoulder and scrambles onto Salinï's shoulder, nuzzling into her damp neck almost to say 'thanks.' "Sooo... Which way to the bar?" She asks curiously.
Salinï flinched and almost reached for a knife but it seemed the furry creature seemed friendly and after a moment of caution she reaches out and pets it along the back with her fingertips. "Affectionate little fellow... oh of course, her let me lead the way." She said with a smile, wrapping a arm around Mikan's waist. "Time to put the worries of the others at ease with your reappearance."
Also, in hindsight, man my writing is so much better than that now. I can say more with less and with subtly now.
As for ending the story? Well, to be honest as happy as I am that I've completed a story, what I really cherish is the journey. All those characters and all those places, each with an arc that moved and changed as players interacted. I loved that story, I still do. All 1,500-ish pages of it.
One thing you have to live with though is in hindsight, there were so many minor errors, flaws, nitpicking. I could do it so much better now! Grr! Especially typos: CONFOUNDED TYPOS REMINDING ME IMMEDIATELY OF MY FLAWS!
EDIT
Should also be noted that I've completed a couple other long term role plays and a half a dozen short ones. So if you want to ask any questions or get some advice, feel free to ask. I'm more than happy to help.
I was once part of a 1x1 that was nearing its end. @Xyvian and I had been at it for almost a year, I think. It was back on a site called Tinierme, but then the site closed down and the RP died with it. We only needed two more IC days to finish xD, we're currently doing a reboot of the same RP.
The RP I'm GMing is currently nearing its end. We've got about three more chapters to go and I'm feeling psyched. I honestly thought it would die after a month or two, but I was proved wrong and I ended up meeting a bunch of fantastic RPers. If not for their dedication, it would have died long ago. I think part of keeping a RP going, is finding players who are willing to help out and hang onto the RP despite the problems and rough patches that it runs into.
But yeah, it's pretty hard to find RPs that last more than a couple of months v.v, but those that do survive the first few months tend to become pretty stable :D
If I'm honest, I don't think about the ending; roleplay has never been a matter of telling a story that leads up to a climax, as you might expect in a novel.
No, this harkens back to Iwaku's motto, "Don't just write stories. Live them." Roleplaying is for me an exercise in futility if you try to compare it to collaborative writing — the very nature of roleplaying prevents us from being the objective authors any real novel would need to be enjoyable by an uninvested audience. We're biased toward our characters in the sense of method acting — we internalize their emotions and act out on their behalf. We don't write stories the way an author might; we're experiencing a snippet of our characters' lives as if they were real, and that is why we call it roleplaying.
In a sense, it's the journey that counts, not the result, you know? Maybe some of us would like to experience that fleeting sensation of sound resolution, but even as in @Jorick's and @Brovo's cases, the ending of the story isn't really the end of the roleplay. In that light, I've never regretted a roleplay that dies before the ending, because if I had my way, I'd be roleplaying everything indefinitely.
Maybe I'm just biased because my first serious roleplay was a long-term thing that went on for half a dozen years; I don't know. But to me an ending is just a closed arc, not a finishing point for the experience.
While I like the way the dude/dudette above explained it and I can accept it to some extent, my opinion of RP differs.
Personally, I see RP as a sort story, and I think every story needs to have an end. While I take great pleasure living out the characters I play in these stories, I always recognize they are working towards some clear objective and final goal. The journey counts, yes, but the results, at least I imagine, is what would allow me the satisfaction. The satisfaction of looking back and saying,"Damn, that was one hell of a RP".
... Except well, it's still in the realm of imagination for me since I haven't completed one RP ever despite having nearly 10 years under my belt. Amazing really. At this point, I think I've seen most of the reasons there are for a RP failing. From people quitting, to some IRL events rocking someone out of sync with the rest... To activity simply dying out... To me just vanishing from the lack of interest (I know, I ain't no stellar example). Would still be great to find a RP I can play all the way to the end.
I've yet to ever complete a writing-based roleplay, such as those hosted on Iwaku.
I have, however, completed a couple great stories back in the heyday of WC3 worldbuilding maps, like SotDRP and NRP. Compared to years-long forum roleplays, that may not seem all that great, but six- or eight-hour long adventures can still pack a significant amount of punch, and I have seen some truly epic stories unfold. Of course, I typically preferred playing deuteragonists, and so the bulk of the story lay in others' hands. But on occasion, I too played a large part of the plot.
In one such game, I managed to stabilize a roleplay between the god-modding antagonist player and the controlled, more traditional protagonist player by introducing a large cast of developed characters to be killed off, allowing the antag to god-mod away as the protag sensibly approached it like a murder mystery, evacuating townsfolk and sending for help.
The ending was a little anticlimactic, with the protag-player finally getting fed up and abandoning the area with what refugees he could as the last of my victims mourned the loss of their brethren, soon to be killed off themselves.
I am also about to finish a story. :3
It will be the first story I have ever finished, so I'm not sure how to feel about it yet, but it will be really interesting to get the opportunity to close it up!
Historical, fantasy, magic, horror, supernatural, survival, vampires, demons, pirates, mutants, ghosts, romance (FxF, MxM, MxF) (Romance should be part of the plot and not the whole plot in itself), etc.
Technically speaking, yes, I have finished one story with one partner... But that was a short side story and prequel to two other stories that partner and I were and currently are working on. So that prequel/side story/fanfic (cause that's what we started it as xD then it somehow became part of the two other stories for realz haha) is completely finished, but the stories of the characters aren't done yet. Their stories still goes on in the other two roleplays we're working on.
So I guess that's a Nes? Or a Yon? Or whatever else to say when it's a yes and a no at the same time? o.O
On fairly regularly, every day. I'll notice a PM almost immediately. Replies come randomly.
Writing Levels
Adept
Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
Primarily Prefer Male
No Preferences
Genres
High fantasy is my personal favorite, followed closely by modern fantasy and post-apocalyptic, but I can happily play in any genre if the plot is good enough.
This is in part because most of my stories are abandoned before they even get past the introduction, but primarily revolves around the fact that I create my stories to be able to last indefinitely. I don't like building a plot where there is a single, all consuming goal. I'll never play a save-the-world kind of roleplay, simply because I feel that it crushes creativity and an ability to explore side plots. I run my roleplays the way most people run TV shows, rather episodic, with an almost infinite number of plots, only limited by creativity. It is like playing Skyrim. There's no end! :D
For the most part, it isn't that big of a deal to me. I have one story that has been in the planning stages for over a year now, of almost constant work, and it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It is an entire world, built from 5,000 BC to 4,000 AD, and follows the rise and fall of empires. I gain just as much pleasure from this as I do from actually writing. So, really, a conclusion isn't that big of a deal to me.
All the same, when I start a story, most of the time I'm preparing to stick it out. I pray, heart and soul, that Ilium will be able to reach an ending. If that happened, I would feel very, very complete.
High Fantasy (things dealing with magical worlds, often with multiple races think final fantasy and its many varying incarnations), Dark Fantasy (fantasy dealing generally with darker themes such as monsters and demons), Action, Supernatural
Only once myself. It was an old bleach rp that I joined in back on RPG. we managed to get to the end of the first season.
then we started up the second season where i was GM and it became one of the site's two super threads (rolleplay threads with over 300 pages of posts) in the casual section. Sadly had to leave the rp due to school before the second season could wrap up tho.
