As for whether or not I plan things: It's largely a case-by-case basis, for all sorts of reasons.
On the one hand, I tend to daydream about my roleplays a lot and think about potential future scenarios that could happen, but these things are rarely set in stone. I might aim to make some of these things happen if given the opportunity, but, they're generally just cool possible ideas.
Buuuut then there's collaborating with other players about potential ways that things could go, generally in PM's and only with one other player at a time as opposed to hashing it all out in the OOC. Planning like this is generally more likely to be something that we actually want to make happen in the IC rather than it being just a cool hypothetical. Plus, I feel like it gets players way more hyped and inspired for the RP! For that reason, I'll sometimes start one of these plotting sessions deliberately if I have a player who's still interested in the RP but just seems to be going through a temporary block or lack of inspiration, or who just feels like they don't know what to do with their character.
As for planning things specifically as a GM, that depends on a lot of factors, but the main thing is whether or not the RP
needs it. If an RP is being driven along well enough by the actions of the players, then there's no need for me to jump in and interrupt all that creativity flow. It makes more sense to let the players keep moving and just see where the RP goes. But, when things become more stagnant and direction-less,
that's when a more hands-on approach is necessary, and I spend a lot more time planning where I want things to go and steering the players in that direction.
What about stuff such as symbolism or foreshadowing? Or any other literary plot device? I love putting these in stories that I write by myself, but when it comes to roleplaying it's much harder to do. The habit still carries and I can't seem to stop! T_T But in OOC discussion are such ideas ever brought up? And are they ever put into action?
@_@ Uuuggghh I am
way too guilty of putting in a ton of subtle hints at things that people never seem to pick up on, which makes me constantly question whether I'm being too subtle or too obvious... and I can never seem to hit a happy medium. >.< I most often end up on the too subtle, end, though, which then leaves me
dying to tell everyone about all these nuanced little things about my characters that I've been so cleverly incorporating into the RP... but just
telling people those things would be boring (not to mention it would feel kind of show-off-y). What would really be awesome is making these things come up in the IC... but...
if no one notices...
It should be noted I'm the kind of writer/roleplayer who to this day could not tell you what's a noun, verb, adjective etc.
WAAAAITWAITWAITWAITWAIT- *stumbles out of bed*
*scrambles to her feet, looking rather disheveled*
Wait, just, just...
just don't go anywhere. I... I have something...!! For you....!!!
I apologize for being off-topic, but, I don't think you realize... just how long I've waited... for this opportunity!!
And you...
you... You and I have been roleplaying together for so long... and you never told me... about this...??!!
How did this not come up in conversation already???
But, but no, just...
don't worry about that now. What's important is... I have a thing.
AND I CAN EDUCATE YOU.
But seriously though I don't think you realize just how much I've wanted an excuse to shove a bunch of Schoolhouse Rock at someone. I also don't think you realize just how much I am in love with these quirky little shorts. Please watch them, just for my sake (same for anyone else reading this). I'll warn you ahead of time about the dated animation (though I personally find it kind of charming), but I will not at all apologize if those songs get stuck in your head.
AND BE GLAD YOU DIDN'T MENTION ADVERBS OR CONJUNCTIONS, CUZ THEN I WOULD'VE
REALLY GEEKED OUT.
But ummmm, *cough* THAT'S ENOUGH OF THAT TANGENT.
You were saying, OP...? ^^"
For you aggressive players and gms, how often do you make a post that advances the plot? Is there also a general rule of thumb for plot-advancing posts?
As I said before, it's all about the needs of the situation at hand. Even if the RP
is in a situation that would call for me to be more aggressive, the pace at which things progress still depends on what exactly the players are doing, and how much time I think they should need to react to things (if they would need to react to things at all, as sometimes skipping over things is the preferable option). There's no set time-table or rule-of-thumb for this sort of thing -- just something that I have to gauge as things are moving.
Though it does help that "plot-advancing posts" usually don't come in the form of some big fancy GMly post as much as smaller posts that guide the players into a certain situation or reveal information to them bits at a time, often at least partially through the eyes of one of my own characters in the RP.