🚨A (Non)In-Depth Study of the "RP"🚨

ok.

looking back, I'm surprised I didn't accidentally refresh halfway through and just give up on the study

*everywhere at the end of time starts playing*

why do I feel 60 years older

Interactive Odyssey was an RP hosted by Will and Slash, much more organized than most RPs today.

It was a great one.

The Differences Between Freeform and Guided RPs (and the art of the Freeform)

this is the second write since I god damn Ctrl+w-ed the last one omg

tldr: good freeform rps are made when the DM gives you a set of parameters to work inside, and eventually allows you to step outside those parameters

In the previous essay, I said that Freeform RP's were more common than Guided RPs and left it at that. The reasons for that should be clear, Freeforms require less effort to create, and can sometimes win big with many comments, like a lottery ticket. Guided RPs take much more effort to create, and get a lesser amount comments before dying out. However, it goes a little deeper than that (at least I think it does idk).

A Guided RP is an interactive story. The general plotline is created by the DM, and while the RPers can have a hand in how it plays how, the story stays about the same. It's like a roller coaster. The people get on the roller coaster, they go through the pre-established tracks until the ride end. They can choose how they react, but at the end of the day, the tracks are all pre-determined, and the plotline goes in the direction it was planned to go unless a person jumps off the roller coaster and dies horribly, causing the coaster to shut down. One of the worst things that can happen to a guided RP because of this linear nature is that it can cause RPers to not feel seen or heard, causing them to lose interest in the RP, and eventually causing it's death.

A Freeform RP, however is dependent on the RPers to create the storyline and the plot. This gives RPers more stakes in what happens in the RP because they created it. However, you can't just unleash some RPers into a blank void and say, "Be free! Do whatever you want! The world is your canvas!" This will cause RPers to get lost and since basically anything they want they can do, they lose interest in your RP and eventually leave it. There are exceptions, however (cough the forum of sneaking cough). The best kind of Freeform RP is the kind where you are given a box to think inside of, a perimeter, a guideline to abide by. This will help stop players from getting lost and losing interest in an RP. Eventually, your RPers can start thinking outside the box, with stable ideas and a good enough idea on where to expand. One of the better examples, however accidental, is Rainy Forever.

Yes, this was a segue to glaze Rainy Forever to death. The RP gives you a box to think inside of (you're in a house in the middle of nowhere with poison rain falling outside), slowly nurturing ideas, and then eventually players think outside of the predetermined box (the whole World Tree lore). This lightning in a bottle moment sparked 25,000 comments (probably more bc of bannings), and set a benchmark of a good Freeform (the glaze is very crazy). The forum of sneaking succeeded because of the community of RPers which is a whole 'nother essay of itself and I'm too burnt out to do that today too.

Exquisite analysis!

It doesn't even seem ai generated. Nice