Open Discussion

[Wisper]

A few have expressed interest in getting the site back up and going. I'd like to start this topic going for that discussion, I too miss it often, but honestly fear that putting the work into restarting things will just go to waste and activity will die off in a month again. I also recognize that I don't have the time to run this place myself - I have a busy day to day life outside of the internet just like anyone else. That being said I would still need admins willing to help with things, yes even if we only have 4 people come back actively at first and all 4 end up as admins.


Part of what I want to put out there is what can we do to cut down on the time consuming-ness of everything? What makes you want to play? What makes you lose interest?


I think cutting the maximum characters down from 3 to 2 is a good idea - and not allowing any exceptions in additional characters. Also cutting out the npc creation completely.


This is totally open to anyone and everyone. Any additional ideas, thoughts, comments...etc are welcome - and be honest in your replies.


Thanks - Wis/Jenn...etc

[Frankie Crocetti]

Agreed. PHOENIX DOWN!!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using proboards

[Panda]

Hey Wisp!! I'm down to get this place going again, I don't know how much I'd be able to input in the resuscitating effort though. I'd definitely help out where I can!

[Siobhan Padraigin]

I'm more than happy to bring this gem back to life. Though the character restriction will drive me insane as you well know. That's my only issue.

Hannii

[Deleted]

Jul 21, 2014 7:24:44 GMT -7 Wisper said:

A few have expressed interest in getting the site back up and going. I'd like to start this topic going for that discussion, I too miss it often, but honestly fear that putting the work into restarting things will just go to waste and activity will die off in a month again. I also recognize that I don't have the time to run this place myself - I have a busy day to day life outside of the internet just like anyone else. That being said I would still need admins willing to help with things, yes even if we only have 4 people come back actively at first and all 4 end up as admins.

Got the email

LETS BRING THIS PARTY BACK! I think people are certainly interested in participating in it, but cannot either 1. easily predict their schedule/future thus putting their ability to dedicate properly into question, which leads to 2. The fearful recurrence of abandoning the site and wasting efforts.

I can only speak for myself in saying that although I work full time you can count me in for complete participation and activeness. If being a admin will help spur interest in this project and encourage others to return to the site, then I'd be more than willing to step up. If you need help admin-ing, what areas are you looking for the most support in?

Jul 21, 2014 7:24:44 GMT -7 Wisper said:

Part of what I want to put out there is what can we do to cut down on the time consuming-ness of everything? What makes you want to play? What makes you lose interest?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by cutting down "time consuming-ness of everything?", do you mean you're requesting suggestions to improve the site overall or attempting to keep the story going smoothly? People are going to hate me for this, but I strongly suggest starting off small and limit everyone to one character, on one ship. I'm sure we'll have enough people to fill a single crew. Now granted, a lack of variety can be a major cause of spurring disinterest in a role-playing story, but the focus should always be on 2 major things: 1. character development and 2. consistency in producing that story. This means really fleshing out one character to heavily invest in (which in turn, create a heavy invested participation by that writer/contributor)as well as not stretching out the story with too many characters.

Having too many characters will weaken the site's ability to churn out RP storyline. Its happened time and time again where one person leaves and his/her involvement stifles the story of MULTIPLE ships. Focusing on one crew I think will improve quality overall, and will naturally provide safeguards from a stopped story.

This means that when and if one individual was to drop out and not RP anymore, that role can be filled/replaced/removed fairly quickly with a small team of dedicated writers.

What makes me want to play: Every time I rewatch Firefly it naturally encourages me to contribute to that world. With that said, I don't often watch Firefly and will focus on other things as well like other tv shows, movies, and videogames (just bombarded with media nowadays! ).

What makes me lose interest: I don't necessarily blame other forms of entertainment for abandonment from RP. I think because we have the ability to choose what we focus on, I can balance whenever I feel like it between writing, watching film, or playing videogames. I'd say the key to my disinterest (and once again, only speaking for myself here) is the typical, halted production of RP. It can be anything to a story going nowhere, the story moving too slowly, or despite your best efforts in participating with multiple character, multiple stories, are halted by other writer disappearances.

To reiterate, this is why I'm a strong advocate for one story and one character. It requires more thought and concentration, which I'd assume is part of the challenge/fun for most writers. One well-driven with frequent updates should resolve many of the AWOL occurring.

Jul 21, 2014 7:24:44 GMT -7 Wisper said:

I think cutting the maximum characters down from 3 to 2 is a good idea - and not allowing any exceptions in additional characters. Also cutting out the npc creation completely.

I like the idea of removing NPC's completely. Dislike the two character system.

I don't think that having multiple characters will completely spur long-term interest in the site. Despite reviving this site and BSH repeatedly, we've fallen back onto a multiple characters system. As I argued before, having too many character will lead to too many character lines too soon and stretch out quality of the story thin. I think we've repeatedly failed, and repeatedly offered multiple characters, and I'm not saying its the sole reason, but certainly a factor in abandonment of the site.

Jul 21, 2014 7:24:44 GMT -7 Wisper said:

This is totally open to anyone and everyone. Any additional ideas, thoughts, comments...etc are welcome - and be honest in your replies.

Thanks - Wis/Jenn...etc

I'd certainly like the revival of the site to occur. I only gave my thoughts honestly to encourage dialogue and bring to light some of my previous concerns for the site. If we're gonna do this, we must do it right. Especially if it involves us examining the current system and seeing how we can improve/change it for the better.


ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS:

So some of y'all might be thinkin: How can we RP with just one crew/set of characters? If a lack of content is your concern, note that there's plenty of ways to draw inspiration, or source from other media out there. For example, the Serenity/Firefly RPG pen and paper game has a few "jobs" in full description, including multiple plot threads to use from when the players carry the plot a certain way. I think a rag-tag ship can include its share of short, immediate problems (like the ship falling apart and needing repair) to long-term issues (like having a bounty on your head, etc). Content can also include features of specific characters, and entire plot threads can surround one person during a job (For example, a crew member works with an old teammate and finds a job for his/her new crew).

All and all, I think it can still be possible with a smaller crew. Rather than using the NPC system and make little profiles for side characters, i think that careful coordination and fleshed out writing can allow for anyone to create and use relevant side characters (for example, anyone NOT in the crew that the crew interacts with on jobs). Quality control of those characters will be moderated by admins.

ONE MORE THING:

If you'll allow me to put on my Devil's Advocate hat on again, one more thought. I know full and well that people will sometimes be just to freakin busy and cannot contribute. But in terms of actually losing interest, then I think a large part of it has to do with the relevance of such content.

I think I got the show's 10 year anniversary shows a while ago. 10 years plus! That's quite some time to be off the air. I don't doubt that there's not a strong following of Browncoats, and in comparison to other franchises and shows, I'm sure there's a decent sized dedicated community, but NONE of that is coming our way.

Part of the uninterest is the dated story and lore. Its wonderful no doubt, but plenty of shows are shoved down our throats developed and have become popular over the years.

I'm not saying that I am uninterested in joining a site dedicated to Firefly/Serenity lore. I just thing 1 of 2 things need to happen:

1. Find new lore, a newer storyline we all like/can agree on, in order to cater to a more current/widely interested storyline, or

2. Better campaigning for the site. If surfing the web has taught me anything about online RP's, it's that the demand is always there but never properly developed. I cannot tell you how many sites I have seen failed and still with recent comments asking if it will start up again or not. This goes for content like BSG as well as S/FF. It tells me that people like to rewatch too, or are enjoying it for the first time and want to dive into the world deeper.

It would take lots of effort from multiple people (not just adminds!) to reach out to other RP sites and fan fic sites to promote our own. I think if people see there's dedication and effort to a site, they'll strongly consider joining.

UNDOUBTEDLY, the keys to any site are: accessibility, and features. We need to additionally consider tweaking the site a bit, so that it is both easy to use/navigate for any curious visitor to the site and the overall improving presentation of the site for it to be a bit better. (All brown isn't exactly RP-inspiring). Having a polished look to the site will imply dedication and updates to a non-dead site, and will be the key in getting people to sign-up. Having people quickly processed to determine whether they can quickly contribute or not.


Just throwing out concerns and questions. Feel free to hate me and my blasphemous ideas everyone

[Wisper]

I know life is unpredictable and at times gets in the way - this happens to me alot. Same can be said for the ever whimsical muse, sometimes you have it sometimes you don't.


As far as admin-ing; really it'd involve applications, advertising, working on plots/ideas/jobs..etc, general site upkeep.


The time consuming-ness of everything wasn't meant at anything in particular, just if there's anything that anyone feels takes up too much time where they don't feel like RP'ing because of it. But suggestions on improvements to anything is of coruse welcome.


I am okay with the idea of starting out with only one character and one ship to start out - unless there's enough to go for two ships...then you know. But I would like to allow the additional character if not right away at some point, some players enjoy having a variety and while having a 2 limit doesn't give you much - it's not nothing either.


Along with the NPC option removal, also going to take the planet-side character option off the table too. I was hoping it would become a thing but it really didn't expand as much as I'd hoped. My intent was to give additional options for the 'verse so not everything was based on the ships - but I know this is Firefly and that's kind of the thing.


As far as lore/main plots - I'm up for the discussion. We tried to make it a little different here than the usual when we started out. That would need to be it's own topic I think though once this one is settled out with the technical stuff.

[Roger]

I'm still around, and I check the site several times a week. I can't speak for everyone, but I blame the abrupt end of the Peerless on three factors:

1) Sink's entry into the story. Sink built a character and we prepared the next phase of our story around that. However, when Sink was available and hard at work, we were still busy in another plot, and when we were finally ready Sink got busy. I'm not blaming Sink or anything. That's just how life goes sometimes, but the sudden plot roadblock was an issue.

2) The entire Achilles debacle. Everything about Sterling interrupted RP. We were spending more time as Admins dealing with him than we were writing, the plot was diverted to try and accommodate him, we spent hours just talking and joking instead of RPing, etc. In the end of course we kicked Achilles out because it was such a mess. However, the Peerless already had a few threads with him and more planned along the way. Thus, our story was partially damaged and we had nowhere to go.

3) The attempted revival of the BSG site diverted what was left of our attention. There had just been the Achilles mess which we all wanted to get away from and the future plans for the Peerless were either no longer possible or were on hold for whatever reason. What could have been just a few weeks to catch our breath and work through things turned into several months hiatus.

Now, all that being said, I think the way we ran the Peerless was ideal. Obviously, I was the captain so I might be biased, but I saw much of what Sink was talking about already implemented on that ship. For example, I required all characters coming aboard to have a personal mission which would serve the purpose of #1 giving us filler plots if we ever ran out of ideas, #2 further develop characters, and #3 build loyalty and camaraderie between crew mates.

Until the abrupt halt of all RP, the Peerless never had an issue with activity. Our story was moving along swiftly and following a well crafted plot line with about 30 RP threads in just 5 months. The Peerless had numerous NPCs which enhanced the RP and I believe we had the largest PC crew as well. And (until Achilles) when we did lose a PC we would quickly move past it. Now, I'm not saying all ships should be run the same, but I think we had a pretty good set-up there.


As for other ideas mentioned...

Re: Limiting Ships

I don't think this is necessarily the issue. On an ideal site we'd want several different ships. We'd want characters to have their choice of open positions aboard a ship, the characters already there they want to RP with (and not RP with), opportunity for people to be captains if they please, the basic alignment of a ship, the types of job a certain crew takes, etc. For example being on the Peerless was much different than the Veasna and the Fenrir was much different than the Dawn.

The issue as I see it is partially due to stretching ourselves too thin, but primarily a fault of the captain of a ship. For example, I take responsibility for not kickstarting the Peerless when it started to drift off. We all got sidetracked, but it was my job to keep it going as I had been for the past five great months. The Fenrir died out because Vex would appear for two weeks and then disappear for months. The same was true for the Dawn because Theta was really running that ship. Pick's ship was really going strong and looked promising until he disappeared at Christmas. Those are clear examples where the crew would report for duty when the captain became active, but then without him activity suddenly plummeted because there was no direction.

The solution as I see it is not to limit ships, but to try and be stricter about captains. I know, it's not the easiest thing to do because it's hard to know who is going to be around six months from now and who is not, and especially when it comes to new members it really locks them out of starting a ship because we don't know them well enough. But I can say that no one should ever lead two ships and we can put that into the rules. Vex tried it (actually I think he had three at one time) and then when he left they all died and the site along with it. I then had the Peerless and attempted to try and cover the slack for the Dawn, but that was too much for me.


Re: Limiting Characters

Again, I don't think this is the answer. Maybe lower the bar for when we require additional admin approval, but a strict prohibition doesn't seem proper. Not all people are the same. Some people have the time, the inspiration, and the dedication to play multiple characters. I don't mean to brag and feel free to call me out if you think otherwise, but I believe that I have successfully played numerous characters before (here and for BSG) sometimes upwards of five active characters limited only by the other persons I was RPing with.

I think having just one character does focus your RP, create an even more developed story, and encourages you to do more plotting (see Onas for example), but I see nothing inherently wrong with multiple characters for the kind of person that can manage them. Having an experienced member with multiple characters can also help support other ships and is really important in just getting them off the ground. Otherwise, the only way to start a new ship is to come here and want to be a captain and then wait for a bunch of other noobs to come around (or to kill off your original to join a new ship). And if we limit characters then that might lead to polarization of the membership if Ship A crew never interacts with Ship B crew.

On the other hand, some people don't do multiple characters well. Abby for example would create a new character every month while old characters would fall by the wayside. Such a person comes up with these great ideas for characters and then drives right into a story but quickly burns out for one reason or another and then starts the cycle over again. Now, this style of play is fine if you actively retire characters as quickly as you make them AND plan exit strategies. If not, it clutters up the site with unused characters and it bogs down the RP because every little corner of the RP has one of these characters interjected into it yet is now inactive and holding things up.


Re: Advertising

I agree with Sink on the importance of this. Aven was doing a good job, but unfortunately he started just as we began to wind down. Getting your name out there is the only way to get new members. The internet is far too vast for a simple search to send interested people straight to our doorstep. Even searching a directory is difficult. You need to spam sites and hope that our ad catches someone's eye. You need to go to related sites and see if anyone who is clearly interested in the genre would like to try it out. You need to talk to your nerd friends IRL and have them give the sight a look.

I absolutely hate doing this sort of thing, but I recognize its importance. Aven or Sink or anyone who volunteers can get on this and build the site.


Re: New Lore

In the past two months I've been talking with Onas and Jules (and to a lesser extend Tris, Sink, Edi, Aven, and Sid) about this. We've actually had a bit of a side project which has kind of stalled out as well primarily because it is NOT RP, but I'll get back to that.

I agree with Sink that Firefly is kind of old hat now. The canon is fairly limited because it's only one season to work with and ideas get played out. To attract people and keep people, you need something more. However, I've never been all too happy with plots to take the universe forward on any Firefly site. They often seemed forced, too extreme, or too grand in scope for the RP level of one little ship in the great big Verse.

The side project I mentioned earlier did two things. First, it focused on the one plot I thought really fit well with Firefly i.e. Onas's Supertrade. It was dark and gritty, something you could really imagine existing, was on a scale that made those within it have faces instead of just being numbers on paper, and in the grand scheme of things it was not Verse shattering in what was happening, but merely was one corner of a great big universe that most people probably were oblivious to.

Part two was completely dumping Firefly and the Verse and creating original content. The premise was basically the same i.e. numerous planets in a cluster of stars with some planets being more developed than others blah blah blah. In that way it was a similar space western setting, but it allowed us the ability to rewrite history as we liked it and to determine the intricacies of that world. E.g. The "Alliance" was merely a very powerful military alliance of planets and not a completely verse-wide government.

Now maybe we don't want to be THAT drastic in our changes, but it's an idea. At the very least, I think the Supertrade had great potential. The entire Peerless story was driven off of it and I believe that earlier ships had Knox connections too. It could be the nexus of our RP if we wanted to.

[Wisper]

Some people can handle multiple characters amazingly well I agree with that totally, I used to be able to back before I had a mini-me terrorizing my ever awaking moment - lol. I think Hannii is also in a similar boat as Abby was, love them both but it was too much. - Perhaps some sort of posting requirement for additional characters? For example each character needs to have a certain # of RP posts per month to remain active? I know some sites use that method to recognize characters that need to be retired or marked inactive..etc


With captains we tried to express how important taking on the role is with the applications and rules - I'm not sure what to do further with that particular area


To expand since you brought up the other lore ideas Roger, I'm okay with a total overhaul and working on a more original RP or going with focusing on the black market/underground type idea


I'm pretty much going to be okay with talking about anything you guys have ideas for, just remember because I say I'm okay with it doesn't mean it'll for sure end up that way I don't want there to be any confusion on that

[Edith Hunter]

Been reading through the input the last few days, so thought I'd throw my hat into the ring. I've been missing characters myself lately, and been peering around the place knowing that it was all kind of dead in the water. I would be more than welcome to come back.

Characters; I agree with a combination of what was said - some people can handle it. I used to handle it in the past, but always like to limit myself as much as possible. I think the three character rule is fine, and not an issue - I'd be perfectly happy just keeping Edi, Sam and Ros. I always managed it in 'seasons'. One month I might have more focus on one character more than the other, but then Edi and Sam are very 'float around' and have been place to place without a solid ship like Ros. But then I'd rotate them depending on activity. I think that was more my problem - I'd want to get Sam going and then the Promised Land took a divebomb. That was my only issue, though. Ros was my focus, with Edi being more of a situational character. We needed more people for the Syndicate, and both Onas and I agreed on not needing to put much into that area when we had the Peerless to focus on. It's just about managing what you have, and if you lose interest in playing a character? Don't play 'em.

I feel with Captains, it should be very strict - considering they run the ship - and the number shouldn't be too limited, but then we need the crew to fill them up. A dedicated Captain would be ideal - and that doesn't count for IRL getting in the way. It happens. Just enjoy the ride until it's over. We just need a level of activity and a big enough player base that if one should fall people can move elsewhere to RP so they're not stuck.

Which would lead to advertising. I don't think this was a huge problem - the admins responsible at any time were usually getting our name out there. I think it's more like Sink said, with all new shows and other shiny things that people would be more in the mood for.

I might add more input, but I gotta run for a bit!

----Edi <3

[Deleted]

Re Re: Limiting Ships

I guess it makes sense that ships fall in part largely due to the captain of said ship, and not necessarily due to quantity of them. What are the current rules outlined for those that want to become captains of their own ship? That might required looking over once again and making changes.

What those changes and qualifications are exactly will be up for discussion, but it should include a greater responsibility of moving the RP along smoothly. Would it be too intrusive for RPers if the captains accquired other forms of communication with their crew members? I ask this because in the event that someone drops off the face of the earth and halts RP, the captain can choose to reach out to them past the site and see what's what. If RL is getting busy (which is always a possibility) then at least we can confirm that and move on. Or, if the person expects to make a return to the crew at any point, then when do they forsee that occurring?

I realize that captains are not baby-sitters and shouldn't be pushy about their RP's. Just throwing out suggestions to improve the role of the captain for this site.




Re Re Advertising: I'm not a coder/programmer by trade, but I have some basic HTML and CSS skills. I've made websites before. If we go ahead and ever re-vamp the site, I can potentially handle all the front end stuff and aesthetics. I'm sure Roger can handle back-end and maintenance to the site (actual content such as lore, rules, archiving, etc).

It goes without saying that along with a nifty looking/easy to use site, you also need to make it easier for people to find you on the internet. When they do searches, we should be on the front page in terms of results! This would require SEO efforts, something not impossible to do but something a team of peoples can do.

And of course, also need someone to visit all the sites (dead, dying, super active). Anything RP that might interest others to try a new lore like FF/S, or other FF/S sites where the interest is probably still guaranteed.

Re Re New Lore: It would be pretty nifty to come up with an entirely new lore. Something inspired by FF/S but not necessarily bound to it. My only concern would be whether it could generate enough interest from other dedicated fans of FF/S. I personally like the twist and something new, but I can't speak for everyone on that.


NOTE:
2 character max capacity seems reasonable. I handled multiple characters fairly well when BSG was still active. My only concern was that people would be like: "Multiple characters possible??? Ok I'll make them all right now" and thus completely missing the point.

I agree that we need rules in place to keep track of people and (gently) remind them to keep RPing and maintain activeness if they choose to. Once enough time has passed, then allow for more characters.

I still don't see how multiple cahracters allowed will deter or help resolve the issue of RP abandonment. I understand that each ship is unique and will have its own RP vibe, and people will crave variety and want to have multiple things going, but all it takes is one person to fall off the face of the earth and halt the plotlines in more than one place on the site.

If we want multiple characters, we still need to figure out how to address those issues too!

[Edith Hunter]

I feel the best way to deal with people disappearing in the middle of a plotline is, if they don't give any warning? Try to contact them. If they don't respond in a certain amount of time, it's easy enough just to move on. Go onto a new plotline, start something fresh. Give at least a week of response time, then just assume IRL swallowed them whole. It's no biggie if they come back after, just means get ready to come into another plotline - have a reason why the character was gone, etc. I think we were going to use this rule with the Peerless.

At least, it's the only reasonable rule I can think of. Life's too short - work on a way to get everyone else through the story, and then move on. If the person holding things up does make contact, then obviously, work with them for a solution that doesn't impede the RP or even come back to that at a later date - just have a general idea of how it ends for everyone involved.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2014 11:18:39 GMT -7 Edith Hunter said:

I feel the best way to deal with people disappearing in the middle of a plotline is, if they don't give any warning? Try to contact them. If they don't respond in a certain amount of time, it's easy enough just to move on. Go onto a new plotline, start something fresh. Give at least a week of response time, then just assume IRL swallowed them whole. It's no biggie if they come back after, just means get ready to come into another plotline - have a reason why the character was gone, etc. I think we were going to use this rule with the Peerless.

At least, it's the only reasonable rule I can think of. Life's too short - work on a way to get everyone else through the story, and then move on. If the person holding things up does make contact, then obviously, work with them for a solution that doesn't impede the RP or even come back to that at a later date - just have a general idea of how it ends for everyone involved.

That's probably all we can do. Understandably people get busy and need to leave. I guess what I'm more concerned about is halting the site. So if one person leaves but they only had one character with one crew, then that's fine. If a person who has many characters in many places leaves (which has happened before) it can halt the entire site.

So this thought probably leads into the different roles that can be obtained when formulating a crew. Captains are naturally going to have to lead their respective plot lines and be above and beyond active, but how will it work with crew members?

Let's say that the First Mate or Second-in-command or whatever leaves the ship suddenly due to RL stuffs. Wouldn't that position be a bit more trickier to replace than some lower tier position? Or what if the particular job/mission/plot thread is supposed to revolve around and develop around an individual who suddenly disappears from the RP? If someone is central to that plotline, it's not super easy to just write them out of it.

You can RP people out by having them do whatever elsewhere or have them killed off (if you didn't like 'em all that much ) but what if the player returns and wants their old spot back? What if someone has taken that spot? I would assume that the more active player would be more deserving of that spot.

[Roger]

Re: Re: Multiple Characters

@ Wisp: I didn't want to name any other names lol but yeah, that's my observation for both of you as well although Abby was a bit more of an extreme case. I suppose a post limit is a good starting point with admin discretion being a fail safe (I just keep thinking of the Fenrir with the bouts of activity when Vex was there but then when he'd leave that would mean all the other characters would now violate the rules for little to no fault of their own).

@sink: I've also seen other sites that have minimum post requirements before you can make a new character. Someplace like Battlestar where we wanted a single ship filled out ASAP it sometimes makes more sense to rush in and make three characters, but I agree that on a site like this where you only have one person each place, it makes more sense to space things out especially with new members. Maybe a ship opens up down the road and you want to go with a new character, and if you meet the activity requirements and have been around long enough then perfect, go for it.

When it comes to concern for multiple inactive characters causing multiple ships to die, it would be no different than limiting people to a single character on a site with a single ship. Perhaps it would even be better if the site didn't have all of its eggs in one basket. Perhaps Ship #1 would die completely, ship #2 would take a major hit, but at least ship #3 would shrug it off. Better than having your only ship go down because no one has second characters on other ships.

I don't know if there is a solution to character inactivity. RL happens and people lose interest. The nest defense is keeping people interested I suppose, and when people do have RL smack them in the face hopefully they would be able to come around and arrange for their character to bow out of the RP, something which rarely ever occurs. It's not ideal, but if the captain hands the keys to the firstmate and then goes off ice fishing then that's better than the ship just sitting there doing nothing.

@edi: We did easily dodge a few inactivity problems, but that was thankfully because the characters were minor and easy to NPC off the ship. Look to the more serious cases of entire ships stalling to see an important character that is hard to replace and write off. Mai was a specialty hire that we picked up for one job. Pick Harwood owned the ship and had no clear successor to take over for him. Replacing those two characters is simply not comparable and unfortunately Pick never replied to the attempts to contact him by email. Can you imagine what would happen to Peerless if Onas or I suddenly disappeared? You don't have to because that's pretty much what happened these past few months lol although we were still technically around and not fallen off the face of the Earth-that-was.

Edit: @sink 2.0: Step one is to limit how much power one person can get. Like I said in an earlier post, Vex having critical leadership positions on three ships was a mistake and should not be allowed in the future. Step two is to be perfectly clear about activity requirements.

Direct quote from the Peerless Recruitment Thread: "Activity - Minimum expectation of 1 IC post per week. Exceptions will be made for those with unexpected RL issues, but drop in for a minute and give us a heads up before disappearing for weeks at a time. Inactive characters will be NPCed and quickly RPed off the ship."

I would sleep easy at night if Mai eventually showed up again and complained about getting kicked off the ship. You can always try and get back on the ship, but that's not guaranteed, and like you said, if your old position has been taken by a new and active player then you might be SOL.

As for captains disappearing or others that are critical to the overall plot or even just the current story arc, well, there is little you can do about that. If you have a magic answer, I'm all ears, but I'm afraid your search for a solution will come to nothing.


Re: Re: Ship Captains

@wisp: Yeah, I don't really have any solutions just my own observations about the importance of the captain to activity.

@sink: Ship captain responsibilities can be found here. They're somewhat limited but straightforward basically stating that it's one's responsibility to keep their ship moving. I suppose you could go into more depth and try and explain the gravity of the situation, but it seems like a difficult concept to put into text.

I know for the Peerless, just about everyone had Skype. We would use Skype to communicate little things and then occasionally have big Skype calls with most of the crew online. Perhaps that could be a requirement a captain puts on their ship: use of Skype or some other guaranteed means of messaging.


Re: Re: Re: New Lore

We had some interesting ideas and I think it could work especially if you guys are all game for it (I don't want to hijack the site). Sure, some people would be die hard Firefly enthusiasts who only want Firefly, but at least for me it's more the Firefly feel that I care about. Seeing how we're a non-canon site to begin with, it's not that much of a stretch. The series only briefly touches on locations and politics, the only thing we really keep, while it focuses on characters, which is what we don't keep.

Jules and I were looking at a post-apocalyptic site for example that was inspired by the Fallout series and had the same feel but was a unique setting as crafted by the admins and members. In such a setting I believe you would get the majority of RPers who are there for "the feel" of the setting plus you would also pull in the lovers of the series who are bored with the same-old same-old after all this time. Being a unique setting also opens the site up to people who just like the genre but have never seen the show. For BSG as an example, how many people said "oh, but I haven't seen the show" as a reason not to join or delaying their joining? You don't have any of that with unique lore.

[Deleted]

Jul 22, 2014 14:22:24 GMT -7 Roger said:

Re: Re: Multiple Characters

@ Wisp: I didn't want to name any other names lol but yeah, that's my observation for both of you as well although Abby was a bit more of an extreme case. I suppose a post limit is a good starting point with admin discretion being a fail safe (I just keep thinking of the Fenrir with the bouts of activity when Vex was there but then when he'd leave that would mean all the other characters would now violate the rules for little to no fault of their own).

@sink: I've also seen other sites that have minimum post requirements before you can make a new character. Someplace like Battlestar where we wanted a single ship filled out ASAP it sometimes makes more sense to rush in and make three characters, but I agree that on a site like this where you only have one person each place, it makes more sense to space things out especially with new members. Maybe a ship opens up down the road and you want to go with a new character, and if you meet the activity requirements and have been around long enough then perfect, go for it.

When it comes to concern for multiple inactive characters causing multiple ships to die, it would be no different than limiting people to a single character on a site with a single ship. Perhaps it would even be better if the site didn't have all of its eggs in one basket. Perhaps Ship #1 would die completely, ship #2 would take a major hit, but at least ship #3 would shrug it off. Better than having your only ship go down because no one has second characters on other ships.

I don't know if there is a solution to character inactivity. RL happens and people lose interest. The nest defense is keeping people interested I suppose, and when people do have RL smack them in the face hopefully they would be able to come around and arrange for their character to bow out of the RP, something which rarely ever occurs. It's not ideal, but if the captain hands the keys to the firstmate and then goes off ice fishing then that's better than the ship just sitting there doing nothing.

@edi: We did easily dodge a few inactivity problems, but that was thankfully because the characters were minor and easy to NPC off the ship. Look to the more serious cases of entire ships stalling to see an important character that is hard to replace and write off. Mai was a specialty hire that we picked up for one job. Pick Harwood owned the ship and had no clear successor to take over for him. Replacing those two characters is simply not comparable and unfortunately Pick never replied to the attempts to contact him by email. Can you imagine what would happen to Peerless if Onas or I suddenly disappeared? You don't have to because that's pretty much what happened these past few months lol although we were still technically around and not fallen off the face of the Earth-that-was.

Edit: @sink 2.0: Step one is to limit how much power one person can get. Like I said in an earlier post, Vex having critical leadership positions on three ships was a mistake and should not be allowed in the future. Step two is to be perfectly clear about activity requirements.

Direct quote from the Peerless Recruitment Thread: "Activity - Minimum expectation of 1 IC post per week. Exceptions will be made for those with unexpected RL issues, but drop in for a minute and give us a heads up before disappearing for weeks at a time. Inactive characters will be NPCed and quickly RPed off the ship."

I would sleep easy at night if Mai eventually showed up again and complained about getting kicked off the ship. You can always try and get back on the ship, but that's not guaranteed, and like you said, if your old position has been taken by a new and active player then you might be SOL.

As for captains disappearing or others that are critical to the overall plot or even just the current story arc, well, there is little you can do about that. If you have a magic answer, I'm all ears, but I'm afraid your search for a solution will come to nothing.


Re: Re: Ship Captains

@wisp: Yeah, I don't really have any solutions just my own observations about the importance of the captain to activity.

@sink: Ship captain responsibilities can be found here. They're somewhat limited but straightforward basically stating that it's one's responsibility to keep their ship moving. I suppose you could go into more depth and try and explain the gravity of the situation, but it seems like a difficult concept to put into text.

I know for the Peerless, just about everyone had Skype. We would use Skype to communicate little things and then occasionally have big Skype calls with most of the crew online. Perhaps that could be a requirement a captain puts on their ship: use of Skype or some other guaranteed means of messaging.


Re: Re: Re: New Lore

We had some interesting ideas and I think it could work especially if you guys are all game for it (I don't want to hijack the site). Sure, some people would be die hard Firefly enthusiasts who only want Firefly, but at least for me it's more the Firefly feel that I care about. Seeing how we're a non-canon site to begin with, it's not that much of a stretch. The series only briefly touches on locations and politics, the only thing we really keep, while it focuses on characters, which is what we don't keep.

Jules and I were looking at a post-apocalyptic site for example that was inspired by the Fallout series and had the same feel but was a unique setting as crafted by the admins and members. In such a setting I believe you would get the majority of RPers who are there for "the feel" of the setting plus you would also pull in the lovers of the series who are bored with the same-old same-old after all this time. Being a unique setting also opens the site up to people who just like the genre but have never seen the show. For BSG as an example, how many people said "oh, but I haven't seen the show" as a reason not to join or delaying their joining? You don't have any of that with unique lore.

Much Agree, such happy

[Edith Hunter]

Yeah, as far as losing people and activity goes - you can't really have a set preparation for it. It's all case by case. If the character is too vital, like the Captain, then it sort of derails things a bit more than that one guy with the thing we had to do for him. I know some people might get upset with being replaced, but it's only mature to assume if you're not around for months, you're probably not still flying the ship. Unless you stay in contact and feed someone what your character would be doing - but then that takes up a space someone active and raring to go could fill with more input. I wouldn't expect anyone to wait on me if I disappeared - turf me out to the hospital and label me as diseased! Which, is technically how it worked on the old Verse site most of us came from. Inactive - you catch the terrible illness that puts you in a coma. I prefer a freedom to make up where your character is, though. Like me putting Sam in jail whenever I'm away lol.

We can only wait longingly for so long! We just have to find ways to adapt as we can't account for what will happen. It sucks, but that's life! Haha.

As far as the new lore or whatever, I'd probably need to see what the general ideas were - if it's completely not FF any more or just FF with the timeline adjusted for a new spin on the same ol' 'Verse. Like, we've descended into a 'rebellion era' or it's post huge conflict that has left most worlds in ruins.

I'm all for either or, but changing it would probably mean a new site, etc.