Not talking about world-wide effecting situations, what do you think is better for the roleplay overall? Situations that are talked out on all sides, planned and then put into effect with all the people in charge knowing what is supposed to happen?

Or on the other hand is it better for a tone to be set and then all people involved and/or watching to just see what happens? Meaning nothing is planned everything is just reactionary to the things happening around them. (them being the characters involved)

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Without being redundent and tell you this is what I think.

The latter situation you describe is usually the best course of action. Each of us interpets events diffrently. Ever play that game where you tell the first person "The red duck wears one magenta boot." and in the end it ends up "I saw your mom with a duck and a cowboy boot?" Let the players decide where to go with the game - just provide some guidance and a good starting point.

I think one of the best things to do would be to simply talk about what you'd like to start.

Once it's started, than let reaction take over.

In the beginning, you can give a little nudge in the general direction you'd like to go, and after that, keep the reactionary element of it all, the unpredictability.

My answer: Be ready for both. Players may or may not run with the storyline. It may drop into a lull. They may go off into a dead-end tangent.

The plot should certainly be flexible enough to allow the players to affect where it goes over time, but you should also have a plan for providing guidance and a nudge here and there when required.

It can look like you're winging it, even if you've got a net.

I like having a general idea of the overall way things will work.. but then again, having a wrench thrown into the system is always interesting.. (The other night when Vesper popped in on a few of us comes to mind)

Melly

Yes that poses the majority of the problems I feel. Its strange when you're in the middle of roleplaying, you go a certain direction with your character and then out of the blue you start getting tells and personal messages with people explaining something they did or asking for explaination for something you did.

I mean what do you do then? I mean even taking the time to stop and tell them to just roleplay kills the mood somewhat. And often you find that its people in positions of authority that do the most questioning, as though they are afraid to just step forward.

What then?

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You can always throw in a wrench of your own.. It depends a lot on your mood, on the nature of your character, etc.

I've found myself having more fun as a commoner sort who gets pushed and ordered around, mainly because that way I don't HAVE to participate in overly preplanned RP, and can just.. do my thing.. sweep the castle, cook someone dinner, blah blah blah.. It's strangely freeing, and more fulfilling than any 'hero'-type character has ever been for me...

A great response that I've given in the past when someone explains actions to me oocly (and I do admit that at times I feel the need to explain oocly to some people who in their own ooc sense arent understanding what my character is, if that makes any sense) is 'Yes, but my own character doesn't understand that,' and keep going with the rp..

I think that made sense?

Melly

My take on this is as follows. The best roleplay situations are typically a combination of the two, planning ahead, and then winging it.

A small group of players can very easily take a situation, plot it out and run it into action in the mainstream of the playerbase. When the rest of the players get their hands on it, they're naturally going to change it's outcome with their own input.

Lets take a simple scenario. John and Mary are engaged. Mary is only marrying John for his money, and is secretly having an affair with Tom. That's all fine and good... but Tom, being a typical guys, goes and tells his freinds. His friends blabber the rumor around town, until someone decides to send it back to John. Now, in the original roleplay, John shouldn't ever find out, but because of the outside influence, he does, and the roleplay becomes more interesting for more people.

Planned RP can only be so entertaining for so many people, but when you take that loose plan and free it into the mainstream, it often times, will mutate into something drastically different from the original plan, and a thousand times more interesting.

Too true, Pasano. And just as no plan of attack survives contact with the enemy, it is also true that no carefully planned plot survives contact with the players.

It's great to have a direction you want to go, but even better to let the players steer as they can, because they may take you in new and unexpected directions.

DISCLAIMER: The directions may also lead to unpleasant outcomes for the players. That's fine too. Letting players influence changes in storylines should not merely mean letting them change it so it works out well for them all the time. It should also have the balance of occasionally working against them.

Winging it as things occur is the best feeling, especially when the outcome is that everyone enjoyed themselves. I've never had a pre-planned anything because I don't even have a group that I play with. It's just me and my little world, and what's the most fun is when my little world touches someone else's little world and we kinda go, "Oh really?" and see what happens.