Thread: RP Quests
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Old 05-11-2002, 01:36 PM   #2
Brody
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Carolina
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We've got small, medium and big picture RP options that we've been honing during the past four years. They've all got their pros and cons.

Our tight-focus RP, where we zoom in on a single player, can involve anything from their attempts to hack into the computers of a megacorporation to their working with a lawyer on a legal defense against a crime they didn't commit. One example of tight-focus RP would be , in which Fulton went on a vision quest in the caves of Quaquan. Another, sparked by the request of Brightclaw, was . Another, during our extended stay aboard Sanctuary, was . Some are just downright weird, like , in which I and a few other staffers and players put on a dream sequence for Jaxx. These are activities in which individual players get to flesh out their characters through intensive admin-cooperative stories.

I don't have nearly as much time as I used to for those, as our playerbase has continued to grow, but I have to say those are the activities I've usually enjoyed the most. You don't have to worry about whole groups of people being online at the right time, the individual player doesn't tend to go out of their way to throw a wrench in the works, and can often come up with interesting ideas of their own.

The medium-shot plots, if you think in cinematic terms, are the ones that involve a handful of players but are fairly compact. Often, these involve throwing an admin-played character into the mix and shaking things up. For example, I had a character aboard Sanctuary named Duke Buchanan, who was all about human purity and hatred of aliens. Some of the results of his interactions can be found in . But it can also be a "quest," of sorts, such as trying to find the cure for a virus, as seen in . In these plots, I often strive to give small teams of people chances to shine (or fail, as the case may be, victory is rarely assured).

The panoramic shot plot, again in cinematic terms, is the one that takes on epic proportions and can involve dozens of people. These usually last for three months or so. We call them story arcs. , the finale of Arc XII: The Marionette's Last Dance, is a good example of a panoramic plot - it jumps from world to world on its way to the conclusion.

I find myself doing more medium and panoramic shot plots these days, but I look forward to doing more of the tight focus plots down the line.
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