Close to Home (Trottingham, anypony?)

[Jane]

Below is a bunch of babble that you may or may not want to read. The gist of what it says is I want to start a Trottingham RP for ponies who live or have lived in Trottingham. So I'm starting what may or may not turn out to be a massive undertaking by throwing an anniversary celebration for the town. I beg of strongly urge anypony who has any connections with Trottingham to join this thread and help us plan some celebratory events that would include everyone.

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Okay, so I'm the sort of person who when I see if/when/that something is missing, I will usually try to do something about it rather than sit around waiting for somepony else to do something about it.

On a (somewhat) unrelated note, I don't like flinging my characters too far from home unless I can think of a good reason for them to be away from home. I mean, I can't remember the last time I randomly got on a train to a random city I've never been to when I didn't know anyone who lived there. And when I do get on random trains to random places I've never been to, I go there with a specific purpose in mind, which makes it no longer random.

Get where I'm going with this yet?

This is Stormwing. He's a weather pony for the city of Trottingham. He also lives in the city of Trottingham. Do any of your ponies live in the city of Trottingham?

I actually did a quick & dirty census of Trottingham by searching the "accepted apps" section. Why is it quick & dirty? Well, I'm pretty sure there were several ponies who were counted who are actually inactive, so we won't likely be seeing them around even though they have been counted. Furthermore, I'm also rather confident that there are active ponies whose apps have been archived, and they have not been counted.

Here's what I discovered:

13 Pegasi mention Trottingham in their profile, but it's home to 7.

18 Earth Ponies mention Trottingham in their profile, and it's home to 12.

23 Unicorns mention Trottingham in their profile, and it's home to 9.

1 Zebra mentions Trottingham in her profile, and she lives just outside the city in Whitetail Wood

6 FiM Cast members mention Trottingham in their profile, but none of them live there anymore.

Now, the occupations of these ponies are rather varied. I found some of the following:

2 weather ponies (3 if you include one who lives in Trottingham but works at the factory in Cloudsdale)

2 artists of the visual variety

3 artists of the musical variety

3 fillies/colts who would fall into the student category (but no teacher. Trottingham needs a schoolteacher!)

2 mail ponies

An earth pony who runs a ferry service on the lakes

A self-proclaimed town sheriff who is actually a musician for an acting troupe

3 or 4 "adventurers" who list Trottingham as home

A botanist

A club owner

A pub owner

A jeweller

A baker

A Zebra who makes pretty pots

A Pegasus who works in a vineyard (I love non-traditional gender pony roles!)

A travelling detective

A mechanic

A botanist

A steam-train Engineer

So I'm going through these profiles and I'm taking notes and just all around enjoying myself looking at the creativity and variety of colourful ponies who live and work in this town. And I'm thinking to myself "Why are there only three Trottingham threads in the mane RP? (well, there may be more, but if there are they aren't setting-tagged right. SETTING TAGS ARE YOUR FRIENDS) We've got lots of really fun-looking characters who live there and really could do a lot more with this shining resort town.

While I would love to eventually encourage some more tourist-attractiony threads (it is a resort town, after all), I think it would be fun to do something so that the ponies who call Trottingham home can get to know each other first. I'm actually thinking maybe of something along the lines of an anniversary celebration for the town. Does anypony know how old the city is? Could we go for a centennial or bi-centennial or something here? It would be open to anypony who has ever, past or present, called Trottingham home, plus maybe one guest? (I really am open to suggestions).

I actually don't have any ideas as to what to do for specifics. That's sort of what this thread is for. ATTACK ME WITH YOUR IDEAS!

Also, I've never organized any big? (serious? whatever you call an RP thread of this undertaking) threads before so if anyone has any tips for me as far as organizing something like this goes, they would definitely be much appreciated and I am all ears (or, in this case, eyes ).

[NeoExlucky]

Now what if...say, a certain pony has family from trottingham? Would they be considered?

[Derpyy]

Jane I am going to make an OC that lives in Trotttingham just for this.

[Jane]

Now what if...say, a certain pony has family from trottingham? Would they be considered?

Yes, that would be fine.

Derpyy, you are all kinds of awesome!

[Derpyy]

You're to kind

[NeoExlucky]

Then consider Time 2.0 to be at your service in the RP.

Unless I want Gadget 2.0...I need to put him in more RP's, I don't know their brothers so either one would work.

[Jane]

Then consider Time 2.0 to be at your service in the RP.

Unless I want Gadget 2.0...I need to put him in more RP's, I don't know their brothers so either one would work.

Or both, if you want.

[NeoExlucky]

Probably both.

[DamianMane]

I'd love to get Copper in on this! Already my mind is racing with the wonderful contraptions he could create for a festival or celebration... At any rate, count me in!

[DamianMane]

It's a shame this doesn't seem to be getting any more replies. Will anything become of this if nobody else joins? Or are you going to scrap it if nobody else replies?

[Jane]

I'm thinking that part of the reason that I haven't gotten much interest in this would be that it's not very well organized at the moment. Once I get a few more ideas, as well as an idea of what the structure of the thread will be like, then I'll try to send out some invitations to players via PM.

I'm also working on another OC who would be more suitable than Stormwing to help coordinate this event.

Some ideas of what would actually happen are as follows:

• A Scavenger Hunt
  
• A Parade
  
• A Talent Show
  
• A breakfast for the whole town
  

The event would probably last for a weekend. Friday night for the talent show, Saturday for a festival-type date, so there would be midway and other marketplace attractions, an organized scavenger hunt, Sunday a community breakfast, a parade, and then fireworks at night.

I definitely do plan on going ahead with this, regardless of the interest level, but it may not be for a while.

[Derpyy]

Well when Dr. Heart she gets accepted and moved to the accepted apps page I'm game

[DamianMane]

I'll also be bringing along my OC Auri along, if you don't mind. He's Copper's cousin and is originally from Trottingham, but doesn't live there anymore.

[Jane]

While I still plan on doing a thread like this eventually, I have realized that it's going to take a lot more organization than initially thought, especially if I want to generate enough interest in this to lift it off the ground. I probably won't be starting this until after I finish my current University semester, so sometime after June 20th.

For the time being, the character I ended up making with this thread in mind? Got a thread of her own. Found here, it can be used for much the same purpose, but on a slightly smaller scale.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread, and I will be sure to keep you posted.

[Volt]

I am still somewhat surprised you didn't mention that Trottingham is a birth place to certain twins ;D

Correction: Hard to make any Cast live in Trottingham if we didn't even see it with our own eyes. But still, cast can also join stuff far away. I've arranged my app so that I could roleplay Lotus at least in, except Ponyville of course, Trottingham and by default Canterlot PERHAPS.

[Bellosh]

Hmmm, I'd be up for signing up the "Sheriff of Trottingham" for a new RP set in the city. Don't have any ideas of my own ATM, but I may think of some stuff eventually.....