Founding of Equestria RP (Interest Check, Brainstorming Session, GM hunt)

[MisterChippy]

So, I'm new here, but I'm an experienced RPer and I want to start an RP up here. My general Idea for the RP is as follows:

You are a pony in the kinda-sorta newly founded kingdom of equestria. The time period is after the actual founding of Equestria as described in the show, and all the cities and stuff have been built, but the kindom is still pretty new (say, 80 years old?). Given that Equestria was far over 1000 years old at the start of the show, I think that counts as new. However, other than that I haven't really decided on anything yet. I'd like people who are interested in the RP (or who just wanna help out) to tell me what they think of the following ideas, and maybe even suggest some of their own:

Have preincarnations of ponies from the show (with the exception of the doctor and derpy, who will have traveled back in time and be the same ponies)

Have Celestia and Luna ruling (or maybe have their ascention to the throne be part of the plot)

Include Discord (this one is basically gaurnteed, but I'm not sure how much to include him)

Include interspecies rivalry (like in the episode)

Make this more of an adventure RP, or a more social RP with an interesting setting (leaning towards adventure myself)

Include a rival kingdom of ponies

Include changelings (I'm thinking not, since that might get a bit confusing)

Monster Fighting (It's fun, but is one of the few things that really requires a GM, so if I don't get any helpers I might have to scrap this idea.)

Approving characters (once again, I'm probably gonna end up doing this one unless everyone begs me not to)

Remember, if you have any ideas about how the RP should go, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post them. I might not take them, but the more ideas the better.

Also, my schedual and access to a (working) computer is random and very unpredicatable. Therefore, I'm gonna need some helpers to assist me with this, since I might not really be able to get on regularly. Having some GMs to run the RP while I'm away would be AMAZING, so if you're interested, PLEASE post and say so. The responsibility of the GMs would include:

Resolving disputes between players

Running NPCs and monster fights (if I even chose to include monsters)

Progressing the story (I'll try to handle this myself, but if anyone really good applies I might give them a sort of 'plot to-do list' and leave some of it up to them)

Making sure the RP doesnt get really really off track

Keeping the RP AT MOST PG-13

Keeping things moving

Just generally making sure the RP works

If enough people apply, the actual stuff that each GM HAS to do will actually be pretty small, meaning that if you have any experience GMing you should apply. The more helpers I have, the better this will go. However, too many chefs ruin the broth, so there will be some criteria that you MUST meet to apply to be a GM. They are:

You must have GMed before OR have done at least three RPs. Please post a link to some RPing you have done so I can check it out.

Have free time to dedicate to the RP (not much, but enough to keep it running).

Be nice.

Be able to name and describe three obscure (not Lyra, P0n-3, Derpy, etc...) background ponies.

PLEASE apply to be a GM. I cannot tell you how much I would like to have help in case my computer dies a horrible death on me (which is very likely) and I'm forced to run this from my 3DS.

Finally, if you are interested in the ideas I've put forward so far and think this would be a nice RP to play, please post saying so. I also would really love any suggestions for setting, plot, rules, or other stuff you might have.

[Xiee]

It's an interesting project and something I'd definitely love in popping in. However most of the RPs that I've seen in this forum and most of the RPers that I know usually don't go by GMing the stories. It's more of a collaborative and dynamic effort that each RPer contributes to controlling the whole line of the story. I do understand however you wanting GMs in the RPs. I've been a GM in real life, in fact a DM (Dungeon Master) for Dungeon and Dragons RPGs and other pen and paper RPGs. My only issue with having the RPs being GMed, in essence, controlled by a single (or in this case a group) of GMs might limit some great ideas each player has to offer. Then again having GM in an RP would sound nice as it can stay focused on a set of guidelines to avoid straying from the main concept of the RP theme.

I've also started two other RP projects in the forums. The Pony Pirates Project and the Fallout Equestria Crossover Project but they mostly lean towards the social aspect of RPs rather than adventure, with the exception of the Fallout Equestria project borrowing actual game elements from Fallout itself (see my Griffon Mercenary character for Fallout Stats). I think I can help you work with this endeavor.

Now with that out of the way a few tidbits you might want to consider.

We will be doing this in the crossover section, more specifically on Equestria - Long Forgotten [Past], where all the "past" crossover scenario's occur. Our RP is essentially a crossover since the "Mane RP" happens in present day Equestria and we try to follow the show canon as clearly as possible, though we have a few board canon rules applied to it as well.

Monster fighting will be an issue. If we're going to go down that way then we have to develop some sort of "roll system" pretty much like the D20 system what D&D has. If you've seen other RP projects done by other RPers like the Ponies and Dragons RPs, you'll see its a bit complicated, but fun. We've also did other similar adventure type RPs on the chat and it proved a bit daunting, what more if it was on the forum when replies take at least a day? Lets say Pony A decides to attack Monster B. Pony A thinks that a buck to the head of Monster B would do the trick so he rolls for initiative. He gets an 8, while the monster gets a 2. Pony A attacks first and rolls to hit and gets a 13, well above the Monster B's agility score. See where I'm getting at? It's going to be a lot of work not only for the GMs but for the players and this might take the edge out of fun on the RPs.

I don't think including the Changelings is a good idea, since they only appeared lately in the wedding episode. Putting them back in the past during Equestria's infancy might be a problem, but we can always say they were there but they just didn't bother with the ponies since there was not a lot of love to go around.

I'll post more when I come up with more ideas.

[MisterChippy]

Thanks for your input! I also want the RP to be a sort of group effort where everyone gets a say as to what happens, but just judging from past experiences there needs to be some element of control over the RP otherwise I'll come back after being gone for two days to find that all the ponies are now dogs. The reason I like having a lot of GMs is so that the RP can be very focused, so the RPers feel like they're actually in a story. Of course, there needs to be plenty of unfocused, random fun time as well, but having a plot and some people to make sure that the story works out hasn't failed me yet.

As far as monster fighting goes, I have two approaches that we can take, each with it's own pitfalls. The first is the D20 type system. I've actually designed a pen and paper RPG that used a variation of the D20 system and played it with some friends, who liked it, so I have some experience in that area. I also know a few damage calculation formula type things that we could use. My one problem with that is that it seems a bit to artificial, and saying things like "you do twenty three damage" can sometimes become substitutes for descriptions of the action. If we were to use a mathmatical system like this one, it might be best just to have the GMs know how much damage attacks do and how much health monsters have, while the players just have a general idea of how powerful each attack is. That approach sometimes works for me when I DM, but it also puts a lot of work on the GMs shoulders.

The other approach is a more zelda like approach, where each monster is a puzzle. Say you attack a dragon. The dragon has a magic sword in it's trove, which you can find by digging around in the gold. If you use the sword, you can beat the dragon. This encourages creativity, and also gives GMs a way to keep players alive even if they royally screw up, since there isn't actually any health. The GM can also reward players who come up with really creative ideas, such as luring the dragon into a tight tunnel so it gets stuck. The only problem here is that if the players can't find the clues to beat the monster, the fight can drag on and on. Still, I've run a very successful RP using this system, although it's a bit less refined than the mathy method.

[hinata2000100]

This seems like a good RP!

And concerning GM's.... I'm on summer vacation, so I have 3 months of free time.

I may apply. I may not. But I can name a whole lot of "obscure" background ponies.

[Xiee]

And another major point to both GM systems is that they're time consuming. Imagine having a group of players say face off a manticore. Each would wait for their own turn while the GM and a single player would be the ones only posting back and forth while the others waited for their turn. From my experience this isn't very effective on RP type forums, on live chat maybe but considering our different timezones and actual commitment to posting replies on a regular basis? That's what I'm afraid might what bog down the RP to a standstill. Both methods may be effective IRL or chat RPs but on the forums where we individually post replies one at a time? It's doable but time consuming and challenging to say the least especially when you have a big RP group. The ones I did in chat where we had a fight scene, there were 5 of us, took us at least 2 hours to finish a 15 minute encounter. Imagine what would happen if we did that on the forums.

This is just the only concern I have when we do decide to bring this style of RP suited for tabletop / pen and paper RPs to a forum environment.

[MisterChippy]

That's true. I've done both systems online, and I have gotten both of them to work, but it was really hard. For the mathy one I had to set times when people would HAVE to be there, and if they weren't someone would have to RP for them. The other one was one of the best times I've ever had, but encounters took hours to complete. Of course, both can work if everyone's on at once and really active, but when does that happen? This is probably the biggest obstacle in the path of any forum RP, but especially a combat based one. Fortunetly, we don't need to have a combat system (though it would be really cool).

Sigh. I'm thinking I may have to say "fight if you want, but it's not gonna be one of the main features." That would be a shame. Got any ideas how we might make this work?

[TwinkiePinkie]

I call Starswirl the Bearded!!

Ahem. Just wanted to pop in and say that I'd be up for something like this if you're still planning on it. I'm more than willing to help with plot planning, although I've never done a GM'd roleplay before. It sounds like a ton of fun. RP's oh so easily end up going nowhere. I'd love to play a part in a story with a plot. And if I can be Starswirl, well! That clinches it.

My two cents on combat -- it might be better not to include it. The puzzle idea could get really bogged down if we don't find your solution, but if you keep it really flexible and are willing to let us escape in weird ways, it could certainly work. But those types of battles would hopefully be few and far between?

One last thought -- since this could be sort of a test run for GM'd roleplay here, maybe it shouldn't be too crazy ambitious, just to get feet wet. I really hope this garners enough interest to become reality.

[GreyMatter]

Could we be preincarnations of our own OCs? I only have one OC thus far, who is me in pony form, (I'm uncreative), and if somebody can give me a pony to RP, I certainly can, but I love Grey Matter. His old Timey name, though, will be Pink Matter, as they used to think brains were pink. Actually, forget it. I am making Pink Matter, a preincarnation of Grey Matter, who is also an ancestor of Pinkie Pie. So that means...Grey is now related to Pinkie Pie. Is that alright? Preincarnation of myself, while also being an ancestor to the a Mane Cast member?

[GreyMatter]

Double post, I'm sorry, but I'm bumping this thread, to see if anypony is still interested, because I was kinda getting my hopes up.

[Cainiam]

This certainly does sound interesting. As toy your initial ideas, there should still be some animosity between certain members of each species, so conflicts would be relatively common. Eighty years would have taken quite a bit of bite out of it. You could have the Griffon kingdom being rather antagonistic instead of a rival Pony kingdom, although both are possibilities. You could go full feudal in fact and have lords warring over fiefs. If Discord was king I'm sure he'd allow it. I like the idea of making this an adventure to overthrow Discord. You could have GM's controlling Celestia and Luna in this epic borderline dark quest. That way GM's could direct the story using those characters. As for a combat sequence I'm not sure how that'd play out. Your Zelda method sounds a bit better than the D&D method for this kind of thing. Perhaps if you keep the group relatively close-knit, you could have the admins use Celestia and Luna to advance the plot by solving the puzzle if its taking too long. Still a thing like this sounds like it'd be in for the long haul. If you got together some dedicated players, I'm sure you could make it work. I'd be game for something like this, although I've never actually played D&D, I have played a lot of RPGs so I am at least familiar with this kind of methodology. People are going to feel more vested in this if they have to apply, plus you have the benefit of having no ridiculously OP characters. Changelings could be interesting, but I'd think that as Celestia knew what they were that they came after Discord, but before Nightmare Moon. This does sound interesting. I hope it's not dead.

[TwinkiePinkie]

I really like the idea of using Celestia and Luna to advance the plot. Especially if it's (as suggested) about Celestia and Luna ascending to the throne. I think that would be a perfect way to keep things on-track but still immersive, and after all, they're alicorns - they'd have all the power anyway.

I just realized, though, the chronology of Starswirl is a bit muddy. In Luna Eclipsed, Luna acts like she used to know him, but in Hearth's Warming Eve, he's the mentor of Clover the Clever, who precedes C&L by quite some time. In fact... if I'm allowed to bend the timeline a bit... I'd love to play both Starswirl and a young Clover the Clever.

How about having only a certain amount of slots available, say, one for each Mane-6 preincarnation + Doctor + Derpy, and letting people call dibs? Would that increase the potential for annoying Donut Steeles etc? I just feel like looking over applications is more involved than this fic might want to be. And as for now we've only got 5 people possibly interested, besides OP. Anyone else? I hope this comes to fruition.