The Five Skeletal Principles Of A Good Rpg
Entry posted by ExoFat
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What makes a good and sucsessful RPG? The question is often tossed around and no one can seem to find the answer. I've managed several RPGs. I've played in even more. After observing most of them I think I can boil a good RPG down to five principles that go hand in hand with each other to form the skeleton of an RPG.
Activity: Probably the single most important aspect of an RPG. If an RPG is not active it will not survive. Activity means story promoting ICs, not just enough OOCs to carry it past the revival deadline. An inactive RPG has no heart and runs on mere life support.
Clarity: Clarity means well thought out and easy to understand. The opening post is the main object of clarity, because it has to detail every aspect of an RPG and cater to every player. An unclear RPG becomes confusing, hard to follow, and subsequently hard to manage. Unclear RPGs have a severe learning disablity.
Interest: If players are not interested in your RPG it will not gain activity and thus not survive. Even the most well thought out and clear RPGs will not succeed if the player is not enthusiastic about your concept, story, or design. Interest is the body and head of an RPG.
Rule Following: Every RPG must comply with the rules of the forum it is contained within. But this extends far beyond that. Without a solid set of rules or a good reward and punishment system the RPG will be unable to move without disorder and chaos. Making sure that players follow the rules and that the RPG management does as well is essential for the RPG's survival. This is the basic structure of an RPG, the arms and legs.
Play Promoting: An RPG is a playable story, key word: playable. Being playable means that the RPG can advance and become the story it was meant to be. If the rules, story, etc. do not promote playability then Players will loose interest, activity will decline..... Playablity is the hands and feet of and RPG, for without it you cannot move or shape the game.
And so we've built our RPG Person. Any RPG that contains all of these parts will succeed. As long as the GM keeps managing it and so forth. Of course that doesn't mean an RPG without one of these parts will die immediately. A person can live with a disability or without legs. But they will never be as sucsessful as the RPGs that contain every part.
Happy RPing!
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