ah... the wonderful world of writing and RPing and everything else in between.[and wow. it's been years--literally. all my posts are so old that they're gone.]I don't really have an idea what's being said here, but the vibe I'm getting from a couple of the latest posts is that there is some serious worldbuilding going on here and such. This is my ballpark.as JKK was saying, I would definitely also recommend trying out an RP of your world if you want to get the hang of it, and see how others react to the type of world you are giving them. I speak from experience.I'm writing a huge novel series [have been, in theory, since 2001, but the stories I have now date back to 2009 and 2011, when I gave it some final overhauling for the 5th time].so to TK, I give a few words of advice, having been there, done that, and planning to publish book 1 of 9 at the end of 2012. I'll refer to your paragraphs as points, and give my responses.POINT 1: it depends on your audience really. you defintiely want to put them into an exciting part. I assume that since it's not published yet, that it has not all been written. This usually helps in terms of RPs (RPGs) because while most people have outlines, they don't have it strictly set up where it HAS TO BE DONE ONE WAY AND CANNOT BE DONE ANY OTHER. If you have theoretical plot point A, and theoretical destination B, it's always good to leave flexibility between the two of them before it's written, because you never know what'll inspire you. And, if you have good characters, they may want to reach theoretical destination B in a different way than you had planned. A good story is always there. you just uncover it.So what does this mean for you, the writer? it means that sometims, an RP can give you inspiration as to which way that scene/part may go. it's done that for me. the main plot went roughly unchanged, but how those particular scenes played out turned out to be different than I expected simply because the RP helped develop it much more than I had planned to.POINT 2: you won't need to give every nit and pic of every detail unless you plan on making an RPG span the entire length of your series. Take Harry Potter fo example. certain elements of the story that were vital to the plot (such as Horcruxes, for example) didn't get mentioned until much later in the series. So what this means to you is that you don't need to dump everything on people at once. Start out with the basics of the world--stuff that the players will need to know in order to be able to play your game. I have done this before, and most of the information I gave my players was just basic information such as how to create a character. I gave them information on the races and species of the characters, what their abilities were, and what the limits on their apperances were and all that whatnot. I described the different settings I gave each player when I opened the RP up for them, and wove a descritpion of the state of world affairs into my posts.I also left cdiscussion open for questions and comments and whatnot, because I had a LOT of those. If you get people interested in your world, encourage questions! let them ask about your world, and they can give you an outsider's opinion on how it can all make sense. they might be able to help you piece things together a bit better. I would recommend a live chat for that though, as Q&A sessions on forums are like driving uphill trainwrecks through molasses in a Siberian January.POINT 3: the secret to starting a good RPG is to find (A) people who enjoy Role-Playing [in deep, fantasy worlds, if you can find people who are into the likes of D&D and such, you might just strike gold.], and ( http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.png people interested in the elements your world offers. Once you have that, then you can start up an RP and expect some interest. I would also recommend writing a sort of intro/hook at the top of the thread so passersby can see what it's about, and maybe the hook will get them interested enough to play. It's not a foolproof strategy, but it got me into 2 RPs that both lasted a year [the 2nd one is still going, in fact]POINT 4: not much I can say on this one other than hope that you don't get anyone like that. that would be terrible. granted, if you want some inside opinions on it befire shipping it to the publisher, you'll obviously have to give some of it away. granted, I think on forums, the most that can happen is that someone gets a little inspiration from your writings, and I doubt people will try to rip it all off and steal your limelight.So who is this namelss random schmuck walking in pretending to be the writing guru?well, at this point, I don't feel any shame in telling a little about my world.I made an RP happen during an event that became chapters 13 and 14 of the 4th book of my series. a couple of tha players that have been in it for over 2 years are STILL asking questions. you should expect this if your world is very extensive, beause it will change and grow as your ideas do, and you might find that you like some ideas and don't like others. a little openness never hurts [too much though (too much of anything is bad though) can get you walking around in circles though, so be careful].it is a world of winged humanoid creatures called Serenghe, who have the abilitiy to manipulate one of 6 elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light or Darkness. There are also some that are able to manipulate all 6, and they are called Anima Sensei. the storyline itself touches on the balance and conflicts between Order and Chaos, and touches on moral concepts such as right and wrong, and accepting responsibility, yadayada.Anyone who has seen or heard of Avatar: The Last Airbender will immediately catch on some similarities between the "Bending" in the show and the "forming" that appears in my book. there are similarities. every story has similarities with other stories, and most of them are called either cliches, or more commonly, Tropes. [a handy guide to tropes, what they are, and how they apply can easily be found by googling "TVTropes"] From the website: "Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations." [the only real way to describe them would be to go to the site though. I do not know the rules of advertising, but given that this is a wiki site and not a social/forum site (let alone my site) that I am linking to, I hope it's okay]the secret is, as people have been saying, to distance your version of the trope from those of others to make it more original. for example, Avatar has 4 "bendable" elements; my world has 6. in Avatar, only one person can control all 4 elements; in my series, it's more like 1 in every 10 or so. furthermore, it's "Bending", because they band and manipulate existing specimens of the elements. in my world, it's called "forming" because Serenghe can "form" it by manipulating existing elements, or "form" it by "creating" it. (actually converting chi energy to elemental energy, but not gonna get into that right now).just a few examples out of many. I may not be very active on this site (and it certainly won't look it, seeing as aall 1500 of my posts got eaten), but I'll definitely show my face in this thread a bit more.I hope this helps any aspiring writers.=Nephi=