"We are In an Anime" Discussion

I'm here, just waiting for a plot that I can actually actively contribute to. And by that I mean without characters getting kicked to the side to make room for lore explanations all the time.

Mostly, I think that the issue here is that the whole thing seems to be all over the place at the moment, if we had a more linear goal some way to make more sense of the current events it might be easier to get more players? As GCB said, other ITTs (like Pirates or WHABP) tend to work well with different interwoven stories, but this looks more like a Kudzu Plot. With the sheer amount of exposition dumps, it doesn't really feel like a slice-of-life—if we moved to a format more like T:TS, people would probably get deterred less.

The pacing feels pretty off, too. Often I find that it's hard to keep posting consistently because the events keep moving on and leaving characters behind, even if there are only 2 people posting back-and-forth, so they have no chance to play a part in the episode. A lot of the arcs get too Yumeko/Steph/Sabrina's NPCs-centric for people to really get involved, anyway. I'd suggest introducing liquid time as a solution, or if not at least something more flexible.

But yeah, that's just my take on things.

I planned to have the main plot to being rather open-ended, so that people (and their characters) will be free to jump in and out of the Story Arc as they please, and not being too constrained, as I like creative freedom. And since anything can happen during the main storyline as it is, it's rather usual to have some Mood Whiplash... I also like it when other characters generally mix the main plot up and observe the results from there onwards.

I also like other characters to be adventurous and "go with the flow" with the main storyline, and not take things too seriously with the main plot as it is. It is also meant to a parody of how many anime in general also have Kudzu Plot.

So Zorua, how would you suggest that I structure the main-plot at the moment, since we are all on a set timeline?

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Dec 5th 2019 at 6:54:18 AM

Give the characters other than Yumeko and Steph bigger roles, mainly. That way people can participate in the thread more often and not get left out from the ongoing episode even on a fixed timeline, while not having to basically just RP by themselves until something else happens to them.

alright, i'm back for now!

Frank has become an Ascended Extra- for now, although his role might stick in the future.

also, i agree with zorua. although i suggest that we should keep the Monster of the Week format, they don't necessarily have to be important to the plot. If we still want to get into the non-Slice of Life moments though, i suggest that we should create new characters specifically for that side of the story

Edited by KingOfStickers on Dec 5th 2019 at 12:20:50 PM

i think zorua hit the nail on the head personally. the plot is way too centered around one specific group of characters, it really blocks people out of joining for many reasons - they're not in the know on certain things, they're doing something different, or the main characters are in some entire other dimension that's inaccessible. and that's just for the episodes i've been here for

this first became apparent to me when they had to do the soul-room thing at the hospital, i tried to lead zorua and later puma onto a sort of B-plot, but there wasn't really much to do with what we were given, and whatever we could think of to do felt... lackluster.

then again when i was called in for the scene where steph was in the hospital, it was clear the action was with yumeko, but we were blocked out from joining him because he was somewhere inaccessible

another thing is the exposition dumps - there's so much, it really starts to break your immersion after a while. it gets especially confusing because if you skip one or two and they turn out to be important to the story you're suddenly completely lost. there's so much going on in this plot that it's seriously hard to keep track of

and lastly, this show was advertised as a slice of life, but it is far from anything resembling a slice of life. The first episode was fun as shit because even though there was crazy magic shit going on all over the place, there wasn't any real direction, plotwise, everyone was just doing their own shit and having fun with it. monster of the week plots are good and fine (though that's far from what this is too, i feel), but i think it would be good to focus on just the daily lives of the characters first and foremost - its easier to get everyone involved that way, and makes the thread easier to keep track of

and no, adding *more* npcs is not the way to fix it

Edited by Afterwards on Dec 5th 2019 at 11:39:25 AM

Edited by GoldenCityBird on Dec 6th 2019 at 3:44:06 PM

i think thats a great solution, it addresses every one of the problems and provides a good solution to each of them for a more immersive and inclusive roleplay experience (though i dont think steph should necessarily go away, her main character-ness definitely needs to be toned all the way down)

i dont think we need to have anyone else host unless steph just doesn't feel up for it anymore, in which case whoever volunteers should also follow the above guidelines

alternatively, we could do it like TTS, where each episode has a different host that cycles through. this way the issue of "who hosts" can still be taken care of in a diplomatic manner, and people can jump onto and drop the gm role as they please (also makes it easier on steph if she still wants to be in charge but may have trouble implementing the above changes)

(also i like the idea of izuru initially being possessed i think thats one magic element that could also afford to stay. the isekai elements never amounted to much more than a couple jokes at the start so i think that can come back too as long as it stays as jokes)

Edited by Afterwards on Dec 5th 2019 at 7:03:19 AM

As for the hosting, my personal preference would be T:TS style as Afterwards said (i.e revolving between the players' plots)—though that aside even without it, if the changes GCB suggested were implemented, it would really serve to improve our current situation.

Alright, who else would like to host this year's Christmas Episode?

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Dec 6th 2019 at 6:59:26 AM

I actually feel like Sabrina should continue hosting this episode, but if anyone else wants to do so, I don't mind.

i mean yeah i figure the reboot would be after this ones over

How far is the reboot going to... Well, reboot?

i think gcb suggested a fresh start like we all reintroduce each other and go from there

We can keep all our characters intact, though. We could center this new story on Neo Daten, too, seeing as we all have at least one character who studies there.

As for the relationship with Yuu and Steph, I wanted to explore Yuu's relationship with other characters as well. We could make Yuu and Steph endgame, though

I have an idea: What if we did a parody of Collectible Card Game tropes? Like what Apricot Cookie(s)! did with Kar-Di-Oh. Does that sound cool?

Yeah, that sounds cool. I'm mostly just waiting on the rp to keep moving, though.

Edited by GoldenCityBird on Dec 8th 2019 at 1:11:58 PM

That also sounds cool! Also, Yuu and Golden bird, it is now your posts.

OOC: I might also have to say, but tomorrow I am going on a cruise to Tasmania for an entire week, I will be back by next week but until then I nominate Yuu and GoldenCityBird to continue and maintain the roleplay until I arrive back home. Plus the fact that I (Steph) generally don't have very long to live and want to see and travel the world for myself (and as my last request).

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Dec 9th 2019 at 2:13:52 AM

So it turns out Stickers and I are both very unsure about what to do (Stickers has ideas, but he's very unsure.) If anyone else (mainly Zorua or Afters) wants to do anything, or has any ideas, let us know.

Edited by GoldenCityBird on Dec 9th 2019 at 7:24:17 PM

hey, ive been really unsure about this roleplay for a while which is why i have not been participating. are you, the roleplayers, still interested in playing?

Not really, to be honest. I'll still be looking at the League of Heroes RP to see if that updates, though.

OOC: I'm back from my week-long holiday to Tasmania!

So instead of milling around, why not share some of your ideas in the meantime while we wait for this Christmas episode to resume? And I'm still interested in roleplaying!

Edited by sabrina_diamond on Dec 14th 2019 at 12:40:20 AM

Oh, hi Steph!!! Welcome back *big hug*

I think we should still do the soft reboot first, but we can still keep some of the relationships like Bird suggested

Also, how was your trip?

OOC: My trip to Tasmania was fun, I had a lot of activities on the cruise, but the weather was rainy that week. So all I did was look at the shops there.

Also, the soft-reboot is now in session at the moment.