If anyone find themselves facing the problem of "What to Start" or "How to Start" they can always come to me and we'll figure out something. Heck I'm even willing to setting up a chat room/group somewhere just to deal with this matter. (Or if you guys are willing to use QQ, I can set up a chatgroup and since I'm on that 24/7 you'll guaranteeing to get my reply on whatever stuff you want to ask sooner or later)
But for me, I'm against laying down the guidelines in-story post. Because I don't want the RP to behave like this:
Mission: Partner the Partners!
Mission Type: Regular, Crisis
Get into Virtual Gensokyo
Gather your partners (0/3)
Gather Lily White
Gather Lily Black
Gather Daiyousei
Get ready for the exit!
Your Next Mission in the Story Arc: Shootdown Shoot Around
no, no, NO.
Which, to put it frankly, this MMORPG-like guidelines are actually what is happening right here. and personally I don't like this, at all because it counters creativity.
My own two cents on the matter:
Neo WUFTD is a lot to bite off (heard the expression "bit off more than you could chew" before?). In other words, this roleplay takes a lot of time and effort to make quality posts for. I think that Nemo Ma's expectations are
justified; however, they are extreme and, due to likely roleplay:participant mismatching, not the best way to solve this problem. I've been following her lead on these decisions so far since she was one of the original GMs for Neo WUFTD, but I think this is taking it too far. However, she has several good points that I feel are worth reiterating:
1.
We don't want to make this a series of quests. In other words, we don't want this roleplay to become an endless series of quests that limits your ability to have freedom and the ability to make your own decisions as to how the roleplay will go for
you. At the same time though, we like to see initiative and a willingness to make this roleplay great with your efforts.
2.
We are here if you need inspiration, ideas, or guidance. This may sound like an unfriendly answer, but you have been informed of what the current situation is (have your OC acquire partners in the virtual Gensokyo), so there is no excuse to not know what to do (although as I'm about to mention, there is likely some general confusion as to where to start). So you need to bug us if you aren't sure what to do.
The main problem I see right now, aside from obvious school/work/other real life things delaying participation, is that
no one is sure of where to start. It's like an open-ended prompt on an essay in a literature class: you aren't quite sure where to begin because you can go in so many directions. There is no apparent right or wrong answer. So I propose the following:
If you don't know what you should do, shoot myself or Nemo Ma a PM or contact us otherwise and we can offer some guidance or inspiration on where to go for your next post(s) in the story. Bother us. We are here for that very reason.I can guess that several participants would like some guidance in this sandbox roleplay. If this is the case, we will give you guard rails and point you in a direction to go. We do want to see creativity and excitement naturally occur without having to intervene, but it is not fair to participants that came into this roleplay without realizing what it is (and to be perfectly fair, Nemo Ma did not make that clear so you are all forgiven).
For example, let's take Crow's case since he recently posted about this being a desirable thing. Currently, he has not gotten very far into the virtual Gensokyo. Let's assume that he would like a bit of guidance or direction on what to do. Let's also assume that he wants to have an event with IdiotsOpposite, whos OC Zach has the destined partners Aya Shameimaru, Rin Kaenbyou, Tenshi Hinanawi, Fujiwara no Mokou. Let's consider Crow's destined partners: Suika Ibuki, Suwako Moriya, Letty Whiterock. We want him to have his OC, Danao, acquire all of them eventually. So I could give Crow some ideas:
1. Danao could encounter Suwako talking to Orin about making sure that Utsuho doesn't go wild during the disappearance crisis (the event where many of the virtual Gensokyo's inhabitants disappeared into reality). Danao could then easily set up a situation for making a pact with Suwako, and it gives IdiotsOpposite a chance to get involved in posting as well since it concerns Orin.
2. Danao could find Letty scolding Tenshi for planning on some devious blizzard to fall on Gensokyo to add to the chaos, stating it's her job; IO's OC Zach could approach them as well. This sets up a situation where they can dual post.
3. This is more of a note: Since Mokou has been used in story for a while, only recently released after Duke's OC Andy acquired Keine and subsequently Ken and Ran's pact backfiring, she should probably be acquired by IO last. So Crow shouldn't be too concerned with Mokou in his posts at all unless he visits the Human Village when Mokou happens to be there (this complicates his posting task though, since it requires more coordination and effort).
These are just a few things I could suggest to him. We can do this for any of you, so ask away if you would like guidance!
