Interest Check: Pokemon in retail and espionage

[Jauntier]

I have a thoroughly-planned, start-to-finish and contained rp that's pretty simple in structure, at least as I see it. I may bring it to this forum if there's at least five people interested in the general plot, regardless of whether or not they will join and be committed throughout, for the purposes of this thread. It was popular on another forum for being something participants considered a fresh idea.

So this is a competitive role-play. You are a Pokemon in a Pokemon town (in the way you might imagine one in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon) working in retail for one of two small stores during a very important day for business. These two stores are in essence identical, save their aesthetic and a few key goods. Your boss really, really doesn't like the other store because they think the other owner copied their idea of a business. To get back at them, they pawn you and your co-workers to out-sell them, while at the same time doing what you can to sabotage their sales.

It's a basic plot with a story that has a high number of events to switch things up once goals are met. As the day goes on, the gimmicks your boss wants to employ get more grand, setting themselves up for the other team to try and topple you down. On the topic of sabotage, in order to keep an element of surprise from players themselves on the other team, I will communicate to your two lots in separate group PMs, so those I assign missions and orders can collaborate together on what you want to do and how you want to get it done. I'll even have separate group writing pads if you guys want to do joint posts, which are apparently very popular for this forum. You just have to never specifically mention, even in a character's thoughts in the IC thread, what your mission is.

I'll also have a point system for individual employees, to encourage competitiveness amongst yourselves with creative actions and hardcore brown nosing as well as deterring actions that would otherwise have realistic consequences, like flat out vandalizing.

This is strongly rooted on you committing to your characters and developing them and their relationships as the day goes on. This is basically Social Interaction: The Roleplay. So, what say you? Does this appeal?

 

[Fen-Fen]

I'd be interested too. I think it's fairly creative and seems rife with potential. I'd definitely sign up. I just need to make sure I can handle it. Already signed up for two RPs and said I'd join two others. Perhaps if this one comes to fruition I can drop out of one of the two I said I was gonna join.

 

[FireSnow]

I'd say this would be a great RP that i think wold generate a solid amount of interest. Though I myself wouldn't join due to real life activitie as well as more than enough commitment to other RPs, I can see many other members being very interested in a competitive RP.

My opinion: great idea, love the competition aspect, and bring it to life.

Hopefully you decide to do it! It'd be a fun RP to read when I have time.

 

[Oddball_]

"Social Interaction: The Roleplay"

It sounds interesting, I'm quite busy atm, but I would check it out at the least. Always fun to be able to pretend I actually have any social skills at all. <3

 

[Hexoc]

Seems like fun. I'd be in it

 

[Dusty]

Seems interesting. I'm usually not big on pokemon roleplays, but this actually seems pretty interesting. It seems like the roleplay will only be one in story day, how long do you expect this to take IRL?

 

[Jauntier]

That's six posts that find the idea interesting, which is all I'm looking for: sufficient interest. I'll get to writing up a code and re-organizing my notes. It should take a few days so I can gauge my own availability as well.

It seems like the roleplay will only be one in story day, how long do you expect this to take IRL?

The role-play is one IC day, yes. In truth, I cannot gauge how quickly the role-play will go. I should hope it takes no longer than three... maybe four months, but this is my gauge from when I employed this in the summer, and the only thing I had to worry about were a couple people taking a few days off for vacation. For a role-play, three or four months is considered short, especially since I have an ending and a controlled means of getting there.

The issue is that there are the factors of post frequency per character as I make it a point to count passing time in my own posts, trying to keep events occurring on both teams nearly synced up. And then for me there's the novel issue of joint posts: will I ultimately allow them, how many people will participate in joint posts at a time, at what times are players available to work on and complete joint posts, if they are taking too long in doing so, or if they are covering a significant amount of IC time that they leave the other team chronologically behind because they didn't want to do a joint post, etc.

It all depends on the ten people who join. I will work to accommodate. We all have to be big on communication upon admission.

 

[Ozymandias]

mmm this is rather interesting
I don't think i've ever seen an rp like this before, so creative +1 to you
i'm not sure if i could join or not but definitely count me down in the "interested" vote

 

[Jauntier]

mmm this is rather interesting
I don't think i've ever seen an rp like this before, so creative +1 to you

I like to think that the fact the plot is driven by such petty circumstances, in something as deceptively plain as working part-time during a holiday makes it unique. The plot is just that, but when you think of the possibilities within that one day, it suddenly becomes that much more loaded. And yet it doesn't expressly advertise some extensive adventure like most of the lineup here in the Theater, with journeys and such.

I think people should capitalize more on the every day things, you know?

"Social Interaction: The Roleplay"

It sounds interesting, I'm quite busy atm, but I would check it out at the least. Always fun to be able to pretend I actually have any social skills at all. <3

That brings up another point: your character doesn't even have to be good at socializing. They can be as tragically inept as reasonable. They can even hinder progress because they're so lame. But being a crap employee has to be strategically played, because in the end, if your boss pegs the problem on you, you're fired and it's game over for you.

I think that position though would be a fun one to play if you can balance being liked by or found innocuous by your employer versus constantly getting your privileged checked by your co-workers.

So I say, I encourage the freedom to choose--under scrutiny.

 

[Arsenic]

Sounds like a cool idea. Suppose doing my own job in a roleplay would be different!

 

[Jauntier]

I'm interested, although.. the word thoroughly planned doesn't appeal too much much lol idk why

You or others with that sentiment may feel that way because there are people out there who like to micromanage and even manipulate other players into following a specific plot that they had hoped would happen in the framework they presented, with the characters they allowed.

If that's not the case, don't worry. If it is, as I said, the role-play is very contained. The setting is very small by comparison to other stories, as it all happens within and between two stores at the end of a street. It's not at all as open as, say, a journey role-play, where you can do anything under the sun short of suicide, but that's because the setting and plot permit it. Those role-plays are also often so broad about plot and in turn pacing that most people running them feel like the story writes itself, and they will reach their ultimate plot resolution eventually. It's lax.

I can't. If you've ever worked in sales or customer service, you know that a slow day is boring with a lot of waiting around. What a mundane basis for a role-play, at that speed. I have to keep the day moving in such a tight space, so I'm throwing in an array of scheduled IC events as the story progresses to keep things fresh and fluid. I personally will not dictate how I want players' characters to maneuver these events. Players just have to take into consideration what my NPCs--their character's bosses--would think and react, is all.

Basically, the only thing people will have to worry about moving forward is how they want their characters to act in the next post, with who, and why. That's all I want you all to have to worry about. Personally, the most fun in a role-play is character exchange. So much potential for drama.