A Journey RP Created By The Players

[BugTypeAficionado]

I've been pondering on an idea for a while, and wanted to weigh in on what people would think about it. If you've browsed or perused around the Fakemon community, especially around 2014-2015, chances are you've heard of fan-made, community-made Pokemon regions. These would be (mostly) tumblr blogs that would take votes and submissions from the community and would create a custom Pokemon region from scratch. Most of them flopped, but the original blog that started it all, the Omnis Region, is still going strong to this day.

So I wondered, would it be possible to translate this process into something for a Pokemon Journey RP?

There's no doubt been RPs before, taking place in regions created by the GM. Possibly even full, fan-made regions with new Pokemon (this is far less frequent, but I have seen it now and then on some sites). But what about an RP with a selection of Pokemon and a region built by the players?

Using a Discord server to communicate with all players, a co-GM (which I will definitely need, if you have some kind of GM experience and could spare some time now and then to help me out, that would be greatly appreciated) and I would distribute certain things (a certain archetype of Pokemon, a town, a route, etc.) to individual players over time, and well as put out polls to determine other things we decide should be agreed on as a group (Where should our region be based off of, what overarching theme should our starters have, if any, etc.). Also, because of this process, we would probably limit the amount of players to about 6-7 players overall, including the co-GM and I, so that Pokemon/characters/locations aren't going to be dispersed so thinly, and as to not give ourselves a headache trying to manage something built by 12+ people.

This creation process will most likely, going by people's busy schedule, not wanting to rush the creative process, and other factors, about 2-3 months at least. After the OC goes up and everyone's in, this process would begin and until everything we need is in place, the IC wouldn't go up.

Let's say our region has about, say, ~130 fan-made Pokemon, and let's say we have 6 people working on the project. Each player would be given ~15 empty slots to make whatever kind of Pokemon they like (keep in mind each slot is for one Pokemon, not one evolution line. Keep that in mind if you decide to make an Eevee 2.0 or something), and may go about 10 over this ~15 slot limit, if they have the drive to make so many Pokemon and aren't stepping on other people's territories. Each player would also be randomly assigned ~5 archetype slots. These slots each represent one Pokemon evolutionary family, allowing for more freedom. These archetypes are things along the lines of a common, 2-stage rodent family (Rattata, Sentret, Zigzagoon, etc.), a Pikaclone, or a Roadblock Pokemon (Snorlax and Sudowoodo). Archetypes cannot be repeated, for the sake of variety. So if you're making a Pokemon, and you're not sure if it falls under the category of an archetype, ask one of the GMs or a fellow player who might be working on something similar.

After getting player input, players may also get some creative freedom with (pre)evolutions of Pokemon from past generations, regional forms, mega evolutions, legendaries, etc. This same sort of process will also be used for creating our region, it's locales, it's locations, and more. However, the overall story/conflict of the RP will be left to the GMs.

This idea's been sloshing in my head for so long I'm afraid I've might've missed something, but I think I covered all the bases I wanted to. If you have any questions or concerns, please throw them my way. Any and all are greatly appreciated.

 

[Foxrally]

Y'know, a few months ago I would've said this seems like a much better project for the (sadly now defunct) World of Pokecommunity forum, which basically was a forum filled with fanmade regions all written in detail. There was even a news station that would report on the happenings on the forum, a UN-like committee, and maps too. i made my own region on the moon, wonder if I could use that someday wink wink

As for the idea itself, I think it's a pretty interesting concept but that would have to be well-managed from the start. A roadmap would have to be established, i.e. what are people going to vote about exactly, who will determine choices (or will it be open-ended? open-endedness can result in poor participation sometimes), etc. I also think the planned story, or at least a brief idea of it should be given before voting starts, so that people can help shape the region based off the story.

I'm also not a fan of using discord for stuff like this. It's definitely not as public as the forums, and if the main concern is that polls can't be changed/deleted, you can ask myself or gimmepie to handle it and change it for you! It's also a lot more accessible on here since more people can see it.

Actually, I just realized a project that is very similar in nature to yours: Kiyo's Off The Menu Worskshop, which started as an interest check but then turned into a workshop where players helped build the world until the OOC was eventually released. It's probably one of the best examples of dedicated GMing done right, and I really would recommend giving it a few pages of reading to see how the process went (spoiler: a lot of memes).

 

[Junier]

I'd be down with this. Though I'd also imagine it would take a while to decide on components, so I think it could make for a fun community project! As in, you may not want to narrow things down to a player base if the initial objective is to build a region. Hosting a workshop on the boards in the matter of OTM's, which Fox linked to, could invite a variety of members.

If you do go for the conventional roleplay sort of set-up, however, I agree with Fox: have some semblance of a starting point, especially in concerns to story.

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

As Fakemon Fanboy number one, I'd have so many ideas!

 

[Star Arcana]

At this point, I don't have anything to constructive to add, Foxrally and Junier have already mentioned anything I would have. However, this does sound pretty promising and unique. I'd be interested in contributing, should you opt to pursue the idea.

 

[BugTypeAficionado]

Some points were brought up by multiple people, so I'll formally respond to whoever brought it up first. also wow people actually responded nice

Y'know, a few months ago I would've said this seems like a much better project for the (sadly now defunct) World of Pokecommunity forum, which basically was a forum filled with fanmade regions all written in detail. There was even a news station that would report on the happenings on the forum, a UN-like committee, and maps too. i made my own region on the moon, wonder if I could use that someday wink wink

Huh, never heard of it. Of course, I've only joined this forum a couple months ago, but I've been a decently long time lurker. T'is is a shame its gone although I'm not complaining about not having any competition on this front.

As for the idea itself, I think it's a pretty interesting concept but that would have to be well-managed from the start. A roadmap would have to be established, i.e. what are people going to vote about exactly, who will determine choices (or will it be open-ended? open-endedness can result in poor participation sometimes), etc. I also think the planned story, or at least a brief idea of it should be given before voting starts, so that people can help shape the region based off the story.

I have began work on a roadmap of sorts, luckily. It's looking good so far, although I think I personally have trouble determining when something should be open-ended, how open-ended it should be, etc., but I think I should be able to manage decently enough. I haven't given much thought to a story yet, as I'm afraid doing this too early could force certain aspects of the region that haven't even been decided yet... but I think I can make something work.

I'm also not a fan of using discord for stuff like this. It's definitely not as public as the forums, and if the main concern is that polls can't be changed/deleted, you can ask myself or gimmepie to handle it and change it for you! It's also a lot more accessible on here since more people can see it.

I can do the forums just fine if that's preferred, a server was just my first thought. Although, if I were to have polls, would it be better to host them on this thread, or in the Workshop, if I do advertise there?

EDIT: Just realized a Workshop is not a section of the forums, ignore this.

I'd be down with this. Though I'd also imagine it would take a while to decide on components, so I think it could make for a fun community project! As in, you may not want to narrow things down to a player base if the initial objective is to build a region. Hosting a workshop on the boards in the matter of OTM's, which Fox linked to, could invite a variety of members.

Now that I'm giving it more thought, backlogging all the design stuff onto the player base may not be the best idea. I suppose I was afraid relying on a bigger community, the majority of which might not even be in the RP, would make the process longer than necessary (waiting for submissions/votes, etc.), but it'd be wiser to have many more creative minds involved in this. If we're doing this with a community involved, I think the creative process would be more akin to fan community regions of old, putting up polls and taking submissions to decide things.

I'll give the thread linked a good looking-through, maybe that'll help clear things up a bit more.

 

[Junier]

Yeah, I like the sound of submissions and polls! If it comes down to voting, the more the better.

 

[BugTypeAficionado]

I'm going to start working on an OOC thread, for the purpose of submissions, voting, and eventually sign-ups and everything else once the actual RP can get rolling.