I think that it might be beneficial if rp owners and rpers collabortated on creating a faq for owning an rp.
God yes. I would really, really appreciate a guide like this. Just a straightforward FAQ for how to turn a good
plot into a good
roleplay. There was a time I thought the two were identical, but I was young and naive then!
As a matter of fact, there
were plans to write a 'guide to being a GM'. Many moons ago Alter Ego suggested something about re-working the 'Treatise on Character Profiles' with input from as many people as possible, a merry and anarchic collaboration. The idea was well-recieved and a task group of Power Rangers was set up. Somehow, with our buoyant optimism, the project bloomed into something bigger: a series of guides to EVERYTHING IMAGINABLE - good characters, good posts, good plot writing, good roleplay etiquette. Looking back, the endaevor seemed fated to fail. As I remember it, only one of the guides was finished, and I don't see it up here. Alter Ego's 'Treatise' is still the only guide up on the forums. Kind of funny, really.
The moral of that story (if it has one) is that a collaboration with no one at the helm goes nowhere. Getting input from others is good, but there has to be just one person in charge of writing it.
Well, there are a lot more group-based roleplays than there are one-on-one's and creating a thread solely for organising the latter seems a little redundant, considering how little of them there are. Plus, I don't really see much of a difference between posting a one-on-one roleplay and a group roleplay, it's just that instead of filling up four or more spots, you're only looking to fill up one, which you can state in the title or description of the roleplay anyway.
To answer both your points, I think you may be mistaken that group roleplays and one-on-ones are at all similar. Group roleplays have a charted-out plot: things are planned out in advance. Certain events and scenarios are fated to happen. The outcome (good guys triumphing) is pretty much certain. When you sign-up for a group roleplay, your character fills a certain spot in the plot, and must have certain characteristics to be accepted. (IE, is a Pokemon trainer, or works for TR, or whatever.) The players expect the GM, who is the thread's creator, to guide them through the action.
One-on-one roleplays are largely character driven and unstructured. Many don't have a plot at all. Both roleplayers are in charge of the rp's events and have an equal responsibility to write interesting situations. A one-on-one roleplay without a plot wouldn't even be accepted by the mods - that's probably why there are so few of them.
Besides, one-on-ones can take place off of the forums, so there's no reason for the thread to look like a group roleplay (plot here, rules here, sign up here). All it has to be is an ad to other roleplayers that this person is looking for a one-on-one roleplay, has these expectations, would like to roleplay with this character, can be reached by IM, etc. That's what I mean by a one-on-one thread - an informal thread with a lounge-like atmosphere.
