I just wanted to float around the idea of a RWBY site that I haven't personally seen following two core concepts which I believe make the fandom worth roleplaying in, camaraderie and progression. This site is getting made, and any questions/critiques/requests for invites when it does open in approximately a month are very much appreciated. Writing posts like this helps get ideas together for implementation, anyways!

Camaraderie is something that I believe to be one of the core components that makes RWBY special. The reliance on teams, and the bonds forged between team members is something that I'd want to encourage very heavily -- and that's one core pillar on how the site would be built.

This influence would first be seen on the scope of the project. This forum would focus on precisely one singular Huntsman Academy and the immediate area. There would be an 'Elsewhere' category for special assignments and missions, but it would not be defined past that except for within the specific thread. The focus would for the foreseeable future be entirely on the journey from admit to full blown Hunter/Huntress.

While I do want to open up more of the world as time goes on, the driving force of the site would be the Academy. Narrowing the scope of the entire site to this extent ensures that the initial hump of gathering members, especially in a fandom that's not very big like RWBY's is less painful because it consolidates all characters onto site into one pool. You made a character -- cool! You can potentially now roleplay with literally everyone else in the site, because they are all affiliated with the school.

I'm a huge advocate of discord for the reason of building up camaraderie OOC as well as IC, because I am a firm believer that the site needs to be a place that members want to spend time in order to keep them around. Each team would have their own channel, and things like classes and missions would be run regularly to heighten immersion and give consistent activity.

Progression is the second pillar that I'd focus on, because I feel like a large part of the appeal of an academy-focused roleplay would be around the feeling of progression. I used the term 'RPG system' before, so I'm going to clarify what I mean by that without specific numbers, because those are much less important than the intent at this juncture.

I want every character to start off weak. I do not want people controlling canon characters much stronger than everyone else. I want the playing field to be level at first, and for new people to come in a year later and not be hopelessly and utterly behind. To do this, an exponential experience system based upon upgrading your character over a time period of months and years. One of my biggest things in site design is future proofing, and creating systems that can stand the test of time. Real life bites everyone eventually, and if this gets off the ground I want the same systems that we built the site with to be able to be used for at least the next three to four years with little adjustments. Maintaining and adjusting an existing system is much easier than creating an entirely new one from scratch mid-way through.

The system would be word count based, with every 100 in character words being equal to 1 experience point. Math was done at a previous site that did this system, and it actually very slightly favors people who post fast and short over people who post slow and long. The math showed very little difference over time, despite people always assuming that one side would have a huge advantage so I'm very comfortable keeping the system. There would be small multipliers for stuff like finishing class threads, finishing group threads, and finishing threads that spawned from IC chat. These multipliers are usually 10% and the class threads boost that up to 20%. This will usually amount to very small as in less than five experience bonuses per thread, but they encourage people to participate in classes and make it feel like more of a community.

Site events will have a 2x multiplier on experience when they run for limited times, and let me explain briefly what I mean by site events, while also noting that the idea is to put the forum about 25 years after the Great War in the Kingdom of Mistral, focusing very heavily on the City of Mistral until the member base grows enough to support the world opening up:

Instead of having things like the CCTS tower and high quality dust and safe roads to travel on as the baseline for the setting, I think it would be a fun thing to allow members to make their mark in the setting by making these things and more happen. New species of Grimm will be encountered, but the first one to fight against those new species will get the credit for giving the information back to the Academy if they choose to. Advances in dust refining will be made and spread to Mistral, but students will help in several key ways to allow them to write their names in the history of the Kingdom at large.

Instead of thanking NPCs for doing these things, you will be thanking characters who put their lives on the line to advance not just themselves, but the entire site. Doing things not just for oneself, but for the betterment of the greater whole is what being a huntsman (or woman!) is all about. Taking these same principles and making a site structure with it is the site that I want to make so that players feel like they have agency and can make a difference -- and then enabling them to do the very same.