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Post by Ludo on Nov 3, 2020 20:21:02 GMT
So this is definitely more of a general gathering of thoughts, opinions, and wants than me saying 'I'm doing this and this is how it's going to go', because while I do have things I'd 100% do for a panfandom like this, I also want to hear what people look for these days with this genre, settings, ideas, plots...I wanna know what the current THING is that people look for. So I'm gonna lay out some foundational things that I personally would do, and then ask some questions!
Set In Stone Details:
- Jcink
- 16+ characters, 18+ members
- Probably relaxed activity, no word counts
- Set up like a personified site, but illustrated/animanga faces, it'd be less people pulling their canons from their own world and more people adapting and re-imagining their characters to whatever setting is in the forum. I want to see people get creative while still keeping true to the character's core, think of it like adapting your character for an au version of themselves.
My Questions:
As a whole, what vibe do you want to see in a panfandom like this? Lighthearted? Dark and gritty?
What kind of setting do you like? City? Small down? University? Medieval?
Do you prefer having a heavy amount of lore or something more easily digestible? What kinds of systems do you like to see in a site like this?
What kind of overarching plots do you like? War? Political unrest? Do people even want major plots?
Finally, what would YOU look for in a site like this? feel free to give me as much or as little as you want!
I hope this is okay here? I didn't put it in interest check because it's not really that so much as I'm just really curious what people want in the current RPC climate as far as this goes? It's an interesting subject and I love seeing what current trends lean towards!
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phantom of the black parade
3,000 posts
bits
she / her pronouns
silver and gold won't save my rotting soul
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Post by Kuroya on Nov 3, 2020 21:06:48 GMT
As a whole, what vibe do you want to see in a panfandom like this? Lighthearted? Dark and gritty?
honestly, i think you need a bit of a balance of both - because if you're a really light-hearted site, you're going to shut out a lot of those grittier series, while at the same time, if you're too gritty and grimdark, you're not going to have a lot of room for those lighter series. which probably doesn't help much but. imo it's about striking a nice balance so that there's space for, say, avatar characters to work side by side with like fnaf characters, so to speak.
What kind of setting do you like? City? Small down? University? Medieval?
i'm more of a fan of modern settings just in general because my tolerance for medieval stuff is p limited. i also like p limited settings where there's room for diversity without making it really hard to actually interact because of locations.
Do you prefer having a heavy amount of lore or something more easily digestible? What kinds of systems do you like to see in a site like this?
light lore. i am old. i am tired. i do not want to read 500 pages of various lore documents just to be able to exist as a concept. please don't make me.
What kind of overarching plots do you like? War? Political unrest? Do people even want major plots?
no major plot, please, just let me sit in a corner and do my thing without feeling like i'm the rp equivalent of the guy mowing his law with the tornado behind him.
Finally, what would YOU look for in a site like this? feel free to give me as much or as little as you want!
honestly, by this point, i'd just be excited for something that isn't mixed faceclaims and doesn't have the exhaustive overly-detailed apps that's become the new norm for animated panfandoms-
honestly, i remembered a few years ago that i was on a kh site that was this concept (the canons all were essentially personified and then it was a vr-mmo site from there) and it was honestly super neat and i'd be so down for something similar. i also know there's been a few personified sites that were also supernatural sites and that'd be pretty hype to add some flavor. or, y'know, like i mentioned in ginger's isekai pokemon idea, i'd be feral for a site that's doing exactly this in a vr-mmo setting with pokemon. honestly, i just want something that's a bit more than just "normal slice-of-life realistic city" with no additional flavor to it just because oops i'm just trash for throwing a little bit of extra flavor into it- |
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253 posts
bits
She/Her/Hers
And all those things I didn't say Wrecking balls inside my brain
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Post by Em on Nov 3, 2020 22:09:04 GMT
As a whole, what vibe do you want to see in a panfandom like this? Lighthearted? Dark and gritty?
Middle of the road where you can do both!
What kind of setting do you like? City? Small down? University? Medieval?
It doesn't really matter; the site matters more than the setting.
Do you prefer having a heavy amount of lore or something more easily digestible? What kinds of systems do you like to see in a site like this?
Minimal lore. I want to get into something fast. No systems.
What kind of overarching plots do you like? War? Political unrest? Do people even want major plots?
No overarching plots.
Finally, what would YOU look for in a site like this? feel free to give me as much or as little as you want!
I'm looking for something that accepts OCs, where I can play with my friend and we don't feel boxed in.
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111 posts
bits
they/them/theirs
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Post by jungler on Nov 3, 2020 22:46:10 GMT
Gonna answer the only question relevant to my thoughts.
what would YOU look for in a site like this? feel free to give me as much or as little as you want!
pre-awakening fire emblem characters, at this point. if there are none, i feel like my desire to join is very low. also allowing OCs from every setting is also tempting but I don't think I have any desire to join a site for that alone.
also no restrictions on characters is appealing. yes this includes age restrictions. yes this includes animal characters. 16+ has never jived well with me. i can deal with both, it's not a dealbreaker, but i do like writing younger characters and animals sometimes :/.
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bow down
991 posts
bits
she / her
i'm running these streets, see? burning like gasoline.
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Post by pharaoh leap on Nov 3, 2020 23:14:19 GMT
Hello, I am here to offer my bad takes. c:
SITE VIBES: LIGHT-HEARTED/DARK AND GRITTY?
My answer's always gonna be dark and gritty, but I'm an angst maniac. I don't think dark/gritty settings strictly prevent people from having light-hearted plots, but more importantly, especially in plot-light sites, having a setting that's dangerous in its own right can give writers setting-bred conflict without needing some grand story arc hanging over their head. Even if it's as simple as 'things are overcrowded, supplies are hard to come by', people can run with it and have scavenging threads, or characters fighting over space/food. Slice-of-life sites tend to lose me because they lack this kind of basic friction.
PREFERRED SETTING?
I love sci-fi a whole lot (whether we're talking Bladerunner-esque city or something just straight up in space), but I'm gonna side with Kuroya and say that whatever you do, try not to spread yourself too thin location-wise! (Also, this probably wasn't what you had in mind at all, but Kuroya also mentioned panfandom Pokemon, and I would kill for one of those. Straight up, if you don't mind it being Proboards, I have a panfandom Pokemon skin 95% done, I will just straight give it to you for free, that is how bad I want this -)
HEAVY OR LIGHT LORE? WHAT SORT OF SYSTEMS?
Lore depends on how strong of a plot you want involved, to which the basic answer is: only as much is as strictly necessary for understanding your setting (and plot, if applicable). The more lore there is, the more likely people are to forget or accidentally fudge it. Simple and clean's usually the best, but if you have a specific vision in mind, sometimes it can't be helped. As for systems? None, thank you very much. Best case scenario, I know there are panfandoms that have character unlocking systems that use on-site currency, which are okay, but if I want to roll dice, I'll play Pathfinder, thank you very much -
MAJOR OVERARCHING PLOT? WHAT SORT?
I... like major overarching plots! They're fun. Generally, I like political unrest, because you don't actually have to do a lot on the side of the admins. If you've got two different parties/groups/what have you at odds with each other in the lore, then people tend to run with that, having people dislike each other or outright fight for their opposing beliefs. Which is. Y'know. *chef's kiss* My favorite type of conflict. My favorite panfandom site ever was post-apocalyptic, and I can only sing its praises. In-fighting for power while the world literally burns. Heck yeah.
As a personified site rather than strictly canon, as well, you have the distinct advantage over regular panfandoms in that people don't have to learn new lore for every canon character in order to understand. We're all in the same site plot together, so characters are going to be tailored to that, as opposed to wherever they came from! Don't be afraid to get creative here.
WHAT WOULD I LOOK FOR IN A PANFANDOM SITE?
You're off to a great start with animanga personified! I may formally request you take this a step further and say that people don't have to face claim their canon character, that way characters from books/live action/rock operas aren't left without a home because they can't get a face claim (or I have to look for a real life face, which - ick, blehck, no thank you). Not a make-or-break deal for me or anything, either, but seconding Em's request for OCs? Really, the main thing I want out of panfandoms are sites that have exceptionally lax character rules, because panfandoms for me are about having fun with whoever you wanna write as, and it's kind of ridiculous how gate-kept a lot of the canon lists are on most of these sites. This goes for who you can play, what you can play, how you play them, et cetera. Also, please, please, please let me play rock opera canons, thank you very much. That's the only real make or break for me. Can I write as Nikki? Yeah? Okay, we're good, then.
(Out of curiosity: Is there a reason there's a limit on 16+ characters? I understand not wanting minor characters engaging in, uh... activities on a site if that's available, since that's pretty Yikes :tm:, but there are plenty of characters that fall beneath this limit that are fleshed out/developed enough that I wouldn't consider them 'cringey' to write as or anything - the main cast for, like, Mob Psycho or Madoka Magica for two examples off the top of my head. This isn't meant to be combative at all! I hope it doesn't come off that way. It's just a rule I've seen cropping up more and more, and I've always wondered why?)
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Post by Ludo on Nov 3, 2020 23:28:22 GMT
Man Pharaoh you and Kuroya really be out here selling me on the panfandom pokemon idea? I've never thought about running a pokemon based site before so I wouldn't even know where to START doing that, but as someone who has thought about the pokemon teams for like 100% of my favorite canon characters? Hell yeah.
I definitely would intend to keep the setting to one location, a large city rather than a handful of spread out cities, or maybe a large city and at least one small suburbia town, with a good foresty location for in the wild adventures.
ALSO You have touched on another thing I'd probably do that I failed to mention? I would definitely be open to anything, and if your character doesn't have an animated face or comes from a book, I'd definitely allow aesthetics in place of needing a face. You can easily give an idea what they look like via a description of some form, so in the end face claims and visuals of faces aren't NEEDED if you don't have them?
I wouldn't mind seeing animal characters either, and if I did go the pokemon route, I'd probably be more open to younger characters since most of the characters in that setting start their journeys at heckin' 10 anyway LMAO.
This is all REALLY good insight though! Thank you so much for your amazing responses, and keep them coming! I don't have any ideas 100% set in stone and I'm still really curious what people like and look for in regards to this kind of genre! ^^
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phantom of the black parade
3,000 posts
bits
she / her pronouns
silver and gold won't save my rotting soul
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Post by Kuroya on Nov 3, 2020 23:55:25 GMT
i'm gonna pop back in here real fast to just-
honestly, if the site is in the vein of a personified concept anyway, imo i don't see why animals wouldn't be allowed cuz i mean...... they'd have to be adapted regardless so it'd be a neat thing to just "yeah sure you can play appa and momo, that'd be neat to have them as aang's adopted siblings rather than his pets".
but that leads me into my larger system concern that would also rope in allowing ocs + non-animated-fandoms. aka the claims issue. because while you say you're open to allowing people to get by with appearances + aesthetic images.... i know i personally would largely prefer to actually have a face i would be able to use for those characters, and the immediate obvious problem then becomes "what happens when someone claims a face that someone would want to use for a canon" and "what would be claimable and what wouldn't be".
(i also personally would be kind of iffy with allowing ocs, but that's just my personal preference because i'm really not a huge fan of ocs in panfandom settings just in general.)
but since i've also had this problem recently (and since you mentioned pokemon journeys starting at ten)..... i'm also now a little leery in regards to whether or not you'd allow a character to be aged up to an adult. because tbeh i'm not really comfortable playing a lot of minors anymore (partially because i'm older and that stage of my life seems so far away from me now but partially because i really just would rather not have to worry about there being issues because of the ship i'm sailing away in, as it were), so i know it'd be a hard dealbreaker for me if i couldn't age the minors up to adults (i say where also i would be thinking long and hard about proboards just because i dislike it that much sorry leap). but also yes, that's a large part of why sites have been increasingly moving to age-gate out younger characters too, because people just aren't wanting to deal with potential pedobear stuff at all and because an aging rp community has been by and large moving towards playing older characters anyway so yeah.
time to awkwardly ollie out again oops- |
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