So I wasn't going to post my particular rp because I don't think it matches exactly what you're looking for, but I thought I might as well try since you haven't gotten any other responses!

The rp I'm talking about in particular is Coming Home, a Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon-inspired slice-of-life. It's not quite Rune Factory, but we do have a small dash of magic! To clarify, we have special magical characters that span from witches to merfolk with their own powers. We've been around for more than 6 months now, and we have a great, welcoming, zero-drama community. Feel free to visit and see what you think.

Okay, so, I love PMMD. One of my favorite games is Explorers of Darkness/Time, because the mechanics and the plot were both fantastic. (What, a great plot in a Pokemon game?!)

That said, I've tried a couple of PMMD rps before, and I've never been able to last for more than, like, 3 weeks in any of them. (And the rps themselves never lasted much longer after that.) The PMMD games are full of tons of mechanics, and translating those into rp form means a shit-ton of tedious admin/moderator work, i.e. not just NPC-ing Pokemon battles, but other dungeon crawling discoveries, shops and item management, exploration team logistics, etc. I have seen anywhere from 1 staff member to 6 becoming completely overwhelmed by the work and all of them getting burnt-out.

So the only things I can suggest revolve around this issue: boil down any mechanics/systems to just a couple. Don't try to do everything. Have a large and dedicated staff team. Find some way to stay organized when it comes to NPC stuff. Maybe even think of altering some game-original concepts, so for instance, limiting teams to 1-2 Pokemon so that way you don't have dungeon threads with 3-4 players all waiting on each other to post.

I wish you guys luck!! Seriously, I wish there were a lot more PMMD rps out there. What you have so far sounds good!

kdlajfkdja I love those books so much, hell yes

If you want something similar to war/factions but not quite as big in scale, you could incorporate species racism into the world-building? Like elves (or some other race) are discriminated against, a la Dragon Age. You could have a subplot where one radical group in town is trying to assassinate prominent elf characters. I feel like subplots are your friend here? Just a thought!

Also, I'm glad I could help to some extent! ;u; I totally love your idea and would join if you ever managed to create the site. I myself have zero expertise in creating rp sites, so I can't offer much, but I get not wanting to go into such a big project on your own. Good luck!!

In terms of what Wizard said about your plot still needing to have war in rp-present time, I personally have to disagree. To be fair, I'm pretty biased because I never was able to get into war/faction plots for some reason, but I really do think that they've been done too much and, more often than not, done poorly.

Rather, because the plot of your rp is about individual greed re: the stone, I think you could emphasize that members build characters with some kind of wish or "lack" already hinted it or fully explained in their apps. This can be anything from "Character A wants to be the richest person alive" to "wants world peace" to "wants to remain happy." Then provide the option to let characters group themselves together if they want, but on a 100% volunteer basis. In other words, someone makes a knight and decides to be part of the castle guard or some such. Another person makes a thief that's part of some underground smuggling ring. Etc.

I'm also assuming that throughout your rp, the stone makes its reappearance in some way? I would imagine through site events where its existence is hinted at in increasing depth until the truth behind the myth is blown out into the open. That, or something similar, would provide enough forward plot momentum.

I have an incredibly strong hankering for a wild west rp, based off of Red Dead Redemption, Westworld, etc. Bandits, hard-up sheriffs, outlaws-turned-vigilantes, the whole shebang! If you wanted to mix it up a little, you could even throw a dash of fantasy in there with specialty characters like shamans or witches, who have magical abilities like healing, fire manipulation, or control of animals.

Unfortunately, I feel like the western genre is not a popular one to roleplay. I never see any, which is a huge shame.

Hey Vampire, I thought I would throw CBH your way! We're a pretty tight-knit community, and we love seeing new writers, chatting with them, and plotting out fun threads and character dynamics. All of us over there have had our stories of dumb rp or internet drama, so I can assure you we're 100% drama-free--and we definitely don't take ourselves too seriously, that's for sure. xD We have a great Discord server, or if c-box chatting is more your thing, we have one of those. Let me know if you have any questions. You can also ask our staff for help--they're awesome!