A Measure of Success

[Durelin]

Originally Posted by Form

If we're talking about collaborative story-writing, where there is no identification of player with character, but merely mass ownership of the entire story without authorial division by character, then we're talking about something that hardly qualifies as role-playing, and might be more akin to co-written fanfiction. And while I'm not saying there's no room for that on the Downs, I guess I didn't think we were discussing that far outside the box.

This is funny, because this is what I think the Downs style has been like. The *play out the plot step by step, using the characters to complete the plot* (which means sometimes everyone sorta collectively using the characters)...

The Downs RP 'style' may change a bit, it may not. It has nothing to do with whether it's good or not. A certain style, a certain etiquette is going to just simply exist, regardless of what you try to put into the rules or if you just leave it all out except for the basics.

Why not leave room for variety? For some things a little different? No one's going to pop in and just change the status quo if you don't outline every little style point in the rules. For one thing, the status quo is pretty *solid* here...for another, that just doesn't happen.

And the problem is you have one perception of the 'Downs RP style.' It's quite different from mine. I have no idea about anyone else's, but just looking at this thread, it seems like a lot of us are in different worlds. And the fact is, the style has changed over time, fluctuated a great deal. In the particulars, the style can differ from game to game and certainly from forum to forum, which was part of the point of the three forum system (the differences seemed to get fewer over time, I guess).

So, I just think what you're trying to put into rules, to 'preserve' the style...it's a bit much, and not what rules are for in my opinion.

And yea, on a personal level, I'm *whining* because I don't like people using my character to move along the story or accomplish something they want to accomplish.

Re Fea's post:

Yea, I think we can all agree on those basic rules, regardless of wording. Though I think rule #3 applies to any community. And of course #5 is a tricky thing to put into rules. I mean that just falls under general forum rules of interaction.