Narrator or Not?

[Left Turn]

But that's no fun for the characters, it's only fun for the narrator!

Any plot will be no fun for players whose characters would naturally have little involvement in it. For instance, DJ had little involvement in helping Joey out with stuff, which may be why I'm biased against plots that are Joey getting sick, or Joey looking for something, ect. A narrated plot could be one that has involvement for all characters, and I tried to make session 51 a plot that did. At the same time, non-narrated plots can be ones that have limited involvement for certain characters (where involvment in the plot being roleplayed would be out of character).

OK, I have an idea.  How about if at the beginning, the narrator announces two plots, not necessarily A and B just two plots.  Then periodically throughout the RP, when one seems to be dwindling down, they say plot change and if the first plot was happening, we start RPing the other plot.  That way not every character has to be in every plot, but still every character gets action.  There could even be three plots, which is more fun for the narrator to make up and orchestrate but it also gives the characters freedom once they are in the plot.  There can be random plot twists, but then the narrator only gets a limited number of chances (e.g. 3) to get it back the way they want it, and the plots can each be played multiple and not necessarily in order times (e.g. ABCBCA).

just another suggestion....

I support roleplayers having the option of narrating a thread that way, a don't support a requirement that all sessions be narrated that way.

Basically, the only restrictions on the power of the narrator that I support are:

1) The narrator doesn't get to decide when characters leave a scene

2) The roleplay directors should have the option of overriding a decision to exclude a character from a scene if they think the character is being excluded merely because of a dislike of said character.

Other than that I think the narrator deserves to be allowed to put as much, or as little narration into the roleplay as they want.

It's pretty clear that some roleplayers won't do much of anything when it's their turn to be the narrator, and that some will want to do much more narration.

[fullhouseforever]

I've pretty much given my $0.02 on this.  I'll pretty much be okay with whatever people decide on doing, as long as when someone becomes narrator, they can choose to lighten their involvement if they want (i.e. making it less restrictive for their session).

[BL]

I guess what this ultimately comes down to is if we should sacrifice fun in the plot for the plot making sense. There should be a balance somewhere (obviously putting several plot twists in a session is unwarranted), but I just think absolute narrator power would be detrimental to overall interests of the roleplay. Another one of the really big questions that this ultimately leads to is; is the destruction of the master plan of a plot by a dissenting member much worse than having everyone hate the plot except for the narrator.

Another thing not really discussed too was that that the narrated plots will likely be around for a very long time. leftturn's was one of the slowest AND one of the longest, meaning that it went on for three weeks... it'll definitely seem like forever for someone who doesn't care for the plot.

[fullhouseforever]

Yeah, I can't say found 51 very enjoyable.  Something will need to change.  But it's a matter of what it is and how drastic.  I have never minded a little wavering (sometimes they've even saved sessions in the past, and have contributed some of the most enjoyable moments).

[BL]

One of my big issues with the drastic change too is that we are not dealing with a crowd that will jump at any chance to change the plot for no reason; absolute narrator control is a little much. Leftturn, I'll ask you this; do you think you'd have very much fun if you basically had what you needed to say regurgitated in front of you for several weeks straight?

[Left Turn]

Leftturn, I'll ask you this; do you think you'd have very much fun if you basically had what you needed to say regurgitated in front of you for several weeks straight?

If the narrator truly went that far, no I don't think so. I would question whether I truly went that far with session 51, although I suspect you and some others think I did go that far. There were some scenes that I deemed necessary to roleplay that did not have much flexibility for the participants (notably the Wake-Up San Fransisco scene).

I did go with the flow a bit in my narration. I went with the celebrity that's on Wake-Up San Fransisco coming to Joey's party idea that MT Fan suggested (although not Geroge Lopez for reasons I've previously mentioned). What I wasn't prepared to do was allow the plot to drift away from getting Joey's party ready and then having the party. There was a lot that could have been done within that framework that people didn't do. Anyone could have come up with some great ideas to make the party more interesting, but only MT Fan did. Joey could have wondered why the family seemed to be hiding things from him, but he didn't. Instead he tried to bring in plot twists so he could act out a plot of his choosing. BL, you could have posted as any of the minor characters that were at the party, but you didn't.

Yes, narration the way I want it doesn't allow unlimited choice by the roleplayers. However, it still does allow some choice. It also helps to prevent roleplayers from introducing plot twists at every opportunity, or posting large numbers of filler posts while waiting for the characters with plot action to post. Ir helps, but it still isn't foolproof.

I can understand if you don't like my narration style. I doubt if anyone else will narrate the way I did. Some won't narrate at all. I'm fine with that. However, I would like to be able to narrate the way I want when my turn comes up.

[Csoup715]

Leftturn, I'd say you basically went that far....it was so restricted that when you say there were lots of things we could have done that we didn't, we didn't know we could do them because we thought you'd have changed them right back to exactly how you wanted it!  Roleplays should last like 4-5 pages and no longer, and they should be fun for everyone.  when there's no narrator, if you character isn't getting enough of a plot, you can make one up for them and if it's a cool, fun, creative one, people will follow suit.  dissenting characters/RPers can be hilarious, and make it so much more fun than a structured "this is how it's gonna be, suck it up" plotline....

[fullhouseforever]

I can understand if you don't like my narration style. I doubt if anyone else will narrate the way I did. Some won't narrate at all. I'm fine with that. However, I would like to be able to narrate the way I want when my turn comes up.

Actually I quite agree there.  Most people will play it differently.  I like the idea of people beign narrator at different levels they want.  I don't want to make it too restrictive, but if the narrator has a certain vision, playing it wouldn't be a bad idea.  That's why I still like the idea of stating the idea of the whole plot at the beginning.

[BL]

I guess we should start a new poll asking if people want absolute, limited, or no narrator powers. Meanwhile, this is locked.