I started thinking about how hard it is to keep characters tied together. See, lots of them may not necessarily gravitate toward one another as best buddies, but they have a lot of potential for interesting interaction nonetheless. And, I think our main weakness going forward will be that much of our cast lacks any kind of intrinsic, built-in tie to anybody else. Many are just strangers (WAITING, UP AND DOWN THE BOULEVARD, THEIR SHADOWS SEARCHING IN THE NIGHT </journey>), totally isolated with no other other characters they know or are related to. New character syndrome.

Given that this is a Sonic RP, and that its story will typically center on either Eggman or some sort of big, universally-threatening villain-figure, there's plenty of good reason for having characters "united" against the problem. Archieites would probably call them Freedom Fighters (hrg), but I don't care what we call'em. I simply think it'd be a good idea for there to be some sort of optional group players could toss their characters into for some automatic "association" and adventure-excuses.

Thing is, I don't have any characters at the moment who would be in such a thing, so somebody else would need to have a character with a vision to head things up and take that sort of prominent role.

Thoughts? Ideas? Any volunteers to be a part of it or head it up? Hit me.

Well, okay, if you say so.

You would've wanted to, anyway. But I'll take that as a "sure, go for it" vote.

I tried reading this, but I think it's too late in the night (morning?) to understand well enough to answer.

Give me a bit.

It sounds like a pretty good idea to me. It gives characters a built-in association from the get-go, which would definitely help ease the birth pangs of thrusting a new character into an already moving story-line. I don't know how temporary or permanent the ties between characters would be, but it gives the characters a little something more to work with than just having them show up. If done right, I think it has the potential to be a cool utility.

I'm with Greens, I don't fully understand the jist of what you're getting at, dude.

However, just to put this out there, I have several characters that could contribute (at least on an informational level) to our current roster of... 'heroes.' However, they originate from a lot of my past storylines and I don't know if anyone wants those to become adjuncts of this particular story.

*Just voted on the poll* - for Christ's Sakes, people, Sally wasn't ALL that bad back in the day. She's a c*nt now, yeah but... jeez.

Anyway... I actually think that something along these lines was sort of an inevitability, as forming a camaraderie among characters usually makes the RP more enjoyable despite the clichéness of it all. It sure as hell worked when I was in the Era.

The current lineup of characters we have working together are on some very rocky grounds, but you gotta remember, even though they might be naturally inhospitable (or the polar opposite) to one another, it's also natural to form bonds over the course of time assuming they have one prime common interest. Whether or not those bonds are good or bad is up to us, but usually if they're going after the same thing, they become good.

There's my dime, take it how you will.

I must have really phrased something poorly if this is complicated in any way. All I'm suggesting is the existence of a "band" of characters who readily accept new folks to help fight whatever the Big Bad of the moment is, typically Eggman. That's it.

After seeing the previous RP for the past... what, seven or so years, the main problem new folks always had was just getting to know other characters, or feeling like they were meaningfully involved. They tried to jump in on the fight, but they didn't know anybody, so they were left behind as soon as the action died down. Something like the group proposed above was successful in the distant past (in our early, early forum days), even though that old group was a sort of government task force instead of something more freely-open like this.

So, basically, what I'm suggesting is a band of fighters. A new RPer can go, "hey, I'm putting my character in this group," and then, whammo, they're already "associated" with whoever else is in that group, and have a reason to be around them, even if the characters don't know each other that well.

It's a tool for involving new people, and I think it will become handy once we start openly advertising and recruiting. That's pretty much all.

Yeah. I voted yes. I think.

Are you worried that the group might grow potentially big, though? It might reach a point where you'll only be able to allow people to join if they apply with a villain character. I'm completely endorsing of more bad guys as it is.

Aahh, I doubt we'll get a ton of people, to be honest. It takes a lot to outgun the villain—If you have a competent antagonist player who is portraying a villain with some resources and backup, anyway, not just some gothy hotshot lone-wolf duelist (i.e. the typical fancharacter villainchidna or villianhog). Right now, since we're just starting out, Eggman is still the big bad, and he has pretty much unlimited threats to dole out, another one of which (with a dedicated player behind it) we'll probably see soon.

I'm not sure who our next antagonist after this short storyline will be, but I'll be doing my best to make sure it's someone who can't simply be brute-forced to death by sheer numbers of opposing players. If we actually end up having such an issue as having too many active people, though, I'll call it a good day and count my blessings.