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rpanons is an anonymous community for role-play related topics. This place serves as a forum for game discussions, canon discussions, RP solicitations (ATP, game ads, open memes), and advice. The occasional off topic comment is inevitable, but please keep heated social and political topics to their respective communities. Posting them here will only get them frozen. Subsequent threads made to bypass a freeze will then be deleted.

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Some things I learned after modding three games:

Plan ahead. Plan 6 months of your game plot in advance and have the posts written up and ready to go. Depending on how plot-heavy your game is, make sure that you always stay well ahead and that you have a game plan in mind. You can adjust to player actions as you go but having that foundation in place will keep you on track.

Be realistic about the amount of admin and other mod work that you can do. Don't play a million NPCs when you're trying to juggle everything else. If you create an unnecessarily complicated system that creates more work than it adds value, ditch it.

If you have co-mods, make sure that everyone knows what they're responsible for. It's more efficient to divide mod work up, but at the same time try to avoid bottlenecks where if one mod goes awol nothing can get done. Always have a back-up, especially for events or other time-sensitive things. Make sure all mods know and agree in advance that they need to pull their weight and that if they can't be around enough to do that, they need to step down. The only thing worse than a mod who is never around is a mod who actively causes a headache for the rest of the team. Choose your co-mods carefully, a bad one can wreck a game.

Keep your promises. Post events on time. Process applications on time. Answer questions in a timely fashion. You need to keep up with and show enthusiasm for your game. Make the effort to build the trust of your players. Reliability is important.

Give players the opportunity to feedback on the game in an open forum. Actively encourage this and show that you're willing to listen. That doesn't mean you have to do everything that players want. It's your game and you know what tone you're going for and what does and doesn't fit with the game. But do listen when players have good ideas or bring up legitimate concerns, and then tell everyone when you've implemented player feedback. Always explain the rationale behind any changes that you make and especially point out when it's a result of player feedback. Players are far more likely to accept change if they feel like they've had an influence and if they know that you have a solid reason for doing it.

Finally, accept that there are things you have no control over. You have no control over what is said on anon comms. Accept that players will vent and there's nothing you can do about this other than try not to give them much to complain about. You have no control over who apps and drops from your game, other than filtering the players that do app. Don't be tempted to be too lenient with applications, you'll only regret it later on. Focus on having fun with the players you do have and with a bit of luck, they'll do all the enabling for you and your game will find its feet. There's no magic formula for a game surviving, but at least you can give it your best shot!

Thank you! This was quite thorough. Much appreciated!

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Re: Advice from the bridge

Re: Advice from the bridge