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08/15/00: Building the Better RPG Chat Room If I told the average chatter how many room apps we get over time,
likely they wouldn't believe me. I have been helping out with room apps
since IMC started. Over that time, I have seen many, many unsuccessful
apps, and a heaping handful of successful ones. We added a page to the FAQ about how to create new communities some
time ago, but after thinking about this for a while, I came to the conclusion
that we needed something with a bit more detail. This is written for those who want to make a chat room work on IMC.
They're good suggestions (and in some cases, firm rules) that you'll
want to know about if you're planning to propose a new room. Part I: Planning
The New Communities
FAQ and the FAQ
on current restrictions on room apps are both required reading,
before you start working on plans for a new room. Read these FAQs
on building new communities FIRST. There is a great deal of condensed information in the FAQs about
how to apply for a room. If you follow all of those guidelines, you
have half the battle won right there. You cannot break those guidelines and expect to be the exception.
We don't grant exceptions. If you can't follow those simple guidelines,
the Site Administrators will figure you probably can't run a chat
room.
Make sure the room fills a need. One problem with a lot of room apps we see is that they're just not
very original. We don't really need five of the same exact type of
room. Find a new twist on the concept. Some examples:
Make sure the concept is not too self-contained or esoteric for an
average chatter to grasp quickly. Your novel-in-the-works may be a
great setting for an RPG, but if it requires players to read 300K
of background before they can play, they won't come. Make sure there are people who have interest in the room. You may
be the world's biggest fan of the works of some minor author, but
unless you have a solid user base, your room will stagnate. Have clear and simple rules. Clear and simple rules are ones that chatters can grasp easily when
they first read those rules. The more clear and concise the rules,
the more likely people are to obey them. A clear rule states, "This is permitted," or, conversely, "This is
not permitted." It is short and to the point. If your room does not
permit magical characters, for example, your rule should read, "No
magical characters of any sort may play here." You can go into more
detail afterwards, of course, but the first sentence should always
state the intent clearly. Simple rules are rules without excessive conditional statements.
If the words "except" or "but" appear in your rules, rewrite them
to state precisely what you mean. An example: Original version: All players must submit sheets to the appropriate
staff person, except for players who are playing temporary characters
or NPCs. Simple and clear version: Sheets for all permanent characters
must be submitted to the appropriate staff member. Part II: Building a Foundation
One thing that separates a successful room concept from a "wouldn't
that have been cool" concept is the hard work that goes into making
it. If you've ever seen how a house is built, you know that laying
a proper foundation is essential. Without a good foundation, even
the sturdiest and most elegant house will not stand for long. Have a good setting. As mentioned above, a good setting is one that is original, but not
too esoteric for the average person to get his arms around. It's something
that will appeal to a wide group of people, and offer many opportunities
for RP and plots. RP is the single most important part of your room's setting. Try
to imagine at least two dozen plots that could rise out of the setting.
If you can't do so, likely others won't be able to do so either. Make
your scope broad enough to allow a wide variety of RP, but not so
broad that the players will have a hard time finding realistic ways
to meet up in-character. A single city is usually a good place to set a chat room. A single
building can be problematic, but a city allows for multiple locations
while still keeping characters close enough together to allow them
to interact. Have an active and diverse membership. Every room, no matter how well planned, needs an active membership
to make it come to life. If you have only a handful of people involved
in your room, after a while, all of you will long for fresh blood
and ideas. The best way to keep fresh blood coming in is to constantly recruit
in a low-key fashion. Recruitment will be discussed further on in
this article. Once you get people in, you need to encourage them to stay. This
means that your staff should be willing to help new people feel the
place out. They should answer questions and be able to direct people
to the home page, or provide basic information. Once the new chatter has decided to stay, it's good to help get him
into RP as quickly as possible. Role-playing is why we're all here,
after all, and the more quickly someone gets into that RP groove,
the more likely he'll be to come back tomorrow. Give it time to grow. Every room undergoes growing pains. Don't panic when your room isn't
hopping within a week. A room can sometimes take months to grow to
a comfortable size. Growth also involves giving an ear to new ideas. If a chatter offers
suggestions, evaluate these suggestions carefully, and give them serious
consideration. This encourages chatters to participate and make the
room a home -- and possibly bring in a friend or twelve to check out
"this really cool place I found to RP." All of this takes time, however. A punishing pace in room development
is likely to do more harm than good. Forcing things ahead too quickly
can make the host and staff burn out too early, leaving the room isolated
and drifting. A good host sets a pace he can handle, and takes on help when it
gets to be too much. Let the room grow as it will. Don't obsess on
the numbers -- the time it's been open, the number of chatters --
and instead concentrate on making the place a fun and comfortable
place to RP. Part III: Building a home site that feels like home.
A good, well-developed home site explains the room, from soup to
nuts. This does not mean it should have 100 or more internal pages explaining
everything from rules on foot odor to the favorite colors of the staff.
What a good room home site should include is the material a new player
will need to get started. An even better room site adds a little extra
for those who enjoy immersing themselves in the milieu. A simple
template for a room site is available in a ZIP archive. You can
use those pages freely, modify them, play with them, do whatever you
like. They're freeware, in essence, and they've been put there for
room hosts who don't know HTML all that well. A basic template that works is:
You can also add far more detail with things like these:
A few more guidelines to good site creation: Help! I'm Lost! For ease of navigation, every individual page should all have links
to all of the others (or at least, all of the basic header pages)
at the top, bottom, side, or any combination of these. It doesn't
have to be a fancy image map -- you can do something as simple as:
You can also create image maps and link bars like the above as components
on some sites -- which means you only update one file when you need
to update your navigation info. Check with your site provider and
see what they offer members. If you use a program like Dreamweaver,
you can build a template that lets you update all your pages at once. If you have questions, the Gline has graciously offered his assistance:
thegline@thegline.com. Simple to read, simple to navigate, and clear are the base requirements.
A good home site has a simple and easy-to-read design. Fancy graphics
and backgrounds are often overkill; simple text pages are enough,
unless you're particularly skilled with HTML. Links that go somewhere. I can't say this enough -- do not link to nonexistent pages!
Only link to a page once it is created, and make sure the links work. Courtesy. Don't waste players' time by linking to pages that have nothing more
than "This page is in the works," unless it is going to be done within
a week. All of this home site data may seem like a lot of work, but a week's
worth of preparation can add enough dimension and flavor to a room
to make the difference between sinking and swimming. I've found that
an acceptable home site can be created in an afternoon, and a good
one can be made with a week's worth of work. Part IV: Filling out the Application
At this point, you should review the New
Communities FAQ and the FAQ
on current restrictions on room apps. Ensure you have filled
all the requirements first -- any missing information will result
in a rejected application. Some hints:
The application form is now located right here on the site, which allows us to incorporate approved PRs into the database. When you sit down to fill out the application, set aside a half-hour or so. Make sure you have all your links and data on hand before doing it. Be thorough. If you do the work beforehand by checking out the form and getting the information before filling it out, you won't have to try and come up with things on the fly. A properly prepared room that follows all the guidelines above should find it easy to get approval in a timely fashion. Part V: Making it Fly
With all these things in mind, you can create the room of your dreams. Thought it seems like a lot of work, it's a labor of love that will pay off in the long run. Chance is the long-suffering IMC Webmaster, who's seen one too many unsuccessful room apps, and the host of the supported PR, Twilight: New York. |
