Evening, all. After the mild success of my last post (and the flurry of public and private conversations that occurred after), I sat down and thought about how we could piece together what we were looking for without setting up restrictions, rules, or any kind of hindrance on play. The conclusion of that process was ARPI: The Association for Role Play and Immersion. I am founding the ARPI on two principles: encourage RP and make it fun.

What I see presently is a lot of resources available to improve role playing and a lot of people looking for better role playing. What I don't see is a community to support and encourage it; RP is presently fueled entirely on personal motivation (which can dry up quickly without anyone to interact with while in-character). So I'm putting together an inclusive group of people to reward some of that motivation with a group of people for support and encouragement.

The purpose of ARPI is simple; to promote RP. People who want to get into RP will have a means of getting their feet wet, veterans can hone their skills, and everyone in the group will have people with which they can interact in-character. So I'm opening ARPI's doors to everyone: the curious, the amateur, the expert, and the utterly confused. There will be a place for all types of RPers; hardcore, casual, and everything in between.

Presently, ARPI is very malleable and we want to make sure we're matching up what we offer with what the players are looking for. I've got a few members already, and we've discussed two avenues of pursuing RP promotion:

Formal

We could take a formal approach, and offer tasks for members to complete as they get a better and more fulfilling understanding of RP. This process would feature ranks (to track progress), tasks (to move you forward), and events (to bring people together). For instance, one such task is to interact with another ARPI member while both of you are in-character. The content of the conversation is entirely up to you, but it's required to really think about how your character would respond in order to proceed through the ranks.

Casual

We could take a casual approach, and merely provide a place for a community to interact. No ranks, no tasks, and no events (except those created by the members). ARPI would exist as a means of promoting RP by just getting together and doing it; and ARPI would provide the resources to make those things happen. Additionally, we'd be less focused on character-driven RP, and more focused on just assuming the role of a "gangster" or "made man". You wouldn't have to create a character and live in it, you just have to know how to think like a member of the mafia.

Public Opinion

Last time I appealed to public opinion (and you guys responded fantastically), and I'll be doing so again here (I like numbers, and polls give me exactly that). Please provide your thoughts and include your name if you'd like to sign up!

Click here to provide your opinion on this matter. Thanks! 

If you have some ideas or criticisms to provide that don't fit in the questionnaire above, post here or message me.

After our conversations you implied the hardcore role-players wouldn't actually be catered to with this group.

You said, quite directly, that those who role-play in a traditional sense (putting their actions as well as dialogue into their posts) had no place on MR, and there was no purpose for it (even though you yourself also role-play this way).

Just to confirm, traditional role-play being those that role-play their characters actions, as well as being in character whilst posting in the role-played areas of the site.

You also said, that it would only be for those that wanted to log in as a mafia member, and the role-play posts and content had no real bearing or purpose in this game other than people just thinking like a 1920's mobster.

I ask you confirm if you are catering for all role-players and types of role-play including the more traditional style, and not just the casual gamer with this. You have said it's about promoting role-play in general, yet it isn't if you're only focusing on promoting how to log in and get in character whilst being logged in. I think more clarity surrounding what you will be teaching people and the content of the lessons is necessary for people to not be mislead.

I'd love to be a part of it as I've told you, yet if your cutting out teaching and promoting role-playing as it's found predominately in business districts and of course the streets, aka the traditional style where it focuses largely on the content of the posts and also with great emphasis on creating a unique character to put forth through these posts, then you'll be only really promoting one style, and not catering to what a good portion of the user base role-play.

I said that those who thought the only form of role play was the extensive and unnecessary elaboration upon environment and actions was not how RP is generally held in MR. What I said had no place was any sense of elitism that yours is "true RP" and everything else is inferior. I never said that it would only be for those that wanted to log in as a mafia member; as a matter of fact I showed you the entire formal process I had drawn up of creating a character and the LAST step was committing to it with your living MR account (everything up until that point was voluntary and had no bearing on your playing account). Anyone at any level could participate, but you would obviously be welcome if you felt like RPing to that level.

We have a LOT of casual gamers in this game and that includes associates, mades, and leaders. I want to help those players get their feet wet with the basics and encourage them to pursue whatever looks fun to them. If that means casual RP with a vague character, then that's alright. If that means building an extensive profile about your character's likes and dislikes, that's great.

The reason there isn't a lot of clarity at the moment is because we've decided to open things up a bit. We were ready to proceed with the more formal process, but after discussing it with a few of my friends it became clear that even avid RPers wouldn't be interested in going through that sort of thing. So we opened everything up for people to choose what they were looking for and a sign up sheet if they're interested in joining. I will not be promoting only one style, and if the casual route is what we end up using we won't be promoting any style. We'll just be a community of people that can easily and quickly find people to RP with and mutually encourage each other to dive deeper into character.

You are welcome to be a part of it, I just want to make sure you understand that there's more than just that extensive elaborating form of RP, and that most people who join this won't be looking for that much detail. We will encourage all movement towards realistic 1920s mafia RP, regardless of the form it takes.

The mob mails say otherwise Denam, but hey I'm not here to harp on the minute details rather just to clarity if all styles were welcome and all role-players could benefit from this group.

I will not be promoting only one style, and if the casual route is what we end up using we won't be promoting any style. We'll just be a community of people that can easily and quickly find people to RP with and mutually encourage each other to dive deeper into character.

You are welcome to be a part of it, I just want to make sure you understand that there's more than just that extensive elaborating form of RP, and that most people who join this won't be looking for that much detail. We will encourage all movement towards realistic 1920s mafia RP, regardless of the form it takes.

^ And that clarifies it :)

Your organizational skills are second to none, and I can see this being a really good thing for MR and promoting more role-play. Should be fun ;) Much respect for your efforts so far mate. Kudos!