Here is a little game I developed for use on my own RPG, but is generic enough to be of help to any forum game. Perfect for your Character Want Ads or Classifieds section, it is meant to help people flesh out their plot pages (or equivalent) by helping someone else before posting a request of their own.
Step One – Request
First, pick your parameters. What are you looking for in particular? Pick one or a couple from each of the following three headings:
Category
Family E.g. Spouse, Parent, Child, Sibling, Cousin, In-law
Business E.g. Boss, Client, Coworker, Competitor
Education E.g. Mentor, Student, Peer
Military E.g. Knight, Squire, Captain, Recruit, Comrade
Government E.g. Representative, Constituent, Lobbyist, Staff
Nature of the Relationship
Close Strong ties that are hard to break. You would risk much for this person’s sake.
Friendly Mutual interest/gain but with the possibility of betrayal or undoing.
Tense The definition of antagonistic: what he wants runs counter to what I want. Not necessarily hostile or malicious.
Hated This goes beyond simple disagreement. You go out of your way to make the other person’s life more difficult. Violence is possible.
Plot Point
Personal Goal This ties into something your character individually wants.
Clan Goal You’ll work together or fight one another to fulfill your duty to your Family/Clan/Territory.
Faction Goal Something greater is at stake here, concerning multiple Families/Clans/Territory.
Universal Goal What unites or divides you is an Abstract philosophy or idea, such as justice or a creed, or perhaps an overarching condition of the setting, like a plague or political position that transcends factions.
Step 2 – Respond & Request
Next, a player will respond to your need with their character (at which point you may hash out the details in PM) and then can post a need or two of their own.
In this manner, we can slowly tie our characters together while filling out our background or plotting for the future.
Step 3 – Multiple Requests
You must wait three replies before taking up another request and posting another of your own. This way the strands are not woven too closely together.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
