It's me so you have to read this

So, a semi-recent suggestion by @BlueKat12 talked about potentially allowing people to have "cheat threads" of sorts where they wouldn't be counted against the person's thread limit.  While this idea didn't get much attention, it DID give me an idea for something relating to the same sort of thing.  Still "cheat threads," but in a different way.

Let me ask you: do you have any big baddie NPC you want one of your characters to face off with?  Maybe a rival, or a family member you'd like them to meet at some point?  Any kind of confrontation planned at all?  If not, I'd advise you get one because you sound boring.

Anyway!

Personally, I have quite a few characters whose histories have certain unresolved conflicts.  I consider these to be "end goals" of sorts for my characters; the climax.  As such, it is relatively important to me that everything's just right.  However, myself and people like me (of whom I hope there are a lot) are currently a bit limited as to where we can potentially do something like this.  For instance, let's say I want Sova to face off against some random lucario he's got beef with for some reason that's convenient to this example.  Well, I have to either go to a place that has Lucario in the dice and hope I can roll it or go somewhere that just doesn't have dice.  That limits the places where I can have this epic showdown that's supposed to be super special.  Sova needs to make sure the mood's perfect before he avenges the bowl of cheerios this lucario stole from him, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE STRUGGLE.

My suggestion is simple: allow some kind of special-case scenario where users can treat dungeons with dice as if they have no dice and spawn in things that wouldn't normally be found there.  For instance, if a user meets whatever conditions are required, allow them to treat a thread in Snowcloak Ruins as if it is one in Grassveil Town, The Ruined Chamber, or Dark Void Peak.  Namely, let them bring in whatever Pokemon they want rather than being limited by the dice.

Of course, users wouldn't be able to just spawn in items.  Still, there would likely need to be some kind of restrictions or criteria.  Maybe have the amount of Pokemon a user can bring in outside of the dice be limited (such as 5 or 10), and perhaps have them be completely disallowed from using the dungeon's normal dice during this thread.  This would make it strictly for plot purposes, which would in turn make this kind of thread extremely unappealing unless you explicitly want a highly specific situation to occur.  So with this in mind, I see no potential problems with it, or at least no major ones.

Suggestion by Yooka: Limit what people can spawn in.  For instance, do not let Sova 1v1 Giratina.
My input: I'd suggest accepting threads of this type on a case-by-case basis, deciding whether or not they're okay individually.  A user would have to get their thread approved by an admin before spawning things in, and including a legendary would presumably be nearly a pipe dream if not flat-out impossible.

Suggestions by Digizel: Disallow Poké gain within these threads. Create a board specifically for threads of this type.
My input: I disagree with both of these since it seems entirely unnecessary as well as overly complicated and restrictive. Managing Poké like that would be difficult (without a special board for these threads) and would, in my opinion, be a bit unfair since I'm pretty sure you can gain Poké in areas currently on the site with no dice. As for the board, it just doesn't seem necessary since moderators already have to make sure rules are being upheld all threads as part of their job description, so it doesn't really cut down on their work. If anything, checking through a thread to make sure there are no dice-rolls is far easier than their general job, plus users can report rule-breaking posts as well.

I second this not because I am with Lord EV... (literally Im saying this for myself :p)
but because I may do this aswell for an idea later on (or really soon by arceus, lol :3)

It really could be a good idea but the reason for spawning in the enemies better be a good one :p
(I can see Lord EV making sova/S.S. battling Giratina *cough cough* because fun)

Actually, you make a good point, Yooka. There would need to be some kind of limitation on what people can spawn. I wouldn't dare drag a legendary into a thread without permission since I have dignity, but I could definitely see someone doing that at some point. It is definitely not okay to have users go around spawning gods into their threads and having free reign over them.

For this, I would suggest having to get such threads approved on a case-by-case basis. Basically, an admin decides whether your thread request is okay or terrible.

I'm not sure if absolutely everything has to be approved, as people tend to know what they can and can't do as long as you give them some guidelines like: no legendaries, no encounters that would drastically change something about the dungeon/this entire roleplay (at least, not without permission - someone could come up with a great event idea like this and suggest it to the admins!). Will there be cases of someone abusing the system? Probably, maybe, might even be an accident. But I'm sure telling them that ain't gon fly yo will fix the issue with them.

After all, many roleplays allow you to spawn NPCs of any kind anywhere, and it doesn't lead into horrible situations. When it does, it's more of an exception than anything.

wait this happened before...? where?

edit: nvm, you dont have to answer, im more confused about how he worded what he ment...
oh!

On other roleplaying sites. Having enemy encounter dice rolls is pretty rare in the grand scheme of things, so people will spawn their own stuff and people to do things with.

The way I see it, this is a pretty good addition. This is basically something that allows for traditional-style forum RP while still allowing for it to be canon to the characters on this site which, according strictly to the rules, should be something that can't be done as easily or well. In all honesty, this is something I've wanted this site to implement for some time. I found that my RP's are very restricting on my creative freedom due to the site's limitations. This can help alleviate that by allowing users to have their own NPC-heavy adventures with a friend or two, like a traditional forum RP. However, I do feel that it's a bit unreasonable for the mods to have to keep up with something like this. This requires a lot more work on the part of the mods, as they now have to keep searching these other threads to make sure that no items are gained, among other things. While it is certainly possible, I would not personally like to burden them with more responsibilities.

As such, I have a proposal of my own: What if you created a new board for such a thing, as opposed to allowing this to occur anywhere on the forum? One board with a stickied thread in it that displays the basic rules (i.e. "No spawning legendaries" and "no spawning items.") If they are in one place, it is easy to set them apart from other boards and makes it easier on the Mods, since they're all grouped together. It would work even better if you could disable the dice command on that board altogether, but I don't know if that's possible for admins to do or not.

To make this matter even simpler, I would also recommend not allowing any gains of Poké as well as the lack of ability to gain items. This way, it's just like the user is creating an RP thread like on any other general forum RP site. This way, the fact that these are strictly for plot and for fun are more heavily emphasized. It also removes just about all risk of this system being abused for any reason; after all, there's nothing you can gain from these threads except for page count...unless you wish for these to not be counted either, but that's something that could use further deliberation.

I've also heard the argument that this may be a little bit confusing for first-time users. And if that is a concern, then perhaps you can also set a rule that you must have a character of a specified minimum level before you can use these. For example, Level 7-8 or so. Something that doesn't require an immense amount of time to get to (like 10 can be, depending on your luck with finding RP partners), but also requires some obvious dedication to the site and familiarity with the rules of the site and its general layout. And once a user reaches that point, they should be more easily able to cope with the additional section of the site and have a better understanding in how it works.

Obviously, the specific rules of the board must be deliberated before it can be posted (preferably with clarity which this site has lacked in its rules before) and rules may need to be added in or removed later during its initial, "beta release" if you will.

EDIT: A user would also have to obviously state where their thread is taking place, of course. However, this is a trivial matter. It can be placed either in the title of the thread or at the beginning in an OOC statement.

There's also an additional benefit to this method: It does not require any organization at all. It can merely be a long list of threads. This is because every user who will be participating in their thread will already have direct links to that thread (either they created it, or they shared the link with those who will be participating. From there, they will put it in their threads list.) As such, it requires minimal effort in setting up.

matter aswell go here then.

*mutters to self* ¬-¬

While you can technically /do/ that, I feel like it doesn't make as much sense. In the Free Roleplay section, it's just...well, it's just not the same, if I'm honest. Free Roleplay has always been seen to me as just a place for other RP's in general. Yeah, you technically /can/ do an RP there set in this same universe, but it's harder to label it as a "canon" experience. Through my idea, there are still limitations on what you can and can't do (such as energy requirements and any basic rules that are decided should be put into place [again, such as "no legendaries"].) Whereas in the Free RP section, you're not bound by anything at all. As a result, in my opinion, it would feel more legitimate to have them separated entirely.

First off, who voted against the idea then didn't explain why they're against it? I mean, c'mon, at that point it seems like they just voted against it for no reason. I know "It's bad and you should feel bad" is a pretty hard meme to pass up, but c'mon, this is supposed to be a serious discussion. No troll-votes, and if you have a problem, speak up.

Now on to Digi's input!

First, the mods would have pretty much no more work than they currently have. Their job is already to read through threads and make sure no one is breaking any rules, plus users also read threads and are encouraged to report any posts found to be breaking rules. On top of that, there's technically nothing to stop a user from going to a place such as Dark Void Peak and rolling the Black Mist Mountain dice, so this kind of problem is already entirely possible.

I personally very much disagree with Poké being disallowed. That seems a bit far especially since I'm pretty sure users can get Poké from places that don't have dice. Disallowing using the dice and limiting how much power they have in these threads should be enough, since it puts it on the same ground as areas on the site that do not have dice in the first place. On top of that, it would be very, VERY hard for the admins to manage that kind of Poké adjustment.

For these reasons, I disagree with your suggestion of creating a board solely for this. It is unnecessary since the problems you listed already exist on the site and would not be fixed by the addition of this board. In other words, it just adds more complications without fixing anything.

While I do think some precautions to ensure this doesn't cause any problems would be useful, I feel that your suggestions are a bit extreme.

And Yooka, the Free Roleplay section is regarded as unrelated to the main site. There's a reason no one uses it for things involving the main site.

I'm sorry to necromance an old thread like this, but lately I've been thinking about how the dice system works and about how it affects the way I roleplay, and my thoughts have all been echoing what EV has said here.  I think that this thread deserves some attention from the site's staff if it hasn't gotten any yet.

My character works for the guild, and lately I've been daydreaming about how much fun it would be if she and her friends had a rival team that they could compete against, and interact with in dungeons, and so on.  That would be great, and I'd love it, but apparently it wouldn't be allowed in dungeon sections of the forums and it would only be acceptable in towns.  I don't actually remember the rules saying that you can't introduce NPCs in dungeon threads unless they correspond with a die roll, but EV has been around for a long time, so I suppose he's asked about it before.

Anyway, I think that the simplest solution would just be to let people introduce NPCs whenever they want, regardless of whether they are in a dungeon or in a town, and without needing any kind of special permission.  People can already introduce whatever NPCs they'd like while in towns, right?  I think that it's just as easy to make something ridiculous happen in a town as it is to make something ridiculous happen in a dungeon.  So I don't see why one should be allowed and not the other.

Any thoughts about that?  Is bringing in NPCs whenever you want even against the rules in the first place?  I'd like to know.  :/

Eventine wrote:

Anyway, I think that the simplest solution would just be to let people introduce NPCs whenever they want, regardless of whether they are in a dungeon or in a town, and without needing any kind of special permission.  People can already introduce whatever NPCs they'd like while in towns, right?  I think that it's just as easy to make something ridiculous happen in a town as it is to make something ridiculous happen in a dungeon.  So I don't see why one should be allowed and not the other.

Any thoughts about that?  Is bringing in NPCs whenever you want even against the rules in the first place?  I'd like to know.  :/

Well one thing about the NPC's is that if you have regularly occurring NPC's. Per say you had a rival team that you keep encountering. You will have to create characters for them at some point as the NPC usage is being abused in this case. This is something that I have learned early on the site when I had asked admins about it before I ever became a staff member. Of course, you don't have to make a character for every little thing, but if you control the character so often. You will likely need to create the application for that character.

It's all discretionary though, so we'll let you know if you need to plan to make a character or not ^^. Better yet, feel free to ask us! :D

EDIT / PS: Also, this thread is something we have been considering but haven't had time to implement it.