IMPORTANT: Plot Discussion

Hey PAers!

As you all know, or should anyway, PA started as an AU where Voldemort is alive and Harry's dead. Since that plot ended, PA's plot has been more or less of a continuation of the Death Eater vs. Order conflict. What we want to do now though is freshen up the site to restore activity and give you guys a good new plot and setting to roleplay in. This means a brand new plot and/or a restart in the timeline. However, since this decision will have a major impact on PA, we'd like to know your opinion! So let us know which of the following options you prefer.

1. Restart to the end of the Battle of Hogwarts
This is a rather uncommon timeline for a post-potter RP, and would be a very interesting setting to roleplay in. The Wizarding World is in chaos, Hogwarts needs to be rebuilt, and the remaining Death Eaters need to be rounded up. Many of you will have to tweak your characters a bit to suit the setting, but there will also be loads for your characters to do. Several current canons will not exist in this setting, but we'll also have plenty of new canons.

2. Restart to the Epilogue
This means restarting to when Albus first joins Hogwarts. PA will NOT be an AU in this case and Harry will be alive (and Voldemort dead, we have no intentions of bringing him back.) In this case, you'll all get to keep your canon characters, although their ages will change.

3. Revolution against the Ministry
This would not require a change in the PA time, but is still a major change. If we do this, the antagonists of PA will change from the Death Eaters and Dark followers, to the ministry. The Ministry of Magic is a corrupt oligarchy where the power is concentrated in the hands of a few privileged members, usually pureblood. With the recent fire in Diagon Alley, people will be growing tired of the ministry, and decide to revolt. The revolution will install a freer system at first, but then quickly grow nuts about security, and then become autocratic themselves.

These are the three options. If you have ideas for any other plot, please let us know at PA discussion!
Also, while there is a poll, we want you to actually state your opinion here as well.

There aren't really a lot of reasons for why I chose to go with the third option. My main reason is because I have had my character for so long, and worked so hard on her that restarting her or changing her age or anything like that would be really hard for me to do, and I would hate to get rid of her since she is the character I started here with. Also revolting against the Ministry sounds like fun. I would love to RP in another big fight seen or be in a group of people that are like the Ootp but aren't them. At least that is my opinion. I'm not sure about everyone else.

Just to clarify (for myself and others) three entails the Ministry being made an antagonist, comparable to the Death Eaters and Dark Followers, not having a reversal where it's a case of the Death Eaters becoming good, and the good guys becoming bad, right?

Just checking

I've more or less got the same opinion as Sammy, but also I want to give the current PA one last fighting chance before we decide to go through restarting, and abandoning several years of work. I reckon if we have a plot option to carry through then we need to at least give it a shot before making such a drastic action.

Same thing as both of them. I chose the third because we've worked hard on characters, we've done great plotting, and to throw away all that, would suck. I loved having Alex and Louis, and what I've done with them. And with the ministry being the bad guys, it gives the Feuding Factions for reasons to have meetings and other things.

I won't vote, as I am not active enough to merit any weight in the matter, but youcan't stop me from voicing my opinions. ;D

Option three seems the most obviously desirable... BUT... wasn't that the Grindlewald plot? He was supposed to turn the Ministry into a bad guy. Personally, I think PA has beaten the good v. bad plot to death. The fact of the matter is this: for those to work you need flat characters we can all hate, and no one wants anyone to hate their characters. You need people willing to lose, and no one wants to be on the losing side. You need people willing to fail (simple as accidentally leaking information) and no one wants to that, purposefully. I do not think PA can pull these off anymore.

Options two and three have the main problem of adjusting timelines, but I think they have better potential. I don't think too many will really want to go for one, except for those who have older canons only.

BUT.

The plots can exist without the timeline. Perhaps going as simply as letting history repeat itself in a way that sets up the plot of number's one or two, without having to erase history. With your Green Itch plot, it's doable. You can use the disease to run its course and give the wizarding the 'restart' PA needs.

Just some food for thought.

-munches on food-

OH NOES.

I want everyone to hate my characters and I set them up to make mistakes.

I think I am doing RPing wrong everyone.

Plot two could be fun as well I have always wondered what Ne'Os would be like in the correct universe. He would be in first or second year though i think, Or i could just change his age so he is in a different year.

A good thing about Number 2 is the number of students would go up but the bad thing is that it could be rather hectic as people try to figure out where their characters would be. Some of us would have to change ages to make sure we can use are characters.

Selwyn Thorfinn wrote:OH NOES.

I want everyone to hate my characters and I set them up to make mistakes.

I think I am doing RPing wrong everyone.

There are some of us sadists (I say us, as I have a habit of doing it) who do enjoy watching their character fail miserably, but I was generalizing. From my experience with our community, there seems to be a hesitation too. The last time I tried to extort information, I had several willing participants... who, once we roleplayed, simply never divulged the information that seemed so harmless to give.

In my experience, the hesitation is of people not wanting to make a mistake as players.

They do genuinely want to go through with things in character but they don't want to stray too far from what's been pre-plotted because they're afraid of upsetting other people in the thread. Those people might have really good ideas or want to do spontaneous things, but they also might have had negative experiences with that on other boards.

That's why we've set up the new plot discussion area, so that people can have somewhere to discuss what's going on in threads without the RP thread being full of OOC notes. You can talk about anything from why your thread has stalled and how to get it unstalled, to what things are in character or out of character reactions for your character, to whether you want your character to do something in your next post, but are worried that everyone else in the thread will be really angry if you do.

...but this is unrelated. I AM STILL MAKING UP MY MIND.