Connect Your Characters

Alright, so this has been on my mind awhile. I think I may have found the key to really getting personal and site-wide plotting going well.

It's very simple.

Make connections. What? Well, there are a few ways to do this.

Link Your Threads.
If you are in a thread with someone, allude to the thread you just finished up. Don't make every thread so disconnected, but try to have them all flow together, so it's almost like every thread happens because of the one before it.

Example. My character Bob goes to the store to buy milk and runs into an old flame named Tess, and he ends up buying cake mix just to make sure he ends up in the same aisle as her. Next thread - his best friend Larry is coming over, so I add in a part about him trying to bake a cake, but it catches the kitchen on fire. He now has to explain to Larry about the cake, and Tess as well. Now Larry has a connection to Tess, even though the characters have never interacted.

Spread Information
This works best, I think, for students and Ministry workers. However, it works for everyone. Because this is GOSSIP. If a character tells your character something, it is now your information to give away. No point in confiding a secret if there is no risk of it leaking.

If your character have an awkward moment with someone, have them casually mention to their sibling "Man, that Bob is such an awkward guy." Now that sibling has some context/bias when they meet Bob.

Or perhaps they say "Y'know, that Bob guy sure was acting weird. It's like he's up to something bad." And your character knows Bob's girlfriend, so now you tell them, and it gets back to Bob.

Once a character gives you information, don't just store it away to never be seen again. Let it influence your character, let it influence others.

I kind of wish we could get some quidditch rivalry things going on at Hogwarts. Quidditch was huge at Hogwarts and it was a lot of the gossip and rumors got around. We could have people discussing upcoming matches. Does that make sense?

We definitely need rivalries. Not just Quidditch either - House rivalries in general. And cliques too. I initially created Henri in the hopes of stirring angst. No one really bit.

I try and keep it that way, but I am not sure how much everyone else does, I haven't actually done a lot of RP at Hogwarts. But I feel like everyone is so friendly all the time. I wish there were people to have rivalries, maybe not loathe with a passion, but just have a disdain for someone and not really get along with them.

The problem here is no one wants to be on the butt end of a rivalry. By that, no one wants to lose the upper hand, and that can be a problem. Everyone wants to be the hero or the ultimate villain who gets the last word. No one wants to lose and they see their characters as these perfect beings who always have some witty come back or fancy one liner to walk away from. The problem is, no drama can really come from it, because no one wants any long term rivalries. They want their friends and that's it.

My two cents.

I was actually thinking of making a plotline where Padril tries to make a Muggle Film Club at Hogwarts (a big deal for him- he's not very confident, so he would be very nervous and proud of it), but the Dark Followers end up scaring everyone away from joining, then break his projector and burn what film he has.

And that is pretty much the entire plot. He ends up sad and the club never ends up happening, plus there's no chance for a dramatic confrontation.

Hmm, well hopefully we'll be having our own Hogwarts rivalry and a hell lot of drama with Erika and Henri If people could choose sides, and then point fingers at one another and a total fight breaks out....it'll be totally awesome. Jackles, what about potions class for the next confrontation? I've sent a reply to your pm, but I doubt it's gotten delivered. Potions to be messed up and complete B**** *smirks and rubs hands in satisfaction*

Oh, and I'm sure rivalries could go much better if people took turns at being the idiot, and the hero. I personally have no problem with Erika losing and looking like a complete twat in the end

Oh my goodness, I have to agree 100%. What Charlie said.
One of my characters has a rivalry with another, and it was fairly obvious if you read the thread that neither one of us wanted our characters to "loose". I was just trying to keep my person IC, but I do have to admit that the thread was fun. However, when I ended the thread on a semi-triumphant note, the other user posted once more so that they ended up on top. It was totally fine, and I let it go, but it did kinda bug me that they didn't even ask or anything.

So what Charile said, no-one (sorry Kiera, very few people) want to look like an idiot at the end of the day. Perhaps going into it a bit further, I think we also mind less looking stupid against a character of a user that we know a bit. (For example, I've PM'ed with Jackles, I trust that she'd never have her character pull out amazing impossible superpowers to trump mine, I might not trust the same with a user I've never spoken to. I also wouldn't mind "loosing" to her as much because I like her, I can't really say the same for a user I've never spoken to. A thought.)

Also, I apologize if I'm in any way crossing boundaries with this post.

I agree with Kitty, generally most people would prefer to "loose" to someone they know well OOC. Which IMO, means we need to like chat more OOC and such, as well as just plotting and playing in games. Methinks we need to use the 'general discussion' forum more and such.

More on topic-ish, at the Ministry d'you think we should have like a general staff/coffee room? Maybe more for lower staff members (ie. maybe not the minister & dep. heads), which would totally be a good way to spread gossip and would be a good way to meet people in the Ministry, methinks.

I'm totally for a coffee room in the Ministry. Most uppers will probably stay away from it, but it'll be a brilliant place for gossip, rumors, and plot to spread. Nice one Jemma.

Yeah, like most places of work (at least over here in the UK) have some sort of coffee room. Jemma's now in the Ministry and she'd definitely be up for using it.

It could potentially be a subforum. But if I just made a thread with Jemma for now, would people be interested in it?