Group Central discussion

How should I go about implementing my original idea?

Karina, this question is most specifically directed at you.

Which idea is this?

I always think school roleplays are the hardest. Since you're the almighty dictator you have to be on constantly to make period changes. And are you doing schedules? You don't have many professors. Is this all at school or is it also life aftet school? Boarding school? How are you doing roommates? Is this just a life roleplay or is there action? I kind of see it as an x men sort of thing.

What are your original thoughts?

Do we even want to deal with the classes or just the social aspect? Kataury, this is the Neibaur (I remembered how to pronounce it! Nigh-bar. Accent on the first syllable.)

I don't know if I want to do schedules because that would be a pain in the toukas. I didn't really have it planned out, I'm afraid to say. I just had an idea and... yep. It is definitely more of a "boarding school" as it is in the middle-of-nowhere, Scotland. Probably more just a life, roleplay, with the action being that of whatever drama may occur between literally-empowered persons.

...And not sure how I'm doing roommates.

I want to say social and have people themselves be like I need to do homework. But then what do you do with the two teachers you do have?

Since it's a smallish school you can give people in high school the option of singles or suites. But for the college kids you should offer some sort of apartment style living since they're older.

Teachers have social lives too! ;D

That is a good idea, my lovely!

Social lives with the students?

You know, you might just offer everyone an apartment style living to promote communication between older and younger students since there's a small number of people. Possibly coed? Or have everyone live on the same floor and share a common room. Like a hostel type place. Idk.

I was more thinking with each other...

Not coed apartments, but men could live next to an apartment of women?

So a continuous conversation with an occasional student interference. Okay if that works for you.

That works too. I only suggested coed because you can have siblings attending or something. *cough the twins cough*

Hm... Ugh, yo no se!

I'm here to bring up questions. :)

Ah, yes... the Nigh-bar school... Social is okay. It leads to a lot of character development and drama. But... if you decide to add something a little bit more exciting you could incorporate a sort of pecking order. The classmates would be separated into three or four groups. Freshmen and students with little control over their power would be the lowest rank. And each semester the students can take an abilities and written exam to raise their ranking and open up new classes for their abilities. Meanwhile there could be some intense bullying from the higher ranking students/elites. which could lead to some major infighting and subterfuge between the newbies and the vets.

Meanwhile! Several teachers/students could be members of certain... conglomerates that want to make use of these powers for their own gain. Some want the students to give them power, others want these students out of pure lust and greed. And others could think they are a danger and wish to have the school destroyed!

... Or we could just stick with the social drama... that would work too.

I like the idea that there's some sort of secret society that's working to bring down the administration/the normal people.

Honestly I feel like it'll end up sort of like the X-Men.

Kataury wrote: "Ah, yes... the Nigh-bar school... Social is okay. It leads to a lot of character development and drama. But... if you decide to add something a little bit more exciting you could incorporate a sort..."

I like your idea, m'dear. How do you propose we go about this?

Karina wrote: "I like the idea that there's some sort of secret society that's working to bring down the administration/the normal people.

Honestly I feel like it'll end up sort of like the X-Men."

Perhaps, but it's not quite the same, and it's our own thing and I like that.

Well, depending on the age the kids are would determine if they are a freshman or not. And even then, some characters might have had a hard time with the exam and couldn't move on to the next rank, making them a huge target for bullying amongst their elite peers. There would obviously have to be some antagonistic characters/teachers, but even then, roleplayer could be pitted against roleplayer depending on their character's traits.

That makes sense. I think that could be done without too much trouble. How would we go about setting that up to roleplay? (Logistics. What topics will we need? How will we do rooming, etc?)

Rooming would be separated into different buildings. Low ranks would be small dorms shared between 1-4 people. And as the ranks get higher the rooms get bigger, the accommodations better, and you have less roommates on the higher floors. This is mainly because very few students make it to the highest rank every decade or so. The highest rank is when they have absolute control of their power and hold a maturity over their skills that other students can't match.
As for classes, I've pondered over this for a while and I've actually thought about using a more Japanese approach in which students are placed in class groups (once against determined by ranking) and each have a "homeroom" where the teachers come to them to teach. That way we don't have to have a ridiculous amount of topics for each class period, and although it could be a little harder to have the different ranks interact with each other, this could be amended by their interactions during their free time (this is boarding school, right?). Not only this, but the highest ranking individuals (there could only be about three or four) would be strong enough that they don't need a homeroom, but would act as assistants for their teachers-- making it possible for there to be some interaction between the bullies and bullied.

I like it! Thank you my dear!!!! That sounds quite feasible and easily playable. What do you think, Karina?

I mean yes it is a good feasible idea but I don't really like it nor do I think it works well for this particular roleplay.

First off, your having powers manifest at 17, which is a junior/senior high school grade level so beginning as a freshman wouldn't work. And you're offering a university. Whose to say you didn't attend until college? The characters so far fall into these ages: 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 38. The last two are teachers.

Also, the powers are too diverse to have certain exams that can umbrella them. And who gets to choose if the character passes or doesn't pass? Very few want to be the one who fails. And once you've reached a 'high ranking' what then? You can't really study that at the university level, since it seems that the school is there to teach control of abilities and you want your students to be assimilate back into society. This means you have to study normal things too, like business and English.

Also, since there are so few people who obtain abilities to begin with, wouldn't the group be small and inclusive? I know it's not everyone is going to be singing kumbaya, that's an idealistic idea, but (at least in my high school) seniors just hated juniors because they're seniors. Obviously you're not going to now as much because you're younger. And in college no one really cares what grade your in unless it's at some party or you're trying to pull rank at some meeting. But then again I went to a private high school where you either passed or transferred out before you failed out.

It's harder to try and simulate a real school because of the lack of people we having roleplaying. If you make it to strict, you risk losing the few people you do have.

Well, in answer to those concerns (begin the bullet list!)

-They would still be called freshmen, even if their powers manifested at 17. I'm assuming that Neibaur takes in kids at the earliest age of 17, and freshmen mean their beginning years, not 16 or yonger like in High school.

-When it comes to addressing different education levels, Neibaur could be a purely private program/institute. The institute could take on people from different walks of life and with different education levels. The focus could primarily be on powers, and their classroom time would derive from their power levels. Whereas the basic education would be independent study or online classwork that depends entirely on the individual since they'd all be different levels. Their smarts could then be totally different, but in the end Neibaur's power depends on the individual's power.

-As for testing: the powers are so odd and bizarre that the professors would give their own private attention to each when they hit the highest rank, so their final training would be more like a personal apprenticeship than a graduating class. Lower ranking students would perform the exam in front of the professors and they would use a basic checklist to see if they have proper control over their power. In the end their pass or fail would be taken into vote, but the final decision would fall upon the dean. Like you said, there aren't many kids, so they can all have one-on-one exams. Basically decision would fall on the moderator, but the dean can be convinced by the teachers on whether the student should pass or fail.

-And it's not too hard to develop a school system so long as one knows how to go about it. With so few roleplayers in the group, it's easier to make the roleplay focus on those few students as main characters, and allow development of minor characters to come and go to provide plot and spurring action. By making minor characters or sub anatgonists the students could then have a challenge for their tests and social development between each other etc.

I like it. I'm just trying to figure out what topics I need now in order to make this work... :P

Honestly I kind of just want you to make one topic and we can see how this works out. And if it doesn't then you should make topics for like test, classes, after school, bad guy club, etc. But I always think it's so tedious to go from one topic to another because when you go back and read them (which I am a fan of doing as you know) it's not a continuous story)

That would work for me, I think. If anyone objects, we can always change it, though it may be frustrating for others. If anyone disagrees, I'm going to give you at least two hours to vocalize such issues.

I think that social should be the focus but school should be informally included in there since we do have teachers.

Yes. I like it. Did you see Kataury's suggestion about the homeroom based on where they are with their powers? I really liked that idea.

When I moderate groups, I always have different locations/areas/rooms etc and when a scene is done, I ask RPers to write: **END OF SCENE*** When a new scene starts, it's easy to follow because of the break.

I have found that this works tremendously well and no one is ever confused when reading.

Yes, I just finished reading the rest of everything and I really like Kantuary's ideas.

Sarah wrote: "When I moderate groups, I always have different locations/areas/rooms etc and when a scene is done, I ask RPers to write: **END OF SCENE*** When a new scene starts, it's easy to follow because of t..."

People are going to want to rp multiple locations at the same time though, and we're wanting to do this in a single topic, so I think that would make that confusing. What if we start each post with the location?

LBSinger wrote: "Yes, I just finished reading the rest of everything and I really like Kantuary's ideas."

Oh good! I'm glad!

I think having only one topic would be too difficult and confusing to manage when people are roleplaying in different places.

s•u•n•s•h•i•n•e «§KENZ§» wrote: "Sarah wrote: "When I moderate groups, I always have different locations/areas/rooms etc and when a scene is done, I ask RPers to write: **END OF SCENE*** When a new scene starts, it's easy to follo..."

Oh I see, so do you mean that one character can be in more than one place at a time?

No, but we would have multiple scenes going on at the same time within the same topic...

LB, I agree, but Karina had good reasons for wanting it, and with so few members/characters, I do agree that it makes more sense. It is also hella easier to set up.

s•u•n•s•h•i•n•e «§KENZ§» wrote: "No, but we would have multiple scenes going on at the same time within the same topic..."

Gotcha. I'm not the biggest fan of that but I can make do.

I am so confused now. What are are agreeing on? Sorry I'm also at work right now so I'm jumping from place to place.

Not a problem. We're agreeing on how to do the roleplay. (One topic rather than multiple.)

Okay one topic rather than multiple. Got it!

That's what you wanted, right...?

Yes! I just didn't want to seem too happy about it.

Haha, gotcha. :)

Should we just agree that the school is special and gives an education to those with abilities, and that way I can get rid of Neibaur University from the few places it appears before it spreads any further?

It's up to you, Luv. It's your school. ;)

Da, but I would like your opinions, please.

In that case, I agree that it should just be for special kids.

So nay the university? (That would make things complicated and... oh bother, screw it, no university! We're going to have to eradicate that from both of our character's profiles...)

Damn. Okay lol so what would they teach? :/

The only thing that I liked about there being a university is on the occasion that this roleplay traverses multiple years, them being able to keep learning and still have the opportunity to go back into society with the chance of having good lives. You know what I mean?

Same stuff, there's just the Neibaur school now, and no longer the university. (It will still cover those years, but this is a special school with it's own rules. I'd bet they have some deal with the government to have their degrees recognized in certain ways, but they work in their own way unlike traditional schools.)