You know, it is interesting you bring it up @aramond and @matsiyan . I have received criticism both ways with regards to the TSN RP Community – some have told me we don’t RP enough, some have said they don’t want to have to RP and so it is a bit too much.
Part of me thinks, “we are an RP community, if you want to join and not RP, then sorry that ain’t how it works.” The other part of me is thinking about attracting new players to our community and making sure they feel welcome and comfortable.
Looking at what we do now, during the duty shift the RP is pretty light. There are certain expectations and people have to go along with; things like using combat orders, or abiding by the rank system, though to be honest it matches peoples length of service, experience, commitment and overall authority in the community anyway making it easier on people (I have had disagreements about that too though, trying to convince newer players that “yes, those higher ranking and senior officers have actually earned that because they know how to play the game, have played a lots of hours, and can play it extremely well as well as know the protocols! No you cannot be an automatic captain just because you run a crew of your own.)
I think the ‘heavier’ RP is now on the forums, which is good. It means that people can have a choice to engage in the RP this side or not. Though it can still have an impact on the duty shifts, I think it helps to set up good missions and story arcs rather than force people to RP more in the duty shifts. There are some in our group that never visit the forums, some who browse, or just stick to the OOC forums and chatter and some who go right into the RP side of things.
I think therefore we need to consider it in this manner. On the forums, in the appropriate sub-forums, is the more structured RP where we can adopt a rule set and character development. The things that happen on the forums might feed in to the missions actually played during a shift, with details being relayed through mission briefings or general chatter by the players as appropriate. However, missing the forums should not mean players are left out or don’t know what is going on.
For example, the Manticore mission (and this is just an example). If it were to run during the duty shift, what we could do on the forums is set up the whole scenario of needing a scouting run. Then in the shift, relay the information, brief the officers and call for volunteers. That way, we’d be allowing other officers to take part in the mission, as well as combating the issue of people volunteering on the forums, only to find they cannot attend the duty shift for some unforeseen reasons.
Of course, if the Manticore mission were to run out of the shift time (with a nod from the GMs or a volunteer GM to run it!) it could go ahead purely with people who volunteer on the forums. The other officers would then be informed of what happened in the briefings and general chatter. Going about it this way would add a little more depth to the division, as then we’d have intelligence gathered and reports to make about actions that we don’t always see (i.e. the division doesn’t go completely inactive at the end of each duty shift, so this would simulate the continuing operation when people aren’t on shift).