A concept of 'RP' parameters and such

First off, the energy and efforts put forth by all I have seen so far, is bold and inspiring indeed. The open nature and leading is clear and strong once one gets the dynamics. However, there is a thing, I feel, we should all be careful of. The imagination
is a powerful projector and can give raise to flights of fancy that go, mayhaps, too far from the given' 'realities' of the realm in we find ourselves. What do I mean. Well, giving ourselves 'super' powers that are not supported within the mechanics of the game is one. I know there must be some latitude in this, or nothing will work, but there must be every effort given to allow the adventure to be grounded in 'our world' reality. If we are all to link and create with strong effect, we must all have a basic knowledge of what is and what is not possible . Please understand, this not a critique or condemnation of anything, the spirit is strong and motivating. I simply say this as a small warning of what I have seen with other such projections. If we can find the proper balance in this, it will only lend itself to more creativity and fun. It may be more challenging and in some cases, more time consuming, but in the end, I feel it will pay greater rewards too.
Just my thoughts, nothing more. I put this forward with the spirit of excitement that has already be created and just something to think about, not to debate or fight over, if it even holds that merit.

Gamlet

I have a feeling most people here understand this, but it might be good to explicitly mention it in some sort of RP-guideline. Nobody will blame anybody for not knowing exactly which classes of ships there exist in a certain time, although you may be corrected, and anybody who feels it is neccesary to start their Jedi off with Grand Master abilities will probably be swiftly discouraged or booted.

I doubt there's anything to worry about here.

An idea that might help is whomever has the creative lead on the current 'chapter' of the evolving story, posts a general outline of the setting and goals sought so all who join in can fill in the contributions to these ends through their characters eye. In that way a good concrete progress can be gained with all working toward the same result. Again just a thought.
Gamlet

When I did excessive roleplaying in WoW (seriously, there was a lot of roleplay going down. It was almost an addiction ._.) I found that scanning the forums of my server was a superb way of getting a feeling of roleplaying events that are going on. In particular, I managed to find a post by a guy who had been leading Horde RP events for about two years, and led one of the most successful roleplaying guilds on the server. That being said, it was fair to say that I had learnt a lot about the events, and how he planned them, as he had put the ideas onto a forum post beforehand, outlining the key themes and locations. This is in direct support to Gamlet's point, of course.

Now, deviating from that, this guy made a post on HOW to host these events, which still sticks in my mind to this day. One of the most crucial things (I think) he pointed out was how these massive story arcs are made to be saga's, and stories told within the universe, and as such, you need to take such things into consideration. He linked this to various games, I'll throw out a couple of examples here:

- Lord of the Rings Online - You are set in the world where every character knows that a ring is being taken to mordor, and the monsters that are attacking them and causing widespread fear across the world is because of this central plot. Bearing that in mind, a lot of the events involved some sort of plot to take out an enemy to clear the path for the ringbearer, or directly helping in the war.

- Champions Online - This is a bit of an abstract one, but the roleplay was still present here. As you are superheroes in a world surrounded by the looming threat of a returning supervillian, a lot of the RP was based around the widespread havoc that this over-arched villain was causing.

Linking this back to his post, he pointed out that a lot of his events were based in Northrend, the continent of the new expansion, and involved either the motive of his faction, the Horde, or directly linking to The Lich King, the "big bad" at the end of the game. Putting this into perspective, The saga's in Star Wars are based on the theme that Darth Malgus and the Sith Empire have destroyed the Republic capital, put in this faulty stalemate, and tensions are high. This isn't really the point, as we could be looking at the bigger picture, in terms of our events in general.

The events have to be a canon event that takes place, relinking back to the OP. Based on that, we are in the Star Wars universe, in a Star Wars game. Your characters are star wars characters, and as such should be focused on goals realistic to the current era within this universe. Although it is okay to develop on this canon with your own personal twists, like many author's did to plan out the timeline after Return of the Jedi , one thing that needs to be taken into consideration is how realistic it is. Can you explain the mechanics behind it? How the force is manipulated in such a way as to do such a thing? Does it make sense to the canon of the films, books, games, and graphic novels?

Now, I know that some people aren't as hardcore when it comes to the outer Star Wars lore, and for that you should really just ask, or go to Wookiepedia. (Seriously, as a tangent we don't need due to the length of this post, I would love to have worked on that database). In that case, just ask yourself about the mechanics and abilities in the game, like the OP, Gamlet, stated. What does the game allow, and what doesn't it allow? You can assume that some ideas of your own about powers were even tossed around by developers at some point, then deliberately were chosen to keep out of the game. Ask yourself why.

Another point I wanted to make about planning events is the outcome. I'm going to be using our very own storyline, The Blood Knight, as a perfect example for this, and the applause really has to go to Hadloc for this. It is evident that he has planned this event from the beginning, and even had the character's planned out. He's let other people respond, and developed his story on that, but there is one point I want to make that stands out in particular:

He knows that The Blood Knight will fall.

A fundamental part of every story with good guys and bad guys is that the good guys traditionally come out on top. These characters have accepted that this guy is a tough bastard, and are willing to still fight against him. The storyline is by no means finished, but even Hadloc has acknowledged this. My case is proven further as to why this is essential as I refer back to the horrible game itself - WoW.

We had a five-day RP event in the area of Gilneas, which is meant to be an all out warzone. We wanted to stage an attack on an "evil" guild that was cooped up in a manor at the end of the zone, and we progressed slowly, setting up camps, interacting with characters, and generally having a great time as we progressed to this greater threat that loomed over every conversation, and clouded every mind. This RP was amazing quality, and really delved into the secret motivations behind this assault, maybe clouding who was the good guy, and who was the bad.

This all went wrong at about day 3, when the assault actually began, and everyone realized that we had no idea what to do. The attack was improvised, and the lack of co-ordination between the two groups was so poor that the event ended in an OOC argument that has since torn apart the RP community. This was due to a lack of planning, and something we have done really well so far.

This is a ridiculously long post, so I'll round it off by saying that The Blood Knight is a superb storyline I'm totally invested too, and it sucks I'll be MIA for a while. When the next event comes around, I'd love to see the same level of depth invested into this, and maybe we can be the guild that leads our server into the game as one of the greatest RP communities out there.