Do you like roleplaying or storybooking more?
Question of the Week: Week V
9 posts in this topic.
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Storybooking!! <3 I don't have enough experience in the Roleplay Realm to have an unbiased answer, but there you have it.
I like directly collaborating with the other writers and having some control over where the plot is going. I also appreciate that writing an SB post is, for me, kind of like practicing a novel chapter, since it's all about guiding the plot along, writing prose, and shaping character interactions in the multi-sided way that RPing doesn't (there are exceptions, of course!). RPing may not require the same kind of time commitment, but it does require frequent posting and for you to stay on top of the posts that come in. One last point: I loved being a dungeon master for SBs. It was so much fun to make a bunch of graphics for that first post, to get the formatting all perfect, to make the character template, and then submit it and sit there constantly refreshing the DT to see if people sign up. :3 -
Imagine I just said everything Wolficial just said.
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Storybooking, definitely. It helps me hone my writing skills and form connections with other writers. All the friends I've made on this site were from storybooking with them. Besides that, I'm not the type to roleplay with someone I'm not comfortable with. I don't know why, but o prefer to have a good relationship with the person and know a little about their creative style, and whether or not I can work well with them one on one before getting into that, and that makes doing it with a friend I already know a lot easier.
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I like roleplaying better because you get replies faster and the format is more flexible *cough*alsoSBsdiefaster*cough*
But SBs are pretty great too, when you've got a good team. I do like writing novel style from time to time. -
I love storybooking, and because I'm lazy I'm gonna just say ditto to Wolfie. I like to roleplay here and there and it's fun in bursts but in my heart I love the long-run story... it's just harder sometimes. You have to be more committed, and you have to really love the story and the characters.
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Having participated a fair amount in both, I like storybooks better because I feel that I have more control over the general plot, and I like being able to write longer posts and have more prose involved. Basically, I like planning out where the piece of collaborative writing is going to go and having longer posts.
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I like StoryBooks more, but while I'm here I might as well throw in my two cents on both realities.
•The problem I have with Roleplaying is the way people see it as, at least in YWS. Usually, people see it an easy way to do whatever you want with short dialogues, little to no direction and little to no action since dialogue prevails. That's how they last long — 'Cause many of them lack... hmm... substance. I find it especially sad because there doesn't seem to be many roleplays with a specifically dialogue-driven setting, but rather, an action-driven setting with just dialogues. This makes most RPs very unfulfilling, in my opinion. Nothing really happens in many I've seen.
That being said, one of the best RPs I've participated in was a Yu-Gi-Oh themed one, and it was wonderful because:
A: There was control of the plot, yet great room for improvisation;
B: Yu-Gi-Oh is inherently dialogue-driven even during battles because battles are card games, which makes it possible to truly act with your character at any moment;
And C: by far the BEST part about it is that all the members used an easy-to-use software to actually create their own decks, and after each duel, we had a chance to tweak them a bit five cards at a time, as if we bought more cards from a store. Depending on how the actual duels we participated in went (we could banter/verbal joust during them just like in the show, WHICH. WAS. HILARIOUS), the story would go in a different direction, so if you want the story to go your way, you better have a good deck. Rule being: it must represent your character, just like in the show, so you can't just have Exodia and the Three Egyptian God cards in your deck if your character is a random American duelist with no connection to Egypt whatsoever.
Really showed me how fun RPs could be.
•As for SBs, collaborating and control's a fun bonus for me, but my interest lies in testing the waters with characters, concepts, and ideas as well as figuring out how I can fit in whatever plot I'm joining without breaking rules. Whenever I run out of commitment juice, I can always look at my personal ideas and remember why it's so fun to experiment with people. And, if people's commitment juice runs out and the SB dies, my concepts are still there and will, therefore, inspire me to do something else or something better for the next one.
So, win-win deal, really! -
Even though I love both of them dearly, I have to admit that I'm a slightly bigger fan of roleplays. Roleplays work well for me because they give me a chance to develop characters I've already created; I usually create new ones for storybooks, and the ones I reuse have a significant amount of details altered so they fit the world the story is set in.
I also really love getting my characters to interact with other people's characters in unfamiliar settings, which I guess goes back to my earlier point about developing previously made characters - it's like a fun writing exercise. There's been multiple times that I've added more detail to a character's backstory or personality thanks to a roleplay.
I owe a lot to my roleplaying here on YWS.
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