Role Playing Ideas needed...

Ok, I am in need of some rp'ing suggestions for my sim. I have knocked a few ideas around in my head, but need some help with suggestions.

What I was thinking was a 'Silent Hill' sim...there was one a while back, but when I went to check it out it was gone. My version would include the whole town, school, hotel, sewers, the works. When done it would need people to come and play in it, characters, etc.

Please let me know if you would be interested in this theme, or if you have any others let me know!

Thanking all in advance,
SeXXXy Bliss

Silent Hill I think has been tried a couple of times before, but it has the problem that it's way too hero-centric. If I remember correctly even part of the plot is that the village reshapes itself around visitors - you can't really do that outside of single-player fiction.

so now does anyone have a better suggestion to bring people into the sim with a rp'ing idea(s)?

I don't have that much experience with SL RPGs, but I do with social RPGs in general.

Basically, an RP sim can work in three ways. It can be made for a (relatively) small group, for them to play in - this usually works the best, but it's harder to make it pay. Or it can be "movie studio" style - essentially providing props and settings for the public to play in, with no social relationships between each other. (Most SLers wouldn't really call this an "RP sim", but certainly those areas are used for RP.) If you want to create a sim for a large community, the trick is, you need to make sure that the large community is free to break itself off into smaller groups, and then do meaningful (and in-character) things in those groups. This is simply because.. it's what humans do.

Because of the nature of SL, the setting needs to be fairly small (it has to fit on a sim) and fairly static (when you have to draw everything in full 3D graphics, making updates takes a LONG while - look how rarely most MMORPGs update their settings, and they have professional art teams). However, it can be really sophisticated, and it's best of all if it's interactive in itself (SL is good at 3D graphics, and scripted objects in an RP sim can really enhance the theme, as well as giving something to interact with while others aren't around)

So as an example, let's take a look at a RP that's worked really well in SL: Harry Potter. The setting is small (Hogwarts and just outside); it's sophisticated (moving staircases, talking pictures, etc) but also static (it has all that internal wonder, but even in the books it doesn't _change_ much); and it supports social subgrouping (groups of students can get together and construct all sorts of drama amongst themselves; and they can still meaningfully do magic in those groups, so the key aspect of the setting is retained)

Now.. exactly which settings you could use for this is a bit tricky, because probably you could put a spin on many settings to fit them into that kind of model.

I vote for a Ringworld RPG, complete with a prim Puppeteer, floating city, shadow farm, and ghouls. You could use a megaprim for the Arch, and it'd provide a place for vampires to hang out.

I know you all have a fantasy or something you'd like to see in SL...give me your ideas! I have a whole private island to work with here, not just a mainland sim.

Something seXXXy?

it's for a mature island, so no holds bar here!

Gah.... lucky... Where do you people come from. "I have a whole island, what should I do with it?" *glows with envy* I wish you luck anyhow.

Individual fantasies don't work as social RP settings. You have to design a social RP setting to be a social RP setting.

Nude combat.

Make war while wishing you were making love.

That's gold, baby! GOLD!!!

It's too bad there's no good way to implement freefall in SL.

Well..hmm...there were these books by someone named John Norman...I wonder if that might be popular as an SL sim...

******************KIDDING!!!!**************

Waaay outside the box here...

A Land the Time Forgot type setting.

Players can dust off their animal/dinosaur avis
Play primitive tribesmen
or intrepid explorers

I don't know about other hooks...but there you go...an idea that isn't overdone yet.

There's a bunch of series that could be used as themes for RP. Some of these may already have been done, and I just don't know about them: The Thomas Covenant series, Ringworld (which I already mentioned), Poul Anderson's Polysotechnic League series, the Deryni saga, the Instrumentality of Mankind. You could also go back to the beginning of the Known Space universe and do a mystery-based puzzle sim borrowing from Gil the ARM...

Even better... go back to the beginning of our universe.... RP being part of the quark-gluon plasma and elementary particles present in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang.

Thrill as quarks and leptons collide with antiquarks and anti-leptons in a battle that will determine whether matter or antimatter make up the universe.

IT'S GOLD, BABY!!!

The old Atari games, brought to SL. Space Invaders, Missile Command, Centipede, um, er, the other ones! It would be great!

The World of Tiers from the Philip José Farmer series of the same name! Age's ago I used it as a setting for a face-to-face D&D game with great results.

How about don't.

Don't set up an RP sim.

Instead offer the sim as a hosting site for themed RP events.

Someone wants to host a murder mystery? They rent your sim, and you help set it up.

A one-off event of a dragon marauding through a town? Your sim is the perfect spot. (I seem to be on a marauding-dragon kick for some reason)

The events could be for a day, or even have week-long story arcs.

You could morph your sim to suit the needs of each event.

It'll be great!

..but why did I immediately think of Gilligan's Island at the words "series"? Sad child of the TV obsessed 70's or what!?

Gah.

Because the enemy's gate is down.

TROOGDOOOOORRRR!!!

Oooh!! The original Land of The Lost Series. You could put literally anything in there. Plus, you'd still have the Sleestak city. The Pylons, dinosaurs. . .

and Kizinti for the furries! Don't forget your TASP

"Every woman is born with a tasp."

Especially if they are named "SeXXXy Bliss".