Remember Your Limits...Or Don't, See If I Care

[TowersFall created a Group DM: glasselia (title pending) survival game rp planning]

[TowersFall added rainDrips]

rainDrips: Thank you for having me here.
rainDrips: You can call me RD for short, if that’s easier.
rainDrips: And for clarity’s sake, I’m an adult. An older one than most on the Group.
rainDrips: You’re both teenagers still, so keep that in mind. I don’t want to cross any boundaries or intrude on your lives. I just enjoy fantasy RP!
TowersFall: i dont really see the issue? we’re all just ppl
dropsgum: Lol me neither!!
rainDrips: You’ll understand when you’re my age, ha.
dropsgum: Σ(°ロ°) He’s typing more like an old man by the second!!
TowersFall: and the proper grammar didnt tip you off already
rainDrips: None of that has to do with my age!
rainDrips: Anyways, we should start.
rainDrips: DG, I can make a current task list for us based off of my suggestions.
dropsgum: Go ahead!! The floor is yours

My desk was a mess, all because of the monstrous beast that was combining responsible studying habits with less-responsible RP planning. Both were important to me—one due to social responsibility, the other due to personal choice.

…Perhaps one was more important, but I’d never let my parents find out. I could bask in the feeling of being prepared for our first official meeting with our new technical moderator until I was smacked so hard with a text wall that I could feel my cheeks turning red from the force.

rainDrips: I apologize, this is going to be a long message. As it is, you all have the basics down, but there’s a lot you’re missing to meet the bare requirements of gathering a decent amount of players.

For one, the two of you are going to need to condense that lore document. I understand you both have a lot of love for the world you created, but you need to keep it the general information to a page of most and list details about physiology, environment and the nations in bite-sized chunks. Most people do not want to comb through a ten page document just to write a character that might not be lore compliant if they forget something.

The application also needs some stylization. Unfortunately, visuals rule all, and people are drawn to RPs with a clear aesthetic to them. On that note…

We need to cut down on the number of NPCs. We’ll have to make a page for them on the site, and a graphic and information section for each one as they’re introduced other than the default ones, and that’s a lot of work. This isn’t needed though—if you’re really attached, I would recommenced just saving some for later in the RP to make it easier on yourselves. I understand this seems like a lot, but the standards seem to have risen lately, so we’ll need to keep up to get people to see us.

Finally, as I mentioned before, visuals. I think the two of you have noticed the shift that has taken place over the last year in our Group.

I grimaced as I combed through his words. As I read the last sentence, I couldn’t help but nod. For such a text heavy medium, images were considered required for a lot of RP groups. There were ways to circumvent this—graphic editing and face claims of real people or free use drawn images were common, and what I’d like to utilize with my own lack of talent for drawing. Unless dropsgum could pull out some secret skills—

dropsgum: BUT I CAN BARELY DRAW A STICK FIGURE ＼(º □ º l|l)/
TowersFall: hey wait no thats not true
TowersFall: dont all your characters have hand drawn refs?????
dropsgum: Oooooh, that! Y’see, i kinda. uh
dropsgum: My mom gives me a really big allowance and since i can use her online bank account i pretty much blow it all on art commissions for my characters!!
TowersFall: WHAT??? HOW COME YOU NEVER TOLD ME
dropsgum: YOU DIDN’T ASK????
TowersFall: LIKE HELL I COMPLIMENTED YOU MULTIPLE TIMES FOR THAT ART
dropsgum: I JUST ASSUMED IT WAS FOR THE ARTIST!!! GEEZ (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸
TowersFall: and why the HELL would you assume that????
rainDrips: Excuse me. The meeting?

…Moving on.

rainDrips: Anyways, it’s okay. As long as we can make use of available images online and editing software, we can make something good. And don’t go taking other’s art and assets thinking that they won’t notice. Our site is public on the internet, and knowing we stole someone’s work will leave us with a bad reputation, not to mention the ethical concerns of stealing in the first place.
dropsgum: Yes of course!!
TowersFall: yep
rainDrips: Great! I’ll provide you with an…ahem, legal copy of my favorite image editing program.

[rainDrips attached motoshopinstall.exe]

dropsgum: Oooooohdropsgum: Totally legal gotcha!! This better not be a virus or i’m totally getting towers to report you from my internet grave
TowersFall: finger on the report button already

Luckily, the program turned out to be a totally legit and functional copy of Motoshop. A legal one? Absolutely not, but I didn’t have much other choice.

TowersFall: so what do we need at minimum
TowersFall: assuming we dont change anything
rainDrips: I think what we need to focus on most is building our visuals and website. I’ll make a CSS sheet, I have experience.
dropsgum: Thanks!!!
dropsgum: Okay so towers lets try to divide this!! I trust you to summarize our lore and just run it by me before you save any changes k?
dropsgum: I’ll fix up the application, i think our guidelines and rules are good so from there we can divide the graphics!!!
TowersFall: sounds perfect to me
TowersFall: also we should set up the Group too just to have it ready for the rpers
dropsgum: Okay!! ill do that later i think i wont be that busy for a bit
TowersFall: oh same here
rainDrips: How about we set a deadline, then?
rainDrips: No pressure to meet it, of course.
TowersFall: works for me its external pressure to meet a goal
TowersFall: something the modern man needs to accomplish any task
dropsgum: :p
dropsgum: So how about two weeks from now!!

TWO WEEKS!?

I looked back down at my desk. The RP notes filtered out of my vision to the point where all I could see was the mountains of books and notes I had to cram into my head before finals in June. Nevermind the project deadlines, the outside commitments, my mom pushing me to start working on my college essays, scholarships—

I glanced back at my computer.

At my notes.

At my keyboard.

At my assignments. At my draft for a poster project—one of many.

At my screen. At all the people counting on me…which were only two, but one was…

TowersFall: thats doable
TowersFall: bet ill even have it done early
dropsgum: Looool don’t make promises you can’t keep!!
dropsgum: But okay! Sound good to you rain?
rainDrips: I can manage that. If there’s anything else I can help with, let me know.
dropsgum: Of course!! I’ll be sure to update you guys as much as i can, i don’t wanna get too carried away like before
TowersFall: gotcha gotcha
TowersFall: gonna go work on some concepts, see you soon

I was so screwed.

How could I possibly get everything I wanted to done in a week!?

Shit.

Shit!

SHIT!!!!!!!