Villain Slots

[Jaymi]

The problem: We have a lack of villains on the site, especially in comparison with the number of heroes. It's hard to make many plots because of the available resources we have in characters without considering temping as an option.

The plan: Introduce Canon Villain slots as a third type of character slot. Give each person one when they begin, bringing the starting slots to 4. Then, every 250 posts, up to the first 1k, provide an additional villain slot to players. This would give each player up to 5 villains without them needing to worry trying to fit them in around heroes they might otherwise have. For players that want lots of villains, it just provides them more slots to fill up the roster of bad guys the site is sorely lacking.

If people don't want to play villains, they'll find the slots unused, but as I've seen time and again since joining, a lot of people will fill up the slots and play the characters because it provides them a chance to work towards landmarks like OC slots.

This also provides a little more fun with the big landmark numbers at 500 and 1000, giving two slots at the former, and three slots at the latter. And by spacing them out with the 250 posts each, at 250 and 750, it creates an extra small step for people to get excited about.

The payoff: More villains! By incentivizing canon villains beyond how canons are already encouraged, most people will likely pick up extra villains as they go along with these slots. With more villains, more plots can happen which only encourages more players to join. Plus, by providing a villain slot right off the bat, more people can be excited for the villain they get when they start on the site like many people tend to favor their first characters. If everyone picked up two heroes, an OC, and a villain right off the bat, we'd have some amazing opportunities.

[Slim]

I think that this idea (Or some iteration of it) is pretty cool! We'll talk about in the modzone™. Might take a few days.

BUREAUCRACY AT WORK

[Deleted]

You may want to consider simply having community-canon villains. There are villains useable by anyone in order to further plots. I learned quite a while ago that you simply can't have good stories without antagonists and when these antagonists are the exclusive property of one member you inevitably generate a monopoly. Now, I'm not saying that people intentionally hoard, but it is inherent in our nature to do so.

It makes far more sense to explicitly layout the details of villains and then have them portrayed by whomever needs an antagonist. Now, in order to keep with the point system the site exists upon you could have the control of villains fall on the shoulders of those with a certain amount of posts. Of course post count only defines activity, which is important, but you do also want villains to fall into the hands of strong plotters and story tellers, unless of course you're writing a story which is pure combat.

This shouldn't include all villains of course, only those that are deemed PIVOTAL. In terms of protagonists Captain America would be considered a pivotal character. Without him, grander Avenger's plots simply fragment. The same happens to any story in which there is not a solid antagonist, and it's not like they have to actively exist throughout the story either. I've noted that Jaymi in particular has a good understanding of keeping a PIVOTAL in the shadows, lurking, pulling strings, doing what villains do best.

This is only a suggestion and I'm not trying to make the Earth round. I am well aware this goes completely against the grain of the majority of RPG sites. Believe me, I've been around. I've fought my battles, licked my wounds and learned some valuable lessons. Just wanted to lend some insight. The roleplaying I mention does in fact exist and it works. It's just not embraced in the SuperHero genre... yet.

[Jaymi]

I have to disagree with Phayd a bit.

On one hand, I get where he's coming from, some characters can be considered key to plots, and I think temping is a good way to make sure those characters are around when they need to be. That said, I think locking certain characters away to be used only when they're important, would be a poor choice.

The first issue, of course, is character growth. By having someone take a character and play them in threads, the character grows over an arc on the site, becoming both what he is in canon while also becoming part of our own community's canon. If a character such as Captain America was only dusted off for big Avenger threads, he'd miss out on a chance to bond with others, to show growth through story except in the big moments.

The second issue is a personal taste. Kingpin is a key character, especially on our boards after HZ where he took control of the NY underworld. If he was used by multiple people, I couldn't build up big ideas and plans with him that will show up later. I can't work in the shadows with him, as Phayd pointed out. The beauty of villains, especially the schemers like Fisk, or Doom, or Magneto, is that they resurface here and there, and usually when they do it's a big thing. In that vein, Phayd's idea would work wonderfully, the downside is it loses the ability to build up to those moments by smaller moves across the board. They don't get the chance to scheme, or worse, people would step on each other's toes in trying to make their schemes work. The best option out of it all would be discussion among the people wanting to play Fisk to make sure they're on the same page, but then that can lose a sense of surprise and that wouldn't be very fun either.

In the end, though we need more villains, the idea that any single villain or even character is absolutely essential to a story beyond what temping provides, is a non-starter, really. Avengers stories can and have been told without Captain America. Black Panther, Black Widow, or even Scarlet Witch would all be capable of leading the team. Hydra can function without one of its heads, it can even function if the heads are fighting. SHIELD doesn't NEED Maria Hill or Nick Fury.

All we need is more characters in those roles, not specific characters. If people want to play those key characters, they should get to because they're living, breathing characters that mean something to the Marvel-verse. I think my original proposal works best to get people to fill those roles.

That said, Phayd's idea does have merit, because it would stop the issue we're currently facing, where someone came along that we all love, picked up an iconic character, and unfortunately had to stop playing, and no one's picked it up yet, leaving some stories he JUST started in the lurch. If something like his plan was to work, I'd rather see it be something along the lines of Key, Iconic figures reserved for some of our best and most devoted players, but even that I could see seeming unfair to new players and might drive them away. I have a possible idea on that sort of thing, but I definitely would rather talk it out before I went and posted it for posterity. xD