Recruitment Ideas?

[victoriousscarf]

Alright, so while we are very happy with the members that we currently have on the board, we were wondering if anyone might have some ideas on how to get more.

For example, any places one could advertise, any friends one could chat up about it, or even any ideas on how to run the board smoother and how to entice new members in. Or make it easier for newcomers to figure out what was going on. ((Are the time lines helping? Finals got in the way of updating them, but does anyone find them useful and/or the system of dating threads?))

Any other thoughts on new members or running the board to make things more streamlined?

((Also, this post should be enabled that non-members can post, so if you're a guest with any ideas, feel free to drop those along as well))

[A guest]

(I know, you're probably stunned to see a guest finally post in this thread with comments, but, I finally perked up enough courage to actually say something)

I have to say that this has to be one of the more intriguing RPGs I've seen in a long time. I've been following ever since I saw this place linked via magical-notes over at fanfiction.net (where I'm actively reading "What Your Sacrifice Was For" and desperately hoping for another chapter of "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?")

I will confess that the historian in me has been squeeing in passionate delight (before I remember my focus was not the Roaring '20s but far earlier - medieval European, to be accurate) to see how well thought out and how attentive to detail everyone is.

The shameless squeeing done, I will confess to getting just a confused by the numbering of threads, only because I'm not sure if the numbers are referring to the actual days in the year (as in, it's the 81st day in the year 1926) or it's the 81st event that's happened since the game's begun. (I do gather that the events of Thread X (81) should follow the events of thread W (80) but other then that, I get a bit lost.)

[victoriousscarf]

Sorry it's taken me this long to respond, I've been bouncing up and down in my seat in general while trying to be coherent.

It's lovely to find out someone actually found us through the fic as well ((Yay! Victorian verse reader! And I believe Why do Fools Fall in Love is getting a new chapter soon. Our muses are particularly finicky on that story I'm sorry to say)). Especially since so many character relationships were first set up here, and all our OCs practically were born here. XD

Fellow historian! Yes, that period is a little bit earlier, but we try to be as historically correct as possible while still writing a story and dealing with different things. We've made a couple mistakes already but I'm glad that attention has been shining through.

... Yes, our dating system. It's a bit hard to figure out /how/ to date things in a forum to begin with, while still being able to progress time. They are not referencing actual days in the year however, but rather day 1 is simply the first day of the events of the RP. It's pretty nebulous but if we did it literal day one, and then literal day 2, an event like a wound or a month in prison would take too long to heal. So, we saw the timeline follows /roughly/ the calendar so 2011 coincides with 1926 even though... the more I look at this the more confusing it gets. There's just no easy way to do an RP time line and still allow characters to heal without it taking 6 months real time. >.<

It is an issue, and I do need to update all the timelines as soon as my computer trouble gets a bit better.

But it was lovely to hear from you ((Courage is good! *Waves some encouraging pom poms for you*)) and if you have any other questions or any inclination to join, I would love to hear about either.

[same guest as last night]

It's lovely to find out someone actually found us through the fic as well ((Yay! Victorian verse reader! And I believe Why do Fools Fall in Love is getting a new chapter soon. Our muses are particularly finicky on that story I'm sorry to say)). Especially since so many character relationships were first set up here, and all our OCs practically were born here. XD

You hear that squee coming from the East Coast? That'd be me, happy to hear that there will be a new chapter of Why do Fools Fall in Love coming out. I adore Wells!Macavity so much ::laughs:: (And I will confess to also being a fan of your take on the Star Wars series and am enjoying "Not Just Pain and Anger" - chapter three was my personal favorite. But then, I reveal a bias, I like Hank, and you've captured him brilliantly. And I also confess to enjoying your Azazel/Raven interaction in the following chapter, even if at this point, you don't know exactly how it'll end up (regardless of the canonical nature of the comics - which should be taken with a grain of salt, given how they change their own canon countless times (I'm clearly looking at you, Phoenix Saga. "It was Jean! No, wait, that was a clone of Jean created by the Phoenix Force, the real thing is in a coma in the bay where the rocket crashed, recovering!" Cue the flat "wut".) so you really don't know quite what to believe anymore.))

Oh, and I probably should properly introduce myself. Name's Elizabeth (The only name I refuse to tolerate is Liz. Haven't been called that since I was two.) My focus for history, like I said, was medieval European (particularly English). I minored in art history (which hadn't been planned, in all honesty. I had been interested in the various art history courses my college had offered, when my advisor noticed that I had taken enough courses to have that declared my minor.)

Yes, that period is a little bit earlier, but we try to be as historically correct as possible while still writing a story and dealing with different things. We've made a couple mistakes already but I'm glad that attention has been shining through.

Just a wee bit earlier, yes. ;) (My other period of interest was the Renaissance. Tudor history fascinates me to no end - especially when you wonder how much was truth and how much was lies disguised as the truth because everyone loves a pretty lie rather then the cold harsh truth, ie: was Anne really guilty of the crimes that lead to her eventual execution or was that just an easy way for Henry to get rid of wife two so he could move on to wife three? I should clarify and say that all aspects of the Renaissance fascinates me, not just the Tudors. Of course, living near New York gives me the excuse to go visit the Renfair up at Sterling at least once a year, weather permitting.)

And I will confess to having an interest in Victorian history, at one point I did do some passing research into it for a character. (It was for a Hellsing RPG, and considering the weird timeline for that, she was a semi-transplant from Victorian times into a modern setting.) Not to mention, that during the days that I actively played Sims2 half my neighborhoods wore Victorian clothing just because I liked the outfits better then what the game came with. I highly recommend going to all-about-style.com and perusing their Victorian Sims collection - which I'm linking since you can see different styles of outfits depending on both age and gender: all-about-style.com/victorian.html and over here: all-about-style.com/themes_1920's.html as you can tell is all their 1920s outfits (I'm sure the flappers here would be drooling over the dresses)

... Yes, our dating system. It's a bit hard to figure out /how/ to date things in a forum to begin with, while still being able to progress time. They are not referencing actual days in the year however, but rather day 1 is simply the first day of the events of the RP. It's pretty nebulous but if we did it literal day one, and then literal day 2, an event like a wound or a month in prison would take too long to heal. So, we saw the timeline follows /roughly/ the calendar so 2011 coincides with 1926 even though... the more I look at this the more confusing it gets. There's just no easy way to do an RP time line and still allow characters to heal without it taking 6 months real time. >.<

Ah, now that you've explained it, it makes a vast amount of sense now. And I applaud you all for crafting a timeline in the first place (not to mention having it be a successful one at that. I attempted to do that for one of my own RPGs and since I had not only a timeline for current events, but past as well as alternate realities as well, I ended up throwing the towel in and saying "fruu it".

But it was lovely to hear from you ((Courage is good! *Waves some encouraging pom poms for you*)) and if you have any other questions or any inclination to join, I would love to hear about either.

I will confess that I am batting around a character or two in my head - trying to maintain a semblance of historical accuracy (been diligently reading up on various aspects of life during the time frame, ie: reading up on the Irish Civil War that occurred during '22-'23 since it would have an impact on a character of Irish descent) while still keeping in line with the pre-established canon of the board. I'm leaning towards crafting a nurse (out of honor to a great-grandfather of mine that was a doctor during this time frame. I believe he was an ambulance surgeon out on Coney Island. I can see what I can fish up to help with the medical aspect of the time. I think we might have clippings or something about him. I do remember being told that he had to have a friend of his, a fellow doctor, be the one to tell my great-grandmother that she was having yet another child (my grandmother), mainly because it was unheard of for a woman of her age to have another child. My grandmother's brothers, Uncle Hal and Uncle Frank, were in their 20s when my grandmother was born. Yay for messed up trees XD) or a maid since they operate quietly in the background(that and what hotel doesn't have a maid?)

And oh, dear Everlasting Cat, I think I neatly dipped into the infamous "tl;dr" territory with this mammoth post. (I blame this and ThunderCats - which created the most inoffensive swear word ever (seriously, "Whiskers" has got to be the most innocent sounding curse I've ever heard, even if we have to hear it at least once an episode.) for working their way into my everyday speech/writing. I mean, I even have a decidedly human character for a fic I've been working on for the past two weeks using vocabulary that one would find in a proper Jellicle. (Her most common excuse is that she lives near the Junkyard (although, in a different fic that I'm working on, it does mention that her house is three streets over and two down from the Junkyard) and hears them speaking. That and I also exploit the concept of the Jellicles being human sized whilst in the Junkyard but normal cat sized the rest of the time, unless they feel the need to be human sized outside of the Junkyard.)

[victoriousscarf]

Yay! I'm just glad to hear you're enjoying all the stories ((Even Not Just Pain and Anger. And oh, Hank. Yes, I adore him too, can you tell? He starts staging periodical invasions of the story, too. And I do mean he takes the thing over from time to time >.> Ah, X-Men cannon. It's a twisted place. For this story we're taking storylines and events we like, and characters, and rewriting them to fit into the story and movie verse. So, it's been interesting. XD))

Ahahahaha... those sim clothes are actually pretty entertaining. And yeah, as I said, the timelines are a little out of date so the goal is to get those fixed very soon.

Oooooh, I really like both character ideas. The Nurse would be especially interesting, since it would give good old Doc Cohen someone to interact with more. XD The thing I always try to make sure of is that a character has connections before popping up in the game, or at least ideas about possible connections. That would give your character a good in since we have a doctor, as well as toss him/her onto the social scene. A maid might also be interesting, since we do have the huge hotel running around here. I would also try, with either of these characters, to of course give them a social life outside of work too. XD But both would have good "in"s to the story.

I do also like the idea of an Irish character... so far I've gotten Russian characters poking me and it's like, no, I am not dealing with this right now, but we have no Irish yet on the board or at least not in the way you're implying. ((We might have had one but they've fallen far out of use.))

So yeah, I think either of those characters would be very interesting and would love to see them!

((Heh, oh everlasting cat. XD I do enjoy that one))

[Elizabeth]

Re the fics, particularly the X-Men one: I will confess to actively roleplaying in the Marvel universe. I play a telepathic/telekinetic original character (the younger sister to Mutant X/Proteus) that actually managed to fool another person in the same game into thinking she was canon because I kept to the original source as much as possible (the only time we truly strayed from original source was when we did the Phoenix saga and we had no Jean Grey. I have new respect for Jean XD) He was stunned when I said "you do realize I'm playing an original character, right?" when he was listing off the other original characters on the board ::light chuckle:: I have also played as Morbius, the Living Vampire on a different Marvel roleplaying board. (At one point, there was an universal reset so we could reimaging our characters a la "House of M" and the restart after that story arc ended - Morbius ended up as a priest in training, only to discover that he's developing vampiric like tendencies (as the result of the reset, he was rendered human but that's slowly changing. Or would be, if the board hadn't died a slow and painful death)

Re the maid and the nurse: I've been bouncing between both apps, writing them as they come to mind. Right now, the maid's demanding a bit of my attention since she is a bit on the young side. (She also gives me an excuse to go youtubing and listening to opera singers from the 1920s to get ideas for her singing voice for if/when she reveals in the course of the game that she can sing - and I promise, if she does, she'll only stick to the operas from the proper timeframe (see here and here if that ever comes up. I already predict her shooting death glares at people if they ask her about her musical training, that or uttering curses in French.) Ironically, my family history pops up in her history - mainly to explain why she's a maid and not in some fancy opera house singing ::light chuckle:: I was told that my great-grandmother (my grandfather's mother) had won many singing contests back in Scotland and when she came here to the States, had a chance to sing at the Met. She turned them down in favor of raising her children, my grandfather and great-aunt. Yay for usable family history in a role playing setting)

The nurse is just patiently waiting for the maid to calm down before she reveals more of her character to me - I know so far that she lived through the Irish Civil War and she lost her younger brother in it (working with historical characters, but altering just enough to fit the Cats universe). Muses, can't live with them, can't live without them (although, in the case of ficcing, some muses can take a long walk off a short pier. Tugger does not want to cooperate with me in one of my fics, nor does Victoria for that matter, and let's not even start on Macavity (oh he of being the king of difficult). The only two Jellicles that are behaving are Quaxo and Munkus.)

(And whiskers, I'm heading back into "tl;dr" territory. Well, I do suppose in an roleplaying setting, it's better to have too much text then not enough. Do give me a smack upside the head if I pull too many "tl;dr" posts. I won't mind. ::laughs:: Can you tell I spend far too much time writing fanfiction? Haven't touched my fanfiction.net account in who knows how many years, can't even remember my password or which email I tagged it with, so I couldn't upload if I wanted to.

As for the use of Everlasting Cat, ::chuckles:: I managed to work that concept into ThunderCats of all things. In fact, one or two Jellicles managed to wiggle their way in, such as Coricopat. I have too much fun writing as him)

[victoriousscarf]

Very nice with the Marvel RPs. XD I must admit I haven't RPed Marvel before, and I admit to only recently really getting into X-Men as well. Though, my reaction was to read all 200 Trade paperbacks my library had from it. XD And even then my knowledge of certain events in cannon is sketchy.

Usable family history is always great! I would love to see either app if you had any questions, I think my e-mails open or send me a PM. And oh dear, an Opera Sing? Macavity has been pestering me for an Opera House for ages because he wants to snark at the uppercrust during intermission... this is not helping. XD I like the idea of the Nurse coming out of the Irish Civil War as well. It could be very interesting to explore ((I just spent almost a month in Ireland over the summer so I'm pretty happy with putting in some Irish history)).

Muses were ever supposed to cooperate? Especially muses named Macavity? The day he does what I expect I'll be shocked. Utterly shocked. See, Mistoffelees tends to like being written so I almost never have trouble there. He ((and Tugger)) just sorta run off away from me though, which can be quite an issue.

Cori as a thundercat? Heh. I once got my Misto muse in a different fandom RP... that was way more entertaining that it should have been.

[Elizabeth]

Re Marvel: If the X-Men board I'm a member of wasn't "dead", I'd recommend joining it since you and Meadowlark have a firm grasp of canon (xevolved.proboards.com if you want to snoop.) We originally started out as an X-Men Evolution RPG back in '03 and have since evolved past that. I just celebrated my 8th year on the board back towards the end of August. (I still find myself stunned that I spent 8 years there. Although, I did get lovely custom artwork done of my character by a member of that board over the course of the 8 years.)

Re Cori as a Thundercat: Yes, he currently acts as an advisor to Lion-O, since he, like Cheetara, is one of the remaining clerics. He only just got reunited with the group (he was in the same group as Bengali, Lynx-O and Pumyra). It's amusing and I have a passable grasp at him. (He's just starting to trust me to do justice to him and he's grateful I've stopped the one twin starts the sentence and the other twin finishes the sentence nonsense. He said it wasn't amusing when used in GI-Joe so why the heck did I think it was a good idea?) I'm hoping the archives are able to be viewed by non-members (my friend keeps forgetting to enable that when she creates the board) - if it is, you can see Cori in action over here: shadowofworlds.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=newthundera&action=display&thread=182 (Timelines are such fluid things ::clears throat:: I will confess to doing a minor mess and a quick save in that thread)

Re uncooperative muses: Oh, I agree fully. Tugger is a bit miffed that I had Victoria back him into a corner (something about Demeter being the only one allowed to do that and even then there better a good reason she's doing that. Thankfully, he hasn't quoted Dirty Dancing with that XD). Macavity just sits there, glaring at me for even thinking of certain concepts. I swear, I'm close to threatening him with a squirt bottle. (Works with the dogs - I'm just not sure how well it'd work with cats)

Although, Misto's quite pleased that I made sure to icon the hell out of him (I did about 29 solos, 1 with Cass, and 3 with Old D. And heh, I did manage to capture his expression when he called Tugger a terrible bore. So cute and snarky). And he's also decided to make himself comfortable in my sketchbook, I have a few of him, one of Munkus that needs the proper details (like his fluff and his collar), and two for Griddlebone and Growltiger (unfortunately, or fortunately depending on one's view, Growltiger came out looking rather "bishounen" when I sketched him the other day. I'm not quite sure how the Terror of the Thames pulled that one off but well, I'm not going to argue with a pirate.)

Re the nurse and the maid: The maid/opera singer is having a bit too much fun to craft. Although, she did squeak when she noticed Macavity perk up when he saw she was a trained opera singer (something about toms never were interested in her before.) And I will confess to giggling a bit at her distress. She's making herself a little easy to tease.

I've been reading on the Irish Civil War (granted, the wikipedia entry) but I do plan on a trip to the local library this weekend so I can snag research material to make sure my accuracy is up to par. I recall that there was a book on Victorian manners that was fascinating - I may retake it out and see if there's anything useful in it.

I'll more then likely email you in the near future and have you take a look at the applications - you'll most likely see something from a ladystrongheart, but it would be with a Felidae subject line to help clarify (I will confess freely that I am a child of the 80s and have a weakness for girly '80s cartoons). I'd love an extra set of eyes to check and see if everything's there and if anything needs to be changed. Heaven knows I've been known to forget something. (And at least it'll give me time to get in their heads, one of the things we had to do in the Marvel RPG was do a sample RP - man, that was a bit terror inducing, especially if you were asked to do a cold RP against someone to see how well the could write. I always dreaded being the one picked)

(Why is it that everytime I post something, I go into "TL;DR" territory? I swear, I write too much sometimes.)

[Elizabeth again]

Re email to proof app: Okay, maybe I'm just overlooking it somewhere, but would you mind pointing out where I would find said email address (it's hidden according to your profile) and as a guest, I don't have the ability to send PMs (although, since she's just about done, just need to flesh out the opera sing/maid's history a bit more - for example, try to come up with a decent reason as to why she left France when she did). The nurse is going to be the next to have work done on her (I did discover whilst reading a book on Irish history, that Northern Ireland started to form around this time so I can have a bit of fun at her expense where she gets a bit twitchy when it comes to certain colors.

I know she'll give flat stares at people expecting her to wear green on Saint Patrick's Day. XD Seriously, it's one of the reasons I personally can't wear green on Saint Patrick's Day - one side of the tree on my father's side is from the north and the other side of his part of the tree is from Ireland proper, can't wear green because that would offend one part, and can't wear orange because it'd offend the other.)

Also, I did take a book out on women's fashion during the 1900-1929 time frame. If I can get my computer to cooperate with me, I should be able to scan the pages for the '20s. It did have some lovely illustrations and a few magazine ads for outfits.

[victoriousscarf]

Sorry about that, life got that lovely shade of hectic suddenly.

As for e-mail... seriously? I was sure I had it unhidden for just this reason... or maybe it's only to members, hn. At any rate it's going to be [e-mail]. Though, we prefer people join the board before posting their apps to this way they can edit said apps if/when things come up, in which case you could join and send it via PM just as easily.

As to colors, ah yeah. Though I'm curious when St. Patrick's day in the USA started and when and how those traditions evolved. This could require some research... XD I do remember when researching St. Patrick a lot of historians went WTF over the holiday but hey.

Scans would be nice. There's also a lovely tumblr blog I follow that posts a lot of women's clothing that I then reblog rather obsessively as my characters go, oh, I want /that/ outfit! It makes me glad I only have two female characters cos Mac and Misto would drive me crazy if they were doing this to me too. XD

The other thing I would recommend is going through the accepted character bios already up, and seeing if there's any characters you might want to start building relationships with either of yours. ((Though some people have left and I need to move their apps... gonna do that now and start working on those timelines again methinks.))

So yes, e-mail or PM me those apps and I'm more than willing to look them over.

[Elizabeth]

That's fine, I can understand life eating people alive - it's eaten me a couple of times

Re Saint Patrick's Day: Well, I know here in Jersey, we one of the big events for it was back in the Revolutionary War with The Saint Patrick Day's Encampent of 1780 (I did read briefly on up on it. I believe it was Washington's way of connecting with the Irish that were also fighting the British.) Yay, for wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day#In_the_United_States

I know I do a bit of a "WTF" when it comes to the leprechauns - not quite sure how that works (considering leprechauns are "pagan" and Patrick drove the "snakes" (pagans) out of Ireland so it's all "What? Seriously?")

Re relationships: I have ideas about that, I will confess. (I'm not sure of the nurse's logic at all, but she's intrigued by Growltiger. I don't know how that came up, other then she felt her heart breaking for Growltiger when Griddlebone left him. I will confess that I did sniffle a bit at seeing how broken he was.) I'm not quite sure about the maid, she hasn't been horribly forthcoming, although, I will confess that she keeps poking me to read any of the Tugger's threads, and she did hint that she liked a cat in uniform. So, she might be intrigued with him. (Of course, that could be the result of listening to both Terrence V Mann and John Partridge singing that role. Of course, my personal bias is towards Mann (his voice is lovely, and I love two of his other theatre roles - Beast and Chauvelin. Not to mention his stint as Oberon in Disney's Gargoyles.)

Re the email thing: Yeah, I had a feeling that was the case (I ended up running to LJ and seeing it but I wasn't one hundred percent sure since the user name didn't quite click with the account name here). I'll probably create a proper account later this evening and send a PM. I'll also send an email just in case (the address is ladystrongheart (at) gmail (dot) com) - that way, there's a back-up somewhere. (I can't begin to tell you how many emails I saved when I was working on various plot ideas for when we did the Phoenix Saga. Probably not what my college email account should have been used for but I was running threads behind the scenes just to get a rough idea of how things could go and how to make things better since things never usually went as planned.)

[Elizabeth]

(yes, a clear sign I need to create the account tonight - I hate the fact that guests can't edit posts) - I probably will be taking the name littlesongbird since well, it works nicely for an opera sing :) (I figured I'd give a head's up so you didn't wonder who the devil this was if you had to approve the account before I could do anything)

[victoriousscarf]

Yes, editing posts is a good, useful thing. XD I saw the account pop up, very nice!

Ah yeah, well, if you're skimming stuff wikipedia works. The issue is verify that information before you go running away with it. Because for basic overview something like wikipedia is fantastic, but you can't of course use it for anything else. XD What I like to do is look through the works cited at the bottom of any page, because sometimes there are great articles linked, or it gives you an idea of which book to go after.

Well, the other character in uniform is Sonya... he needs more people to interact with in general >.> Keep in mind with Tugger he's been played by two different people, so you have the old character and the new version running around. ((Oh, Terrance Mann. He has one of those voices that I utterly adore. I do especially love the Scarlett Pimpernel... I've long since decided that "The Riddle" is pretty much the theme song of this entire board.))

The other question is where the Maid works? The Demoniaque would make the most sense, but there's also the Palace which is possible at this point.

Ah, Growltiger. It would be hard to put a past relationship in there, but possible. Might message the player and see. ((See, I was fine with breaking him. It was Macavity I was worried about since I've broken him... at least 3 times on the board /already/ and if he'd broken again there would have been the entire town to pay so... little biased I admit but still. XD))

You use college accounts for college work? Since when? XD

[littlesongbird]

I think it was designed so we could keep in contact with professors and get the menus, but, I used mine for RPing purposes.

For the maid's job, I was thinking the Demoniaque would be a good place to start, only because on that cast list page, it did mention openings at the Demoniaque for maids. And yeah, I did read all the Tugger threads I could just so I could follow the RPG at least. (Yeah for character timelines so I can hunt the threads I need to read)

Re Wikipedia and research: Well, I did take out a few books set during the time frame (Opera in history so I can make sure I'm accurate for her, the founding of Northern Ireland, Victorian manners (which amuses me to no end, especially on the topic of relationships), and the fashion book I mentioned above). So, I plan on doing serious reading on at least the Northern Ireland bit since the nurse deserves to have an accuracy in that.

(And oh, yes! "The Riddle" is perfect for this board! Of course, I love the musical in general.)

[victoriousscarf]

Oh yes, I know. I have my own college e-mail that I tend to use to keep manuscripts of my writing saved on. XD

Woo character timelines! There are /reasons/ I have those going. XD Have you looked around the other apps as well? Just to sorta know who's around.

Very nice! The one caution though is on the Victorian Manners ((Though I agree, they are rather interesting and amusing)) since it was changing so much by the time you hit this time period. I mean, it would be very useful for older characters and having an idea of what came before, but the 20s were really a time of "loose" morals according to their elders, and it's such a difference when you hit this area. Have you given a look through the historical info thread? I really need to update it too...

((I love most of Wildhorn's musicals. My characters keep picking up songs.))

Also, if the maid is at the Demoniaque, this gives her interactions with: Macavity, Mistoffelees, Coricopat, Maggie and Oxford Howe, Martin Smith, probably Griddlebone at this point, and I want to say at least one more character but there's all that.