02-08-2023, 04:57 PM
The other part about understanding scale is how to limit it. Flashlight pointed out my "Vile Liege" RP, which I believe is a mid-scale RP as it should cover the titular village and the region it is in. And while I did have lore about the world that region is in, it is not the reason the RP is world-scale. It is simply because I failed to limit the scale of the RP; that I ultimately allowed the one player to leave the region I set and so I had to create new resources and systems, drawing away attention from the people that actually stayed in the village. And looking back on it, I could have simply ended that player's participation on a good note just because they technically left said region.
Anyway, limiting the scale of an RP isn't as simple as setting boundaries, it's the idea that you know what you want in the RP. This is best illustrated if you think of a School RP. You will think about classes, which leads to thinking about the teachers and students in them, and possibly how the schedule works. In Harry Potter, I can think of 6-7 core classes as well as 6-7 electives in Third Year, and that's not counting for the teachers of each class, the students of all seven years, or which houses pair with each other in certain classes. That sounds like a lot of prep work.
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Thankfully, you don't need a whole "school" to do a School RP. This is what I mean:
-You don't have to include "necessary" ideas. For example, Mashle has a similar Harry Potter setting but is more focused on social aspects and battles, zero classes (unless it's to earn a token).
-You can focus on ideas you want. In My Hero Academia, there is more focus on the two heroic classrooms with guest speakers and trips, nearly no focus on normal classes. In Shokugeki, being a cooking anime, it's easy to show the classes with cooking in it.
-You can reuse the cast for multiple ideas. In My Hero Academia once more, the homeroom teacher is critically injured yet he still comes in to teach despite qualifying for a substitute and commentates during the sports festival during his "recovery". In Assassination Classroom, the teacher teaches multiple subjects from science to home economics, only excluding PE (because he's too fast) and Language (when an assassin is placed there). It helps that both shows contain the same students due to exclusivity.
-If you do make a pool of classes, do other than just a sums game. In Owl House, the single-magic system means that classes are sorted into tracks where Summoning won't learn Botany and vice versa. In Shadows Over Loathing, a combination of funds and locks means you only choose 3 out of 9 classes to graduate, sorted as Major, Minor and Elective.
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This doesn't just apply to the number of classes in a school RP. In Monster Hunter, you have 12 weapons and dozens of monsters. In the Stories RPG, 6 of those weapons are available. In the movie, 2 monsters and 2 weapons are known. In a Monster Hunter RP, it is possible to create a whole game with monster after monster, but if your goal is to fight only one monster, just go after the one monster.
Anyway, limiting the scale of an RP isn't as simple as setting boundaries, it's the idea that you know what you want in the RP. This is best illustrated if you think of a School RP. You will think about classes, which leads to thinking about the teachers and students in them, and possibly how the schedule works. In Harry Potter, I can think of 6-7 core classes as well as 6-7 electives in Third Year, and that's not counting for the teachers of each class, the students of all seven years, or which houses pair with each other in certain classes. That sounds like a lot of prep work.
---
Thankfully, you don't need a whole "school" to do a School RP. This is what I mean:
-You don't have to include "necessary" ideas. For example, Mashle has a similar Harry Potter setting but is more focused on social aspects and battles, zero classes (unless it's to earn a token).
-You can focus on ideas you want. In My Hero Academia, there is more focus on the two heroic classrooms with guest speakers and trips, nearly no focus on normal classes. In Shokugeki, being a cooking anime, it's easy to show the classes with cooking in it.
-You can reuse the cast for multiple ideas. In My Hero Academia once more, the homeroom teacher is critically injured yet he still comes in to teach despite qualifying for a substitute and commentates during the sports festival during his "recovery". In Assassination Classroom, the teacher teaches multiple subjects from science to home economics, only excluding PE (because he's too fast) and Language (when an assassin is placed there). It helps that both shows contain the same students due to exclusivity.
-If you do make a pool of classes, do other than just a sums game. In Owl House, the single-magic system means that classes are sorted into tracks where Summoning won't learn Botany and vice versa. In Shadows Over Loathing, a combination of funds and locks means you only choose 3 out of 9 classes to graduate, sorted as Major, Minor and Elective.
---
This doesn't just apply to the number of classes in a school RP. In Monster Hunter, you have 12 weapons and dozens of monsters. In the Stories RPG, 6 of those weapons are available. In the movie, 2 monsters and 2 weapons are known. In a Monster Hunter RP, it is possible to create a whole game with monster after monster, but if your goal is to fight only one monster, just go after the one monster.
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