Layout What was your first experience of Chronicles like?

[Raigryn Vayd]

I've noticed a few changes over the last few years and am discussing some possible changes to adapt with the staff team:

• Roleplay and discord chat is still buzzing and very active
• We've become less driven by spontaneous group RP and more by pre-arranged 1x1 and faction stories
• The discord has a lot for someone new to work through
• Very little in the way of new general lore and species being submitted, but locations and character areas healthy

So the ask: what was your experience in settling into roleplay here?

Was everything easy to find?

Was it easy to get into some roleplay threads?

Could anything have been made more clear?


I'm considering as bit of restructuring to make general lore easier to put together. Locations seem fine and I don't want this section overwhelmed with places that aren't roleplayed.

I'm also having a think about how to do standing adverts looking for roleplay on the forum. Maybe something more along the lines of standing writer profiles and what kind of writing you're interested in being contacted about.

 

[GerblinHandModel]

My first experience was cool but a bit intimidating because everyone was so good at writing. Despite this, I still found everyone welcoming and nice. There is absolutely nothing that needs to change community-wise.

There are a lot of unwritten rules around here, though, and while some kinda just boil down to common sense, there are others that could maybe use clarification or benefit from becoming written. For example, an open thread might have a lot of participants for something specific, to the point where others are locked out for the sake of continuity and it could cause problems if they joined in. I don't find any problem with that, just thought I would mention!

I don't find that not having a bunch of group rps is a problem either, since when there are big events they feel more special, such as the Illun Serath thread.

The discord is a very fun and friendly place where people are generally outspoken and forgiving if you're able to accept your mistakes. I've learned this well. Perhaps an introduction page could be added in to show beginners the more active channels as well as an RP-related overview of the main communities Chroniclers group into (D-lords, KOA, Empire, FC) and such?

 

[Raigryn Vayd]

I've learned this well. Perhaps an introduction page could be added in to show beginners the more active channels as well as an RP-related overview of the main communities Chroniclers group into (D-lords, KOA, Empire, FC) and such?

Thanks not a bad idea, actually Discord has that "Take a tour" function. I'll see if we can use that.

 

[Selene]

What was your experience in settling into roleplay here?
I was invited to play here by Dingo, after he had already been active on Chronicles for about a year. So my settling in was aided by already having someone familiar with the site.

I remember I started off by making unattached adventure threads with my first character. Then, later down the road I realized most activity is in Featured Group play, and worked with Dingo to start the Knights of Anathaeum. Since then, most of my new characters have been tied to one Faction or another.

Was everything easy to find?
This site has good bones - the wiki page structure is nice, the interactive map is one of the first things I look at when starting something new, and the faction articles are good 'hubs' of current activity. However, things can feel disconnected from each other. Some examples of this 'disconnect':

• There are major regions and major cities that are not on the map, and can only be found by digging through long lists of lore pages.
• It's not easy to tell which lore articles are active & shared between large parts of the community, and which are meant more for personal storylines involving only 1-2 players. This is especially noticeable with the Sentient Species pages - some of the playable species listed here are collaborative efforts between many players (like the Fae or Nordenfiir pages), while some were one-offs written for a single character.
• Many crucial bits of info are pinned in the Group discord channels, and not featured anywhere on site.
• Similarly, while I think the Roleplay Event Rooms on the discord are good hubs for larger group threads/fledgling factions, it does mean that a lot of current activity is not being reflected anywhere on the site.

Was it easy to get into some roleplay threads?
One of the things unique to Chronicles that I really like is the use of thread prefixes. This makes seeing at a glance what's open and active pretty intuitive. The 'news feed' for open/fate threads both on the site and the discord is also nice. I use it a lot when looking for new stuff to get into.

Combined with a bit of socializing on Discord, I think it's relatively easy to get into things on here.

Could anything have been made more clear?
I think a weakness of relying on the Prefix structure for threads is that long term plots/timelines are unclear to new folks jumping in. Its also difficult to tell what lore is active vs. what is outdated/no longer prominent. I know that some players try to address this by making 'Board Story' lore pages for specific events in time, but this isn't being used enough to be a good reference.

Some Thoughts on why I think that a) certain lore areas are getting less attention and b) the timeline on Chronicles feels a little too nebulous sometimes:

• Only a handful of players are submitting Board Story lore pages, possibly because its difficult to navigate to this category page on the site right now. There are also no clear rules about what should qualify as a recordable event vs. a personal character storyline.
• Since nothing is listed chronologically, its not easy to see how events are progressing at a glance- which ones were in the distant past vs which events happened recently and might still affect characters in that area.
• Its also difficult to see how regions of the world are developing over time, because the events tied to a specific area are not grouped together.