The clans themselves are usually shit anyway
I was just thinking to myself how much I hate clans and kingdoms. Occasionally you come across maybe one or two during the course of a month that are actually worth looking into, but odds are even if they are decent to begin with, they'll die out as swiftly as they pop up.
The most common types, of course, are the elitist assholes who bother with building a site, but there's one problem: their clan/kingdom/idea SUCKS.
I've been on Yahoo! chat for nearly eight years, and I've found that ideas for clans and kingdoms are repeated on a regular basis. yeah, we get it, you're a cyber ninja clan. Big deal. They either get wiped out by another, bigger clan, or the members stop showing up. Usually it's the leaders who disappear and never return after a week of recruiting, meaning... everyone else is screwed.
It wouldn't be so bad, I suppose, if someone just came up with original stories. But even that's not a guarantee of fresh RP. Just the other day I was looking at this one group who, quite frankly, was a random collection of SHIT tacked together with a loosely defined, vague plot of "dark druids" pursuing their characters. There's a big problem with any plot that focuses on certain characters.
A lot of younger kids make the mistake of doing quests with prophecized warriors or magicians. As a former gamemaster, and one who regularly attempts to organize and run plotline RPGs, I know that nobody likes being left out while everyone else is chosen to be some holy Light Warriors ala Final Fantasy. You either have to make EVERYONE special, or all the people who aren't special will get bored and tired of being in the background while one or two people take the limelight. You have to make an effort to make everyone feel wanted and needed, otherwise... quite frankly, your plot will be shit and no one will want to play.
If you want to run a good plot RPG, you have to form a good, solid plot. It doesn't HAVE to be intricate, but it needs to be solid. I've developed a system, of sorts, to help people decide and generate a plot. I'm going to share that with any potential gamemasters now.
Setting is very important. It helps to know WHERE you're going to be in order to execute any further story. I find it's best to figure out location and time period before anything else. After all, you can't have ninjas running around ancient Japan trying to fight super-enhanced samurai that aliens from outer space modified into a killing machine. Or at least, it'd be lame if you did. By the way, the name of that plot is dubbed as "Black Lion", one of THE worst animes I've ever seen.
Pick a time period and type of RP. Usually the ones you find are medieval/fantasy, medieval/realistic, modern/fantasy, modern/realistic, and sci-fi, but feel free to mix it up. Maybe you wanna do an RPG set in ancient Egypt, or maybe ancient Greece. How about Central America before the Spaniards? What about cave men? You can also create pure fantasy worlds of your own design, though be sure to specify perimeters and landscape to your players to avoid confusion. Make sure you specify a time period if it applies.
Obviously your characters aren't floating around in a void space. It's important to provide a map and list of locations and their relevent information to average citizens. If it's a lost city, obviously no one will know much about it, but if it's a major hub of magic and commerce, an average person is sure to know about it. It's important to make sure characters have information about places and events equal to the average person, especially if they are wanderers or travelers before an adventure. The exception to this rule is that if they are transported to a place they don't know, or are in a region they've never heard of. Either way, however, you need to describe this place either in your posts or on a website. Thriving metropolis or barren, windswept tundra? You have to tell your players, or they won't be able to play very easily.
Honestly, these two are interchangeable as to which comes before the other. I've organized RPGs using a group to start,and I've organized groups based on a plot to begin with. It's personal preference that rules which comes first, though if it's a recruiting RPG in a chat room, odds are you'll want to do plot first. If it's just you and your buddy, you can get away with just taking two characters and trying to form some sort of plot between them. So for that purpose, I'll give some ideas on plots first.
This is probably going to be the hardest part of your venture, unless any obvious ideas popped up from your decision of setting. Some plots are more obvious than others. Honestly, I've had good and bad experiences in every type of setting, so I'm not afraid to try something new or refresh something old. The key is to be flexible in any case.
I've found that it depends upon your preference as to the plot. If you like hardcore fantasy, for instance, you may want to make more like a Legend of Zelda game with a lot of adventuring, item gathering and fighting. If you like humor, you can repeat the same idea above, only instead of making it a mystical princess to rescue, maybe they're treasure hunting for the mystical golden piece of cheese that gives the owner unspeakable power? You don't have to make the plot silly to have a humorous RPG; much humor is spoken, though situational humor doesn't hurt. Don't be afraid to set it up in the plot so that some hilarious event occurs. Of course you can have perfectly awesome experiences without humorous events, but be careful not to make it monotonous either way. Too much humor drowns the RPG, and too little might make it stale. It's a careful balance, but you're the gamemaster. It's your duty to come up with this shit.
Be careful to avoid doing an overly cliched plot. I've been told by one of my friends that every idea is cliched these days; I don't believe so. I think their execution is what is cliched. There are certain roles that are also cliched, but I'll get to that in a minute. A straightforward "save the kingdom from an evil knight" story can be VERY entertaining if the characters are dynamic and the events are well planned. It also has potential to be a real yawner. Look for ideas from books and movies, that's all I can say. Many plots can be pieced together using several sources to form a relatively original, very cool RPG. Just be careful not to steal material. Stealing material such as lines, names and the like is lame, and not in a cool way. Never steal art unless you ask the owner first, and for the love of ducks, never steal another plot from another RPG.
As I was mentioning before, there are cliched roles, especially in fantasy. Some of them include the cowardly thief, the bumbling magician, the hero with a horrible, twisted past in which he either was a killer or watched his family and/or village killed right before his eyes, the princess who is utterly helpless without protectors, and the big, tall guy who's really gentle. Everyone has played one or more of these cliches; don't worry about it. I've played some of these cliches, but it's the twist you take on them that has the possibility of breathing life into them. But for the most part, I suggest avoiding these archetypes.
Women in fantasy have three major cliches as PCs (player characters): the strong silent warrior, the slinky seductive sorceress who humps everything with two legs and a penis, and the young but naive girl who is trying to prove her worth. Ok, yeah, we get it. First of all, I'd like to mention for the seductresses, evening gowns do not make for good adventuring wear. I've never tried it, but I'm betting walking thirty to a hundred miles between towns in a form-fitting black dress with high heels isn't too much fun. As for the other two... it's old. It's been old since the days of the first console RPGs where these two roles were introduced en masse. Hell, even before that in movies, this was an almost essential role to any good movie. Try to lay off these cliches. Play a character who has a little more personality than a board, and a little more wardrobe wouldn't hurt either.
Ah, so you've picked a plot already? But what's the point of a story without some form of conflict? Conflict can take on many forms. It can be in the form of a "villain" (I use this word loosely), or it can be an event or set of events.
Villains, as people, are hard to set up without making them plastic. There's a very good article here at Elfwood's F.A.R.P. project on building villains as to make them not a big steaming pile of cliched shit. I suggest you take a look through it if you're planning to make an actual person(s) your point of conflict. They provide a lot of good ideas on what and what not to do.
Conflict does not have to be the evil overlord, however. I've had many an RPG without a specifically named person or organization pursuing them. A lot of modern RPGs don't have dark cults to provide instant conflict; sometimes the trials and tribulations of average every day life are enough to sustain interest if done tastefully. But for most fantasy RPers, you'll need a little more. How about a group of rookie demon slayers just learning the trade? Not only does it provide a plot and reason to get them out there in the world, but it also provides room for dynamic growth. Never put your characters in a position where they can't grow as people through their experiences or it WILL get stale. No one wants to roleplay out some random person acting the same way, doing the same things over and over. People learn by experieces, be it learning from mistakes, growing combat prowess, or otherwise. Be careful of the almighty RP rut. It can kill the coolest plots.
Whatever you choose to use for your conflict, make absolutely sure it's solid. If you're chasing some badguy over eight continents because he killed your puppy, it's not a very solid story. Solid reasons don't usually happen immediately, but can easily manifest over several sessions. Most medieval people did NOT leave their villages to randomly go exploring. Not NEARLY as often as chat would have you believe. Make sure whatever conflict you choose has a nice, solid standing. If it is flimsy, people will start wondering "Well, why can't so-and-so just do this instead?", or the like. You want to avoid people questioning the plot that raises questions as to the point.
Lastly, make sure you keep making the plot fresh. Some plots handle themselves and require little effort on the creator's part. Some need a lot of help by the GM. Don't be afraid to enter plot elements, I guess I'm saying. Players should feel free to contribute as well, as long as they're not being an ass about it. Use common sense, and keep everything nice and fresh. Don't be afraid to introduce conflict ontop of conflict. Ok, so we have to save the princess from the enchanted tower, but first we need to help the fairy queen save her people from trolls. It might help refresh things, but be careful not to make it longer and more tedious than the original conflict. The main conflict should always be the limelight, though it's alright to stray off on another path for a short while. After all, you don't play Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to run around trying to get the Goron Sword for 12 hours, then spend around 8 actually dungeon crawling and saving Zelda. Side quest should always remain side quests and never usurp the main plot.
Alright, I guess that's it then. It's up the players and the creator from here out. But odds are, if you got a good bunch of players, it'll be fun. Hmm... I wonder how many people will steal RPG ideas from this article...