HNN Opinion Piece 2

So in the world of RP, what do you prefer to participate in more of: Planned RP's or Unplanned RP's?
make your vote and leave your opinion as to why you voted the way you did.
As before, this is about your individual opinion, so please no arguing

this poll will go till the 27/28th of the month.

I find planned RPs to be much more fun in the long run, at least in the sense that you're planning involved parties and general goals of the RP itself. That isn't to say that elements of spontaneous RP aren't important and fulfilling, but I'd much rather know when, what, and who I'm writing with rather than just running about trying to find someone/something. Again, elements of spontaneous RP and undetermined outcomes to the SL are welcome and often beneficial, but without some semblance of order, I personally find writing to be a bit of a convoluted mess. Some people handle spontaneous writing better than others, for sure.

Speaking on a personal level and maybe also on what is happening on the planet that I am one of the writers of.

Unplanned.

Well it's all relative, we actually play it all by ear and just adapt our posts to the ones that came before ours. One thing leads to another. That is more or less a character development kind of deal.
After if there is something major that is going on or about to happen, it's not planned per se, we just have a major headline of what should happen but how it's going to happen, that is up to the posts out there.

Then again when there are duels or something, we flesh it out and we ask to what point you want this or that to happen to the character. It stops there and we abide by the person's wishes and don't do more than what we are supposed to do.

I selected "Other". I like a planned ending with unplanned actions/happenings during the beginning and middle. If it's too planned, it's boring. If it's entirely unplanned, in my opinion, it's too chaotic to enjoy.

Like the person above I chose other. Normally I like to have an endgame in mind, but thats just the goal I set for myself. Unscrippted is what I prefer and I just go from there.

[quote="Mr. Fabulous":8lce3v3w]I selected "Other". I like a planned ending with unplanned actions/happenings during the beginning and middle. If it's too planned, it's boring. If it's entirely unplanned, in my opinion, it's too chaotic to enjoy.[/quote:8lce3v3w]
Was considering how to vote and then saw this. Couldn't have said it better. Maybe not so much planned ending as planned goal, because I figure everything works better when it has a goal; having no goal makes things seem aimless and confusing. But having a goal with an unplanned course to it is usually the best. Or a series of goals with unplanned courses.

Agreed with the three above. Having a goal, or at least objective to a story line generates much better work, in my opinion. Now, that's not to say spontaneity inside there isn't wanted or not welcome: I'm involved in one right now where my partner and I, for 100 or so posts, have literally been going post-for-post without revealing anything of what the other is going to do beforehand, so we just react to whatever was written in the best way possible. So far it's been one of the most enjoyable writing experiences I've ever had on JvS, but we still at least have character goals and the like that we're trying to obtain, giving the story line a sense of purpose.

My biggest issue with no planning whatsoever is that aforementioned word: purpose. Without purpose, I often feel that stories just fall apart. Some people can pull it off and give purpose to unplanned writing, and that's some major kudos to them. But even then, once a particular chapter has purpose, it's not entirely unplanned anymore: there's a goal to work forward to, an end to reach, because let's face it: every post should be fun to write, enjoyable to read, but the truly satisfactory ones are conclusions. Realizing that you went somewhere, that you took your character(s) on a journey and they have developed and grown from it.

Is that possible with unplanned writing? Most certainly. In fact, unplanned writing may even make a character develop in ways you would've never considered before, which is always highly interesting from both an author's and reader's perspective. But ultimately, I feel unplanned writing becomes a planned story line at some point. Even if every post is spontaneous, like the method I mentioned I was doing above, there are still goals. There are still things to reach, conclusions to get to. Even if two people are in more of a competitive instead of cooperative mindset there's still a plan for what they hope to achieve for their characters when they write together.

Isn't writing lovely?

Objective-driven RP seems to run more smoothly, in my opinion. It doesn't have to be planned, per se...merely a rough outline drawn of where the participants would like to be at the end of said RP.

That way, there are no real unwanted surprises, but there is still plenty of room for spontaneity.

I like to show up at a place with only a vague idea of what it is I want to accomplish or with no plans at all to see what happens. It falls through as often as not, but when it works it's awesome.

I'm with the other guys on this, planned destination (ending or events), unplanned journey, or at least an idea of where you're going. It promotes focus and is much more enjoyable.