Greetings again, OffTopickles. Your professor has returned with another lecture about how you can begin your RP experience and how you can improve it. This lecture is about creating your own RP session and DMing it. [b][u]Timing & Frequency [/u][/b] These two are the most important topics, so it’s only logical that we start with them. First, if you want to make an RP, you must make sure you do it when you have time to manage it. Making your post on the same day as a major school test, a doctor’s appointment or a funeral is far from ideal. It is vital that you start the RP when you have a ton of free time, as you might be spending a substantial amount of your day responding to participants and planning out how their session goes. Secondly, you don’t wanna constantly pump out RP posts in the span of a few days. Not only will it over-saturate your RP sessions and possibly fill up the trending section, but it will also make your RPs bland due to the lack of planning. After you make an RP post, you’ll want to wait a week at the very least to make another. This will allow other DMs to have their time in the spotlight. Finally, you have to make sure that the day you post your RP isn’t the same day as another person’s RP. This could lead to participants avoiding your RP so they can focus on the other. Not to mention that the trending page will have a noticeable increase in RP posts, which can and will upset individuals in OffTopic who don’t enjoy RP. If another person has made an RP post around the same time you were planning to post yours, you’ll want to wait a couple of days so that participants can finish their sessions and be prepared for your RP. Look, I understand that you want to entertain yourself and others, but you must understand that timing is a major factor that determines if your RP will be creative, successful and above all, fun. Also, I don’t believe that RP should be the primary content in OffTopic. RP is meant to be an enjoyable free time activity, not something that people should be annoyed about when they see multiple RP posts dominate the trending section for days. Instead of making RPs every chance you get, be patient and use your break time to plan out your next session. [b][u]Planning & Creativity[/u][/b] Your creativity is the building blocks for your RP sessions. Planning is the key in making unique encounters. In order to make your RP interesting, you don’t want to make the sole objective “kill these groups of gunmen in the city and survive”. An RP where you just need to defeat enemies can be decent if you put the participants against different types of enemies and have the setting around them change. For example, instead of having your participants fight only gunmen, throw in some unique enemies, like a cyborg that creates lasers, or a giant, hulking mutant that can poison people if they stand too close for too long. Then, have the city around the participants collapse as buildings fall and the ground rips apart, making sure they stay on their toes. In addition, you might want to add something unique into the mix. This could be an engaging puzzle/mechanic or a special item that could affect the players in some way. [b][u]Say NO to God Modding[/u][/b] The Seventh RP Commandment states: [quote]“Thou shalt not God-mod, all God-modders shall be humiliated.”[/quote] God-Modding as a DM means making encounters for participants that are pretty much impossible to complete without your approval. For example: DM: “You come across an eldritch horror that towers above you, staring into your soul.” P: “I’ll use my proton cannon to attack it!” DM: “The eldritch horror consumes the cannon before you can fire it. It also pulverizes you into the ground before you can react and kills you. It then goes on to destroy your home and everything you ever cared about.” This is one of the most heinous actions a DM can commit. It makes the encounter unfair, the RP unfun, and the entire session feel meaningless. I understand that you might want to introduce a powerful character or creature that you made into the RP, but God-Modding is never the answer under any circumstance. It’s okay to make an encounter difficult, but [i][b]never[/b][/i] make it impossible. Anyway, that’s all I have to say. If you have any questions, raise your hand. If you feel like I forgot to mention something, make sure you post it for others to see. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to follow my own advice and plan out the finale of RPC. [spoiler]Fades Away[/spoiler]