Should I put this RP idea in Fun RP, or recruit people for Serious RP?

[Weaver]

Just like the title says.

So I've had this idea and executed it a few times. I've seen it both lead to a daring adventure, and lead to completely ridiculous sandbox, and I've had fun in both. So essentially, the setting takes place at a location called the World Engine. In it, characters can try to achieve one of their wishes (or just mess around) by creating worlds in which the their goal will reside in. The main base on which the world will be built upon is usually a power memory of the creator's past, albeit a very corrupted version of it. There's a scale in which players place figurines to influence what is created. One side is positive effects, the other is negative, but the scale must remain balanced. In theory, the more positive figurines on the scale, the more tools the players have to accomplish their objective. Otherwise if there aren't any figurines the task would be impossible. Worlds also have a limited lifespan, so you can't stay forever. The more figurines. the shorter the lifespan. Time can be increased by placing hourglass figurines on the scale, but, those too need to be balanced. So not having enough figurines can make the task difficult, but too many can lead to a strict time limit. All of this is usually explained step by step by the Warden, an NPC who oversees the operation, over a number of posts, so there isn't any kind of info dump like I'm doing here.

One "serious" example is when one player had a ribbon that was very important to them. It reminded them of their wife or something. Anyway another character thought it'd be a great idea to place a figurine of that ribbon on the negative side of the scale. When the group entered the world, due to some other combinations, death row inmates were given a cursed version of the ribbon (they couldn't take it off) that marked them for death. The party had actually entered during a public execution. (It was a more mature website. Stuff like this could fly.) The one character who originally had the ribbon got pretty upset, and revealed his own ribbon condemning the crowd for their actions. This... led to a mob immediately trying to subdue the group. This quickly lead them to retreat back through the portal and rethink their plan.

On the more "fun" example, another group decided to mess around rather than chase any goal. So they kind of wildcarded the base of the world, and placed a weird combination of figurines. In the end, there were anthropomorphic pancake men being chased by syrup bottles in order to create a complete breakfast. For some reason, the group also decided to kidnap one of the pancake men and interrogate it for... reasons. I can't quite remember. The group was an odd bunch.

So, any opinions on the matter?

[Ara Av-Toa]

Well, I haven't read anywhere that serious RPs need serious content. On the other side, there are 'fun' RPs out there with very serious content. Besides, you, as leader/narrator, have the capacity to place restrictions on worlds created.
All in all, it mostly depends on which direction you want it to go in and what type of RP'ers you want to join.

I'll let you decide those factors for yourself, but if you just want to be sure, I'd advise the Fun RP section.

[Michen_S]

It depends on a few things. However, it does not directly depend on exactly how serious the RP in itself is:

Serious RPs can ask potentially ask for a higher commitment. Some serious RPs ask for a posting frequency or have a posting order so everyone can keep going and keep up with each other more easily (of course keeping in mind that life can do some weird stunts for someone sometimes and that time zones exist for a reason). A lot of serious RPs have an OOC thread where you can check in on how everyone is doing in the RP, discuss certain events and plans, ask questions to others when confused, sign up etc. to keep the clutter outside of the main RP thread. That said, the biggest part is that serious RPs are usually for more experienced roleplayers and ask more in terms of what should be described in the post (things like "*gets hit in the shoulder* OW! *growls* You'll pay for that!" when getting shot is not acceptable). Thanks to this, these RPs tend to get pretty detailed sometimes, restrictions on what kind of characters can join in are usually more common and defined, and they tend to be regulated a bit better than fun RPs with story.

On the other hand, fun RPs are usually more open and almost never have a posting order, and allow for more freedom in the events that happen to others in the RP. Fun rps rarely have an OOC thread, OOC questions/notes are commonly in the beginnning of the poster's following post instead. Though, the most important part is that fun RPs are usually far more friendly and forgiving for beginning and casual RPers (posting "*gets hit in the shoulder* OW! *growls* You'll pay for that!" when getting shot is likely to get a pass), and leaves more room for people of different skill levels to join. Thanks to this, RPs that are meant to be silly or light-hearted almost always go here, they're often easier to jump in mid-story (if there is a story) and tend to be a bit more chaotic.

There are a few other differences I've seen, but these seem to be the most important ones. With that the real question is what kind of RPers you would like to attract and what you expect from the people joining the RP here on TFF. If this doesn't matter much to you I'd place it in the Fun RP, leaving it open for a bigger group. Of course, this is just me, in the end it's up to you to decide where to place it: it could very well decide in which direction the RP goes. If things turn out differently than expected, you can contact a moderator by PM or by reporting one of the posts - we'll move your thread to the other RP board if necessary.