"Fur House/Apartments"-style RP Interest Check / Idea Stuff

[The Past]

Some of you who have been around for a while might remember the once-popular "series" of Fun RPs known as the Fur House or Fur Apartments. They were essentially "hub" style RPs, where various characters lived together under one roof and did stuff from the chill and mundane to the extraordinary, and people were free to weave their own plots together into something very interesting. It was roughly real-time, which worked well at first because it was so active and it was part of many RPer's daily routine. It was a bit chaotic, but quite a blast while it lasted. I've been wanting to do something similar in concept (a spiritual successor, I suppose) and tweak it a bit to help make it flow better. I'm a bit hesitant to try it given the last installation of the Fur Apartments ended up a dud, so I want to make sure there's enough lasting interest to make it worth it.


My current concept: A young bear inherits a mansion from a relative. Surprised by all the space, and inspired his experience living on the streets, he decides to open it for the unfortunate and anyone need of a home. The location is known for its strange activity, the mansion has its own bit of mystery.

Unlike the Fur Apartments, I want to add little "quests" and mysteries and such for people to stumble upon, something to keep the RP going when people are struggling for ideas.

I want magic and special abilities and whatnot to be possible, and I'd love for there to be plenty of freedom with it, but we did find some issues with that -- types you can probably imagine. Right now, I'm thinking of putting an "equivalent exchange" limitation at the very least, and a power-approval thing.

Another issue I want to tackle is how people who joined the RP later on would often get left behind during happenings. While we can't have all the people doing the same event at the same time, there were a lot of occasions where a couple people would communicate with only each other and ignore everyone else, especially the newbies. That made it not very fun for them. Not only do I want to be inclusive, I also may have to limit how many people can join. I still want people to join at any time, but there are points where it gets too confusing because there are so many people branching off into their own little plots at the same time.

I want there to be some sort of structure, though I want it to be casual. I want to find a happy medium between a chill roleplay that allows freedom and one where people are invested in keeping it as an improv story instead of random craziness/nonsense. Something where people can showcase their characters and ideas and have them bounce off each other.

Maybe I'm expecting too much out of this, but I think it would be really fun if done right. Anyone interested or have any thoughts and ideas for the concept?

[VinShadowtail]

I'd be happy to participate!

[Albie]

I've never played an RP here, but this looks interesting.

[Fable]

I'd love to join when you get this up and running.

[The Past]

Alright, that's three people. I'm down for more. And don't forget: if you can't join right when it starts, that's A-OK!

I'm thinking the best description for this roleplay is "semi-casual" because although there's a good deal of freedom overall, it still has a backbone.

Here's the rules I'm thinking so far:

1 - 3 resident characters maximum per person (unless reasoned with me/GM in PM).

I find having multiple characters allows more events to happen, as long as the roleplayer who chooses so can handle it. What I like to do is have a primary character and a secondary character. If my primary one is in an important conversation with someone else's, and that someone has to leave for a while, I can use my secondary one to continue roleplaying while I wait.

You are allowed to have non-resident characters play a part, but only within reason: events and such, mainly.

Intense "Magic"/"supernatural" abilities must have at least a rough "equivalent exchange" system -- meaning whatever physical/manipulative power used must have an exchange or depletion of something of approximate equal value.

The "power source" or exchanged thing can be something physical, non-physical, or mystical, as long as its exchange/depletion has some sort of effect (AKA, you're not BSing it).
In my case, I am using characters with an intangible muscle-like force field which runs off calories like the rest of the body, so using it (and even having it to begin with) depletes their own energy, which causes exhaustion when they manipulate too much. (plus a number of other issues, but you don't need to get THAT in-depth with it. ).

You're free to be creative with the "exchange" concept. I just don't want any "*teleports behind you and summons katana out of nowhere*" stuff.


Keep it third-person story format - no "asterisk (*)" roleplaying.

This is largely for smoother reading. You don't need to be extremely thorough with your writing, but making a post like "*is on a boat*" isn't interesting in the slightest and doesn't give much for people to work with.
The third person part is recommended because it prevents confusion with which character is being used, especially when multiple characters are being used at once. People also change their display names, which can also add confusion with first-person type posts.

As this is kinda casual, I won't be picky with grammar and verb tense. I normally use past tense when I roleplay because I find it easier to structure sentences that way, but present-tense is fine as well. As long as what's going on is understood, it's fine.


Anyone have any critique on these, questions, ideas, and whatnot?

 I was thinking about making a major event approval system like in one Fur Apartments RP, but I'm not so sure now. It was considered necessary at the time because people kept trying to 1-up each other with dramatic events that threw the RP into chaos, but the approval system seemed to make people hesitant to create events at all.

[Fable]

So far I think the rules sound really good.
Having the limit on how many people are in the Rp makes sense to me because when there are too many characters my poor brain can't remember who half of them are. So I think the limit is perfect.


Do you have any preference on the size of the character (obviously they cant be so huge that they don't fit into the building). I've had to size Fable up in different RP's simply because their small size simply didn't fit into the style of certain RP's. so yeah, thoughts? generally Fable is only about a foot tall- leopard geckos are tiny creatures.




and I don't know about the event approval system but it sounds like a good idea. I've seen more then one RP ruined when one member suddenly makes a choice on the events and it spirals the rest of the story into chaos. so some sort of agreement should probably be reached before something really major happens.
also question about the major events: What kind of events will these be?

[Whisko]

Sounds fun, but I am a ninja so is invisibility and smoke bomb a "power" you would be okay with?
Invisibility uses one smoke bomb, I have three smoke bombs, my katana will be holstered on my side (scarf) or not exist.

[Albie]

I just go for the ride.  I am a pretty pacifistic lucario.  My powers all stem from the actual Pokemon.  Reading aura and using my own for attacks and affection.

[The Past]

I forgot to specify that the 1-3 resident limit was *per person*, but I will still have a limit of roleplayers along with that, which I have yet to decide on. That's the main problem I have.

I may change it to 2 characters maximum per person, like how it was in the original Apartments rps. I just chose 3 at first because 3 is a nice number, but I don't want a lot of characters to be controlled by only a few people.
I'm having trouble with the roleplayer limit because people (some, but not me ) have lives and so will poof for long periods of time unannounced, and when you only have a few roleplayers in it, it'll slow and potentially kill the roleplay. Can you guys think of a decent roleplayer limit?

Do you have any preference on the size of the character (obviously they cant be so huge that they don't fit into the building). I've had to size Fable up in different RP's simply because their small size simply didn't fit into the style of certain RP's. so yeah, thoughts? generally Fable is only about a foot tall- leopard geckos are tiny creatures.

and I don't know about the event approval system but it sounds like a good idea. I've seen more then one RP ruined when one member suddenly makes a choice on the events and it spirals the rest of the story into chaos. so some sort of agreement should probably be reached before something really major happens.
also question about the major events: What kind of events will these be?

You're free to be whatever height you want, just be prepared for your character's potential inconvenience (but that can be a good thing, story-wise!). My headcanon atm is that it's a modest mansion; not massive, just a large nice looking house with a lot of rooms.

As for "major events" (and I'm sorry for the vague wording), they boil down to stuff that will require the action of or effect most, if not all, residents.
For example; Let's say a resident is a former member of a magic cult, and that cult is out for their blood and come to the house to kill them. This will likely lead to a battle that will effect the house and/or all residents, as they will have to fight to defend or flee until it's over. That's the most serious type, but major events don't have to take place right on the mansion grounds. Another example is if there's a monster attacking the nearby town. A resident will attempt to create a party of other residents to take it down. This counts as a major event because, while the house will still be active and unaffected, the monster event will take up the main focus of the RP until it's over.
"Major events" may or may not have a post order for those involved (set up by either the event-maker or myself), depending on how necessary it is to prevent confusion.
I suppose a better word would be "dangerous" or "extreme" events. Such events don't have to be super violent, but those are the ones I'm most concerned about for obvious reasons.

I should note that events like that shouldn't happen constantly. In one installation of Apartments, we had a trouble where everyone and their mother kept going to the hospital within like a week. Yeah, let's avoid that on this go. Was kinda funny, though.

Sounds fun, but I am a ninja so is invisibility and smoke bomb a "power" you would be okay with?
Invisibility uses one smoke bomb, I have three smoke bombs, my katana will be holstered on my side (scarf) or not exist.

Yeah, that should be great. And there's no problem with weapons.

[Whisko]

Just as a note because this is what I did in an older RP with friends, if you had the ability to be active, you can (in your case) live here. If you (like me) have school or work, then (I did a military RP so off post) live on the grounds or something. I have active 4/5-10 PM weekdays, weekends I am free all day but I have a lot to do and so I post slower, but it was my RP which is why we had that so... whatever you feel good with, with the limit thing, I don't know, I didn't set a limit because there were only like ten of us.

[The Past]

That won't be necessary. One of the points of the "semi-casual" thing is that the residents/roleplayers can be as active in happenings as they want/can. If the roleplayer has work or school or whatever, they can have their character head out as well and have them return whenever they're ready. It's like having a roommate (and in this case, many). You can involve yourself in happenings with them, or stay out of the happenings if you don't want to/can't find the time. This roleplay isn't meant to be crazy action-packed; those moments are just the spice. Some days can be simple daily life, and more dramatic things can pop up from that or from the outside. Pretty much like real life.

[Whisko]

Oh, okay, well in that case yeah sign me up!

[VinShadowtail]

Sign me up too!