About Mnara

[Melisizwe]

Well, looks like people are waiting on silly ol' me to pose in each thread we have going right now. Sorry, all! I'll be on tonight to do that, but I have a question for people to consider in the mean time before I head to work. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions to help us gain some more members? I will be looking into doing some more advertising today (after posing, of course), but aside from that my ideas have fizzled a little bit. If anyone is willing to help out and drag some helpless victi-- erm, invite people, please let me know O:D

[Melisizwe]

Well, time for a good ol' bump. I know we're all quite busy, what with the winding up of summer, and all that. Myself, I was just cast in a musical so I've been running around excitedly about that for about a week, or so! Some of my evenings will start to be taken up by that, but it won't be that dramatic.

What I would like us all to band together on is bringing more people to Mnara. I will be advertising some more tonight, surfing through boards, but word of mouth is one of the best ways to get this kind of thing noticed. I suppose a major stumbling block for me is the fact that it's a board, and not a lot of people like board RP. Well, we've got to get over that hump. What will make us completely and utterly awesome (not that we already aren't)? I'd love tons of suggestions, comments, whatever anyone is willing to contribute to help Mnara expand.

I've brain stormed a number of TP ideas but I'm not really able to start them until we have a more solid player base, and I particularly want to cast Mnara's royalty and Uchawi's dominant pair before we do anything with TPs. Not that they have to be involved, but I think we need a larger player base regardless before we can do that. The RPs that we do have are wonderful, and I love all of them, but how great would it be to have even more going on and even more people filling up the board? That would be the ultimate satisfaction.

One thing I've wanted for a while is a wikipage. Does anyone understand wiki, or know someone who does who's willing to devote some time to it? Also, I think I will be revamping our advertisement and posting that for everyone to see and use if they'd like.

So, I know we're only a few people know, but please, please, please let me know what's up, and with who, and what ideas are floating around. Let's take off!

[Kunto]

I'm no help. I fell out of the loop of animal characters RP ages ago, so I don't know anyone! :<

[Amadi]

I think that the people who tend not to like board RPs are those who cut their teeth on MUCKs. (I did--this format is actually a lot better right now since I couldn't be around on a MUCK for hours at a time, but it's still very new to me.) Glancing through the other board RPs that were posted up in the advertisement section, some of them look like they're doing quite well! They've apparently found their target audience, so I'm sure Mnara's is around somewhere.

One thing I've noticed is that the majority of successful RPs being advertised here are canine-based, mostly wolves. How many forum RPs are still kicking around that are based on lions, hyenas, TLK, or general African wildlife? (No, really, how many are there? I have no idea.) If there are any active, it would be a good idea to post advertisements on them even if they're smaller in comparison to other games--familiarity with the theme might bring in more people. Obvious suggestion is obvious, natch.

In regards to TPs, I agree that we do need more players before anything big can happen. However, perhaps we could start a small one in the meantime, one that doesn't need a lot of characters to begin with and is open enough that new players can hop right into. You know that 'first day of school/work/RPing on a new game' feeling, where you don't know anyone and you're horribly nervous and are convinced that nobody's going to like you and that, furthermore, your shirt is on not only inside-out but backwards? If something exciting, plotty, and easy to participate in is already going on, it might help assuage that feeling and therefore also bring in more people. Now, as to what that small TP could be, maybe it's as simple as stirring up some of the conflict between Mnara and Uchawi. I'm sure there are also mini-plots that could be done specifically for Mnara and specifically for Uchawi, so that players can have an easy time settling in with their group. I don't know, what does everyone else think?

TL;DR: I take three paragraphs and abuse parenthetical statements to basically say nothing new or remotely helpful. FAIL. I'll be back in my corner.

[Melisizwe]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Amadi, you hit the nail on the head and reiterated what Ade' told me before, and what I know to be true but don't like accepting as fact. TLK RP has declined quite drastically since our generation grew up and moved on, but I'd still love to see Mnara thrive. Right now, though, I've been tied up with rehearsals. I auditioned for a musical on a whim and was cast as a pretty important role, so, I'm pleasantly surprised but also torn away from the Mnara that I just launched! It's a little frustrating, but I'd like some more input on things that we can all do to help. I'm pretty beat at the end of the day, which is why I don't do MUCK RP any more, but even checking my email is tedious some nights, especially after work and rehearsal.

Regardless, I'd like to see more what people think, especially if you have any plot ideas in mind that you want to see develop. My goal with Mnara was to revive the old plot line, throw it into the future, and let the players run with it.

So, lets run with it.

Love,
'Sizwe