Plot

[zack]

How would you define a good plot, what qualities does it need to have in it.. I've always been unsure of plots meaning, and I'd rather get a person definition rather than a website off google.

[magicross]

It's depending on all the theme of the story. If you're doing an advanced roleplay or even a basic; you would want an introduction(called exposition) part (get everyone together, talk, chitchat). This lays out the scene, the theme, the time, all that jazz. The next part you and your party get hit with a quest or something. The following section would be called the rising action (which builds up the tension, the suspense, the thrill). So, if you are doing a zombie type thing (have people of your party get real close to being bitten by a zombie or something).

The highest point of your story should be the climax. It's the biggest heart-stopper, breathe-taker, moment in the plot. An example (going with the zombie line), be like have them finding the cure to heal everyone but THEN, something happens to the cure. The falling action follows which for me is the part where you relax the reader/party members (calm their nerves down). The last part, I recommend that your plot needs to have is the denouncement or "resolution" - if it's a basic, have your party member find a random cure or something. If it's a long term, you go back into another story. You can have the resolution leave off with a cliff-hanger so you can do another plotline/rp.

Sorry for the late response!!! I hope this helps! Enjoy your time here.

[Siv]

Well, what Magicross said basically covers how a plot is normally worked.

I write stories and rp's a lot, and what I can give you is more, shall we say unspecific. I can't tell you that this specific part is neccesary for your style and so on, but I can say what I've experienced to work.

First, writing plots depends on the genre. What you can do in a story might be impossible in an RP. Why? because in RPs everything depends on multiple people. Because in RPs people won't hold back using their powerful abilities which will, neccesarily make for some far less tense situations as compared to what the same scene could look like in a story. I think you get me here?

So, for stories, plotline writing has several sorts of finesse, which all depend on style, length etc.
First you need a base structure, which can, and will often, conform to the structure detailed in the above post.
Second, and mind you, more important if it is to work, you a hunch, a something to "keep me reading". This is essential to what separates a good plot from a bad plot, and can best be described as "something unknown, which your reader will really want to know". This! is very useful in RPs too.
Third you need rules for yourself. Lets use Lord of the Rings as an example. There's some sickly powerful people in there, who could very possibly finish the entire plot in a few short sequences, say Gandalf gets his giant eagle, flies to mount doom and drops the rings before anyone expects it. Why not? Well it wouldn't make a very good story now, would it? But that's not reason enough. If you want a character to have a power that could easily finish off plot situations, you need to give him a reason not to use it. For LoTR this is vry complex. but it can be as simple as "this power is impossible to use is tense situations because..." or simply, and often more effective "there is a way things have to be done, fate-decided, blah, blah, and if it isn't it doesn't matter if the good guys win" or simply again, reevaluate if your character really needs this power for everything to be awesome - or if the story would, in fact, be more awesome if your characters and thereby you had to spend some time thinking and come up with a truly creative design to escape this or that really dangerous situation.

Enough rambling on that for now. Ask if you want more.

Now RPs.
First, very most important, making everything void if you don't master it, you NEED to compel your players to WANT to do what you set them out for. An easy solution is great power, great wealth or some such, but with that comes the consequence that they will want to use it, which, if you're extending the RP after the first plot is finished, might ruin everything. Also you need to challenge them, but if they know, that getting x treasure chest will be as difficult as you plan for it to be, they might just choose to become thieves and steal from honest people until they're rich enough that they don't need x treasure.
Second, important too, you need a flexible plot outline for an RP. You need an option to bring the players back to your story, or quickly design a new one, whenever their own free will to do something you god damn couldn't ever have planned for.

Okay there's more but I'm getting a bit hungry here, so I'll be catching some food, and you can always ask more questions later, I'll try to answer my very best.