Lately, I can't seem to escape the endless boxing, labeling, and stereotyping of the premade plot form, and I'm left to wonder - what is the point? When members spam every single plot page asking "What do you think?" but not giving any input themselves, or plot merely to say that the characters might know of each other via a friend of a friend of a friend, is there really any benefit? Most role plays I have joined recently have been literally plotted to death; everyone was too caught up in making sure their pages were pretty and updated but no one bothered to actually role play. At one point in a role play I was in, people were posting topics in the OOC area to ask people to post in their plot topics - essentially four or five members ended up with two plot topics each (at which point I promptly went crazy).

So, what I'm really saying here is, do they serve any integral purpose to the role play as a whole? I understand it is often important to have a bit of premeditated plot between individual characters in order to start role plays and keep them going strong, but isn't that what private messaging is for? And, even if plot topics are important to the role play, what in the world could the labels with emo song lyrics do to improve that? Is it not easier to say "I think they should be friends and here is why..." then to try and read through the multi-colored, tiny-fonted madness and find exactly what words to apply to them, with an appropriate icon (or four), a quote, a few paragraphs of history between them - when nothing has actually happened?

I'd really like to hear what other people have to say on the subject, and apologize if this sounds like too much of a rant and/or has been posted here before. I'm just wondering if I could possibly run a role play without including character plot topics and have people still join and stay active.

Aw man of course you can run a roleplay without plot pages and still keep it active! :green:

My roleplay has about 100+ members, and it's active too - several members have multiple characters but they all manage to keep up. We don't use plot pages; basically, you sort of...well...roleplay with each other and the characters gradually develop with each other. After that, some members like to PM each other with ideas for their characters and such.

I don't think plot pages are necessary - I've never really used them...I did try and make one once, it was a couple of months ago I'd say, almost a year, perhaps, but no one ever replied :lol:

Yikes. I'm not a big fan of the plot pages you are describing, much less the board type you're describing. lol

I think plot pages can be a fun add-on to say, character profiles, and maybe even a good way to keep all your inter-character relations in order. I'm a forgetful person. I may just very well forget that your character and mine have some sort of relationship/connection. It hasn't really happened yet, but it could!

I like the plot pages we have on ASMM. It's a free for all. You can do whatever you want with them and use them for whatever you want. All of mine (one for each character) are kind of like mini-bios, and thread trackers. Every thread my character has mad an appearance in, is listed there. Either under current, finished, or anything goes (which is a forum where you can do whatever you want, and it doesn't have to impact your character outside that thread). It also has a few plot points for people to pick up if they are looking for an obscure reason to make some sort of character connection.

I don't have a list of who the character has connections with. The threads speak for themselves. They are dated, in order, and have a small blurb after each one that kind of tells you what happened. Like the back of a movie case! Whee.

Now, other players do all sorts of different things with them. From Wishlists (for plot or whatever else) to more of a run down on character relationships. But they aren't a huge thing. Most people plot together over PM or IM or in the OOC section. And then they play like crazy.

I think plot pages like you are describing are... bleh. And tend to be the downfall of the game. Then again, most games that focus on plot pages so severely, are the downfall of themselves.

Please note that when I say character relationship or connection I do not mean it in a lover/friend context only.

I'm in complete concordance with you on this topic. Plot pages distract from RP far too often, and I think the whole idea of beautifying them/adding song lyrics is too stupid for words.

On the other hand, I have realized that plotless RP can be directionless and boring. So what I do instead is set out a bare-bones set of ideas with other members, often via IM. I don't set anything in stone (I tend to come up with new ideas every ten seconds, so it's frustrating for me to have too structured a plot), but I do set up SOMETHING. Still, I generally don't plot out character relationships unless I'm on very good terms with, compatible (RP-wise) with, and very familiar with my RP partner.

Plot pages? Stupid as ****. Not plotting at all? High boredom potential (I also find I automatically think of plots once the RP reaches a certain point).

I agree that they are pointless.

I can understand their benefits if used as a means of keeping track of relationships (enemies, friendships, rivalries, etc.) as opposed to plotting future stuff, but...I just stick that information in my characters' profiles, anyway. And if my character should realistically know another though they haven't actually threaded together, that's what IMs and PMs are for. xD Works well for me! Don't need an extra board for that.

My games have a plotting board, but...it's for actual plotting, not for plot pages. We don't have those and never will. >_< Our plotting board is used as a place where people can post, "Hey! I have this character open for plottage! Anyone got any characters open and wanna do a thread?" Then ba-BAM. They thread and actually, y'know, RP! xD Sometimes these threads are as short as three posts--one post asking if anyone's available, a reply saying yes, and a final post with the link to the started thread. x3 Most people just figure it out as they go. That's fun!

Plot pages baffle me...again, I can see their use as a means of recording things that have happened, but why not just stick that info in the character's profile? O_o But the whole "I am applying to be this character's 'final' without our characters even having interacted before!" thing just...gyah.

And the fact that some people spend more time writing in those things with their weird lyrics than actually RPing...jeebus. It's bizarre to me.

But yes, RPGs can run without them. One of my games is over 7 years old and the other is over 7 months old and they get along splendidly without them! Because people actually roleplay. x3

Huzzah. These are exactly the sort of answers I was hoping to read, but it does leave me to wonder where all of the crazies are that think the pre-made plot pages (which are mostly the kind I am complaining about) are useful. Unless, of course, no one is very fond of them, and if they are it is for reasons that defy explanation. And if that's the case... why must we still suffer through them? Anywho.

Mitch: That is a wonderfully encouraging example you've got there. You have officially (however slightly) restored my faith in the human species.

pathogenicoma: I'm not a fan of those sorts of boards either, I just have friends who are... and I'm easily guilted into joining things. But all of the methods you described are really nice alternatives, and I'm really glad you brought them up because my simple and complacent mind probably would not have thought of them. Thanks!

SmathNa: I definitely see what you mean concerning plotless role plays being boring, and I agree about plotting on an individual basis over IM and such. It's much less superficial and more well-thought out if the two people role playing at least have some sort of conversation about where the plot is moving, rather than one post in each person's topic establishing that they will are soul mates.

Rhi-Rhi: I always figured that character profiles were partially for keeping track of significant things like relationships, so it sort of threw me when everything suddenly became about plot pages in a lot of role plays. But - actual role playing emerging from plotting? No way. I simply cannot believe it. The very idea. I'm trying very hard not to launch into a rant about plot page "finals," because I will never, ever, ever understand them and the day I do will be the day I will know that my brain has turned to mush.

The Character Plot Page is not the problem. The people who use them are the problem. Uncreative, lazy, impatient and unrealistic roleplayers existed well before Plot Pages came into existence and they will continue to breed because that's what happens in RPG. You get some good, some bad.

I am of the belief that 'development should be done in roleplay' is bollocks because it places heavy implication on people meeting everyone for the first time and it leads to the first ten threads you do being, 'my name is Bob and I'm a super-awesome mutant of some kind.' This will slow things down considerably and is only plausible if every single character is brand new on the scene. You cannot create a fluid, realistic, three dimensional character if they were created as if they started life exactly where the game picks up. That's bad roleplaying in my opinion. Now, mixing it up is what it's all about. Some new, some old, lots of development all the way through. Be consistent, rather than waiting all tensed and ready to spring so you can unload your character's entire awesome history on the first unfortunate to come along.

Recently plot pages made an appearance on our forum but they are literally what they say. A place for keeping thread records so people can follow any plots if they want to and a place where they can be frequently updated so people have a quick way of playing catch-up. They're designed to take ideas from the planning area and making them coherent and keeping them neat. I don't trust people to do it on their PCs XD. You CAN do it over IM or PM or email or whatever and who is to say people don't? For me, a plot page is a record holder and something I can organise and reorganise as my character grows and the plots move. That doesn't mean every single planning tid bit is done there--it isn't.

In this respect, I think a plot page is a good way of organising your thoughts, keeping a record of threads you're in/were in so you don't have to claw through lots of old posts to find a reference you're looking for. Plus, I find people are bad at updating their bios so this works as a nice alternative.

Edit: My Nikki-dar is malfunctioning. It did not tell me she posted ahead of me :p

Edit #2: Ooh...Actually, I had a brain wave. They'd be an excellent place for something like the idea Rhi Rhi mentioned in an alternative thread about God-mode comfort zones...Hmmmm...Provided Rhi-Rhi is credited, or she'll surely eat me...

They're beneficial in that it's useful figuring out people's relationships if it's a given that they would have known each other for some time (like a high school rp; the seniors would obviously have some friends from other years)... but even then, that doesn't make it required. I make plot pages, but I'm beginning to get really bored and irritated with them. I consider myself a pretty "new school" RPer in that I employ a certain level of unnecessary stuff (like PBs, spiffy applications, etc.), so I'm not the type to be against change or progression where RP is concerned... But RP has become SO superficial these days, and plot pages hinder rather than help a forum, IMO. As posters said above me, people end up spending more time posting as BFFL and ~*Finals*~ in people's plot pages, rather than RPing.

As a result, I've decided that in my next RP, I'm going to eliminate plot pages, and instead just have a section where people can post "ads" and generate discussion about relationships their characters should have. It still allows for OOC/IC development, but it's not as impersonal as plot pages -- it requires at least some level of interaction.

I think that’s bollocks. If the writers coming into the game are creative, as well as the members already in the game, this should not be an issue.

Who would do that? Considering most games make you include the site’s history into an application/bio, which in turn tells you where they are when they first post in the game.

If bad role-players are using plot pages incorrectly, that’s fine. But if the plot pages themselves just used to outline what’s going on between characters (in an OOC thread…), I don’t see why it warrants a whole forum, or any of the propaganda it has. *shrug*

QFT.

I agree with you a lot in this respect.

However, I think that a good plot page can be very handy. But the ones most people make are kind of useless.

*NOMS ON PANDA* =O

xP Hehe, feel free to use the idea! I haven't done it yet because I'm still flailing over whether to just include it in the profile pages or on a separate board! Auuuugh! I'll likely end up doing what I normally do to make major decisions when I'm indecisive: flip a coin.

Ooh, yes, I agree that there should be some established connections between characters so not every thread starts out as a "hi, nice to meet you!" sorta thing. xD It's more fun when some characters have history with each other already, especially if it's in a location where characters would likely know each other! A bunch of soldiers wandering around a military complex wouldn't see everyone as a stranger. '_' I've started plenty of threads with people where we decide in advance that our characters know each other, and it makes the RP nice and rich.

I like the idea of plot pages as record holders, or even of requests for plots people would like to try out. Just in my case, it doesn't seem like it warrants a whole new board. xD Especially since people use the plotting forum for all that plot figuring out stuffs and requests and whatnot.

I have never, ever used a plot page, really. The one time I did, it was only so I could show off my pretty HTML tables and shiny fades, as well as fun Shakespeare quotes.

They really don't have a purpose. I generally just customize the HTML in a forum and add a 'Relations' slot in the profile so one could edit in who is related to whom, and who dislikes whom.

Plotting pages were always just really weird looking with too many lyrics and bad colour choices. >_o They did not really seem to accomplish anything, either. As for reading about a relationship, it could easily go in a profile.

If you want to know about a character... read its profile. If you want a thread, PM them.

Plotting pages always just seemed extremely useless to me, especially since I 'grew up' roleplaying without them.

I hate filling out plot pages but I agree 100% with the above. They're sorta necessary to avoid all the first time encounters.

I use plot pages just to keep track of my relationships after they happen. :/ Otherwise what's the point of RPing? Oh, a PM exchange or a thread about what should happen left is totally cool, but when everything is already planned . . . it just doesn't make sense.

And I ran an RP for several years without plotting pages.

One game I'm in right now started out requiring plotting pages, but they eventually turned into something else. Rather than have people petition for characters to take on certain roles, people started putting up their character's thoughts and reactions to other characters for all to see.

...This happened after a particularly stalker-ish fangirl tried to corral a sought-after canon boy into a relationship with her insane OC. It was particularly awkward, because I was forced to have to tell this girl OOCly just...NO, whereas in an absence of these things I'd have been able to tell her the same on my own terms. Or she'd have gotten the point via character interaction.

I never saw the appeal of plotting pages, except in the case of confusing canon. Where there's an already established but ambiguous relationship to work around, having the players decide with minimal fuss is a good idea...but most of what's done in plotting pages is usually handled a lot better by actually...you know, talking with the other players.

An absence of plotting pages promotes player interaction. Stronger OOC community. Plotting pages just look frakking lazy in most cases.

I have a strong dislike for plot pages, and I do believe that, for the most part, development should be done in role-play. This doesn't mean that every time I RP with a new character, however, it will be the first time they meet. If someone PMs me to do a thread and suggests out characters have met before, or are friends, I'm normally fine with that, but I'll reserve deeming them a "close friend" or anything until after the role-play just to see how the characters mesh in actual gaming.

I hate plot pages where you just pick out a relationship with someone whose PB you like or anything of the sort. I hadn't even seen them until I just recently started role-playing online again, so, to me, they're completely useless. I like plotting boards, where you can post if you need a friend, or enemy, and develop bits of the relationship in the post or through PM, and then really flesh it out in a thread.

I also agree very much with Korvalyov--I've always found myself more comfortable in communities that didn't have plot pages because they were more open with their ideas and welcoming, providing a much stronger OOC community that also just seemed friendlier, and less restrictive.

I personally wouldn't say they were sorta necessary for this. To be honest, when you get right down to it, a plot page is as much a part of the bells and whistles of roleplay as the PB. However, it can be a nice addition provided you're not a roleplayer that looks to everything for a way to cut the corners. It's a good way to organise your thoughts on 'paper', to provide easy referencing in a way you denote as easy for other players (as opposed to an application form which is designed by the admin 90% of the time). It is also useful, as I previously mentioned, for backtracking and having a neat and tidy place for your threads to be listed so you can do back and sort through them.

However, with the presence of PM, email, IM and often a general planning area, they are not essential. They're the palm pilot vs the filofax. Some people like having something haphazard and disjointed so they can go back through and relive their thought process and pick out other ideas. Some people don't need a plotpage to organise themselves because they have other methods that work fine.

That said, I do not think they're a bad thing, however, like everything, they're bad if you use them badly. The same goes for application forms, forums, a lack of application,etc.

Althouuuugh...I don't like it when boards force you to use the palm pilot Plot Page or worse, dictate what they are to people (especially true if they're brushing it off as nothing but than an application form for lurrve, enemies and pallies).

I am interested however:

What is the basis for the claim and how do plot pages tie into welcoming environments, the generating of ideas or the level of friendliness of the admins? O.o

To start with, I never mentioned admins in my statement. I've just always found that when it comes to creating relationships between my character and another person's I feel that people tend to be more welcoming and open without plot pages to get in the way--and by "plot page" I mean the brightly colored lyrical ones, not pages that encourage actual thought behind why the characters know each other and their past. Most of the forums I've been in using those the players tend to stick with creating relationships among those they already know, not so much new players, and seem very closed OOCly to people who aren't already actively involved in the RPG or their OOC community.

I didn't say anything about admins either... *checks again to be sure*

Plot pages were designed as a tool for plotting, yes? Their purpose is to make it as easy as copy, paste, type, click to determine how two characters are going to interact with each other. While that has merit in some cases, there's no collaboration. And that's my problem with them.

I think Tarot's right, too. Choc-full pages aren't exactly welcoming to new players, and with no avenue of communication lined up it's awkward to ask people to plot. If you do contact other players you run the risk of just being told "post something in my plot page", and that's it.

That's not the fault of the plot page, though. That's the fault of the players. How can it be a plot pages fault if someone doesn't collaborate with you? It doesn't tell them not, or that they can't.

There are players out there that simply don't want to mingle with other players. I've seen them. I think it might have something to do with hiding from bad people on the internet, and not a whole lot to do with having plot pages, or not having them. Or that they just aren't "internet friendly".

Why not just write a fanfiction or story of your own if you're not comfortable with interacting with other people on the internet? I can't see how enjoying role playing would really be possible if you're not open to discussion with people other than either hiding behind forms and structure or role playing with them without prior discussion. Of course, the latter is often very enjoyable and works successfully a lot of the time, but it's not really all there is to role playing in my opinion.

I definitely see your point, it just seems a bit odd to me to be so set in one way of doing something that doesn't allow for as much freedom, rather than expanding premade plot pages to also include all of the things other people have listed here as well as using them as a means of developing relationships with other characters by communicating with their players.

Shy people should be able to roleplay too, of course...but you can't beat plotting in-depth with other players. That's my point.

There are situations where character pages are beneficial - I acknowledged that before - but largely they take a lot of fun out of the process for me. Besides, for the most part, I've only ever seen them sink into neglect over time.

You know, I had two extremely awesome stories that carried on for several years, with a couple different people, that were never plotted out. It was kind of like "lets start here" and that was the end of the discussion, or, our characters ran into each other, and everything went absolutely mad after that. Now, we talked to each other, but never about what was going on with our characters.

I don't think OOC plotting is necessary in all cases. If at all. Heck, I rarely did any sort of plotting until half-way through my forum years of rping, which would be about 5 years after I started (I think?). And I don't do it much now.

Which would make plot pages equally redundant for me. That's probably the reason why my "plot page" is mainly a list of all my threads. That, and I can't describe, really, in one or two words, the relationships my characters have with others.

I've never really seen the point. I find it much more beneficial to have one big plotting thread that members can bounce ideas around in, and talking in the cbox, and popping into open threads. Being shy is a silly excuse when you're on a forum that probably has plenty of friendly members. Maybe if you run a really big site, plot threads are useful for keeping track of members, but I don't see the benefits for the members. It's just one more thing to update instead of posting. You'll build a tighter, stronger community if you encourage members to talk with each other when they plot, and remove distractions so they post more frequently. Most plot pages don't guarantee much of anything because they're not roleplayed relationships.

But once again, it may depend on the size of a site. Large forums with fifty or more active members may not have such an organic plotting process, but for average-small sized sites with maybe half a dozen to twenty active members, it's very beneficial to get rid of all that extra stuff and stick with the basics.

The most effective plot page is one that's made after you roleplay. Anything before that is just...silly, I suppose. You don't know how your characters will get along until you RP with them, after all.

WhenI talk an idea out with a person and roleplay with them, I'm pleasantly surprised. When I post in a plotting thread...I don't post roleplays at all. :lol: There's too much pressure to make something that fits a label.

To be honest I didn't really understand them at first. I still think we could survive without them. I put up with them. I just don't particularly like to post in someone's plot page before our characters have interacted. That sort of thing comes while the scene is going on.

Aside from relatives, who knows what their history is? (That is saying that you've already message those playing your character's relatives.) All of that comes to you while you are roleplaying. I like to message back and forth to create a history between two characters. It seems better that way, in my eyes at least. Because when you just pick from a list someone has they have to go along with it. OR they have to buck up the courage to say "Uh, could we perhaps not go that way".

I think people just like to make something pretty and use song lyrics. Or perhaps I am wrong and some people genuinely need to keep track of who likes or dislikes their character.

Well I'm going to hold my hand up and say that yes, I do like plot pages, I like finding the prettiest premades and I like filling out other people's. As people have already stated, it means you can get to skip that whole 'getting to know you' phase that would otherwise happen, but I can understand why some people would chose not to use them. For that reason my site has a place for people to request whatever relationships they want as well as a board for plot pages.

My reasons aren't purely superficial though, I think that plot pages are a great way to store plots you and other members have agreed on [especially if you have the memory of a goldfish like me] or if you want to show off what your character's getting up to[and therefore finding out what other people are getting up to as well without having to read every thread they're in to do it]. I have to say I don't spend vast amounts of time posting in the plot page section of my board and instead prefer to talk to other members before I put anything in there - means I don't end up putting something they don't like or choosing the wrong box for my character.

I've never really used them on any of my own rpg's, and dont' see much use in them, but they can be fun, if only to see what other characters think of you're character. But that could be done just as easily.. and probably less confusingly in a out of RP game.

I've used them when I've been on other boards, where they were used... we don't use plot pages on my own board - if by plot pages you mean those with the song lyrics, pretty colors and "friends/lovers/dislikes/whatever"... we don't use those, and we've been up and running for almost 8 months without them. Our members have never expressed the need for it. One of my co-admins made a forum for plot-pages on our board, but noone used it, so it's been deleted again...

People seem to plot fine on their own, if they need people to thread with them, they post in our "Plot Discussions" and discuss what to do with a thread and which characters to play with. But nothing is pre-set, unless the members decide that between themselves. It works just fine like that - they pm each other, and discuss it in such a discussion-plot-thread, but that's all. No plotting pages, no, they are not really that necessery from my point of view :)

We have a place where characters can come up with plot ideas, or discuss where threads are going, but we don't have long involved plot pages: my character knows your character from waaaaaay back and they are bestest friends EVAR. Though people have discussed there if their character knows another, and how, but that discussion was only a matter of one or two posts.

I am also going to make a summary page, where I can summarise the various threads and have links to them, so that people who've been away, or folk new to StC, can see what's going on and has been going on without having to necessarily read through pages and pages of stuff before they can jump in.

But pages full of bright colours and weird song lyrics where folk can talk about exactly how close they are, and what they fell out over six years ago? No. Never. Not on any RPG I want to be part of, sorry.

Definitely not necessary. I've toyed with the idea of just making a place where people can discuss lines ("Want Ads") but not use those annoying rainbow plot pages, but I always thought that might turn away potential members. Now, however, I've noticed that more and more people (even on the supertrendy sites) are realizing how useless they are because they have those "Want Ad" pages, so I think on my next site I'll just leave them out.

As long as you have a place where players can discuss their relationships and plans with other characters (letting them make their own "want ad/plotting" topic is boss), I think it'll work out. =]

I can understand the idea of recording things that have already been decided upon or happened - mostly for reference and for those whom are like me and have terrible memory. Then, also, so you don't have to always have that awkward phase with people where they are like: "Hey... I'm Bob.... Hi... I'm Steve... how are you doing today?"

But putting down things that happen in the future doesn't make sense.

So basically the idea of a 'recording page' or something like that where other members could not actually post in would be more appealing to me. That way I could keep track of everyone rather easily, but not have to have a billion people posting generic things between my character and theirs.

I think plot pages are okay. I personally like making them, and they're useful for seeing what other people have plotted, so that you can plot something new with them. As in character A has 20 friend relationships plotted, so you see that and think well, A doesn't need any more friends so you plot an enemy relationship with them.

However, I think the history part of plot pages is unnecessary. A plot pages is for keeping track of relationships, so what's the point of basically just repeating that your character loves/hates the other character in a random paragraph?

If the definition of a plotting page is about relationships, then isn't it a Shipping Page? A plotting page to me says, 'this is my character and these are their plots. These people are involved in those plots in these ways:',

People on my games just record what's happened in their character profile pages. For instance, I add to the character's history section as I play and I keep a list of threads, in chronological order, in the profile. x3

Our plot board is really that: a place where people can pimp out their characters and threads asking other people to play, or plot ideas and events. That's highly useful. If I need to figure out a relationship between two characters who would know each other, but haven't yet been in a thread together in-game, I just go directly to the player and we figure it out and brainstorm that way. ^_^

For plot pages? I really don't like using them that much. For my board which I'm rebuilding, I have a simple plot. I end up building my board's main storyline off the plot. For my characters? I find plot pages very unnecessary. To me, when a player posts his/her plot and so forth, I feel it kind of ruins the surprise. I simply have a section called "RP/Character Development."

Players can post links to their threads with a brief synopsis. That's all they need to do. One of my peeves with plot pages is when players use them and explain what's going to happen to them in the future, etc. To me, that really ruins the surprise. However, it is all right for players to plot down what had happened to them. I did have a section in which players could put down what happened in the form of a diary. But, I do have strict rules on uses of diaries to keep people from using such knowledge as a means to metagame.

Anyway, I don't see anything wrong with plot pages just as long as things are simple.

I don't like plot page. Actually, I hate hate hate hate hate those colourful plot page. And some crazy trend is people like to write many paragraphs in other's plot page. I think that's crazy. Why wasting time write in plottage instead of do some actual roleplay?
But a thread without those colorful thing is good. A thread that help keep a record for relationship between characters is useful.

^ My favorite is when people give you a word requirement in their plot page. Like, it must be at least a detailed, 300-or-more word paragraph, or I won't add you! Never mind that you're taking time out of your day to fill it out to begin with.

I also love seeing huge plot pages that span for four posts. The first post is a little introductory and informational post with pretty pictures about the character; the second post is the actual plot page; the third post is the code and an example of what your stuff should look like (because it's so advanced it requires it's own post); and the fourth (and/or fifth) is a list of who replied.

I love seeing no on post in their plots... and seeing that those people have 5 responses, and they're ALL their own. Ahahaha.

Also, I hate it when people tell me to quote their plot page and get the color for the relationships myself. Umm, no. I can do this an easier way by pointing and clicking with my Mozilla color-picker, but I still won't. You picked your stupid 80-line long plot page, you deal with picking out the colors.

I don't think plot pages are necessary for an RPG. Few things are. Actually, the only thing that I consider necessary for an RPG is an active player base.When I first started out, years and years ago, we didn't have them, and we didn't really miss them. We managed to find plottage through other channels, so yeah... they're not necessary.

I do, however, like plot pages. I like pretty-fying them, I like it when people post in them, and I like posting in them myself.. Personally, I think they make it easier for the players to reach out and suggest a plot, and it enables old players to reach out to the new players and welcome them with plottage. I understand that not everyone feels this way, but as an admin, I'm never going to put it down in my rules that you absolutely HAVE to have a plot page, or we'll kick you off the board. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to post in the plot page forum if you don't want to. If you want a plot page that is as simple as it's possible to get it... that's fine. Just because I have no life and like to spend hours on typing up the code, that doesn't mean that you have to.

I gotta say it makes me roll my eyes a little bit though, when people get all uptight about their plot pages, and demand that people post in them right this instant, or else they're going to act like whiny drama queens. I also dislike all the 'oh my gosh, the PB is CHACE CRAWFORD! Be my final! I'll keep bugging you until you say yes!' For this reason, I've removed all future relationships from my plot pages. No final, no future girlfriend, no future anything. Just past and current relationship. I like it that way, but I realize that I am not the center of the universe (... what?!), and other players are free to include the relationships that they want in their own plot pages.