It's always a problem to put two different characters together that have little to nothing in common to each other and make the thread stick. I usually have a bit of a problem coming up with something... So I was wondering... how do you set it up? What do you do to get the action going? The most common ones I've come across were: one of the characters being mugged, the two characters competing to get the same thing, the characters accidentally bumping into each other/falling atop one another/stepping on each other's toes...

What about you?

Well once, A topic was started... and the weather was awful.

My character was a nice guy and asked if the OP's character would like to ride back home in his brother's car.

That sorta got things going... >.> and then the driver got knocked out and things REALLY got moving. ;D

In the case of starting an open thread (which I rarely do for the reason of trying to force characters to "stick"), more recently I had a character sitting outside of an unnamed restaurant, irritated because his mom sent his 4-yr-old a pack of tarot cards. There were at least two stimulants in his post that could be replied to : 1. the heated conversation with his mom over the phone and 2. the pack of cards he was shuffling.

I try to give anyone who replies a few options in regards to what they want to focus on. In the case of the open thread, the character who joined owned the restaurant he was sitting at and turns out her whole life had bee upturned because of a tarot reading some years prior! Go figure! Ball was rolling, more or less.

I just had a friend who had her character fart on his son and then blame it on him. Then he went to do it again and his kid moved, so the entire aquarium (including the class on a field trip) saw him farting all over the place. Then the kid said that his dad had a chode, despite not knowing the meaning. This was also an open thread.

Again, at least two different things to reply to, now that I think of it.

I go for obscure things, personally. No more stepping on toes or literally running into someone for me.

ONE. Character A went with professors to pick up new student. Professor and professor's wife ended up at hospital when wife started to give birth. Characters A and B (new student) got locked inside a haunted house/museum where they were supposed to wait.

TWO. Bus rides. Get them stuck on bus rides. I inadvertently had two characters in two different bus-ride threads at once.

THREE. Once someone's character was praying loudly to the devil. Then my character had to make fun of the other character. So pray to the devil so that people can throw rocks at you. Verbal rocks, of course.

FOUR. Zombies.

FIVE. I've seen (and used) sickness to rope two characters together. It usually ends in vomit.

SIX. One of my characters likes to lick people, particularly girls. Nothing obscene. Just walk up to them, admire them for awhile, stand a little too close, and then lick them if they look like they would taste good. If that fails to work, have your character take off his shirt and smear himself with peanut butter in order to get the girl's attention.

Given the fact that I use to find ideas in order to get the newcomers into writing, yes, it happens that the strangest characters meet.

Some met in a church, others got acquainetd from listening to a song, bumped one into the other in a crowded place, or looked at the same thing in a shop (if you can imagine two Venetians meeting by chance in a smiths shop in Kingston... and of course if the smith had made for one of them Venetian - style flying knives... the other recognised the unique style and so the discussion started.)

Scenario boy meets girl happens often like him coming to rescue her from a difficult situation...

Like you with the tarrot, in my church case initially my character wanted to give some money to the street urchin who looked a little like his younger sister who was dead, but the discussion went further because the little girl had some beads in her hand and my character saw them like the counting beads from his country (if you saw Middle Eastern counting beads... something more or less like a rosary without cross).

Wow, the whole 'bumping into each other' has been used SO MANY TIMES in all sorts of forms it's not even funny. :/ Another common thing - accidental tripping/messing up/whatever. The best thing to do is just get both characters into an unusual situation - whatever works for the RPG genre, and have them interact because of it. It's also not a rarity in real life for two people waiting around to just... talk.

I've had so many random threads I can't even count them all.

One that comes to mind was more of a scene in an ongoing thread. It was all of them cracking an ongoing joke about zombie slaying. And then this dude came in who was totally crazy, and it only just mushroomed from there. It went on for pages! Those were good times.

DO SOMETHING! Bumping, tripping over, and running into to people does not count. I accidentally bumped shoulders with a stranger a few days ago. We both said "Sorry" and kept walking. That's pretty much what usually happens. I also tripped over a kid who fell in front of me at the roller-rick last month. I stopped, made sure he was okay, offered to help him up (he politely declined) and we went on our merry roller way, never to interact with each other again. I know in RP people meet their soul mates by accidentally tripping over them, but in life it just doesn't happen. Meeting your best friend by being uncoordinated is the exception to the rule.

Everyone has habits, quirks; little things that make them weird to the rest of the world. If your character doesn't have these, give them some. Then, use them. They're great. Maybe your character is very self-conscious. Maybe he's at a bus stop with another person, all he can think about is that the other person keeps looking at him. Probably the other person glanced at him once, tops. Still, the thought drives him crazy. He can't help it. "Stop looking at me!" it slips out- rather bursts forth- and his craziness is reviled. What happens next? Who knows! I can tell you what would happen if he accidentally ran into the other person, though, and that is waaaaaaaaay less interesting.

I keep an R2-D2 action figure on my computer at work. Yes, he sits on the actual computer, not on the desk. Sometimes, I use a different computer. R2-D2 comes with me. He is a great conversation starter, and he was only $6. People are more likely to talk to me because R2-D2 is my sidekick. Everyone has an opinion about R2-D2. Everyone is curious about him. "Where did he come from?" "He's cute!" "Is he guarding the computer?" "Are you a Star Wars Geek?" "I love R2!" "I remember the first time I saw Star Wars...." "I hate Star Wars." And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I am not suggesting that your character should carry around plastic action figures.....though it wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea. I am, however, suggesting that your character should have something conspicuous about himself. Something un-ignorable. Nobody ignores R2-D2 sitting on the computer. AND HE'S NOT EVEN DOING ANYTHING! Wearing something un-ignorable is an easy example. If you explicitly stated that your character was wearing a shirt that said "Elvis LIVES!" I would bet money that someone would say something about it. I would. Elvis, like Star Wars, is fairly universal in pop culture. Already, without even meeting or being introduced, a universal - controversial, even- topic of conversation has presented itself. If I were stuck at a bus stop with another person wearing a shirt that said "Elivs LIVES!" I would say something to that person. Probably a joke or personal anecdote. Probably I would say I saw him at the Big Boy just down the road. He's a server there and every time I go I stare at him (if he were one of those extremely self-conscious people, he might have said something to me about the staring...) But we cannot rely too heavily on other role-players to seize these God-given opportunities. We must, as individuals, always be prepared to ACT!

Doing is interesting. Not doing is boring. If you start an open thread, do something. If your character is "bored"- so your thread is also boring. Sorry, it's true. Deal with it by engaging your character. Your character is no longer bored, waiting at the bus stop. He has missed the bus! He is going to be late for work! He is now chasing the bus. He his chasing the bus, wearing a t-shirt that says "Elvis LIVES!" He feels extremely self-conscious at all the people he imagines staring at him and, huffing and puffing, proclaims to the world at large "I do this everyday, I swear!"

TL;DR: The thread is only as interesting as you make if. If your character is just standing around, not doing anything, how can you expect other characters to respond in a way that is not also as boring as watching paint dry?


Also, December: I love you.

My first character met his first rp partner when he accidentally used magic in a public place (it was outlawed in the setting) and she saved him from getting lynched. Out of gratitude, he offered her a place to stay, and things progressed from there.

Another character got introduced to our storyline when she was hired to spy on us.

I admit, I do the "bumping into each other" thing quite a bit. It's simple and gets the job done. You just have to make sure the characters have something to bind them together after they're done saying "excuse me".

I think the weirdest intro was having the other character land in a giant blimp. But that certainly got my character's attention! (Especially since he thought the blimp was a dragon.)

Actually even in real life bumping, tripping over or running into people make people talk one with another... and sometimes get to know one another.

There must be a way for totally different people to meet... and it happens usually in crowded places. I don't care if it was overused, as long as it makes logic in character.

And yes, I met my soul mate nearly 16 years ago, both queueing at a library to give up books. One of us wanted a book the other one was giving back, this is how we started talking... So it happens in real life too!

I didn't say it doesn't happen or can't happen. I said it is the exception to the rule, and not a very interesting story when everyone does it all of the time.

It is awesome that you met your significant other queuing at the library. Still, you did not physical bump into or trip over this person. What happened? You wanted the very same book your SO had (or vice versa, you were non-specific). This is EXACTLY what I was talking about. This is un-ignorable! If I were waiting around and noticed the person next to me had the very book I was looking for, I would say something! Clearly, you felt similarly, and thus your whole life took a different course. If the book title was obscured, who knows where you'd be today! Little details make the difference between TRUE LOVE or WAITING IN LINE! Isn't it marvelous?!

There is nothing special about bumping into another human being. The only thing you have learned is that one or both of you weren't paying enough attention to where you were going. When a person meets their soul mate, new best friend, or lifetime nemesis, the last thing they should be doing is not paying attention. Elenitsa was paying attention, and so noticed the book. So listen up, people, and PAY ATTENTION. Because if you keep running people over, you are never going to notice the things that make them unique. You'll be too busy hoping that you haven't accidentally broken any toes and apologizing for how utterly dull you've just been. Or your characters will be, anyway. I've seen it too many times. I even did it myself back when I was first starting out. It wastes time (I once saw a thread that took AN ENTIRE PAGE (that's right 15 posts, back and forth) to recover from an accidental tripping. I wanted to cry for having read it) and there are SO many other cool things your character could be doing. Like noticing things and doing things to be noticed.

DON'T BE BORED! Be conspicuous! And pay attention! Story telling GOLD is all around!

I really liked this one thread where one of my characters bumped into a an old flame in a grocery store and they immediately started yelling and insulting each other. The things they said to each other were hilarious and unplanned, it was spur of the moment name calling. It was a lot of fun.

for me I think it was when my character started cursing out his gameboy while playing pokemon in a pediatric waiting room with lots of little kids present.

I have a character with Stendhal syndrome.

So, a girl with a really nice tattoo appears and ..my character faints..

while hanging upside down from a tree. She's hooked on it in a manner that she won't actually fall. Now she's hanging upside down unconscious like a pinata while everyone freaks out.

Randomest but one of the best fun threads I've ever had: friend's character is a guy walking through a really poor neighbourhood carrying a bagel which he has yet to munch on. My character's a streetrat girl who sees him and swipes it from him. Chase, trip, little to no dialogue as they wriggle around trying to get the bagel from one another. A bit of dialogue from his part as she's aiming to hit his balls. She succeeds and almost breaks free when he punches her in the breast. She wriggles out and throws the bagel on the ground stomping on it. In a murderous rage, he jumps on her again and it starts all over again. She manages to distract him long enough with a kiss in order to hit a broken pan on his head and run away, cursing the living daylights out of him.

I think that was the shortest dialogue thread I've ever had. I think I wrote two lines. That's it. XD But it was SO fun to write!!