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The actual length of Long Term / Short Term Roleplays

Dr Bellwright

Dr Bellwright

Doctor
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Apr 27, 2019
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London
I can see a lot of request threads that reference long-term, short-term, and one-shot durations/lengths of roleplay. But I'm 80% sure that when two people discuss it on this forum, do not have the same numbers in mind when they mention the terminology.

For the comedy, I suggest we put what we expect long/short term to be in spoilers. So that somebody who is coming to this thread does not see it immediately, and then we can count averages in a couple of months!

The format is (using a spoiler tag):
Long term: X amount of weeks or Y amount of posts (for both).
Short term: A number of weeks or B amount of posts. (for both).

Don't know if a lot of people come to forums around Xmas, but what the hell :)!

Long Term: anything longer than a year, and more than 50 posts.
Short Term: anything shorter than 6 months, and less than 50 posts.
 
While this is a good idea, in practice it may be that a lot of people don't know how long they intend for the RP to be in the first place. Generally to me "long term" means more depth to the plot and many different possible options to pursue whereas "short term: is a specific idea that doesn't take too long to play out and has a pretty clear and definitive ending in mind. People also use "one shots" for the latter.
 
The way things seem to go these days, it's "long term" if your story hits Page 2. >.>
 
Sync said:
The way things seem to go these days, it's "long term" if your story hits Page 2. >.>
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This is sad but true.

Anyway I honestly haven't had many RPs I could call a long-term ones since the plays tend to end sooner rather than later, but if I would say my ratios they would be:
Long term: Longer than half-a-year or 30+ posts.
Short term: Anything shorter than half-a-year or less than 30 posts.
With these criterias I might've had three or four long-term RPs during the last two or three years (not counting in multiple RPs with the same partner), but it is what it i I guess.
 
Long Term: A couple months. Anything longer than two months, I guess. A story that has several chapters and plot changes that are drawn out and built upon
Short Term: Two or three weeks, tops. Consisting of maybe three scenes and then it's curtain call.

I guess as my two cents to add besides just my stats for what I consider short and long term RP, is that I find the premise of writing anything long-term to be objectively unrealistic. Considering the lifespan of the average RP before it dies, the longer ppl try to drag it out, the more likely it is to peter out
 
I think I'd concur with what other folks have said that those are more, eh, aspirational terms. Short-term reads as 'until the initial premise is done', while long-term reads as 'the continue adventures of'. Unfortunately, as with a lot of these things, both of those have a silent 'until we get bored/busy'.
 
With the caveat that I'm likely biased thanks to my background mostly being in table-top RPGs, I do feel like 'one-shot' and 'campaign' do a much better job of conveying intent than short/long term. (Nevermind that TTRPG campaigns likely fizzle out as often as 'long-term' RPs, probably)

Too bad they're probably too deeply buried in the lexicon to dislodge.
 
I think there's two types of short-long term roleplays to consider when discussing this topic.

The first one is obviously the intended length of time; and that'll differ between different people. Some people will consider a short term roleplays to be a roleplay that can be completed over the summer holidays, while other will consider a longer/shorter period to be much more in-line with their definition.
I suppose the medium also matters, since I've done a 'one-shot' roleplay on discord, and what the person meant there was an intensive back-to-back posting for several hours... so more of a one-session I guess.

The other type I'd say is how things are setup. A short-term roleplay for me is something which has a definitive plot line. Much like a 'short-story' it's something which has a beginning, climax (I suppose literally here), and ending. Which may or may not be altered based on how things go.... but the intent is for both roleplayers to play out the scene in a somewhat pre-planned way.
In contrast, a long-term roleplay is one where people are a bit more wishy-washy and have no real long-term goal in mind... often adopting a basic premise, throwing the characters together, and then seeing how things work out. The complications/solutions and plot points aren't really planned out in any tangible way and both parties work on a vague beginning concept and indefinitely add to the plot until someone gets burned out or loses interest there isn't anything more to add.
 
My long term partners are LONG TERM. I had one roleplay go for 11 years. Some partners are in my life for like 4-7 yrs.

Short term for me are like 1 month - 6 months.
 
If we're talking about in the confines of BMR, which has its own, distinct culture compared to other RP sites I've been on, it depends on many factors. But personally, I had a RP that only recently ended that I've had since I joined here in 2019. However, on other sites, I've been part of RPs that lasted nearly a decade. I think the only short-term I had that I completed lasted a few months, maybe.
 
I base one shots, short-terms and long-terms on expected replies.

A one-shot is anything less than twenty replies and is typically reserved for one scene in particular, with minimal location switching, and usually smut-dominated.

Short term is anywhere between 20-30 replies depending on what we want to accomplish; some location switching, and much more character driven than one-shots.

Long term has no limit; we're in it for the long haul, covering conflicts, resolutions, and calling it quits when we've done all we've set out to do.

I've had one-shots turn into long-term stories before, so letting things evolve over time is cool, too. Sometimes a one-shot or short-term is too amazing to leave a one-shot or short-term. You want to revisit these characters and see what happens beyond a snapshot of their lives.
 
In my mind;
One-shot means it's one scene, start, middle, end, full stop. The RP isn't supposed to progress past that, and if it does it becomes a short or long term RP. There's no real post count or time length metric for it. The characters shouldn't have time to have any real development since we'd be focusing on the scene itself being accomplished. I like doing these as a quick "let's see if we click" with a first time partner, before moving on to a more lengthy format.

A short-term RP, for me, is like a full episode of a show. There's multiple scenes, but we're sticking to one plot that can be managed IC within a week's time. I'm assuming at this point a minimum of 20 posts a piece as a decent reference point, but it varies.

A long-term RP, again, personal perspective, is more like a full season or a show. There's multiple "episodes", and characters have real, tangible, relationship and personal development between the start and the finish line. Here I'd expect the RP to have at least 60 posts each as a minimum, but again; there's variety.
 
I can't necessarily break it down to duration alone as it depends on posting frequency. Any category of RP could last as long as a decade or a week depending on how often the players post and when they consider the RP to have reached it's natural ending. So.....

One Shot - Explores a single concept. EG A character's journey to bed someone they feel is unattainable, once this has been played out, the RP is over. A One Shot doesn't necessarily have to be a very short RP, it is just more concerned with one aspect or outcome rather than a full story.

Short Term - My way of thinking is that the intent is to post regularly and play out a basic story to it's finality. Perhaps with shorter 3-6 paragraph posts each turn. It doesn't have to impact on quality of writing or story but perhaps some of the finer details and character development are left aside for the sake of a faster-moving game.

Long Term - For stories that are more involved and need more detail and character development. As well as the story itself has more prospects for the long term in regards to what you can do with it and the characters. Perhaps the posts are longer but they don't have to be. Overall it will just take longer to conclude the story due to the complexity of it.

Overall any of the above are fraught with people ghosting. I have had some long term partners but that was ages ago and it seems RP has changed a lot in the past few years.

I had what would be considered a Long Term RP going and although we didn't get to finish it, we did come quite close and that was still within a year or less of playing. My partner would frequently post 12 or so paragraphs at a time and burnt themselves out. A lot of unnecessary details in each post to be honest on their part and they had a few RP's going where they did the same. It was a great RP though.

I have also had shorter RP's get completed with a long term partner and sometimes we would branch off into sequels so to speak if we thought the characters could be taken to a new story line.
 
My background is more system RPs where I GM. I've only done what I would consider long term games, and it appears that these tend to complete between 4000 and 5000 replies.

I never run games intended to just go until they burn out. There's always an overall plot arc with multiple potential outcomes and I'm curious to see where it will go.
 
Based on recent experiences, anything more than a month is long-term! I personally think 3+ months is long term, with multiple responses per week, but understand how it varies from person to person.
 
charliep said:
Based on recent experiences, anything more than a month is long-term! I personally think 3+ months is long term, with multiple responses per week, but understand how it varies from person to person.
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That's good to know, if you were being serious.

When I see long term in a post I was definitely thinking much longer. And since I tend to see games through, that means a big invesent of time which I might not be up for just then.
 
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