[FEEDBACK] TCP Groups/Clubs

[skinstealer]

been sick in bed the past few days and last night my brain finally decided to start working again and start spitting ideas at me, which lead me to expanding an idea that i've had on the backburner for a while into something we can actually do something with in the nearish future instead of just being something we'd like to do in an eventual (KEY WORD: VERY EVENTUAL AND NOT IN THE NEAR FUTURE) move

moving the TCPdex entries to a database system (instead of doing a lot of shit manually like we have been) has been on our todo list for a while now, and is something that will (ideally) allow us to do a lot more with the dex once we get it going, but it will likely take a good amount of time and resources that we don't have at the current point in time. one of the things we want to add when we have the database set up though, is a proper tagging system that allows people to search for TCP types with more than just category or number as criteria. i've been going through and adding advanced notes to TCP types here and there as a destressing tool (micro-worldbuilding is good for my brain, as it turns out), and a lot of the tags would be based on both the basic dex entries, and the content found in those notes. 

for example, we can look at corpse type's entry here:



category: body
groups: undead, spooky
skin: flesh
fluid: fluid
voice: gurgle, drip
home: dark
activity: low activity
social: lonely
diet: rotting

most of these are pretty self explanatory, but one probably sticks out a bit- the "group" tag. it's still straightforward, but the "spooky" one seems pretty subjective, and that's mainly what i get to play with in the now. TCP Groups will be a new form of classification similar to how we group TCP types for bounty boards, with a shared theme between them. these can be anything from an aesthetic (such as cute/spooky/silly), type of being they are (such as cat/pet/undead/carnivore/toy/candy, etc, just breaking down what Kind of TCP they are, especially in reference to other TCP abilities), or sets similar to, as mentioned before, bounty boards (such as zodiacs, holidays, etc). these groups will be ideally listable on the tcpdex eventually via tags, but for now, id like to look into making them into clubs on the forums- little groups where people can see what TCPs they have have on the type list and participate with those TCPs, be it in discussion, roleplay, events, whatever. 

as with other community things, i'd like these to be primarily community run with occasional mod intervention/events, which requires participation incentive. as such, i only plan on releasing one club as a test run to start- the spooky club, with 143 TCP types from almost every category (sorry, machines werent apparently spooky enough). i'm hoping that the narrower scope of needing specific TCP types to participate, as well as having a specific vibe/theme will help encourage participation and provide a sort of prompt- though you don't need to make horror-based content to participate in the club itself- all that matters is the TCP type itself!

open to thoughts on this, go wild, be honest, feel free to pitch ideas here and let me know whether you'd participate in this and in what ways.

[King-Clod]

It certainly seems interesting! It could very well be that it's simply not my thing, but it seems like it narrows things down unnecessarily? Lets say for the spooky group, a team member makes an event, and someone wants to join- but doesn't really have many spooky TCPs of their own. They either don't participate, or they make a new TCP that fits that group. Then, if the event/club doesn't last more than a month, they have another TCP they don't know what to do with from that point on. I think groups/clubs are a good idea, maybe just for personalities rather than TCP types? That way people can take any TCP that they have regardless of type, maybe ones that aren't much more than designs and a name, and they have a whole club to give them inspiration on how to flesh them out!

[skinstealer]

my concern with a personality based club is getting a room full of the same personality type might be a little clunky for stuff like RP

[King-Clod]

That's fair, that's why the personality types would be broad. You could keep the Spooky club, and its up to whoever enters to interpret it how they want. Say one person could enter with a spooky category TCP, someone else could enter with a TCP who loves horror movies, and someone else could enter with a seemingly normal TCP who just so happens have strange eyes, and a halo around their neck, how odd...
It's all about giving people more options!
Plus, having a group based on common interests rather than common types could make activities and events easier to coordinate, it gives more of a reason for all of the characters to attend, y'know?

[AceOfNothing]

Assuming you'll still take opinions on it, I still like the idea personally (said so in patron chat for those confused) (just got out of work, sorry)

I'd say its more my personality, but I like overlapping groups like this and I think the categories would be fun. Could even cause a discussion about if the community feels a type should be added to a category (ex: if we had/got fog machine type, someone could say we need to add it to spooky group because of fogs tues to the horror genre)

I also feel with categories it might make people think about new types for group combinations, which may get more people to commission types they want to see (or give other people the power to make them a reality).

With the clubs I feel like running themed role plays and events (thinking bout Mystery Gift in particular) might be easier, or just give people some ideas. But I see the concerns with it. Maybe its one of those ideas we put on the shelf for a bit, and try in a little while, once grouping isn't such a new concept.