Hey all and welcome to Spare Room. I'm Karen Terry and today we're going to talk about plotting. So what is plotting? Plotting is any out of character conversation where you talk about what your characters are going to do in the roleplay. So we talked about this briefly in my how to approach someone for roleplay video, but what we're going to do today is get into a lot more detail on exactly what plotting is, because plotting doesn't just happen before the roleplay starts. It also happens during the roleplay. So when we plot, we're primarily picking the setting of the roleplay. So it might be something where your characters both trapped in a cabin, they're snowed in, or it might be something where one character missed class and needs to borrow notes from the other character. There's lots of different plot ideas that we might consider and discussing these is what plotting is all about. So in addition to picking the setting, we might also discuss the goal of the thread. Is this maybe a meat cut where the characters are supposed to come together and kind of have that beginning of a romance? Is this maybe a fight where we need to pick a winner so we need to plot that out? Is this an argument where one of the muses is going to leave upset at the end? Plotting lets both months understand where the thread is going and where it's eventually going to end. When plotting, just like when actually replying, we're going to use our yes and. So what that means is when someone proposes a plot idea, if you like it, you don't just say yes. You say yes and add a little bit more. It might seem sometimes like just being agreeable and saying yes is the right and nice thing to do, but it's not. This is being passive and essentially what we're doing when we do this is saying yeah that sounds great. Okay you control all of it, you do all the hard work. I'm just going to be over here and play my character and not fully contribute to the roleplay. This is called passive posting. So I talked about this in one of my videos. I'll link it up in the card wherever that is or down in the doobly do or something so you'll be able to find it. This is something that we don't want to do. It's a bad in character habit even though it can seem like a good idea, it's not. And that video explains why. Now when it comes to plotting, never agree to something that you aren't fully comfortable with. Just kind of like the passive posting, this probably comes from a good place, but it doesn't result in the best thing. So you might think like you're just being agreeable. This person is your friend. I'm just going to say yes, even though I don't really like it. It's better to be upfront and say I'm really not into that plot or I'm not comfortable with that plot because what's going to happen is you say yes, you start role playing. You're not into it. It's going to come through in your replies and trust me, the other person can tell. They know you're not into it. So then what we've done in that situation is create a negative roleplay experience that could mess up your friendship, whereas instead if you just say, hey, not really into that. I want to do something else and propose something else, then you're making sure that you preserve that friendship and you preserve that trust and communication that you built up with that person. So then the other side of this is this also means that when we're plotting, we need to check ourselves and make sure that we're being assertive, not aggressive. So we want to make sure that we're not forcing the other person into a plot that they don't want to do. It's not fair to them to do this and it's not fair to you either because you're going to end up with an experience that's not fully what you want out of that plot. So instead, what we want to do in those situations is say, that's fine. And keep that plot in your back pocket to use with someone that's more into it. There are thousands of role players out there. So you will find someone that's interested in that plot if you keep pushing and keep looking for people. So all of this stuff is stuff that we can do before the role play, but it's also totally fine to jump into a role play without plotting. Whether you do this or not really depends on what kind of threads you do, what kind of muse you have, how comfortable you are with the other person and with their muse, and how comfortable the other person is with you and your muse. So what about once you've already started role playing, plotting is still something we do. So let's say you start a random thread with someone. And as you're doing that thread, a random idea just pops into your head. Tell your partner, this is something that is critical to do, especially if you're newer to role playing with that person. So surprises can be nice, surprises can be really fun, but I really recommend using those surprises for somebody that you're a little bit more used to role playing with, you know how they do, they know how you do, you guys are comfortable with each other. If you're newer to the interaction, I think it's better to go ahead and tell that person the idea and give them a chance to say yes or no before you implement it into the thread. So once you get to know each other, or of course, if the other person is given you express permission, go ahead and surprise them. Just understand that you would run the potential risk of putting something in the thread that makes the other person uncomfortable or causes them to go ahead and drop the thread or drop you or drop your muse. So just be aware if you're surprising someone that's a risk that you run, but it might be worth it depending on what exactly you're doing and how well you know that person. So we've talked a lot about what plotting is and how it applies, but there's merit for going plotless as well. So it gives you a lot more freedom if you go plotless because you're not sticking to an agreed upon thing. And this can be something that is a lot easier when you first start out roleplaying because plotting is a skill. It requires understanding of how to build tension, how to create conflict and then how to resolve that conflict. No one comes out of the womb knowing how to do this. So if you've just started roleplaying or if you've just started adding some elements of plotting to your roleplay, be patient with yourself. Keep practicing, you will get it. It's still very common even for me, someone that loves plotting to go into the first thread without doing much of it because it helps me get to know the muse. It helps me get to know the mind and then maybe after that first thread or sometime during that first thread, I'll initiate plotting with that person. So I can say with my plotted threads, these are the ones where I feel more satisfied with my contribution and also the resolution at the end. So with practice and patience, you can plot too. So remember to like if you liked this video, comment down below with any questions that you have. Subscribe for more videos, click that bill for notifications, all the links to my social media down in the doobly do. Thank you so much for watching and make it a great day.