Some general information regarding Tears of Isis

This role-play was started on

Saturday, January 07, 2006

This role-play was finished on

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

    I'm highly satisfied with the way Tears of Isis turned out. We had a small cast compared to many other RPs, but we worked efficiently. There were very few "small talk" posts, and we didn't run into any major problems. Taking into account the fact that two of our five (active) writers, Gale and SwordBolt, were first-time role-players, how can I not be satisfied? I give them an A+. Very impressive debuts. The veterans, Thalzon and Neri, delivered as expected. Interestingly enough, Neri went through almost the entirety of the story with his characters out of the main party, but he handled it well. Thalzon's character, Brainiac, added a little comic relief now and then, and he was nice to have around any time an obscure piece of technology needed to be operated. Thalzon also added one of the main "enemies," whose name I'll keep a secret. As for Armadox and MythGuyDK, not to downplay them as role-players or anything, but I don't believe Tears of Isis would have worked as well if they had stayed on board. In fact, I doubt having any additional writers would have been advantageous. This kind of story just works better with a small, focused group. 
    My favorite character to portray ended up being Roderick. The way he evolved was memorable, to say the least. Outside of my own characters, my favorite was Zen. He put a whole new spin on enigmatic characters. One of my favorite moments came from one of the debates/arguments between Aaren and Roderick about the relationship between HCs and humans. Even beyond this, the looming message about beings as a whole really gave Tears of Isis a direction and purpose. 
    To spare you from more banter, I'll finish by saying that Tears of Isis was more fun than I have had in a long time. I'll always remember it. 

    Ace started Tears of Isis, and thus was the first person to join. He wrote 32.34% of the story, doing so in forty posts.

    Being my very first RP, Tears of Isis was a bit of a challenge to write for. In fact, if it weren't for Ace constantly PM'ing me and reminding/telling me to post, my laziness would've most likely gotten the better of me. >.< But all in all, it was a fairly enjoyable experience, and I did like the various plot-twists in the story. At the same time however, I felt that Tears of Isis could've been a lot better ... especially on my part. Even now, I'm not particularly fond of any of my characters, with the exception of Zen (whom I think I should've focused on more instead.) Rei, for example... I felt like she was too much of a sensitive crybaby rather than a soldier; and Xylon... I had high hopes for him, but he ended up being just another emo. Jin's character went nowhere (along with Hana), Drake and Abel died stupid deaths, Kenan ... er (where the hell did he go again?) ... So in the end, I decided to kill off all my own characters. 
    There was another problem that I had with the RP -- it progressed too quickly. There were hardly any breaks in between the main events, and as a result there wasn't much room for character development and the like. Sure, characters were dynamic, but the growth and change wasn't gradual; many things just happened suddenly or out of the blue, and to me, it all seems somewhat rushed. It's a shame, considering that there were lots of good opportunities. The fights also left a bit to be desired, but that's not really a huge deal since they were never the main focus of the RP in the first place. 
    But despite the above, there's no doubt that the plot of Tears of Isis is very solid. The twists are a little out-of-the-ordinary, but in the end everything came together quite decently, and for that I must give Ace credit. There was a fair bit going for this RP, though in retrospect I have to say that it fell a little below my expectations. I'm not blaming anyone in particular (besides myself), but it's obvious that there is plenty of room for improvement. Still, considering that Tears of Isis only had five participants (myself included), I'd say we fared rather well.

    SwordBolt was the third person to join the RP. He wrote 27.14% of the story, doing so in twenty posts.

    Well, this was the first major science fiction role-play I've seen go all the way through, and it was apparently a magnet for really long posts. This is also the first time I played some weird side role in an RP, where I never had any major interaction with the major characters of the story. It was kinda like having my own fiction in the middle of an RP. I don't think I'll do it again, but it's really easy to split things up in the vastness which is space. That and I'm not fond of victim situations, like with Ashami, which is why I'm going to use her differently for the story she's meant for. I also overplayed the "boredom in space" thing. Gotta stop doing that. There was supposed to be more development for the other crew members of the Jovis, but it kinda fell through. Eh. 
    But anyhow, I pull my generic response "interesting", and it was worth sticking around for. Though I still think the concept of a military city-ship is weird.

    Nerikuro Shino was the seventh, and last, person to join Tears of Isis. He wrote 17.98% of the story, doing so in eighteen posts.

    Tears of Isis is, to date, the only full-fledged sci-fi RP I've been in. Ace did a magnificent job holding the plot together and moving it at a brisk pace, despite all of our collective efforts to make it screech to a halt. The best part was trying to figure out a way for everything to make sense, since sometimes our characters did stuff that contradicted their motives or just seemed really odd. Ace had many a grand shocker to display, and he did it all with a subtle flair that really made me go "Whoa!"
    My only complaint is that Neri adamantly refused to get more involved in the RP himself. His plot moved along largely independent of the main one and often felt fragmented. It was pretty apparent he was trying to play catch-up, only to fall behind the rest of us time after time.
    In short, great job everyone, and I hope the lot of you lend your talents to more RPs in the near future!

    Thalzon was the second person to join the RP. He wrote 15.99% of the story, doing so in twenty-eight posts. He now goes by the username Corey.

    Tears of Isis was pretty cool. It's awesome that it's getting into the Hall of Fame, since it's the first role-play I was a part of and all. I felt like a n00b for the first three or four pages, but after a while I learned how to have fun AND make meaningful posts. Uh... my favorite moment is from the end, with all of those face-offs that happened in a row. It was very powerful. In conclusion, all I can say is there'd better be a sequel! 

    Gale was the fifth person to join Tears of Isis. He wrote 5.27% of the story, doing so in twenty posts. 

    MythGuyDK was unavailable for comment. He was the fourth person to join Tears of Isis, and wrote 0.32% of the story, doing so in three posts.