[djo]

Most of the games I've joined, I joined because they have RP elements (I'm not a strong player).

In Council of Wyrms, I think things went mostly well, but we needed a "timer" to put pressure on the game. If we had D3's cumulative VPs, I think it would provided the final perfect element. If you look back at it, we did manage to generate a lot of diplomacy, and nearly one proposition per two or three turns. We stalled late due to a number of things (D3, fatigue, complicated alliances, fear of getting into a war). The theme aspect (all Wyrms) helped a lot, I think.

In the Yarnspinner games (I was in YS2), we were obviously mostly RP. It worked because enough (about 1/2) of the people were able to keep up with the writing. That formed a nice core where we had incentive to keep (a) writing and (b) interacting in character. In YS1, they got by with only 2 active writers. They developed their own theme toward the end (the coming final battle).

My thoughts on how to make it work:

(1) the people have to be into it; no insane max/min people--you've got to be able to do stupid things if it's in character or thematically appropriate (eg, Titan pretender is better for Arco than a Vampire Queen)

(2) theme helps a lot; I like your idea about mapping out who should be hostile or allied, at least initially (eg, Marignon should hate Ermor); good vs evil might work, hot vs cold; I'll try to think of some more unifying themes

(3) you can get by with the forums even though outside websites don't hurt

(4) did I mention the players have to be into it? you want people who are thinking to themselves right now, "wow, now I have an excuse to buy an army of (insert favorite inefficient unit here)"

(4a) and spells! who hasn't wanted to summon one of every (for example) death summons, whether you needed them or not? because it's fun! and possibly thematic for your nation!

(5) and don't forget the trash-talk! Pasha is our pioneer in this area; games with lots of in-character trash talk can be a lot of fun

There's a strong probability I'd join this game

[edit: added 4a]