[Discussion] What can improve RP interactions between players and general RP standards?

[Fancy Toothpaste]

1 hour ago, Wuhtah said:

I truly think that's it just the RP that people really don't want to do.

I'm going to chime in since I have some experience in running a restaurant on GTAW: I was one of two people who ran the Up-n-Atom Diner in Blaine County starting in late March 2021 until late January 2022.

During that time, I found running a restaurant to be very challenging but rewarding. The biggest challenge was finding other people motivated to roleplay waitresses and cook staff. Most of the time, my business partner and I could manage running the diner just the two of us, but depending on the time of day we opened, the business would end up getting swamped with waves of customers. We often wouldn't have enough staff on hand, so to adapt, my partner and I resorted to opening very late into the evening so we could manage orders in a timely manner while not sacrificing the quality of our roleplay, and our overall enjoyment. We managed to last as long as we did because we got very lucky: We found a tight-knit group of roleplayers who were interested in playing waitresses and cook staff. Unfortunately, said players have since lost interest in the server, and my business partner and I had to return to relying on ourselves to fill in the role of cook and wait staff respectively.

I think the issue a lot of players run into when they try to run a restaurant is they aren't willing to do the work themselves; they just want to hire other people to do it for them. The unfortunate reality is that people and characters in GTAW are in constant flux. unless you get very, very lucky, you probably won't find players who are both motivated in fulfilling the niche roles required to run a restaurant, and who will remain active enough for the business to prosper. At the end of the day, the only person you can really rely on as an IC business owner is yourself. If you're truly invested in the concept, you have to be willing to fill these roles yourself.

The reason bars are so prevalent on GTAW, is because they're incredibly easy to run. One person can open a bar by themselves, serve drinks, and rake in 40k without a hitch. To that end, if you're going to run a restaurant in character, you should figure out a concept you can run either by yourself or with one other person. Cafés, delis, bakeries, or very small mom-n'-pop style restaurants are all examples of businesses that can be run reliably with limited staff. Even then, you may have to simplify the menu and streamline the ordering process just to keep up with orders in a timely manner.

While I would definitely like to see more fine-dining restaurants open up, the only time I could recommend running one is if you already have a group of dedicated roleplayers who you know can reliably run the business with you, and fill the roles of chefs, bartenders, and waitstaff. Otherwise, you're going to spend more time trying to hire staff than actually opening your resturant.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Fancy Toothpaste

[peasoup]

I've had an amazing experience in terms of restaurant RP, like, two years ago at Pearl's. It was fine dining, and it was about the whole kitchen experience, the point wasn't so much to make money or just "have a restaurant", the point of it was the actual kitchen RP. We had like 3 or 4 cooks, multiple wait staff, etc, there was yelling back and forth, people weren't necessarily sober, etc, people hung out after close sometimes, and so on. But it feels really niche, and trying to hire people who are into it is not a fulfilling experience.

 

On the other side, a lot of chef jobs on offer are basically roleplaying by yourself. Like, people who map the kitchen out of range of anything and hire 1 cook? If I wanted to sit in a room writing by myself I'd be a novelist.

[goddessoflife]

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