RP in the RK

After over a year of playing RK I'm finally involved in a Role Play which exceeds the 'I post - you post' model. For what it's worth, here's the story behind the experience...

One of the army generals was keen to stir up a bit of activity in the ranks and so invited some fellow soldiers to come out on a 'training trip' to the highlands. They are doing this in a thread on a forum site called Highlands Hall. Basically, a party of about six soldiers are wandering up the east shore of Loch Lomond, have spent one night there, are going to continue on their journey towards the village of Lochgilphead on Loch Fyne. As far as the soldiers are concerned, they're coming out on a camping trip and will practice some of their bush skills and so forth.

They know that all is not totally right, however, because there has been the odd post in their forum by a NPC (non player character) called 'Scout'. He hasn't interacted with them beyond viewing them from a safe distance. In the evening he was briefly seen on a nearby hill top, he spent the night in an abandoned hut near the trail, in the morning they see him on the opposite side of the Loch after he stole a boat to get there.

Scout is in private communication with the General in command of the soldiers. In these communications Scout keeps the General informed about what is happening and planned with the other related threads of RP activity (see below) so that the the soldiers will turn up at the right place and time under the General's leadership for an exciting climax to their trip.

Scout's friends are a bunch of NPCs who met up on another forum and another thread. Their story started with some of them meeting on Ben Gloum ('Mount Gloom') on a misty night. They waited for some more NPC friends to gather and then headed off to Lochgilphead. Deciding there aren't enough of them to take the town, they have instead decided to go and attack a lone cottage for some supplies and entertainment.

These 'baddies' are all NPCs. No-one knows who is behind the various RP 'mask accounts' being used by the characters. The Ben Gloum 'meeting thread' occurred on a forum board called 'Gathering of the Clans', the raid on the cottage is developing on a third forum board called The Glen. The occupant of the cottage is being played by another player who has taken an NPC for the purpose.

Thus, there are three separate threads on three separate forum boards occurring. The 'leaders' of the various groups are in contact privately to keep time and space co-ordination, but apart from that the storylines would appear to be independent. The aim will be to guide the soldiers and the baddies together. Most likely by them noticing the plume of smoke of a torched cottage, or meeting up with the fleeing cottager (if she manages to RP an escape from the baddies).

The only really agreed ground rule is that player characters (soldiers) can't be killed or maimed without their permission, and that the NPCs (baddies and the cottager) will either die or run away.

It's been developing about a week at the moment. Probably another week or so to go before the climactic scenes when the soldiers and the baddies meet in a blood fest of RP combat.

Fun.