The Ladies of LAW Calendar: A Proposal and an Interest Check
Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2021 2:21 am
Hello! It's that time again - Cap has another crazy idea for the site, and he's looking to see if people are interested in it becoming a reality.
I've said it before, but I'm a big fan of how much LAW has expanded in recent months - not just in terms of users but also with the universe itself. Things like LAW Twitter, LAW Magazine, and the Breaking the LAW podcast have all made LAW feel more like a realistic, living, breathing wrestling promotion, and it's been really fun to see it all come together. I'm really excited to see how these contributions have created depth and allowed for new stories to be told and content to be created. And to that end, I had my own idea to add to the pile.
My idea is to create a thread that simulates an official LAW pinup calendar.
Why?
As I see it, there are both in-universe and out-of-universe reasons this idea could work.
From an in-universe perspective, it would help build on the LAW universe and present more opportunities for different stories to be told. If a character got picked for the calendar, you could bring that into storylines. A vain heel could brag about being featured, an up-and-coming rookie could see it as her big break, a shy girl could get pushed into doing it (maybe even as a result of a match stipulation) or be taunted about it. It's really up to however each participant wants to use it for whatever stories they would like to tell.
From an out-of-universe perspective, the calendar could function as a spotlight for different characters on the site. A regularly updated feature with some basic information on people's OCs could introduce users to new characters they might not have known about otherwise, and that they might become interested in RPing with. Got a character you'd like to use more, but have a hard time finding takers? Maybe submitting her to the calendar would help put her out there. Looking for an opponent for your next match? Maybe scrolling through the calendars will give you some ideas.
All in all, I think this could present some new opportunities for LAW, and I'm interested in giving it a try.
How would this work?
My tentative plan is this: Every month, I would make a new post spotlighting a different OC, with a brief biography consisting of some basic stats (like height, weight, age, hometown, finishing move, etc.), a few interesting facts and accomplishments, and maybe an important match they were featured in. The idea is that in-universe, LAW would sell calendars featuring pinups of their talent and a few facts about them each month, and this thread would be how we represent that in the framework of the real-world forum - basically as the theming for a monthly spotlight on a random character.
How would you select which characters to use?
As of right now, I intend to coordinate this myself. For each month, I'll randomly select an OC and notify the user, and we would play out a short scene for the photoshoot and a brief interview (either on Discord or the site itself, I'm still working out the details). Then, at the beginning of each month, I'll post the RP log in a thread or forum set up for the calendar, along with a profile summarizing the information as it would be presented on the calendar (I'll run it by each user for their approval).
If we're doing a calendar for this year, it's a little late to build up any storylines, so for now I would just be determining the lineup myself (from a list of interested participants, or with a random number generator to pick 12 if I get more than that). However, if it works and we decide to do it again, this could set a precedent for characters to have in-universe storyline reasons to be featured in future calendars down the line.
Wait! I have a girl I want to use, but I don't have pinup style art of her!
That's okay! This was something that Winner brought up when I pitched the idea to him, and I think it's a valid point. I know that there are certain characters used as faceclaims for LAW wrestlers who have more art than others, and I don't want to give an unfair advantage to girls who have a lot of pinup-style art out there when it comes to my selections.
This is why I thought doing an RP to play out the photoshoot would be a good idea. This is actually something I've thought about before - photoshoots seem like an obvious choice for LAW Magazine content, but just posting images wouldn't be that substantial, as for many characters the same images would be available on the internet anyway. What I came up with was doing photoshoot features by playing out the photoshoot itself - that's what I'm doing for this RP with Bare - so that the content of the pictures themselves could be described in the text and we also get character interactions to help develop the participants.
Since we'd be playing out the scene to determine what the calendar art would look like, you wouldn't need to use a specific reference image (though you can if you want to). All you'd really need is a reference or description of what the character would be wearing, and anything else in the shot (poses, composition, etc.) would be accomplished through descriptions.
What about guys? Can I use a male OC?
I know I called this "Ladies of LAW", but that's really a working title. The thought of how to involve male characters did cross my mind. It makes the most sense from an in-universe perspective to have separate calendars for male and female OCs, as most people who would buy a pinup calendar are probably only interested in looking at one or the other. Additionally, if we want to use it to show off different characters to potential RP partners, not everyone is interested in playing with males. However, I'm not even sure if we have enough active male OCs to support a yearly 12-month calendar for long, so I may have to mix some men in with the ladies if I get a lot of male applicants. Right now I'm just planning on seeing what characters people are thinking of using and going from there.
Shouldn't you have done this earlier? There's only a week left in January.
Yes. Yes I should have. I will admit that. I'm planning to make the first entrant one of my characters and writing out the interview myself to make sure I can squeeze the first post out in time. After that, though, we'll have a whole month or more to finish each RP, so it shouldn't be a problem. This way, I'll also get to have an example of what I'm looking for so people will have a better idea.
So, to summarize:
Keep in mind, right now this is only a proposal and I'm just seeing if people would be interested in doing it. Anything you see here is subject to change.
I hope to see your thoughts and feedback!
I've said it before, but I'm a big fan of how much LAW has expanded in recent months - not just in terms of users but also with the universe itself. Things like LAW Twitter, LAW Magazine, and the Breaking the LAW podcast have all made LAW feel more like a realistic, living, breathing wrestling promotion, and it's been really fun to see it all come together. I'm really excited to see how these contributions have created depth and allowed for new stories to be told and content to be created. And to that end, I had my own idea to add to the pile.
My idea is to create a thread that simulates an official LAW pinup calendar.
Why?
As I see it, there are both in-universe and out-of-universe reasons this idea could work.
From an in-universe perspective, it would help build on the LAW universe and present more opportunities for different stories to be told. If a character got picked for the calendar, you could bring that into storylines. A vain heel could brag about being featured, an up-and-coming rookie could see it as her big break, a shy girl could get pushed into doing it (maybe even as a result of a match stipulation) or be taunted about it. It's really up to however each participant wants to use it for whatever stories they would like to tell.
From an out-of-universe perspective, the calendar could function as a spotlight for different characters on the site. A regularly updated feature with some basic information on people's OCs could introduce users to new characters they might not have known about otherwise, and that they might become interested in RPing with. Got a character you'd like to use more, but have a hard time finding takers? Maybe submitting her to the calendar would help put her out there. Looking for an opponent for your next match? Maybe scrolling through the calendars will give you some ideas.
All in all, I think this could present some new opportunities for LAW, and I'm interested in giving it a try.
How would this work?
My tentative plan is this: Every month, I would make a new post spotlighting a different OC, with a brief biography consisting of some basic stats (like height, weight, age, hometown, finishing move, etc.), a few interesting facts and accomplishments, and maybe an important match they were featured in. The idea is that in-universe, LAW would sell calendars featuring pinups of their talent and a few facts about them each month, and this thread would be how we represent that in the framework of the real-world forum - basically as the theming for a monthly spotlight on a random character.
How would you select which characters to use?
As of right now, I intend to coordinate this myself. For each month, I'll randomly select an OC and notify the user, and we would play out a short scene for the photoshoot and a brief interview (either on Discord or the site itself, I'm still working out the details). Then, at the beginning of each month, I'll post the RP log in a thread or forum set up for the calendar, along with a profile summarizing the information as it would be presented on the calendar (I'll run it by each user for their approval).
If we're doing a calendar for this year, it's a little late to build up any storylines, so for now I would just be determining the lineup myself (from a list of interested participants, or with a random number generator to pick 12 if I get more than that). However, if it works and we decide to do it again, this could set a precedent for characters to have in-universe storyline reasons to be featured in future calendars down the line.
Wait! I have a girl I want to use, but I don't have pinup style art of her!
That's okay! This was something that Winner brought up when I pitched the idea to him, and I think it's a valid point. I know that there are certain characters used as faceclaims for LAW wrestlers who have more art than others, and I don't want to give an unfair advantage to girls who have a lot of pinup-style art out there when it comes to my selections.
This is why I thought doing an RP to play out the photoshoot would be a good idea. This is actually something I've thought about before - photoshoots seem like an obvious choice for LAW Magazine content, but just posting images wouldn't be that substantial, as for many characters the same images would be available on the internet anyway. What I came up with was doing photoshoot features by playing out the photoshoot itself - that's what I'm doing for this RP with Bare - so that the content of the pictures themselves could be described in the text and we also get character interactions to help develop the participants.
Since we'd be playing out the scene to determine what the calendar art would look like, you wouldn't need to use a specific reference image (though you can if you want to). All you'd really need is a reference or description of what the character would be wearing, and anything else in the shot (poses, composition, etc.) would be accomplished through descriptions.
What about guys? Can I use a male OC?
I know I called this "Ladies of LAW", but that's really a working title. The thought of how to involve male characters did cross my mind. It makes the most sense from an in-universe perspective to have separate calendars for male and female OCs, as most people who would buy a pinup calendar are probably only interested in looking at one or the other. Additionally, if we want to use it to show off different characters to potential RP partners, not everyone is interested in playing with males. However, I'm not even sure if we have enough active male OCs to support a yearly 12-month calendar for long, so I may have to mix some men in with the ladies if I get a lot of male applicants. Right now I'm just planning on seeing what characters people are thinking of using and going from there.
Shouldn't you have done this earlier? There's only a week left in January.
Yes. Yes I should have. I will admit that. I'm planning to make the first entrant one of my characters and writing out the interview myself to make sure I can squeeze the first post out in time. After that, though, we'll have a whole month or more to finish each RP, so it shouldn't be a problem. This way, I'll also get to have an example of what I'm looking for so people will have a better idea.
So, to summarize:
- Twelve characters will be selected from a pool of interested users, and one will be randomly selected each month.
- A brief interview and photoshoot will be played out using that character, centering around them being photographed for the calendar.
- Based on the interview, I will write up a short bio for the character and post it along with the interview log for that month's calendar entry.
Keep in mind, right now this is only a proposal and I'm just seeing if people would be interested in doing it. Anything you see here is subject to change.
I hope to see your thoughts and feedback!
and I would use Elm for it.
