#crownsofnewyork

URL

From the URL alone, I wouldn’t guess that this is an RP group. It’s by no means required to have ‘rp’ in your url, but it certainly doesn’t hurt in terms of telling people what the blog is. The url does give an idea of the setting, and hints at some sort of royalty theme, which is nice and leaves a lot of questions that will hopefully draw people in to learn more.

Theme/Navigation

I’ve seen similar themes used a lot for rp groups lately, and it works fairly well. I’m not a huge fan of having to scroll past the header image to get to the actual content on the blog, but the image is well done and interesting to look at. The color scheme is nice, although the black lettering on the dark purple can be a little difficult to read, so I would suggest altering one color a little to provide more contrast. There’s a lot going on in the sidebars. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it could get a bit cluttered. 

The navigation is simple and well laid out, which I appreciate. You may want to add another link to the rules somewhere on the navigation. It is just at the top of the page, but so are several of the other links that are listed again in the navigation, so it’s best to be consistent. My one other critique would be the font for the different sections of the navigation. Cursive isn’t the easiest thing to read, even if it looks fancy.  

Characters

You have a wide range of characters and FCs to pick from which is nice. It’s refreshing to see so many non-binary options, although it would be better if more of them were played by FCs who identify as non-binary. In terms of diversity, there aren’t many characters who are Asian or Latinx. A bit more body diversity would be good too. There are also some FCs who are playing characters, who have an age that is slightly inappropriate, which you may want to change. Generally, I would say that an FC shouldn’t play someone more than 5 years older or younger than them. 

All the bios seem to be of about the same length, and have a good backstory to build off. Leaving things like personality and sexual orientation up to the players is great. However, you may want to pick a handful of characters to designate as being homosexual, bisexual, or asexual, to ensure that diversity is present. 

The links on the bottom of the character posts also seem to go to a different url, which no longer exists. 

Plot

The full plot does a good job of setting the stage for the RP, and establishing the families, but it seems as though each section could be a bit more fully flushed out. In the Staten Island and Brooklyn sections, the royal families aren’t even named. It’s mentioned that the Evans family and the Del Torro family are enemies, but no such relationship is mentioned for any of the others. This seems like it would be the ideal place to mention alliances and other former conflicts that players could explore further. The families have their own page, which goes into a bit more depth, so perhaps the plot page should go into the setting and the current atmosphere of the kingdoms. 

Best Qualities

Clearly a lot of thought has been put into each and every character and the organization of the families. Again, it is very nice to see so many non-binary characters, and your rule that players must pick up a non-binary character if they play three males or females is a great idea! Your color scheme is nice and consistent and the character graphics are very well done. 

Things to Fix

The plot page could use a bit more work establishing base conflicts for characters to build off of. I would recommend adding more alliances, or rivalries between the kingdoms. It’s also more clear what the royals are expected to do than the commoners, so perhaps there could be some sort of a resistance group plotting to overthrow the kingdoms. If you plan to release more characters in the future, I highly recommend more Latinx and Asian FCs as you’re rather lacking in both. 

Recommendation

URL

It’s short, memorable and definitely puts two things in my mind - royalty and New York, so you’ve got your basic plot and location right there in the URL! However, I really prefer rpgs to actually denote they are rpgs in the URL, rather than leave it as a URL that could easily be any kind of blog. It just gets across the point a little better, even if it is a bit old-fashioned these days!

Theme

The theme follows the common pattern of rpgs these days, with a big header, centred posts and two sidebars, and it means you can pack a lot of information into one page! The colour scheme works pretty well, and I like that you’ve used a lot of purple as a colour that has always represented royalty. The header could do with something added to it, I think - it’s very big with unrelated images and  not a lot to focus the eye, so maybe try to add some text on it? You’ve got all the links I like to see on the link bar at the top, which is good to see.

Plot

I really like the way you’ve written the sidebar plot - it puts across the plot of the group really well in a very succinct way, so well done! There’s some nice imagery in there also. The plot is nicely split up with a section for each family and this makes it easy to read, although I do think you’ve made it a little too brief for a full plot. I’d like to know a little more about each ‘kingdom’ -  maybe how the average person there feels about their royals, or how the families feel about each other? I see you have a more detailed page on the families themselves, so you could pop a link to that on the main plot page to make it easier for people to find out more.

Characters

As it’s an OC group, I obviously won’t be judging the characters themselves! I do appreciate that you don’t organised characters by gender and that you have several non-binary characters included in those released already. It’d be nice to see some more non-binary FCs to go with them though! There’s decent diversity within the FCs but more is always good, especially when it comes to age, body type and ability. As an OC group it’s hard to get this to happen, but if the admins lead the way it really helps. You could also take your rule for multiple characters further, in that they have to be diverse in either ethnicity, gender, ability, or body type.. The bios are of good length and nicely laid out - you can get a lot of information very quickly with the bullet points.

Rules

The first rule you come to mentions no underage smut, and it’s great to see that so prominent and with such a serious consequence. A week is a good activity limit and I think it’ll enable people from all kinds of lifestyles to be able to apply. I think a specific rule regarding triggers would be good to add to the rules - I see you have a page of triggers to be tagged, so make sure you link this in the rules and make it a requirement to tag them.

Application

The OOC portion is solid, with all the sections I like to see. Some people might be put off by the Skype part, so I’m glad you’d emphasised that it’s not necessary - although it might make people feel left out if they don’t use Skype and get accepted. The IC portion matches the existing bios exactly, and I think that the writing you’ll see in there would give you enough feel for their writing that you don’t need a para sample - I assume that’s why you’ve chosen not to include one! It’s a nice, simple application, and they’re definitely coming back into style in rpgs over in depth ones.

Miscellaneous

I think you should seriously consider changing the PSD you’re using for character graphics, because it really really whitewashes FCs with darker skin. I don’t know how wise it is to have links to the admins’ blogs on the main - if things ever go sour it might mean bad things, but so long as you’re both happy with that then it’s your call. It’s good to see you have events planned already, which will motivate people to apply and shows you’re dedicated to moving the group along.

Overall