Advice/Help a genuine question

[Perpetual Zen]

I'm relatively new-ish to this site and I'm wondering something. Other sites, you set a group role play recruit, you get a few people interested and they send reserves. After this you send a profile. After this people start posting in the main character thread. Sometimes there is a discord but not always. I really like it when discord works out.

Here, I have a really hard time starting a role play. I have really amazing people and profiles and idea's but that's as far as it goes. I'm not bashing on anyone here because I really enjoy everyone and the atmosphere. However, I've never had a place harder to start a role play and I'm starting to come to the conclusion this is something I'm doing wrong

Just hash out some advice if you want. I'm not sensitive and I'm wanting to learn how this site navigates. What's this site's system?
Just adding again, I totally am not being negative towards anyone because I really like the people here. I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong mostly, it makes me feel a bit guilty and I wouldn't want to be working against anyone here. I want to work with people, genuinely

 

[Onmyoji]

Other sites, you set a group role play recruit, you get a few people interested and they send reserves. After this you send a profile. After this people start posting in the main character thread. Sometimes there is a discord but not always. I really like it when discord works out.

It's exactly the same here.

1. You make Interest Check thread in Recruitment section.
2. People express interest
3. The way you accept application depends on your rp. Let's say you make a thread where people post character profiles and accept them.
4. You start the actual rp thread in Group section (or move to Discord if it's off-site rp)
5. The rest depends on what kind of rp it is and how you planned it.

This site is just a platform where the common principle is: you make interest check - look for people - start roleplay. There is no universal system. Each roleplay has own rules and own ways to organize things. Getting or not getting interest seems totally random and may or may not depend on how well you organize everything, so there is no universal recommendation.

 

[nerdy tangents]

It’s been awhile but that is more or less how I remember groups working on here.

Including the falling apart before anyone actually posts.

From experience with more successful groups on other sites and one particularly successful one on here I think an active ooc and having hours of availability might help.

As roleplayers in general get older (most folks I interact with seem to be in the 20-30 age range) our schedules are a lot less consistent and most of us have less free time.

So I would add hours of availability question to the reserve process just to get an idea of when people are going to be able to post. (Also helps determine who has left and who is just legitimately busy with IRL).

Also encourage people to get to know one another in the OOC. I always had fun with ice breakers or just in general chatting with other players. The more friendly people are with other players the more invested they are going to be in the roleplay.

Now as for addressing your actual issue I might hold off starting the roleplay for like a week (which I know might kill momentum) but it will also give you more of an idea of who is just on a bandwagon and who is going to have staying power.

As a lot of people (myself included) will get a rare moment of free time, feel a bit bored, and try to join new roleplays. Only to immediately get swamped again and have to drop the roleplays.

So giving it a week will let you know how many of your players are actually interested and how many were just bored.

 

[Perpetual Zen]

It’s been awhile but that is more or less how I remember groups working on here.

Including the falling apart before anyone actually posts.

From experience with more successful groups on other sites and one particularly successful one on here I think an active ooc and having hours of availability might help.

As roleplayers in general get older (most folks I interact with seem to be in the 20-30 age range) our schedules are a lot less consistent and most of us have less free time.

So I would add hours of availability question to the reserve process just to get an idea of when people are going to be able to post. (Also helps determine who has left and who is just legitimately busy with IRL).

Also encourage people to get to know one another in the OOC. I always had fun with ice breakers or just in general chatting with other players. The more friendly people are with other players the more invested they are going to be in the roleplay.

Now as for addressing your actual issue I might hold off starting the roleplay for like a week (which I know might kill momentum) but it will also give you more of an idea of who is just on a bandwagon and who is going to have staying power.

As a lot of people (myself included) will get a rare moment of free time, feel a bit bored, and try to join new roleplays. Only to immediately get swamped again and have to drop the roleplays.

So giving it a week will let you know how many of your players are actually interested and how many were just bored.

Ah! An availability check is a really good idea! I've seen it but I don't generally add it and it may be really helpful
Ice breakers a good one too. Really random question, how do you quote people here on rpn like if I wanted to quote a group of people to a forum

 

[Perpetual Zen]

It's exactly the same here.

1. You make Interest Check thread in Recruitment section.
2. People express interest
3. The way you accept application depends on your rp. Let's say you make a thread where people post character profiles and accept them.
4. You start the actual rp thread in Group section (or move to Discord if it's off-site rp)
5. The rest depends on what kind of rp it is and how you planned it.

This site is just a platform where the common principle is: you make interest check - look for people - start roleplay. There is no universal system. Each roleplay has own rules and own ways to organize things. Getting or not getting interest seems totally random and may or may not depend on how well you organize everything, so there is no universal recommendation.

Ah, I see
I was just wondering if there was something I was missing. If it was like my images were too large and stretching the screen or like I'm not giving enough lore or maybe I need to branch out into different subjects. I just felt like it must be something I'm doing wrong but could be just all chance

 

[Perpetual Zen]

Thank you so much to anyone posting. I really was wondering. I'll add another question to the forum.

What usually brings you really great success in a role play. Is it the graphics? Is it the idea? Is it the people? Is it the opening?

I have only been really invested in a good one on one here on this site. My groups are a challenge but I'm trying to be up for it

 

[Daisie]

I know this isn't very helpful lol, but for the sake of diversity, I'll put in my method lol.
Granted, I tend to only do 1x1s, so keep that in mind, but I've gotten away with never using the recruitment section of the site.
I don't think it's a bad place by any means XD I've just somehow managed to avoid it. My RP partners are less recruited so much as they are adopted. I'm generally already friends with the people I start RPing with, which I honestly believe makes a RP 10x more likely to work. It's harder to ghost a preexisting relationship.

That's not to say all of my RPs have succeeded, but man, I've never had issues with ghosting, which seems to be the topic of discussion about every month or so.

I know it probably won't work for everyone, especially if you're really eager and impatient to get into a RP. Like I've basically been at an average of 2 or 3 RPs for years now - a lot of that time with just the 1 - but I really prefer to make friends first, and then proposition them for a RP, rather than hoping a RP turns a stranger into a friend.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I would actually co-sign Daisie 's idea with a slight alteration to accommodate groups.

Every single group I have ever been in that lasted for longer than a week did so because the players were all friends. Now unlike Daisie's method none of these people were friends prior to the roleplay starting, at most maybe one or two people had been in a previous version of the idea but most met in the thread itself.

Now part of what helped make friends was the ice breakers I mentioned earlier and a GM actively encouraging people to get to know one another in the OOC forum. As it got engagement up for the roleplay itself but also gave people a chance to feel invested in the other players.

Now this is by no means a foolproof approach, as you do need to get the right group of people together that mesh well. Unfortunately that part is entirely up to luck. But once you do get that group transitions from a bunch of people who like an idea to a bunch of people who like each other that's when a roleplay has staying power.


All that to say failure is not personal. The thing that has made searching for new partners easiest for myself is treating every failure a bit like a performance review. When it's all over I look at the feedback I got from my partner. What did they like about the idea and what did they find confusing? I adjust accordingly and then post a new version of the idea.

As well if it was just a scheduling issue then I usually try to keep an eye out for that person to see if they come back on and if they're interested in my new idea. Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't.

 

[cheeseburger90210]

I'm relatively new-ish to this site and I'm wondering something. Other sites, you set a group role play recruit, you get a few people interested and they send reserves. After this you send a profile. After this people start posting in the main character thread. Sometimes there is a discord but not always. I really like it when discord works out.

Here, I have a really hard time starting a role play. I have really amazing people and profiles and idea's but that's as far as it goes. I'm not bashing on anyone here because I really enjoy everyone and the atmosphere. However, I've never had a place harder to start a role play and I'm starting to come to the conclusion this is something I'm doing wrong

Just hash out some advice if you want. I'm not sensitive and I'm wanting to learn how this site navigates. What's this site's system?
Just adding again, I totally am not being negative towards anyone because I really like the people here. I just want to know if I'm doing something wrong mostly, it makes me feel a bit guilty and I wouldn't want to be working against anyone here. I want to work with people, genuinely

something I'm doing wrong? no its this site.
I have posted some the very same things I post here on other web sites. I get alot of replies.
Here I am lucky if people reply at all. I get views; just no replies.
I left other communities to come here.
Like it or not this is where I roleplay now and I need to just need to 'fall in line' with the ways of this web site. I need to give it a chance. Might take a few months.

 

[Hyena]

Wow, I learned a lot just from checking this out, I am happy you asked these questions Perpetual Zen, and thank you to those who answered them! I see I may have been a bit hasty myself putting up my iCheck. I hope that works out for you Cheeseburger! Some things do take time.