Idea Alternative Interest Checks

[Krill]

I recently had an errant idea about shaking up the typical format of group RP interest checks. I used to be a groups-only roleplayer, but in the past year I've shifted significantly towards 1x1s. I value aspects of both, but 1x1's I find are often easier to get off the ground. Part of that's probably that you can be a lot more specific in aligning your interests with one person vs a whole group. One thing I've noticed with 1x1 interest checks is that they are a lot more diverse in their 'form' than group roleplays. With 1x1s, there is often as much or more energy put into finding a partner with a compatible personality as there is into finding a common interest in setting/plot/characters - this stuff comes secondary to the initial personal connection. Another thing that happens in 1x1 interest checks which doesn't really happen in group interest checks is character-first, plot-later, eg. OP provides some of their OCs and lets potential partners pick through them to find a character they want to write against. Then they develop a plot that fits both partners' characters.

In groups, the focus is always on either the plot or setting first. Characters are how individual roleplayers engage with and invest in the RP, but the characters are secondary to the unifying aspects of the roleplay outlined in the interest check - the elements which brought all of these roleplayers and their characters together in the first place. It suddenly struck me that this kind of feels a little bit backwards. If the character is always going to be the element of a roleplay that a roleplayer is most intimately connected to/invested in, then why not just make the characters themselves the centre of investment for everyone, cutting out the necessity for a plot/setting to tie everyone together when the characters themselves could both attract the other roleplayers and keep them mutually invested in their story?

This character-centric style of roleplaying, where plot and setting are peripheral, is, I think, the norm in 1x1s, and I think it is what successful group roleplays trend towards too, because over time the investment of those who stick around in the roleplay is going to inevitably be tied to whatever they are exposed to the most (which will be the characters, not the setting of the roleplay itself).

In light of all this thinking, I'm imagining making a group interest check with nothing but a character who could fit into any of myriad settings, and instructions for anyone interested to add their own character who they think would be compatible with all the characters posted so far; and once we have our characters, then together we'd brainstorm a plot and setting that fits them all. I think it could be a cool experiment, at least.

In thinking about where it lead, I'm imagining it might trend towards a sort of Guardians of the Galaxy-esque ragtag team of weirdos travelling in a pretty strange world. And I think that could be very cool.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all I've laid out above, but also, what interesting/unique interest checks or interest-check-techniques have you seen/used in the wild? How did they turn out? What's the best interest check you've ever seen, and what made it so great? What did the interest checks for the successful roleplays you've participated in have in common?

 

[Jannah]

As a very character driven writer I am atrocious at coming up with plots, especially ones that are not cliche or full of tropes. I very much allow the character interactions to determine the course of the story. Unfortunately that is not a style of writing that translates well to RP.

Your idea does seem to be along similar lines, but I'm also not one to recycle characters. I create new characters each time I RP, thus what you're proposing here also would not work well for me.

 

[NeonFlow]

I think 1x1 picks up easier as it usually involves as you said, one person making a check that lists a few plots using a few lines to describe it or the "vampireXhuman" sort of deal.

For me anyway my most successful checks have been somewhat random but I've found some trends...

I feel like My medieval fantasy aerth plots got more attention/success when isekai anime got released. Shield hero/konosuba/etc.

If you go with a fandom choice like naruto, one piece or hero academy then you will slowly gain a few players if its easy to find (on the front pages or with a easy search term)

Apart from that I feel group checks need more effort in selling the plot as its more about casting a net out an seeing who gets pulled in. 1x1 is more a effort on both writers in terms of plot as its basically 50 50 unless one person is playing every role in said world apart from the other players character.

I don't find codes and layouts as important for checks but I feel some people equal that to "this person is serious about that check because time/effort spent"

Checks I've joined or asked to be apart of usually have a decent/interesting plot in a world/setting that is easy to understand.

If its a wall of text explaining how and why the fictional world is what it is i sometimes get turned off it but on the same note, a wall of text with pictures and it is a decent mix of story/setting and the author explaining what they expect/want from players i get a bit more keen as its easy to understand and process.

Of course I might just be talking out my ass. Here's my most recent group check which is similar to the 1x1 style of checks as it lists multiple plots in the same thread aha

Fantasy - Poco's plot world

Ima just have a few here and bump as needed [/Spoiler] [/Spoiler] [/Spoiler] [/Spoiler] [/Spoiler]

www.rpnation.com

 

[Owlbear]

and once we have our characters, then together we'd brainstorm a plot and setting that fits them all.

I've been a part of roleplays based on this idea and it hasn't worked a single time.

The issue is that people just have too many differing ideas about what they want so the end result always ends up being a compromise that no one's truly happy with.

And that is assuming that the planning phase survives the seeming unavoidable fights that always pop up the second any major decision is to be made regarding the setting.

In short, the saying about the amount of chefs in regards to quality of soup exist for a reason.

 

[Idea]

There is a type of roleplay that's a reasonable aproximation of what I believe is being suggested here, an interest check advertising characters or focusing on bringing characters as opposed to a plot or setting. What I will be referring to as a "Tavern Roleplay". Tavern roleplays consist of a type of roleplay where you just have a random establishment, location, or anything of the sort and any type of character can just pop up and hang out, then disappear again. It's a very simple type of roleplay and fittingly often they use what used to be called the "simple" style roleplay (the lowest in the detail/length scale, between simple, casual and detailed). They actually had a pretty decent amount of success at times, but this from what I observed was often due to the roleplay's ability to quickly cycle through players without any big disruption. Players could come in and out of the roleplay, and frequently did, without this causing any fuss or big impact because there just wasn't the level of story cohesion or any big goals necessary for it to matter who was present, just that someone was, and those could easily be replaced. Even if people grew quickly bored, there were plenty at the ready who would like to participate now.

I believe that one simply interested in their own character could do well in an RP like this, in fact many did. Even in the lack of any proper setting, any plot whatsoever and with any particular other character being at best uncertain in their presence, players still joined this kind of RP and still had fun with it, even if often from what I saw their personal fun with it didn't last the RP itself could very well because it didn't need a stable player base only a flowing one to sustain itself. I believe, fundamentally, that this is a facet of a fact about players in general: They are primarily interested, in fact most of the time almost exclusively interested, in what they themselves create and/or contribute and the reactions that it gets.

I'll put that on hold for now though, and address more directly the proposal at hand: Of a character-based group interest check.

Assuming you are the GM, is it your character I, who am seeking a group, are supposed to be interested in? What about the other, lets say, five characters? If my interest in the roleplay is based on liking the character, what guarantee do I have that I will also like the others, such that I would pour in my time to and effort to make a character for this roleplay, after showing my interest in it? And if we remove characters too, and simply made a 1x1-style advertisement focusing more on the group members, we would incurr in this same issue.

Fundamentally, there is a major difference in being a part of a group and being a partner, between being a participant in something and working together with a particular person in a shared project. One of these is significantly more intimate, for a lack of a better word, and who you're working with can be far more important than what you're working together on in that one. The focus on settings and plots on group interest checks and the wider range of appeals in 1x1s is not the result of a lack of initiative to do otherwise but what is suitable for a given type of dynamic. Which isn't to say that who your group members is not crucially important, but rather that "Who" you will be working with is neither the focus of the appeal of a group interest check (because groups form around ideas, situations or a specific individual first, that uniting force that common interest is needed) nor is it something the GM can assure you with or at all promise as they themselves don't even know if a group will actually form let alone what candidates they will have to work with.

Furthermore, speaking personally, whenever I see a character sheet, not the template, but an actual character sheet with a filled out character, in the interest check (less so in 1x1s, mostly in groups) this is a huge red flag for me. The reason for this, is that it denotes one of the types of attitude I don't want to see in a GM (or another player, but expecting them not to have it can be wishful thinking), one hypercentered in their own character. Don't get me wrong, I believe everyone is first centered in their own character or other work, and only then thinks about others. However, someone who is hypercentered on their own character is someone who is likely to prioritize wellbeing of the character over the wellbeing of the story or the group. In a GM, this can manifest in the infamous type of GM characters, for whom the story seems to bend and who have access to privileges that do little but annoy everyone who isn't the GM or one of others receiving favoritism. In players, it can create a number of obnoxious scenarios in fact I would argue the majority of character problems are connected if not directly resulting of a hypercentrism on one's character.

Characters as the appeal of the interest check may seem differently motivated, but again you can't put the characters you don't even know yet as front and center if you are appealing with the characters specifically. The only character you will be able to present at first is your own. The character you will be thinking of, necessarily, is your own. You asked why not cut the plot/setting and focus on the characters? That's because of this- you are focused on your own character. It's not unifying, there's nothing pulling to make things less divided.

Now, you might argue "hey, maybe people will take a genuine interest in my character". It could be, it's not impossible. But this works better in 1x1s, because again there you only need to be interested in that one character. Furthermore, if I may go on a bit of a tangent, I have come to believe there are three reasons for people to take an interest in an RP, and two of those are almost derived from the first. That first one is a craving- a simple innate desire to RP a certain thing, be it a theme, character, fandom, setting or anything of the sort. The second is insertion, this is the desire to roleplay something because it allows you to insert something else into it, the latter being what you actually want, a craving. For example, joining a roleplay of a certain setting because this will allow you to play a certain character. Lastly there's the desire for personal involvement. A person being such an interesting that you simply want to work with them even if you have to compromise in your other interests for instance, or a plot being so interesting that you wan to be a part of that story. It could be described as a craving to work with or within something. Notice here that 2/3s of these motivations are always about your stuff- and in that last third you are being an active participant in another's stuff, you are contributing to it. In every case, one's personal investment or contribution to something is important to their interest in it.

Someone else's character can never be a craving to begin with because you don't know them. 1x1s can use insertion for a character because you can specifically pair (romantically or otherwise) your own character to that specific one, but groups can't because you may be a big fish but the pond isn't as small anymore. So what's left is for a desire for personal involvement to be formed. This is extremely difficult for characters though, because personal involvement involves the ability to contribute. Characters are, more often than not, far too personal to give the feeling that you can (initially at least) really have an impact in who they are. You are disconnected from other people's characters.

If your answer to this is along the lines of "surely my character is interesting enough to/ surely they will want to know about X secret/maybe they will just like to see how my character interacts with", then here's the harsh truth: The person involved in making something, who is invested in it by that process and often knows it far better than they could properly explain, is going to find the idea a lot more appealing than an outsider. Which more often than not means they really overestimate how interesting an outsider would actually find it to be, especially again, at first before ever getting a chance to know them. Plots and settings can create a unifying idea, and serve as the bridge that brings people together until they have time to grow interested and invested in each other's work. Without that bridge, the connection is likely to simply fail to form.

I understand this was a long ramble, and frankly I could have worded it in a more organized fashion, so I'll try to give a tldr of sorts:


Why This Can Work:
- - - -> If players are extremely well coordinated you can probably create a story with the characters basically being prompts, which focuses on their development and interactions. This isn't saying much though, as in reality a group of players coordinated that well can make just about anything work.
- - - > The brainstorming process could generate a plot or setting that gives the idea a direction to follow and a uniting idea besides the individual pull of the characters. The idea could work by transforming into a plot-focused or setting-focused idea.
- - - > The idea could work by becoming a "Tavern RP". This would allow a focus on characters and so long as the rules were kept about as light as possible, there would likely be a stream of players keeping the RP fresh and afloat- but this stream of players would likely be both in AND out.

Why This Can Fail:
- - - -> It's not fundamentally possible to truthfully promise what one promises about oneself in regards to a yet unformed group. Even if one finds your character appealing enough to take interest in, there is no guarantee about the other people in the group.
- - - -> Plots and settings present a unifying factor or idea, which is a necessary aspect for a group to form. Characters are simply too much of a personal thing. "Characters" tend to be the focus, but one must not incur in the error of not realizing that this is primarily an attachment of each player to their own character, that investment in other people's characters needs to be grown first and you can't have that growth if there is no roleplay yet, if there even are the characters yet.



Overall, I don't think it would work without transforming into something different from what I think it is intended to be, or without access to that one miracle hyper coordinated group.

What did the interest checks for the successful roleplays you've participated in have in common?

1x1s were informative, clearly outlined someone who would work well with my preferences, and were written in a way that I was very confident I would love to work with the person in that interest check, showing they were friendly, had a sense of humor and a clear interest in putting in good, passionate work.

Group RPs mainly had two things in common. They were relatively favorable to my style of writing and roleplaying, and they got the gears in my brain going about what I would like to do in that RP, usually in the form of a character. I guess you could add a third thing that kind of goes without saying, but it didn't trigger any red flags or my general disinterest, which as someone who's kind of picky about what RPs I take and tends to read into not only what is written but also how, can be more of an achievement than one would think.

Note: I am choosing to ignore the "successful" word there because I don't think the interest check has much to do with making an RP successful besides getting it off the ground. Even then there are plenty of factors at play.

I will also be skipping the rest of the questions, it's way too late to try to remember that hyper specific yet vague stuff like "the best interest check".

Regardless, I do hope what I've said here helps. Best of luck and happy RPing!