Advice/Help Gm & thread/rp making advice?

[Chimeric]

Hello RPN,

I'm L'Amour, you can also call me Mour and I'm about to create this roleplay I'm really passionate about. I am just trying to see how I will mesh and balance everything out. I don't want it to feel too messy or "all over the place" and complicated, having potential players turn away. From past encounters and wonderful people I met I asked them how they run a thread, as I have been concerned about running my own thread and since been avoiding it, yet working on my idea, and they said ultimately it's sticking with it and not getting discouraged when people flake. And I understand that'll probably happen. But I guess among the many other questions I have or will have is, how can I try preventing that. From making a rp not look to OOOM "big" and more inviting (given if it has any initial interest) but also still keeping the lore and information I want? What are your tips if you will? Thanks to everyone who shares and provides there experience and knowledge!

 

[Chimeric]

I am so sorry I put this into he wrong forum section

 

[Chimeric]

thank you for moving it (I don't know who but thank you!)

 

[Idea]

Well, from the way you're speaking it sounds as though you are in full awareness making an RP with lore and info that you see as overwhelming in some sense, or at least one that is contrary to your goal of it being "inviting". Now this isn't that great of an indicator because a pessimistic outlook or things like anxiety can easily lead to one overestimating the bad aspects of what they do, but even so it might be worth considering exactly why it is you find your own content potentially excessive or contrary to something "inviting".

Do not assume a priori interest
You should never assume people find your idea or world interesting in any way. This doesn't mean they never will of course, and especially over time people who are in your roleplay may become more interested in it, but thinking people will be interested before they know of it (and therefore that they will actively want to know more about it beyond the bare minimum they need for whatever purpose they may have at the time) can lead to the thought process that you can focus on the world rather than the players, getting priorities mixed up. The exception to this can be fandoms, but that's not what we're talking about here. In most cases the players aren't so much interested in what you made, but in what they can contribute, namely their own characters.

One of the consequences of this is that you shouldn't use the interest check for a lore dump. People don't have the patience to read through this whole wall of text that doesn't even properly describe what the RP is about. Anything that isn't immediately pertaining to understanding A) the basic, BASIC concept of the setting, B) who their characters are to be in it and C) what they are to do in it should not be in your interest check unless it has such appeal that you think crucial for the locus of the enjoyment in the RP (an assumption which ought to be made with great caution because of what I went over in the previous paragraph).

Another consequence of this is that because people are looking for their own position, the question to be asked is often "what do players gain by joining this RP? What do they get to be and how are these things appealing?". There is no clear answer to what the best forms of appealing would be, and really just about any kind of role will appeal to someone - but not every kind of role will suit the other elements of your roleplay. The role of a normal person is certainly going to appeal to some people, but if your setting and plot are all about these amazing magical feats the lack of ability to use said magic is going to make it way harder for that appeal to come through, especially when you consider you are competing with every other RP that person comes across for their time, attention and effort. This is where I most often see the "but my world is so rich and interesting" type defense, but as I mentioned in the title of this segment, you shouldn't assume that a priori. It is the player's role within it that you should try to make interesting, but how you do that depends on a bit too many variables for a clear answer to be given.

This does lead to a matter concerning lore, which is often when lore is extensive it can get a bit too constricting. Now don't get me wrong, I find clear and well-defined boundaries to be an excellent thing when it comes to worldbuilding, but often people making the lore focus on specific outcomes rather than specific rules. If your rules are specific then that means as long as one doesn't break them they should have the freedom to do as they like. But specific outcomes means the rules will often be strict, but at times bend or grow new ones or even make an "invisible wall" preventing certain things being done despite being in no way contradicting - heck by some perspectives even being necessitated by - the rules, in favor of a particular supposed result of the rules or way of being in that setting. It's hard to tell when you may just be making too many rules or being too strict with the minutea of the aspects of your lore, and it's often a matter of taste, but when it comes to specific rules vs specific outcomes there is a very clear metric: If someone is to violate something that typically happens in your world, and you tell them they can't, are you justifying it based on whether it does or doesn't happen in the world, or are you justifying it based on the rules by which the world operates? If the former you are dealing with specific outcomes, with the later you are dealing with specific rules. I would consider the later to be a not only more consistent way to worldbuild, but also better in terms of character possibility and freedom, and laying out the rules by which the world operates should always be far less extensive than laying out the specific outcomes of those rules as well.

Lastly on this topic, but by no means least, while you can't assume players will take an interest in your stuff (this interest will have to be earned and info often drip-fed), if you are running the RP you should try to take an active interest in your player's characters. After all, if a player's main interest is likely to be their character, then by engaging them on what they like you are conveying that you are taking an interest in that player as well. It's worlds apart, being in a game where you are personally appreciated versus being in one where you are a replaceable token. Furthermore, a personal interest on your part should make it easier for you to help the player do what they want to do with their character but in a way that intertwines them more with your lore. If a player wants to make a thief that discovered a treasure and is now living off the earnings, you have a chance to make this treasure plot relevant. If they want to play as fallen nobility, you could see if maybe you have any fallen noble house or heck even fallen royalty you could propose to your player and blend together the stories of your plot, lore and their character's, in the process giving your player a stronger reason to care for all of those.


Regarding the when and where of lore and info
If you aren't putting the vast majority of your lore and info in your interest check, then where should it be? The best answer, as far as I can tell, is a dedicated lore thread. It should be separated from the rest, clearly indicated as what it is, and easily accessible. The better organized your lore is by topics, and the more easily one can get to the relevant topic, the better because it's more likely people will actually read it the things if they can find what they need to find more easily (as opposed to having to go through a wall of barely relevant text and arrive at the part that matters only as they are running out of patience). That being said, don't ever fall into the trap of expecting players to know the lore. The players willing to pay attention to it will still make mistakes on details, which is to say nothing of those who aren't interested in the lore or willing to pay attention as they go through it. The more you put into the lore, the more should be prepared to answer a fair amount of questions, explain things repeatedly and be flexible in adapting to potential mistakes that can't be taken back, finding workarounds within your lore. More importantly, however, you should identify the most crucial parts for players to know. If you can't do that in a small list of bullet points you're probably not doing it right. Of course, it doesn't have to be a small list of bullet points when you explain these most relevant things (some concepts may need a lot of text to properly explain after all), but the list should be. Once you have identified these most important things, make sure you put emphasis on them, that you make them stick out and make them the most apparent and accessible parts. These are the parts you decided you can't be flexible on after all, so if they are that important then it follows you should communicate to your players that this is the stuff they absolutely need to know, whereas the rest can wait for what they can accomodate.

The other place to put lore and info is of course over the course of the story. This is mainly where that info is relevant, but you can (and depending on how relevant that info is for future events or for your players to be able to solve the problems the plot throws at them, maybe you should) add some info before it becomes relevant as well, or after if it's for a twist (which are a whole other topic that I will not get into now). Lore dumps are at times necessary, but most of the time you want to try to find organic ways to drip-feed info.


General Tips
Now for a few more general tips:

-Don't get too attached: One of the biggest issues with people who have these ideas or big lores they want to bring is they can get too attached to their own idea. This can make them inflexible, break the rule of not assuming interest, distort expectations the GM has of the players, mix priorities and many many other issues.

-Prepare for slow moments: While real life issues are the biggest RP-killer (by far), the slow moments are quite deadly too. They are the inevitable point when the action drops (or before it starts), when you have the character interacting but no specific goal in that scene besides going through it. This is often the moment when many players end up feeling disoriented and unable to decide what to do with their characters, and when a lot of people loose hype-driven interest and so fizzle out of the roleplay. Learning to deal with slow moments is difficult to learn and harder to master, but a crucial aspect of being a good GM in my eyes.

-Keep an active OOC: Active OOCs are often a good indicator of a healthy RP. If the OOC starts dying out, this is often an indicator of the RP's activity and interest fizzling.

-Always try to be friendly (but not necessarily soft): Someone's attitude can make or break interest, both in the actual interest check and in every part of a roleplay hence, especially the OOC bits. Generally trying to be positive and friendly is the way to go, but don't take this to mean you have to be very lenient if there is an actual troublemaker or the like. Being rude and aggressive but never actually taking action to stop the issues is probably among the worst ways to go about GMing - but being friendly and understanding, but removing problems at the route if words prove insufficient is probably among the better ones.



In any case, the topic is quite broad but I tried to fixate on things more relevant to your situation, hopefully I got it right.

I hope you find this useful, I wish you a best of luck and happy roleplaying!

 

[GojiBean]

Hoyo Chimeric !

Idea hit quite a few points I was ready to touch upon. But still, as a longtime GM and someone who's excited to help others with their RP struggles whenever possible, I'll attempt to outline my own GM experiences and some tips for your convenience!

So, here we go!

The Calm Before The Storm

So, what's this overused tropey phrase mean?

What I like to call the "calm before the storm" in relation to becoming a GM for an RP is that quiet time you spend conceptualizing your story idea and how it will translate to a role-play.

If there's one tip I can give that will save you a lot of headaches and heartache, it's this: Not all story ideas translate well to a role-play environment.

Now, to the credit of human creativity most ideas can translate to a role-play environment. But it takes a special construction method not used in regular story telling like you would for a novel or tv script. It's far more layered, if you will. But what are the layers?

I like to break them down as follows:

Layer 1 - The Foundation

This is the layer which encompasses the actual "world" of the RP. The land they walk on, the waters they swim or ride boats on, the air they fly through (if flying's a thing), etc. All the elements of the world itself whether it be directly related to the characters or entirely unrelated, from the tallest mountains to the tiniest pebble of sand on the beach. It's all one layer.

The role of this layer is two-fold: One, to serve as the backdrop for every scene your characters are in. Two, to act as either an ally or foil to the characters depending on the needs of the scene. Does that tree help your character avoid getting shot, or does it abruptly stop them and cause them to get shot because they turned too late to see and avoid it before the bullet was fired? Did that waterfall serve as a beautiful landmark while relaxing, or a harrowing near-death experience when your character fell off of it?

Layer 2 - The Basics

This is the layer which encompasses the actual mechanics of the world, and a lot of this is based on the genre. Is it magical? Steampunk? Futuristic? Medieval? A mix?

The rules and guidelines of each genre will help shape this layer. Take magical medieval, for example. Is the magic a hard or soft system (look these up if they're unfamiliar to you)? If it's hard magic, how strict are your rules going to be regarding how magic is produced and used? If it's soft, how flexible are you willing to be in letting others use their imaginations to create on the fly? Is magic just part of the world and usable by anyone whenever? Or is there a force behind it like "Mana" which only some people/races can use?

These kinds of mechanical concepts, rules, and guidelines for how the world works are, in my opinion, a second layer as opposed to being lumped into the first. Some would lump them together. But not me. I prefer thinking of them as two different layers because I personally find it easier to think about the look/function of the world first, and then think about how various elements like magic, technology, etc are used within that world. You're free to combine them if you're so inclined though. This is just my preference.

Layer 3 - The Characters

This is the final layer of my GM process, and in my opinion it's by far the most important because it's the most easily mismanaged by GM's who don't pay attention to certain details.

Here are the details which are most important (in my opinion) for a GM to consider regarding characters:

* What are the constraints to character creation?
* Is there a need for gender balancing?
* Are there any predefined roles which need to be filled?
* Are there any predefined roles which are to be avoided?
* How much freedom do the players have with their characters once the RP begins?

Let's break them down real quick.

- What are the constraints of character creation?

Are you going to impose any limitations on playable races, physical traits (mechanical/artificial limbs to name but one example), personality tropes/archetypes (For eaxmple, I genuinely hate the "brooding loner" trope and usually discourage, though do not outright deny, my fellow role-players from using it), etc?

Every limit you impose on character creation is going to close the door for someone out there on the idea of joining your RP. So, you will need to accept and live with this fact.

- Is there a need for gender balancing?

I never impose a gender balance on my RP's. If everyone plays a female, so be it. If everyone plays a male, so be it. From asking other GM's over the years why they often impose a gender balance requirement in their RP's, I've found that it usually comes from one of two places: Romance potential, or personal gratification.

Romance potential is obvious. Most people love a good romance. I know I do. However, unless romance is actually an intended function of the RP then I believe it's best to avoid using character balance as an excuse to keep the option open. If you want romance to be optional, just make that an intended part of the RP and let everyone know right out of the gate that you would like everyone to consider romantic pairing options when they are designing their characters. Just make sure not to mandate it. Nobody likes being forced to create a romance when they didn't intend one to happen or if they don't like any of the pairing options available.

- Are there any predefined roles which need to be filled or avoided?

This one usually is story/plot dependent. For example, I know there are some role-players out there who like to play villain characters. I don't particularly find this appealing due to the fact that it creates basically two role-plays in one and only converges at some points. So I never allow villain characters in my role-plays because I don't want to have to oversee two mostly parallel stories going on at the same time. So villain roles are always avoided in my role-plays. But maybe you specifically want a villain role fulfilled by someone. In that case, go nuts! The same is true for any role you want fulfilled. And one thing about being the GM... If nobody else wants it, you need to fill it if you want it used. So be prepared for that.

- How much freedom do the players have with their characters once the RP begins?

This is one that's caused me a lot of headaches and heartache in my earlier years as a GM. I was kind of... Well... Very picky, as a GM, for many years. I was picky about the types of characters I let into the RP's I make. I was picky about the mechanics of my world to the point of going into way too much detail about how the mechanics work and what the limits are. And I was picky about what I don't want to see happening in the RP's from character physical combat capabilities to special abilities to use of technology, magic, etc. Limits, limits, limits.

As I've gotten older and settled down a bit more into the GM role and learned more about the craft of storytelling, I've been able to relax and let go of my pickiness to a pretty solid degree. There's still a little bit of it left. But it's largely limited (there's that word again, lol) to making sure that the most important elements and mechanics of the RP are understood so that any limitations are clearly implied so that nobody has to ask and I can rest peacefully knowing that everyone will stay within those implied boundaries.

Every GM has boundaries, after all. But how you present them will say a lot about you and will either open or close more doors for potential role-players to want to join in the action. And trust me on this one... The more you talk about limits, the more you'll turn people off to wanting to stick around after they've joined.

So for this one, take this advice to heart: stay flexible

The Interest Check

As Idea pointed out, the Interest Check is not the place to put any significant amount of lore, mechanics explanations, etc.

The interest check is simply a tool to whet the appetite of prospective participants for the RP by giving them a few hints as to what they might be in for. And to accomplish this to the greatest effect, I've found that a few key points need to be hit.

1) The Interest Check contents aren't for the RP

Strange as it sounds, the Interest Check's contents are not for asking people to join the RP. The Interest Check itself already is an argument to join the RP just by existing.

Instead, treat the contents of your Interest Check like a trailer for a film. Give a few hints as to what the RP entails, the genre, what some of the basic mechanics are (only surface description, not a deep dive), what kinds of characters you're hoping to see and interact with, etc.

2) Sound Confident

The Interest Check is where you, as the GM, put on a demonstration of your confidence in your story concept. People are drawn to confidence. Not arrogance. Confidence. So be careful in your choice of words so as not to let the way you communicate come off as arrogance.

For example, do tell everyone that you've spent a lot of time on the idea of this RP and that you've spent time working it out so that it will likely appeal to a wide range of fans of the genre. Do not say that you've spent a lot of time to make sure it appeals to all fans of the genre. It's a subtle difference. But an important once. No matter what you do, you'll never attract all of the fans of any genre or story type.

3) Sound Welcoming

You made a point about wanting the RP to feel welcoming, and it all starts here. Be friendly and excited about your story idea, and let everyone know that anyone who's interested is welcome to check it out regardless of their own perceptions about their "skill level" or anything else they might be concerned with about themselves. Put their insecurities to rest before they have a chance to take hold and force them to shy away from the idea of joining, and you're already taking 5 steps ahead of other GM's who don't do the same in their Interest Checks.

First Contact

So, your interest check garnered interest and people are starting to reach out to you about joining. What do you do now?

Easy. You create a dedicated OOC thread, and/or invite them to Discord or some other chat service so you can all chat in something closer to real time than the back and forth messaging on a forum thread where communications take minutes, if not hours.

I cannot stress how important this step is to maintaining an active OOC. Leaving it to the forum threads where everyone has to wait for messages to be submitted and refresh the page before getting a chance to read and reply is far too slow to maintain a healthy level of activity for very long. It might work at first for a while. But trust me, people are going to get annoyed with the wait after a while.

So once you get first contact invite them to the OOC thread or to a Discord server so you can all chat more immediately. Be sure to be friendly, be ready to answer questions (potentially A LOT of questions), and be open minded about the desires and goals other role-players have.

This leads to what, for me, is the most important point of this entire overly long reply to your inquiry...

Leave Your Ego At The Door

As the GM, you are not entitled to special treatment, nor does anyone owe you anything.

As the GM, you are not entitled to having everyone do what you ask or even what you demand (heaven forbid you ever take it that far).

As the GM, you are not entitled to having "first priority" in any given situation the RP story presents, such as "first kill" of a fight scene or anything remotely similar.

As the GM, you are not entitled to literally anything.

But it's my RP, right? Shouldn't I be able to do what I want and ask what I want of the others if I feel something needs to happen for the RP to go the direction I want it to?

No... No you should not.

As the GM, you're a participant and a general overseer of the RP's sense of order. If someone steps out of line, you set them straight. If anyone breaks an RP rule, you warn them and respond appropriately given the degree of the infringement. And in general you do your best to keep everyone in good spirits and interested in the idea of continuing. They're far more likely to do so when they have a "friend" in the GM. Trust me.

And finally...

Have Fun, Dammit!!!

As GM, it's far too easy to stress yourself out about things you shouldn't be stressing over.

Trust me... I know.

Don't let yourself stress about getting a certain number of players. Don't let yourself stress about trying to guide everyone strictly on a certain path. Don't let yourself stress about how you're going to structure your scenes (trust me, this one's an especially powerful motivation killer). Don't even let yourself stress about always making things happen.

As the GM, your job isn't to always be the one to make things happen. Your job is to point the characters in the right direction using subtle and gentle nudges in the narrative of your posts and then let everyone play their part in helping advance it in that direction. Sometimes you'll need to give a stronger nudge if the subtlety of your first went unnoticed (trust me, it'll happen). But otherwise, just give those subtle little nudges in the right direction and then let the RP tell its own story. So long as you trust yourself and your fellow role-players, you'll be able to just relax and enjoy the experience with them rather than always stressing about having to direct and control everything.

If you're ever in a position as a GM where you feel you have to "control" something, you've messed up.

Being a GM is never about "control."

It's about "guidance."

You're a guide through the story. Nothing more. Nothing less.

So relax and let yourself serve in that role with peace of mind by having confidence in yourself, confidence in your fellow role-players, and confidence in your story idea to carry itself to the finish line providing you took the steps needed to maintain a fun and healthy environment for yourself and everyone else.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Cheers!

~ GojiBean

 

[Idea]

- How much freedom do the players have with their characters once the RP begins?

This is one that's caused me a lot of headaches and heartache in my earlier years as a GM. I was kind of... Well... Very picky, as a GM, for many years. I was picky about the types of characters I let into the RP's I make. I was picky about the mechanics of my world to the point of going into way too much detail about how the mechanics work and what the limits are. And I was picky about what I don't want to see happening in the RP's from character physical combat capabilities to special abilities to use of technology, magic, etc. Limits, limits, limits.

As I've gotten older and settled down a bit more into the GM role and learned more about the craft of storytelling, I've been able to relax and let go of my pickiness to a pretty solid degree. There's still a little bit of it left. But it's largely limited (there's that word again, lol) to making sure that the most important elements and mechanics of the RP are understood so that any limitations are clearly implied so that nobody has to ask and I can rest peacefully knowing that everyone will stay within those implied boundaries.

Every GM has boundaries, after all. But how you present them will say a lot about you and will either open or close more doors for potential role-players to want to join in the action. And trust me on this one... The more you talk about limits, the more you'll turn people off to wanting to stick around after they've joined.

I've gotta say, I really relate to this. An RP I made way back when, Peace Sign Academia, was one of my most successful RPs to date (as far as group RPs are concerned anyway). In that RP I learned many harsh lessons regarding my way of running RPs, and of those was how much the attempt to regulate things with rules can not only escalate but stifle a roleplay regardless of your good intentions as a GM. I've eased and at least like to think I've matured since back then, but it a lesson that's become quite close to me.

1) The Interest Check contents aren't for the RP

Strange as it sounds, the Interest Check's contents are not for asking people to join the RP. The Interest Check itself already is an argument to join the RP just by existing.

Instead, treat the contents of your Interest Check like a trailer for a film. Give a few hints as to what the RP entails, the genre, what some of the basic mechanics are (only surface description, not a deep dive), what kinds of characters you're hoping to see and interact with, etc.

Maybe I've misunderstood your meaning here, but the interest check is absolutely to ask people to join the RP. Of course, there's such a thing as a bad way to ask (hey want to join this RP?) and a good way to ask (here's all the reasons why you might want to join this RP, so how about it?). I do think interests checks ought to be informative, but that isn't their purpose, that's simply a matter of decency. The information the interest check is supposed to share, going by the purpose, is that which helps it attract people to the RP. Anything beyond that is simply a matter of standards (or excess at some point).

As the GM, you are not entitled to literally anything.

While I agree with your overall point, I want to point out (and you kind of mention something like it later but I think it's a bit murkied by the earlier statements like the one I'm quoting) that while a GM is not above the players in privileges they surely deserve the fun in the RP too. A GM absolutely has a "right" not afforded to the player, which is afforded to them by the GM's chief duty: That to dictate certain aspects of the plot and world. Of course this isn't to say a GM should be controlling every bit of the plot and railroading the players, but no amount of player fun should make a GM feel duty-bound to, for instance, make their pirate RP about aliens and spaceships. Of course that is an extreme example, but the overall poitn is that because the RP needs the GM to exist, and were they to drop from the roleplay (as the players are always entitled to do) the RP might die, their function of helping the players having fun faces the constraint of what the GM can find fun as well. If the GM is unable to have fun with the kind of RP players would like, then either party is going to have to give or the RP should die, and I certainly don't think the GM should give in that situation because the players were the ones that signed up for something they are now asking to change.




Anyways, I may have some disagreements, but as always, brilliant post GojiBean !

 

[GojiBean]

I've gotta say, I really relate to this. An RP I made way back when, Peace Sign Academia, was one of my most successful RPs to date (as far as group RPs are concerned anyway). In that RP I learned many harsh lessons regarding my way of running RPs, and of those was how much the attempt to regulate things with rules can not only escalate but stifle a roleplay regardless of your good intentions as a GM. I've eased and at least like to think I've matured since back then, but it a lesson that's become quite close to me.




Maybe I've misunderstood your meaning here, but the interest check is absolutely to ask people to join the RP. Of course, there's such a thing as a bad way to ask (hey want to join this RP?) and a good way to ask (here's all the reasons why you might want to join this RP, so how about it?). I do think interests checks ought to be informative, but that isn't their purpose, that's simply a matter of decency. The information the interest check is supposed to share, going by the purpose, is that which helps it attract people to the RP. Anything beyond that is simply a matter of standards (or excess at some point).




While I agree with your overall point, I want to point out (and you kind of mention something like it later but I think it's a bit murkied by the earlier statements like the one I'm quoting) that while a GM is not above the players in privileges they surely deserve the fun in the RP too. A GM absolutely has a "right" not afforded to the player, which is afforded to them by the GM's chief duty: That to dictate certain aspects of the plot and world. Of course this isn't to say a GM should be controlling every bit of the plot and railroading the players, but no amount of player fun should make a GM feel duty-bound to, for instance, make their pirate RP about aliens and spaceships. Of course that is an extreme example, but the overall poitn is that because the RP needs the GM to exist, and were they to drop from the roleplay (as the players are always entitled to do) the RP might die, their function of helping the players having fun faces the constraint of what the GM can find fun as well. If the GM is unable to have fun with the kind of RP players would like, then either party is going to have to give or the RP should die, and I certainly don't think the GM should give in that situation because the players were the ones that signed up for something they are now asking to change.




Anyways, I may have some disagreements, but as always, brilliant post GojiBean !

As always, you make fair points. So I'll clarify that my intended meaning, poorly phrased as it was, basically said the same thing you did by the end of that post. I'm ADHD, so sometimes my thoughts get jumbled and my communication doesn't come through as intended because my brain is going ten directions at once. Lol.

For example, the point about the Interest Check. The way I should have phrased it is that I believe it's best not to think about the Interest Check's contents as an advertisement for the RP so much as an advertisement for the idea the story within the RP is meant to present the players with. So don't ask, "Hey, wanna join this RP?" Ask, "Hey, are you an adventurer?" "Hey, are you a hopeless romantic who believes in destiny?" That kind of thing.

Don't sell the RP. Sell the idea. That was supposed to be my point. Cause like I said, the Interest Check, just by existing, is already there to sell the RP. So make the contents about the idea. Lol.

And lastly, about the GM entitlement. That one is entirely meant to be about the ego-side of the GM's position in an RP. I've met too many who would actually tell me directly "I'm the GM, so you shut up and listen to what I say because if not I'm kicking you out."

That kind of crap is what makes for a crappy GM and a very, very dead RP before long. So the phrase I used being "you're not entitled to anything" was in regards to that manner of thinking. "I'm the GM, so everything I say goes and I get first dibs on everything!"

Obviously the GM, as the driving force of the narrative, has to enjoy some freedom of direction or else the RP is just a meandering open sandbox and a lot of people will lose interest in that real quick. Myself included, if that were the case. It's kind of a strange, almost ironic (but not quite) twist that all role-players in a GM-run RP environment need at least some direction or they just lose interest because the freedom overwhelms them.

So yeah. ADHD leading to poor phrasing kinda muddied my message a bit. Thanks for calling it!

Cheers!

~ GojiBean

 

[Idea]

As always, you make fair points. So I'll clarify that my intended meaning, poorly phrased as it was, basically said the same thing you did by the end of that post. I'm ADHD, so sometimes my thoughts get jumbled and my communication doesn't come through as intended because my brain is going ten directions at once. Lol.

For example, the point about the Interest Check. The way I should have phrased it is that I believe it's best not to think about the Interest Check's contents as an advertisement for the RP so much as an advertisement for the idea the story within the RP is meant to present the players with. So don't ask, "Hey, wanna join this RP?" Ask, "Hey, are you an adventurer?" "Hey, are you a hopeless romantic who believes in destiny?" That kind of thing.

Don't sell the RP. Sell the idea. That was supposed to be my point. Cause like I said, the Interest Check, just by existing, is already there to sell the RP. So make the contents about the idea. Lol.

And lastly, about the GM entitlement. That one is entirely meant to be about the ego-side of the GM's position in an RP. I've met too many who would actually tell me directly "I'm the GM, so you shut up and listen to what I say because if not I'm kicking you out."

That kind of crap is what makes for a crappy GM and a very, very dead RP before long. So the phrase I used being "you're not entitled to anything" was in regards to that manner of thinking. "I'm the GM, so everything I say goes and I get first dibs on everything!"

Obviously the GM, as the driving force of the narrative, has to enjoy some freedom of direction or else the RP is just a meandering open sandbox and a lot of people will lose interest in that real quick. Myself included, if that were the case. It's kind of a strange, almost ironic (but not quite) twist that all role-players in a GM-run RP environment need at least some direction or they just lose interest because the freedom overwhelms them.

So yeah. ADHD leading to poor phrasing kinda muddied my message a bit. Thanks for calling it!

Cheers!

~ GojiBean

Hey man no worries. I kinda got what you meant and that maybe it wasn't quite what I was arguing against, but just in case I wanted to point out those things. Thanks for not taking it to heart.

Have a wonderful day or night!

 

[Beckoncall]

I'd love to chat with you about RPs and GMing on discord. Find me on the RPN discord and @ me (BeckonCall) and I'll message you my full discord information.

You already seem to have gotten some great help, but I'd enjoy chatting with you in real time or be a resource you could come to with questions without needing to post.