Experiences GMs of RPN, what are some things that bug you about running a Group RP?

[Genii]

Characters who bring their own pocket dimensions (to a medieval survival RP), full of an infinite supply of food, weapons, bedrooms, and it even had a pool in there.

They never gave me a heads up or asked if it was ok, just hijacked half the cast away to some invisible spaceship (ugh).

Those characters then missed out a lot of the main story, because the (pocket dimension) player would go missing for days/weeks at a time.

 

[Murdergurl]

The recruitment process always sucks, too. Like... you can give people the simplest CS to fill out, and somehow it's taking them over a week to fill out 6 fields with a paragraph or two for the background? C'mon! That should take like a half an hour tops if you really wanna mull it over. And then you get like four people chiding in with "I'm interested", and that's the last you ever hear of them. I'm like, sure... I'll believe it when I see it. Character Sheet, or it didn't happen! lol

OR when you specify that the requirements are literate posts (let's say 1 or 2 meaty paragraphs as a regular thing) but then you get people making three or four sentence posts. It's like, bruh gtfo! Don't waste my time filling up my roster if that's your regular contribution.

 

[Lorsh]

Captain Killjoy is what I would refer to this cliche character type as. They were usually experts in hand to hand combat AND a sniper, AND knew explosive ordnance, and a slew of other specialty skills.

wish somebody would make a military character that just ran the reception desk at the national guard base

 

[Jannah]

wish somebody would make a military character that just ran the reception desk at the national guard base

LOL now I sort of want to do that next time I'm in one of these post-apocalyptic RP's. "What did you do before the end of the world?" "I was in the military." "Good, then you can save us all!" "No, I was a receptionist."

 

[Edric Blight]

The recruitment process always sucks, too. Like... you can give people the simplest CS to fill out, and somehow it's taking them over a week to fill out 6 fields with a paragraph or two for the background? C'mon! That should take like a half an hour tops if you really wanna mull it over. And then you get like four people chiding in with "I'm interested", and that's the last you ever hear of them. I'm like, sure... I'll believe it when I see it. Character Sheet, or it didn't happen! lol

OR when you specify that the requirements are literate posts (let's say 1 or 2 meaty paragraphs as a regular thing) but then you get people making three or four sentence posts. It's like, bruh gtfo! Don't waste my time filling up my roster if that's your regular contribution.

Literally. LITERALLY.

Listen, I get that people are busy and have lives- so do I! Spoiler alert! I’m a human too!

But what I cannot stand is people who know full freaking well they CANNOT make the time commitment to the RP yet still say “I’m interested,” and then whine when you check on them and ask them where they are because they’ve disappeared.

“I’m busy so sorry!” they say, which is fine, but don’t sign up for this RP you need to actively reply to if you cannot make the time commitment! As simple as that! We’re all adults here, right? It’s called time management! I suck at it but it should not be that hard to take a step back and say “no, I can’t do this RP- I’m too busy.”

And don’t get me started on the “I’m interested” crowd that ends up never showing themselves again.

Couldn’t agree more with your message.

First and last time I ever try and GM. People are frustrating. Yet I’ll look like the bad guy. Again, I get it that you’re busy and that’s totally ok and normal! Just be an adult and make the decision to not waste mine and your time and say you’re interested, only to never respond after making your character sheet and complain you’re busy when I check on you.

 

[A Sparkling Zombie]

I dunno. I don't see "I'm interested" as being like signing a contract. Yeah, if they submitted a character or reserved a spot, that is an issue, but I feel like it's fair to expect that people may change their minds.

Life might legitimately get in the way, or they might actually struggle with creating a concept they like, or they might see the characters or player personalities that are joining and decide they aren't going to mesh. I've done that before, where I like the premise but lose interest when I see the other players and characters. I won't publicly revoke my interest because I don't want to potentially sour someone else's good time or deter other people, but I also usually add a "tentatively" anyway.

 

[Jannah]

I dunno. I don't see "I'm interested" as being like signing a contract. Yeah, if they submitted a character or reserved a spot, that is an issue, but I feel like it's fair to expect that people may change their minds.

Life might legitimately get in the way, or they might actually struggle with creating a concept they like, or they might see the characters or player personalities that are joining and decide they aren't going to mesh. I've done that before, where I like the premise but lose interest when I see the other players and characters. I won't publicly revoke my interest because I don't want to potentially sour someone else's good time or deter other people, but I also usually add a "tentatively" anyway.

Speaking as someone who has actually done this I will say that usually I bail out either because I can't think of a character concept for the RP that I like or I realize I won't mesh with the other players or perhaps their vision for the RP.

 

[Edric Blight]

The “I’m interested” stuff doesn’t annoy as much. What’s a little annoying is when they say I’m interested, make a CS, and never speak to me again.

I’m kinda just like “what? Ok then?”

 

[Genii]

The “I’m interested” stuff doesn’t annoy as much. What’s a little annoying is when they say I’m interested, make a CS, and never speak to me again.

I’m kinda just like “what? Ok then?”

I feel sad for all those characters that never got to be.

They’re all hanging out in some non-existent waiting room, twiddling their thumbs and constantly checking the clock.

“… any day now.”

 

[Edric Blight]

I feel sad for all those characters that never got to be.

They’re all hanging out in some non-existent waiting room, twiddling their thumbs and constantly checking the clock.

“… any day now.”

Exactly lmao.

Now I’m even more sad thinking of that, these poor characters made but never played existing in their own little limbo lol.

 

[Genii]

Lol. Sorry.

 

[Edric Blight]

Lol. Sorry.

Not it’s ok I’m joking lol.

 

[Genii]

lol!

I thought of something else that makes me nervous as a DM… characters who can teleport.

 

[Murdergurl]

LOL now I sort of want to do that next time I'm in one of these post-apocalyptic RP's. "What did you do before the end of the world?" "I was in the military." "Good, then you can save us all!" "No, I was a receptionist."

There is a post-apocalyptic movie called The Postman. Stars Kevin Costner. The main antagonist leads a large following calling themselves the Army of 8. In the movie he at one point divulges that he was a salesman in his previous life.

 

[Murdergurl]

Literally. LITERALLY.

Listen, I get that people are busy and have lives- so do I! Spoiler alert! I’m a human too!

But what I cannot stand is people who know full freaking well they CANNOT make the time commitment to the RP yet still say “I’m interested,” and then whine when you check on them and ask them where they are because they’ve disappeared.

What I think happens is this: A person sees multiple RPs that they are interested in and drops an interest in each of them. Whichever one scoops them up first and gets started is the one that they go for. And then they just kinda leave the other ones to flounder in ambiguity. And I mean, I understand the conundrum. You never know if you're gonna get accepted. And you don't want to lose out because you held back. But from the GMs perspective, they may or may not be holding back on recruiting further because if a capricious interest.

“I’m busy so sorry!” they say, which is fine, but don’t sign up for this RP you need to actively reply to if you cannot make the time commitment! As simple as that! We’re all adults here, right? It’s called time management! I suck at it but it should not be that hard to take a step back and say “no, I can’t do this RP- I’m too busy.”

And don’t get me started on the “I’m interested” crowd that ends up never showing themselves again.

Couldn’t agree more with your message.

That's why I pretty much meet every "I'm interested" comment with a CS template and a deadline. There it is. If they really are interested then this is the next step. If they dont go further, then I consider them to be dropped out.

First and last time I ever try and GM. People are frustrating. Yet I’ll look like the bad guy. Again, I get it that you’re busy and that’s totally ok and normal! Just be an adult and make the decision to not waste mine and your time and say you’re interested, only to never respond after making your character sheet and complain you’re busy when I check on you.

I mean, I step into a GM role with extreme consternation. And for the most part, I just say that I don't do it anymore. But the more time goes by that I can't find what I'm looking for, I pretty much KNOW that the only way that itch is ever gonna get scratched is if I do it myself.

I dunno. I don't see "I'm interested" as being like signing a contract. Yeah, if they submitted a character or reserved a spot, that is an issue, but I feel like it's fair to expect that people may change their minds.

These situations are even worse! The one's that just state interest and disappear have no real impact besides a minor annoyance. But it's easily remedied by methods stated above. But the one's that actually take up a slot on the roster and then go AWOL cause a real problem for the group and actually contribute to early failure. It's very inconsiderate. Whenever I've had to leave a group, I announce it in the OOC and PM the GMs as well. It's not hard, and most GMs are actually just glad you let them know so that the RP doesn't get bogged down.

Life might legitimately get in the way, or they might actually struggle with creating a concept they like, or they might see the characters or player personalities that are joining and decide they aren't going to mesh. I've done that before, where I like the premise but lose interest when I see the other players and characters. I won't publicly revoke my interest because I don't want to potentially sour someone else's good time or deter other people, but I also usually add a "tentatively" anyway.

If I haven't made a CS or officially put in my hat for a specific position, I only announce my withdrawal if I've been actively talking in the OOC. Because it gives the impression of getting along with the group and intending to roleplay with them. Bu if I expressed interest and have been mostly silent for the out of character deliberations, then I will sometimes just quietly leave the group and let them forget about me.

 

[Murdergurl]

Okay so here's one. It's less about the actual running of the group RP, but more about trying to pitch an idea:

So you finally get the inspiration and desire to put together a notion for a group roleplay. You get some of your ideas together, start working them together as time allows in the background as you submit a request for people to read over. A day or two goes by, and you get an inquiry or two about some points in your req. But no actual interest. No bigee. You'll wait for the end of the week, right? Another couple of days go by. Still nothing new, no movement. You bump it. Bad timing? Hopefully the weekend will proffer better results, right?

Weekend comes up. Nothing.

Bump it.

Friday goes by and no one has chided in. Saturday goes by. Maybe it's your title? Change it up, get some color in there. Check your views. Over 100. Over 150, actually. Okay, so people HAVE looked at it. Weekend is going by... and at this point you find yourself just extremely un-fuckin-motivated to bother with this anymore. You were hoping for five or six but have gotten literally ZERO people stating any interest. You stopped working on the lore and templates and stuff because, well WHY? Clearly no one cares.

Finally, feeling no inspiration remaining, you just delete the req. Mwah. Kiss it Buh-bye. No one's gonna miss it, anyway.

And it would be one thing if it was an isolated event. But this is basically a repeat of what happened the last time you pitched an idea a couple of months ago. And the time before that. and before that. With completely different ideas, too. Bit of a bummer, right? Kinda makes you wanna swear off of trying to GM stuff ever again, right? I mean, it's not like you have tones of time to do it anyway. but you WERE willing to make that effort because you can't find stuff other people are running that you like OR they just dont like the characters you submit. So, what are you gonna do? Keep running those ideas that get you nowhere?

Major bummer. js-

 

[Jannah]

Okay so here's one. It's less about the actual running of the group RP, but more about trying to pitch an idea:

So you finally get the inspiration and desire to put together a notion for a group roleplay. You get some of your ideas together, start working them together as time allows in the background as you submit a request for people to read over. A day or two goes by, and you get an inquiry or two about some points in your req. But no actual interest. No bigee. You'll wait for the end of the week, right? Another couple of days go by. Still nothing new, no movement. You bump it. Bad timing? Hopefully the weekend will proffer better results, right?

Weekend comes up. Nothing.

Bump it.

Friday goes by and no one has chided in. Saturday goes by. Maybe it's your title? Change it up, get some color in there. Check your views. Over 100. Over 150, actually. Okay, so people HAVE looked at it. Weekend is going by... and at this point you find yourself just extremely un-fuckin-motivated to bother with this anymore. You were hoping for five or six but have gotten literally ZERO people stating any interest. You stopped working on the lore and templates and stuff because, well WHY? Clearly no one cares.

Finally, feeling no inspiration remaining, you just delete the req. Mwah. Kiss it Buh-bye. No one's gonna miss it, anyway.

And it would be one thing if it was an isolated event. But this is basically a repeat of what happened the last time you pitched an idea a couple of months ago. And the time before that. and before that. With completely different ideas, too. Bit of a bummer, right? Kinda makes you wanna swear off of trying to GM stuff ever again, right? I mean, it's not like you have tones of time to do it anyway. but you WERE willing to make that effort because you can't find stuff other people are running that you like OR they just dont like the characters you submit. So, what are you gonna do? Keep running those ideas that get you nowhere?

Major bummer. js-

Yea can be hard when you have niche interests. I recently found the rare 1x1 I was interested in, but I guess the writer thought we wouldn't mesh or something as I didn't hear back once I provided my writing sample.

 

[Murdergurl]

Yea can be hard when you have niche interests. I recently found the rare 1x1 I was interested in, but I guess the writer thought we wouldn't mesh or something as I didn't hear back once I provided my writing sample.

dude, that SuuuuuCKS! Nothing worse that thinking you finally found that diamond in the rough and then it turns out you're not a good match in writing style. It's like snatching a bright shiny toy from a kid right before your gonna leave the store and telling them they cant have it afterall.

 

[Zodia195]

Okay! As someone who's been a GM almost as long I have been Roleplaying (20+ years), believe me I got loads of pet peeves and the big ones have been mentioned here.

1. Inactivity! OMG, the worst ones are "The Ghosts". Now I am VERY easy going, but even I have my limits. I actually don't believe in "Time limits" because I've found it just adds extra pressure on players. That doesn't mean I am a lazy GM though. I expect inactivity aka slow times, but what I do is check up on players after several days to see if they're still interested, especially if they're holding the RPG up. I can't help but wonder if certain players stop contacting you because they get too intimidated, but all I have to say is, you have to 'man up' and be honest. Us GMs are people too and have actual lives so we're like to sympathize with your situation. I have no problems letting players go now (it was hard to do it at first).

2. Coming up with ideas that do clash with the story setting. I welcome ideas to my RPGs and I understand it's easy to get over-excited about something but try not to do something that clashes with the RPG. I have done this in the past when I was an RPG newb and boy did I pay for it, so this is a problem that doesn't anger me as much, but I'll admit I know how frustrating it can be. Thank goodness I am a patient person.

---

I personally don't like 1X1 RPGs because I can't come up with simple RPGs. I am too complex so I need to create complex things. And Group RPGs keep me more motivated. Now I am fine with SMALL groups though. I have been a part of successful RPGs and I actually believe the key to a good RPG is an active OOC group. I find that as long as players enjoy interacting with each other, bouncing ideas off each other, and just having fun that way, they're more likely to stay and it wouldn't matter how slow an RPG moved (and RPGs DO slow down from time to time). I think every GM should always be prepared for 2 things-

1. Players leave. It always happens because life does happen. Whether they ghost or have the decency to let the GM know they can't keep up, players do leave. It's why to this day I try to ask for players to be willing to 'share the burden' or integrate new players into the RPG as smoothly as possible.

2. Slow times. RPGs in my experience tend to be VERY active when they start (at least the ones I create do), but I always expect the 'honeymoon phase' to end and for things to slow down. Heck I am in another RPG that moves very slow (like 1 post a month on average), but the GM there has completed one RPG successfully so we just make sure to keep in contact OOC wise. It's slow but it's still going.

But yeah that's all I have to say for now.

 

[ManicMuse]

I experience the same issues, whether GM of an RP here or a DnD group.

1. Finding constantly active people. A small simple post to move the scene is better than waiting three weeks to give a para-novel.

2. Going as far up to the OP line as they can with toes hanging over. I find these people often ignore the rules of engagement and try to throw weight around in character.

3. Bleeding OOC into IC. Be it knowledge or emotions.

4. Making things awkward. Whether it's pushing personal opinions in OOC about not relevant views or trying to smash with characters. It's a game, not tinder or Twitter. Pack up the soapbox and get out.


That's just me personally. When these things are addressed quickly or don't even show up, I normally have fun games/rps.

 

[Zodia195]

I now have a question of my own because last year I had something happen in one of my RPGs and it shocked me as a GM and beforehand nothing of the like happened before. It really shook me up too and I am curious if this has happened to anyone else- A Max Exodus of active players. I have this one RPG that I really love and for awhile it was very active with a core group of active players. Pretty much everyone kept saying how great the RPG was and how much they enjoyed each other's company. Sure things got slow, but that's normal. But then one day OUT of the BLUE 3/4ths of the players came to me saying they were all leaving the RPG. Needless to say I was blindsided. I did give them my blessing, but then I decided to do some digging because this seemed odd to me because I was under the impression these people were enjoying the RPG. WELL, I just happened to look up one player's passed messages in other Threads (and this particular player went as far to say my RPG was his favorite). In this thread, which was an Interest Check (this was on another site btw), he said he hadn't been a part of a great RPG in awhile and said this one had potential. Now that really hurt. So it make me question if these people were lying to me the whole time. As for the RPG, others decided to leave and only ONE other player (who I've been in multiple RPGs with) stuck with me and we decided to do a reboot and were able to get another player. The RPG is now private and we ended up moving the RPG here due to how unreliable the previous site was. But yeah that whole fiasco made me question my skills as a GM because I have been a GM for over 20 years now. Has anyone else have something like this happen to them?

 

[Edric Blight]

I now have a question of my own because last year I had something happen in one of my RPGs and it shocked me as a GM and beforehand nothing of the like happened before. It really shook me up too and I am curious if this has happened to anyone else- A Max Exodus of active players. I have this one RPG that I really love and for awhile it was very active with a core group of active players. Pretty much everyone kept saying how great the RPG was and how much they enjoyed each other's company. Sure things got slow, but that's normal. But then one day OUT of the BLUE 3/4ths of the players came to me saying they were all leaving the RPG. Needless to say I was blindsided. I did give them my blessing, but then I decided to do some digging because this seemed odd to me because I was under the impression these people were enjoying the RPG. WELL, I just happened to look up one player's passed messages in other Threads (and this particular player went as far to say my RPG was his favorite). In this thread, which was an Interest Check (this was on another site btw), he said he hadn't been a part of a great RPG in awhile and said this one had potential. Now that really hurt. So it make me question if these people were lying to me the whole time. As for the RPG, others decided to leave and only ONE other player (who I've been in multiple RPGs with) stuck with me and we decided to do a reboot and were able to get another player. The RPG is now private and we ended up moving the RPG here due to how unreliable the previous site was. But yeah that whole fiasco made me question my skills as a GM because I have been a GM for over 20 years now. Has anyone else have something like this happen to them?

Damn, people are assholes, I’m sorry that happened to you and those people lied to you about enjoying it… : ( That’s not cool to go and find out that this dude saying he loved your RPG lied to you. That’s why I like honesty. If you don’t like it- say something. Don’t be a fake ass and lie to me.

But no I can’t say I’ve ever had a mass exodus of people from an RP. A mass ghosting yes, but not 3/4 of the players coming to contact me about leaving.

 

[Zodia195]

Damn, people are assholes, I’m sorry that happened to you and those people lied to you about enjoying it… : ( That’s not cool to go and find out that this dude saying he loved your RPG lied to you. That’s why I like honesty. If you don’t like it- say something. Don’t be a fake ass and lie to me.

But no I can’t say I’ve ever had a mass exodus of people from an RP. A mass ghosting yes, but not 3/4 of the players coming to contact me about leaving.

Yeah, I should mention these same people also made their own RPG. Normally when someone ask me to leave and they had been active and reliable up to this point, I would allow them into future RPGs, but in this situation I don't know if I would allow them back in.

 

[Edric Blight]

Yeah, I should mention these same people also made their own RPG. Normally when someone ask me to leave and they had been active and reliable up to this point, I would allow them into future RPGs, but in this situation I don't know if I would allow them back in.

Oh what the hell? That’s even worse! That’s not cool, the hurt and sting that must have left… I can only imagine. I’m sorry… no one deserves to be treated like a piece of gum stuck on someone’s shoe…

That’s just not cool and not classy at all on their part. Human decency isn’t that hard and it goes a long way. Some people just are asses…

 

[Zodia195]

Oh what the hell? That’s even worse! That’s not cool, the hurt and sting that must have left… I can only imagine. I’m sorry… no one deserves to be treated like a piece of gum stuck on someone’s shoe…

That’s just not cool and not classy at all on their part. Human decency isn’t that hard and it goes a long way. Some people just are asses…

Yeah the one player who stuck with me was POed. I was just more hurt then angry. I now ask players if I am a decent GM. I am firm when it comes to my rules, and I always try to be flexible to incorporate players' ideas. That same player kept assuring me I was being an awesome GM because it really shook my confidence.