Viewpoint GMs, what should you know about your players before you begin your adventure together?

[Chordling]

Let's skip basic questions like writing style/length. And we're not talking about the character that they're planning to play either. It's just about the person. What else do you think is important to know about someone before they join a roleplay?

 

[Saurosian]

I'm going to ignore your instructions and include the three things you mentioned.

What I would want to know about a player before they joined a group roleplay I was in and/or running:

• Writing Style --> not just perspective and tense, but their writing philosophies for dialogue, interacting with other characters, etc.
• Length --> not as important for me as a GM, but I want other players to know what they should expect from their fellow members
• Post frequency --> by far the most important thing for me to know is how frequently, on average, they will post - if this answer is too long (eg. >1 week, though it depends on the roleplay), then they wouldn't be accepted
• Planned Character Arc --> this doesn't need to be set in stone - but I want to know that they've envisioned their character's future and might have something to be working towards in the RP
• OOC Activity Levels --> what's a normal level of participation in the OOC conversation for this player? It helps for me to know if members are engaged or losing interest
• How much control are you expecting over your character? --> I sometimes make roleplays where characters might die when their roleplayers don't want them to. It ups the stakes a bit.
• Are they going to participate in worldbuilding discussions?
• Are they going to introduce and take control of NPCs?

Some other things I think other people might want to know:

• Age
• Do they use coded aesthetics for their posts or not?
• Previous RP history (like a resume?)

 

[GojiBean]

As a GM, I only need to know a few things about someone else before I make a decision about role-playing with them. And I usually am able to make the necessary judgements within seeing 2-5 post responses from them to any threads I've put up.

1) Personal Character - How do they speak, and how do they treat others and the ideas other people present? When someone asks a question, do they respond to answer or do they respond to criticize the question or in some way make light of it?

2) Responsiveness - How quickly do they respond to the basic forum threads? In my own experience the faster someone responds to forum threads the more likely they are to vanish or drop out early. Seems a strange statement to make, I know, but it's true. In my experience the people who stick around the longest are those who respond at a moderate rate, perhaps once or twice a day, to any forum thread posting. All that overeager energy typically lends itself to early burnout because the RP isn't moving fast enough, or they just can't be bothered to maintain their own interest level with the material of the RP due to having a gnat sized attention span.

3) Character Sheet - The way someone fills out a character sheet, disregarding the design of the character itself here, can tell you a lot about them. For example, do they give the bare minimum or go all out with filling the sheet? Do they add or remove any sections? If they remove any, what's their excuse for doing so? How well did they pay attention to the details of the RP world when filling out the sheet (i.e. are there any inconsistencies with the RP lore that could have been avoided if they just read a certain section of the lore page a bit more thoroughly)?

Those are my big three.

Cheers!

 

[Beckoncall]

Special sensitivity or boundary topics. Always discuss where you can and cannot go. If you know where the fences are you can play free, hot, and messy.

 

[Jannah]

Triggers, limits, etc. I have gotten into RP's before where these were not communicated beforehand. I don't really have any hard limits, but my partner did. I was unaware of this and made her uncomfortable to the point of simply dropping. It became a learning experience for us both that these should always be communicated during the planning stages.

Another big one for is writing style. I tend to lose interest if my partner has a writing style that just isn't compatible with my own. This can be any aspect of their writing. Also, activity levels. I can't RP with people who expect replies daily. It's just too much as I'm an adult, thus busy with other things outside of RP.

 

[Heavenchi]

I'd say experience level, and the type of role-plays they usually write in.

Whenever someone says interested on my interest check, I like to look at their profile and see where they've role-played before. New members tend to ghost.

 

[StrixDesmodus]

This mostly applies to group rps.

I don't tend to ask a lot of questions when hosting rps, mainly since I'm not too picky with people's writing styles, or plot and characterization ideas and don't know any good way of filtering people's intentions for aspects that I am picky on.
However, there is a handful of OOC tendencies that came together once and nearly broke a roleplay for me in a way that left me a tad jaded. Before the person exhibiting them left the rp of their own accord, I was positively terrified that things would go further and that the person they were "criticizing" would take it with the same harshness I was picking up.
Now, I won't say that the "critic" was completely wrong. There were a few things they said that I would have said myself if they hadn't first, albeit I would have put it more gently. The main problem was that more than half of the points they were making didn't apply to the genre of the rp at all, and even some of what did were pretty much matters of taste.
Luckily, the person receiving the criticism took it in stride, and wasn't offended, but still....

The main thing I wish I knew was how potential players would handle unforeseen disagreements. That and if they understood the rules and lore of the rp. General stuff to make sure that they collaborate well, and know what they're getting into.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

I know virtually nothing about any of my players, and the game is running fine.

 

[Edric Blight]

Responsiveness would be a big thing if I were a GM.