Advice/Help I start something then I drop it. Life keeping you from continuing the role play.

[Fluxbauble]

I have a personal issue and maybe others have a similar experience. I tend to create ideas for role plays and usually they get off the ground well enough. But it's my luck that when I'm about to get the wheels turning life tends to pull me away for too long from the role play and I end up dropping the idea entirely. This has happened a number of times and I feel bad as a content creator where I present a world and then because I'm not there to help push the plot it inevitably dies. As a result I've been sort of pushing myself to just being a player and not a creator to keep that from happening. But I really enjoy just throwing ideas at the wall and seeing if people like them. If there is interest I want to expand it with the people and see where it goes. I mean isn't that the theory of an interest check? Of a role play in general? To gauge people's interest and then committing to the idea and expanding it with others? I just feel like I'm letting people down by not being there. Or that I'm not sharing enough information to let it life on it's own.

I'm certain others who may read this might understand how difficult it can be to get a role play going. I'm the go-to DM for my group of friends for D&D and so it's not like all my ideas go to waste, but there are just some ideas I think work better in a forum setting than in a pen and paper setting. So what am I exactly asking here? Is this the right move for me? Should I just focus on being a player as that's a bit easier to drop in and out of? is it possible to just keep throwing ideas at the wall and seeing if others just want to take it and run with it? What are your experiences with this issue if you have any? I'd like to read other's perspective.

 

[still watching fma]

If you're not watching youtube, nextflix, gaming, or doing anything hobby wise because you're just that busy. Which I can see someone being that way if they have 2 jobs, sleep 5 hours a night and are constantly struggling just to do their daily necessities.

but if you're not this person. You just need to learn to commit. It's really as simple as that.

 

[WARWOLF01]

I have a personal issue and maybe others have a similar experience. I tend to create ideas for role plays and usually they get off the ground well enough. But it's my luck that when I'm about to get the wheels turning life tends to pull me away for too long from the role play and I end up dropping the idea entirely. This has happened a number of times and I feel bad as a content creator where I present a world and then because I'm not there to help push the plot it inevitably dies. As a result I've been sort of pushing myself to just being a player and not a creator to keep that from happening. But I really enjoy just throwing ideas at the wall and seeing if people like them. If there is interest I want to expand it with the people and see where it goes. I mean isn't that the theory of an interest check? Of a role play in general? To gauge people's interest and then committing to the idea and expanding it with others? I just feel like I'm letting people down by not being there. Or that I'm not sharing enough information to let it life on it's own.

I'm certain others who may read this might understand how difficult it can be to get a role play going. I'm the go-to DM for my group of friends for D&D and so it's not like all my ideas go to waste, but there are just some ideas I think work better in a forum setting than in a pen and paper setting. So what am I exactly asking here? Is this the right move for me? Should I just focus on being a player as that's a bit easier to drop in and out of? is it possible to just keep throwing ideas at the wall and seeing if others just want to take it and run with it? What are your experiences with this issue if you have any? I'd like to read other's perspective.

I mean it really depends on how you feel man, no one can figure out stuff like that but you.

 

[Crayons]

Maybe you need to find a co-GM, so that you can run RPs together and when one of you is busy the other takes up the slack. Other than that, maybe offer to help out with other people's RPs on the world building/ideas front. Or yeah, just be a player.

In the creative world, ideas aren't worth much - only the execution of the idea. It's highly likely that you will always have more ideas than you have time/commitment to carry out, so maybe you need to be a bit more self critical about whether your ideas are worth committing to.

 

[Grey]

Throwing ideas at the wall until something sticks, often repeatedly, has worked out for me. I do try not to drop healthy games, though.
I know well what you mean; you just have to persevere, develop an active OOC, keep players apprised of the fact you may not be around to post for a while, and wait for a group to form who grasp one or more of your ideas enough they could damn near do it themselves.

 

[Malphaestus]

If I understand you properly, and I do believe I am, then your issue is based on a sense of feeling. Something which, by all leaps and bounds, are difficult to categorize or explain with utmost clarity.

It is not a special or unique problem, I do believe many worldbuilders and roleplay-creators in general have ups and downs, just like in regular life, where things just seem to take more effort for the same reward as less effort used to net you. Especially when life kicks in, since- naturally- we do not exist exclusively on the internet, you can find it difficult to juggle responsibilities, commitment, and overall enjoyment. Sometimes you quite simply do not have time for something, and that is no one's fault. If anyone blames you for that, they are beyond their station, and if you blame yourself for this, then you need not do so.

The simple answer is this, do it anyway, power through, and you will award yourself not only the willpower, but the longevity you desired.

The complex answer: even with that, some things will just never get off the ground. Creators do not exist in vacuums, we need people to entertain our stories, and the simple fact remains that even if we were doing a stellar, even perfect job, then people might leave either way, for any of the same reasons you might leave your own roleplay.

Blaming yourself is never the answer, and it just distances you from roleplaying, and expanding your creativity into new avenues, and ultimately growing as a writer. Growth is fun for everyone, and should therefore be pursued.

How you accomplish to "power through" is subject to a number of different factors, though. For me, when I had issues to commit to stories and the likes 6-7 years back, I found myself a friend who also roleplayed with me (friend as in the actual meaning of the word, as opposed to 'partner'), and we helped eachother out.

But either way, this is just some of my own personalized wisdom. How things work, and how people work with it, is individual.

There is never a simple answer, and sometimes you just have to find out what you want on your own. However long it takes.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Also there is always 1x1. They are designed to be more of an equal partnership rather than creator x player dynamic.

Plus they are usually more flexible when it comes to schedules. As someone who has a pretty hectic real life I gave up on groups years ago. I was constantly passed over and simply couldn’t keep up when life inevitably got crazy.

1x1 are better as I can just work with one person to keep story going. And their usually pretty happy to wait if things are a little hectic.

 

[peritwinkle]

You don’t have to compromise. Consider 1x1 roleplaying, you can find a partner who is just as excited about brainstorming and coming up with intriguing plots and scenarios for your characters/world. In the context of a 1x1 there doesn’t have to be a player and a GM since both sides can come up with ideas and plot twists.

For me the most fun part about roleplaying is brainstorming with my partners. I found myself dropping roleplays because I was the only one coming up with ideas and keeping the wheels of the story rolling.

So long as you find a writer you’re compatible with in terms of style and preferences, I’d say give it a go. Statistically it’s more likely for a group RP to die out due to the large number of players within different timezones and different daily writing habits and it gets particularly chaotic when the GM becomes less active/involved.

 

[Idea]

My personall solution with this kind of thing is to participate in and create roleplays that allow longer absences for players, explicitly. Being explicit in the rules is important here, as it will telegraph to the players that you expect a possible long absence. This will loose you some players, but those who remain do so aware of what might happen.

To complement this, I recommend finding a co-GM in some fashion, someone whom you can trust to keep things running in your absence.

Neither of these solutions can fix a personal lack of motivation though. For that, I generally recommend waiting three weeks between having an idea and actually posting any kind of interest check- if you continually wanna do a particular idea for that long, there's more to it than just hype, as a rule of thumb.