Other Running a Group?

horrorshow

black magic and cigarettes
So, just asking for a bit of advice here, or really I guess for opinions. Whatever.

I've been roleplaying a long time. Probably too long actually. Back in my day, when I was a younger teenager, I had too much time on my hands and could maintain several group roleplays and one on one roleplays at the same time. Even while personally running most of those group games. Of course, back then, I had a consistent co-writer and he helped me with almost all of my roleplays.

I've never really gone at it alone. I'm a writer, so I imagine it's the same as that. Just like writing a book but instead of writing the entire thing, you get to a certain point and stop and let other people come in and help you, I suppose. But then there's a lot of pressure on you to keep the story going which I guess I can do. However, I'm admittedly pretty intimidated. For the last few years I've pretty much exclusively just joined other people's roleplays and stayed away from creating any group games of my own... But like, I have ideas now. Good ideas I want to try out as a roleplay instead of as something I write by myself. Plus, I've run into a theme here where I'll join a really fun roleplay I'm super excited for and the GM disappears and shortly after so does everyone else. So that's left a kind of bad taste in my mouth I guess.

One of my biggest things is when I look at other people's interest check threads I get sooo intimidated by how beautifully coded they are and how inviting the aesthetics alone make everyone else's games and I just don't know anything about that stuff. Maybe I'm an old man but I cannot figure out how to do all of that stuff and you guys are all super good at it. Maybe that's wrong of me to say that I think something like that helps your chances of drawing in the right kind of crowd for your game, but I feel like it does.

Anyway I'm just asking for opinions, experiences? Has running a group roleplay been incredibly difficult or mostly easy for the rest of you? Just curious about everyone else's experience with it. I'm intimidated. Or maybe I'm just out of practice and need to go for it.
 
I haven't ran loads of group roleplays, I will say this though: don't worry about the bbcode stuff. In my experience, along as your interest check is readable and interesting, it'll stand on it's own. I actually don't tend to join RPs where everything is beautifully coded, because I find it makes it difficult for me to actually focus on it, aaand also a lot of the times it means casually reading responses or checking out the interest check threads on mobile becomes a hassle. So, it might just be a me thing, but I'd guess ~~aesthetic~~threads do turn a lot of people off, rather than draw them in.
 
Oh honestly I feel the same way. I don't mind the plot and the set up posts and stuff being coded and pretty but roleplay responses??? get on my last nerve when they're coded lol. It makes it so so hard to read especially because I recently lost my glasses lol.

But thanks!!
 
1. You can request another person to make BBC code for you - BBCode Center. But it's honestly more trouble than it's worth. The only thing you really need to do is make sure your information is organized in such a way as to be easy to read on a mobile and a desktop.

2. Be organized. Have all your information ready to go by the time you put the interest check out. Have specific plans for how you will tackle story progression, player participation, and ghosting. Also have a realistic idea of exactly how much time you can dedicate to the roleplay and if that will be enough time to keep everyone on track and playing nicely.

2b - Story Progression - have some idea of how you are going to keep the roleplay moving forward. The most successful means of doing this that I have seen is using what I call roleplay scenes. You the GM will set up a specific scene then give your players a set time limit to post for that scene. When the time limit is up you will time skip to the next scene. Now what the scene is and how long it lasts will sort of depend on the idea you have specifically. If you need further assistance on this you can PM me directly.

2c. Ghosting. People are going to ghost. It's not personal and it shouldn't be the death of your roleplay if you are well organized. What I did when I ran groups was put in the rules - This is how long each scene is going to last. If you have not posted in X days than your character will be removed from the action OR turned into an NPC. If you return at a later date you can reclaim the character or make a new one.

Now some people might also have some issues with player participation (some people posting too fast and leaving others in the dust). If this happens I implement a time out period. You are not allowed to post a reply until everyone in the group has a chance to respond.

If you have inter personal issues don't be afraid to put your foot down and stick to your rules. There is always at least one person who wants special treatment but you can't let that sway you. Your rules are your rules and you have to enforce them for the fairness of the roleplay.
 
I haven't ran loads of group roleplays, I will say this though: don't worry about the bbcode stuff. In my experience, along as your interest check is readable and interesting, it'll stand on it's own. I actually don't tend to join RPs where everything is beautifully coded, because I find it makes it difficult for me to actually focus on it, aaand also a lot of the times it means casually reading responses or checking out the interest check threads on mobile becomes a hassle. So, it might just be a me thing, but I'd guess ~~aesthetic~~threads do turn a lot of people off, rather than draw them in.
I find it especially hard to read when the font is small for aesthetics and it's in a medium sized scrollable box. Damn near impossible for mobile.
 

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