The retention problem

[Tonstad39]

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I have an RP where three other people signed up, but checking their "Last seen" column reveals that they are on other threads, how do I get better at retaining people who sign up to my RPs?


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[Grey]

Networking and patience.


There's no easy answer beyond that. No matter how often I see this topic, I have nothing better. No matter how many of my own RPs founder under this paradigm, I have no solution.


All you can do is keep pitching and joining RPs until you've found a reliable group of members you know will post regularly, inform you when they can't post, and make themselves contactable. Also an active OOC with periodic tagging of users helps but guarantees nothing.

 

[Epiphany]

You might consider asking questions of people who submit characters, or who plan to submit characters. Perhaps ask them to think of some setting stuff that you could apply and use in your game. This gives them more of a stake in the game, since now there's this thing in it because of them.


A related tactic is to create a Conversation with your prospective players and ask them stuff, one on one. Things like "What are your goals?" and "How do you think your character would feel about x" (where x = mages or vampires or cyborgs or whatever is in your game). People like getting attention. Pay them attention and they may pay you more attention as well.


Neither approach is remotely perfect but it beats nothing, eh?