Advice/Help The struggles of starting

[Big Brother Jack]

Starting is the worst thing in a role play for me. I was wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks or is it just writing and not thinking about how bad it is? I know many people have the same issues and hopefully this thread can help them.

 

[Cealen]

by “starting,” do you mean writing the first post/starter?

everyone worries about the starter post because you haven’t gotten a big feel for the characters yet. so of course it’s going to feel “bad” because you just don’t have anything to reference to in quailty yet. i find that when i reread my starter after being in a rp for a while it’s not even bad like i was conviced it was!

for starters, the best thing you can do is talk it out with your partner if it’s 1x1. planning makes it SO much easier to write a starter, trust me, because it sets everything up. i find the hardest starters to reply to are the ones written without even asking me how i wanted our characters to meet and get into the conflict at hand! i basically have to rewrite the starter in my own reply. but just remember that it’s not YOUR burden to start something out if you’re stuck or having a difficult time with it.

for the actual content of the starter, i usually just showcase how my character thinks and acts. this establishes how they act and that helps me a lot later on. i usually end my starters on a somewhat vague note, so the other character doesn’t feel railroaded in do something specific, but still not overly vague that there’s nothing to actually reply to. just establishing everything and the general “vibe” is what i do, and i find that works out best!

i’m not well versed in group rps so can’t comment on that one.

 

[Uxie]

even though i've gm'd only one group rp and written few starters in 1x1 during my time on this site, i'll give my two cents on that topic ;w;

my personal experience with starters is that they're my least favourite type of post to do, because i can only think of two types of posts you do and replying to others is so much easier. my take on it is that since the collaborative aspect of roleplaying is so crucial to my experience, starters being somewhat reminiscent to novel/solo writing (since you write a whole bunch of things usually without interaction with the other character(s) ) is probably one of the reasons why i'm not as keen to write it! (×﹏×)

in general, i'm echoing what cealen has mentioned, save for the bit about the burden: as the gm, the burden kind of is on you in group roleplays. that said, does that mean you're not allowed to discuss the setting of the starter with your participants? absolutely not! ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ
i think this applies for all genres/types except for quest roleplays, and more often than not, the other roleplayers are more than happy to contribute ideas. they're happy because they'll get a setting they like, and you're happy because you don't have to think up an entire setting yourself (^人^)

otherwise, even the content isn't much too different from what cealen's said. you can treat it like any other post, though for group roleplays specifically i would recommend giving more description to the setting to allow other players to insert themselves easier. whether it's from your character's perspective or a simple few lines to just open the scene before entering your character's perspective, both will help in writing in a good starterヽ(>∀<☆)ノ

 

[Big Brother Jack]

Thank you both!

 

[nerdy tangents]

So I always write the starter for my 1x1s, usually at the request of my partner.

As mentioned I usually ask a lot of questions before hand to give me a clear idea of the setting or what the starting point of the plot is.

Are they going to work/school/home? Do the characters know each other or are they just meeting? Also some of the smaller details that you might not think of at first.

Like say they are going to work, do they drive? Take a bus? Are they on time or running late?

If their meeting for the first time have they seen each other in passing? Are they meeting up for work or is it random happenstance on the way to work?

I know not everyone cares about little details but those tend to make the starters easy for me, as I clearly map out how my character gets from point A to point B, plus leave a clear opening for my partner to respond.

Plus it doesn’t have to be perfect. Your only goal is to get the two characters interacting at the end. If your post manages that then you have made a good starter.