Experiences Time zones and schedules

[Tremaine]

So i often come across the issue of time zones and schedules. I'd love there to be an easier way to find people you share a time zone or schedule with.

Do you ever encounter issues with this and how to you solve it? Are you ok with only 1 reply a day or have your find a way to get people in similar time zones?

Im from europe and i sometimes have trouble rp'ing with you US people due to time, sadly, but also here as i often rp more in the morning and early afternoon.

 

[Onmyoji]

Yes, it can be an issue for some people, especially if you're aimning for fast-paced reply schedule and because of time zone difference this doesn't work.

I find it especially annoying in group RPs. When most people are in similar time zone, and you're not, you wake up to see 50+ messages where plot went ahead and everyone forgot about your character, and you need to read them all and backtrack to your character. Or just general discussion when other players decided on something and you had no say in this because you were asleep at that time.

But as I mostly do 1x1 rp, I always discuss reply schedule before we start to make sure it's fine for both players.
Ideally, I'd prefer to have at least a little bit of time when we're both online to communicate something in real time, but since I'm ok with slower reply schedule it doesn't bother me that much in 1x1. Can always send a message and read the reply in the morning.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Same as above. I am strictly a 1x1 roleplayer and I tell people my time zone right off that bat (and will even include my work schedule and the current time to help people figure out our differences).

I do tend to make the roleplays with folks who are not in the same time-line as me a little less lore heavy as it's harder to get on the same page if they're replying at like 4am and I'm sure I"m doing the same to them.

 

[Tremaine]

well one thing that i also find helps if you have a longer time between replies is making larger longer messages with a lot more information and detail because you do get time to think of your response then.

 

[rae2nerdy]

well one thing that i also find helps if you have a longer time between replies is making larger longer messages with a lot more information and detail because you do get time to think of your response then.

lol writing isn't a problem, I tend to be long winded in replies anyway. I was more talking about the set up of the roleplay world.

I like to give a really flesh out the setting of my roleplays before I start things out. But since my current partner is on at like 4am my time I just gave them a list of links to magical animal blog (the rp is about a magical animal sanctuary), a map of the world, and a list of magical skills the characters can pick from.

So it's not so much that I can't write long responses it's just I don't want to give them a lot of setting details before hand to memorize.

 

[Idea]

Honestly, I don't need more than one reply a week. I am a detailed roleplay through and through and I enjoy long and juicy responses with some thought out into them. So I have little need for my partner having 24/7 availability, so to speak. I prefer to wait for a good response, and use the remaining time on other RPs or any of the other multitude of things I have or want to do.

That said, I do need to talk to people to some extent, if nothing else to set up the roleplay, and since I'm big in planning, to plan. It would of course be impossible to work with someone who is actually on a complete opposite to mine schedule, this is short and specifically while I'm asleep. Even if I rarely sleep as much as I should, there are still some people with whom I would never get a chance to work with. For those, I have a few mechanisms that help me make sure I get partners with whom I can at least somewhat communicate:
-> talking to people who happen to be online when I am
-> talking to people whom the site says they joined around the afternoon for me
-> asking them to PM me or seeing when they comment on my interest check, as the more likely time for someone to be doing such an activity is during a time when they can spare the time to be more proactive.


I hope this helps! Good luck and happy RPing!

 

[Shuusuke]

It's so foreign to me when you say "only" 1 reply a day, because that's probably too fast in my opinion. If I were doing that regularly, assuming I was able to keep up, I'm pretty sure the quality of my posts and my motivation would drop. Maybe that's more of a common expectation in 1x1s though, since you're only dealing with one other person, and it's not unrealistic to aim for someone who's around your time as well. But that aside...

I don't think time zones were ever a problem for me in particular. I don't recall any of my previous RPs relying on quick pacing, so it was pretty much irrelevant which one each player was in. I think most of the people I've RP'ed with weren't that far off from mine though from what I recall gathering from stalking their profiles. Also, I'm more of a night person, so if anything, being on the same time zone as me would be detrimental to having a fast-paced RP if they had a healthy/"normal" schedule. Anyway, I think that means time zones and schedules are pretty irrelevant to me, considering I'd rather not have to follow a forced quick pacing in the first place.

But if it's such a significant issue, maybe that's something that could be suggested to be implemented, if it isn't already that is, which I wouldn't know. There's already a time zone field in your profile, so that could used for searching other members. "Only show members who have at most a 4 hour difference from my time zone", something like that. Or maybe just make it so it's possible to sort the results by using that information. I think it's a mandatory field though, so people might have put fake ones there if they didn't want to share that information with the staff/other users, or it might not be updated if they moved, but you can't really escape issues like that.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Shuusuke

Well it's not really an issue of quick paced replies in 1x1s. Most of the ones I'm in the average reply is once a week. You might get ones with faster replies but that's no different than in groups. Some groups have replies once an hour and some have replies once a week. Times zones really don't determine how often you reply in either setting.

I would say your work/school/IRL schedule would have more to do with that. And what the individual requirements are for the roleplay/that particular partner.

For 1x1s the big issue is communication. This is important for two reasons :

1. In a 1x1 there are only two people that have to make the roleplay work. So they have to get along and mesh a lot more than group players. In a group if you don't like Susie well you can always roleplay with Jan instead. In a 1x1 you're stuck with Susie so you have to put a lot more effort into making sure the two of you are on the same page and both enjoying the roleplay.

2. Ghosting is a HUGE problem in 1x1s. So a lot of people will give schedules to sort of let people know off the jump. Hey this is when I am available and this is the IRL things I have going on. So if you don't hear from me from X to X than it's not cuz I left it's cuz I'm working/sleeping/etc.

 

[Shuusuke]

rae2nerdy
I assumed that if you want your time zone/schedule to be compatible with the other player, it's because you want there to be some time where you two are both online, so that you can both keep doing back-to-back quick replies to each other, even if outside of that period, there are no replies at all. That is also something that I don't see working for me.

And I understand the part of telling the other player(s) your time zone just to let them know that you're probably busy, and not suspect you of ghosting (which if they do, they can always ask, dialogue seems particularly important in 1x1s) instead. But when the RP doesn't have fast-pacing, there's less reason to think the other player left just because they haven't replied in a day or 7. That was the point I tried to make, when the pacing isn't a post per day, then missing a day is hardly any reason for suspicion, so time zones and schedules aren't immediately relevant, and there's more room for waiting.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Shuusuke and I think I am not communicating something properly.

So when I'm talking about responses I'm mostly talking about OOC replies (as in discussions strictly between partners, not a in character response for a roleplay).

These tend to be pretty short responses that focus on getting two individuals on the same page in terms of what they want for the roleplay.

Examples of these responses include (but are not limited to) :
- Do you do character sheets?
- Do you have deal breakers?
- Do you want to talk on Discord?
- Where do you want to roleplay (in universe)
- Where do you want to roleplay (i.e. pms/threads/etc.)
- Do you care if my character has/is XX
- Do you want to write a starter or should I?

Now the purpose of these kinds of questions is to set up the roleplay and get both partners on the same page. It's possible a few of them will be answered in the interest check, but I personally always like to double check. Mostly because I have pretty bad memory and will forget what I read/asked.

So what this has to do with time zones/schedules is it lets you know when your questions are likely to be answered / when the best time to send the questions is.

For Example
If I know someone is in my time zone and is off work at 5pm I'll try to ask my questions then to get a quick response.
If I know my partner is six hours ahead of me and works Mon-Fri I'll expect responses to either be on the weekend OR the day after I send them.

None of this is really related to actually sending an in character roleplay response. I can have someone who only has the capacity to send one in character response a month. In which case time zone and schedule are meaningless for that response. But that doesn't mean I don't want to maybe chat with that person about their work day OR ask them questions about the character sheet. Which are likely not going to also be answered only once a month.

Hopefully that clears up what I was trying to say. I'm sorry sometimes I'm not very clear when I type things up.

 

[Laifan]

I'm from Europe as well (GMT) so I'm very used to this. Because I roleplay only 1x1 I don't feel it affects me too much. I gather it would be worse if I played in a group and all the action happened during my time off. It also depends on the players' free time. I'm busy roughly 12 hours a day (with some possibility to write sometime during the day) so I'm used to slower pace.

 

[Shuusuke]

rae2nerdy
I didn't mean only IC replies, but that is what makes more sense to me. I've seen slower posting being a problem to some people, so I usually assume that's the issue when someone brings up time.

It's not like I disagree or don't understand the points you're making, but more like I just don't personally feel the need to know when the other player(s) is/are more likely to respond, to the point of wanting to know their time zone or schedule. I'd just ask those OOC questions you mentioned, and I'd only really start worrying if a few days have passed and the person has been active on other RPs, but possibly ignoring the one we're both in. At that point I'd ask them what's up, instead of their schedule, but that's just a personal thing, I'm not really trying to argue against anyone.

In a more general note, I think coming up with a good pacing and/or posting order (for group RPs) is a good way to mitigate the issues caused by different time zones.

 

[rae2nerdy]

rae2nerdy
I didn't mean only IC replies, but that is what makes more sense to me. I've seen slower posting being a problem to some people, so I usually assume that's the issue when someone brings up time.

It's not like I disagree or don't understand the points you're making, but more like I just don't personally feel the need to know when the other player(s) is/are more likely to respond, to the point of wanting to know their time zone or schedule. I'd just ask those OOC questions you mentioned, and I'd only really start worrying if a few days have passed and the person has been active on other RPs, but possibly ignoring the one we're both in. At that point I'd ask them what's up, instead of their schedule, but that's just a personal thing, I'm not really trying to argue against anyone.

In a more general note, I think coming up with a good pacing and/or posting order (for group RPs) is a good way to mitigate the issues caused by different time zones.

Certainly I wasn't saying you had to agree. I just realized I wasn't very clear on what I was talking about and wanted to make sure we were on the same page so to speak. Your entitled to your own opinions I just wanted to make sure we were both talking about the same thing.

 

[Genkai]

I don't usually have issues with timezones. Heck, just cause someone lives in mine doesn't mean we'll both be free. A lot of my partners seem to work later shifts than I do so there's that. But I'm fine with slow pace so I'm not too bothered by someone's schedule. As long as they let me know how things look on their end, I'm not too picky about frequency. I mean I'll worry if it's been a while but we all have lives outside of the internet haha.

 

[Tove]

I am A OKAY with the time zones and schedules of others because I know my schedule can be hectic. I've never come across issues as I make sure to state my posting schedule which is two posts a week down to one. If that's too low for people that's fine. I usually look for people with similar schedules.

 

[hwayi]

I'm in EET, I just sacrifice my sleep for the sake of others TT-TT

 

[S h i s h a]

I'm most free weekends or mornings, it really depends when I remember to hop online heh.