Experiences What do you look for in an interest check?

[Kingfisher]

'Ello mates!

So, I'm new, and having posted in the 'Introductions' forum, I figured the next order of business was to set out to make an interest check.

So, I went to that section to take a look at some of the other's threads, to see how I should go about with my own, but that just got me wondering:

What are the biggest things that you look for in an interest check?

 

[Nana_MelaNinja]

Hi! What I typically look for is:

1. What genre do they prefer? Realistic? SoL? Fantasy? Futuristic? Fandoms? (This is usually designated by prefix in the title, but some users are open to more than one genre.)
2. How often do they post/expect posts from their partners?
3. What are their triggers/limits? And more recently, do they even have any triggers/limits? Obviously, RPN has rules that everyone must abide by with regards to smut and the like. But some users apparently are okay with having hyper-violent/graphic/mature material in their RPs.
4. *sigh* Their attitudes towards romance. I *sigh*'d because some users request that all their RPs contain romance, others avoid it like the plague, and others still could go either way. It can get pretty difficult to keep track of it all, especially when I'm looking at multiple interest checks in one sitting.
5. *even bigger sigh* Do they do the thing where they ask you to "post XYZ in the comments below to make sure I know you're reading". I understand why some people do it, but, again, it gets a little difficult to keep track of these kinds of requirements in addition to all of the other material I am reading through.
6. Do they prefer PMs or threads? Would they like for me to contact them via the comments section, or by PM?
7. How old are they? (Some users will only RP with people of a certain age group, usually 18+.) What is their level of maturity? (Not necessarily related to age, how mature is the person? Is the interest check riddled with tons of grammatical errors? Does the OP take a cavalier attitude or approach to their requests? I find myself asking these sorts of questions.)
8. Do they seem friendly/approachable? How well do I think I will mesh with this individual?
9. What plots do they have, if any? If some are included, do I find any of them interesting? Are they willing to formulate a new plot, or is there only one that they're craving at the moment?

Edit: 10. How much do they post/expect their partners to post? Are they casual, or literate? How descriptive are they? Do they prefer multiple paragraphs or one-liners? (My brain was screaming at me to have a list with 10 items instead of 9, so here's a freebie!)

That's about it. I hope you've found this helpful! Let me know if you need me to clarify something, and welcome to RPN!

 

[Kingfisher]

Wow thank you! This is really helpful! ^-^

 

[rae2nerdy]

Additionally break stuff up into sections. Don't just put a huge wall of text - that can be hard to read through.

So instead put things in little sections

Ex.

About Me
- my age
- what i'm looking for
- how often i can post
- etc

Deal Breakers
- stuff you won't roleplay
- triggers

Looking For
- your ideas
- if you have specific plots break them up into their own section too.

 

[Kingfisher]

Oh okay, that's a good idea! Thank you!

 

[Windsock]

Interest?

 

[Kingfisher]

Yes, I suppose interest would be something you'd look for in an interest check. I didn't realize. It never occurred to me that that might be something you'd want to find in an interest check. Thank you for opening my eyes dear Windsock! I'll never look at an interest check in the same way again after that insightful contribution.

XD

 

[Rosex]

I look for limits (I follow the TOS. Some don't.), if they require pictures, pretty posts or word-counts (none here), if they do romance and look for long-term. I also prefer to rp with those over 18.

 

[Kingfisher]

Oh, I see. Thanks! ^-^

Seems like a lot of RPers have the 18+ requirement on here.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Oh, I see. Thanks! ^-^

Seems like a lot of RPers have the 18+ requirement on here.

That's because the vast majority of the demographic are teenagers. And with there being a lot of romance in 1x1s specifically people can be uncomfortable playing out that kind of stuff with kids.

 

[ApfelSeine]

The first thing I generally hone in on is whether their play style matches mine. I look to see if they have any length or frequency requirements and choose what suits me best/what I can most likely commit to. After that, I look through their ideas to see if there's anything that interests me (I have a broad range of interests, so most ideas usually do interest me unless they're all in fandoms that I'm not a part of).

In general, it's good to be clear about what you want in an rp, but also have a friendly introduction before getting into all of that. I know some people who get intimidated if you start out with a bunch of rules from the get go. Establish yourself as a friendly person first in a brief greeting. Don't put your whole biography mind you (some people can get turned off by that since they haven't yet decided if they're interested in rping with you yet. They'll likely want to decide on that before learning more about you, so just a brief introduction will suffice).

Clear organization is very helpful. The way I organize things is generally:
- Introduction
- Rules/expectations (I generally avoid stating the obvious like "no godmoding")
- Genres/Fandoms
- Possible plot suggestions

Everyone has their own unique way of doing things, though. One thing to keep in mind is that you should structure your interest check in a way that attracts the kind of people you want to play with. If you want more casual players who post moderate length responses, keep the interest check short and easy to read. If you're looking to attract rpers who post long and detailed posts, make a longer interest check (and put effort into organizing it so that it's still easy to read in spite of the depth).

With all that said, you'll almost always have the most luck if you respond to other peoples' interest checks than when you make your own, so first see if there's anyone else who's looking for what you're looking for. (You can do both, though! Look and make your own interest check!) If you really want to GM a group rp, you'll have to make your own interest check, but if you enjoy 1 x 1s or want to make friends in already existing groups, looking at what's already out there is the way to go. At least in my experience.

 

[Tove]

1.) Plots-I like to see some ideas I can help build on.

2.) Flexibility-I know after my time roleplaying a lot of people are comfortable playing a set gender, I get that. I do like seeing if a person is willing to try no matter if they are good or not. It's not always necessary I just like seeing it.

3.) Different things-Not the same overly used themes vampires battle werewolves.

 

[St. Elsewhere]

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(Someone interested)

 

[Elephantom]

Something that's not chock full of romance.

 

[welian]

Speaking as a group roleplayer - I want to see the premise of your RP in a concise paragraph.

I do not want to read seven paragraphs of worldbuilding in order to find out what the overarching plot is and who the player charcaters are. I will happily read those seven paragraphs AFTER I figure out what the roleplay is about.

Here are some quick examples from my own roleplays of what I mean.

Aggressive military combat androids have been hacked and are killing people. The designer of the androids has hired a group of mercenaries and counter-hackers to destroy the androids. They don't go down easily.

A school bus was teleported to a fantasy world after being struck by lightning. The students must use their newfound magical abilities to navigate this new world and decide whether to return home, or stay.

Heaven has run out of guardian angels, and has begun assigning guardian demons to troubled humans as part of a demon remediation program.​

Obviously none of them are super detailed, but they contain the basic information that I would personally be looking for in an interest check - an idea of the conflict, the setting, and the characters involved. It's the same information I'd get from ready several paragraphs of lore, but now it's been condensed to a few sentences and placed at the beginning of the thread, so I am able to close out the tab almost immediately if the roleplay concept doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

An interest check can't turn me off unless it just doesn't fit the type of rp that I want. I don't care if you have a medieval political intrigue rp, if there's no magic. :3

But what can turn me off is outlandish lazy writing. Found a sword art online rp where some rich guy, literally just some rich guy, was gonna hospitalize thousands of players and give out 1 billion dollars as a prize(for an online tournament).

So yea, that's the only thing that can turn me off that's specifically in an interest check.

 

[Idea]

Now that I updated my own search thread , link below in the signature ( #shamelessadvertising) , it may be time to tackle this quite general question...

I have to admit that the first thing that I look at when I look for search threads is the profile pic. Whenever I look at a post or a PM or anything, I will see their profile pic. Therefore, my first process is to pick people who have cute anime girls as their profile pic, because I will feel a stronger incentive to talk to them.
For group RPs, this is switched by a look at the title. Does the title indicate a potentially interesting premise? If so, I may check it out. But if indicates something too generic or something that shows it centers on something I am not interested in, then I won´t bother.

The second thing I pay attention to is the requirements. I hate it when the rules don´t work to the favor of what I would like to RP, though that is somewhat openfield in some aspects. I am willing to be limited in my freedom so long as the technical details like the pics and post length are according to my tastes and so long as the rest of the environment is interesting enough and has enough potential for exploring to compensate. But what I hate even more than unfavorable rules is rules that are too lenient, open or even no rules at all. This is a recipe for disaster in my understanding and joining an RP like that helps at nothing but wrecking my nerves.

Lastly, I look at the interests. What is that the person is actually trying to sell me on? Is the idea in fact interesting to me? How willing are they to cooperate in tweaking it, if it´s a 1x1? In what regards are they flexible and in what are they solid? And what does their content indicate about what I can expect from the person?

Of course, there are things that I never bother to specifically look for. How rude or arrogant someone is tends to be pretty self-evident from what they put on the search thread. In fact, you can tell a lot about person and what they are used to by the way they design and phrase their interest check. And while some things can turn me off or on from this aspect, it´s something that I pretty much find without specifically looking for it.