Tutorial What's the best way to find effective roleplayers willing for long-term rps?

I've been on this website lurking for the longest time, and I'm trying to find someone that can help me to create a effective thread to attract other rpers' attention. I know that an entire thread won't attract the entire website for just one thread, just people with that common interest and expectations on that thread. So, with that being said on this website, what will be the best solution to attract someone's attention to your forum. I'm new, and I'm not experienced. I need all the help I can get, so please help me.
 
Can't speak for this site as of yet as I'm somewhat a wanderer of the internet who has recently dropped into here, but generally speaking, I've found good formatting, a concise presentation, and clearly identifying what you want to see/what you want to do (while, again, being concise about it) to be factors that never change.
 
Presentation is key, basically. What exactly you do entirely depends on how you operate, but whatever it is, you make the best impression by minimizing grammar errors, having decent formatting and doing a better job than me at keeping things relatively simple. A simple run through spellcheck, something that I find people frequently omit in roleplaying, can do wonders for improving perspectives (which is something I doubt you have an issue with). Keeping paragraphs well sized to avoid the 'wall of text' syndrome is also good. And on top of those two things, there is a fine line between not giving enough detail (as I seem to have done in the first post, which is not unusual for me) and going far too deep into the lore of your idea unnecessarily (also not uncommon for me to do). All about striving for the balance of distributing information, and doing so in a way that looks effective.

Before starting, see other threads people have created. I don't suggest ripping people's content off, but there is no harm to getting inspiration by a format that particularly catches your eye. If you can look at what you create and say "yes, this looks good", then odds are you will have others who agree. Before actually posting, read again; think about if you did enough to get what you want to say across. Then, if you wish to take an extra step, proofread and nitpick yourself. As an extra step, have someone else do that for you, and tell you what you do right or wrong.

If you get through all those steps, I'd say that is the best you can do short of going for a particularly wild idea when setting up your interest thread. Wild ideas work too, but that's something you would need to figure out on your own, and at any rate, you're more likely to just get roleplayers, period instead of roleplayers who come in and analyze your thread to see if they want to make a long term investment. Properly developed threads, at least in my perspective, are more likely to be given serious attention to by people who wish to dedicate long term. But, attracting long term dedication is always a roll of the dice above all else in my experience.
 
Here's Idea Idea 's Nifty Guide to 1x1 Search Threads . Includes crucial stuff about what to include, and what not to include, in your ad.

One thing I want to add is huge blocks of text can scare people off. Be brief. For example, you can try to divide your content into appropriate sections, complete with headers and subeaders. Use bullet points when necessary, because again, blocks of text are the devil.

Secondly -- and I understand this sounds superficial, but if it works, it works -- use images. Just don't overdo it, or you'll give your reader an aneurysm. The best places to put the image are at the top or at the end of the thread. That way, your post looks pretty, but the images don't interfere with the actual text.

Lastly, for people to approach you, you need to seem approachable. Shocker, amirite? Joke around. Don't be a negative Nancy. It's fine to talk about things you hate, but if you start talking about negative things in detail, you just sound like an elitist prick.
 
Thank you guys for your suggestions, I'm still looking for any ideas that may be presented to me from this chat. Any more suggestions would be appreciated! :)
 
I'm just gonna state the obvious: it's a shot in the dark on whether or not you get a good, long-term partner that fits you. Sometimes, you can gauge rather easily if someone will be there for as long as the rp lasts and sometimes things get misinterpreted and the long-term partner you find just isn't a good match.

The best thing you can do for yourself is figure out what you can be lenient with and what you cannot. For example: I don't care about post length as long as my partner engages with the rp and the ooc chat. I have had to learn to speak up when I start having a hard time getting a response posted. If my partner stops engaging, I speak up because that is something I just can't do without; I don't find carrying a one-on-one rp fun.

So find what you can and can't live without. You don't have to list every requirement for a good partner; that can possibly scare off the good ones but sometimes it's a necessity to list them. Once you have that list, it'll be easier for you to gauge when a partner is just not a good fit. Make sure to communicate. Sometimes voicing what you are concerned about helps tremendously and it's a great way of keeping a partner around.
 
RedDergo387 RedDergo387 Out of curiosity what kind of roleplay are you looking to start?

1x1 or Group?

Any particular genre?

Have you ever GM'd before or is this your first time?
 
I'm looking to start a roleplay with someone who can play as Asriel Dreemurr from UnderTale against Dark, one of my characters who is a genocider from that universe. I'm just looking for a 1x1, but I can fight anything or anyone else outside of that universe, just ask. I've been rping for 2-3 years now, so I'm not new to roleplaying. I'm trying to become a literate roleplayer, but the furthest I've gone is semi-literate, which is good enough. I don't know what you mean by GM if that's what you mean. Just looking to be challenged in a long-term battle rp. I like emotional battles where the situations are made personal with what's happening in the roleplay. Anything else you wanna ask?
 
I'm looking to start a roleplay with someone who can play as Asriel Dreemurr from UnderTale against Dark, one of my characters who is a genocider from that universe. I'm just looking for a 1x1, but I can fight anything or anyone else outside of that universe, just ask. I've been rping for 2-3 years now, so I'm not new to roleplaying. I'm trying to become a literate roleplayer, but the furthest I've gone is semi-literate, which is good enough. I don't know what you mean by GM if that's what you mean. Just looking to be challenged in a long-term battle rp. I like emotional battles where the situations are made personal with what's happening in the roleplay. Anything else you wanna ask?

Okay I was asking as the means of attracting players varies depending on whether your doing a 1x1 or a Group. GM is basically someone who runs a group.

So for 1x1s the key is to be clear on what you want and to make the post readable.

Some good details to include in a search are :

  • When your available to post ( what's your time zone, how often can you post a day/week/etc. )
  • When you want your partner to post ( do you want them to post multiple times a day, once a week, etc. )
  • What you won't roleplay ( anything that you don't like in roleplays, anything your uncomfortable roleplaying )
  • What you will roleplay ( things you like to see in a roleplay )
  • Any cravings you have ( any plots or characters you want to play )
Make sure to use some kind of paragraph or bullet system so that all your information is easy to read. Stay away from blocks of text as they're hard to read. Bold anything that is important to you.

Also patience is another key factor. It might take you several weeks to find someone who is interested in your ideas and it might take you a few days. It's honestly just pure luck.

But don't get discouraged, keep searching. Maybe wander over to the ( Anime? Video Game? idk what UnderTale is ) section and see if there are any fans of UnderTale there.

Also be sure to scroll through other people's searches. See if anyone else is fond of UnderTale or looking for a similar kind of roleplay.

PS : A Good title also helps. Something like Craving Undertale or Battle RP.

EDITED - Cuz I got sidetracked by work and the first post was choppy.
 
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There's no one real solution. Different people, different tastes, different willpower.

I've been in a main RP group for over a year now. I just jumped in an RP out of nowhere and it ended up being one of the best RPs I've ever joined, it being one of the rare RPs that actually conclude the story instead of die before the story concludes. From there, we turned that one into a series. We make and join each others' RPs because we know we can trust each other to not drop in the first few posts.

You have to sell it the best you can. Put your intentions with the RP. Make it seem to the potential player that you're passionate about your work and that you put some thought into it..........or if you didn't put any thought into a story or even a world, that you put thought into things like mechanics, especially to the more problematic things like the regulation of magic in Fantasy settings.

Making it pretty is also a way to get players easily. A lot of successful RP interest checks I see with a complicated concept have a lot of BBCode in it. Looks fantastic and most definitely takes a few hours to do before you even insert all the text.

Still though, to find players who will stick with an RP for the long term is to find a unicorn, no matter how well you sell an RP. I recently GMed an RP with about 14-18 supporters in the interest check, the most supported RP I've ever made, with the world built, the magic regulated, the concept simple and open for creative freedom. Only about 3 stuck around and it died still fairly early on, not under my control at all as players dropped in the middle of a conversation.
 
Sometimes, it's not a thread itself. You can make it catchy, and pretty, but the theme itself isn't interesting to anyone. I'm sorry, but this happens quite a lot.

I've always been a very responsible player and narrator, for example, however because of the fact I loath playing silly romances, and want some intrigue and character development, I've been having bad luck at most RP websites. It's a very rare thing for me to find a co-player to share my interests, but when I do, we blow the game threads, hah c: But I never thought it's the problem with my search threads, it's the problem with me. It's me who is so picky, and won't go the usual way, or very specific in his requests.

Here's a story of how I got my current RP partner, who is an amazing guy, and I love him, and I'm running third game with him by now, and still interested in making more, and more, and more, because it's just such an amazing partner.
I decided to give a chance in something that is not among my immediate interests.
I was looking for court drama/intrigue, playing as one of my less than nice, villainous character, prone to murder, genocide, rape, assassination, dealing with criminals, etc., who is one of the ministers in a royal court. I was looking for someone to get caught up in this thing, ruing his plans, or become as twisted and corrupted as he is. By that time, I got two requests.
One was from a guy who wanted a story about his young man dressing as a maid to get a job at the royal palace, and getting caught up in all of this, and having to be more and more cautious as the time progresses to keep his secret.
Second was a guy playing as a ten(?)-year-old boy (boosted to fourteen-year-old) who just had this... powerplay/torture fetish.
I gave a chance to both of them. it was another website, of a mature rating, and I've never been keen on overly Mature games, but I thought, eh, the boy one isn't serious, he'll just get his libido satisfied, and go away, and I'll finally get my first kinky RP. You can guess by the intro, who became my bestest bud.
Since then, this fetish turned into a real "little boy caught up in court intrigues and has to survive" game, we started another in cyberpunk post-apocalyptic verse where we uncover murder and try to get off the gangs' ways, and recently started a third one, which is in an old universe of my own making too confusing to describe at once... kinda post-fanasy-pre-cyber thing. And I'm sure this isn't the last game we play, and I am totally platonically enamored by this person. And all because I decided once, just once not to be picky, and give another guy a chance in a game I an't really interested in at first. Then, three thousand replies came. And three thousand in another game. And the start of another game. You get the deal.

Anyway. What I mean to say: broader search.
 

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