Experiences Which of your interest checks have gotten the most response?

Just to be clear, I don't take any offense to your opinion on the genres and tropes we're discussing.
Well, I guess I didn't phrase it the way I meant it- Gives the characters an excuse to interact, and to continue to interact for the duration of the rp; Gives the roleplayers a way for their characters to interact with less planning and less need for the stars to align with character creation.
And you actually just reminded me of another reason that I speculate for the school genre to be so popular, and certainly one of the reasons I return to it so often- It gives people a way to process their real-life school experience, whether they like it or disliked it.
As for the genre being overplayed, here's a reason I speculate why my rp in particular might stand out, if that's even a factor in it's success: Overplayed doesn't necessarily mean monotonous, it just means frequent. My rp doesn't play the aforementioned genre straight, as it has strong elements of urban fantasy, fantasy kitchen sink, alternate history, and dystopian worldbuilding. I can't say I'm familiar enough with other people's rps of the genre played straight to know how similar they are, but I do know that mine differs. It's custom-made to create an atmosphere that I enjoy, while leaving enough room for the rp to be different in each incarnation.
well, you said you are having success in your RP, so obviously you're doing something right. :-)
And you know your audience well enough to cater to them whilst not becoming just another story in genre X.
What I was saying in the first place was that the popular genres aren't really something I find myself interested in (regardless of whatever way you spin em')
And that's nobodies fault. People are doing what they have fun with. I was just pointing out how your success basically bolsters exactly what I was talking about in my initial comment. The themes and settings that a lot of people really go for, are usually things that I tend to not go for. No one's wrong, and nothing's bad. It's just that the interest isnt there, and I'm very often on the sidelines to what the kids are going for these days. lol
 
I'm personally rather sick of school settings myself. I do like RP's about mutants/gifteds, but I don't join many since the vast majority are either in school settings or take place in the Marvel-verse (if I'm playing in fandom universes then I want OC's only). I have an idea of my own for this type of RP that I've been wanting to run, but it seems to be pretty niche regardless of where I go.
 
Harry Potter always gets me dozens of responses, but since I have done it so often I stopped enjoying it ;;

See I have the opposite problem. I definitely check out HP searches (and also usually try to out HP in my title) but no one wants to write the stories I’m interested in.

It’s all usually romantic stuff set in Hogwarts or (rarely) Britain after school. Whereas I want to do stuff in like America or at least featuring a different magical school in Britain.

Like legit it feels like people always want to do the parts I hate in fandom roleplays. But still I persist and have found some top tier partners with a bit of patience.
 
^When I play in the HP universe it's usually stories about adults since I'm so sick of school RP's.
 
I think the best way to go about interest checks is to see them as finding the right person, not the right single RP.

This is how I go about mine; once you find one or two people who you are very compatible with and have similar interests, you can just go to them for all your obscure RP needs. I've got the one guy who I'll just slap all my weird RP requests on the table and have something going immediately - if I were to post an ad for those, it would take me forever to find someone. Befriending people and going from there is way easier than mindlessly bumping for months, because most folks prefer RPing with friends than random strangers.

You often see lots of people complain about not being able to find the same thing; if they got together and talked, they would have that obscure thing they want!
 
I think the best way to go about interest checks is to see them as finding the right person, not the right single RP.

This is how I go about mine; once you find one or two people who you are very compatible with and have similar interests, you can just go to them for all your obscure RP needs. I've got the one guy who I'll just slap all my weird RP requests on the table and have something going immediately - if I were to post an ad for those, it would take me forever to find someone. Befriending people and going from there is way easier than mindlessly bumping for months, because most folks prefer RPing with friends than random strangers.

You often see lots of people complain about not being able to find the same thing; if they got together and talked, they would have that obscure thing they want!

Oh yes, absolutely. I have a lot of obscure RP interests and I have managed to find a partner to fulfill these RP needs. I don't often put up interest checks anymore since I can just go to this partner for most of the things I'm interested in that not too many others are.
 
Harry Potter always gets me dozens of responses...
^yet another uber popular fandom I have no interest in. lol
Seriously, I could make a list of all the really popular categories that the mob are into and I am adamantly NOT into. lmao
(wait... I think I DID make a list!)

I think the best way to go about interest checks is to see them as finding the right person, not the right single RP.

This is how I go about mine; once you find one or two people who you are very compatible with and have similar interests, you can just go to them for all your obscure RP needs. I've got the one guy who I'll just slap all my weird RP requests on the table and have something going immediately - if I were to post an ad for those, it would take me forever to find someone. Befriending people and going from there is way easier than mindlessly bumping for months, because most folks prefer RPing with friends than random strangers.

You often see lots of people complain about not being able to find the same thing; if they got together and talked, they would have that obscure thing they want!
Well, I mean... we DO have threads for that very thing!

But tbh, I'm fucking TERRIBLE at making friends. Both irl and especially online. I just honestly dont have the time or energy to cultivate friendships. Like, I just wanna write stuff. Getting to know people and getting all buddy-buddy with them is SO much effort. And tbh, I get a bit uncomfortable and anxious when online peeps get to comfortable with me. I like to keep people at arms distance, and at a casual level of "I'm just here for the RP". I generally avoid answering stuff in my PMs unless it directly pertains to the "business" of RP. It's not that I'm not UN-friendly, it's just that I don't want to get TOO friendly. Ya know?

Also, pretty much all my own ideas require an entire group for participation. So multiply the problems of finding an interested party by (X amount of group participants). And that's not even getting into the fact that I'm absolutely DONE with trying to run a group anymore.
 
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But tbh, I'm fucking TERRIBLE at making friends. Both irl and especially online. I just honestly dont have the time or energy to cultivate friendships. Like, I just wanna write stuff. Getting to know people and getting all buddy-buddy with them is SO much effort. And tbh, I get a bit uncomfortable and anxious when online peeps get to comfortable with me. I like to keep people at arms distance, and at a casual level of "I'm just here for the RP". I generally avoid answering stuff in my PMs unless it directly pertains to the "business" of RP. It's not that I'm not UN-friendly, it's just that I don't want to get TOO friendly. Ya know?

Yeah, unfortunately that's just how RP forums operate these days. It's very much a social hobby where people expect longevity and don't want a strictly transactional relationship with their partner- I know myself and many of the ads out there specify this. A lot of folks actually do it just because they want to make friends.

It's certainly something worth trying to be more open about in the future if you continue to struggle finding people. I have extremely niche interests RP wise (dystopian/apoc only, novella, wlw, intense world building and slow posts) and the only way I was able to find partners was by befriending people who were also interested in those things, even if it wasn't originally for RP. It doesn't have to be anything crazy intensive. Sometimes you'd be surprised how far a couple messages a week can go with someone.
 
Yeah, unfortunately that's just how RP forums operate these days. It's very much a social hobby where people expect longevity and don't want a strictly transactional relationship with their partner- I know myself and many of the ads out there specify this. A lot of folks actually do it just because they want to make friends.

It's certainly something worth trying to be more open about in the future if you continue to struggle finding people. I have extremely niche interests RP wise (dystopian/apoc only, novella, wlw, intense world building and slow posts) and the only way I was able to find partners was by befriending people who were also interested in those things, even if it wasn't originally for RP. It doesn't have to be anything crazy intensive. Sometimes you'd be surprised how far a couple messages a week can go with someone.
I used to have more time for friends, but as I've gotten older I've also gotten more busy and less patient. lol
And I just don't really have a need for making friends anymore. The concept weighs like a chore, if I'm going to be honest.

What's "wlw", btw?
 
I used to have more time for friends, but as I've gotten older I've also gotten more busy and less patient. lol
And I just don't really have a need for making friends anymore. The concept weighs like a chore, if I'm going to be honest.
It may not be the traditional RP style, but it could be worth looking into tabletop-type settings/groups. Other than the specific fandom and game setups, people have all kinds of homebrew genres that cover literally everything and anything you could think of. They tend to meet about once to twice a week and there's no expectation for members to meet outside of the established play times - tends to work well for older adults who have kids/busy schedules/etc. You should be able to find them on various discord servers or subreddits meant for finding tabletop groups. As for as groups with no friendships go, that's probably about as close as you'll get; they're really one of those things that rely very heavily on everyone being buddy-buddy.

What's "wlw", btw?
Women loving women. Just a fancy word for 'gay gay gay', really.
 
It may not be the traditional RP style, but it could be worth looking into tabletop-type settings/groups. Other than the specific fandom and game setups, people have all kinds of homebrew genres that cover literally everything and anything you could think of. They tend to meet about once to twice a week and there's no expectation for members to meet outside of the established play times - tends to work well for older adults who have kids/busy schedules/etc. You should be able to find them on various discord servers or subreddits meant for finding tabletop groups. As for as groups with no friendships go, that's probably about as close as you'll get; they're really one of those things that rely very heavily on everyone being buddy-buddy.


Women loving women. Just a fancy word for 'gay gay gay', really.

I'm not a fan of dice or system RPs in general. Too many stats cramp my narrative. I like freeform stuff with less rules and more elbow room, so to speak. When I see inerest checks that say anything about dice or systems or 5e, etc. etc. in the title, I don't even bother to click in.
EDIT: I would LOVE to find a Mouseguard group online, though. It doesnt really use stats or dice. But I have yet to EVER see one advertised anywhere.

I will be the first to admit that I'm pretty inconsistent about the time I'm available on any given day to get any writing done. I actually put that information up front when proclaiming interest in any RP. I give my timezone, but let the group know that it really doesn't matter because I typically get on anywhere from 12 to 4 AM to get any writing done. There is also no guarantee that I will get it done every day, or on a specific day. And that writing will take me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half to get done. I'm not the "bunches of replies in quick succession" type of RPer. I typically will give multiple paragraph responses of somewhere between 400 to 1000 words. Just depends on whats going on in the narrative.

I've actually SCOURED Discord for RP groups that I could potentially join, but I have the HARDEST time finding anything. Maybe I just dont know how to search for them, but scrolling through "Roleplay" groups tends to just bring up a bunch of half-baked junk.

Also LOL to the wlw. I'm just used to seeing it as FxF. I guess you just really wanna emphasize it. XD
 
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Late with these comments, but yeah, I’m not big on school settings. I don’t mind them, but I prefer to choose someplace else to set it unless there’s something else about the idea I like.

Harry Potter does seem popular here. I’ve wanted to distance myself from it due to the stuff about JKR (and also I was never a huge HP fan to begin with), but wow is it everywhere.
 

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