Hiraeth1000
New Member
Best way to get your roleplay noticed?
Advice/Help How to get your server out there?
- Thread starter Hiraeth1000
- Start date
Nove NuVonde
Certified worm boy
This depends on what kind of RP you're talking about, and what you mean by "server". If you're talking about RPs hosted here on RPN, there's a whole section called "interest checks" where you can posts a summery of your RP and what the players can expect, as well as requirements. If you want to catch the attention of players and draw more people in, I recommend looking into becoming at least decently proficient with formatting, and maybe learning some basic beginner's BBCode, if you aren't already familiar with it.
If you're talking about off site RPs, there's a section for those too, and I'd still recommend similar tactics.
It's really a case-by-case basis though, and if you want in depth advice, I'd recommend going into more detail about what kind of RP you're trying to get noticed and what problems specifically you're having.
If you're talking about off site RPs, there's a section for those too, and I'd still recommend similar tactics.
It's really a case-by-case basis though, and if you want in depth advice, I'd recommend going into more detail about what kind of RP you're trying to get noticed and what problems specifically you're having.
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
This question comes up a lot and response I always give regards how I see the process: The available RPs are like a market whose products are the RPs and the currency is people's time and attention. Your interest checks, then, are your pitch for your product.
The importance of this is that it means your RP should never be looked at as existing in a vaccum. Your RPs are a drop of water in the ocean, and unfortunately people only have one small glass they can take at a time. An RP is about a meeting of interests to create these stories. An interest check is all about the interests of the other people, your interest check is there to convince people that your project of all projects is worth spending their time and effort in. Of course, lying about it (to others or yourself) is a recipe for disaster- the phase of actually RPing does exist after all- so you have to sell the strengths of your roleplay and you yourself as a GM.
With can find my overall guide on this matter here, but here are a few quick extra golden rules to keep in mind:
1. Nobody is as interested in somebody else's idea as they are.
RPers are not reading books, they are here because they want to make their own thing. It will take time and effort to make anyone care about your world, characters or even plot all that much, and in the meantime what people really care about is the stake THEY have in it. Their character, their place in the world and story and so on. Never count on people finding your world or scenario interesting, and especially not your character (there are whole things I'd like to say to people who put characters in interest checks, but that's a different topic).
Instead, you need to sell their angle, what THEY get out of it. What amazing things could they be, what kind of adventures could their characters live?
Still, as with all else when it comes to crafting things for people, even what is simple to understand is hard to master. It can be complicated even knowing what angle to sell, and that leads me to my next point.
2. Understand your audience and be decisive and passionate.
Very few RPs appeal to all kinds of players, and those that know don't tend to keep a given player for too long. There are sandbox-type RPs and simple Rps, where you can afford to be a bit more flimsy, but beyond that you need to start making choices. What kind of post requirements, what pace, what setting, how detailed do you make the lore, do you allow this and that in the roleplay...
It may be easy to understand why, for example, forbidding anime pictures in an anime fandom roleplay would get people scared of. What might be less immediately obvious is that those players that are most into the fandom will probably be jarred just by the potential inclusion of non-anime faceclaims. The same is true the other way around, suddenly having a character that uses an anime or cartoon faceclaim in an otherwise realistic art or photo roleplay may scare of the players who are most into those other mediums.
As a detailed roleplayer, one that leans on heavy detail, a question that is important for me is "what are your post requirements". If your requirements seem too low, I will be inclined not to join, as I will be expecting my efforts not to be returned, or at the very least for the responses from the other players to be likely to be insufficient for me. But at the same time, a casual or simple roleplayer may look at the post requirements I enjoy and find them overwhelming or "unecessary".
The short of all this is that you need to put some thought into what your core audience wants and go for that with decisiveness. Appealing to the kind of players you want in the RP, catering to those players, that's what you want- even if you appeal to roleplayers you don't want or don't fit the type of RP you want to create, that's asking to get ghosted.
Lastly, don't forget to breathe passion and personality into your work! If you sound about as enthusiastic about your own idea as a depressed workaholic reading a shopping list, who is going to get excited for that?
3.Don't expect success.
Don't get me wrong, you should definitely do your best to make sure you are successful should the opportunity come. But the thing about opportunities is that they don't always come. In fact, when it comes to Rps, failure is a pretty common occurrence.
What I'm trying to say is you need patience and you need to be able to stomach the inevitable fact you're going to fail. A lot. Coping with failures, enjoying the small successes, that is in a sense just as important as your capability to be successful.
In any case, these are just a few quick tips. There's been plenty of threads like these, so I recommend you look them up, and of course, there's my guide to a good interest check, linked up there, has what I said and more in far more detail.
Hope this was helpful. Best of luck and happy Rping!
The importance of this is that it means your RP should never be looked at as existing in a vaccum. Your RPs are a drop of water in the ocean, and unfortunately people only have one small glass they can take at a time. An RP is about a meeting of interests to create these stories. An interest check is all about the interests of the other people, your interest check is there to convince people that your project of all projects is worth spending their time and effort in. Of course, lying about it (to others or yourself) is a recipe for disaster- the phase of actually RPing does exist after all- so you have to sell the strengths of your roleplay and you yourself as a GM.
With can find my overall guide on this matter here, but here are a few quick extra golden rules to keep in mind:
1. Nobody is as interested in somebody else's idea as they are.
RPers are not reading books, they are here because they want to make their own thing. It will take time and effort to make anyone care about your world, characters or even plot all that much, and in the meantime what people really care about is the stake THEY have in it. Their character, their place in the world and story and so on. Never count on people finding your world or scenario interesting, and especially not your character (there are whole things I'd like to say to people who put characters in interest checks, but that's a different topic).
Instead, you need to sell their angle, what THEY get out of it. What amazing things could they be, what kind of adventures could their characters live?
Still, as with all else when it comes to crafting things for people, even what is simple to understand is hard to master. It can be complicated even knowing what angle to sell, and that leads me to my next point.
2. Understand your audience and be decisive and passionate.
Very few RPs appeal to all kinds of players, and those that know don't tend to keep a given player for too long. There are sandbox-type RPs and simple Rps, where you can afford to be a bit more flimsy, but beyond that you need to start making choices. What kind of post requirements, what pace, what setting, how detailed do you make the lore, do you allow this and that in the roleplay...
It may be easy to understand why, for example, forbidding anime pictures in an anime fandom roleplay would get people scared of. What might be less immediately obvious is that those players that are most into the fandom will probably be jarred just by the potential inclusion of non-anime faceclaims. The same is true the other way around, suddenly having a character that uses an anime or cartoon faceclaim in an otherwise realistic art or photo roleplay may scare of the players who are most into those other mediums.
As a detailed roleplayer, one that leans on heavy detail, a question that is important for me is "what are your post requirements". If your requirements seem too low, I will be inclined not to join, as I will be expecting my efforts not to be returned, or at the very least for the responses from the other players to be likely to be insufficient for me. But at the same time, a casual or simple roleplayer may look at the post requirements I enjoy and find them overwhelming or "unecessary".
The short of all this is that you need to put some thought into what your core audience wants and go for that with decisiveness. Appealing to the kind of players you want in the RP, catering to those players, that's what you want- even if you appeal to roleplayers you don't want or don't fit the type of RP you want to create, that's asking to get ghosted.
Lastly, don't forget to breathe passion and personality into your work! If you sound about as enthusiastic about your own idea as a depressed workaholic reading a shopping list, who is going to get excited for that?
3.Don't expect success.
Don't get me wrong, you should definitely do your best to make sure you are successful should the opportunity come. But the thing about opportunities is that they don't always come. In fact, when it comes to Rps, failure is a pretty common occurrence.
What I'm trying to say is you need patience and you need to be able to stomach the inevitable fact you're going to fail. A lot. Coping with failures, enjoying the small successes, that is in a sense just as important as your capability to be successful.
In any case, these are just a few quick tips. There's been plenty of threads like these, so I recommend you look them up, and of course, there's my guide to a good interest check, linked up there, has what I said and more in far more detail.
Hope this was helpful. Best of luck and happy Rping!
BrokenWorldsStoryteller
New Member
We're trying to get advertisements on as many relevant mediums as possible.
Also, huge shoutout to Idea for that above post. That's a tremendous read and some great info!
Also, huge shoutout to Idea for that above post. That's a tremendous read and some great info!
