My RP's keep dying and I don't know why

[Kestrel]

I'm still really new to roleplaying and RpNation. Since I joined here I have been in 3 group RPs and 3 1x1 and they've all died. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? If I join/start another one, how can I tell people I'm only interested if they're serious about responding back without sounding rude? Thanks in advance.

 

[Albatrash]

I think it's pretty much a law of PbP that enthusiasm is high at the beginning but starts to wane once the game starts, usually because of the waiting between posts, I guess.


I think it's a sad reality, but there are a few ways to take that into account when looking for people. It's hard to gauge commitment before you get someone on board, but you can design your RP to take the possibility of people leaving into account. Work on something that doesn't assume everyone's going to stick around till the end, like a murder mystery or something with a lot of characters.


You can also use these games to built a little list of people you know post regularly, so you know who to call when you want to do something more complex.

 

[Idea]

I'm still really new to roleplaying and RpNation. Since I joined here I have been in 3 group RPs and 3 1x1 and they've all died. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong? If I join/start another one, how can I tell people I'm only interested if they're serious about responding back without sounding rude? Thanks in advance.

Well, an rp needs several things, which can be summed up (in my opinion) to three concepts: Potential, cooperation and direction


Potential is the plot`s, world`s and character`s capacity to grow, expand, evolve. The players need to have freedom to explore what they want in the rp, within reason. The rp needs to be able to develop to be interesting. Otherwise, it`ll get boring quickly. However, this doesn`t mean you shouldn`t be strict. Without solid rules, at least in group rps, it is likely things will go wrong. There is only so many slices to the freedom cake, and taking more than you should means taking it from someone else.


Cooperation is about the rpers, their mood and their willingness to compromise. On one hand, constant fighting and bickering is not gonna help, and a bad mood will scare people away. This also goes along the lines to respond to your other question: Your definition of "being serious about replying back" may be overdemanding. Is it about post length? Then have you told them it is? Is it about quality? Have you considered there are many differences in rp styles or that some people may not have the same muse as you? On the other hand, players should be able to compromise and find midway terms with each other or just entirely be able to give up their initial expectations. Not to say this will happen everytime, but on every rp there will be conflict and it`s not always possible to satisfy all parties completely.


Finally, an rp needs direction. If an rp gets too dispersed, suddenly it stalls or people simply loose track of what`s going on. Roleplayers might also not be as deep into the world the rp is taking place on as you, and so they may need a little push in this or that direction to actually be able to get involved in the plot properly.

 

[Kestrel]

Thanks @Idea and @Albatrash. What I mean is I join a group RP and they slowly fizzles out until nobody else responds or I make a 1x1 with someone and we post back and forth for a while, but then they just stop answering. I get that stuff happens in real life, but a warning would be kinda nice.

 

[Idea]

Thanks @Idea and @Albatrash. What I mean is I join a group RP and they slowly fizzles out until nobody else responds or I make a 1x1 with someone and we post back and forth for a while, but then they just stop answering. I get that stuff happens in real life, but a warning would be kinda nice.

Well my advise worked if your GMung or if you're on a 1x1. If you're in a group and you are cooperative and invested, then there really isn't much more you can do. Somtimes the to just can't hold itself and some people are just dicks. One has to accept it and move on.

 

[Albatrash]

Thanks @Idea and @Albatrash. What I mean is I join a group RP and they slowly fizzles out until nobody else responds or I make a 1x1 with someone and we post back and forth for a while, but then they just stop answering. I get that stuff happens in real life, but a warning would be kinda nice.

I'm not sure if there are any rules on this, I certainly didn't see any specific ones when I looked over them, but I think it's okay to vent at least a little when that kind of stuff happens, if it makes you feel better.


Even if the 'making a game' parts of my advice don't help your situation as a player, take the last bit about the list into account. Remember who stuck around in the group RPs, then look for their RPs, or organize something among yourselves. You're probably not alone in feeling cheated, if they were there too.

 

[Kestrel]

I didn't mean for it to come across as venting. Thank you for the advice though. I'll definitely use it and keep trying. Off to the Interest Checks!

 

[Coward]

It's probably not even your fault, these things happen. One thing to consider though if you're new is that a RP really needs to be like a pageturner novel to keep all parties interested. Things need to be happening all the time. In real life it would feel rude to cut a conversation short, but in a RP it's sometimes a good idea to just forge ahead with some plot rather than languishing in the safety and comfort of normal character interaction. I mean, you do need those breathers as well, but if they go on for too long one of you will get bored and stop posting.

 

[Lady Warlock]

I would also advise looking into the GM of any game you are intending to join. Are they running any other successful rps? Are they in any other rps and have they been able to stick with them for a while? Typically if the GM has a good track record of rping consistently and/or running other successful rps, the rp is more likely to be successful.

 

[Kestrel]

Thanks for the advice @Coward and @DaughterofAthena. One of the reasons I love RPN is because everyone is really helpful.

 

[April82]

May I just write, when I joined an rp, me and the person leading the rp, agreed to talk to eachother with our characters when mine was lost. However, the person either forgot, or ignored the post I made, and their character talked to someone else. I don't know if this was the right choice or not, but I lost interest and stoped posting without any warning. I won't do this again, but this might be a helpful story, even if its random.

 

[Insensibility]

I find that characters in a role-play simply reacting to other characters in a role-play and forgetting to move the plot/story along usually ends in loss of interest. Its all fine and good to have conversations and interaction amongst characters, but if the storyline in which those characters exist remains stagnant because of the players' inability to make moves, everyone just gets bored.


So many role-plays I've joined in the past, on other sites, have ended in such a way. Great characters. In-depth, detailed world. And the story is great, too, except no one wants to progress forward.

 

[Kestrel]

That sounds really frustrating @April82. Very true @Insensibility. Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[TheAdept]

Aww, dude, tell me about it. I remade the same rp (with different ideas each time, of course) 3 times so far. This third time might not get completed but it will get pretty far I'm sure.


Anyway, I know you probably want advice to start making lasting RPs now, but what happened with me was I started my rp, then went and joined some other RPs, bantered a little in the OOC discussion threads (I started on the old Roleplayerguild, so everything was a separate thread) sort of met people that way, and wound up with a few "buddies" I would PM when I was about to start a new RP, to see if the idea sounded interesting to them. Not only will they be more inclined to stick around in your RP, but you will find out who is more likely to stay and who is more likely to leave the next day. Don't worry about being blunt. I remember once telling a guy straight up, "Sorry man, you have a reputation of leaving RPs quickly, and you left all my last ones that way, so no."


I even got lucky and met a guy to co-gm an rp that I expected to die out in the first two days. I now even have a network of people, even, who I rp with. No guarantees that's what will happen with you, but you never know.

 

[Kestrel]

Thanks @TheAdept. I may co-GM a RP with the person who introduced me to rping and RpN. And, one of my 1x1 was revived! I'm so happy about it!

 

[Feuver]

It's a true thing that interests is a very come-and-go thing. I've had several RPs in the past, not here mind you, but elsewhere which ran into similar issues. To note it was with the same RPer, so the problem didn't came from the player/GM as much as it came from the story itself.


One frequent problem with roleplays is that they can often get out of hand. Roleplaying isn't like a drawing where the drawing space is limited. It can go in any direction, at any time, and go away from intended plot devices or even change the entire plot in no time. This is the danger with the freedom of creation between two users. Expectations can often differ from both players as well. For an example, after finding the object you were looking for for a long time, suddenly you realize it's part of a set of 3 other items. The GM might expect that this will spark interest or even make you desire to get the rest even more, but the sad reality is that often players will find this aggravating. All of this work for just a piece of the puzzle? And now I have to go through an entire journey again?


RP must come at a natural end. You must not force it to go on if it dwelves on too long, or else it degenerates in what I call instant gratification and creative staganation. I've met this more times than I'd like to admit. All stories must come at an end, and gauging when that end should be I feel is truly the hardest part in any roleplays. The characters you've created are attached to each other as well as the player or DM. Turning the lights out feels like you lost a lot of opportunities for more stories or events.


Another problem is that we're often inspired by surrounding media. Say you just watched a really awesome movie with a really good plot and universe. Now you're hyped, so you create an universe similar to that, or original characters to participate in that universe in a plot parallel to the one in the movie. However, such hype often dies down quicker than you'd realize. I call it the "Day-after" effect. You'll create something you find fascinating and great. Then reality kicks in and shows you that while this might be great, it might not work well as an RP, or even not work well at all. But by now you've done all this work, so you don't want to throw it all away. So you kind of force the work onward until you realize you're not writing something fun, you're just forcing yourself.


I could go on and on, but RP dying is a very common thing. People have different attention-span for a great deal of different things. The goal is to make an interesting hook and hope the player or GM keeps determined and amused to pull it through to the natural end.

 

[Kestrel]

Good point @Feuver. I write a lot of stories, but they don't make good roleplays so I end up using my basic story characters as characters for roleplays. I'm working on joining some new ones, so hopefully these will last. I will take everyone's advice into account. Thanks ya'll!

 

[Beckoncall]

I think your being up-front and honest about what you're looking for (hoping that if things gel they can carry forward) is really a good way to go. I hope you find what you're looking for -- I love "GMing" so I could potentially be interested in a running story where you have a character or characters in a persistent world where I can run most of the NPCs. Either way, Good luck and have fun!

 

[Kestrel]

Thanks @Beckoncall!

 

[Dogehawk]

Advice/Help - Keep the RP going! (Survival Guide)


Here's a link to a thread about Tips to keep an RP going and to prevent it from dying.


Hope it helps!

 

[Kestrel]

I checked it out. It was extremely helpful! Thanks for posting it.