Advice/Help Tips for starting (and maintaining) a group roleplay?

[Mystic Butterfly]

I thought of a nice idea for a group roleplay. Only problem is, I've never done one before. I could use some help, so does anyone have any tips or advice for starting and maintaining a group roleplay? All help is welcome. Thank you in advance.

 

[adrian_]

Same as a 1x1. Just put more stress on starting plot, and maintaining it is easy, just push characters in the right direction and mediate.

 

[welian]

Group RPs take a little more planning in the beginning. You have more people throwing more ideas around, so you may find it necessary to be more firm and unyielding in plotting than in a 1x1. On the other hand, if your plotting or worldbuilding is lacking, you have more people who can help you out.

You'll also need to be extra careful about balancing characters. Sometimes in a group RP, if one or two players aren't as active as the others, they end up feeling like the third wheel. Or maybe someone has figured out how to sort of hijack the plot and make the RP mostly about their character. It can be tricky, in the beginning, to figure out how to identify potential personality clashes in your players.

 

[Epiphany]

Honestly, have a story to tell. World building is great. So is the frame of a car. Story is the engine. Enthusiastic players and sandbox settings can (but don't usually) make up for a lack of story but it's like having a group of people pushing a car instead of driving the car. It's a lot of work and it rarely gets very far.

At a minimum, be willing to animate the world. Having someone willing to run the storekeeps and superior officers, the rivals and the causal crowd that looks shocked when a player character does something supernatural or superhuman or just shocking. When there's someone to describe the post office a player character walked into, or the state of a school room when all the characters turn up for class in the morning, those RPs shine. Most players are not great at writing NPCs reacting or establishing what the coffee shop they're in looks like. And to be fair, if a player is willing to write all that, they're just as well off writing a short story instead. Players join RPs to play, with other players and with the setting. If you provide the setting, be willing to provide the world with it. And that right there will do more to prolong the life of the game then any other advice I can give.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Best and quickest bit of advice? Join a group roleplay. It will give you an idea of what works and what doesn't work. And a little bit about the time commitment needed to take part in one.

For more in depth advice :

1. Look At Your Schedule - do you have time to supervise and run a roleplay? Ideally you should be available to interact with players every day or at minimum every other day. If you cannot dedicate consistent time to the roleplay I'd look into getting a co-gm to help you out.

2. Outline Story Arcs - So this depends on what kind of story you want to tell. If you want to do slice of life than come up with little scenes or activities for your players to take part in. If you have an overarching plot than outline the beginning middle and end of that. And how you want your players to progress.

3. Time Skip - know you have two weeks to post in the current scene before I will time skip to our next scene.

4. Write People Out - If people leave write their characters out. If they haven't responded in two weeks than they are written out of the roleplay.

5. Wield The Ban Hammer - This is something a lot of first timers struggle with. For a group to thrive you have to be in charge. You have to be willing to let people know that if they break the rules, if they cause disruptions, or if they just don't match the standards of posting than they're gone. Be firm. Your roleplay will last longer for it.

6. Active OOC - encourage your players to get to know one another and talk about things outside of the roleplay. also take part in this yourself. talk to your players, encourage them to speak up if they have questions or just want to get to know you. the more friendly and approachable you are the less problems you'll have that will lead to the Ban Hammer coming down.

 

[apolla]

I posted this elsewhere too, but I think the answer it still a good one. ^^

Deadlines are very important! I find that without deadlines, the timeline can stretch out too long and people lose interest. The biggest example I can think of is with character sheets. If the GM doesn't set a deadline (which I am guilty of too) for them to be completed, time can stretch out so long that people don't finish/lose interest/drop completely. Same goes with in plot events too, I feel.

Small groups might be easier for you to manage at first. The more people, the easier it is to get overwhelmed. Start off with a group of 4-6 players. Yes it definitely sucks more when you lose someone at a group this size, but you can always try to find someone else to replace them.

An active ooc is a great way to ensure your players stick around (not counting IRL events). Ooc planning and even just BS chatting is a great way to make friendships and keep people interested in your rp. Discord is great for that because it's more like a chat room, but not everyone likes discord and that is perfectly okay!

Communication is also very important, both from you and your players. No one likes it when someone ghosts and they can't post.

Rules are important even if no one likes them. Stick to your guns-- this is your rp, after all. Just remember not to be a jerk about your rules-- that helps people to like you and want to join your rp.

I kinda already said this, but planning out events for the rp helps. Open ended rps die quicker, I think (though I could very well be wrong), as opposed to rps that have at least a few plot arcs/points.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ganryu]

1) Don't be afraid to be that one dick GM. I'm normally way to nice. If someone's not posting, and not giving a heads up what's going on, skip'em. Take control of their characters to throw them out the scene. If they continue not to post, throw their ass out.
2) With the above, if someone's not meeting expectations for an RP, I'm sorry, but they aren't likely to improve that much. Throw them out.
3) Make each PC feel special. They'll stick around if they are excited. Kinda sucks for your PC, but life of a Gm sometimes sucks.
4) If you have co-Gm's, have them cover your weaknesses. I'm terrible at being as mean as I have to be, so I have a co-Gm specifically for delivering bad news, and I love him for it. I'm not organized, I have another GM who has near OCD levels of organization. They can also help manage your character, so you can have awesome Ic moments too.
5) Job of GM isn't to say no. I know this sounds weird. Its to say what happens. "Hey, can I attack the main villian during his monologue?" "Sure. He's extremely strong and block you, and is now angry." You didn't tell them they couldn't, they just found out what happens.
6) Let your PC's win... most of the time. If people feel like they are in an insolvable puzzle, they get pissed. If they don't get challenged they get bored. So every once in a while kick their ass, but let them epic the rest of the time.
7) Talk to your players. See what they want.
8) Players are indecisive. If they dont' tell you what they want, have backup plans FOR that character.
9) Players go flaky or drop all the time. I've had 39 Pc's in my biggest RP. I only allow about 12 characters in at a time. For every amazing player I've kept, I've thrown out 3. This makes starting a bitch.
10) Most RP's die after their first arc. This is where you have to put ALL of your effort to keep it alive.
11) Most Rp's die. I'd say I have a 30% success rate. This is high. Don't worry about it. Run those games again if they fail. Maybe you'll run into better players. Maybe you'll be a better GM.
12) Don't be afraid to fail.
13) Don't be afraid to fail.
14) Don't be afraid to fail.
15) Repetition is alright. Keep going. You are getting better as a GM. It is actually rewarding once the stress levels fall.


I've been running a hosted project here for over a year and a half, so can say those, and a damn lucky player base have kept me going. I keep learning as a GM, its not over yet.

 

[Tony Montana]

1) Don't be afraid to be that one dick GM. I'm normally way to nice. If someone's not posting, and not giving a heads up what's going on, skip'em. Take control of their characters to throw them out the scene. If they continue not to post, throw their ass out.
2) With the above, if someone's not meeting expectations for an RP, I'm sorry, but they aren't likely to improve that much. Throw them out.

Lol, I get where you're coming from with this but sometimes dealing with older writers, RL can really spring up outta nowhere. At the least, make sure to always check in and try to get some sort of response from them. I've actually had writers have lulls in their posting and spring back later on when their schedules cleared up. If you see them come on once or twice and they don't respond, then absolutely screw 'em.

 

[Ganryu]

Lol, I get where you're coming from with this but sometimes dealing with older writers, RL can really spring up outta nowhere. At the least, make sure to always check in and try to get some sort of response from them. I've actually had writes have lulls in their poting and spring back later on when their schedules cleared up. If you see them come on once or twice and they don't respond, then absolutely screw 'em.

Agree with this. Just some people for some odd reason find it ruder to say they are leaving than to do it without notice. That can kill an RP. Or RL could have reared its ugly head. Deeefinitley check with them.