Forums » RP Discussion » How come no one's interested in anything except...

...for Romance and Fantasy (think Dragons, Orcs) RPs in the All-Ages Forum?

It's really disappointing to me as I don't participate in Romance, and I'm not really interested in Fantasy.

It seems this is the only stuff I can find and it's really giving me that "Why bother making a character/RP AD" feeling and I hate to have that feeling.

Is there any possible way to find someone that would RP anything I might like? Such as victorian, solarpunk, non-religiously-correct demons, etc? Because I'm just not seeing, or finding any with mine or others RP ADs...

patience is a virtue. i write in possibly one of the most niche subgenres in rp right now (sci-fi is a dead scene to begin with...and i operate under a very specific subgenre while also having semi-high standards/pickiness). i also don't do romance, i write at lengths that make most people do a direct 180 out of my inbox, and i post quite slowly.

obviously, all those odds stack up against me. it can easily take me 4-5 months to find one compatible RP partner. but like, as someone who's been in this rodeo for 8+ years, i can safely say that 'quality' over 'quantity' is important when it comes to RP. it is much better to spend months searching for the perfect rp partner as opposed to hoarding a bunch of "okay" partners that you don't really vibe with. like yeah you feel left out watching everyone talk about their seven hundred RPs and stories, but how often do those RPs actually last? month or two, tops.

your options are:

a) continue befriending people: if you find one person who will write with you on 7/10 subjects you like in a RP, you're set for years. this is how i did it up until recently when my go-to partner retired

b) expand your search to other sites. certain genres, such as sci-fi and dystopian, are not currently active on RPR. the sci-fi forum has been dead here since like 2018. the more specific you get, the better off you are looking for places that advertise for that particular niche (discord servers are best for fandoms)

c) take a break or try something new. or just start solo writing. that's what i do in-between RP ad lulls. sometimes, going into a new genre you usually wouldn't try (i thought i hated sci-fi for years, but then i tried it and it was like that one bird eating a cracker meme) can help you discover cool stuff you never would've known was out there otherwise.

it's also worth having your lfrp ad critiqued. getting an outside perspective can help identify potential deterrents you didn't realize existed

Do you think you could critique my LFRP ADs? If you have time?
Also, yeah I'm horrible with patience.

If I don't get an idea out of my system with an RP, I'll quickly lose interest. Same goes with OCs, if I don't use them, I ignore them. (Excluding characters like Luca and Vischer)

main thing i noticed was that you don't have anything regarding your rules, expectations, or post style in your ads. when writing ads, it is within your best interest to assume everyone reading it has the attention span of a rabid squirrel and is too lazy to go to your profile to look for anything.

the best structure to follow is:

1) short blurb about what you're looking for. 2-3 sentences max
a) ideas.
b) about you
c) expectations/what you're looking for in a partner
d) rules

masterlists do better than making seventeen topics that you bump everyday. if someone reads one of your threads and they're not interested, it's unlikely that they're going to read through the rest, even if there is something that might interest them in those. making a masterlist that contains all your current wants is much more convenient - the reader can look through and see 'oh, they're interested in x y and z. i'm interested in y.'

collapse tags are your best friend. 90% of time if you have a wall of text people are going to turn on their heel and walk right back out; the current rp trend is 'MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY' and readers usually have 20 other ads lined up to read. if yours takes too long, they're not going to read it. make it quick and easy to find the information they need without having to hunt for it.

also titles are important. aesthetic ones sound cool but get skipped over because the reader doesn't know what it is from a quick glance. use things such as "Varian's Master Thread [Fandom/1x1/Platonic]" instead of "looking for rp" or "rp ideas". the reader should be able to tell what your genre and fandom are at the bare minimum.

Thank you for the advice! I'll work on that then!

Good luck, trying to find anything without romance or smut already means the vast majority of options are simply non-viable.

Do you do any RPing on Discord? I’ve found that is a very popular platform for roleplay these days, and primarily where I RP. The website, disboard, allows users to post ads for servers and you might get lucky and find something you jive with. Victorian-related RP doesn’t seem very popular on RPR right now, but that’s not to say it isn’t popular elsewhere or on a different platform. I know it’s frustrating, but keep looking, and you’ll find something eventually.

I don't, no. I kind of refuse to use it, for no real reason, I just don't care to.

If you’re pretty set on using the RPR rather than branching out to other platforms, then you’ll probably just have to be patient until the right RP partner comes along. Good luck!

I can relate so hard to this feeling...

I like fantasy, but I don't really like Tolkien-style fantasy. I like more general interpretations of dragons or fantasy that takes from all kinds of places. I am straight-up ALLERGIC to romance, and it seems like it's the most common thing in the public ads section.

My guess is that all the really cool stuff happens in private, in groups that I just haven't found yet or had the initiative to seek out, or on platforms like Discord, and maybe the people advertising for cringey romance stuff are the ones who can never find partners and they just make themselves look like a bigger demographic because they're forced to use the public LFRP boards?

Having said that, solarpunk is a cool thing that I love the idea of and I've had a couple characters in my head for a while who might fit in a setting like that, depending. Unfortunately, I tend to prefer groups, and that really limits me, heh.

Oh, uh, I don't know if you'd be interested, but I have a Victorian All-Boy's Academy RP Group!

Also, I'm kind of tempted to make a solarpunk group now. ~

Most of my characters are girls and I'm not historically savvy on the victorian era, I think...

But I'd probably at least look at a solarpunk group. I rarely see anyone doing anything with the genre, so even if I turn up blank on character ideas to place there, I'd definitely link it around for you, heh.

I know this wont probably help nearly as much but the first roleplay i did and still am continuing to do. It first started when i posted a rp ad. I had people reply to the forum but none of them replied soon to me back after talking under the forum. It took me five or six months for someone to reach out to me in PM and start talking to me from there to start it. So i personally think with time you will find them and if you do find someone i reccomend asking and coming up with ideas from both sides or brainstorming. I hope i havent repeated anything if someone else said here since i mostly scanned with my eyes over and sorry if is too late to give an answer too. in conclusion though i think time is the essence needed for it

It also helps to think cross-device? does that make sense?

this forum looks different on mobile than it does on desktop, so to optimize readability for both i use the coding format options like so:

I don't know why it helps to put the negative stuff last; maybe because you're trying to find common ground with another writer first and foremost, and it just makes more sense to prop up the things you love to write about in order to attract that type of writer?

Like for instance, i LOVE to write political intrigue. i don't do so with an RP partner because it's... well, it's dry and kind of difficult to put into dialogue and action without half a dozen active characters doing shenanigans, can get confusing, and never crosses into romantic territory. it's not a very collaborative topic for me to advertise in, BUT if i wanted, say, just another writer to bounce ideas around OOC, that's what i would put in my LFRP Ad.

I would list all the appeal of political intrigue, what i like about it, what i'd like help working on in the genre (which is where the other people replying to the ad should be able to answer me if they would like to / could help with that) -- in this case i would say something like 'i need fresh pov on some difficult character motivations' or 'help me make this political intrigue story more fun / interesting' or even 'hey does anybody have a character they'd like to put through the meat grinder of this political intrigue plot, i promise it will be intense high stakes paperwork filing and completely platonic, with plenty of room for characters to define themselves and grow' et c

AH, PLATONIC, THAT'S THE OPPOSITE FOR ROMANCE

yes, yes use 'platonic' it's less negative than 'non-rom' and still keeps room for characters to actually cooperate and get along



unless... you're looking for BATTLE (i assume not)