Forums » RP Discussion » Why am I struggling to get any rps?

So, I haven't been on this site long and I can appreciate that this time of year is very busy for most people. But I seem to be having trouble actually getting rps off the ground at the moment. I've reached out to a few people in the forums who's ideas I've really liked the sound of. Some have responded, and then never got back to me. Others just don't respond at all. And I've posted two times in the forums with plot ideas of my own. A similiar thing happened for one, but for the other I've not had anyone inquire as of yet.

I'm not impatient, nor do I expect messages to start flooding in as soon as I post something. I even make it clear that if the idea isn't up your street but you like the idea of writing with me I'm happy to create something from scratch that we'll both be happy with. But after logging on every day and seeing an empty inbox, it starts to get a bit disheartening. So I was wondering if anyone has any tips on how I can be a bit more appealing or successful in my approach maybe? Whether that's reaching out to people or something I might have done wrong in my ads?

I'll post the links here, but they are in the Adults Only section so youthful eyes please turn away. Any help would be appreciated.

Ad One
Ad Two

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I had the same experience when I joined. I think I might have some insight about this.

-Join groups. It's easier to find people to play with in smaller subcommunities.
-Be active on the forums. People are more willing to play with someone they have a decent read on OOC.
-Try some Forum Games. It's a great place to test your characters and show them off to other players.
-Keep checking the LFRP section. Play with the sliders. You might luck out and spot something eye-catching.
-Stick with it. Sometimes it takes a couple ads to find the right partner.

It still took me a while to find things I enjoy though. I think my first couple months were dry spells but once I found partners, life was bliss.

I agree with all of the above

Happy Holidays Pumpkitten. I understand the frustration, especially with planning and having it fall through.
I like your characters, and your Mafia promptis pretty good. I have to say it's a bit hard to find roleplayers who are a match for the stories we want to write. I almost gave up here before some interest was gained. I hope you do find someone who will fit with your style and have a long and enjoyable story between you.

I really appreciate the advice that was given here! I've definitely been given the forum games a go recently and have been purusing the groups to see what takes my fancy. Hopefully things pick up soon, but I'm grateful for your comments and suggestions!

I can't speak for everyone, but I know that for me personally when I see an ad, I click through to the characters. And if the character page doesn't have at least a couple images and thought out descriptions/history, then I will immediately be turned off and much less likely to respond to the ad. There's a really good guide Here

Maybe that would help? I can't claim my character profiles are perfect, but it did help me make them more attention-grabbing


XOXO
Cassie

I'm very lucky when I just joined the forum, someone texted me to RP with, the second person is a very kind and understanding sister. I am the type of person who goes with the flow, freely creating characters. If you have a storyline and want someone else to play a certain part, it's going to be harder to find a partner. But don't be discouraged, the right person just hasn't appeared yet. I get a little sad when someone has trouble finding an RP partner, they always blame their character for being boring. The truth isn't that. I think that all characters, good or bad, have certain roles in a certain set of settings. I wish you soon find the right person to RP with.

I'd like to add to this discussion by pointing out that as with any community, some RP themes are often a lot more popular than others, and that popularity can ebb and flow and change over time a little, particularly depending on what recent movies or games are popular etc. E.g. if a new Souls game gets released at a given time, an influx of gritty dark fantasy interest may arise from it. Often times, I find that the best bet if you find yourself wanting an unpopular theme is to wait and keep that ad active in the RP finder. Generally you may find you'd get interest eventually, even if you have to wait a few months. Or, something occurring within pop culture will make your prompt's theme become popular at a later date.

I've also seen happen that once one person replies to an ad with interest, you may find an influx of additional people showing interest. I've had ads sitting around idle for weeks only to suddenly have 3 or 4 people show up wanting to play. I'm not sure if it's related to activity feed notifications or just people being more interested in an ad that someone's already replied to, but it's a phenomenon that's happened surprisingly often from my experience. So when it comes to writing ads, my advice would be just to not give up.

When it comes to reaching out... I think getting ignored is kinda par for the course. I can't really say I know why, because I always reply to those who respond to my RP ads (though very very rarely someone might slip through the cracks because I've missed a notification or was meant to get back to someone when less busy and had forgotten... but once someone's gotten through to my inbox, I always make sure to respond to them until something has been decided, whether that something be RP or a decision to not go ahead with it). There are just people out there who don't reply to everything or just stop interacting when they find a more suitable partner or get tired of an idea or whatever. It's just a normal part of forum RP I guess?

In the end, I feel the best advice is most definitely 'stick with it'. But also...

You may find it easier to find interest if you include links to characters of yours that you deem compatible to the plot in your RP ad, even if it's all of your characters. I know you've posted links in one of your threads, but it might help to make that link more obvious to those who are just skimming through it for key details. For ads that are specific to one character, posting the ad as the character can be incredibly helpful toward that end, as people know immediately what character you want to play as in such a case.

Similarly, making important details stand out can help too. In particular, using the bold bbcode. So that people may be able to work out that you're say looking for male characters just from a quick glance.

Well, I think the biggest thing is your characters are a touch blank. I know I like to look through characters so I can get a feel for the person and what direction they plan to steer the character. So you could add a few more pictures or a written-out personality may help a lot. Just something that shows others more of an idea of your characters. Perhaps you could even try writing out important moments in their life or try journal entries? Even a tagline to show a real quick idea of what each character is about? I know I use taglines to also show which of my characters are not quite finished as I like to add to characters as I roleplay with them.

I'll be honest, I feel like if you want to know where someone plans to take their character, they might either state it in the ad, or you could... ask.

I tend to make pretty concise character pages myself. My interest is in playing, and I don't really use pictures that I haven't drawn myself. Which is a lot of effort, honestly, so I tend to draw avatars and leave everything else up to descriptions.

I will also say that, while there are people who want a character with 12 pages of backstory, there are also people like me who bounce off characters like that instantly because that is too much of an infodump. I personally prefer checking the basic info of a character, but I'm usually more interested in someone's pitch anyway. If their ad pitch grabs me, we can talk about characters and compatibility with the world/setting then.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for their advice and helpful comments. After taking all of this in, I've been actively working to be a bit more present amongst the forums, both IC and OOC, to make my player profile more descriptive so people know what I'm looking for without having to look over my characters per se, but I also took in the suggestions to make my character profiles a bit more informative.

Following the creation of my newest character, and the posting of my more recent ad, I've had three messages of interest already. I'm very grateful to this community for guiding me in the right direction and giving me some great, helpful feedback! Thank you all!

(If you'd like to see changes I've made, feel free to check out the links below concerning my character profile and/or ad.)

New Character's Improved Profile: Click me
New Character's Advertisement: No, click me!

I think this character page looks outstanding! This is exactly the kind of character page that would absolutely grab my attention if I responded to an ad. I can see the care and attention to detail you've put in. And the images and descriptions help me come up with different story ideas almost right away.

Great work!


XOXO
Cassie

Thank you very much! I'm glad to hear the changes are seen in such a positive light!