A PbP-RPG is a story shared by at least two people, divided into posts. Primarily, a person has control over a certain character in a base (given) scenario, and the story depends on the writers (players) involved in the tale.
Basically, this is a primer on how to start your very own RPG thread and get others to play.
Further mods to this basic set will be posted soon, so stick around.
1. Post some ideas you have for games you'd like to play with other members here at The Mezzanine.
2. Read similar idea threads and follow up on any ideas your interested in. Do the same with players wanted.
3. Do remember though, in play-by-post RPGs:
You and your roleplay are now a product. You want people to pay attention to you and buy your product by roleplaying with you. Act accordingly.
4. Do some research. Look around, more specifically check people's interests out. That's one way to find out what kind of story they're interested in.
5. Identify your target audience. Firstly, who is this audience? Well this depends on who you are? Do you make arduously voluminous posts that go into intricate detail, or do you prefer something less elaborate with quicker posts back and forth?
Are you looking for battle scenes or adventure roleplay? Answer these questions as is appropriate for you. Thereafter, go out and find people who resemble you! Approaching everyone here is a waste of time. Not everyone reads the posts in detail, or the players wanted adds, but they may be the person you wish to play with. Your potential audience is those who roleplay in a manner similair to yourself stylistically and have common interests.
6. Having identified your target audience make your pitch.
If you politely message someone most people won't bite your head off. You might get ignored but so what? Nothing ventured nothing gained and your no further behind than you were before. I emphasize again being polite here is key. You want something from this person so antagonizing them is the least desirable outcome. Plus harassing people will get you in trouble, so both of those possibilities are a bad thing.
7. In other respects get out there and be seen! Spend some time in the shoutbox, the chat, the various threads in this entire forum and let people see you, get to know you extra, your developing relationships and cultivating people here can lead to a rather creative and productive roleplay if you work it properly.
8. Get some roleplay out there - this might sound silly in that I'm telling you how to get roleplay and saying have some at the same time. However, even if its just a writing sample in your intro post its good to have. This gives people an idea of what they can expect of you should they roleplay with you. Your a product people will want to examine the goods so to speak. So make sure you have something which can be looked at, its like going to a party, look the part.
9. Have some ideas on what you'd like to play. You don't necessarily need to roll out set pieces as most things come about through discussion. However, have settings, and vague ideas that can be fleshed out in mind or you'll be hitting a very akward point in the conversation with "so what do you want to do," or "next post please" being directed at you and your response being "ahh..I don't know ..". Always, always, always have a setting and a vague idea even if its a bad one. Because if you propose an idea they don't care for, often you'll at least get a counter proposal and you can work with that. On the other hand you're in much better shape if you have a variety of well thought out ideas obviously.
Subject: The RPG How-to 
Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:16 am
